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Why Job Suffered…Hint: God Doesn’t Allow Bad Things to Happen!

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Every time I teach on Divine Healing and show from the Bible that it’s always God’s will to heal everybody, 100%, all the time, inevitably someone will ask, “But what about Job? God allowed him to be sick!”

In other words, many people ask themselves “Consider Job: isn’t suffering God’s will?”

The answer: NO!

Why Job Suffered. Hint - God doesn't allow bad things to happen!5

The Bible book Job has been the cause of much blame to fall on God.

Misunderstanding the story of Job and his friends has caused many Christians to view God as the cause of evil or even allowance of evil in their lives, therefore blaming Him for anything bad that happens to them, thinking: “if He allowed it to happen to Job, He’ll allow it to happen to me.”

Some will even go as far as saying, “Job was tried and tested (assumed by God) to see how steadfast his faith in God would be.”

I cringe hearing such accusations against God…

In this video we’ll cover a few things like:

  • Did God allow Satan to afflict Job?
  • Job and his friends (except one) talked a lot of nonsense.
  • What is Good = God. What is Evil = Devil.
  • God does not take away (even though Job says, “the Lord has taken away”)!

Click on the image to watch the Video or click HERE to watch on YouTube.

 

You might wonder by now…”Why is Job’s story in the Bible?”

It is not there so we can look to him as a role model (we have Jesus!) but so that we might learn from his example. Those who don’t learn by example tend to learn by experience and experience is a harsh teacher.

For those of you who would rather not learn the hard way, here’s the lesson: It is always Satan’s intention to harm us; it is always God’s intention to bless us.

When you confuse the latter with the former, your reality will be defined by a lie making it virtually impossible to receive all that God has for you.

Yours till the cow mooooooooooooos,

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Stuff Happens… But Jesus is Enough!

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Stuff Happens…but Jesus is Enough People ask me all the time, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” And my response is always, “Stuff just happens—to good people and to bad people.” Now I could go into all the spiritual reasons why stuff happens, but there isn’t room in this post to do that. And honestly, it’s not that important.

What is important, is for you to understand what the Bible says about the “stuff happening.” The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:16-17 God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5b And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28 Stuff does happen... but the Bible very clearly tells us that God is not the author of destruction. He does not and cannot cause grief or sorrow; that’s what Satan’s work produces. But even in the midst of our “stuff,” we can be confident that God will turn things around for our good if we continue to trust Him. Stuff does happen—but Jesus is more than enough!

Experiencing the Goodness of God

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God has always been after personal relationship with man—that’s why we were created. When God began dealing with man, it wasn’t enough for Him to just become “Abraham’s God.” God desired that each generation would know Him for themselves. He had to become “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” And how did He do that? By making Himself available for each man to experience—by showing each generation His goodness. It’s not enough for us to know Him in a detached way either. We can’t just know about God—we need to experience Him for ourselves. He must become our God.

The Bible tells us to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). Taste is an experience born of expectation. When you sit down to a meal, you develop an expectation of what the food will taste like—before you ever eat it. You smell its aroma, it looks appealing decorating your plate, you even remember its taste from the last time you ate that meal, and your mouth begins to water in expectation. The problem is, someone else may have cooked that meal you’re salivating over, and your expectation may be wrong! Experiencing God’s goodness is much the same.

The “expectation” you create of what God will do in your life is often based on what others have told you about Him or how others have treated you in His name. But that expectation may be wrong! 1 Peter says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:2-3). It is our experience of God that becomes the catalyst for our spiritual growth. Without experiencing His goodness, we can’t make Him our personal God. And with a wrong expectation, we won’t want to experience Him. Are your unconscious expectations of God hindering you from experiencing His goodness?

Churchy Things…Is It Really Walking in the Spirit?

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Walking in the spirit doesn’t mean doing churchy things. Doing churchy things can and often is very very fleshy. You know as well as I that the more you do the more you feel you have to do. If you pray an hour you feel two is better. If you give there is always more needed and if you go to classes there is always another class to take. Then have you ever tried to step away from these things? Yikes watch out because forget what you have done it’s a perpetual state of do do and give me, give me, give me. This is the life of your everyday enthusiastic church goer. This life is exhausting!

When your churchy actions are done to gain something from God or even keep something bad from happening then you are depending on what you do and that is walking in the flesh.  By definition walking in the flesh is dependance on you and your actions and walking in the spirit is dependence on Christ, who He is and what He has already done.

Walking in the spirit is very simply resting in the finished work of Christ that has already been given to you when you believe. That includes righteousness, favor and blessing. All of this in Christ now, today without doing a single churchy thing. It is faith and rest “in Him” and what He already accomplished. See “you” died with Christ (Colossians 2:20, Romans 6:8, 2 Corinthians 5:14) and then Galatians 2:20 says he gave us Christ life and it’s out of His life that we live. Do you think God is counting how many times Christ is going to church or taking communion? No way, Jose! And His life is your life. That is the life of grace instead of law.

This isn’t laziness or doing nothing, this is the capacity to actually be more productive doing what you were put on this planet to do. It’s the most natural way to live (as a spirit being) and it is all from a place of rest.

Now before you run to FB to set me straight, think of the story of Rachel and Leah. Jacob fell in love with Rachel and worked for seven long hard years to have her. In Hebrew Rachel means “ewe or lamb”. So Jacob worked for the lamb (see the picture). Only when you work to gain the lamb you wake up with Leah. What! After seven years of hard labor Jacob woke up on the wedding night with Leah. Leah in Hebrew means “weary”. That is a dirty rotten trick, but it happened. And that is what you get when you work for the lamb you get weary. After that Laban gives Rachel to Jacob and Jacob works seven years because he has her. So you can work to get and end up weary or you can work because you have and end up at rest. God’s plan is good!

This story illustrates to us that when you work to get you will end up weary. Or you can realize that the lamb is yours, that He loves you already and gave His life as you and for you and to you. The truth is you will get more done from love than from fear and obligation.  It isn’t about your churchiness but about His life in you.


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