God is not destroying America. America shall be saved. God did not destroy Job. Job was saved.
Like Job, in the best of times, fully vested with riches, children, and influence, satan was given permission to sift him like wheat attack him with spiritual terror, and authenticate Job in the heavenlies as God’s representative on Earth.
Note this concept in Paul’s description of how things really work in the spirit:
So that through the Ekklesia God’s manifold strategic wisdom might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies.
Ephesians 3:10
Job in Spiritual Terrorism
Job acknowledges that God, in charge, steps back from controlling what He creates. He is not in control. He is Providentially in charge of the outcomes. He is involved in symphonically orchestrating All things even though He is not causing All things. He works All together to produce His intended purposes.
Job is a good person. Job experiences the horror of spiritual terrorism in spatial reality. He loses everything. He undergoes physical torment. His wife tells him to curse God and die. He endures the worst satan can throw at him.
In the broadest sense, we have a discussion of theodicy on our hands. The nearly blasphemous assumption that God needs to defend His reputation or give account of how well He is doing at being God comes from this idea that God needs to tells about why evil exists if He is essentially good.
Job may well be the oldest Scripture in terms of when it was authored. Job is certainly the first step in throwing that theodicy verdict into satan’s face. Job clarifies why bad things happen at all, especially to good people.
In the first season of terrorism. Job passes the test.
In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God.
Job 1:22
Nations in Spiritual Terrorism
Job applies this principle to nations. Job reveals Providence from the oldest authored Scripture inspired by the breath of Holy Spirit.
Job identifies his perspective on Providence:
For they all know that this has come from the hand of the LORD.
Job 12:23
Then, Job says,
He builds up nations, and he vanishes them. He expands nations, and he guides them.
Job 12:23
At this time of his life, Job lacks the full revelation of satan as the source of his devastation. Still, Job does see that Providence, God involved in history, stands behind what is happening to him. Job says this can also happen to nations, so it can happen to an individual as well.
For example, God makes entire nations vanish because of how they treated Israel. Obadiah declared God’s judgment as punishment over Edom and prophesies that they will be erased from history. About a century later Babylon carried out the judgment prophesied by Obadiah.
On the other hand, God preserves nations in whom He still has hope through a Remnant that His intended purposes will be restored, expanded, and fulfilled.
When the satanic terrorism comes to a nation God intends to preserve, restore, and bless, it is a season for the Remnant to endure with a trusting faith, to fight for the purposes of God, and to walk into the restoration of All with a triumphant revelation of Providence.
The strategy of spiritual terrorism is endurance. The new covenant portion of the Scriptures tell us that our endurance is not the endurance of warriors finishing with overcoming victory.
Job won a personal spiritual war against spiritual terrorism that established that he represented God on the Earth. God instructed Job to love and forgive his enemies and provide redemptive sacrifice for them. Job represented God in this, and Job’s influence in representation was validated.
America wins national spiritual war against spiritual terrorism that establishes that God’s intended purpose for America is representative of kingdom culture on the Earth. God instructs the Remnant to love and forgive enemies while they battle God’s enemies. America represents God in this, and her influence in that representation is validated by endurance.
Job and Personal Pathos
Remember, God is not in control of Job’s devastation. God is not controlling satan. God is not controlling Job. God is not controlling every event of history.
The adversary is at work using thieves, pirates, conspirators, weather patterns, and viruses to attack Job. Job loses everything during this part of the process.
God did not cause any of this horror.
Job is learning that God is not in control, but God is in charge of the outcomes. Job is an overcomer while suffering the loss of All. Job never ceases to trust God.
God does not cause terrorism, but God plans the outcome of the terrorism. God remains fully involved in the person enduring spiritual terrorism.
God is not in question about His goodness because satan is evil, destructive, and unfair. God is not in control, and this fact cannot diminish His Sovereignty.
In the final outcome alone do we see the fullness of His intensely-experienced passion for Job. Then, we see His mercy.
Enduring Spiritual Terrorism
James reveals this:
For examples of patience in suffering, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. You know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the final outcome from the Lord shows that the Lord is full of intensely-experienced passion and mercy.
James 5:10-11
Horrifying things happen to good people. Horrifying things happen to good nations.
Satan is the source of destruction in each case. God is not in control, but He is in charge of the outcomes of when good people and nations suffer.
The outcome, however, cannot be compared with the suffering.
- To understand God, look at the outcome He produces.
- To understand satan, look at the destruction he produces.
- To understand a kingdom hero, look at the endurance of Job and the prophets
- To understand endurance, look at who was proven authentic by their endurance.
God also destroys nations. God makes them vanish, Job says. God isn’t doing this with Job personally. God is not doing this with America nationally.
A very different scenario occurs when God makes people and nation vanish from the spiritual terrorism Job endured.
America does not face the threat of vanishing from the Earth. America endures spiritual terrorism to reveal the contrast between God at work and satan at work. When God has intended purposes invested in a nation, He guides that nation through spiritual terrorism to give that nation an expanded role of fathering influence.
Discerning Spiritual Terrorism from Divine Judgment
To know the difference, look carefully at God’s intended purposes for Job, prophets, and nations.
Do not judge the person or nation by the destructive work of satan as a means of determining their favor with God. God’s intended purpose stands when the righteous endure. God is at work in individuals and nations to produce authenticity that represents Him.
God says, “Have you considered my servant, Job?” God puts that spiritual condition of Job to the test of spiritual terrorism. God lifts His hand off a specifically-defined part of Job’s life. God maintains an absolutely guaranteed outcome during the season of suffering.
God surrenders nothing of His Sovereignty, increases His favor and grace flow toward Job, and reveals the authenticity of Job’s character. The outcome is massively increased glory to God, favor to Job, and expansion to God’s influence in the Earth through His righteous representative.
America Represents God
God now says, “Have you considered my nation, America?”
God wants all nations but never starts with all nations. God starts with Remnant nations. God puts into Remnant nations what He wants in all nations. God wants all the people. God never starts with all the people. God starts with Remnant people and puts into them what He wants all people to have.
We do not look at America’s worst to determine her highest. We look at her representative Remnant. We look at what God sees when He looks at America. We look at His intended purpose.
We ask, “Is this God or satan? Is this judgment as punishment or sifting for expanded influence?”
To find that answer, we look for a Remnant. When we find that Remnant, we see what God sees when satan releases spiritual terrorism. We see a revelation of “how things really work in the spirit” among a culture unaware of the correct answer.
When that answer comes, and to the extent that response is seen, we have Awakening. Awakening is a heightened awareness of God among the population of any culture that convinces them of Providence more significantly.
My Experience
My experience with nations in sifting and redemption includes personal pathos. My experience readied me to experience that pathos for a nation.
No prophet or kingdom leader assigned to father nations escapes personal pathos as well as the shared experience of that nation’s pathos.
Chosen people and nations suffer sifting seasons when satan receives permission to sift.
Note the words of Jesus:
satan demanded that you be handed over into his hands to sift each of you like wheat.
Luke 22:31
This is a direct allusion to Job and the prophets. They provide us with examples of “how things really work in the spirit.”
The leaders who represent God on Earth must also represent God in the heavenlies.
In the same way, nations are sifted for their authenticity to God’s intended purposes.
The nations that represent kingdom culture on Earth must also represent the King in the heavenlies. The Ekklesia in a region or nation is the Remnant tested for authenticity to establish that representation.
Read something in the demon’s voice recorded by Luke as a valid indicator of how things really work in the spirit:
Jesus–I know. Paul–I’m getting acquainted with.” You have no representative validation with demons as they do because you have never overcome our spiritual terrorism.
Acts 19:15
Consider Abraham’s vision of Israel spending 400 years in Egypt. The promise to possess the land was delayed because the inhabitants had not filled the cup of their iniquities.
Many factors of which a kingdom leader is unaware play into the pathos that a kingdom leader experiences.
