After god’s silence—what? - Chambers, Oswald

Chapter V

Now jesus loved martha, and her sister, and lazarus. When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. John 11:56

The absence of audible response

Jesus stayed two days where he was without sending a word. We are apt to say i know why god has not answered my prayer, it is because i asked for some- thing wrong. That was not the reason Jesus did not answer Martha and mary they desired a right thing. It is quite true god does not answer some prayers because they are wrong, but that is so obvious that it does not need a revelation from god to understand it. God wants us to stop understanding in the way we have understood and get into the place he wants us to get into, i. E. , he wants us to know how to rely on him.

Gods silences are his answers. If we only take as answers those that are visible to our senses, we are in a very elemental condition of grace. Can it be said of us that Jesus so loved us that he stayed where he was because he knew we had a capacity to stand a bigger revelation? Has god trusted us with a silence, a silence that is absolutely big with meaning? That is his answer. The manifestation will come in a way beyond any possibility of comprehension. Are we mourning before god because we have not had an audible response? Mary Magdalene was weeping at

The sepulcher what was she asking for? The dead body of Jesus. Of whom did she ask it? Of Jesus himself, and she did not know him! Did jesus give her what she asked for? He gave her something infinitely grander than she had ever conceived a risen, living impossible-to-die lord. How many of us have been blind in our prayers? Look back and think of the prayers you thought had not been answered, but now you find god has answered them with a bigger manifestation than you ever dreamed. God has trusted you in the most intimate way he could trust you, with an absolute silence, not of despair but of pleasure, because he saw you could stand a much bigger revelation than you had at the time. Some prayers are followed by silence because they are wrong, others because they are bigger than we can understand. Jesus stayed where he wasa positive staying, because he loved them. Did they get lazarus back? They got infinitely more; they got to know the greatest truth mortal beings ever knew that jesus christ is the resurrection and the life. It will be a wonderful moment for some of us when we stand before god and find that the prayers we clamoured for in early days and imagined were never answered, have been answered in the most amazing way, and that gods silence has been the sign of the answer. If we always want to be able to point to something and say, this is the way god answered my prayer, god cannot trust us yet with his silence. Here is where the devil comes in and says, now you have been praying a wrong prayer. You can easily know whether you havetest it by the word of god. If it has been a prayer to know god better, a prayer for the baptism of the holy ghost, a prayer for the interpretation and understanding of gods word, it is a prayer in accordance with gods will. You say, but he has not answered. He has, he is so near to you that his silence is the answer. His silence is big with terrific meaning that you cannot understand yet, but presently you will. Time is nothing to god. Prayers were offered years ago and god answered the soul with silence; now he is giving the manifestation of the answer in a revelation that we are scarcely able to comprehend.

The attitude of awful repose

Picture Martha and Mary waiting day after day for Jesus to come, yet not till lazaruss body had been in the grave four days does Jesus christ appear on the scene. Days of absolute silence, of awful repose on the part of god! Is there anything analogous to it in your life? Can god trust you like that, or are you still wanting a visible answer? Every one that asketh receiveth. If god has given you a silence, praise him. Think of the things you prayed to god about and tried to hold and, because of his love, he dare not let you hold them and they went. For a time you said, i asked god to give me bread and he gave me a stone; he did not, and you find to-day he gave you the bread of life. You prayed that you might keep the thing that seemed to make your life as a christian possible, you asked that it might always be preserved by god, and suddenly the whole thing went to pieces. That was gods answer. After the silence of god, if we are spiritual and can interpret his silence, we always get the trust in god that knows prayers are answered every time, not some- times. The manifestation of the answer in place and time is a mere matter of gods sovereignty. Be earnest and eager on the line of praying. One wonderful thing about gods stillness in connection with your prayers is that he makes you still, makes you perfectly confident, the contagion of Jesus christs stillness gets into youi know he has heard me and his silence is the proof he has heard.

The answers amazing revelation

Could the answer that Jesus Christ gave ever have entered into the heart of Martha and Marya raised brother, the manifestation of the glory of god, and the understanding of jesus christ in a way that has blessed the church for twenty centuries! Remember that Jesus christs silences are always signs that he knows we can stand a bigger revelation than we think we can. If he gives you the exact answer, he cannot trust you yet. . . . If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my father which is in heaven. That is stated for people who are not spiritual. Our lords revelations about prayer in Luke 11 and Luke 18 are for those who are spiritualremain in confidence in prayer. Because Jesus christ keeps silence it does not mean that he is dis- pleased, but exactly the opposite, he is bringing us into the great run of his purpose, and the answer will be an amazing revelation. No wonder our lord said, . . . Greater works than these shall he do. . . . And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will i do ( john 14:1213). That is what prayer means, not that god may bless us. As long as we have the idea only that god will bless us in answer to prayer, he will do it, but he will never give us the grace of a silence. If he is taking us into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of his father, he will give us the first sign of his intimacysilence. The devil calls it unanswered prayer; in the case of Martha and Mary the spirit of god called it a sign that he loved them, and because he loved them and knew they were fit to receive a bigger revelation than ever they dreamed of, he stayed where he was. God will give us the blessings we want if we wont go any further, but his silence is the sign that he is bringing us into this marvellous understanding of himself.

O Lord, for the power of Thy Spirit to adore Thee
in fuller ways. Keep my spirit brightly infused
by Thy Holy Spirit, O Lord, that thus energised,
my Lord Jesus Christ and His perfections may be
manifested in my mortal flesh.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
O Lord, breathe in me till I am one with Thee
in the temper of my mind and heart and disposi-
tion, unto Thee do I turn. How completely again I
realise my lostness without Thee.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
O Lord, I have no inkling of Thy ways in external
detail, but I have the expectancy of Thy wonders
soon to be made visible. Lord, I look to Thee, how
completely at rest I am, yet how free from seeing
Thy way. Thou art God and I trust in Thee.