What Do you see in your Clouds? - Chambers, Oswald
Behold, he cometh with clouds. Revelation 1:7
In the bible clouds are always connected with god. Clouds are those sorrows or sufferings or providences without or within our personal lives which seem to dispute the empire of god. If there were no clouds we would not need faith. Seen apart from god, the clouds or difficulties are accidents, but by those very clouds the spirit of god teaches us to walk by faith. Faith must have an autobiography; until we know god, we have no faith. Faith is the spontaneous out- going of my person to another person whom i know.
Behold, he cometh with clouds the clouds are the very sign that god is there. What a revelation it is to know that sorrow, bereavement and suffering are clouds that come along with god! God does not come near in clear shining, he comes in the clouds. If i had not come . . . , they had not had sin. The sign that Jesus Christ has come to us is the sense of our utter unworthiness.
It is not true to say that god wants to teach us something in our trials. In every cloud he brings, god wants us to unlearn something. Gods purpose in the cloud is to simplify our belief until our relationship to him is exactly that of a child. God uses every cloud which comes in our physical life, in our moral or spiritual life, or in our circumstances, to bring us nearer to him, until we come to the place where our lord Jesus Christ lived, and we do not allow our hearts to be troubled.
Christianity does not add to our difficulties, it brings them to a focus, and in the difficulties we find Jesus himself. We must get out of the habit of misinterpreting god by saying he wants to teach us something, it is not a new testament idea, but an idea that is as unlike the god whom jesus revealed as could be. God is all the time bringing us to the place where we unlearn things.
We ought to interpret all the clouds and mysteries of life in the light of our knowledge of god. In everything that happens we should be un-learning that which keeps us from a simple relationship to god. Sometimes we have to leave certain forms of religious activity and testimony alone until our relationship to god is simplified god and my own soul, other people are shadows. Until other people become shadows, clouds and darkness will be ours every now and again. Is your relationship to god becoming simpler? The proof that it is, is that you do not bother god about yourself so much as you used to because you know him better. There is a connection between the strange providences of god and all that we know of god himself. Unless we can look the darkest, blackest fact full in the face without damaging gods character, we do not know god. There are no such things as calamities or accidents to gods children all things work together for good.
Sin and evil and the devil are not gods order; they are here by the direct permission of his providence. If we governed the universe we would clear them all out at once, but god does not work in that way. He did not work in that way with us think how patient god has been with us! When the world, the flesh and the devil do their worst, it is for us to understand where our true life is to be lived, not in the outer courts, but hid with christ in god. Whatever happens, happens by gods permission. What is your cloud just now? Is it something you cannot see through, something foggy and indefinite and perplexing that makes you shiver with fear? Are there clouds of thinking which make you afraid as you enter them? The revelation in gods book is that the clouds are but the dust of his feet. Then thank him for them.
They feared as they entered the cloud; suddenly . . . They saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves. Have you anyone save Jesus only in your cloud? If you have, it will get darker. You must come to the place where there is no man, save Jesus only, all others are shadows. Spiritual education is to know god, and nothing simplifies our life more than learn- ing to see in the clouds the goings of his feet.