All for Love - Part V

Let’s imagine that you signed a contract with me which states that I now own all your earthly possessions. Just because I don’t come for them tonight, doesn’t mean that I will not come at all. I simply maybe in no hurry to claim them. They may remain in your house, but they have now become my property. The same is true of the idols that we give God. They may remain in our being, but remember that God has accepted them and will take them away as he sees fit.

A Brother in Christ who once came to me for discipling had a very severe physical condition which made him quite uncomfortable. During the course of our conversation, I asked if he had given to God his desire to get well. He did not immediately understand, and I explained that he must be willing to be in that physical condition for the rest of his life. His worship and love of God could not carry any price tag, but the evidence that it did was his indignation over not being delivered. The brother became angry and left, stating that God should heal him! A few days later he returned glowing and reporting that the previous night he had lain before the Lord, given him his right to get well, and immediately was made well.

A wife does not know what she is like when her husband brings her flowers, but only when he knocks a quart of milk off the table with his elbow. A husband does not know what he is like when his wife has done all that he desires, but rather when she is 30 minutes late picking him up from work.

I have found among the defeated whom I disciple more than 90% of the time their concepts of God really describe their fathers, or if not, their mothers or some other influential figures in their lives. All we can know of authority is what we have learned from those in control around us. Does it not then makes sense that when we are commanded to call God our Father in heaven, this would stir our emotions?

I like to read through 1 Corinthians 13 with those who have an unrealistic concept of God, because if he is love, then this chapter must describe him. Any of us who are under discipline, stress, disease, or physical handicap can be assured that he is allowing it for our good.

The way out of emotional unbelief is quite simple. We need only confess as sin our wrong feelings of who God is and profess who he really is. The depth of our unbelief is truly revealed in how we respond to God when we fail. If we wallow, cut ourselves off from him, and traffic in self punishment, we  reveal the dark depths of unbelief. For in all our self punishment we prove that our acceptance never rested in the Son of God, but rather on how well we could perform.

If we remain miserable with such a great God, we can blame no one but ourselves! It is a great step of faith to go against all the lying emotions you have concerning who God is, and to just open that door to his life one time, for one time is all it will take for you to discover the abundant life that you have searched so long for.

Many times we seek and do not find because we do not know what finding is. For example, there are those who will never believe God is actually near them throughout the day unless they have a predetermined stirring in their emotions. When it comes to faith the same is true; many busy themselves trying to find more faith, when they have had all they needed right along.

Faith is an organ of the Holy Spirit allowing us to receive whatever God is doing. It is like an ear or in eye. When you lay down in bed at night, your ears rest, but never sleep. If someone starts to break into your house, your ears awaken you in order that you might act! The ear does not create sound, but receives it. Faith itself, not quantity of faith, is the issue.

Faith is a wonderful thing, something that every believer possesses. It takes the pressure off us to perform and initiate his works, and places emphasis on God, the Creator of the actions.

If faith is simply receiving what God desires to do, then do you see how important your concept of God is when it comes to the issues of daily life? You have been grafted into a Vine that possesses all the life you need.

Imagine walking into a room when the Lord himself steps in behind you, turns out the lights, closes the door and locks it, and then completely removes from you the awareness of his nearness, emotional responses to him, and the consciousness that he hears you! You work and work as hard as you can to regain the awareness; there is, however, one major perplexity. As long as you work to experience his presence, you extend your time in the dark room, because it’s purpose is to teach you to walk by faith, not by sight or feeling. Oh, yes, there is one other thing. When you have tried almost everything to regain emotional awareness, the enemy slips in and says things like, “if only you had not done such and such, God would be near to you,"  "if only you had not moved to such and such a place, he would be with you,“ “If only you had married another person, everything would be much better. ““If only you had not filled the Lord, he would be pleased to be near you now," "if only you had prayed more and memorized more scriptures, you would sence the Lord‘s presence.“ You repent over every imaginable sin and punish yourself with the most severe forms of guilt. You want to perform in order to get God’s acceptance. Many who boast of breathtaking faith, telling magnificent stories of all they have accomplished because of their awesome belief are crushed and dismantled in this room. And why not? How long can a man who trusts in himself walk in darkness and not stumble and be overcome, broken, and humbled? Yes, here you walk in absolute darkness, one that can even be felt. This type of darkness Job knew all too well: “my face is flushed from weeping, and deep darkness is on my eyelids.“ 16:16. “He has blocked my way so that I cannot pass; and has put darkness on my paths.“ 19:8 "When I waited for light then darkness came." 30:26.

This prolonged the state of darkness will test us and reveal any unbelief that might reside with them. The longer the period of darkness and absence of emotion, the more will be revealed. We will again try series of procedures to regain our emotional standing, all of which will be telling of what we really trust in our daily lives to bring contentment, and which God, of course, will not allow to succeed. It may be revealed that we trust idols, those things in which we find some measure of comfort. Isaiah 42:17. Perhaps we trust in particular brothers or sisters who, we are sure, can get us out of our present calamity. Jeremiah 9:4; Micah 7:5, and yet we find that they have no answers.

In the midst of misfortune we do not simply remain silent and wait, but instead begin to blame God for the whole situation. We, like Job, begin to curse the day we were made and even accuse him of the grave mistake of making us. We can go so far as to become angry with God, charging him with not caring and doing nothing. You can become withdrawn. “You have said, it is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that we have walked in mourning before the Lord of hosts?" Malachi 3:14. We become sick of the whole situation. Blind, irrational, and void of hope, it becomes impossible any longer to see God‘s hand in this process. We must have our eyes opened!

Though Paul wrote the letter to Philemon in a prison and chained to a Roman guard he proclaimed that he was a prisoner of Jesus Christ and the Gospel!! Instead, he saw Jesus Christ! The man of faith never sees bondage to anything but God himself. You see, nothing comes into your life without first passing through the loving hands of your Father in heaven.