Usually Gods deep dealings with us begin with confusion - Why me? Why this? Why now? Why does God forget me for so long? Does the Lord not know my desire to serve Him? Have I committed the unforgivable sin?
All phrases that groan up from deep within the soul that has just been slapped on to the potters wheel.
I guess young Joseph thought that after Potiphar's wife had him thrown in jail, or perhaps Jeremiah thought that when he was thrown in Jail, perhaps Micah the prophet thought that when he was thrown in jail?
Of course we know what Christ thought during His awful hours of suffering...
"My God My God why hast though forsaken me"?
Jonah in his attempt to flee from God instruction soon joined the ranks of those that have experienced the potters wheel. He groaned from deep within the wallowing, seaweed, stench & darkness of the belly of the whale..
"For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. - Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple". -Jonah 2:3,4
God was after something and Jonah thought He knew better than God. What does the inside of your whale's belly look like? is it a relationship agony? A humiliation at work? Has the bank and all your credit cards failed you? Has your light at the end of your tunnel strangely disappeared or worse has it became a roaring express train?
Job also knew well this awful place of seeming abandonment:
Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: - On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: - But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Job 23v8-10
How often did David wail at the absence of the presence of God? Like Jonah he also cried out:
O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar. - Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Psalm 42v6,7
It's written of Christ Himself
Jonah in his attempt to flee from God instruction soon joined the ranks of those that have experienced the potters wheel. He groaned from deep within the wallowing, seaweed, stench & darkness of the belly of the whale..
"For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. - Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple". -Jonah 2:3,4
God was after something and Jonah thought He knew better than God. What does the inside of your whale's belly look like? is it a relationship agony? A humiliation at work? Has the bank and all your credit cards failed you? Has your light at the end of your tunnel strangely disappeared or worse has it became a roaring express train?
Job also knew well this awful place of seeming abandonment:
Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: - On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: - But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Job 23v8-10
How often did David wail at the absence of the presence of God? Like Jonah he also cried out:
O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar. - Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Psalm 42v6,7
It's written of Christ Himself
Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared
Perhaps even more astonishing!
Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; - And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; -Hebrews 5:8,9
Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; - And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; -Hebrews 5:8,9
The humiliation of our flesh is all part of the plan
And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: -Hebrews 12:5
And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: -Hebrews 12:5
When our planned escape becomes intolerable
What deep torturous trail are you going into, in the middle of, or wonderfully coming out of? Until the next one begins - Don't despise it, it is the chastening of the Lord.
Is the stripping more than you thought you deserved? More than you think you can bear? Do you think it unfair that one that has held such lofty and noble ideas of serving God as you should experience such humiliation? If that is still your mind then your deliverence may still be some way off. Be comforted in that God is not disillusioned about you as He had no illusions to begin with - We were the ones that cried out with Peter "I'm ready to go to jail and even die with you" Really Peter? Before the cock crows you will have denied me three times...
What deep torturous trail are you going into, in the middle of, or wonderfully coming out of? Until the next one begins - Don't despise it, it is the chastening of the Lord.
Is the stripping more than you thought you deserved? More than you think you can bear? Do you think it unfair that one that has held such lofty and noble ideas of serving God as you should experience such humiliation? If that is still your mind then your deliverence may still be some way off. Be comforted in that God is not disillusioned about you as He had no illusions to begin with - We were the ones that cried out with Peter "I'm ready to go to jail and even die with you" Really Peter? Before the cock crows you will have denied me three times...
How humiliating when our greatest declarations of full committal to Him are exposed as the cheap throw aways they actually are in the face of the approaching cross.
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? -Hebrews 12:7
The deliverence can not come until we no longer resist the awful reality of the cross that God is bringing to bear in our lives. The death of the outward man must take place before the release of the power of the inward man.
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? -Hebrews 12:7
The deliverence can not come until we no longer resist the awful reality of the cross that God is bringing to bear in our lives. The death of the outward man must take place before the release of the power of the inward man.
We are first Adam and the rebellion and
defiance against God we will do... Until, until, the bitter death of His cross
becomes our living and hourly reality. When the power of the exposure and
humiliation of our own sinful & selfish nature, finally puts our pride, our zeal, our rights and our
natural abilities absolutely to death - Then and then alone can we know the
holiness of God and the resurrection power of His Christ.
Oh When Will This End?
How long will I be in this belly of the whale we cry? I can tell you to the exact minute!!!
Are you ready? Its the minute we absolutely surrender! its the same minute we will experience the beginning of the deliverance of God from the whale of rebellion that we have got ourselves into. And it may take more than a minute for us to reach the shores of our Nineveh and begin the thing we are called and commanded to do.
What I cannot tell you is WHEN that minute will actually occur - Only you and your Father know that. It can take decades.
A Clue
But here is a clue as to the timing - The thicker the make up you wear, the bigger the wardrobe you own, the stronger your desire for the things of this world and the more time spent in Facebook instead of your face in His book - or even on your face seeking His face - Then probably your deliverance will not be anytime soon. Big ego's attract big whales.
Sadly, many are still bent on heading to Tarshish, others begin to adapt and even redecorate the belly of their whale. But there is a remnant, a small group that are humiliated by Gods determined and uncompromising goal to transform us into the image of His dear son. Great grace on those temporarily lonely souls. Lonely until comforted. For you, hopefully sooner rather than later, the unbearableness of your nakedness will give way to the cross and you will find it easier to become dead to your desires and plans and become totally committed to hearing and fulfilling His.
They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Gal 5v24
Until that truth becomes a deliberate and conscious reality - Learn this truth:
But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. -Hebrews 12:8
Nothing is Hid that will not be made manifest
Nothing within the deep recesses of our soul His hid from His consuming gaze.He knows well our deepest secrets and darkness. Be aware He will go after that darkness with His rod in one hand and a knotted whip in the other - And the scouring will stop when either we resist it to the point of being "no longer sons", or "Clean by the word that He has spoken unto us" and we become "His house of prayer".
Nothing within the deep recesses of our soul His hid from His consuming gaze.He knows well our deepest secrets and darkness. Be aware He will go after that darkness with His rod in one hand and a knotted whip in the other - And the scouring will stop when either we resist it to the point of being "no longer sons", or "Clean by the word that He has spoken unto us" and we become "His house of prayer".
We are called
to holiness and sonship, let us resist not the chastening of the Lord or
despise when we are rebuked by Him. Life is much simpler when we submit to the knowledge that we are His and not our own and that He is Lord of all or not Lord at all.
Not everyone that says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven.
Only those that do the will of my Father which is in heaven Mt 7v21
Who's will are you doing today?
Regards
George
Regards
George
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