Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
The one-year anniversary of Matt Stewart’s tragic and violent death is upon us. This was the most devastating thing we have ever experienced and it was the lowest point of my entire life. When you go through difficult circumstances, especially something like this, your faith in the goodness and integrity of the Lord is severely tested.
Most believers believe that God is good, but not all believers believe God is always good. Is He good even when evil violently strikes the godly down without cause? I believe He is always good and trustworthy. I still do not have the answers as to why this and things like this happen, but I refuse to even entertain thoughts of questioning His goodness and trust-worthiness as a leader. To do so is to entertain Satan himself (Gen. 3:1-5). Jesus gave us permission to ask why (Matt. 27:46), but Jesus always trusted in the goodness and leadership of the Father even to the point of His own violent death.
Andy Squyers recently heard Mike Bickle speaking on this subject on God TV. As Andy was sharing with me what Mike had said I felt life on his words and I asked him to write down what Mike had shared.Here is Andy’s paraphrase of Mike’s message.
“It is safe to say that each of us will go through difficult circumstances in life. We may be contending for a healing. We may not be able to find employment. We may have lost a loved one. When we go through these moments the enemy always comes with two accusations: ’God is not good‘ and ’The Leadership of Jesus is untrustworthy.’ Satan knows that if he can get us to believe either one of these lies the love we have for God will exponentially diminish. Satan knows that if a person has an offense in His heart toward the Lord it will keep him from love and lead to his downfall.
Jesus made a claim about John the Baptist. He said John was the greatest prophet of God ever born. John knew what was going on. In Matthew 11 John sends his disciples to go see Jesus. He tells them to ask Jesus if He is the Messiah or if they should look for another. John knew Jesus was the Messiah. He was NOT unsure. In fact, John knew he would soon die at the hand of Herod. So he was sending his disciples to Jesus so they would see the Messiah, so they would know in the wake of John’s death that hope was not lost, that the one of whom John prophesied had indeed come.
So John’s disciples go to Jesus and He says this: ‘Go tell John; the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the dead are raised, the poor hear the Good News. AND BLESSED IS HE WHO IS NOT OFFENDED BECAUSE OF ME’ (Matt. 11:6).
Why did Jesus say this to John’s disciples? Why would He need to add this disclaimer? The disciples of John knew Isaiah 61. They knew Isaiah 35. They saw the miracles that Jesus did! They heard the authority by which He spoke and then He tells them not to beoffended by Him?
John knew that he was going to die. Jesus knew that John was going to die. John’s disciples, seeing the Messiah on the earth assumed His kingdom would be manifesting. And they did not know that John was going to die! Jesus understood that the moment of decision would soon be upon them. Would they, could they, trust the leadership of Jesus in light of their beloved John’s death knowing that Jesus had the power to restrain the evil involved in John’s murder and yet, did nothing?
Brothers and sisters nothing kills our faith, our love, our joy and hope faster than being offended at God. You see, being offended at God really means instead of believing in the total and complete goodness of God we have chosen to believe the words of the enemy; that Jesus is not trustworthy. We develop earthly eyes and soulish hearts. We stop being hungry for the kingdom.
So the blessings come when we face the unimaginable harshness of wickedness and still lift up our souls to Him in total trust. The blessing comes when we have been forced into that terrible spot between the rock and the hard place where no scripture can comfort, when we rise up in our heart and say God, You are my God and I will always praise You! Lead me God! Lead me God! You are trustworthy!!”
Many Blessings, BW