POWER OF REDEMPTION AND PROCESS OF SANCTIFICATION
Whenever we hear of the unfathomable sufferings of very earnest Christians, it is difficult for us to understand God’s will, especially given that the Scriptures promise that all His followers are protected from the enemy’s attacks, at least, from unnecessary afflictions…
The following confession by a Christian lady helps us to understand the process of sanctification, in that the Lord imposes hardships upon His precious followers only to cleanse them as His true vessel…L had long been suffering from discomfort in her throat for the past several years…Last December, even when her condition had gotten worse, the doctor failed to diagnose her as having laryngeal (voice box) cancer…
One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. The LORD said to Satan, ‘Where have you come from?’ Satan answered the LORD, ‘From roaming throughout the earth, going to and fro on it.’ Then the LORD said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.’‘Does Job fear God for nothing?’ Satan replied. ‘Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.’ The LORD said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.’ Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
JOB 1:6-12.
On another day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them to present himself before him. And the LORD said to Satan……And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.’‘Skin for skin!’ Satan replied. ‘A man will give all he has for his own life. But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.’ The LORD said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.’ So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.
2:1-7.
For God does speak – now one way, now another –though no one perceives it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds, he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn them from wrongdoing and keep them from pride, to preserve them from the pit, their lives from perishing by the sword.
33:14-18.
‘So listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong. He repays everyone for what they have done; he brings on them what their conduct deserves.
34:10-11.
Many bad things happen to good people throughout the world. Countless Christians have continued to suffer physical and mental illness, broken relationships, tragedies, calamities, adversities, poverty, financial problems and sudden death. There are many possible causes of such plights: hatred, anger, jealousy, unforgivingness, involvement in ungodly things, breaking vows to God and so on. Nevertheless, there are still many mysteries surrounding us that do not make sense. Indeed, quite a few of them seem to have been left unexplained, just as Job experienced, until he directly encountered God and confessed his sinfulness out of deep conviction:
However, while the theory appears to be very logical and helpful in understanding the source of a lot of enigmatic miseries around us, there’s some reason to believe that it may not be entirely consistent with the Scriptures. There is a strange verse in Revelation 2:24-25:
The authors of the book have received a good deal of backlash in the christian community. They are reputed to be controversial Christians and reported to be mentally unbalanced and unstable. Rebecca Brown befriended, and lived with a well-known ex-satanist woman Elaine, and involved herself in countless deliverances of hard-core satanists from satanism. She may have inadvertently got herself too involved with the realm of demon activity, well beyond that of an ordinary Christian life. Christians face the danger of glorifying the works of Satan by spending too much time acknowledging their works. Critics have said that Brown’s books are full of unbiblical claims over spiritual warfare with factual and historical misinformation and embellishments. Indeed, there are quite a number of extreme arguments in her book, for which there is no biblical reference. While her premise is that the majority of Christians’ problems stem from unbroken demonic curses, and her book shows the necessary biblical steps to recognize, prevent and break every type of curse, the Scripture is clear that we are never to be free from problems in this fallen world.
It is a reality that perpetual sins can be passed down from parents to their offspring in certain circumstances and also that the innocent (but not sinless) is afflicted by unjust suffering. But at the same time it should be emphasized that it is our conversion to Christ and our will not to follow their ways or others’ wrong ways that could lead us out of such problems. In this fallen world, everyone can more or less be a victim of other’s sins. Therefore, what sets some people apart is the way they respond biblically to the forces of evil, through the process of sanctification, and strengthening oneself in the Lord’s mighty power as Paul taught:
Whenever we hear of the unfathomable sufferings of very earnest Christians, it is difficult for us to understand God’s will, especially given that the Scriptures promise that all His followers are protected from the enemy’s attacks, at least, from unnecessary afflictions. Brown puts it in the introductory chapter of her book:
The following confession by a Christian lady helps us to understand the process of sanctification, in that the Lord imposes hardships upon His precious followers only to cleanse them as His true vessel. Under her permission to publicize her testimony, I will briefly explain what happened to lady L in February this year. L had long been suffering from discomfort in her throat for the past several years. She went to see the doctor several times, but she was given the diagnosis of common cold each time. She started losing her voice from last summer onwards and started crying out to the Lord. Last December, even when her condition had gotten worse, the doctor failed to diagnose her as having laryngeal (voice box) cancer.
It was only in the middle of February this year, when she sought a second opinion, that she was told that she was in the latter stages of laryngeal cancer. Upon diagnosis, she was immediately recommended surgery to remove her vocal chords, with the date of operation fixed for the middle of March. It was also at this time that L reached out to us to ask for intercession. She mentioned that she was given the Psalm 107:17-22 from the Lord, which gave her strong assurance that God would preserve her vocal chords so that she could tell of His work with songs of joy. It was not until the end of June, 4 months into her fight against cancer, that we, as her intercessors, were made aware of how prophetically relevant the passage in Psalm 107 was for L’s situation.
When hearing of L’s eventual diagnosis of cancer, my immediate thoughts were that God would intervene in her situation and miraculously restore health to her, as she had been at the mercy of a physician’s misdiagnosis for years, and also as there was no apparent cause for this affliction (in terms of unhealthy habits and misuse of her voice). I felt that the Lord had given us three whole weeks to devote to fervent intercessory prayer for her. Meanwhile, L repented of any potential past misuses of her voice and prayed for the Lord’s forgiveness and mercy.
Two weeks after the cancer diagnosis, a miracle happened, in that after a review of her larynx, the doctors decided not to operate on her, but to refer her to chemo- and radio-therapies. The Lord faithfully responded to her earnest desire of the restoration of her vocal chords. At that point, it was as if everything had turned favourable by the Lord’s mercy. However, that was just the beginning of a long road of suffering ahead- for the next few months, L encountered incessant difficulties, one after another. Twice, L faced critical conditions; a sudden difficulty of breathing, which required emergency operation to clear the airway. The side effects of chemotherapy excruciated her almost to death, and she experienced tube-feeding through the nose. After what seemed an interminable period of time, she managed to finish the course of therapies and she received news in June that her tumour had shrunk. A few weeks later, L wrote an email to me, divulging the following:
（Related article: No.226Japanese）
The following confession by a Christian lady helps us to understand the process of sanctification, in that the Lord imposes hardships upon His precious followers only to cleanse them as His true vessel…L had long been suffering from discomfort in her throat for the past several years…Last December, even when her condition had gotten worse, the doctor failed to diagnose her as having laryngeal (voice box) cancer…
One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. The LORD said to Satan, ‘Where have you come from?’ Satan answered the LORD, ‘From roaming throughout the earth, going to and fro on it.’ Then the LORD said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.’‘Does Job fear God for nothing?’ Satan replied. ‘Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.’ The LORD said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.’ Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
JOB 1:6-12.
On another day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them to present himself before him. And the LORD said to Satan……And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.’‘Skin for skin!’ Satan replied. ‘A man will give all he has for his own life. But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.’ The LORD said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.’ So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.
2:1-7.
For God does speak – now one way, now another –though no one perceives it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds, he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn them from wrongdoing and keep them from pride, to preserve them from the pit, their lives from perishing by the sword.
33:14-18.
‘So listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong. He repays everyone for what they have done; he brings on them what their conduct deserves.
34:10-11.
Many bad things happen to good people throughout the world. Countless Christians have continued to suffer physical and mental illness, broken relationships, tragedies, calamities, adversities, poverty, financial problems and sudden death. There are many possible causes of such plights: hatred, anger, jealousy, unforgivingness, involvement in ungodly things, breaking vows to God and so on. Nevertheless, there are still many mysteries surrounding us that do not make sense. Indeed, quite a few of them seem to have been left unexplained, just as Job experienced, until he directly encountered God and confessed his sinfulness out of deep conviction:
‘My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes’ (Job 42:5-6).The book entitled ‘Unbroken Curses’ co-authored by Rebecca Brown, which I introduced in our last letter, boldly attributes troubles that we experience as Christians, to the unavoidable influence and affliction of unbroken curses. If her curse theory is indeed valid and biblical, it would be very helpful for Christ’s followers, to prevent unnecessary sufferings and afflictions.
However, while the theory appears to be very logical and helpful in understanding the source of a lot of enigmatic miseries around us, there’s some reason to believe that it may not be entirely consistent with the Scriptures. There is a strange verse in Revelation 2:24-25:
‘Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, “I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.”’ (Line added).“Satan’s deep secrets” mentioned here is the very opposite to the ‘deep things of God’, which God’s Holy Spirit reveals to us because the Spirit fully knows God’s nature and His plans of grace for us (1Co.2:10). Contrary to the work of the Holy Spirit, one of the most dangerous heresies of the first two centuries of the church; was “Gnosticism”, which taught that salvation is not achieved by faith in Christ but by special knowledge, ‘gnosis’ in Greek. Gnosticism also encouraged Christ’s followers to acquire knowledge of “Satan’s deep secrets” by experiencing evil deeply, in order to enter and defeat Satan’s stronghold. But it was not Christ’s teaching for His followers. Their so-called knowledge ‘gnosis’ was inspired by Satan, and not by God. Nevertheless, the adherents of “Gnosticism” argued that Christians should demonstrate the fact that they would never be affected themselves by idolatries, pagan rituals and customs, by actually practising them. In so doing, they could boast of their special knowledge of “Satan’s deep secrets” and taunted careful and faithful followers of Christ of their ignorance of the knowledge.
The authors of the book have received a good deal of backlash in the christian community. They are reputed to be controversial Christians and reported to be mentally unbalanced and unstable. Rebecca Brown befriended, and lived with a well-known ex-satanist woman Elaine, and involved herself in countless deliverances of hard-core satanists from satanism. She may have inadvertently got herself too involved with the realm of demon activity, well beyond that of an ordinary Christian life. Christians face the danger of glorifying the works of Satan by spending too much time acknowledging their works. Critics have said that Brown’s books are full of unbiblical claims over spiritual warfare with factual and historical misinformation and embellishments. Indeed, there are quite a number of extreme arguments in her book, for which there is no biblical reference. While her premise is that the majority of Christians’ problems stem from unbroken demonic curses, and her book shows the necessary biblical steps to recognize, prevent and break every type of curse, the Scripture is clear that we are never to be free from problems in this fallen world.
It is a reality that perpetual sins can be passed down from parents to their offspring in certain circumstances and also that the innocent (but not sinless) is afflicted by unjust suffering. But at the same time it should be emphasized that it is our conversion to Christ and our will not to follow their ways or others’ wrong ways that could lead us out of such problems. In this fallen world, everyone can more or less be a victim of other’s sins. Therefore, what sets some people apart is the way they respond biblically to the forces of evil, through the process of sanctification, and strengthening oneself in the Lord’s mighty power as Paul taught:
‘Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground…And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people’ (Ep.6:11-18, Lines added).
Whenever we hear of the unfathomable sufferings of very earnest Christians, it is difficult for us to understand God’s will, especially given that the Scriptures promise that all His followers are protected from the enemy’s attacks, at least, from unnecessary afflictions. Brown puts it in the introductory chapter of her book:
‘Many Christians attend church regularly and strive with all their hearts to lead godly lives. However, in spite of their best efforts, everything seems to fall apart. No matter how hard they try or how much counselling they receive, nothing seems to help…there are those believers who battle year after year with all sorts of illnesses and catastrophic accidents. No matter how much they pray, believe, or attend healing services, nothing changes of improves in their lives. The conflict just continues without any resolution or any revelation from the Lord as to the reason for the lack of victory. Countless families are plagued by conditions such as mental illness, suicides, alcoholism, physical illness, divorce, incest, and poverty. Often, even those who come to the Lord are unable to break the endless cycles of devastation without their own families…Why does this destructive cycle occur? These discouraging situations may result from a number of factors, but a frequently overlooked reason is a curse on the person’s life or family that has never been broken. Many churches are also cursed. This is a much neglected area in Christian teaching today’ (p.7-8).If these states are the reality of true born-again Christians, what a mess it is! What does Christ’s redemption on the cross mean to His true followers? If such is the case, then Brown’s “curse theory by Satan” must be applied to certain situations in order to be freed from the devil’s bondage through specific prayers and rituals that she depicts. Of course, we cannot scripturally deny Satan’s involvement in sufferings and temptations in our lives. As the passages from the Book of Job clearly illustrates, the truth is that even Christians must daily examine themselves so as to be free from sinful habits and addictions and to be always placed under the Lord’s perfect cover of protection. However, it is perfectly possible that not all sufferings are caused by demons - sometimes, suffering is caused by Christians’ disobedience to the Lord.
The following confession by a Christian lady helps us to understand the process of sanctification, in that the Lord imposes hardships upon His precious followers only to cleanse them as His true vessel. Under her permission to publicize her testimony, I will briefly explain what happened to lady L in February this year. L had long been suffering from discomfort in her throat for the past several years. She went to see the doctor several times, but she was given the diagnosis of common cold each time. She started losing her voice from last summer onwards and started crying out to the Lord. Last December, even when her condition had gotten worse, the doctor failed to diagnose her as having laryngeal (voice box) cancer.
It was only in the middle of February this year, when she sought a second opinion, that she was told that she was in the latter stages of laryngeal cancer. Upon diagnosis, she was immediately recommended surgery to remove her vocal chords, with the date of operation fixed for the middle of March. It was also at this time that L reached out to us to ask for intercession. She mentioned that she was given the Psalm 107:17-22 from the Lord, which gave her strong assurance that God would preserve her vocal chords so that she could tell of His work with songs of joy. It was not until the end of June, 4 months into her fight against cancer, that we, as her intercessors, were made aware of how prophetically relevant the passage in Psalm 107 was for L’s situation.
When hearing of L’s eventual diagnosis of cancer, my immediate thoughts were that God would intervene in her situation and miraculously restore health to her, as she had been at the mercy of a physician’s misdiagnosis for years, and also as there was no apparent cause for this affliction (in terms of unhealthy habits and misuse of her voice). I felt that the Lord had given us three whole weeks to devote to fervent intercessory prayer for her. Meanwhile, L repented of any potential past misuses of her voice and prayed for the Lord’s forgiveness and mercy.
Two weeks after the cancer diagnosis, a miracle happened, in that after a review of her larynx, the doctors decided not to operate on her, but to refer her to chemo- and radio-therapies. The Lord faithfully responded to her earnest desire of the restoration of her vocal chords. At that point, it was as if everything had turned favourable by the Lord’s mercy. However, that was just the beginning of a long road of suffering ahead- for the next few months, L encountered incessant difficulties, one after another. Twice, L faced critical conditions; a sudden difficulty of breathing, which required emergency operation to clear the airway. The side effects of chemotherapy excruciated her almost to death, and she experienced tube-feeding through the nose. After what seemed an interminable period of time, she managed to finish the course of therapies and she received news in June that her tumour had shrunk. A few weeks later, L wrote an email to me, divulging the following:
Today I wanted to confess my sin. I have dealt with this between God and myself. And I believe God has forgiven me. Do remember I told you before that at the time a doctor was misdiagnosing my cancer God gave me a passage from Psalm 107:17-22, especially verse 17:If L had not honestly shared her story with us, we would have counted her case as another unfathomable example of God’s dealing with His earnest followers. Now she is still in recovery, awaiting a final diagnosis thorough a CT Scan in September.
"Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities."When God gave me the first verse, I knew God was going to discipline me. That's why I didn't complain to God about why I was sick, and that he didn't heal me immediately, in other words allowing me to go through all the suffering I had to endure. I accepted God's will and his decision to discipline me and I did not complain, even once. I was even thanking God because He was disciplining me in love, because I knew my sin very well.
I had this ongoing problem in the past where I was interested in horoscopes. In the past also I confessed this to God and He showed His grace while I was fervently committed in morning prayer. God even let me experience His presence. I didn't see Him visually, but felt his glory, power and love - I've never experienced anything like this. Twice in three days, 5am in the morning, I experienced this once at church and once at home. It was an extraordinary experience - there is nothing I can compare it to in this world. This was in 2009. I was determined to live for God and enthusiastically wanted to do this.
But last summer l was tempted by the enemy. I fell into temptation which I could not resist, so I started to read horoscopes on computer again. After that my voice started to change, becoming hoarse. When God gave me this verse I knew this time that my suffering was coming from God. At first the news was terrifying but because God gave me the Word, I didn't completely fall into despair. After the first session of chemotherapy, I was too ill and frail. At one point I thought I would not make it; I thought the therapies was too hard for me to cope with. I honestly thought I might die. But then I remembered God will save me from the grave, from the verse He gave me, and again I had hope and prayed to God for His mercy.
I experienced His love and mercy, and I love God more than ever. I understood God's intention to purify me - He cannot stand sin.
Now I want to praise God and thank God. I feel really blessed that I am a child of God and He is my God. I remember that you told me God gives his children only the best and l understand what that means. Please pray for me, that for the rest of my life, I live for God. I don't know what I have to do at the moment to live for God. Please pray that I find something to do as I live a life devoted to Him. And I truly feel that prayers of intercession are so important among believers. I can't thank enough you and all who praying for me. God bless you all.
（Related article: No.226Japanese）