Thorns do not hurt us unless we…..

Thorns do not hurt us unless we seek to damage the Rose, God in His wisdom created thorns for protection and He also created us to reap what we sow for our own protection, so that when we do evil we would come to our senses and when we do good we will experience His deep inner Joy but He does not hurt us deliberately or willingly afflict us. Lamentations 3: 33 For God doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

We need to take to heart that God is Love and can do no evil and all good things come from Him, all He created was very good, knowing this Truth means we will Love and Trust Him in our heart and so have His Peace, Eternal Hope and deep inner Joy regardless of our circumstances. Yes we may have tears in our eyes at times, Jesus cried too but God also reassures us that He is near in many ways, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear.

When we pray for ourselves or others, He hears and answers when they are in His good will for us, He does not give us what’s not good as some claim so we have to be careful what we pray, His compassion and mercy are beyond earthly reckoning but He does gives us our hearts desires because when we are in Christ Jesus they are according to His will.Psalm 97:9-11 For thou, Lord, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods. Ye that Love the Lord, hate evil: He preserveth the souls of His Saints; He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.Psalms 100:5 For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His Truth endureth to all generations.Psalms 117:2 For His merciful kindness is great toward us: and the Truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD.

We do damage to ourselves when we do what is wrong in God’s eyes and because we live in a fallen world others can hurt us too, even those claiming to have faith. Satan also puts us to the test but he will fail, our souls are protected by God when we are His.Yes God has great righteous anger towards sin because it causes heartache and suffering and those who continue to do it without repentance will suffer Eternal separation from God and will only know evil for Eternity with out hope of it changing and sadly this is their choice.1 John 5:19   We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.Psalm 97:9-11 For thou, Lord, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods. Ye that Love the Lord, hate evil: He preserveth the souls of His Saints; He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.We can also cause our own problems in other ways, I did this with harmful dieting as a Teenager, it caused health issues throughout my life and I still have problems today because of it. So do I blame God for this affliction and claim it is was for my good and that He wanted me to suffer to teach me. I do not give thanks for the affliction but I do give thanks always that God gives me His strength and empowers me to endure any affliction or hardship that life brings to me even as I go through it, we don’t walk alone when our heart focus is on God… How good is that! Isaiah 43:1-3 – Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour.”

What I’m going to share now is very personal but needs to be shared so you can see how very damaging it is to believe that God will deliberately allow us to suffer… I ask you, who was it that put the crown of thorns on Jesus’ head, it was not God, it was our sin.During a Bible study with Ron about 6 years ago, the woman leader claimed that everything that happens to us good and bad in life is God’s will, it seems this makes it ok for evil to be in the world, for children and babies to suffer, for the elderly to be made fun of and not respected, for people to hurt each other, for separation and divorce, for sickness and death to cause grief and sorrow, as does all types of evil and for us to continue to sin, all because God willingly allows it, did Jesus suffer such a cruel death so evil could continue Eternally or did God seek to save us from it, He tried many times to warn Mankind through the Prophets but they did not listen and killed them and so He sent Jesus His beloved Son too, our Lord and Saviour, but instead of them taking to heart what He shared, they killed Him too.As I was listening to this woman, I realized that I was being deceived by man’s own fleshy understanding of the Scriptures. I asked her did God plan all the abuse I experienced as a Child (see link below ) that had caused me to loose the joy of Childhood and live in fear, she said yes.Childhood – https://freedomborn.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/the-early-years-a-little-lost-girl/I then shared that I had also been sexually molested much more than once from the age of 3 and also raped by a Doctor after He had talked me into having an Abortion when I was not yet 15.I told her about my first husband who also was badly abused as a Child, and that he bashed me many times, even when I was carrying his Children, none of them survived, the reason was not known at the time, the abuse was not the main cause although it may have added to loosing my babies as they were very weak during gestation, but it also may have been the Abortion or a defective gene, or because my birth Mother was an Alcoholic and alcohol in excess can affect the Placenta too. Later my first husband found another woman who could give him a child and he abandoned me. I have forgiven him and I hope he has also forgiven me for the hurt I caused him, we were both badly abused as Children and so I have compassion for him too and I pray that he may have the healing I have had through the Lord.Sadly this woman said yes, it was all God’s will that I suffered what I did, so He could bring good out of it, this is Slander ( Romans 3:8 ) God does not do or cause evil, we both walked out and never went back, although I did try to reason with her later but she continued to believe this deception that others believe and teach too.God is not the Author of sickness and death, He also does not cause babies to die or to be retarded, or for them and us to be abused, all good things come from Him, He does not plan evil so we will suffer to teach us although pain can sometimes be a warning something is wrong but this is for good not bad, the same as feeling guilt for the wrong we do, when it brings us to our senses. God even does good for those who are evil but they don’t thank Him or even recognize it is from Him.

The Scriptures including the old Hebrew are impossible to understand without The Holy Spirit (1Corinthians2:9-16) and so there has been much error in knowing the original meaning of what was written.

As an example; what Job said to his wife when he was suffering, yes we know now the evil that he was afflicted with came from Satan who had the right to put him to the test the same as he does with us but what we need to remember is that later God reassured Job, who didn’t have the indwelling of The Holy Spirit that He was the Creator of all that was good not evil.

Job did know though that it was wrong to curse God as his wife foolishly suggested in her loss and heartache, instead he affirmed to her the need to continue to Trust in God’s goodness, regardless of what happened in life good and bad and we need to do this too.

It’s very, very sad that some  think like I did once too, that God does evil and not just Atheists or unbelievers but some Christians too…if we believe that He does, we will not Love and Trust Him in our heart. Some say isn’t God in control of everything, yes He can bring good out of evil but He does not do it or willingly allow it, although because it does happen He tolerates it for now but it grieves Him greatly to see us suffer as it did for Him to see Jesus suffer but He will end all evil soon, right now He is very patient, it is not His will anyone perishes, He is giving all His Children time to repent.Lamentations 3: 33 For God doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

After being deceived myself and believing all that happens comes from God, including suffering, even though it was sugar coated, I have now asked forgiveness for doing so as  I also passed on e-mails that taught this error. I remember one I received about God putting us in an oven and watching us suffer, this was to mold and shape us but that is not what the Scripture is referring to, although He does watch over us until we come to our senses, and intercedes if needed. I was saved from death 3 times when I believed because of being deceived as a young Teenager that God did not exist and I came from an Ape, it caused me to think that Jesus had abandoned me and that I had been lied to by my Sunday School Teacher.But what caused me in the end to doubt that it was true that God caused suffering and made me think again and pray about it seeking Him for His Truth, was that we ourselves would not delight in our Loved ones suffering or being abused or seek to arrange it and inflict hardship and pain on them, or even willingly allow it, yet this is what is claimed about God our Loving Abba Father. The Truth is He molds and shapes us as we choose to walk in the fruit of The Spirit not by us suffering, we are empowered by Him when we choose to do good  so and in this way we are able to put our fleshy or carnal nature to death which causes evil and come close to God so the Devil flees, he hates goodness.Galatians 24 -26 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

God is Love and Love cannot do evil, we see this as we read with God’s understanding  (1Corinthians13 and Galations5:23-26) His discipline and chastising is not as some claim either, yes He does allow us our own freewill, He does not force us to Love and obey Him, He does not want puppets and so He lets us go our own way even knowing we will suffer, this is His Discipline and also His protection.

It’s like we see in the Parable of  the Prodigal son who went his own way but suffered until he came to his senses. It is the same with us, because of our sin we cannot fellowship with God, we are cut off from Him, which is our choice not His and so we have time out and this is never going to be easy or pleasant the same as it wasn’t when we were Children but what a welcome home when we repent and so turn away from doing evil.

If your sinning and someone in the Church chastises you through the confirmation of Scripture, then thank God for sending them and thank them for caring enough to rebuke and warn you.2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.When we know God’s heart of Love for us because we have asked and received His wisdom and also the empowering of The Holy Spirit which He freely gives us (1Corinthians2:9-16)  and we have stopped trusting in our own fleshy or worldly understanding or others, we will have no doubts that He is Love and can do no evil and that He protects us Eternally, nor will we believe that He causes our suffering and hardship, even if others claim He does. because they won’t have inner Peace till they really know His heart of Love for them (Isaiah5:21)Psalms 117:2 For His merciful kindness is great toward us: and the Truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD. Lamentations 3: 33 For God doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. Jeremiah 29 :11-12 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Hurt people, hurt people and themselves, only God can heal us of the pain of their abuse and our own and  fill us with His Love and forgiveness for those who have hurt us, including us, Satan then has no foothold, so we ask in Faith and receive.

God’s Love does not have thorns to hurt us, it has a Beautiful glowing Reflection.

Thank you for listening, I realize this has been a long message  but I felt led to share it fully and as always, please feel free to respond even if you don’t agree and we will reason together with Scripture as we are empowered to understand it by The Spirit in all of God’s Truth.Christian Love Always from both of us – Anne.