Horses And Chariots Of Fire

For a while now, on and off, I’ve been dealing with people who are in various states of depression. Sometimes they’re aware of it, sometimes they’re not. One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is discernment, which in the Merriam Webster online dictionary is defined to mean, “the ability to see and understand people, things, or situations clearly and intelligently; the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure,” with some synonyms given such as “wisdom, insight, perception.” In the thesaurus on my computer, the best match I could find was “sensitivity.” With the spiritual gift of discernment, we can see the truth of a situation or a person or people in a situation, regardless of what is being said. For example, someone may say, “I’m doing this to help and support you,” but in reality what they are doing is meant to cause you to fail. With discernment, we can see their true motive. Or someone will say, “God is faithful,” but we will see that they don’t truly believe that. There are people who are great at dissembling – they have great poker faces and can fool most people, but with discernment, we can see the hand writing on the wall and know that something is not as it seems.

In the book of Daniel, in chapter five, King Belshazzar is having a banquet, and he chooses to use the sacred vessels that had been taken from the temple in Jerusalem. A hand appears and begins writing on the wall, and the wise men are called to interpret. None of them can, and finally, Daniel is called. The King offers him honor and great gifts, but Daniel replies, “You may keep the gifts to yourself, and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means. Your Majesty, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor. Because of the high position He gave him, all the nations and peoples of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death; those he wanted to spare, he spared; those he wanted to promote, he promoted; and those he wanted to humble, he humbled. But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. He was driven away from the people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like and ox; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and sets over them anyone he wishes. But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from His temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in His hand your life and all your ways. Therefore He sent the hand that wrote the inscription. This is the inscription that was written, ‘Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin.” Here is what these words mean: Mene – God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel – you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Peres – Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.” (Daniel 5:17-28) And in verse 30 we read, “That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain.”

There are times in our lives when we will have that hand writing on the wall made clear to us, but we will still keep grasping at the way of our own desires. In some of the cases that I have been dealing with, that is what I have been seeing. It is as if the people know that what they are doing is bringing them further away from God, and that what they are doing will bring them into his disfavor, but they can’t seem to stop the momentum on the treacherous downward slope they are on. Choices they could make to turn back and begin to walk in a fresh new way that is pleasing to God and that would bring them back under His blessing are far from the choices they are willing to make. I had that experience before I was born again – no matter what I did, everything seemed to go from bad to worse, and in my heart of hearts I knew that I was going in a direction that could not bring me happiness, and yet I didn’t know how to do anything else.

There are other times when we are walking with God, when we are doing our best to keep our path in line with His word, and yet we don’t feel that we are making any progress, and in fact we may feel that we are stuck or even that we are going in the opposite direction. It is at those times when we feel so desperately alone, that we feel that He is far from us and we don’t know how to get back into His grace, that we can begin to lose hope and we could begin to walk away, even though we were not far from Him at all.

In either case, whether we are near or far from God, there can be a loss of hope, because of our own lack of insight into the situations we are facing. It is then that we must ask God to give us the grace of discernment so that we can understand fully what we cannot see with our natural eyes.

In 2 Kings chapter six, the prophet Elisha and his servant are surrounded by an army, and his servant is terrified because he sees no way of escape. Elisha says to him, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them,” (verse 16), and verse 17 continues, “Then Elisha prayed and said, ‘O Lord, I pray, open his eyes so that he may see.’ And the Lord opened the servant's eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

Whether we are near or far from God, He is always near to us. Even when we have done those things that we know have brought His disfavor, His mercy and love are always willing to bring us back again. When we begin to fear and to lose hope and lose heart, all we have to do is start to ask Him to help us see what only He can show to us. Those horses and chariots of fire are always there, ready, willing and able to protect us, and to help us get back on the road to Him.

Blessings,

Jannie Susan