Why would God interfere with us if he gave us free will? Does he really interfere? I was reading writings by St. John of the Cross and I am kind of baffled by how God can put us through something like that. Purging the soul of all senses, throwing us into despair for years, to bring us closer to him. Why doesn't God just bring us closer to him without all the terrible affects.
God help us...
I went through a very dark time in my life when God literally
separated me from people...
It was strange and not very pleasant and perplexing.
At one point I was placed in a job at work where I had very little
interaction with anyone at work...
My friends seem to dry up.
I had no church fellowship.
Family looked at me like I had lost my mind.
I had a lot of time to pray and cry out to the Lord.
Somehow someone told me about the Dark Night Of The Soul and I
began to read the book and everything in the book was exactly
what I was going through...
I started to embrace the DNOTS and actually looked at it as
an honor somehow bestowed on me by God to suffer for
Him and to be purged and made clean for God's use.
But something wasn't right...
I began to clearly see that I had pride in this DNOTS and that
I was beginning to see that I had gotten off the path
and was traveling down another dead end of my own religious
desire to justify myself before God by how good I was or by
how willing I was to make myself suffer "for Him".
I finally came to my senses and I prayed and asked God to forgive me
for relying on my filthy rags of self righteousness by causing
myself to suffer and for pursuing a path that God hasn't called me to.
I began to see once again that it is only Christ that can please the Father
and that as long as we trust in, rely up and cling to Christ's
right standing before the Father as imputed to us by faith in Christ alone,
we are accepted by God our Father on Christ's merits and never our own.
The DNOTS is an exercise in futility and will always fail miserably.
It is nothing more than man trying once again to please God
by being pure and Holy in himself and by his own actions or deeds
of suffering and self sacrifice.
The only self sacrifice we can ever make is to surrender to Christ's will
and do what He wants us to do and live as He wants us to live.
The only suffering that will come will be from persecution and rejection as
we lift up Jesus and proclaim His salvation....but that is all joy
because God will embrace us and draw us close to Himself in love and affection
as our lives reflect Christ and not our own righteousness.
God knows how to affirm His love to us when we allow Christ to live in and through us.
God doesn't call anyone to the Dark Night Of The Soul,
that is man's self justification by what WE THINK WILL PLEASE GOD.
Christ said that His burden is easy and His yoke is light so
anyone who puts on the yoke of the DNOTS does so in their own
desire to please God apart from what Christ has already done for us.
God was separating me to spend time with Him, not to suffer
so I would be more acceptable to Him.
We have full access...
I can come day or night right to God's throne and talk to Him directly...
Look at my signature line and tell me if I have pass through the DNOTS
and come to my senses of who I am in Christ.
Ps There is still a separation process going on as I have little fellowship
with family, friends or coworkers but I am becoming acustom to it
and not so worried about it now because I know now that God has
a purpose in it to cause me to rely on Him at this time.
He is leading me and I am seeing a door that is beginning to open for me
in service to Him.
This time will not be me but Him...
I tried to open so many doors and now to see God do it,
makes the wait worth every moment spent.
We all have so much pride in us that sometimes God has to strip us down
and bring us back to square ONE where we will always belong,
with Him as our first love, as we allow Him to lead while we follow....