The Fire of Delayed Answers by Bob Sorge

Author:Bob Sorge
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Poetry, General, Religion, Spiritual Life, Prayer, Devotional
ISBN: 9780962118531
Publisher: Oasis House
Published: 1996-06-30T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

DESPERATE DEPENDENCE & HEART ENLARQEMENT

“I will run the course of Your commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart” (Psalm 119:32).

God is presently taking many of His servants through great personal distress, referred to in Scripture (among many other metaphors) as the spiritual “wilderness.” God has a very clear purpose in mind. When the wilderness has completed its work in us, we will be broken, humble, weepy, and soft — with a new fire kindled in our eyes! It will be a fiery love for the One who led us through the wilderness, our beloved Lord and Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.

“Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?” (Song of Solomon 8:5). It is the believer who has allowed the wilderness to produce within her an abandoned obedience, a matured love, and a selfless servanthood. The wilderness represents the difficulties of this present world — our struggles with the flesh and temptation; affliction, tribulation, and hassles; dry seasons in God. “Coming up from the wilderness,” she is on the other side of the desert, and notice her most striking characteristic: She is “leaning on her beloved.”

The bride in the Song of Solomon represents the pathway of all fervent believers as God brings us into fruitful spiritual maturity. By the time she gets to Chapter Eight, she represents the believer whose love is fully matured. We would expect the fully mature believer to be a spiritual giant, a veritable pillar, standing head and shoulders above others. But no, she can hardly even stand up. She has been so broken by the wilderness that she depends upon her Beloved for virtually every step. This is the true scriptural depiction of spiritual maturity.

Maturity in Christ is measured by how much we’ve come to depend on Him. The greater the dependence, the greater the maturity. God is looking for brokenness, helplessness, weakness, and absolute dependence upon Him.

The greater the dependence, the greater the maturity.

Four Kinds Of Dependence

I see four different levels of dependence:

• We all start out at “total independence.” This is the natural state of every unbeliever. Those outside Christ rely exclusively upon their own resources to survive.

• Second, there is “claimed dependence.” When we first come to Christ we eagerly say, “Lord, I depend completely upon You!”

But we’re oblivious to the fact that we don’t know the first tiling yet about dependence. We continue to rely upon the personal support systems we naturally built before we came to Christ.

The Lord loves us so much, though, that He will begin to help us see our self-reliant independence.

• Then there’s “realized dependence.” This is what happens when the Lord shows us how utterly dependent we are upon Him, and we embrace the truth that we can do nothing apart from Him (John 15:5). At this level the believer sincerely cries out to God for help in every area of life.

• Finally, there is what I choose to call “desperate dependence.”

This level of dependence, illustrated in Song of Solomon 8:5, is achieved only through the purposeful formation of the Holy Spirit.

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