The Secret to Dealing with Mystery
God is love and God is good. Yet there are times when we will experience circumstances that shout the opposite. Sometimes God explains why. At other times, he remains uncomfortably silent. To accept that silence, with no explanation, is to accept mystery.
1 Corinthians 13:12 (NIV): “For now [in this life] we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then [in eternity] we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
The gap between knowing in part and knowing fully is called mystery. The dictionary defines mystery to be anything that is kept secret or remains unexplained or unknown. Mystery is not having an answer as to why adverse things occur until later in life, or even eternity. Learning to live with mystery and trust God’s goodness, no matter what happens, is a sign of increasing spiritual maturity.
For example, Bethel Church in Redding, USA is a world renowned church for championing the supernatural, healing, miracles and so on. Their School of the Supernatural has trained thousands of students from all over the globe. Recently, however, senior pastor Bill Johnson lost his wife and co-pastor Beni to cancer after a long battle. Global prayer was made for her, and the church fought for her healing until the last moment. Yet she passed. That’s a mystery. Nevertheless, Pastor Johnson said a few days later that, “There are measures of God’s presence that you can only find in the valley of the shadow of death," and “In loss, answers won’t fix the problem – presence will.”
My first wife Jane suffered from multiple sclerosis, which confined her to a wheelchair for more than twenty years. During that time, we and others prayed confidently for a miracle of healing, but she passed away. Despite the pain and disappointment of her loss, I prayed at the time, “Lord, I don’t understand why you have not healed her, but I still believe that you are good and what you do is good. One day you will explain this to me but I am content to live with not having an answer right now.”
Often, there are no explanations and when we try to give them we just make things worse. So how do we cope with mystery? We have to become childlike.
THE NEED FOR CHILDLIKENESS
Young children live with mystery all the time. They don’t know how or why things happen, but they simply trust their parents. In the same way, to be childlike in our faith is to live with the mysterious and trust in the Father’s goodness when circumstances appear to contradict this. He is a good God. To live with childlikeness, especially in the face of mystery, makes one great in God’s Kingdom.
Matthew 18: 3-4 (NIV): “And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’
To be childlike is to enter into the fullness of both the presence and power of God’s kingdom. To be offended at God in the face of mystery, is to shut the door on that fullness. Childlike faith believes that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28).
When Jane died, I vowed to keep praying for the sick and train an army of others to do it. After Greta and I married, we started to run weekend Schools of the Supernatural in many churches in a number of nations. Part of the school includes training on how to pray for the sick. Since then, hundreds have been healed, the majority through the people praying for one another. One especially satisfying testimony comes from a woman in Birmingham, England who was healed a few years ago:
“I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. At first I was in denial, but then the symptoms began to increase: I had continual pain down my left side, weakness in my legs, slow thoughts and speech, giddiness and discoordination. Although I was now fearful of going out alone, I made it to the School of the Holy Spirit and went forward for healing. I was desperate as the pain down my left side was awful and I felt I could not live with it. As I walked away after the prayer I noticed I was pain free. I could not stop praising God. The next day, as I was going to the meeting, I suddenly realized I was walking fast and my legs felt strong. The slowness of thought and speech have also gone.”
We saw her a year later and she was in perfect health, still rejoicing in her healing.
Unanswered whys can take people away from God. But every loss or disappointment can bring a harvest of good, if we will live with the mystery associated with it, and continue to worship our God through the pain.