A dear friend of mine and our church died of cancer this week. She was (and is) a great woman of faith with an amazing family of faith. We all believed God for healing. She certainly believed God for healing. She, of course, has received ultimate healing in heaven but that is not what we prayed for. So what do we do when we stand on the scriptures, when we know others who have been healed, and when we believed God for healing but our loved one dies?

Often, our first thought is birthed by our disappointment. We may be disappointed in God or with ourselves. We may feel that God has let us down and didn’t keep his word or that somehow we weren’t enough or didn’t do enough to merit God’s healing for the one we had been praying for so earnestly. I know in moments like these I often default to those feelings and thoughts. It’s very human to do so but not very beneficial nor does it reflect the mind of Christ.

If no one was ever healed of cancer or if we believe that God does not heal today then we would simply write it off as something God doesn’t do. We would simply accept the individual’s death as inevitable and pray for a peaceful passing. But when we have seen people healed or, at least, believe that healing is still for today, we are left not only with the loss but also with a myriad of questions. Often those moments create a crisis of faith.

In the midst of loss, they’re a few things that I hang on to. First of all, I need to stand on what I do know rather than bowing to what I don’t know. I know that God is love. I know that he is good. I know that he is compassionate. I know that he is eternal and unchanging. I know that he is present because he has said he will never leave us or forsake us and, in fact, lives within us.

Whatever my questions are that may go unanswered I must frame my conclusions with the things I do know about the nature of God. If you wonder about who the Father is or what he is like you can look at Jesus. Jesus told Philip that if we have seen him, then we have seen the Father. In this life, believers must be willing to live with some mystery about God’s decisions, answered prayers, seemingly unanswered prayers, why some are healed and some aren’t, etc. God has an eternal perspective that we rarely have. Ultimately, our reward is heaven. As Christians we profess that we long to be in the presence of God. We profess that we are restless as we wait for the return of Jesus. We declare that all we want is to enter his presence and hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” And yet, when a loved one crosses the finish line earlier than we anticipated, we are often upset with God.

There comes a time when we must trust his goodness and his grace and even his judgment over our own. The hard part is navigating the waters of loss when we have believed God for healing without taking offense at God or ourselves. We sometime assume that the loss of our loved one was punishment for something we did or didn’t do. There are times when illness is a result of unrepented sin on the part of the one who is ill but repentance opens up the pathway for healing again. In addition, a scan of the gospels reveals that healing was always about grace rather than merit anyway. Jesus healed some godly people but he also healed many ungodly people. He healed some with great faith and some who had no idea who he was. At times he healed every person in the crowd but at the Pool of Bethsaida he healed only one. Our reasoning finds it hard to explain God’s choices and so faith trusts his nature and his character and believes that all of his choices are grounded in love and compassion. We then give thanks for the time we had with the person we are grieving for and trust God for the future. There are simply some things we don’t know.

The truth is that, as believers, we will see that person again if he or she was also in Christ. For them, the separation will only feel like minutes. Not only that but our loved one is now immersed in perfect health and indescribable joy. We grieve for ourselves and if we let him, God will fill the void with his love and with the love of others he has placed in our lives for moments like this.

As the saying goes, “No one gets out of this world alive…unless the Lord returns.” Death was not God’s doing. Adam and Eve chose it when they chose rebellion. It is now a part of every life and we must trust God with it. The contemporary church is just beginning to embrace the reality of healing again and there is much we still don’t understand.

So again, we need to stand on what we do know rather than bowing to what we don’t know. God has a heart for healing. It is his nature for he said, “I am the God who heals you.” If healing were not in his heart, he would not have given gifts of healing to the church nor would Jesus have made that a touchstone of his ministry. So why are so many not healed? I think the problem is on our end, not his and so we must continue to pray for healing while we learn more of God’s ways regarding that.

The loss of a loved one to sickness can have two effects. We may become discouraged and decide that God does not answer our prayers for healing and so we never ask again or we can determine to press in harder for more faith, greater understanding, and the biblical standard of healing. I have determined to go with the second option and I hope you will too. I have seen many healed. I have also seen many godly people who were not healed. But I am also confident that we will continue to see an increase in healing in the church in the days ahead and an increase in the expectation of healing until we are perplexed when someone is not healed rather than being surprised when they are. Be blessed in him to day and if you are in need of his grace may the God of all comfort and compassion, comfort you in all of your troubles (2 Cor. 1:3-4).

In the thirty-plus years I have served as a pastor, I have heard many, many believers express doubt over God’s real love or concern for them and sometimes their anger at God when they believed he had let them down. Most of that doubt came from feelings of abandonment over prayers they perceived as unanswered and, perhaps, unheard. Maybe it was the divorce of parents when he or she was a child or the death of a loved one after praying for healing. Perhaps, it was the unfulfilled dream of a marriage and children that an individual had prayed for but which had not materialized. For others it was a tragedy that, in their mind, God should have prevented but didn’t. In each case, a prayer or a season of prayer went unanswered in regard to something that they assumed God controlled or which they assumed was the single key in life to their happiness.

There is no doubt that at some point we will all have to wrestle with the experience of a significant prayer that has seemingly gone unanswered. How we respond to that moment is significant and often sets a course for our spiritual life. It is our fallen nature or our un-renewed mind that assumes God does not truly care about us when a dream of ours does not come to pass in the time frame or in the form we have set in our own hearts.

The first sin was predicated on the suggestion that God did not fully care for Adam and Eve and that he was selfishly withholding the best from them. Satan’s opening gambit with Eve was a suggestion that God was not really as generous as he pretended to be. Remember the question? “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’” (Gen.3:1).   Satan said that with a tone suggesting that he knew God and it would not surprise him to find God keeping the best things from others. Notice that the question implies that God was stingy by nature and unwilling for Adam and Eve to have many good things in the Garden that would contribute to their well-being and happiness. Eve correctly replied that they could eat of any tree except one – the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil – but if they ate of that one tree, they would die.

Satan then called God a liar when he declared that Adam and Eve would not actually die if they ate of that tree but would become as wise as God. He suggested that the greatest blessing in the Garden was in that tree and the blessing was shrouded by God’s lies. The implication was that God’s denial of the tree to them was costing them the one thing that would make life everything it should be. Satan planted the belief in Eve’s heart that God did not care for her nearly as much as he claimed and was quite willing to withhold “true happiness” from her and her husband. Eve, then, went her own way, ate from the tree, and brought disaster on us all.

The challenge is that our fallen nature or the natural man seems to always gravitate toward that view…even when the Spirit of God lives within us. There is a maxim in the counseling world that says we become angry whenever a person or a circumstance seems to block our goal. When God doesn’t always act as we have suggested through our prayers, our response is often anger at him which results in us carrying an offense toward God – sometimes for years.

It’s not that we end our relationship with God. We just don’t trust him anymore like a spouse who stays married, but simply doesn’t trust the other spouse to act in his or her best interest. When you carry that offense, it is hard to have joy, pray for anything with faith, or risk anything because you are not sure how much God really cares. When prayers go unanswered we can quickly default to the “God doesn’t really love me” mode and distance ourselves from him. Nearly all of us run the risk of falling into that mindset and, I believe that the only safeguard is to spend a considerable amount of time mediating on who God is apart from an experience of disappointment with God.

We’ve all heard the expression. “God is good – all the time.” We may be quick to say amen to that in a conversation but in our hearts we often doubt the truth of that. The key is found in knowing the heart of God and using that knowledge as a lens through which we can view his actions or inactions. We often look at God’s actions or inaction through a different lens – our desires, rather than through a conviction about the heart of God. Let’s face it, even as adults, we can be like children whose perception of whether a parent loves them or not is based simply on whether or not those parents always give them what they want. Any good parent has withheld some request from a child because in the parent’s wisdom they knew that what that child wanted more than anything was not in his or her best interest – although the child could not and would not see it that way.

If children truly believed that their parents loved them with all their hearts and always acted in their best interest (which is the definition of agape love), then they might be disappointed or not understand but would not distance themselves from the parent or begin to distrust them for a lifetime.

In our Bible reading we often look at the broad actions of God and interpret God’s heart through those actions rather than understanding his actions through the lens of his heart. I often find a clue to God’s heart in a verse or two imbedded in a big story and can miss the clues altogether if not careful. For instance, in the Book of Judges there is story after story of Israel turning her back on God and pursuing idols and massive, national immorality. After years of persistent rebellion God would allow another nation to oppress them as discipline in order to draw them back to himself. One verse opens the window on God’s heart in Judges 10:16 where the text says, “Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the Lord. And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer.”

Even though Israel had rebelled again and again and shown disdain for the God who had brought them out of Egypt, the verse reveals that God’s heart hurt with them in the midst of their suffering – even though they had brought in on themselves. God is not distant and uncaring. He loves his children and, more than anything, wants to bless them. When their own actions create misery or demand discipline, he suffers with them just as a parent suffers when they see the awful state of their drug addicted son or daughter.

In 1 Chronicles 15, David had sinned and as the King of Israel had brought judgment on the nation. The Bible says, “And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the Lord saw it and was grieved because of the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” Again, even when the actions of his people demanded judgment, the heart of God was moved by their suffering. His heart breaks with every death, every lash of a slave whip, and every beating at the hands of the enemy. In a chapter on judgment to come, the Lord says, “For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!” (Ezek.18:32).

In the Old Testament we tend to view God as harsh and merciless because entire tribes were wiped out at his command and disasters were released by his word. But what we miss is the love of God protecting the bloodline of Christ from Israel’s enemies so that the entire world might be saved and the accumulated years of God calling nations to repentance through his prophets so that his judgments might be averted. When you read the fine print, you discover that God always went to extraordinary lengths to avoid judging nations and never took pleasure in the death of even the wicked – because he loves even the wicked.

In the New Testament the cross is the ultimate window into God’s heart. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us and Jesus himself said that whoever sees him sees the Father. We always see Jesus as kind and loving. He says that God the Father is exactly the same. God is good and loves each of us all the time. We can pray with hope and confidence because he loves us. Because he loves us he hears us and we can also pray with confidence that God will bring good things to us in time or will say no to the things that would endanger our faith and souls as any good father would. It is through that lens that we must view God’s activity or inactivity in our lives. We may not understand but we can still trust. You must know that before you pray or a loving “No” or delay may give offense when thanksgiving was the appropriate response.

When John the Baptist found himself in prison, he sent men to ask Jesus if he were really the Messiah. He asked because Jesus wasn’t bringing salvation to the world in ways that made sense to John. Jesus replied, “Blessed in he who takes no offense in me.” When God doesn’t act in response to our prayers as we expected, we must not take offense in him either. Being certain about the heart of the Father allows us to rest in his goodness, even when nothing around us make sense.

On Monday morning, pastor Donnell Jones shared some essential thoughts with our staff on overcoming that moment when life and ministry seem overwhelming. I want to share the gist of his message along with some of my own thoughts but wanted to make sure that you knew Donnell was the primary source and that his thoughts were seriously worth sharing with you.

In his gospel, Matthew tells us, “Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.’ Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will’” (Matt.26:36-39).

As we read the gospels, we always see Jesus unafraid, in control, and the master of every situation. But the night before the cross, he confesses something that must have stunned his inner circle of Peter, James, and John. In the darkness of the Garden, he confesses that his soul is overwhelmed with sorrow or heaviness to such a degree that he needs them to watch and pray with him. They have always needed him, but now he desperately needs them. The idea of Jesus being overwhelmed is disconcerting. Yet we have to remember that Jesus faced the cross as a man, not as God.

Secondly, we need to note that his soul was overwhelmed, not his spirit. Our soul is not our spirit. Our soul is comprised of our will, our mind, and our emotions. Our spirit is the eternal part of us that the Holy Spirit quickened and renewed when he took up residence within us. It is that part of us through which the Spirit leads us, reveals God’s will to us, and through which he renews and transforms our thoughts, emotions, and will. But that is a process. The soul is a kind of middle ground or even battleground between the spirit and our fallen nature or “the flesh.”

When the enemy attacks us, he either attacks us through the flesh with infirmity or disease or attacks our soul where he fills our minds with thoughts contrary to the will of God and with thoughts that stir up the negative emotions of fear, hopelessness, shame, lust, anger, and so forth. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the enemy was attacking Jesus with fear, heaviness, and maybe even doubt that what he was about to do was even worth the suffering that lay ahead.

In his soul, Jesus was tormented and overwhelmed. When we feel overwhelmed by life, it is our soul that is overwhelmed. As Graham Cooke says, “ Our circumstances are not the problem. Our perspective of our circumstances is the problem.” When our soul looses sight of the Father, his goodness, his resources, and his vast, unconditional love for us, we can feel overwhelmed and sorrowful unto death. Those who contemplate suicide are in that position. That is where Jesus found himself that night, just minutes before his arrest and a few hours before the beatings would begin.

In that moment, Jesus asked, “Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.”   At that moment, Jesus only wanted out. His soul saw no way to face what lay ahead. And yet, as he confessed his fears and sought God, his prayer changed. “He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done” (Matt.26:42). Before, Jesus prayed, “If it is possible….” Now he prays, “If it is not possible…” The word “if” can often be translated “since.” Jesus could have been saying, “Since it is not possible to take this cup away….” Something has shifted from his soul not being able to see his way through the next few hours to seeing that the Father would walk with him through the suffering he saw ahead, no matter how hard. His soul was no longer so overwhelmed because he had poured his heart out to the Father and had received strength from the Spirit. We are told by Luke that an angel came and ministered to him in that moment and strengthened his resolve. His third prayer was the same as his second.

When our souls are overwhelmed by sorrow, loss, difficulty, or even responsibility, we often look elsewhere for comfort rather than going to the Holy Spirit who is the Comforter. We go to friends, food, therapists, medications, and assorted addictions to get us through, rather than to the Spirit who is our friend, our counselor, and our guide. Friends are good. Therapists are fine. Food is essential. But only the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are enough. When Jesus went to the Father three times, he was engaging with the Spirit and heaven responded with a ministering angel. His soul began to receive hope and strength and the feeling of being overwhelmed with sorrow unto death began to lift.

We should take heart from Jesus who is our model. First of all, even those who have great faith and an intimate relationship with the Father can come to a place where his or her soul feels overwhelmed by life. That is not sin…or Jesus sinned. Jesus did not suppress those feelings but shared them with those he was close to for prayer and encouragement. But more than that he cried out to the Father and asked for strength, hope, and encouragement from the throne of heaven. He pressed in until the Spirit ministered to his spirit which then ministered to his soul. His perspective changed. Light could be seen in the darkness.

The goodness, love, and power of God became anchor points for the soul and Jesus was able to move ahead. He is our model. When life feels overwhelming we should follow in his steps. At some point, Jesus was given or given back a supernatural perspective that looked beyond the cross to all that his suffering would accomplish. The writer of Hebrews spoke of that when he said, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb.12:2).

In the midst of feeling overwhelmed, Jesus was given an eternal perspective by the Spirit that everything he was enduring was worth it…even to the point of joy. There are times when we need that perspective. That is why Paul counseled us, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Gal. 6:9). In every circumstance, God has a purpose for our good. He does not always create the circumstance but he will always use it for our benefit. Sometimes, we need a glimpse of his purpose. Like Jesus, we can ask for it and when we receive the eternal view of what we are going through, our soul will be strengthened.  And remember, it is your soul that is overwhelmed, not your spirit – so tune into what the Spirit is saying to your spirit. In that moment, even your prayers will change.

And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.      But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down…Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” Rev. 12:7-12

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2

The book of Revelation gives us a glimpse into a battle that took place in the heavenlies at some point in the far distant past. Satan, desiring to be on the throne instead of God, formed a rebellion and was cast out of heaven and hurled to earth along with the angels who had sided with him. He is described as the accuser of the brethren who accuses them day and night. In this text, he is said to accuse them before God but one of his primary strategies is also to accuse the brethren by accusing them in their own minds day and night. Satan is a master at bringing up the past and framing our weaknesses and mistakes as things that disqualify us from serving God or from receiving his blessings.

As a strategy, every time life happens to a believer and a challenge arises or a painful moment comes our way, Satan jumps in to accuse us and plants the thought that we are being punished for our misdeeds or rejected for our weaknesses. In a flurry of thoughts, he loves to heap condemnation on us and reinforce an identity of being a gross sinner, a target of God’s wrath because of our evil hearts, an abandoned child because of our misbehaviors, and a hypocrite who should be ashamed for even posing as a follower of Jesus.

Not only do those condemning thoughts rob us of our security but they also take away our joy and our peace. In addition, they prompt us to become accusers of those around us. Since accusation is based on performance, we find ourselves wanting to point out all the faults and failings of those around us in an effort to level the playing field. If you are prone to fault-finding in others or blaming others for the problems in your life, you are likely living with law as a reference point rather than grace.  You are trying to relate to God on the basis of your performance rather than his grace. Paul points out in Romans 8:1-2 that condemnation thrives in an environment of law in which a record is kept of every violation. Satan has the most success with those of us who still tend to view our relationship with God as a relationship defined by law rather than grace.

Law defines my relationship with God as a relationship based on performance. Under law, I am always asking the question, “Am I good enough or have I done enough to be loved, forgiven, and blessed by God?” Under law, our Father in Heaven becomes a perfectionistic parent withdrawing his blessings and affection every time we fail to live up to his lofty standards. On the basis of law, everything is open to accusation and condemnation. Under a mindset of law, Satan is free to accuse us not only of blatant sins but even of our attitudes by degree. Where we have repented, he will suggest that we did not repent enough. When we think about our love for God, he will accuse us of not loving God with all of our heart. When we acknowledge a weakness he will call us hypocrites for pretending to love Jesus when we still fail so often. When we give generously, he will always suggest that we should have given a little more. The accusation and feeling of condemnation is never ending….day and night.

The only escape from the devil’s scheme is to absolutely know that there is no condemnation in Christ because the blood of Christ has removed us from a system of law and placed us in a relationship based on the unfailing love of a Father who does not love and bless on the basis of performance but only on the basis of his heart. You must know that Jesus became sin for you that you might become the righteousness of God. You must know that you have been given positional righteousness in the eyes of God based on what Jesus did, totally apart from your own righteousness or your own spiritual performance. The good news is that God does not love you because you are perfect, but because he is perfect.

The proper response to the accusations of the devil when he brings up your past or even present weaknesses and whispers that you are falling short of God’s standards is, “Of course, I am falling short. So what? That is why Jesus died for my sins and because of that, God does not hold my sins against me. I live in a condemnation free zone by the blood of Christ and by the grace of God. Satan you have no power here and your accusations have no weight. My past has been blotted out. My present is in process and my future is secure. I am justified in Christ and it is you that are condemned. Now go away!”

When accusation comes, don’t brood but respond with God’s truth. When condemnation raises its head, dismiss it as a lie. When Satan runs up the flag of rejection, ignore it because that sign has no meaning in the kingdom of God. Too many of us believe that punishment motivates us to change. If that were true, there would be no repeat offenders in prison. Too many of us believe that accusation, condemnation, and self-loathing will prompt us to do better and so we agree with Satan’s accusations.

But accusation, condemnation, and demeaning criticism only solidify our identity as broken and worthless. When the prodigal returned, he was given no lecture, no condemnation, no probation. Instead his return was celebrated and he was immediately given back his identity as a son. His true identity as a respected son of a proud Father was reinforced and that is what will bring our own growth and transformation. So remember, when the devil knocks on the door of your mind, post your Condemnation Free Zone sign and send him on his way.

But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.” Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. (Dan.1:8-15)

Many believers are forced to work or live in environments that are hostile to their faith. It may be a corporation that supports liberal causes, a university classroom with a professor who flaunts his atheism, or a government that declares sin to be a civil right and biblical values to be hate speech and bigotry. How do we navigate such environments? Many believers have decided that a little compromise is the way to survive and even have influence in those environments. The idea is that you must be part of the system to influence the system or you must be “accepted” by the culture to have any impact on the culture. Many have determined to be silent about their values while trying to keep from totally compromising those same values. As our culture become more and more anti-Christ, the question of how to live as a believer and still influence our environment becomes more and more relevant.

Daniel is a perfect example of a believer in that situation. In the first chapter of Daniel we are told that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem and the city eventually surrendered. Babylon used a deportation strategy in conquering other nations. The strategy was to take their best and brightest young people, who would eventually become leaders in that nation, to Babylon where they would be absorbed by the culture. In doing so, they got the services of these talented young men and robbed the defeated nation of future leaders who might foment rebellion. Daniel was one of those young men.

Within a short time, Daniel faced a dilemma which called on him to compromise his faith in the seemingly unimportant area of Jewish dietary restrictions. Daniel and other young men from Judah were placed in the charge of Ashpenaz, a chief court official, who was told to serve them the best foods from the king’s kitchen and train them for three years to see who would rise to the top. Having been ripped up from their homeland, these “top students” had landed on their feet. They were placed on an upward career path that promised much in a foreign land. All they had to do was to learn the language, adapt to the culture, and fit in while maintaining the well known Jewish role of over-achiever. In those potential positions of power, they might even wield some influence for their God among the pagans.

Daniel, however, chose the path of uncompromising faith. He respectfully asked Ashpenaz to allow him to eat according to his faith so that he would not be defiled by a Babylonian diet. There was considerable risk in the request. First of all, the request might be seen as an insult in which Daniel would be touting the superiority of his faith and culture over the faith and culture of Babylon who had, by the way, just soundly defeated the Jews. Secondly, the request might smack of ingratitude. Daniel had been given an unbelievable opportunity considering his situation. He could have just as easily been executed or enslaved in years of hard labor. If he didn’t like the program, there were plenty of others who would jump at the chance to take his place. Thirdly, his request placed his overseer in the difficult situation of violating the king’s orders. Making waves was not the way to ingratiate himself to his supervisor and was certainly not the way to the top.

However, Daniel asked to be allowed to serve the king while maintaining the tenants of his own faith. He was respectful and sensitive to the position in which he was placing his supervisor. He made a request and not a demand and suggested a trial period to evaluate the values he was espousing for the organization. He made no demands that others must do as did and no arrogance was found in him. The result was that God gave him favor in the sight of his supervisor and after a trial period, his supervisor found Daniel’s diet to be very beneficial to the program. In fact, his dietary restrictions were adopted into the program.

Daniel served pagan kings for decades while being uncompromising in his faith. He served without bitterness, without deceit, and with unsurpassed integrity. His ability to hear God in the interpretation of dreams saved himself, his friends, and a number of Babylonian career politicians who served as “wise men” or consultants to the king. His witness for his faith and his influence on unbelievers around him came from the excellence and integrity he brought to every job that was assigned to him. The quality of his character and his work ethic caused him to stand out as a light in the darkness. As he advanced, others were jealous and at times tried to have him removed from office and even executed, but his integrity had been such that no grounds for indictment could be found.

Eventually, even Nebuchadnezzar was forced to declare that Daniel’s God was superior to all of his gods. Years later, under King Darius, Daniel was delivered from an unjust sentence to be eaten by lions for praying to his God. After a night with the lions, Daniel walked out unscathed. As a result Darius declared, “I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. For he is the living God and he endures forever. His kingdom will not be destroyed…” (Dan.6:26). Undoubtedly, Daniel answered questions about his God when asked but let his life and his uncompromising faith became his daily testimony.

To live and serve in a hostile culture requires faith that God is with us in every situation, in every corporation, and every classroom. At times, we must believe that he will give us favor so that we can live for him without compromise and, at other times, we must believe that he will provide protection when Satan stirs up the culture against us. The key however, is our uncompromising faith, our character, and the excellence we bring to whatever we do. It is found in loving and serving even our enemies and respectfully living out our faith while accepting the risk of doing so. God shows up in big ways for the faithful not for the compromising.

Ultimately, we must desire the promotions of God over the promotions of men. We cannot serve two masters – the culture and gods of the world or the culture and the God of Heaven. If you find yourself in a hostile place today, spend some time with Daniel and his friends for wisdom and encouragement. Be blessed, humble, and uncompromising today in your service and your character. It is that lifestyle that allows others to see Jesus and that causes men to ask about Him.

Most of us will come to a season of life when we feel overwhelmed by the unknown that lies before us. The death of a spouse, the loss of a child, a bitter divorce, unexpected unemployment, or a bad diagnosis of a life threatening disease can make us feel as if every anchor in our life has broken and we are adrift in an unfamiliar sea with storm clouds on the horizon.

We feel secure when life has been manageable and predictable. When we can believe that tomorrow will be like today and next year will be like this year, we may not be excited but we’re okay. But take away the predictability; stir in some dire possibilities; and life suddenly feels out of control, overwhelming, and fearful. The questions are no longer, “Where do we eat?” or “Where do you want to go next summer?” The questions become: “Will I always be alone?” “Will we lose the house and how will I feed my wife and kids?” Will I survive the cancer and how painful will it be?” “What will this divorce do to my children and will I ever stop feeling this pain?”

I’ve been in those places and I probably will be there again at some point. During those seasons I have and will live in the Psalms. David’s heart often cries out as a man whose circumstances seen contradictory to the promises of God and whose life seems uncertain. Think of it. One day David was watching the sheep, minding his own business, and sitting on a rock tossing stones into a brook as teenagers do. Suddenly, he was called to his father’s house and Samuel the prophet poured oil on him an announced that David was destined to be king over Israel. All that “good news” became a calamitous disruption for his life.

If you read between the lines, his older brothers seemed to resent him now that he was going to be somebody. David took on Goliath for the armies of Israel and his brothers accused him of being cocky and conceited. Through that encounter, King Saul became aware of David and took him into the palace to serve. Surely David thought, “Great, now I will be interned to be king.” When it was all said and done, Saul’s jealousy drove David from the palace and away from his family. He became a hunted man living in the wilderness with the whole Israeli army hunting him down. So where was the promise? Where were the blessings attached to that prophecy? Why was God letting a disobedient king live and continue to hunt down David? Would he even survive? What was going on?

Confusion, frustration, and fear began to mark his life from time to time but a thread of faith always remained. How did David navigate that season (which many scholars believe was a seven to eight year period) of running and hiding, sleeping in caves, and wondering where his and his men’s next meal was coming from? David’s psalms vacillate between hope and despair, answered prayers and sleepless nights when God seemed absent, along with assurance and uncertainty.

We find some clues in David’s life to help us in our own season of confusion and desperation. First of all, David was honest with the Lord about his feelings. He didn’t feign great faith on days when it had leaked out during the night. Honesty is unsettling sometimes but healthy. Some days I’m sure he had to borrow a little faith from a friend.

Secondly, David had a history with God and saw the clear touch of God’s hand in his past. If God had delivered him from the lion, the bear, and from a giant, surely he had plans for his life beyond this season of running and hiding. We can’t overstate the recognition of God’s hand, purposes, and faithfulness in our past that suggests he still has more for us. Interestingly we often notice his hand more when we are running from God than when we are serving him. It seems that he is more apparent when he is chasing us than when he is refining us.

David also had a promise that had come in the form of a prophecy. Graham Cooke says that a prophetic word is a powerful tool. He suggests that when running toward Goliath, he might have been thinking that it was impossible for him to die because God had declared that he would be king someday. The assurance of God’s promise in his life launched him toward the giant but also sustained him during the years that Saul was hunting him. When David was discouraged and despairing, he held on to the promise. We all need a promise that we can hold onto when life or our future is uncertain. If you have a prophetic word, hold on to it. If you don’t have a prophetic word, find a promise in scripture that resonates with your spirit and hold on to that. God keeps his promises.

Most importantly, although David wasn’t sure about how his future would unfold, he was certain about the character of God – his faithfulness, his enduring love, his mercy, and his willingness to forgive our failings. He was also certain that God would not abandon his own – if for nothing else, to make sure his reputation was not sullied by his failure to protect his own when they were among the faithful. “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Ps. 23), etc. God cannot violate his own nature. He is who he is and although his timing is rarely to our liking, his character will eventually show up in his response to our prayers.

Finally, when we have to wait on the Lord, it is not because we are not pleasing to him. The enemy always attacks when God delays his answers by suggesting that we have not seen our rescue yet because God is displeased with us or, perhaps, doesn’t love us like we hoped. Abraham waited 25 years for his promised son. Moses waited 40 years for his life in Egypt and his years as a shepherd to make sense. Joseph did jail time. David spent eight years in hiding. Noah preached 125 years without one conversion. My point is that waiting with uncertainty is part of the believer’s life. Most often, God is preparing us to steward the answers to our prayers.

When you are in the emotional chaos of uncertainty be honest about your struggles, look for the evidence of God’s hand in your past because it points to the future. Find a promise or a prophetic word to hold on to. Depend on the character of God to bring you out of the pit. It’s what he does because it’s who he is. Know that his delay is preparing you for your promises and know that you are loved. Waiting, in the face of uncertainty, is part of the life of the faithful and you are in very good company.

Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! Isaiah 30:18

Having an internal frame of reference means that in any given situation we do not take our truth from external circumstances. The world always gives us negative information. We ask the Father for his perspective. We never ask, “Why?” It is the wrong question. It is an invalid question that makes us invalid. It is a victim question, and the Father never makes us victims. He trains us to fight, to overcome, and to be more than conquerors in Christ. If the Father has never been overwhelmed, and Jesus is undefeated, then the Holy Spirit can only lead us in triumph (Graham Cooke, Manifesting Your Spirit, p. 12, Brilliant Book House).

That’s a good word from Mr. Cooke. Think about it. If we are in Christ and he is in us, then we never need to be in any position other than the one Jesus is in in any situation. Instead, we often view ourselves as separated from Christ and all alone in our dilemmas. We feel as if he has withdrawn and left us to fend for ourselves. We then feel helpless and slip into Satan’s trap of feeling like victims. As soon as we take on the identity of a victim, we deny every scripture that declares God’s care for us and his promise that he will never leave us or forsake us.

As Cooke stated above, the question is not “Why?” but rather, “What do you want me to discover in this circumstance?” David had plenty of opportunity to ask “Why?” when he spent s years in the wilderness running from Saul. After all, he had been anointed by Samuel to be king over Israel and God had already announced that he was removing Saul’s throne, so why was Saul still king and trying desperately to take David’s life? It would have been easy for David to believe that God had gone back on his promises or that Samuel had given a prophetic word in error. There are, in fact, moments in scripture where David did feel those things but he quickly found his way back to faith and the promises of God – back to an internal perspective.

We often feel abandoned and victimized because God does not give us quick or clear answers to our prayers or because he answered them in ways that we did not outline for him. Certainly, David’s prayers immediately after his anointing by Samuel were not for God to place his life in peril and to allow him to live in caves for seven years. And yet, God had great purposes in the delay. Saul was given his kingship almost overnight. Solomon said that the earth shutters when a slave becomes king. I believe what he meant by that is that when someone suddenly becomes king who has not been trained in leadership, who has not been trained to wear power well, or whose heart has not been trained to follow God’s leading, then trouble is in the cards for everyone.

Saul was quickly made king because he looked presidential. He had the appearance of a leader but not the character. As the pressures of the office mounted he became insanely insecure. He operated out of fear rather than faith and was often disobedient to clear directions from the Lord.

David, however, learned to depend totally on God in his wilderness years. He learned to lead men by sacrifice and love rather than by threats. He discovered that God was present in every circumstance and had a solution already prepared for every problem. He learned humility and trust and the value of keeping God’s directives even when they seemed to put you at a disadvantage. On several occasions David could have easily taken Saul’s life and no one would have blamed him. David, however, refused because he had learned that the throne had to be given by God, not taken by his own cunning. The delay, the cold nights, the threatening circumstances, the years that passed, the multiple rescues from Saul’s hand, provision in the wilderness, etc. all trained David’s heart to be king. In fact, it trained David to be “a man after God’s own heart.”

Faith is an internal perspective that sees present circumstances through the promises of God. It does not receive the condemnation of the world or the hopeless reports of those who do not know Jesus. It is never hopeless because Christ is our hope. It does not despair because even if physical life slips away, eternal life is waiting for us. Even if we die, when we die in faith we have run our race and won a crown. We are in Christ and he is in us.

Paul declares that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8), therefore, we are never separate from his love. We are never victims. We are only conquerors waiting to see the victory God has planned come to pass. Never ask “Why?” but ask “What do you have for me in this circumstance?” There are no losers in Christ, but only winners if we know what and who is ours. Blessings in the one who never makes his children victims.

So…what do we do when the faithful fail? What do we do when we fail, when we slip back into a sin we thought we had left far behind, or when weakness overcomes our faith? There are many who would say that the cleansing of deep regret and overwhelming feelings of guilt are the right response to realign our hearts with the Father. Many of us believe that a sense of shame and guilt and the emotional pain of our failure will keep us from sliding into sin again. But there is an interesting passage in Nehemiah that raises a question about that course.

In the book of Nehemiah we find the prophet in exile. Jerusalem had been sacked and burned and the best and brightest of the Jews deported. When word reached Nehemiah that the city he loved was still devastated with the walls lying in heaps of rubble and the gates burned he cried out to God. God moved King Artaxerxes to allow Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem and restore the city. After a remarkable restoration project, the wall and city gates were rebuilt. Nehemiah and the people were certain that all the things that had happened to Israel were because of their sins, so when the wall was completed Nehemiah called for a solemn assembly to re-consecrate the people and the city. Ezra the priest stood and read the Book of the Law to all the people.

The text says, “They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.   Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh.8:8-10).

The natural response of the people to their sin and the righteous standards of their God was to weep as they felt the guilt and shame of their sins and the sins of their fathers. And yet, God instructed them not to weep but to celebrate. This is a clear picture of the difference between condemnation and conviction.

Condemnation is a tool of the enemy that he uses against us when we fail. Condemnation produces shame and shame pushes us away from the Father at the very moment that we need to be drawing close. Remember, Adam and Eve felt shame in the garden at the moment of their sin and the realization of their nakedness. That shame caused them to hide from the Father and to blame others for what they had chosen to do. Satan loves to come and condemn. In response to the enemy’s strategy, Paul declares that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom.8:1).

Shame is the very thing that drives many of us to sin in an effort to cover or medicate our sense of unworthiness. Our unbearable feelings of insignificance, defectiveness, and inadequacy drive many to substance abuse, sexual addictions, comfort eating, and so forth. Condemnation simply increases our shame and our need to medicate so that we get caught in a destructive cycle. Condemnation convinces us that even God can’t love and that being the case … we are on our own. When we are on our own we are dangerous to ourselves and others.

Even in the face of their sins, Israel was commanded to celebrate rather than weep. The celebration was not a statement that their sins did not matter, but rather a recognition that God’s love and grace were greater than their sin. It was a celebration of God’s love and mercy that draws us back to him rather than driving us away.

In the Nehemiah passage, God calls on us to focus on his grace rather than on our failings. Bill Johnson speaks to this when he says, “The real problem is not in what we lack, but how we respond to what God has said. Focusing on our problems more than God’s answers should be a dead giveaway that we’re really dealing with condemnation not the Holy Spirit’s conviction. Focus on God’s answers – not your problems. When the Holy Spirit shows us where we are falling short. The bigger reality is not the areas where we’re not yet walking in our destiny, but the destiny itself…The conviction of the Holy Spirit is actually a call to turn our focus away from our sin and our limitations. He’s saying, ‘You’re made for more than this. Lift your head and set your sights higher’” (Bill Johnson, Strengthen Yourself in the Lord, p.136-137; Destiny Image).

There is a time for godly sorrow, but the sorrow should quickly turn from our self- focus on our weakness to God’s strength, from our unfaithfulness to his faithfulness, from our failures to his victory, and from our discouragement to his grace. The joy of the Lord is our strength. We will have greater victories over sin if we focus on Him rather than us. The constant goodness of God and his willingness to forgive any sin as soon as our heart turns to him is a reason to celebrate. It does no good for us to wallow in our self-loathing or despise ourselves as if beating ourselves emotionally will pay for our sins or convince God of our sorrow. Our sins are already paid for and the proof of repentance is not found in self-loathing but in loving God.

When we fail in our walk with the Lord, we should own it, confess it quickly, and then get on to celebrating God’s goodness and love. There is joy in that and in that joy we find strength for the next stage of our journey wherever we are. Blessings today as you celebrate the goodness and grace of your Savior.

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ” So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord. (Ezek. 37:1-14)

This is one of the most poignant and compelling sections of scripture in the entire Bible and is filled with as much significance for us today as it was for the Jews in days of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel lived and prophesied during the days of Babylon’s world dominance. In 607 B.C. Babylon had invaded Israel and deported many of the best and brightest of the nation including Daniel. In 597 B.C. another invasion occurred and more of the Jews were taken. Finally, in 586 B.C. the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem, destroyed Solomon’s temple, and took the temple treasures back to Babylon. The Ark of the Covenant, which stood in the Holy of Holies and on which the presence of God rested, disappeared and has been searched for ever since. The destruction of the temple and the disappearance of the Ark seemed to be irrefutable evidence that God had finally abandoned Israel to her fate because of years of unrepented sin.

By all rational standards, Israel was finished as a nation. After all, it was an insignificant nation by world standards – only 65 miles wide and 120 miles long. Their capital was decimated, the temple which was the center of Jewish faith and culture was destroyed, and all the powerful, gifted, and educated members of Jewish society had been enslaved and scattered through out the Babylonian empire. Israel looked as if it would disappear into history and be absorbed by the nations around it showing up in old manuscripts as only a curiosity – a small nation that flourished for a few centuries and then faded into oblivion.

But God was not through with Israel. To demonstrate his plans for the nation, he led Ezekiel into a valley of desolation and death. There the prophet scanned a lunar-like landscape covered with the bleached bones of a long defeated army left for the wild animals and hot sun to clean. No one had even cared enough or had the capacity to come find these fallen men and bury them. They were alone. The symbolism of defeat, death, despair, and hopelessness fit the mood of the Hebrews who had left Egyptian slavery for freedom but seemed to have had come full circle now as captives and slaves in Babylon. Having brought him to this valley of desolation, God asked Ezekiel the ultimate question, “Can these bones live?”

Maybe you have asked that question about your own life or the lives of others you care about in a different way but with the same sentiment. “Can that marriage ever be put back together after the adultery?” “ Will I ever feel anything but this pain?” “Can someone so broken ever be freed from his addiction?” “Will the child, molested and raped, ever be able to trust and love someone else?” Our world is full of dry bones. Perhaps, there are piles of dry bones in your own life? Can those bones live again? We will begin to look at the way back to life in my next blog.

“Don’t be afraid!” How many times was that phrase spoken to believers throughout the Bible? Is it just an absence of faith that God is rebuking or is there something more sinister about fear than just not fully trusting in God? I have often thought that people who tried to minister deliverance with some fear about failure or about the demon were setting themselves up for something more than disappointment. We have always heard the expression that wild animals or big snarling dogs can sense your fear and be emboldened to attack. I believe it is the same in the spiritual realm. I like the way Bill Johnson explains the ramifications of fear.

Fear is faith in the devil…The devil is called Beelzebub, which means lord of the flies. He and his hosts are attracted to decay….Issues such as bitterness, jealousy, and hatred qualify as the decay of the heart that invites the devil to come and give influence – yes, even to Christians. Remember Paul’s admonition to the church of Ephesus, “Neither give place to the devil.” Fear is also the decay of the heart. It attracts the demonic in the same way as bitterness and hatred. (Bill Johnson, When Heaven Invades Earth, p.50).

Fear in the spiritual atmosphere is like drops of blood in the ocean. Some predator will pick up it’s sent and seek its source. So when we are encouraged not to be afraid it is not just the absence of trust in God but it is a substance in the spiritual realm that emboldens the enemy to come against you. Our fear comes either from the uncertainty that God is actually greater than Satan or it comes from the uncertainty that God will protect us from the enemy. Scripture is full of promises that God is, in fact, much greater than the devil and that he will come to our aid if we are under attack. To not believe God’s word is to come into agreement with the enemy and that agreement gives him a place in our life.

Someone might say, “Well, doesn’t wisdom teach us to be afraid of grizzly bears because they are much bigger and stronger than us and in the same way shouldn’t we have a healthy fear of demons because the spiritual realm is greater than the natural realm?” The answer is that we should be wise but not afraid and I can be within three feet of a grizzly bear without fear. I can be totally fearless if strong walls protect me or if I am positioned inside an M1 Abrams Tank which is currently the army’s largest battle tank. It is highly armored, weighs 64 tons, and has great speed not to mention tremendous firepower. Surrounded by that kind of power and protection a grizzly bear, even though he is only three feet away, is no threat. In that moment, however, I could be a great threat to the bear.

Scripture says that we are in Christ and, therefore, are surrounded by Christ. We are told that the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him. If we fear the enemy is it because we are unaware or unconvinced of our position. Should we be cautious not to make ourselves vulnerable to the enemy? Of course, we are not to be presumptuous. We are only vulnerable to the enemy, however, if we have failed to wear our armor or if we have opened a hatch and invited the enemy inside with us. We can correct those mistakes and lay fear aside if it has crept in with the enemy.

We are told to fix our eyes on Jesus and often we should meditate on Jesus not just as the Good Shepherd who lays his life down for the sheep but rather as the Commander of the Armies of Heaven riding out on a white horse with his garments dripping with the blood of his enemies – which are also your enemies. Jesus is not always the meek and gentle King he is also the fierce King who will destroy his enemies with the sword of his mouth and crush the devil under his feet. Don’t be afraid. There is no need and it attracts flies.