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HOW DO WE DEAL WITH SPIRITUAL HIGHS?

Christian Life, ,

Have you ever had a spiritual “high” so glorious that you thought the next step was heaven, only to slump into depression and despair soon afterwards?

I had that experience years ago. I had written a short play based on the life of Esther, which a group of girls performed at a ladies’ function. They did it so well that I ecststic. The next morning my heart was so heavy after the emotional overload that I shut myself away from people. All I wanted to do was cry! Why? My reaction didn’t make sense. I should have felt on top of the world instead of wallowing in emotional “mud”.

As much as I hate to admit it, depression was a big player in my early adult life. You see, my “love language”, according to Gary Chapman’s book, “The 5 Love Languages” is affirmation. Without affirmation, I felt cheated

Reflecting on the experience now, what was it that sent me into such an emotional “tailspin”? Was it because I didn’t receive the volume of accolades I thought I deserved? Since I have come to understand the mechanisms of depression, I know that, at least in my own life, self-pity triggers depression. So, if I identify the cause of my self-pity, and repent of the sin, the depression immediately dissipates and peace is restored.

Self-pity is the outcome of spiritual theft. By desiring accolades for myself, I stole from God what was rightfully His, the honour for the success of my effort. After all, was it not He who inspired me to write? Was it not He who gifted me to write? Who gave me the idea? Who enabled the teacher who produced the play and the girls who performed it to do so well? Once again, it was all about perspective.

My thoughts turned to the Bible.

Elijah had a similar experience of emotional overload that sent him into deep depression. He had won a remarkable victory over the evil Queen Jezebel and her fleet of prophets of the idol, Baal. Elijah had risked his life by challenging this mob of prophets to a dual only God and their gods could fight.

This battle was about the true God of Israel, Yahweh, versus the false god, Baal, as a witness to Israel that their worship of Baal was false and futile. The prophet Elijah represented God. 450 false prophets represented Baal.
One against 450! In the end, this conflict was not about numbers; it was about truth.

Of course, God won an astounding victory and Elijah was vindicated. 450 prophets of Baal lost their lives, no doubt at the hands of the Isaelites. Was Jezebel, the power behind King Ahab, convinced! No! She was livid! Elijah must die!

In a panic, Elijah fled to Mount Horeb in Arabia. Jezebel would never find him there! He hid in a cave on the side of the mountain to sulk and lick his wounds. Instead of a revival in Israel, a mass turning to the Lord that he had anticipated, all he got was a death threat from an angry queen and no support from the people. What was he supposed to do now?

Elijah had slumped into depression!

Self-pity? PMS… Poor Me Syndrome had paralysed his reason. When God questioned him in a whisper,

1 Kings 19:13 NLT
[13] When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And a voice said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

only self-pity came out.

1 Kings 19:13-14 NLT
[14] He replied again, “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”

What triggered Elijah’s crash? Did God disappoint him? Did he blame God for not coming to the party? Was he devastated because he got no accolades for his great victory over the prophets of Baal? All his hopes and expectations had crashed around him.

Euphoria changes to depression when we turn the focus away from God to ourselves. Despite our foolish notions, we are never the cause of success, only players in God’s bigger scheme of things.

Musing on Elijah’s situation, truth began to dawn on me as the Holy Spirit opened my mind to His ways.

How did God respond to His servant’s misery? First, a great display of power. Earthquake! Wind! Fire! “What do you want me to do, Elijah? Do you want me to display this kind of power to your people to change their hearts? It didn’t work on Mount Cartmel.” God said nothing.

When the dust and ashes had settled, God whispered to His prophet, “Tell me what’s wrong.” When Eljah had aired his complaint, God responded in His way.

God’s word to Elijah was a light bulb moment for me. His power to intervene lies, not in great displays of natural disasters but, once again, is His Word. He is working to a pre-determined plan, slowly but surely moving history towards its conclusion. He works through His Word. Herein lies His power.

Elijah’s part in this plan was not to bring about a massive revival in Israel. His part was to move history another step forward in obedience to God’s instructions. “Go and anoint three men for their function in history and, don’t worry, Elijah, you are not the only one left who serves me.”

1 Kings 19:15-18 NIV
[15] “The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. [16] Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. [17] Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. [18] Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”

Gone Elijah’s depression! Empowered by a new purpose, he returned to Israel to carry out the Lord’s instruction.

Great lessons emerge from this story.

Spiritual “highs” are a danger to us when we lose perspective. What we achieve is always, and only about Him, not about us. Self-pity is a stepping stone to depression. Giving glory to God is the way to stay “up” in spirit.

Beware of those who equate God’s power primarily with miracles and great displays of supernatural disaster. Yes, God does these things but God changes people from within, and changed people change situations by applying God’s Word.

God moves history according to His plan by engaging obedient servants to carry out His instructions. We may not understand His ways but that must never hinder our obedience to His Word.

Thank God for lessons that tame our unruly hearts and bring us into line with His will in our expectations, in our prayers, and in our obedience to His Word. We need to learn to do a lot less talking and a lot more listening.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – ABOUT TO PASS BY…

Bible Study, ,

ABOUT TO PASS BY…

47 Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. 48 He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, Mark 6:47-49

“…To pass by them…” (NIV) has greater meaning than simply walking past the boat, which one would understand at face value. Why would Jesus want to “pass by them” if they were struggling to row against the wind? What deeper significance is in these words? Where else do they appear in Scripture? Exodus 33:19; 34:6 – God “passed in front of Moses”.

Moses had requested a revelation of God’s glory and God capitulated by promising to “pass in front of Him.” God revealed His glory to Moses by proclaiming His name – compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. Since Moses was alert to God and looking for something, God’s revelation of His name was not lost on Him.

The disciples, on the other hand, were too preoccupied with their predicament to be anticipating a revelation of Jesus in these circumstances. They completely missed His identity and His intention. Instead of recognising Him, they lapsed into terror and screamed out in fear. Their spontaneous interpretation of the situation was a premonition of doom. They were going to drown – hence the ghost!

Is there a very big lesson for us in this story? What is our first reaction to a life-threatening situation – say a deathly illness or some grave physical danger? Do we see ghosts or do we see Jesus? He wants it to be a revelation of Himself, but what we see will depend on what rises up in us – fear or faith.

If, in a crisis, we are afraid of perishing, the core of our being contains a lie which opens the door to fear and panic but, if we are at peace in our hearts, the core of our lives is anchored in God’s faithfulness to His Word. We will not know what we believe until the crisis brings it to the surface. The disciples were continually finding themselves in situations which exposed their hearts. Ghosts or Jesus? What do we see?

Journey To Wholeness

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JOURNEY TO WHOLENESS 

“Jesus answered, ‘Flesh give birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.'”  John 3: 5-8 (NIV).

That’s it! It’s a mystery — a secret finally revealed.

Every other religion has a set of beliefs and a set of rules to which its devotees subscribe. Their origin is in the mind of man and the outcome is the best or worst that man can produce. The only authority religion has is force applied from the outside or persuasion based on lies. It cannot produce life or change a human being’s basic nature.

But Jesus, the Son of God, was sent from the Father to remove the barrier between Himself and His human offspring and to return the Holy Spirit to those who believe in Him and receive Him to restore what He intended us to be from the beginning.

This interaction between God and human beings through the Holy Spirit is very different from even the best of what religion or philosophy offers. Self-help is useless because it cannot provide the energy to effect anything but frustration and disappointment, or self-satisfaction if you think you’ve arrived!

Jesus explained to Nicodemus that the best that flesh can do is reproduce itself. What is “flesh”? It’s the nature we were born with — self-centred, selfish and self-seeking. I am the centre of my universe and everything revolves around me and is about me and for me. This attitude is the antithesis of everything that God is. It blocks my fellowship with Him and my understanding of Him and His ways.

I am caught up and locked into a way of thinking and a way of living that shuts me out of His felt presence and keeps me a prisoner to a life of greed, selfishness and self-destruction, and doomed to face God’s justice as a firstborn son “in Adam”. ‘If you want to be free of that mind-set,’ said Jesus, ‘you need a power outside of yourself to release you and give you a new nature so that you can begin again.’

It takes something far greater that “Seven Easy Steps to a New Life”. You can change your ways for a few days, or even weeks, but you will inevitably slip back into who you really are because you still have your unchanged, inborn, selfish nature that holds you in a vice-grip.

It was God’s original intention for human beings to live in union with Him so that they would experience the love, joy and peace that are the essence of who He is. Adam lost that when he chose to go his own way, and dragged all his offspring into lives of misery and chaos. As long as the flesh rules, that can never change.

Nicodemus recognized that there was something so radically different about Jesus that he had to find out what it was. ‘It’s the Holy Spirit,’ Jesus told him. When the Holy Spirit is welcomed by handing the reins back to God, He becomes fused to our spirit, bringing God into the picture once again. The old nature is still there but it is overshadowed by a new disposition, the very nature of God.

Change happens, not self-help change that lasts for a little while, but real, radical change because God, by His Spirit, is now in residence. ‘It’s as mysterious as the wind,’ Jesus said. ‘You can’t see the Holy Spirit, but you can see what He does.’ He changes the heart, the attitude, the disposition and the outcome is evident by the way we think and the way we treat people.

It happened wherever people responded to Jesus. Zaccheus is a good example. From a self-seeking and greedy tax-collector he became an honest and generous believer who put his money where his mouth was — literally! Jesus response was, ‘Today salvation has come to this house. Zaccheus has begun his journey to wholeness.’

Now that’s real change! Have you started your journey?

He Simply Comes

Christian Life, , ,

HE SIMPLY COMES

“He went on to say to His disciples, ‘The days are coming when you are going to be desperately homesick for just one glimpse of one of the days of the Son of Man, and you won’t see a thing. And they’ll say to you, ‘Look over there!’ or ‘Look here!’ Don’t fall for any of that nonsense. The arrival of the Son of Man is not something you go out to see. He simply comes,’” Luke 17:22-24 (The Message).

Jesus warned His disciples time and again that bad times were coming because His people had refused to receive Him. He wept over Jerusalem because of the people’s insensitivity to their opportunity. Because they had rejected their Messiah, the Roman army would come and raze Jerusalem to the ground, demolish their temple to a pile of rubble and kill their people until their blood ran like a river in the streets.

Like a thief in the night, Jesus appeared on the human scene, unexpected and unannounced except to the few who were looking for Him. Even His words and His works did not convince them and they killed Him as a fake. How they would long to turn the clock back when Rome finally took revenge for their rebellion against their overlords! They had foolishly called down His blood on their own heads, not realising that their own mouths had sealed their doom.

Jesus made it clear that He was no phenomenon to be viewed as an object of curiosity or interest. When He came the first time, He came quietly. No-one heard the angelic announcement except a few humble shepherds on a hillside outside Bethlehem. He simply came. Those who visited Him were invited by the Father Himself. The rest were unaware that Messiah had made His appearance in human form.

Even when He comes to dwell in the spirit of a human being, He comes quietly. Jesus assured Nicodemus that the work of the Spirit is like the wind. You cannot see the wind but you can see and feel its effects. So it is with the Spirit of God. When He comes, as Jesus’ personal representative on earth, to take up residence in a human heart, the effects of His coming are real as the new believer is rescued from the dominion of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of light.

His return will not be a phenomenon to be observed, but a sudden, visible and earth-encircling flash, like a flash of lightning which lights up the sky from east to west. His return heralds instantaneous changes, not like the ideas conjured up by the imagination of movie writers and producers. As much as they are intrigued by the concept of “the end of the world”, they all, strangely enough, ignore its association with the one who created it in the first place.

Nuclear war, heavenly bodies crashing into the earth, massive volcanic eruptions and earthquakes line up to take responsibility for the final demise of our planet, but God is omitted in the mix. However, the Bible tells us that He will destroy all evil by the word of His mouth and make all things new. This makes sense since it was His word that brought forth the world in which we live in the beginning.

It is not God’s plan to destroy the planet which He created to be the perfect home for man. Just as He did with the flood, He will destroy all the wickedness on it, and restore it to its former perfection to be the dwelling place of all those who have responded to His invitation to join His family through faith in his Son.

“Then I saw a new (renewed) heaven and a new (renewed) earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea….And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them…’ He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!'” Revelation 21:1-5 (NIV).

He did not say, “I am making all new things,” but “everything new”. When God renews all things, He comes full circle, completing what He started in the beginning and perfecting forever His family of men and women who have been recreated in the image of His Son. When Jesus returns, He will simply come and that’s it, forever.

The time to decide is now…