It is obvious that as the day of God draws nearer, more light is being shed on the day of Christ. We need to be founded on Christ to be armed well to bear the light of the day of God. The day of Christ builds us up in preparation to change and directly connect to the life of God. We must be cautious not to bypass the due process that equips us with the endurance that is necessary for what is coming next.
We need to be well equipped to bear under the sufferings of Christ, like Jesus once did (1Pet. 4:1). The capacity to suffer like Christ did is what gives us the hope of bearing the glory of God. This suffering is the process that disconnects us from the former conversation that we have once lived by. Withholding us from living that former life is what suffering is. Suffering is what gives us the opportunity to be converted from flesh to spirit (Psalm 19:7). Christ is the wisdom that prepares us to do the will of God (1Pet. 4:2).
Suffering is like a rehabilitation program that frees us from our addiction to death. This rehabilitation program is a painstaking one and we must be helped to go through it. We can not take all the dealings of God all at once. This is why God, in His wisdom, first takes us through the intoxication of the Holy Ghost to cushion the effects of the sufferings that come next.
Gladness is the point where righteousness becomes very delightful. We have once loved the sweetness of iniquity and must be starved of it until we utterly hate it. Sometimes, God mercifully subjects us under the authority that rightly deprives us of many of our former lusts (1Pet 4:3-4). Our future is to inherit God like Jesus, our example, did. To do this, the sufferings of Christ is inevitable (Rom. 8:16-17).