Idolizing the experiences of God
By
Ryan Marks
At
times, we experience God’s presence in a unique way or we distinctly hear His
voice of direction in our life, but over time the experiences of God’s
presence, the feelings of His awesomeness, the strong convictions, and the
distinctly heard directions seem to abruptly stop coming. We hold on for a
while and then begin to wonder, “Am I sinning? I haven’t felt God the way that
I used to, something must be wrong with me.” Friends, the fact is that God does
not always reveal Himself in dramatic ways every day. Can HE? Yes. But does HE
absolutely always? NO. And, yes, sin is
sometimes the reason why you haven’t heard from Him.
Not every day is a mountaintop
When we look at those sweet encounters with
God on the mountaintop as our indication of righteousness or spiritual
achievement we can easily become guilty of idolatry. We can love God’s
presence, guidance, and blessings so much that we make those select qualities
into the god we want – one that gives us everything that our selfish hearts
want: mankind has battled with this all of his 6,000+ years on earth.
Using God’s benefits as a tool for ourselves
is just another form of pride, and I’d dare say that we’ve all done it at one
time or another.
Our God is a God of blessing, direction, and
personal revelation, but He is also a convicting, molding, loving, and holy
God. True love does not just give us blessings, guidance, and personal
experience; but true love gives us the hard things as well (1 Cor. 13).
Often, the heat of a trail grows us; not
having hardship almost always means no growth, spiritually or physically.
We are not alone in our desert, but we must
persevere. We are to love the joy that we find in the experiences with God, but
we are not to raise them on a pillar as a mark of true spirituality. If we
truly love the Lord, we should be obedient when it’s hard, not just when doing
the right thing is easy (John 14:15). Let’s have the faith to be joyful when
those amazing times with the Holy Spirit come, but let us also serve in the
desert: when it is tough. We do have seemingly meaningless tasks on this earth that
our Lord wants us to do; let’s do them with patience, perseverance, and hope,
for we haven’t been taken home yet. We do have a Purpose. We still are called
to be servants like Christ.
And he said, Go forth, and stand
upon the mount before the Lord.
And, behold, the Lord passed by,
and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks
before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and
after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord
was not in the earthquake: 12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and
after the fire a still small voice. 13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it,
that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering
in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What
doest thou here, Elijah?
1 Kings 19:11-13 (KJV)
Related Quote:
“If we
prefer to loll on the mount and live in
the memory of the vision, we will be of no use actually in the ordinary stuff
which human life is made up. We have to learn to live in reliance on what we
saw in the vision, not in the ecstasies and conscious contemplation of God, but
to live in actualities in the light of the vision until we get to the veritable
reality. Every bit of our training is in that direction.” ~ My Utmost for His Highest, October 4th
(emphasis added)
