THINGS THAT CANNOT BE SHAKEN
Job 1:20-22
Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said: “ Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.” In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.
We all know the story of Job and the trials he faced, how God rewarded him in the end, and how it was satan that desired to destroy Job. Please note that in the account it was God who asked satan in verse 8, ‘have you considered my servant Job‘; not the man Job or any person named Job, but My servant Job. Job was a servant of God, God acknowledged him as such. What is going to befall Job is not any punishment or persecution as from God, this kind of thinking is perverse and misrepresents the Living God. After what God had to say about Job it would be foolish to think that God was punishing him for some unknown reason by using satan to crush his spirit. No beloved, there is a secret that the Lord wants us to see about the lives of His servants on earth.
Job means ‘ the hated or persecuted one ’ . The true servants of God
will be hated and persecuted in this world, but bear in mind there is a limit to how far God will permit the enemy to go. Let’s read:
John 17: 14-16 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
John 15:18 - 25 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’
Hatred and persecution against the church does not come from people, flesh and blood, but from the forces of darkness in the spirit world that knows that Jesus has redeemed us unto Himself. ( Ephesians 6: 12 ) They know we no longer belong to this world and are strangers and pilgrims in it, they know that we are messengers, servants of the Lord seeking to win souls unto the resurrected Christ. They seek permission to sift us as wheat is sifted. Wheat speaks of that which is good. Let’s see what the Lord said to Peter concerning this topic;
Luke 22:31-34 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Why didn’t the Lord just stop satan from attacking Peter? Surely satan will not desire anyone for anything good. The secret is that like Job, Peter was a servant of God and approved.
The particulars of the lives of the men in the Bible are recorded to teach us, to give us the understanding of things we are going thru as servants of the Lord. That we may have encouragement and not faint. The scriptures says that my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; Hosea 4:6 . That’s right beloved God’s own people are sometimes destroyed because they lack the knowledge they need to understand their difficult circumstances, and are sometimes fooled by their comfortable ones. Jesus said the devil comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy . The Lord did not stop satan from attacking Peter, because it was a process that would convert Peter and equip him to strengthen the brethren. He knew that satan could not destroy Peter, and neither can the devil destroy you, on the contrary he can only serve to cause to come forth that which God has built in you. Further down Peter said that he was ready to go to prison and death with the Lord, but Jesus said before morning breaks Peter would deny Him. This desire to both go to prison and to die with Jesus was not yet built by God in Peter‘s spirit, it was only in his mind, we see that the shaking soon shook that desire out of him. Later on in Peter’s life this same desire was built in his spirit by Christ Jesus, history says he was killed for the master he served.
Now in Hebrews 12:25-29 Please read this. Here we see that God’s Voice which comes to us in His Word will shake heaven and earth, the things that are made will be shaken, but the things which cannot be shaken will remain. The secret in the shaking of Job’s life is the revelation that one thing remained unshakeable, his worship of God, this is where his integrity came from. Satan wanted Job to curse God to His face, this meant that the worship God had established in Job’s interior life would be destroyed and in it’s place would be planted cursing. What the Lord builds is indestructible.
The one thing that satan couldn’t destroy in Peter’s life was that Jesus is the Son of the Living God. The ability to worship God was something God Himself had built in Job by revelation, the same God revealed to Peter that Jesus was the Son of the Living God. ( Matthew 16:16 ) These two things in these men’s lives was unshakeable; its clear other things were shaken out, Peter denied the Lord and Job said the thing I feared is come upon me; because they were made and made up, but only what God has done in our lives remain, and remain unshakeable. These unshakeable things are made manifest every time we are under attack from the enemy, whatever form he may take. God bless you.
In Christ,
Everflowinglife
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