AXIOM
•Sometimes we miss the point.
•The faith that God brings one out of the desert.
•Disillusionment shapes one’s understanding of faith.
•Where the voice of intuition comes from leads to deeper truths.
“Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.”
Matthew 7:5 NIV
WHERE DO WE HEAR THIS VOICE, YOU MAY ASK?
As I sit alone with God, I have a gut feeling, which is called intuition. There is something in us that feels empty or incomplete; however, we can let God change our hearts, enabling us to experience hope and transformation.
A way to experience God is to sit back, be alone with God, and wait to listen, rather than sit in despair.
Twentieth-century Scottish Baptist evangelist and teacher, Oswald Chambers, said, “From this present order of things, we infer an unseen power making for disintegration and destruction, yet in every human heart there lurks an implicit hope of a different order. These hopes ever to fade and fall, and the vision tarries so long that hearts grow sick and embittered, and all seem to end in a poet’s song, or a lover’s passionate extravagance, or a dreamer’s dream.” It seems to end in something like your heart’s desire, the longings of the heart, or what one wants out of life. It is an indication of despair- seeking to ask, “what is the point?”
When we begin to ask what the point is, really, we are missing the point. The indication of despair, or when purpose is lost, is when we lose track of reality and tend to fall into a sort of disillusionment.
A disillusionment is the moment when expectations or perceptions about God and life are challenged, often during a crisis, leading to a changed view of reality and who we are. “I miss the point often,” I have said.
The danger here is justifying the point.
The truth is a sword, and a sword has a point; it has a purpose. It is easy to miss the reality that is in front of us. Two things can be true at the same time- there are double-edged swords. We can struggle to face the desert to seek out God’s purpose, while at the same time having faith that God will get us through to the other side.
It is hard to see what has changed in the desert when feeling stuck in the circumstances. And then the circumstances feel heavy, forcing us to seek the plank in our eye for relief of spiritual blindness.
I see my circumstances this way, but when I respond to the inner voice of God, He shows a different way in the silence, revealing an unknown and unseen purpose through the circumstances. And then it leads to following an awareness, not giving way to despair. Now that the plank is gone from my own eye, I see things more clearly.
It can look like and lead to: •Inner prompting: An awareness of responding to something outside of myself. The thought that I should be praying for this person or taking a step outside my comfort zone could help someone.
Leads to action that builds courage or is a means of intercession.
What am I feeling prompted to do at the moment to help someone?
•Dreams and Visions: a connection with the unconscious that prompts you to make a change, or as a warning to be more spiritually or emotionally aware of something.
Leads to conviction, rest, or repentance.
What do I think God is trying to show me hidden under the surface?
•Coincidence or Signs: When you pray and see something in common with what you are praying about, or something that shows up as a warning or a hope for what is to come.
Leads to a direction or negotiation with God.
What do you see often, or pray often?
Peace in making a choice: Even if this decision doesn’t make sense, I know that it is the right one despite my circumstances.
It leads to confidence and trust. Is something I see providing peace in the choices I am making?
Prayer: God, show me the point, what the purpose is that I do not see. Please take the log out of my own eyes. I am blinded by where I am and I need to see things more clearly.
I sit alone with You, God, and I listen to You. Speak God in the desert places.
I have faith that I will have more awareness in the desert and that You will get me through to the other side. ✲
