The Blessings of Spiritual Recessions

Friends,

By now we are all aware of the financial recession America and much of the world is suffering under. Some, such as myself, have felt the recession as we’ve seen our meager retirement and other investments be eaten alive. Others, sadly, are feeling the recession through the loss of their jobs. I don’t believe any of us enjoy recessions, but they do serve a very needed purpose in capitalist societies. They shake up companies that won’t perform and they also reveal dire financial practices that are not conducive to growth and profit. Small recessions shake these companies out of the market and make way for new, streamlined, profit driven companies that bolster the market. Large recessions such as the one we are now dealing stem from incredibly uncooth financial practices and principles that have been brewing for many years. In short, recessions are wake up calls to serious problems in the scheme of financial health that gangrene has started in the financial foot and if not corrected, will necessitate amputation lest the whole body become infected.

Spiritual recessions, so to speak, occur for the same reason and serve the same goal, only in the soul. When I use the term "spiritual recession," I am using it for illustrative purposes. It is biblically referred to as God’s "discipline" (Hebrews 12:7-11). Southern Baptists confessionally address the issue of spiritual recessions in Article V of our Baptist Faith and Message 2000. The statement reads in part, "Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves."

The work of God in spiritual recessions is to bring us to trust and live in Christ as He actually is, not as we pretend Him to be. This requires some explanation. Spiritual recession or God’s discipline almost always rides upon the heels of our pride and greed. Pride fosters in us the abandonment of our ever-present need for Christ and promotes a life of self-sufficiency, self-governance and self-seeking. Such a walk cannot be lived in the fear of the Lord as we deny the reality that every thought and action is seen by God and will be judged by Him (and it will, even for the Christian- 2 Corinthians 5:10). Greed joins pride as two peas in a pod whereby the flesh, now freed by our pride, desires more and more instant gratification, which it finds in sin of all stripes and wicked justifications of those sins. Before long, our lives become built on sinking sand as our sins pile to the heavens in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the sinful pride of life (Genesis 3:6, 1 John 2:16).

Spiritual recessions are generally sent of God when our lives display deep and entrenched spiritual rebellion and disobedience. This was the case with Samson as his pride yielded in him a lifelong lust of strange and forbidden flesh that was a constant source of God’s discipline in his life. It also appears that Paul had the long, besetting sin of pride to the point that God dealt with this issue in him recessively by sending a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to keep him humble (2 Corinthians 12:7). Sometimes, long and unchecked disobedience is finally met in one sinful action by which God acts in discipline to correct us. Such was the case with Moses when agitation and anger met resulting in the denial of God’s glory to the people of Israel. God did this with David when David entered unlawful intercourse with Bethsheba (Psalm 30, 51:10-15). We find it with Job when He sought too much comfort in his friends instead of God (Job 16:2). Likewise, when Peter sought too much comfort in his camaraderie with the Jews at the alienation of Gentiles, Paul was used of God to show him his spiritual inflation and correct it recessively (Galatians 2:14). Of course, I myself have a lengthy list of how and why God has disciplined me. Suffice it to say, there’s been many ranging from lying, carnal affections, pride, critical judgments, poor fatherhood, pitiful shepherdhood, deceit, etc., etc., etc. As a redeemed man, I always have it in mind to not sin, but, like Paul, I often find myself doing the very thing I did not wish to do. I have also experienced seasons in which besetting sins, which I thought were no longer alive to me for some years and decades, rear their heads and so the war starts (this is evidence of pride in my life, by the way). Sometimes, I loose ground in those wars and therefore become in need of God’s wondrous grace in bringing me to spiritual recession and ultimately, spiritual blessing. I emphasize that word "need." For without holiness, no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).

One mystery of God’s discipline is that the Christian who constantly grows in grace and sanctification will continue to experience more of them, not less. The more ground we gain in becoming Christlike, the more we realize the acres of our hearts that are not Christlike. The blessing of God’s discipline is that the more we are entrusted with His grace, the more that is required of us- and sometimes we cannot give the requirement apart from that godly care of discipline. But we are encouraged in this: No discipline seems good at the time but later yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it (Hebrews 12:11). And the more we strive in our sanctification with God’s Spirit, the quicker the response we have to God’s discipline because though we have failed, what we really want is righteousness. This is a blessed work of God in us, my brothers.

Furthermore, it is important to note that spiritual recessions always deal with our sanctification (set apartness and Christlikeness), never our salvation- or better said, "being saved." When God brings a child of His into conviction and temporal judgment, He is dealing with us as sons, not as reprobates (Hebrews 12:8). These words of God are never broken: Though the mountains move and the hills shake, My love will not be removed from you and My covenant of peace will not be shaken, says your compassionate Lord (Isaiah 54:10). Southern Baptists confessionally address this when we state the following in Article V. "Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." This is important to note as some, when in sin and having had God to replace His graces and comforts with conviction and spiritual darkness, agony and despair, sometime tend to believe that they are so forsaken by God that they must not be saved. Nothing could be further from the truth; in fact, I am quite sure the man who says he knows nothing of spiritual recession can be no Christian at all.

We’ve seen how immediately the world reacts to financial recessions and it should be the same with us through spiritual recessions. The more earnest and acute our repentance, the quicker the dark night of the soul turns to light and the bear market of our spirits goes bullish as investing joy in Christ and reaping glory for Christ is traded for waste and rubbish. Of utmost seriousness, there is a danger of the heart growing hard and callused, unable and unwilling to be spoken to by Christ if one does not turn, in godly sorrow, away from sin and to the Savior (Genesis 4:7, Lamentations 3:65). Lest us not forget those admonitions that God gives us as sons, for from godly sorrow comes godly repentance that leads to godliness in the sons of God (Hebrews 12:5-6).

Blessings,
TJ
p.s. If we do not test ourselves in this at any other time, we are all granted opportunity to do so before coming to the Lord’s Table. In fact, this practice is prerequisite for taking the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:27).