...Job
Like Job, I can bless you twice
as much in this life, if you pass this fiery trial & hang on, like
he did, saying, 'though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him!'
Only few have the great faith
ascribed to Job, those who can say, 'Even if it looks as if God is
breaking His Word & breaking His promise to Me, I will still trust
Him!'
Only few deem themselves less
righteous than God & think in their hearts that they wouldn't have
done it better in at least this, that or the other aspect.
It's easy to trust when all
goes well, but remember the testings of My servant Job, for these
trials are all common to man. Since the beginning & the days of old
I've had to allow your enemy to test My children, to see whether they
would still trust Me even when all goes wrong.
Only those with great faith, like Job, can continue trusting, even when it seems like all goes wrong...
I want you to realize that you
can still give more. Just like Job had to realize that there was yet
more to give, more to learn, more goodness, more righteousness than
what he had before I tested him.
I have been raising a new army,
a new generation of fighters out of the old. The Enemy has been mocking
Me, and just as with My servant Job of old, he was saying about them,
"Just give them to me for a while, let me tempt them with my
distractions, my lures & the enticements of the world, and you'll
see, they'll forget You, they'll all turn their backs on you! Let me
twist their minds with worldly thoughts & doubts, and see what a
'mighty army' You will have left when I'm through with them. You'll
see, they won't care about You!"
But I have had faith in you,
and though many have left indeed, whose hearts weren't fully with Me, I
believe in you! And I'm calling you all back to life this day, as it
were from the land of the dead: "Come away from her, My children, she
has nothing to offer you! Come on back to the land of the living!"
Learn to trust, even when the
person closest to you is saying the opposite. Do you think Job wasn't
attached to his wife? Yet he didn't follow her advice when she told him
to curse Me & die.
Listen to your heart!
Remember Job! Okay, he did have
some lessons to learn on self-righteousness, as you do, but the one
responsible in the first place for his sufferings was the Enemy.
He's the tester & tempter
to see & find out who of My children & brides really mean
business, & who could be easily dissuaded to flunk out & serve
him instead...
"Surely this man wasn't blessed
by the Lord..." "Surely he must have done some awful wrong..." That's
what Job's friends & "comforters" thought about him, too. Stop
worrying about what people will think or say about you!
Can a man be found more
righteous than God? For sure there can be found plenty who think so.
Why do I take away so many innocent & sheer "perfect" saints, you
wonder? Why don't you let them live?" But who's to say or judge who has
run the race & finished their testings in this life, and who's not?
Are you the judge of these matters or am I?
Some people have won their
battles, stood their tests, & they only have one last test to pass,
one final enemy to overcome: death, the final foe. And often, like Job,
they may find themselves wondering, "What have I done to deserve this?"
Or "Why me, Lord?" Or they wonder if this is really fair, whether this
is really righteous, & people wonder, "What kind of a God lets
these things happen?" And they come to the conclusion that either there
is no God, or that I must be cruel and unfair.
But that is again, as in so
many things, the carnal way of looking at things. People don't see
what's supposed to be the point in getting older, either, becoming
weaker with age, & they wind up in a midlife crisis, wondering what
that's supposed to be all about now. But it does make sense, if you
look at it from My viewpoint. The whole lesson of life is that spirit
is superior to flesh, even though it may initially not look like it.
And another very fundamental
lesson in life is for man to learn that My righteousness exceeds his
own by far, even though it may also not always look like it, and even
if I attach many hard tests, which will make people question whether I
really am righteous or know what I'm doing. This is the ultimate test
to find out whether they really believe that I know what I'm doing, and
whether they can say, like Job, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in
Him."
This is the faith that
overcometh the world. This is the faith that overcomes even the final
enemy & laughs in his faith & says, "Death, where is your
sting, grave, where is your victory? Even though He slay me, I know
whom I have believed, and whosoever liveth and believeth in Him shall
never die, for he that believeth in Him, though he were dead, yet shall
he live."
"What happened?" It's a
question to which many people - most people - only receive an answer
once they get Here. "Where did I fail? Where did I get off the track?
What did I do wrong?" Or simply "what happened?"
A life starts out quite
promising, but then, somewhere along the track they lose the vision,
the faith or the zest and they slide down the hill. "What happened?"
Well, as you know from the
story of Job, it's usually your Enemy who's responsible for, or
involved with a lot of what happened. Like the evil old man, Mr.
Potter, in "It's A Wonderful Life," who unbeknownst to the hero of the
story found his money & kept it, and thus caused many problems
& trials... that's the way the Devil works, too. He sees an
opportunity to work his evil plan, to exploit others in order to spread
out his power & convert innocent villages, homes and entire
countries into one big "Pottersville."
I'm in control. And there's nothing that happens to coincidence to any of My children.
At the same time, this doesn't
mean that everything is always going to be perfect that I allow to
happen in My children's lives, as you well know. Then there's the
Enemy, who will test you as he tested Job, to see just how far you'll
walk with Me, just how far you'll still trust Me, even when it seems
like everything goes wrong.
Physical loss can lead to
greater spiritual gain. Look at Job! He thought he was pretty righteous
& as close to Me as you can get, and yet he found out, through his
loss in the physical that I allowed, that his relationship with Me had
only been scratching the surface beforehand, whereas now he was getting
really deep with Me and got to know Me in a much more profound way than
ever before. And that's what I want with you, too. There is more, so
much more I want to give you, pour into you and share with you, and if
physical loss and withdrawal is what will get you into a position of
willingness and receptivity for these things, then so be it.
The Devil knew what he was
talking about when he said, "Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath
will he give for his life..." (Job 2:4). How much of all that I've
given you would you now trade for a secure life? How ready are you to
compromise, just for a life lived in ease & plenty?
"It is good," even if it may
not seem that way to you, and then it really is only one step further
to thanking & praising Him for it, for the bad, even if you may not
fully understand it's purpose.
Like Job said to his wife:
"Should we receive the good from His hand, but not the bad?" (Job 2:10)
He was a great man of faith. There's still a lot for you & others
of this spoiled generation to learn from the likes of Job.
People sometimes tend to see
themselves as victims, wondering, "why me?" They would like Me to be
easier on them, & tend to ask, "why hast Thou made me thus?" Or at
least, "why are You allowing this & that to happen to me, ... why
me, when I've already experienced so many hardships?" …Parallels to the
life of Job...
Share with them those Scriptures about suffering, how important & valuable your sufferings are in My sight...
Most people are oblivious to
the fact that I gave it all to them in the first place, as Paul said,
"what hast thou that thou didst not receive?" (1.Cor.4:7) But they
think it's their own possession somehow, and they've got a right to
withhold things from Me. Don't you know that I can take it all away
from you in an instant? Like I did with Job: your health, your
possessions, your cattle, your family... even your life. It's all Mine
to give and to take in the first place. So, what do you think you can
withhold from Me?
I'm asking you to forsake your
own inclinations, perceptions, views & feelings ... old attitudes
and streaks of independence...
Those who justify themselves
condemn themselves with their own mouth (Job 9:20). Those who quietly
ponder their own sin and rely on My mercy, those are they who are
justified by Me.
One thing you can always be
sure of: your suffering is never in vain. It always has a purpose, it's
always happening for a reason, and a good one, so bear it with dignity
or at least the trust and confidence that I know what you can handle
and what I'm allowing, okay?
"When He hath tried me I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10).