TO THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN IN A JOB LIKE EXPERIENCE -GOD SAYS;

¹¹ “O you afflicted one, Tossed with tempest, and not comforted, Behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems, And lay your foundations with sapphires. ¹² I will make your pinnacles of rubies, Your gates of crystal, And all your walls of precious stones. ¹³ All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children. ¹⁴ In righteousness you shall be established; You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; And from terror, for it shall not come near you. ¹⁵ Indeed they shall surely assemble, but not because of Me. Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake. ¹⁶ “Behold, I have created the blacksmith Who blows the coals in the fire, Who brings forth an instrument for his work; And I have created the spoiler to destroy. ¹⁷ No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the Lord.

Isaiah 54:11-17

God is a God who likes to bring all things into His order, indeed He must so that His divinely created universe will complete the function for which He created it.

He created laws and principles for this universe, for instance, the law of sowing and reaping, so that we are given guidelines to enable us to look ahead and see the possible consequences of our decisions.

He gave us a portion of His wisdom and insight, but only the portion we need to walk in our destiny or bless others, and because He wants us to love and serve Him by faith that He is who He says He is, sometimes circumstances beyond our understanding occur.

So bad things do happen to “good” people, and likewise, ”bad” people often live in a level of blessing that is confusing if we use the amount of understanding and insight we have and apply it beyond our sphere of authority.

Because God is Eternal, omnipotent, omniscient and almighty, he reserves the right to make changes to his plans where necessary, and over -rule his own laws and principles in certain situations. Yes, his ways are above, [way above our ways], and his thoughts also are above, [way above] our thoughts, so in order to grow in our faith we have to be prepared to stop using out limited human understanding, and to stop restricting God to our thoughts and ways.

The Bible talks about Job who went through some horrendous events which would certainly destroy most peoples’ faith in God.

Those who have lived righteously and in obedience to Gods’ commandments, might ask WHY, why did God not deliver faithful Job? Those who do not live righteously might ask WHERE AND WHO is this God who allows his faithful ones to go through such suffering?

Those who don’t know the living God through His son the Lord Jesus Christ, often blame God for the sufferings of the innocent, when in fact it is satan himself and his hordes who inflict suffering.

In the first chapter of the book, an encounter between satan and God, in Gods’ very throne room, caused God to draw satans’ attention to Job and even give satan permission to send great suffering but draw the line at taking his life.

So Job lost all his children, losing a child is said to be the greatest grief, but job lost all of them at once.

He lost the respect of his friends, and was verbally accused constantly by them

He lost his health and was in agony with continual urge to itch and in great pain

He lost his wealth, his gold, his herds and flocks

He was shamed, and falsely accused, even his wife turned on him

So he cried out to God in grief and confusion that we can scarcely imagine.

Then SUDDENLY God, changed his season totally around, He appeared in a whirlwind and spoke of His mighty creation and power. He revealed His true purpose in allowing the awful set of trials in Jobs’ life to Job, and Job then cried out that he had  only heard of God before, but  now he saw who God really was.

He had lived righteously and perhaps proudly before, but lacked the intimate relationship that God longed to bring him into. Now Job truly sees God and repents in sack cloth and ashes and declares it out loud surrounded by his friends.

Read job chapter 42  and see how God restored every area of his life when he prayed for his friends.

God gave Job the keys to turn his suffering around, through a revelation of who God really was, not just what He could do, through heartfelt forgiveness and repentance, and through praying for those who had hurt him.

So Job lived on and saw four generations of his family and remarkably started a new tradition by giving his daughters and equal inheritance with his sons.

When God allows us to go through suffering it is always for His purposes and His glory.

Jesus Christ Himself suffered greater agony than Job or anyone else for us and He is now our saviour and high priest perfected by His suffering, having learnt obedience by what He suffered.

Seek deeper relationship with Him, pray for those who oppose you, and make themselves your enemies, repent of your own sins and then you will see God come in a whirlwind, in fire, and in glory, revealing more of His fullness to you and turning the circumstances around that have been afflicting.

Paul speaks of the pain that we permit God to direct producing Godly grief and joy, so allow God to work in your pain, receive His comfort and love and you will be strengthened in spite of your suffering.