Dear friends, hard times dog us frequently in this wild world we are living in but if we put our faith in Jesus He will help us through. This faith we require is often needed in the most extreme moment and it isn’t ‘handed out on tap’, it is something we need to learn and develop. We are friends, after all, living in the devil’s playground and, as I’ve pointed out before in other documents, bad things are going to happen. Blind faith is a characteristic that can help us through any trial and I would like to talk about it today. Many a person navigating this path today are in need of this ‘blind faith’ and many a prayer will be going up to heaven in their behalf. I know times of trouble are sad and it can be hard to negotiate the path. Sometimes it can also be hard to reconcile to the will of God, understand His calling and hold onto your faith in Him. So let’s jump straight in to the message of today.
I am sure that many a person walking down the path of pain and sorrow have questions. It takes a lot of faith to have ‘blind faith’ in Jesus and this ‘blind faith’ can only come through experience. Sure, you can tell someone to ‘have faith’ and ‘yes, Jesus knows what He is doing’ and that is all ok when it is someone else, but when it hits close to home – well, ‘hearing it’ from someone else can be meaningless. Friends, I know right now (if you are indeed walking this path) you must be hurting and I know questions, doubts and maybe anger are swirling around inside you like a stormy day. I would like to give you, if possible, answers to your questions, faith to your doubts and peace to your anger. There is a reason friends, Jesus does ‘know what He is doing’, and while I have addressed this issue many a time in the documents I write this time is different, this time it’s personal.
Friends before we head into the main crux of this message I would like to define ‘blind faith’. Let’s go to the dictionary.
Blind: “Unable to see. Unable to perceive or understand.”
Faith: “Complete trust or confidence in someone or something.”
Trust: “reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.”
So if we put these together we get – “while we cannot see or understand we can have complete trust and confidence in a person’s (Jesus’) integrity, strength and ability – blind faith”. With ‘Blind Faith’ we can divert any attacks from the devil, it is Satan that makes everything turned around. See our faith wavers when our own opinion or our own perception crosses paths with Jesus’. It is the devil in the detail with everything and we need to be able to walk through these dark times with blind faith in Jesus, we cannot let our personal opinion sway us, if we do the devil will take full advantage and make us doubt the love of our Saviour. Friends, I know this is a really hard concept to grasp, but we need a strong hold on this concept of blind faith so we can walk this path heaven has laid out for us with total confidence in our Blessed Redeemer. Friends, we often feel the pressure from Satan to the point of our despair and he is making us to doubt the love of God. Please friends, cast him (Satan) aside and have blind trust in Jesus. Our guardian angels are encircling us and the devil has no power to penetrate our defence, but friends, our guardian angels are ‘out of sight’ to us and this is where we have to ‘walk by faith’. Jesus has promised us His love, strength and endurance, no power in heaven or hell can force us to lose our hold on Jesus. In short, we have to be able to walk through the storm, holding onto Jesus by faith and trusting His judgement and as we step forward in faith Jesus will match our effort with the power to do so. Jesus loves us dearly and no, we don’t always understand His motives but we do know that He has our best interest in mind, He loves us dearly, He knows we are living in Satan’s playground and bad things are going to happen in this wicked world and Jesus has His arms open wide saying:-
Matthew 11:28 “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
So friends, we have established ‘Blind Faith’ and trust in Jesus but what about the all important question – ‘why?’. Why do ‘bad things happen’? Let’s dive into it head first. Friends, I wrote a document and placed it on the internet entitled ‘How can I believe’. I don’t know if you have read it but it pretty much spells out why bad things happen, but first let’s go a little deeper. Let’s start with a quick peek into how this all started in the first place. Yes, most of us reading this already know about the rebellion and fall of Satan but if not I encourage you to open your Bibles and read the truths therein.
It all began with Satan. See Satan (Lucifer) was the very first angel created, please concentrate on the word ‘created’. The Holy Spirit came first, out of the Holy Spirit came God the Father and out of God the Father came God the Son (Jesus), this formed the Trinity. Satan (Lucifer) was created by the Trinity, the very first angel. This gave Lucifer a ‘air’ of importance and instead of humbling himself to his Creators he cherished the feeling of pride, he put himself on a pedestal and felt ‘above’ everyone else. The Trinity knew this was a risk for any angel first created and had put counter measures in place, Lucifer was the leading commander and he was counselled against harbouring pride, but to little effect. Lucifer grew more discontent by the moment and any counselling given by the Trinity only deepened his feelings of jealously, he wanted to be equal with Jesus and even fancied himself in a position higher than that of the Son of God. This was the very beginning and as we well know it all spiralled downhill from here. The rebellion and fight in heaven, (you know every single angel in heaven was personally counselled by Jesus before the war broke out in earnest, each one given the opportunity to repent and be reinstated, or if already on Jesus’ side they were encouraged and counselled), the victory of Jesus and the expulsion of Satan and his followers from heaven and the consequent battle for planet earth, yes friends, we know it well. But it wasn’t just a matter of ‘throwing Satan out’, oh no, it went much deeper than that. See Satan wasn’t allowed to just ‘wrack and ruin’ earth, oh no, rules and restrictions had to be put in place. Let’s take a peek into these ‘rules’. A covenant was established (this was separate to the covenant the Trinity established at the beginning of time) and it worked like this. Jesus and Satan drew up a list of rules and restrictions to the fairness of both sides, (that’s Jesus and Satan) and it was enforced (the binding rules around the covenant) by a independent party (this party was made up of the delegates of the other universes) well, independent to start with. Once that party became so disgusted with the tactics of Satan that it could no longer do its job ‘fairly’, then God the Father overruled and enforced the boundaries of the covenant, He could do this as Satan had proven himself to be a tyrant and worthy of death.
So the covenant, rules and restrictions surrounding the devil was enforced but Satan wasn’t going to play by the rules, so Jesus had to create a ‘posse’ of angels to follow Satan enforcing the rules. Now where is this going you might ask? Well, let’s go to the punch line – Satan’s government, as has been established down the timeline, is one of death, destruction and torment, and he has abused and broken every rule in the covenant that he himself signed in his attempt to destroy everyone possible. Now, as you read above, each angel had that interview with Jesus explaining the justice, love and compassion of Jesus, so too does every single person on earth, everyone has been counselled by Jesus and each of us given the choice of masters, (that’s Jesus or Satan). No-one has been left to the subtlety of the devil without a full knowledge of what they are doing. Friends, this is where we go deep into the ‘knowledge of God’, see Jesus is a God of love and He desires that none of His children suffer – but – we are living in the devil’s playground and the devil is going to attack us (God’s people) just as hard as he does everyone else, we are not immune to his attacks because we are under the banner of Jesus – but – we do have the hand of Jesus over us and He says to Satan, “thus far and no further”. Friends, remember the Bible verse:-
1st Corinthians 10:13 “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
This situation many of us are experiencing right now falls under this category, the devil is tempting us to doubt and friends, I would like to write for you and help you to understand why bad things happen. We cannot know for a certainty why these things happen and why Jesus didn’t prevent it, but let’s go to what we do know and maybe that will answer the question of why. As we mentioned above, we are living in the devil’s playground, let’s go to a few excerpts from the letters I have written and placed on this internet site. This excerpt is from the document ‘How Can I Believe’ and it is using the death of a child as a example, this may not be your experience right now but the principles are the same.
How Can I Believe?
“One of the most common scenarios is the loss of a child and this is the scene we will use today. The very first reaction almost everyone has after a loss is to blame God. It’s God’s fault, why did Jesus take my child? How can I believe in Him now? Well firstly friends, Jesus didn’t take your child, Jesus never causes death, suffering or pain. Friend, whose land are we living in? Jesus may be the rightful owner but at the moment Satan has usurped the throne. Yes friend, at the moment we are living in the devil’s playground. It’s the devil’s reign of terror that causes all the pain and suffering, the devil loves it, his government is run by pain and suffering. So while Jesus never causes the pain He often does use it. Let’s digress for a moment here. Friend, let’s take a quick look at the life of a piano player. How do they become famous – yes, practice. Can they become a proficient player by swimming or running? no, they have to spend hours and hours at the piano practicing. It is the same with Jesus, you cannot have faith if you have never exercised the ‘faith’ muscle. If you have never needed to have faith and you haven’t experienced the need for faith, then how do you expect to be able to have faith when a crisis arrives? Let me stress this, we are living in the devil’s playground, ‘bad’ things are going to happen and unless we have learnt to have a blind faith in Jesus, our faith will be shaken.”
Yes, we are living in the devil’s playground, and yes, bad things are going to happen, but friends, we are never left to face them alone. Remember God’s promise:-
Matthew 28:20 “…and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”
Another snippet comes from the document ‘My story in a allegory’.
My story, In a Allegory
“Friends, it is very hard at the beginning of our trials why these things are permitted to pass. As I have outlined in many of my documents Jesus never causes pain, we are living in the usurped playground of Satan and as we know he is a tyrant. Satan’s rule is death, pain and destruction, he delights in suffering and distress and all troubles stem from him. Jesus could at a word dispel him, but if Jesus did, how would we learn to grow? It says in the Bible how Jesus moulds our character via the furnace of affliction. So while Jesus, friends, never causes the affliction, He doesn’t always shield us from it. Jesus uses it to teach us to lean on Him and strengthens our trust in Him.”
Friends, Jesus doesn’t always shield us from trauma, but He does always give us the strength to endure and the holding power to get through, He helps to mould our character into a reflection of His, after all Jesus also has suffered at the hands of the devil. We learn to have ‘blind faith’ and a trust in Jesus that cannot be broken. Jesus is beside us friends, and He will strengthen and comfort us. Please friends, put your hand in Jesus’ and walk close to Him, trusting ever in His mercy and judgement and having total faith in Him, Jesus will carry us through.