As we approach the celebration of July 4th I reflect on the question, “Are People Really Free or Just Pretending?” America has so much opportunity and yet many wander through a maze of broken hopes and dreams. We spend a great amount of time, wealth and energy trying to prove to ourselves and others that we are living “the dream” when we are in fact just being fooled by all the media marketing about what really makes one free and happy.
This will be the last in this series and I hope you have been blessed and challenged by the subject matter. I would love to hear your feedback on what you got out of the topic. If you have a unique story of a dark time in your life when God seemed silent yet the Lord taught you a valuable truth or lesson I would love to hear about it.
A common problem for many Christians is that they base their beliefs on superstition and legend rather than on scripture. Most will say they have a biblical foundation for their faith, but when questioned with deeper issues beyond simple concepts like John 3:16 they often are lost and can’t explain what they believe nor why. It is my experience that when we can’t explain what and why we believe, we often don’t really believe it. what we say we do. Somehow we have relied on sermons or Christian books rather than digging into the scriptures to discover what is really true and what is just religion or good ideas.
We all go through “Dark Times” where it feels like God is nowhere to be found and we often feel isolated from people in our souls even if we are in a crowd of people. Those times can be scary because we don’t know what the outcome will be and we often can become overwhelmed with the prospect of the “What If’s” that fuel our worries. If you haven’t read the first two articles in this series please do so before reading this one as they are all linked with each other.
In the first part of this series, “Trusting in the Darkness”, I started to explore how life throws difficulties at us at times where our relationships are brought into question due to some area of weakness or fear. The fear could be over not knowing what the other party feels towards us when we are hit with a hard time or difficulty. It could be the feeling of isolation or inability to cope with our current problem and our friends or family seemingly not willing to bail us out when they have the means too. In any case, it is when life’s answers can’t be found and we feel lost. It is during those dark times that our relationships will be tested both with God and others. If you haven’t read the first article on this subject please do so before continuing with this one.
I started off this topic with the story of Mary, Martha and Lazarus who found themselves in great need asking Jesus for help. The apostle John is the only one who included this story in his gospel account for good reason. John wrote his gospel from a relational point of view. He helps us to identify when we have good relationship with God and when we are just toying with religion. In this story Lazarus gets sick and dies. John focuses on what all relationships go through when a crisis tests the quality of our love for each other. Can we trust the person we seek assistance from who doesn’t come through the way we expected?
John reveals that Jesus loved these three people in a unique way. To say Jesus loves us all is true. However, to say Jesus is intimate with all of us in the same way would betray the reality that we all experience God differently. Some of us seem to have a much closer walk with God than others. While we may experience struggles while walking in darkness, and those struggles may hinder our lives for a time, they don’t seem to damage our trust whereas with others the slightest trouble in life causes us to lose our trust in God and we stop our communication. God is accused of a lack of love. This lack of trust and communication may last a day, week, month or even years. For Martha and Mary, they were hurt and wounded by his seeming lack of empathy concerning their brother but they still talk to Jesus out of their pain even when confused. Some people never recover in their relationship once they are disappointed with God’s actions or lack there of. No amount of scripture concerning the promises of God’s love assures them that God truly does because God didn’t come through for them the way they wanted or expected.
I left off the last article with a scripture from the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament that deals with the time when the Jews were in Babylon and complaining that the things they were experiencing were God’s fault due to his lack of love.
Isaiah 50:10
Who is among you that fears the LORD, That obeys the voice of His servant, That walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.
Isaiah pens this prophecy because the Jews have felt that God didn’t love them anymore and that his love was shallow because of their suffering in Babylon. They have presumed that their experience reflected a lack of God’s love rather than their own lack of love for God. It turns out their suffering was due to their own lack of genuine love for and towards God. They had failed to follow God’s plan for their life and now they were experiencing the fruit of those choices. It is to blame God or others when we are reaping the fruit of what we have sown. Now our own current trials may not be the the fruit of a lack of our love for God but trials will indeed test the kind of depth or weakness in our love for God and others. The important thing is to examine just what our affection for God and others is based on. Is it only based on doing our will for our comfort or is it based on something far more valuable?
God identifies mature love through the words of Isaiah by saying that those who truly fear God and are identified as having biblical love are those who obey his voice even when darkness surrounds them. They so trust the person of God and his character that they trust his words even when circumstances look the contrary. This reminds me of a story I heard from someone living in Romania when it was under communism in the 70s. It happened a long time ago when a church and their church leaders were arrested and interrogated by the secret police in order to get them to betray each other. When the interrogator talked with each prisoner separately they accused the other leader falsely with reports saying some had confessed bad things about the other. Each prisoner would reply, “They would never say such things about me because I know they love me”. At the end the prison guards gave their lives to Christ because of the unwavering love and trust they had for each other.
Martha and Mary still trusted Jesus in spite of their great pain and confusion. Yes, they were hurt deeply by what seemed to be Jesus’ lack of concern for their brother who was now dead yet their ability to still trust their friend Jesus was rock solid though tested through such fire. Look at their response when talking to Jesus in town.
John 11:21-22
Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. “Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”Jesus *said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha *said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Martha is totally honest with Jesus. Martha is trying to wrap her brain around the “Natural”, which reasons once your body is dead you are dead, and the “Supernatural” idea that God can intervene and change what nature says is unchangeable.
Here is the key thing for all of us. In order to trust God, whether it’s dark or broad daylight, we have to be anchored in the belief that what God has promised is rock solid because he would never lie. This is regardless of what we might experience in life, good or bad. I confess that having that perspective and conviction does not come easy and can at times be shaken. It takes a lifetime of walking with God to learn to trust God more than circumstances. Just the awareness of the truth that our convictions can be shaken should cause us to know that the only safe place to dwell is in the person and presence of God for He is the one that gives us the strength we need for any and all circumstances.
I recently visited with a person who was dying. They are such a godly person that many would love to have had their faith but, when faced with all the signs of death, they were trying to stop death with their faith confession believing that their confession was where their strength was rather than God himself. As I sat with this person I encouraged them to relax in the love of their Heavenly Father rather than the strength of their confession or power of their will. All of a sudden it’s like a light bulb went on in their soul and the peace of God folded their soul in such a wonderful way we both started to cry. From that moment on this person was able to truly trust God with simple childlike faith. The outcome of their journey was more up to God rather than feeling like it was all up to them. We struggle to be in charge yet our Heavenly Father is longing for our trust to be in Him rather than the outcome of our battle.
In the next article we will continue to explore walking in darkness while still trusting. Stay tuned for more!
Questions:
1) Have you been struggling to be strong in faith rather than strong in your Heavenly Father ? Confess & be free.
2) Are you still relying on what you know to “Win” rather than relying on who you know ? Confess & Rest in Him.
Exploring the character of God is where our real hope and security lies.
Pastor Dale
This is the final article on the orphan spirit in the church and I want to close with the parable in Luke’s gospel where Jesus addresses the problem of God’s children living and acting out of an orphan spirit. When I use the term “Orphan Spirit” I’m referring to an attitude that many believers have who would never consider the fact that they move in such a “Disconnected” way in their relationship with their Heavenly Father.
This is the fourth part of a series on having an “Orphan Spirit” which is defined as a person who, although being a child of God through the sacrifice of Christ, still lives as if they are disconnected from their Heavenly Father’s care and interaction. It is my experience that far too many confessing believers live lives less than God designed or desires. When Jesus said in the gospel of John chapter 14 that he would not leave them (the disciples) as orphans, it was due in part to their feeling of abandonment as Jesus was heading to the cross.
In my first article on “Are We Living Like Orphans” I wrote about how so many believers live with the mindset and behavior of being an “Orphan” rather than thinking and acting like God is our loving Heavenly Father. I wanted to reveal what a lie and deception Satan has introduced into the body of Christ that keeps us at a distance from our creator rather than learning to being intimate with him as our Heavenly Father who loves us dearly. If you haven’t read part one please do so before continuing with part two.
Previously, I wrote about how so few believers in the body of Christ today demonstrate the kind of transformation that the apostle Paul wrote about in 2 Corinthians 5:17. Today’s preaching and teaching tends to be about how God can help us overcome obstacles more than our privilege and opportunity to build an intimate relationship with Him. This is often due, in part, to our culture promoting a self-centered lifestyle, which the church has bought into. Also, many fathers desired to give their kids what they didn’t have as kids, which caused being a provider to supersede the importance of actually fathering their children. Even those who grew up with a loving and nurturing father figure also had authority figures in their lives that distorted their ability to develop healthy trust with those in authority, be it fathers or bosses.
The premise of this study is based in part on John 14:18 where Jesus said he would not leave us as orphans. The disciples had to be worried that Jesus was leaving and they had learned to trust and rely on his presence and his spiritual and practical leadership. Jesus was trying to comfort them by saying that he had already planned for his departure and it would include a “helper” who would follow Him. This helper would guide them throughout their lives as they listened and obeyed him just as they had Jesus. There is the catch though. He reveals that they ( the disciples ) needed to “Obey” his instructions so that they could live in an ever deepening way.
John 14:18-21
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. [19] “After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. [20] “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. [21] “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”
Jesus reveals that the purpose of their discipleship was not just to do good and obey rules, but to be intimate with our Heavenly Father. Obeying Christ’s commandments was an “Indicator” that we were living a loving relationship, just as the Father and Jesus were experiencing. Obeying rules don’t make us adopted sons and daughters. Instead, they demonstrate our trust of the one who made them. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross opened the door for this relationship and bonding. When we chose to surrender to Christ for forgiveness we automatically start being transformed day by day into loving sons and daughters. However, if at any time we stop trusting Jesus the transformation stops as well. John 15 illustrates this perfectly and this was said by Jesus right after his promise that we would not be left to fall like orphans.
John 15:4-5
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. [5] “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
This is a key principle for our walk as sons and daughters rather than as orphans. He emphasizes that the ongoing relationship with God as our Heavenly Father is through choosing to abide. The responsibility comes on our part to want and choose relationship. This growing intimacy means the longer we grow in the Father’s love the more we understand Him and his ways. Ultimately, it is seeing the character of God that our love is meant to deepen and our relationship grows because we have great understanding of who He truly is.
The goal of our Christian life is to be centered around loving God as our “Abba”, not a distant creator. Paul brings this whole concept of chasing and enjoying intimacy with our Heavenly Father as Jesus did.
Romans 8:12-17
So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— [13] for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. [14] For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. [15] For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” [16] The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, [17] and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
I remember older Christians in my young days of walking with the Lord who consoled young believers that they needed to stand on and confess they were children of God. It seemed odd to me to have to be assured of their relationship by confessing this truth. It seemed to me if they were having conversations with their Heavenly Father and reading scripture they would be confident of this fact rather than trying to convince themselves of their confession.
Everything Jesus did for us as our savior was to make available an intimate relationship with God. It wasn’t just to forgive. It was meant to break down the barriers. As we continue with this topic of overcoming an orphan spirit I hope you realize how much your Heavenly Father desires to be the father you always wanted.
Questions:
2. Are you walking in the security of Christ’s forgiveness yet have not loved him in return? John 15 illustrates that if you
don’t abide in His love you will wither and die in your relationship. Confess your wandering soul and return to the one who
loves you.
Loving God and pursuing a deeper walk.
Pastor Dale
Jonah 1:1-3
The LORD gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the LORD. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the LORD by sailing to Tarshish.
I have been amazed at how the “Testimony” of some people seems to be all that is needed to convince a group of people of some declared “Truth” with no or little evidence. I think we used to be more objective in our beliefs and persuasion but now we seem to be captivated by any strange idea or accusation. Maybe it’s because we are so used to “Instant” information with our technology that we no longer have the time or patience to “Verify” before we develop an opinion.
