God is always for us but there are times when what He wants us to accomplish does not line up with what we want.  I have seen several times in my own personal life where the Lord led me into relationships with people who were going to do things that hurt me greatly.  One was a man who acted like he was a wealthy businessman who got people together (including pastors and church leaders) indicating that he was going to build a multi-million dollar ministry center complete with a private jet.   He said he needed people to help him in leading the ministry in various positions.  After leading people on for several months we eventually discovered that he lied about the whole ordeal and he had no money whatsoever and made up that he had hundreds of home churches in Indianapolis, St. Louis and Dallas.  After he was exposed as a liar I asked the Lord why He didn’t warn me so I didn’t waste my time with him.  God told me that it was a teaching experience to learn that not everyone is honest and some would go to great extents to appear to be godly but only to be later discovered as having selfish and evil intentions in their hearts to try to hurt me and the ministry He was having me build.

The Lord also took me into a relationship where I ended up getting abused in extreme ways for six years by a woman who acted like she was godly but immediately turned out to be evil in every way.  Eventually the woman filed for her 4^th divorce and I later learned about how she was operating in the spirit of Jezebel and it ultimately birthed the ministry that the Lord wanted me to establish to help thousands around the world to learn about that spirit and how people get it (hurts and wounds from people) and how to get them delivered from it (forgiveness, repentance of pride and sin and casting demons out).  So there was purpose in the pain.

I learned through another painful relationship how important it was that people got their soul wounds healed because if they didn’t truly forgive people for hurting them that demons would have legal rights to torment them again and they in turn would manifest on other people. In another relationship the Lord connected me to a woman who turned out to be an actual witch who was hurting thousands of people who thought she was good.  She even had a legitimate cover over her which vouched that she was a godly person when she was not. The witch had fooled many people on social media by joining over 600 Facebook groups as an administrator so no one could call her out as she would block them that tried and she could share all her posts and videos with the hundreds of groups.  She even fooled some legitimate prophets.

So understand that God will often lead us into relationships with people in order to teach us deeper truths that are extremely painful to endure at the time.  Then we will later use those painful personal experiences in our ministries to help others get freed.  Some of the relationships we were born into and had no choice in the matter.  Some relationships we chose who we would marry and then later learned much from the experience.  Some relationships the Lord will connect you with fully realizing that it will turn out very painful for you in the end but turning it into a great thing eventually.  The Lord uses those the world would never have but it is because the Lord looks upon our hearts and knows if we can do it.

Romans 8:28 NKJV

²⁸ And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

So as long as you love God and are called by Him to minister to people – you can trust that the Lord will use all your tears, pain, sufferings and traumas for His good.  Although no one wants to experience pain – there is always a greater purpose in the pain when we trust in the Lord, even though we usually cannot see that purpose while we are suffering.

1 Peter 3:13-18 NKJV

Suffering for Right and Wrong

¹³ And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? ¹⁴ But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.” ¹⁵ But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; ¹⁶ having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. ¹⁷ For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

Christ’s Suffering and Ours 

¹⁸ For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,

James 1:2-4 NKJV

Profiting from Trials

² My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, ³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. ⁴ But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Remember all the great men of God who experienced great suffering, attacks and had their faith tested under duress.  Moses, Abraham, Noah, Joseph, Jonah, Daniel, David, Peter and Paul.   They all suffered great rejection but yet persevered and trusted God and were used powerfully.  Moses had a speech impediment yet led a million Hebrews to their freedom. Abraham had to wait until he was 100 years old and his wife Sarah was 90 before the promised child came.  Noah was mocked for many years until it finally rained. Joseph was sold into slavery and did everything God asked and was then placed in prison for 3 years before he was repositioned into #2 in command of all of Egypt. Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh because the people did very evil things – but finally God convinced him after he was swallowed by a whale. Daniel was set up to be eaten by lions but trusted the Lord would protect him.  David was mocked and laughed at as a teenager brought before the most feared giant in all the land.  Then later he was hunted down by Saul who was jealous of him.  Peter said he didn’t know Christ and then later was crucified himself.  Even Jesus was betrayed by Judas. And then there was Paul.

2 Corinthians 11:16-33 NKJV

Reluctant Boasting

¹⁶ I say again, let no one think me a fool. If otherwise, at least receive me as a fool, that I also may boast a little. ¹⁷ What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as it were, foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. ¹⁸ Seeing that many boast according to the flesh, I also will boast. ¹⁹ For you put up with fools gladly, since you yourselves are wise! ²⁰ For you put up with it if one brings you into bondage, if one devours you, if one takes from you, if one exalts himself, if one strikes you on the face. ²¹ To our shame I say that we were too weak for that! But in whatever anyone is bold—I speak foolishly—I am bold also.

Suffering for Christ

²² Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. ²³ Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. ²⁴ From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; ²⁶ in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; ²⁷ in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— ²⁸ besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. ²⁹ Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?

³⁰ If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity. ³¹ The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. ³² In Damascus the governor, under Aretas the king, was guarding the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desiring to arrest me; ³³ but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands.

So it comes down to trusting the Lord at all times.  That He will always use everything for our good – even if it hurts us greatly in the process.  Even when we ourselves don’t think we can do what the Lord knows we can do.