Job 1:21: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, naked I shall depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken; May the name of the Lord be praised.
In this case, God allowed Satan himself to test a believer, through trial, tribulations and sickness, notice that Job did not do what this youth movements/prosperity teachers do. He didn't declare his own health or wealth into being but put his fate squarely in God’s hands.
He didn’t quote Isaiah 53:5: “And by his stripes we are healed.” While it is true that God can and does heal, the Bible is clear that it is not His will in every situation. Paul suffered a ‘thorn in his flesh’ which God refused to remove in order to keep Paul humble and rather than chide himself from lack of faith Paul rejoiced! II Corinthians 12:7-16. God used on illness to Paul to bring the gospel to the Galatians, Galatians 4:13 and he probably suffered from poor eyesight Galatians 6:11. Timothy was sick frequently, I Timothy 5:23, but rather than telling Timothy to ‘claim a healing’ or ‘rebuke the devil’, Paul instructed him to add wine to his diet. Paul also left Trophimus sick in Milieus, without healing him, II Timothy 4:20.
Some sicknesses are from God. “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him dumb or deaf or serving or blind? Is it not I the Lord? Exodus 4:11. God made the disable and infirm. Some have illnesses that last for years. While it is unexplainable according to our human logic, it is all port of God’s sovereign plain.
Some sicknesses are from Satan, Luke 13:11-13, God may allow Satan to inflict illnesses for his own sovereign purposes, Job chapter 1.
Some sickness are God.Chastisement for sin, Numbers 12, Deuteronomy 28:20-22, 2 Kings 5. “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep the word” Psalms 119:67.
Other examples includes God trouncing the Egyptians with skin boils, Exodus 9:8-12, inflicting King Jeroboam with leprosy II King 15:5, and striking Saul with blindness, Acts 9:1-9. Further in Acts 5 Ananias and Sapplima were judged by God for lying to the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t Satan that killed them. In Psalm 119:75: “In your faithfulness you have afflicted me”. David altitudes his affliction to God’s hand not the devil’s.
The Bibles also tells us plainly that God disciplines the church through sickness, hardship and even death. I Corinthians 11:28-30, Hebrew 12:7; Acts 5:1-11 and that we should joyfully accept trials of many kinds because God uses them to make us matinee, James 1:2-4; Psalm 119:71,75, clearly God allows sicknesses for his own sovereign purposes.
Joyfulness in trials? Not according to prosperity teachers. They say we should disdain trials as a sign of lack of faith. The truth of the matter is that God does allow testing, discipline and trials-which includes among other things sickness. To test and build up our faith.
Sometimes He even brings people to salvation through sickness, as in the case of Paul, Galatians 4:13,14. Apparently they haven't read the word of God in full. This is because what they are teaching is unbiblical, unsenptural, heretical and downright the doctrine of demons.
Thulani Nkhambule
MPAKA (http://www.times.co.sz/index.php?news=9014)
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