God’s Strange Yet Faithful Guidance

01 Aug God’s Strange Yet Faithful Guidance

Posted at 08:00h in English Service, Featured by

Preacher Huijun - 6 August 2015

Jesus Misplaced?

When you need Jesus, can you find Him? Often, despite learning more bible knowledge, we find ourselves a spiritual handicap when we're being put on the spot - when trials come, when inconveniences arise and things become not smooth-sailing, we lose the peace and joy we had a moment ago, as if Jesus has left us. The truths we heard seem to become irrelevant to the reality we're living in, and Jesus is no where to be found. However, Jesus is not found in any other place but in your heart, when your heart solely want to seek Him for who He is, not what you want Him to be and do in your circumstances. A lot of times, we cannot find Jesus because we fit Jesus into our humanistic ideals, only to find ourselves disappointed and frustrated toward God. Jesus is not our ideal but the ideal, perfect God, originally and principally the way He is. However, a lot of times, we cannot seem to reconcile His perfection in our imperfections, His spirituality into our earthly human roles, causing us great distress because we can only feel ourselves to be so distant from Him. God said, "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." The spiritual distance we feel from God is to drive us into prayers. As we seek Him, willing to be taught by Him and hear His voice, Holy Spirit will work through the truths we know and drive us into deeper reliance on Him. God can soften our wilfulness in prayers, He can also restore a fighting heart against the forces of darkness within us.. Pray as we live, live as we pray. In the things we cannot completely understand right now because of our limitations, let's restore a humble heart before God first, profess that He is the true and living God, and let Him work through the truth stored in our hearts. Our faithful God will work through the Holy Spirit within us to shape us into His likeness, increasingly and progressively in His grace and love.

Related Topics: Knowing Jesus | More Messages from Preacher Huijun

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<Exodus 13>

17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” 18 So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.

19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the Israelites swear an oath. He had said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place.”

20 After leaving Sukkoth they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. 21 By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. 22 Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

 

Strange: Led them on a detour when there was shorter route.

  • Few days/weeks journey >>> 40 years

 

Why God’s guidance was so “strange”?

1) God know things we don’t <v17>.

  • Danger unbeknown to us.
  • Our faith level, what we can bear and what we can’t.
  • Yes, God will stretch us, but not “over-stretch”.

 

2) God was setting the stage for His greater victory and Pharaoh’s bigger defeat.

 

The best way is not the shortest, fastest or easiest way, but God’s way.

  • “Shortest” may become “furthest” from the Promised Land.
  • What is important is not shortest, but “safest”.
  • “Hard” way may be the “easier” way.
  • Longer, harder way >>> learn to completely rely on God, build faith and resilience.
  • Longer, harder way >>> better manifest God’s glory.
  • Even if God gives us shorter, faster, easier way, will we surely follow God?
  • It is not whether the route is short/long, easy/hard, BUT whether we are guided by God.
  • Do not only aim for “fastest” way in evangelism.
  • Be careful of letting a person serve in important position too fast.

 

Must not be too quick to grumble.

  • Sometimes when look back, we may even thank God for not answering our prayers.
  • Learn to find reasons to thank God for certain detours.
  • Wherever God leads us, His presence will be with us.
  • He will not keep us in the wilderness forever.

 

Our problem: Hard to see God’s guidance without a visible pillar of fire/cloud.

  • God wants us to restore living by faith, not by sight.
  • We received what is better than pillar of fire/cloud: Holy Spirit and God’s word.
  • Holy Spirit guides not just outside us, but within us.
  • God’s word is light and fire <Ps 119:105; Jer 23:29>.
  • Not true that it is easier to follow God if we have the visible pillar.
  • The problem is never “God didn’t guide us”, but “we didn’t follow Him”.

 

Reflection

  1. Can you find any reasons to give thanks for the detours you went through in your life? Why is the fastest and shortest way not always the best and safest? Share how you have confirmed that God’s way is the best way.
  2. How can you see and follow the guidance of God without a visible pillar of fire/cloud?
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Preacher Hui Jun
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Huijun serves as Secretary of The Blessed RUN Ministries. She is also the Preacher at The Life Church and Missions (Singapore). She graduated from Singapore Bible College and currently lives in Singapore with her husband, Chengji.

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