HIGHER-FIRE digest 382

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Greetings to all at Higher-Fire in the precious name of Jesus:

I have been following the discussion of the "Word of faith" 
movement's beliefs with considerable interest. There is one area in 
which I believe that all on Higher-Fire can agree with "Super Dave". 
It is true that our God can do exceedingly abundantly above all we 
ask or think.  It is certainly not wrong for us to pray that God 
bless us and meet our needs.  But the fact remains that not all 
Christians are rich or even healthy. Why? Is it due to lack of faith? 
Did Paul have a lack of faith when he besought God thrice to remove a 
thorn from his life?  I think not! What about Job? Now I agree that 
we can read to the end of the book and see how God ultimately blessed 
Job but the reality is that so often in our churches we meet modern 
day versions of Job who are still in the middle of their trials;  it is sooooo easy
 for us to criticize  and become modern day "Job's comforters" and pass off 
the trial as a "punishment from God" or a "lack of faith".  Job was not 
sick because of his lack of faith or because he had sinned but 
because he was being used of God to defeat Satan. I think too of the 
saints mentioned in Hebrews 11 who were persecuted and killed for 
their faith.  Their riches were to be found with the Lord in heaven.  
Indeed, the world was not worthy of them.  Perhaps a personal 
testimony might be mentioned here.  In 1987, the writer suffered a 
seizure and, at the time the doctors diagnosed it as "idiopathic" 
epilepsy.  (Idiopathic is the medical term doctors use when they 
don't know the cause.)  Can you imagine what it must feel like to be 
a pastor and have church people think you have a demon in you or 
something like this?  This was my situation for a number of years. I 
was made to take dilantin and told that if I didn't I would not be 
allowed to drive. By the way, dilantin is a drug that MUST BE TAKEN 
WITH FOOD. One's ability to fast for more than a meal at a time is 
severely cramped. (Perhaps Sister Wendy Horn might wish to comment 
further on this).  As it finally turned out, I did not have epilepsy 
at all and I did not need to take dilantin at all. Instead, I have been 
diagnosedat a sleep clinic instead as having a sleep disorder called 
obstructive sleep apnea. One of the features in my case is that my 
blood oxygen level plunges to dangerously low levels when I sleep. 
That was what caused my so-called seizure. The stigma so many attach 
to epilepsy was gone - and it never needed to be in the first 
place!!! The point of all this  is simply that one must never assume 
that just because one sees a fellow brother or sister in the Lord 
undergoing  severe trial, it necessarily means he has a lack of 
faith. As far as prosperity is concerned, some Christians would be 
absolutely ruined if they were suddenly prosperous.  Unless they 
learn how to handle money and success through the testing that comes 
through their trials, prosperity would turn to a curse instead of a 
blessing.

In conclusion I would like to thank "SuperDave" for pointing out some 
of the scriptures promising prosperity to God's people. However,  to 
merely suggest that a lack of outward prosperity necessarily denotes a lack of 
faith just does not cut it.  I would  like to suggest that a good topic to follow up 
on this discussion might be "Why do God's people go through trials anyway?" 

I apologise if I have been too long but I just had to get this off my 
chest.

Pastor Dave "Yes, I am Dave too!" Ward
UPC Fort Frances, ON. Canada

PS. If anyone wants to find out more about sleep apnea, please 
contact me at dward@fort-frances.lakeheadu.ca unless the moderators 
of Higher-fire feel that there is sufficient interest to discuss this 
and other diseases publicly