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Breakthrough!

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Nik Ripken, in the book The Insanity of God, records the story of perseverance in the light of dark circumstances: Dmitri was a Russian pastor leading a house church. As townspeople heard of the powerful manifestations of God taking place among the worshipers, more and more crowded into Dimitri’s home to hear about Jesus. One night, more than 150 people gathered. The authorities couldn’t let this continue, so they sent Dmitri a thousand kilometers away from his family and locked him in prison. He was the only believer among 1,500 hardened criminals. His captors tortured him to force him to renounce his faith, but Dmitri held firm. 

“For seventeen years in prison, every morning at daybreak, Dmitri would stand at attention by his bed. As was his custom, he would face the east, raise his arms in praise to God, and then he would sing a HeartSong to Jesus.” The other prisoners would laugh, curse, and jeer. “They’d bang metal cups against the iron bars in angry protest. They threw food and sometimes human waste to try to shut him up and extinguish the only true light shining in that dark place every morning at dawn” One day, Dmitri found a full sheet of paper and a pencil in the prison yard. “I rushed back to my jail cell, and I wrote every Scripture reference, every Bible verse, every story, and every song I could recall.” He posted it on a damp pipe in his cell as an offering to the Lord. His jailor saw it, beat and punished him, and threatened him with execution. As jailors dragged him from his cell and down the corridor, “the strangest thing happened. Before they reached the door leading to the courtyard—before stepping out into the place of execution—fifteen hundred hardened criminals stood at attention by their beds. They faced the east and they began to sing . . . the HeartSong that they had heard Dmitri sing to Jesus every morning for all those years.” Shocked, his jailors released their hold and backed away from him. “Who are you?” one demanded. Dimitri straightened his back and stood as tall and as proud as he could. “I am a son of the Living God, and Jesus is His name!” The guards returned him to his cell and shortly afterward, he was released and returned to his family. 

The suffering servant of God, Job, stated something similar in the dark night of his soul: Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.(Job 13:15) Dimitri, like Job, was willing to continue praising God, trusting Him, even when in the midst of severe mental, emotional, and physical suffering. Dimitri kept singing – kept believing – even in his darkest hour. We all know the rest of the story: breakthrough! In the dark night of your soul, while you are searching and groping to find Jesus in His hiddenness, don’t stop singing. Don’t stop waiting, and trusting. He’s not that far. Press on into His Presence by faith.

Hide and Seek

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A pastor phoned the home of some recent visitors to his church, and a voice on the other end of the phone answered with a whispered “Hello.” The pastor said, “Who is this?” The whisperer said, “Jimmy.”  The pastor said, “How old are you, Jimmy?”  “Four.”  “Well, Jimmy, can I please speak to your mom?”  “She’s busy.” “Well then, Jimmy, can I please speak to your dad?”  “He’s busy.” “Jimmy, are there any other adults in your home?” “The police.” “Can I speak to one of the police officers?”  “They’re busy.” “Jimmy, who else is there?” “Firemen.” “Well, Jimmy, can you put one of the firemen on the phone?” “They’re all busy.” “Jimmy, what are they all busy doing?” “They’re busy looking for me.”

1 Timothy 6:16 states: Who alone has immortality [in the sense of exemption from every kind of death] and lives in unapproachable light, Whom no man has ever seen or can see. Unto Him be honor and everlasting power and dominion. Amen (so be it). On the other hand Psalm 18:11 He made darkness His secret hiding place; as His pavilion (His canopy) round about Him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. Psalm 97:2 Clouds and darkness are round about Him [as at Sinai]; righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.

On the surface this appears to be a contradiction. God dwells in unapproachable light, and clouds and darkness surround Him? Which one is it? It’s actually both. One describes the manifestation of God – the Light, and the other the hiddenness of God – the Dark. We’ve been exploring meeting Jesus outside the camp through prayer and seeking. Yet one aspect of the seeking is to realize that you will eventually have to encounter the horrors of the cross. Scripture records that It was now about the sixth hour (midday), and darkness enveloped the whole land and earth until the ninth hour (about three o’clock in the afternoon), While the sun’s light faded or was darkened; and the curtain [of the Holy of Holies] of the temple was torn in two. And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit! And with these words, He expired. (Luke 23:44-46)

Jesus found Himself in the darkness. What’s more, Matthews Gospel records what Jesus was experiencing: Now from the sixth hour (noon) there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour (three o’clock). And about the ninth hour (three o’clock) Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?—that is, My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me [leaving Me helpless, forsaking and failing Me in My need]? (Matthew 27:45-46) Jesus was experiencing what some would call separation from God as the sacrificial Lamb of God, took on the sins of all mankind. This is a great mystery. How can Jesus, the Second Person, be separated from the Godhead? He can’t – but His flesh, soul, or carnal man can. His soul man felt the estrangement, but it is my belief that His Spirit Man knew where the Father dwelt. And it is through His Spirit Man that He prevailed by faith over His soul, or flesh.

Graham Cooke has spoken, and written extensively, on the hiddenness and manifestation of God. He states: A key part of God’s nature is the fact that He moves in two ways: hiddenness and manifestation. When we come to terms with this truth, we are set free spiritually to ebb and flow with whatever God is doing. We begin to acknowledge that there are times when God reveals Himself to us and times when he hides. And he has reasons for doing both. I think we all love times of manifestation. I love it when God is right in my face, speaking into everything He can.  But for every time of manifestation, there is a season of hiddenness, where God seems to move away from us. When God hides from us, He is trying to draw us into His presence. So while manifestation takes place in our reality; hiddenness happens in His. And hiddenness is what draws us into a new place in the Spirit.

If, and when, you are experience what St. John of the Cross called the Dark Night of the Soul (La noche oscura del alma) – know that your spirit man (or woman) is being drawn to where Jesus is. The conscious awareness of separation, or distance from God, is simply God’s way of making you aware that He is drawing you to where He is. It’s this understanding that allows you to cooperate with God instead of fighting Him off through it. Understanding is the key to growing through this process, and faith is the handle that will pull you through to the other side.