Heart Tracks - Two Witnesses

      Writer Chris Tiegreen said, "We are habitual twisters, making dark things our surest truth and God's light our most uncertain refuge.  Such a distortion is a sure recipe for despair.  Instead, we are to believe what the Word and the Spirit tell us, regardless of the witness of the clouds."  Obviously we are presented with two witnesses, the witness of the Lie, and the witness of the Truth.  Which witness do we believe?  Maybe a better question is which witness, which voice, are we most familiar with?  Which one has the easiest access to our hearts?

    I've a friend who says that the Father has been steadily freeing him in his prayer life so that he may stop "praying the problem."  That is, focusing all of his prayer energy on the need, and as a result, only seeing his anxiety and unrest grow as he does so, and growing with them is the size and danger of the problem.  How much of what we transact with Him in our prayer lives is little more than praying the problem, rehearsing and reviewing how bad the situation is, how deep the need goes, how impossible His moving in response seems to be?  Instead of praying the problem, perhaps we ought to be praying the Answer.  Not the answer we think we should have, but the Answer that is Him.  We want answers, when our true need is for the AnswerGiver.
    I love Exodus 20:21 which reads, "As the people stood in the distance, Moses entered into the deep darkness where God was."  Who do you and I most resemble in our dealing with Him, Moses, or the people?  His Word tells us that the Father often approaches us "covered in darkness." Moses had eyes that could see through the darkness to the God who ruled it, who was there, in the center of it.  So many either flee when any type of darkness in the form of need or crisis comes near.  If we don't outright flee, we, like the people, stand off at a distance.  As a result, all we see is the darkness, we don't see Him.  Moses could enter into what struck fear into the hearts of all others because he saw not darkness, but light.  He saw Him.  He didn't believe the witness of the clouds, the darkness, the Lie, but the witness of the Light, the Truth.  He believed because it was not the clouds he saw, but God Himself.  He didn't pray the problem, he prayed the answer.

   I don't remember the source of the inspiration, but in my prayer journal I have written, "Lord, forgive me for all the years I have spent consumed by the low places of my life, and as a result, not steadily journeyed to the high places found only in You."  Consumed by needs, difficulties, clouds, problems, unbelief, but not consumed by and with Him.  May it not be so any longer for me, for you.  Two witnesses will confront us each day, the witness of the enemy's lie, and that of the Father's truth.  Which will we heed, follow, be consumed by?  Will we stand far off, or, will we enter in....where He is?

Blessings,
Pastor O