The simple things are most precious

"But we trusted...and beside all this, today is the third day."
Luke 24:21

Every fact that the disciples state was right; but the inferences they drew from those facts were wrong. Anything that savours of dejection spiritually is always wrong. If depression and oppression visit me, I am to blame; God is not, nor is anyone else. Dejection springs from one of two sources--I have either satisfied a lust or I have not. Lust means--I must have it at once. Spiritual lust makes me demand an answer from God, instead of seeking God Who gives the answer. What have I been trusting God would do? And today--the immediate present-is the third day, and He has not done it; therefore I imagine I am justified in being dejected and in blaming God. Whenever the insistence is on the point that God answers prayer, we are off the track. The meaning of prayer is that we get hold of God, not of the answer. It is impossible to be well physically and to be dejected. Dejection spiritually is wrong, and we are always to blame for it.
We look for visions from heaven, for earthquakes and thunders of God's power (the fact that we are dejected proves that we do), and we never dream that all the time God is in the commonplace things and people around us. If we will do the duty that lies nearest, we shall see Him. One of the most amazing revelations of God comes when we learn that it is in the commonplace things that the Deity of Jesus Christ is realized.

Today's devotion brings to my remembrance of a time when I was a "church" member during the "Name it and Claim it" movement. I was not just a member but a very active member, teaching youth, children, church secretary, prayer team, etc. I really thought I'd found the eliteness of the Lord. I planned and God laughed. Not to say that He found humor in my efforts. I think it was more of a "so you think that is how I work. Well let me just show you."
Time went by, 12 years to be exact. Those in the name it and claim it camp demand things of God, using various scriptures, out of context, to justify our actions. How repulsive for me to think about now. But back then, did I/we ever think we had the world by the tail and had cornered the market on how to get God to move on our behalf. It was a type of circus act, in a way. Trying to make God jump thru hoops for us, the creation. How dare us tell the Creator how to create. How dare us think that we can tell the potter what to do with the clay, us.
Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
This word became a living reality for me in 1993. And it took from 1993 to 2000 for the veil to be lifted from my eyes.
I had demanded answers from God out of my own spiritual lust. And when the answer I was looking for did not come I experienced dejection. It wasn't that God had not answered me, necessarily. I think His answer was emphatically NO. I just did not hear that. For 7 years I wandered in a backslidden and dejected condition because of my actions, my pride and a haughty spirit. But God interrupted my life by my own hand. And thankfully He did. I would not be here today had He not laid His hand upon my life and stopped everything. Come 1999 I finally collapsed completely, and have never returned to work or that way of life again. I remain chronically ill, physically, to this day but....I am healed. I am healed spiritually. I can have a sick body and a well spirit for the remainder of my living days as long as my spirit never, ever gets to that ugly state again.
Does any of this ring true for you? Is there a pricking of your heart or a reminder of a demand that you have made of God? One that perhaps seems unanswered? Pause immediately, get alone with God and seek Him. Not what you think you want but seek Him and Him alone. Get ahold of God, not the answer. Listen to what He has to say to you before you get to the point that He must interrupt your life. You will never be sorry that you did so. If you are experiencing dejection this day, you are experiencing spiritual sickness. You must go to the great Physician and hear his voice whisper to you the prescription for your healing. It is then that "the very God of peace can sanctify you wholly." 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 Sanctification means intense concentration of God's point of view. Join me as we allow Him to narrow our view to His focus. It's the simplicity in Christ and the simplest way we will ever live.

God's Grace on the water

Living simply and for Him,
Sherri

:: The Discipline of Dejection? Oswald Chambers 2/7/06

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Simple Treasures copyrighted
by Sherri Nussbaum
All Rights Reserved. © 2005.

Simple Treasures copyrighted

by Sherri Nussbaum

All Rights Reserved. © 2005.