Maybe you’ve heard people say, “God’s put this trouble/trial/sickness on you to teach you something.” Or maybe someone’s well-meaning advice was: “God has allowed this trouble/trial/sickness to come upon you to help you grow.”Not true! It may sound spiritual to say something like that, but it is very, very wrong. If you think that, then you won’t know what to stand against. If you think God caused your trouble, how can you believe Him to deliver you from it? You can’t. We have to get this straight: God is good and the devil is bad. Don’t get confused about it, because it can undermine your faith. Know who your enemy is!
Say, for example, someone needs to overcome sickness. If they say that God put sickness on them to teach them something, then they’re saying that it is God’s will that they’re sick, right? But then they take medicine or go to the doctor to try and get the illness to go away.I want to say to them, “Wait a minute. If the sickness is God’s will for you, if this is how He’s going to train and teach you, then why are you taking meds and going to the doctor to try and get out of God’s will?” Of course we can see that’s ridiculous. Of course a person who is sick wants to get better. And God wants that person to get better too. It’s never His will for people to be sick; it’s always His will to heal us. He always has been and always will be a healing God. He said, “I am the Lord who heals you” (Exod. 15:26). Jesus Himself bore your sicknesses (Matt. 8:17) and by His stripes you were healed, more than 2,000 years ago (1 Pet. 2:24).
Part of the confusion comes because people do learn lessons and gain insights from God when they’re sick or in trouble. This happens, though, because when trouble comes, they run to God, press into His Word, listen to all their teaching CDs, and take lots of notes at church. If they’re confined to bed, they have plenty of time to seek God and listen to the Holy Spirit. I think most of us have pressed into God when we’re in trouble, and He has answered. But of course, we could have learned the lesson at hand without being sick or in trouble! God doesn’t need us to be sick to teach us something. Every time we press into God, He is there to meet us, teach us, and help us grow.
God teaches us by His Word and His Spirit, not by trouble, trial, sickness, or any other tool of the enemy! You can avail yourself to His Word and His Spirit any time you want. In fact, it pays to seek Him before trouble comes so you’re ready to stand up strong and overcome by enforcing your covenant. Yes, there are tests and trials in life. Here’s how to know if it’s God or the devil: if it’s not good, it’s not God! Know your enemy, and stand against him.