The Holy Spirit is your mercy and grace to deal with difficult people so you can bring the life and ministry of Jesus into your life and ministry.

Luke 4:40 (NIV) When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying His hands on each one, He healed them.

Jesus knew these people would turn on Him. He knew that the religious leaders of that day would incite them to demand that Pilate crucify Him. But, He also knew that many of them would come back to Him when they realized their mistake and would accept Him as their Savior. So, He looked past all their rejection and abuse and gave them the evidence of His love. He gave them all the proof they needed to be able to later change their minds.

Mat 4:24 (NIV) News about Him spread all over Syria, and people brought to Him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and He healed them.

When Jesus flows through your life and ministry with His love and power, people’s needs get met in a God-sized way. He is able to demonstrate that He is God and is the Savior, Lord, and King of all the earth. Christians like you will help the people of our generation get the same opportunities and chances to see Him in all His greatness as those did during His earthly ministry. However, this is going to require that you suffer many things during this effort.

Luke 9:12-17 (NIV) Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to Him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.” He replied, “You give them something to eat.” They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish--unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” (About five thousand men were there.)

But He said to His disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke them. Then He gave them to the disciples to set before the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

God wants to do whatever these people need. He wants to reveal to them that He is their source for all their needs. He wants to use you to show them a different way of making a living. He wants to free you and them to be able to spend a lot more time proclaiming the eternal plan. You probably won’t be multiplying bread and fish; but, He will be using you in many supernatural ways to help them see how to look to Him for all their needs. If we are taken up with all the cares of life, we won’t have time to work with difficult people.

Mark 15:9-15 (NIV) “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead. “What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them. “Crucify him!” they shouted. “Why? What crime has He committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed Him over to be crucified.

People can change from a friend to an enemy in a second. People are so involved in their own needs and the selfishness of only caring about what they think is best for them that they can turn on you without notice. You can do all kinds of nice things for a person just like Jesus did for these people and they will forget. For as long as they remain unsaved, new Christians, or untrained Christians, you can count on getting a certain amount of abuse as your “reward” for working with them.

Mat 10:2-4 (NIV) These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him.  Luke 9:1 (NIV) When Jesus had called the Twelve together, He gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

Jesus gave Judas Iscariot the very best care and spiritual opportunities. Even though Judas was going to be His worst enemy, Judas couldn’t blame Jesus for why he betrayed Him. Jesus had provided Judas with so much love and care that it left Judas with no excuse. We are to try to do this with the difficult people in our lives. As long as they don’t become dogs, hogs, or wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:6; 15), we need to try to provide them with all that God has to offer.

Mark 14:43-46 (NIV) Just as He was speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, appeared. With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders. Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest Him and lead Him away under guard.” Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Rabbi!” and kissed Him. The men seized Jesus and arrested Him.

Jesus knew He was going to have to go to the cross. However, there were plenty of people who would have been more than willing to arrest Him and take Him before Pilate. God didn’t need Judas to help Him accomplish this goal. Jesus has explained to you that you will be persecuted and insulted. But, it won’t have to be created by us doing things that agitate people. All we have to do is tell them the truth in love and some will turn on us and persecute us. Pray that God will empower you to do all your ministry in love and wisdom.

Mark 14:17-21 (NIV) When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. While they were reclining at the table eating, He said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray Me--one who is eating with Me.” They were saddened, and one by one they said to Him, “Surely not I?” “It is one of the Twelve,” He replied, “one who dips bread into the bowl with Me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about Him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

One thing will always need to be done with difficult people in your life. You can see that Judas didn’t do what he did without warning. Part of your presenting the truth in love will be to warn difficult people. They need to know what is going to happen to them, if they continue on this path. It is important for us to not get our eyes on how much these people are inconveniencing and hurting us; we need to keep in mind that we are going to be getting great rewards for ANY suffering we do for Jesus. We need to be sure to help difficult people see how much damage they are doing to themselves and how much they are cutting themselves off from God’s eternal Kingdom.