Christianity and the Cross are interwoven. Cross itself is an emblem of suffering and shame. Persecution is synonymous to the Cross, where Christ died for the sins of mankind. Persecution is part of Christian faith that no heavenly-minded Christian must shy away from.
A believer who has experienced the redemptive power of salvation does not have fear of what unbeliever will do to his mortal flesh. A believer who trusts in God does not have any trace of fear in him. He is ready to go through fire, thistles and thorns because he knows that God will deliver him at all times. The stone lost its potency in the life of Stephen who stood firmly for God at the toughest time of life-threatening persecution. He never felt the fierceness and the agony of the injuries of stones cast on him.
Obviously, there is a depth of fellowship that only believers who persevered in times of persecution will enjoy. Christianity without persecution is phony, make-belief and not a true Christianity. The three Hebrew men enjoyed this unique fellowship in the midst of furnace of fire. If the persecutors knew the benefits inherent in persecution, they would have had a change of mind and regretted their actions. Curious enough, believers who go through persecutions bemoan their faith out of ignorance, not knowing the weight of glory awaiting them at the end.
Christianity was birthed on the Cross of Calvary and can only be sustained by the Cross. There is a fellowship that comes through the Cross. The Cross itself is a place where the life of man is poured out and replaced with the life of Christ. A man that has not identified and died with Christ on the Cross, cannot possess the resurrection power of Christ. For the “well” of resurrection power to keep on expanding, a believer needs to die to self and the world.
Ordinarily, Church is not a nomenclature. What makes a church what it is, is the resurrection power without which, such a congregation will amount to a mere social gathering that profits heaven nothing.
Sadly, carnality in the church of Christ is engineered by lack of deeper fellowship with God. The church of Christ is a spiritual body that can only be sustained through pure spirit-filled visions and revelations. Experientially, deeper fellowship with God produces abundance of revelations in the church. A serious-minded believer makes reasonable progress each time through constant fellowship with God.
It is this fellowship with Christ that we are made conformable to his death. In conforming to his death, the glory of God is perfected in believers.
• Further reading: Isaiah 43:1-3; Psalm 23:4; Dan. 3:29; Acts 7:54-60; 1 Cor. 15:1-4; Phil. 3:10; Gal. 2:20; 1 Cor. 15:31; 2 Cor. 12:1-5, 9, 10,7; Heb. 11:17; Dan. 3:29-30; Isaiah 43:7. You can fellowship with us @ Kingdom Power International Christian Praying Center, 65, Oluwatedo Estate, Isashi, Ojo, Lagos State. For details of our programmes, visit us @www.kpicpc.org. You can also follow us live on Facebook @kpicpc & YouTube @ kpicpc.
