If you are waiting for your prayers to be answered, this book will rekindle your hope and feed your faith. Written from the crucible of the author's own personal crisis of delayed answers, this book gives insight into God's purposes for using the season of delay to produce Christlikeness and greater fruitfulness within us.
According to author Joy Dawson, "A classic. . .I have found this book to be encouraging, confirming and enlightening, and has my highest recommendation."
Pages: 240
Retail: $13.00
ISBN: 0-9621185-3-2
This book helps clarify why the answers to our prayers may be delayed and gives practical advice for walking in faith and hope until God's release comes. If we are to mature into greater dimensions of kingdom fullness, then we must commit ourselves to understanding how God uses delay to refine His chosen ones.
The central principle of this book is:
"Sometimes God Delays to our prayers in order to produce a greater maturity and fruitfulness in us." (from the introduction)
This is not a book of platitudes but of powerful insights that have come through the fire. May your heart be enlarged and your faith expanded as you consider the great blessings extended to those who wait on God alone.
Following is Chapter Nine of The Fire Of Delayed Answers, we hope you enjoy this excerpt.
DESPERATE DEPENDENCE & HEART ENLARGEMENT
“I will run the course of Your commandments, for
You shall enlarge my heart” (Psalm 119:32).
God is presently taking many of His servants through great personal distress, referred to in Scripture (among many other metaphors) as the spiritual “wilderness.” God has a very clear purpose in mind. When the wilderness has completed its work in us, we will be broken, humble, weepy, and soft--with a new fire kindled in our eyes! It will be a fiery love for the One who led us through the wilderness, our beloved Lord and Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.
“Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?” (Song of Solomon 8:5). It is the believer who has allowed the wilderness to produce within her an abandoned obedience, a matured love, and a selfless servant hood. The wilderness represents the difficulties of this present world--our struggles with the flesh and temptation; affliction, tribulation, and hassles; dry seasons in God. “Coming up from the wilderness,” she is on the other side of the desert, and notice her most striking characteristic: She is “leaning on her beloved.”
The bride in the Song of Solomon represents the pathway of all fervent believers as God brings us into fruitful spiritual maturity. By the time she gets to Chapter Eight, she represents the believer whose love is fully matured. We would expect the fully mature believer to be a spiritual giant, a veritable pillar, standing head and shoulders above others. But no, she can hardly even stand up. She has been so broken by the wilderness that she depends upon her Beloved for virtually every step. This is the true scriptural depiction of spiritual maturity.
Maturity in Christ is measured by how much we’ve come to depend on Him. The greater the dependence, the greater the maturity. God is looking for brokenness, helplessness, weakness, and absolute dependence upon Him.
Four Kinds Of Dependence
I see four different levels of dependence:
•We all start out at “total independence.” This is the natural state of every unbeliever. Those outside Christ rely exclusively upon their own resources to survive.
•Second, there is “claimed dependence.” When we first come to Christ we eagerly say, “Lord, I depend completely upon You!” But we’re oblivious to the fact that we don’t know the first thing yet about dependence. We continue to rely upon the personal support systems we naturally built before we came to Christ. The Lord loves us so much, though, that He will begin to help us see our self-reliant independence.
•Then there’s “realized dependence.” This is what happens when the Lord shows us how utterly dependent we are upon Him, and we embrace the truth that we can do nothing apart from Him (John 15:5). At this level the believer sincerely cries out to God for help in every area of life.
•Finally, there is what I choose to call “desperate dependence.” This level of dependence, illustrated in Song of Solomon 8:5, is achieved only through the purposeful formation of the Holy Spirit. He leads us into a wilderness experience that He creates specifically and personally for just us. By the time He’s finished with us, we hopefully will have learned this ultimate expression of dependence. One indicator that you’ve come to a place of desperate dependence is this: Time spent with Jesus in prayer is no longer a discipline, nor is it merely a delight; prayer (relationship with God) has become for you a matter of sheer survival.
King Hezekiah
To see how the Lord produces this desperate dependence within us, we will turn to one of the most colorful Bible illustrations of this truth--the story of Hezekiah, king of Judah. Hezekiah was a powerful, godly king (he was discipled by the mighty prophet Isaiah). He purged the land of idolatry, repaired the Temple, and restored proper Temple worship. Then he observed the Passover--nothing like it had happened since the days of Solomon. The priests were once again supported by tithes.
Not only did Hezekiah lead the nation in spiritual reform, but he was also a powerful military leader. Because of his devotion to the Lord, Hezekiah saw one of the greatest deliverances of the entire Bible--185,000 Assyrian enemies were killed overnight by a destroying angel. Hezekiah stands out as one of the most godly kings the nation of Judah had.
I want to show how Hezekiah illustrates for us the processes God uses to bring His servants into greater dependence. And I wish I could say that in Hezekiah’s case it worked. But it didn’t. Hezekiah is an example of a man who was unwilling to embrace the “desperate dependence” God tried to produce in his heart. Sometimes we learn best through negative examples. Personally, all too often I learn best from mistakes. So when we see how Hezekiah blew it, perhaps it will help us to learn a valuable lesson.
As we review Hezekiah’s story, I’d like you to be on the lookout for this sobering truth: It’s possible to remain loyal in our love for the Lord but still miss His highest purposes for our life. The segment of Hezekiah’s life we’re going to examine is recorded in Isaiah 38 and 39, but before we look at those portions, let me paint their historical backdrop. During Hezekiah’s reign, Assyria was the foremost world power. Assyria had captured Samari, and exiled the Israelites in the northern kingdom back to Ninevah. And now Assyria was knocking on the door of the southern kingdom, the nation of Judah where Hezekiah was king, with the intention of conquering Judah as well.
The chapters of Isaiah 36 and 37 record the Assyrian offensive against Judah. In the crisis of the Assyrian siege Hezekiah came to a place of true “realized dependence.” He was fully convinced that God was his only hope, and he cried out to God in desperation for His intervention. Isaiah 37:36 tells how that 185,000 dead Assyrians were discovered the next morning, and the remainder of the enemy’s army had returned for Ninevah. It was a glorious deliverance!
But as we come to the next chapter, Isaiah 38, I can hear God saying, “Okay, Hezekiah, you’re doing good. You’ve realized your absolute dependence upon me. You’ve stayed true to Me in your heart, and you really love Me. So now I’m going to bring you to the greatest test of all. I’m going to see if you’re willing to embrace the ultimate level of dependence--desperate dependence.”
In Isaiah 38 the ultimate test is introduced:
Isaiah 38:1, In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’” 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the LORD, 3 and said, “Remember now, O LORD, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4 And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, 5 “Go and tell Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: ‘I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years.’”
The Furnace Of Affliction
This test is introduced to Hezekiah by means of a life-threatening affliction. As we have said, God sometimes uses physical affliction as one of His ways to produce a greater godliness within us. This is the means by which God chose to work in Hezekiah.
The nature of the test was this: “Will your season of affliction change you, Hezekiah? Will it produce a greater dependence upon Me? Will you allow this affliction to complete its intended work in your heart?”
Physical affliction is intensely stressful. The crisis that affliction precipitates provides a context where God can reveal the depths of our hearts and produce a desperation within us that can cause us to seek God with greater fervency. Hezekiah was no exception. The intensity of his trial produced great anxiety of heart and mind, and Isaiah 38:3 says he “wept bitterly.” He mourned the loss of the best years of his life (see verse 10). He was about to die in his prime, and so he cried out to God with all his heart.
The Lord heard his prayer and added fifteen years to his life (verse 5). After his recovery, he realized that his “great bitterness” was intended by God for his own benefit (see Isaiah 38:17). Hezekiah recognized that God wanted to work something within him through the affliction but, as we’ll see, the attempt was unsuccessful.
Here Comes The Test
After Hezekiah’s recovery, it’s as though God says, “All right, Hezekiah, you’ve come through this fiery trial, and now let’s see if it’s produced in you the desperate dependence I’m looking for.” (After removing the fire from your life, God always tests the gold to see how pure it is.) This test comes in the form of envoys from Babylon (Isaiah 39). The previous test came in the form of an invading Assyrian army, and Hezekiah passed that test. But now this second test comes in the form of smiling ambassadors, and Hezekiah isn’t ready for the test to come in such a friendly fashion.
Isaiah 39:1, At that time Merodach-Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. 2 And Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his treasures--the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory--all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.
Babylon was a pretty powerful nation, and it was quite an honor for such a mighty nation to give Hezekiah this kind of attention. The fact is, Babylon was trying to pull together a political alliance in order to throw off the Assyrian yoke. When Babylon had heard that 185,000 Assyrians had been killed and that now Hezekiah had recovered from his sickness and was going to be continuing at the helm of the nation of Judah, Babylon sent some ambassadors to strengthen their political ties.
Hezekiah was unable to handle the acclaim that would come to him upon his restoration. I can just imagine God’s frustration at this moment. It’s as though God were thinking, “I really do want to bless you. I want to answer your prayers. I want to heal you. But then when I do, you get weird. It goes to your head, and you start to act as though you deserved it or something.” God delays healings today for much the same reason. Sometimes He’s waiting for us to get to the place where our souls will be able to steward the attention that God’s healing touch precipitates.
The ambassadors’ fawning attention went to Hezekiah’s head. He thought to himself, “I can’t believe it, the king of Babylon thinks I’m a force to be reckoned with. He sees me as a world power. I am being courted by the real movers and shakers. I’m really starting to play with the big boys.”
God was looking for desperate dependence, but instead, pride began to manifest in Hezekiah’s heart. He lost perspective on how the victory over Assyria was an act of God from beginning to end and how that his recovery of health was only God’s merciful kindness toward him. Hezekiah thought he had mastered this area of dependence upon God, but the right circumstances were used of God to surface the pride of his heart. God knew Hezekiah’s heart better than Hezekiah did.
Knowing The Heart
2 Chronicles 32:31 provides a fascinating commentary on this story: “However, regarding the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, whom they sent to him to inquire about the wonder that was done in the land, God withdrew from him, in order to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart.”
The translators of the New King James Version capitalize the word “He” in the above phrase, “that He might know all that was in his heart.” But it could just as easily be translated “he,” meaning “that Hezekiah might know all that was in his heart.” God knew what was in Hezekiah’s heart all along, but the test came in order that Hezekiah might be able to see it as well.
If he had learned desperate dependence, Hezekiah would not have been seduced by the smiling ambassadors. He would have said, “You guys don’t understand, I had nothing to do with all this. It was all of God!” Instead, he said, “Let me show you around; I’d like you to see the wealth and power of my kingdom.” And God’s heart sank, for Hezekiah was still impressed with his natural resources -- the arm of flesh. Hezekiah had failed the test, indicating that the fiery furnace of affliction did not complete the intended work in Hezekiah’s heart. He had not gained the ultimate level of dependence.
The smiling ambassadors got him. When he was under siege by a vast army, it was easy to be dependent upon God. But when his high-powered friends began to fuss over him, the true state of his heart was revealed. The greatest tests of our hearts don’t come to us in the face of our enemies but in the presence of our friends.
Spiritual Pride
As seen in Hezekiah’s story, the main symptom of spiritual pride is sincere decisionmaking without consulting God. We sincerely want to do what’s right and what’s pleasing to God, but in a moment when our defenses are lowered we make a decision based upon common sense. The issues seem rather insignificant to us, so we go ahead and use our “good judgment.” Hezekiah wasn’t refusing to consult God about showing his kingdom to the Babylonians. It was just an oversight--he didn’t think it mattered. It wasn’t a big deal at all to Hezekiah. But it was to God. And Hezekiah no doubt began to see the truth that God is pressing into many of His saints in this hour, that there is nothing good about our own “good judgment.” God wants us to lose our confidence in our common sense and rely on Him implicitly for every area of decision in our lives.
What we have said so far in this chapter is that God attempted to use the distress of a physical infirmity to produce a “desperate dependence” within Hezekiah. Hezekiah’s wilderness experience did not produce in him the response God desired which is evidenced by the fact that he still retained a certain amount of confidence in his wealth and power. The sobering lesson of Hezekiah’s life is this: It’s possible to love the Lord sincerely but fall short of His highest purposes.
A Second Dynamic: An Enlarged Heart
But there was a second dynamic in this situation that God was trying to accomplish in Hezekiah: God’s design in the trauma of his sickness was not only to produce a desperate dependence, but also to enlarge Hezekiah’s heart.
The Scriptures make it clear that God wants to enlarge our hearts. Psalm 119:32, “I will run the course of Your commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart.” Before we apply this to Hezekiah’s life, let me state some principles regarding the enlarging of our hearts.
What Is An Enlarged Heart?
Let’s begin by defining “an enlarged heart.” An enlarged heart is a heart that has been expanded by God to carry the concerns of others. It has a passion for reaching beyond the concerns and issues that affect our own personal life, to embrace the needs of others.
We can see Paul’s enlarged heart in his statement of 2 Corinthians 7:3, “you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.” The church at Corinth was only one of many churches Paul had planted, but he relates to them in this passage as though they were the most important church in the whole world. Those believers were so much a part of his heart that he felt like his living or dying was inextricably connected to their living or dying. We can be certain that Paul felt that way about all the churches he planted. Truly he had an enlarged heart!
An enlarged heart is a heart for the world. “For God so loved the world.” It is a heart that beats with the passions and concerns of God Himself. What’s amazing in Paul’s case was his passion, not only for the churches he had planted, but also for his nation, the Jews. In Romans 9:1-3 he makes the absolutely sincere claim that he could wish himself cut off from Christ if it would mean the salvation of his fellow countrymen. That kind of big-heartedness is absolutely mind-boggling to me. Paul carried a passion for both the Gentiles and the Jews. Truly he was a “world Christian.”
An enlarged heart has been given a greater capacity to channel God’s love to others. When Paul said to the Philippians, “For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:8), he was basically saying, “The love Jesus has for you fills my heart and flows through me toward you.”
To illustrate this, let me bring up the problem I have with watering my garden. We have a small garden plot in our backyard, and watering it with the sprinkler ought not to be much of a job at all. The problem is, the pipes in our basement are old and corroded on the inside, which reduces the water pressure to my garden hose significantly. To water my garden in the heat of summer should only take about twenty minutes or so, but instead it consumes the better part of an evening. What I need is some new plumbing in our basement, with some pipes that have a greater capacity to conduct the flow of water. In a similar way, our hearts often only give out a little dripping of the love of God. The problem is not with the supply of God’s love but with the constriction of our hearts.
God wants to expand our hearts beyond the limited interests of our own sphere of influence. Is my heart heavy when a nearby gospel-preaching church is suffering a loss of members, even when part of me wants to rejoice that those members are now coming to my local church? An enlarged heart finds its interests much broader than the confines of its own ministry involvements. It freely delights in seeing the blessings of God abound elsewhere, even when that blessing is not presently touching its own immediate sphere. It is free of all jealousy, competition, and comparison.
How God Enlarges Our Hearts
God uses trauma and crisis to enlarge our hearts. Our hearts resist God’s stretching processes, and usually it takes something very traumatic to work a permanent enlargement of our hearts. David cried out, “The troubles of my heart have enlarged; bring me out of my distresses!” (Psalm 25:17). David was learning that God enlarges the troubles of our heart--to enlarge our heart. This is clearly seen in David’s life, because although David felt ready to lead the nation after killing Goliath, God knew that he needed several years in “the wilderness” to properly enlarge his heart for the great dynasty God had in store for him.
Even our physical hearts get constricted. This is what causes heart attacks. Veins and arteries around the heart become clogged with cholesterol and plaque, and the flow of blood to the body is restricted. A commonplace surgical procedure in our day for rectifying that is called “angioplasty.” A balloon is inserted in an artery somewhere near the hip, and it is directed up to the heart, put in place where the blockage is, and then the balloon is blown up. The clogged artery is stretched open, and proper blood flow can resume. This is a marvelous illustration for how trials, pressures, afflictions, and crises are instruments of “God’s angioplasty,” to enlarge our hearts with His passions.
I am not suggesting that troubles are the only device God uses to enlarge our hearts. Psalm 119:32 makes it clear that radical obedience also contributes to heart enlargement. But crisis is particularly useful in God’s hands for stretching us out of our comfort zones. It’s no small thing to take a constricted, self-centered, self-absorbed Christian and turn him into a world Christian. At this point some readers are probably thinking, “So that’s why God’s been stre-e-etching me lately!”
Some Principles Regarding Heart Enlargement
1) We are absolutely incapable of enlarging our own heart.
It must be done by the heavenly Surgeon. 1 Kings 4:29 says that “God gave Solomon wisdom and...largeness of heart.” God does this to leaders because leaders need it. The needs within God’s flock are so diverse that His leaders need this enlarging work done in their hearts.
2) One of the distinguishing earmarks of an enlarged heart is weeping and tears.
Now, I know some people that are naturally “weepy”--because of their personality they weep very readily. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about a brokenness that is not native to your personality.
A great example of this is the prophet Jeremiah. The Spirit had warned the people through Jeremiah that their sin would bring God’s judgment. But the people of Israel said his words weren’t from God. They struck him; they imprisoned him; they put him in a muddy pit where he almost died; and then they abducted him against his will to Egypt. But when the city of Jerusalem finally fell according to Jeremiah’s words, did he say, “I told you so”? No. He said, “My eyes overflow with rivers of water for the destruction of...my people” (Lamentations 3:48). Even after his prophecies of destruction were fulfilled, his enlarged heart won out. Instead of pointing the finger, all he could do was weep. Truly he carried his nation in his heart!
That Paul’s heart was enlarged is manifest by the tears that flowed routinely from his eyes as he cared for the flock--“Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears” (Acts 20:31). The enlarged heart will inevitably produce tears.
We see the largeness of Jesus’ heart as He wept over Jerusalem. His words over that great city were, in essence, as follows: “My heart is large enough to gather all of you under My wing, but you would not.” The ultimate illustration of an enlarged heart, of course, is the cross. In His crucifixion, Jesus demonstrated that the enlarged heart does not just love those who receive it, but it pours out its life for those who are killing it.
3) An enlarged heart tastes of divine pleasures.
Yes, the enlarging of our hearts is a painful process, but in the end it brings a harvest of great glory. An enlarged heart is expanded in its ability to embrace the height and width and length and breadth of Christ’s love. And there is nothing like receiving a revelation of Christ’s love for you! The enlarged heart shares in the delight of the Master as 100-fold fruitfulness springs forth from your life. In the most profound and sublime sense, the enlarged heart has more fun.
Back To Hezekiah
Now that we’ve seen what an enlarged heart is, and how God produces that within us, let’s take this concept and plug it into the story of Hezekiah. As we’re about to see, Hezekiah was a sincere and godly man whose heart God tried to enlarge, but it didn’t work.
As a reminder, Isaiah chapters 36 & 37 chronicle the story of the Assyrian invasion of Judah and how God brought Hezekiah to a place of real dependence on Him. Because Hezekiah relied upon God alone, He brought a tremendous victory over the Assyrians. In the next chapter (Isaiah 38) it’s as though God were saying, “Okay, Hezekiah, when your own skin was on the line, you really cried out to Me and saw Me as your only source of help. I’m glad that you seek My face when your life is in the balance. But how about when the lives of others are in the balance? Will you cry out to me with the same passionate concern for others when their lives are on the line, but yours isn’t? This is what I want to work in you, Hezekiah, I want to enlarge your heart for the concerns of others.” This was God’s foremost purpose in allowing Hezekiah to become sick.
God designed Hezekiah’s sickness to enlarge his heart. And then after healing him, God visited him again to test him and to see if his heart had truly become enlarged through his affliction. The nature of this test is given for us in Isaiah 39, and it’s necessary for the purposes of this teaching for us to look at the entire chapter:
Isaiah 39:1 At that time Merodach-Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. 2 And Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his treasures--the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory--all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. 3 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him, "What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?" So Hezekiah said, "They came to me from a far country, from Babylon." 4 And he said, "What have they seen in your house?" So Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them." 5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: 6 'Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,' says the LORD. 7 'And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.'" 8 So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good!" For he said, "At least there will be peace and truth in my days."
I want you to see, as we examine these verses, how that Hezekiah failed the test. The test established that Hezekiah’s heart had not been enlarged through his crisis but rather had remained constricted and self-centered.
At this point someone might argue with me, “How can you say that Hezekiah didn’t have a large heart? He rooted out idolatry; he re-established Temple worship according to Moses’ pattern; through his submission he saw 185,000 Assyrians killed in one night! He did a lot for his generation!”
That’s precisely the point. He did a lot--for his generation. Look again at verses 7-8 above, and you will see that Hezekiah didn’t have a heart for the generations that would follow. When it involved the interests of his own generation, and when it involved his status before his peers, Hezekiah’s heart was huge. He cared deeply and dearly for those of his generation. But he lacked a heart for the next generation. He had myopic vision; he had a small heart.
A Heart For The Next Generation
Earlier on, God had spoken a most forceful word to Hezekiah through the prophet Isaiah: “In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live”’” (Isaiah 38:1). What was Hezekiah’s response to that powerful word of judgment from God? He cried out to God for mercy! God responded to his desperate cry, healed him, and gave him fifteen more years to live.
Now, God comes to Hezekiah a second time with a forceful word of judgment via the prophet Isaiah: “‘And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon’” (Isaiah 39:7). What does Hezekiah do in response to this word? Does he cry out for mercy, like he did when it involved his own life? No. The shallowness of what was accomplished in Hezekiah’s heart is now manifest. His feeble response is seen in verse 8: “So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good!’ For he said, ‘At least there will be peace and truth in my days.’”
He doesn’t cry out at all. There’s no intercession. There are no tears from Hezekiah. God’s judgment involved the generations to come, so Hezekiah takes on a passive stance. His response sounds pious, but in actuality it’s very lazy. He basically says, “Well, that’s the judgment of God, and who can change God’s mind? Since that’s what He’s spoken, that’s what’s going to happen. God’s going to do what God’s going to do.” Inside his constricted heart he was actually saying, “At least there will be peace and truth in my days.”
I can imagine God’s disappointment being expressed in thoughts something like these: “Oh Hezekiah, you missed it! I sent an affliction to you, so that you could experience a kind of pain you never knew. Your life was so insulated that you couldn’t really empathize with the hurts of others. So I brought sickness and pain into your life, to sensitize your heart to the pain of others. I wanted this affliction to empty you of yourself so that you could embrace a compassion for the heartache of others. But now, when you have the opportunity to be broken over the distress of future generations, you are smug and self-content. You have failed the test, Hezekiah. I see that your heart has not been enlarged by your personal affliction.”
You’ve got to see the heartbreak of God at this point. He had performed “divine angioplasty” on Hezekiah, but the procedure was unsuccessful. God was hoping to raise up an intercessor who would cry out to Him for the generations yet to be born, but Hezekiah just didn’t get it.
Why The Angioplasty Was Unsuccessful
You might ask, “Why didn’t it ‘take’? Why didn’t Hezekiah’s affliction enlarge his heart?” I am convinced the answer lies in this: He was healed too soon. The period of his illness was comparatively short, and then Hezekiah was healed graciously by God. The affliction was intended to stretch Hezekiah’s heart because the distress of physical affliction will always force us to press beyond the boundaries of our present attainments in God. We’re forced to cry out to Him. We’re compelled to find His heart in our distress. We’re pressed into the face of God like never before. Our fervency and passion to find God is heightened, and we become desperate to understand His purposes in our pain. In Hezekiah’s case, God removed the heat (i.e., God healed him) before the gold was completely purified. Hezekiah’s healing appears to be an act of God’s mercy, but in actuality it left Hezekiah an unchanged man because the duration of the stretching was too short.
This illustrates a profound truth about the ways of God. When God brings distress, pain, affliction, and suffering into our lives, He does so for a purpose. He wants to enlarge our hearts. But our hearts are resistant to change. In order for the enlargement to be complete, the period of pain must be long enough in duration to complete the work. We don’t know how long that is, only God does.
And that’s why God often responds to our cries for deliverance with the words, “Not yet.” All we want is for the pain to stop; but He wants something far more valuable. God’s going for the gold. He wants the gold of a refined character, of an enlarged heart. He wants the crucible to make us more like Christ. And He’s committed to sustaining the heat until the work is complete.
Manasseh
One symptom of Hezekiah’s constricted heart was that he fathered the most ungodly king of Judah’s entire history--Manasseh. One reason Hezekiah cried so bitterly when God told him he would die was because Hezekiah had no heir. After God extended Hezekiah’s life by fifteen years, Manasseh was conceived. On the surface, it would appear that Hezekiah’s passion to have an heir reflected a deep concern for the generations that would follow. But Hezekiah’s apathy toward discipling his own son revealed that he wanted a son largely for selfish reasons--to carry on his name. God had said to Hezekiah, “Put your house in order” (Isaiah 38:1), but Hezekiah wimped out on that directive. He was successful in bringing spiritual revival to the entire nation, but he lost his own boy. And in so doing, he lost the nation.
This appears to be the pivotal point of Judah's history. The nation plummeted, in the final analysis, because Hezekiah did not establish proper spiritual order in his house. His son Manasseh precipitated the downfall of the nation.
Perhaps Hezekiah was too busy with kingdom business to commit himself vigorously to imparting a passion for godliness to his son. Whatever the reason, when Manasseh inherited the throne, he gave himself perversely to the lowest levels of idolatry, even to the point of sacrificing his own son in the fire. He practiced sorcery, consulted mediums, and filled Jerusalem with innocent blood (2 Kings 21:6; 24:4). It’s amazing that a godly man like Hezekiah would raise such a rebel. The reason is somehow connected to the fact that Hezekiah did not carry a compelling concern for what would be the welfare of the nation after his decease.
I want you to notice how God talks about Manasseh. Many years later, God is still outraged over Manasseh’s wickedness. Notice what God says to Jeremiah a couple generations later: “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would not be favorable toward this people...I will hand them over to trouble...because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem” (Jeremiah 15:1,4). Even though the nation of Judah had a couple spiritual awakenings after Manasseh, especially during the reign of Josiah, God had determined judgment for the nation. Although the nation had repented, God could not dismiss Manasseh’s abominations.
Who fathered Manasseh? The godly king with the constricted heart.
Persevering To Completion
Let me repeat, for emphasis, that Hezekiah represents the sincere believer who loves the Lord but misses God’s highest purposes. Hezekiah embodies a fearful spiritual truth: It’s possible to be sincere, have good intentions, with a heart to please God, and be disqualified from God’s best for our lives.
What spiritual lesson must we learn from Hezekiah in order to find the desperate dependence and heart enlargement that he missed? Here’s the lesson: When God sends crisis and pressure our way, in an attempt to lift us to a higher spiritual plane, let us persevere in patience and love until His work within us is complete.
Perhaps your life has been hit recently with something traumatic. Take some time praying over this question, “Is God wanting to use this crisis to enlarge my heart?” If so, it’s very likely that your pain will sensitize you to the pain of others. You will weep over things you never wept over before. You will feel yourself being stretched. And like Hezekiah, one day God will deliver you. But will you be any different when the release comes? It’s possible for the potter’s vessel to be removed too soon from the fire. Even though it’s extremely difficult, we must eventually come to the place where we can sincerely offer this prayer: “Lord, I’m asking for an immediate deliverance. But even more than that, I’m asking that You not deliver me until my heart has been fully fashioned according to Your purpose for this season.”
Oh, how painful when God delays His answers to our prayers! How we long for an immediate reprieve. And yet the testimony of countless saints, beginning with that of Job, affirms that God uses the periods of delay as some of the most productive seasons of our lives, because of the depth of spirituality they produce within us.
And my, how we American Christians need enlargement of heart! If ever there was a self-absorbed generation, it’s 20th-century America. All that many Americans care about is this generation and this nation. The leaven of our culture has infiltrated the attitudes of the church. Just one symptom is the constant struggle so many churches face in trying to recruit teachers to teach children’s classes. We carry a greater passion for our personal comfort and convenience than for raising up today’s children into tomorrow’s prophets.
If it’s the sincere cry of your heart, then go ahead and pray it: “Dear heavenly Father, bring me to a desperate dependence, and enlarge my heart.” The pathway will not be comfortable, but if you will constantly abide in Him and persevere by His grace to the end, He’ll make you into a world Christian.
Introduction
Part 1: The Furnace Of Affliction
Chapter One: Refiner’s Fire
•God is a fire •God is a refiner •God’s purifying fire •Buying gold •God’s initiative •The value of buying •Is infirmity from God? •Why infirmity and affliction? •Salted with fire •Aflame for Jesus •The last days’ fire
Chapter Two: The Perseverance Of Job
•Holy man and prophet •Job’s three friends •Stop and listen •Theological crisis •My own theological struggles •Noah, Daniel, and Job •Notes on Job •Elihu •The turning point •The Creator God •Judgment begins at God’s house •Sharing Christ’s afflictions •Deciphering God’s will •Why did Job suffer? •How God changed Job •Greater fruitfulness
Chapter Three: Prison Theology
•Satanic bondage •A divine prison •The church at Smyrna •Imprisoned with a purpose •Paul the prisoner •Cut off from the mainstream •Joseph’s jail •Imprisoned for obedience •The word of the Lord tested him •Wisdom is fruitful •Joseph’s wisdom •Fruitfulness •Breaking off the yoke •A prisoner of hope •The source of hope •Character produces hope
Chapter Four: David’s Cave
•David’s delay •David’s depression •David’s loneliness •Ministry hiatus •A sense of significance •The purpose of the wilderness •A broken faith •Balancing brokenness and faith •The Lord’s deliverance •David and Achish •Return to Ziklag •Why so much pain? •David and Solomon •Teaching Versus Training •David and Doeg
Chapter Five: When The Lights Go Out
•Walking through the valley •The valley’s purpose •Learning to listen •Five phases of the valley journey •Through the valley with the Psalms •Double-minded? •Assurances for those in darkness •Morning light
Chapter Six: Jesus’ Teachings On Delay
•Delay during Jesus’ ministry •Lazarus •Washing Peter’s feet •Jesus’ teachings on delay •To be found watching •The unjust judge •Parable of the ten virgins •Wise servant/evil servant
Chapter Seven: Comfort For The Afflicted
•There must be more •Precious insight •Sometimes God uses affliction to:
†bring us back to obedience †bring us to a greater knowledge of Christ †strengthen our faith †bring us to greater spiritual maturity †bring us to a place of greater dependence & brokenness †catapult us into another dimension in God †reveal His love for us †give us a greater sense of compassion for others †encourage others †remove judgmentalism †restore real Christianity †produce an appetite for heaven †establish a sign of kingdom visitation †birth in us a radical willingness to obey †reveal His glory
•The certainty of God’s work being completed
Chapter Eight: Brokenness
•Weeping •Emptying •How Jesus cultivates brokenness •The testings of God •The prodigal’s older brother •Unbroken strength •The Lord’s mercy •Childlike dependence •Strength perfected in weakness •Man’s strength constricts •Strengthen your brethren
Chapter Nine: Desperate Dependence & Heart Enlargement
•Four kinds of dependence •King Hezekiah •The furnace of affliction •Here comes the test •Knowing the heart •Spiritual pride •A second dynamic: An enlarged heart •What is an enlarged heart? •How God enlarges our hearts •Some principles regarding heart enlargement •Back to Hezekiah •A heart for the next generation •Why the angioplasty was unsuccessful •Manasseh •Persevering to completion
Part 2: Quietness And Confidence (Isaiah 30:15)
Chapter Ten: The Assyrians Are Coming!
•Background to Isaiah 30:15 •Looking to Egypt •Quietness and confidence •Torn between the two •God can wait •Cease from anger •Discerning the source
Chapter Eleven: Dance Of The Two Camps
•Dance of the two camps •The quietness camp •Pros and cons •Does God want us infirm? •The confidence camp •Divine healing and God’s will •Limited maturity •The dance •When God increases the pressure •Embracing both camps • Concluding journal entry
Chapter Twelve: Waiting For Delayed Answers
•The middle squish •Psalm 34:19 •Jesus on quietness/confidence •A quick work •How God prepared Moses •Connecting verses 15 & 18 •How God is exalted •A God of justice •Succumbing to unbelief •Demanding immediate relief •The blessing: When God speaks •Two observations •Abraham •David •Learning to wait •Samuel and Saul •Elijah and the famine
Chapter Thirteen: Quieted By His Love
•Quietness •He will quiet you •Quieted with His love •Perfected love •Offended by God •The love test •“Do you love Me?” •Peter’s love test •He loves me! •A longing to know His love
Chapter Fourteen: Confidence In His Ways
•Under seige •Restoration •God’s ways •Knowing God •Hurt, then healed •Jacob •The straight ways of the Lord •Paul’s thorn •Strength perfected in weakness •Was the thorn removed? •Why do some prayers remain unanswered? •A testimony! •My parents’ testimony •Martha theology
Chapter Fifteen: Don’t Cast Away Your Confidence!
•After God •Maintain your purity! •The Psalm One man •Marks of godliness •Zacharias & Elizabeth •Barren •Blameless •Pursue God! •Mustard seed faith •“I believed, therefore I spoke” •Don’t cast away your confidence