God Wants You Well - What about...?
Paul's Thorn and the Book of Job
March 7, 2021

“Healing is a

, not a .”

Jesus is the will and revelation of God. If you see me, you see the Father.
John 14:8-14

Jesus made sick people

, and never healthy people .

Paul and His Thorn - 2 Cor. 12:7-11

Did God inflict Paul with physical ailment for the purpose to keep him humble? Does God afflict people to teach us lessons? Migraine, Eye trouble, auto immune disease, amputation, child severely handicapped?

o Why did Paul have this ‘thorn’? v. 7. Surpassing Great

. Heavenly experiences.
o ‘buffet / torment’ – beat/fist in Greek.

• Numbers 33:55
- “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from you, then it will come about that those whom you let remain of them will be like thorns in your eyes and like pricks in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live.””
• Ezekiel. 2:6
- “And as for you, son of man, you are not to fear them nor fear their words, though thistles and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions; you are not to fear their words nor be dismayed at their presence, since they are a rebellious house.””

It seems wherever Paul went, he has abnormally persecuted. 2 Cor. 11:21- 12:10.

God Promises protection from sickness and disease, and demonic; and also promises persecution of the righteous.
- Psalm 30:2
- Luke 10:19
- 2 Timothy 3:12

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JOB

Question we are tempted to ask.
1) If we live in obedience, how can these things happen?
2) If we are in God, how can then the devil attack us?

Common Theories:
a. Married wrong woman.
b. Job blasphemed. The Lord gave, takes away. He said that afterward.
c. Job Feared, and opened the door to satan. Job feared God!
d. Job overly depended on his own righteousness and lawfulness, to have a happy identity. Performance, sacrifice for kids, etc.
e. Some say, ‘the devil had a right to attack him anyway.’
f. (all these theories of putting the blame on Job…be careful with that.)
There is no agreement here, because I don’t think the book is trying to answer that question why.

Job’s Issue and our world…
- God created a ‘kind-of-world’ where His will is not the only will that matters. We have freedom, and our choices are powerful, and God honors our choices…consequences. He does not control us, nor does He make a world where He controls everything.

We have a SAY-SO - Man
- FALLEN Unregenerated

- Revelations 18:21-23
- FALLEN - Romans 8:18-22

OPPRESSION of the

.
Revelations 20:1-10. 12:9 and other places.
- In the garden, Satan hung around the only tree that brings doubt, and twists God’s good nature. Don’t do it.

Truths we hold unto:
• We serve Jesus, not Job. Our beliefs and authority come from Jesus, from the New Covenant.
• Job held on to God as His deliverer. Job never accepted it!
• How long was sickness? Weeks or 2-3 months tops. 70 years old.
• How did it end? He was healed.
• Lives 140 years after this. Gets twice as much life, riches, family.
• Don’t change your confession. Keep your integrity. Hold fast.
• Satan is Bad. God is good.
• Only heaven knows exactly; 1) so ‘don’t judge’, like Job’s friends. 2) Do not change your view of God. God is good, worthy of praise. God did not lay a finger on Job. Satan did. God blessed him doubly.
• Surround yourself with people who believe the same thing.