Page 42 - SABBATH

How many saints and ministers can make a similar confession today? How many are
content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties?
How many would be content if in the fulfillment of the ministry Yahweh entrusted to them
they had to endure humble means, going hungry, suffering need?
It is evident that the church today is not content that these things should be the
Father’s will for them. They have devised doctrines that proclaim that this will never be the
lot of the faithful saint of God. They have devised doctrines that state that it is always the
Father’s will that saints should prosper, they should have plenty to eat, they should never
suffer lack. Many have gone so far as to accuse any who do endure these same things that
Paul endured as lacking faith, or walking in disobedience. Did Paul suffer these things due
to disobedience? Did he suffer these things because he did not have as much faith as the
“name it and claim it” crowd today?
These doctrines have been devised because the flesh of man does not want to be
crucified. It wants to make some compromise with the Spirit. The flesh says, “I should not
need to suffer in order to accomplish Yahweh’s purposes.” However, the clear testimony of
scripture is that the flesh must not only suffer, but it must be crucified. It must be put to
death.
In my own walk of obedience to the Father’s revealed will I have found that it has led
to fellow ministers separating from me and rejecting me. Those whom I considered fellow
laborers have condemned me and turned away. It has led to similar rejection by my own
family, and I have found that it has led me to be placed outside of the main camp of
Christianity. In pursuit of obedience I have endured the loss of many physical things. I have
not been able to gather to myself houses and lands and many material comforts. I have not
been able to seek to satisfy both the flesh and Yahweh. I have had to choose one over the
other.
Did not Yahshua clearly foretell that all saints would have to make such a choice?

Luke 16:13
"No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other,
or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and
mammon."

Many saints have made a decision as to which master they will serve, and they do not
even realize they have done so. Many have chosen a course of compromise. They have not
said with Yahshua, “I live to do the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Instead they seek
to serve God and to hold onto the things that satisfy the flesh’s longing. In the end they do
not satisfy the Father at all, for they have failed to fully count the cost of following Him.
Paul did count the cost. He lived to do the will of Yahweh and he was content with
whatever circumstances to which this commitment led him. Paul knew contentment when
he had a sufficiency, and when he knew lack. Paul knew contentment when he was well fed,
and when he was hungry. Paul lived to do the will of the Father and he did not seek to
coddle his flesh. On the contrary, he ruled over the desires of his flesh and put these desires
to death.

I Corinthians 9:27
I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others,
I myself should be disqualified.