Why God Allows Pain: Total Dependence and Spiritual Fortification

Transcript

Automatic captions, reflowed into paragraphs. Scripture references are highlighted; passages that sound like read scripture are set apart; people and spiritual beings are in bold.

But what is the point of suffering? There are two things that it produces that are very important.

Number one, it teaches you that your source is God. The reason why you cannot touch profound manifestations of God is because you have options.

When you go to third-world countries where we come from, we see all manner of miracles. Do you know why? There's no welfare. There's no welfare. Welfare needs welfare. There is no system that will give you anything. It's either God or you die.

When you get to that level, then your source and your resource BECOMES GOD HIMSELF. THAT IN EVERY SITUATION,

YOU BEGIN TO SEE THE MANIFESTATION of God IN WAYS THAT OTHERS HAVE NOT EXPERIENCED. WHY?

Your dependence ON GOD IS SO HIGH THAT YOU KNOW I WILL NOT DIE IF it is not my time. No demon can touch me if it is not the will of God. You see, for you you still think that oh, the devil can touch me. The devil is fighting me. Those who have reached a certain level have become like Job, who know Do you realize Job never spent time rebuking the devil? Do you know why?

Let me tell you the biggest that this is I'm sorry. I'm not attacking prayer warriors. I am low-key, but not really.

But I will tell you this.

How can your life Do you know what the scripture say? Your life is hidden in Christ and in God. How can the devil touch you?

It didn't just say your life is hidden in God. He says it's hidden in Christ, in God." Meaning there's a few layers for the devil to get to you. He must go through the Holy Spirit. He must go through Jesus. He must go through the Father. Nobody's going through anyone called God. So, if now an affliction pain comes upon me.

How can I start binding the devil instead of understanding God may be working something on me.

God may have willed this. God may be training me something on this. Is it something I need to address with fire and brimstone? If God gives you revelation and says it's this and this, you rise up and you bind it. Some of it God will not even tell you, just tell you relax. But you see because everything is the devil, the moment you see an attack ratatabaka.

Even heavens looking eh.

Why? Because there's no dependence on God. If you experience what you don't like, your first reaction is to bind and to break. Not Lord, what is going on? You know everything, nothing is hidden from you. Is this the enemy? Is it something you're showing me? Is it something I need to address? Is it something I need to look into? What is your will concerning what is happening?

When I went to Tanzania to preach, I preached in front of 40,000 people. And there was a prophet from the Congo that was trying to come and see me, but the flights didn't work out for him. Very seasoned prophet. He told me, "Prophet." And he's older than me. He's like a He's like a father. He told me, "Prophet Elias, I just need to come and see you. And I need to put something at your feet." Because I know the things I'm going through, it is not the devil because I know my spiritual capacity. And this man is famous. I won't tell you who he is.

He said, "You You You prophet, you know me. But there is a grace I don't have in my life. And I know the Lord is telling me to come and meet you. If I come and meet you and just put this sacrifice at your feet, then I will be able to take the grace that is on you, and it will also be on my life." You see, recently Let me just address this because some people are foolish. They don't understand spiritual things, but they claim to be biblical.

When I went to see Bishop McClendon, and I've preached this and I've said this a million times, Bishop McClendon knows it. He's like a father to me. Okay? When we were about to start the church, Bishop, you know this. Achandel, you went with me. Van went with me. My wife went with me. I took a big I went twice. The first time I took a check, it was a lot of money, but it got told me, "Go back. You didn't do it correctly." So, I went with a stash of cash. I can't even remember how much it was. It was 50 50,000 in cash.

After service, I went and I put it before the man of God. He laid his hand and he started to pray for me. God told me, "You took the keys. I took the grace from him." Now, God gives people grace so that others can partake of it. You cannot steal somebody's grace. How stupid are you to think you can steal God's gift?

The word to steal there means I took without your knowledge. That's what Jacob did.

You see, when you're not educated spiritually, you sound foolish thinking that you're wise. When the woman with the issue of blood touched Jesus, what did she do? Jesus said, "Who touched me?" Jesus didn't know who took anything from her. It's the woman that came and said, "I took from you." And Jesus said, "Go, your faith has made you well." I have called Bishop myself and said, "Bishop, you see what your grace has done?" He said, "Man, I can see you are wise."

But when people don't understand spiritual things, they're like foolish children. When the woman when when when when the woman who took her oils and went to Jesus' feet and started washing Jesus' feet with her tears, kissing her feet, do you know what Jesus said? "You don't understand what this woman has done." "She has prepared me for the grave." But you don't understand what the woman represented. She was a harlot. Do you know what that represents? It represents Israel.

Because when God looks at us and we have prostituted ourselves to other gods, God calls us prostitutes. It's biblical. Jesus said, "She has prepared me for the grave." Do you know where the exchange happened? It began there.

Then Jesus says, "Because of the great love she has shown, it is evidence that her sins have been forgiven." How was her sins forgiven? By kissing Jesus' feet. She never said, "I'm sorry." She felt sorry for herself, but she never confessed, she never repented.

If there be a sick among you, let him go to the elders.

The prayer of the righteous shall save the sick. And if they have sinned, their sins will be forgiven. Notice, there are things you partake of just because you have been with somebody who carries something you don't have. That's Christianity 101.

[snorts]

So, when God strips us of everything, he's stripping us because he's going to build us better than we have ever been. But for him to build you, he has to take AWAY EVERY COMFORT from you.

When you look at the Lord Jesus, why do you think for salvation to come, Jesus had to be stripped of everything? He could have just died with no pain.

Haven't you ever thought of that? They could have just killed him. The point was for him to die. But notice, it wasn't just for him to die. How he died determined if the sins would be taken away. He had to die on a tree. He had to be crucified. He had to be pierced on the side. He had to be beaten. He had to go through what is called the test of faith. Will he hold on to the promise of the Father or will he break, look for comfort?

Because he was obedient even unto death, he was also given the name above what? All names. If God wants to make you great, he will make sure that nobody can have a claim on you.

I am prophesying to somebody. YOUR PAIN IS NOT IN VAIN.

AMEN.

YOUR CRY IS NOT IN VAIN.

AMEN.

It's actually a sign.

It is literally a sign. It's literally a sign.

Listen, it is literally what? A sign. It's a sign that God is so interested in you that he wants to do something special with you. Think about it like this. And even on the video that I'm talking about Bishop McLendon and I said, Bishop McLendon had a big following. He was the prophet of the You know this. You couldn't have a program without Bishop McLendon. But when I went to see Bishop McLendon, he wasn't in his prime.

Most people around him, they don't even know what the man carries. It took somebody with spiritual eyes to see and know there is grace that can be passed on to the next generation. You see, when you have not been stripped of things, you can't see where God has hidden his treasures for you. You can't see it.

So, you will hear people saying, "Oh, somebody stole." First of all, if you have no grace, how can somebody partake of what you have?

You are broke. How can I take broke from you?

I wish one day God would just give me license to put my hand through YouTube and slap some people.

So, the first thing that God does when you go through this level of pain is that God is stripping you in order to make you big, but the point of it is number one, total dependence on God.

You see, when you've gone to the doctors and the doctors can't fix it, you've gone you've used everything you can use to fix something and it doesn't get fixed, then your only option is now God. That's where people get miracles. But, why do you need to get to that point? Because God has to strip you of options until Jesus becomes your own option.

Do you see how faith works? Because the just shall live by faith, not by options.

I'll say it one more time for those who are in the back. The just shall live by what? Faith, not options. Not options. You still have options. You don't need to go through that pain for you to know you have options, just surrender them. That no matter what you are going to do, you bring it to God first to see what God decides for you.

Not what you think is good for you. Yeah. Because we can have many thoughts of what we think is good and it doesn't mean it's going to work out. Many times it has created more pain.

That's right.

So, the first one is it trains you to have total what? Dependence. The second one is spiritual fortification.

99% of people are hurt because of what people said about them. And 80% of those people don't even care about you and you don't really know them.

But you are hurt by what they say.

You'll never make it. Oh my god, you won't believe they said I'll never make it.

My father just left me. It's painful.

My mother just has forsaken me. It's painful. My husband just moved on with somebody else or my wife just this with my kids painful. But do you know what to be fortified means? That my ground is so solid and my feet are locked into the ground that I trust God that he will take care of those things as long as I stand on him. I will not be moved. I will not be shaken. I will

Amen. I will not be moved. I will not be shaken. I am fortified because I know at the end of it all, even if I worry, I can't fix it. Even if I cry, I can't fix it. The only one who can do it is God. So, if I go away from God, how is he going to get fixed?