CHRISTIANS AND PERSECUTION

But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. - 1 Peter 4 vs 15-16

RECENTLY, MANY expressed shock that a gunman could have walked into a church and brutally snuffed out the life of a minister. They seem to think the gunman crossed the line and that being a minister sets you apart from vicious crimes.

It begs the question whether Christianity protects one from misfortune or from being a victim of a vicious crime.

Family and Religion sought advice from the Reverend Dwight Bryan of the Dominion In Christ International Ministries who said that when bad things happen to Christians, in particular ministers of the gospel, it can be a source of great despair in the body of Christ to the point where some even question their faith.

However, Bryan said that one key principle should be noted and it is that the good things Christ died to provide for us, including healing, provision, deliverance, and divine protection, do not fall into our laps automatically, but must be appropriated by faith.

“This is a requirement for every believer – for those in the pulpit and the pews alike. There is no scripture that suggests that there is a special set of privileges for pastors, when it comes to receiving from God. Mark 16:17 says that signs will follow the believer, not just the apostle, prophet, pastor, teacher, or evangelist,” he shared.

He said that as believers, we have a covenant of protection backed by Almighty God Himself. That, he said, was demonstrated during the Passover when the children of Israel were being delivered out of Egypt. In Exodus 12:23, they are instructed to put the blood of the lamb upon their door posts so that the destroyer would not touch them. “As New Testament believers, Jesus is our Passover Lamb and we must apply His blood over our lives to activate our divine protection. We do this by praying and pleading the blood of Jesus over our lives before we set foot out of our homes. We do it before we drive off, head to the bus stop, go to the mall, church, or school. We need to plead the blood at all times. According to Hebrew 12:24, the blood of Jesus speaks on our behalf,” he shared.

Bryan said that for the believer, Psalm 91 provides the articles of their covenant of protection, one, he said, that must be appropriated by faith, by meditating and by confessing it over their lives daily.

DELIVERANCE FROM ATTACKS

“It provides deliverance from attacks by day or night and enables us to stand even while thousands are falling around us. This powerful Psalm makes provision for angelic protection from all forms of evil, including gun violence. This protection, like all God’s promises, is not automatic. Every time it is rehearsed and spoken in faith, it is activated in the realm of the spirit. In modern times, there have been testimonies of an entire regimen of soldiers going into active combat armed with scripture cards bearing Psalm 91, which they meditated on and confessed multiple times a day. These troops, after an extended military engagement, emerged relatively unscathed in comparison to similarly deployed troops who suffered massive casualties,” he informed.

According to Bryan, the words “no weapon formed against thee shall prosper” (Isaiah 54:17) and similar scriptures are real but do not work simply because we have read them in our Bibles. He said that they must be meditated upon and confessed until they are in the heart of a believer in abundance so that when the words are declared, they are backed by faith and not merely said out of fear or desperation.

“The knowledge of the word of God or the ability to preach it is not the same as being able to live it and walk in it daily,” he points out.

For him to avoid preaching about persecution would be foolhardy and would leave believers ill-equipped, as he said the Bible teaches that all who will live godly lives will suffer persecution. (2 Tim. 3:12).

However, in the preceding verse, stressed Bryan, the Apostle Paul tells of the afflictions and persecutions that he suffered, but that the Lord delivered him out of them all.

“From the inception of the Church, there was intense hostility and persecution, but Paul’s testimony shows us that he tapped into a way to overcome this persecution. All through the Bible we see those who were persecuted or killed while others received miraculous deliverance,” he shared.

While a minister may lose his life tragically as he shares the word of God, Bryan speaks of incidents of dramatic testimonies of divine intervention where an ordinary church sister is accosted by a gunman who flees in terror when she calls on the name of Jesus.

“In Philippians 1:20-21 we see that Christ is to be magnified in our bodies in life or in death, for to live is Christ and to die is gain,” he said, adding that persecution is real, but so is divine protection.