COMMENTARY

Daryl Wood

(Daryl is a fivefold teacher on the Kingdomquest apostolic team.)

CALAMITY CHRISTIANS

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go. I will guide you with My eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which has no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you (Ps. 32:8, 9)."

A number of years ago, I found myself in a protracted season during which the heavens seemed to be shut before me. Living from one crisis to the next, it felt as if I was always petitioning the Lord to deliver me out of my latest dilemma. Deliver me He would, and I would briefly sigh a sigh of relief, only to soon find myself in a brand new jam. While His discipline did serve to affirm that I was His son, I was clearly not experiencing the blessings that are supposed to follow an obedient life.

I remember all too well the sense that I had to twist God’s arm a good bit in order to obtain His help. Bombarding heaven relentlessly with my requests, I would cry out diligently, sometimes for hours a day in the persistent hope that He would rally to my aid. Eventually He would do so, though often not in the way that I had envisioned, nor within the timetable that I considered appropriate.

"What is the problem here?" I wondered. "I’m living for God." Some time later the Lord brought me to the realization that I was just like a mule before Him. As one pastor that I knew aptly described me, I was a "bit and bridle" Christian.

I’m certainly not implying that the faith walk is designed to be free from opposition. Affliction and persecution for the word’s sake are promised to the faithful. The external circumstances that one faces only offer at best a very inconsistent indicator when it comes to the appraisal of one’s spiritual walk. Still, if and when one comes to the painful realization that everything he touches is blighted, time is past due for him to engage in honest self-examination in order to see whether or not he is in the faith. During these times, it is often God’s resolute determination to bring a man to the end of himself. Hitting a wall every direction that one turns can be a most disagreeable, yet essential part of God’s process of restoration, and ultimately bringing His own to maturity.

"Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns and wall her in, so that she cannot find her paths. She will chase her lovers, but not overtake them; yes, she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now (Hos. 2: 6, 7).’"

For one to enjoy so many of His blessings and benefits, and yet remain deficient in the fear of the Lord is a dangerous place of self-deception. The cure for this, when there is to be a cure, almost always involves intense chastisements from His hand. Dealings like these are the ultimate expression of His mercy, in derailing the unyielding from their stubbornness.

It is possible for God’s people to drift and become quite dull and insensitive to His Spirit’s leading, yet all the while consider themselves acutely "in tune" with His voice. This condition requires a radical shake-up before any real progress can be made. The final result of these extreme measures, when one is properly exercised by them, is a consummate breaking. Without this breaking one remains barren, never even reaching "first base" in attaining God’s purpose for his life. Though he may ultimately escape hell fire and go on to heaven, his days on this earth are more or less wasted with respect to any eternal value.

"And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food, for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?

. . . For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and straw, each one’s work will become manifest; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire (1 Cor. 3: 3:1-3, 11-15).

The tendency toward spiritual indolence and arrogance is aggravated by our religious culture, where godly form is readily accepted as long as substance is absent. Without actively pressing against the status quo we will become fixed products of that very culture. We become complacent, measuring ourselves by one another, instead of by the Last Adam. Like those adrift in a gentle current, if we give undue attention to others in the water we lose sight of the shore.

It is in times of floating away unanchored that God most mercifully appears as one’s adversary.

"I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord and the praises of the Lord. According to all that the Lord has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which He has bestowed on them according to His mercies, according to His lovingkindnesses. For He said, ‘Surely they are My people, children who will not lie.’ So He became their Savior. In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them. In His love and in His pity He redeemed them, and He bore them and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit, so He turned Himself against them as an enemy, and He fought against them (Is. 63: 7-10)."

Even when God is not being outright adversarial towards us, we sometimes still need a reminder that "it’s not about our agenda". About 20 years ago, a prophet pronounced over me this passage of Scripture, the significance of which I would not begin to understand until many years later:

"And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, ‘Are You for us or for our adversaries?’ So He said, ‘No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.’ And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, ‘What does my Lord say to His servant?’ Then the Commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, ‘Take the sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.’ And Joshua did so (Josh. 5: 13-15)."

It is possible for a man to be so egocentric that he only views his relationship with the Lord from the standpoint of his own plans, ideals, and values. Such a one may indeed ask God questions, but until the light of the Lord grants an epiphany, they will be the wrong questions!

My mother tells a story of her upbringing, and her relationship with her father. She reports that only on a handful of instances was it necessary for him to spank her. A mere look of displeasure from his brow was sufficient to bring her to tears.

The Lord is scouring the earth for a people who will be guided by His eye. These are amply motivated by the fear of the Lord and the love of Christ to seek His face, merely for the delight of knowing Him and being found pleasing in His sight. "Calamity Christians"? No way! For these, the bit and the bridle are unnecessary.