The Holy One calls to me this morning. Questions abound as the devil plays his hand of evil in the great game of life. It would seem that he holds all the cards and has stacked the deck against us, yet I know the Lord has promised victory and just wonder how and when it will come to pass for His Beloved.
It's the old question of "When"? "When will You fulfill Your Word and answer what I know to be a personal promise?" Of course the Lord brings daily and even hourly blessings as I journey with Jesus, but the biggest problems seem to stretch out for so long with no speedy relief or resolution.
I am a warrior type and I see life as a battlefield and the devil with his demons as enemy combatants. Being a warrior type I am one who wrestles the reasons I go to war. Kingdom causes are my motivations not "land disputes" on earth. Personal rights however, must be surrendered as Holy principles are enforced.
The devil has a part to play but in the end, it all boils down to the relationship between me and my God. The Holy One speaks into my wrestle today, "Are you sure this is what you want Me to do?"
Perspective is interesting and can change depending upon where you stand on any issue. I am suddenly taken up from the battlefield to the Throne in my thoughts. The question from the Holy Spirit requires me to think at a different level. He is not asking me to be God and I am not demanding to have His power. This is just the sweet blessing of our friendship and the privilege of being in unity with Him.
Our trials can last a long time on the earth clock and calendar. But to our eternal God, time is not an issue. It may seem cruel to our carnal mind that we struggle and suffer without immediate resolution or speedy victories even those we think would glorify God. But today as He asks me to wrestle yet again I grasp a little more of His wisdom in the struggle.
I have taken great comfort in the parable of the "Persistent Widow" of Luke 18:2-8:
"In a certain town, there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men and there was a widow in that town who kept coming him with the plea, "Grant me justice against my adversary". For some time he refused but finally said to himself "even though I do not fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice so that she won't wear me out with her coming."
And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says and will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones who cry out to Him day and night. I tell you the truth, He will see that they get justice and quickly, however, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?"
Re-reading the parable I can get caught up on the temporal word, "quickly" unless I remember that God's timetable is eternity. Since the justice of my "causes" are ultimately in the Lord's hands, I can focus on my end of the parable as the petitioner. Will He find me faithful in the waiting?
When I am bringing my grievance to the Sovereign Judge, I find that the wrestles are an important part of the petitioning process. Delayed resolutions, allow time for me to do deep and personal soul searching. I have an opportunity to search the Word for the Will of the Lord as I am required to wait for an answer.
I have seen over the course of my life that my opinions and conclusions can lack an understanding of the great principles that Holiness has to teach. Knee jerk reactions to pain and confusion of emotions have caused me to cut off more ears than I can count and brought more regrets than I care to mention.
The truth is that in our relationship with the Lord, we grow in our understanding of Him and His ways and mostly through the wrestles that come from His delayed responses to our painful circumstances and urgent requests. In light of eternity most things look different. In the perspective of our carnal nature Holiness can be elusive unless we pursue it with all of our will.
The delay of answers seems to work in different ways. We can give up and resign ourselves to accept delay as denial or we can remain persistent and continue to make our petitions known. In the process of being persistent something interesting begin to take place in me.
It is subtle at first, when my sense of right and wrong, good and bad gets challenged. Of course, I look for human justification for my opinions. I look through the Word to find my argument and His promise of Divine intervention. Promises are there to claim but not always with the precision or exact replication of my personal circumstances. In an effort to under gird my "right" to an answer, if I am honest, scripture begins to challenge my position. I come to realize my own accountability for where I am. Repentance clears the air and the wrestle continues.
I press in, not with the same justification but with a better picture of the principle upon which I stand, and the wrestle continues. Other things get exposed like unbelief and fear; layers like the skin of an onion begin to get removed. Deeper and deeper we go, the Lord and I, touching on things that have little to do with the problem at hand or so I think. And the wrestle continues.
Then comes a day like today when the Lord asks me to confirm, "What do you will that I should do for you?" In the beginning of the issue, I might have given a "no-brainer" answer like when the Lord asked the blind man in Mark 10:51 NIV "What do you want me to do for you?" In the KJV, the word "want" is actually transcribed as "wilt", and I catch a slight but important intensity difference to the question.
What we "want" and what we "will" can actually define our petitions and could radically affect the Lord's intervention. God has given us free will and I believe He wants us to passionately use it but not as a lone ranger or free agent. God wants us to use our free will to accomplish His will. So He asked the blind man to articulate his need and heart desire. The man who was a beggar might have said, "I want a day's rations of food in my cup". Fortunately his small cup did not define his petition and he walked away with a miracle he probably could not have fathomed before he met Jesus.
The blind man wanted his sight and the Lord wanted to give it to him. There was a unity between the petitioner and the Provider. Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
As I wrestle yet again the issues that touch my life I can confidently say, "Lord, the petition has not changed; the need and desire and principle remain the same." Wrestles have strengthen the warrior but not changed the war. There are times when our faith needs a different perspective than the one we see from the battlefield and I am so thankful to realize He is willing to let me see the war from His Throne. Today I am confident of my petition and I am drawn closer to the One who will provide the answer to it.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
It's the old question of "When"? "When will You fulfill Your Word and answer what I know to be a personal promise?" Of course the Lord brings daily and even hourly blessings as I journey with Jesus, but the biggest problems seem to stretch out for so long with no speedy relief or resolution.
I am a warrior type and I see life as a battlefield and the devil with his demons as enemy combatants. Being a warrior type I am one who wrestles the reasons I go to war. Kingdom causes are my motivations not "land disputes" on earth. Personal rights however, must be surrendered as Holy principles are enforced.
The devil has a part to play but in the end, it all boils down to the relationship between me and my God. The Holy One speaks into my wrestle today, "Are you sure this is what you want Me to do?"
Perspective is interesting and can change depending upon where you stand on any issue. I am suddenly taken up from the battlefield to the Throne in my thoughts. The question from the Holy Spirit requires me to think at a different level. He is not asking me to be God and I am not demanding to have His power. This is just the sweet blessing of our friendship and the privilege of being in unity with Him.
Our trials can last a long time on the earth clock and calendar. But to our eternal God, time is not an issue. It may seem cruel to our carnal mind that we struggle and suffer without immediate resolution or speedy victories even those we think would glorify God. But today as He asks me to wrestle yet again I grasp a little more of His wisdom in the struggle.
I have taken great comfort in the parable of the "Persistent Widow" of Luke 18:2-8:
"In a certain town, there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men and there was a widow in that town who kept coming him with the plea, "Grant me justice against my adversary". For some time he refused but finally said to himself "even though I do not fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice so that she won't wear me out with her coming."
And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says and will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones who cry out to Him day and night. I tell you the truth, He will see that they get justice and quickly, however, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?"
Re-reading the parable I can get caught up on the temporal word, "quickly" unless I remember that God's timetable is eternity. Since the justice of my "causes" are ultimately in the Lord's hands, I can focus on my end of the parable as the petitioner. Will He find me faithful in the waiting?
When I am bringing my grievance to the Sovereign Judge, I find that the wrestles are an important part of the petitioning process. Delayed resolutions, allow time for me to do deep and personal soul searching. I have an opportunity to search the Word for the Will of the Lord as I am required to wait for an answer.
I have seen over the course of my life that my opinions and conclusions can lack an understanding of the great principles that Holiness has to teach. Knee jerk reactions to pain and confusion of emotions have caused me to cut off more ears than I can count and brought more regrets than I care to mention.
The truth is that in our relationship with the Lord, we grow in our understanding of Him and His ways and mostly through the wrestles that come from His delayed responses to our painful circumstances and urgent requests. In light of eternity most things look different. In the perspective of our carnal nature Holiness can be elusive unless we pursue it with all of our will.
The delay of answers seems to work in different ways. We can give up and resign ourselves to accept delay as denial or we can remain persistent and continue to make our petitions known. In the process of being persistent something interesting begin to take place in me.
It is subtle at first, when my sense of right and wrong, good and bad gets challenged. Of course, I look for human justification for my opinions. I look through the Word to find my argument and His promise of Divine intervention. Promises are there to claim but not always with the precision or exact replication of my personal circumstances. In an effort to under gird my "right" to an answer, if I am honest, scripture begins to challenge my position. I come to realize my own accountability for where I am. Repentance clears the air and the wrestle continues.
I press in, not with the same justification but with a better picture of the principle upon which I stand, and the wrestle continues. Other things get exposed like unbelief and fear; layers like the skin of an onion begin to get removed. Deeper and deeper we go, the Lord and I, touching on things that have little to do with the problem at hand or so I think. And the wrestle continues.
Then comes a day like today when the Lord asks me to confirm, "What do you will that I should do for you?" In the beginning of the issue, I might have given a "no-brainer" answer like when the Lord asked the blind man in Mark 10:51 NIV "What do you want me to do for you?" In the KJV, the word "want" is actually transcribed as "wilt", and I catch a slight but important intensity difference to the question.
What we "want" and what we "will" can actually define our petitions and could radically affect the Lord's intervention. God has given us free will and I believe He wants us to passionately use it but not as a lone ranger or free agent. God wants us to use our free will to accomplish His will. So He asked the blind man to articulate his need and heart desire. The man who was a beggar might have said, "I want a day's rations of food in my cup". Fortunately his small cup did not define his petition and he walked away with a miracle he probably could not have fathomed before he met Jesus.
The blind man wanted his sight and the Lord wanted to give it to him. There was a unity between the petitioner and the Provider. Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
As I wrestle yet again the issues that touch my life I can confidently say, "Lord, the petition has not changed; the need and desire and principle remain the same." Wrestles have strengthen the warrior but not changed the war. There are times when our faith needs a different perspective than the one we see from the battlefield and I am so thankful to realize He is willing to let me see the war from His Throne. Today I am confident of my petition and I am drawn closer to the One who will provide the answer to it.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
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