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Our Relationship with God

DISAPPOINTMENT

By November 11, 2014No Comments

DISAPPOINTMENT

“And Peter went out, and wept bitterly”
LUKE 22:62

The greatest and most essential disappointment we will encounter in our journey with God will be with ourselves. No one who has any true aspirations of walking with our God in the pursuit of truth can escape this vital experience. It will be one which we will encounter many times in the processing of our hearts to become what HE has called unto. It is in this discovery of ourselves that we come to know our NEED for HIS mercy, longsuffering and salvation. These are the times that we come face to face with our own spiritual poverty and HIS incredible provision. This stark contrast of all that HE is with the horror of our incurable condition brings us to a knowing of Him. We must come to realize that God cannot heal the natural man; HE must crucify it. The human condition had come to such a terminal state that God, by the necessity of LOVE, had to send HIS only SON to be crucified on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. The road to self-discovery is the means by which we are made “…kings and priests” unto our God. For in the learning of our need we are able to pray, encourage, reprove and admonish one another with the same love and concern that HE has also ministered unto us. In the New Testament priests are not born (as was the case in the Old Testament) they are made (Revelation 1:6) by the outworking of the Spirit of Truth in our own lives. The real purpose of truth is to make us true as HE who is TRUE. We cannot hold to outward forms and hypocritical appearances and think that we are growing in HIM. The Spirit of Truth has come to reveal, to purify and to cleanse us from our own unrighteousness and self-will in order to bring forth an expression of HIS character and heart in our lives. This journey into truth always begins with the living WORD…

“For the word of God is living and active,
sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing to the division of soul and of spirit,
of joints and of marrow,
and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
And no creature is hidden from his sight,
but all are naked and exposed
to the eyes of him to whom we must give account”
HEBREWS 4:12-13

The ministration of that living word will begin to cut away at the deception of our own hearts. It causes us to see the difference between the ways of men and the way of the Spirit of God. It will expose our thoughts and intentions so that we may grow into a purity of heart whereby all of our actions are born from a true desire to please Him and not man. Without this essential work we will remain undeveloped; lost within the ignorance of self and a religion of dead works and faithless deeds. To those who truly desire HIM there can be no shortcut or escaping this disappointment with one’s self. For this place of our undoing is also the place of becoming a man or woman of faith and life. The man who declared “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” is the same one who also declared “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing”. We cannot know the one truth without the full knowledge of the other. While much of the religious world is content with excusing our condition, and ignoring the undeniable condition of the church today, there are those who cry out unto the Lord to search us and know us that we may find in HIM the power to change by the glory of HIS grace.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart:
try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there be any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting”
PSALM 139:23-24

Such is the cry of those who desire the truth and reality of God. Disappointment with self is the necessary consequence of a desire to know HIM. Disillusionment is the doorway to HOPE and FAITH. All those who walk the Emmaus Road will find the Great High Priest of our confession walking with them, speaking words of truth and even reproof, but that road will always culminate in communion with the SON! Let us find great encouragement in HIM who is able to keep us from stumbling and to present us faultless before HIS throne of Grace. HE is our REDEEMER and HE cannot fail those who put their trust in HIM.

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me;
because the LORD hath anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek;
he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD,
and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion,
to give unto them beauty for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
that they might be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified”
ISAIAH 61:1-3

Brian Troxel

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