I know so many genuine saints whose children have had such a terrible time at school. It is heartbreaking to hear of the bullying and the darkness and the separation they experience, and the lion roared. I think of my own childhood and how in many ways it seemed like a lost childhood of great darkness. A brutal war right from the beginning and one in which you barely survive, and the lion roared. I think of my teenage years which seemed even worse and an even greater battle on every front and the lion roared. Yet in all of that darkness there was one light, one light that beckoned like the north star. No matter how the lion roared the light never changed, it was unmovable. Listen to what a brother called Michael recently wrote to me in regard to something I had written about suffering………………..

Frank , regarding coming to that place when you rejoice that you are counted worthy to suffer for His kingdom’s sake and having clarity of vision…

Have you ever thought about “the fellowship of His (Christ’s) sufferings” that Paul prayed to experience… that these sufferings might be listed in Isaiah 53? Sufferings such as: growing up a tender young plant like a root out of dry ground, having nothing handsome or beautiful about you that people would desire you, being rejected by all your peers, being rejected by your own family, living a life of sorrow and the grief of being rejected by all men and then being accused of offenses and crimes you did not commit? And the list goes down hill from there!

Jesus said to His disciples, “It the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also.” (John 15:18-20 RSVA)

Brothers and sisters, we have been chosen IN Christ from the foundation of the world and because of it, the world (the kosmos – the system and its adherents under the Prince of this World) hates us. James wrote, “…know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”(James 4:4 KJ2000).

It has helped me tremendously to finally see why I have experienced many of these thing Jesus had to go through on this earth. It is because it was HE who separated me from my mother’s womb unto Himself and the Prince of this world has hated me ever since and so have his people. We are of God’s kingdom and as the saying goes, “It goes with the territory.” But oh, what a territory it is!