Page 29 - Reading Job to Know God

Chapter 30, verse 9 and 10. You see, we do not have anything like this
today. If a man is sick in bed, we either stay away or we visit him
cautiously. They went and visited him and argued with him and tried to
accuse him of hypocrisy. And, according to chapter 30:9-10, some people
went up and spit in his face. Well, that is an amazing thing. Spitting in
someone’s face is a lot worse than slapping someone in the face. It is a
disgraceful thing. Disrespect. But there is one more suffering that he
underwent, that I think is more severe than all the others combined
together. It is in chapter 23:3,

“Oh that I knew where I might find Him, That I might come to His
seat! I would present my case before Him and fill my mouth with
arguments. I would learn the words which He would answer, and
perceive what He would say to me. Would He contend with me by the
greatness of His power? No, surely He would pay attention to me.
There the upright would reason with Him; And I would be delivered
forever from my Judge. Behold, I go forward but He is not there, and
backward, but I cannot perceive Him; When He acts on the left, I
cannot behold Him; He turns on the right, I cannot see Him.
He lost the sense of God’s presence. I looked to the right and He is not
there. I looked to the left and He is not there. Everywhere I look, I cannot
find God. Oh, I will tell you, that is the most severe kind of suffering.
There is a false idea going around today that the highest form of
spirituality, the highest kind of faith, is when you have a deep sense of the
presence of God. If someone says I feel God so near to me, that is
supposed to sound spiritual and that is supposed to be good. But that is
not faith at all. Faith rests in fact. When your soul is as dead as midnight,
when God seems a million miles away, then you know by cold blooded
faith that He is still there. He said He is going to be there whether you feel
it or not, whether you sense it or not. Faith rests on the fact of His
presence, not on the sense of His presence. Feeling abandoned by the
Lord is the deepest most primal fear we have. All other fears are just
symptoms of the fear that He is not there or He does not care. We can be
deceived by becoming over- dependent on the felt presence of God. Many
become depressed and many have left the faith because they couldn’t feel
what they thought they felt at some time in their spiritual journey. As we
see with the eyes of faith, and become intimately familiar with His nature,
demonstrated by His Son the Lord Jesus Chris, we can accept periods
were our soul and flesh feel empty of sensation. There is a knowing that
goes deeper than the mind which assures us that if He cannot be felt right
now, it is for our spiritual benefit.

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