ENCOURAGERS NEEDED, CONDEMNERS SHIFT

nSpired

ENCOURAGERS NEEDED, CONDEMNER SHIFT!

Negative pressures originate through only one source-Satan, but can be channelled through anybody even the closest person (the devil channelled his negative thought Peter to our Lord Jesus) to a man having a challenge, storms and waiting for the fulfilment of God promises.

  A man’s wife is his most succour after God in times of need; she is designed to be his soul-mate, his confidant, the one person who can know his inner most thoughts (when intimacy is nurtured and cultivated). A Christian marriage partner is the next anchor for him/her after the Almighty.

So if you desire to hurt a man and you want his wound deep- penetrating every defence mechanism he had built for protection against disappointments, you just need to incite his wife against him. Some men will easily tolerant negative criticism from any source-even subordinates but when the criticism is from his soul mate, the hurt is deep.

Satan does not play fair games and he is always ruthless when he is after man especially believers in Christ Jesus. In dealing with Job, Satan went for the jugular vein-his wife. (Job 2:1-10)

…….Then Satan answered the Lord, Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has will he give for his life. 

 But put forth your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse and renounce You to Your face. 

 And the Lord said to Satan, Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life. 

 So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with loathsome and painful sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 

 And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself, and he sat [down] among the ashes. 

 Then his wife said to him, Do you still hold fast your blameless uprightness? Renounce God and die! AMP

Satan used Job unnamed wife to put pressure on Job’s faith. Job was married to a woman who willingly enjoyed the blessings, but started murmuring and backsliding immediately the first tides of challenges rolled into their family. 

Either the devil put these negative thoughts into her heart or she created the thoughts by herself which is not likely ( because Satan was on the scene of Job’s life at that time and decided to use the person closest him this way hurting him both physically and emotionally.) Job’s wife counseled her husband to curse God, in essence renounce his allegiance to the Almighty; who Satan testified was the Source of Job’s wealth and affluence.

When Job was hit with the first set of bad news, he did the following “ Then Job stood up and tore his robe in grief and fell down upon the ground before God.  "I came naked from my mother's womb," he said, "and I shall have nothing when I die. The Lord gave me everything I had, and they were his to take away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."  In all of this Job did not sin or revile God. 

TLB

Job’s three friends on the other hand did not ask him to curse God rather they blamed Job for the predicaments in His life. They condemned him incessantly as been the cause of his problems and brought more pains to his heart instead of comfort. I pray you will be surrounded by spiritually minded friends when challenging times approach, because if truly, you believe in Christ and obey His teaching,  challenging times will surely come visiting, it is just a matter of ‘WHEN ‘and not ÍF’.  But unhappy is that person who is surrounded with ‘friends and companions who have little or no understanding of spiritual laws and things of the Spirit. 

You must surround yourself with spiritual believers travelling in the same direction as you and that the Holy Spirit can contact in your times of need to pray. Don’t surround yourself with men and women who don’t know how to walk in the Spirit. ( I pray the Holy spirit gives more understanding on this  issue.) Job in chapter one and two did not cursed God; instead he rebuked his wife for advising him to curse God and tried to defend his integrity with his friends. 

But as the assaults from friends and wife continued, the pressure exerted on his strength, pushed beyond his threshold of pain  and he started defending himself  and blamed God for been unjust and unfair to him inspite of his integrity.

 

Pressures as defined in this article can make believers do the unimaginable. It can sap spiritual strength from a man; it can crush the faith and cause despondency, depression and a state of hopelessness which can ultimately lead to either suicide or backsliding. 

Pressures can come in form of criticisms, unbridled comments, incessant insensitive public prayers exposing a believer challenges with their specific name tag-   for example, lets pray for sister So-So having a marital problem, her husband is having an affair. 

As much as praying for believers having challenges is good, I feel, its not so good, everyone in the Church knows my area of challenge and make me a public prayer point. (I stand to be corrected)

Now, let's  pay attention to the attitudes of other believers to the Christian going through a waiting period.  TO BE CONTINUED

A.L Hrpjzibah