“Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”
Exodus 3:5
Moses was a man who encountered God in a special way. He was called up a mountain to meet with God for an uniqus purpose.
Isaiah, the disciples at the Transfiguration, Paul and John all had face-to-face meetings with the Lord. From these special times came their power for faith and ministry.
The New Testament believer has access to God’s presence unknown to most believers previously.
“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.”
Hebrews 10:19
Will it be entertainment or an encounter? I wonder sometimes about my own heart. I know there are times when I settle on something else than a meeting with the Lord God, my Father.
Sometimes I wonder about this. Perhaps our pews need seatbelts and our ushers need to hand out life jackets. Maybe a fire extinguisher and a pastor trained in CPR would be wise. Who knows what will happen if God decides to really show up?
He forgives me, and that I suppose the principal thing. He seeks me out to come into His presence. His blood opens the way.
“He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.”
Psalm 91:15
“So I tell you to ask and you will receive, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you.”
Luke 1:9
Our Father God very much wants to put us into a ‘win-win’ situation. This is remarkable considering our our pathetic condition. It seems we cannot generate enough steam to reduce the tension in our own lives, much less others. We are more or less ‘babes in the woods’ when it comes to anything of spiritual consequence. We can only hope that He goes before us, unlocking doors, and making us look important.
But these verses do act as an encouragement. He fully intends that we step into a door that has been widened and opened for us to step through, right into a room of full grace and assurance. He intends that we make it real, and accept all that is done for us, in His grace and mercy.
Prayer is incredible. When we finally begin to understand, we start to see that He is actively encouraging us to step’ into the wind.’ To stand and not be ‘wimps’. To become disciples who are open to seeing things that take on a supernatural significance; so we must make the decision to become sensitive to the needs of others.
The Father is excavating a deeper place for us to pray. As we step into this new place, we find an increased amplitude to extend ourselves into the lives of the struggling among us. There becomes for us a new place of a strong intercession, something that is substantially fresh and aware. It doesn’t seem to get more sophisticated, only more gentle and alert.
But we must pray. We must engage the enemy that tries to advance. To fail in doing this leaves many unprotected and vulnerable. It really is not acceptable for us to let Satan roll over our friend’s hearts and lives. We must provide resistance and strength to our loved ones. They may never know the prayer we offered them; until heaven.
Prayer is our key, and we need to move with it in a deliberate and direct manner. So much of the enemy’s focus is directed towards our times of prayer. Prayer disturbs him. He tries to ‘corral’ us and to reduce our access to the Father. But if we only press forward, we will find a freedom and liberty waiting for us.
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“Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our person- but they are helpless against our prayer. Fellow Christians who love the cause of Christ- to prayer! To prayer! The times are calling us to it. We must press on.”
“He comforts us every time we have trouble, so when others have trouble, we can comfort them with the same comfort God gives us.”
-2 Cor. 1:4, NCV
“The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless: “Who among us can dwell withthe consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”
Isaiah 33:14, ESV
There has to be some sort of confusion here. Some discrepancy, some incongruity, something overlooked. But things are never what they seem, and that is accentuated when we are in real pain. We think that whatever trouble we get enmeshed in, can’t have any real redeeming value. Or does it?
After a period of time walking with God, whose presence is true fire, we should process this prominent thought. Suffering is part of God’s idea. He has plans that hinge on our pain. It has been deliberately placed into our lives.
A competent pharmacist will be extremely aware of the drug he is filling for a patient. Never too much, nor too little. God is even more meticulous and acutely alert when it comes to suffering and pain. He has an intense love for you through it all. He drops in the proper amount needed for that moment. It is confined and designed to heal, grow, and strengthen. Never to harm or destroy. He is not punishing you.
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
Helen Keller
Keller understood. She was both deaf and blind, since infancy. From this dark and complete isolation, she broke through. Helen Keller became a potent and significant woman. She would graduate from college and became a famed public speaker of international renown.
“God never allows pain without a purpose in the lives of His children. He never allows Satan, nor circumstances, nor any ill-intending person to afflict us unless He uses that affliction for our good. God never wastes pain. He always causes it to work together for our ultimate good, the good of conforming us more to the likeness of His Son” (see Romans 8:28-29).
Jerry Bridges
Gold fears no fire.
We must believe pain has purposes. Life teaches us how to love. Some seem to go through life “charmed”, they are really not hurt in any substantial way. If that is the case, reach out and help someone else, for there’s certainly enough pain and evil to go around. (We should find ourselves actively sharing in the trials of others.)
I think that when a believer finally arrives in heaven, they will be ushered in limping, wounded, leaning on an angel for support. They will bring it all to Jesus, their scars remembered, and their sins forgiven. And we will be transformed, fit for heaven.
“He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
John 16:14
We do not make Jesus real by conjuring up a mental picture of Him long ago in Galilee and trying to walk in imagination with Him there. We do not have to go back two thousand years or travel to Palestine to find Jesus. There is a fad for that sort of thing, but so might one inwardly visualize any character of history. Such mental association may, indeed, affect one’s life to some degree, but it is far from the way Christ is made real to the believer.
The Holy Spirit has come for that purpose.
All things spiritual are from God through Christ and are communicated to us by the Spirit. It was expedient that Jesus should go that the Spirit might come. He does not testify of Himself but of Christ, and He makes the Lord real to the heart. It is not a mere mental exercise but the work of the Spirit that enables us to say, “He is real to me.”
Broken Believers 