“Spread The Good News”

Philippians 1:8-13

8) For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.

9) And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;

10) That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.

11) Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

12) But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;

13) So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places;

I

t most often proves difficult for us to understand why we are not to be moved by life’s circumstances and situations. This is despite the fact that we have so many biblical “heros” from whom to learn. For example, Paul allowed nothing (neither circumstances nor situations) to stop him from “spreading the good news.” As modern saints we allow too many things to stop us (but, of course, one thing is too many).

When we conduct ourselves as though the strength of God’s power to deliver is dependent upon the severity of our situation, we will never know what He can do (meaning we will fail to trust Him if we believe that “my problem” is the worst He has ever faced.) If we believe that God’s power is limited to how we think He will work or what we feel He will be able to accomplish, we bind Him by these conceptions and will fail to discover what He can do. If we limit God’s power to what we can easily “see,” once again, we will never know what He can do. Despite how we have felt, what we have seen from others, or what we have been redeemed.

We can find ourselves unable to “spread the good news,” because of accusing God. This is due to our misconception of the function of God in our lives. If we could have it our way we would have Him seal us into a sterile “bubble” so that nothing touches us. We all want to go to heaven, but do not want to accept that anything that would be proven to be able to stand up under stress must be tested.

We are further hindered in our attempts to spread the good news by our tendency to react to our circumstances. Usually, we see nothing wrong with our reactions as long as we feel they are justified.

However our responsibility is to be the greatest witness we can be, rather than give into pressure and succumb to excuses. We can never escape the example in the Old Testament of the candlesticks (lamps) used for illumination. No one would ever have had light had there been no olive berries crushed for oil. Like it or not, we are those “olive berries” expected to give light to the world.

Verse nine of our scripture mentions “knowledge.” The question is, if one is not born with knowledge, how is it acquired? To learn anything one must be willing. We must be ready to learn from our situations and not see a problem in everything said to us or in things we must experience.

It should help us to accept our testing situations by knowing that the Lord is “making” us and bringing us to the knowledge we need to have to be able to reach someone else for Him. Further we must learn to “approve excellent things.” However, only by enduring are we able to learn what those things are.

Getting “upset” at what befalls us accomplishes nothing positive. Some of us are so distraught at repeated tests and trials that we are unable to endure. How effective, then, will we be in reaching others?

If we are ever to be blessed, we must accept that this walk has nothing to do with us personally. It is all about propagating the gospel.

We give the devil much too much credit in caring for us. His vendetta is not personally against us, but rather, the Lord and His word. He targets us only as we are submitted to Christ.

It is past time for the people of God to exhibit that there is no “shortness” in Him. If we refuse to exalt Him to others we will find ourselves absorbed in the circumstances of life—and this will mean our “death.” Through this it becomes clear that we must learn to praise God in all situations. No saint should ever let his circumstances dictate to him. After all, anyone who can praise in the valley, can “tear up” when on the mountain top. Anyone who can really “get a grip” on this, will b a most fertile “spreader” of the good news.