When God Is Silent: Questioning His Promises and Presence • The passage raises questions about God’s promises and mercy. • The speaker encourages listeners to consider past seasons where God was faithful. • The passage contains imagery of war, storms, and darkness. • The speaker acknowledges feelings of emotional duress and a lack of evidence of God’s presence.
Speaker 1
Has his promise failed for all time? All the promises of God passed done over a sham. Verse 9. Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he an anger withheld his compassion? Has God angry at me? Not the God of compassion I thought he was. Have you ever had to think, verse 10, about seasons in the past in your own life or not even in your own life in the life of the church tradition or Israel or history where God was faithful To others in order just to live off of that in the present because right now you just don’t see evidence of God in your life? Have you ever felt verse 16 to 19 like you were just in a war, like you were in some kind of a war zone, notice the imagery of war, a storm and the dark of night all mixed together? Have you ever felt that’s my life? It’s a war, it’s a storm, it’s the dark of night. I feel emotional duress and I don’t see God in it. Your footprints were not seen. The path of God in front of me was invisible to my mind or imagination. And have you ever had to, verse 20, just put your trust in the fact of God as your shepherd out in front of you even though you see zero evidence of God work in your life? Welcome to church everybody, we’re so happy you’re here.Falling in Love with Jesus Instead of the World • God is weaning us off of our love for the world, flesh, and devil. • We should fall in love with Jesus instead. • Emotional kickback from Jesus helps us enjoy Him more than the world. • The pleasure principle still guides our actions during this stage of maturity. • We may be following Jesus for the feeling rather than our love for Him. • A quote by Teresa was mentioned but not provided in the transcript.
Speaker 1
John said, what God is doing in this stage is weaning us off of our love for the world, the flesh and the devil, and causing us to fall in love with Jesus instead. So he ingrace, lets us have all of this emotional kickback from Jesus, and because we enjoy Jesus more than we enjoy the world. So this is like the quintessential joke about the, I’m on the Jesus high or whatever. You never hear people talk about the Jesus drug or the Jesus high who are 79. You hear it from people who are 23, who are 15, or post-youth camp or whatever it is. And it’s a legitimate thing. It’s beautiful. It’s God’s grace to you. The downside is at this stage in our maturity, we still operate off of the pleasure principle in the language of psychology. We mean, we do what we do, not because it’s right or we love God or we love others or self, but because it makes us look and feel good. We think that we’re following Jesus because we love Him, but actually we love the feeling that we get from Him. Teresa said, quote, we seek the consolations of God, not the God of consolations at this stage. Plus, there is a little bit of a spiritual arrogance at this stage, not for all, but for a lot of people.The Jesus High and Immaturity in Seeking God’s Consolations • The concept of experiencing Jesus as a drug or high is often talked about by young people post-youth camp. • Operating off of the pleasure principle is common among immature believers. • We can mistake loving the feeling we get from Jesus for actually loving Him. • Spiritual arrogance is not uncommon among young, idealistic believers. • Charismatic churches can foster a forgetfulness of the true purpose of the manifestations of the Spirit.
Speaker 1
You never hear people talk about the Jesus drug or the Jesus high who are 79. You hear it from people who are 23, who are 15, or post-youth camp or whatever it is. And it’s a legitimate thing. It’s beautiful. It’s God’s grace to you. The downside is at this stage in our maturity, we still operate off of the pleasure principle in the language of psychology. We mean, we do what we do, not because it’s right or we love God or we love others or self, but because it makes us look and feel good. We think that we’re following Jesus because we love Him, but actually we love the feeling that we get from Him. Teresa said, quote, we seek the consolations of God, not the God of consolations at this stage. Plus, there is a little bit of a spiritual arrogance at this stage, not for all, but for a lot of people. People often think they are far more mature than they really are. We’re young. We’re a little bit more idealistic, especially in a charismatic church like ours because we forget that the manifestations of the Spirit, things like prophecy or healing, are not A sign of maturity, but a sign of God’s grace at work in the community. All right. So you can stand up and heal the sick in the name of Jesus. That does not make you a Christ-like person.Manifestations of the Spirit are a sign of God’s grace, not maturity • Manifestations of the Spirit are a sign of God’s grace and mercy, not a measure of maturity in Christ-likeness. • God’s work through prayer requires maturity beyond a pleasure-seeking, self-centered mindset. • The societal norm of pleasure-seeking can lead to negative consequences such as divorce, lack of character, and corruption of theology and ethics. • Pride hinders progress towards Christ-likeness.
Speaker 1
At best, it makes you somebody willing to risk for Jesus, which is no small thing. That’s beautiful. But read the stories in the Old Testament and the New. All sorts of people prophesy, heal the sick, do miracles, and are not Christ-like people at all. Right? So all of the manifestations of the Spirit are a sign not of how mature we are. They’re a sign of God’s grace and His mercy at work in a community. Now, of course, it’s easy to forget that, right? In particular, if God is at work through your prayer, we must mature beyond all of this. A life that is run by the pleasure principle where we only do things that make us look and feel good, which, by the way, is pretty much the new normal in American society as a whole. The result of that is death. It’s a generation-wide divorce. It’s the breaking of commitments and promises. It’s flaky-ism. It’s a lack of character. It’s corruption of theology and ethics. It’s basically what is fast becoming the new normal. It will hold us back from a life of Christ’s likeness. And pride, as we all know, is a killer. Those who think they have arrived never stop to ask for directions. Right? And as long as you think, I got it all, I’m good. You will never even grow and mature to all that Christ has for you. So John and Teresa would say this. And again, this is not chapter and verse.Stages of Spiritual Journey: Purification and Breakthrough • Stage one of the spiritual journey involves getting rid of the old self through prayer, meditation, and self-denial. • Stage two may involve a period of spiritual dryness to further purify our desires. • The spiritual journey can involve cravings for spiritual pleasures and delights. • Perseverance through spiritual dryness can lead to a breakthrough and experiencing the presence of God.
Speaker 1
As the person begins to strip away his inordinate sensual attraction to the things of this world, thus getting rid of the old self, especially through prayer, meditation and self-denials. That’s his description of stage one and the spiritual journey. By the way, that’s a whole teaching right there. God then allows, okay, for stage two, a profound period of spiritual eridity to beset the believer. The ultimate purpose of which is to effectuate an even more powerful purification of our inordinate or kind of off-base passions and desires, especially as these vices begin to manifest Themselves on a spiritual level, as in a craving for spiritual delights and pleasures, meaning we operate off the pleasure principle and then we apply that to God. We’re like, God, give me the kickback that I want. As the believer perseveres through this dark night where no consolation of God is experienced but not wanting to turn back to the futility of his old ways, a breakthrough ultimately Occurs whereby through sheer grace, this is just God’s grace, the believer begins to experience the interior presence of God and makes the transition from meditative prayer to contemplative Prayer. As the whole technical background to that, we don’t have time for what they mean is basically to a deeper level of awareness of and connection to the spirit of God.
