Submitted by admin on Mon, 09/11/2009 - 11:30am
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People often miss God because he doesn't line up with their preconceived notions about God; because he hasn't met their expectations; because he won't fit into their box. But where do their ideas about God come from? Not from Scripture! Misconceptions arise out of their own human experiences—from disappointments, hurts, and failures in our past caused by others (parents, authority figures, lovers), themselves, or even life itself (sickness, accident, disabilities).
What this means:
Because we don't see things the way God sees them, we can easily misinterpret the events of our lives. We think something is terrible, but our perspective is limited. God sees something bigger and better behind the terrible thing. We see things from an earth-bound, material perspective; God sees things from a heavenly, eternal perspective.
Isaiah 55:8-9 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 9 As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
So now what? Where do we go from here?
Someone said to me last Sunday, "That message really described me! I've been scarred, just like you said." She went on to say she'd been scarred and damaged by events in her past as well as by her own choices.
Then she said, "What do I do now? If I'm damaged by scars, can they be healed? Can I regain the feeling?"
I have to say she is well on her way to recovering her spiritual sensitivity—because realizing the problem is the first step to fixing the problem. When we become aware that our spirits and emotions have been damaged, then we begin to see that our view of things may be defective and need checking.
When our spiritual sensory system has been damaged by our past or by our bad decisions:
- We can miss God;
- We may develop distorted ideas about God;
- We can easily misunderstand God's ways and misinterpret his actions;
- We may have trouble discerning truth—and believe wrong perceptions about reality.
It's like going to a "house of mirrors" at the carnival—where all the funny mirrors distort reality. You see something, but not a reflection of the truth. You'll look too fat or too skinny or too tall or too short. Then your reflection may be all twisted and wavy. The images are all distortions of reality!
It's the same way in the spiritual realm, as though all the mirrors are twisted and damaged. Because we're born into a fallen world, we are deceived. Because we're damaged by sin, we cannot see the truth about God.
2 Cor 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Theologians call this "original sin"—it's the spiritual damage we inherited from our ancestors, going all the way back to the first man and woman. We didn't chose to be born, and we certainly wouldn't have chosen to be born into a broken, damaged world. But we live with the consequences of being born with "original sin"—born into a fallen world.
Some experience worse pain than others because of their individual circumstances: disease, disabilities, dysfunctional parents, no parents, poverty, evil acts of others... These are circumstances they did not choose.
But the troubles don't stop with problems we don't choose. The fact is, we create enough trouble of our own because we each choose to sin. We deliberately choose to go against God. And our rebellion causes more consequences.
Every sin we commit, every pain we feel, every suffering we endure—all that goes wrong in this world and with our lives leaves us with spiritual damage. Our spiritual senses work no better than the twisted mirrors in the fun house. So we deal with distortions, confusion, and mixed signals as a consequence.
A couple of years ago I woke up one day
with the hearing completely gone in my right ear. I called the doctor who sent
me to a specialist. By the time I got there, the hearing was coming back a bit,
but there was a "ringing" in my ear I didn't have before—and there was hearing loss in some higher
frequencies.
The doctor said the problem was probably due
to some past damage: "Were you ever in a rock band?" he asked. "What about loud guns? Are you a
hunter? Were you in the army? Maybe loud equipment could have done it. Did you
ever work in construction?"
We never
figured out what caused the damage, but the doctor concluded that something in my
past had damaged my sense of hearing.
Our spiritual ears have been damaged. We have trouble hearing God's voice; we have trouble distinguishing the truth—all because sin and a painful past have damaged our spiritual hearing.
Isaiah, the prophet, said, "‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.' [God told him] Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim..." (6:9-10)
People today are the same as they were in Isaiah's day. Sin and wrongs have rendered our hearts insensitive, our ears dull, and our eyes dim. Spiritually, we cannot...
- We cannot see the way we should;
- We cannot feel the way we should;
- Hear the way we should.
Another way to describe this problem is by looking at our conscience—the inner part of our being where God's Spirit wants to speak to us. When our conscience is healthy, then we can hear God's voice. When our conscience is damaged or scarred or seared with a hot iron (1 Tim 4:2), then we cannot hear God. At the very best, we hear distorted sounds—like ringing in our ears.
- A healthy conscience feels conviction by the Holy Spirit; a damaged conscience feels condemnation by the Enemy.
- A healthy conscience maintains a healthy self awareness; a damaged conscience becomes obsessed with self (with either pride or with shame).
- A healthy conscience prompts obedience out of grace; a damaged conscience demands good works to earn salvation.
You may be asking, "If my spiritual senses are damaged, how can I even know God? How can I sort out my mistaken beliefs and false feelings from what's really true?"
That's why we need God's supernatural help to overcome our painful past and our twisted condition.
2 Cor 4:6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
Somebody says, "But I'm a believer and I still have trouble with the consequences of my past. I still have scars and damage. I'm a believer and I still struggle with God's mysterious ways. I still get confused. I still have misconceptions."
In the time I have left, I want to show you something that Paul wrote to the believers in Ephesus—something that speaks to this very issue.
Eph 1:16-19 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe...
Notice that this was written to believers (see v 15)—to those who had been forgiven; to those who had been set free from sin. These were not people who needed to be saved; these were not sinners whose minds were still blinded by the god of this age. These were believers who were forgiven and on their way to heaven. But even though they were believers, they still needed more light!
Paul prayed that the eyes of their hearts would be "enlightened"—apparently some areas of their lives were still in darkness; there were some things they could not see yet clearly.
They were just like us. We have "light" but we could use more "light." We've come out of darkness, but there are still dark corners where we still struggle to see clearly.
It's
like in a home. You open the
drapes so the window can let the light in. But if you walk down
the hall and open the closet door, it can still be pretty dark back in the corners of
the closet. The light from the front window
doesn't penetrate into the back
corners of your home.
Just as we
need a light bulb to see into the corners of the closet, we need more of
God's light to see into the dark recesses of our soul. Some areas of our lives remain in partial darkness, still
affected by the consequences of a painful past or disappointing experiences.
Or think of a refrigerator. You put
your leftover spaghetti in a Tupperware container and put it in the frig.
Remember? That was six months ago. Now it's pushed to the back of the frig
where it sits in darkness about 23 hours and 55 minutes a day—until the
refrigerator door opens and the little light comes on.
That's sometimes the way it is with our spiritual condition. There
is some
light there, but it needs more light. We're forgiven but not quite victorious. Spiritual
problems from our past—leftovers that get pushed to the back—are buried and ignored
most of the time.
Eventually, however, those spiritual leftovers create a
smell—consequences that need to be dealt with. We need to open up our past,
let the light shine on the problem, and with God's help, clean it out and receive
healing.
Ephesians offers a couple of steps to help us deal with those dark areas of our lives...places where we need more light, more knowledge of God, deeper encounters with his grace, a greater infilling of the Holy Spirit! First step...
1. Pray. Ask God! Ask him to enlighten your eyes. Ask God to help you see more clearly. Ask him to turn up the lights.
Healing of hurts begins with God. Healing disappointments, shattered lives, broken dreams—all this must begin with God. We need to ask him for a supernatural work, because a natural work won't be good enough.
Sure, other things can benefit us: good advice, Christian counseling, Christian teaching, Christian psychology. But none of those can ever take the place of God's supernatural work. None of those good things can replace prayer that opens the door for God's power.
So the first step to deal with the dark areas of our lives is prayer for enlightened eyes. What happens when God answers that prayer is step number two...
2. Pray...in order that you may know.
When we finally know what God wants us to know, then we're getting somewhere! Now, there are different kinds of knowing:
a) There's book knowledge—facts, truth, but with no personal experience;
b) There's second-hand knowledge—truth that others tell you about but, again, with no personal experience;
c) But then there's knowledge that comes from actual experience.
It's not just a travel brochure about Jamaica; it's actually going there, walking along the beaches, hearing the reggae beat of the steel drums, eating at a seaside restaurant...
It's personal experience that helps us to know—to understand—on a level that goes way beyond book knowledge or second-hand knowledge.
- NLT: I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand...
- NCV: I pray also that you will have greater understanding in your heart...
You know something better when you've lived it. You understand when you know it by experience.
I know childbirth is painful, but I don't know that by experience. I know it because my wife told me. I learned second-hand from my wife that childbirth is painful. I don't know it by experience—not unless you count the pain I felt when my wife dug her fingernails into my arm... that was pretty painful.
There are eight Greek verbs translated into English "to know." They each have a different shade of meaning. The Greek word used in this passage for "know" is "oida," which means "to have seen or perceived." It's not just book knowledge; it's not just second-hand knowledge; it's something you've actually seen. Something you've encountered.
There are three things Paul prays these believers will see and perceive:
a) The hope of his calling: where scars of the past fade away alongside the bright expectations of the future.
NLT: I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called.
Like plastic surgery or cosmetic surgery to erase scars... Laser treatment (intense, focused light) to get beneath the scarring and allow new skin to grow.
God's hope is like a laser. He wants to go beneath our HURT and replace it with HOPE. It's a divine transaction; a miraculous trade—"I'm trading my sorrows."
b) The riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints: God wants to exchange our spiritual poverty with his riches. Where the humiliation, shame, and failure of our past can be overwhelmed by the wealth of the inheritance promised to us!
Reuben
Metson joined the army to get away from
his family. He served three tours in Korea in the 1950s and never went back
home. He became a drifter, living in flop houses. Later he became sick with
tuberculosis and kidney disease.
What he didn't know was that his great
uncle, Jafet Lindeberg had amassed a
huge oil fortune. When his great aunt died, he and his brother, Wilfred Metson,
Jr., became sole heirs to the $1.2 million inheritance. But for over 13 years
Reuben's inheritance went unclaimed. In fact, Reuben never even knew about it.
Ironically, it wasn't until he got in
trouble (his name appeared in an arrest warrant) that a private detective hired
by the bank found him. Still, it took the detective three weeks to convince down-on-his-luck
Reuben that he was heir to a fortune—and five more years before Reuben began
to receive the funds. [St. Petersburg Times, 11/20/1982, p 4; by Lisa Levitt (AP)] http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xR4MAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ql0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6865,3618599&dq=missing-heir&hl=en]
How many Christians live in spiritual poverty while their "glorious inheritance" goes unclaimed? How many believers can't believe they are heir to riches in Christ? We need to be "enlightened" so we can see what is truly ours!
c) His incomparably great power for us who believe:
"Incomparably" is "huperballo" from where we get the word "hyperbole." It means "to throw over or beyond, to run beyond." In other words, it refers to something that exceeds expectations.
"Great" is "megas" and we all know what mega means. It's bigger than anything else. It's not just a mall; it's a mega-mall.
"Power" is "dunamis" from where we get the word "dynamite." It means "power, might, strength."
God wants us to experience the power he has promised to each believer. He wants to exchange our weakness with his power. He wants us to be live free from our past, victorious.
In his book, Redeeming the Past, David Seamands speaks about our weaknesses. The KJV calls them "infirmities"—things we don't choose, but things that happened to us to impact us dramatically—circumstances of our birth, a tragic accident, some traumatic experience, and so on. He writes:
"Infirmities are the weaknesses, the cripplings, the inborn and ingrown defects of body, mind, or spirit. They are not in themselves sins but are rather those qualities of our personalities which predispose us and incline us toward certain sins. They are weakened places in our defenses which undermine our resistance to temptation and sin." (David Seamands, Redeeming the Past, pp 100-101)
God wants to exchange your infirmities with his strength.
Isaiah 53:4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows...
- (TNIV) Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering...
- (NLT) Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down...
Romans 8:26 (KJV) Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought...
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (KJV) 9And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
So now what? Where do we go from here?
Pray! Pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for you who believe....
You can leave the consequences of your past behind. God's power can heal the scars. Miracles still happen! There is hope for a glorious future.