When God seems Silent. Part two

When God is silent to us in a trial, this tends to bring everything out into the open about us. It certainly brings out the bad, but will ultimately prove faith in us. Yet right in the middle of all of this is something more. God wants to PROVE and to BUILD faith in us. But faith is a relationship word. It must be rested upon something or someone. In a nutshell, God wants to reveal Himself to us.
Here we see the ultimate reason God is silent to us especially during a trial. It isn’t that God could not tell us things. It isn’t that He could not give us information about Himself, or about what He is doing. In fact, I might say that He already has given that it is all in the Bible. Yet during some of these terrible times of trial, none of that seems to be able to get us far. God is silent to us during a trial because He wants to do more than simply give us information. He wants to give us revelation. God wants to reveal HIMSELF to us.

Initially, reading that might not get us too excited. But it is a fact that if we get to the place where we are actually learning Christ, and God is revealing Himself, yes, to us, but also in us it is certain that we will never regret it. If I actually come to know God through revelation I will know that no information or facts that God could give me that. I will recognize that I have been apprehended for the very purpose of God to have His Son revealed in me.

When God won't tell us anything, He is actually seeking to reveal HIMSELF to us. This cannot be done merely through words. We are here talking about coming into a spiritual revelation something that is not of the senses, and something that cannot be dragged down from heaven. Indeed, until we actually begin to see, we can only know that we don't see, or that there is more TO SEE. But until we SEE, well, we don’t SEE.
Those who have gone through such experiences with the Lord will know what I mean. Others may think that I am crazy. But read the Bible. Read Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, starting in Eph. 1:16. Read the words, "God revealed His Son IN ME." Read I Corinthians 2 – where Paul contrasts the things of the Spirit of God over and against natural thinking. We can know Christ only through revelation. The trial of faith is usually what it takes to do the groundwork for that.

Virtually all that we need to know about God’s purpose in trials is found in the book of Job. There, the Truth is laid out in a narrative. In the new testament, it is more direct teaching. But in the book of Job we find a man whom God Himself applauded as good and upright but who God chose to try greatly. God initiated the conversation with Satan, and God initiated the entire trial. God took a good and upright man and sought to build in him something that would never be otherwise.
Job suffers greatly through no fault of his own. For forty chapters he goes back and forth seeking answers from God. His friends offer him answers, but Job wanted answers from God. Yet God was silent. God had allowed Job’s life to fall apart, and God left Job to contend with the suffering in silence. This seemed unfair it always does, doesn’t it? But that was the will of God. The outcome proved God to be just, and to be a God of love.
After all that suffering, and all that thinking, and all that reasoning, and all that questioning all in the face of the silence of God, Job is finally brought to an outcome of his trial. We find it in his own words. He says,

Then Job answered the LORD, and said, "I know that You can do everything, and that no thought can be withheld from You…Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not…..I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye sees You. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:1-6)

Job was like many Christian people today we have all of our teachings and doctrines. We believe them. We say we trust God. Maybe we even exhort others to trust Him. And we are sincere enough. But often our faith has never been tested. And because it hasn’t, we don’t realize that there is plenty of unbelief in us. It takes the trial and the silence of God to bring it out. But not to hurt us. God allows it, indeed, He orchestrates the whole thing so that we can be exposed, and healed, and BUILT in those areas that were weak.

Job spent a long time searching for answers from God. He never got them. But instead of answers fron God, Job came to see GOD HIMSELF. I would submit the quest for answers at that point ceased. Job said, "I spoke the truth about You, Lord." (God affirmed and said, "My servant Job has spoken rightly of Me," at the end of the book.) Job added, "I thought I knew all of the doctrines and facts about You. Well, I knew THEM. I knew the doctrines. But now I SEE YOU. Thus, I realize that I spoke more than I knew and said things that were greater than I ever could grasp. For this I repent in dust and ashes." Job realized that God was much bigger than his understanding and that alone was a great revelation to Him, and for us.
All of this was made possible by the silence of God. When God is not saying anything to us it is possible He wants to REVEAL HIMSELF to us. The fact is, if every time we wanted to hear from God He jumped up and gave us what we wanted, we would never come to see Him. We would settle for words.

Incidentally, this is one reason why people who say that God talks to them every five minutes, and that He leads their every move  this is why they are NOT correct. God simply does not lead people like that. He does lead like that once in awhile  but the Christian life is not a continual stream of signs and wonders and leadings from God.

The Christian life is LEARNING CHRIST. It is a coming to KNOW HIM. For that you need more than leadings. You need to SEE GOD.

The trial of faith is to prove and build faith. But this is not possible as the outcome unless we SEE GOD. All faith that is real is based upon our knowledge of God Himself. That is why faith is eternal, and is a relationship word.

As mentioned, when we are in a trial, and God is silent, usually this brings out the worst in us. It exposes us as frauds in many respects. But this is all unto freedom. As we face the silence of God in the midst of a bad situation, there is a choice. We will either rely more upon ourselves, or seek the Lord all the more. If we seek God, this will result in a, "single eye," and a, "pure heart." A single eye and a pure heart are attributes of a person who will not settle for less than, yes, God’s will, but who will not settle for less than knowing and experiencing God Himself. If I seek God for such a revelation, Jesus would say to me, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall SEE GOD."
Jesus said (in John 16) that when a woman is giving birth her mind is on the pain, but once the birth happens, her mind is on the baby. This applies to God’s desire to, "form Christ in us." (Gal. 4:19) Christ is in us. But now we must learn Christ. Thus, God progressively unfolds Christ to us  but this is so utterly contrary to the natural man and to our thinking, and requires such an adjustment for us, that it does produce suffering. It really is like a woman giving birth  every season and every time God brings us on in this learning of Christ can be liken to that. So there is pain. There is pain during the time Christ is being formed in us to another degree. But once we begin to see Him and the Truth  which is like a new birth of sorts the suffering is but a memory. Now we rejoice because we SEE HIM. Then, just as Jesus continues in that passage from John 16, we ask no more questions. Job stopped asking. Why? Because when we know Him, we see how everything is related to Him (and us). The questions get answered by the revelation of Him that we have received.
The nature of things demands that we cannot see God until our hearts are made pure unto the Lord, and our eye is made single to Him. This is because of where we start  blind and of the flesh. Thus, to get free it will necessarily produce suffering. The great irony is that those things about which we grip and complain the silence of God and the suffering  may actually be the very answer to our prayers to know God.









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