God uses suffering to teach us to minister

[OneAccord]

This morning, it was raining. No work today. So... I decided to go to Scottsboro to look up a pastor I haven't seen in over twenty years. I haven't seen or spoken to this brother in many years, had no idea if he was even still living. He was, as it turns out. I found out through a mutual friend where this pastor lives and I went to see him. (He is still pastoring, visited his chrurch tonight).

When I got to his house I learned that he had just recently buried his 2nd wife. (His first wife died years ago). The brother was devastated. He, at first didn't recoignize me so I introduced myself and he remembered. He invited me in and I found that he was sorting thru his wifes things.(Oh, how I recall how painful that is). He kept turning to me with tear filled eyes saying, Brother, what am I going to do with out her?". I just let him talk. He poured his soul out - all of his pent-up emotion came flooding out... I waited...I listened. I cried with him...tried to console him.

Later, as I got ready to leave... he said, "Oh, brother, you don't know how much you helped me." Actually, I did nothing... I just let him talk. Then he added, "Its like you went thru this with me". It was then, as I was ready to walk out the door, that I said, "Brother, you remember my first wife...how she died in 1988?". He remembered. Then, I told him about losing Lola in February of this year. He knew then how it seemed I had went thru this with him. Had things not happened with Lola as they did, I wouldn't have known what to do to help this brother in the Lord. So... God has a way of teaching us thru our suffering, doesn't He?

Of course he does brother. God uses these things in our lives to mold and shape us. The word says thru MUCH tribulation shall ye enter in. So with that being said. These things are to be expected. Do they hurt ? Yes. But I know we have to endure these things. My church family and others had to endure the passing away of our dear pastor. This man was like a father to me. I never really had a father growing up, and I wasnt raised in this truth. The death of him really devastated us all. But we all pulled together and got thru it. Now you want to talk about pain. His wife which is our pastor now she has been thru it all. In the last 7 years she has lost her Mom, Husband,Car,House. She almost died and many many other things. But thru all that she has preached more conferences and been able to minister to many.

Originally Posted by ByFaith

Of course he does brother. God uses these things in our lives to mold and shape us. The word says thru MUCH tribulation shall ye enter in. So with that being said. These things are to be expected. Do they hurt ? Yes. But I know we have to endure these things. My church family and others had to endure the passing away of our dear pastor. This man was like a father to me. I never really had a father growing up, and I wasnt raised in this truth. The death of him really devastated us all. But we all pulled together and got thru it. Now you want to talk about pain. His wife which is our pastor now she has been thru it all. In the last 7 years she has lost her Mom, Husband,Car,House. She almost died and many many other things. But thru all that she has preached more conferences and been able to minister to many.

Hi,

I understand the pain that person is going thru losing their love ones and things but I do not think that is how God mould and shape u.

God will use circumstances to break u but sickness and death is not part of it.

If God has to use sickness and death ( which God who is LIFE has none), then it is like saying God himself cannot change you but need the help of the devil because only the devil gives sickness and death.

SEE THE CONSISTENT PATTERN ON GOD'S DEALING

If u look at the story of Job, most calamity comes because of sin consciousness / condemnation ( not sin) and once God is able to help the believer see that He is a good God and Father and that the believer stands before HIm righteous and blameless all the times, the calamities of life fades away more and more.

The problem with Job is that he thinks that God is angry all the time and needs to be appease and hence his countless offerings to be right with HIM. Sin-consciousness will open the door to all kinds of attack on a believer. But righteousness consciousness will turn the thing around.

Same for Joshua the High priest. He could not complete his task or Lord's work because he was under-condemnation but once the Lord put on him the new garment of righteousness, the work of the Lord continues.

Apostle Paul was whipped all the time until he stand up to his right as a ROMAN citizen. He could be spared from the whipping.

The bible and Word is consistent and it is good that we study the 2 topics that matters most to New testament believer - Grace and Righteousness.
No sickness, no disease, no death except you coming into your position as a believer, child of God, demanding your right to be free, from lack, sickness, disease, failure etc because of Jesus' finished work.

Rom 5:17 For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

If the Word declares that by abundance of grace and gift of righteousness we will reign in life ( this Life obviously), why do we spent so much time focusing on dealing of God and suffering.. ??

Major on the major and the rest will take care of itself.

The lost of love ones is not pleasant but revelation will cause u to see that the root cause of such attack is condemnation / guilt / sin consciousness in a believer's life.

The victory is yours and you deserve it because Jesus has paid the price, for us, it is just stop trying to earn it by our good behaviors, service, praying, bible reading etc etc.. This " trying to earn it thing" is what Jesus want to break and remove.

see The Root Cause Of Your Problem Is Condemnation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCUby8b1zl4

[Pressing-On]

Originally Posted by OneAccord

This morning, it was raining. No work today. So... I decided to go to Scottsboro to look up a pastor I haven't seen in over twenty years. I haven't seen or spoken to this brother in many years, had no idea if he was even still living. He was, as it turns out. I found out through a mutual friend where this pastor lives and I went to see him. (He is still pastoring, visited his chrurch tonight).

When I got to his house I learned that he had just recently buried his 2nd wife. (His first wife died years ago). The brother was devastated. He, at first didn't recoignize me so I introduced myself and he remembered. He invited me in and I found that he was sorting thru his wifes things.(Oh, how I recall how painful that is). He kept turning to me with tear filled eyes saying, Brother, what am I going to do with out her?". I just let him talk. He poured his soul out - all of his pent-up emotion came flooding out... I waited...I listened. I cried with him...tried to console him.

Later, as I got ready to leave... he said, "Oh, brother, you don't know how much you helped me." Actually, I did nothing... I just let him talk. Then he added, "Its like you went thru this with me". It was then, as I was ready to walk out the door, that I said, "Brother, you remember my first wife...how she died in 1988?". He remembered. Then, I told him about losing Lola in February of this year. He knew then how it seemed I had went thru this with him. Had things not happened with Lola as they did, I wouldn't have known what to do to help this brother in the Lord. So... God has a way of teaching us thru our suffering, doesn't He?

Amen, OA! I'm reminded of the words in II Corinthians - 1:3 "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; (4) Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God."

[Bro-Larry]

God never intended for us to experience death , sickness or poverty. All these come from the devil. Adam and Eve made the choice which opened the door to "Pandora's Box" (TIC). So don't blame God like Job did.

Back in Job's day the devil had access to heaven so he was up there accusing men before God. Now, since Jesus did a number on him, he's been kicked out of heaven and he's down here on earth accusing God before men.

Don't believe the lie of the devil, that God is sending trouble your way to build you up and make you strong. It's the devil sending tribulation your way to destroy you. (Jn 10:10). Jesus came that you might enjoy the God kind of life: ZOE'

Whether you enjoy the ZOE' from God or the tribulation from the devil is your choice. If you choose to embrace suffering, at least it's good that you make the most of it and hold fast your faith in God.

[OneAccord]

Originally Posted by Bro-Larry

God never intended for us to experience death , sickness or poverty. All these come from the devil. Adam and Eve made the choice which opened the door to "Pandora's Box" (TIC). So don't blame God like Job did.

Back in Job's day the devil had access to heaven so he was up there accusing men before God. Now, since Jesus did a number on him, he's been kicked out of heaven and he's down here on earth accusing God before men.

Don't believe the lie of the devil, that God is sending trouble your way to build you up and make you strong. It's the devil sending tribulation your way to destroy you. (Jn 10:10). Jesus came that you might enjoy the God kind of life: ZOE'

Whether you enjoy the ZOE' from God or the tribulation from the devil is your choice. If you choose to embrace suffering, at least it's good that you make the most of it and hold fast your faith in God.

Big Larry- I appreciate your comments in this thread. Its always good to see things from a different perspective. However, its not that I think God sends trouble to build us up or to make us stronger, but its that it is fact that we are made stronger by learning from the troubles that we have. We learn in the fiery furnances of life just as we learn from our mistakes. On of the truest verses in the Bible is Job 14:1 Man [that is] born of a woman [is] of few days, and full of trouble. Troubles are a part of life, just as sickness and death are parts of life. They don't come from God, nor do they always come from the devil. Sometimes trouble comes through our own doing- sometimes through the actions of others. And sometimes, trouble just happens because... well... thats life.

Its interesting that you would refer to Job. No, his troubles didn't come from God- but God used Job's situation to help him see that he had, as all humans do, a character flaw. And, it was in the midst of trials that Job was able to finally see and correct that flaw. So, we too can learn from the problems of life just as Job did. I use a saying in dealing with the problems of life. "We can't have a top without a bottom, can't have a good without a bad". That is to say, if life was all good with no problems, then, we'd never know life is good. We have nothing to compare the "good" with. The Dottie Rambo song says it better than I can:

Life can't be all sunshine, or the flowers would die. The rivers, would be deserts , all barren and dry."

The Bible is full of men and women who learned, not from the "good" of life, but from the bad. Why did it take the children of Israel 40 years to traverse the wilderness when it was only an 11 day journey from Egypt to the border of the Promised Land? (Deu 1:2). Their journey was a learning process. They learned from their mistakes and learned from their troubles. Its not that God sends trouble our way to "teach" us, but He certainly can, and does, teach us a lesson from the troubles of life. I don't agree that tribulation is always the devil trying to destroy us. I believe tribulation is nothing more than a facet of life- its how we react to that tribulation that makes, or breaks, us. If I haven't learned anything from it...then... I failed the "test". To say, however, that tribulation is never used by God as a teaching tool is to discount much of the Bible. Is not tribulation a form of chastisement that God uses to correct His children, just as we use various means to correct behavior in our children? Doesn't the Bible tell us that tribulation works patience?

I don't care for trouble. Don't like it at all. But trouble is inevitable. However, if I have learned something from that trouble, then I have gained and not lost. Maybe that trouble teaches me something about myself just as Job's taught him something about himself (and taught him something about his "friends"). Though, in my POV, the entire story of Job was based on a series of lies, Job benefitted from his trials. He gained from them. He was a better man for it. And, whatever happens to us in this life, if we gain from it, if we benefit from it, then surely we can acknowledge that God used that trouble as a teaching tool.

[Rhoni]

Originally Posted by OneAccord

Big Larry- I appreciate your comments in this thread. Its always good to see things from a different perspective. However, its not that I think God sends trouble to build us up or to make us stronger, but its that it is fact that we are made stronger by learning from the troubles that we have. We learn in the fiery furnances of life just as we learn from our mistakes. On of the truest verses in the Bible is Job 14:1 Man [that is] born of a woman [is] of few days, and full of trouble. Troubles are a part of life, just as sickness and death are parts of life. They don't come from God, nor do they always come from the devil. Sometimes trouble comes through our own doing- sometimes through the actions of others. And sometimes, trouble just happens because... well... thats life.

Its interesting that you would refer to Job. No, his troubles didn't come from God- but God used Job's situation to help him see that he had, as all humans do, a character flaw. And, it was in the midst of trials that Job was able to finally see and correct that flaw. So, we too can learn from the problems of life just as Job did. I use a saying in dealing with the problems of life. "We can't have a top without a bottom, can't have a good without a bad". That is to say, if life was all good with no problems, then, we'd never know life is good. We have nothing to compare the "good" with. The Dottie Rambo song says it better than I can:

Life can't be all sunshine, or the flowers would die. The rivers, would be deserts , all barren and dry."

The Bible is full of men and women who learned, not from the "good" of life, but from the bad. Why did it take the children of Israel 40 years to traverse the wilderness when it was only an 11 day journey from Egypt to the border of the Promised Land? (Deu 1:2). Their journey was a learning process. They learned from their mistakes and learned from their troubles. Its not that God sends trouble our way to "teach" us, but He certainly can, and does, teach us a lesson from the troubles of life. I don't agree that tribulation is always the devil trying to destroy us. I believe tribulation is nothing more than a facet of life- its how we react to that tribulation that makes, or breaks, us. If I haven't learned anything from it...then... I failed the "test". To say, however, that tribulation is never used by God as a teaching tool is to discount much of the Bible. Is not tribulation a form of chastisement that God uses to correct His children, just as we use various means to correct behavior in our children? Doesn't the Bible tell us that tribulation works patience?

I don't care for trouble. Don't like it at all. But trouble is inevitable. However, if I have learned something from that trouble, then I have gained and not lost. Maybe that trouble teaches me something about myself just as Job's taught him something about himself (and taught him something about his "friends"). Though, in my POV, the entire story of Job was based on a series of lies, Job benefitted from his trials. He gained from them. He was a better man for it. And, whatever happens to us in this life, if we gain from it, if we benefit from it, then surely we can acknowledge that God used that trouble as a teaching tool.

This is good stuff Bro. OneAccord!

[TRFrance]

Some preachers will tell you they've gotten their best messages from the Lord while going through the fire.

The fact that he himself has personally gone through the fire adds more authenticity and power to what he's saying.

[Rhoni]

One Accord,

This was mentioned on another thread also. I do think that the things we go through helps equip us to minister to others as they go through similar circumstances.

When we are young and idealistic we ask God to use us. We think it means bright lights, recognition, and prominence, but in actuality it is about wiping up the messes of satan in other people's lifes just like BRAVO paper towels.

When you feet wrung out...just know God is preparing you for more usefulness.

Blessings, Rhoni

[steve p]

Originally Posted by Rhoni

One Accord,

This was mentioned on another thread also. I do think that the things we go through helps equip us to minister to others as they go through similar circumstances.

When we are young and idealistic we ask God to use us. We think it means bright lights, recognition, and prominence, but in actuality it is about wiping up the messes of satan in other people's lifes just like BRAVO paper towels.

When you feet wrung out...just know God is preparing you for more usefulness.

Blessings, Rhoni

Once again, sometimes its Charmin!!
Blessings!