The Redemptive Power of Unearned Suffering!

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said that "unearned suffering is redemptive". Dr. King didn't gain that knowledge from his study of Greek Philosophy; no, it was not Socrates, Plato or Aristotle's metaphysical debates as they sat upon the Parthenon between 500 - 200 B.C. He did not stumble upon this truth while studying the great military Conquerors that are plastered on the walls of history as he looked back through the annuls of time. It was not the teachings of Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander or Napoleon.

Dr. King did not serendipitously stumble upon this truth while endeavoring to make sense of the sporadic disposition man in his progression through history. It was not found in the faith of Columbus or the dread of Joan of Ark. It did not originate from the very one for whom he was named after, Martin Luther's quest to unlock the key to grace was not the revelator of this truth.

No, Dr. King found this awesome truth embedded in the text of Genesis chapters 37-50 in which a young boy named Joseph reveals a vision to his brothers and for his trouble he was thrown in a pit, sold into slavery, and imprisoned before finally being exalted to the the 2nd highest position in the kingdom. Joseph would tell you that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Dr. King could see it in the story of young man named Jeremiah, who despite his youth, accepted his God-ordained calling, but soon found himself to be ridiculed, mocked, thrown in a pit, and threatened of life, but even at his wits end, declaring that he would no longer speak in the name of the Lord, but in the same breathe declare that The Word of God has become like a burning fire shut up in his bones; he tried his best to contain it but he could not. He suffered much for the Lord, but in the end he is remembered as a Prophet of God. Jeremiah would tell you that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Dr. King could have visited a number of Old Testament prophets that would have given the same testimony. Then he would have come over into the New Testament to visit what many theologians considered to be the crown jewel of the Bible Chapter 8. He would move passed the impenetrable doctrine of justification. He would move past the infallible doctrine of sanctification. He would give notice to the doctrine of spiritual adoption, but he would stop there. He would make a significant stop at verse 18, where he would read "For I consider that the sufferings of this present moment are not worthy to be compared to the Glory that will be revealed in us." In essence, "unearned suffering is redemptive.

Dr. King didn't stop there, he moved on down to verse 28. If Romans chapter 8 is the crown jewel of the Bible, then verse 28 is the flawless centerpiece that anchors the entire structure. "For we know if fact, that "the" God works all things together for the good of those that love Him, to the called ones, according to his predetermined plan." (Rom. 8:28, corrected translation). Bottom Line, Unearned suffering is redemptive.

Joseph could say, "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good because unearned suffering is redemptive. Jeremiah could  spit the fire of God's infallible Word in the face of adversity and death because unearned suffering is redemptive. Stephen could pray for those that were stoning him because even in the face of death, unearned suffering is redemptive.

I've said all what has come before this to let you know that your circumstances have no power to rob you of your joy, unearned suffering is redemptive. You heartache cannot deter you from your destiny, unearned suffering is redemptive. Betrayal and abandonment cannot block your inheritance, unearned suffering is redemptive. That failed marriage cannot quench God's movement in your life, unearned suffering is redemptive. The loss of a loved one that seems so inexplicable and ill-timed, is not the final nail but the initial move of God to fulfill his promise.

Dr. Rick Wallace

I don't care what you are going through right now, God has a plan for your life. He has a plan to prosper you beyond your burdens. He has a plan to elevate you above your struggle. He has a plan to strengthen you in the midst of the storm. He has a plan to deliver you from darkness and devastation. He has plan to transform your test into a testimony. He has a plan to remove the remnants of your desperation.


My friend, hold your head up for the battle is in the hands of the Lord and the miracle moment has just begun. Shake off the anxiety. Shake off the disappointment. Shake off the uncertainty. God is about to bust a mighty move in your life. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace

The Power of a Vision

"Where there is no vision the people perish." (Prov. 29:18)

On the surface this verse of scripture may seem somewhat tamed, and inconsequential. However, make no mistake about it, this short verse contains a wealth of information and explains so much.

I often say that the greatest responsibility of every believer is the constant, daily, intake, digestion, metabolism and inculcation of bible doctrine. When the believer is inundation with biblical doctrine  he takes on the thinking or mind of Christ, being able to manage his thought processes appropriately and adequately. The believer with Bible Doctrine resident in his souls can execute the command to cast down every argument and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

This same believer has the power to continuously transform himself by the renewing of his mind, each day becoming more like Christ and reflecting the purpose within his unique design.

The scriptural passage above is like any other passage of scripture.  When it is engaged with an open heart that is willing to allow God to speak through His Word, if reveals life and it exposes the source of power to engage the enigmatic issues of life.

Dr. Rick Wallace

The writer in this passage tells us that without a vision, the people will perish. Another translation says that without a vision the people cast off restraint. The ultimate picture here is that without a centralized vision, there is no true direction. Without a vision there is a tendency to move randomly with no true sense of purpose and destiny.

You see, when a vision is present, it connects the bearer of that vision with his/her identity, which in turn, unveils their purpose, which reveals their destiny. Your vision is a portrait of your purpose and when you have a true understanding of purpose it will explain your pain, direct your passion, solidify your resolve.

God told Habakkuk to write the vision down and make it plain so that the one that reads it may run. Their is a power in knowing and understanding your vision, but also knowing and understanding the vision of anyone you choose to follow.


Are you acquainted with your vision? ~ Rick Wallace

The Glory of a Man!

Some of you have heard me say this before, but I will venture to say it again. "You can judge the character of a man by the countenance of his wife." I was taught this lesson a long time ago and I have studied it ever since; it is actually biblical. The Bible tells us that the wife is the glory (or reflection) of her husband.

Men what this means is that when we fail to bring security, peace joy, and most of all, love into the spirit of our wives, it is visible to the world. Our failures as men cannot be hidden because the very countenance of our wives reveal it.

Dr. Rick Wallace

We are called to love our wives, even to the point of ultimate sacrifice. When we get married we are to die to self so that we may live to the honor of our wives. Our goal should be to love our wives with a force that imposes our very honor into her spirit and the infusion of the honor generates a glorious illumination which flows profusely through every pore and orifice on her body.

It is not the wedding ring that a woman wears that is a deterrent to the advancement of other men, it is the phosphorescent glow that illuminates all that is in her periphery that tells that man and everyone else within range that she is not only married, but fulfilled. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace

A New Thing!

I know that many of you have experience terrible heartache and disappointment. Many of you have struggled through tragedy after tragedy. Some of you ladies have moved from one abusive relationship to another. Some of you men have wrestled with the fact that your father was not there. There are those of you that feel like your life has been one big failure after another. It seems as if there is no hope. When you look back everything that you see speaks to you and tells you that there is no hope, but just as the Apostle Paul told us in Philippians, his secret was in refusing to look back, forgetting those things that were behind him and pressing forward to those things that lie ahead.

God also spoke through another great man he had chosen. God spoke through Isaiah and said, "Do not remember the former things; neither consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." (Isa. 43:18-19)

"Do not remember the former things"; stop focusing on the failures of the past. Stop thinking about how the enemy oppressed you because that is not your heritage. Stop dwelling on yesterday because My power releases you from its grasp, meaning your past has no power over you. "...I am doing a new thing..."; not I am going to do, but I am doing, meaning that as you read this, God is working the supernatural in your life. He simply needs you to step out from behind the shadows of your past and stand in faith.

"Now it springs forth"; at this moment that new thing that the deepest recesses of your soul tells you is real is standing before you. That things that has caused you to hope against hope, has been worked out for you! You thought you had failed, but God was working through your fallibility to develop your potential and your capacity for blessings.

Dr. Rick Wallace

"Do you not perceive and know it?"; Can you discern the reality of this great movement in your life? Do you know it exists? How can it be that God is working this new thing in your life and yet you can't perceive it? It is because it was not encapsulated by faith. You are hearing, but your heart is failing to believe. Hebrews Chapter 4 tells us that the Israelites did not received the promised land of rest because they did not receive the promise through faith.


"Roads [Way] in the wilderness and rivers in the desert"; meaning that His providence will be present in those moments of uncertainty, His hand will move on your behalf in those situations in which the circumstances dictate that there is no hope. It means that he will transcend the impossibilities of your life to bring about your breakthrough, elevation and victory. God is doing a new thing in your life right now. You simply have to receive it. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace

Riding the Winds of Resistance

I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth (Isa. 58:14).

Those who fly through the air in airships tell us that one of the first rules they learn is to turn their ship toward the wind, and fly against it. The wind lifts the ship up to higher heights. Where did they learn that? They learned it from the birds. If a bird is flying for pleasure, it goes with the wind. But if the bird meets danger, it turns right around and faces the wind, in order that it may rise higher; and it flies away towards the very sun.

Sufferings are God's winds, His contrary winds, sometimes His strong winds. They are God's hurricanes, but, they take human life and lift it to higher levels and toward God's heavens.

You have seen in the summer time a day when the atmosphere was so oppressive that you could hardly breathe? But a cloud appeared on the western horizon and that cloud grew larger and threw out rich blessing for the world. The storm rose, lightning flashed and thunder pealed. The storm covered the world, and the atmosphere was cleansed; new life was in the air, and the world was changed.

Human life is worked out according to exactly the same principle. When the storm breaks the atmosphere is changed, clarified, filled with new life; and a part of heaven is brought down to earth.
--Selected

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Far too often, I witness believers struggling to circumvent the vicissitudes of life. I seem them praying for immediate extraction from the hardships that roll into their perceived paradises. If the believer is ever to walk in true triumph, he/she must be able to apprehend with great measure the principal of process. The believer must understand that adversity is the fertile soil in which the seed of faith is planted and cultivated.

it is when we meet resistance in this life that we are strengthened and developed. Elevation in the Christian life comes when the fierce winds of adversity blow in with a ferocity that shakes you very core. It is when there seems to be no answer, no escape and no help that the audacious and radical faith of the believer rises to the occasion. This faith is developed in the darkness of the tempest that rages uncontrollable around them.

Dr. Rick Wallace

How often has the believer cried out to God in the midst of the storm, "Lord take me out of this,' but the Lord's response is no, but I will bring you through it. God knows what's best and he understands that though comfort may feel good, it is not good for us. Comfort breeds complacency, compromise and lethargy. God looks at you and with an unparalleled love, He says, I will not bring you out, for I am more concerned with your character than I am with your comfort.

You have been looking for you promotion and your breakthrough, but you have been avoiding the very thing that brings about your rise, adversity.


It is amazing how many believers fail to grasp the principle of process. There is a process that precedes the promise. We love to claim promises, but we rarely are willing to endure the process. It is important to understand that process precedes promise. Before there can be an obtainment of the promise there must first be an endurance of the process. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace

Victim or Victor

Victim or Victor

Okay, this is where my facebook friend count goes down. A lot of you will probably become upset with me about what you are about to read, but the truth is that until you grasp the veracity in the statement you are about to read, you will never excel and move into the life of excess, joy and true satisfaction you so desperately seek.

At some point in time you are going to have to stop being the victim long enough to become the victor. As long as you are fixed on what someone else has done to you or how someone else is holding you back, you will never truly overcome your deficit in life. The truth is your unwillingness to move forward and let go is holding you back.

As long as your day is filled with talk about the boss that passed you over for the promotion, you will never truly ascend. If your thoughts are filled with the reasonings of why your mother treated you the way she did and how it has negatively impacted your life, you have relinquished your power to overcome. If you spend your time contemplating the girl that broke your heart and stepped on your kindness, you have stifled your power. Stop being the victim and soon thereafter you will find the power to become the victor.

Let me explain something to you. If you were to truly study what the Bible teaches about forgiveness, you will find that forgiveness is not the benefactor of the one being forgiven, but the one that offers it. Forgiveness releases the person that offers it from the shackles of emotional, mental, and even physical oppression. Now let me drop this truth on you: Forgiveness means letting it go. As long as you are holding something against someone, they are indebted to you for that which you are holding against them; however, as long as you hold on it enslaves you, not them. If you spend your life waiting for the fall of the person that wronged you, you will miss the door of opportunity that has opened for you. The crazy thing is the person that did the wrong often repents and moves on and advances while you wallow in your bitterness. It is not your job to monitor their plight; it is your responsibility to overcome yours. If you are still entertaining what they have done, you have not let go. If you have not let go, you are not in power, the thing that you are holding on to is. Also, forgiveness is a cornerstone of gratitude. I told you a couple of days ago about the importance and powerful impact of a grateful heart. An unforgiving heart is not a heart of gratitude, but one of resentment. There is a reason the Bible teaches us to let go. Jesus even goes to the point of saying that unforgiveness blocks the efficacy of our prayers (Mark 11:25).

You can continue to talk about what others have done to you; you can continue to spend your days contemplating all that has befell you, and you will continue to be a victim. The alternative is that you can understand that your choices, not the choices of others will determine the path you take and your progression, if any, on life’s continuum and become a victor. You cannot control what someone does, more importantly; you cannot change what someone has already done. Your growth, advancement, and power comes from how you respond to the adversity brought by others. God allowed it for a reason; you have to be intimately connected to His will for your life to see Him in all that has transpired. God allowed your trials to enhance and prepare you for the abundance of blessing he desires to shower upon you, but you have allowed the enemy to press you into a state of futility by holding on to what has been done.

This is not, in anyway, suggesting that you allow people to continuously mistreat you. That would be foolish and not reflective of Christian wisdom. However, you have to choose not to own (take possession of) what the devil has tossed in your lap. If someone mistreated you, that is a reflection of them, but how you respond to it is a reflection of you. Own your response knowing that you serve a God that causes all things to work out for your good. When you truly begin to understand this, you will not have a desire to wallow in the muck and mire of the mess the enemy sent to destroy you.

When you truly learn to forgive and let go, you will begin to see things clearer and understand that a lot of what you had been seeing as a destructive force in your life is actually God subtly nudging you away from a position or place you didn’t belong in, normally toward something greater.

Remember, Christians don’t respond and behave the way that those of the world do. Make up in your mind that you will no longer be the victim. You will not give power to anything that is not of God. I guarantee you that when you let go of all that excess baggage; when you stop pointing the finger; when you cease from your “Oh Woe is Me” ballads; when you stop feeding the sorrow through consistent communication of what has already happened; you will find the power to rise. Understand that every time that you mention the negative you are acknowledging its power in and over your life. If you are truly walking in the power of God, you need not be concerned with what someone else is doing because you know that “No weapon formed against you shall prosper”.

Dr. Rick Wallace

If you examine your life and it seems that it has been filled with people that have taken advantage of you in one form another, it indicates that you have taken on a victim’s role. You have given power to the actions of others without acknowledging the power of God working in you. I am not saying that you will not be attacked; trust me, you will be (sometimes you will be hit so hard it will knock the wind out of you); I am simply saying that the attacks will serve to elevate you instead of enslave you. If you are honest enough to admit that you have been doing this, you can take hold of the power to change your position and walk into your destiny. If not, you will continue to be the victim, sharing your story with all that will listen about how life has stepped on your throat.
Are you a victim or a VICTOR? You choose. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace