Job CXIX

 For anyone who believes they are owed a vision, a dream, a revelation, or an explanation for something happening in their lives because they belong to a specific denomination or because the wing of a hospital is named after them, and they deserve special attention for being so charitable, consider that there was none like Job on the face of the earth, blameless and upright, and after months of torment, God remained silent. There was no whisper in the night encouraging him to hang on; there was no vision of angels tending to his wounds, no dream of the day he would recover and be made whole, just the pain, and the torment, and his three friends demanding he confess to some sin he knew himself innocent of.

When God is silent amid the maelstrom, the only thing we can do is go back to the instruction manual and reacquaint ourselves with it. Unlike Job, we have the benefit of the written word, the blueprint for spiritual growth, maturity, and wholeness. In it, we will discover that we were told what to do in any given situation, how to react to adversity, and most often, no further instruction is required except for what has already been written.

Revelation 2:10, “Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

Jesus warned we would have hardships, trials, and tribulations; He warned that we would be hated, maligned, and persecuted; there is precedent within Scripture wherein the enemy asks to sift the faithful, and God allows it, and through it all, our instruction is to be faithful until death. It’s not to bemoan our situation, grow bitter, or seek escape, but to be faithful, knowing that if we are faithful until death, He will give us the crown of life.

Thankfully, few, if any of us will be called upon to suffer to the extreme Job did; then again, few, if any of us are as rare a soul as Job was, upon which God can look and see blamelessness and uprightness to the level of being unique among our contemporaries.

In acknowledging that no matter how learned, well-versed, educated, or erudite we might be, there will always be more things we do not know than what we do know, our minds are kept humble, teachable, and given to allow that we do not see in whole, but in part. All three of Job’s friends were so certain of their individual conclusions that they would not allow for the possibility that there was something more than what they perceived. They were fully convinced that what they saw was whole and not in part. Therefore, they were adamant in their claims and assertions.

It’s not as though Job’s friends weren’t convincing or that there wasn’t any truth in their conclusions. However, you can take a core truth and dilute it with a personal opinion to the point that the truth itself becomes unrecognizable, retaining so little of its original consistency as to be rendered nonexistent. The same can be said for taking a lie and couching it in truth so that it’s palatable, only to discover that you’ve been poisoned by something that, to the naked eye, seemed harmless and even beneficial.

Being firmly rooted in the Word of God, making it our main source of spiritual succor, acts as a spiritual immune system, wherein, every time some harmful pathogen attempts to worm its way into our hearts, it combats it and renders it harmless, expelling it before it has a chance to do damage. The answer to why so many people are deceived nowadays is simple: they are not anchored in the Word and do not feed their spiritual man with it.

The less of God’s word one has residing in one's heart, the easier it is for the devil to sow doubt and deception because there are no antibodies fighting against such things.

Psalm 119:11, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”

It’s not complicated, but we make it so because we give heed to the voices insisting that there are easier means, shortcuts, and newfangled ways to circumvent being saturated in the Word and hiding it within our hearts that will produce the same results. There aren’t. No matter who says it, how much they insist upon it, or how reasonable it may seem to human intellect, there is only one way of knowing the will of God, and that’s by knowing His Word.

Truth sets us free. Truth is not subjective, nor is it given to personal interpretation. It will not bend to men’s feelings or opinions; it remains ever resolute and absolute because Jesus is the embodiment of the truth we must walk in, the only way that will lead to life.

No one trying to complicate a relationship with Jesus or dismissing the fundamentals of prayer, fasting, reading the Word, and spending time with God as something antiquated or belonging to a bygone era that did not possess the wherewithal to find ways to circumvent them is doing so out of magnanimity or a selfless desire to see you make spiritual progress.

Sooner or later, the reason behind their insistence that you need them, their teaching, their wisdom, their counsel, or their guidance in order to grow in God becomes apparent, and it always has something to do with enriching themselves at your expense. Men exploit men for their own self-interests, and that is not exclusive to the world.

The reality of it is that you don’t need me, you don’t need some course, or some conference. All you need is a hunger and desire for more of God, a Bible, and the time required to consume the Word, to be in His presence, and to have fellowship with Him.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t avail yourself of teachings, writings, or sermons, but when an individual insists that they are indispensable, that without them, you will never attain a relationship with God, and they are the only way by which you will come to a deeper understanding of Him, they have placed themselves on par with Jesus, and that is wholly unacceptable.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.