BY Argie Simonis
This is the second part of the message. You can find the first part here.
Here we see that a separation is taking place. Some things are from God and some from the devil. We must submit to the things of God and resist the things that are from the devil.
The word "resist" means "I am actively fighting against". There is no resistance on our part when we remain passive waiting for "what is to be done, will be done".
If for example you believe that God is the one who gave you or "permitted" a sickness in your life in order to teach you something, then why do you go to the doctor and take medication? With this kind of thinking you should let the sickness continue its natural course, until it completes its purpose.
As you can see, this is completely absurd. God is not responsible for the sickness, nor should we remain passive not actively trying to get healed.
Jesus healed all those who were oppressed by the devil. The devil was responsible for all diseases and not God:
"How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." Acts 10:38
The same thing is happening today. Sickness is from the devil and we must resist every sickness with faith and seek the healing that the Lord has offered us through His sacrifice on the Cross.
As for the Old Testament where God struck people with sickness and plagues, I will try to be simple and clear: None of these cases was a blessing. They were all curses. God used sickness in the Old Testament as punishment, but let us not forget that the New Testament we are in now, Jesus bore our curse upon Him:
"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree:" Gal. 3:13
Both the forgiveness of our sins and the healing are part of the attonment "package" Jesus offered to us.
Deuteronomy chapter 28 solves this issue once and for all. The first 14 verses list God's blessings and the last 53 list God's curses. Healing is referred to as a blessing (Deut. 28:4). Sickness is recorded as a curse (Deut. 28:22, 27-28, 35, 59-61). God called the disease a curse and this is how we must see it.
Knowing that God is not the source of our problems is one of the greatest revelations we can have.
It is really comforting to know that God has only good gifts for me:
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no ficklenss, neither shadow of turning." James 1:17
Any problems in my life are from the devil and come either from a mistake we made, or are simply the result of a fallen world. I know that my Heavenly Father would never hurt me.
Surely we have learned lessons through the hardships of life and most of us have come to the Lord seeking help.
But it is important to recognize that our lives were changed through the faith we placed on Him and not through the hardships. If difficulties and problems made us better, then those with the most problems would be the best of all! But we know this is not the case.
We certainly do not bless the Lord when we blame Him for all the problems that come into our lives. Of course He will comfort us in the midst of our problems when we seek Him, but He is neither the author of these problems nor does He "allows" them.
God is sovereign in the sense that there is no one superior to Him in power or authority. The only thing that limits Him is His own Word:
"God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: has he said, and shall he not do it? or has he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" Numbers 23:19
"My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips." Psalm 89:34
Of course, this does not mean that God exercises His power by controlling everything in our lives. The Lord created free human beings, not robots. He created people with the choice to either love Him or even hate Him. To accept or to reject Him. Love can't exist without the freedom of will, and God is love (1John 4:16).
Most of the time our wrong choices are the ones that brings destruction and give place to the devil to have access in our lives. Other times, however, our problems are just an attack from the devil because he hates what God loves and we do not necessarily have to do something bad to be attacked:
"And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:" Luke 22:31
Satan came to steal, kill and destroy, while Jesus came to give us abundant life:
"The thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10
Let's read the following passage from 1 Corinthians, and where "love" is (according to 1 John 4:16) we put "God":
"God suffers long, and is kind; God envies not; God braggs not Himself, is not puffed up,
Does not behave Himself unseemly, seeks not His own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil;
Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." 1Cor. 13:4-7
When a detective goes to a crime scene, he collects fingerprints and evidence to find the offender. It is time for us to follow this example and learn how to discern the person responsible for things that happen in our lives. And this is not that difficult actually. When it is good, it is God and when it is bad, it is the devil.
The Lord is not the source of our problems, but rather the answer to our every problem. Amen!
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