As many of you know, I’m very concerned about where we are in God’s END TIME timeline.
I believe the Great Tribulation is eminent and I am concerned about our ability to TRUST God through it.
I believe Satan will stop at nothing, filling our eyes will all sorts of NATURAL INFORMATION during this time.
Natural Information
What is natural information? Natural information is information we gather with our 5 senses. We use this information to determine how we think things are going in our lives. How’s our marriage? How’s our family? How’s our finances? How’s our health? How are we?
When we pray to God, we ask Him to change our situation— to help us. We GAUGE His response based on whether we think He answers our prayers or not.
But have you noticed our conclusions are usually based on a physical perspective? If we conclude that things aren’t going well from that perspective, we PANIC.
But what about a spiritual perspective? What about the perspective that says God’s got everything under control? Wouldn't it mean that our life, therefore our circumstance is complete if we just REST in Him?
But what about a spiritual perspective? What about the perspective that says God’s got everything under control? Wouldn't it mean that our life, therefore our circumstance is complete if we just REST in Him?
From a heavenly perspective, the only thing our earthly lives can do is to show us who we USED TO BE (see my article, Understand Who You Are In Christ). That’s because in Christ, our sin (and therefore our circumstance) is nothing more than a shadow. It resides in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, a bygone place, a piece of history we walk through in TIME but has no baring on who we are in ETERNITY.
Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and staff they comfort me.
Psalms 23:4
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
1 Peter 4:12-13
As eternal beings we reside in eternity. We live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for our sins— in time. It’s our heavenly perspective that shows us who we REALLY ARE— what our end result will be. It’s our heavenly perspective that gives us confidence things work to our good. It’s through this perspective we gauge our lives (see The Relationship Between Suffering and Pleasure in Achieving Purpose.)
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
But do we really believe what the Bible says about who we are in heaven? The answer is, NO. We so easily slip back into judging life based on an earthly perspective.
Phobias
As a result we develop phobias. Phobias are about using OTHER THINGS to protect us, since deep down, we’re NOT convinced God is going to.
At first it’s fear and worry, but over time, fear and worry grow into full fledged phobias where complex control mechanisms take over our lives.
Here is a list of the top 10 phobias affecting people today.
1. Arachnophobia: fear of spiders.
2. Ophidiophobia: fear of snakes.
3. Acrophobia: fear of heights.
4. Agoraphobia: fear of situations in which escape is difficult.
5. Gynophobia: fear of dogs.
6. Astraphobia: fear of thunder and lightening.
7. Trypanophobia: fear of injections.
8. Social Phobias: fear of social situations.
9. Pteromerhanophobia: fear of flying.
10. Mysophobia: fear of germs or dirt.
What can we do to keep this from happening? How do we deal with the perception that God is not answering us?
Viewing Life from God’s Perspective
Do you really know your needs? On what criteria do you judge God’s answers? Correct answers are always based on the BEST perspective. If you could see the BIG PICTURE you would better understand God’s answers or NON answers to you.
Consider this story to better understand perspective.
A farmer had one horse that he used for tilling his fields. One day the horse escaped into the hills. When the farmer’s neighbors heard about it, they sympathized with the man over his bad luck. “Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows.” said the farmer.
A week later, the horse returned with a herd of wild horses from the hills. This time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. “Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows.” said the farmer.
Then, when the farmer’s son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone agreed that this was very bad luck. Not the farmer, who replied, “Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows.”
Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and forced every able-bodied young man to go fight in a bloody war. When they saw that the farmer’s son had a broken leg, they let him stay. Everyone was very happy at the farmer’s good luck.
Good luck? Bad luck? GOD KNOWS!
God always has the best perspective for your life. He answers your prayers based on what’s best for you. Our part is to be convinced of that. How do we make sure we are convinced God has our best interests at heart?
Learn To Trust God Through Meditation
We trust God when we learn to rest in Him. But how is rest developed?
Rest is developed when we MEDITATE on the promises of God in the Bible. Meditation is not memorizing scripture. Meditation is ruminating scripture, like a cow chewing it’s cud. It’s rolling scripture over and over again in your mind. Gradually your mind begins to believe what it hears. That’s because God gets involved and speaks to your mind reassuring you that He will take care of it.
As Christians God has given us the MIND of Christ. As we learn to Rest in God through meditation, the mind of Christ becomes clearer and clearer in our spirits. In this way our ability to trust in God is greatly enhanced.
But God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. But we have the MIND of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:10-12, 16
Lose Yourself to God
Another reason why God can’t answer our prayers is because we don’t really “go for it.” We play it safe. We don’t “let go and let God”. But God explains that if we lose our life to Him we actually find it.
If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
Matthew 16:24-25
We SAVE and thereby lose our lives, when we live from an earthly perspective. We LOSE and thereby save our lives, when we live from God’s perspective. This allows God to bring heaven to earth in US and actually make our lives work.
Lovers of Sin
Another reason God can’t answer our prayers is because we LOVE our sin. We don’t want to give it up. It’s not that we love the fruit of our sin, because that brings pain, but we love the pleasure it brings— such as in sexual sin or drug abuse.
Many phobias create situations where you “get to be the victim”. Victims love sympathy because they can use it to gain control over their environments and people.
Light has come into the world, but men LOVED darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
John 3:19
God cannot answer your prayers until you confess sin and ask Him to wash it from you. We discovered how to do this in How To Deal With Sin.
Being Aware of Negative Faith
Sometimes God can’t answer prayer because we deal in negative faith. What is negative faith? Consider the following scripture:
"The word (of faith) is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.”
Romans 10:8
The Bible explains that there is an express connection between our mouth and our heart. If you really want to know what you believe, just listen to what your MOUTH is saying.
You may be able to pretend for awhile that you trust God, but just listen to what your mouth says when He TESTS you. Your mouth reveals the truth of your heart.
So faith can actually be positive or negative. If your mouth (faith) confesses what it negatively believes about God, then it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s not that there is power in our confession, the power of answered prayer is always in God alone. It’s just that our mouth reveals what our heart truly believes about God and therein lies the problem.
You don’t really expect God to answer your prayer if you don’t believe Him, do you?
Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Hebrews 11:6
It’s not that God is a cruel task master and that He judges us harshly in our doubt. He is aware that we are weak. We just need to be aware how important it is for our heart and mouth to MATCH if we want God to help us.
As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear (obey) him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.
Psalm 103:13-14
Conclusion
When we learn trust God we STAND FIRM. We aren’t confused by what we see with our physical eyes.
Jesus said that people would be confused by what they SEE in the last days.
At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the ELECT—IF THAT WERE POSSIBLE. See, I have told you ahead of time.
Matthew 24:23-25
Did you notice in the verse above that the ELECT were NOT deceived? That’s because they looked at their circumstance through SPIRITUAL eyes.
You can do the same. For additional information on this subject refer to my post How To Succeed In The End Times: Why Meditation Is So Important.
Maranatha!