I think God does withdraw His Spirit sometimes to test us like he did with Job…it is then that we really need to remember what the Spirit has witnessed to us. If we do this, we’ll enjoy a much greater abundance of the spirit after the trial of our faith.

This entire post was absolutely wonderful and I thank you for sharing it.

I enjoy the comments made here as well.

Tom

Everyone goes through feelings like this; even the Savior of the World cried-out from the cross, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”

While this cry was uttered by a sinless, perfect Being, who in everything He said and did taught us and blessed us, I think feelings of abandonment by us certainly are normal and natural, even understandable. I think such feelings were aniticpated and expected by Heavenly Father.

But we’re not alone. Even when all 5 senses make it seem that way, we’re not alone. God monitors every thought. His response, or seeming lack thereof, is always measured and intended to help us stretch and grow.

The times where I have felt the Spirit, where it has been so sweet a communion, has often been after a season of estrangement and even neglect on my part. Me, a pathetic, hungering, thirsting soul comes looking for “DAD” again — and the reunion is sweet. The robe is placed upon my shoulders. The ring is placed on my finger. I find myself embraced. I feel a bit bewildered, but I know I am Home. I know who’s arms are around me.

Nephi went through this:

1 Ne. 2: 19
19 And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me, saying: Blessed art thou, Nephi, because of thy faith, for thou hast sought me diligently, with lowliness of heart.

Enos went through this:

Enos 1: 4
4 And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.

Job went through this:

13 So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.

This seems to be the pattern of heaven, perhaps.

But if we endure it well — “God shall exalt us on high; we shall triumph over all our foes.”
__________________
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“I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” John 14: 18

http://notleftcomfortless.blogspot.com

Eric,

I appreciate you sharing your thoughts. I don’t see anything that you wrote that a Mormon would disagree with. The slight differences that you mention are a matter of semantics.

Thanks for sharing your testimony of Jesus with us.

I invite Mormons to delve into this subject more deeply.

It IS very interesting that the same Jesus who declared, “whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give Him shall never thirst” was the same Jesus who declared “I thirst” on the cross.

A dispassionate observer might say, “How ironic”!
An atheist might say, “So much for his trust in God”!
The Jews certainly thought this marked Jesus as cursed by God.

What is a believer to make of this remark?

Mormons, along with a good number of others, look at this and say that Jesus is displaying integrity: trusting in God, despite the situation. Thus, the suffering and death of Jesus Christ becomes merely another moral in the moral play-book of life.

My friends, Jesus’ death is more than a morality tale. It is more than an example of how to suffer–although, you are right in saying that Paul and Peter do make mention of Jesus as an example of how to suffer. Yet to focus on Jesus’ suffering primarily in such a way is to make the Gospel into Law. Gospel flows from what God does for us for our salvation. The Law is what I must do for God.

All God expects from you is that you believe on the One whom he has sent and you will have eternal life. That is pure Gospel.

So, you may ask, “Why DID Jesus utter those words on the cross?”

The answer is based on why Jesus went to the cross in the first place: to become our salvation.

Jesus took the form of a servant and let go of all things to suffer on our behalf. Philippians 2 mentions that Jesus humbled himself by taking on our nature: EVEN THOUGH he was God, he took on the form of a human so that he could be made like his brothers and could actually suffer and die. By nature, God could NEVER do that; but by sending his Son, Jesus, to be born of humans, this could be accomplished. The humiliation of Jesus focused on one thing, that he give up his life on the cross.

That meant that Jesus had to lay EVERYTHING aside: reputation, bodily comfort, and even justice. There are not many amenities on the cross; but notice that Jesus did not accept the wine the first time it was offered. Jesus received the punishment of the cross fully, without any comfort. Jesus was becoming the sacrificial lamb of the Passover, letting his own life become the lamb for all of Israel, that had to be roasted and consumed on the cross, just as the Passover lamb had to be roasted and consumed by the people of Israel.

That helps to explain the other words, which otherwise would seem senseless to anyone: “My God, my God; why have you forsaken me?” It wasn’t that God SEEMED to abandon Jesus; God, the Father, DID abandon Jesus on the cross; why? Because Jesus “became sin for us” (See 2 Corinthians 5:21 and Galatians 3:13) so that we would become “the righteousness of God.” Jesus endured that intense suffering on the cross, which we would otherwise endure forever. Jesus was abandoned by God on the cross SO THAT we might not be abandoned forever by God. The suffering was completed on the cross and accepted by the Father, while Jesus was yet on the cross. Jesus, who had been abandoned by the Father, knew that all things were complete and his sacrifice was being fulfilled. That is why he then uttered two more words: “It is finished” (All things have been paid for, the debt of sin is canceled) and “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

Read Isaiah 53, which prophesied of all this. Note that even the prophecy focused on the purpose: THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN: on him would be placed the iniquities of us all; the punishment that brought us peace was laid upon him; by his stripes we are healed.

It may seem like I’m making a mountain out of a mole-hill on this issue.

I don’t mind anyone thinking this.

Better to do that than to have made a mole-hill out of the mountain of Calvary, the most significant event in Christian life.

That is why Christians honor the cross on their steeples and in the sanctuaries, for with the cross of Christ came our salvation and still comes our forgiveness and the reason for our constant hope of eternal life.

Furthermore, Christians do not merely THINK about Christ when they are taking the Lord’s Supper (and thereby fulfill an ordinance or a Law by “remembering Jesus”), Christians RECEIVE the Lord Jesus Christ in the bread and in the wine, for the forgiveness of sins and renewal in Christ (thereby receiving the gift of eternal life, found only in the work of Jesus Christ).

That is why we see Jesus again, in the Book of Revelation speaking similar words that had been spoken to the woman at the well:
Revelation 21:6 – “And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

Jesus remains the Bread of Life, the ONLY source and substance that gives eternal life. Jesus remains the Water of Life, the ONLY source and substance that gives gives eternal life. Just as Jesus remains the ONLY way, the ONLY truth, the ONLY life.

Grace to you and peace,
in Christ,
Eric Zacharias

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