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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES
Author: Teresa Seputis <ts@godspeak.net>

The Cost Of Healing

Teresa Seputis

Lesson 4
A Bible Precedent Of God Permitting Enemy Attacks

Many of us have been taught that when we are in the center of God's will, He protects us from all harm. We get that thinking from passages like Psalm 91:5-12, which says:

5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, 6 Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.

7 A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you. 8 Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked.

9 Because you have made the Lord, Who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place-- 10 no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; 11 for He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. 12 In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.

There are times when God does protect us in that manner, but we should not expect the Psalm 91 type of protection (where hardship and difficulty never come knocking at our door) all of the time. That is not consistent with Jesus saying to His disciples, "In this world you will have tribulation" (John 16:33).

The truth is that there are times when God doesn't protect us from hardship/trial/attack. We see this over and over again in the bible where powerful men and woman of God faced all sorts of trails, hardship, difficulties and enemy attacks. In fact, the thing that made them great in God's kingdom was how they responded to difficulty; how they walked in faith and obedience to the Lord in the face of hardship.

In some cases, God came through for them with amazing deliverances that yielded very powerful testimonies, such as when God split the Red Sea or when He delivered Meshack, Shadrack and Abednego from the burning fiery furnace. But there were other times when He allowed His servants to lay down their very lives for their sakes. Remember what Jesus said to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:34: "Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city..."

In short, there were times when God allowed the enemy to persecute and kill His servants, who were in the center of His will and acting in obedience to His command. The enemy attacked them (and in some cases put them to death); and God permitted it because their suffering/death somehow played a part in His bigger plan. While they paid a great price on this side of eternity, they received a greater reward for it on the other side. That is because God knows that for the believer, death isn't "the end," it is just a transition from this reality to God's eternal reality.

God sometimes permits things that seem "very bad" to us, but from His perspective, He is still protecting us from the much greater harm of eternal death. That is why Jesus said, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!" (Luke 12:4b-5).

Jesus said that we would have tribulation in this life, but He did not leave it at that. He also said (in the same breath), "but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." He makes it possible for us to experience His joy and peace even in the midst of fierce tribulation, because He is with us and because His Spirit lives inside of us to help and strengthen us. He makes it possible for us to be of good cheer while we are experiencing tribulation.

The bible is full of testimony after testimony of mighty men and women of God who experienced tribulation and enemy attack in this world. In most cases, they were in the center of His will and obeying God when the enemy attack came.

Look at the prophet Jeremiah, for instance. He was chosen to be God's prophet before he was born, and he lived a very godly childhood (Jeremiah 1:5-6). He was called at a very young age and served God faithfully all of his life. God gave him crucial prophetic words to share, warning Jerusalem to repent or face judgment. He was thrown into prison for accurately decreeing God's warning that Babylon would conquer Judah and carry many of it's people away captive (Jeremiah 32, Jeremiah 37). At one point he was taken out of prison and lowered into a death pit because the government officials did not like his prophecies (Jeremiah 38:1-6). But he was rescued out of the death pit and put back into regular prison. He remained there a long time, until the Babylonians overran Judah and set him free. Then, when the rest of Judah went into captivity (in fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy), Jeremiah was set free.

In Jeremiah's case, he had to wait a very long time to receive His deliverance. But there were others, just as anointed and godly as Jeremiah, who never did receive their deliverance--such as John the Baptist.

John was one of the most anointed people to ever serve God. In Luke 7:28, Jesus said "For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist." He was anointed before birth (Luke 1:41). He was given a very important job of preparing the way for Jesus' ministry. He served God faithfully all of the days of his life, fearlessly proclaiming the word of the Lord and he was recognized and honored as a prophet by the people that he ministered to. Many people repented and were baptized because of his ministry.

By our human reasoning, If there was anyone who God should protect from enemy attack, it was John.

Yet, God allowed John to be thrown into prison because of his ministry. Matthew 14:3-4 says, "Herod had laid hold of John and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. Because John had said to him, 'It is not lawful for you to have her.'"

In John's case, he was never set free from prison; he was executed (beheaded) instead (Matthew 14:10). God did not only allow the devil to attack John (prison), He also allowed the devil to kill him.

1 Kings 22 tells the story of another prophet, Micaiah son of Imlah, who was thrown into jail for the rest his life. His crime was prophesying God's truth to kings Ahab and Jehoshaphat, after they demanded that He prophesy to them. Micaiah did not want to prophesy to them, but Ahab sought him out at king Jehoshaphat's request. He demanded that Micaiah prophesy the results of an upcoming battle. Micaiah knew they would not like his message, so he tried to decline the request, but Jehoshaphat insisted. So Micaiah finally predicted that Ahab would be defeated and killed in battle. He went on to expose the demonic forces and strategies at work behind the scenes, warning how they wanted to trick Ahab into going into battle so that he might be killed (verses 19-23).

King Ahab's response is found in verses 26-27: "So the king of Israel said, 'Take Micaiah, and return him to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king's son; and say, "Thus says the king: 'Put this fellow in prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and water of affliction, until I come in peace.'"'" Since King Ahab never returned in peace, there was no one to order Micaiah's release from prison, and he most likely stayed there until he died. In effect, the devil attacked him, and took him out of ministry.

There are times when God will call on us to suffer for Him (and possibly even to lay down our lives). When this happens, remember that our lives here on earth are very short and temporary compared to our eternal life with Him in Heaven.

Personally, I'd rather not suffer. I'd rather that God always protect me and keep me from all harm and discomfort. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way. Jesus Himself said that some of us must suffer for His name's sake. There will be times when the devil attacks us and God allows him to harm us. We must not be shocked or caught off guard when that happens; but on the other hand, we must also remember that many times God will choose to deliver us, as per Psalm 91:5-12.


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-- Do not republish without written permission from <godspeak@godspeak.net> --

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