I will never be able to figure out God as long as I live. Ever seen a bird heading straight for your windshield and then on a tilt they perform this type of V precision move and vanish in sheer aerodynamic speed. God is like that. Once you think you have him figured out, hes poof, gone, out of here. He vanishes into another spiritual dimension in which he expects you to follow him. When you get there and just about to close in on him, he repeats the process and off to another higher dimension you go.
Now this showing up and then vanishing process is alright for a while but eventually it becomes a very painful and disillusioning process. I recall to mind when my daughter was about a year old my husband began to dangle her bottle in front of her, but every time she reached for it, he would snatch it back. Well he did this for a good while until my daughter finally wised up took the bottle and started hitting my husband with it. Weve got it on tape and its hilarious. And if were honest we would like to do God like that sometimes too. Lord, why are you leading me here! Lord why does this situation never end! Lord, what is going on here! Victory is so close yet seems so far away. One of the most frustrating times for this God process is when in our faith we have reached the midnight hour but God has not showed up.
Notice I said this is a God process. Hes trying to take you to another dimension. The problem is we have sung our way and preached our way into believing that no matter what, God will show up at the midnight hour. Then we back that up with the scriptures like of Paul and Silas being delivered at the midnight hour. All of this causes our faith to soar, our hopes to hang in there just a little while longer. There will be a tad ah moment and miraculously God steps in and delivers us. But then the unthinkable happens midnight comes and midnight goes God did not show up. Now our faith is punctured and we are hemorrhaging spiritually.
God did the V move and we cant handle it. His commission is still the same, follow me. But how Lord, Im bleeding! Follow me. But Lord I dont understand! Follow me. Your decision at this very critical moment will determine whether you will bleed to an untimely spiritual death, giving up on God or whether you will step into a higher dimension of living where you will learn to have faith after midnight. I want to encourage you to take the step and trust him.
We can all more than likely readily recall the glorious times God showed up at midnight. Like the time he parted the Red Sea for Moses or the story of the widow of Zeraphath. Elijah shows up at the nick of time as she and her son were preparing to die or the story of the widows pot of oil that never ran dry, or even when Jesus saved Peter from sinking after he walked on water. These are all glorious stories.
Midnight stories proclaim Gods goodness and faithfulness. Midnight stories do tell us that no matter what, we can depend on God. But after midnight stories have another entire message to tell! If we can just hang on, they will present a profound story about the nature and character of God. The after midnight stories reveal the God of the impossible. They reveal that God is master over everything, but youve got to follow him through the darkness to figure that out. When your faith is tested beyond midnight your trust will grow by magnitudes.
Can you imagine what the widow of Nain thought after all her prayers, yet her son died. But Jesus showed up at the funeral and turned things out! Oh, it was some shouting going on that day. The woman with the issue of blood reached past midnight and grabbed her miracle. This woman had spent her last dime with no hope in sight, but she believed in a God that shows up after midnight. Her pull of faith was so strong that Jesus shouted, who in the world pulled virtue out of me! And we all know of my servant Job, who passed through several midnights and in all of his righteous suffering uttered out of his mouth, but he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Job came forth as blinding gold. Lord have mercy on us all just to believe and trust a little bit more.
There are so many levels to God. He is just too deep to know. It will take eternity for us to really know him. So while we are here on Earth, weve got to make it our business to follow God and to trust. We have got to make it our business to dump our expectations and to walk in the reality of who he is and what he is trying to show us. Because every single event in our lives is for our good and his glory.
Linda Leon is a person who loves God, enjoys inspiring people and has done a gazillion things like write books, produce TV programs, and get ordained. Feel free to contact her blog at http://lifeis2good.wordpress.com/. copyright 2007 by Linda Leon. Leon.
Eldon Taylor
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