Job 1:5 (KJV). extra

Job 1:5 (KJV)
And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.

Early in the book of Job, his children almost seem to become a secondary thought. The focus is so strongly fixed upon Job that his sons and daughters can begin to look like little more than a part of what happened to him. His servants are killed. His livestock are taken. His children die. Even Job’s wife receives only a brief and unfavorable mention.

Yet Job 1:5 reminds us that his children were not unimportant. Job prayed for them continually. He offered burnt offerings “according to the number of them all.” Each one mattered to him.

The narrow focus of the account does not mean that God was unconcerned with the others. It means that the Holy Spirit is showing us what God was doing in Job’s life. Because the spotlight is on Job, everyone else can seem to fade into the background.

That can happen in our lives too.

Our attention can become so fixed upon what God is doing in us that the people around us begin to look like tools He is using for our development. A difficult person teaches us patience. A faithful friend strengthens us. A family member deepens our compassion. A church member tests our spirit.

There is truth in that. God does use people to shape us. But that is only one side of the matter. While God is using them to work in us, He is also using us to work in them.

I have often told young preachers that there may be only one or two people in a church who are truly interested in growing in the Lord. God may use the entire congregation to help produce that growth. Prayerfully, we are among those who are growing.

But even then, the others are not without value. God is working in their lives as surely as He is working in ours. We may see them only through the narrow focus of our own experience, but God sees the whole picture.

Others may look like tools in our story. In God’s hands, every life matters.

Job 4:15 (KJV) How Do You Know the Holy Spirit Is Leading?

Job 4:15 (KJV)

Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:

A young preacher is working his way through the book of Job in our church's midweek services. The other night, he commented that a preacher friend had advised him that when he came to the conversations between Job and his friends, he should always hear Job's responses before making a judgment about his friends' words.

They can sound correct.

But they aren't.

I remember that just after I started living for the Lord, a man I worked with—a Pentecostal Christian—remarked from this text that one way to know the Holy Spirit is speaking to you is when the hair on the back of your neck stands up. Years later, just after planting the church in Astoria, a member of the local Assemblies of God church made the same remark.

Here's the thing: the man in Job who said that was very likely influenced by the wrong spirit.

I wonder how often professing Christians mistake a spiritual impression for the leading of the Holy Spirit, when in fact they are being led by an entirely different spirit.

#TestTheSpirits #RightlyDivideTheWord #Job4v15Study #BiblicalDiscernment #KJVBible

How Do You Know the Holy Spirit Is Leading? Learn Biblical Discernment

Have you ever mistaken a strong feeling for God's leading? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment below and join the conversation. 

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Job 4:15 (KJV) How Do You Know the Holy Spirit Is Leading?

Here's a comic version of the lesson.

http://youtube.com/post/UgkxwHFCmHWG372AxWZMF3D7Zvv1fHlEANhn?si=wBG7ENHjzgkvTNWa