By Dave ShieldsHello!
I haven’t posted anything about my conversation recently because I have little to report. I continue to seek God’s will for my future after I complete my doctorate. However, the noise and demands of daily life sometimes force me to put my quiet time aside. Thankfully, I motivated myself to do some quiet time last night after everyone else had slept.
Two nights ago, as I prayed while lying down to sleep, I asked God to continue guiding me in His Word. I saw Ezekiel 6 flash across my mind, but I wasn’t sure if I had already read it in my recent reading in Ezekiel, so I decided to give it a go. What I got from this reading was a bit challenging. On the one hand, it could be considered God instructing me about my personal issues; on the other, it could be a continued call to these “other people” that He has been talking to me about. Let’s look through this together:
"Proclaim this message from the Sovereign Lord against the mountains of Israel. This is what the Sovereign Lord says to the mountains and hills and to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring war upon you, and I will smash your pagan shrines. All your altars will be demolished, and your places of worship will be destroyed. I will kill your people in front of your idols."
- Ezekiel 6:3-4
See why I said reading Ezekiel can be scary? Well, I read these verses a few times to try and discern what they could mean. I only came up with two options, which may testify to my limited understanding as a human speaking with God the Father.
First, if you recall in my other post, I felt God was going to send me to some group of people who are growing sleepy in their faith and/or not following God as closely as He would like. This could be many different things from my current city’s generally status quo, “Keeping up with the Joneses” mentality. It could also refer to a group of people elsewhere in the English-speaking world (hence the ‘not sending me to a place where people talk strangely’ from another post). I am not sure what the topic of this message should be.
Second, and probably the more concerning version, is that God could be refining me in the fire and breaking idols in my life. Despite my attempts to be a dedicated follower of Christ, there is no doubt that I still have plenty of things that distract me from the Lord. Some of these are the simple “busyness” of life common for middle-aged working adult parents in American society. I still allow deeper things to distract my attention in my own life. This may be video games that I choose to play instead of seeking God, or it could be the social media sites that I scroll through, hoping for a laugh or an interesting factoid. It could be any number of my hobbies that I choose to dedicate more time to than God. I simply don’t know.
"Then, when they are exiled among the nations, they will remember me. They will recognize how hurt I am by their unfaithful hearts and lustful eyes that long for their idols. Then at last they will hate themselves for all their detestable sins."
-Ezekiel 6:9
This verse shows a great example of God’s compassionate heart for His people. In contrast, the earlier verses show God’s vengeful and angry tone, and we wonder why on earth we could serve a God who would do such scary things as destroy all of these distractions. Then, we come across a verse like this, where God comes in with the soothing balm after He has expressed His anger. It should hurt the hearts of us believers when God does these things to show how hurt He is by our failure to give Him the credit He is due.
Like the previous verses, I could interpret this in multiple ways. I could see it as God trying to coax these yet unknown “they”, about whom He has been talking to me recently, into a better spiritual state. Likewise, this could be God telling me that He has to discipline me more to understand the refinement needed before he opens the next phase of this journey. When I read the next material section, this idea seemed to fit the plan better.
I ended my reading of Ezekiel for this session because I felt a pull to 2 Peter. Much like some of the other books God has brought me in this time, 2 Peter is a smaller book in the New Testament that I often overlook. However, it offered me so much material that I almost transcribed the entire book during my quiet time. Now, I will take you into those readings.
"By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory. And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires."
- 2 Peter 1:3-4
Okay, now that I have read these verses, I see God pointing me to these ‘human desires’ again. This idea that God is trying to refine me by removing things that I focus too much on fits well with my current situation. As I struggle to figure out what needs to happen, God is reminding me that He has already given me everything needed to accomplish His work. Or, if I don’t have it yet, He will give it to me when the time is right.
It also calls back to the things He wanted to destroy in Ezekiel 6—idols that draw our attention away from Him. It’s so easy for us to be distracted by the idols we build for ourselves. Sometimes, this is the idol of fortune where we seek to develop our earthly wealth despite knowing it could vanish at any moment. Sometimes, it is the desire to appear to fit a societal norm because we are part of a particular society or culture. It could be our attempt to develop “perfect” children that makes us feel happy about our lives. Honestly, I could probably list many more, but that is not the point. The point is that God wants us to be willing to give Him the attention He is due.
"Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet's own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit and spoke from God."
- 2 Peter 1:20-21
This hits deep! No matter what I may think I know about the things of God, they are nothing without the Holy Spirit. I like to think I can read the Scripture and understand what God is saying to me. But the moment I decide that my knowledge is something I did alone, the whole complex falls apart. This is what causes so many pastors to fail! Pastors become so wrapped up in their vision, theology, church body, etc., that they forget the Holy Spirit. At this point, God’s Holy Word becomes nothing more than a platform to prop up a human’s opinion. Needless to say, that will burn in a tremendous explosion someday.
"So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of the final judgment."
- 2 Peter 2:9
So this offers an answer to a potentially important question – why does God let “x” happen? (Note: This is a fill-in-the-blank marker, not the social media platform owned by Elon Musk.) The simplest (and hardest) answer is that God decides whom He will rescue from their trials and when. Sometimes, God has to destroy our idols or stretch our faith to the near-break point because the trial is needed. I can only understand this to mean that all the things God is talking to me about are part of His process to refine my heart.
"They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you."
- 2 Peter 2:19
Wow! Does anyone remember the song by Bethel Music called “No Longer Slaves”? That is precisely what the song is talking about! If we are slaves to fear (as I am in all of these changes), that is what will control me. If we place anything on the throne of our lives besides God, it will control us. I mean, you hear pastors say this kind of thing all the time, but it feels different when you see God put it out there in your quiet time.
So I have to ask myself what things I am a slave to, and there are plenty: fear, comfort, unknown things, earthly struggles, and I could go on. Until I can remove these things from the throne of my life, I will be unable to embrace God’s plan, at least not entirely. What God brought to me next really took my breath away…
"The Lord isn't really being slow about His promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent."
- 2 Peter 3:9
Yeah, I’m pretty sure God is trying to make me wait until the right time to take the next step. As soon as I read this, I was overcome with the memories of my time as a bi-vocational youth pastor. I took a position quickly because I wanted to do it and thought God would just show up as I started the job. I could not have been MORE wrong!
During that time, I faced some of the most arduous spiritual warfare I have ever encountered. It only took a few weeks into my pastoral role to realize how woefully unprepared I was for this. That is not to say that God didn’t send the Holy Spirit to do many great things in that group; He most certainly did. But I was so unprepared that even the immense amounts of power He poured into me were used up quickly because I had nothing else to hold on to. I vowed to myself after it was over that I had better be prepared the next time I accept a pastoral role.
"Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to Him, both now and forever! Amen."
- 2 Peter 3:18
“My story, your glory. My pain, your purpose. My mess, your message. In all things, I know you’re working.” This is a quote from the song “My Story, Your Glory” by Matthew West. This quote exemplifies everything I feel after reading this Scripture. Every wrong turn. Every missed message. Every time I fell. Every time I thought I was tough enough. These things were part of growing “in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” I must simply look at the past, where God has taken me, and remember these things when I get lost.
The moral of this (as I see it) is that no matter what God does next, it will be part of my story to bring Him glory. However, He wants me to burn brightly this time instead of burning out in a fantastic explosion like the last time. Because of this, my quiet time must continue while I wait on His leading.