The Overshadowing of God’s Personal Deliverance - Oswald Chambers

In 2005 when I first lost my job, I had a plan. I had accumulated proof that I was being harassed by my bosses, abused verbally and mentally, especially when they thought I had no witnesses and we were behind closed doors. I had accumulated so much proof that when I lost my job, even though I could sense God had a plan for me, I thought while God works on His plan for my life, I would take these people to court and make them pay for everything I had suffered. I truly felt that I had the right to do so.

Right after I lost my job, I felt the need to be around people and the environment that I was in, I was encouraged to get my lawsuit going. A few days later, God worked something out in my heart to a point I could not ignore His still voice. I had to go somewhere to be alone with Him, a place where the environment was not so conducive to Satan’s influence. The minute I was alone, I could feel the quietness in my heart, and I was in a different frame of mind. That same day, I received a phone call from my brother who is a very successful homebuilder and has his own company. He wanted me to come down to Montreal and join. Of course, the potential for what I could earn through wheeling and dealing, bribing and what have you, were all put in front of me to consider.

That was a weird phone call when you consider that my brother never called me for years and he always treated me as if I was beneath him, based on the stark contrast in our status.  We were not and still not travelling the same circle. I have to say that I was tempted and was considering the offer. Through the phone conversation, the Holy Spirit said, “this opportunity is not godly and it is Satan talking through your brother.” All of the sudden He made me hear another voice behind my brother’s voice on the phone line. I still cringe when I think about it. I could identify the other voice, I still remember vividly all I wanted to do was to get rid of my brother on the phone and I told him I will call him back. I never did.  I give you this background so you can see how Satan can use other people to tempt us and derail God’s work. But, when we have the inclination to follow, we have nothing to fear because He is bigger than Satan and has already defeated him. 

Right after that, God spoke to my heart and discouraged me from suing the bank. I still remember vividly when the Holy Spirit said to me “the time that you will spend suing is a time where you could be with me learning and growing spiritually.” While the Spirit was telling me that, He gave me a vision where I would could see how I was going to be swimming through paper works in court, with no time for Him. Most of all, I would be in a perpetual mind frame where I was going to be consumed with the injustice that was done to me. Strangely, in the vision I could see how my demeanor and all my mind were absorbed by self-pity, totally devoted to the case at hand.

It was a little bit painful for me to say yes to God because this meant that I did not know what the next step was and God was going to have to decide the agenda. Somehow, I knew my saying yes to God meant that I was taking on His agenda for my life, it's that simple.  So, I agreed with God anyway. I will spare you the details as to how happy He was that I chose to follow in this way. However, I want to point out that my attitude was of one, living a disjointed life. A life so compartmentalized that I felt the need to live out my plans for my life in conjunction with God’s plans.  But, in my defense, I did not know better, I was never taught there was something better either. To me, living a compartmentalized Christianity was all natural.  I was surprised today when I read Oswald Chambers devotion for June 27. I could see, God had the same concerns about me then.

Oswald said: “If we are devoted to Jesus Christ, we have nothing to do with what we encounter, whether it is just or unjust.” One of the blessings that God bestowed on me when I chose His plan for my life instead of going on with the lawsuit, was to show me in a vision how the injustice that happened to me all these years had nothing to do with me. In the vision it was as if I was totally removed from all this and the injustice was actually done to Christ in me, but not me. At the same time, it was all part of God’s design to get me to where He wants me so that He could use me as a holy vessel.

What was strange in the vision was the fact that I felt I was just a bystander in all that happened to me as a human being. The focus was removed from me being this human being who deserves to be treated better and deserves to be compensated, to Christ wanting to use this vessel that I am and permitted all these things to happen for His own purpose and glory.  I wish I could find words to convey what I lived out in that vision to make it simpler. But, the reality is that when the bad things in life are happening to us, we have to learn to remove ourselves from the equation. Even though it is a very hard thing to do through the pain, the insults, the hardships, the humiliation, the indignation, the self-pity we are tempted to indulge ourselves in just for a little while, the distress and the heartache of all of it. We have to learn to see God’s plan at work and learn to wait for Him to divulge more while we keep walking steadily before Him.

It is almost like Job’s story. None of what happened to Job had anything to do with Job. He was just a by product of something between God and Satan. God used Job to make a point to Satan and proved to Satan that He has people who actually love Him faithfully out there. He also used the situation to glorify Himself. At the same time, God had a plan in mind for Job, He wanted to teach Job more of Him.

When we put God’s purpose and plan for our lives first, there is always something in it for us. By, the way, this is how God wants us to claim His promises in the Bible. Even though God intends to reward us when we see Him in heaven, for living in His purpose and plans, but, He always rewards us as a token of affection for now. Like a deposit for what’s to come. In the case of Job, we see how everything wrapped up neatly for Job in one sentence. All the 41 chapters of the book is culminated neatly with Job 42:6 when Job said to God, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job came out of it all and felt he was the richest man on earth even before God restored his wealth and life. The treasure he found was when he could say, I have heard of you before with my ears (no doubt it was the ears in his heart) but NOW I SEE. His spiritual eyes were opened; he met with God face to face so to speak. His relationship with God went from him being a righteous and faithful servant of Him, to a personal and intimate friend of the God of the universe. 

READ OSWALD CHAMBERS DEVOTION FOR TODAY, RIGHT HERE!

Abraham’s Life of Faith — Faith Always Bring with it Radical Changes!

He went out, not knowing where he was going —Hebrews 11:8

Oswald Chambers said  "Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason—a life of knowing Him who calls us to go. Faith is rooted in the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest traps we fall into is the belief that if we have faith, God will surely lead us to success in the world."

God has been keeping me on this holding and waiting pattern for so long that it is truly discouraging for any human being. If God has not put your whole life on hold to the point where you can see that your life is literally passing away right in front of your eyes, yet nothing, I mean absolutely nothing that you do works, then you have no idea what it means to wait on, upon and for God. For the past 15 years that I have been a Christian, any normal person would let go of Christianity. For me Christianity has been a synonym for being a “looser” big time. Sometimes, I feel I can’t even find the strength to think that God has not forgotten me. Sometimes I console myself with the idea that He put me on a fast track mode for a reason, because I cannot justify the lost, and the unending holding pattern. But, even when He shuts me out after I obey Him, I keep going forward with Him because I know too much to go back. When nothing makes sense and I feel like the biggest loser who has walked this earth, I keep going. When all my life is screaming that He has abandoned me, I keep going, knowing in His time, He will make everything right.

I have gone through phases with Him where He increased my faith more than I can imagine. You see, God has a pattern where He tests you and if you pass the test which means you make use of the amount of faith He allocates you, then He increases your faith. But lately, I have been asking Him, how come you stopped increasing my faith? Have I reached a plateau where I am not in your will or not trusting you enough? He did not answer me, however, a while after I inquired about my faith, He kept giving me a vision which I truly enjoy because it is so soothing to my soul. Today, as I read the devotional, I realized that He actually did answer my question. The visions that I have been getting are my answer to the question. The only thing is, through the vision, what I have been living in my soul is similar to some sort of higher sanctification stage. It is soothing because I can see how I am mellowing in His hands like I am disappearing slowly as He is increasing tenfold.  I can feel that the increase portion is His character being worked in me and I talked about that in my most recent posts.

Today, God opened my eyes to see that Oswald Chambers used the words that express all that I have been experiencing. I did not know this was the final stage of faith. I had tears of joy in my heart because as I reflect back, I know without the shadow of a doubt, that even when everyone told me that my situation could not be of God.  Even when I was told by leaders that I should take matters in my hands and make things happens, I always run things through God’s process and what I knew in my heart was right with the Holy Spirit. So today, I understand with a heart full of excitement, joy and gratitude what it means to walk a steadfast walk.

 True faith will always take us to a place where God calls us friend. This will not be a vague idea that you read about in the Bible or glibly repeat in a song. But the Holy Spirit will take pleasure to witness to your heart that you are now a friend of His. God, will not stop there, He will find an opportunity to share things with you that He would only share with a friend and when He does that, He will tell you that it is the privilege of being a friend of His.

True faith will lead you to a place where you know that it is not up to you to apply the characteristics of Christ within, but up to the Holy Spirit to do it. True faith will bring a radical change in your life and your heart. If it is not working out this radical change, then it is okay for you to question to what extend do you believe in God. A life of radical obedience will always lead you to a place where you can understand through your bones, every word of Christ’s crucifixion. True faith will always take you to a place where you stop imagining what God’s word means because you have become a living protagonist is the play. Until you become a protagonist, you have no idea what true faith means. Faith in God cannot be a vague idea and it cannot be our idea of what faith means. It has to be alive and leading your life because this faith we are called to live out in Him, is not our faith but Christ’s faith in us. Hence why, true faith will always take you through the same process that Christ went through and the same road. Anything short of that, then we can be sure that our faith is a blind faith. If it is a blind faith, it is not anchored in Christ.  Abraham started as a coward, yet he became the father of faith. TRUE FAITH WILL ALWAYS BRING WITH IT A RADICAL TRANSFORMATION.

OSWALD CHAMBERS "The final stage in the life of faith is the attainment of character, and we encounter many changes in the process. We feel the presence of God around us when we pray, yet we are only momentarily changed. We tend to keep going back to our everyday ways and the glory vanishes. A life of faith is not a life of one glorious mountaintop experience after another, like soaring on eagles’ wings, but is a life of day—in and day—out consistency; a life of walking without fainting (see Isaiah 40:31). It is not even a question of the holiness of sanctification, but of something which comes much farther down the road. It is a faith that has been tried and proved and has withstood the test. Abraham is not a type or an example of the holiness of sanctification, but a type of the life of faith—a faith, tested and true, built on the true God. “Abraham believed God. . .” (Romans 4:3)."

Quotes

A.W. Tozer “ God is a being of supreme moral excellence, possessing in infinite perfection all the qualities that constitute holy character. He deserves and invites the unreserved confidence of every moral creature, including man. Any proper relation to Him must be by confidence, that is, by faith. Where there is no faith it is impossible to please God.”

Hebrews 1:1 “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

2 Corinthians 5:7 “For we live by faith, not by sight.”

A.W. Tozer “Outside of the will of God, there's nothing I want, and in the will of God there's nothing I fear”

Charles Spurgeon “Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.”
 

Charles Spurgeon “We must expect great troubles before we shall attain to much faith.”

A.W. Tozer “Faith is simply the bringing of our minds into accord with the truth. It is adjusting our expectations to the promises of God in complete assurance that the God of the whole earth cannot lie… The believing man accepts a promise of God as a fact as solid as a mountain and vastly more enduring. His faith changes nothing except his own personal relation to the word of promise. God’s Word is true whether we believe it or not. Human unbelief cannot alter the character of God.”

Charles Spurgeon “The way in which most men get their faith increased is by great trouble. We do not grow strong in faith in sunshiny days. It is in stormy weather that faith grows stronger.”

Charles Spurgon “Saving faith is an immediate relation to Christ, accepting, receiving, resting upon Him alone, for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of God's grace.”

 A.W. Tozer "It will cost you everything to follow the Lord. And it will cost you even more to be His man for this hour."

Charles Spurgeon “Faith is not an attainment that drops like the gentle dew from heaven; it generally comes in the whirlwind and the storm. Look at the old oaks; how is it that they have become so deeply rooted in the earth? Ask the March winds, and they will tell you. It was not the April shower that did it, or the sweet May sunshine, but the rough wind shaking the tree to and fro, causing its roots to strike deeper and to take a firmer hold. And so must it be with us.”

A.W. Tozer “Hardly anything else reveals so well the fear and uncertainty among men as the length to which they will go to hide their true selves from each other and even from their own eyes.”

Charles Spurgeon  “The greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit which makes men look to themselves for salvation.”
 

A.W. Tozer "God gets leftovers...We tend to give Him that which we don't need instead of giving Him that which we need."

Charles Spurgeon “Neglect of prayer: Live and die without prayer, and you will pray long enough when you get to hell.”

A.W. Tozer  "If we try to obey without faith, we get nowhere. If we try to have faith without obedience, it ends in nothing."

Charles Spurgeon “There is no more blessed way of living, than the life of faith based upon a covenant-keeping God - to know that we have no care, for He cares for us; that we need have no fear, except to fear Him; that we need have no troubles, because we have cast our burdens upon the Lord, and are conscience that He will sustain us.”

A.W. Tozer "What has the church gained if it is popular but there is no conviction, no repentance, no power?" 

Charles Spurgeon “Joy: The greatest joy of a Christian is to give joy to Christ.”

A.W. Tozer "The degree of blessing we enjoy will correspond directly with the completeness of God's victory over us."  

A.W. Tozer “A robust faith requires that we grasp this truth firmly, yet we know how seldom such a thought enters our minds. We habitually stand in our now and look back in faith to see our past filled with God. We look forward and see Him inhabiting our future; but our now is uninhabited except for ourselves. Thus we are guilty of a kind of temporary atheism which leave us alone in the universe, while for a time, God is not.”

Charles Spurgeon “God’s wrath: If there be a man before me who says that the wrath of God is too heavy a punishment for his little sin, I ask him, if the sin be little, why does he not give it up?”

Charles Spurgeon “Worship: All places are places of worship to a Christian. Wherever he is, he ought to be in a worshiping frame of mind”

A.W. Tozer "Many Christians are satisfied with their destination but they neglect the journey." 

A.W. Tozer “What our Lord taught was this: when we obey the words of Jesus, in faith and in love proving that we love Him, He shows Himself to us. There are two subjects acting here–we and He. When we obey His Word we prove that we love Him, and He shows Himself to us. Who is this He that I am talking about? Jesus Christ our Lord. There are, then, two divinely constituted means: faith–the right kind of faith, in our Lord Jesus Christ–and obedience to His Word. Jesus said, “Ye believe in God, believe also in me” (John 14:1 KJV). Faith in Jesus Christ, the right kind of faith, the only kind of faith that matters, is irrevocable, total commitment to the Person of Jesus Christ Himself. You cannot go back on it, and if it is total, there is nothing that is not included. Faith in Jesus is not gulping twice and saying, “I accept Jesus.” It is getting into a state where you have totally committed yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is irrevocable commitment to the Person of Jesus Christ.”

A.W. Tozer "Come to the Word with a spirit of longing with devotion and humble expectation. Be determined to know God." 

A.W. Tozer "Prophets never retired, so I'm not retiring except to put on new tires to go a little faster and farther."

Charles Spurgeon “Faith goes up the stairs that love has built and looks out the windows which hope has opened.”

Charles Spurgeon “Holiness: If your religion does not make you holy, it will damn you. It is simply painted pageantry to go to hell in.”

A.W. Tozer "Unselfish love does not exploit its object and it does not ask for anything in return." 

A.W. Tozer “To many Christians Christ is little more than and idea, or at best an ideal; He is not a fact. Millions of professed believers talk as if He were real and act as if He were not. And always our actual position is to be discovered by the way we act, not by the way we talk.”

A.W. Tozer
"Christ calls us to carry the Cross; churches call us to have fun in His name."

A.W. Tozer "Let God elevate you above all external [circumstances] so that you can find His heart and worship Him."

A.W. Tozer "When we are enjoying the conscious presence of God, we are fulfilling the tenets of our salvation."

A.W. Tozer  "How utterly terrible is the current idea that Christians can serve God at their own convenience."

A.W. Tozer "True and authentic Christianity is revealed by God; not discovered or conscripted by man."

A.W. Tozer "If all your faith depends upon a pastor’s preaching, then you are a long way from being where God wants you to be."

A.W. Tozer "Too often we are Christians by assumption, manipulation or instruction, rather than Christians by regeneration."  

A.W. Tozer "The inner life must overcome the flesh or the flesh will overcome and destroy the inner life."

- 

Follow Me ─ Why Do So Many Give Up? ─ Part One

As I was comparing Oswald Chambers’s devotion for June 12 and June 13, I grinned with a pain in my heart knowing full well, those two little words “follow Me” are jam-packed with unexpected surprises and detours. I don’t think you will ever meet a true Christian who has decided to follow and was not shocked at finding out what Christ’s standards of “follow Me” meant.  When we find out what “follow Me” truly means to Him, we find we have two options. We either keep going through the toils and the snares or you let the tiredness of the journey gets to you, and you stop walking with Him.   As we chose the last option, we never realize that the next step is backsliding. Although, it makes sense that we backslide when we stop following, because true Christianity is a journey where we have to keep going forward with the Holy Spirit.

I remember one Sunday after service I was talking to an elder of the Church and he was also the past chairman. I guess because he did not see me as a threat, he was telling me how he got tired on the road with no courage left to pick up and follow after Him. Since he knew I was part of the prayer team, he told me to pray for Him. But, as he kept talking I found out this man stopped following so long ago, even before he became an elder. He knew exactly which event took place in his life that caused him to stop. Yet as he was talking he kept saying, it was other people’s fault that caused him to be discouraged. In the meantime he had no idea that I was shocked beyond beliefs. 

This happened after I just started the wilderness path with God, so I did not have enough knowledge and the boldness that comes from walking with Him, to respond to him.  As I assessed what I was being told, I realized this mild mannered man knew the Scriptures well enough and carried himself in a manner that would make anyone who is not walking in the Spirit, to appreciate and trust him enough to make him chairman of the Church. Yet, from what he told me, even though I was not mature enough, I knew he did not get to the place where he stopped following after God, because of other people. His problem was only his need to follow while holding onto his own self interests. He wanted both at any cost.  

In my limitation of God way and knowledge, I could see one of his major problems was learning dependence on God.  In all the leadership positions he held, he could not understand why it was so hard to get other Christians to do things as they are told and to understand they were working for the Lord. Ironically, he could not see this was exactly what he was doing to Christ. By then I was a Christian for about seven years and I just started the process of following Him in the wilderness. Not knowing what those words “follow Me” fully entails, I kept asking myself how did this man manage to get to this stage with God?

You see, in my mind, I had a good idea what it meant to follow after Him, I knew I needed to die to self and I knew I needed to depend on Him. What I did not know was, thinking and reading about dying to self was not the same thing as experiencing it. Even though we read some of the apostle’s stories in the Bible, along with people like David and Joseph, they do not come close to preparing us to go through Christ’s demands as we follow wholeheartedly. When God decides to deal with you so you can shed the self-life, you find out, what those people endured over two thousands years ago, is still going on right now because God, being in the business of making holy people one by one, He is still acting in the same way today. By the same token, we have no idea until God shows us who we are, that our self interest has a life on its own, so much so it seems bigger than life. And in the eyes of God this self interest life got to go.

I don’t think there is one of us who has not found out the hard way at our own expenses the meaning of those words “follow Me” Through finding out at my own expenses, I know, as the Spirit of God works in us, we can see that the path forward is so not appealing that we are not looking forward to it. Yet, God has a way of burning the bridges right behind you and you find out you cannot go back. What I find interesting about God, is that He would burn bridges which prevent you from going back, but He will not force you to go forward because the only way you can keep going forward is through dependence on Him. Because your measure of dependence on Him will depend on your faith in Him, to some extend, it make sense that He cannot force you to go forward with Him.

Letting go of our self-interests, is soooo painful and the pain does not seem to end because there is always something we are holding onto that needs to be surrendered to Him.  

The Way of Permanent Faith

As I was reading Oswald Chambers today, I realized I would have been very excited if it was not for the fact that I have gone through the process of what he is talking about and know the inward pain that your soul has to endure to get through this process.

Indeed during this period of time, we are so scattered inside, so hollow, so depressed by the darkness that surround us. As you go through this process, you also understand why the word wilderness suits it so well. Your pain comes from the dryness, the sun, the win and everything that encompasses the wilderness. It is so desolate all around you, in your heart, your soul and your spirit that the only thing that makes sense to your senses is the depression that the whole process is calling you to.

But, if you can keep focusing on Him while you are there, even though there is no excitement and no joy during this period, you will get through it and joy will come back again when you see how much you have grown. Through this period there is a long waiting process in between that is very discouraging. Another major point of this process is that God needs to take you to a place where you learn to abide in Him and you learn to depend on Him moment by moment for your life.

As you learn to abide in Him, you realize, the reality of you abiding in Him is so that the next part of the verse (abide in me and I in you) could take shape in your life. The whole doctrine of abiding in Him is so that He can reveal Himself to you, Christ can be formed in you as you learn to possess His mind, His likeness and all those substances that we need to take from Him. There are ways for sure you know you have gone through the process exactly the way He wanted you to.  First, you get out of it knowing full well what Paul meant when he said “for me to live is Christ”.

Another way you know you are pleasing to Him is that you realize you have become the protagonist of song of the Solomon 8:5 “Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved?” Because now, you not only have learned to get to know Him, you know you can depend on Him. So, your faith is solid and your understanding of Him is on a whole new dimension which is the spiritual one as you left behind the man made idea of Him. In fact, you look back to what you knew of Him and where you are now, and you are ashamed of what you made out Christianity to be. You also make a transition from knowing about Him to knowing Him. The thing is, you find you are now ready to look at this Christian life, His way. Another thing you will discover as well is that you are in the process of being made right with Him. This process takes you beyond spirituality into your way of right living in His sight. Righteousness is being restored. (Mathew 5:6)

So, if you are depressed and your life is upside down and you feel you are fenced in, look up to Him through the pain, the sadness, the emptiness, the scorching sun of the wilderness, the coldness that is eating your body, focus on Him and lift up your soul to Him. You do not have to make lengthy prayers because He knows already. Just the fact that you can remain focused on Him and in your heart letting Him know, no matter what you want to make it about Him and give Him glory for whatever is going on right now, then, He will be pleased. Don’t make it about your feelings because joy already escaped you, He is nowhere to be found and it is all messy and scattered inside you. – But, be patient however long it lasts, remain committed to seeing it through His ways and do not allow doubt to enter your mind.

When I went through my process, even though at times I could not pray, I would make it a point to pray in my heart. At times He was so absent I felt He was not hanging onto me at all. I did not let the enemy get the best of me. I did not confer with anyone that would discourage me or prescribe some sort of diversion.  I resolved to make it about Him even if I had to die. Once in a while, He would show me that even though I could not feel His presence because of the state of my soul, but He was right there with me and actually never left me for a moment. Those tiny glimmers of hope helped me a great deal. – Be still and know that He is God!

Here is Oswald Chambers devotional for today!

The Way to Permanent Faith

04

04

2013

Indeed the hour is coming . . . that you will be scattered . . . —John 16:32

Jesus was not rebuking the disciples in this passage. Their faith was real, but it was disordered and unfocused, and was not at work in the important realities of life. The disciples were scattered to their own concerns and they had interests apart from Jesus Christ. After we have the perfect relationship with God, through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, our faith must be exercised in the realities of everyday life. We will be scattered, not into service but into the emptiness of our lives where we will see ruin and barrenness, to know what internal death to God’s blessings means. Are we prepared for this? It is certainly not of our own choosing, but God engineers our circumstances to take us there. Until we have been through that experience, our faith is sustained only by feelings and by blessings. But once we get there, no matter where God may place us or what inner emptiness we experience, we can praise God that all is well. That is what is meant by faith being exercised in the realities of life.

“. . . you . . . will leave Me alone.” Have we been scattered and have we left Jesus alone by not seeing His providential care for us? Do we not see God at work in our circumstances? Dark times are allowed and come to us through the sovereignty of God. Are we prepared to let God do what He wants with us? Are we prepared to be separated from the outward, evident blessings of God? Until Jesus Christ is truly our Lord, we each have goals of our own which we serve. Our faith is real, but it is not yet permanent. And God is never in a hurry. If we are willing to wait, we will see God pointing out that we have been interested only in His blessings, instead of in God Himself. The sense of God’s blessings is fundamental

“. . . be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Unyielding spiritual fortitude is what we need.

Oswald's devotion for today is courtesy of: http://utmost.org/

If you are going through a time where you are not sure what is going on in your Christian walk,  inside you feel empty, sad, overwhelmed and depressed; all of the sudden the Christianity you thought you knew, the Christianity that brought you so much joy is far out of reach. You feel like you are on some kind of automatic pilot. Even faking a smile is hard for you. Then you are going through what Oswald called the discipline of dismay. The discipline of dismay lasts a little while. It is a dark period of your life that your soul needs to go through if your Christianity is to amount to anything to God.

Like Oswald said, we tend to look back on our time of obedience and our past sacrifices to God in an effort to keep our enthusiasm for him strong (see Isaiah 50:10-11) One of the mistake we make is to try and find the enthusiasm back. We do not realize that God is not looking for that enthusiasm, He in fact does not care for it. He wants you to endure the inexplicable pain that you are in right now, while seeking His face and focus on Him like there is no tomorrow.

What Oswald did not know when he wrote that piece is that we are in a time where when the enthusiasm for God is gone, the younger generation falls back on Social Media to seek encouragement.  So they find comfort through those shallow comments these professed Christians have perfected over the years, but with no real meaning to their lives. I noticed as well the younger generation lack guidance and understanding coming from their own family. If they had parents living deeper Christian lives with Him, parents who have gone through the process with God, those younger people would have a better understanding of what is going on and would stop in seeking for the type of band-aid comfort they find on Social Media. 

What we do not realize, when God takes us through a time of dismay, it is indeed a good thing for our soul and our walk with Him. While we are there, it does not seem it is possible that any good can come of it because there is so much confusion just trying to understand why we are where we are with Him. But, it is good because God is taking you beyond a time where you can bypass the sense of self-satisfaction you get from your Bible reading, prayer time, and Christian activities. He is taking you deeper into Him. The sad thing is, until God takes you there, you would never realize that you have been living a self-satisfying kind of Christian life.

This phase is mandatory, the waiting process, His silence, the fact that you do not recognize Him and He is becoming more and more like a stranger to you. The protest that you will go through, the soul searching, the lack of answers from Him, are all part of the process. The attitude He is looking for is for you to surrender it all to Him, for you to stop protesting, for you to trust those words you have been reading in the Bible and trust that He is a faithful God. When you go through it with the right attitude, you position yourself to receive more of His grace.

It is a time of great depression and no matter what you do, your soul cannot get out of it. Don’t despair, and don’t panic. If you surrender through the process, I promise you, He will take care of you in the same way He took care of Elijah when he was running for his life and God sent an Angel to feed Him and care for him.  He will take care of you in the same way He took care of Paul who was so discouraged that nothing could revive his soul, God had to send an angel on three occasions to reassure him and strengthen him.

So, if you are going to a dark time with Him, I beg of you, stop seeking for temporary shallow satisfaction. It is a time to hang on to Him more than ever. It is the perfect time to test Hebrews 13:5 “I will never desert you nor forsake you.”  Trust in the God of your Salvation. Look to His Cross. It is hard to let go of all we know and to hang on to Him especially at a time where we have no answer and He seems more absent than we have ever experienced. But it is okay. It will feel as if you are asked to let go of something that is holding you nicely and help you stand up, for something you have no idea what it is, where it is, what it is made of. In fact within yourself, you have no desire of letting go of something you can see for something you cannot see. But, your soul needs to go through it all. Your soul needs to learn to trust what it cannot see

  

That’s exactly what He wants from you. Even though nothing makes sense to you, I beg of you to trust Him and He will not fail you.

In essence, what you are doing during this period, is giving up your identity to take on His!

Here is Oswald Chambers's devotion for today

The Discipline of Dismay

03

15

2013

As they followed they were afraid —Mark 10:32

At the beginning of our life with Jesus Christ, we were sure we knew all there was to know about following Him. It was a delight to forsake everything else and to throw ourselves before Him in a fearless statement of love. But now we are not quite so sure. Jesus is far ahead of us and is beginning to seem different and unfamiliar— “Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed” (Mark 10:32).

There is an aspect of Jesus that chills even a disciple’s heart to its depth and makes his entire spiritual life gasp for air. This unusual Person with His face set “like a flint” (Isaiah 50:7) is walking with great determination ahead of me, and He strikes terror right through me. He no longer seems to be my Counselor and Friend and has a point of view about which I know nothing. All I can do is stand and stare at Him in amazement. At first I was confident that I understood Him, but now I am not so sure. I begin to realize that there is a distance between Jesus and me and I can no longer be intimate with Him. I have no idea where He is going, and the goal has become strangely distant.

Jesus Christ had to understand fully every sin and sorrow that human beings could experience, and that is what makes Him seem unfamiliar. When we see this aspect of Him, we realize we really don’t know Him. We don’t recognize even one characteristic of His life, and we don’t know how to begin to follow Him. He is far ahead of us, a Leader who seems totally unfamiliar, and we have no friendship with Him.

The discipline of dismay is an essential lesson which a disciple must learn. The danger is that we tend to look back on our times of obedience and on our past sacrifices to God in an effort to keep our enthusiasm for Him strong (see Isaiah 1:10-11). But when the darkness of dismay comes, endure until it is over, because out of it will come the ability to follow Jesus truly, which brings inexpressibly wonderful joy

Courtesy of: http://utmost.org/

The Discipline of Spiritual Perseverance - Part 2

Something Oswald said in his February 22 devotion that brought it all back so vividly, prompted me to wonder if God taught him in the same way too. “But one of the greatest stresses in life is the stress of waiting for God. He brings fulfillment, “because you have kept My command to persevere . . .” (Revelation 3:10).Continue to persevere spiritually.”

To me, it was strange to see how Oswald just ended with Revelation 3:10 at the end. In going through my trials to learn spiritual perseverance and endurance, the Holy Spirit kept reminding me of revelation 3:10. It was like the goal of this season of my hardships was to teach me how to get there. It was strange to see that my life was falling apart, I was experiencing loss that I could never recover from, the waiting, the uncertainty, and the pain of it all that were ravaging my soul, yet none of it was as big as the outcome that was revelation 3:10. Every time it was too hard for me to continue, my mind started fidgeting, the Holy Spirit would bring to mind this verse. Instantly and every single time my reaction to the remembrance was like a fussing baby getting his pacifier.   

As I watched myself now and how I am equipped to endure the challenges of my daily Christians life, I knew all I went through was worth it to get there. If you ask me if I would go through it over again, my answer to you would be no and no.  But was it worth it knowing what I know now? Then yes it was worth every moment.  

God does not make such a drastic statement in Revelation 3:10 without equipping us for the journey. As I was going through my spiritual preparation to learn perseverance and endurance, I also knew this was one more verse in the Bible that we Christians misunderstand terribly. While the true possessors of the faith need not to worry about this verse, but anyone else in the Church who simply professed to be Christians are included in that lump.  As professed Christians, we cannot make out that He would impose such conditions on us. 

So, when our explanations and our own false beliefs cannot quite explain why certain verses are in the Bible, we tend to ignore them, minimize them and eventually we put them all in the back of our mind and act as if they do not matter. But, it is precisely because we feel the need to act in this manner towards God’s Word we should worry about who we are in Him. God will not forget. In this same Bible that some of us insist that our explanation suffice, He did say in Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away”. This strong verse is as valid for the unbelievers as it is for the believers.

When you feel there are verses in the Bible that do not work well with your idea of Salvation, do not question the verses or God.  You should not ignore those verses either. If you were not blinded by ignorance, pride and disobedience, you would understand these verses are there to differentiate the real things from the impostors. God will use His own Word to show you why you did not make the cut like He did to rebuke Satan in the wilderness. So, a rule of thumb should be to question your understanding and release yourself in the hands of God with an open heart and mind to help you put the pieces together. If you insist on redefining the word to suit your explanations, you might find out it was a foolish attitude when it is too late.

The reason that He can make such statement like Revelation 3:10 is because He knows He who began a good work in us will see it to completion. What He asks of us, He always equips us through grace. Learning to endure is the mark of the true child of God. As you learn to endure you also learn to live the faithful and the abiding life.

Stop repeating history over and over again. Adam & Eve got too comfortable, took God for granted and disobeyed, what was the result? Did they expect it? No - The Israelites did the same thing too when they were in the wilderness, did they see God promises? No. Cultivate the habit of not readjusting God but yourself. Do not be too rigid in your false beliefs. Satan has trained some of us so well, that we see him where he has nothing to do with our situation but only our stubborn and prideful self. Yet, places where we should see him, we don’t. When we cultivate this kind of attitude where we readjust God’s word instead of ourselves, Satan does not even bother to assign more demons to you because there is no threat of losing you. He knows your pride and harden heart will get you there on your own.

Never mind how long you have been roaming in the Church. Never mind your status there. Do not get caught up in your own hypes. Do not get too comfortable with your Christianity. Take the habit of examining yourself. Ask yourself what has Christianity brought into your life beside traditions, rituals, feeling good about myself, and repetitions? Then find out what it means to be the reverse of a steadfast Christian. Ask yourself what has changes in you inwardly?  Even if you do not experience God and even if it takes time to get there, but after twenty, thirty years and more, you should be aware that inside of you, you are made of a different fibre by now.

Just in case you wonder why it is important to God to make perseverance and endurance such an important part of the Christian life and why He wants nothing to do with idleness and laziness you should check out this. One search in the thesaurus for the word perseverance brought the definition “constancy” and the synonym of the word constancy is:

abidingness, adherence, allegiance, ardor, attachment, certainty, decision, dependability, determination, devotedness, devotion, doggedness, eagerness, earnestness, endurance,faith, fealty, fidelity, firmness, honesty, honor, integrity, love, loyalty, permanence, perseverance, principle, regularity, resolution, stability, staunchness, steadfastness, steadiness, surety, tenacity, trustiness, trustworthiness, truthfulness, unchangeableness, unfailingness, uniformity, zeal

The opposite of someone who persevere is: 

apathy, idleness, indolence, laziness, lethargy

John Maxwell said:  “A difficult time can be more readily endured if we retain the conviction that our existence holds a purpose – a cause to pursue, a person to love, a goal to achieve.”

Are you going through a hard time right now? Know that when you are in a position where you are experiencing hardships, whether you brought it on yourself through unwise Choices, or it is brought on by God is not really the point. Go through it with Him in mind and purposely live for Him. Do not try to surround yourself with people and things just to keep your mind busy. Make Him the center of your life. Give Him your undivided attention. Persevere through it all with Him in mind then you will find all that Maxwell mentioned in the quote above, by grace has become yours. Through His grace you will find those words that make up the synonym of the word “constancy” have become part of the fibre of who you are within. 

Show Me Your Way!

Do we really need God to show us the way throughout our pilgrim’s journey on this earth?  

The first few years God led me into the wilderness I found I constantly needed guidance from Him. It was more so between the second to the fifth year. My soul ached to find a way out of my trials and the path I was on with Him. I hated the fact that my desire to be out there and get involved in saving souls was thwarted. I felt useless, the uncertainty of my life was painful, I felt anxious, and hated the fact that I lost so much control of my life. While I was happy he was training me to become what I am in Him now, but I felt I was missing the mark. So my favorite song for all those years was “show me your way that I may walk with you” by the Hillsong. I found such passion when I sang it. I found so much truth in it because it was me, I wanted to follow Him but I felt He was not showing me His way.  I was frustrated and needed Him to show me His way. Then my intimacy with Him soared, while I still like the song, I don’t care about it that much anymore. What I found strange was that my situation did not change that much, the only thing that changed was me, on the inside. Then, it bothered me that I still needed His leading but the song would not do it for me anymore.

This is the beauty of the steadfast walk in the Spirit. It is the beauty of living your life like His progeny. It is also the beauty of spiritual maturity. It is strange to see how on the outside my situation had not changed at all. I lost everything when He took me into the wilderness, but, unlike Job in the Bible who got his life back, God has not given anything back to me at all. Yet, I no longer need Him to show me the way. You see when you keep growing in your intimacy with Him, like a child with his bicycle training, you naturally move on to two wheels. When your identity is grounded in Him, and you are living as His child, you no longer need Him to show you His way. Not because you can live without His guidance. But because you have become obedient through brokenness, heavenly minded, and learned to walk moment by moment through dependence and trust, then, it does not matter what the next step is anymore. Your sole focus is to remain in the light with Him.

Now that I know and trust Him, I realize all these years I was begging Him to show me the way, He was indeed showing me His way. I was being led by Him. My life was exactly where He wanted it to be according to His plans for me. At that time, I did not like His plans for me. Now, that is all I live for. I needed Him to show me His way because my plans for my life did not coincide with His plans. I could not see it because I was so busy wanting Him to bless my own plans. Once we become heavenly minded, all that remain for us to focus on, is when we deviate so ever slightly through even the tiniest sin in our heart. As I mentioned in my book, even the tiniest sin takes us away from the light, it feels as if you are no longer attached to His divine nature, and it also feels like you have caught off your own oxygen. As we remain in the light with Him, you no longer are looking forward to do something big for Him. 

Finding Him, and finding your purpose in Him also means doing daily those tedious, “Itsy Bitsy” things that He puts in your path. As you do, while they look small in your eyes they all serve a purpose in Heaven. When you are building a house each one of us has our own job. One design the schematics, one lead the project one clean the construction site etc. As I stopped looking for God to lead me in the big things and my own way, I can see through His eyes, me being the one that sweeps the floor does not make me less in His sight. As long as I embrace His plan, I do it all for His glory, He is indeed glorified. And the guy who is smart enough to draw the schematic does not glorify Him more than I do. I am not saying being a true Christian is an easy life. In fact, it is not at all, NOT AT ALL. But, then again, we are not above the Master. And how can I not find joy in doing the most menial task He presents to me, when I know my contribution is so big in His eyes?

PRAYER: Lord God, Heavenly King, you are the God of the universe. You designed each one of us with a purpose in mind for your own glory. Father please take away the stubbornness of our hearts and the blindness that causing us to follow after our own desires. Please Lord, help us find freedom in you as you complete the work you started in us. I love you, I worship you and I give you thanks and praises for who you are and who you made me to be. May the ascended Christ be glorified in all of us. 

Please visit my website www.apprehended,ca