Abidjan Church of Christ, Ivory Coast

Podcast by Agnès Koffi Women’s Ministry Leader

The following is a transcript of a podcast episode. Originally in French, it has been translated to English below.

Bonjour!

The brides of Christ! Hello, my sisters! The gifts, the true gifts of God to His church!

It’s with all my love that I am going to share with you what the Spirit put on my heart last night.

Papa, God, use me, use me simply as an instrument, and help my sisters who are listening to this message, to take hold of you, your message, and to be transformed for your glory! In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

Beloved of God, we are agreed that much is wrong in this world…very wrong. My sisters, we know that. Life is more and more difficult.

But we are women, and I think God expects something from us.

Lots of catastrophes, many people dying, much incurable illness; wickedness is increasing, just as Jesus prophesied.  Yes, in the Bible, Jesus prophesied about these things. Let’s read Matthew 24.  I’m going to read several verses.

 The Bible says, in verse 9-14:

 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come.”

My dear sisters, this is the danger that is lurking! The danger that we must be on our guard against is mentioned here; that our love will grow cold. Our love will grow cold because of all the difficult situations in the world.

This is the danger that is waiting for us. The Bible says that many will abandon the faith and no longer believe in what we are doing. Many…some…are starting to go elsewhere and Jesus will no longer be able to transform their character. Much suffering, many false prophets are deceiving God’s elect. Wickedness is increasing. To earn money is hard. To find work is difficult. All of that is wickedness. To have a child is difficult. To get married is hard. All of these things come from increasing wickedness [1] and because of that, the Bible says in verse 12: “the love of most will grow cold.” Is our love for God—our zeal to continue working for God out of love—is it affected by the fact that life is increasingly difficult? Traffic jams are preventing people from coming to midweek services, and this is becoming more and more the norm.

O Almighty God, help us, help us understand that we have no excuse, really no excuse, because you said in your word—the Bible warned us that life would be difficult. That he who stands firm to the end will be saved. I pray that you will help us.  Help us to analyze each situation, each situation that we are going through, and help us not to be among those who will lose the faith or whose love will grow cold. Yes, we can go to church and yet see that our love for you has dwindled. The Bible says that only those who are hot are acceptable to you. Those who are lukewarm you vomit. O Father God, my sisters and I do not want to be among those whom you will vomit out of your mouth. That’s why I pray and you speak to our hearts. You loved us through all conditions. You sought solutions so that you could be loyal to us.  And I pray that we, too, can seek solutions so that we can be loyal to the commitment we made to love you and make you our priority in life.

Some of us run away from challenges that may make us suffer and look for solutions elsewhere. But the Bible says that the suffering that we are going through now is nothing, because the suffering will be worse – and I am going to read Matthew 24.  Sisters, listen to Matthew 24, verse 21: Oh, Father God!  Jesus says these words to us in verse 21: “For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now- and never to be equaled again.” Wow! Jesus tells us that there will be a time when there will be great suffering like never before and will never be again.

Beloved sisters, this is serious. Maybe we don’t have the food that we need, can’t find a husband, can’t have a child, aren’t able to have the house we want, or the villa we desire, or our health is not as it should be. Should all these things be reasons for us to go and look elsewhere? To turn back to the denominations that we used to be a part of? What will happen when we are in great distress such that we have never so far experienced?

God, through this suffering, is preparing us so that we can go through these difficulties. And He will never allow us to suffer beyond our ability to endure. Sisters, I am going to continue to read, still in Matthew 24, now verse 2; following on from the verse I just read. Verse 22 says this: “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive.” I repeat, “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive.” God, you’re telling us that you are still there!

I’ll continue to read: “but for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened.” For whose sake will those days be shortened? For the sake of those God has chosen! Yes! The Bible tells us that Satan will make us suffer. He will test our faith. He will do everything to make us deny God! We will suffer more than we ever have in our lives, as the last days approach. He is preparing a catastrophe! He’s waiting to catch us out, and that’s why the current difficulties are a type of training for us. We need to accept them and come through them victorious in order to prepare us, sisters! Please, sisters, let’s not be unbelieving. The word of God is the truth. We read that “if those days had not been cut short, no one would survive.” This means that we are capable of enduring these sufferings and keeping our salvation. And God did this so that those He has chosen would be capable of enduring suffering, and this encourages me.

 At the same time, I think about our current challenges. Our current challenges are small compared to what I think we will suffer in the future, which will be a type of suffering that I don’t think we have ever faced before. My dear sisters I hope we understand each other. Jesus is wonderful, exceptional. I want to shout out His name! I want to shout out to the world that He loves me! He is incredible, dear sisters! He has cut short the days of suffering because of the elect, because of His brides, which is who we are. Can we say Alleluia! Alleluia Lord Jesus! Glory to you! Glory to God! Glory to God in the highest! Amen!

I want to continue to read, still in Matthew 24, verse 36. Matthew 24:36: “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

Amen sisters, continue reading in verse 37:

“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;”

Sisters, the Bible says that these times will come as in the days of Noah. We can say that we are all going to be surprised. These last days are going to surprise us all…all of us! No one knows the day or the hour. Even Jesus, while He was on earth, did not know that.  God hid it from Him. This was when He was on earth. Now He is in heaven and knows everything. But when He was here on earth, God did not tell Him. Why? Because God says that it will surprise us. And why should it surprise us? So that every day we will be careful about our salvation; taking care of our heart, staying committed, staying zealous for God and for His church. Every day—yes, every day—we lock our doors. Lock them in case the thief arrives. The day of the Lord will arrive like a thief. Do we make time to show our love for God every day? Is our zeal for God’s house evident from the time we put in? If not, what should we do? Repentance is a grace that God gives us, sisters. Repentance is instantaneous. You can decide to love God again, immediately. You can recommit immediately. Repentance is a grace that does us good, and that also helps God in the work that He wants to accomplish on this earth.

My beloved sisters, I feel very badly when I see sisters stop coming to church or when they lose their joy—their zeal for God and for His house—because of earthly things. That makes me sad, and I am concerned for them. Yes, sisters, let’s not follow the Israelites' example. Things were written in the Bible so that we would not follow the bad example of the Israelites. Each time the Israelites met with a difficulty that made them suffer, their solution was to seek elsewhere—to turn back to sin, first of all by complaining, then by disobeying God and by not doing what He wanted them to do as their leader Moses spoke His words to them. They lacked faith. They didn’t believe that God loved them and that they would not suffer more than they could bear. It is very important to believe that God loves us and that when we suffer He will show us the way out of it. This is so true. I have lived this, sisters. I have lived this and I want us to surrender to God so that we can discover this truth for ourselves. If you surrender to God in your suffering and you believe that He won’t give you more than you can handle, you’ll see for yourself what I’m saying.

Amen, sisters!  If I have time, I want to share with you a little about how lately God has shown His love to us, through my personal example. But sisters, when things are difficult…when it’s hard, when you don’t know anyone, when work is hard to find, when you’re over 50 years old and you haven’t got a husband or a child, these are very hard things in Africa. And need I say more? Maybe you don’t have a child or maybe you don’t have the means to educate your child in the school that you would like, or you live in a house that is not comfortable and you see houses or apartment buildings springing up around where you live, and sometimes you think that maybe you need to seek God elsewhere because the truth can’t be here. But God is saying to you in this passage that suffering is part of life and that you, as a disciple, you will suffer, but not more than you can bear. If you believe that—truly believe that—then you will have a different attitude. If you believe that the present suffering is preparing you for the last test of your faith, then you will have a different attitude. Amen!

Still in Matthew 24, I’m going to read from verse 1 a longer passage:

“Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. ‘Do you see all these things?’ he asked. ‘Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.’

As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. ‘Tell us,’ they said, ‘when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’

Jesus answered: ‘Watch out…’”

Often, we ask the wrong questions, like, “When will the end come?”, etc. Jesus says, “Watch out…” Watch out! Often, we are concentrated on ourselves, on our own needs, our physical needs, our earthly needs: How are we going to do this? What will we eat? Our future: What will happen to me when I no longer work? Jesus says watch out, because when we worry about what we will do or what we will be, there is a danger that our heart will be there too. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also; so if you are concentrated on your physiological needs, your heart will be there, too, for sure.

Jesus says here in verse 4: “Jesus answered: ‘Watch out, that no one deceives you.’”

Yes, we’re living in a world where Satan has created everything to satisfy all sorts of requests and God says be careful about what you are looking for in your heart. Don’t be deceived.

In verse 5, Jesus continues: “For many will come in my name, claiming ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.”

We look for money and Satan provides false pastors. They will conjure fetishes and they will be disguised[2]  as pastors. Their church is called “The No More Suffering Church.” You want a child, and they say they will pray for that. But with whose power? You want to get married, but where do they get the authority to make marriages? You say, “Well, it worked for one of my cousins.” And, so then, God’s chosen ones go back to Egypt, back to wallowing in the dirt like pigs, like dogs. The Bible says do not give what is sacred to dogs or pearls to pigs, as they will they turn against you. Dear sisters, God is capable of more than we can ask or imagine. Jesus has all power. He made the curtain of the temple be torn in two, so that there is no more need of a human mediator. The Pharisees were not happy about that, since it meant that the people didn’t need to go through them anymore in order to worship God. And today there are still disciples who are still looking for men—human beings—to get to Jesus. O Almighty God, come to our aid, help us!

Sisters, Jesus is warning us here in verse 4: “Watch out, that no one deceives you, For many will come in my name claiming, ‘I am the Messiah’ and will deceive many.” They will take His Name, saying, “In the Name of Jesus… this or that” They’ll take His Name, but they are not He. They’ll say things such as, “Jesus is the same! Yes!” “In the Name of Jesus I declare this or that!” But Jesus says, “Watch out…” Watch out!

In verse 11, it says: “and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.” Why? Because of suffering, because of the hard times that we go through. And sisters, we do suffer. Just last Friday I received a lot of bad news. Each message was worse than the last, concerning people I love and those around me. It was so painful. At one point I said, “Why all this Jesus?” It was so hard. And I know that I am not the only one to suffer in this way, sisters. I know that you, too, get such bad news – about family members, about colleagues and other friends, about sickness, about deaths, about losing jobs. In any case, these are horrible things, just horrible.

If we don’t read the Bible, we won’t understand that it’s an expected part of things.

In verse 6 it says: “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed.” The Word says: Don’t be alarmed. Yes, the situation that we are in can make us alarmed, but God is the same. And yes, disciples die, but we are not to be alarmed. It continues: “Such things must happen.” So there’s your answer.  Jesus says here that such things must happen.

There will be wars, and also He says that: “At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other.” He is saying that even among disciples there will be many who will betray each other. Perhaps, you say, in the world they don’t have God. They will be mean to me, but surely not in the church! But read what it says in verse 10: “…many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other.”

Why do we see people in the church getting divorced? The Bible says that they will betray each other. It’s written so it’s bound to happen. Everything that is written will come to pass. Not only will people betray each other, they will also hate each other. Aaagh! This means that perhaps my sister will tell me, “I don’t like you. You get on my nerves.” Why? Because at that point faith has left, so what does Satan tempt us with? With false prophets – “Ok I’m going elsewhere. If it’s like that in God’s kingdom, I’ll go elsewhere, I prefer to be with such-and-such-a group.”

Verse 11: “…many false prophets will appear.”

Since there are needs, we ask for earthly things, things to add to our comfort. False prophets will appear to meet those demands, and wickedness will increase.

Verse 12: “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.”

We’ll start to become more selfish in the church. Hmm? Instead of sharing, we’ll keep for ourselves, right? My money is for me. I’ll keep this for myself because when such-and-such did such a thing, they didn’t share, so I’ll keep this for myself.  “… the love of most will grow cold.”  When I helped this or that brother, he wasn’t grateful, so now I’m not going to share my money anymore. “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.”

But verse 13 says, and this is wonderful because it says: “but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”

If you continue to be generous, if you continue to be zealous for the kingdom of God in spite of everything that is happening, the Bible says God will save you. Sin won’t separate you from your salvation! Amen, sisters!

I’ll reread verse 13: “but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”

We need to just resist. Yes, the temptation is there to get discouraged, to feel that the more I help out brothers and sisters, the more discouraging it can feel. Yes the temptation is there. The Bible says stand firm! Yes, stand firm because wickedness, suffering is present. Perhaps the person you asked to go with you to visit your family, to help you, didn’t do so, because they were suffering, because they were not able to be there for you when you needed them. So Satan uses such occasions to make you doubt, doubt in God’s love, and in His church. But if you can understand that life is more and more difficult, and that it’s the devil behind such things to make us weaker in our faith, make us less zealous and to take us to Hell with him! If you understand that, you’ll say, “No! I will resist, resist until the end! I want to keep my salvation. When Jesus calls me, I want to hear His voice. I don’t want sins - selfishness, discouragement, lack of faith, complaining - to be a barrier between me and God. And I don’t want to become deaf to His voice.”

Continuing in Matthew 24, how do we resist? The Bible says, in verse 45 of Matthew 24: “Who is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

That is what God says here. I want to encourage us to be the faithful and wise servant, even if Jesus has not yet returned. We can understand that He is not far off. Each day brings us closer to Jesus’ coming. Yes, every day we get close to that time. And the Bible says that the faithful and wise servant gives food to the other servants when it is appropriate and that’s the commitment we made when we became Christians—to love God and to love our brothers and sisters in the faith and those in the world. Are we still acting out of love each day, taking care of each other? Before sleeping each night, have we made the effort to reach out to at least one sister or seen one sister in order to encourage them? How about yourself, do you feel like you need to be encouraged? Do you ask for help? Yes, we need each other.

I don’t know how many times I’ve shared this, but the Bible says: “…encourage one another daily.” [Hebrews 3:13] It’s every day that we’re Christian. Isn’t it every day? It’s not my will but God’s will that every day we need to be encouraged. Every day we need to speak of our heart to someone. Every day we need to call or see a sister to see how she is doing, to encourage her “so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” [Hebrews 3:13]

God created us. He knows what we are made of. God created the cell phone. He knows that if the cell phone is immersed in water, it will not work well. God created us. He knows that if we are not encouraged daily, we will not function well. Our hearts will be hardened and at some point we will refuse to understand, and so you end up listening to the word but it doesn’t mean anything to you anymore because you did not take care of your heart daily.

Please, my sister, take care of your heart each day. Every day you wash your body. Not a day goes by that you don’t do this. God has made things this way on purpose to show us our need to take care of our heart like our bodies. Each day we should speak about what is going on in our hearts – whether good things that we can share or bad things to share so that God’s light can purify us. Amen, sister, Amen!

Therefore, yes, we women have an important role to play in this world. This world is going to ruin, with all these upheavals, difficulties, divorces, children left on the streets, injustice. But God has created us to bring help—to be helpers in this world.

In Genesis 2:18, the Bible says, and I am ending with this: “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.’”

God wanted to help the man by making a partner suitable for him, and it is us, the women, that God created to help humanity.  What are we doing? Do we understand that we are helpers for this world? How are we spending our time? Yes, beautiful hairstyles are good. Pretty clothes are good. We want to look attractive, that’s good. But we are here to be helpers. It’s easy for us to spend our time talking and being busy, but reading the Bible, spending time studying to know what God says, that is a challenge for us women. We mustn’t let the culture that we grew up in follow us into the kingdom of God. In our African or Ivorian culture, we think that we women have not had much education – maybe the one clever cousin has a job, has money and we say that’s enough. No! That is not enough – for God has called us to be helpers to humanity, and to do that we need to be strong. To be able to help, you need to be strong, not weak. You need to strengthen yourself in God’s word. We need to read the Bible, study the Bible. Buy yourself a study Bible. If you don’t have a study Bible, challenge yourself to save up for one and buy one. This will help you to go deeper in your meditation and help you to grow and become the woman God wants you to become. And you’ll see that you’ll start to glide, glide through this hard world! You’ll see that your joy, your peace, won’t be dependent on what you suffer. Yes, suffering will arrive, and I want to finish here by sharing:

Recently I suffered a type of sciatica. It started in my backside and went down my thigh. So painful! The pain was so bad, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even go to the bathroom. I had to use a potty, it was so bad. Really painful and difficult. But while I was suffering all this, I was grateful. How could I be grateful during so much pain? The Spirit was showing me how grateful I was for my ability to move, that it was a grace to be able to walk around.  I realized this and it was like a revelation. I felt so much more grateful to God, and I grew in my thanks for God. I considered how we can suffer so much and at the same time be so grateful. I started to think about how much I had been able to move around in my life, thinking about how I had been able to walk, let’s say from age one onwards. That means that I had been walking for 1, 2, 3, 5, 50, 55 years! This was the first time I had been confined to my bed, unable to move. I said thank you. I asked forgiveness from God. I asked forgiveness for not having been grateful enough and I praised God. I shouted out in the room, “Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Jesus!” Everyone knew I was in pain, so where was my joy coming from? I saw that joy and peace have nothing to do with the circumstances that we are going through. God gives joy and peace that does not depend on what is happening outside. And this is what Jesus shows us when He was in sleeping in the boat while the wind and the rain where raging. He was able to sleep calmly because His peace and joy did not depend on the circumstances.

Dearly beloved, yes, the world may increase in wealth, but if we can drink, eat, have clothes to wear, that’s what’s most important. But our peace and joy should not depend on if we are married, if we have this or that. No, no we can experience joy and peace in our suffering. To be joyful or peaceful that’s a decision that we make. Amen, sisters? I think I’m going to stop there for today. I pray that God will give me other opportunities to share other things. The day of the Lord will come like a thief, but I want to encourage us all to return to our first love for Jesus, our first zeal for His house; to come back to following in His footsteps, to show our love for Him by serving Him, loving Him and worship Him, by spending wonderful times with Him, and by glorifying His holy name.

God bless you and guide you, and give you all things that you need according to His will, and that His be all the glory, in the name of Jesus, Amen.

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