THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST

My Dear Precious Child,
    The followers of Jesus Christ who were still alive after His death and resurrection suffered for their belief in Him because He was looked on as a false prophet, a lawbreaker, a messenger of satan and an imposter of the Messiah by the religious and political leaders of the nation of Israel.  The very learned and knowledgeable people who were looking for My Son to come into the world were deceived by the devil and they did not recognize Him as My Savior for the world.  After He was absent from the earth and took His seat in My heaven at My right hand, His followers were pursued, beaten, harassed, punished and even killed for their continuing to have faith in Jesus Christ.  When Paul and Peter wrote to those people they called attention to Christ's sufferings as the basis of their own sufferings, telling them that they were privileged to be suffering the same afflictions in their flesh that Jesus Christ suffered in his flesh. 
    Stephen was one who suffered being arrested, harassed and brought before the Jewish leaders.  He preached the message of salvation through Jesus Christ to his accusers, which infuriated the Jewish priests and politicians.(Acts 6:8-15-Acts 7:1-60)  He was stoned to death, yet he did not feel the stoning in his flesh because he was so filled to overflowing with My Holy Spirit that he saw that My heaven opened for him before his body succumbed to death.  As a true follower of Jesus Christ Stephen asked Me to forgive his murderers before his spirit left his body. 
    One of the men who persecuted Stephen was Saul before he became Paul, a convert to Christianity and My powerful gift to the Gentile nation of taking the good news of Jesus Christ to the pagans.
    There are still people in underdeveloped countries who suffer persecution, harassment, imprisonment and stoning for becoming followers of Jesus Christ.  They are granted the same grace as Stephen when dying, escaping the fleshly pain in their flesh by their spirits having been translated into My heaven before their bodies die. (Romans 8:18)
    There are sufferings that others of My children experience which are the same sufferings against the temptations of the devil like Jesus Christ suffered when He was wrestling with the decision to do My will of going to the cross for the sins of the whole world. (I Peter 4:13) Of course, those sufferings are not to be compared to the ones of Jesus Christ, but they are, nonetheless, sufferings in your flesh because you are wresting with the devil in an effort to deny his temptations to continue doing his will and instead yielding to Me to do My will which will provide the necessary power of My Holy Spirit to escape any future pain because of the glories that enter into your life as My child. (Philippians 3:10)
    You must remember My words to you when you were wresting with the devil between continuing to do his will in your life or instead your choosing to do My will in asking to be baptized in My Holy Spirit.  My words to you were, "Do you choose to continue to have garbage in your life on earth or would you rather choose to have My gold in your life on earth?"  You made the right choice.  You have continued to have My gold instead of garbage.  You suffered in making the right choice and it paid off because of the glories that have continued to follow. (I Peter 1:11)
    Suffering in your flesh is always at the hands of the devil who uses people through whom to afflict My children.  I recognize that it is often unpleasant to your flesh to do good to people who persecute, harass and do evil to you.  But the results are glorious after you pray for the people and allow Me to burn the demons out of them.  (Romans 12:19-21) Also, it causes you to suffer in your flesh to do good to the evil doers who oppose you and offend you, but the glories of the final results is that peace comes into your life and My rewards are great for you.  So the suffering that your flesh goes through when you do good to people who injure you emotionally, physically or mentally is nothing compared to the final results of your reward, which is that you have sowed seeds in My heaven instead of sowing seeds in hell by returning evil for evil done to you.  The blessings, benefits and rewards that you receive are an infinite more times greater than the suffering in your flesh when you chose to return good for evil. (Matthew 5:38-48) 
   Sowing seeds of good for evil done to you is My form of justice.  It's forgiving the sins of others because Jesus Christ forgave your sins and the sins of the world.  You have done likewise when you forgive the people who do evil to you.
    Sowing seeds in the kingdom of hell by doing the devil's will brings hell on earth to you, but sowing seeds in My kingdom of heaven by doing My will in the earth brings heaven on earth to you and My other children who do My will.
    Your Heavenly Father of Goodness and Kindness