Job 7:20 I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?

When I start to feel like I cannot do anything right, I turn to Job. When I feel like I am in a place where I cannot speak to anyone who will understand, I turn to Job. When I start feeling sorry for myself, I turn to Job. When I feel like no one understands where I am, I turn to Job.

So many words are written about light, and hope and mercy and grace, they do not get to be the balm of healing until it is known where to apply them. Job is good for that. If you ever wondered why God should allow Satan to do all that was done to Job, it is for those moments when we need someone to understand. Job’s been there, he knows what we are going through.

It doesn’t seem to matter how dark the hour in this life we experience, we can look and find that Job is there, Job understands. Job has the ability to make you feel like you are not alone and that there is hope, not just in a promise, not just in an intellectual exercise, but as a spiritual partner to help walk you out of the darkness and back into the light, be he has been there and knows the way out.

John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

These words are those which belong to my Lord Jesus Christ, but I find in my friend Job these same sentiments.

Job 42:8b my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept:

Job’s job was to confess the utter darkness that we can find in ourselves.

Luke 2:46-47 And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.

Right after Jesus was declared a man by ritual in the Jewish tradition, He stayed back in Jerusalem and did not rejoin His family’s caravan.

Why didn’t Jesus stay there when compelled by His mother to come home? After all, He is a man now, able to decide for himself which course to take. It is obvious He could have found a place within the temple where He was accepted. Why not choose to “be about my Father’s business”?

Many years later He would decry their actions calling them vipers. He could hardly do that if He was one of them. More to the point was the timing. John the Baptist is the forerunner spirit, the one to make straight paths in the wildness. John’s ministry would signify the timing for the introduction of Jesus’ ministry.

Have you seen the forerunner spirit in your life? Has the Holy Spirit done its job performing the ministry of John the Baptist in your life? Has He called you to repentance?

I’ve been one of those that decades ago chose to follow Jesus without that forerunner experience. I suffered many years and caused much pain until I had that moment and then Jesus started His ministry in me.

Is your Jesus walk filled with less than supernatural movements of God in you? Could it be that you didn’t start your walk without first having your forerunner experience?

John 6:66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

This is what happens without that moment.