This post is intended to be used in conjunction with the 12-week Bible Study of Experiencing God by Henry, Richard, and Mike Blackaby and Claude V. King. References to specific quotes and texts are indicated by ‘EG’ and the corresponding page number and come from the 2022 publication.
This past week, our study brought us to the midpoint of Experiencing God. It was also the second part of delving into the fourth spiritual reality, “God Speaks”.
Last week, we discussed how God used many methods to speak to the people of the Old Testament. “In the Gospels, God spoke through His Son. God spoke in Acts and speaks in the present by the Holy Spirit.” (EG, pg. 95)
The 4th reality is “God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.” (EG, back cover)
While last week’s focus was on the Bible and prayer, this week’s focus shifted to circumstances and the church.
Without a doubt, all of us have experienced different kinds of circumstances in our lives. Some that seemed good; some that were not so good; and some that were just awful. When those circumstances occur, we often pray about it, don’t we?
“Our problem is that when we pray, we usually don’t relate our prayers to anything that subsequently happens. After you pray, practice spiritual concentration. When you pray in a particular direction, immediately anticipate God’s activity in answer to your prayer. Throughout Scripture when God’s people prayed, He responded.” (EG, pg. 114)
If you’re like me, it’s the circumstances of life that can trip me up. I hope you had a chance to work on your spiritual markers as discussed on day 4 of this week. As I went through listing mine, there were some circumstances that I was happy about; but there were many that were difficult to go through. I wish I could tell you that I was immediately anticipating and seeing God’s activity, but that would be a lie. Many were the occasions that I felt sorry for myself and felt abandoned or punished by God because things didn’t go the way I expected or the way I wanted them to go.
There’s a story in the Bible that some of us may be able to relate in part.
Ruth 1:1 FV “Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land.”
This one verse tells us a great deal about the circumstances at that time. This takes place when the judges ruled. “The days when the Judges ruled were actually dark days for Israel; the period was characterized by the phrase everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 17:6, 18:1, 19:1, and 21:25).”[i] It’s a bit of a harum-scarum environment with everyone setting their own boundaries and rules. But there’s also a great famine going on at the same time which exacerbates the problems.
We know the story. Naomi is married and has two sons. Her husband moves the family from Bethlehem to Moab. Sometime later, her husband dies and Naomi’s two sons end up marrying Moabite women which was frowned upon as this was seen as a mixed marriage – major no-no.
Both of Naomi’s sons pass away and the widow is left with her two daughters-in-law, who are now widowed themselves.
Naomi’s circumstances aren’t what she would have chosen and that’s understandable. She’s living in a foreign land. Her husband has died. Her sons married outside their culture. And then both sons pass away. And then add to that the fact that there’s a famine. Naomi can’t even pacify herself with comfort food! Naomi just has a lot of crummy stuff that’s happened to her. Can you relate?
Naomi desires to return to her homeland and the daughters-in-law offer to travel with Naomi. As she tries to convince them to return to their families, she says, “Life is harder for me than it is for you, because the Lord has turned against me.” (Ruth 1:13b CEV) What is the cause of the calamity as far as Naomi is concerned? Because she thinks the Lord has turned against her. Again, can you relate?
We know that Ruth insisted on remaining with Naomi as she returned to Judah and here’s what happened. Ruth 1:19 CEV “19 They reached Bethlehem, and the whole town was excited to see them. The women who lived there asked, “Can this really be Naomi?”
20 Then she told them, “Don’t call me Naomi any longer! Call me Mara, because God has made my life bitter. 21 I had everything when I left, but the Lord has brought me back with nothing. How can you still call me Naomi, when God has turned against me and made my life so hard?”
Naomi is so distraught over her circumstances that she changed her name from Naomi which means “pleasantness”[ii] to the name Mara which means “bitterness”.[iii]
Naomi evaluated her situation based on her circumstances. Her perspective was that God had turned against her and made her life difficult. Was her life difficult? Absolutely! Had God turned against her? Absolutely not!
What Naomi didn’t know and didn’t see was God’s perspective. Think of the “had-to’s” in Naomi’s life.
-Her husband had to move his family to Moab so that the sons could marry Moabite women.
-Naomi’s husband had to pass away, leaving her widowed.
-Naomi’s two sons had to pass away, making Ruth a widow.
-There had to be a famine in the land and there had to be no male to provide for Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah.
-Ruth had to insist on going to Bethlehem with Naomi.
-Naomi and Ruth had to arrive in Bethlehem when the barley harvest was just beginning.
-Out of all the surrounding fields, Ruth had to pick one belonging to Boaz.
-Boaz had to be single, a close relative of Ruth’s father-in-law, and Boaz had to take notice of Ruth.
-Boaz had to show favor to Ruth and Ruth had to respond in kindness.
-Naomi had to persuade Ruth to seek a husband in Boaz.
-Boaz had to be flattered, but also honest as he admitted he wasn’t the closest relative.
-The closest relative had to reject the land when he found out it was a package deal that included Ruth and Naomi.
All of these “had-to’s” resulted in Boaz and Ruth marrying, having a son (a grandson for Naomi!). Ruth 4:16 CEV “16 Naomi loved the boy and took good care of him. 17 The neighborhood women named him Obed, but they called him “Naomi’s Boy.”
Obed later had a son named Jesse who was the father to King David. If you follow the bloodline, you know that Jesus came from this very root.
Naomi was very bitter at her circumstances for a time because she only saw it from her perspective.
Can you look back at circumstances in your life that perhaps made you bitter, frustrated, or angry simply because you didn’t see them from God’s perspective?
“God will let you know what He is doing in your life when and if you need to know.” (EG, pg. 115)
I don’t know if Naomi was praying to God during that time that she felt He had turned against her. If she was, I’m sure she felt God was silent. Have you ever experienced the sounds of silence in response to your prayers or Bible study time? Those times when nothing you read makes sense, and you don’t hear or sense any instructions or answers from the Holy Spirit? Perhaps that is when your circumstances are being used by the Holy Spirit to communicate with you. Because let’s be honest, we are more prone to pay attention to our circumstances.
“God used circumstances to reveal to Jesus what He should do. The circumstances were the things Jesus saw the Father doing.” (EG, pg. 117)
“To understand your bad or difficult circumstances, God’s perspective is vital.” (EG, pg. 117)
Job, like Naomi, suffered great loss. But Job’s response was a bit different. Job 42:1 GNT “Then Job answered the Lord.
2 I know, Lord, that you are all-powerful;
that you can do everything you want.
3 You ask how I dare question your wisdom
when I am so very ignorant.
I talked about things I did not understand,
about marvels too great for me to know.
4 You told me to listen while you spoke
and to try to answer your questions.
5 In the past I knew only what others had told me,
but now I have seen you with my own eyes.
6 So I am ashamed of all I have said
and repent in dust and ashes.”
Job wasn’t crying out that God didn’t love him or that God wasn’t fair. Job’s perspective on his monumental loss was not based on his circumstances, but rather the almightiness of God. It’s interesting to note that after this declaration from Job, God blessed the last part of Job’s life even more than He had blessed the first.
Dr. Henry Blackaby referenced his daughter Carrie’s bout with cancer. He wrote, “We know God loved us, so we went to Him in prayer and asked for understanding of what He was doing or was going to do in our lives. We wanted to be rightly adjusted to Him through this time. We prayed, ‘What are You purposing to do in this experience that we need to adjust ourselves to?’”
If you read his account on page 119, you know that many people from all over the world joined in praying for Carrie. Prayer ministries that were flat and with barely a pulse became alive again. God answered those prayers with a miracle. No trace of cancer! God used Carrie and the rest of the Blackaby family to revitalize the prayer lives of many.
“Do you see what happened? We faced a trying situation. We could have looked back at God from the middle of our circumstances and developed a distorted understanding of God. Instead, we went directly to Him and sought His perspective.” “We believed God and adjusted our lives to Him and to what He was doing. Then we went through the circumstance looking for ways His purposes would be accomplished in ways that would bring Him glory.” (EG, pg. 119)
Activity #6 on page 120 probably needs to be copied and pasted on your bathroom mirror, your car’s dashboard, and inside of your Bible.
“The most difficult thing you will ever have to do is deny self, take up your cross, and follow Him. The most challenging part of your relationship with God is being God-centered.” (EG, pg. 121)
Oswald Chambers once said, “We have become so self-centered that we go to God only for something from Him, and not for God Himself.”
As I went through my spiritual markers, I was compelled to go back through each one and write God’s activity in each. I have to say that most of the markers were times I prayed for one thing, but God took me in a different direction that what I prayed for.
My life circumstances were nowhere near Naomi’s but there were several “had-to’s” in my life to get me to where I am today.
“God wants to involve you in His purposes. God has been working in the world all along (see John 5:17). He was accomplishing His purposes for your life prior to your birth, and He has been active in your life since you were born. God said to Jeremiah the prophet, ‘Before I formed you in the womb; I set you apart before you were born. I appointed you a prophet to the nations’ (Jer. 1:5). When God is ready for you to take a new step or direction in His activity, it will always be in sequence with what He has already been doing in your life. He does not go off on tangents or take meaningless detours. He builds your character in an orderly fashion with a divine purpose in mind.” (EG, pg. 126)
God won’t send you on a wild goose chase. Any wild geese chasing is of our own choosing.
I hope that it comforts you or validates your circumstances to know that God has purposes for your life. Sometimes those “had-to’s” are painful and can be scary, and God knows that. He understands. He just wants us to have a relationship with Him that is saturated in love, truth, and faith so that when circumstances aren’t what we would choose, we still trust Him and see Him with our own eyes.
Day 5 touches on the fact that God speaks through the church and we’ll go much deeper in this subject later on.
Ephesians 4:15-16 CSV “Speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head- Christ. From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.”
How do you view your spiritual family, the church? If you see our church as being disjointed and not functioning together, what is your part in that? Are you living in union, or in dissension? Are you promoting peace and love or gossip and malice? Do you spend your days investing in others or withdrawing from others? Do you find more joy in serving than you do in being served? Spend some time in prayer to see if you’re doing your part.
[i] Study Guide for Ruth 1 by David Guzik (blueletterbible.org)
[ii] Naomi – Baby name meaning, origin, and popularity | BabyCenter
[iii] Mara Name Meaning: Origins and Significance (nameoftheyear.com)
Beacons of Light 