“Behold, I go forward, but he is not there and backward, but I do not perceive him; on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold. Job 23:8-10. ESV.
Does what Job described above look like your current experience?
The hiddenness of God is an experience every godly saint go
through from time to time – a situation where like Job, you have a feeling that God seems absent in the midst of your earthly struggles. You feel
that God seems to be very far and has suddenly distanced Himself from you. You
look for all the exciting experiences you had before with God when you first
met Him and they seem to have all gone or not satisfying anymore. It is true
that sin separates us from God and makes God to distance Himself from us. However,
if it is because of a sinful life style, once you repent from it, God forgives
and relationship is restored. But in most of the times when we feel this way,
you look into your life to see if there is any active sin that is making God to
seem very far away but you cannot pin-point anything substantial, and yet God
seems to hide Himself from you. The truth is that the hiddenness of God is not
always caused by your sins or any bad thing you have done and you are not alone.
This crisis is possible to happen in the midst of a dragged problem
or a troubling situation you cannot explain, like in Job’s case. When tragedy
happens, we all tend to asking God why, seeking for answers. Even those that
encourage you not to ask God why, live with the question in their hearts. But not
many of us get an answer to those questions of why. The truth is that when we
are in the midst of a difficult experience, no matter how terrible it may be,
the power of that problem breaks when God speaks. We tend to handle tragedies
better with peace when we know God’s perspective. In this case, God seems
silent, saying nothing. Nobody can actually tell the number of weeks, months or
years that existed between Job 1 and Job 38, but we suspect that it was a long time.
The challenge is that within this period, there are these strange voices that
will be speaking very loudly, but they do not offer the answer that you seek. It
was not easy for Job to fight off the voices of his wife and his close friends
who, instead of helping him, exacerbated the situation and hence increased the
intensity of his desire for answers. Yes, God eventually revealed Himself and spoke
and that brought closure to Job’s questions. I pray that He speaks in your
situation today.
This situation can also occur because God is drawing you up
to a new level of relationship with Him. He may be up to something bigger than
where you are currently. He hides, as it were, and expects you to pursue Him in
a closer relationship. In the course of your earnest seeking, He teaches you
something new and takes you to a new level of experience. Attitude is developed,
patience is learned and childishness is done away with. Who does not want to
remain in that first childish experience when God seemed all around you and responded
to almost every word you uttered, even when we asked amiss? Who does not want
to remain in that responsibility-free state where everyone cared for us and we
cared for no one? The truth is that that is what happens when a new baby is
born, even spiritual babies too. Nobody wants to leave a baby to stay on its
own unattended to. But there comes a time when the baby has to grow, though
still being loved and cared for, the person is left with little or no
supervision because he or she is expected to be responsible and be able to take
decisions according to all that he or she has been taught. God trains us so
that we can manifest as sons representing Him in the affairs of this earth. You
do not need the pampering of childhood to know that God is with you and loves
you. If you continue to follow hard after Him, He will reveal Himself, His
purposes and His ways to you.
It can actually be a period of great test of faith to proof
something in your life. We often want to permanent a specific experience or
even make an idol out of a single experience. We always want to re-invent the
experience because that is what gives us the feeling that God is with us. If we
do not have the experience, we feel God is very far away and has abandoned us.
God may actually be drawing us out of ourselves, exposing the utter
hopelessness and helplessness of our strength so that we can wholly put our
trust in Him. The fact that we feel He is far does not really mean that He is
far. It may truly mean that He is essentially active in our lives. He removes the
cherished experience, breaks the arm of flesh and desires that we look up to
Him for help.
The hiddenness of God happens because of the incomprehensiveness
of God’s nature. Even though God can be known, yet no man can claim to have
comprehensively known Him. He is an eternal mystery Himself, hence, no matter
your experience with Him, you are still short of knowing Him. The revelation of
God we have in nature, in the Scriptures and ultimately in His Son is the extent that is revealed to us, and that is
enough for our salvation, but God in His essence is still bigger than what is revealed to us. We know God when we know Jesus Christ. Though
the experience of this knowledge is often sensed at the realm of emotions and
feelings, it is important to note that we walk by faith in what is revealed and
not by our wavering feelings. Good feelings are good and God sometimes grants
us those nice feelings as we experience Him. However, our lives should not be lived
based on feelings but on faith. That is why without faith, it is impossible to
please Him. He that comes to God must first of all believe and that is a prerequisite.
Faith is a prerequisite at the beginning of the journey, it is a prerequisite in
the journey and is also a prerequisite at the end of the journey. Nobody is discountenancing
the validity of your feelings but valid feelings do not mean that they
represent truth. Truth is what is revealed and what is revealed should be taken
above our feelings. In practical terms, it means that the feeling of God’s
distance does not mean that God is very far away because He is ever with us.
Heb.13:5 says “never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” NIV. The truth
revealed is that God is with us, even in every difficult and painful situation.
We have to live at the level of faith in God’s written Word and not at the
level of our feelings.
Now I want to humbly note that what I share here does not
give all the answers to the issue of the hiddenness of God. For example, some
have complained and asked why the God of love should make knowing Him very difficult,
in spite of all the efforts of some people to sincerely seek Him. I have a
brother who many years ago complained to I and my wife how he was willing to
give his life to Jesus Christ but in spite of all his efforts, God seemed not
to be easy for him to find. It is a real and practical challenge of many
people. We led the brother to Christ but nothing seemed to have happened. We
continued to pray for him until after many years, God cleared the cloud in his
mind and made Himself known to him. He loves to reveal Himself to all who
sincerely seek Him.
Firstly, what this teaches me is that I should always
respond to God as he reveals Himself to me. Postponing my response is being presumptuous
as He is the only One that takes the initiative to reveal Himself. Secondly, we
have to trust His heart even when we do not understand what His hands are doing.
We trust His heart that He has good intentions and good thoughts for us and
will do what is good and right. Finally, as Henry Blackaby said in his book, Experiencing God, when you are confused in the middle of your walk with God and cannot
seem to know where He is working currently in your life, continue doing the
last thing you are sure God revealed to you and in due course, the cloud will
clear. God loves you. Remain blessed.
