As I prepare for the “Be Transformed” conference that I will be teaching, I want part of the conference to focus on one answer to the question above. This is a loaded question because there are a number of good scriptural answers. However, the one answer that I feel led to focus on at this conference is that God is taking us from the “seen” experiential realm to the “unseen” faith realm. I want to share some thoughts about this that the Lord has recently laid on my heart, and I hope that they will be an encouragement to you.
Since I work with many hurting individuals and couples, I am confronted with all kinds of struggles in believer’s lives. They share their problems with me, and most of their problems revolve around three areas: unmet needs, lying beliefs, or flesh patterns. These issues create great conflict and bondage in their lives. All that they can see is the conflict. It is like they are strapped to a tree facing it. All they can see is part of the tree. They have no idea what the “forest” looks like. They can’t see God’s divine purpose. They don’t realize that God is moving them from the death of self to life in Christ. When they come to me, they are acknowledging they don’t know the way out of their situation. All they see is an impossible situation with no hope of deliverance or change. We have all had impossible situations in our lives. In the midst of these impossibilities our flesh is screaming for relief, and yet relief sometimes does not seem to be in sight.
The good news is that there is the Way of escape. There is also a “place” of escape! It is through the Way (Christ said, “I am the Way) that we access this place by faith. This place is in the unseen realm of our union with God. In Him this place is our refuge, the cleft of the rock, and our hiding place. It is where all is safe and secure. It is from this place that we see what God is doing in the midst of conflict. We see “the forest” of His divine purpose, and we realize that He is not angry, condemning, or intentionally causing pain and conflict in our lives. It is the place where we understand His sovereignty and His unconditional love for us. This is the place where life makes sense!
The problem arises in that we typically live every moment of our lives feeling and experiencing life in the seen realm. It is what we know. It is familiar to us. But, it is also the place where life can seem impossible, impassible, and painful. That is why Paul says in Colossians 3:1 to “set your mind on the things above,” 2 Cor. 4:18 also says, “We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” As we set and fix our minds on the unseen things above, God gives us His “eyes” to see that He is able to handle our impossibilities. Therefore, when I find myself in those impossible situations, I can know that God is using the situations to show me the importance of fixing my eyes by faith upon Him. As the eternal “I AM,” He will reveal to me what He is doing in those situations.
However, God’s ultimate purpose is not to keep taking us to this place of rest and peace in our times of struggle. His ultimate purpose is for us to live there and never leave it! This is why He put Himself in union with us and put His own life within us. This is our home and our abiding place. This is the place of deep intimacy with God. However, since this unseen place is not a natural place from which to live, God, in His grace, allows impossible situations to entreat us to retreat from the turbulence of the seen and experiential realm and to live in our spirit union with Him. As we do this, we understand in a deeper way that the view from “above” is the view from which God intends for us to see life moment by moment. It is the normal Christian life!
Therefore, since we seem to be confronted with ongoing impossibilities in our lives, let us learn to embrace those times because God is using them to draw us to Himself for understanding, intimacy, and rest.
“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.” 2 Corinthians 4:17
