Do you ever get a sore soul? I mean a soreness like a sore tooth in your spirit. The feeling just washes through, leaving a feeling of dread or bleakness. I usually get this feeling when something bad is going to happen. This feeling could develop because the Holy Spirit is grieved for you. God speaks to believers in many different ways. When friends and/or fellow believers speak out or do things to harm you, a child of the living God, that deeply grieves the Holy Spirit.
I'm not talking about when believers have sinned, and there is a feeling of guilt. That is something that comes from Satan, and I know this through experience. I am talking about some special kinds of trials and tribulations that God allows His children to live through so that He will be glorified.
Case in point...
Did God allow Job to be harmed past endurance? Did God share with Job that Satan was the one playing havoc in his life? Were any of us around when God laid the foundations of the world and when He hung the stars in place?
Well, if you answered "yes" to any of those questions, please email me, we need to talk.
No, God did not allow harm to Job beyond Job's endurance. Anyone else might have committed suicide, or followed the stupid advice of Job's wife. God knew the exactness of Job's strength, faith, will, and mental health. God did not allow him to be pushed past a point of no return. God will do no less for us today. He is the same past, present and future... we can depend on that.
Some scholars say that we cannot depend on experience, but must depend on and lean on exactly what the Bible says, forgetting feelings... rejecting feelings. But look at the "set up" in Job 1: Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, his name was Job. And this man was perfect and upright, and fearing God, and turning away from evil.... Job 1:9
And Satan answered Jehovah and said, Does Job fear God for nothing? Job 1:10 Have You not made a hedge for him, and for his house, and for all that is his all around? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his livestock have increased in the land. Job 1:11 But put out Your hand now, and touch against all that is his, and see if he will not then curse You to Your face.
First, Satan has no power except that which God allows. There is also another factor--that which we give. Knowing this, we are forewarned and forearmed against an evil foe. However, just like Job we have to endure. The point with Job was not at all to teach Job, but to prove a point to Satan.
I am convinced that Job had that soreness in his soul that spread through every fiber of his being. This is such a huge lesson that I just sit back and marvel. I had always thought all our trials and tribulations were forms of education, tests and basic school work that prepares us for our eternal purpose.
That is true in part, but God's good purposes may not be for the person that undergoes the trial, but for the education of an observer... or for later ministry to someone who will go through the same thing... or to prove to Satan some Truth. Those kinds of trials are extremely hard (the things that happened to Job are tremendous stress triggers as well as huge grief causers). What an amazing thing.
The glory of God proved to Job's wife who said, "Curse God and die." She had 10 more children.
The glory of God proved to Job whose wealth was restored and multiplied!
Job's friends who had advice that produced such contempt from God. Job 42:7 And it happened, after Jehovah spoke these words to Job, Jehovah said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My anger glows against you and your two friends. For You have not spoken the right about Me, as My servant Job. Job 42:8 And now take for you seven young bulls and seven rams and go to My servant Job, and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And My servant Job will pray for you. Surely I will lift up his face so as not to do with you according to your folly, in that you have not spoken the right about Me, as My servant Job.
But, look! How sweet the thought... worth living through all the storms, pain, and soul-soreness, "I will lift up his face..." Job 42:9
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