June 20, 2010 by Teri Frana.

Traditionally, the “dark nights” are a season of life when God grabs our full attention by intensely testing us.  Typically the dark nights start with very difficult circumstances affecting several aspects of life; career, marriage, health, relationships, finances, etc.  Often times, more than one of these areas are disrupted or even completely dismantled. (See previous post)

In my dark night season, I found God to be more interest in my response to difficult life circumstances rather than the circumstances themselves.  Through my reaction, God revealed things about our hearts that I didn’t know were there.  He peeled back the layers of what I call, “comfort junk” - that’s the stuff we put around our hearts for protection and comfort - like a well loved, well worn blankie.  The Bible would call those things IDOLS - what we clutch to tighter than we cling to God. 

For me, the revelation of what was under the comfort junk was more difficult to take than even the desperate life circumstances.  It’s worse than going to the dermatologist and looking at your skin under the coke bottle bottom lighted magnifying mirror.  As Bill the Cat would say, “Ack!”

The comfort junk will look differently for each person. For many people it’s status, success, achievement, or material wealth.  For me it was/is my Christian performance.  (”Is” because I still struggle with it.)  I prided/pride myself on NOT clinging to success or material wealth.  I was/am the best non-material girl anyone could want.  I also pridedpride myself on not being judgmental or self-righteous like so many other Christians. I was/am down-right self righteous about not being self righteous.

In the dark night, God revealed my self righteousness in the brutal starkness of His righteousness.  It was then I saw that I was clutching to the comfort blanket called, “performance driven religion”.  Deep down I believed that if I did everything right, didn’t behave like “those people”, and made my way through the check-list of faith ( Prayer? Check. Read the Bible? Check.  Go to church? Check.  Tithe? Check.  Serve? Check. etc.) that I would earn blessings from God.  I honestly felt that if I did those things and didn’t do those things that God would somehow OWE me the life I wanted.

When I did those things and didn’t do those things and still didn’t get what I wanted, I was catapulted headlong into the dark nights.   It’s that kind of hypocrisy that God starkly reveals in the darkness.  He wants to remove any of the comfort junk that stands in the way between His great love and mercy and our humanness.

I believe God is always asking us to drop what we clutch on to so that we cling to Him.  I’d love to see a large pile of well loved, well worn blankies lying on the ground and a whole lotta people clinging even tighter to Jesus.

“My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.”  Psalm 63:8

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June 18, 2010 by Teri Frana.

Dark nights happen to those followers who earnestly seek more of Christ.  God doesn’t typically test those who are completely content with status quo.  He actively works in the lives and hearts of those want to grow deeper in their relationship.  I distinctly remember my prayer just before going into the dark nights. I was listening to “Bring It On” by Steven Curtis Chapman and I prayed, “Lord, there has to be more than this.  I have no idea what that means or what it looks like or what I need to do in order to have more of You.  But, bring it on….”

Had I known how hard the next seven years were going to be, I STILL would have prayed that prayer.

You may think that sounds crazy, yet it makes perfect sense in God’s logic.  Anyone who goes through the dark nights gets back more than they give.  Here are just a few things I’ve received from God through my dark night season:

• More of His presence
• A deeper understanding of His love, peace, joy, and hope
• A much more fulfilling personal relationship with Him
• Freedom from a lot of comfort junk  (watch for next post)
• A deeper union with His Word
• A richer understanding of His Sovereignty resulting in a much more intense trust of Him
• More peace and courage than I knew was possible
• An increased passion for living out my purpose in His Kingdom

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”  Matthew 16:25

“Since ancient times no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.”  Isaiah 64:4

“He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep shadows into the light.”  Job 12:22

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”  Romans 8:18

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,”  Ephesians 3:20

I say “Bring it on!”

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June 10, 2010 by Teri Frana.

Another post from the series on the dark nights.  Read the previous post here.

The Dark Night of the Spirit follows the Dark Night of the Soul.  Sometimes they come in rapid succession, sometimes there are years between them.   For me, they followed each other with only two months between.

In the Dark Night of the Soul, God uses our life circumstances to reveal the outward behaviors that get in our way to experiencing a deeper relationship with Him.  In essence, God is asking us to surrender all of the sinful behaviors that keep us from Him.  In the Dark Night of the Spirit God focuses on the inward man; our hearts.  He wants to reveal the lies which are at the core of our outward behaviors.  It is in this season when God asks us to surrender all of ourselves.

During the Dark Night of the Soul, God causes or allows loss in the external situations of our lives.  In the Dark Night of the Spirit, we experience loss in the deepest parts of our soul.  God asks us to surrender everything that is not of Him; everything we hold dear in our hearts.  Often times, God has already placed a dream or a purpose on our hearts, some kind of ministry that we know in the deepest part of our souls is ours, specifically designed by God for us to uniquely live out.  In the Dark Night of the Spirit, God will call on us to lay that dream at His feet, even surrendering our life purpose to Him.

The goal of the Dark Night of the Spirit is that we can say, with all sincerity to the very core of our being, “Lord, You are more important than anything here on earth.  I don’t care what happens or doesn’t happen, You are the Lord of my life.  I surrender it all to You.  I trust You with everything.  Have Your Will at any cost in my life.”

I’m assuming that most people wouldn’t go that far in their love and trust of Jesus.  But somehow, as you progress through this second dark night season, God reveals Himself so profoundly, you cannot help but be compelled closer and closer to Him.  Even when God is silent, you sense His presence in such intimate ways, you are changed.

Read Lamentations 3 to see the perfect image of the Dark Night of the Spirit.  Jeremiah, “The Weeping Prophet”, writes of the dark nights.  Here is only an excerpt:

“He (God) has driven me away and made me walk
in darkness rather than light;
indeed, he has turned his hand against me
again and again, all day long.
He has made my skin and my flesh grow old
and has broken my bones.
He has besieged me and surrounded me
with bitterness and hardship.
He has made me dwell in darkness
like those long dead.”  vs 2-6

Yet, in all of this, Jeremiah sees God:

“Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.” vs. 21-26

In the next post, I will list more scriptures which talk of the dark night seasons.  Understanding the dark nights helps us go through them with more grace and patience.

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