In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: Prayer turns our persecution into the most profitable preparation for future blessing and future ministry so that God always uses our troublesome trying heartaches and persecution for something that is good. And whatever we're going through today, God will use as preparation for our service and our ministry for him in the future.

Guest (Male): Like any believer, a pastor faces difficulty, conflict, and opposition to the gospel. Welcome to In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Today, we'll hear Dr. Stanley's story, originally presented to a gathering of seminary students. With encouragement to stand firm with God in prayer, here's more of the prayer life of a ministry leader. Let's listen in to Dr. Stanley's message.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Conflict is inevitable in the ministry of Paul would never have written this in Ephesians 6, which you know so well, beginning in verse 10. He says, finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. And then, of course, you remember the next part that talks about the kind of armor we had to wear.

And he explains each one of those. And then, in verse 18, he says, with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the spirit and with this in view beyond the alert with all perseverance and petition for all saints. And you recall that Paul said to Timothy, those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. And he talked about suffering with him as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. So, that's what I want to talk about. And when conflict comes, we usually respond in one of three ways. We either want to run to something that's easier, some greener pasture, or we want to react and we want to by words verbally defend ourselves and blare back and often times get in the midst of the kind of conflict that makes us appear a no taller, no stronger, no higher, no more godly than the people who have attacked us.

But then, there's one other way to respond, which is what I believe that Paul is referring to in Ephesians chapter 6 and you know we don't have time to go through all those verses except to use it as a catalyst. And that is to say, the right response is the response of standing in prayer. That is always God's rightful response. So, what I would like to do a little different today is just to explore these simple truths by sharing something that happened in my own life that maybe will be an encouragement to you. It may scare some of you, but I hope it's an encouragement to you.

And what I want you to do is not remember necessarily the incidences that happen, but I want you to remember the basic principles because you are going to have conflict. So, the question is, how are you going to respond? Are you going to run? Are you going to fight back? Are you going to use the most powerful weapon you can use? And let's see what happens. So, let me begin. When I came to Atlanta, I came as an associate pastor. The pastor had been there for about 16 years. And I came as an associate pastor to sort of help with the young people.

I was there a year and the pastor left. Immediately, those folks who had called me began to talk about me being the pastor. But there was one man in that group of seven men who said, over my dead body, will he be the pastor? That man convinced all of these others that I absolutely should not be the pastor. And so, they set out uh by uh November of that year and the pastor left in September to get rid of me. So, it immediately drove me to my knees. I thought, God, how am I to respond to this?

And so, for about a year, I just lived on my face day after day because I did not ever know what was going to happen next. And so, I remember one day I was in the prayer room and I was just really weeping before God because I didn't know how to handle all this. And it's like the Lord just said to me very clearly, pray, love, and keep quiet. You cannot conquer strong prayer, true love, and deep quietness. And so, I began. And as I looked around me, everything around me said, God, this thing is coming down all over me.

And the Lord would just whisper to me so quietly, just trust me, just trust me, just trust me. I want to tell you you're going to get hurt. You're going to get disappointed by people whom you have great confidence in. So, I want to tell you that up front. You can't avoid it. It's what you do with it that really matters. And so, God just kept driving me back to my knees. And one day I was praying and I remember the Lord just showed me this so clearly because I was getting a little tendency to get a little anger and I wanted to fight back and it's like the Lord said, no, you can't say a word.

It doesn't make any difference what they say, what they do, what they accuse you of, you must not say one word. And so, I had to wrestle with some really difficult things. And I found out that the place you battle your battles is not in the pulpit, not on the church floor of a business meeting, but on your face before God by yourself in the prayer room. That's where you win the battle. So, God just kept saying to me, be quiet. Don't say anything. Don't defend yourself. Keep preaching the gospel. Don't fight back. But remember most of all, you've got to see everything that you hear and everything that is done to you is coming from me.

So, I found myself praying, God, what are you trying to do in my life through all of this? And somehow, when I began to pray that, God, what's your goal for my life in all of this? Somehow, my feelings of resentment and a little bit of bitterness, a little hostility, and wanting to defend myself, all of a sudden I began to realize I didn't feel that anymore. Then, it became an excitement. God, what are you up to in all of this? I didn't ask to come here. I've not done anything to offend these people. And what they accused me of was that all I preached was about the Holy Spirit, how to be saved, and the second coming of Jesus.

And I thought, well, I wish that were true. In fact, many things they accused me of, I really wish had been true. And so, I just had to keep coming back to the Lord saying, Lord, show me, what are you saying to me in all of this? And I want to tell you something, in persecution, you learn some things about God and you learn some things about yourself. And I learn some things about myself I didn't like. And I knew that when it was all over, no matter what, that more than likely God was going to use all of that to begin to deal with me, to do some things in my life that probably he may not have ever been able to do without surfacing some attitudes and feelings that I'd had probably lying dormant all of my life.

Here's what I want you to remember. When the going gets tough and the persecution gets hot and it gets sticky, if you up and leave and run, you assume the responsibility for your action. If you stand true to God and just stand firmly, lovingly, staying on your face before God, they have to make the decision. And if they make the wrong decision, they have to live with it, not you. So, I was up in Brian College speaking. And um I heard uh one of my deacon friends call me and he said, uh Charles, he said, uh while you've been away this week, he said the committee voted uh to remove you from the pulpit.

And so, I said, okay, that's all right. And all that week I'd been sharing up there and I'd been working on Sunday morning sermon and Sunday night. So, I came home and I I realized what was happening and they were going to uh distribute these all this material the next morning so that everybody could know uh while they were remove me from the pulpit. And so, I came home and I I was studying for Sunday morning sermon. For some reason, I didn't have a message. Saturday afternoon, no message. Saturday night, nothing. Sunday morning, no message.

Went to church that Sunday morning, no sermon. I walked out on the platform. No sermon thinking, God, I mean, when I say none, I had none. And the devil must have sat down beside me because I'm sure he must have said this to me, well, well, well. Now, they're going to see what a fool you make of yourself when you walk out here unprepared to preach. The choir sang. But here's what happened. When they finished, I stood up and walked up, opened my Bible, just flipped it open. And it flipped open to Proverbs 3, 5 and 6.

It's like God said to me, you stand aside and let me handle this. I started just like that. For 45 minutes, I poured out my heart. I never skipped a beat. I never mentioned the situation. I never said a thing. I preached the sermon on how to find the will of God. I'd never preached it before. Haven't preached it since. Don't have any earthly idea what I said. When I gave the invitation, here's what happened. People walking down the aisle and going up the aisle. They were leaving the choir. It was like a bombshell. It so absolutely put these folks in distraught.

They were absolutely overwhelmed. And I couldn't tell you anything I said. It was just the power of God moving in the hearts of that congregation. And that night, that place was loaded. On Wednesday night, we voted. Had a business meeting for 3 hours. Probably had about 2,000 people. They came to fight it out. They were fully persuaded they were they were going to win. It was all over. It was done. And I sat there and I had my Bible open to a passage of scripture uh in Isaiah that I am sure that many of you have read many times.

It's the one the Lord laid upon my heart that night before I went out there. And this is what it says. Isaiah 54:17, no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper. And every tongue that accuses you in judgment, you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication is from me, declares the Lord. I'll tell you a strange thing. I sat there that night for 3 hours. I listened to them argue among themselves. They tried every parliamentary procedure possible. But here was the thing that amazed me. In a 3 hour discussion to get rid of me, not one person ever said one negative word about me.

Now, if I were going to get rid of somebody, I'd give you 40 reasons why I shouldn't be pastor. Nobody ever said a word. They wrangled among themselves and they finally voted. And they voted to call me as the pastor. Well, you can imagine what a happy occasion that was when the vote was about 60 some percent versus about 30 some or there abouts. So, then they called for me. And uh they didn't realize I was sitting there watching all this. Well, that humiliated them something terrible. So, all these folks left and went a block away and started their own worship service.

And they would come to Sunday school and go down there to worship. They would eat in the dining room on one end, rest of us on the other end. And then, they wouldn't come to prayer meeting. This went on for October, November, December. And so, I just kept praying, God, show me the next step. And every Sunday, people joining the church, people getting saved. And I was amazed. You would think that with all the fussing and fighting going on and the things that were happening that people wouldn't come. It's like God just began to draw people to the fellowship.

And the more I thought about it, I thought, well, it won't take very long. They'll be so far outnumbered they already are that they wouldn't have a chance anyway. You need to think all kind of things. And so, I was down praying. And I want to say this again to you. I know that some of you think, well, you know, how do you find God God's will that way? Well, if you've lived as long as I have, been through what I've been through, you'll know. I was down praying. It was January. We didn't even have any church officers.

No Sunday school workers, nobody because every time we had a business meeting, the goal was to get rid of me. And so, we never got around to electing anybody. So, the Lord just impressed upon my heart I had an old army colonel who was my Sunday school superintendent and I said to him, I'm going to ask this church to give me full authority to appoint all the leadership of this church. He says, I'm with you 100 percent. So, I prayed about that for about a week to be sure I had God's mind on it. And on a Wednesday morning, I was praying.

Here's the passage of scripture God laid upon my heart. Hear my voice, oh God, and my complaint and preserve my life from dread of the enemy. Hide me from the secret counsel of evil doers, from the tumult of those who do iniquity, who sharpen their tongue like a sword. They aim their speech as their arrow. They shoot from concealment at the blameless. Suddenly, they shoot at him and do not fear. They hold fast to themselves an evil purpose. They talk of laying snares secretly. They say, who can see them? They devise injustices saying, we're ready with a well-conceived plot.

But the inward heart and the heart of a man are deep. But God will shoot at them with an arrow. Suddenly, they will be wounded. So, they will make him stumble. Their own tongue against them. And all who see them will shake their head. Then, all men will fear and will declare the work of God and will consider what he has done. The righteous man will be glad in the Lord and will take refuge in him and all the upright in heart will glory. It's like God just etched that in my heart. I was almost fearful of going to prayer meeting that night and so but I went.

And so, I called for a business meeting. When I called for a business meeting, these folks came pouring in on the outside. They would never come inside. And so, I asked the church to give me full authority to appoint all the church officers, which they did. Well, one of these fellows decided he wanted to say something. So, I said, well, sure, so you want to come up on the platform. And remember what this passage says. So, he walked up to make a little speech and he said, and if Stanley, if you don't watch out, you're going to get hurt.

So, I was standing right here. So, he backhands me in the jaw right there. Well, my first response was not anger, but pure joy. Because listen to what this passage says. This passage says, suddenly they will be wounded. And what that man did by hitting me was he categorized all of these people. And a lady stood up in the front. She said, how dare you hit my pastor? My son Andy was 11. He came up out of the pew over here and one of my deacons grabbed him and just he said, he said, Andy, this battle's all over.

Just don't worry about it. And two of my friends came up the aisle and this uh fell off and people began to weep all over the congregation. These folks got up and began to leave. In 10 days, all 300 of them are gone. Half the Sunday school leadership, 40 of the 60 deacons, they were all gone in 10 days. God removed them. I never argued. I never fussed. I never fought. The only thing I did was to pray and to believe God and to trust him that he was sufficient to take me through the heartache.

Now, you probably will never go through anything like that. And you wonder, why am I telling you that? Simply for this reason. The only way I survived it was on my face before God. Day after day, week after week, I found myself praying far more than studying. But I always had just exactly what God wanted me to have when I stood to preach. And I watched God do the most miraculous, marvelous things in some people's lives. And then, I watched the effect of that upon my children. And sometimes we think, well, you know, these things just destroy families.

They could if you don't include them, if you don't involve them, and if you don't pray together. And my kids grew up watching all of this happen. And they learned something that you obey God no matter what the consequences. And when you do, God will always honor that. Now, they could have fired me, but here's what the Lord showed me. You win either way because the issue is not whether you be the pastor or not. The issue between you and me is whether you obey me or not. That's the issue. Whether you win or whether you lose, if you obey me, you still win.

And if you can just remember that, if you obey God, you always win. You never lose. It doesn't make any difference what happens. You always win when you humble yourself before him. You don't fight back. You don't defend yourself. You retreat to prayer and God will show you step by step what you're to say, what you're not to say. And you say, well, suppose you he had gotten fired. So what? If I'm in the center of God's will, that is the only safe place in the world to be.

Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. You know, it's easy to get focused on the outcome of our decisions and forget that the consequences of obedience are God's concern, not ours. Believers can seek God's will through humble prayer and trust him to lead. Want to listen to this message again? Just click on today on radio at intouch.org. And if you go to our store page, you can order a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message today, Prayer and Conflict, or order the teaching set, The Prayer Life of a Ministry Leader. You'll find these resources and more at intouch.org.

And to call or text us, the number is 1 800 In Touch. You can also write to In Touch, Post Office Box 7900 Atlanta, Georgia 30357. Are you facing an onslaught of criticism? Well, if you're a believer, you can learn to redirect your focus. That's just ahead in today's moment with Charles Stanley.

Guest (Female): In our spiritual journey, we often have questions. How do I know God's will for my life? Does God hear my prayers? Why do bad things happen? The answers are found in the word of God. But how do we know where to start? The free In Touch devotional can help point you in the right direction with biblically based content from Dr. Charles Stanley. You'll gain insight and wisdom through daily devotions, Bible studies, and more. The In Touch devotional delivered monthly to your mailbox. Subscribe for free at intouch.org/daily.

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Dr. Charles Stanley: We're to have strong convictions based on the word of God. He's working out things that you and I would never know about in our future.

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Dr. Charles Stanley: Now, watch this.

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Guest (Female): In Lebanon, an In Touch audio Bible is played and Kurdish believers hear scripture for the first time in their own language. Learn more at intouch.org/global.

Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch. In a moment with Charles Stanley, you'll hear about a difficult time of conflict and the importance of keeping focus on God.

Dr. Charles Stanley: The interesting thing that happened was this lady called me that I had not ever met before and didn't know who she was. Her name was Mrs. Salls. So, she knew that I'd been going through all of this and she'd been sitting right there week after week. She'd been a nurse for 50 some years and she said, I want to show you something. She walked me over and she had a picture on the wall and it was a picture of Daniel in the lion's den and she said, son, I want you to tell me what you see.

So, I looked at the picture and I said, well, I see Daniel and he had his hands behind him and he was looking up and there's a ray of light coming in the prison and all the lions are there. Their mouths are closed and some of them are lying down, some of them looking up at the light and some looking at Daniel and and some bones were lying around. So, I told her everything that I knew to tell her. She put her arm around me. She said, son, what I want you to see is Daniel doesn't have his eyes on the lions.

If Jesus himself had wrapped his loving arms around me, nothing could have been more profoundly needful in my life. And what she was saying to me is, don't look at your enemies. You just keep your focus on God. He's going to see you through this.

Guest (Male): Learn more about handling difficult circumstances with faith in Jesus Christ when you visit us at intouch.org. And if today's program has encouraged your relationship with Jesus, we'd love to hear from you. Next time on In Touch, what can conflict teach you about God? Find out when you join us again for In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries Atlanta, Georgia and remains on the station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.