This series of articles is written by Dr Peter Masters, and is taken from https://metropolitantabernacle.org/articles/imagining-the-lords-interventions/
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1.7).
How we view and talk about God’s dealings with us from day to day can have a considerable effect upon our openness to his guidance in the great decisions of life. Many Christians have picked up a manner of thinking and speaking known as pietistic speech, which is very damaging to the perception of genuine guidance. These friends constantly ascribe all kinds of everyday events to the special and direct intervention of the Lord, as though their lives were filled with minor miracles. They believe this way of speaking is ‘spiritual’, and just what the Lord wants to see in his people. However, it frequently leads to a form of spiritual ‘superstition’ in which Christians interpret their perceived interventions by God as signals of guidance.
Significant interventions give assurance
As we asserted at the beginning of this article, a selective, trivialising view of God’s providential dealings with us profoundly affects our approach to guidance, distorting our Christian perspectives, and causing us to read all the wrong messages into God’s providences. From earliest times God’s people were taught to take a far higher view of God’s conspicuous providential overrulings showing that they were given for spiritual purposes.
Two classic Old Testament events illustrate this, both taking place at Mahanaim, a place in old Gilead which received its name from Jacob, who saw there one of the most uplifting sights of his life, recorded in Genesis 32.1-2. Fearful of his approaching meeting with Esau, he was met by the angels of God, and when he saw them he said, ‘This is God’s host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.’ The name means ‘a double camp’ or ‘a double host’, indicating that the thousands of angels seen by Jacob resembled a double army.
Why, at this particular time in his life, should he be privileged to see the army of Heaven which cared for him? Clearly, it was to reassure him, and equally, to teach him to distinguish between his earthly circumstances and his spiritual lot. As he thought about his earthly situation he might well feel fearful and depressed, facing an immense trial. But when, for a moment, the curtain of time and sense was drawn aside, he caught a glimpse of his spiritual, heavenly status and privileges, realising he was a child of the heavenly King, attended by those who minister to the heirs of salvation. So today, God’s conspicuous interventions are designed partly to remind us of our spiritual privileges; but there is more to it than this.
Nearly a thousand years later Mahanaim was the site of another outstanding demonstration of God’s power to intervene and bless. This occurred just as King David brought to an end his sorry retreat from Absalom, and decided to take a stand and defend his kingship (the event being recorded in 2 Samuel 17). As soon as he turned from despondency to obedience and trust, Mahanaim proved true to its name once again. This time, no double host of angels appeared, but the power of God became visible in another way when three wealthy landowners, moved by the hand of God to come to the aid of David’s destitute army, supplied provisions on a scale which he could never have expected or imagined, and the way was set for a great victory.
God also blesses his people with many remarkable interventions in the major battles of faith and service. When we are going forward for the Gospel, then he marshals and moves both people and events to bring about his purposes. David was not delivered from the hardships of the battle, nor from the crushing heartache of personal grief over his rebellious son, but God moved mightily to preserve and prosper his own work and witness. Once David returned to where he should have been, prayed to God, and dedicated himself to the battle, God encouraged him with the tremendous evidence of overruling power.
We believe that our God intervenes and provides for his people in all things, but we must particularly look for these blessings in the great concerns of life, and especially in service for the Lord. Sometimes the blessing comes in the form of inner strength, as with Paul in Rome, and sometimes as a great blaze of assurance, as when Jacob saw the double host of angels. If we really commit ourselves to the Lord, sever all entanglements with worldly living, and seek to put him first, then we shall experience many evident interventions, and be able to say: ‘The best of all is – God is with us!’
However, we must be extremely careful what we say to others, for the evidences of God’s presence should humble us, and not spur us to pride and vainglory. As far as all the lesser comforts and benefits are concerned, we shall praise God for them all, although we cannot necessarily tell when God is merely permitting the natural course of events to take place, or when he is intervening directly.
To summarise, constant pietistic speaking about the Lord’s supposed direct interventions in all the minor matters of our lives frequently leads to an over-confident presumption that he is behind everything we think or do. Then the attitude of humble and open enquiry so vital to the seeking of guidance is undermined. Also, this seemingly super-spiritual line of speech so often leads us to be more concerned about personal and even material aspects of life than about the major matters of holiness, obedience and service.