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 with any true aspirations of walking with God to pursue truth can escape this vital experience. We will encounter it many times in the processing of our hearts to become what HE has called unto. In this discovery of ourselves, we know our NEED for HIS mercy, longsuffering, and salvation. These are the times that we face 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.

“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God:
for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”
Romans 8:7

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 so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. The road to self-discovery is how we are made “…kings and priests” unto our God. For in the learning of our need, we can pray, encourage, reprove, and admonish one another with the same love and concern HE has also ministered unto us. In the New Testament, priests are not born (as in the Old Testament). They are made (Revelation 1:6) by the outworking of the Spirit of Truth in our 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 we are growing in HIM. The Spirit of Truth has come to reveal, purify, and cleanse us from our own unrighteousness and self-will to express 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 religion of dead works and faithless deeds. To those who truly desire HIM, there can be no shortcut to escaping this disappointment with one’s self. This place of our undoing is also the place of our 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.

“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 reproof, but that road will always culminate in communion with the SON! Let us find great encouragement in HIM who can keep us from stumbling and present us faultless before HIS throne of Grace. He is our REDEEMER, and HE cannot fail those who trust HIM.

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.”
ISAIAH 61:1-3

“Faith endures as seeing Him who is invisible; endures the disappointments, the hardships, and the heart-aches of life, by recognizing that all comes from the hand of Him who is too wise to err and too loving to be unkind.”
– A.W. Pink

Related Post: Suffering and Enlargement

Brian Troxel