Failing Forwards

God has a purpose for our failures. He uses them to teach us something, strengthen us, humble us, or even protect us from something.

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Hello Readers, hope all’s well.

Failure. Setbacks. Mishaps. I’ve been thinking about failure a lot this week, because it was only last week that I failed in the face of a demonic attack in the Spirit. I described that experience in the previous two End Times posts, which you can check out.

As I continue to recover from that experience, my Faith is growing even stronger than before. I suffered an intense assault by the enemy, and I did fail, but I got back up and came back better than before. So was this experience really a failure?

It got me to thinking about how God uses our failures. He always has a purpose for them. Which is the topic I’m writing about today.

A Long History of Failure

God allows us to fail, and tolerates us to fail.

Does that sound crazy to you? Well, it’s true. The Bible makes it crystal clear. The Bible is full of God’s people and even His chosen Servants failing. We see this all the way through both Testaments.

The Israelites failed, repeatedly. Although true Prophets of God were never wrong in their predictions, some did fail in other ways. Like the LORD’s Prophet in 1 Kings 13 who was deceived into disobeying God and got killed for it. Even legendary figures like King David and King Solomon failed. David committed adultery and had his best friend killed to cover it up, while Solomon angered the LORD by having too many wives, too much wealth, and worshiping other gods.

The point is that any person—no matter what relationship they have with God—can and will fail.

But nothing happens in this world without God either causing it or allowing it. Since God is able to change the way people feel (God made Pharaoh stubborn to Moses’ demands, for example), God could have empowered David not to commit adultery. Since God can communicate with people anytime He wants, He could have stopped the Prophet in 1 Kings 13 from making his fatal mistake.

Every time someone in the Bible failed, God could have empowered them not to fail. But He didn’t. Did God set them up to fail? No—if He didn’t stop them from failing it’s because it was in His Wisdom not to. That person’s failure was part of God’s Plan, or God could use it for His Purposes.

As an example of that, let’s look at a famous failure from the New Testament: Peter’s denial of Jesus.

The Failure of the Most Faithful

Matthew 26 is a busy chapter of the Gospels, with a lot of things going on. There’s the Last Supper, Jesus praying in the Garden, Jesus arrested, and finally, Peter’s denial of Jesus.

Since Peter is mentioned many times in the Gospels (and afterward) as Jesus’ most Faithful and loyal Apostle, Peter’s denial of Jesus was a dramatic failure. Peter failed, there’s no question of that. But that was God’s Plan all along.

Peter’s failure is foreshadowed by Jesus after the Last Supper. Jesus flat-out tells Peter what will happen in verse 34, and in verse 35 we can see that Peter still doesn’t believe it.

(31) Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Tonight you will all fall away because of me. This is because it is written, I will hit the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will go off in all directions. (32) But after I’m raised up, I’ll go before you to Galilee.”
(33) Peter replied, “If everyone else stumbles because of you, I’ll never stumble.”
(34) Jesus said to him, “I assure you that, before the rooster crows tonight, you will deny me three times.”
(35) Peter said, “Even if I must die alongside you, I won’t deny you.” All the disciples said the same thing.

Matthew 26:32-35 (CEB)

Peter’s failure happens a bit later, after Jesus has been arrested. Jesus was taken to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the legal scholars and elders had gathered. Peter followed them, and entered the courtyard of the place. In some accounts of the story He sat down by the fire to warm himself. When some servants and other people recognized him as being part of Jesus’ group, they pressed him on that. Surely afraid for his life, Peter denied knowing Jesus three times.

(69) Meanwhile, Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant woman came and said to him, “You were also with Jesus the Galilean.”
(70) But he denied it in front of all of them, saying, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
(71) When he went over to the gate, another woman saw him and said to those who were there, “This man was with Jesus, the man from Nazareth.”
(72) With a solemn pledge, he denied it again, saying, “I don’t know the man.”
(73) A short time later those standing there came and said to Peter, “You must be one of them. The way you talk gives you away.”
(74) Then he cursed and swore, “I don’t know the man!” At that very moment the rooster crowed. (75) Peter remembered Jesus’ words, “Before the rooster crows you will deny me three times.” And Peter went out and cried uncontrollably.

Matthew 26:69-75 (CEB)

And the rooster crowed at Peter’s third denial. It happened exactly as Jesus said it would. Peter had failed in Faith in a most spectacular fashion by denying Jesus. And Peter had never thought it possible (Matthew 26:35), but he did it.

Since Peter’s failure happened exactly as Jesus said it would, it was predetermined, fated. It was part of God’s Plan all along. God could have stopped it, had He wished. God could have strengthened Peter with Faith and courage, so he wouldn’t deny Jesus even in the midst of the angry crowd. But He didn’t. Instead of stopping it, God used Peter’s failure.

Nothing happens in this world without God either allowing it or causing it. When God allows us to fail, He has a reason for it.

Is it Failure if It’s God’s Plan?

Again, God could have stopped Peter from failing in Matthew 26. He could have given Peter the insane bravery he needed to not deny Jesus even when his life would have been in danger. That would have been easy for God to do for Peter, but He didn’t. Why?

God has a purpose for our failures. He uses them to teach us something, strengthen us, humble us, or even protect us from something.

Consider Peter’s case. If Peter hadn’t denied Jesus there in the courtyard, the crowd most likely would have killed him right there. But God had a different Plan for Peter. It wasn’t God’s Plan for Peter to die right there, before Jesus. Peter would go on to be a critical leader in the early church. He was crucial for early Christianity and was a key factor in it’s early spread.

That was God’s true Plan for Peter. That was what God Willed for his life. It wasn’t God’s Plan for Peter to get killed before doing what he did for Christianity. And so, Peter was allowed to fail in the courtyard when he denied Jesus. God could have stopped him from failing then, but what would that have achieved? Peter’s death at that time would have served no purpose.

We have to remember that God has Planned out all our days, every one of them (Psalm 139:16). He sees the bigger picture of our life. Often times our plans or resolutions fall apart; things don’t go how we expected or wanted. We don’t always get what we want. But when that happens, it’s usually because God has something bigger and better Planned for us (or we had been wanting something that wasn’t good for us, but didn’t know it). Just like how God had more planned for Peter’s life than dying in that courtyard, God allows us to fail too, so we can succeed later. So that we can succeed in what God truly has Planned for us.

If we look at things that way, is there anything in our lives we can call a failure? If we get back up from that failure and move on until we achieve God’s Will for our life, then what did the failure matter at all? If we learn from a failure and get smarter, or take the disappointment of a failure and get stronger, then did we even fail at all? Is failure even real if we take the lesson and let it improve us?

If God uses our failures to push us forward, toward His true Plan for our life, then do our failures even matter?

Let’s all have compassion and Forgiveness for ourselves, like God has for us. Our failures sting like hell, in the moment, like Peter’s failure must have. When it happens and for some time afterward it’s all we can think about. But if we reflect on the failure, pray on it, and learn and grow from it, we can move on and become better. And if we do that, we will be using our failures to improve ourselves. And that most likely is exactly what God intended with our failure the whole time.

Failure Made Me Stronger

Like I said in the intro, I’ve been thinking a lot about failure as of late. It was only one week ago that I suffered an intense demonic attack by the Python spirit or something like it. I wrote about this experience in the two latest End Times posts.

I failed during this attack—the demon succeeded in shaking my Faith and making me despair. For a day or two, I wanted to give up on Christianity entirely.

I failed. I listened to the lies of the devil and my Faith was shaken as a result. The demons succeeded in their attack on me. But the LORD brought me out of it, and I came back stronger than ever—especially in my Faith. So who really failed in this event? Me, or the devil?

I’m sure it was the LORD’s Plan that I failed during that demonic attack last week. I needed the learning experience, and I needed to see how the devils attack us and what they do. I can think of a few lessons I learned from the attack:

• I needed to learn the power of the enemy. I got defeated by the crushing despair of the demonic assault—these forces aren’t to be taken lightly.
• I needed to learn how the enemy assaults our mind with thoughts of despair, hopelessness, and faithlessness.
• I needed knowledge on the Python spirit, and how it operates.
• And more

Although this attack laid me low, and I definitely failed, I came out of the experience with new knowledge and stronger Faith. My failure strengthened me. Now I’m more discerning of demonic lies. So again, who really failed during this event—me, or the devil?? My failure was a part of God’s Plan for me, and He used it to educate and strengthen me. Looking at it that way, can I really call it a failure?

Again, like with Peter, God could have reached down and strengthened me, so that I wouldn’t give in under the demonic assault. But what if He had done that? What would I have learned then? Would I have learned the lessons that can only come from harsh, humiliating defeat? Maybe, but probably not.

God uses our failures. He’s already planned out every one of our days (Psalm 139:16). If we fail, or He doesn’t help us so that we fail, there’s a reason for it. Anytime God isn’t helping us, there’s a reason for it. And once we make it through to the other side of the crisis, then we’ll look back and see how God was helping or protecting us the whole time. God has a purpose for our failures; He uses them to build us up, so we can have the greatest success later.

So when we fail, let’s get with God in prayer and ask Him about it. Let’s be Patient, have Faith, and keep on going with doing the things we know are right. If we stay strong in our Faith and our good resolutions, we’ll come to see the good purpose God has for our failure soon enough. And if we stick with God and keep doing our best to follow Him, no failure will keep us down forever. Instead, they will build us up.

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Until next time, be strong and do good!

Your new best friend in Christ,

99:9

<<<EXALT THE LORD OUR GOD AND WORSHIP AT HIS HOLY HILL; FOR THE LORD OUR GOD IS HOLY>>>

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