The Trysting Place

Last night a dear sister, who lives in Israel, shared a blog with me that resonated so strongly with me that I knew I must share it. The blog is called Fresh Light and this one was titled WHEN GOD GOES QUIET. I cannot begin to tell you how affirming this word was for me.  For many months it has felt to me that God has "gone quiet" or that I am no longer able to hear His voice. That still, small voice used to be a regular, rhythmic part of every day for me; "call Doreen, she needs to hear from you," or "Debi is sick, send her a card of love and cheer," or more heavy, prophetic things like what God is speaking through a weather pattern or two ships that collide on the sea. He would speak to me in the little things during my day and in much bigger pictures in the night. But in this past year, I feel like I have hardly heard him at all.

The blogger of Fresh Light has apparently experienced the exact same thing - and she has reacted in the exact same way as I have.  She basically confessed that she decided to just go on with life without sitting in her usual place where she would wait upon God and journal what she heard from him. She said she became so afraid that she would not hear anything that she stopped trying to listen and started "leading a normal, happy life of baking, gardening, and having lunch with friends." 

EXACTLY. This is exactly what has happened to me! I stopped going to my "trysting place." David Wilkerson always used that phrase to describe the place he went each day to meet with God. The Webster's Dictionary defines it as " a place for a meeting, especially a secret meeting of lovers; a rendezvous." I love that! It depicts the deep intimacy that one experiences when they have a trysting place to meet with the Lord. For me it has always been my study downstairs. I would faithfully take my journal and a pen and sit...and wait...and expect to hear the Voice of Jesus, my Lover, my Bridegroom King. I have dozens of journals filled with His voice, the words imparted to me in the trysting place. But I too confess that I stopped going down there. I too filled my days with baking and gardening and tending to John's needs, not wishing to be disappointed again when my Lord failed to meet with me.  It has been a dry and thirsty season and I have missed Him so much! But in the same week that I got to read this blog, feeling somewhat encouraged that I'm not the ONLY one who has had this dry season, I finally heard His voice loud and clear!

I was in my bed at night, interceding in tears for a very dear friend who had been in the hospital for three weeks with no diagnosis. Teams of doctors had run dozens of scans and tests, poking and prodding, scratching their heads, and still coming up with nothing; and in the meantime she was fading away from us, losing cognition, memory, and all energy. I went to the hospital to pray for her and sing worship songs over her and I was deeply grieved at her tiny, lifeless form that struggled for breath.  Crying out to God that night for an answer, I HEARD HIM! I heard that Voice I've been missing so much! "Go back to the beginning of her illness," He said, " and you will find the answer. Look back."

I spent the next few hours of the night trying to retrace the first time she knew she was ill. It must have been about two months ago and she went several times to the E.R. complaining of shortness of breath. "I cannot breathe!" she would exclaim. "Lungs!" I cried out to God. Even though the illness had progressed with strange, seemingly disconnected symptoms of skin rash, hypothermia, night sweats and high fevers, lethargy, painful knees and joints, it seemed the Lord was pointing me directly to her lungs. I notified her daughter, the doctors did some lab cultures of rare bacteria strains, and at last she tested positive for a disease called Mycoplasma Pneumonia. LUNGS!  Now there is a treatment plan. Now a protocol is in place. Now my dear, dear sister in Christ will recover. I am overwhelmed with joy for her and for all of us who love her -- but I am also dancing a little personal, happy dance that I heard that clear Voice of God speaking to me!

I know what the blogger of Fresh Light means when she says, "God goes quiet in order to get us to seek Him with all our hearts." It is the picture intricately painted for us in Song of Solomon 2:9: "My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice." He wasn't coming in. He was gazing through a window, peering through the lattice, to entice His beloved to long for Him, yearn for Him, and open the door to Him!

I am going to return to our trysting place, genuinely longing for Him again. I am going to ignore the enemy's voice that will no doubt try again to deter me and convince me that I won't hear anything. The days just ahead of us are going to be a terrible roller coaster of events, my friends, and we will only be able to safely navigate them if we are listening for the Holy Spirit and being obedient to what He tells us. Seek the Lord while He may be found!