482 The Spiritual Man
Should we walk by emotion we can perform God’s desire only as
we have a happy feeling. But should we live by faith we can obey the
Lord in all regards. How often we do realize a certain matter is in
fact God’s will yet we have not the least interest in it. And so we feel
parched when we try to perform it. We have no registration that the
Lord is pleased nor do we experience His blessing or strengthening.
Rather do we feel as if we are passing through the valley of the
shadow of death, for the enemy is contesting our way. And alas,
without mentioning the innumerable believers who today do not even
follow God’s will, there are those few following it who more or less
only follow that part which interests them. They obey the mind of
God solely when it suits their emotion and desire! Unless we advance
by faith we shall flee to Tarshish (see Jonah 1.3, 4.2).
We should inquire once again as to what the life of faith is. It is
one lived by believing God under any circumstance: “If he slay me,”
says job, “yet would I trust in Him” (13.15 Darby). That is faith.
Because I once believed, loved and trusted God I shall believe, love
and trust Him wherever He may put me and however my heart and
body may suffer. Nowadays the people of God expect to feel
peaceful even in the time of physical pain. Who is there who dares to
renounce this consolation of heart for the sake of believing God?
Who is there who can accept God’s will joyfully and continuously
commit himself to Him even though he feels that God hates him and
desires to slay him? That is the highest life. Of course God would
never treat us like that. Nevertheless in the walk of the most
advanced Christians they seem to experience something of this
apparent desertion by God. Would we be able to remain unmoved in
our faith in God if we felt thus? Observe what John Bunyan, author
of Pilgrim’s Progress, proclaimed when men sought to hang him: “If
God does not intervene I shall leap into eternity with blind faith
come heaven, come hell!” There was a hero of faith! In the hour of
despair can we too say, “O God, though You desert me yet will I
believe You”? Emotion begins to doubt when it senses blackness,
whereas faith holds on to God even in the face of death.