Psalm 91 has always been our promise for the security of God in our lives. In our household we speak it aloud more times in a day than we can count.

Here are just a few verses. We urge you to memorize this entire Psalm and speak it aloud daily.

"1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.

16 With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation."

Afflictions are simply a part of life. They cannot be avoided. The key in having security in your afflictions is to know who God is, and to have some understanding of how He feels about your afflictions, and about some of the value they have and what they could be accomplishing for good.

I believe that there are those afflictions that are the direct cause of one's rebellion and/or disobedience. The greatest value in those afflictions is to bring that one to the point of repentance, to give up the rebellion and to totally put their trust in the Lord through faith and obedience.

Then there are those afflictions that are not the direct result of disobedience and rebellion. What about those? How can we have security when we are doing the best we know to do and afflictions just continue to surround us?

I believe that these are the primary categories for afflictions.

1.         Our suffering quite often acts as intercession and warfare for those close to us, the church and the lost, and it is intended to defeat spiritual forces, demons and devils.

2.         It is intended by God to overcome and eternally defeat generational curses. This is God's secret weapon and the greatest example is the greatest affliction, that being Jesus' Cross.

3.         Our suffering is intended to bring us into a closer relationship with the Lord and into His Kingdom realm now, while on this earth. We will see this prove out in Job's life.

4.             Those described above that come as a result of our own disobedience, ignorance or rebellion. These work for your good by bringing you to your wits end so that you may totally submit to the Lord God.

         As we will see as we progress in this lesson, none of these sufferings and afflictions come to us by God throwing them at us. However, that does not mean that they are not a valuable tool in God's hand.

This lesson will focus on:

1.       How great is our God! How great is His love and personal care for us.

2.       How wicked and perverse is Satan and his kingdom.

3.       How wrong people are in their view of life and of God and how desperately they need to see God with eyes of wisdom and revelation.

4.      How we do see God when we open the doors or our real hearts to Him and become real with Him.

5.      How, when we do see Him, He causes us to become overcomers over satanic and generational curses and influences in our lives, thus becoming a blessing to others.

I am going to use Job and Paul as examples for this concept.

I believe that God desires to take each one of us from believing in doctrine to knowing Him.

Paul the apostle had more afflictions than most of us will ever experience, yet while in prison he could say, "For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day" (2 Timothy 1:12).

Paul said I know whom I believe, not in what I believe. Job went through the process of what to whom during his brief but intense suffering.

Paul was an expert in the School of Afflictions.

I will paraphrase what Paul said.

"Look, I know I have been born into privilege even religious privilege, that I have been educated with and by the best. I have performed perfectly in my vocations, I was a real performer, and few people could keep up with me. However, I have noticed something interesting. The fruit that I see in my life and in my ministry is fruit that came from my afflictions. That fruit far surpassed anything all my natural strengths could and did accomplish. I was amazed! His resurrection of my afflictions has produced more fruit than all of my performance! Therefore I long for His resurrection power to work in my life, and I count all other things as "dung." I would rather have Him turn my Junk into Jewels any day!" (2 Corinthians 12:1-10, Philippians 3:1-12).

What about Job's security in adversity?

People, for centuries have asked the question, "Why do the righteous suffer?" "Why did Job suffer?" Then they have attempted to come up with formulas about how to live or not live and formulas about the character of God so that they may have a neat and tidy doctrine by which to live a "safe life."

The story of Job has several sub issues, many truths, that are not the ultimate truth. These are worth exploring, but if we explore them without first have the truth, then we are missing God's purpose for the Book of Job.

I submit that there are many issues that result from God's dealings with Job. However God has put on my heart something beyond the theology of why do the righteous suffer, and what was the cause and affect of Job's suffering, or how could he have avoided it. We are not gong to hit that head on like many commentators. I am not able to try to explain all things, and to have a sound pat answer for everything and every experience of afflictions. I believe that is one of the errors that Job's friends carried.

I understand that Job is one of the ancient writings of Scripture, a primitive book. I believe that God wanted to settle something in the beginning of Scripture; something very elementary about His dealings with man.

I submit that Job is a shadow and a reflection of mankind, yes of you and me. I believe that what God was after in Job and in all of us is the important issue on which to focus. That bottom line truth I submit is God wants to replace "you" with "Him in you." One of my favorite authors, Watchman Nee, said in one of his books, "We cannot please God, but Christ has to replace us." Christ in us the hope of glory!

Let us get into the Scripture, and I will make comments as it progresses.

Job Chapter 1:

Job 1:1-22, NKJV

"1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.

2 And seven sons and three daughters were born to him.

3 Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.

4 And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.

Apparently Job had been extremely successful as a businessman and as a man of character. Later in the Scripture it states that he was not greedy with his money, that he consistently helped the poor, and was generally kind, benevolent, and was a God fearing man. Now remember, he was not a born again person. This was not possible at that time. So here is a man, who in his old "flesh nature" was living beyond what most blessed believers live like today. How many of us can claim this kind of prosperity along with this type of godly character before we met God face to face?

If Job was so perfect in chapters 1-2 as God said he was, I know that I was not as good as Job, and most likely you were not either, before that is, you knew God through the new birth. There are none righteous.

As we will uncover later in this lesson, Job was self righteous, not as a Pharisee, but in an honest sort of way that was okay with God for a season. God knew He could trust Job to be His man. However, he knew that all Job had been his good works. He knew little about grace and about God's character.

Quote from Ray C. Steadman [1]

The Revised Standard Version says he was blameless, and many who have read that thought it meant that Job was sinless. But it is not the same thing. You can be sinful and still be blameless if you have learned how to handle your sin the way God tells you to. Evidently Job had learned how to handle sin, so, in that sense, he was blameless. I do not think, however, that this is the best translation of the Hebrew word that appears here. It is really a word that means "a complete man." Job was well balanced and the reason he was well balanced was that he feared God. He was not a materialist; he did not just look on life as a means of getting ahead in the world.

My first premise is therefore, is that there are few or none of us as perfect as Job was in his old unregenerated nature. Job is the ultimate standard of what looks good in the life of a man but is really "filthy rags of self righteousness" to God. None of us were as good as Job, yet God does not count Job's righteous acts as enough. What about you and me?

Job, his friends, and all of us, need a lesson in God's grace. Grace is not simply excusing sin and overlooking it, real grace comes when God can bring us to a place of brokenness, repentance and then He replaces you with Him!

I submit that this does not usually happen until we reach the end of ourselves and truly "see Him" face to face. At the end of the Book, Job saw God face to face. In Abram's life, God "appeared" to him. In Paul's life, Jesus appeared to Him. Jesus wants to appear to you. That is His major goal in your life.

5 So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, "It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did regularly.

I am not sure about this, but I wonder why it states that Job performed burnt offerings for his children and not for himself. It's just something to consider.

6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.

7 And the LORD said to Satan, "From where do you come?" So Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it."

Satan has no throne.

He is in no way co-equal to God. He is a vagabond wandering around the universe. However, apparently he did usurp man's access to God in the Garden of Eden.

Jesus won back our place at the throne.

"And He said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. "Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven"" (Luke 10:18-20).

Job was good; good in morals, he was very talented and therefore prosperous in his self-life. Then why does God not offer all the prosperous people to Satan to consider? God saw Job's heart for Him, which not all prosperous and moral people have. Why should Satan disturb a prosperous worldly person who he already has deceived, who is not attempting to serve God? Why upset the apple cart? I am so glad that God said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Larry, whose life by the way, is already in your power because of his unregenerated flesh." I am so glad that my worldly prosperity was attacked and thus failed. But God resurrected my prosperity and me like He did Job's.

8 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?"

I submit that God lured Satan into this conflict simply to put a major defeat Satan. If Satan put man down in the Fall, then man through the power of God has to return the defeat to Satan.

Go with me into this scene in Heaven and allow your imagination to travel with mine for a moment.

God sees Satan hanging around the Throne. Satan has the right because he stole it from Adam. But God sees how He can use the adversary's own power to defeat him. God thinks to Himself, "Hmm, here is an opportunity to give Satan what I have in store for him, and at the same time give Job the blessing I have in store for him."

He teases Satan and says, "Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?"" (Job 1:8).

He taunts Satan by bragging about Job. God is trying to get Satan to engage in warfare with Job.

Satan in effect says, "Job looks at you as his heavenly 'bell boy.' He only serves you because you have blessed him." He accuses God as stooping to bribery and he accuses Job as being only a "top line" man. He attacks the character of both Job and God.

Now perhaps that is why God choose Job for this battle. He knew Job was lacking in a lot of things, but He knew Job was a bottom line man. Job was not in this for what he could get from God. He worshipped God just because He is God!

Satan in effect says, "Job is only righteous because you have blessed him. Take it away and see what happens."

Perhaps an angel comes to God and says, "Hey Boss, what are You doing here? Job is our man. Please don't unleash Satan on him." God says, "Listen here angel, what I am really saying is, ' Come on Satan, make My day! My servant Job is going to take you on. Then after he defeats you, this will be my model for the Church which is to come.'" The angel says, "Church. What's that?"

God's secret weapon!

"A senseless man does not know, Nor does a fool understand this. When the wicked spring up like grass, And when all the workers of iniquity flourish, It is that they may be destroyed forever" (Psalms 92:6,7).

9 So Satan answered the LORD and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing?

10 "Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

11 "But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!"

Satan was railing an accusation against Job and God, proposing that Job only served God for what God could do for him. He proposed that Job had looked at God as some sort of "heavenly genie" who he could manipulate. Satan went on to propose that Job would "dump" God if all the blessings were removed. Satan had challenged God to remove the "hedge" from around him, and then stand back and see how Job would view God.

12 And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person." So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

This verse, in my opinion, is where so many people get mixed up about the entire Book of Job. It appears to me that God was saying, "Behold, look, all that Job has is already in your power." I do not see anything about God acknowledging that there was a hedge, or that God had removed it. I see God informing Satan that all of Job's stuff is already in Satan's dominion. God did not have to do anything but to inform Satan of the existing facts.

I surmise this not only by the text in verse 1:12, but also in the totality of Scripture. I am not a Bible scholar, and I stand to be corrected. I do not see anywhere in Scripture that God has put a hedge around someone's "stuff" especially someone who is "walking in the flesh and not in the Spirit." As sons of Adam, everything we have is under the dominion of Satan to begin with. As we encounter God for ourselves, as we really see our weakness and undone-ness, then we experience the New Birth, we go through death and resurrection and little by little our lives change from the blessings we can put upon ourselves to the resurrected blessings that God can bestow upon us. Satan cannot then touch those resurrected blessings.

Job had worked out his blessings of "stuff" for himself, under his own power, the power of his natural soul life. Possibly some of the blessings were there because he utilized the principles of God. Today, even secular corporations, which exercise servant leadership, giving, kindness and goodness towards their customers and employees, plug into the principles of God's economy. But they have not plugged into God, as He would want every one to do, even someone such as Job who God treasured

13 Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house;

14 and a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them,

15 "when the Sabeans raided them and took them away--indeed they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!"

16 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you!"

17 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!"

18 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house,

19 "and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!"

20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped.

21 And he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD."

22 In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong."

Up to this point, Job did not charge God. However, that was about to change.

Job 2:1-13

"1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.

2 And the LORD said to Satan, "From where do you come?" So Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it."

3 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause."

4 So Satan answered the LORD and said, "Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.

5 "But stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face!"

6 And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life."

7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

Here God said, "Behold he is in your hand." In Chapter 1 God said, "All that he has is in your hand." Now God infers that even Job's health is in Satan's hand. I believe that to be true in every person's life who has not been regenerated. However, once we have been born again, and we progressively developed a closer relationship with the Lord, submit to Him and obey His Word this can no longer be said.

We may have challenges with health issues, but God makes us overcomers. His overcoming is manifested in our lives according to His master plan, and if we walk the overcoming lifestyle, we can trust God for the results.

Notice also, that Job's life was only in God's hand, not Satan's. This is important. We pray for the healing of sick people. We pray in faith, nothing wavering, and believing in the promises of God. We pray until perhaps the bitter end. However we are told in this verse that our lives are only in the hands of God, and that Satan has no dominion over when we die. Certainly we can, by disobedience and presumption, live a lifestyle that would bring an "early" death, but even then, God is in control of our life and death situations.

We are to lay hands on and pray for the sick, without fear that perhaps they will not be healed. Pray anyway! The healing is God's job.

One problem with many believers that I have noticed is that they are always trying to figure out and explain why some person did not get healed. That is "too wonderful" to do. Do not judge another. Fear to judge another as "not having enough faith." Life is complicated, and God is too far above us in dimensions and wisdom to try to apply a formula to someone else's life. Simply keep on judging yourself, stay in the light, pursue closeness with God, and He will speak His wonders to you.

Remember, faith comes by hearing God speak. He cannot speak to you if you're a misjudging someone else. Strive to hear the rhema of God, not just the logos in the Word. The rhema, or a personalized message from the Word, will bring faith and God will perform that thing. Being presumptuous with God's logos, the general Word can lead to disaster. Remember everything lives and dies in your personal and authentic relationship with the Lord. Again I refer to Job 42:3, which says, "Things too wonderful for me to try to understand." Nobody is a no-it-all expect for God. And even He is humble with His omniscience.

Job was not well equipped at this time in his life for spiritual warfare.

Job did not know the Satan was behind his suffering. I think he was really confused. His friends "knew" that Job's sin must have been the cause. However we know that Satan was behind the suffering. Are we to simply then go into a state of relaxation, and say, "What will be will be"? No, no. We are called to stand against evil in the face of our circumstances.

I believe that Job's life is a model for us to be overcomers. I believe that is our vocation in life, as it was the apostle Paul's. When Paul asked God to get rid of his thorns, which were the legalists who were standing against his message of grace, God told him to overcome the evil with His grace. Did Paul just sit back and "put it into God's hands?" No. He became all the more active in fighting his fight of faith. He wrote more epistles, preached harder, and stood for who God was.

Overcoming is what brings real defeat to our satanic enemies and to our generational curse.

The Book of Revelation makes it clear that what our vocation is, and what is valuable to God for our lives, is to be overcomers and to overcome our spiritual enemies. I believe that this ancient Book of Job is an early warning system for us to heed. Our job is to face the satanic enemies in our realm of influence, those assigned to us by our generational curses, our own sin, and by God as intercessor for others. As we face them with the Word of God and the character of God, our vocation as overcomers will bring God's Kingdom to earth.

At the end of the story I see a few things that caused Job to overcome.

1. Job's education and acknowledgement of who God was. The blood of the Lamb.

2. His own repentance for his own self-sufficiency and underestimating who God was. Not loving his life to the death.

3. His worship and declaration of who God was in the face of evil. The word of his testimony. Revelation 12:11.

8 And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes.

9 Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!"

10 But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Job's wife had given up, but not Job. Job continued to trust in God's character; at least to the extent that he knew God.

11 Now when Job's three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place--Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. For they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him, and to comfort him.

12 And when they raised their eyes from afar, and did not recognize him, they lifted their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven.

13 So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great."

Job's friends had come from far countries. Job was famous internationally. Judging by the story, it seems that Job and his friends had adapted a sort of orthodoxy about their theology. Their faith, in who God was, had similar beliefs.

However, as we will see in future chapters, Job had to, in effect, say to them, "Look, I know what we thought we believed, but that stuff is not working now." They maintained that their orthodoxy was correct and that Job was wrong. They thought that the only reason Job was suffering was that he had hidden sin.

What they all found out later was, it was not hidden sin, it was their hidden sinful nature that God was trying to cleanse them from, and at the same time give Satan the black eye of vengeance!

Job 3:1-26

"1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

2 And Job spoke, and said:

3 "May the day perish on which I was born, And the night in which it was said, 'A male child is conceived.'

4 May that day be darkness; May God above not seek it, Nor the light shine upon it.

5 May darkness and the shadow of death claim it; May a cloud settle on it; May the blackness of the day terrify it.

6 As for that night, may darkness seize it; May it not rejoice among the days of the year, May it not come into the number of the months.

7 Oh, may that night be barren! May no joyful shout come into it!

8 May those curse it who curse the day, Those who are ready to arouse Leviathan.

9 May the stars of its morning be dark; May it look for light, but have none, And not see the dawning of the day;

10 Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother's womb, Nor hide sorrow from my eyes.

11 "Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?

12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?

13 For now I would have lain still and been quiet, I would have been asleep; Then I would have been at rest

14 With kings and counselors of the earth, Who built ruins for themselves,

15 Or with princes who had gold, Who filled their houses with silver;

16 Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, Like infants who never saw light?

17 There the wicked cease from troubling, And there the weary are at rest.

18 There the prisoners rest together; They do not hear the voice of the oppressor.

19 The small and great are there, And the servant is free from his master.

20 "Why is light given to him who is in misery, And life to the bitter of soul,

21 Who long for death, but it does not come, And search for it more than hidden treasures;

22 Who rejoice exceedingly, And are glad when they can find the grave?

23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, And whom God has hedged in?

24 For my sighing comes before I eat, And my groanings pour out like water.

25 For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, And what I dreaded has happened to me.

26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, for trouble comes.""

Now here in Chapter 3, Job spills out his guts with the way he really feels. In effect, he is charging God with some fault. Job regrets that he was ever born. Some people say that this was wrong, and is wrong today when we charge God with the way we feel about things. However, I say, that to stuff and bury how we really feel about God is to surely perish. If we feel and think that God is being unjust, then we better get it out. I believe that this was pleasing to God. In the end of the Book, God said that He was pleased with what Job said, but not with what his friends had said.

God is not pleased that we misjudge Him, but He is pleased that we spill out our hearts before Him. When I do that, I make sure that God understands and I understand, that my "stuff" that is coming out is not a righteous judgment, but sin. Then I can claim forgiveness and God's presence results. Satan can only work in the dark, and God works in the light with nothing hidden.

Our being real with God allows Him to be real to us, through revelation knowledge.

Revelation knowledge comes from the resurrected Jesus, through the Holy Spirit speaking not contrary to but according to Scripture. He lets you know that He is tracking with you and that He knows you. His rhema will nullify the words of fear, condemnation and no hope in your life.

Jesus told Peter about this as recorded in Matthew chapter 16:17. "Jesus answered and said to him, 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.'"

The two disciples on the Road to Emaus received revelation knowledge from the resurrected Christ. However, notice, that first Jesus had to extract from them their inner feelings, their unbelief. He asked them "What things." When He did that, He caused them to do like we all must do before receiving revelation knowledge, we must pour out our real feelings to the Lord, then He can work. They expressed their grief and disbelief. Jesus asked them in Luke 24:19 "What things (are you sad about)?" Jesus knew why they were sad, but He needed them to express their feelings.

After that, Jesus preached the Scriptures to them, showing them how He was offered as the Lamb of God for the blood covenant, and how He was now alive and speaking life to them.

"Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit shall meet. Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet." According to Tennyson's lines it is a very simple thing to find God. He is near at hand; speak to Him! Would that it were as easy as that. But for most of us the reality and nearness of God is a "discovery." An illustration of this "discovery" is found in the Book of Job. It is the cry of a baffled man who finds his inherited religion insufficient. He cried, "O that I knew where I might find Him." Then follows the everlasting quest; and the great "discovery"; "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You."

Oh, it is a monumental moment in any life when the eyes of the spirit come open and "hearsay" religions give place to the first hand experience of the Presence.

Job received some real revelation about God. Remember, this took place in ancient times when not too much was known about God.

Job learned that wisdom is found by going through "death" situations in life, Job 28:20-23.

Job learned about the coming of a savior, Job 33:22-24, Job 19:25.

Job learned about God's omnipotence, and that no plan of God's can be thwarted, Job 38-39, 42.

God lured Satan into a battlefield of defeat and Job into a realm of blessing beyond his imagination.

"Then Job answered the LORD and said: 'I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. You asked, 'Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, 'I will question you, and you shall answer Me.' "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes'" (Job 42:1-6).

Job's greatest blessing was in seeing God face to face. God made Himself spiritually visible to Job.

"And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before" (Job 42:10, KJV).

To "turn" the captivity means that the Lord recompensed Satan for what Satan had done to Job. It was turned, and, Job received twice as much as he had before. But the biggest thing was, now he had seen God face to face and had an authentic relationship. He did not have to trust in a doctrine like he had been doing with his friends.

Are you afflicted? Get on God's path to knowing Him better and He will "turn" your captivity into real purpose in life. Best of all, get ready to "see Him" face to face!

Afflictions as the secret weapon.

Throughout the Bible, and especially in the Book of Revelation, we see that overcoming afflictions do these major things.

1. Overcoming brings you closer to God. Revelation 21:7.

2. Overcoming sends demons in your realm of influence to an early retirement. Revelation 20:3.

1.    Overcoming bring an anointing in your life that sets others free. Revelation 20:4, 22:2.

2.    Overcoming defeats generational curses forever. Revelation 22:3.

AVOID SELF-PITY LIKE THE PLAGUE!

Job was in effect "raised from the dead." Nobody suffered afflictions like Jesus at the Cross, and look, God raised Him from the dead. He will do the same for you.

[1] Stedman, Ray C. The Test - Series: Let God Be God. 1995 Discovery Publishing - Peninsula Bible Church, 1977