As I have been walking though the “valley of hell” the past 3 months, the Lord has shared some really good things with me. What I want to share today is that I was lost and God went looking for me even though maybe I didn’t deserve it. I felt like at that moment, He immediately allowed me to see in detail why and how his “sheep” get lost. I hope this helps you in your journey and can keep you from some of the pain that ensues when we are distant from God.
3 Reasons Why We “Get Lost”
I believe that what I saw was three very clear reasons why we as people lose contact with God and drift away, or in the words or God, “you become lost”. The first reason the people become lost is that they Become Victims of Life’s Circumstances. This is so prevalent right now with covid-19 and the “side Effects” of the shutdowns and this virus. As it stands now, there are many reports that show suicide rates have increased nearly 40% in most places in the US and divorce rates have soared nearly 30% higher than in 2020. I sadly find myself in the midst of this very thing personally. Have you ever been in a position where you felt the world was against you? Where everything around you was on fire and you had to pretend to be ok? This is the stage where 50% of the people tend to run to God and 50% run away from Him. Which one are you?
The next reason that people get lost is that they Choose to Get Lost. This happens when people are fed up with what is happening in their life and make a conscious effort to distance themselves from the Lord. I have done this in the past and thankfully I found a woman who knew God too and then we had a daughter who unfortunately had major medical issues. It caused me to break and turn back to God as i begged Him to make my daughter well again. Have you ever been so mad or sick of waiting for God to work and move in your life that you turned away from Him and made a conscious effort to stop praying and asking for good? If that is the case, I implore you to find an elder in the church and talk through this. I can speak from experience when I say that there is so much damage that can be done in such a short period of time that you do not want to mess around if you are in the stage of life.
The last reason people get “lost” is that they are Lured Away by Temptation. While temptation alone is not a sin, acting on that sinful temptation is. In my case this makes all 3 of them for me over the past 20 years for me. I was lured away by money and “fame” and you can read more about that story here if you choose to. Have you ever been tempted by that shiny object of sinful temptation? What has it cost you in life? My church just did an amazing series on this subject. Check it out here!
God also clearly showed me that when we are distant from Him, we lose so many things that we do not even realize. What are you losing in your life with your distance from God? What Exactly do we lose by being distant?
What You Lose When Distant From God?
God was very clear to me that when you are distant from the Lord that there are many things that you lose and also many things that God cannot do for you and bless you with when you are distant. So what exactly do you lose when you choose to be distant or are distant from God?
The first thing that you lose when you are not speaking to God daily and are distant from Him is that you Lose your Direction From God. What I never realized is that God has a destiny for all of us written in his Book of Life and its up to us and our free will on whether we achieve it or not. A perfect example is one that I gave in my testimonial earlier this month where I spoke about how even though I knew what God’s plan for me was, it wasn’t happening in my own time and I tried to force it becoming what I called “Wichita Vern”. The life lesson here is that whenever we chase what we want or what “we deserve”, it is always self-seeking and never about God. When I chased the cash cow clients instead of focusing on the mission that God had for me , God was more than willing to remove that client and another huge one at thee same time so that I knew that he was in control and not me. As people, we struggle with that concept. Sadly, instead of learning, I became a statistic in the second category of why people are distant from God; by choice.
The second thing that we lose when we are distant from God is one that we don’t often think about. The reality is that we lose the ability to put on the full armor of the Lord and Lose His Protection over us. The idea of losing God protecting me scared me to death when God reveled this to me but I soon realized that by being distant, that is exactly what had happened. When I chose to be distant and be angry with God, I opened the door for the Devil to not only attack me, but those that I loved and I paid a dear price for that over the last few months. What are you leaving yourself wide open for when you are not choosing to be close to God? Ephesians 6:10-18 is a great resource for this so you can understand that your fight isn’t against people, but against evil one. If you are left without God’s protection, the evil one can take away everything that you own in a millisecond. Do not risk it!
The third thing we give up is our Potential and Our Destiny. Only God truly knows what you are truly capable of doing in this world and only he can help you achieve that. But if you choose to or are distant from God, you cannot ever know your destiny let alone achieve the best things in life for you. You can read more about this in 1Corinthians 2:9. God desires for us to all be warriors for Him and in the process he will give us the desires of our heart(and more) but we need to be right with him, humble in our shortcomings and have the holy spirit alive in us. Do you want to have the blessing of the Lord and the destiny he has for us? I do!
The next thing that we lose is maybe the most hurtful and troubling for me and might be for you as well. We lose our Joy and Happiness when we are distant from the Lord. I can honestly say that I lived in paradise, had an unbelievably gorgeous wife, 4 amazing kids that know and love God, and more money in the bank than I ever did before and I had to struggle to find joy and happiness. That is because I was upset with the Lord and it kept me from achieving the love, joy and destiny that God had for me. Since then, I can honestly tell you that at times when I was sleeping in my 30Ft boat that I was more joyful and appreciative of what God did for me than when I was in my waterfront Paradise. God says that the easiest way to destroy happiness in life is to have conflict in relationships with those we love. Is it any wonder that the great deceiver always attacks us in those relationships first? We are not designed as God’s creation to be in conflict with Him or others and that is why we need God the most. The Devil comes to lie, steal and kill and he’s an excellent hunter. Would you rather be in conflict with those you love or in Harmony as you work towards God’s destiny for you? This is only possible with His help! James 1:2-4 tells us that should consider it pure joy when we go through trials. Only with God can you have peace and joy as the world is against you.
Lastly, as “sheep” that are distant from god, we Lose our Home in Heaven. I’ve learned that this means we lose the mansion God has for us and because of that, we may live in a much less desirable home in heaven as we give up what He had planned and built for us. But I also learned in some severe cases this can also mean that we can give up our eternal salvation in the case of blasphemy. We cannot claim to be believers in Christ, stand in church and worship the Lord with hands held high, as we trash our spouse, tell lies about them or even worse. God sees that as the ultimate sin and the blasphemy is akin to Satan. To read that in God’s word, rocked me to my core. As believers, we must be born again meaning we confess our sins, ask for forgiveness, and use the Gift of Redemption that Jesus gives us to give back to others. Especially those closest to use like spouses and family. As people, since the fall, we are born to rebel against the Lord but we must guard our heart to ensure that this “rebellion” isn’t permanent, doesn’t open a door to the devil, and most importantly, doesn’t lead to blasphemy which can cost you your eternal resting place in heaven.
In Summary, I know from horrible experience that we are not meant to live without a relationship with Christ. Every single human being on the planet will disappoint you and yet we always think the grass will be greener on the other side. “If my spouse just did this”, or if “I just had a different spouse” things would be better. They are lies from the great deceiver and not of God. The only way we will ever be able to experience pure joy even in horrible circumstances like when you have to sleep in a boat and cannot see your children, is that God fills the holes in your life that you tried to fill with other things like people, lovers, new locations, booze, anger or worse. Jesus is the answer and is the only true beacon of light in the world. What would it take to give your life to Him?
Psalm 23
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,3 he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.
