Suffering in any form is not anything anyone wants to subscribe to. This is why message of prosperity gained a lot of ground when it started years ago, and it continues to spread.
In today’s churches, people prefer to listen to messages of prosperity and liberation than holiness without which no one can see God!
As uninviting and unwelcome suffering is, Pastor Oluwatomisin Jonathan Ogunsanlu, the man in charge of Gethsemane Prayer Ministry, Abuja wants everyone to embrace suffering for, according to him, it is a blessing in disguise in most cases.
In his book, Why Believers Suffer, Ogunsanlu who is also the Mission Coordinator, Rural Crusade for Christ Ministry Nigeria (MC-RCFCM), points out that it is due to lack of wisdom that makes a person to stay in the school of suffering, without reaping its benefits.
He begins his argument by offering different perspectives on what suffering is all about. He also enumerates different types of sufferings and their peculiar sources. The author explains that suffering could manifest physically, mentally and spiritually, but that in all these, as a true believer in Christ Jesus, no suffering is permitted to “swallow” you.
“Most often as a child of God, suffering is allowed to test our patient, faith in God and to bring out the best in us, that shall be to the glory of God in our lives, a blessing to us and our generation,” he states, citing the examples of saints who we read about today, adding that their ways to sainthood was not paved with gold.
The book also teaches believers and all those who care what their reaction should be in the time of suffering so as not to miss the positive packages that accompany it.
Meanwhile, Pastor To Pastor Care Initiative, a product of the suffering Ogunsanlu has witnessed in the society, will also be launched alongside the book, Why Believers Suffer, in Abuja