Fall 1995
The Divine Disturber
Wade E Taylor

The Lord patiently ever draws us to Himself that we might commune with Him in personal intimate fellowship. Every other aspect of our spiritual life and calling will find its outworking from these times of personal communion with Him. A particularly important part of this is the fact that the Lord not only takes a singular interest in us, but convicts us when we begin to stray.

It is of utmost importance for us to understand that His convicting presence always leads toward life, bringing us into a more intimate closeness to Him. In contrast, condemnation is from the enemy and will always lead us away from the Lord toward death.

There have been times when I felt this convicting disturbance and misread it. Finally, I became aware of what was happening and turned to the Lord and there He was, the Divine Disturber, waiting for my response.

David's experience of this is recorded in the thirty second Psalm.

"For day and night thy hand was heavy upon
me ... I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and
mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will
confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and
thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin ... Thou
art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me
from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance" Psa 32:4a,5,7

There is a negative and a positive aspect to this convicting work of the Lord, which is intended to turn our hearts singularly towards Him. In contrast to His chastening hand upon us is the blessing of His approbation, or His favor obviously resting upon our lives. This speaks of God's singular attention towards us, as though we were the only person in the universe. The Word tells us,

"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy
closet, and when thou hast shut thy door,
pray to thy Father which is in secret; and
thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward
thee openly" Matt 6:6.

This "open reward" is the practical outworking of His "approbation" resting upon us. The marvel of this is that I can be alone with the Lord and have His total attention, while at exactly the same time, you also can be alone with Him, having His total attention.

His approbation (divine favor) is available to each one of us, if we will turn aside to spend quality time with Him in His presence. The word "closet" is carefully chosen in this passage of Scripture, as we all have closets in our homes, which are always full. This means that an effort is required to make room, so we may be alone with the Lord.

When a young man and woman "falls in love," the object of their love becomes singular. All other humans take on a lesser role in their interest. Each has a "single eye" towards the other. This level of relationship can be further cultivated.

"I love them that love Me; and those that seek
Me early shall find Me ... that I may cause
those that love Me to inherit substance; and
I will fill their treasures" Prov 8:17, 21.

"For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and
scourgeth every son whom He receiveth" Heb 12:6.

There is a unique quality about the approbation of God resting upon our lives. On the human level, our ability to love is limited and fickle. But on the divine side, no matter how many reasons we may have as to why the Lord might not be interested in us, if we will consistently tell the Lord that we love Him, there is "something" resident within each one of us that will cause us to fall in love with the Lord. In turn, the Lord will respond with His singular interest towards us, "I love them that love Me."

There are no exceptions to this experience of His approbation resting upon our lives; it simply requires of us a repentant heart and the continuing expression of our love for Him, in deed as well as in word.

Although these roles of God as a "disturber" and then as One who can be cultivated as a "personal friend" may seem to be opposites, they are very closely related.

Chapter six of Isaiah records the experience of Isaiah when he singularly turned his heart towards the Lord. This account reveals to us the progression that will bring us into this special relationship with the Lord. As Isaiah turned his interest away from the throne of a human king, and lifted his eyes to the eternal Throne of the King of all kings, his life and ministry were transformed.

For Isaiah to come to this higher place, he had to be taken through a time of darkness ("In the year that King Uzziah died") in order to be separated from the things he had relied upon.

We all depend on many things, which must be either dealt with or removed by the Lord. Yet the Lord does not harshly deal with us. Rather, He corrects or chastens us only to the extent that is necessary to lift our attention from the earthly to the heavenly.

"Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth
he open and break the clods of his ground?
When he hath made plain the face thereof,
doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and
scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal
wheat and the appointed barley and the rie
in their place?"

"Bread corn is bruised; because he will not
ever be threshing it, nor break it with
the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with
his horsemen" Isa 28:24-25, 28.

The plowman only does that which is necessary to prepare the soil to receive the seed, so the harvest might be abundant. So also, the Lord's interest is in the quality of our relationship to Him. Therefore, His chastening is limited to this purpose, and His corrective action only continues until the desired response is obtained.

There are those whom the Lord would like to chasten, but is unable to do so because they are unwilling to unconditionally place themselves in His hand and respond to His correction.

While a first year student in Bible School, I became so discouraged that I decided to leave school. I felt that the Lord was not interested in me, and that He had something special for everyone but me.

There were a number of married students who met once a week for a time of prayer and fellowship and I attended one of these meetings. They were excited, sharing all that the Lord was doing for them. I sat there feeling sorry for myself, consoling myself with the fact that I was quitting the next day.

I noticed a fish tank and began to watch the fish contentedly moving about within their environment. As I continued to watch, a presence of the Lord settled upon me and I began to feel as if I were one of these fish, profoundly enveloped within the presence of the Lord.

As I was immersed in His presence, it felt as if His approbation, or favor was singularly upon me. I had placed myself in the corner of the room away from the others, so I could better feel sorry for myself. But now I was experiencing an unusual presence of the Lord and it seemed the others were not aware of this.

Instead of being preoccupied with quitting, I was now judging them for their lack of spiritual sensitivity, and the fact that they were not meeting the Lord as I was. Suddenly, one of these fellows left the table and brought a book to me, telling me I was to read a particular page.

This was a vision of three people standing before the Lord. He came to the first and then made a big fuss over this person. He smiled at the second, and walked by the third. A person who was watching said, "I understand this. The Lord is very interested the first person, slightly interested in the second, and not at all interested in the third."

The Lord spoke and said, "You have it backwards. The first is weak and needs much attention. The second needs only to be reminded of my love from time to time, but the third is a trusted servant who knows Me and whom I can implicitly trust.

At once, I felt His chastening presence and I knew I was the one who was weak, needing all the attention I was receiving, and the others were as the third. I had made a very wrong judgment. I deeply repented and recommitted myself to finish school.

There are different situations and circumstances which the Lord uses to test and provoke us that our self-centeredness, and our self-righteous attitudes might be dealt with. The Lord knows how to do this.

Our part is to give "The Divine Disturber" permission to do so, and then cooperate with Him as He does. Those things that are buried within us cannot be dealt with until they are first exposed.

Uzziah had been a good King, but the Lord was seeking to bring Isaiah to a higher Throne. Many of us are satisfied with the good when the Lord would have us seek the best. Therefore the Lord will cause a situation (in the year that King Uzziah died) in which we begin to realize we have a need.

For those who are fully committed to the Lord, there are no accidents. Our lives are in His hand, and He is actively at work in our behalf. Thus, above the Throne were Seraphim, each having six wings. These three sets of wings speak of divine activity in our behalf.

With one set of wings (The Word and the Spirit), they covered their head and with another set, their feet. Jesus is the Head and we, members of His body. To rightly function in this relationship, our head must be covered that His Head might be in control. Also, our feet must be covered that we might walk only as He directs.

As we do this, we are ready to function in the heavenly realm, and with the other set, to "fly" at His command. This is Scriptural as in Isaiah 40:31, we are to "mount up with wings as eagles." This speaks of divine activity in every aspect of our being.

"And one cried unto another, and said, Holy,
holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole
earth is full of his glory" Isa 6:3.

The Lord not only receives our worship, He works through our worship. "And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke" Isa 6:4.

This "smoke" is His revealed glory, His approbation resting singularly upon us. It is also like a mirror, in the reflection of which we see ourselves. It is only in His presence that we are able to see ourselves as we are, and become capable of a deep inner repentance.

"Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone;
because I am a man of unclean lips, and I
dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips: for mine eyes have seen the King,
the LORD of hosts" Isa 6:5.

Isaiah, although he had been ministering for some time, now in the reflection of the glory of the heavenly Throne, saw the deeper level of his need and repented.

"Then flew one of the seraphims unto me,
having a live coal in his hand, which he
had taken with the tongs from off the altar;
and he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo,
this hath touched thy lips; and thy iniquity
is taken away and thy sin purged" Isa 6:6-7.

Sin is an action, a coming short; but iniquity is deeper. It is the principle that underlies the action. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus went beyond the "act" to the "intent" behind the act. Our sin can be forgiven, but it takes an intervention with "live coals from the altar" to deal with the principle behind the sin.

"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance.
But He that cometh after me is mightier than I,
whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly
purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the
garner; but He will burn up the chaff with
unquenchable fire" Matt 3:11-12.

The Lord desires in this last day those whose sin not only has been dealt with, but also the underlying iniquity within, that He might have those He can fully trust.

"Then flew one of the seraphims unto me having a live coal a live coal in his hand." This "fire" speaks of a deeper work of the Lord in burning out the very root of the problem.

The Lord will yet have a people from whom He has burned the very root of iniquity. Today, the church is being laughed at by the world and its respect has been eroded. But the "Divine Disturber" is about to move in a visitation of "fire," in which all dross will be burned away and a people refined to the extent that the image of Jesus will be seen in the reflection of the "gold" they have become (not possess).

The Lord is beginning to get our attention. He is a Disturber who is seeking something higher. Pilot, looking upon Jesus said, "I find no fault in Him." So also in our day, when we are judged, may that same report again be spoken.