There are many things, both animate and inanimate, that have an exterior coat or layer of protection. Usually this layer is somewhat stubborn so that the elements of the environment cannot easily erode it and expose what’s inside. It could be a phone and it’s case, a fruit and its skin, or maybe a warrior and his armor. However, many times these external forces are so relentless that no manner of what, the protection it has cannot prevent what’s inside from showing. Quite frankly, what’s inside is what those forces are after.
There is an external layer that every son of God has and it’s called the flesh. However, inside dwells a precious fruit called the Holy Spirit. I want you to think about the fact that the Spirit of Jesus is invisible. However, He is very real. How will people truly know that He is alive and not simply a story from Sunday School? Well, just as with every fruit, the exterior is removed or damaged so that the interior can be seen.
2 Corinthians 4:7-11 & 16- But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh… 16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
Suffering in the flesh reveals the Spirit of God within it. This is why it is so important for every son of God to suffer. When we can righteously suffer with joyfulness, then it reveals that we are truly not of this world and there must be a God in us. Is there a God in you? Prove it, by suffering today without losing your righteousness or your joy.