By M. U. Adikwu
The Gains of Disappointment
The above chapters have only pointed out the pains of disappointment. I want to say very quickly that disappointment is a training. It is the way God trains His people. As mentioned earlier, no man can enter his rest until God has passed him through some level of training. This training is usually not palatable. The bible likens the relationship between God and His children to that of the pot and the potter. We are the pot; God is the potter. Knowing God’s pattern for training is a very crucial matter for us to be able to allow Him to mold us to the shape He wants; not we want. Everyman that God uses must be refined in the furnace of affliction (Isaiah 48:10).
It should be noted that Elijah underwent this training in 1 Kings 17 when Elija went and told king Ahab that there would be no rain for three years until by his word. God told Elijah to go and hide. Should a mighty prophet like Elijah be hiding from a mere man. Elija agreed and went and hid. God told him to go and hide near brook Cherith and that ravens would feed him. According to the Levitical law, ravens were unclean birds and no Israelite should touch it, talk less of feeding a man of God. Elijah did not argue with God. He ate what the ravens brought. Then after three months, the brook dried! If God told him to go and hide near the brook so that he could drink water from the brook, why did God allow it to dry up? Men of God these days will fast and pray that the brook
must not dry. Elijah did not do that. God told him to go and live with a widow (1 Kings 17:9-10).
“Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?”
This widow was a young lady. She had only a son. If it were some men of God of our time, that lady will test positive for pregnancy in two weeks! God was training and testing Elijah. Once Elijah passed these tests, God now told him to go and show himself to Ahab (1 Kings 18:1). In other words, God was just saying, “I can follow this one and he will not let me down.”
“After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.” 2 So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab.” (1 Kings 18:1-2a).
Learn to be patient when God is training and testing you. It will yield
something great and important in your life.
Disappointment builds up. A man who is disappointed with men automatically takes appointment with God if he manages the disappointment well. When God became disappointed with men, he had appointment with them through his son Jesus Christ. This “appointment” of God with men is the mother of all “appointments”. It brought with it all that can be thought. It brought to an end, the activity of God’s and man’s enemy the Devil. All the pains that accrue to men actually come from this “appointment” with the devil. It is the origin of death which is the greatest disappointment that has bedeviled human existence on earth. It brought with it sickness. It brought with it jealously, murder, wickedness and the evil any man can think of in this life.
The exact opposite of appointment of men with the devil is what happens when a man has appointment with God. All that have power over him in a negative direction is tuned towards the position side.
An “Appointment” with God also overthrows the self. There are others who may have vowed never to have an appointment with the devil but they quietly have appointment with themselves. A man that has appointment with himself, cannot have appointment with God. Are you surprised that in these days we hear of self-reliance, self-confident, self- dependence, self this, self that. All these are to break any reliance on God. A man who walks by depending on himself is at the same footing with the devil in relationship to God. This is because the Bible says that those that walk according to the dictates of the flesh are in enmity with God (Romans 8:7). A man that has “lost” appointment with self also begins to enjoy appointment with God.
Temptations lose their power in the life of such a man. He has no room for pride which is the major factor that self walks with. Self becomes powerful when it wants to make a name for itself. In such a situation God is left-backstage and may be called upon to come and make a name for self or even add value to this. As far as God is not willing to do this, self may look for other means of achieving this. It may be through outright substitution of one false god for the genuine Almighty God. Such gods may even come in from of politics. It may be money or wine.
It may be women. It may be fame. It may be a secret cult. It may be one traditional god or the other. All these lose their power in the life of many men once we have appointment with God. It therefore, seems right to say that one must be disappointed by all these gods to have a genuine appointment with God.
Adikwu writes from Abuja and can be reached on +2348034378988; adikwum@yahoo.com
