By the experience of the divine dispensing, we will reign in the coming age with Christ through endurance in this age. In 2 Timothy 2:12 Paul says, “If we endure, we will also reign with Him.” Enduring is related to life in this age, and reigning with Christ is related to the coming age. Endurance is the entrance into the coming reign with Christ. If we would reign as co-kings of Christ, we need to endure sufferings.
Under God’s sovereign arrangement, many trials, troubles, tribulations, and sufferings have been assigned to the believers. They may wonder why trials come one after another like waves in the ocean. However, in principle, everything that happens to them is assigned from their Father for their good. Therefore, it is a basic principle that we should not try to escape sufferings, trials, and tribulations. We must believe in God’s sovereignty. However, we should not be foolish in dealing with people and in handling matters. On the contrary, we should be wise. Nevertheless, no matter how wise we may be, we still need to believe that our Father in the heavens is sovereign. Just as certain trees grow through the hardship of cold weather, Christians grow through hardship. Our Father manages everything, and He assigns tribulations to us for our maturity.
Furthermore, sufferings afford us the best opportunity to enjoy the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. God assigns to us the sufferings needed for our growth. However, this growth will take place only as we remain under the divine dispensing. Therefore, we need to contact the processed Triune God all the time. Our contact with Him should be a continuous matter. We need to keep ourselves always in the divine fellowship. Our fellowship with the Lord should be as continuous as our breathing and as the circulation of blood in our bodies. When we fellowship with Him deep within us, we will receive and absorb the dispensing of the processed Triune God in a fine way. This dispensing comes from the heavens. By the nourishment that we receive through this dispensing, we will grow.
Eventually, the crown of life will be given to the believers for their sufferings, trials, and tribulations. Revelation 2:10 says, “Do not fear the things that you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison that you may be tried, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” To the church in Ephesus, the Lord promised to give the overcomers to eat of Himself as the tree of life (v. 7). To the church in Smyrna, He promised to give the overcomers the crown of life. The eating of the tree of life is inward for supply, and the crown of life is outward for glory. Both promises are wrapped up with the divine life. This life first must be our food, and then it will be our expression and our glorification as the crown of life.
A basic lesson that we all need to learn is that everything in our circumstances and environments depends not on us but on the sovereign Lord. Therefore, we should be at peace and not worry or be anxious. Our worry and anxiety do not help us at all. If we worry or are anxious, we simply waste our energy. We are not only in the Lord’s hand; actually, we are also in the Lord. He is the place in which we should remain, and He is also our destiny. Day by day we should simply remain in His dispensing to have a direct enjoyment of the divine supply of the processed Triune God in His embodiment, which is Christ, and through His ultimate consummation, which is the life-giving Spirit.
The believers in Christ are appointed to suffer persecution. Hence, we should count it all joy when we fall into various trials, because God, through the divine dispensing, uses them to perfect us. We are pressed on every side but not constricted. We do not lose heart, for though our outer man is decaying, our inner man is being renewed day by day. The momentary lightness of affliction works out for us, more and more surpassingly, an eternal weight of glory. By experiencing the dispensing of the processed Triune God, we can also accept with joy the plundering of our possessions, knowing that we have a better and abiding possession. Through the divine dispensing we can share the kingdom of Jesus in His tribulation and endurance for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. If we love the Lord, we will be under trials. We are blessed if we endure trials, because when we have been approved by testing, we will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love Him.
We should not regard the fiery ordeals that we experience as strange but rather rejoice in sharing the sufferings of Christ. The Lord uses persecutions and trials to serve a positive purpose—the purification of our life. As Christians, followers of Christ, we should be those who undergo the sufferings of Christ. If we suffer from persecutors who contemptuously call us Christians, we should not feel ashamed but should glorify God in this name. The sufferings His chosen ones undergo in fiery persecution are used by Him as a means to judge them so that they may be disciplined, purified, and separated from unbelievers so as not to have the same destiny as unbelievers. While He is judging us as His household in His government, in His love He cares for us faithfully. As heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, we will suffer with Christ. If we suffer with the Lord, we will be glorified with Him. The present sufferings mean nothing compared with the coming glory. By the experience of the divine dispensing, we will reign in the coming age with Christ through endurance in this age. God has assigned to us many trials, troubles, tribulations, and sufferings for our maturity. Sufferings also afford us the best opportunity to receive and absorb the dispensing of the processed Triune God in a fine way through our fellowship with Him. Eventually, the crown of life will be given to us.