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Thanks for your help Marty. Much appreciated.
To whomever:
Sin is in all of us. (If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1.8) and sin separates us from fellowshipping with God. If we miss God awfully, and think about it daily, and feel lost without Him – is that bad?
Oswald Chambers, one of many who experienced this discusses the dark years he went through in an old book ‘They Found the Secret, R. Edman, p.46’.:
“God used me during those years for the conversion of souls, but i had no conscious communion with Him. The Bible was the dullest, most uninteresting book in existence, and the sense of depravity, the vileness and bad-motivness of my nature, was terrific. I see now that God was taking me by the light of the Holy Spirit and His Word through every ramification of my being.
“The last three months of those years things reached a climax, I was getting very desperate. …. Then Luke 11.13 got hold of me – “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?”
“Those of you who know the experience, know very well how God brings one to the point of utter despair, and I got to the place where I did not care whether everyone knew how bad I was; I cared for nothing on earth, saving to get out of my present condition.”
To miss God’s presence means to have known God’s regular presence, and to notice the (apparent) absence.
“THE WILDERNESS EXPERIENCE”
by Dr. D. W. EkstrandIntroduction
Anyone who travels the “spiritual path” of sanctification (being conformed to the image of Christ) will ultimately discover something known as the “wilderness experience.” What exactly is it? And why does it happen to those who are faithful to God and who try to live their lives in harmony with His will? The Bible frequently addresses this issue. Scripture often depicts the experience of God’s presence or blessing with the imagery of water — streams, oases and rivers (Ps 1:3; 92:12-14; Jer 17:8). Conversely it describes times of distress, doubt, and alienation from God with the imagery of a desert or wilderness. The wilderness is where water is scarce… where a traveler walks alone in the heat and the cold without shade or protection… and where wild animals live. In a spiritual wilderness God feels far away, distant, absent, and unresponsive… faith feels doubtful or uncertain… we feel alone, vulnerable, lost, and unprotected… there is the fear of hopelessness and the unknown… and it’s the place where Satan resides.
The British novelist Sheila Skillman reminds us that as soon as someone reaches a spiritual high Satan takes an interest in him. Apologist and author C. S. Lewis describes the timeless dominion of hell in his book The Screwtape Letters — it is there where Satan’s senior assistant Screwtape strategizes on how to recapture those who are in danger of slipping from his grip, and who are at risk of forever belonging to Satan’s Enemy (Christ). Screwtape grumbles — “He has given Himself every natural advantage, and He’ll take anyone, on any terms! He must be thwarted at every move!” So Screwtape instructs his junior demons to try every means possible to win “the subject” back again for damnation. As a result of the Devil’s work in the wilderness, many Christians not only question their faith, but God as well — they commonly think that God has forgotten or abandoned them… that all of their past efforts have been nothing but a waste… that they are simply too unspiritual and unlovable… that if God exists at all, He is a cruel, fickle monster… and that maybe this thing called Christianity is nothing but a myth.
No believer can fully avoid the wilderness experience — it is the path we must all travel. It can take the form of depression… a crisis of faith… or one or more traumatic life events, of which the list is endless. It is not a joyful time. It is a time when we feel alone, deserted, and dying of spiritual thirst in the midst of a debilitating spiritual draught. There is not much solace in a wilderness experience, but it should bring some comfort to us to realize that every believer is subjected to such encounters. All true saints go through a wilderness experienced in their life; some more than others. Why, you ask? Our first thought usually is that it was caused by some sin… but sin is not the reason God sends us into the wilderness. King David was no stranger to wilderness experiences (Ps 28:1-2; Ps 38:9-10), and though he sinned like you and me, yet he was “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Sam 13:13-14; 16:7,13; Ps 51:10,17; 139:23; Acts 13:22). David wrote a number of psalms that speak to the hearts of fellow believers when they are experiencing spiritual dryness. Spiritual dryness, or the wilderness experience, is God’s way of getting us to exercise our faith even when there is little feedback or affirmation or emotional joy. In the wild-erness we are not being punished — we are being tested, and our faith is being strengthened.
The Wilderness Experience
When we go through the wilderness experience some choose to renounce the outside world, and others retreat into some spiritual, emotional or psychological cave, and cut themselves off from all normal social interaction and engagement in daily life. Whatever our response, this is the point on our spiritual quest when we are confronted with the tricksters and demons of hell, and we question everything we ever learned — How can a loving God allow this to happen to me? Have I been fooling myself all these years? Does God really exist? Why doesn’t He show Himself, and take some kind of action, and mount a rescue mission. It’s during the wilderness experience that God seems to disappear — He can neither be seen, heard or experienced… and our faith seems hollow and meaningless.
Read more here: http://www.thetransformedsoul.com/additional-studies/spiritual-life-studies/the-power-of-love
Does God really exist? (from quote)
Hi Miia,
I have documented the “Proof of God” in a free e-book called “Holy City Bible Code”.
I know you already know this, but those reading your thread may not know there really is proof.________________
Your brother
in Christ
Ed JHi Ed,
Of course, one just has to look around to know that God exists. Everything has a designer; the computer you sit at, the washing machine, the dinner plates, the books we read. To think this creation and the heavens just happened without being designed is illogical. Perhaps there were many different designers, or perhaps there was only one. The fact it was only one is revealed by that one Himself if we search and search. That one reveals Himself as the God of the scriptures, both Old and New Testament, if we ask the designer with an open mind.
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