The Sycamore Tree

13 Feb 2010

So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way. Luke 19:4

Zacchaeus was a corrupt tax collector in first-century Jericho. Out of curiosity, he went to hear Jesus. Because of his short stature, he had to climb a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of the Lord. A sycamore tree is a sturdy tree with wide-spreading branches. It has a short trunk with low limbs that allow for ease in climbing. The name “sycamore” is Greek for false fig.
A normal fig has soft skin. It is juicy, tasty and sold rather expensively. On the other hand, the fruit of the sycamore tree looks like a fig but its skin is hard. The fruit is inferior to the fig tree and has to be punctured to become edible. The moment a sycamore fruit is pierced, a breath of fresh air enters it and it will ripen into a soft, sweet, juicy fruit—just like a real fig. So while normal figs ripen on their own, a sycamore fruit will not. They require external intervention.
When Zacchaeus heard that Jesus was coming to town, he wanted to get a glimpse of this wonderful Savior. Being a very short man, he climbed up a sycamore tree and hid himself among the sycamore fruits. The whole scene couldn’t be more picture perfect—the hardened sinner among hardened fruits.
People become hard inwardly because of a few reasons: sin (Heb. 3:13), pride (Dan. 5:20), rebellion (Ps. 95:8), and religiosity (John 12:40). Zacchaeus had become hard because of his greed and love for money. The good news is that Jesus came to him like a skilled farmer of sycamore trees. He came underneath the branches that Zacchaeus was perched on and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house” (Luke 19:5).
Those words flowed out of Jesus’ mouth like a double-edged sword and pierced right into the heart of this hardened sinner. The breath of the Holy Spirit entered Zacchaeus and immediately, his heart began to melt and soften. In that moment, he received the unconditional love and acceptance of Christ. The Lord says, “Today salvation has come to this house” (19:9).
Are you cold and hard on the inside? Invite Jesus Christ to come into your life. Let Him pierce your heart with His Word. Give entrance to the fresh breath of the Holy Spirit. With Jesus Christ, the Word and the Spirit, you will be transformed into a beautiful person.

Power Unlimited

14 Feb 2010

Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. Luke 24:49

Shortly before His ascension into heaven, Jesus commanded His disciples to stay in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. The promise of the Father refers to God’s promised gift of the Holy Spirit. Here are four important reasons why we all need the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives:
(1) Power to become. Without God’s power in us, we can never become sons of God. The Holy Spirit’s job is to bring us back to God. John says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12). The word “right” is translated from the Greek word exousia which means “power” or “authority.” With the power of God’s Holy Spirit working in you, you can do what you could never do by yourself. With His authority, you can establish what God desires. You can now live and act like a child of His family.
(2) Power to be. The Holy Spirit’s indwelling means that you have the power for daily living. Even Christians of many years know how diffi cult it is to keep up with the standards that God wants us to have in our lives. We all have the weakness of our fl esh. But the power of the Spirit helps us, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man” (Eph. 3:16).
(3) Power to overcome. Every believer lives in a war zone. Satan attacks us with every weapon at his disposal in his attempt to prevent us from following Jesus. God makes His power available within us so that we have the strength and the knowledge to defeat the devil. The Bible says, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
(4) Power to witness. In Acts 1:8, the Holy Spirit came with great power on Pentecost. The word for “power” here is dunamis, from which we get the English word “dynamite.” Dunamis refers to the miracle-working, sign-producing power of God. God wants your life to be so filled with the power of the Spirit that you will be dynamite.
God wants you to be a witness (Acts 1:8) to the life of Jesus. In the Greek, the word for witness is martus from which we derive the word, “martyr.” A witness has died to self so that Christ might live in and through him or her (Gal. 2:20-21). Become a witness so that you not only speak about Jesus but that you become Jesus to the world.

Thanksgiving
20 Feb 2010

And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. John 6:11

Thanksgiving is an extremely powerful key to spiritual breakthrough. There are four reasons why we give thanks: Firstly, thanksgiving is a command from God. It is neither a suggestion nor an option, it is a command. The Bible says, “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Col. 3:17).
Secondly, thanksgiving is a sure indication that the Holy Spirit is in you. We are told to “be filled with the Spirit … giving thanks always for all things to God” (Eph. 5:18-20). The measure of the Holy Spirit within you can partly be gauged by seeing how often and sincerely you give thanks to God each day. When you cease to give Him thanks, it is an indication that you are probably “leaking” the presence of the Spirit.
Thirdly, thanksgiving is the will of God for you. Paul says, “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:18).
Finally, thanksgiving is part of bringing your prayer requests before the Lord. The Bible says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6). God does everything by prayer and nothing without it. Remember, never bring a prayer request to Him without first giving Him thanks. When we do that, two wonderful miracles begin to happen:
(1) Thanksgiving opens the pathway for you to come into God’s presence. Without thanksgiving, there can be no access to God. We enter the gates of His presence through thanksgiving (Ps. 100:4). Many people pray for a long time and still feel so distant from Him. The reason is because they are not praying His way. You can stand outside and shout loudly to God. But you are still not going to have access to His presence unless you come through the gate of thanksgiving.
(2) Thanksgiving is a key that unlocks God’s supernatural power. In John 6, Jesus wanted to feed 5,000 men. He didn’t pray a verbose prayer. All He did was to give thanks for the five loaves and two fish. Immediately, the power of God came to multiply the food for the multitude. Many times, we miss out on the power of God simply because we do not release it through thanksgiving!

The Ten Trials
19 Feb 2010

Remember! Do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD. Deuteronomy 9:7

There were 10 trials in the wilderness, and the Israelites failed them all. After they failed the 10th test at Kadesh Barnea, the Lord said, “They have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice” (Num. 14:22). Here are the 10 tests:
(1) Murmuring against God. The Israelites accused God of deceiving them into a trap so that the Egyptians could kill them. There is always a tendency to blame God in the midst of crises.
(2) Bitter water at Marah. The Israelites murmured at the bitter water. Every believer will be tried by bitter experiences and disappointments.
(3) Hunger. This represents economic times of testing. We will all experience times of shortages and lack during which our faith in God will be tested. Our faith in God will then be tested.
(4) Gluttony. By taking more manna than they needed for the day, the Israelites willfully disobeyed the Lord.
(5) Thirst at Rephidim. Thirst speaks of dry and boring experiences. The Israelites murmured again.
(6) Idolatry of the gold calf. Inordinate desires and lusts must be conquered. Anything that replaces our reliance upon God is idolatry.
(7) Complaining about misfortunes at Taberah. Complaining about adverse circumstances doesn’t help us to find favor with God.
(8) Unthankfulness. The appetites of the Israelites were not consecrated to God. They detested God’s provision of manna and gorged themselves with quail.
(9) Criticism of leadership. Aaron and Miriam criticized Moses, the man who saw the face of God.
(10) Unbelief at Kadesh Barnea. The Israelites were right at the border of the Promised Land. The 10 spies all agreed that it was a good land, but that the enemies were too great. They infected the whole congregation with fear and unbelief. They had failed the 10th and most important test. Finally, God said, “You will not enter in.” No teacher ever creates a test for the purpose of trying to fail the student. Every test should be a stepping stone for greater glory. Instead, Israel made each Aof their tests a stumbling block into defeat. The Holy Spirit was always around to show God strong on their behalf whenever they were met by diffi culties. But they didn’t lean on Him. Let’s remember the Scriptural exhortation: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion” (Heb. 3:15).

Power To Get Wealth
18 Feb 2010

And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. Deuteronomy 8:18

We all know that money can’t buy us happiness, a good name, a happy marriage or lasting friendships. Money certainly can’t buy us eternal salvation or the anointing of the Holy Spirit. But nevertheless, God still wants us to have money—the more the better!
There is a reason why Jesus, for your sakes, became poor that you, through His poverty, might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9). Deuteronomy 8:18 says that He gives you the power to get wealth for the purpose that His covenant with all mankind can be established. So, the reason why God wants you to have money is so that you can use it to bring the gospel to the whole world. No wonder the psalmist says, “Let the LORD be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant” (Ps. 35:27).
Because the more we prosper financially, the more we can preach the good news and magnify our Lord. There are two contrasting covenants in the Old Testament. One is God’s covenant with Abraham which is eternal, and the other is God’s covenant with Moses which is temporal. Under the Abrahamic covenant, God blesses you to be a blessing to others. God told Abraham, “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3).
But under the Mosaic covenant, there is another set of promises found in Deuteronomy 28. It is about God’s favor and blessing for our individual lives. Now, you have to be very careful which covenant you lock your mind onto. If you focus exclusively on the temporal Mosaic covenant, you could become self-serving and greedy, and end up destroying your life. But if you mature to focus on the eternal Abrahamic covenant, then the more prosperous you are, the more you can be effective for the cause of the kingdom.
The truth is this: you can’t be a blessing if you haven’t been blessed. If you can’t even feed yourself, how are you going to feed the hungry? If you can’t even clothe yourself, how are you going to clothe the naked? If you have no money for your church projects and world missions, how are you going to take the good news to the world? Meditate on this thought right now: “God has given me the power to get wealth, that I can use it to bring the gospel to the world!”

The Wind Of The Spirit
17 Feb 2010

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and
where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. John 3:8

The Holy Spirit is often symbolized by the wind. The Hebrew and Greek words used in reference to the Spirit are ruach and pneuma respectively, which means either “breath” or “wind.” Like the wind, the Holy Spirit may be invisible, yet He is nonetheless very real. Many agnostics find it hard to believe in the Holy Spirit because they have not seen Him, tasted Him or smelled Him. Now, no one has seen pain, tasted pain, or smelled pain. But nonetheless, we have all felt pain one time or another. In a similar way, when the Holy Spirit moves, we can feel His presence around us and in us. Four truths about the wind of the Spirit: [Read more ...]

Spirit Of Excellence
16 Feb 2010

For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the LORD our God is to us? … And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? Deuteronomy 4:7-8

In Deuteronomy 4, Moses was explaining to the children of Israel why they needed to live out the Word of God when they come into the Promised Land. Moses exhorted them, “Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess” (Deut. 4:5). The Law (Torah) in the Scriptures was given not only to bless the Israelites, they were given to help them stand out powerfully among the heathens in the land. [Read more ...]

Attracting The Holy Spirit
15 Feb 2010

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” … And John bore witness, saying,“I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.” John 1:29, 32

When John the Baptist first introduced Jesus to the masses at the Jordan River, he made two analogies from the animal kingdom: Jesus was represented as the Lamb, and the Holy Spirit was represented as the dove. What can we learn from the relationship between them? A lamb suggests to us of three things: purity, meekness and sacrifice. And that is what the dove, the Holy Spirit, is attracted to. He is looking for the lamb nature to settle and remain in. The Holy Spirit does not approve of arrogance, self-seeking, boastfulness or aggressiveness. He is looking for purity, meekness and a life sacrificially laid down for God.
Jesus so attracted the Holy Spirit that the dove didn’t just descend on Him, the dove remained upon Him! In the natural, the dove is somewhat a shy bird that can be easily scared away. That is very true of the Spirit in a spiritual sense. The Holy Spirit, like a dove, is so gentle He is almost “shy.” If you say or do anything that He cannot accept, His presence will leave you immediately. Like a dove, He will fly away. The marvelous thing about Jesus is that He never scared off the dove. In His entire ministry, Jesus never said or did one thing that drove the Holy Spirit away.
Not only did Jesus attract the Holy Spirit, He depended on the anointing of the Holy Spirit. This relationship with the Holy Spirit is the key to the entire ministry of Jesus. There was not a single sermon that Jesus preached in the Gospels, or a single miracle that He performed, without Him fi rst feeling the Holy Spirit coming upon Him. He was totally dependant on the Holy Spirit. The whole public ministry of Jesus came out of the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon Him (Acts 10:38).
How did Jesus maintain such closeness to the Spirit? Paul says, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30). What are the things that grieve the Holy Spirit? They are bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking (4:31). What are some attitudes that attract the Spirit? When we are “kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another” (4:32). When the Holy Spirit doesn’t find the lamb nature, He cannot abide. As such, cultivate the lamb nature of Christ in your life today.

see also in konghee.com, daily devotion

Toyota way

The 14 Principles

The Toyota Way has been called "a system designed to provide the tools for people to continually improve their work"^[2] The 14 principles of The Toyota Way are organized in four sections: I) Long-Term Philosophy, II) The Right Process Will Produce the Right Results, III) Add Value to the Organization by Developing Your People, and IV) Continuously Solving Root Problems Drives Organizational Learning. The principles are set out and briefly described below:

[edit] Section I — Long-Term Philosophy

Principle 1

• Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial goals.

People need purpose to find motivation and establish goals.

[edit] Section II — The Right Process Will Produce the Right Results

Principle 2

• Create a continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface.

Work processes are redesigned to eliminate waste (muda) through the process of continuous improvement — kaizen. The seven types of muda are:

1. Overproduction
2. Waiting (time on hand)
3. Unnecessary transport or conveyance
4. Overprocessing or incorrect processing
5. Excess inventory
6. Motion
7. Defects

Principle 3

• Use "pull" systems to avoid overproduction.

A method where a process signals its predecessor that more material is needed. The pull system produces only the required material after the subsequent operation signals a need for it. This process is necessary to reduce overproduction.

Principle 4

• Level out the workload (heijunka). (Work like the tortoise, not the hare).

This helps achieve the goal of minimizing waste (muda), not overburdening people or the equipment (muri), and not creating uneven production levels (mura).

Principle 5

• Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time.

Quality takes precedence (Jidoka). Any employee in the Toyota Production System has the authority to stop the process to signal a quality issue.

Principle 6

• Standardized tasks and processes are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment.

Although Toyota has a bureaucratic system, the way that it is implemented allows for continuous improvement (kaizen) from the people affected by that system. It empowers the employee to aid in the growth and improvement of the company.

Principle 7

• Use visual control so no problems are hidden.

Included in this principle is the 5S Program - steps that are used to make all work spaces efficient and productive, help people share work stations, reduce time looking for needed tools and improve the work environment.

• Sort: Sort out unneeded items
• Straighten: Have a place for everything
• Shine: Keep the area clean
• Standardize: Create rules and standard operating procedures
• Sustain: Maintain the system and continue to improve it

Principle 8

• Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes.

Technology is pulled by manufacturing, not pushed to manufacturing.

[edit] Section III — Add Value to the Organization by Developing Your People

Principle 9

• Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others.

Without constant attention, the principles will fade. The principles have to be ingrained, it must be the way one thinks. Employees must be educated and trained: they have to maintain a learning organization.

Principle 10

• Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company's philosophy.

Teams should consist of 4-5 people and numerous management tiers. Success is based on the team, not the individual.

Principle 11

• Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve.

Toyota treats suppliers much like they treat their employees, challenging them to do better and helping them to achieve it. Toyota provides cross functional teams to help suppliers discover and fix problems so that they can become a stronger, better supplier.

[edit] Section IV: Continuously Solving Root Problems Drives Organizational Learning

Principle 12

• Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation (Genchi Genbutsu).

Toyota managers are expected to "go-and-see" operations. Without experiencing the situation firsthand, managers will not have an understanding of how it can be improved. Furthermore, managers use Tadashi Yamashima's (President, Toyota Technical Center (TTC)) ten management principles as a guideline:

1. Always keep the final target in mind.
2. Clearly assign tasks to yourself and others.
3. Think and speak on verified, proven information and data.
4. Take full advantage of the wisdom and experiences of others to send, gather or discuss information.
5. Share information with others in a timely fashion.
6. Always report, inform and consult in a timely manner.
7. Analyze and understand shortcomings in your capabilities in a measurable way.
8. Relentlessly strive to conduct kaizen activities.
9. Think "outside the box," or beyond common sense and standard rules.
10. Always be mindful of protecting your safety and health.

Principle 13

• Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options; implement decisions rapidly (nemawashi).

The following are decision parameters:

1. Find what is really going on (go-and-see) to test
2. Determine the underlying cause
3. Consider a broad range of alternatives
4. Build consensus on the resolution
5. Use efficient communication tools

Principle 14

• Become a learning organization through relentless reflection (hansei) and continuous improvement (kaizen).

The process of becoming a learning organization involves criticizing every aspect of what one does. The general problem solving technique to determine the root cause of a problem includes:

1. Initial problem perception
2. Clarify the problem
3. Locate area/point of cause
4. Investigate root cause (5 whys)
5. Countermeasure
6. Evaluate
7. Standardize

When Bad Things Happen To Good People

Thursday, November 26, 2009 at 5:43am

Recently I was invited to speak at an Indonesian church an hour outside of Jakarta. The senior pastor was diagnosed with liver cancer a year earlier. The doctors attending to him explored the possibility of a liver transplant. After much effort, the money needed for the operation was raised and a liver donor was found. On the eve of the surgery, as the doctors were doing a final pre-op examination, they discovered that the cancer had spread throughout his body. It was now too late to do a liver transplant and the procedure was called off. The pastor and his family were devastated by this unexpected turn of events. Upon hearing the news, the assistant pastor was so grief-stricken that the next day, he suddenly collapsed in the middle of the church service and died. Forty days later, the senior pastor passed away. Without any clergy in this fledgling church, the housewifely widow of the senior pastor had to conduct the funeral service on her own. Some finger-pointing members started questioning if the untimely deaths of the top leadership were due to divine retribution, or whether the church was cursed. Over the next few months, attendance began to dwindle. As I ministered in the church, I could sense an unspoken question in the air—why do bad things happen to good people?

There are many wonderful blessings that come with belonging to the Faith/Charismatic circle: the belief in signs and wonders, divine healing and health, success and financial prosperity, living a life of influence and purpose, et cetera. However, one area that most Charismatics do not handle too well is the issue of suffering. The prevalent reasoning is that if God is a good, healing, delivering God, whose desire is only to protect and bless His children, then a Christian should not have to suffer. And if a believer does suffer, then there must be something wrong with his/her life or faith. As such, it is not uncommon to hear prominent Faith/Charismatic ministers making rhetorical statements like, “Our heavenly Father will never allow Christians to suffer. I reject sufferings and claim only God’s blessings!”

When this kind of simplistic thinking is embraced, it can make a person judgmental and mean-spirited. If one is faced with an incurable disease or experiences a tragic accident, it must be the result of an unconfessed sin, a generational curse, or that God is giving up on that person. It is a judgment from God, a divine retribution.

Years ago, one of my Bible college classmates died unexpectedly. Instead of consoling and comforting her father, who was a minister in the Assemblies of God, some Christians wrote accusatory letters condemning him of being the cause of his daughter’s untimely death. They speculated the existence of secret, unconfessed sins that had resulted in this “divine punishment.” Otherwise, it must have been his “lack of faith” that failed to raise that girl from the dead.

Shortly after Seow-How and Cecilia co-founded Heart of God Church in 1999, there was a terrible accident that took place outside of their church premises one Sunday. Two teenage members were walking across the road when a sleepy bus driver rammed into them. One of them died on the spot, the other died in the hospital hours later. It was a heart-wrenching tragedy for this very young church and its congregation. One lady from a local Charismatic church berated Seow-How and Cecilia, saying that the church had been divinely cursed. How else could they explain the unexpected death of the two teenagers? If God’s blessing was on the congregation, there should never have been any form of suffering.

In an overly simplistic view on suffering, the logic usually goes like this:

If you are good, there will be no suffering for you.
If you are bad, you will suffer.
So if there is suffering, then you must be bad, cursed and judged!

If this line of reasoning is true, then what about Jesus Christ, the apostles and all the heroes of faith? They all suffered greatly for the gospel. Obviously the “suffering-means-accursed” logic espoused by many is greatly flawed. I feel strongly that we need to re-look the whole concept of suffering, especially through the life of Job, a man who went through an unparalleled magnitude of suffering.

The Scripture introduces Job as someone who was “blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil” (Job 1:1). In fact, Job’s morality was so legendary that he was listed twice as one of the three most righteous men in the Old Testament (Ezek. 14:14, 20). He was a spiritually mature man, not a novice in the things of God.

Job was blessed with seven sons and three daughters, all grown up with their own families and homes. He was incredibly wealthy with thousands of livestock. His ownership of 3,000 camels meant that he ran the largest transportation business in the region during his time. The sheer number of his sheep, camels, oxen and donkeys meant that Job also owned a lot of farmlands for the animals to graze on. Without a doubt, he “was the greatest of all the people of the East” (1:3), a man professionally respected by all.

Beyond his material success, Job was a caring father to his children. Like the patriarchs, he functioned as a priest over his family. He took his sacrificial obligation seriously, viewing it as expiation for sin. To Job this included even sins of the heart, for he made special offerings just in case his sons had secretly cursed God (1:5). Even God Himself acknowledged that there was not a better man than Job in his day (1:8). If ever there was an outstanding man, it was Job. Yet, very bad things happened to him.

In one day, severe calamities befell him and his household. Out of nowhere bandits came and pillaged all his oxen and donkeys, murdering all his farmhands in the process (1:15). Then a lightning bolt came out of the sky causing a forest fire, and all his 7,000 sheep and herdsmen were burned alive (1:16). At the same time, robbers came in three raids and took away his 3,000 camels and slew all their handlers (1:17). And before the dust could settle, a freak storm struck the house wherein his ten children were dining. The roof fell on them and they all died instantly (1:19). Within 24 hours, Job lost his entire business and family. Without anyone to help him, this 70-year-old elderly man had to bury all his children by himself.

As if what happened was not bad enough, Job now became very sick. His body was inflamed with ulcerous sores (2:7). Bible scholars believe that he had a severe case of elephantiasis, an illness that causes swelling and the disfiguration of face, causing him to be unrecognizable (2:12). He began to lose appetite and spiraled into depression (3:24-25). His body was covered with scabs oozing out pus and there were worms crawling all over him (7:5). He developed difficulty breathing (9:18), darkening of the eyelid (16:16), severe weight loss (19:20) as well as continual pain and anxiety (30:27). The high fever and blackened skin (30:30) indicated that he was probably having some form of kidney or liver failure. For the next nine months, Job was in constant delirium.

Because he was totally bankrupt, Job was now living at the city dump where they burned garbage and human excrements. He was the absolute personification of misery. The richest man in the East was reduced to nothing. He was now a social outcast—shamed, disgraced, rejected and despised by all. Very bad things happened to this very good man!

It is never easy for anyone to go through difficult times and tough situations. However, when terrible things happen to us, here are a few things we need to bear in mind:

1. Know that God is not angry with you. Job was an extremely righteous man, yet he suffered like no one else. Psalm 34:19 says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” The apostle Paul, who himself is no stranger to suffering, says, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12). You could be going through a hard time because you have been righteous and godly. So do not condemn yourself or think that God is displeased with you.

By the way, the word “afflictions” also means physical suffering and mental anguish. With all my heart, I fully believe in divine healing (Mark 16:17-18). However, I also submit to the sovereignty of God in any given situation. Like Job, many great men of faith (with strong healing ministries) have themselves been afflicted with terrible illnesses. Elisha the miracle worker died of a terminal sickness (2 Kin. 13:14). The apostle Paul was said to have had an incurable disease (2 Cor. 12:7). Epaphroditus was so sick he almost died (Phil. 2:27). Billy Graham and Yonggi Cho are both diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Reinhard Bonkke struggled with prostate cancer a few years ago. Casey Treat was diagnosed with Hepatitis C in 2003. A week ago, on November 22, megachurch pastor Billy Joe Daughterty succumbed to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and passed away. All these ministers are godly men of faith, with impeccable integrity, but have themselves been suffering with severe illnesses. The next time you see someone who is sick, please do not be quick to judge him/her for having little faith. We do live in a fallen world with imperfect bodies.

2. Realize that you are in a spiritual warfare. The Bible makes it very clear that the source of Job’s suffering was Satan the devil. He has come to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). Through tragedies and calamities, Satan constantly seeks to tempt us to reject God, to “curse Him to His face” (Job 1:11). When you are faced with hard times, do not get mad with God. It is not His fault.

3. Believe that God is ultimately in control. To touch Job’s possessions, family and health, Satan needed permission from God (1:12; 2:6). We can be assured of this one thing: nothing can ever happen to us without His permission. As a good God, He never enjoys seeing His people suffer. Yet sometimes, He allows bad things to happen to bring about a deeper change in us. In the case of Job, Satan may have thought that he was provoking God; but really, God was simply using Satan to complete His own perfecting work in Job.

4. Offer up the sacrifice of praise. Despite being grief-stricken, Job “fell to the ground and worshiped,” acknowledging God’s sovereignty over his life to give and take away (1:20-21). Even when he was made bankrupt and saw the irrational death of his ten children, never once did he “sin nor charge God with wrong” (1:22). Job’s trust in God’s goodness was astounding.

5. Understand that God is seeking to make you better. God is more interested in our character than our comfort. He is a very purposeful God and never arbitrary in His treatment concerning us. That is why when we do not see His hand, we must learn to trust His heart. If not, we will become confused, resentful and bitter. That is precisely why we need faith in our walk with Him. The silence of God will make you wonder if He even cares, but He does. The silence of God will make you wonder if He is even there, but He is. Faith is never for the good times, it is always for the difficult times.

One cannot appreciate Job’s love for God unless one understands Job 29, which is a description of Job’s life before the tragedies befell him. Way back then, the counsel of God was already a lamp unto his feet and a light unto his path (29:1-3; Ps. 119:105). He was walking in revelation. By Job’s own admission, he considered himself as one who had already “arrived” at advanced spiritual growth and maturity: “I was in the days of my prime” (Job 29:4). He was living with great material abundance and God’s presence (29:6).

When he spoke, everybody listened. Job was the “eyes to the blind,” the “feet to the lame,” the “father to the poor,” the provider to widows, and the defender of justice. The people loved, admired and looked up to him. He was their guide, commander and king. Really, there was nothing more for Job to achieve. He had done it all! He was living the dream!

I know that for most Christian businesspeople or “kingdom professionals,” this is the kind of life we all aspire to live—blessed with wealth, a great family life, and status in society. We desire to be the head and not the tail, above and not beneath, and at the same time, a spiritual leader that everyone looks up to in the church and community. Yet as far as God was concerned, Job was not completely mature. There were many inner struggles he had that nobody knew of. For one, Job never felt safe or secure in life in spite of all his achievements. He had a lot of restlessness and anxieties in his soul (3:25-26).

Here was a man who knew and sensed God, but never had real, deep, life-changing encounters with God. He had heard from God, but had never seen the Lord (42:5). Although he loved God with all his heart, he had not yet reached the point of total abandonment toward Him. Job is like the Christian who has not come to a place where he can say, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21), or “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).

Job was successful, spiritual and blameless, but he was not broken unto the Lord. He felt he had “arrived” (materially, parentally, socially, spiritually), but he was terribly deceived—a victim of his own illusion. God wanted to change that in him. In His sovereign wisdom, the only way to break Job was to take him through a period of abject suffering.

6. Develop the capacity to obediently endure. This is the key purpose of all God-ordained sufferings. James 5:11 exhorts us to experience and learn the “perseverance of Job.” Perseverance is the “capacity to endure,” which is critical to our maturity and destiny. Very often, when we are exposed to certain viral sicknesses (for example, chicken pox), our body develops immunity against it thereafter. Similarly, while suffering does not originate from God, He allows it to build in us the spiritual capacity to handle intense pain and stress, and an immunity toward discouragement and depression.

Romans 5:3-4 says that “we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.” No one in the right mind will ever wish for suffering.We do not rejoice in suffering unless we know there is something greater that God has purposed in our lives. God’s ultimate purpose of putting us through crisis, heartbreaks, misunderstanding and persecution is so that we develop perseverance (the capacity to endure), character (moral strength) and hope (a positive outlook of life).

How great a life do you want to live? Well, how much pressure are you able to take? When Job lost all his wealth and ten children, and his resentful wife blamed God, he was able to keep on worshiping Him. When his physical body was suffering from sores, swellings and multiple organ failures, and when his psychological state of mind was in severe depression, Job was able to keep trusting God. His capacity for pressure was amazing. Job said, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15). Trusting God is when you do not need an explanation from Him for whatever is happening in your life.

When his three friends (Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar) turned against him and persecuted him, telling him that his predicament was a punishment from God for his sin, Job held on to his faith: “But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).

Even Jesus Christ went through sufferings to “learn obedience” as a Son (Heb. 5:8). Obedient endurance is the crowning mark of maturity. When you can obey the will of God even in the midst of crisis, heartbreaks, misunderstanding and persecution, you have become truly mature.

Sufferings refine our faith in God like nothing else will. That is why the Scripture encourages us to “count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience” (James 1:2-3). As your capacity for endurance grows, and you can keep on obeying the will of God in spite of stress, hardships, criticisms and pain, you will become “perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (1:4).

7. Get ready for the double portion. Suffering is a prerequisite for sonship. Only true sons inherit the Father’s estate. Jesus was willing to suffer and become “obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:8-11). Jesus Christ, the true Son of God, became the heir of all things and inherited His Father’s estate. It is the same for us: “If we endure, we shall also reign with Him” (2 Tim. 2:12). This is what obedient endurance does: giving us the sonship to inherit the double portion.

Ultimately, God’s purpose of Job’s suffering was to qualify him for the double portion. True enough, God doubled all his possessions. He was blessed with 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 oxen, and 1,000 donkeys (42:10-12). He was blessed with ten other children (42:13-14). God then doubled his length of days by adding another 140 years (70 x 2) to his life. Moreover, Job became God’s example of obedient perseverance for all eternity.

Like Job, it is one thing to be blameless but quite another to be broken unto the Lord. True maturity is the absolute abandonment to God and His will. When there is no capacity for obedient endurance, we are not yet ready for the double portion. If you are going through a period of intense suffering, wisely do everything you possibly can to overcome it. And having done all, hold on steady and stand before the Lord in faith (Eph. 6:13). Obediently endure through the fire, trial, pain, disappointment, sickness, financial lack and persecution by faith. God is working out something beautiful in your life.