Preface by Bill Johnson:
Does God ever cause sickness? What about Job?
The Old Testament is filled with questions that the cross has answered. Who did Jesus not heal when they came to Him for healing? When did He ever say that the Father had given them a sickness so they would become more holy or humble? Never. A question cannot cancel a revelation, which means that any question I may have has no power to cancel what God has shown me. Jesus is the perfect revelation of the Father. As such, Jesus Christ is perfect theology.
People ask, “What about Job?” I tell them, “I’m not a disciple of Job; I’m a disciple of Jesus.” Job was the question; Jesus is the answer. If I read Job and it doesn't lead me to Jesus, then I never understood the question. All the law and the prophets were to create an awareness of need. That awareness prepared Israel for a savior. To return to the standards of the law and the prophets at the expense of ignoring the perfect revelation of the Father given to us in the person of Jesus Christ is to fall to the ultimate expression of arrogance. It puts us back in the place of control where we do what is humanly possible—and call it ministry.
The life that Jesus led was not an aberration or a temporary statement of God's solution for humanity. He started something that we are to complete. Jesus said, "As the Father sent Me, I send you” (John 20:21). It's not complicated; it's just expensive. It costs us everything.
It is now up to us to follow His example without excuses, rejecting all distractions. This is our destiny.
Below is a streaming audio file from Thurman Scrivner's Baptist church in Texas addressing the controversy concerning sickness and the Book of Job (this is the best explanation I've ever heard on the topic of Job)
The link below will open in Windows Media Player and play automatically ...
Additional Thurman Scrivner testimonies on healing (and much more) can be found at http://www.tlsm.org/ListenOnline.cgi