Not long ago someone stood up in church and made the statement that they accepted a cancer diagnosis as coming from God and (in their thinking) if it came from God then they received it as such. Is this true? Does God ever put such things on us for any reason? Psalm 124:6 addresses this:
Psalm 124:6 Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey…
In 1 Peter 5:8 Peter said that it is the devil (and not God) that goes about as a roaring lion seeking the prey. Where do these ideas come from that God does such things? Of course those who teach so will never volunteer themselves for such honors they only see the suffering of others as coming from God for some dubious reason.
Jesus makes a statement in John 10:10 that couldn’t be clearer:
[Jhn 10:10 KJV] 10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly.
What part of heartache, disease, sorrow, poverty, etc., could possibly be defined as “life and life more abundantly?” If God puts such things on His people then the word of God is a lie and Jesus is a fraud – but we know that is not so. In Hebrews 1:1-2 the writer makes this statement:
[Heb 1:1-2 KJV] 1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by [his] Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
Do you see what this says? God is speaking through His Son. That means that everything God has to say to us is in the life of Jesus. If God wants us at times to go through disease or sorrow or poverty then why didn’t Jesus EVER lay hands on someone and give them cancer or leprosy? Dissenters often point to Old Testament verses regarding these things but they fail to take into account this statement in Hebrews. God is speaking to us through His Son. The life and character of Jesus is the lens we must look through to see what God is saying and if Jesus NEVER did something then we must accept that contrary thing (sickness, etc.,) as not coming from God.
Simply put – God will never put on you what the Cross takes off of you. Those who teach otherwise are either uninformed or worse – indulging in flagrant false doctrine.
