The Cause of Suffering in The Life of Job

While reading some passages about Job's life during the last couple weeks, some interesting thoughts about the invisible realm and suffering or sickness entered my mind.

The speeches of Job, as they are recorded in the Bible, reveal that he is oftentimes tempted to think God was the one who brought the calamity and pain into his life. But through the introduction of the book, the reader is made to understand that it is actually the devil and his companions who work the destruction, death, and sickness in Job's life. It reminds us of the words of Jesus from the gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 10:

"The thief (devil) does not come except to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come that you may have life, and have it in abundance."

Some people still think today that God is behind a tragedy or sickness in their life. But if we think like that, we ignore the revelations from the book of Job, we ignore the reality of the invisible realm, and the revelation of the Father's attitude towards sickness which was made clearly visible through the life of Jesus.

"How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with strength, ability and power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were harassed and oppressed by the devil, for God was with him."
Acts 10;38

The devil demanded permission from God to test the righteousness of Job and reveal that it is fake and just based on the blessings the Lord gave him. But what the enemy of mankind did not know is that the righteousness of Job was not based on the good works of a man and their resulting benefits.

I believe the righteousness in Job's life was Jesus himself. Jesus is the reason why Job could hold on to his trust in God during the most adverse circumstances. Jesus was the hope for him, the anchor of his soul, that kept him from cursing God when the people closest to him recommended him to do so.

I personally do not believe the Lord gives the devil permission today to bring evil into the lives of people, in a way similar to Job. We can see how the enemy tries to accuse the Lord falsely of causing pain and sickness in the life of the people He loves, in Job 2:6-7:

"However, put forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh; he will curse You to Your face." So the Lord said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your power, only spare his life."

The Lord's answer clarifies that it is the enemy who brings the destruction into people's lives, by his limited power. A loving father could never have a part in causing sickness or bringing destruction to one of his children.

The false accusation of the enemy about Job's righteousness has been proven false back then and does not need to be retested. In fact, a more severe testing of that accusation happened once and for all when Jesus suffered for us on the cross. The way Jesus endured this suffering and turned it into an endless victory for all who believe and trust in him, removed the foundation of any accusation of this kind once and for all.

If people suffer sickness nowadays, it is not the result of God giving the enemy permission for it, but it is mostly the result of people giving this permission to the enemy. And, of course, we know that we have an enemy who does not play fair. He will go after people without any legal permission, in his sad attempt to cause pain to the heart of God by hurting individual members of his most loved creation.

Being aware of the reality of the invisible realm or the spirit realm helps us to end sickness in the people's lives. What we perceive in the spirit world with the help of the Holy Spirit is what we have authority over. This is one of the reasons why it makes sense to pray for the eyes of our heart to be enlightened and filled with the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus, like the apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 1:17-19a.

"the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened (flooded with light), so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe."

If we see, smell, or perceive a demon or an evil spirit while praying for someone, we can just use our spiritual body to brush it off of the person we are praying for and command it to leave in the name of Jesus. When you research this you would find thousands of testimonies about how this changed the life of individuals permanently. Some of those testimonies can be found in the gospels and the Book of Acts.

Every now and then I meet somebody who does not believe in an invisible world or a spiritual realm. He only believes in what he sees. If I would ask him if he believes in the existence of atoms and molecules, although he does not see them, it might start an interesting conversation. Most people in Africa and other parts of the world would laugh at you if you say this to them, because they have experienced the reality of the spiritual realm, mostly of the evil kind. Some of them may have lost friends or relatives as a result.

When I meet somebody with such a world perspective I can understand where they are coming from, to a certain degree. My own public education in Germany did not teach me anything about the spiritual world either. But after a countless number of very real experiences with the spiritual world or the kingdom of God, it would be foolish to deny its reality.

Everyone is going to experience how real the spiritual realm is at the end of their life, whether they believe in it or not. I take joy in helping people experience this reality sooner, without having to taste death. It also helps us to be a lot more peaceful and joyful once we get to the end of our natural life.

Practical Ways to Financial Independence

Every father desires for his children to be independent, one day. He rejoices to see how they become good stewards and make a positive impact through their life. The one who designed every aspect of our being spiritually and naturally is no different, in that respect. We have a loving heavenly father, weather we already believe in him or not.

Since we know we have supernatural help in this area, we might wonder how to get to the place of financial independence, if we are not already there. In this blog I want to elaborate on this topic every now and then, because I enjoy helping people enter into the freedom that was purchased for them.

What Does Financial Freedom Look Like? How Can I Get There, Practically?

Most of us know that the money we put on our banks actually helps the bank generate a lot more income than they give back to us in interest. What would happen if you used some of the money you have on your bank account to do something that is similar to what the banks are doing with part of their money? This would be called currency trading or Forex trading. The Forex market is based on the global economies of the different countries and their currencies. Until recently, only larger corporations and banks could participate in the Forex trading market. But the market has been opened up for everyone to trade on, not too long ago. All you need is a Forex broker who opens an account for you, which is similar to a basic bank account.

Since Forex trading can be very risky if you do not know what you are doing, you should either plan to invest some time to learn about the different trading strategies and analysis methods. Or you use a service like Zulu Trade, which allows you to link your account to expert traders and automatically do the same trades they perform in their accounts. This option allows you to sit back and relax, while watching the progress in your account every now and then, and make decisions about the experts you want to follow as your balance increases.

In your Zulu Trade account, you can configure what percentage of your balance you want to put at risk for the trading. A value above 50% enables you to receive the largest increases, but it also bears the potential for significant losses, in case the trader(s) you follow makes some serious mistakes. Especially in the beginning I would recommend to start with a value below 50%, until you get a feel for what is happening in your account.

You can open a Zulu Trade account with as little as 500 euros or 500 US dollars. Forex brokers like FXCM even allow you to open an account with as little as $50, if you want to get some practice with real money. In this case you would have to do the trading yourself, though. The best choice for practicing is usually a free demo account, which is offered by Zulu Trade as well as by the Forex brokers.

If you decide to go with Zulu Trade and open a live account, you would still need to choose a Forex broker, since Zulu does not do the currency trading themselves. They just send the trading signals to the broker account of your choice. I personally had good experiences with FXCM.com and Forex.com. I would also recommend checking out some of their free educational material and market updates, which are available on their websites.

I believe Forex trading may be one of the practical tools the Lord can use to help you fulfill the dreams and visions he has placed in your heart. In case you think I am talking about cars, houses, boats or horses, you are mistaken. The dreams God puts in our hearts are normally much greater than that, and, more significantly, they usually enable people to leave a legacy which will help a lot of others beyond their own lifetime.

In the coming weeks, I plan to continue sharing some background information about this tool. We want to learn how to become better stewards of all the resources the Lord has entrusted to us and the ones he is planning to entrust to us in the future. There are also a number of other great tools besides Forex trading which I would like to unveil in upcoming posts.

Please contact me once you are ready to open a live account for Forex trading with Zulu. I would love to help you choose some of the best traders or signal providers, to ensure you will have a great start on this journey. I also appreciate all the questions you might have.

The Lie From the Garden, Part Two

C.S. Lewis' book shows a parallel event to the encounter Eve had in the Garden of Eden, in the beginning of mankind's history. The snake announced to Eve in the garden, that she would become like God, if she ate from the tree of knowledge - the only tree God had forbidden Adam and Eve to eat from.

The conversation we find in our Bibles is probably just a summary of a longer exchange between Eve and the snake. At the time the snake asked this question, Eve had already been tricked into believing, that she lacked something in order to be like God. The devil had fooled her into believing, God did not make her and her husband in his own likeness - they already were like God! A simple, deceptive lie was a foundation for this suggestion to eat from the tree of knowledge. Adam and Eve were glorious beings who looked, thought and acted like God, until that time. Mankind is God's crown of creation.

In a similar way, the devil and his colleagues are trying to make us believe today, that God is not near us or with us. He wants us to believe that he is too far away in order to hear us when we would communicate with him. But the truth is, every human being is as close to God as he wants to be. If you are a Christian, you have Jesus living inside of you, the so-called hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). It does not get any closer than this. :)

If we would believe that Jesus is constantly with us, listening attentively to every word or thought we send in his direction, most of us would live very differently. Let's believe this and do great exploits with God, because of our intimate knowledge and friendship with him.

Once we fully realize how close the Lord is to every one of us right now, I believe we would fall down on the floor and pass out for a while, like the apostle John did in Revelation 1:17.

The Lie From the Garden, Part One

As I was reading the second book from C.S. Lewis' space trilogy this week, it felt like the Holy Spirit gave me understanding in an aspect which I was not able to see as clearly before. Is it not exciting to be on this journey of growing ever closer in relationship with the one who made the universe? I just love it. It helps us to see the purpose of life more clearly and to know where we are going.

Our minds were not made to just consider aspects related to a limited time frame of 100 years or less. They were not made to just think about the developments on a single planet called earth (although this seems to be overwhelming in itself, at times ;). In my opinion it is reasonable to assume we are called to use up to 100% of our brain capacity, like Jesus does. Does it not sometimes seem he was further ahead in his mind than most of the people around him, when we read the Bible?

I believe Adam and Eve used close to 100% of their mental capacity as well, before they came under the leadership of Satan through believing his lies. That began the process of changing into the image of their new leader / father, who seemingly operates on a limited amount of his mind, as well. Otherwise he would make much better decisions.

Now we are back on track through our relationship with Jesus, obviously. But the enemy does not stop trying to influence our minds, since he is scared of believers who walk in their full potential and who grow in their friendship with God, every day. Spending time with God also increases our SQ - our spiritual quotient. Our SQ is actually much more important than our IQ or EQ (emotional quotient), although everything helps.

The introduction got longer than planned, before I could get to the unveiling that came through reading C.S. Lewis' book. This means I have to make this a series with several parts. Social media statistics reveal shorter blog post are just read far more often than long ones. And I am not just sharing this for my own enjoyment. :)