When God Is Silent

Today I was feeling a bit discouraged and overwhelmed. I had prayed, but it seemed God was silent, and I was wondering why I had to wait for His answer. As I often do in such moods, I reached for a treasured book, Springs in the Valley, by L. B. Cowman. The entries in this devotional book often seem to be written just for me. This time was no different. The words jumped off the page and struck my heart:

     "'When He had heard therefore that [Lazarus] was sick, He abode two days still in the same place where He was.' (Jn 11:6) And so the silence of God was itself an answer. It is not merely said that there was no audible response to the cry from Bethany; it is distinctly stated that the absence of an audible response was itself the answer to the cry -- it was when the Lord heard that Lazarus was sick that therefore He abode two days still in the same place where He was. I have often heard the outward silence. A hundred times have I sent up aspirations whose only answer has seemed to be the echo of my own voice, and I have cried out in the night of my despair, 'Why art Thou so far from helping me?' But I never thought that the seeming farness was itself the nearness of God -- that the very silence was an answer.
     It was a very grand answer to the household of Bethany. They had not asked too much, but too little. They had asked only the life of Lazarus. They were to get the life of Lazarus and a revelation of eternal life as well."

Maybe I haven't asked enough of God yet...

     "There are some prayers that are followed by a Divine silence because we are not yet ripe for all we have asked; there are others which are so followed because we are ripe for more. We do not always know the full strength of our own capacity; we have to be prepared for receiving greater blessings than we have ever dreamed. We come to the door of the sepulcher and beg with tears the dead body of Jesus; we are answered by silence because we are to get something better -- a living Lord."

Now it made sense. I am not yet ready for God's answer because I have not yet fully died to wanting my own way in the matter. When I die to self, I will be stretched to receive the full measure of the answer God wants to give me. I want that. I want a living Lord!

     "My soul, be not afraid of God's silence; it is another form of His voice. God's silence is more than man's speech. ... Have thy prayers been followed by a calm stillness? Well! Is not that God's voice -- a voice that will suffice thee in the meantime till the full disclosure comes? ... Wait for Him in silence, and ere long it shall become vocal. ... Think not that God's silence is coldness or indifference. When birds are on the nest preparing to bring forth life, they never sing. God's stillness is full of brooding. Be not impatient of God! When the Lord is to lead a soul to great faith, He for a time leaves his prayer unanswered" (pg. 284-285).

Humbled, I put the book away. God's silence is no longer something to be feared, but rather something to be cherished until He chooses to speak. I am satisfied. I want great faith, and if it means long silence from God, then so be it. 

The Reason

Why does the battle thicken so –

The darts rain fast upon my breast,

While missiles hurled with cruel force

Ring loud against my burnished crest?

Above the din I seem to hear

My Captain's voice in accents clear,

“Because your shield is down!”

Why does the enemy advance

And hem us round on every hand

While we, the army of the Lord,

Can scarce his arrogance withstand?

Above the shouts I seem to hear

My Captain's voice in accents clear,

“Because your shields are down!”

Ah! Now it's brighter – now I see

The enemy is taking flight,

And lo, the banner of the Cross

Streams red against the morning light;

But as they flee I seem to hear

My Captain call in accents clear,

“Let not your shields go down!”

-Thomas Kimber

Faster than the Speed of Light

Elder Jeff Arthur presented our worship talk this morning. Here's a nutshell version of his thoughts:

"And while I was ... praying ... and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God ... Yea, while I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, ... being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, 'O Daniel, ... at the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee; for thou art greatly beloved...'" (Dan. 9:20-23).

The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. In one year light travels 5,865,696,000,000 miles. We are told in Early Writings, pg. 41 that heaven lies beyond Orion. How far away is Orion? It's about 1,300 light years away from us. That's approximately 7,625,404,800,000,000 miles away! Light coming from Orion has been traveling for 1,300 years before we can see it. 

As soon as Daniel started to petition the throne of grace, God sent Gabriel, the covering angel, from His presence to answer the prayer of His beloved servant. And before Daniel finished praying, Gabriel was standing beside him. How fast did Gabriel travel? If one angel can do something so impossible to human logic, what can my God do? 

"Keep your wants, your joys, your sorrows, your cares, and your fears before God. You cannot burden Him; you cannot weary Him. He who numbers the hairs of your head is not indifferent to the wants of His children. ... His heart of love is touched by our sorrows and even by our utterances of them. Take to Him everything that perplexes the mind. Nothing is too great for Him to bear, for He holds up worlds, He rules over all the affairs of the universe. Nothing that in any way concerns our peace is too small for Him to notice." (Steps to Christ, 100)

Vessels

Knock, knock, knock. "Sir, please help me!" A request that always got the attention of this man of God. The woman pleading for his assistance was a widow. But not just any widow. No, her husband had been what was called a Son of the Prophets. He had been a godly man, one who loved and served the Lord with his whole heart and life. 

But now his widow was in desperate straits. She told Elisha that the creditors were about to take her two sons as slaves unless she could pay off the debts she owed, but all that she had in the house was a pot of oil. "Then he said, 'Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors; borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.' So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, 'Bring me yet a vessel.' And he said unto her, 'There is not a vessel more.' And the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, 'Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.'" (2 Kings 4:3-7)

What was the limit to the amount of oil she ended up with to sell? The number of vessels she had available to fill. What is the limit to the amount of power God can pour out upon this world? Could it be that He is limited by the number of vessels we make available for Him to fill?

It's time to stop limiting God, to stop postponing the glorious homecoming. Let's make ourselves available as vessels for our Savior to fill with His Spirit so that this work can be finished quickly and we can go home!

A Living Sacrifice

"That ye present your bodies" (Rom. 12:1).
"'Lend Me thy body,' our Lord says. For a few brief years, in the body that was prepared for Me, I delighted to do My Father's will. By means of that body I came into contact with the children of men -- diseased, weary, sin-sick, heavy-laden ones. Those feet carried Me to the homes where sorrow and death had entered; those hands touched leprous bodies, palsied limbs, sightless eyes; those lips told of My Father's remedy for sin, His love for a prodigal world. In that body I bore the world's sin upon the tree, and through its offering once for all my followers are sanctified.

"But I need a body still; wilt thou not lend Me thine? Millions of hearts are longing, with an indescribable hunger, for Me. On that far-off shore are men, women, and little children sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death -- men who have never yet heard of My love. Wilt thou not lend Me thy body, that I may cross the ocean and tell them that the light after which they are groping has at last reached them; that the bread for which they have so often hungered is now at their very door?

"I want a heart, that I may fill it with Divine compassion; and lips, purged from all uncleanness, wherewith to tell the story that brings hope to the despairing, freedom to the bound, healing to the diseased, and life to the dead. Wilt thou lend Me thine?"

(adapted from Springs in the Valley, page 265)

Lord, here I am. Use me as Thou wilt.

Blessed indeed!

We just finished Week of Prayer here at Ouachita Hills. The Beatitudes (Mt. 5:1-12) is always a favorite topic, but there's always more to glean from those verses. It made my heart sing to see a fresh glimpse of my Father's love for me. But the best part was Friday night.

Friday night the speaker made an appeal for baptism. Several students responded, including two of my academy girls! As the congregation was leaving the meeting hall, one of my girls came to me trying hard not to cry. She could hardly speak for the struggle. She looked at me with tears in her eyes, torn as to whether it was too late for her to join the group who had responded for baptism. I asked her if she wanted to go join the small cluster that had formed around the speaker and pastors. She clung to me for a minute, her eyes, swimming with tears as she struggled. "Go join them," I whispered to her, "It's not too late."With a smile peeking through her tears, she joined the ones who had made their decision that night. Another soul enlisted under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel!

Sometimes I've wondered if I am being an effective worker for God. I can't point to large numbers of people who have surrendered their hearts to Christ as a result of my work. I can't even point to a lot of people who have gone to the mission field because of my work. By those standards, my life and work have been complete failures already. But Friday night, I realized that, in reality, no one can really claim to have led "so many" people to the Lord. Each person's conversion is the result of uncounted numbers of times God sent someone to work on that person's heart. "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that plants anything, neither he that waters; but God that gives the increase" (1 Cor. 3:6, 7). What a privilege it is to watch God work in the hearts of those around me, but especially in the hearts of my younger brothers and sisters! And I'm so thankful that God stoops to encourage us, even when we shouldn't have doubted in the first place.

Learning to Sing

"In the full light of day, and in hearing of the music of other voices, the caged bird will not sing the song that his master seeks to teach him. He learns a snatch of this, a trill of that, but never a separate and entire melody. But the master covers the cage, and places it where the bird will listen to the one song he is to sing. In the dark, he tries and tries again to sing that song until it is learned, and he breaks forth in perfect melody. Then the bird is brought forth, and ever after he can sing that song in the light. Thus God deals with His children. He has a song to teach us, and when we have learned it amid the shadows of affliction we can sing it ever afterward" (MH 472.2).

Sometimes trials surround me.

I feel like a bird in a cage.

The darkness presses around me.

I can sense the devil's rage.

But then I hear through the darkness

A song that is new to me.

A song of trust and deliverance,

Of faith that the sunshine I'll see.

I sing, for the song tells my story.

And now the plan I can see.

My Master knows just how to teach me,

For in the darkness He drew close to me.

Lord, teach me to sing in the darkness

The song that You want me to sing.

So when the daylight comes again,

The song will glorify my King.