Deliverance

When Faith Fails

Ken

The disciples failed to cast out a demon from an apparently epileptic boy. Jesus intervened. “All things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23 KJV). The distraught father cried out, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief” (9:24). The faith of both the father and the disciples failed them. After healing the boy, Jesus diagnosed the solution. “This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting” (9:29). The sins of the parents are visited upon the “children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:7 KJV). Deliverance is possible only through Spirit directed searching, confession, repentance, and forgiveness of sins by means of prayer and fasting. 

Not All Have Faith

Ken

“And that we may be delivered from perverse and evil people. For not all have faith” (2Thessalonians 3:2 NET). God knows not all have faith. Screenwriters need a villain to provide drama for the plot’s deliverance of its hero or heroine. God does not need to recruit sinners to provide drama for the stage of life. Already “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23). But, sin is not like gravity, since not everyone has to sin. From the beginning, God has been positioning His resources and all the players in this vast drama of life for the conclusion. “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11 KJV). Let us not be like Lucifer, who allowed his self-love to overpower his love for Yahweh. Let us not even blame the Devil, our environment, or our upbringing for why-we-are-the-way-we-are. Instead, “since the day we heard it, [we] do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9-10 KJV). It may not always feel like it, but the Almighty wins the final victory!

What About Job?

Ken

When it comes to suffering, what about Job? Didn’t it prove that even good people have to suffer, and suffering was not necessarily a sign of God’s anger because we have done something wrong? Was Job wrong for expecting deliverance from his suffering? Weren’t Job’s friends condemned by God for attacking Job? Wasn’t Elihu not condemned by God because he attempted more to justify God than just condemn Job? Didn’t Job finally confess, “Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not” (Job 42:3 KJV) and repented? God is sovereign. We are earthly soldiers in a Cosmic War between the Almighty and the forces of Lucifer. If my suffering or death is needed for the Lord God Almighty to achieve His Final Triumph over the Wicked One, Thy Kingdom come, and Thy Will be done. And, if my deliverance will frustrate the wicked and encourage the godly, do unto me Lord, as You will. Amen and amen.