We all know, that the youth between 13 and 19 year of age, so called, “teenagers” must go through a “tunnel” where they know everything, where nobody has anything to tell them, inclu­­ding their parents, which also do not understand them, and thus they live a “carefree life in the darkness of the tunnel”. And when they are finally coming out of it, they are unable to believe what kind of life of reality and responsibility they are facing. Well, does the Lord know about it? I personally believe that He purposely arranged it that way since a 13 year old boy could not understand the world and life anyway, and carry responsi­bi­lity, which his parents carry for him. That’s why they are living in that tunnel those six years or so that they may be shielded from the world and its responsi­bi­lities. So, why should we be shocked if something similar would be happening also in the spirit­ual age? There exist also “spiritual teenagers”, which may be 50-60 years of age physical­ly, which believed in the Lord, were baptized, are conscious of being Christians and thus different from their pagan friends. They may also try not to do evil or sin against God and resist temptations as best as they can. But so far, they do not feel or understand any res­pon­sibility for their new faith or relationship with Christ or their new brethren because these respon­si­bilities are carried for them by Christ. But they are not aware that what will follow will not be an “easy life” as they will have to learn responsibilities and facts of their spirit­­ual life as the Spirit will lead them. Are we able to see this? This is also a fact, which the Lord established in His Creation according to His Mind and Will and he has reasons for it, which we cannot understand until He reveals them unto us. I must note here that to be a “spiritual teenager” in an advanced physical age is like to be a mother in an advanced physical age. It is not an end of the world, but the life conditions in an advanced age are different and definitely harder, than in young age, which the Lord chose for our believing and redemp­t­ion and baptism… as it is the same for a young woman to be a mother.

          b) The way of Wisdom. When we find the way of wisdom, we find the way to our salv­ation and deliverance. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…” (Ps. 111:10) and it also is the beginning of knowledge (Pr. 1:7). The “beginning” also means the “first part”, which means that the FEAR of the Lord is as it were the “foundation” upon which we may build and continue in knowledge and wisdom. From our beginnings the Lord is generously giving to us opportunities, where we can verify our wisdom or the lack of it. The word “opportunities” should be basically understood in the following sense.

The Lord never compels us to choose His Way without simultaneously giving to us alter­na­tives and possibilities, which for us are far more bearable, tolerable, acceptable, attractive even “wiser” according to our judgment. He gives to us various situations and other ways in order to find out our judgments of His Will and His Ways. He may put in front of us an opportunity, which, at the same time, may be a test of our fear of Him, our commitment, devotion, sincerity, integrity, of the relationship of our heart toward Him, etc. Of course, the Lord knows why we always choose for us the most attractive and promising opportuni­ties and we always judge them according to their usefulness for us personally and for our pur­poses or aims of our heart. Our purposes always depend on our plans, ambitions and on our understanding of the way, which we choose. Here the Lord is never as a “scientist sitting in a laboratory” waiting for the result of the test. He foreknows how the test will go and does not have to wait for the result. The Lord is doing this “testing” with tenderness and love toward us so He might show us later on and we might judge ourselves, whether our decision was wise or foolish. And we learn thereby. This is a practical acquisition of wisdom from the Lord in His Way even though we may not choose His Way. Wisdom is mentioned in the Scripture in many places, but we always talk about God’s Wisdom and not human wisdom. Hence, “If any of you lack (God’s) wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him” (Jam. 1:5). Which way and how it will be given him is not specified in this Word of God as it always depends on the spiritual state of that believer, but it shall be given him.

          c) The way of Spiritual Strength. The history of Israel and the Philistines is so well known that it is not necessary to write about it. However, it may be necessary to ask the questions, which to this day have no reliable or truthful answers. For example, why is it that Israel was always in a certain danger from the side of the Philistines? They always were a source of annoyances and vexation and threats and a mockery of Israel ever since they existed though they in themselves never meant anything special. Today, the situa­tion is almost the same except that they are not called Philistines, but Palestinians. There is no greater thorn in the side of Israel than Palestinians. Then why the weaknesses and the deplorable state of Israel were always shown in the presence of Philistines? The Lord always has someone through whom the specific unhealthy situations are revealed, and later on the Lord adds also the reasons for that unhealthy state, which causes weaknesses and inabilities. The Philistines were also called the “uncircumcised Philistines”. David used the same phrase when he called Goliath the “uncircumcised Philistine” (1Sam. 17:36).

All this are known things, but what is “unknown” or unrecognized as the result of Israel’s ina­bi­lity to stand face-to-face with Philistines, overcome them, get rid of them, is the fact that Israel was very similar to the Philistines! How? As the Philistines were uncircumcised in body, so ISRAEL WAS UNCIRCUMCISED IN HEART (Rom. 2:24-29). Hence, the Philistines could mock and defame Israel’s God, and Israel could do nothing about it!

Unfortunately, similar situation is also in the Church and in the whole Christianity, which is also uncircumcised in heart and has in itself a worldly spirit. That’s why the world is also uncovering weaknesses and inabilities in the Church, defames her God and is mocking her saying: You do not signify anything and you cannot be taken seriously. The world laughs at the Church and Christians, which carry in themselves the same worldly spirit, which the pagans in the world also carry. This also shows that the “salvation” of these Christians is not worth much because their salvation is not able to do anything, it has no power. And the world is similarly the greatest thorn in the side of the Church since her beginning.

This is also an appropriate place to mention that those great men of God mentioned in point a) “lost” their years precisely because of the need to be “circumcised in heart” and thereby “lose” their sinful humanity, inabilities, weaknesses, spiritual stupidity and their worldly qualities in order to gain spiritual power and wisdom needed to render acceptable service to God, Who called them. I will take Moses as perhaps the most typical example. A great majority of believers know his history so I will not repeat it here. I will state only two basic acts.

Moses, as supposed son of Pharaoh, gained in Egypt great knowledge, worldly wisdom, skills and glory; everybody was bowing down to him because he was a “son of Pharaoh” and thus had great privileges. For God, however, he was totally useless! When God called him for His Purpose to deliver His people from Egypt, He first led him out into wilderness and there he was tending sheep – 40 years he was tending sheep! What a shock and change for a Prince of Egypt – from the palace of Pharaoh into wilderness to tend sheep! After 40 years, Moses brought his flock to the mountain of God called Horeb, where he saw a bush burning with fire, but the bush was not touched by the fire, not consumed, not burned (Ex. 3:1-6). Why a burning bush? Our God, Who is also a consuming fire (Heb. 12: 29) wanted to show Moses, and to all of us in the New testament, that Moses needed to “burn” for 40 years in that wilderness so that the fire would burn out of him EVERYTHING what he gained in Egypt! Only then he became an instrument acceptable to God to bring His people out of Egypt. This was an enormously great task for which he had to be totally cleansed and open to the Lord for His instructions. When the Lord brings us to the wilder­ness, our soul also “burns” because it loses what it formerly considered valuable and use­ful and pleasant, and it is not getting what it would truly want and what it would desire! Our soul is “melted down by fire”, yet, it is not burned and consumed by the fire, but it will emerge out of it as seven times purified silver, which is the cleanness of the Word of God (Ps. 12:6)!

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To be continued next week

brother Hanola

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