God tears up some people. In order for people to experience healing, people need to experience being torn apart. When people experience being torn apart, they will also experience restoration. It would be great if we are not tempted and tested, but in order to receive the power to overcome the test and temptation, you need to go through the tests. All the events that are occurring and that has happened in the natural world are determined prior within the spiritual world. God and the devil converses before the throne of God. Depending on the content of their conversation, God will allow the tests. The subject of the test are the people. When tests are allowed, people will die, children of certain parents will die and sickness will occur. All your wealth in which you have accumulated with your sweat and effort may be blown away all at once. Job did not know where the test had begun and when test will end. When relationships or establishment completely go under, the relationship between your brothers, sisters and even spouses will become bad. The relationship can become broken when money or material things are involved. People may become disappointed, discouraged, and people who have never used foul language may start to use foul language. A particular husband may have great personality but when things go under, he may become an angry person. Spouses may end up living like enemies. Such things will ache the hearts of people who may go through the suffering. At first, when people go through suffering, they begin blaming each other. But as time passes, they will become humbled and sent lower.
“Perhaps, I had lived my life centered around myself. Perhaps, I was prideful and had fallen into narcissism. I thought I had lived my life according to the Word of God, but restoration has not been occurring.”
Job had lost everything and moreover, he had obtained loathsome boils and agonizingly painful sores. If you are experiencing such a situation, wouldn’t it be very difficult?
It would be great if we can predict our future. It would be great if we can already know the good result of the end. In most cases, people tend to obey only when they think they will have a good result. People tend to obey only when they are in the situation that may be predictable. But even if we are not able to predict, God will test us. God will test our pure faith, volunteered obedience, and free will in all situations. This is a very scary thing. If you are a person who is doing all types of difficult jobs, dirty jobs, and low end jobs, God will pay attention and watch you. The more you are receiving the grace of God, inspired by Him, the more difficult and awkward our relationship with our family members such as brothers, sisters and parents and neighbors will be. Just because we desire to become humble does not mean we will naturally become humble. Although, we must empty ourselves, we have a difficult time emptying ourselves. This is a very difficult process.
In order for God to make Job as an empty vessel, He had him shattered and torn apart. But still, Job was not completely emptied. Now, the house crumbled and all of his ten children were killed. Just imagine that you would have to deal with taking care of all your dead children’s corpse. Imagine all your precious children having died all at one time. When there are no problems or difficulties in our daily lives, it may look as though we are keeping our faith intact and faithfully attending church services. But once a crisis is created within our lives, problems will occur.
“Does my faith have problems? What kind of problem may I have that have killed all my ten children? Why had God allowed the devil’s proposal? Why had God listened to the devil?”
People will not know. Because people do not know and understand, they complain and blame God. Job may have had many thoughts in his mind. God had killed all of Job’s ten children when Job was in a great circumstance. Job acknowledged God’s sovereignty.
“The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord”
But his wife cursed. “You think you are my husband? All your children has just died!”
Job did not open his mouth for he might complain and grumble. He kept his faith. But his wife had a lower level of faith. “Curse God and die!”
When test and tribulation comes, a person’s true character will show. A person’s true colors will show. Do not be very happy and prideful just because you have overcome one small test.
If you are a person who has hard time controlling your emotion, you will fall frequently. The evil spirits that know your emotional weakness will work within a certain cycle. When that cycle comes, the evil spirits will enter into the person to provoke his/her emotional part. Satan will attack you through your nature, your style, stubbornness, blood type, your pride, your habit and so on. When this happen, you will fall at once. When you blow up with anger, you may feel released, relieved and somewhat satisfied. But such action is fleshly and lustful. For the one who sows to his flesh will reap from the flesh ruin and destruction. If you blow up with anger, you will shock and negatively impact the other party. But most of all, you will shock and negatively impact your inner spiritual area. You may have filled your spiritual empty area with the power of God, but when you blow up with anger, you will empty it out. You will shatter it all at once. Then, it will be difficult for you to fill up that inner spiritual area again. You will have to spend a lot of time and effort once again just to fill it up. When you blow up with anger and temper, and when you curse or speak foul language, you will empty out your spiritual area.
Then the devil will love the situation and will take advantage to advance his kingdom. “Yes, right! You are nothing!”
There is not only one kind of test but there are many types of tests. Galatians, Chapter five talks about it, such as, sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. The humility of believers carries out a very important role to the other people. Do you know how important it is for us to receive the power of God? We must receive the power of God and go to the places or people to provide His power. You must be changed and transformed. But since people are not changing, their family members and the people related to them also do not change quickly.
God was determined to break Job. God had decided to make him an empty vessel. In order for Job to become an empty vessel, his ten children had to be killed. If not, Job could not have been broken and emptied. Moreover, Job had to lose all his wealth in order for God to put Job in a posture of repentance of dust and ashes. When we are living comfortable lives, our only prayer will be thanksgiving prayer and hallelujah. We need to possess a contrite heart and pray the broken contrite prayer. But normally, such kind of prayer is not carried out by christians. Do not debate about the method of God and do not look for the method of God. But instead, however God may lead you, just follow Him with complete obedience, complete faith, and complete endurance. No matter how hard Job cried out, God turned His eyes from Job.
When the Son of God, Jesus prayed on the olive grove of Gethsemane, He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
Father God had ignored the suffering of Jesus. Why? Because Jesus had to suffer and die in order for the many souls to be saved in the future. It is the same with Job. God was determined to make Job as a good example of healing, restoration, blessing and in the all other areas. God made Job go through the experience of taking a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself. But still, Job was still not completely emptied.
When Job’s level of faith and knowledge reached his climax, his friends Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar visited him. These friends are in the level in which they were able to debate about faith, prayer, the whole universe and creation. Although, these friends came to comfort Job, they had ended up arguing with Job. Job may have understood where they were going with the argument. The words from his friends had continuously left him with hurt.
Job told them to stop. “Please, do not harass me. Even if what you're saying is right, please do not pierce me with such words. I do not want to argue with you. I am in agony.”
But still, his friends persistently spoke to him. It would have been nice if God had intervened and judged who were right or wrong. But God would never interfere by intervening in the middle of their conversation.
When we carry out the work of the Lord, have some kind of conversation and may have some conflict as we serve Him, the Lord knows who is right and who is wrong. But the Lord does not really express it. God will be patience to the end. The vindication comes with the answer. Job had still not reached the position of repenting in dust and ashes. Job was suffering from the painful boils but he had not reached the position of dust and ashes. Job did not reach the level of complete repenting of his pride. All of Job’s children had died. All his wealth were taken away. His own wife had cursed and left him. Job had obtained painful boils. Although he had obtained a message such as “When He has tried me, I shall come forth as refined gold [pure and luminous]”, yet, he had not reached the level of faith where he was repenting in dust and ashes.
When it comes to faith, preaching the Word of God, listening to the Word of God, obeying and serving the Lord, there is a level. When Job’s wife had left him, God ignored Job. Even when Job scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery and a dog licked his body, God had ignored Job. God continued to drive him into further crisis. God decided to drive him to the very end. Job was thrown into God’s laboratory. We need to know one thing. The believer’s devotion, determination, and humility plays very important role to the unbelievers. If one person, such as you endures and is patient, you will become a good example to countless of people. Therefore, you need to endure and withstand. The blessing will not come easy.
As Job was in the process of breaking, he had finally reached the position of dust and ashes. Later on, God powerfully spoke to Job in a whirlwind and demanded him to answer. Job trembled. We, people, are filthy beings with full of sins. Therefore, when you are alive on the earth, and as young as you are, and with healthy bodies moving freely, you must be loyal and faithful as much as you can. In reality, you have no time to waste.
Job said, “You asked, Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?”
It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me.”
After Job had heard the voice of God, he was able to see himself. This is why we need to receive the grace of God. The more you receive grace, the more you will be thirsty. No matter how much you have received grace, you need to receive more. You need to listen to the Word of God repeatedly. Even if you need to listen over a hundred of times, you still need to listen and listen. Job heard the voice of the Lord but in the end, he personally saw the Lord and confessed. Job voluntarily repented. He repented in dust and ashes.
When we pray, we powerfully pray and receive the power of God to carry out His work. But in IHOP, they insist that they are praying when they lay on the floor on their stomachs and back. Actually they were sleeping. When they woke up from sleeping, they claim that they prayed a lot with the grace of God. This is not so. When it comes to prayer, there are postures. You must receive the power within the relationship between God and you. One of the posture is to be on your knees and ask as you pray. One other posture is to raise your hands and cry out to God. Based on our experience, on our knees and raise our hands as we powerfully shout out in prayer. We have realized that this was the best prayer posture. The Lord sees and observes our attitude and posture of our prayer. After Job became humbled and repented in dust and ashes, God finally restored his finances, health, and all circumstances to his life. God had blessed Job. The financial blessing was especially granted greatly . Job was restored to a double portion from the things he had before he was struck by God.
Job’s faith, relationship with people, and all his circumstances were all tested and trained. From the outside, it may have looked like his life was over without hope. But after Job was restored, he lived for another one hundred forty years more with the financial blessing and with new beautiful sons and daughters. As I was reading this story, it is possible that there could be a time where you do not have to go through more testing and training after passing a certain amount and types of test. Even on this earth, you will be able to live a life of the golden age in blessings. God manifests to those who pass their tests. Job’s friends misunderstood and had condemned him.
God then told Job’s friends, “Give seven oxen and seven sheep to Job. If not, I will punish you!”
God probably had scared them. Job blessed his friends afterwards. When Job blessed his friends, a double portion blessing and good things were granted to him. Every kind of blessing began from the family of Job.
When the blessing is poured down to us, we must think and ponder why are the blessings being poured.
“God’s blessing has poured down to me, why?”
When you go to a gold or diamond mine, you will find gold or diamond in a rough form. It means it is mixed with other substances. Rough form is not valuable. Mixed materials are not valuable. When the craftsman handles gold and diamond, they will begin to break them. The craftsman will throw the rough gold into a blazing fire and the craftsman will break the rough diamond. When we go through the fire and breaking, it is very difficult for us. But once the rough gold and diamond are finally created into a golden ring, golden necklace, golden bracelet or into a diamond ring, these will brightly shine. Job represents a person of endurance and Abraham represents a person of faith. When people go to heaven, they all want to meet them.
When we pass our tests, God will express Himself to us with material/financial blessing which we can see. God expresses Himself with spiritual and also with physical things. When you are in discipline or testing, be very careful of not becoming prideful. Pride is the one that you must be most fearful of. If you are a person who is not afraid of sin or disobedience, what will happen? The outcome and result is obvious. When you pass the tests and are properly prepared, God will not be concerned of you becoming corrupted. Another example is that, when Abraham passed the most severe and difficult test, which was to offer his son, Isaac. Then all things went well for the rest of his life. When Job had properly passed the tests and became a person which God had desired to bless, all types of blessing were granted. No matter how much God granted His blessings to Job, God did not have to be concerned anymore whether Job would become corrupted or not. This is the level we all must reach. We must become a person whom God does not have to be concerned of becoming corrupted.
“No matter how much blessing I may grant to you, I do not have to be concerned of you becoming corrupted. I see that your faith is alive. You may be wealthy but you still have pure and living faith. You have a contrite heart. You have a pity for the people who are in need. You are always generous to the people who are in need. You are living spiritually and with faith.”
When God approves in such a way, God will pour down His blessings upon you. When it comes to the spiritual, the physical things and the power of God, if you are a properly prepared person, God will grant all these things to you without being too concerned if you will become corrupted or not. God will surely bless you. You must teach your husband, wife and children to become a such person. But in most of case, people are not properly prepared. Their faith level has not reached such a level. People are irritated by someone’s word and their personality is easily provoked which is still far from God’s standard level of faith. What if this person speaks something to provoke you, how will you react when such a person is a lower faith than you and in all areas from your faith? How will you act if someone frames, blames, or wrongs you for what you have not done?. We live by faith and we live spiritually, therefore, we are exposed to many tests. We are exposed to sudden tests and events.
God expresses Himself with the Word of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of the holy fire, and the nine holy gifts. But when you observe the final result of Job, God also expressed with physical and material things which we can visualize and experience. To whom does God express in such a manner? They are the people who passes their tests. Job vividly experienced the physical blessing and the blessing of wealth. He also lived for another one hundred and four years. Job lived in the same era as Abraham. Job lived in the region of Arab. God also has an intimate relationship with us as He answers us with material things. The people who pray a lot and live spiritually need to be careful about one thing. Do not only think and focus on the spiritual things. Do not misunderstand God by His only work spiritually. God will manifest an intimate relationship with us through the material things as well. God will touch us with not only spiritual but also with physical blessings. When Job spoke the blessing to his friends, the double blessing comes back to Job. This was Job’s proven faith. When Job blessed the people around him, double blessing returned to him. Job enjoyed his golden age. After Job had become bankrupt, and after he had passed his test, we can come to realize that the christians who claim to believe in Jesus and who live in a poverty are not in a state of blessing. But do not misinterpret this. Do not just proclaim and teach on the altar by saying, “Receive blessing, receive blessing just blessing!” You will probably become a fake in the end. Just because you speak and proclaim does not mean it will all come to pass although there is power in the proclamation. Because it involves with the level of faith and the good living standard level of your lives. It will be great if whatever we proclaim always comes to pass. The person who proclaim needs to reach a certain level of faith. Please cling onto today’s word and I pray that all of you will obtain victory in this year with the power of the Lord. Please know that God will touch us in various ways.
Amen
Pastor Kim, Yong Doo
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