The Three P's
Promise, Problem and Provision
In Mark 14:37-38, Jesus is about ready to go to the Cross and He is praying. He said in verse 37, "And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping..." There are people in the Church sleeping today. There are areas in us that need to be aroused and awakened. "...and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour?" Verse 38: "Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak."
Usually, we go the way of the flesh instead of the way of the spirit, unless we are attuned to God. In Galatians 5:17, it says that there is a warfare between the flesh and the spirit. Actually, in the Greek, it says that they are "antagonistic" one to another.
[I want to share some things from the scriptures that God has given me concerning how He deals with us. We will first look at what I call "The Three P's" (Promise, Problem and Provision), and then "Why God Hides." I trust these words will help give us good understanding, that we might believe His Word and follow His Spirit, and put away the things of our flesh. (I have given the accompanying chart to help show the things I have to share)].
First God gives us a PROMISE. We have Spirit, Soul and Body. When we hear God, we usually hear Him in the Spirit first. When God speaks, He speaks to your spirit. God gives us promises within. We do not need a whole lot more promises just yet. We need to have some of the promises fulfilled that He has already given us. God is waiting on us. We are not waiting on God; God is waiting on us to do our part. When we do our part, then God can do His part.
We need promises, and God will give us promises. Promises come through: the prophetic word; through the Word of God; through visions, dreams (and) visitations; through angelic beings or through the Lord Himself. They come different ways. But no matter how they come, we know they are not an automatic thing. In fact when you get a PROMISE, automatically, God will have to allow a PROBLEM to come your way. Before the PROVISION can come, there must he a problem. There is a reason for that, and we will get into that later on.
How many have ever had a "fog of confusion" in your life? Things were over you that you did not understand. There was a cloud, a fog, a darkness, or there were problems, a smoke screen, wilderness, or soul realm -- whatever you want to call it. This is an area where we don't understand why we are in a situation, or why we are going through certain things, but God has a reason for it. I can remember a few years ago, I went into a great trauma, right in my soul. I thought I was losing my mind. For fifteen years, I walked through depression, oppression, etc. I had to go through a great struggle, right in my mind. God showed me a lot of things in that trial. I learned it for myself, and hopefully I can teach it to others.
Here is what you need in the problem. You need principles. Two of the principles are FAITH and PATIENCE. You need those two things to take you through to the Provision (what God has promised you in your heart). The principles are how to stand in the problem. God does not want us to fall or fail in the problem. This is where people fail, right in the problem.
The promise of God came to Israel while they were in Egypt. God said, "I am going to take you into a land that is flowing with milk and honey. I am going to take you into the Promised Land (The Provision)." Between Egypt and the Promised Land is a Wilderness. It is a great "howling wilderness" (as the Bible calls it in Deuteronomy 32:10).
No matter what kind of problem one is in, we should never make fun of others. Problems are serious! Whatever the problem may be, whether mentally, physically, financially, spiritually, emotionally -- every problem we go into is a real problem. I have heard people make fun of those who go into testing times.
If you are going to grow in God, you are going to have testings. It says in Acts 14:22, we enter the Kingdom by much tribulation. We are going to have the "wilderness" experiences. We should not have a complex in that particular area. God wants us to come to the place, where we walk in the Provision (the power, or the promises fulfilled, or the Promised Land) -- walking it out in shoe leather, whatever He has given us in our heart.
One time, a young man in Bible school came up to his professor and said he was ready. He said, "I believe I have earned my inheritance," and the instructor looked at him and said, "No, all you are ready for is a grape from Canaan's land." Sometimes we think we are ready, when we are not really ready. We think we are there, when we are not there. We all have thought that, but God will forgive us and help us.
Another man walked out of church one day. He had gotten his promise; he had gotten his blessing, and he was carrying this big bucket. He was doing good until his wife slammed the door on his hand and he lost his blessing.
Every promise in the Book is mine, how about you? We sing an old chorus, "Standing on the promises that cannot fail." How many believe His promises cannot fail? Sometimes it takes a long time for a promise to be fulfilled. Remember, we are not waiting on God, but God is waiting on us.
Sometimes, some problems you learn how to come through pretty rapidly. But there are some problems you don't come through too fast. Some problems take a little longer. Whether it is forty years or forty days, we will make it if we keep going on for Jesus. Israel took forty years (Jesus took forty days). It was actually only a two week journey into the Promised Land. It took them forty years, when it could have taken them two weeks.
A deception is to know the promise but never be able to see it fulfilled. Many people have received a promise, but because of certain reasons, they will never see the promises fulfilled.
The promise is the initial leading that God has put in my spirit. God reveals something to you or me (out of His mind; out of His will) that He wants you and I to walk into. So when God gives the promises, we may be cool, calm and collected. We may be praising and rejoicing in God, happy and smiling, when the promise is given. And we may be doing that over in the provision when we walk into it. But it is not always that way in the problem. Usually it is "Oh, me!" We do not always understand. Otherwise, say it this way. Here is the honey (the promise). You feel the honey dripping when you get the promise, but it gets bitter when you walk in the problem. I am not saying we are to get bitter.
We inherit the promises little by little. Turn to Deuteronomy 7. Remember God promised Israel the Promised Land. He gave it to them in Egypt. He said, "I want to bring you into a land flowing with milk and honey." Deuteronomy 7:22, "And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee..."
Notice that God is going to do it, but how is God going to do it? He is not going to do it apart from you and me? NO!
"And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts (the powers of darkness) of the field (the world) increase upon thee."
If you are going to take the promised land; if you are going to come into His promises that He has given for you, He said it would be only "little by little." You and I could never take it all at once what God has for us. It would destroy us. We are not able to take all of it. We know Jesus had the Spirit without measure. You and I have the promise of the Spirit. We have the initial down payment. The fulness of the Holy Spirit has not come within us. We are at the Pentecostal stage; we have not come into Tabernacles. Thank God, God is going to lead us on and upward, as we are able to take in all that He has for us.
Go to 2nd Corinthians 1:20, "For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." The more we stand on the promises, the more we glorify Jesus. The less we stand on the promises, the less He will be glorified in you and me. (Romans 15:8).
Turn to Hebrews 6:12, "That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through FAITH AND PATIENCE inherit the promises." You are following someone who has something within them. It is not just talk. It is not religiosity, it is FAITH AND PATIENCE. The principles we need to inherit these promises, or to come into the provision of what God has said, is "Faith and Patience." "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Patience comes by trials and tribulation.
Verse 13, "For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself..."
Verse 14, "Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee."
Verse 15, "And so, after he had (done something) patiently endured (that was a long time, a long trial), he obtained the promise."
When God said he was going to have a son, he didn't have it overnight. It took some time to have that promised child. Sarah laughed at it. She didn't believe. We have laughed at some things, too, that we shouldn't have laughed at. After he "patiently endured," he obtained the promise God had told him.
Look in chapter 10 of Hebrews, verse 35, "Cast not away therefore your confidence..." The word "confidence" means "boldness." I have seen Christians today that are losing confidence. Do not lose your confidence in God and what God has said. Regardless of what man does or says, don't lose your confidence in the Lord and in His Word, "...which hath great recompense of reward."
Verse 36, "For ye (you and I) have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God..." What do we say? "God, I have done it; now give it to me!" No! He said, "...after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." Keep holding on; don't give up!
Verse 37, "For yet a little while, (God's "little while" and our "little while" are not always the same, are they?) and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry."
Romans 4:13, "For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith."
Verse 14, "For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:"
Verse 15, "Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression."
Verse 16, "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace...
Aren't you glad for the grace of God? We wouldn't be here, if it wasn't for that. We wouldn't be a Christian. In my life, I could be in hell by the way I lived long ago. I am thankful God reached down and saved me, convicted me of sin, and I was truly born again.
"...to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all."
Verse 17, "(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations), before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were." God is calling things that be not as though they are. God sees the end as well as the beginning.
Verse 18, "Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be."
Verse 19, "And being not weak in faith..." Notice, the promise comes, and he is strong in faith and not weak in faith. We need more faith within us. We need our faith increased, as never before. It is more than spouting words out. I am talking about the real thing. It is in the heart, and as the result, the mouth does speak it. It is something that is real. It is not religiosity. "...he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb:"
Verse 20, "He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;"
Verse 21, "And being fully persuaded, that what he had promised, he was able also to perform."
What God has said to you, He will do, if you will believe Him. Whatever promise the Lord has given to vou; whatever way it has come, hold on to God. Don't give up; God will not fail!
Five things with these scriptures in mind:
1. Abraham had the Word of God or the promise. We know he was going to become the father of many nations, he was going to have a son, yet he had no son.
2. He believed what God said.
3. He refused to consider contradictory circumstances or his own body or his wife's body at their age. He refused to believe that it would not happen. He believed what God said.
4. He was strong in faith.
5. He gave glory to God.
I heard someone say this years ago, "We all want Abraham's blessing on the faith of Thomas." It just doesn't come that way, does it? We have to have faith and patience.
The principles here in the problem teach us how to come through the problem and on into that provision.
One of the great snares of the Christian life is to assume that we have experimentally what we know intellectually. We know a lot of things in our mind, but it does not make it so, just because we know it in our mind. It has to drop from our mind to our heart. Then it has to drop from the heart down to our feet, and we must walk it out.
Isaiah 1:18, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
Verse 19, "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:"
Verse 20, "But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."
Now the person that is in possession of these two things, willingness and obedience, is not endangered by success. The reason we are afraid of the Provision is because we have seen people come into things and it has destroyed them. We feel more comfortable over in the Problem sometimes. If you and I are in possession of a willing heart and obedience to God, we are not endangered by success. Otherwise, by virtue, we are on receiving ground, if we have those two things.
What we have to realize is that, sometimes, we are willing and obedient out of "fear." Just out of fear, we obey. We are to fear God, but God wants it to be more than out of fear. He wants it to be from our inner man, with all our being. "I want to be willing, God, I want to be obedient. Whatever you tell me. Whatever you say for me to do. I want to do it, God, because I love you.
What is the purpose for the wilderness, the fog of confusion, the smoke screen, the problem that is in the soul? The soul is where your battle is. The Church goes into the wilderness, and, of course, that is worldwide. But the greatest wilderness you will have is when you are tested right in your soul: mind, will, emotions and desires. The purpose for the wilderness is to make us recognize our own insufficiency, and that God is all-sufficient. The wilderness between Egypt and Canaan took two weeks. So we have a choice -- forty days or forty years.
Turn to Hebrews 3:7, "Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear his voice..." God has a voice.
Verse 8, "Harden not your hearts (the problem is not only in our mind, but also in our hearts), as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness."
Verse 9, "When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years."
Listen to what He said. Verse 10, "Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways."
You know what the "ways of God" are? Let me tell you one thing of what the ways of God are. The ways of God are judgment. Turn to Deuteronomy 32:1. "Give ear, O ye heavens..." (How many know we are not talking about the sky. I am talking about your heaven. I am talking about your soul. I am talking about you and me.) "...and 1 will speak; and hear, O earth (that is us), the words of my mouth."
Verse 2, "My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:"
Verse 3, "Because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God."
Verse 4, "He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." So the ways of God are judgment. Judgment means He will turn things right that were wrong, or make things right that were wrong.
Back in Hebrews 3:10, "...and thev have not known my ways." Verse 18, "And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?" What is the rest? It is the promised land.
Verse 19, "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." What is going to keep us out of our promises? Unbelief! Unbelief will kill you. It is a spirit; it is a demon. Unbelief is a demon, and it will keep you out of your inheritance.
Hebrews 4:6, "Seeing therefore it remaineth that some (I believe there is going to be a remnant, that is going to enter that rest) must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief..."
Verse 11, "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." Notice the rest. Jesus said, in Matthew 11:29-30, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." That is His promise to give you rest. Then He says, "Take my yoke upon you." That is the problem. Now, He said, "...my yoke is easy and my burden is light." That is in the spirit. In the spirit, it is light, but in the flesh, it is hard. "Take my yoke," that is the problem. Then He said, "Learn of me." That is the principle, learning of Jesus. He is going to teach us faith and patience. And He said, "You shall find rest" for the soul. You will find the rest. This is the Provision.
I want to talk about this "wilderness complex." You have some people say you do not have to go through things, and then you have some people who say they are going to stay there. Remember what was said at the very beginning in Mark 14:38, "Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." How many believe, if we were in prayer much of the time, there would be things you wouldn't have to go through? Because we submit to the flesh and not to the spirit, then He has to deal with that situation. It is not that God is out to kill you or destroy you; He wants to do a work in your heart and my heart. So when we yield to the flesh, then God has to deal with us. We must go through the wilderness to learn dependence upon God.
There is a difference between a wilderness experience and a wilderness complex. We will all have a wilderness experience at different times. We are not to have the wilderness complex. That means we have seen so many out there destroyed in the problem, that we may develop that complex because of it, or think we must be tested all of the time with no let up.
The problem is necessary, but it is not always permanent. There are going to be different times you will be in there for different reasons. But it should not be every day, every hour, every month, every year, like some would tell you. We need to come out of the testing in some areas, sooner or later. Now you may come out and be back in a week or two in another situation, but that is all right; you came out of the one you were in. The more you come through, the stronger you are getting to come on through some more. Our conduct in the oroblem determines the degree or the proportion to which you can receive your provision. So embrace the problem.
Remember, the greater the promise, the greater the problem, the greater the provision. That is why when you see someone get a great promise, you know they are going into a great trial. Think of Paul. Right on a donkey, the Lord appears to him, and he falls off. Light from heaven shines and all that, and someone says, "Oh, I would like to have that." But are you ready to go through what Paul had to go through? God said, "I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake." So the greater the promise God gives you, the greater the problem you walk in, but greater is the provision realm for you and for me to inherit. I will tell you that if you will embrace everything that God says in the promise and in the problem, too, then you will embrace it in the provision.
We have all fought the fire, but without the fire, you cannot be made perfect. You may meet the enemy head on in the problem, but Jesus will jump in that fire with you. He got right in there with the Hebrew children. People will throw you into the problem, too. Remember they found the strongest people in Babylon, and they bound the three Hebrew children; the fire was seven times hotter. Seven is the number of God. They threw them right in the fire. But the very people who threw them in the fire, the Bible says that the fire consumed them. Jesus jumped right in there with the three Hebrew children. Think of it, all those Jews down in Babylon, only three would not bow; actually four, counting Daniel. There had to be other Jews bowing down to that image.
The miracles took place in the wilderness. Their shoes didn't wear out; their clothes didn't wear out. God gave them manna and quail, water, whatever they needed. The cloud of God was over them by day and the fire by night, the covering of the Lord. This (the wilderness) is where we get to know the Lord. We have two choices. We either get to know the Lord or we go backwards.
There are two extremes in the problem area. We either have a "wilderness complex" (or consciousness) on one side, or the "prosperity" pack on the other side, that says you can have anything you want without suffering. They are both wrong. This is where God shows us to ourselves, and then deliverance will come when we cry out to Him.
As we get closer to the Provision (the power or the promise being fulfilled), the opposition begins to increase. The fog is much more dense then it was. The fog condition increases, but as you sense it and know that the promise is close, then you can stand and believe God the more, and come right on in to what God has for you. Remember what I said, in the Problem can come discouragement, fear, loss of faith, frustration, murmuring (and) unbelief, but we have to avoid all of that. When we get into that atmosphere, we have to recognize God, and repent when we allow those things to come in. Sometimes your brother and sister can point those things out to you.
If you and I have lost that initial leading, when you get over into the problem (in this fog of confusion), then we say, "What in the world is wrong with me?" "What is happening to me?" What we have to do is go back again, and embrace this promise that God has told us. We have to go back and pick it up, and as we pick it up, we can expect this fog of confusion to come again. But exercising faith and patience will bring us on through into the provision or the expected end.
Look in Exodus 13. There are degrees in the Wilderness. Exodus 13:8, "And thou shalt shew thy son in that day, saying, This is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt." Verse 17, "And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near, for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt." God's people were not ready for war. God was going to take them through the wilderness to teach them, train them, discipline them and bring them into the land. He said they were not ready for war, lest they turn back to Egypt.
Verse 18, "But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt."
Verse 19, "And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for then he had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you." You know why he wanted to take those bones out of Egypt? Because Joseph knew there was going to come a resurrection in the Promised Land. After Jesus rose from the dead, it says in Matthew 28:52, many came out of the graves. Joseph might have been one of them.
Verse 20, "And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness." Notice, God is going to take them the way of the wilderness, and now they are at the edge of it. How many have felt you are right at the edge of something?
Verse 21, "And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:"
Verse 22, "He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people."
Go to 14:3, "For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in."
How many feel like you have been shut in? Pharaoh is a picture of the devil. He is right behind them. So they come by way of the wilderness, on the edge of the wilderness, and they are right in it. I don't think that is in the Bible for nought.
1st Corinthians 10. There are five scorpions in the wilderness. In this chapter, you have Baptism in the Sea, and Baptism in the Cloud. You have the beverage (He is our spiritual drink), and you have the bread (He is our spiritual meat).
You have three "B's":
Baptism
Beverage
Bread
1st Corinthians 10:1, "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; (that is water baptism). Verse 2, "And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud (represents the Baptism of the Holy Ghost) and in the sea;". Verse 3, "And did all eat the same spiritual meat;" Verse 4, "And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ." Verse 5, "But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness."
(Right in the Problem, right in the fog of confusion, right in the wilderness -- He was not pleased, because they were overthrown. God is not pleased when you are defeated in a situation. There are two ways that you can please God: By walking in the Spirit, and by the Cross. He wants us to have a cross, and He wants us to be led by the Holy Spirit).
Verse 6, "Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust..." That is not just sexual lust. There is political lust, lust for power, lust for money, as well as other kinds of lust. "...after evil things, as they also lusted." So the first scorpion is Lust. Where is the lust going to appear? Where is it going to be the most attractive? Right here in the Problem.
Verse 7, "Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." The second scorpion is Idolatry. We can idolize anyone or anything.
Verse 8, "Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand." Fornication is more than sexual sin; it is all types of perversion as well. The third scorpion is Fornication.
Verse 9, "Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents." Where are you going to tempt Christ? Right in the Problem. People get mad at God right in the Problem. You know what tempting Christ is? It means to ask God for a sign greater than what He desires to give you. Look in Psalms 78:18, "And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lusts." They were asking God for a sign greater than He wanted to give them. Many died while the meat was in their teeth. So to tempt God means to ask God for something He is not ready to give you. The devil said to Jesus, "Why don't you get up on that temple and jump off." So the fourth scorpion is tempting God.
Verse 10, "Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer." So the fifth thing is murmuring.
Verse 11, "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." Verse 12, "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." If you think you can stand in your problem, in your power and in yourself, you are wrong. He said, "...take heed lest he fall."
Verse 13, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able..." Sometimes, you think it is going beyond what you can endure. "...but will with the temptation also (the Lord will) make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." Notice two things here, there is a way to escape (Jesus is our way to escape), and endurance, the ability to endure the situation we are in.
There are three alternatives you have to know right in the Problem. The first alternative is that we have to take another lap when (we) fail the first time. How many have gone around the mountain more than once? One brother, who was a preacher, said that he could give people a guided tour around the mountain, and step in every track where he went.
Look in Deuteronomy 2:1, "Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the Lord spake unto me: and we compassed mount Seir many days." No matter (what) the situation may be, we have all taken a lap or two around the mountain. Verse 3 says, "Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward."
The second alternative is that our bones can get bleached. That means you die physically. Sometimes, people are taken out of the problem physically. That doesn't mean they are lost spiritually, but it means physically, they are taken out of the situation. It means their bones are bleached; they die; they perish, even with the possession of the promise in their heart. There are ministers today that will never enter their ministry God has for them. Some are going to remain just pastors, and they could be apostles and prophets of God, and ministering out on the field for God. But because of security, pension plans, big offerings, they are going to stay right at home. They are never going to come into what God has for them.
See Jude 5, "I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt..." This is where the promise was given back in Egypt. He saved them out of Egypt with His outstretched arm. "...afterward destroyed them that believed not." They were destroyed in the wilderness because of unbelief. They died physically.
The third alternative is we can stand and enter into our provision (the promises fulfilled of what God has said). We stand and enter. We stand on the naked Word of God, and enter into those provisions. We have got to believe what God has said. I heard a man say once that there are three harbor lights, which are:
1. The Holy Spirit
2. The Word of God
3. Circumstances
God may speak into your heart something, even confirm it in the Word, and what do we do? But pack our duffel bag and get ready to go right then. God isn't always in it, is He? Circumstances have to work out with the Spirit and with the Word. God will work the circumstances and it will flow in His timing.
Now think of Eve and think of Jesus. Jesus did not escape the problem. The Holy Ghost led Him into the wilderness. The Bible said we are tempted because of our own lust. There was no lust in Jesus. Jesus was our example. He came through the situation to prove and show you and I how to come through.
In the problem, some religious questions come. One is "Hath God said?" The devil asked Eve that. Secondly, "If thou be the Son of God? So, religious questions come to you and me; so, you better know what voice you are listening to; whether it be God or the enemy.
You have to realize when you are in a problem, you are thrust headlong in there with Satan. Now, the Lord may be allowing you to go into that situation; He may be leading you. Now, He is not leading you into evil, but He may be leading you into a situation, where you are thrust headlong with the devil. It is just you and the devil. You had better know the difference between the voice of the devil and the voice of God. Of course, that comes through growth in the Lord. We better know what God has told us.
When you get in the problem, you had better know what God has said back in the promise. Remember the young prophet in the Old Testament?
In 2nd Kings, chapter 13, the young prophet knew exactly what God told him to do. He fulfilled every thing God told him to do. When the old prophet came to him, and lied to him, and said, "An angel said to me, come home with me." The young prophet believed the word of the old prophet over the Word of God. As they went back, and as they sat at the table, the Word of the Lord came to the old prophet. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. It was a true word. He told him how he was going to die. He was not to eat or drink and yet he did. He left and a lion smote him and killed him.
He believed the old prophet over the Word of God. He was young and immature, like we are in a lot of areas. We had better know the voice of God from the enemy's voice. Later, when the old prophet found the young prophet, he was dead. The lion was on one side, and the donkey was on the other side. The lion is Satan, and the donkey is the beast (spiritually thinking). There is a beast in us. Did you know the lion did not eat that donkey? He did not eat that beast. The lion works through the beast nature in you and me. Those were two natural beasts, but the lion represents Satan, and the beast represents the nature in you and me. Satan did not eat the beast, but uses it.
Whv does God require a problem to be put between vou and God? Why does He require it? Because success in the problem prepares us to receive the provision without failure. Many have been given promises, and they fail in the wilderness.
Just as you have to have principles after God gives you the promise to come through the problem, you also have to have principles once you come into the provision. Read chapters 5-8 in Deuteronomy.
The problem will build you up spiritually. Without it, you cannot be built up as you should.
Jesus talked about the Kingdom in Matthew 13:3-8. He said the birds came and took the seed. Then, He said there was stony ground. He said the seeds sprang up, but what happened? There was no depth of earth, the sun came out, and it scorched the seed. Next are the thorns that choked the seed. Then you have the one that brought forth fruit: some thirty fold, some sixty fold, some an hundredfold (he was fruitful). One out of four was fruitful!
Go to Deuteronomy 8:1, "All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers." Notice all the commandments; these are the principles of God. He said you are to keep these when you come over into the Promised Land. "You do My commandments."
Verse 2, "And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart..." (God knows what is in our hearts, but we don't). "...whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no." So this is testing ground to see if we are going to keep God's Word.
Verse 3, "And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of ihe Lord doth man live."
Verse 4, "Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years." (Where is all this happening? In the wilderness!)
Verse 5, "Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee."
Where are you chastened? Right in the problem! If you are going to be a son, then you will be chastened in the problem.
Verse 6, "Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him."
Verse 7, "For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land (this is the Promised Land), a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;" Verse 8, "A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;" Verse 9, "A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass."
Verse 10, "When thou hast eaten and art full..." Now He is saying that when you come into the Promised Land, you have all these blessings going for you. "...then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee."
Here is a warning! Verse 11, "Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:" These are His principles. Verse 12, "Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;" This is a warning to the Church.
Verse 13, "And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied;" (God is a God of multiplication).
Verse 14, "Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;" Verse 15, "Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness..." God has a "Ways and Means" committee to get our attention. Let's see what it is. "...wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint;"
Verse 16, "Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee..." Is God out to destroy you? No! "...to do thee good at thy latter end;" Even though He has put you in this situation, He is out to do you good, not to destroy you.
Verse 17, "And thou say in thine heart, My power (pride) and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth." (That is what we think many times).
Verse 18, "But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day."
Verse 19, "And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish." Even though you are in the land of promise, God said you shall perish.
Verse 20, "As the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God."
If God has to come and bail you and me out of the problem, then the problem is only extended or postponed for a period of time. A postponement only delays spiritual progress as God comes in.
God fixes a fix to fix you; if you fix the fix, then He has to fix another fix to fix you.
The heart is desperately wicked. The Bible says, "...who can know it?" Israel (it says in Acts 7:34-44) wanted to go back in their heart. They wanted to turn back to Egypt. Whatever is in the heart is what we are going to do. David had adultery in his heart. Judas had a love for money in his heart and he betrayed Jesus. Why can't God bless some people financially? Because they are not faithful to God in the problem. They do not give to God; they are robbing God, and they are not faithful to God. God cannot let you come into much prosperity, because it would destroy you. If we cannot be faithful in little, we cannot be faithful in much. Judas was destroyed for his love of money. In 2 Chronicles 32:31, we read that God left Hezekiah "...to try him, to know all that was in his heart."
Jesus said these words in John 14:30 (this is out of the Amplified Bible), "I will not talk with you much more, for the prince (evil genius, ruler) of the world is coming." 1. "And he has no claim on Me..." (In order to get your bags at the airport, you have to have a baggage claim. Jesus said he has no claim on Him.) 2. "...He has nothing in common with Me..." 3. "...there is nothing in Me that belongs to him..." (There was no baggage in Jesus that belonged to him or is like him). 4. "...he has no power over Me." If there is nothing in us that is like the enemy, then he has no power over us. But if there is something in us that is like him, then he is going to claim his baggage. So, God is going to take us into the wilderness to deal with our hearts.
Jesus said when teaching us how to pray, "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one."
"Lord, let there be nothing in my heart that would cause You to put me to the test -- but if there is, let me learn my lessons well."
Don't trust your emotions while going through the problem. They will fail you in the problem. Don't build yourself a "cross," because you will use rubber nails every time. He is the carpenter. He knows how to build you one that is custom made. It will fit your back perfectly.
Seven things we need in the problem:
1. We have to be willing and obedient to the Lord.
2. We have to drive the enemv out of us. He has given us the power to drive the enemy out. If there is any enemy in you, it will come out in the problem. Whatever is in you, whether good or bad, it will come out.
3. We have to build spiritual walls. "Build thou the wall of Jerusalem." (Psalms 51:18). You cannot build up a wall big enough to keep temptation out, but we have to build up some spiritual walls over us for protection.
4. You have to be leadable and teachable. Leadable by the Holy Ghost, and teachable by the Word. Let the Word do a work in you.
5. The battle is not yours; it is the Lord's. The Lord is going to fight for us.
6. We have to have faith and patience.
7. NO MURMURING.
Five ways you are tested:
1. Tested by your success.
2. Tested by your failures.
3. Tested in the furnace of affliction.
4. God will leave some of the enemy in your land to see what you are going to do about it.
5. God will ignore you.
God will hide from you. God will withdraw our consciousness of His presence for a period of time. Which means you are thrust head on with the enemy in a situation, and you can't feel, see or hear God. But remember, He said, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." Even though Israel did a lot of things, God said, "My angel will go before you."
God said, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you."
WHY DOES GOD HIDE?
We know that when the Lord gives you promises, He begins to speak to your spirit. That is the initial leading, and He tells you things that He desires for your life. When God gives a promise, automatically you go through problems, in order to come into the provision or fulfillment of those promises. What we need to know is that God gives us principles which are Faith and Patience to come through the problem. The fog of confusion, the smoke screen, the problem, the wilderness -- this is where we have our greatest trouble. God always shows up on the promise, and He always shows up over in the provision, but in the problem, we are wondering where He is.
God hides! He does not do it for meanness or anything like that. He does it for certain reasons. There is no mean streak in God!
If you will read Isaiah 39, it will explain what God is saying here in 2nd Chronicles 32:31. "Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left Hezekiah, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart." Does not God know? Yes, He knows, but we do not. We do not know what is in our heart, do we? We think we do at times, but you get into situations; you get into this fog of confusion, the problem, you will learn quickly that there are things in you that you did not know were in you. 'There is a beast at the feast and a liar for the fire." If we get the Lord coming into our hearts, and cleansing us and getting things out of us, then whatever is positive in your heart will come out. It is not just all negative.
God withdraws our consciousness of His presence at times. Which means you do not feel God or hear God; there is no vision, no prophets. Nothing! You are just thrust head-on into a situation, and you do not always understand what is going on.
Now, where it says, "God left Hezekiah, to try him...", the word "try" means "to test, to prove, to tempt or to attempt." Now, the Bible says something clearly in James. We need to balance this word out. Let's tuun to James, chapter 1. In verse 12, he is talking about going into temptations, trials and troubles, and that he is going to be tried. Verse 13, "Let no man say when he is tempted, l am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." (God gets accused of many things. Sometimes, there is bitterness in our heart against God, and we do not realize it. There is resentment against God, and we do not realize it).
Verse 14, "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." That leads to death.
I said the word "try" means "to tempt," but the Bible says God tempts no man with evil. What does that mean? Simply (what I said before), God will withdraw our consciousness of his presence -- which means you do not feel, hear or see God for a period of time. It is only for a period of time that God lets you go through these situations and circumstances, and there is a reason for it.
Back in 2nd Chronicles 32:31. God left Hezekiah to try him, and to let Hezekiah know what was in his heart. The word "left" means to forsake, yet Jesus said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
How many have been in the wilderness, and you have wondered what is going on with yourself? You have wondered "What am I in? God, where are you? No one understands me." I am in this situation, and it seems that no one cares. There is no deliverance, and all I can see is darkness!" What you have to do is go right back and get this initial leading (the promise of God) again from the Holy Ghost, and come right back through again. Sometimes we get bogged down in the problem, and you do not know which way to go. Our problem is this: there is no contentment. In God, there is contentment. The Bible says, "Godliness with contentment is great gain." The word contentment means sufficiency. There can be an inward sufficiency from God in any circumstances, in any situation whereby everyone is going crazy, but you are contented. The world, we know, runs this way and that way -- but the man and woman of God, who hear God, and have let God come into them, they have such contentment in their hearts, that they are not disturbed by anything. We need to come to that place.
Sometimes, we are disturbed. This is where we want to help God out. There is a driving force in ministry that wants to drive ministry "helter-skelter," and God is not in a lot of it. I am looking at myself. I know in the past, I went to a lot of places I do not really believe God sent me to. I know a lot of preachers that have to have something going on all the time.
Look in Philippians 4. Our problem is when we do not have contentment, we get into ambition. The greatest sin in the church is religious ambition. There is a driving spirit, a religious or fleshly activity that says you have to be doing this and going there. That is "hogwash!" We should not do anything unless God is telling us to do it. It is not just in ministry, but in everything we do. God wants us to be contented. This is from the Amplified Bible: Philippians 4:9, "Practice what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, (Paul was a pattern, too) and model your way of living on it, and the God of peace (if there is no contentment, there is no peace) (of untroubled, undisturbed well-being) will be with you."
Verse 10, "1 was made very happy in the Lord that now you have revived your interest in my welfare after so long a time: you were indeed thinking of me, but you had no opportunity to show it."
Verse 11, "Not that I am implying that I was in any personal want, for I have learned how to be content (satisfied to the point where 1 am not disturbed or disquieted) in whatever state I am."
What he is saying is that his contentment is independent of circumstances. "There is no circumstance; no situation that is taking hold of me now, that I cannot be contented in." We want to come into that place.
Verse 12, "I know how to be abased and live humbly in straitened circumstances, and I know also how to enjoy plenty and live in abundance. I have learned in any and all circumstances, the secret of facing every situation, whether well-fed or going hungry, having a sufficiency and to spare or going without and being in want." It did not matter to Paul. Whether he had a lot or did not have anything, he learned to be content.
We need contentment in the problem. If we are not contented, then we are going to try and help God out. We are going to bring ourselves through this thing, are we not? We are going to work it all out in the way it should be in our eyes, instead of God's eyes. It will not work. (See Judges 21:25).
Go to Isaiah 45:15, "Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour." That is true today.
Verse 16, "They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols."
Verse 17, "But Israel (God's people) shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end."
If God is going to work His full salvation in you, then there are going to be sorne testing of problems along the way. You are going to have to know this contentment, and you are going to have to know that God hides for a period of time. It is not to hurt you or harm you, but to teach vou some lessons.
Another reason God hides is in Jeremiah 29:10, "For thus saith the Lord..." (God is talking to His people, saying that they are going to be in the problem seventy years. That is a long problem! Seventy years is a life time!), "...that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you (no visitation until after seventy years), and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place."
Verse 11, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." God's "expected end" is to give you what God has told you in the promise, as you come into the situation. God permits you to go into a trial, not to destroy you, but to see what is in your heart and to let you see what is in your heart.
Verse 12, "Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
Verse 13, "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." God does not want one-fourth of your heart, He wants every bit of it. He says, "Call upon me. Pray, and I will hearken. If you seek me and search for Me with all your heart, I will be found. I'll give you that expected end." God is going to turn that captivity and God is going to gather His people.
Another reason God hides is to bring vou into a "rest." Remember, God gave the Israelites the promise while in Egypt, "I will bring you into a land flowing with milk and honey, the land of rest." God speaks to them in the promise. He uses Moses to bring them out of Egypt, out of bondage. Where is He going to bring them first? Right through the wilderness. They were right at the edge of the wilderness before they went into it. How many feel you have been right at the edge, and you knew you were heading right into the wilderness. God brings us out of Egypt, through the wilderness and into the REST, the Promised Land.
2nd Chronicles 15:12, "And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul:"
Verse 13, "That whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman."
Verse 14, "And they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets."
Verse 15, "And all Judah rejoiced (Judab means praise) at the oath: for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them..." When was He found? When they sought Him with their whole heart; their whole desire. "...and the Lord gave them rest round about." God hides, so we can seek him, and when we seek Him and find Him, then He brings us into His rest.
There are many people who are captives in their own home. They are afraid to go out the door. They live in fear in everything they do. They are afraid someone is going to kill them, to run over them; some burglar is going to jump into their house. People live in fear, but there is a REST in God.
Rebellion will also cause God to hide. Turn to Isaiah 57:17.
"For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart."
Verse 18, "1 have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners." God says, "I hid me." God hides from those who rebel. But when we repent, he opens up to us.
Another reason God hides is to thrust us into a situation. Think of the apostles on the boat. Jesus had just fed the five thousand. He told the apostles to get into the boat and to go across the water, and what happens? Here comes the storm. Right in the midst of the storm, they are rowing, tugging; they are laboring and getting nowhere. Where is Jesus? He is on the land, watching the situation and waiting. He is seeing the whole thing before him, and He is waiting for the Father to speak one word, "GO!" Remember when He came walking on the water? They did not say, "Praise the Lord, it is so nice to see you." They thought He was a ghost. There are people who are afraid of Jesus. They are afraid of what Jesus will say or do in the problem. People mistake evil spirits for what the Lord is doing. One scripture says it looked like Jesus was going to pass by them. We have to cry out to the Lord in our problems.
Another reason God hides is to give vou mercy. Isaiah 54:7-8, "For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer." Thank God for His mercies that are new every morning.
If it was not for the mercy of God, I would be dead today, and perhaps some of you. If it had not been for the mercy of God, I would have probably been an alcoholic and been dead. But the Holy Ghost came to me while in a bar, sitting on a bar stool, and began to deal with me. He can deal with you no matter where you are. I know people were praying for me. Thank God for that!
Let us look at some reactions when God hides. Turn to Song of Solomon 3:1 (notice the first two words), "By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not." How many have prayed, and felt you did not touch God by your prayers?
Verse 2, "I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not." Notice, twice here, she says she did not find him. Not finding Him will last just for a season. God will not hide forever. Where did she begin to seek him? On the broad ways. The broad way leads to destruction. The narrow way is leading to life.
Verse 3, "The watchmen (the ministry -- they could not even tell her where He was) that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?"
Verse 4, "It was but a little that I passed from them..." There is a key right here. "As I passed from the watchmen (as I passed from the ministry) but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me."
Look in chapter 2. God always shows up on time. Most of the time, he shows up when your back is up against the wall. It is never when everything is going great. Verse 8, "The voice of my beloved! Behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills." That is Joy!
Verse 9, "My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind (notice) our wall..." People have a lot of walls built up, and He is standing behind it. "...he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice." Have you seen picket fences? You can barely see through to see anything on the other side. That is the way we are sometimes. We have just a small glimpse and vision of the Lord. We have to tear some things down to see Him properly.
Verse 10, "My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away." He is beckoning her to come away. This is not a rapture. She is coming to where He is.
Verse 11, "For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone." The winter is past. That is the problem. That is the testing time. Winter poses problems in the natural for travel -- snow, blizzards, etc. We are restricted in winter time. He said, Winter is over, the testing is over, come away with Me, I have something better for you."
Verse 12: this is spring time, resurrection life, "The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come (Revelation 14, the 144,000 are singing a new song), and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." That is the Holy Ghost. God is speaking. God is not hiding now. Winter is over. God is now speaking and saying, "Come away with Me." The Spirit of God is ministering to this individual.
Look in chapter 5:1. I want to show you some of our reactions to God hiding. "I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved."
Verse 2, "I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh..." What is he doing in Revelation 3? He is knocking to get into the churches. Here He comes knocking on the heart of this person. God starts knocking on our hearts. Sometimes in the middle of the night, God begins to speak to you to do something, to get up and pray or to study. Or He tells you something, and He wants you to deliver a word. Sometimes we get so sleepy, we just say, "Lord, come back tomorrow." "...saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled (God is saying that to the church today): for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night."
Verse 3, "I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?" Verse 4, "My beloved put in his hand (What is the hand ministry? The apostle, prophet, teacher, shepherd, evangelist) by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him."
Verse 5, "I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock." The lock is vour will. Let me tell you what happens. God comes to us many times, and he speaks to us to open up and begin to seek His face, and we let the flesh take over. We get too busy, or we get sleepy, and we miss God's visitation. Israel missed the visitation of God. If we are not careful, we can miss God's visitation when God knocks on our door.
Verse 6, "1 opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself (He withdrew from her for a period of time) and was gone..." He withdraws and He is gone. This is our reaction: "...my soul failed..." What is our soul? Our will, mind, emotions and desires. When God withdraws, takes His flight and hides and withdraws our consciousness of His presence, then our soul begins to fail. That is when we try to figure things out. Your soul will fail! That is good to know; that your soul will fail without Him.
"...when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him..." I get disturbed when people always have an answer. That is just not always right. I have met people who were like that, and 99% of the time it was not God.
"...sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer." I prayed an hour; I did not hear anything from God. I have prayed a week, and did not hear anything from God. Do not give up! God does not come at our bidding every time. God does not alwavs come the way we think He should come. That is our problem. When Jesus came out on the water with the disciples, not one of them knew he was going to come that way. That is why they just about missed His visitation, because he did not show up the way they thought He should come. He will never show up the way you and I think He should come. He will use people you thought He would never use. The reason some people are not healed is because they will not submit to someone across the railroad tracks that does not have much education. God might use that one with healing. Our finances might not come in, because we are looking at the mailbox, or to someone that had a lot of money, and God may use some widow woman that has some money stuffed back in her cupboard.
We go back to contentment. It does not matter how much money we have or do not have; God is our source. God is my source!!
Verse 7, "The watchmen..." Here is the ministry again. I want you to see something. When you are in a situation, God is hiding from you; you are in this fog of confusion -- do not think that everyone is going to put their arms around you, and kiss you and hug you, and think you are such a nice guy. No! You are going to get hurt many times -- by preachers even.
"...that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me..." There are two ways you can look at that. The negative and the positive. There are things in us that must be wounded and smitten by God. Sometimes preachers hurt people, and people hurt preachers. It is time for God's people to forgive one another, and let us march on to Zion! Sure, we get hurt. I have been let down so many times, I cannot count the times. I have been let down by people that have promised me all kinds of things.
People call me on the phone and say, "we are coming to the fellowship," and you never see them. Do not let it hinder you from going on with God. Look above all the circumstances and those problems, and GET YOUR EYES ON JESUS!!
"...the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me." Who are the keepers of the wall? The keepers of the wall guard the religious system. Take this message to any of the denominations, including independent groups, and see what happens. We want to guard the religious walls. God has a big bulldozer, and He knows how to blow the wall down. If you get in the way, you might get blown away. We do not like for our boat to be shook, but what God really wants to do is to blow it out of the water. God is going to have His will in this hour. God is going to do what He says He is going to do.
So she is looking for the Lord. She is being smitten by the ministry, and these others that are guarding the wall "took away my veil from me." They have taken away her covering. By taking the veil away, she is like a streetwalker in their eyes. She is being hurt.
Notice, she did not find Him; there is no answer from God. Before we go any further, look at verse 6, "...but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer." No answer!! There are people who need answers today. Do not think you can get it in just five minutes. We all need some answers. I will tell you how we can get it: by waiting on God. There was no answer at this time. But the scene is going to change. Remember, he is hid from her; she cannot find the answers from the ministry or from the keepers of the wall. She did not get the answers until she was smitten by the watchmen.
Verse 8, "I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love." She is speaking about the Lord. Notice these religious people in verse 9, "What is thy beloved more than another beloved..." What is Jesus compared to all the other gods we have? There is another Jesus. The Bible says so. "...O thou fairest among women? What is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?"
Then she begins to tell them what her beloved is like. Verse 10, "My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand."
Verse 11, "His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven." Verse 12, "His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set."
Verse 13, "His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh." Verse 14, "His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires."
Verse 15, "His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars." Verse 16, "His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem."
Notice, she does not say, "I was saved twenty years ago, then He filled me with the Holy Ghost. I have been healed thirty times. He has provided my finances every week and every month." She did not go into all of that, but she began to describe what her beloved was like. She began to exalt the Lord to these other people.
Look in chapter 6. She found the answer she was looking for. "Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? Whither is thy beloved turned aside? That we may seek him with thee." These others are beginning to inquire, "Wbere is your beloved that you are talking about?"
Here she said in verse 2, "My beloved is gone down into his garden..." Where is the garden? In us!! "...to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies." Verse 3, "1 am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine: he feedeth among the lilies."
Chapter 4:12, "A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed."
Verse 16, "Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south..." Here you have the north and south wind coming together. When you have the cold and hot coming together, you have a storm. You have tornado-type winds, but you also have the rain with it. Jesus said to me one time, "I am the storm that comes in." When you really let Him in with all your heart, you are going to have a storm. I know of a young man that went to a mental hospital when he opened all the way to God. The enemy just pounced on him. You know what happened? The young man backed up.
"...blow upon my garden..." Notice, in our immaturity, it is "MY garden." "...that the spices (the nine fruit) thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden (Christ in you, the hope of glory), and eat his pleasant fruits."
Is not it strange, that we have a gospel today that says, "Come to Jesus, and he will give you everything that you want?" NO! You come to Jesus,and He will come into you, and partake of that substance, that character, that nature that is in you. What does that mean? It means that you set Him a table. He is not only just setting you a table; He will do that, but He is going to sup first. That is scripture. He will sup first. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock and any man that opens up, I will come in and sup with him and He with me." You set the table first for Jesus, and He partakes only of that which He puts in you: that nature, character and substance, then He sets the table for you. He said He will blow, then He will flow! Without a blow there is no flow.
Chapter 6:11, "I went down into the garden of nuts (that is you and me) to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded." That is you and me. He went down into the garden.
Where did God put man? In the garden! Jesus went to the garden many times to pray and seek the Father. We are a garden. Isaiah 51:3, "For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." The garden is for joy. God wants us to be full of joy.
God hides from us until we acknowledge our offenses.	Jesus said offenses will come. Hosea 5:5, "And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face; therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity: Judah also shall fall with them."
Verse 6, "They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them." Verse 7, "They have dealt treacherously against the Lord: for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions."
Verse 8, "Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Bethaven, after thee, O Benjamin." Verse 9, "Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be."
Verse 10, "The princess of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water." Verse 11, "Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment."
Verse 15, "I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offense, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early." God hides until we acknowledge our offense. God says when I called, you would not answer, so when you call, I will not answer. It is dangerous to turn from God's reproof and God's chastening.
I can take you into a lot of scriptures in Psalms how God hides. God does not hide to destroy us. God hides to reveal the heart of you and me; to see what is in there. There are things in us that we do not know are in there, and only God can show us.
If you have real contentment, you are going to have satisfaction. You are not going to be disturbed. You are going to be independent of circumstances. You are going to have a sufficiency in you that is from the Holy Ghost. There is going to be some confidence and self-satisfaction within, because of what God has put in you. We need real Godly contentment!!
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