Infinite Fellowship Ministries

Times Of Adversity: Sermon By Rev. Geoffrey Muchai

I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.

John 16:33 (AMPC)

The standards of God are so high we cannot say we have attained to perfection. 

As long as you identify with Christ you are guaranteed to go through trials and tribulations. 

Adversity speaks to something that is difficult and unpleasing.

All of us are born in sin and as long as we are born in sin, the devil will seek to hinder our growth.  

And the Lord God said to the woman, What is this you have done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled (cheated, outwitted, and deceived) me, and I ate.

And the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed above all [domestic] animals and above every [wild] living thing of the field; upon your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust [and what it contains] all the days of your life.

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring; He will bruise and tread your head underfoot, and you will lie in wait and bruise His heel.

To the woman He said, I will greatly multiply your grief and your suffering in pregnancy and the pangs of childbearing; with spasms of distress you will bring forth children. Yet your desire and craving will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.

And to Adam He said, Because you have listened and given heed to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it, the ground is under a curse because of you; in sorrow and toil shall you eat [of the fruits] of it all the days of your life.

Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you shall return.

Genesis 3:13-19 (AMPC)

Cain was not taught to murder. The influence and nature of sin is such that it led him to murder.  

We don’t fully understand the extent of what sin has done to humanity. 

When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree Of Good And Evil, they didn’t have the capacity to handle the consequences of that knowledge. 

The enemy will always try to strive with the idea that God has for us. The enemy is still striving with the fruit of Eve. 

Just because we don’t understand the consequences of what Adam did, does not mean that we are immune from the consequences. 

What happened in Garden broke the trust between God and humanity. That forms part of the reason why we have to face adversity.

And the high priest asked [Stephen], Are these charges true? And he answered, Brethren and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our forefather Abraham when he was still in Mesopotamia, before he [went to] live in Haran. And He said to him, Leave your own country and your relatives and come into the land (region) that I will point out to you.

So then he went forth from the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, [God] transferred him to this country in which you are now dwelling. Yet He gave him no inheritable property in it, [no] not even enough ground to set his foot on; but He promised that He would give it to Him for a permanent possession and to his descendants after him, even though [as yet] he had no child.

And this is [in effect] what God told him: That his descendants would be aliens (strangers) in a land belonging to other people, who would bring them into bondage and ill-treat them 400 years. But I will judge the nation to whom they will be slaves, said God, and after that they will escape and come forth and worship Me in this [very] place.

And [God] made with Abraham a covenant (an agreement to be religiously observed) of which circumcision was the seal. And under these circumstances [Abraham] became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac [did so] when he became the father of Jacob, and Jacob [when each of his sons was born], the twelve patriarchs.

And the patriarchs [Jacob’s sons], boiling with envy and hatred and anger, sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt; but God was with him, and delivered him from all his distressing afflictions and won him goodwill and favor and wisdom and understanding in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

Acts 7:1-10 (AMPC)

When God is dealing with man, He takes him out of familiar places to a place where He can talk to him alone. There are unique definitions that God institutes for such a person.  

God wants us to learn how to move in Him. He does not speak something that He is unwilling to fulfill. When He speaks, He is asking us whether we can trust Him to move with Him. 

Every prophetic word comes with an urgency of execution.   

God first restores man in the spirit before anything can be restored in the flesh.  

God does not want to deal with us in a premeditated view of Him. He wants to reveal himself to us daily.  

The covenants we have with God are a product of our walk with Him.  

No one is promoted for doing what is expected of them but by going beyond their call of duty.  

God wants to clothe us with His own righteousness not what we have attained.  

Times of adversity are ordained to instill a capacity in us in the Spirit. The ordained process is initiated by God and terminated by Him.  

God wants us to know that without him we are nothing. He calls us to things that we cannot attain to without Him.  

Lucifer did not fall when he was outside God’s presence, as he was in the place of his function as a covering cherub.   

We can’t peg our righteousness to the demonstrations of the move of the Spirit through us. The Spirit of God can still use a backslidden vessel. 

God’s promise in my life is first seen in the manifestation of Godly character.  

God doesn’t want us to do disciplines mindlessly but with an understanding of what principle is embodied in the discipline i.e. imparting Godly character. 

I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong, neither is bread to the wise nor riches to men of intelligence and understanding nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.

For man also knows not his time [of death]: as the fishes are taken in an evil net, and as the birds are caught in the snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time when [calamity] falls suddenly upon them.

Ecclesiastes 9:11-12 (AMPC)

Times of adversity are ordained to shape us for His favour.  

God can reduce man to the level that His temple can be built up.  

Every story that God is writing has its conclusion in Him.  

We can’t habitually walk with God unless our hearts are open. Open to allow His word in us to do His work. 

Every prophetic word has a gestation period. It is the period the word gets married to one’s spirit; it becomes a fire shut up in one’s bones. The word becomes flesh.  

God is not obligated to share with us His timelines.  

As a Potter, He is obligated to share His glory with a vessel that has been processed to handle His glory.  

God will only entrust His glory to a vessel that has been broken and purified to host His promises. 

Brokenness is the womb that is able to carry and manifest the purposes of God.