Guidance

chapter five

 

   WHEN YOU LOSE TOUCH

 

Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts; all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime; and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me; why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul; and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

 

Judge me, 0 God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; 0 deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.

For thou art the God of my strength, why does thou cast me off; why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? 0 send out thy light and thy truth, let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.

Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy; yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, 0 God my God.

Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Psalm 42:7-Psalm 43

 

As long as our relationship with God seems to be thriving, as long as our prayers are getting answered, as long as we feel his nearness and see God's timing in our circumstances, it is hard to imagine that any thing could ever happen to dampen this marvelous communion. But our relationship with God has two sides; God’s side, and our side.

 

God's grip is solid. His heart is steadfast. Nothing changes with him. But our side of the relationship is fragile. It just takes a little too much "success" or a few slovenly days of ease, or some bad turn of events, and right away we've lost track of God. We don't even know where he is.

 

God not only wants us to understand how he can grip us, he also wants to teach us how to hang on to him with our will. What kind of relationship is this if I just stand here and God holds me like a stick? There has to be something in my heart and will which responds to his heart toward me.

 

When I wake up one day and God doesn't seem to be there any more, this is part of my learning how to stay with God. What I do about this will either put me into a slump that will go on for months, perhaps for a lifetime, or will bring me back up on the road with God stronger than ever.

 

Others Have Gone Through It Too

 

We are tempted to think that we're the only one that ever went through this. Nobody understands our desolation. What a comfort it is to find in Psalm 42 and 4-3 that a saint of God centuries ago went through this and put it into words. Three thousand years ago some man of God who loved God, trusted God, woke up one day and found himself out of touch and described what it's like.

 

The first thing that you experience is estrangement: you feel cut off from God himself.

 

0 God, why hast thou forgotten me? Why hast thou cast me off? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

 

"You were so close to me and now that inner-feeling, that wonderful sense of your communion with me is gone. I'm desolate!"

 

Not only do we feel cut off from God, but we also feel cut off from man. There's an alienation from other human beings.

 

My tears have been my meat day and night while they continually say to me, Where is your God?

Psalm 42:3

 

As a sword in my bones, my enemies reproach me, while daily they say to me, Where is your God?

Psalm 42:10

 

We begin to experience a wall coming up that seems to cut us off from everybody. Nobody understands me, and I don't seem to have any power to get through to them either.

 

The next thing we experience is a disquietude. We're unsettled, uneasy, nervous, upset. We had something and now it's gone. Where did it go? When a mother loses her child in the shopping center, she forgets about the credit cards and her purse and has no peace until she finds her little one. If a father is separated from his family in an earthquake he has no peace until he finds his way back to them. Likewise, when that room in our lives, which was once inhabited by God, seems to be empty there is no peace until somehow we find our way back to the place where the Spirit of God floods us with his fullness.

 

The next thing we feel when we find ourselves cut off from God is overwhelmed.

All thy waves and thy billows have rolled over me. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water­spouts.

 

When a giant wave rolls in from the sea it knocks you down. You're helpless. As long as God was at my side and in my heart, no wave was that big. I could take anything that came. But isn't it strange that as soon as that sense of God's presence is gone even the little waves become giant. I can't cope with any of it anymore. If our child is sick, or if we have a setback at work, or something goes wrong with the car, our brother‑in‑law doesn't talk to us anymore, we can't seem to

handle it. Everything's too much.

 

 

 

Do Something!

 

When we find ourselves out of touch with God we have a choice. We can either lie down and wallow in it or we can get up and do something. There may be those reading this who have been cast down and disquieted and overwhelmed for years. There may be those who just tasted that experience for the first time last week. But in this Psalm there's help if we want it.

 

The first thing we need to do if we want to find our way back into touch with God is ask our soul how it got that way? Did God really withdraw from me or did I withdraw my hope from God? If you're up on top of the City National Building and start to fall, God is not helplessly watching you plunge to the street. He comes after you and all the way down his hand is always there. All you have to do is grab it and he holds you.

 

Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul; and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him,

who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

 

It is not God who let go of me, I let go of him.

 

The second thing I need to do if I want to come back into touch with God is remember that though I change God remains the same. Always the same. Always mercy.

 

“Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime; and in the night his song shall be with me.”

 

Sometimes when you take hold of a person’s hand, you know their heart is in, their grip; sometimes it is more like grasping a dead fish. Sometimes when you kiss your wife she's there and sometimes she isn't. Sometimes when she kisses you you're there and sometimes you're not. But God is always there, always!

 

He commands his lovingkindness in the daytime…

 

He's there all through the day, and in the nighttime his song is there. And it's important for us to apprehend that with our minds until finally it sinks down into our hearts.

 

The third thing we need to do if we really want to come back in touch with God is start telling God how we really feel. “Oh, but God knows how I feel already. Why should I have to tell him?" But he wants us to tell him. It's important for us to tell him.

 

I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me; why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

 

For thou art the God of my strength, why dost thou cast me off; why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

 

"Lord, you're my rock, but I sure don't feel anything right now. You've forgotten about me , My enemies are making fun of me. People are coming up to me and saying, 'Where is your God?' and I have nothing to say.”

 

"Lord, you're my strength, but I sure don't feel any presence now. I don't see any evidence of this at all."

 

Somebody says, "Wait a minute, you're not supposed to talk to God like that!" It's far more pleasing to God for you to tell him what's on your heart than to pretend that everything is fine when you're sulk­ing underneath. Far better for you to tell him what's really there. Better than to moan and groan within your heart.

 

Then, ask for light. "Show me the way, Lord." "Lord God, I need your help."

 

“0 send out thy light and thy truth let them lead me. Let them bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles.”

 

Isn't it amazing, we can be depressed for months and months, and some of us for years, and all we ever express openly is a whimper, a bleat like a tired sheep, while in our hearts the complaining never ends. Through all this depression we never come to the place where aggressively and relentlessly we begin asking God for light. "Lord, show me!"

 

“If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit, to those who ask him.  Luke 11:13

 

If you ask him for bread you're not going to get a stone. If you ask him for a fish you're not going to get a scorpion. You'll get light. "But God walked out that door, I haven't seen him for years." When have you gone to the door and called? "Oh, but the door's closed." Well then, knock on it, and ask, and you shall receive.

 

When the light comes, and it always does, the final step is to go to God's altar.

 

Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy. Yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, 0 God, my God.

 

Go to the altar. And where's the altar? The altar is the place where the sacrifice has been made, where the blood has been shed, where the Lamb of God hangs, as a sign of God's mercy for you. Don't go to Capernaum looking for signs and wonders, don't go to Gadara for exorcism. The place we need to go, first and last, is the altar of God.

 

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”  John 1:29

 

“Look unto him and be saved all the ends of the earth.”  Isaiah 45:22

 

There you will behold what God has done for you. And it will be utterly impossible for you to any more feel alienated, cut off, from God. Not when you behold the extreme mercy which God has shown you. How can you feel cut off?

 

And at the altar it will no longer be possible for you to feel cut off from your fellow man because as the mercy of God begins to fill your heart, that mercy also begins to govern your attitude toward people. And when you have mercy in your heart toward your fellow man, you can't possibly feel alienated from him.

 

At Calvary you will also find it impossible for you any more to feel disquieted within because you will discover and receive once again that thing which you had lost, God's peace. Peace with God, peace with brothers and sisters, peace with all men, peace with your past as it is covered with the blood, and peace with your future, which is in God's hand. You will have God's peace, and you will begin to praise him with your joy and your strength, your God.

 

Finally, at the altar, you will find that you will no longer be overwhelmed. The burden that made you feel overwhelmed by every little wave that came along is now lifted off your shoulders and placed on the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and you stand free.

 

“Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy. Yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, 0 God, my God.”

 

One of the most important lessons we need to learn is what to do when we find ourselves feeling that we are cut off from God. Too many of us have spent far too many days, and some of us far too many years, walking around cast down, disquieted, and overwhelmed, when in a matter of minutes, or at the very most a matter of hours, we could have turned and begun to find our way to the place where we are able to praise God in the midst of all our troubles.

 

May God help us through his Spirit to realize that there's no excuse for us to be cast down, and disquieted, and overwhelmed. Not while God's lovingkindness is with us in the daytime and his song is with us all night long. Not while God sends down his light and his truth to lead us to his holy hill. Not while on the holy hill the Son of God, the Lamb, hangs there beckoning us to come and receive peace.

 

Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy. Yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, 0 God my God.

 

 

 Guidance

chapter six

 

THE CROSS: DOORWAY TO A NEW MIND

 

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee, in a time when thou mayest be found: Surely in the floods of great waters, they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble, thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go; I will guide thee with mine eye. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: Whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.  Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

Psalm 32

 

The Importance Of The Mind

 

To accomplish the work which God has called us to do we're going to have to live lives that are truly Spirit-led so that we know we are in the place where God wants us to be, doing the work God wants us to be doing.

 

But what does it take to be really Spirit‑led? Many of us still seem to think that to be guided by the Spirit of God we have to blank our minds and become like robots or puppets on a string. "Here I am Lord. Press the buttons, pull the strings. I'm your puppet." But the Lord says,

 

"Be not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle ....

 

"How can I instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go. How can I guide you with my eye unless you think?"

 

To be guided by the Spirit is to be taught by the Spirit, in­structed. He can't instruct a robot or a puppet. He can only instruct a thinking mind. Our Lord was guided by the Spirit of his Father and he was far from a puppet on a string, mechanically responding to im­pulses sent to him from above. He was a son, a thinking man. He had a mind and he used it to bring the instruction of his Father and the needs of men together.

 

But that's where the problem lies. Our minds don't seem to be able to receive instruction. We're confused about what's coming from God and what's coming from self and what's coming from Satan. We're seldom sure about our guidance. And sometimes when we think we're sure, we find out later that we were misled.

 

The Misdirected Mind

 

The reason for this confusion is that our minds are no longer aimed at heaven as they were created to be, but are turned in upon themselves. It's as if we have a magnificent telescope capable of scanning the heavens and beholding untold wonders. But one night when nobody's around, an enemy installs a weird elbow on the telescope which, with a system of mirrors, bends its field of vision to the earth. Now when you look into the telescope instead of seeing blazing stars and distant galaxies, you see only bugs, dirt, spiders and cockroaches crawling in the shadows, magnified to absurd sizes. Our minds, through the corruption of sin, have been twisted away from the glory of the living God and bent earthward, self-ward. All we seem to be able to think about is self.

 

Guidance from above can only come to us when our minds are cleansed from the sin that warped them -- straightened out so that we can see heavenward once more. This is why Psalm 32, which promises guidance, begins with:

 

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

 

(Blessed is the man, the woman, who has been to the cross.)

 

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in  Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of the sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

Romans 8:1-6

 

It is possible to get that elbow off the telescope so it can scan the heavens again. It is possible, by the power of the cross, to get the twist out of our minds so that they can truly receive instruction from the Spirit. But don't try to be instructed by the Spirit until your mind is straightened out, until you've been to the cross.

 

For instance, our vanity cannot be taught by the Spirit of God any more than a horse can learn to use a typewriter. Yet many of us are desiring to be guided by the Spirit without first bringing our vanity to the cross. What can the heavens declare to a telescope that only sees cockroaches and magnifies them a thousand times? Our ego can no more be taught the ways of God than a mule can be taught to build a house. Yet many of us are trying to be guided without first bringing our ego to the cross. What can we see of God's glory when we’re all wrapped up in our own ego problems? And how can our lust, envy, greed and anger submit themselves to God's goodness? When our minds are filled with these things they are incapable of receiving guidance from the Spirit because they are chained to the earth, saturated with false hopes and false promises.

 

A New Mind Through Death and Resurrection

 

First this vain, covetous, lusting mind must pass through the door of death in order that it may be replaced with a mind which is alive to God. That's what the cross of Jesus is for. It is the place where not only Jesus dies, but our old mind which was incapable of receiving in­struction dies with him. The cross of Jesus is literally the doorway to a new understanding which is able to grasp the things of God, where the mind of flesh, the mind of self‑seeking is replaced with the mind of the Son. A teachable, open, God-seeing, God-trusting, God-loving, God-worshiping mind.

 

“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. “

 

The man or woman who has come to the cross of Jesus has put away those things which have blocked the Spirit from entering and has now set their mind on the things of the Spirit.

 

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Colossians 3:1-4

 

You have died. You have been to the cross. Now the guidance of the Spirit begins. The Spirit begins, literally, to instruct us and teach us in the way that we should go and guides us with his eye. But this guidance of the Spirit requires continuous cooperation from us in two areas:

 

1.      The continuous putting to death of those things in us that interfere with the operation of the Spirit of God in us.

 

So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh -- for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Romans 8:12-14

 

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you once walked, when you lived in them. But now put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander and foul talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices…

Colossians 3:5-9

 

Why should I keep that grudge if keeping it causes my telescope to see giant cockroaches instead of the glory of the heavens? Why should I continue walking around in those fantasies when I know they cloud my vision of the reality of God? Why should I go on coveting things I don't have and don't need when I know how covetousness warps my mind?

 

There was a time when I had no place to go with these grudges and fantasies. I didn't know what to do with them. They came in and took over my life like troops of an occupying army. But now I know where to go to put these things to death -- to the cross of Jesus.

 

"Lord, here's another load of self and flesh. I drop it at your feet and leave it."

 

2. To maintain a mind which is teachable by the Spirit we need to continuously enter by faith into the goodness of the Lord, not just as mercy received, but as a life lived.

 

Put on them, as God's chosen ones, holy and be­loved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.

Colossians 3:12-15

 

Enter into the goodness God has shown to you by living it. Jesus forgives us so we forgive. Jesus gives so generously to us so we give. Jesus intercedes for us so we intercede. Jesus shows compassion to us so we show compassion.

 

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have re­ceived the spirit of sonship. When we cry, "Abba! Father!",  It is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Romans 8:1-17

 

We can live this life . There was a time when we couldn't, but now we can. The promise is very very clear that we will be guided by the Lord himself.

 

"Lo, I am with you always....”

 

  "I will not leave you desolate I will come to you."

 

I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go  I will guide you with my eye."

 

We will be guided. Not by hearing voices. Not by having buttons pressed in our reflexes and emotions, but by our freely and gladly entering into the goodness of the Lord which has come to meet us at the cross.

 

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

 

That man, that woman, will be led by the Spirit of God.