In this powerful message from A Touch From Above, Dr. Luauna Stines teaches from the book of Job and challenges believers to arise in faith, endurance, and obedience to God even during seasons of suffering and confusion.
Using Job’s trials as the foundation, Dr. Stines explains how Job’s friends misunderstood both suffering and the character of God. While others accused Job and questioned his righteousness, Job maintained a deep reverence for the Lord and ultimately demonstrated that true wisdom begins with the fear of God. The message emphasizes that trials do not always mean God has abandoned His people, and
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SPEAKER 01 :
Order my book, A Life Shattered by Homosexuality, Redeemed by Jesus’ Love. For 32 years, I lived in a homosexual lifestyle. It brought me nothing but loneliness and pain. Jesus set me free. Are you struggling? Know someone who is? Order my book today and help someone find freedom. To order my book, go to charlieflock.com. That is C-H-A-R-L-I-E-F-L-A-C-H.com. Order my book today.
SPEAKER 03 :
Golden Nuggets. You know what? This is a book of inspirational faith stories. You know, I wrote this book and I’ll tell you why. Thinking about all the different miracles God has done in my life. And I want to really encourage you as you read through. I pray you too will be encouraged and lifted up in your spirit. You know, hearing the testimonies of God’s amazing miracle working power. You know, I want to encourage you. For your support, I want to send you your copy. How can you do that? Glad you asked. ATFA P.O. Box 2800, Ramona, California 92065. A Touch From Above P.O. Box 2800, Ramona, California 92065. Or you can log on to our website, atouchfromabove.org and give.
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome to A Touch From Above from the Prayer Mountain in Ramona, California. Today’s episode is part one of Arise Christian. Today we will hear that God is faithful even in the midst of our trials and how Job’s trials showed us that if we do hold on, we will have victory in the end. And that victory is God’s blessing. Now, here’s our host, Dr. Luauna Stines.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I titled my message today, Arise, Christian. Arise. Amen? Arise. Arise. Arise. Arise. Wow. Well, we’ve been going through our Bible every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and on our Bible reading, that’s on our conference call and our Facebook Live. And as we read through the Word of God, oh, I’ve been so stirred. We’ve been in the book of Job. And how many of you know, when you read the book of Job, you know, you just kind of read through and you hear about Alpines and Beldad and, you know, Job’s three friends, but really they’re not really friends. They’re kind of frenemies more than friends. But Job, you would think, you know, they came to sit with Job for seven days. And they didn’t say one thing for seven days. They saw Job in his dire need. They saw Job in his broken state. And so when they heard that Job had lost his children, he lost his daughters, he lost his son, he lost his cattle, he lost his sheep, he lost his donkeys, he lost his home, he lost his job, he lost everything. And then he lost his health. And then he’s sitting up in this ash heap, which is actually like the dump. And Job is in so much pain that you can imagine he has boils throughout his entire body. And the Bible says that he took a broken posture, which is a pottery pot that was broken, and he took a piece of that pottery, and he’s scraping the… the boils, the blisters on his body, because he’s so filled with pain. So his friends come, and, you know, they sit with him, and I’m sure that they can’t even comprehend, you know, all that Job is going through. And as you read through Job, you know, after a while, they begin to speak about all What’s wrong, Job? What’d you do? Just sin? You know, my goodness, Job, why don’t you just repent? Why don’t you turn to God? And they begin to question Job’s righteousness. Well, Job says something really powerful, and I just love God’s word. I just absolutely love God’s word. Now, let’s go over… To Job. I like where, towards the end, we’re not going to go there now, but Job speaks. You know, Job lets them blab. Job lets them run off at the mouth. And then Job says something really powerful that really stirred my heart. And it’s in Job chapter 28. Now, you’ve got to remember, Job’s in the midst of this great big trial. And these guys are all telling Job who God is and how God is. But Job has a deeper, deeper connection with God than any of them do. And you can tell from chapter one where God, first of all, God, you gotta remember, here is God. You gotta go way back. Don’t go there now, but later you can read it. In Job chapter one, you can imagine there’s the court council of heaven. Heaven is there. And God is there. And it says that, you know, he is surrounded. And all of a sudden, Satan comes and steps on the scene in heaven. And God turns around and he tells Satan, have you considered my servant Job? He is a righteous and an upright man. And you know the story. Satan says, well, why don’t you pull back and let me have Adam. And let’s see how righteous he is. So God says, okay, don’t kill him. Touch all that he has. So that’s when he loses his children, he loses his sons, he loses his daughters, he loses his cattle, he loses all that. And then Satan comes back again the second time. And God says, have you considered my servant Job? He’s an upright and a righteous man. And the devil goes, yeah, he wants for nothing because you keep protecting him. Why don’t you move your hand away from him? I’m paraphrasing this so you can understand it. And God says, go ahead, but you will not kill him. God just confirmed the heart of Job. And you know, well, Job, now you’ve got to imagine, day after day after day after day, his friends sat with him seven days with silence. And then after, his three friends suddenly decided that they’re going to give Job all the advice that he needs. Huh. Huh. Well, did they? Not. Okay, now Job finally opens up his mouth, and Job describes who God is. And I love Job’s chapter 28, and I want you to see what Job says about God. Job, after all these days of trial, heartache, brokenness, false accusations from his frenemies, Job opens his mouth. Surely there is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth and copper is melted from ore. Let me stop there. Now, doesn’t that make you think, Job, what are you talking about? We’re talking about you, Job. No, no, no, no, no. Hold on. Man puts an end. to darkness and searches every recesses for ore in the darkness and the shadow of death. He breaks open a shaft away from people and places forgotten by feet. They hang far away from men. They swing to and fro. As for the earth, from it comes bread, but underneath it turns up as by fire. Its stones are the source of sapphire, and it contains gold dust. That path no bird knows, nor has the falcon’s eye seen it. The proud lions have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed over it. He puts his hand on the flint. He overturns the mountain at the roots. He cuts out the channels in the rocks and his eye sees every precious thing. God dams up the seas from the trickling that is hidden. He brings forth to light. But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living. The deep says, it’s not in me. The sea says, it’s not with me. It cannot be purchased for gold, nor can silver be weighed for its price. It cannot be valued in the gold of offer, precious onyx or sapphire. Neither gold nor crystal can equal it, nor can it be exchanged for the jewelry of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral or quartz for the price of wisdom. is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, nor can it be valued in pure gold. From where, then, does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding? It is hidden from the eyes of all the living and concealed from the birds of the air. Destruction and death say. We have heard a report about wisdom with our ears. God understands its way and he knows its place. For he looks to the ends of the earth and he sees under the whole heavens to establish a weight for the wind and apportion the waters by measure.” When he made a law for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt, then God saw wisdom and declared it. He prepared it indeed. He searched it out. And to man he said, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. And to depart from evil is understanding.” You know, Job, it’s amazing. God, in time, he turns right around and he listens to Job. He answers Job. And then, you know what? God rebukes Job. Job’s friends. And his friends are not redeemed until Job has to pray for them. Job in his state, God said, Job, you know, God gets so upset at Job’s three friends because, you know what, they really didn’t know who God was. They didn’t know that Job had a deep relationship with God that was far deeper than their spiritual religious understanding. And God created us. Why did God create you and I? Why did God create? He created us for his purpose and for his purpose alone. You know, the amazing thing to me about the awesomeness of God, I like how Job describes who God is. In other words, the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord, will you fear God? He says here, and to men, God said, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. You see, the world thinks it has wisdom. The world thinks they’re filled with wisdom. You know, the Bible says in the last days, they will continually increase in knowledge. But what is true wisdom? What is true knowledge? What is true understanding? It’s God’s Word. When we obey God’s Word, why would God… Can you imagine God? He created the sun for the day. The night, He created the moon. The land, He parted the waters. Do you know, there’s a scripture in Psalms that says, God gave the seas their boundaries. When’s the last time you’ve gone to the ocean? When’s the last time you went to the ocean and you watched the waters and hit up against a rock and go back and it couldn’t go no further? Have you been to the cliffs of Oregon? The Oregon coast is probably one of the most beautiful coasts of all of America. Sorry, I just feel it is. It’s so beautiful. It’s so amazing. But the cliffs and the waters, and you watch that, and you see the awesome power of God. Well, God created all the heavens. He created all the earth. He created the grass, the herbs that yielded seed in its kind. He created fruit trees that would produce seed for you and I today. I mean, he created a full done, already planted, full grown tree. He said, I created the fruit trees that would produce seed after its kind. I’ve created the herbs and every green thing that would produce seed after its kind. You see, God had a plan that was far beyond our natural understanding. God is a good God, amen? God filled the sea with every living creature you can imagine. I don’t know about you, but if you’ve ever, you know, been to any of those excursions where you go out and you see those great big whales jump, I don’t know, but if you walk along the edge of the waters and you see those little crabs climb up a rock, you know, and you see a lobster, I mean, God is so amazing. The octopus, when you see the things that God has created, it amazes me. Maybe some of you have never been to Africa, but to see the elephants in their natural habitat. We were preaching in Malawi, and our team, when we were in there, I like to preach, preach, preach, preach, preach every day, every day, till I can’t preach no more and I’m worn out. And then I say, okay, what do you want to do? We got to go play. We got to take two days and go play. We just got to go do something. And everybody said, let’s go on a safari. I said, okay. So we made plans and we planned this safari. And so here we are, we’re out in the middle of the jungle or the elephants are there in their natural habitat. Then we decided, well, let’s take a boat and go even further. So we got in this boat and we’re seeing a whole area of nothing but hippopotamuses. And I look, and our guide is flirting with one of the girls. He’s not paying attention. And I’m going, um… I had read up a lot about hippopotamuses when you get to Africa. They’re the number one killers in Africa of man. So I’m watching the edge of the water there and I go, I said, excuse me, sir, I think that’s a hippo coming towards us. Oh no, don’t worry, it’s not a hippo. Don’t worry, they are far away. I said, I don’t think that one’s very far away. I said, excuse me. Of course, he’s trying to influence. Oh, yeah, this is Africa. It’s a beautiful land. You should come and live here. He’s so busy flirting with somebody. And I said, excuse me, sir. That’s a hippopotamus coming in the water. Oh, no, don’t worry. It’s not a hippopotamus. It’s okay. And all of a sudden, he turns, he looks, and he goes, that’s a hippopotamus. And he puts the boat in high gear and takes off. It’s like… Well, I don’t know if you know this, but they can turn a boat in a moment upside down, and they can take a crunch and cut you right in half if they wanted to. Well, the awesomeness of our God, the giraffes, the elephants, the lions, but look what God has done. Just look around this prayer mountain. Look at the beauty of the creation of God. Why did God create all of this beauty? You know what? You have to remember, he created everything first. And then on the sixth day, he was finishing up his plans. And then at the end of that time, he said, hey, you know what? God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, let us make man in our image first. Let’s give them dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air. Let’s make them rulers over everything that I have created. Because, see, God created everything that we see right here for you and I. I mean, don’t take for granted the sunset. Don’t take for granted the moon at night. Don’t take for granted that you can get up and walk. Don’t take for granted… You know, Pastor Jill’s puppy’s getting kind of old, and I’ve been really busy all this week. You know, January’s like my busiest month. I am continually working on the computer, working on this, working on that, so I don’t even get a chance to come out. So anyway, yesterday I decided, oh, I got to get off here. I got to get out of my computer. I got to get out of my office here. So I thought, and Pastor Jill had to go run late errands, so it’s getting dark. And I said, come on, pumpkin, you’re going with me. So pumpkin starts to walk and I have a flashlight that’s half working. So pumpkin, he’s getting old and he can’t see half the time. So I’m trying to take a walk so I can walk around the mountain just to loosen up a little bit because I’ve been, you know, when you’re on the desk and you’re on your computer and you’re in your office, you just got to get out of there. So I’m trying to walk and poor little pumpkin, you know, we take for granted our health. So I walk halfway. I’m going around. I’m going around the trail. And I’m looking for pumpkin. Pumpkin, where are you? Well, pumpkin’s like this. And I said, oh, you poor little thing. I said, you are so tired. And I didn’t bring a leash, but I thought if I put a leash, I’m going to tag him and pull him. I don’t want to do that either. So guess what I did? I ended up picking up pumpkin, walking around the mountain like this with the dog, taking the dog for a walk. No, I took the dog for a walk. You know, we cannot take for granted all that God has created for you and I. And then he gave us his word. He gave us, he created man to give God glory. You know, to have dominion over the face of the sea, over every bird flying, dominion over everything. God has called us and then we get saved. Then he calls us to be kings and priests. Do you know why he calls us to obey his word today? I would love to tell you you’re going to stay in heaven and kick back and relax your whole life, but you’re not. When you get to heaven, that’s just a holding place for a moment. And then we’re coming back to the new heaven and the new earth, and we’re going to reign and rule once again. So if you can’t rule and reign here, you will never rule and reign when the day comes. Somebody say amen. Amen. God created us for his glory. Why? Have you ever seen the seven falls in Colorado? They’re beautiful. Have you ever seen the 14 peaks in Colorado? Highest peak. Oh my goodness. Have you ever seen the Grand Canyon? Oh my gosh, it’s breathtaking. Have you ever seen Niagara Falls from the Canadian side? You can’t really see it from the US side. You gotta go into Canada to really see the beautiful Niagara Falls in its awesome power. Have you ever seen the desert in its full bloom? I’m telling you, we serve an awesome God. Have you ever been to the White River in Arkansas? You know, I couldn’t understand. Somebody used to tell me, Arkansas is beautiful. Arkansas is beautiful. You ought to go check out Arkansas. Well, I love to fly fish. So I thought one day, I said, I need a break. I’m going to go to Arkansas and I’m going to go fly fishing. I heard about the White River. So I had some friends that had gotten saved. Dr. Turner, who went to be with Jesus, he said, I heard you want to go to Arkansas. I said, I do. He said, well, I’ll tell you what. I got a little cabin out there by the White River. And you can be in that little cabin, you and Pastor Jill, as long as you want. You can fish right there. I said, really? I said, all right. I bought my tickets and packed my pole and off we went. Well, it was amazing to me because a certain part, don’t forget to try out this restaurant that’s about a mile and a half down the river. I said, okay. So Pastor Jill and I go to that restaurant, and we’re sitting there. The river’s right here. It’s beautiful, just greenery, beautiful. The river’s flowing. And all of a sudden, I look on this other side, and there’s windows everywhere, and I see all these small planes. All these planes are flying in, and they’re parking. You know how you park your car? They’re parking their airplanes. And And I’m thinking, I told the, I said, ma’am, what are all those, oh, they’re coming in to fish at the White River. They come from all over to fish, fly fishing. I said, oh my goodness, I need to get my pilot’s license. But the beauty of God’s creation. I’m trying to help you understand how awesome is our God. How awesome is our God. Have you ever seen the beautiful Victoria Falls in Africa? The largest falls in the world. Amazing. The Sierra Desert. The pyramids that are so amazing to man. How in the world did they build those so long ago? My goodness, without the tools that we have today. You see, God is a good God. God is a good God. Job describes who God is. The awesomeness and the greatness of our God. Why did God create all that he did? So that you and I can give him glory. God created that to give God all the glory. We are created to have dominion and authority. And you know what? The Bible says, Genesis 1, let us make man in our image. Do you understand that we’re created in the image of the Almighty God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit? You see, when we are born again, God awakens our spirit man. Our spirit man suddenly is awakened. We had been in darkness for too long. And when he created man in his image, he created Adam and Eve. And he told them, he told them, you’re going to have dominion. I’m giving you all of this. That was a gift from God. That was a gift from God. Here you go, Adam. Here you go, Eve. Be fruitful, multiply. I mean, they didn’t even have clothes on. There was no shame. There was nothing. God created them perfect. You know, here is everything for you. The fruit of the trees, the vegetables, the herbs. You go have fun. Enjoy your life. Have a good time in my presence. And the Bible said that God would come in the cool of the day and talk to Adam and Eve. But God told them one rule. one warning one he corrected them with one warning he said all this I’ve made for you all of it everything everything everything is yours but except this one tree this one tree you can’t you can’t eat it in the day that you eat you will surely die somebody say God meant it you see you and I have been given the exact same order in God’s word What happened to Adam and Eve? What happened to them? They were not willing to obey God. God told them, told them the consequences of what would happen. Why? What happened to them? What was it that made them disobey God? Why did they do that? Job said it perfectly. The fear of the Lord. They lost the fear of God. They forgot who God was.
SPEAKER 02 :
You’ve been listening to Dr. Luauna, preaching at a touch from above Prayer Mountain. Join us for a spirit-filled service every Sunday at the Prayer Mountain, 16145 Highway 67 in Ramona, California, 92065. We are a church without walls at the Prayer Mountain, so bring your Bible, dress warm, and prepare yourself to grow in the Word. Remember, a church alive is worth a drive. We’re a member-supported broadcast, and we do need your help to grow our ministry. If you’ve enjoyed today’s message, you can give by visiting atouchfromabove.org or by calling 760-315-1967. And along with your generous gift, we will send you a copy of Dr. Luauna’s book, A Woman Called of God, where she shares how Satan tried to stop the call of God on her life. It’s free with your donation at atouchfromabove.org. Thank you for listening today, and God bless.
SPEAKER 03 :
Are you distracted? Seems like everything gets in the way? Come to A Touch From Above Prayer Mountain. 25 beautiful acres. Walk up to the cross or relax in a small private cabin to pray. Bring your leaders to pray at Prayer Mountain. God answers prayer. Even Jesus had to get away to pray. Call today and make your reservation. 760-315-1967. Your answer is just a prayer away. A Touch From Above.org.
