When God is Silent and It's Not Your Fault

January 27, 2015

When God is Silent and It's Not Your Fault

January 27, 2015 

Well, it's good to be back here with you, Youtube family. Please forgive our distance between teachings and postings, we've been rearranging our studio, and working on new songs that we'll soon be able to share with you. And sometimes the Lord just switches gears, and has us doing different things. We don't like to be absent from posting things, but unless the Lord specifically gives us something (to share), we don't want to just fill the air with useless talk, either.

The Lord bless you all, and I'm just so happy to be with you  tonight. So this teaching is a follow-up to our last Heaven talk, in which we gave you a long list of reasons we sometimes break fellowship with the Lord and He kinda disappears. When He's trying to get our attention about those heart attitudes and actions that are not appropriate for us as Christians, it can cause a perceptible distance in our communications with Him. And the last time we were with you in Heaven talk, we explained some of the things we have found in the past that created that perceived distance.

So  tonight, I want to get on a more positive note and I want to talk to you this time about what we've discovered is going on, when we haven't done anything that would cause that distance. In other words, when we are innocent. Well, innocent to the degree that the Lord allows us to see our conscience, that's for sure.

We know that the righteous man sins several times a day because Scripture says it, but the Lord hides a lot of those things from us until we are ready to handle it. So, I'm going to talk about the times we're praying for others that the Lord allows our well to dry out, while He's busy filling others with fresh Living Waters of His Presence. In other words, say that a soul comes to us and is really in a deep darkness, as far as speaking to the Lord and hearing from the Lord; and they feel isolated from Him, and they are asking us for prayer to feel reunited with again. Now, we know by faith that the Lord is continually with us. But if we are accustomed to hearing His voice, or seeing Him, and He withdraws - that is disconcerting, and very hurtful and difficult to weather, because we are so dependent on Him.

So, I want to talk about some of the things we have found are reasons why He does that when we're not to blame, when we've done nothing to offend Him at all. There are times when we are praying for others, as I've said, when our well dries out, when we don't feel those beautiful fresh, refreshing living waters flowing through us, but those graces are being given to ANOTHER soul who's NOT accustomed to having them, and creating a breakthrough for that soul. The Lord's heart is SO tender and touched that we would sacrifice our own comfort, our health, our consolation, for another soul that He pours out unmerited grace into that soul's life to relieve the burden THEY are carrying. I think of it as reciprocal suffering, where each member is joined together by the bonds of charity to the degree that when ONE is suffering, our hearts go out to them, that they might find relief through our prayers, and the Lord honors our prayers with a breakthrough for them, and allows us sometimes to accompany that prayer with an offering of suffering of some kind.

I Corinthians  12:26: If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 

Now you are Christ's Body, and individually members of it. We are totally tied together in Christ's Body. Now when we fall in love with Jesus, and our hearts are totally given over to Him, our lives become His own unique possession, to do with as He pleases.

As He said in Matthew  16:24: If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for MY sake, will find it.

Well, take up this cross, and follow me. And what did the Lord do on His cross? He suffered for us on His cross. He's saying we, too, have a cross, and it's very much like His, except it's in our daily life. And when we suffer, we are actually participating in the redemptive work that goes on with souls as they are receiving the Lord. Now He's completely and totally opened Heaven, and that's never to be done again, redemption He's done for us on that level. But when we make offerings on OUR cross, for the sake of other souls, with His big heart He just lavishes graces on them, and we become partners in this work of sanctification in the sense that we are giving up OUR lives to the Lord for the purpose of the sanctification of that soul as well.

So, the Lord takes us at our word when He sees another soul deeply oppressed by illness, or unfortunate circumstances, and we take up the burden of praying for them. He allows us to partake in their lives by carrying a cross for them. Even Simon carried the Lord's cross. This is an expression of our love for Christ, and our brother, that we are willing to live and give our lives for Jesus, and for His agenda, and for others.

In our teaching, "Why wasn't I healed?" I shared several situations where the Lord allowed a cross in the form of illness in our lives, and as a result, poured out unmerited grace upon those we were praying for, and they did get healed. We have also seen this dynamic in the spiritual life. We can be going along perfectly happy, tuned into the Lord, and all of a sudden, silence. And not a perceptible sign of Him anywhere. Not in worship, not in prayer, not in the Scriptures, just can't feel Him. Then we being to wonder, "What did I do?" We know the Lord is there by faith, He's at our right hand, and He'll never leave us or forsake us. But temporarily, He's hidden himself from our spiritual perception. But, why? When our conscience doesn't convict us of any wrongdoing, I believe we can find rest in the conviction that someone ELSE is receiving OUR portion because they need it more than we do.

Again and again, I can see this happening in the 30 years of experience in counseling and praying for others. Suddenly, OUR light from the Lord dims, and later that person comes back to tell us what a breakthrough they've finally had. That oppression lifted, and they're experiencing the Lord in new and wonderful ways. Now they are on their way to an ever-deepening relationship with Him that they didn't even know existed. That is so awesomely rewarding for us to hear!

So, we found the same dynamic with healing. My husband has Fibromyalgia, and he prayed for a woman who had it as well. She was healed, but he remained in pain. Many times I have prayed for him, and he received relief, and many times he didn't. What was the difference? Same prayers, same disposition of heart and mind to be healed; same faith, and contrite for any offenses committed...but one prayer worked, and the other didn't.

We've found that those times where a healing didn't take place, others received unmerited favor and grace from the Lord. This has become such an obvious dynamic to us that, when people come to us for prayer, I ask them, "Who are you praying for?" Because very often what they want relief from, is reciprocal suffering for the ones THEY are praying for. In this case, we pray for strength to carry this cross in quiet and patience, knowing they aren't suffering in vain. That's a tremendous, tremendous consolation for people who are suffering, and it's so overlooked in the church and in the Body.

Many people languish and are depressed because they can't do anything in the Body. They feel they are useless because they are sick, they can't do anything, and yet they are praying for people. What they don't understand is, their suffering is moving the heart of God to lavish graces on the people they are praying for. If only the whole church could get a look at this and understand it! How joyful people who have debilitating illnesses would be, if they had something to be happy about. My prayers are really working! Even though I'm sick, these prayers are powerful!

It's a beautiful thing, and I hope that after hearing this teaching, you'll spread the fragrance of this teaching abroad, because there are a lot of people who are sick and are very sad about it, and they feel their lives are useless. It couldn't be further from the truth! It really couldn't be, and I will show you in the Scriptures what I'm talking about.

So, have you ever experienced tremendous opposition on the way to a ministry appointment? I laugh, because I'm sure all of you have. We discovered there are a couple of dynamics that could apply in that situation. One is that the person meant to meet with us is getting opposition and considering canceling their appointment. But the Lord allows us to bear the brunt of that, in different and inconvenient events, designed by the enemy to cause US to cancel our appointment with THEM. Many times we are carrying that soul so they won't be prevented from getting the graces God intended for them.

Other times we are suffering oppression that, through God's goodness, is moving His heart to pour out unmerited favor on the meeting, and bring about a breakthrough that might not happen without what was suffered. In any case, this opposition could have been prevented by the Lord in the first place, but He gave His approval to the demons that were causing it. Nothing happens without His approval, knowing full-well it would ultimately end in the demons' defeat, and for the soul who is afflicted, in their triumph. 

What a wonderful dynamic, that our suffering in this life can lead to the release of the captives to sin. What an amazing God we serve, who doesn't let one tear drop fall to the ground unnoticed, or in vain. Rather, those who are bound in wheelchairs or plagued by other illnesses and difficulties, are POWERFUL intercessors and prayer warriors because they've forfeited their freedoms to God for the sake of others.

If they had not done it by conscious consent, we may find in eternity that they consented to this handicap even before they were born. It's so sad to see someone come from a healing service completely downcast, hopeless, because they were told, "Well, you just don't have the faith to be healed yet", or "There's still unrepentant sin in your life, you better take another look".   What a slap in the face for those who are already wounded! And what a damaging lie, bordering ignorance.

Yes, by His stripes, we are healed - but what about those souls who have united themselves so closely to Jesus and what He suffered on the Cross, that they WILLINGLY bear their infirmities for the sake of others in the Body that are suffering? What about those? Or how about those preparing for revival and offering their sufferings for the church? It stands to reason that, if the blood of the martyrs is indeed the seed of the church (which is what the church father, Tertullian, said in the 2nd century) then the little martyrdoms that WE suffer every day, with patience and resignation, are moving the heart of God - and He pours unmerited grace upon those still in captivity to Satan. What tremendous hope is ours when we consider that EVERY circumstance and outcome in our lives is serving the end of bringing His Kingdom to Earth.

Now for those who haven't found relief, they can at least find relief in the reasons for their suffering. Perhaps it's a wayward grand-child, or a pending abortion, or a tragic accident that their offering is preventing through God's grace. Contrast this to the harsh invective that "you're lacking in faith", or "still in sin". How demeaning and discouraging for a soul that is clean before God.

Yet the accuser is the one lacking in wisdom and understanding of the ways of God. Let's not fall for this lie, and injure an innocent soul. Or deprive ourselves of the comfort of knowing that God uses everything for His glory, everything. Especially coming from a soul who is deeply in love with Him, and given Him their lives, making themselves totally, unquestionably at His disposal whether He chooses to heal them, or to use their suffering to bring relief to others. In Paul's suffering for the church, he demonstrated a profound understanding of the dynamics of salvation and healing.

In Colossians, the first chapter, he says: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for YOUR sake, and in my flesh, do I share on behalf of His body, which is the church.

Please, let's spread the healing and fragrant balm of this teaching to those who do not know why they're suffering, and bring them at least the consolation of knowing they are laboring with Christ in what they suffer on behalf of the Church, His Body.

The Lord bless you, and thanks for tuning in to our channel.