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The Daily Word of Righteousness
An Examination of Current Teaching, #51
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so Christ's power may rest on me. (II Corinthians 12:7-9)
All sickness, pain, and trouble come from Satan and are to be rebuked and removed through faith.
Some Christian teachers are advancing the doctrine that all that appears to harm us is of Satan, and if we have faith we can escape all sickness, pain, and trouble. This concept is quite strong in the fashionable "faith" message.
The stress on mental, soulish belief is not of the Lord Jesus. We are to have faith in the Lord, not faith in faith. To have faith in faith is an attempt to maneuver the spirit realm by belief. This is different from calling on the Lord Jesus for deliverance.
We know from the testimony of the Apostle Paul that God permits Satan to attack us. When Paul was stricken with an affliction in his flesh, probably a disease of his eyes, he did not rebuke Satan. Paul prayed to Christ until the Lord answered him.
Jesus let Paul know the affliction would diminish Paul's confidence in his own strength and he would be compelled to lean more on the Lord.
The faith message has caused the Lord's people to get their eyes on Satan instead of the Lord Jesus. Satan loves this attention and would enjoy having Christians rebuke demons all day long. Some have said the demons interpret the attention paid to them as worship, and I think this may be a fact.
When we are afflicted we always are to look to Jesus, and to keep on looking to Jesus until we either are delivered, or else are given the assurance that we are in the center of God's will.
This does not mean we ever are to just accept sickness. The Bible states we have been healed by the lashes laid on Jesus. It is God's will that we be kept perfect in body, soul, and spirit. We always are to ask God to heal us, and then to rejoice in the answer. It may take many years before the answer comes, but that makes no difference. The Word is the Word!
Sooner or later, maybe in this life, maybe in the next, we will be made absolutely whole, delivered from every work of Satan. We are in a warfare, it is true. However, deliverance from sin and sickness do not come through our striving or will power but through following the Lamb wherever He goes.
A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; (Psalms 34:19)
We are never to look to Satan or spend time wrestling with him. We are to look to Jesus always. We do not overcome Satan by rebuking him but by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our scriptural testimony, and by loving not our life to the death.
Christians need to resist the devil by turning away from temptation. Then Satan will flee from us.
Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. (James 5:10)
So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good. (I Peter 4:19)
To be continued.