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There once lived a man who feared God and continually turned away from evil. God Himself said, "...there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man." (Job 1:8) He was blessed with many children and much wealth, and the favor of the Lord rested on him like a fine cloak. As he himself so beautifully describes: "...I was in the prime of my days...the friendship of God was over my tent...my steps were bathed in butter, and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!" (Job 29:4,6 NAS)
Could it be that this man, so loved and favored by God, was the same man who later cried out, "...nights of trouble are appointed me. When I lie down I say, 'When shall I arise?' But the night continues..." (Job 7:3,4 NAS) How could a man so blameless and so upright ever experience such a night of darkness? Job never strayed from God in unbelief, yet God allowed this precious man to endure a season of sorrow. Why?
That is the question which saints, mystics and theologians have been asking throughout the ages. Why does God allow nights of sorrow to come to men and women of faith? It seems to contradict everything we know and believe about a loving and protecting Father.
But look further into the story of Job. He himself shines a powerful light upon this mystery when he speaks to God at the very end of his affliction, "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye sees Thee...." (Job 42:5 NAS)
Something incredible happened to Job during that very darkness. The word "see" is the word ra'ah in Hebrew, which also can mean to "experience." Ironically, it was the darkness that ultimately caused Job to spiritually "see" or experience his Creator as he never had before. During that long night of loss, God's faithful servant was transformed into God's intimate friend. And the Bible ends his story with these remarkable words, "...the Lord blessed the latter end [days] of Job more than his beginning." (Job 42:12 NAS)
As we consider the book on the life of Job, most of us would probably say, "That's an amazing story of redemption and resurrection, but I sure hope it never happens to me." Yet today, as I travel around the country speaking and sharing with other believers, I meet so many who are enduring a similar season of sorrow or hardship.
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These are not disobedient people who have spurned the counsel of the Lord, but rather these are faithful men and women who have continually sought Him for direction, loved Him and even taught others about Him, as Job had. When God allows crushing circumstances to enter our lives, if we are not prepared and do not understand what is happening, we can often find our faith shipwrecked and our trust shattered.
How well I understand this pain, because after 35 years of walking closely with the Lord, I, too, experienced a Night season in my soul (see Chapter One) that almost devastated me. Strangely enough, this unexpected darkness did not descend upon me as punishment for sin or chastisement for disobedience. I had feared, honored and obeyed the Lord for many years, so I identified completely with the words of Isaiah 50:10: "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of His Servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light?" (emphasis added)
Since I had no understanding concerning this night season, I desperately sought guidance as to what was happening to me. How could I get through this dark time? How long would it last? Had others before me gone through a period like this? Was this normal for all Christians? What was God doing? What was His will in all the confusion?
While holding fast to the Book of Job and the hundreds of other Scriptures on night seasons that I had found (see Appendix), I scoured the bookshelves for virtually anything that would shine a light on my situation. Most contemporary Christian writings, however, offered little or nothing on the subject, and I began to feel that I was lost and alone.
I yearned for comfort and understanding, but strangely enough, the only references to the dark night that I could find apart from the Bible were in the works of two Catholic mystics, St. John of the Cross and Jeanne Guyon. Although I'm neither a Catholic nor a mystic, I searched their books for glimmers of understanding and ultimately gained something far more important. God used these dear saints to let me know that I was not alone. No matter how much these people differed from me theologically and culturally, God used their words to let me know that many, many others before me had experienced this very same thing. Through these writings, God encouraged me to keep on trusting, keep on obeying and keep on enduring.
These precious saints had not only survived their own dark nights, but had gleaned amazing treasures from that very darkness. Rather than being destroyed by their suffering, these saints had been enriched by it, and their testimonies gave me insight and courage.
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As I continued to read and seek understanding concerning this dark night, I discovered a peculiar dark thread woven into the tapestry of many Christian lives. Little by little, God began to show me a recurrent theme in the lives of Jesus, Joseph, Moses, David, Paul, Martin Luther, Oswald Chambers, John Wesley, Hudson Taylor and countless others.
They, too, had been discipled by a season of emptiness and sorrow. And for them, as well as for me, the darkest hour came just before dawn. It's true. Our weeping does last for a night, but oh what strength of faith and joy awaits us in the morning!
Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; to the end that my glory may sing praise to Thee, and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto Thee for ever." (Psalm 30:11-12)
For me, the dark night was simply the forerunner of greater Light. My night season came forth from a Creator who yearned for me to see Him and to experience Him as Job finally saw and experienced Him. "I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye sees Thee." It came forth from a Father who wanted me to know His presence, His friendship and His Love in a way I never had before--truly, being filled with "the fullness of Christ" and living the abundant Life.
The purpose of this book, then, is to encourage those of you going through your own night seasons and those of you yet to experience a time like this, that you not be confused, frightened or scared, but that you persevere through to the incredible riches God has planned for you as you begin to know Him in an even more intimate and deeper union. As He has promised, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness." (Isaiah 41:10)
In the end, you will see like Ezekiel did, that God has not done "without cause" all that He has done. And, you will also come to understand the depth, the width and the height of God's unconditional Love for you. "...Yea, I have loved [you] with an everlasting Love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn [you]." (Jeremiah 31:3)
This does not mean to say that everyone will come to intimacy with God in the same precise way or that everyone in his or her journey will pass through a dark night, but for those of you who do, I pray this book will help to clarify exactly what God is doing and why. I pray that the words on these pages will comfort you and help you to understand what God requires of you, and, most importantly, how you can get through your night as quickly as possible.
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In Chapter Two we will see that almost every major man and woman of God, especially those in the Bible, have gone through similar night seasons. Some say that these dark nights are God's way of preparing us for a special ministry. I believe, it's simply God's way of teaching us naked faith so that we might enjoy intimacy with Him.
My heart's cry, then, through these pages, is to assure you that God has neither abandoned you nor slated you for destruction. Jeremiah tells us, "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." (29:11, emphasis added) God is the One who will see you through, because He is the One who promises never to leave you nor forsake you.
The Lord is in the process of "conforming us all into His image." Romans 8:29 tells us that this is His basic will. Once we allow Him the freedom to implement this transformation in our lives, the result will be twofold: abundant life in our soul and intimacy with Him in our spirit--i.e., the fulness of Christ. In order to accomplish this, however, there are two major things He must begin to do in each of our lives: cleanse us from sin and purify us from our self-centered ways. All Christians have eternal Life, but very few Christians experience abundant Life and the fulness of Christ! These blessings come, not through the absence of trials and tribulations, but simply with the presence of Jesus.
The process by which God brings this intimacy about is called sanctification. As 2 Thessalonians 2:13 says, "...God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth...." (emphasis added). In some people, sanctification is a life long process. In others, it occurs quite rapidly. The key is our cooperation and our willingness. If we relinquish our wills and our lives completely to God, walk in faith and by His Spirit, the sanctification process can go unhindered and there will be no need for a night season at all.
So, this book is not written to frighten anyone, but simply to help believers understand what God's will is, how we can have an unshakeable faith so that He can implement His will in our lives, and ultimately, how we can attain an intimacy with Him that we have never before known.
As Oswald Chambers has noted, "...the darkness...comes not on account of sin, but because the Spirit of God is leading us away from walking in the light of our consciences to walking in the light of His love." Until we understand that our night seasons are "Father-filtered" and come directly from the hand of God to accomplish His will in our lives, we are in danger of sliding into a bottomless pit of self-pity and confusion.
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To those of you who might question whether it's even possible to walk through a night season without losing faith in God's Love, I can answer a resounding "Yes!" Although your prayers will be uttered through tears, and your praise will indeed be a sacrifice, you must choose to believe Lamentations 3:33 which declares that God does not willingly afflict His children, but only to accomplish His loving purposes.
Although this is a decision only you can make, I believe I can best weep with those who weep and comfort and encourage those who are hurting, by sharing the things that I suffered and the things that I have learned during my own night of sorrow and loss. As I said before, during my night season, I yearned for a Biblically-based book that would explain exactly what God was doing in my life...and why. In the coldest hours of my night, I needed to be told that a "dawn" would surely break for me. Most of all, I needed to know that what I was experiencing others had experienced before me, that I was not alone and that God would be faithful to bring me through, regardless of how I felt or what I thought.
So this book is my way of telling you that you are not alone. Others have walked where you are walking, and have lived to tell the story of God's faithfulness and Love. Remember, the same God who accompanies you through the Valley of the Shadow will one day fill your cup to overflowing. God faithfully and lovingly works through the dark nights of our soul and spirit to bring us into an intimacy with Him that is above and beyond anything we have ever imagined. As Job stated, "I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye sees Thee." My prayer is that this book will help you to see and understand God's ways in your own desert time.
God's way--the way that leads to life--Scripture tells us is very narrow and few will seek it. But, if you are longing, as I am, to "...know the Love of Christ which passes knowledge..." and to "be filled with all the fulness of God" (Ephesians 3:19), then it is my hope that this book will help to strengthen you on your journey. It's not meant to be an academic treatise, but simply a guide book sharing the potential joy of experientially knowing Christ in His fulness. Nothing in life can compare with an intimate love relationship with the Lord of the universe. Nothing can satisfy more than this kind of union. Everything else pales into insignificance compared to this. Nothing else matters! Thus, my most fervent prayer is that when you have turned the final page, you will know that God has not done without cause all that He has done.
I am neither a theologian, nor a scholar. I am simply a sister, a mom and a grandma in the Lord, so this book is not a book of theology. It's simply written to express one person's view as to why we have night seasons, what God's will is in the middle of them and how He wants us to respond to them. You have the same Teacher as I do. I urge you to check out everything that is written here. As Acts 17:11 states, "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, [to see] whether those things were so...." (emphasis added).
I would also like to echo the words of Frances Frangipane, who noted in his book Holiness, Truth and the Presence of God, "I do not presume to have written this book without error. Much effort has been given to presenting the truth of Christ without flaw, but I will be deeply indebted to those saints who are kind enough to share their insights with me. The final proof that our doctrines are correct are evidenced in our lives."
And finally, throughout this book, I will constantly refer to surrendering, relinquishing and "giving things over to the Lord." In the Prayer Section in the back of the book, there is a chapter called Prayer Journal, with a "sub-heading" entitled The Inner Court Ritual (page 360-361). I believe that these steps, the actual ones that the priests of Solomon's Temple took in order to deal with their sin and be reconciled to God, are the very steps that the Lord has laid out for us in Scripture, in order to deal with our sin and our self to be reconciled to Him. Please refer to them often. Even as you are reading, if God brings something to your mind, use these steps to take care of the issue immediately.
My prayer is that the Spirit of Truth will guide every word in this book and that every one of them might be God breathed. I pray also that the Holy Spirit might use this book to:
"...cast up the highway; gather out the stones; [and] lift up a standard [Jesus] for the people." (Isaiah 62:10)
"...[help] build the old waste places...raise up the foundations of many generations; and [to help repair] the breach, [and restore the] paths to dwell in." (Isaiah 58:12)
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