Jun 29
The Three Dark Nights
For those who are actually pursuing a deeper, vibrant relationship with God there is a cost. Yes, salvation is a free gift from God through Jesus the Messiah, but the spiritual life many search for is only found by letting go of the old in order to gain the new. In other words you gain by losing. The loss is of nothing you can hold onto, it is a loss of a thread of something that you might think is good, but it is actually keeping you from your destiny. It is a virus, an infection, a germ that needs eradicating before it can metastasize.
ALL NEW THINGS BEGIN IN DARKNESS
From pregnancy, to creation, to anointing, every new day begins in darkness. It has been that way from the first day of creation and it continues today. There are three levels or deep times of darkness that we will encounter on the road to true, pure spirituality. With each one you feel like you are immersed in a deeper darkness than you have ever been in before. At each deeper level you see less clearly, if at all, where you thought you were going. During each new level you most likely will not understand the purpose of it and why God is allowing you to go through such a dark, difficult time.
You do not go through these times back to back. There is a season of recuperation and rest between each one. You can stop and not go on to the next one, but if you do that, you have chosen to walk a more worldly walk and there one is susceptible to a deeper, evil darkness.
JUSTIFYING OUR OLD LIFE
At the beginning of all three dark nights there is a natural tendency to look into our life to see what is wrong with us. Usually the first things we find are not the issue God is getting at, things like anger, jealousy, fear, are real issues, but they are surface issues. When we start to get closer to the real issue we will find that we will tend to justify the very matter God is after, that in itself is a clue to what this time is all about. It may be the actions we have taken, emotions we have harbored, and why we do what we do, but much of the time we actually believe we have a right to do it, feel it, or think it – at least initially.
When we touch the issue God is after we will often naturally recoil and in so doing it becomes easy to blame someone or some event that impacted us. We actually think that what happened gives us a valid reason for doing, thinking, feeling the way we do. We may even believe we can continue what we have been doing without any guilt.
SELF-IDENTITY
What may surprise you is that most who enter this Dark Night find they actually take some form of self-identity from the very issue God is wanting to reshape or get rid of in our life. It may be attitudes, ego, self-promotion, control, manipulation, or a thousand other issues, yet each one will keep us from the leadership and influence we should be having on others. To reach the purpose for which God created us, we must have no thread of iniquity that is not being addressed.
Even for a while after we are well within the dark night’s eerie confines we will continue to do the blame shift or use the problem as a crutch – for a short while. To some that short while may be a day, to others that may take a week or even a year, but it will eventually come to an end and the quicker the better.
A SENSE OF FAILURE
At some point in all three phases, as we finally realize that what we have self-justified is actually hindering our destiny, and with this realization there is often a sense of failure or sorrow or both. This is actually the initial sign of healing, you are on you way out. It is the light at the end of a long tunnel, it is hope for a better life and it is soooooo refreshing. Though you know there is still the rest of the tunnel to go through, you know you will make it. However, up to that point, which occurs at each level, you’re pretty sure you won’t.
THREE DARK NIGHTS
The three dark nights are commonly known as the Dark Night of the Wilderness or Desert, the Dark Night of the Soul, and the Dark Night of the Spirit. One leaves the first two with a hunger to get on with life, to accomplish something and in so doing a hunger to please God. The dark Night of the Spirit is a little different, but we’ll get to that later.
Next post I’ll address the Wilderness or Desert, which is the entry level to our greatest change.
Blessings,
John Paul
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JP,
This describes me to a “T.” I’m not proud to say that I think God has been after an issue with me for almost 20 years. He touched it once, and showed me I was responsible for it, and my response was, how else would you have wanted me to respond? I also responded by agreeing with darkness and doing some things because I knew they would hurt Him. (I’m thankful for the anonymity this blog gives). He is still dealing with it now and pursuing me in it. I know in my head it’s His heart of love, despite what my wrong thinking would lead me to believe.
A friend of mine once said, sin is ugly in everyone, but especially so in those who believe because our eyes are open. I can relate, unfortunately by personal experience.
This is a hard issue but thanks for tackling it head on.
Blessings,
Dennis
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Jim Elliot
John Paul,
This is really helpful! Oh so helpful! Oh so very helpful! I think you’ve just helped saved my sanity. What you’ve written about is not taught in my church. Thank you.
I’m wondering, do the three “Dark Nights” align with the three courts in the tabernacle (Outer Court, Inner Court, and Holy of Holies)? Do they align with any of the covenants of the Old Testament?
As we progress through each of the “Dark Nights” do we then enter into a renewed, more intimate covenant with the Lord? (I am remembering the covenants of servant, friendship, and inheritance from the Old Testament.)
Don’t know why I am wondering about all of this; I’m still hoping I make it through this “Dark Night,” which ever one it is…I can’t tell.
Blessings.
Hi John Paul:
Right now, the dark night that I am having is in dealing with my financial limitations in response to a demanding Pastor and dealing with the pressures of daily living because of choices family members have made in which I have become the fall guy or “fall gal” in my case. I am not blaming them fully. I am more blaming myself for believing in them too much and not believing God enough for provision.
The pressure that I am feeling on the thinking realm is not good. I have yelling matches in my head that I or anyone else would dread if it went past my lips. I am experiencing pressures to act from others outside of my family that are observing these changes and situations within my family and this is very burdensome to me. Because its a clash of opinions that have become burdensome, if I dwell on it long enough.
When my emotional/spiritual guard is down there is a tendency to propel me towards unforgiveness and entertaining the anger I am experiencing in my own heart from within and it is frigthening because I know where it would lead to. I believe this is temptation.
Right now both my husband and myself are battling some injustice in relation to this same fellow christian who is in a leadership role regarding finances, our finances to be exact. There is definitely a collision between dark emotions of the soul and the the gifts of the spirit in this situation.
How does one maintain a sense of integrity and dignity when someone is belittling and badgering you publicly in front of a congregation.
I rather lock myself in a closet and pray and fast the situation away and have the Lord speak audibly on our behalf to this man of God.
The other temptation is that this individual is wanting to create dialogue for the sake of argumentation to gain control in the emotional realm, and we do not want to engage in this kind of dialogue concerning this important matter. This leader has a healing ministry and we want to respect this however, at the same time our hearts have been trampled upon.
This person has even come between me and some of my family members and because of this, they do not want anything to do with this particular church. We are stuck between a rock and a hard place because we know the power of words,the power of God through human relationships and we do not want to bring condemnation to the situation by over-reacting. We want to work with the situation not against it with bad fruit.
We rather approach it with two or three witnesses like the scripture tells us when it comes to settling this dispute peacebly. We have been told by our friends who have been praying us through this situation that there will be a victory in this for us because of the time of nonpaid/volunteer outreach that we had done in this church.
My experience in this long standing situation has been and still is clinging to the Lord in all this stuff and asking Him via the Holy Spirit to guide us gently and peacebly through this thought jungle to save face and not lose it with our fellow brother in the Lord.
We love his brother, and we pray for him all the time. Our heart breaks everytime we witness this same kind of behavior in his dialogue and approach with others.
Sometimes when someone is constantly badgering you and they are in a leadership position in the church to the point it effects family life, it is difficult to love in the middle of the attack in this dark night. What is God saying through all of this? Personally, I am not sure and sometimes I do not want to know. We have been in this for 7 years. But this I do know, we need to pray, pray, pray, and pray some more. It seems that the more we pray for this leader in our prayer closet, the more love and understanding we receive from the Lord form this person, however due to the circumstances, this love must be tough instead of marshmellowy. It doesn’t work in this situation.
Please pray that the Lord will have His way and that the Glory of the Lord will shine brightly. Thanks for this blog, it is so timely. I do hope that there is a light at the end of this tunnel soon. We need a serious breakthru and Holy Spirit Breakout (lol).
Peace & Blessings To You
John Paul,
Shirley C.
“From pregnancy, to creation, to anointing, every new day begins in darkness”…”We actually think that what happened gives us a valid reason for doing, thinking, feeling the way we do.”
PHEW, I’m immobilized by these 2 statements.
In the post season of ‘your WHOLE life is about to change’ it’s a miracle even to survive the 3 Dark Nights and come out intact. The only anchor for me is holding God true to His word (believing truth not fact) and looking at the witness of those gone before me. Not to ever put myself anywhere near them other than identifiable experience, I understood how and why the ‘humanity’ of Peter denied the Lord…I’ve felt Job’s frustration with His Creator.. I lost hope and passion like Jeremiah. We judge and wonder how, or why…and then find ourselves in the same shoes. Humbling….
The Dark Nights (esp. of the Spirit) completely strip you of who you are or thought you were. You have no identity in the end, other than in Him, and that is often a foreign place.
Unrecognizable and disoriented, you’re left with waiting for the Potter to reshape you into something He still considers fit for His use, and feeling totally unworthy in it all.
Thanks for putting into written words what has been my testimony for the last few years. You’re words and revelation are like a cup of ’selah’ cool water.
Thank-you John Paul, i find that what you say is very true. The Lord began a good work in me which has ever since enabled me to rejoice over many situations. The work is characterised as the joy of the Lord is my strength. It wasn’t hilarious joy but a fruit of joy. My whole life changed, after this work crucifying self became easier which you call a dark night of …
Like the dark night, i literally went from naturally self-ish to spiritually God-centered, which hepled me partake of the joy of the Lord on an everyday basis. None of us will naturally relate to the invisible God & His feelings, we are all self-centered to begin with. I wasn’t even thinking about Him. And to think i was even obeying the word faithfully everyday & on fire for God at that point of time.
The Lord had better plans in store for me than i even thought so, i felt like a failure because i realised all the good things i did were never in consideration of His heart at all. I felt so condemned. Since then i purposely trained my mind to think about the Lord. It took months but i never regretted the fruit of it. Now i think about the Lord & consider His feelings naturally. I have been renewed in my thinking after a hard training season.
Life has never been more “alive” until we return to our basic calling & that is to love God. If anyone can consider the joy of the Lord, he is at a place of discerning the Lord’s heart, His anger, His jealousy etc… With God in mind, just only His joy when it becomes our motivation, it propels us to our destiny to do His will. And that’s only part of what a healthy relationship is. We love God, we will consider His heart.
Since the first time I read the title of this post, “The Three Dark Nights”, I have read it in the following manner, “The Three Dark Knights”. At first I thought it was funny and I didn’t really think much of it. The curious thing is that everytime I read it, I keep reading it in the same way.
After going through the content, and as I think about the dark nights and knights, it reminds me of the dark kings of the lord of the rings…
The saying that goes “new level, new devil” also comes to mind. I’m still pondering on this all, but it makes me think further about what’s at stake during the three dark nights…may it be the slaying of the three dark knights? That would answer a couple more questions…
God Bless!
Gen 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
evening and the morning…
The day begins at dusk.
Blessings
David
The wilderness and the dark night of the soul. Ehhh. Yes, it is a road we all have to follow on the path of truth isn’t it? When that happened to me, I felt: evil, lost, isolated, and yet, i can agree and say that some of the most beautiful flowers of spirit grew during that time for me.
I remember the agony of being angry at religion and growing up in church, and hearing the voice in the wilderness say “hating another is just like murder. You are killing them off in your heart” and I would be sleepless for days horrified that I was vile and had ‘cut off’ the life from so many people. Where was the end? was I even more vile than I had imagined. One thing after another, I would realize the deep spiritual consequences of even emotional, mental, and spiritual thought patterns, attitudes, and like you said, personality issues.
I share to say that those who are experiencing that now, surely one day you will look back and be ever so thankful. I am thankful for the times I went through these ‘dark nights’ because it has broadened my scope, and helped me to see the true issues behind people’s sin.
John Paul, I appreciate very much the fact that you addressed that surface things are usually from a deeper root. I have found that many of the social sins that churches protest, fight, or try to make laws abolishing, typically stem from deeper places, and I feel and beleive that if the church would stop fighting politically and in a way that is worldly, that we could really be spirit-light to the world and bring truth that breaks the yoke, and thus breaks the manifestation of inner turmoil.
Two books I read when I was in a deep dark night of the soul were “The concept of anxiety” and “The sickness unto death” by Soren Kierkegaard. They both were immensely helpful in my own personal journey, and I don’t know if they would be helpful or not to others at that place, but I really liked them.
One quote from “the sickness unto death” that really stung, but had profound impact during that time of my life, is this
“By sin, That is, by despairing over his sin, he has lost all relation to grace–and also to himself. His selfish self culminates in ambition. He has now in fact become the king, and yet, in despairing over his sin and of the reality of repentance, of grace, he has also lost himself; he cannot keep on going by himself, and he is no closer to enjoying his self at the height of his ambition than he is to grasping grace.”
If there is a dark night of the soul and a dark night of the spirit, is there a dark night of our third part, the body? Or is this part of the Wilderness or desert night?
I am experiencing, and have for a number of years, daily pain in my body. And when it is strong and I cannot sleep (like right now) I wonder if there will be an end to my dark night of the body.
Anyone else experiencing or have experienced this?
To Kathryn..
I think that Is a very good question. One which I do not have an answer for, and am not experiencing personally. But,I wanted you to know that after reading your post, I have prayed for you. Be encouraged, you are loved.
Blessings
Tiffany
Will, I can relate to your statement (When that happened to me, I felt: evil, lost, isolated, and yet, i can agree and say that some of the most beautiful flowers of spirit grew during that time for me.)
It can feel as if God has removed all our covering and left us exposed to an onslaught of the most horrible thoughts imaginable. Thoughts that try to cause us to doubt anything God related and thoughts that express doubt in His love for us, and our love for Him.
We can even become so rattled and confused that we decide not to feed off of anything except the pure clear water His Word brings. Even anointed preaching/teaching can seem to confuse us, so we instead choose to dive deeply into the logos/rhema that we receive one on one with Him. We hang onto each sparkling nugget as if it were a life preserver in the ocean of confusion.
From Jason Upton in Haylie
Only you know… the real me
Only your eyes… Can see
What hides behind the veil over my eyes.
Father, open up my life.
And bring the real thing.
Blessings
David
To kathryn Maybe this will help. I know a lady that had a near death expearence some time ago and said that the pain in different parts of her body represents the area of the church that needed prayer. the mouth for speeking and so on. God will give the answer. I am praying for you also. Ron
To Tiffany,
Thankyou for praying for me. I am trusting in God to protect me. Does anyone understand the role of suffering in Christians? Paul suffered in his body because he was filling up what was lacking in Christ’s afflictions, but it was for the sake of the church.
I hope to be filled with the glory of God. I think the pain is because the path has been rough and rugged. I have to trust God to heal me and I have to trust it will be worth it in the end.
Was sent to isolated place to work a month ago. Working long shift. No-one else from my company here to support me. I know no-body here and my one attempt to link in with the local church fell flat. No logistical support. I have a team of people to manage who are all men, and I am inexperienced and a woman. They are exellent to work with, but a whole lot of dynamics and expectations to negotiate. Body packing in as I am not strong enough physically to do everything expected of me. Every task I am doing is new. After a pain-filled week I asked my manager for help, but he said no help would be coming (I didnt tell him about the pain I was in). Spoke out about my work conditions yesterday to Human Resources, who took my case to my manager and senior manager. Now my manager is coming to take over from me for the next weekend, so I can go home for a couple of days. I feel really upset about it as I am really close to my manager and dont want to cause him any trouble or put him under any pressure. We are all just keeping our head above water. When I talked to him on the phone today I could feel all this grief, which is what we are both feeling about the situation. I think he is genuinely grieving about it too. I was too overwhelmed and couldnt see a way clear of it all. I needed help and it wasnt there. I can’t stop grieving tonight.
Reading “The Shack” by William P. Young is about one of the best things that could have come to me during this impossible time I’m going through. I haven’t finished it yet but it is the New York Times #1 best seller and certainly a sign of the times. It has greatly changed my perspective of God so far. I recommend it like I’ve never recommended a book before. I think this will be a Christian classic some day.
This is so helpful. I kam starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Looking forward to next blog. Thanks!
To dear Shirley C,
As I was reading what John Paul wrote and what you had written last week, I was wondering if you are in a place of ‘letting go of the old in order to gain the new?’ (to quote JP) The other thing that came to mind is something I once heard Bob Jones say. He talked about the parable of the talents and commented, ‘There’s no harm in trying and failing; the harm is in sitting.’ Obviously I’m in no place to give you direction, these are simply the questions/thoughts that came to mind when I read your post. I’m praying for you and your family that the Lord would grant you wisdom in your situation.
And to dear Kathryn,
In the Psalms it says, ‘For You alone make me dwell in safety, I will lie down and sleep in peace’ When in a work situation where the help requested is not provided, our sense of personal safety is threatened. I pray your employer will hear and respond to your request for help, that your sense of safety would be restored, that your body would be strong and pain-free, and that you would lie down and sleep in peace!
Bless you, Maryann
I received this piece from someone on GodTube, thought I would share it with all of you - God Bless!
HOLY QUILT
As I faced my Maker at the last judgment,
I knelt before the Lord along with all the other souls.
Before each of us laid our lives
like the squares of a quilt , in many piles.
An angel sat before each of us
sewing our quilt squares together
into a tapestry that is our life.
But as my angel took each piece of cloth off the pile,
I noticed how ragged and empty each of my squares was.
They were filled with giant holes.
Each square was labelled with a part of my life
that had been difficult,
the challenges and temptations
I was faced with in every day life.
I saw hardships that I endured,
which were the largest holes of all.
I glanced around me.
Nobody else had such squares.
Other than a tiny hole here and there,
the other tapestries were filled with rich colour
and the bright hues of worldly fortune.
I gazed upon my own
Life and was disheartened.
My angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together,
threadbare and empty, like binding air.
Finally the time came when each life was to be displayed,
held up to the light, the scrutiny of truth.
The others rose; each in turn, holding up their tapestries.
So filled their lives had been.
My angel looked upon me,
and nodded for me to rise.
My gaze dropped to the ground in shame.
I hadn’t had all the earthly fortunes.
I had love in my life,
and laughter.
But there had also been trials of illness,
and wealth, and false accusations
that took from me my world, as I knew it.
I had to start over many times.
I often struggled with the temptation to quit,
only to somehow muster the strength to pick up
and begin again.
I spent many nights on my knees in prayer,
asking for help and guidance in my life.
I had often been held up to ridicule,
which I endured painfully,
each time offering it up to the Father
in hopes that I would not melt within my skin
Beneath the judgmental gaze of those who unfairly judged me.
And now, I had to face the truth.
My life was what it was, and I had to accept it for what it was.
I rose and slowly lifted the combined squares of my life to the light.
An awe-filled gasp filled the air.
I gazed around at the others who stared at me with wide eyes.
Then, I looked upon the tapestry before me.
Light flooded the many holes, creating an image,
the face of Christ.
Then our Lord stood before me,
with warmth and love in His eyes.
He said, ‘Every time you gave over your life to Me,
it became My life,
My hardships and my struggles.
Each point of light in your life
is when you stepped a side
and let Me shine through,
until there was more of Me than there was of you.’
May all our quilts be threadbare and worn,
allowing Christ to shine through!
God determines who walks into your life….
it’s up to you
To decide who you let walk away,
who you let stay,
and who you refuse to let go.’
Now, simply pray the following small prayer. Then sit back and watch the power of God work in your life,
that is when you find out that God is all you need.
Father, God bless all my friends in whatever it is that you
Know they may need this day! And may their life be full
Of your peace, prosperity and power as he/she seeks
To have a closer relationship with you.
Amen…
i believe i have been going thru this 4 a yearand God has brought it to my attention that i have pride, jealousy, that i care what people think and i prayed for it to leave but it did not seem to go away and i wondered was i doomed to be this way forever, he started to show me truth about these issues, i thought i was starting to get better and change but its like its back some, i hate to be selfish and i know i am not suppose to be this way and i know the only thing i can do is to pray and keep praying that God will change me, well it has now been over a year since God initially began to show me these problems and i am still not cleansed of them. someone please send hope. i do not want to stay in this place forever,
Humm. Well at first I really couldn’t understand this entry. Things are moving so fast that in the last 10 days I’ve come to understand this…experience it…feel it…
I hope it is over just as fast HA!
Dear John Paul,
Pretty sure it’s my address right now.
Thank you, and…hurry up with posting the last dark night!!!!
O.K., I’ve gone back and read the Transitions, and yep- the dark night of the Spirit is where we are- me and my husband. We accepted an invitation of the Lord nearly 4 years ago to “Come up Hither”, and everything was turned upside down. We have been through many phases in the ways of God, but none like this one. It became intense 2 years ago, and we understand that it is a time of deep preparation. We have experienced things that even our relatives would not believe if they did not know us- real persecution,witchcraft,threats, uncovering of a conspiracy against Christians, and harassment because of the name of Christ-right here in the great USA. It took me quite a while to understand that I have to surrender to the process, I at first thought I was to do warfare.
The real warfare is in kissing the sword that divides and separates us. Divides soul and spirit, and separates us for usefulness in the Kingdom.
This relates to a vision I had of being in a group of Christians pursued by the enemy and Jesus, mighty in battle came riding upon a white horse. We were elated at seeing Him coming. There was no exit for us. He came and extended His sword to us- the only way out would be to grasp the sword with both hands and be lifted out as it sliced our hands. Each one had the choice to make. Our works and strength must be devoured and rendered useless for us to be carried away with the Lord to His safe place. And to kiss the sword that wounds brings a release of healing and freedom. There is a word that I reserve for the Lord alone-its true meaning fits only Him: How AWESOME is the wisdom and love of our King.
To “Me”
Friend, when I read youre post, I understood. Iv’e been there, we all have, and we all still are at times….All I can say is that without God’s gift of free GRACE, none of us can make it. Of course we need to live lives that are repentant, but we are not perfect. We all have our “thornes” in our flesh, and we walk out our lives the best we can, with all the good, the bad, and the down right ugly, right inside of us.
But you must CHOOSE to remember, that you are UNCONDITIONALY LOVED! You are loved by a father who does not expect you to be perfect, in fact, he desires for you to be kind to yourself, and FORGIVE yourself as he has. No, it’s not always easy, especially when you have a real live enemy reminding you of every “imperfect” thought and deed…but HE HAS BEEN DEFEATED AND HE KNOWS IT! he knows who LIVES INSIDE OF YOUR HEART..therefore YOU WIN….even on the “bad days”.
Friend, Im not sure where you are in the process, but inner healing takes some time. God will be faithful to show you the roots to your struggles. Then, when you are ready to take back your ground, when ALL is renounced, and forgiveness and deliverance comes, you will still be challenged to walk it out…but with a NEW STRENGTH, a TRUE STRENGTH, strength that comes from GRACE. It’s when you recieve that grace as a gift, you will then begin to LOVE YOURSELF, and see youreself the way God sees you. Beautiful, accepted, loved, and forgiven…
Tiffany
Thanks for articulating our experience of Job’s life. I meet a lot of people who can relate to Job–and to the way you’ve put it into English for us. Some of us seem to have had a few “dark decades of the soul!”
There are those who have been in need of, and are in search of, healing. There are those whose circumstances seem to have nosedived since they experienced a life-changing revelation of God. There are Josephs and Davids and apostles who get told “how great things they must suffer.”
Graham Cooke tells of a friend who says that “God gives you a wonderful prophecy, then kicks you into a locked room where they beat the life out of you.” When I recently complained to Him about being treated that way once again, Jesus said, “Yes, Vince, it’s true–but you travel in My circle now.”
Well, I think I’ve been walking through the 3 Dark Nights for most of my life! No really!!
My conversion experience came at age 5. I actually came under demonic attack. The only thing I could do is cry out loud the name Jesus. I had this bubble like experience and saw what looked like demons being shot back like sling shots. Apparently, my counselor has told me that experience is actually quite common. At least, she’s reassured me that she’s heard many of her clients tell that same story. It was one of those experiences where I questioned if I was actually normal because this is one of the first experiences that I can remember out of many that I’d classify as simply “weird and unusual”
It was a short time before that, perhaps a year maybe two years prior when I knew the Lord’s calling on my life.
It was a prophetic moment and everything has come to pass that the Lord showed me when I was 3 or 4.
I came out of a long lineage of Freemasonary, Witchcraft, murder, relationally and sexually broken people. Throughout each generation there has been a small number of people who stood out from among my family.
And the Lord has chosen me! Why, I’m not too sure but perhaps there’s a group of people God wants to reach that only I can. Of course, by the grace of God. I’ve got my issues and have needed to go through a lot of healing and deliverance because of my own choices and generational sins stuff. It has felt like my feet have been stuck in cement for many years but the ground is softening and it’s loosening my feet.
There has been season’s of great darkness but I always came through on the other side. And recently it’s been like I’ve been swimming through muddy swamp water and just barely able to get myself to church sunday mornings. But I do, and God yet again proves His faithfulness to me and I receive from the Lord what I need to keep going.
I’m on the verge of going to another level. I’ve never had words for these levels and so I find this blog quite interesting.
To “me”
Tiffany said a few noteworthy words. I just want to further encourage you to keep on following Jesus(i am not saying you are backslidden)…you know how great multitudes followed Him in Israel back then. He healed the sick among them. That’s where your answer lies…Jesus heals the ones who follow Him. Its simple yet would require a price…You won’t be the last, many have walked this dusty road & came out victorious…Eventually the whole church will become the bride without spot or wrinkle.
Jesus is the Divine Healer. He restores us by the power of His cross. Everyday you can make the decision to follow Jesus, eventually one day He will heal you. In fact He is always working in many ways to restore you. He is deeply concern over you. Its not your strength to overcome sin, its His hand that sets everything in place for your destiny. His power works mightily in you. You just need to follow Him. He will guide you every step of the way, & you will go from glory to glory.
You are not alone in your struggles, its great that you are willing to come to the light, that’s where He meets you. He will eventually heal you if you stay on the right path. Take heart Love never fails.
But remember as long as you lived on the earth, you will face temptations. Though you do not belong to sin, sin can still return to enslave you. This is life on earth. We are all in this together. But take heart your love will also grow as you follow Jesus & that’s His victory in you.
Blessings.
hi JP,your coffee talk is really encouraging,because I just dont seem to move out of stage one.Since I left my ministry(personal reasons),my Church,the one who is supportive, is waiting for me to quit altogether,my Pastor says ,he has no jobs inside the Church and when I try to press to open doors again , they are closed ,I have tried 2 different Churches and it just seems a permanent dark place alth’I had a dream the other night where God said :they rejected me long before they rejected you .What can I do to move to the next stage.I had recently visited Detling and your talk about ‘how to hear from God’.Blessings to you and your Team.
to tiffany and alex
you both really said some encouraging things and i really needed it. it is hard to talk to people and tell them the real truth of what i am going through because even when i tell them, i dont always really tell them.and so i am thankful for this blog.
And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord, therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. Hosea 2:13-15
I know this is talking about Israel, but I put my name in the place of Israel’s name and look forward to the day Egypt no longer has a place in me and I gain the power to walk in my high calling.
Hosea 2:16 In that day declares the Lord you will call me Ishi, (my husband,) you will no longer call me Baali,(my master.)