Where Are You God?

There is one thing that we see through our individual journeys with The Lord is periods of “dryness”. Those elongated windows where you are desperately seeking God and you struggle to find Him. Those periods where you wonder and perhaps question the existence of God. Those moments where you are crying out to Him and all you receive back is silence. Those moments where you just feel lost. During those times we tend to question God, “This is not how it is meant to be!” or “God this is not what your Word says” or perhaps “God you said your burden is easy, this is not easy! Where are you Lord? Give me the answer, make this easy for me!”. I know I have been there, moments where I am on my knees wrestling with God, expecting an answer, expecting a sign, expecting a wonder, expecting something to happen that is in alignment with MY WILL.

When we stop for a moment and just ponder on those moments, are we being obedient to the prayer that Jesus taught us?

“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”

Matthew 6:9-13

When we are crying out to God to do things a certain way, to respond to us in a way we have depicted who’s will are we praying for? Is it our will or His will? When we look to Jesus prayer in the garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26: 36-56) we see our Lord perfectly submit to the will of The Father. Picture for a moment, being fully aware of what was about to happen to you, agonising torture and ridicule. Death in the most painful way of the time, a punishment only reserved for the worst criminals. A form of torture designed to leave the body fully incapacitated. A method of death where you were faced with suffocation from a compressed diaphragm, or the choice of breathing by removing the pressure by lifting yourself by the nails in your arms and feet. Being fully aware of this knowledge, how do you believe you would respond? For a moment can you imagine that you would respond from a position of love? Well thats what Jesus does, in Matthew 26:39 the word He uses to depict his will and the will of the father – thelō. There is so much more to this word than just will or desires or “orders”. The word means to delight in, to desire and be disposed, to be intend toward, to love and be will (-ing, -lingly, have). Jesus was not just saying sure God I’ll do your will, no, He was saying Yes God I will lovingly accept and I will be delighted to do what you ask. 

Just stop and let that thought settle into your heart for a moment.

We see Jesus walk out the will of the Father throughout all of the Gospels, but I personally feel it is in this act we see what it truly means to be obedient to the will of God. That no matter what we are faced with we say Yes & Amen from a position of love and to be delighted to do it. We see the apostles walk this out in Acts 5:40-41. They delighted after their punishment, for they were worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus.  Would you celebrate for being persecuted because of the name of Jesus?

But lets take it back to the beginning of this post. Those quiet periods where we are thirsty and hungry for more of God. Those times where we are wondering where is He. If we look to the Scriptures we can find some clues as how we can align with the will of the Father. Ultimately that is one of our goals, to fully align with the will of God, just like Jesus demonstrated to us. So let us look for some clues. Firstly we know God is looking for a willing heart:

“And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none”

Ezekiel 22:30

God is looking for people to stand up and do His will. Our Lord is continually searching and looking out for that heart that is ready to do His perfect will. He is looking for those individuals who are willing to step out and be different from the rest of society. He is looking for people who are willing to identify what is the will of God. Let us go back to the scriptures to get some more insight that may help us to determine the will of The Father:

“For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings”

Hosea 6:6 italics added.

The Lord desired mercy and knowledge of God. The Hebrew word for mercy is cheçed which means to desire in a good sense, to have zeal towards any one, love and kindness. The Hebrew word for knowledge is da`ath which means to have knowledge of someone. So we see that what The Lord wants from us is to have a loving zeal towards Him and to know Him. We know that He is on the look out for hearts to complete His will therefore, during these periods of dryness let us look at it as an opportunity to redirect our selves to Him. If we stop and self reflect during these periods or look back at past seasons you will probably find that they are littered with prayers and desires that align with your will, not His will. They are marked with expectations of what we want to see happen. Success is based on achieving of what we have suspected God will do. This does not align with His word or His will. Therefore, let us not set boundaries on what we expect God to do, but instead let us fully open our hearts, eyes and hears to anything The Lord wants to reveal to us. May these periods be turned into opportunities for us to yield further to the Spirit of God and him mould us into the vessel He wants. 

My closing statement is a desire for us all, that during periods of dryness may we all receive the wisdom, vision, hearing and discernment to see the Will of The Father. During these seasons may our understanding and knowledge of God grow deeper as we see Him work in new ways. May we understand that just like fruit, we too need seasons of dry spells to allow for fruit to develop. With a loving and humble heart we accept your will Father and we embrace the dry seasons you have destined for us. May we stand strong in the knowledge that at the end of the dry summer comes sweet fruit that everyone around us will get to enjoy. Lord God our hearts are open and yearning for Your Will and we eager to do your Perfect Works.

In the Mighty of Name of Jesus we say Amen