Suffering and sickness

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Hi all,

I have been passing by the discussion of sickness and so on showing 
little regard, since my desires are to go further than simply having 
concern over my physical, although God certainly can heal and keep 
me healthy.

It does concern me, though, when you hear more about healing than 
you do Apostolic Doctrine.  You can be lost after being healed,
but you will not be lost if you continue living for God, denying self
and taking up your cross.  No, the cross is not sickness either.  It
is good old self-denial.

If Apostolics are "short" on healing and miracles, but they have obeyed the
Apostolic doctrine and endeavour to live godly lives, so what if they are
unhealthy?  They are saved!  Do not get me wrong.  I beleive we do not have
to put up with sickness, but what is more important?  But if miracle seekers
remain healthy and never obey Acts 2:38, friend, they are lost.  Which is 
more important?

Some have spoken about prosperity preachers NEVER preaching Acts 2:38.  THAT
is dangerous!!!!  Yes, God wills we be in health and prosper even as our souls 
prosper, BUT FIRST OUR SOULS MUST PROSPER!  ANd what does it mean
for our souls to prosper?  It means that are souls have a healthy relationship
with Christ by having BEEN SAVED BY OBEYING ACTS 2:38 and by continuing
a godly life towards spiritual maturity!!!  Let us not let anyone put our
carts before our horses, by getting us to major on physical helaing and 
miracles and financial propserity.  We'll be lost if we prosper and are in 
health when our souls are not prospering!

Bro. Ward and I chatted about suffering and looked into Deut. 8:2-3.

Deu 8:2  And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God 
led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to 
prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest 
keep his commandments, or no.
Deu 8:3  And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee 
with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that 
he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by 
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

God allows suffering to come our way.  It is not our desire to simply 
deal with suffering, thinking God is giving us a chance to be healed!  
That is so far BELOW what God is trying to do in our lives.  God 
is working out a total reliance upon Him.  He is working His image
into our lives!  Godliness!

How much progress has the Lord had in extracting doubt and carnality from 
my heart? My greater enemy is not doubt that He can heal, but doubt that 
He can make me blameless and highly resistant to sin and godly in  my 
nature and attitude.  Peter said his goal was for the believer to be a 
partaker of God's divine nature!.  That is the main goal.  Is there a change 
in my attitude and nature?  Am I as "unspiritual" as I was a few years 
ago?  Or am I touchy and haughty and bad-tempered?

God knows our weaknesses, and He allows circumstances to come to extract 
these weak areas.  

Jesus quoted Deut. 8:3 in His first temptation in the wilderness.  When
we study this passage we must find where this event historically occcured
with Israel to get the clearer picture.

In Exodus 16:3, the Israelites doubted God and complained for food.
They received the food they complained to get, but they also received 
something else.  (More later about that something else).

There are two ways to receive something.
	1) Complain until God gives it to you (Recall Balaam was told NOT
		to go to the king, and after complaining to go, God said, 
		"Go".		
	2) ASK in faith - "Ye have not because ye ask not".

The Iasraelites doubted God due to their slackness in faith.  Complaining 
comes from slack faith.  Had they THOUGHT about God's WORD to them concerning
their guaranteed entrance into Canaan, they would have realized that the 
problems along the way were in God's consideration, and God would
obviously meet their needs as they passed through these TESTS.

But after having received food by constant stres upon physical needs 
being met, thay may have shouted, "Hey!  Look what faith in miracles can 
do for you!"  But they were said to have LOST something else.

God WANTED them to lack so that He could CHEK THEM OUT, and so that 
THEY COULD SEE their own carnal faults.  Notice Deut. 8:2-3 says 
that God tried them "THAT THEY MIGHT KNOW".  I need to see my 
faults.  And God lets me pass through trials so I can get a chance 
to see my own faults, and then go to Him with them.

Its not that we should let our faith for miracles grow slack,  -we need
it - but that we SHOULD PRIORITIZE greater faith to LIVE godly lives.

Jesus showed us how we can go back to an example in the Bible when we 
are in the midst of a trial, and remind ourselves that the Father has 
an eye on us.

I mentioned earlier that they got their food, but lost something else.

Psa 106:13  They soon forgat his works; they waited not for 
his counsel:
Psa 106:14  But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted 
God in the desert.
Psa 106:15  And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into 
their soul.

LEANNESS IN THEIR SOULS.  Their souls lost something!

God brought their lack of faith out into the open.  He WANTED them 
to suffer.  Whether it is hunger or something else, God wills it 
to cause us to suffer so that we will have opportunity to exert our 
faith and expose any inner weaknesses we might have within.  The MAIN 
thing He is trying to accomplish is to dig out fleshliness and carnality,
and the kind of unbelief that doubts we can live above sin.

God put us in a world where Satan stands to test our loyalty to God before
letting us into glory.

Since God will not impose Himself on anyone, He allows trials to come
so that we will see our weak reaction and realize we must go to God to
"help our unbelief" and be made godly and temperate.

They received their food, through complaining, but they would realize 
that it would have been better to trust God's Word.  The just shall 
LIVE by faith.  Not live by the lesser faith that heals, but the 
greatest faith with which we SURVIVE spiritually;  the faith with which we 
MATURE and are able to go through the worst of trials and still 
hold a smile with!  The faith where we know all is in God's eye, and 
we will never suffer something we cannot bear.  The faith that keeps
our attitudes godly.

What is the FIRST thing you think about when you hear the word 
"faith"?  Miracles and healing?  Most do.  That is a trait of carnality.  
Remember that carnality is simply outward-mindedness.  If I am outwardly 
minded and more concerned about finacnes and healing than godly attitude, 
I AM CARNAL.  But the GREATER FAITH is the faith to simply LIVE victoriously 
with, whether we are sick or not.

In the very chapter concerning the exodus, Paul says:

1 Cor 10:1  Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be 
ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and 
all passed through the sea;
1 Cor 10:2  And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and 
in the sea;

This is without doubt speaking about the Exodus, to which Deut. 8:2-3 
refers to also.  Then LATER in the same chapter he says:

1 Cor 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is 
common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to 
be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation 
also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

This pertains to Israel's suffering.  Paul is showing us that It 
is NOT God's will to cast away the hardship.  It is His will that
we pass through it and "BEAR IT" in victorious faith.  He would not 
say "that ye may be able to bear it" if God wants us out of every trial.
Paul is not talking about healing or miracles.  These are NOT our ultimate 
goals when sickness comes.  Paul is saying sickness will come, amongst 
other trials, and God lets them come.  He wants us to pass through 
such trials.  But our TRUE FAITH is seen when we pass through the trials and
ESCAPE DESTRUCTION.  The way of escape is not escape from the trial,
since Paul said, "that ye may be able to bear it."  The way of escape
is speaking about escape from the *destruction* people usually experience
while in the trial.  Their relationships with God are destroyed by flying 
off the handle in utter worry and sticking in the wall!

Some will lose loved ones and will lose their faith, too.

Yes, He may wish us to pass through sickness to see if we will
rebuke it and be healed.  Or He may not.  The ultimate test is to see
if we will complain due to loss of confidence in God's Word, not concerning 
faith for healing so much as faith for getting through any trial no matter 
what it may be, or if we will say, "The goal towards full maturity is still 
mine.  God is extracting unbelief from my heart, or I would not be in 
this mess.  I will not lose this chance.  I will come forth as gold!!!"

If gold could scream, it would when it is being heated up.  But the fiery 
trials are intended to burn out to the dross. The impurities.  And once
the smelter can see his face in the gold, with the dross scooped away,
the gold is pure.  God is looking to see His image in us.  And the fiery
trial may include sickness.  His image is godly attitude and righteous
temperament.

Job said "I have esteemed the words of thy mouth more than my 
necessary food."  Man shall not live by bread alone!  Job realized that.
Something is more important than physical health.  He said we must
live by every WORD from God.  God tried Israel with HUNGER - He let 
them hunger!!!  He willed that they suffer.

Paul was willing to suffer, because he knew the sufferings of this 
present world are nothing to compare to the glory to be revealed.  
What was he saying? He was saying, "Let suffering come.  I am not 
so concerned over that as I am concerned over the glory to come."  

Paul also said, in 1 Cor 4, that suffering and trials BREAKS THE SHELL 
of carnality, and allows the inner light (of healing? no) of 
Christ's nature ot shine out of my heart.  The outward man perishes.
But the inward renewal is what Paul craved!

Job said he was willing to SUFFER - to suffer hunger to be precise.  
And if Israel would complain for food rather than BELIEVE for food, He 
would send leanness to their souls (harden their hearts?).  They would 
suffer in spirit.  They would learn that it is better to believe through 
the suffering - that man cannot live by bread alone.  They would learn 
it is better to LIVE BY FAITH.  Living by the Word is living by faith.

"...suffered thee... that 
he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by 
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live."

It is better to live by faith and to believe than to complain, thinking that 
physical needs alone must be met.  This is what "prosperity preaching" MISSES.

It is a dangerous thing to simply believe for physical healing all the
time and prosperity in financial circles, and this is exactly what God
tried showing Israel.  Had they refrained from complaining and suffered
faithfully, God would have soon met their needs!  But He held away their 
physical prosperity a little distance to let them see how they would 
react.  He gave them the food sooner than He willed it due to their 
complaining.  His ultimate will was to let them hunger and see them hold 
on anyway, due to the realization that physical needs are not the only 
needs.  There are greater needs.  And a greater need is having confidence 
in God's Word.

I'd like to see how "snapping" and "hot-tempered" some of these prosperity 
preachers really are like when they are not on TV or behind a pulpit.

I get stirred when I see all the "faith" for healing being promoted and 
never any INWARD imaging into Christ's Christ occurring.  I've seen 
prosperity preachers offstage who snap and get hot under the collar, 
exposing a severe carnality problem.  What about self denial and 
humility?  What about a calm smile in the midst of a raging storm?  The 
faith to get to christlikeness is the ULTIMATE FAITH. Christlike Attitudes 
and godliness is what the REAL thing is all about!

Moses was kept from the land due to his "snapping" temper when he struck the 
rock a second time.  He did not "sanctify" God, or represent God's 
character properly.  He was not left out due to his lack of faith for 
miracles.  People see our childish "snapping".  And it is a reproach
and a left-over from Egypt.  God rolled away the reproach after the 
elder carnal group of Israelites died!  

You can be healed everytime you get sick, but you can remain as carnal as 
a she-bear protecting cubs.  And you will remain lost.

Jesus will say "I never knew you" to miracle workers and exorcists.  KNOWING
Him is my goal.  It was Paul's goal.  KNOWING Him means dep deep love for Him.
-- 
In Christ,
Mike Blume
mfblume@ns.sympatico.ca
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/mfblume/mblume.htm