Why God Allows the People He Loves to Suffer

We live in a very cruel world. Testing files. We are proving more than you probably thought. Jesus did nothing wrong. He's the only innocent man that's ever walked this earth. And you know what the Bible says? They blindfolded him. They were slugging him. They were spitting on him. They were mocking him. Now this is where it really gets bad. Then they shove a crown of thorns. They rip out his beard. Can you imagine? His face was so disfigured, he seemed hardly a man. This is our Creator.

Yeah.

Why would Jesus Christ— why would he undergo such agony and sacrifice to rescue us when we were totally at fault, when we betrayed him? And this is a deep truth, and I missed this for years. Your mother and I, we were deeply in love, but it wasn't a mature love. Can I tell you, I've been married to your mother now 43 years. Boy, have we gone through some hard times. Yeah, I hated that pain. Yeah, I hated it when people tried to break us up, destroy us, tried to destroy Messenger International. I hated it when I was going through it. Sometimes there were days I felt like I said, God, I just, I just want to get out of this. And I look at my marriage and I realize now— Hey everybody, welcome to the John Bevere Podcast. I'm joined with my son Arden. Arden, good day.

Good day.

It's good to see you. I love that shirt. Love the hat. You look really good. Made for the day.

Yes, you look very good. Well, thank you.

Hey, we are talking about the new book "The King Is Coming." I spent the entire year of 2025 writing this, and I gotta tell you, it's impacted me more than any book I've written, maybe other than "Driven by Eternity." My life has been changed from this message. In fact, you know what, Arden? We're gonna do a YouTube Live. And it's gonna be, if you're watching this podcast before the end of February 2026, hey, this is what we wanna encourage you to do. Get a group of friends together, Get your small group together, get your church together. But this is the date we are going to be doing it. We are going to be doing this Thursday, February 26th, Saturday, February 28th, Sunday, March 1st. It's gonna be an amazing time. I'm telling you, it's gonna be fresh. We're gonna share things that I believe will touch your group's heart. And so please, please, please, plan on joining us. And, and if at all possible, don't do it alone, but get a group. Yeah.

And not only that though, if they want to, if it's post the date, they can actually go back and watch the live event. So you can still gather friends and family and people that you want to and go through it, because I believe it's going to be a really powerful night. And Dad, always through these live events, we make time for the presence of God. And that's what I think is one of my favorite things, that we get these opportunities to be able to do this.

It was so strong for the awe of God. Yeah.

And not only that, I do want to say is that everything that we do here at Messenger International is made possible because of our amazing partners. And so if you want to find out more about partnering with Messenger International, I'd encourage you to click the link down in the description. So Dad, what are we talking about today?

I just want to encourage you, today is going to be like the heart of this message. And it's a reason that a lot of people don't really go more into eschatology because they don't see the beauty of what we're going to be discussing. And I want— I usually don't do this, guys, But I want to ask you to stay till the very end of this podcast because it's going to take about 30 minutes to develop. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not going to be a boring 30 minutes, but boy, the real whammies hit towards the end of what we're going to be sharing with you. So I'm going to open this up with maybe just a couple of questions to kind of tease things. All right. Why would a loving God allow suffering for those he loves most? This is a question everybody has. All right. Now, here's another question.

Why does bad things happen to good people?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here's another one. Another question: Is pain just a consequence of a fallen world, or is there a deeper, unrecognizable benefit to it? Now, this is one that 20 years ago John Bevere wouldn't even touch, but I find that it's a very— it's very much at the core of eternity. And so today we're going to dive into the mystery that will actually redefine how you see suffering, purpose, and The Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Now, the experience I had when I was writing this book, this, this is when I got to this point, I literally became speechless. I, I was so impacted by the Holy Spirit, Arden, I couldn't even talk. But I ran up against some questions. It was really funny. I mean, this, this book, because I hadn't preached it in 40 years, I really had to depend on the Holy Spirit. Yeah. So I write this question down. All of a sudden I go, I don't know the answer to this. And, and one of the questions I, I literally typed as I was writing this book, Arden, and I said I don't even know the answer. Yeah. Was, what will keep us— I'm talking about us believers— from rebelling against God the way Lucifer did and the way his cohorts, his third of the angels, did?

Interesting.

What's going to keep us from doing it?

You wrote that in your book, or you wrote that in like Logos or something like that.

The King Is Coming book. Okay. All right. Now the short answer, because I want to give the short answer right now. Is this, that these mutinous angels, angelicos, who are so much mightier and smarter than human beings, never suffered adversity for his honor. They never had to fight to uphold God's desires.

Yeah.

In essence, they were untested. Arden. Yep. All right. Here's the second question that I ran up against. Why did Jesus have to suffer so severely? I mean, I mean, let's talk about this. He is the lamb slain from the foundations of the world, right? He's God. Yeah. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. They planned this all out before the world was even created. They saw that mankind would fall. The Father asked the Son, would you go die for them? The Son said yes. Why did our redemption have to be so painful for him? That's another question I asked that I was like, yeah, oh, I don't know if I have the full answer. I mean, I've been preaching for 42 years. All right. And I've never before went through all four gospels systematically and looked at how Jesus suffered. Can you believe it? And all of a sudden, I realized the whole picture comes together when you look at all four gospels together.

Interesting.

First of all, Jesus knows what's coming. Because he, the Spirit of Christ, reveals to Isaiah like 700 years before Jesus is born, the suffering that he would go through. Because Isaiah 50:6 says, I gave my back to those who struck me and my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting. All right. So what a lot of people don't realize is that Jesus was transported 5 times that night. Now I'm going to speak from the evening till the early morning the next morning. He was transferred 5 times to 4 different locations. It started at Annas. Annas was the father-in-law of the high priest Caiaphas. Yeah. Annas has soldiers in his house. He is— Jesus is falsely accused. He's lied about and he's beaten in Annas' house. Then Annas transfers him to the temple where he will stand before the high priest and the leading priest, who vehemently hate him. And the high priests have what's called the temple guard. Well, what a lot of people don't realize is that after they cross-examine him and Caiaphas stands up and says, "This is blasphemy," they turn him over to the temple guard. Now, the temple guard are full-blown soldiers. I mean, these are mighty, mighty soldiers. And do you know what the Bible says? They blindfolded him. They were slugging him. They were spitting on him. They were mocking him. They did this until they were exhausted. They did this until the sun came up in the morning. Yeah. So a bunch of men are wailing on Jesus nonstop all night long. Then he is transferred to Pilate. Pilate realizes he's under Herod's jurisdiction. So Pilate sends Jesus to Herod. Now, this is where it really gets bad. Herod is a king, and he's got what he calls the men of war. They put a mock robe on Jesus and they start wailing on him until they are exhausted. Wow. Or Herod then sends him back to Pilate where he's going to face the most brutal treatment of all. Now, this is all in a matter of time of 10 hours. Okay.

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Now, after Pilate cross-examines him and the people say, "No, no, no, we don't want him," Pilate sends him to be scourged. Now, the captain of the entire regiment of soldiers calls every soldier to come help beat on this Jew. Now, first of all, these Gentile Roman soldiers are the best, mightiest, skilled force in the world. And they're angry because it's Passover. And you know what that means? They got to work overtime. So here's this Jew that some people are saying, the King of the Jews, and they are mocking him. They put a robe on him, they put a reed in his hands, and they start wailing on him. Yeah. Okay. And the whole regiment is doing it. Then they shove a crown of thorns These thorns were an inch to an inch and a half long, and they might as well have been like our finishing nails. Yeah, they literally shove it, causing the lacerations to cause blood to come down. They rip out his beard. Can you imagine? They rip out his beard. Then he goes through the scourging. Now, the scourging was a Roman form of torture that was unbelievably inhumane. It was a 2-foot, it was about a 2-foot tall stone that had 2 shackles on it. They would tie the hands over the head on the shackles so the back was stretched out. And they many times would have 2 guys with whips, a left-handed man and a right-handed man. These whips had bone fragments, lead tips, and metal on, and they were tails. They were a bunch of tails. The Romans, now a lot of people say he took 40 lashes. That's not true, okay? Because the Romans didn't have that law. The Jewish law was you cannot scourge a man more than 40 times.

Interesting.

So they would stop at 39 or 40. That's why what happened with Paul. However, the Romans didn't have that law. Doesn't say. So this is what one commentary says. Scourging was, was a brutal affair. It was inflicted by a whip of several thongs, each of which was located with pieces of bone or metal. It could make pulp of a man's back. Another researcher says that many times when they were finished, literally the spine, it would rip through all the muscle, all the tendons, and the spine would be exposed and the guy's naked and they would whip him across his rear end as well. So literally, he is just literally torn to pieces in his back. All right, this is our Creator. This is God manifest in the flesh. This— he knows. He showed Isaiah what he was going to go through, right? If you look at Isaiah 52, verse 14, it says many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured, he seemed hardly a man, and from his appearance one would scarcely know him as a man. So Jesus knows that by the time these 4 regiments of soldiers are going to be done wailing on him for about 10 hours, he's not even going to look like a human being any longer. Wow. This is our creator.

Yeah.

Okay. I mean, this, this is mind-blowing.

Yeah. Is there a significance to each one of those regiments of, like, soldiers in terms of, like, what they're directly tied into? That's the significance for us today.

If there is, I haven't discovered it. I haven't discovered it. That was a really good question.

Yeah.

Then comes the crucifixion. He's got to carry the crossbeam, which is usually 100 pounds. He is so beaten that eventually they got to get someone to help him because they realize he's not going to make it. No. Then they drive nails into right this part of the hand.

Yeah.

That is where the median nerve is. I read by a doctor that this nerve is the most sensitive nerve in the body. So every time he pulls up, this is 6 hours he's hanging on the cross. Now, I want you to stop and think about it. Somebody literally driving nails right here and on your feet into a wooden tree, into a cross. Every time you pull up to keep from suffocating. Yeah. The pain that you experience from these median nerves is unbearable. So here's, here's the overarching question. Why would Jesus Christ— we are talking about the Son of the Living God, the one who actually knows the end from the beginning, who said, I am the Lamb slain from the foundations of the world. Why would he undergo such agony and sacrifice to rescue us when we were totally at fault, when we betrayed him? This is what we read: who for the joy set before him endured the cross. What was the joy set before him?

Salvation, right?

He saw something that kept him going. I've always said it's salvation, but I think I see a little deeper into this. He saw the prophetic vision. Remember we talked about in the last podcast where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint. This is why he didn't call for 12 legions of angels. He saw the prophetic vision of a faithful bride.

Yeah.

Wow.

That's incredible.

He foresaw beautiful, intimate companionship, deep love and trust between he and his bride. For all eternity to come. He saw us not just as brothers and sisters, not just as children of God, but he saw us reigning together as a bride and a groom for the rest of eternity. His devotion to us would be affirmed. Now stop and think about this. His devotion to you and I would be affirmed by his suffering for us. But the same thing's true for us. Our devotion to him would be affirmed by our suffering for him. Hmm. Now, so many miss this, and this is a deep truth, and I missed this for years, and I didn't fully see this until I was writing this book. But so many miss this, and consequently numerous corresponding scriptures elude their understanding. Because when you understand this truth, all of a sudden a bunch of scriptures in the New Testament make sense. Okay, so one of them would be Romans 8:17. We are— now stop and think about this— we are heirs of God. Yeah, what is an heir? Is somebody who inherits everything someone owns. Now we're not talking about a rich man, we're talking about God Almighty. We are heirs of God and fellow heirs, joint heirs with Christ Jesus. Share. And this is what the Amplified says: sharing his inheritance with him. Yeah. Wow. Okay, now listen to the next statement. This is Romans 8:17. Only we must share his suffering if we are to share his glory. Now stop and think about that.

Yeah. My immediate question is, when you're talking about suffering, what does that look like though? Because obviously taking everything that happened to Jesus, and I look at even you specifically talking about, I think it was on the last podcast, you're talking about these men and women, or the men that you met in Vietnam, these pastors that have spent more of their life in jail in the past 20 years than they have been out, and they've been tortured and all these things happening. And so to me, I'm thinking suffering. I'm like, well, okay, there's that. And then I'm obviously then correlating it through a Western filter where I'm looking at my life and I'm like, I know there's hard things I'm doing, but I've not been in jail the past 10+ years. I've not had those kinds of sufferings that have taken place. So what does that look like? What does that mean?

Suffering manifests in many ways. Physical persecution, mental persecution, affliction, hardship. Remember Jesus said, when tribulation arises for the word's sake.

Yeah.

Suffering is— simply boils down to this. We live in a very cruel world that is run by the prince of the power of the air and his legions, who is Satan himself and the demonic forces, the principalities, the powers, the rulers of darkness of this world, and the spiritual wickedness all in high places. They rule. They run this world. So suffering is when my obedience to God is gonna meet up with extreme resistance, or any kind of resistance, I should say, by a fallen world. It's almost like, see yourself going against the current of a very rapid flowing river. I mean, you've done, you and I have done, you know, stage 3, 4, and 5 rapids, right? And it's easy going down those rapids, but can you imagine if we had to paddle against those rapids? That's what's happening in the realm of the spirit. So in other words, what I said right from the beginning, Lucifer was never tested. He was never in an atmosphere where there were enemies of God, where there was adversity towards obeying God. And so God never authors the trials we go through. Please, please. The Bible says, "Don't be deceived. Let no one say when I am tested, I'm tested of God." because God tests no one with evil. But God knew as the result of what our ancestor Adam and Eve did, that we would now be in a world that would resist us. And God didn't author that. Adam and Eve are the ones that caused that. But God said, I'm going to use that to create a faithful bride. But even more, and this is the secret we're about to move into, And I'm going to tell you something. When I asked this question, when I was writing this book, it took a long time for me to hear from the Holy Spirit. I was like, why do people have to suffer? Why, Jesus, did you have to suffer this bad? Yeah. Well, there's a hidden beauty and purpose to suffering if the suffering is handled correctly. You were going to say something.

Hey, before we go any further, I want to stop and I want to tell you guys about our amazing partner, Logos.com. Logos.com. They are doing an incredible deal right now where they are giving everyone who signs up absolutely free up to 60 days. So there's no reason for you not to sign up. But Logos is incredible because they have an AI feature, which we talk a little bit about AI even in today's episode, that is pulling from only the content. So the books of the Bible, the concordance, anything, the commentaries that you have, it's pulling directly from there. So it's not just pulling some random things from Google that is giving you basically—

there's some crazy things.

Yeah, their, their opinion. And it's just something that will enhance your time with God so that you're better able to read scripture, interpret it, understanding the context of it. And so what I want to encourage you to do is go over to Logos, so logos.com/bavir, and sign up for this offer today. But not only that, is they have a very even special offer if you're already signed up where you can get $3,000 worth of resources for 90% off. And so when—

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Yeah, so when you're looking at your library, when you're studying, it's pulling from all of those different resources. So go over to logos.com/bavir. What's the difference though between self-imposed suffering versus suffering on behalf of the Lord? Because I'm—

it's an outstanding question. Yeah, because self-imposed suffering is when you do something stupid, you break the law.

Like, I'm thinking specifically Saul. Like, Saul was appointed immediately. He did not have the character or the suffering essentially that he needed to go through, the longevity that you see happen with David. And then Saul has a moment of, you know, a shortcoming where he does not kill everything that God had told him to do, does not do 100% of it. And then he falls. And there's a little bit of like a self— in my mind, a self-suffering that took place there. And he continues to spiral out of control. Where then I look at David, and obviously David's been tested for so many years. Then he goes through his suffering. He falls, he sins, and then repentance.

It all comes down to the root of pride. Saul had pride. He built a monument for himself when he won the battle. He felt like he could. Twist God's command and do it for the benefit, and it would be better. I mean, is it no different than Eve? She chose what was good for her when God said it wasn't good for her. Saul chose to spare the best sheep when it wasn't. So this is all pride. Yeah. What caused Lucifer to fall? Pride. You ever wonder why the Bible says don't let a person become a leader in the church if he's a novice? Yeah, because he hasn't gone through the suffering yet of obeying God with adversity. If he's a new believer, that means the life he's lived, he's been flowing with the course of the world.

Yeah.

Once we become a believer, you know how Paul— do you know how Paul prepared the young churches of Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch? These are the first 3 cities he goes to in Asia Minor, right? He comes back through and he said— he says he strengthened the churches. Now think about it. He doesn't know if he's going to come back. Yeah, he's had to take a ship to get to these places. And he said, we must through many tribulations arise and enter into the kingdom of God. Hmm. So he's saying to them, look, you didn't have this before you got saved. Yeah, yeah. The world's got problems because there's sickness, disease and all that. Yeah. People go through troubles before they're saved. But what you don't experience is the adversity. Mm-hmm. So this is where, unfortunately, A church that lives in a comfortable society can easily now start compromising, slightly changing what God's word says in order to avoid the conflict, the hardship, the persecution that will come. But we gotta keep moving.

Yes, I agree.

Because this is so good, all right? So there's a hidden, I'm gonna make this statement, there is a hidden beauty and purpose to suffering if you handle it correctly, okay? Use an example. Your mother and I, we were deeply in love, but it was— wasn't a mature love. Okay, what do I mean by mature? It hadn't been tested. Yeah, we get married, we're so in love. Can I tell you, I've been married to your mother now 43 years. Boy, have we gone through some hard times. You witnessed it. Now, we went through hard times because we were stupid and immature. We also went through a lot of hard times because there are people that actually wanted to destroy our marriage.

Yeah.

Okay, there were people that fought against us, people that didn't like us. And it created a lot of pain, a lot of pain. I mean, one summer, I wish I'd never had to live that summer. The pain was unbearable. And what has happened as a result of that? Our love is so much mature, more mature. It's so much deeper. It's so much stronger. The intimacy is so much stronger. So here's, here's the paradigm shift. That pain forged in us an unbreakable unity, a bond that is sweeter than the day I said I do to her. Okay, so I started researching because this is when the Holy Spirit's leading me on this. And I'm like, is there been any research done on this? And I found out a scientific journal wrote this because there's— now there's a lot of researchers that have discovered this. But I'm going to read straight from this scientific journal. Okay. The research suggests that despite its unpleasantness, pain may actually have a positive social consequence, acting as a sort of social glue that fosters cohesion and solidarity within groups. Our findings show that pain is a a particularly powerful ingredient in producing bonding and cooperation between those who share painful experiences, says psychological scientist and lead researcher Brock Bastain of the University of New South Wales in Australia. The findings shed light on why camaraderie may develop between soldiers or others who share difficult and painful situations. One example that was cited, the greatest discomfort a woman ever goes through is usually carrying a baby for 9 months.

Yeah.

The nausea, all of the stuff she has to go through. The greatest pain a woman probably will ever experience that most men couldn't experience.

Yeah.

Childbirth is when they give birth to that baby. You would think the mother would resent the baby, but in actuality, they have done studies and the bond between the mother and the baby is so much deeper than the bond between the baby and the father.

Father.

Yeah.

Which I've experienced that it's almost like a bond that has to grow between father and child. It's one level, but I've watched as it grows. Whereas mother, I'm like, you're looking at this child.

What do football players always say? Hi, Mom. When they look at the cat, they don't say hi, Mom and Dad. They say hi, Mom.

Yeah, sometimes.

Okay. Sometimes. Hi, Dad.

There's a growth though. I'm just saying. But I remember looking at Christian and I would watch the way that she would look at our son and our daughter. And I'm like, I've never seen someone love something so much or someone so much. And she just would just stare at them.

Right.

And, you know, of course, there was an infatuation love that was between us that we thought was deep. But then you saw a connection between a mother and a child. And it's like, okay, there's no greater love right there. I mean, well, there is, but I'm just saying, in a worldly perspective.

Well, here's another example. The bond between Navy SEALs.

Yeah.

Those who go to war together and suffer together experience a life bonding together. I mean, they are tight. I have seen what happens with soldiers who have gone through battle together and wounded together. Boy, the bond is so strong. Navy SEALs often report that each member— I remember when a soldier came up to me, he was retired. He had been in military 20 years, but he was a Green Beret. And I had mentioned the night before in the message, man, I want to be a Green Beret for God. So he walked— this guy walks up to me the next day. I have no idea he's in the audience and he's crying. I mean, this guy's— this guy could split me in two. He's huge and he's crying. And he said, you know, I really want to be a Green Beret for God. And he started telling me how he was in Vietnam, how people were killed. He said, I— he said, my own captain or whatever you call the leader of a platoon. He— I watched him die. I held him in my arms when he died. He said, what I'm going to give you— I want to be a Green Beret for God, so I'm going to sow the most important thing in my life to you. And I'm like, what? He said, what I'm about to give you is more important to me than my wife. And she's crying. She's not like mad at him. Yeah, she's crying with him.

Interesting.

And he pulls out of his back pocket his Green Beret knife. He said, my captain, or whoever it is, put this in my hands right when he died. He said, this is the most valuable possession I own. And I, I realized, wow, I saw the bond between him and his former leader.

Yeah.

And so Navy SEALs often report that each member of their SEAL SEAL team trusts each other fully because they are bonded together and lay down their lives for one another. Now, science has confirmed this trauma bonding. Listen to Hebrews chapter 2. Let's go back to Jesus and us. Okay. Hebrews 2:10 says it was only right that God the Father should make Jesus through his suffering a perfect leader fit to bring us into salvation. Yeah. Now, the Greek word for leader here, Arden, is amazing. It is defined as one who causes something to begin. An initiator, a founder, an originator. Just as a mother through pain brings forth her child without any involvement of the child, so too Jesus paid the costly price needed for our salvation, independent Yeah, of our involvement. Now, there's another initiating aspect of his sacrificial act. He's the founder or forerunner of embracing pain that fosters a closer bond in relationship.

Yeah, because that's what I think I want to hear clearly as you're saying this, because you're alluding to, you know, trauma, trauma suffering, or trauma bonding. And that's specifically when you are navigating something with someone else that is extremely hard. Because obviously, when you hear trauma, I think so many people can put that into a correlation of someone who caused me trauma. So specifically, like tied into a father, mother, and they— the way they raised me or the things that they did has caused trauma to me. But you're talking about specifically going through navigating the circumstances, the tough trials, the things that you're doing with another individual. In this instance, you're talking about the suffering we must go through with Christ.

Jesus did nothing wrong. He was perfectly innocent. He's the only innocent man that's ever walked this earth. Yet listen to how we just talked about how badly he was beaten and tortured. Right? We— that's why Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 2 that Jesus is our example, because we're called to this. Called to what? To suffer pain when we did nothing wrong.

Yeah.

Okay, so now let's, let's, let's get back to Jesus before we go to the bride.

Okay.

Our— here's, here's the big statement, and this is what took me, I think, a day or two to get. Our Creator willingly embraced excruciating suffering not only to redeem us, Arden, but because he desired the closest possible bond with his beloved. His bride, the church. In other words, Jesus wanted to be really, really bonded with us.

Yeah.

So he was willing to suffer pain for us, not just for our redemption, but because he wanted to be so intimate with us.

Yeah.

And I look at my marriage and I realize now it took me 43 years to understand this because I'll gladly go through that pain again to get the closeness that I have to Lisa right now. Yeah, I hated that pain. Arden. Yeah, I hated it when people tried to break us up, destroy us, tried to destroy Messenger International. I hated it when I was going through it. Sometimes there were days I felt like I said, God, now I know what Jeremiah meant when he said, I just want to get out of this. This is unbearable.

So still asking this question, and I don't know if this is taking you off the route, but the self-imposed versus— because everything that you're saying, it's, you know, it's always easy to see after the fact.

We're not talking, we're not talking about self-imposed. Yeah, we're talking about the pain that comes when you obey God in a fallen world. There is religious suffering where the pain becomes the focus, not obedience. See, so that's good. I'm talking about the focus is obedience. However, there's resistance to the obedience by the demonic hordes that are in this world. I think Satan never experienced that. Yeah. Okay. Now, what about the bride? The bride's journey? What about our journey through suffering? Okay, think about it. Jesus suffers for his bride. Is the bride going to suffer for him? Now, Western Christianity really recoils at this. And as a matter of fact, 20 years ago, I would have argued with you the other way. I would have argued on the side of Western Christianity. Okay. But Paul makes this statement, Philippians 3:10, that I didn't get fully until I understood what I'm sharing with you right now. Yeah, he said, Philippians 3:10, I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. Now listen to what he says. I want to suffer with him. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Is Paul understanding that in order to know Christ intimately, I've got to suffer the suffering that comes not when I'm doing something wrong, but when I'm obeying God and the forces of hell resist me. In other words, Paul's in jail, he's beaten with rods, he's, you know, Western Christianity, the suffering might be here. It may not be physical.

Yeah.

Like it is in Vietnam, let's say. Or, you know, like it's like, like, like it's in China or some other places in the world, right? Okay. Acts 5:41. Listen to this. The apostles left the high council. What happened in the high council? They were flogged. Okay. They were flogged. This is the same group of people that wailed on Jesus. Yeah, they actually flogged the apostles. And that's exactly what the Bible says. The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus.

Wow.

Philippians 1:29. Folks, I'm reading straight from the Bible. Listen to these words. For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, but also the privilege of suffering for him. Now, the New King James says, for to you it is granted not only to believe in Jesus, but to suffer for his sake. So the New King James uses the word granted. Granted, like you're given a present. Okay, let's just say Let's say your son Azzy is turning 15 years old and you look at Azzy, your son, and you go, for to you it is granted on your birthday to get a root canal. You're like, Azzy would think, what kind of twisted humor does my dad have?

Exactly.

Okay, so what is going on here? What is the privilege in this? Obeying God in enemy hostile territory. Because when we obey God, It solidifies our bond. And I'm going to share what that bond is in just a second. Okay. All right.

So it is more about— can I ask this just more around the solidifying the bond? There's also the side of it glorifies Christ.

It glorifies— there's joy. There's one benefit. Yeah.

Like Jesus said, my joy is set before me. And I understand you're saying—

he said, I'm going to glorify my Father.

But yeah, but there's that joy that glorifies, yeah, that just glorifies Christ to people around you as they see you endure the sufferings and see you endure these things.

We certainly glorify Christ when we suffer for him.

Yeah.

But there's a deeper thing I didn't see until just recently, and that is the bonding that occurs.

Yeah.

One more scripture and then we'll go to what this bonding is, because it's really important that we talk about what this bonding is.

All right.

1 Peter 4:1-2. So since Christ suffered in the flesh for us, arm yourselves with the same thought and purpose, patient to suffer rather than fail to please God. This makes it clear, okay? I'm going to obey God even if that means I'm going to suffer. For whoever has suffered in the flesh, having the mind of Christ, is done with intentional sin and has stopped pleasing himself in the world and pleases God. Yeah, so there's a lot accomplished when we obey God, and even though we're going to suffer. All right, so I want to, I want to skip down because I want to make sure this is not too long. And I, I go so much more in depth than this in two of the chapters in this book. Okay. And there's 28 chapters in this book. So this is one aspect. Okay. Now, what, what is the eternal reward of our suffering? There is a verse of scripture that exploded. How many times have I read this scripture, Arden? And now when the Holy Spirit opens this up to me as I'm writing this book, The King Is Coming, all of a sudden the scripture makes so much sense. You ready for the scripture? It's 2 Timothy 2:12. You ready for it? Yep. If we endure hardship, we will reign with him. What's the bride going to do? Reign with him. Okay. Revelation 2:26. Jesus says to all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end. To them I will give authority over all the nations. All right. So this is where it really gets amazing. Okay. And I'm going to take a break here and I'm going to say this. There are a lot of you, a lot of you, because I've heard people say this when they're gut-level honest, they go, I don't know if I'm really looking forward to heaven because they see heaven as like going to be a boring nonstop worship service, or we're going to be these ethereal beings floating on clouds, right?

Yeah. I remember my comparative religions teacher told the whole class, he said, the reason why I don't believe in Christianity is because of heaven. He said, I cannot grasp my head around doing anything for eternity. That idea of heaven is infinite. And so I can't grasp my head around that. Whether it's his favorite hobbies, glorifying God, he had a hard time grasping So I'm going to read straight from The King Is Coming.

Okay. And I'm just going to read it straight. Yeah. The eternal will consist of all the godly pleasures, joy, excitement, and beauty of this life, but be considerably better and perfect in every regard. There will also be experiences that this life could never support. Best of all, there will be no fear, pain, lack, turmoil, or any other corruptive, or unpleasant aspects of this life. Arden, scripture gives glimpses of insight as to what's coming. We glean from the parable of the minas that there will be multiple cities. And even more remarkable, some of us are going to manage a community. Others are going to oversee groups of cities. That's in Luke 19:11-19. So here's the question we got to ask: where are these communities located? Who's their inhabitants? What will life be like in these neighborhoods, the towns, and the cities of the new earth? Will there be civilizations on other planets, other galaxies? Jesus shared that there are mansions being prepared for us. Now, a mansion in the Greek is defined as a very large, impressive, and stately residence. If our eternal home is this magnificent, what do the other structures look like? Will all buildings have the same architecture? What materials are they going to be made of? Let's, let's go even deeper. Will communities have identical cultures and environments? If we have such diverse civilizations among our present world, why not the new heaven and new earth? The Apostle John saw a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues standing before the throne. Yeah. If, as some suppose, there's no diverse societies in the next life, Why are there different ethnic groups in front of the throne? If we maintain our ethnic identity, then what way will the communities vary in the eternal state? But there's more. What I'm about to report is mind-blowing. That will actually judge the world. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6, don't you know that you will judge the world? What's this going to look like? What's going to be the results of this judgment? Let's, let's go even further. We're also going to judge angels. 1 Corinthians 6. Can you fathom this reality? Yes, we will decide alongside of our King how the seraphim, cherubim, archangels, and other ministering spirits will be rewarded. Our decision will be based on how they served us. These mighty beings have been assigned to us. They are all sent forth from God's throne to minister to the heirs of salvation. That's in the Bible. In essence, there will be much to do throughout eternity. We will never be bored. The most staggering reality is that our eternal job positions are being determined by how we live now in this life. This is going to seem like a fog compared to eternity. Eternity is so exciting, so much activity, so much building, so much going on. It's going to be nonstop exciting. So that's what you can tell your comparative teacher. Okay. All right. So now here's, here's what we need to emphasize before we go into what is this bond. I realize I'm dominating this conversation, but there's so much here. I want to make sure we get through it. We're almost done, but we got to figure out what is the bond? What is the bond? Yeah. Okay. All right. So here's what we need to understand. Eternal trust must be earned. All right. Obedience in pain shows God he can trust us forever. God doesn't promote the talented. He promotes the trustworthy. You are not enduring to survive. You're actually enduring to reign. Jesus, Arden, is actually searching for a trustworthy bride. Yeah. All right. All right. So the big word is trust. I want to read you out of John's Gospel. This is amazing. We're almost done here, but this one's so important. John 2:23 and 24. You ready for this? Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust him. Now listen to this next statement. But Jesus didn't trust them because he knew all about people.

Wow.

All right. So now we come 3 years later. We're at the Last Supper. Now, what's happened in that last 3 and a half years? Multitudes have left Jesus. Even his own disciples left him. John 6:66. Then many of his disciples left him. We've got one who betrays him. Okay, we've got Peter who even denies him. But that's a hiccup. But he's going to come back. Jesus knows it. But we've got people who have left him. We've got his mother and brothers that thought he was crazy. Yeah, right. Jesus looks at all these, these 11 guys after Judas is gone and says, you are the ones that continue with me through my trials.

Wow.

In other words, what I was suffering, the ridicule, the resistance, the name-calling, you guys stayed. Yeah. Even when many of your fellow disciples left. Okay. So Jesus looks at these guys and says, I no longer call you slaves because a master doesn't confide in slaves. Now, the fact that he says, I no longer call you slaves, means that one time they were looked at and merely regarded as And this word slave means servant. They were regarded as servants. But Jesus looks at these 11 and says, now something has now shifted, right? Now you are my friends since I have told you everything the Father tells me. A friend. Can you imagine? A servant is usually not a friend. A servant can be a friend, but he's usually not a friend.

Yeah.

But a friend is trusted. A friend is always faithful. Right? Now, can you imagine a brother who's a trusted friend? It's even closer. Wow. I look at how close you are with your brothers. You guys have gone through some pain together, but you guys, your bond is so close right now. Can I read you Proverbs? This is what literally put, put tears in my eyes as I was writing. Proverbs 31:11. Yes, Proverbs 31 is about the virtuous wife, but could this be about the wife that Jesus is looking for? Listen to what it says. Proverbs 31:11, the heart of her husband safely trusts her. Do you know how he starts that? Who can find a virtuous wife? Do you know what that word find actually means?

What?

Who can search out, seek, and find. In other words, has this bride endured with him through his trials?

Yeah.

The five wise virgins made it all the way to the end. The 5 foolish, their lamps went out when it got really dark. The 5 wise were the ones that were brought into the wedding and the door was shut. So Jesus isn't marrying a crowd. He's marrying a crown-worthy companion who will rule and reign with his heart forever and ever. And that's why Paul says, This is— listen to this— so we will ever be with the Lord. Yeah, there is no chance that we'll be mutinous like Lucifer was mutinous. And if you've ever been concerned about that, I was just on a plane with somebody the other day who said, I have thought all my life, what will keep us from doing what Lucifer did? Lucifer was never tested in a cruel, wicked, evil world. We are being tested and getting the privilege of proving our trustworthiness to God right now. So I want to encourage you, no matter what it costs you, when God tells you to do something from his word, do it, because the eternal rewards are unfathomable. I hope you got something from this. Did you— is there any closing thoughts you want to bring up? Statements?

No, I think it was great.

I mean, this is the first time you've heard me share about this in full, right? Yeah.

I think so, yeah.

Impact you the way it impacted me? I'm just curious.

No, it's powerful. It's funny because I was even just looking before this about just the longevity of different people when authority was placed onto them immediately. How did they finish when it was tested in them over a span of time? Yeah, the results were completely different. You look at even John the Baptist as, yes, it could look like authority was placed on him immediately, but John the Baptist was out in the wilderness for years and years, 30 years. And then what does he say is that John says, I must decrease so that he can increase. He understood the positioning. And I think that's probably one of the biggest things that we can look at, whether through this suffering or anything like that, is the positioning that needs to take place inside of us to get underneath godly leadership. I think there's, to the degree where it's like you need men and women of God that can speak into your moments of hardship, because I've watched as so many people have navigated suffering and I've watched as so many of them have given up, and they've walked away from the faith, or they've just become bitter and cold. And I've looked at the people that has been placed in their life, specifically their spiritual leadership, where either they have not told them what they need to tell them and been a father or a spiritual leader, or mother in this instance, to them, or the individual has not listened and opened up their ear to their spiritual father or mother. And so I think just above all of that is being underneath authority, and seeing that is going to help kind of even tie all this together.

Do you know, it's really, really sobering when you look at Jesus saying in Matthew 24 that because of offenses, many, many are going to fall away because of not having the ability to endure to the end. If you look at the parable of the sower, he said, these are they that were sown in the rocky places who had no depth of root, but when affliction or persecution arose because of the word, they stumbled and fell. So folks, I hope you got something out of this. I hope this will strengthen you. I wanna say this, it's a 28-chapter book. We just covered 2 chapters, okay? Chapter 7 and chapter 8. We've got right down in the description, we've got how to order this book. So we're not sending you to our ministry, we're actually sending you to either Amazon, Barnes Noble, or whatever your favorite book retailer is. So that will actually take you to a page that you can choose the retailer of your choice and get ahold of the book. I hope you have been ministered to today. I hope this gives you strength to endure hardship for walking and being obedient to Jesus. For the rest of your life. I hope this strengthens you to be one of the 5 wise virgins, that when Jesus returns, you're ready and you go in with Him to the wedding feast. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Till next time, this has been the John Bevere Podcast. Arden, it's been a pleasure.