Job’s life is a powerhouse of discovery about God and man. In studying Job’s life, we uncover powerful truths, very uncomfortable truths, that can set us free for life! For example, did you know that our fear can limit our unlimited God? In fact, Job’s meditations caused his fears to manifest, to the point of tragic loss. He worried about his kids dying with such intensity, and regularity, that his fearful meditations opened the door for the enemy to rush in.
Truth: What you spend time thinking about has the power to manifest in your life. (Click here to read Creating Worlds: Thinking Matters and to encounter the full 8 part series on Job, head to the ShyjuMathew App!)
Question: What was actually happening in Heaven, that brought Job to the forefront of the agenda when the sons met with God?
The Challenge:
“And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”(Job 1:8)
Why would God bring Job into this meeting of the sons of God? What was Satan doing there?
Clearly, our all-seeing, all-knowing God had been observing Satan meticulously researching Job. God’s response was to expose Satan’s total failure to take His servant, Job, down. Satan may have entered the meeting by his understanding of God’s justice, but he sure wasn’t going to be successful in breaking the spiritual laws of Heaven!
Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” (1:8)
Our Covenant:
Truth: A servant of the Lord is beyond blessed! We serve a covenant-keeping God!
Spiritual laws in Heaven prevail over all transactions and rulings.
And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” (1:9)
Wait a minute! Did God just hand Job over to the enemy? Not at all.
Read this carefully: God does not play games with our lives. Satan, through Adam’s fall, ruled the earth, so Job’s possessions on earth was already in the enemy’s domain.
What God is stating is a fact: Job was in his domain, in the sphere of Satan’s influence and in the reach of his hand, This is also why Satan is unable to go ahead and fight and has to go back to find fault and claim in Job’s life. (More about that in “Powerful Truths from Job’s life – Part Two”, our next post).
From the courts of Heaven, God states a challenge: “Do what you can: just don’t touch his life.” That part of Job is the part of God’s spirit that Satan has no power over. As God breathed His spirit into man, man is forever made in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26). The spirit of the man is the part that would later on participate in the resurrection of the man.
The only way Satan could have Job’s life was if Job walked away from God and thus give Satan permission to destroy his life.
Only when we Participate in our Downfall, can the Enemy can Destroy our Life
Truth: The only way Satan can take us down is if we let him.
Apostle John said, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.(1 John 4:4-5)
With Christ is in us, Satan can do nothing! Christ has defeated him forever, once and for all (Hebrews 10:12-14).
Satan can only overcome the part of us that is outside of Christ. It is only by bringing the world into us that Satan can overcome us. Doubtful mindsets, fearful meditations, sinful choices, and wrong associations open doors to Satan, and once the door is open, his intention is always to steal, kill and destroy, (John 10:10).
Apostle John further explains, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.” (1John 2:15-16)
Why would we open a door to the enemy, by living according to the world, if we knew his intention was destruction?
Truth: As Christians, we need to own our responsibility for our downfall, repent of our sin and choose the grace to live according to Christ and enjoy His freedom through righteous living and faithful thinking.
Be Aware of the Enemy’s Schemes
Peter, who denied Jesus not once, but three times, urged the Church: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)
Truth: Right now, Satan is monitoring each of us to figure out how he can get the world into us to destroy us through our sin. Satan works to dim our light, and will tailor-make temptations to seduce us to the world. Be on guard!
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. (2 Chron. 16:9).
Truth: Right now, God is seeking whom He can bless! May it be you!
Friend, the state of our heart before the Lord is the determinant for our blessing or downfall! We must, every day, every hour, every minute, keep our eyes on the Lord Jesus, the Beloved Lover of our soul!
May we live in fear before the Lord, stay near His Presence and keep every area of our lives surrendered to the Lord! Dominion is for the diligent!
Shalom,
Shyju