Clarity In The Midst Of Chaos

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand under it. [1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV]

It has been widely taught that this verse is referring to being delivered from sin, and this is indeed true. However, what is so misunderstood is the kind of sin. For unless you can honestly say that you are now perfect in all of your own ways, it should be all too painfully clear that you have not been delivered from all sin, but if you still want to have faith in our Heavenly Father’s mercy and grace, then there is all of the proof that you should need to accept that you are being delivered from disbelief, which is the unpardonable sin.

Nonetheless, it is not enough to cling to such an immature way of looking at your relationship with our Heavenly Father. Well, at least not in the case of more than are willing to believe it. For that is good enough for some, but for many, our Heavenly Father wants so much—even to truly have a very close and personal relationship with them.

A good example of that happened when I became devastated over someone I cared about deeply diving back into the familiar confines of the darkness of spiritual ignorance after daring to walk around in the Light of our Heavenly Father’s absolute Truth for a few days. For I took that as a personal rejection—both by the individual and our Heavenly Father. For if I was good enough, I would be allowed to experience the joy of having fellowship with someone else who was getting to truly know Him.

Yeah, I know that sounds plumb ridiculous. After all, there are millions of professing Christians within a hundred miles of where I live—not to mention all of the ones I could connect with worldwide over the Internet, but if you had any idea just how different it has been made for me after the change, you would understand just how isolated I feel most of the time.

No, that doesn’t sound right. For having a very close and personal relationship with the Lord God Almighty Himself most certainly is sufficient, but I still long for someone on my level to talk to during times when I am unsure of my own sanity.

Anyway, after letting me get tossed about by the stormy seas of doubt and regret for a lot longer than I like, He said, “It’s not about you,” and it was all over. Granted, I was still sad about the decision my friend had made, all of the feelings of being punished stopped immediately, most thankfully.

Ironically, it was about our Heavenly Father still speaking to us that was at the heart of the matter with my friend. For he was raised to believe that this stopped when the canon of our Heavenly Father’s Holy Bible was completed. In fact, what he was taught went even further by making it abundantly clear that anything that was not specifically mentioned in the Bible was taboo. An example of that is not allowing musical instruments to be played during a church service because of there being no mention of such in the New Testament. Yet, after a few rounds of discussion, he conceded that he did believe that our Heavenly Father really was speaking directly to me, and he hoped that he would be allowed and enabled to also hear Him clearly soon. Around a week later, he went back to rejecting everything that I had been given to say about it.

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear." The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?" He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. 14In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.' But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?' 'An enemy did this,' he replied. The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?' 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' " [Matthew 13:1-30 NIV]

Be assured that I hope my wayward friend will come to humbly accept that he has been deceived all of this time about our Heavenly Father no longer speaking directly to us, and I hope that you will also want to be able to truly hear His voice if you haven’t been allowed and enabled to already. For you will come to know and understand things that you never thought possible—with the most important of these things being truly having a very close and personal relationship with the One who created you to spend all of eternity with Him in His Kingdom of Heaven as an heir to all that is His in glory.

A more detailed explanation of what our Heavenly Father wants as many as will to know and understand about this can be found in [Chapter XI], [Chapter XII] and [Chapter XIII] of [Bittersweet Refinements]. I hope it proves fruitful, and if it doesn’t happen now, may it happen later.

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