The Fellowship of His Sufferings

I am here at RHOP, wondering why I am here. After talking at length with Greg he encouraged me to just use this time to sit and inquire of the Lord as to my purpose and my calling. Then Mike Grant gave an encouragement at the beginning of the EGS as to knowing who you are and knowing your calling.

So I was positioning my heart to seek and the Lord interrupted me and reminded me of the prophecy from the Prophecy class. The word was that I was an olive in an olive press, and that the olive press will squeeze me, and that only a little oil of the anointing will flow from my life. But that after that one olive is crushed in the olive press, there is a basket of olives to be crushed, with an even greater anointing. And then, after those were crushed and the anointing had flowed from those, there was an olive tree heavy with ripe olives, waiting to drop, so heavy they would dent cars. ("So much it would even dent my car" she said).

The last few days I have been listening to a sermon from IHOP-ATL about Entering into the Fellowship of His Sufferings. The crushing of the olive reminded me of the verse that says "It pleased the father to crush His son." If I am truly a son of the Father, then I too have to belly up to the bar of suffering. This drink that the barkeeper has prepared for me will not pass. Neither will it be skipped. If I don't drink it, it will continue to wait for me. If I leave, it will be here when I get back. Where else can I go, only He has the words of eternal life.

Drinking of the cup of suffering is like giving little kids an immunization. They hate it at the time, but it really is for their good.

Why do I fight the suffering so much? It hurts. I don't like pain. And I'm not supposed to like pain. The point isn't to enjoy the pain, but to respond well, by turning my gaze towards heaven, feel his gaze shine on my and then, in that place, I have embraced my cross and have continued pressing into fellowship with Him, experiencing suffering with Him.

Who else has suffered more that our Lord. And I don't just mean on the cross, though that would have been enough. Who has suffered more than the Creator being hated by his creation, being rejected by us, even unto death. We hated Him so much, and He loved us so much that just to prove how much he loved us, he died for us. But he didn't stay dead, for love is stronger than the grave and His love is the truest love we can ever experience.

So Lord, here I am, in your presence. I submit my will, my flesh, my soul, and my spirit to you. I am yours. If you crush me like an olive in a press, still I will say you are good. I set my heart to know you and I direct my gaze towards you. I desire to know you in the fellowship of your sufferings. But Lord, you know, my spirit is willing and my flesh is weak, and that is what you are doing, you are stripping my flesh of it's weaknesses, so that I can run, as a salt racer after you. I worship you oh Holy one. I adore you loving Father, come and inoculate me.