Romans 8:28

Rom 8:28 (KJV) “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Is there anything God does not touch or that he shows no interest in? God’s hand is involved in everything and nothing happens that His eyes cannot penetrate. “The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made” Ps 145:9 (NIV); “Not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.” Matt 10:29 (NLT); and God “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Matt 5:45 (NIV); God “gives all men life and breath and everything else.” Acts 17:25 (NIV).

But this promise that “all things work together for good” is not for everybody. It can be claimed only by those who love God and are called according to his purpose, that is, those who have chosen to receive Christ. Such people have a new perspective, a new mind-set. They trust in God, not in worldly treasures; their security is in heaven, not on earth. Their faith in God does not waver in pain and persecution because like Joseph, David and Paul; whose lives were filled with suffering, each of them knew that God was ultimately with them no matter their circumstances.

Just because God is involved in our lives doesn’t mean that all that happens to His people is good. Evil is working against us. God is involved in a spiritual warfare against Satan, it is the great controversy between good and evil. In this great controversy Satan is striving to keep non-Christians from coming into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and at the same time rendering Christians ineffective. Satan has dominion over this world, so he takes advantage of his authority over this world to cause pain and suffering. God only has authority over us when we submit our lives to Him. God will not interfere with our freedom of choice so we must make requests to God through our prayers and intercession for others in order for God to have permission to get involved in our human affairs. But by submitting our lives to Him we can claim the promise, that although Satan is out to ruin our lives, God will thwart Satan’s evil and turn it into good.

Even though evil is prevalent in this fallen world, God is able to turn every circumstance around for the long-term good of those who love Him. Like in the story of Joseph, Joseph’s brothers sold him as a slave, but within this evil act God made good come of it, as Joseph, saw God’s hand in the end, and he was able to forgive his brothers as he said to them, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done” Gen 50:20 (NIV). When Balaam was hired to pronounce curses upon the Children of Israel, God “turned the curse into a blessing” Deut 23:5 (NIV). When Absalom tried to overthrow the kingdom from David, his father, David said, “It may be that the Lord will see my distress and repay me with good for the cursing I am receiving today” 2 Sam 16:12(NIV). When the Children of Israel were in slavery in Egypt, the more the Egyptians oppressed them the more God caused them to prosper. Also, when the children of Israel were wandering in the desert wilderness, they felt cursed by God because they were hungry and thirsty and so God blessed them with manna from heaven. In circumstances of apparent disaster God manages to turn things around. When Paul was in prison, God used that situation for him to be a witness to the government of Rome. But the ultimate example of God turning a curse into a blessing is the plan of salvation. We were cursed by sin, then “Christ rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When He was hung on the cross, He took upon Himself the curse for our wrongdoing.” Gal 3:13 (NLT)

God is not working out good just to make us happy, He is actually working to fulfill his purpose in the lives of those who love Him. God’s highest purpose is to transform us into the character of Christ. The New Testament Greek word for “transform” is metamorfoústhe which means "metamorphose.” Christians are to metamorphose like a caterpillar, going into his cocoon and then coming out a butterfly. When we as Christians, show our love for Christ by surrendering our lives to Him, this is symbolized by the ordinance of baptism. As our lives metamorphose, our words, our thoughts, our deeds, and our actions are changed. The old caterpillar dies when we are submerged beneath the water of baptism representing dying to self and being buried in the grave with Christ. Then we are resurrected, up from the water, to a new life with Him, a total and complete change like into the butterfly. The apostle Paul said, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Rom 12:1-2 (NKJV)

So a new paraphrase of this promise could read: So in all circumstances, even when Satan is causing us pain and suffering, we know God will turn Satan’s evil into our long-term good, because our lives are synchronized with God’s ultimate purpose and we are being metamorphosed into the character of Christ.

Describe an event in your life that was really bad at first but then God fixed it and made it right? Compare some areas in your life that Christ has transformed in you contrasted with the ways you were before?

Genesis 28:12; John 1:51

Gen 28:12 (NLT); John 1:51 (NLT) As Jacob slept, “he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway.”; Then Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth."

Jesus, the Son of God, is the stairway to peace and spiritual healing on our Journey to heaven. Jesus described himself as the ladder in Jacob’s dream that bridged the gap between man and God. The ladder is provided by Christ's death for our sins. Isaiah 53:4-5, TLB. "Yet it was our grief He bore, our sorrows that weighed Him down. And we thought His troubles were a punishment from God, for His own sins! But He was wounded and bruised for our sins. He was chastised that we might have peace; He was lashed—and we are healed." All of us who have been touched by sin are in great need of spiritual healing. Forgiveness is ours for the taking, peace is found by making things right with God. Romans 5:1, (TLB) tells us, "So now, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith in His promises, we can have real peace with Him because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us." However, it took years for sin to create deep festering wounds in our lives, and as anyone who has worked in the health field knows, wounds take 10 times longer to heal than they did to form. But Praise God, as we climb Jacob’s ladder each round takes us higher and closer to the spiritual healing the Bible promises us is ours on the quest to the Kingdom of God.

“Every round goes higher” So the second round of the staircase involves removing what causes the wound from our lives. This round of the staircase is obedience. Psalm 119:165, (NIV) "Great peace have they who love Your law, and nothing can make them stumble." Disobedience is what caused the spiritual wounds in our lives to begin with so it makes sense that obedience removes what causes the wounds to keep growing. Doing the right thing because it is what God wants us to do is the essence of righteousness by faith. Isaiah 32:17-18, (NIV) "The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever."

“Every round goes higher” So the third round in the stairway looks easy, but it is actually the most challenging part of the climb. It is finding peace by letting go of self. It is a battle within ourselves against God’s will in areas of our life where we don’t want to let go, but where we need to grow. Job 22:21, (TLB) "Quit quarreling with God. Agree with Him and you will have peace at last. His favor will surround you if you will only admit that you were wrong." Self putrefies in our wounds, but Praise God, removing self cleanses the wounds to allow healing to begin to take place.

“Every round goes higher” in this round God gives us discipline, which is the fourth round in the stairway of peace and spiritual healing. Hebrews 12:5-11, (NIV) "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." Medicine on a deep wound stings and burns, discipline is the medicine providing the antiseptic environment necessary for the spiritual wound to keep infection out. Praise God, that Jesus is the Balm of Giliad, by trusting in Him, the Balm of Gilliad will heal the sin sick soul. Isaiah 26:3-4, (TLB) "He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in Him, whose thoughts turn often to the Lord! Trust in the Lord God always, for in the Lord Jehovah is your everlasting strength."

What are some other steps on Jacob's ladder that you feel have been important on your spiritual journey? Share an example of some of the spiritual healing you have experienced on your Christian journey?

*Originally posted as a comment by Dan on Kingdom Quest Blog on July 29, 2009 3:47 PM

James 1:2-4

James 1:2-4 (NIV) “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

God took Joseph’s trials, the betrayal by his brothers, years of suffering as a slave, falsely accused of adultery, then cast in prison, and polished him. A rough gem stone is valuable, but after it has been cut and lightly hammered to knock off brittle, fractured material, and it has been put in a grinder that uses progressive abrasion using finer and finer grits of harder substances to polish the gem the process increases its value sometimes as much as 80%. After all that Joseph suffered, which caused him to be cut and polished spiritually, he grew to depended on God more and more. When he was ready God elevated him to the highest place next to the Pharaoh. Sometimes our trials can lead to our greatest blessings and God’s greatest victories.

Joseph’s story reminds me of a sermon I heard on Focus on the Family years ago. A minister was telling his story, he had been pastoring a normal little church and reached a plateau in his life and ministry when his life was turned upside down after he and his wife had a severely autistic child. To make a long story short, just having a child that severely handicapped made their home life terribly chaotic and their church was not structured to handle the noise and disruption of an autistic child. His frustration at God rattled his relationship with God and nearly drove him out of the ministry. But just like Joseph, his trials turned into triumph as he developed church programs that focused on how to minister to autistic children, a project that revolutionized his church and turned it into the largest congregation in the community and nationally recognized as a pioneer church for this kind of ministry.

Share what trials you have had in your life and how God turned them to triumph? Explain how those trials have made you into a more balanced person?

*Originally posted as a comment by Dan on Kingdom Quest Blog on July 26, 2009 12:10 AM