With Vision Comes Darkness...Hmmm?

With vision comes darkness?  Makes you think doesn't it?  Wouldn't it seem that if you had vision you would also have light?  Therefore, you would confidently know the next step(s) to take in your life, wouldn't you?  Well, not necessarily. 

Today I was reading Oswald Chambers classic devotional "My Utmost for His Highest."  What a great devotional book that has stood the test of time, primarily because it is solely based on Scripture.  Listen to what I read this morning:

Whenever God gives a vision to a Christian, it is as if He puts him in "the shadow of His hand" (Isaiah 49:2).  The saint's duty is to be still and listen.  There is a darkness" that comes from too much light--that is the time to listen. 

The story of Abram and Hagar in Genesis 16 is an excellent example of listening to so-called good advice during a time of darkness, rather than waiting for God to send the light.  When God gives you a vision and darkness follows, wait.  God will bring the vision He has given you to reality in your life if you will wait on His timing.  Never try to help God fulfill His word.  Abram went through 13 years of silence, but in those years all of his self-sufficiency was destroyed.  He grew past the point of relying on his own common sense.  Those years of silence were a time of disciple, not a period of God's displeasure.  There is never any need to pretend that your life is filled with joy and confidence; just wait upon God and be grounded in Him (see Isaiah 50:10-11).

Wow!  That is exactly what I needed to hear this morning.  The part that really struck a cord in my heart was this statement: "When God gives you a vision and darkness follows, wait.  God will bring the vision He has given you to reality in your life if you will wait on His timing."

Now, ask yourself and ponder some of these questions:

• Do I trust at all in the flesh?
• Have I learned to go beyond all confidence in myself and other people of God?
• Do I trust in books and prayers, or other joys in my life?
• Have I placed confidence in God Himself, not His blessings?

Listen to what God says in (Genesis 17:1), "I am Almighty God..." El-Shaddai, the All-Powerful God!  The reason we are all being disciplined is that we will know God is real.  As soon as God becomes real to us, people will pale in comparison, becoming shadows of reality.  Nothing that other Christians do or say can ever upset the one who is built on God. 

That's comforting!  How did God speak to you through this?  Remember...WAIT on God!

Comments

[Lisa Rooks]

I think we all desperately need to be reminded of how long God's timing can be. How each of the examples in the bible, God's chosen messengers, went through a long period, often years at a time, of discipling and molding. It is such a hard reality to be faced with, once a person is saved and they are full of such fire and zeal for God that He needs them to be molded and shaped into what He had intended for them in the first place...and that takes time. That molding oftentimes hurts to the point of death, the dying to one's own self-reliance or the relying on other trusted people, other voices, other devices. God will strip away all of that and take His beloved child to a place where there is much pain and sorrow, much darkness and silence only because it is in this place that we can only see His face and trust His voice. Once we know this fully in every fiber of our souls and bodies, then God will turn the light on and lead out of that darkness into the light of His leading...where He'd been guiding us the whole time only we weren't able to see it before. And suddenly, it all makes perfect sense to us and we're the wiser for it. Ask me now what it means to "fear the Lord" and I will tell you. Not only do I fear my Lord because his chastening is hard, but because He is the only One to which I can ever depend on. His light is the only light I see and His voice is the only one I will follow.

[jon cannon]

Hi Lisa,

It has been good seeing you at church lately. I'm glad you are listening to His voice and following His lead. That's great!