Blessings Of Separation

The awakening to God’s love, in its full expression, drives our spirit from the religious domain where perhaps our faith was born.  One loved to sing and pray in the company of his saints, to join them on their missions or evangelistic trails, and then –like a switch has gone off, or rather on, inside them, the overwhelming, inexpressible, inexorable, all pervading love of their savior does the unexpected –he says, “Come out of them!” The utter shock and distress accompanying this injunction, this command, seems too terrible to believe. It must be some mistake, or perhaps, we have heard wrongly. After all, we did not hear a literal voice, nor if we quieted ourselves did we hear the still small voice; rather, it was the spirit undiscernible to outward sense, making all these friends, these pastors and prophets, unaccountably and suddenly strange, wrong-sounding, adverse to an inner knowing –like a violent repulsive madness, even if some of what they said was true, and if it was said, as it often is, with a smile! There is too much there, floating around like a miasma, to permit our staying in its vicinity! Their tones of mirth and lightness now seem vile when considered what other errors and carnal lies are mixed with their speech. The discourse we formerly nodded with in agreement becomes shameful, almost embarrassing to listen to, as it flies so counter to the God who has revealed himself to us. We can hardly help from wondering why others fail to see it, but may console ourselves, that they will soon know God as you do, that some only fear proclaiming what they already know!

  You may take comfort in this, that the Lord who led you out of the world is the same who said, “let there not be any found among you who immolates his son in the fire! (Deut 18:10) –and is it not the very teaching and conviction of the main-line church, that such will be the fate of unbelievers and bad-livers and sinners; and not only that, but a fire that never ends? If, perhaps they have sought to alleviate somewhat the terrors of Hell, then (only) an eternal separation! And this from the God of all comfort! The love of God is sorely lacking in men who advocate such doctrine. We see them as blind –not lost –but simply, and utterly, blind. Now, in seeking to bring peace into our own souls after this unintended but ordained flight from the Babylonish Church (or as Elwin Roach calls it, the Kingdom of Saul) we come into a difficulty the likes of which we had not known before. God brought us out from the corruption of the world, brought us into himself, now it seems the wilderness is truly, perhaps even more threatening! And we have, more than ever, good reason to complain (so we think). A person I know was in former days confronted with seeming ages of self-pity, depression, anxiety, doubt, and apprehension; but all that while, the Lord was strengthening him. By making the pain so great, and the wilderness so lonely, I learned to hear from Him for myself – and it is that which he invites you to do. This included recognizing His voice in others. It is crucial to understand, that just because we are hearing from him ourselves, does not mean we are failing to hear a good and righteous word from a brother or sister in Christ. Even those in a “lesser” walk, or “lower” development are his, and if we renounce all hearing from them, then, it is my belief, we may find Him rebuking us. He might use a child (even an unbeliever) to shame the wise! And there is, after all, always a danger in us becoming too wise, though it is not a danger of separation; it is the danger of stagnation. I recollect the “word” that Shimei gave to David as he entered the city. It was no compliment! and yet David said, “If God said to him, curse David!” then “who are you to stop him?” So it is, the higher one goes, the humbler one grows.

  But in the desert, where all seems so barren, so crushing with its privations, we find there is no one to turn to who can provide the wished-for solace –the emptiness was sent from God! Our words, our complaints, would seem very strange in the ears of others, wouldn’t they? as we speak from this region of total desolation, because it is so indescribable! There was an acuteness and a complexity, besides the heaviness, that made a mockery of any attempt at alleviation. Perhaps you will think to talk to a pastor, as I did, or join a bible study, or seek advice from an old brother, only to find the pain was as insistent, the hope they promised –still hopeless. These methods were great for a season, and I will not speak against them.  Nor will I recommend forgoing the kind counsel or words of those believers who share our convictions –and I trust God will have put at least one whom you can relate to and hear from in your exceedingly difficult circumstances. But truly, one is very alone in this time. Moses shunned not to venture the mountain peak in that same loneliness. Illness may accompany the depression; a loss in one’s family: such are contingencies for which there is no preparation, and there is no approaching these times of life without feeling strongly the sobering effects. One perceives themselves as coming out of a kind of drunkenness, where the life that was, was a silly, childish dream. Yet God has you by the shirt collar, and he is ever straightening us up to face the next obstacle.