Fruit or Failure in Trouble - Part 2

                      ( From Job 36 - 37)

By Iverna Tompkins
Transcribed by Jane Vaughn

We are discussing the fact - FACT - that, in the midst of trouble, it is our choice whether or not we will finish by bearing fruit - or in failure.  At the close of the first part of this message, we had read in Job 36 and 37 - and discovered the awesomeness and power of God in weather!  Thunder and lightnings - directed by God - with purpose.  Iverna left us with the challenge to listen for His voice as we hear His thunder.  She continues:

We have prayed and prayed.  I’ve lived in this Valley more than 21 years and have attended dozens of prayer meetings where we have interceded on behalf of this metropolitan area.  “Oh God!  Send Revival!  Open hearts.  Cleanse Your people.  Bring in the lost.”  I trust many of you have been a part of something like that where you live.  And I should think you could get very excited when you realize that God is thundering and He is either saying, “I’m here!” or, “I am going to make Myself known and it will be clear that it is I!”

In Job, it goes on (37:3): “He lets loose his lightnings from horizon to horizon, lighting up the earth from pole (north) to pole (south).  In their wake, the thunder echoes his voice, powerful and majestic.  He lets out all the stops, he holds nothing back.  No one can mistake that voice…”  I add the parenthesis “though they may not understand the words.” 

Tell me if you really believe man can make the sound of thunder like the real thing.  Which of our great scientists can shoot something through one cloud so that it hits another cloud and rumbles through – sounding exactly like our God’s thunder?  Oh, Church.  Our God is an awesome God!!

“His word” (verse 5) “thundering so wondrously, his mighty acts staggering our understanding.  He orders the snow, ‘Blanket the earth!’  and the rain, ‘Soak the whole countryside!’  No one can escape [the weather – it’s just there – everywhere.]  No one can escape from God.  Wild animals take shelter, crawling into their dens, when blizzards roar out of the north and freezing rain crusts the land.  It’s God’s breath that forms the ice, it’s God’s breath that turns lakes and rivers solid.  And yes, it’s God who fills clouds with rainwater and hurls lightnings from them every which way.  He puts them through their paces – first this way, then that – commands them to do what he says all over the world.”

Earthquakes in diverse places.  Floods.  Storms.  Unusual weather.  Hello?  You have access to it in your living room where your television blasts it.  You look at those weather maps – “It’s never been like this in that place.”  “It’s never been that hot here…”  And then all of a sudden…  “It’s never been that rainy there!”  Look at us right here in Phoenix.  We’re saying, “Send the rain!  Send the rain!  Send the rain!”  And God says, “I’m busy in Tucson!” :-)  I hope it gets their attention!  [Recently, Tucson had been subject to flash floods from the monsoons there, yet the storms dissipate before reaching most of Phoenix.]

Everything we see in what we so glibly label “nature” – ought to stir the awareness of the awesomeness of our God!  The greatness of our God!  How Big He is!  He is out there on display!  When you look up at that full, lovely, gorgeous moon – when it’s as clear as it can be – you will see the greatness and the wonder of our God – even there as the stars pop out and come into view around the moon.  Our God knows every one of them by name (Is.40:26; Ps.147:4) – He commands them into their spaces and into their places (Gen.1:16; Jb.9:7,8; Ps.8:3).  But the Bible says He hurled the lightnings out there!

Aw, Church – I’m trying to tell us that in our puny little minds, our God has been too small!  We come to Him with some little thing….  Well, yes, I know it’s big to us, but we wail to Him: “Oh, my God – if there’s any way possible!  Dear God!  If You…”  Of course it’s possible!  With man it’s impossible, but with God… what?  “All things are possible!” (Mt.19:26; Lk.18:27; 1:37; Jer.32:17).

Now, here’s my text verse – Job 37:13.  This is the text that gave birth to this whole message.  Are you ready for it?  “Whether for discipline or grace or extravagant love, he makes sure they make their mark.”  Let’s read it again…  “Whether for discipline or grace or extravagant love, he makes sure they make their mark.”  Selah.

We’ve been talking about the elements, the weather, thunderings and lightnings.  Now I want to talk about any “cloud” in your life.  May I just be direct?  If there is a cloud that has come over your life, there is a purpose for that cloud.  And it isn’t going to move away or do anything different – hear me! – until you make a decision whether your “trouble” is going to produce Fruit or Failure.

The Bible says the Lord hides Himself from us (Isa.45:15; Ezk.39:23; Mic.3:4) (or from anyone that He needs to be hidden from) in a cloud.  The Lord is in your cloud! (Ex.16:10; 19:9; 20:21; 40:38).  You see – we just have to find Him in there!  But He is there!

Here we are walking along in life – I could sing this old one: “walking in the sunshine of His love” – and all of a sudden –  ::whhoooooo::   over the top of the sunshine comes a cloud.  It’s dark and a little scary.  But I resist it!  I cast it out! :-)  I even shout (just to display my power to dispel the darkness :-)) : “I will not have this!  I have authority in the Kingdom!  In Je---….”  You’ve been through it, too, I am certain – tell the truth!  But – the cloud doesn’t move! :-)  Yours or mine! :-)

So, now what are you going to do with it?  This dark cloud around you?  “I don’t… I guess I just don’t have enough faith.”  So – you go to a friend – and the friend casts it out! :-)   If you can hear me here, I’m helping you.   So, you go to this friend that is known to have power – with God – and she speaks to your cloud! :-)   demanding it leave in Jesus’ name.  But there you are, still standing in the middle – of that cloud.  So, you try again: “You devil-cloud!  Get off of me!  Get out of here!  Go!  I demand you go!”  :-)   And then God so quietly speaks to your heart, “I’ve made sure the cloud has reached its mark.”  Think about that for just a moment.

“And you will be forced to make a decision, Iverna.  You can’t cast Me out.  This thing isn’t demonic – it’s just that you have to find out where I am in it.  And as soon as you do, I will lift that cloud and release My glory.”

How desperately we want the glory of the Lord to be upon us!  I pray for it.  We all do – don’t you?  “Oh Lord, show Your glory.  Let the world see You through me.  Don’t let Your glory be hidden.”  We desperately want that!  But that “trouble” thing that hangs over us – is divinely planted – and you can’t move it until you make the choice!  Fruit or failure.

King James says (of my text in verse 13) – which you undoubtedly have read in passing – at least many of you: “He causeth it [the cloud] to come whether for correction or for His land or for mercy!”  (Oh God, give them ears to hear this.)

I was just casually reading the Scriptures, Church, when the Lord brought my focus to this verse.  You know what that is like – this truth simply leapt out at me!  The verse virtually leapt off the page!  It was sooooooo….  You know…  I’ve read Job so many times before – I’ve written a book on it (Advancing in the Prophetic – available at www.iverna.org).  But this one verse just went ::zzzzzinnng::   to me, afresh and anew!  And now He has allowed me to bring it to you today.  Hallelujah!

If the truth was known, my dilemma when I read Job (and probably your own puzzle as well) is this: “Is there trouble for believers even after Calvary and Resurrection and Ascension?”  That’s my quandary.  Does – or should – trouble exist in the life of believers?  When I’m standing in the midst of the cloud that I want to get rid of, I tell Him that Jesus already went through everything – on my behalf!  He bore the stripes on His body for my sicknesses (Isa.53:4,5).  He died so that all my diseases and pains might be taken to Calvary – and nailed to His cross – that all sin – and all my sin – might be totally eradicated on Calvary! (see Col.1:20-23; 2:14,15; Eph.2:14-16).

Is that true or false?  That is true!  Then, why is it we’ve got pain or disease or trouble?  That’s what I want us to learn here in Job.  And that’s what this verse reveals: the reason is one of three things.

Do you have a mind that can hold that thought and then come back to it in a moment?  I want to turn for just a minute to the New Testament and discover a little input of information from there.  We need to see this: in Acts 14:21 and 22 it says: “When they [Paul and his associates] had preached the Gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through much tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of God” (emphasis added).

So, the stories in the Book of Acts came after Calvary – after His blood was shed on the cross for all sin.  This story of Paul’s (and the verse highlighted above) was after Jesus’ mighty Resurrection and after His Ascension back into Heaven when He was seated at the right hand of the Father, and is even now interceding for us (Rom.8:34; Eph.1:20; Heb.7:25; 9:24).  “My little children, these things write I unto you that you sin not, but if any man sin… I’m your “Advocate with the Father.  I’m Jesus Christ, the Righteous!” (1Jn.2:1).

We love to sing this song: “Jesus paid it all!”  And He did.  “All to Him I owe!”  You cannot pay for your sins!  There’s no way!  We needed His righteous life to be a substitute for us (2Cor.5:21; Phil.3:9).  “Well then, Iverna, what are you saying here that I have to learn?”

What I’m saying to us, to all of us, is – everything that touches our lives is allowed by God – or He’s not God.  Everything that touches your life is allowed or sent by God – or He’s not God!  We cannot sing: “You are Lord!  You are Lord!  You have risen from the dead and You are Lord.”  “You are Lord supreme.  You are King!  You are Majesty!  I worship You!”  We cannot honestly sing any of that and mean it if we don’t understand the Sovereignty of those statements!  He is Lord!

Then, why does He allow us…  why is it that it’s “through much tribulation” that I have to walk in order to claim the Kingdom that I so believe in?  Because the Kingdom is not made up of wimps! (It would have been in the Bible if they’d have known that word! :-))  (See Mt.11:12 and Lk.16:16).

“Be ye strong” therefore (Eph 6:10; Josh.1:9), “…understanding what the will of God is” (Eph.5:15-17).  That’s what the Good Book says.

Now in this one verse, Job 37:13, God’s purpose is clearly identified: “For discipline” (or correction) – that’s one reason.  How are we going to figure out our situations?  How do we successfully handle everything so that we can be fruitful in trouble and not failing?  Do you want the answer to that?  Well, listen:

Number 1 – Deny – not the situation – but deny yourself the luxury of self-pity – and continue walking.  Are you aware of what circumstances exist when it’s the most difficult for you to praise the Lord?  It’s when you’re going through trouble.  That’s when you just have to force your mouth.  Tell the truth.  Because you’re really…  The natural man of me – the person – my human self – really wants the self-pity!  It really wants to cry out, “Ohh-hhh-hhh God!”  But the cloud still remains.  Getting God to “feel your pain” does not move the cloud.   :-)

But when I worship and praise Him, not because I feel like it, but because I recognize Who He is! I can go right through that cloud with my worship.  It doesn’t necessarily dispel the darkness – because there’s a set time for that. 

Have you never read The Book?  In Ecclesiastes, there's a time for this and a time for that and for the other thing too (chapter 3).    Some of those times, I don't want! :-)   But there is a set time.  That's why there are suddenlies.  :-)  When the heavenly alarm goes off - "Oh!  It's time to move Iverna's cloud."  It goes off - the angels come down - "It's time to move her cloud."  And God says, "Alright my child - let's rise higher."

In the meantime, all my sweating and fasting and commanding and demanding and all the other things I could mention – haven’t done a thing to make my trouble go away!  Because there’s a time set for when it goes!  And that time is when I make the decision: “I will be fruitful in this – in this – in this!  Say it, Church.  In this situation!  In my trouble!  I will be fruitful!  That choice is recorded then in Heaven, when you say it and mean it.

But I meet people, far too often, who are so bitter at God over their adverse circumstances.  “Well, if He’s the Almighty, He could’ve kept the car on the road.”  “If He’s the Almighty, He could have prevented this.”  My answer to that is – DUH!  Of course He could have!  But He didn’t! 

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