I would be lying if I said that in the days to come Christians will see tribulation around them but they will keep themselves safe and sound inside a cocoon of health and wealth. That It will not happen like that. Just as God brought Job out of his affliction, so will he remove us from our own.
This is a message I hear from many pulpits in all parts of my country. It is being proclaimed by many whom God has raised as true prophetic voices, and they are preparing the people of God for what is coming. Hundreds of ministers are gathering to pray in different cities, and they are hearing the same confession: "There have never been so many that have been tested so deeply. In recent months there is something that has been unleashed in this country. A flood of difficulty, hardship, deep sorrow and suffering has overtaken the pious. "
That flood has a responsible: Satan. He was the one who caused Job trouble, and he is the one who causes it to us now. Is it possible that he will again be standing before God, launching great accusations against the Church of the last times? Could it be challenging God with words like the ones that follow? "It is true that it is the last hour, but you do not have a true church. You do not have a wife without blemish. They are not prudent virgins.
The truth is that most believers are asleep! Look at them: they are materialistic, self-centered, and they are hunting for riches and luxuries. Listen to how your teachers tell you that they do not have to suffer, that all things are theirs just by asking for them. Remove your protective wall, God, and let me put them to the test. You will not have a holy remnant! I'm going to attack with sorrows, I will flood them with temptations, and I will pour over them a spirit of fear and discouragement. I'm going to drag you into poverty. You will see break this spoiled generation. They will collapse and leave you. In that church there are no men like Job ... they are spiritual weaklings! "
For this kind of scene is that the Scripture says: "Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! because the devil has descended to you with great wrath, knowing that he has little time " (Revelation 12:12)
Like Job, we may cry out of confusion. We simply have no idea how important it is for God to trust in Him in the midst of all the floods that come to us over. We know that the devil can not touch us unless God first lowers the wall and allows it; and I think that now, for all of us, the wall is going down. The Bible is very clear in warning us that in these last days, God will make us go through a purifying fire.
That was not, of course, the advice that Job heard. While Job was in his deepest despair, he was harassed by critics who boasted counselors. The they discouraged even more by pressuring him to renounce the hidden sin of his life. Later God told Job that all the words of those counselors were pure nonsense. I have a warning for those who are not suffering but who know a brother or sister who does suffer. Maybe you have a Christian friend who is unemployed and not He has work possibilities, or he has been attacked by a sudden calamity in his home, or for whom one problem has been appearing after another. When you see a person so, discouraged by the trials, do not judge her. Only God can know his heart, and know if there is sin in him or not. Rather, embrace that person and say, "I'm interested in you." I cried with whom he cries, suffer with the one who suffers. That is authentic advice, because it comes directly from the Word of God.
It is an evil thing to distort God before those who are suffering. Do not intensify your brother's sorrows; Lift the load, support it, cry with it, share your grief. Ask God to give you his heart of compassion and solidarity, because it could well be the next that is in the fire of affliction.
If you are suffering, and the reason is not because God is dealing with sin in your life, then you will recognize the authentic advice that comes from people of prayer, appointed by God and who have the compassion of Jesus Christ. Those consolation ministers will come to you with the encouragement and edification of the Word of God, and she will confirm what God has already told you. You will be happy and will say: "Thank God! Yes, that confirms what is in my heart. It has given me the assurance that God has listened to me! "
