Objection: God Sometimes Leads Faithful Saints into “Wilderness Experiences”

We all know that the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness, where He was to fast and be tempted by Satan (Matthew 4:1).  However, let’s keep “wilderness experiences” in the context of the original one.  Jesus was weak and hungry from fasting, but not sick.  It is biblically baseless to say that your sickness is a wilderness experience.  Jesus was not sick during His.

God may sometimes lead you into difficult situations.  You may encounter all kinds of temptations.  God led Paul into some situations that were very unpleasant from a natural perspective.  But notice what God did not do to Jesus – He did not for a minute make him subject to Satan.  Jesus dominated Satan when He was tempted in the wilderness.  Acts 10:38 says that sickness is oppression of the devil.  Jesus was not oppressed by the devil; He was victorious over the devil.  The devil could tempt Him but he could not dominate Him.  If you are sick, the devil is dominating your body to the degree that you are sick.  That is NOT what happened to Jesus.

God cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).  God will not relinquish His care for a faithful saint and hand him over to Satan.  He can’t legally do that, because you have been delivered from Satan’s dominion and put under the authority of God’s Son (Colossians 1:13).  Having delivered you from Satan’s dominion, is He going to put you back under it temporarily to test you or teach you something?  No way.  God can train you Himself.  He doesn’t need to enlist Satan’s help to perfect that which concerns you (Psalm 138:8).