Kingdom Truth Teaching Ministry

05/06/2026

05/06/2026

Kingdom Truth for Today
Friday, June 5, 2026

THE FRUIT OF AFFLICTION (5)

We give thanks to God for the blessing of life and a new day.

Fruitfulness is at the heart of the kingdom life. God likes and looks for fruits. He expects us to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Those 9 attributes represent the Christ-like life, the character of Jesus Christ. It is very dangerous to be an unfruitful believer because God, who is the owner of the vineyard will not tolerate you for ever. As we read in the parable Jesus Christ told in the gospel according to St. Luke, there comes a time when the Lord will instruct the gardener to cut down vines that are not bearing fruit (see Luke 13:6-9).

👉🏻 The 4th purpose which human suffering allowed by God serves is IT EQUIPS US TO BETTER SERVE THE LORD AND HIS PEOPLE.

In a few days, the FIFA World Cup will kick off. For each of the players who will be representing their countries, they must submit themselves to discipline by their coaches and trainers. They will be denied certain life-styles and diet which they take physical training to a higher degree. The result of all these self-denials is the cup, the fruit of the “hard labour”.

✒️ Apostle Paul wrote:

“Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:25-27 NIV).

📛 The Lord, in his wisdom, permits us to go through sufferings and afflictions in order for us to “lose weight” and therefore be fit to fight the good fight of faith and bring glory to the Kingdom of Heaven.

♨️ In another sense, God permits us to experience hardship in order to qualify us as ministers of God.

✒️ We see this truth in the letter Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of sympathy (pity and mercy) and the God [Who is the Source] of every comfort (consolation and encouragement), who comforts (consoles and encourages) us in every trouble (calamity and affliction), so that we may also be able to comfort (console and encourage) those who are in any kind of trouble or distress, with the comfort (consolation and encouragement) with which we ourselves are comforted (consoled and encouraged) by God. For just as Christ's [own] sufferings fall to our lot [as they overflow upon His disciples, and we share and experience them] abundantly, so through Christ comfort (consolation and encouragement) is also [shared and experienced] abundantly by us” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5 AMP).

📌 In simple words, God allows us to suffer so that we can be prepared and equipped to comfort others who will be going through the afflictions we have gone through with the same comfort we have earlier received from the Lord.

📌 To put it in others words, when the Lord allows us to suffer, he is taking us through TRAINING OF TRAINERS.

♨️ A man who has been unjustifiably dismissed from job has the experience to comfort and counsel a friend who has just lost his job.

♨️ A father who had lost his children in the manner Job did has practical knowledge through his experience of comforting others going through that affliction.

📌 Let me use the example of Jesus Christ to illustrate my point.

👉🏻 One of the most amazing commentaries on the purposefulness of suffering in the economy of God is set forth in the epistle to the Hebrews.

✒️ First, we read:

“Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Hebrews 5:8-9 NIV).

✒️ Secondly, we read:

“In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering” (Hebrews 2:10 NIV).

♨️ In Jesus Christ's case, his perfecting was not the perfecting of moral character but the completion of his equipment for his work as leader and originator of our salvation. Before he suffers, he has the pity of God. After he suffers, he has the compassion of man. By suffering, his human experience was made complete. Because he suffered, he is now fully qualified to serve as a captain or leader of man's salvation, if the many sons of whom Christ was to bring to glory and rulership had to be prepared and perfected for that glory by suffering, their captain must lead the way by having his human experience perfected in the same way.

♨️ The fact that Jesus Christ's human experience had to be perfected by suffering proves that no suffering is purposeless, but that, but that is endemic in God's economy. Christ's suffering only matured and perfected his human experience. It purged nothing from his moral nature, even as a man, because he was unfallen. No stain of sin ever marred his humanity, but not so with fallen man. There is no way that Christ-like character can be formed in man without suffering. If he will not suffer, if he is determined to evade it, if he refuses to allow the life of nature and observe to go to the cross, to that extent he will remain hard, self-centered, and broken, and therefore Christ-like.

✝️ Jesus Christ knows what it is to be tempted, to be betrayed by a trusted friend, to go hungry, to have no place to lay his head, etc. He had tasted and experienced every hardship human beings go through. He wept at the grave of Lazarus because his two friends had lost their brother. All these sufferings equipped Jesus Christ to be our Saviour.

✒️ The writer of Hebrews concluded:

“Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Hebrews 7:25 NIV).

📌 The KJV used the expression “he is able also to save them to the UTTERMOST” which some smart preachers changed to “GUTTERMOST”. If you are down in the gutter because of alcohol, Jesus Christ can pick you up.

✒️ Apostle Paul, writing about his sufferings, concluded:

“SO THEN, DEATH IS AT WORK IN US, BUT LIFE IS AT WORK IN YOU” (2 Corinthians 4:12 NIV).

♨️ Your afflictions are equipping you to be a blessing to a fellow pilgrim. That is why it is bad to waste your sorrow, pain, suffering and affliction. The Lord will use it to bless someone.

✒️ I conclude with the words of the writer of Hebrews:

“Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed” (Hebrews 12:12-13 NIV).

Amen!

Your best is yet to come

Teacher eTse Amable

04/06/2026

Kingdom Truth for Today
Thursday, June 4, 2026

THE FRUIT OF AFFLICTION (4)

👉🏻The third purpose which human suffering allowed by God serves is TO BRING HIS PRODIGAL SONS AND DAUGHTERS BACK TO THEIR SENSES AND BACK TO HIM.

✒️ When you read the parable of the prodigal son, one of 3 parables Jesus Christ spoke to illustrate the need for repentance and rescuing the perishing, you will note that it was affliction brought by hunger which awakened the young man to resolve to return to his father.

👍🏻 ONE OF THE GOOD BYE-PRODUCTS OF SUFFERINGS AND AFFLICTIONS IS THEY MAKE US TO BEGIN THINKING ABOUT GOD.

📢 Someone said “PAIN IS GOD’S MEGAPHONE”.

🔈 If a megaphone is not loud enough for you, think about one of those giant loudspeakers connected to a powerful amplifier or mixer and mounted on a truck which is being used to advertise or market a product. Even if you are suffering from hearing-impairment, you will hear the sound.

📣 If a father in a soft voice tells a child who is misbehaving “STOP IT”, that child may ignore the warning of the father. But if the father raises his voice and with anger shouts “STOP IT!!!”, that child, if he is wise and discerning knows the rod of chastisement would be the next voice.

📢 God speaks to us gently through his written word or the spoken word through sermons and prophetic messages, showing us how to live in order to please him. But if we continue to ignore him, he is left with no other means except the rod of affliction.

📛 It is clear from scriptures that sorrow, suffering, tribulation, and pain which come to the believer are not primarily for punishment, BUT FOR CHILD TRAINING. The letter to the Hebrews says “God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness” (Hebrews 12:10). GOD-APPROVED AFFLICTIONS ARE NOT PURPOSELESS.

⛔ Earthly parents may make mistakes in their chastisement, and often do, but not God. He is preparing the believer for ruler-ship in the universe. PAUL E. BILLHEIMER in his book “DESTINED FOR THE THRONE” wrote that God uses afflictions to prepare and equip the saints to be able to rule in the new world. As powerful as God is, it seems that he will not fully restore fallen man to the initial image in which he created man, even though born again, sanctified and filled with the Holy Spirit, without suffering.

👉🏻 WATCHMAN NEE (November 4, 1903 – May 30, 1972), a 20th century Chinese evangelist, theologian, and founder of the Local Church movement, said that “WE NEVER LEARN ANYTHING NEW ABOUT GOD EXCEPT THROUGH ADVERSITY”. Some people consider that statement an exaggeration, but it does seem that few seek a deeper walk with God, except under duress.

📌 Let me give you 2 examples from the Bible.

♨️ THE EXAMPLE OF ISRAEL

The history of Israel illustrates this point. In prosperity, she forsook the pure Jehovah-worship for licentious idolatry. Only by chastisement was she constrained to repent and return to Jehovah for centuries, while God was seeking to obtain a pure remnant through whom He could bring the Messiah. It was the same routine, prosperity, backsliding, and apostasy, chastisement, repentance, and repent and return to God ad infinitum. Scripture passages such as Judges 2:11-19, 1 Samuel 12:9-19, 2 Chronicles 15:4, and 2 Chronicles 33:12 attest to this fact.

In Isaiah 26:16, we read:

“Lord, when they were in trouble and distress, they sought and visited You; they poured out a prayerful whisper when Your chastening was upon them” (AMP).

It was the rod of correction or the pruning sickle which always brought Israel back and closer to their God.

♨️ THE EXAMPLE OF THE PSALMIST

✒️ The experience of the psalmist is illustrative. He said in Psalms 119:67, 71:

“BEFORE I WAS AFFLICTED I WENT ASTRAY, BUT NOW I OBEY YOUR Word. ... IT WAS GOOD FOR ME TO BE AFFLICTED SO THAT I MIGHT LEARN YOUR DECREES”.

♨️ Saul of Tarsus did not acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus Christ until on that day on the road to Damascus when he was struck by the powerful light from heaven and instantly became blind.

📛 Who of us have not known people with Christian background and training who have wandered far from God and have been brought back to Him through heart attack, cancer, tragic accident, or some other severe affliction.

Someone has said there are things which even God cannot do for us unless He allows us to suffer. There can be no spiritual progress, therefore, except through the progressive death of the self life. Every step on the pathway of spiritual progress will be marked by the bloody footsteps of wounded self-love.

The purified believer will not be long in discovering rudeness in his manners, which will deplore and escape, roughness in his speech and tone of voice which he must abandon, and other dregs of the old disease which will cling to him that must be pruned and purge in the fire of affection.

📛 Someone wrote a book which is titled “DON’T WASTE YOUR SORROWS”. Affliction of every kind is painful. But because it is meant to serve a good purpose, you cannot afford to waste it. You must maximise the godly fruits which will be produced.

📢 Listen again to the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews

“For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it [a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness - in conformity to God's will in purpose, thought, and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God]” (Hebrews 12:11 AMP)

🤷 If, like the Prodigal son, you have wandered far away from your heavenly father and you are experiencing some tough times, may be God is calling you back home from a life of wasted years.

❓ Will you heed the voice of your loving heavenly father?

🙏🏻 Please return home and do not waste your pain.

Your best is yet to come

Teacher eTse Amable

03/06/2026

Kingdom Truth for Today
Wednesday, June 3, 2026

THE FRUIT OF AFFLICTION (3)

Allow me to begin this morning by quoting from a poem written by ANNIE JOHNSON FLICKS:

It is the branch that bears the fruit,
That feels the knife.
TO PRUNE FOR A LARGER GROWTH,
A FULLER LIFE.
Though every budding twig be lopped,
and every grace
Of swaying tendrils, springing leaf,
Be lost a space.

O thou whose life of joy seems reft
Of beauty shorn;
Whose aspirations lie in a dust,
All bruised and torn.
Rejoice, tho’ each desire, each dream,
Each hope of thine
Shall fall and fade; it is the hand
Of love divine
That holds the knife,
that cuts and breaks
THAT THOU, WHOSE LIFE
HAS BORN SOME FRUIT
MAY’ST NOW BEAR MUCH.

In one sentence, all that this poem is teaching us is the Lord prunes our lives as a farmer prunes a fruit tree in order for us to bear more fruit. It is the same truth Jesus Christ taught in John 15:2.

We proceed to discover more of God’s purpose in permitting human suffering.

👉🏻The second reason God permits his children to be afflicted is SO THAT HE WILL REFINE AND BEAUTIFY HIS IMAGE WITH WHICH HUMANKIND WAS CREATED.

We know from Genesis chapter 1 that after Elohim had completed the creation of the world and all the things in it, he said:

“LET US [FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT] MAKE MANKIND IN OUR IMAGE, AFTER OUR Likeness, .....” (Genesis 1:26 AMP).

And so after man was created, the Bible put it on record that “GOD CREATED MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE, IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD HE CREATED HIM; MALE AND FEMALE HE CREATED THEM” (Genesis 1:27 AMP).

Mankind was thus created to resemble Elohim and to reflect the image of Elohim just as the moon reflects the light of the sun.

Sadly, that image of God was so badly tarnished as a result of the fall in the Garden of Eden. Sin and iniquity had become part of our nature so forcefully that it has become very easy to reflect evil instead of righteousness. Every man born of a woman is governed by the law of sin. Our character has been flawed and does not point to God. It has become necessary for the Lord to refine and purify our flawed character and in his wisdom, he chooses to do that through the crucible of affliction.

🏅 I have earlier shared with you the process by which a gold and silversmith cleanses and purifies a dirty earing, necklace, etc. He uses fire and intense heat.

♨️ In the same manner, the Lord allows affliction in the life of a believer in order to purify him or her and restore the original image in which mankind was created.

📌 Let us look at some scriptures.

✒️ We go to Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans:

“.... And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but WE ALSO REJOICE IN OUR SUFFERINGS, BECAUSE WE KNOW THAT SUFFERING PRODUCES PERSEVERANCE; PERSEVERANCE, CHARACTER; AND CHARACTER, HOPE. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Romans 5:2-5 NIV).

📌 Take note of the strong words Apostle Paul was using. The Greek word which was translated as “SUFFERING” in the NIV is “THLIPSIS” which has such meanings as tribulation, persecution, affliction and trouble. Tribulations is a strong term. It does not refer to minor inconveniences, but to real hardships. Apostle Paul lived a life full of tribulations. He knew the truth of this better than any other follower of Jesus Christ in his days.

♨️ The end result of the suffering and affliction God allows in our lives is Christ-like character. There can be no spiritual progress except through the progressive death of self-life. Suffering plays a huge role in that process. That is why you should not run away from suffering if you know the Lord in his wisdom permitted it just as he did to Job.

✒️ Later, in that same letter to the Romans, Apostle Paul wrote:

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. FOR WHOM HE DID FOREKNOW, HE ALSO DID PREDESTINATE TO BE CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON, THAT HE MIGHT BE THE FIRSTBORN AMONG MANY BRETHREN” (Romans 8:28-29 KJV).

👉🏻 The “ALL THINGS” Apostle Paul had in mind included the persecutions, sufferings, afflictions, etc. He pointed to them in verse 35 when he wrote “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? SHALL TRIBULATION, OR DISTRESS, OR PERSECUTION, OR FAMINE, OR NAKEDNESS, OR PERIL, OR SWORD?”

❓ But what is God’s purpose for allowing those troubles to come our way?

👉🏻 The answer is in that last line in verse 29:

“TO BE CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON, THAT HE MIGHT BE THE FIRSTBORN AMONG MANY BRETHREN”.

♨️ God is allowing afflictions and human suffering in the lives of believers in order to make us look like Jesus Christ – to resemble him and reflect his image.

👉🏻 Let me conclude with a quote from the letter to the Hebrews.

✒️ In Hebrews chapter 12, the writer wrote about God chastening his children who he loves. He compared the chastening our earthly parents gave us with the chastening by our Heavenly Father (God). I cannot forget the flogging our eldest brother gave me, my twin brother and our nephew one evening because he caught us misbehaving. Our uncle did not come to save us but he also picked his cane and joined in flogging us. Even, at school, some of our teachers were wicked with their canes. They lashed us mercilessly.

✒️ The writer then concluded:

“Our (earthly) fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; BUT GOD DISCIPLINES US FOR OUR GOOD, THAT WE MAY SHARE IN HIS HOLINESS. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, IT PRODUCES A HARVEST OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND PEACE FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN TRAINED BY IT” (Hebrews 12:10-11 NIV).

❓ Have you seen the purpose for which God allows you to be afflicted?

♨️ Affliction is not always about punishment for the wrong we did but sometimes for development of the Christ-like character, the restoration of the image of Elohim in which we were originally created.

🍇 THERE IS FRUIT IN AFFLICTION. God uses sufferings to refine and purify our character in order for us to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

🍇 There are more fruits of affliction which I will share with you. One fruit is affliction qualifies us to be used by the Lord.

Your best is yet to come

Teacher eTse Amable

02/06/2026

02/06/2026

Kingdom Truth for Today
Tuesday, June 2, 2026

THE FRUIT OF AFFLICTION (2)

Yesterday, we learnt that when the Lord permits or allows us to go through sufferings and afflictions, he does so in order for us to bear more fruit. I stated that affliction produces fruit and God loves to harvest fruits. I anchored this truth in the words Jesus Christ spoke in John chapter 15 about the vine as follows:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, WHILE EVERY BRANCH THAT DOES BEAR FRUIT HE PRUNES SO THAT IT WILL BE EVEN MORE FRUITFUL” (John 15:1-2 NIV)

I stated that pruning is very painful task. If a tree were a human being with the capacity to feel, it will be crying in pain when being pruned. The Greek word which was translated as “PRUNE” (“KATHAIRŌ”) also means “CLEANSE”. When we were younger children, anytime our mother noticed that we were not bathing ourselves well enough and decided to bathe us herself, she would give us a real “scrubbing” with the sponge in order to cleanse us and remove all spots of dirt on our skins. That kind of bathing was very painful on our skins but it left us more clean.

PRUNING OR CLEANSING IS VERY PAINFUL BUT THE END JUSTIFIES THE PROCESS. IT MAKES US BEAR MORE FRUITS FOR OURSELVES AND ALSO FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

I want to give you reasons why the Lord allows his children to go through suffering and affliction.

👉🏻 FIRST, IF THE LORD PERMITS YOU TO BE AFFLICTED WITH HUMAN SUFFERING, HE IS SETTING YOU UP FOR PROMOTION.

There are several examples of men and women in the Bible who went through suffering and at the end, they were promoted to higher positions or received more blessings than what was taken away from them through the affliction.

👑 I want to start with Father Abraham. This was a man who, when called by Elohim to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going (Hebrews 11:8 NIV). For almost his entire life, he was childless and complained to the Lord. But he later received the fruit of his afflictions. The Lord made him very rich (Genesis 24:35). Later, he was blessed with his promised child, Isaac and the Lord fulfilled through Isaac that Abraham would have children as many as the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5). Today, 3 major religions of the world claim Abraham as their father - Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

👑 My second example is Joseph, the first of the 2 sons Rachel blessed Jacob (Israel) with. The story of the afflictions of Joseph is known by even toddlers. The Lord allowed him to suffer at the hands of his own siblings and also an adulterous woman in Egypt. But the Lord enabled Joseph to enjoy the fruit of affliction. From prison, he became the Prime Minister of the most powerful nation on the earth at that time.

✒️ It was about this man Joseph, that the Holy Spirit caused to be written the following:

“He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: UNTIL THE TIME THAT HIS WORD CAME: THE WORD OF THE LORD TRIED Him. The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. HE MADE HIM LORD OF HIS HOUSE, AND RULER OF ALL HIS SUBSTANCE: TO BIND HIS PRINCES AT HIS PLEASURE; AND TEACH HIS SENATORS WISDOM” (Psalms 105:17-22 KJV).

❓ Don’t you want the Lord to do this for you?

♨️ Allow him to take you through the furnace of suffering.

👑 The 3rd example from the Bible is Job. This was a righteous man the Lord permitted Satan to torture and afflict. He lost everything – children, material wealth, profit-making animals. He was afflicted with terrible boils from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. At the end of his afflictions, the Lord blessed him with DOUBLE FOR ALL HIS TROUBLES (Job 42:11-17).

👑 Let me mention David, son of Jesse as the 4th example. This was a son who was forsaken by his father, abandoned in the wilderness and left to suffer by taking care of his father’s sheep, risking his life to wrestle with wild animals and tortured by the harsh weather. But he was the son chosen by Jehovah to succeed King Saul. King David is so honoured to become the “father of the Messiah, Jesus Christ”.

✒️ From his experience in suffering, King David could write “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now Your word do I keep [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying it] (Psalms 119:67 AMP).

🍇 Affliction delivers good results – more fruitfulness.

👑 The 5th example is Jesus Christ himself. This was the man Prophet Isaiah introduced to us as the “SUFFERING MESSIAH”. He was described as a “MAN OF SORROWS”. The hymn writer wondered “WHAT A NAME” that was. But Jesus Christ also benefited from his suffering.

✒️ Apostle Paul wrote the following about Jesus Christ:

“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:6-11 NIV).

👍🏻 Jesus Christ was promoted by the Father because he humbled himself and accepted to suffer.

👑 Lastly but not least, I want to give you the examples of the Apostles of Jesus Christ. These men (and women)left the comfort of their homes to follow Jesus Christ. They were persecuted, tortured to death, exiled and suffered many hardships. Their sufferings were not in vain. The Lord had promoted them by immortalising their names. All over the world, you see cathedrals, sanctuaries, schools, colleges, etc. named after Peter, James, John, Paul, etc. Nobody would have heard their names or known them if they had not accepted to suffer with and for Christ.

🍇 There is fruit in affliction. God uses sufferings to set us up for elevation and promotion.

👑 Truly, if we accept the suffering God approves, permits or allows for us, we shall also reign with Jesus Christ. But if we deny him, he will also deny us. (2 Timothy 2:12 KJV)

❓ Don’t you like this?

📌 Tomorrow, I will share with you another fruit of affliction.

Your best is yet to come

Teacher eTse Amable