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REFLECTION 8: PILLOW TALK SURVEY
"How shall we escape if we NEGLECT so great a salvation?" Hebrews 2:3
Ever wake up in the morning wanting to hide from the light? Some hide themselves under the sheets. Others pull down the shades or draw the curtains. My favorite technique is to pull a pillow over my head. Something within us wants to avoid light, except on our own slothful terms and sluggish timing. At some deep instinctive level, we simply don't welcome and relish the light. We would rather lurk in darkness and dimness.
In my case, what does the pillow represent? The pillow gives my head rest only if it is under my head rather than over it. But I misuse it to smother my perceptions from absorbing the morning light. I use it as a shield from light. Is it possible that this phenomenon reflects an inner dynamic as well? Do we pull pillows over our spiritual eyes to avoid God's daily light?
If so, then the pillow represents my "freedom of focus," my freewill, my free being, whatever you want to call the thing that allows us to receive or reject God during this lifetime. This freedom gift God gave was intended for me to use to rest my head on while I joyfully take in His light. But I have chosen to believe lies about both the light and its source. So I misuse my pillow to hide my face from the God who loves me. The partial freedom I was given in order to behold, appreciate and grow in God, I have now twisted and misused to turn my senses away from Him.
This is an alarming scenario. We boldly tell ourselves we always are ready for God's light to shine fully and immediately on us. Yet, if that were true, knowing what we know of God's willingness to shower us at all times with His goodness, then we would all be gloriously ablaze with God all the day long. And some days we certainly are bright and vibrant in God, but far too often we operate at low tide---low spiritual energy and low anointing. Since we are not yet walking in full manifestation as sons of God, we are left with a stunning conclusion. We do not yet constantly welcome God's light wholeheartedly into all corners of our being.
We are still to a significant degree covering our heavenly senses with earthly pillows. I recently awakened from a nightmare screaming into my pillow which I had evidently pulled onto the top of my face. I should have cast the pillow far away and flipped the light on to help me fully awaken so that I put the nightmare behind me. Instead, I quickly went back to sleep with the pillow still on my face. The nightmare resumed and I woke up feeling ruined for the day.
Beloved, God wants to wake us up from all our earthly nightmares, but part of us wants to stay asleep and fearful. Is it possible we draw some perverse pleasure from staying in the dark? Why don't we leap into the light in all our ways and in all our days?
Sometimes, I stumble into God's light groggy and numb. Other times, I walk into it willing and sincere. But rarely do I LEAP or LUNGE into it with my whole being. I am not talking about leaping into some religious activity to make myself feel righteous. I AM talking about leaping into a recognition of His presence, a leap into love, a leap into His mystery and awe. I know Jesus always leapt and lunged into the Father's light without pause, sloth or delay. As with all things, Jesus is our model. He never covered His heavenly face with earthly pillows, and neither should we.
I know we all want to become the LORD'S LIGHT-LEAPERS. To do this, we will have to go deep within and discover a hidden enemy. We will have to forsake our egos and be willing to see an ugly truth. It will hurt, but it will hurt so good because it will help us stop pillow-clutching. We will learn to stop hiding our senses from God's light.
So what is this enemy? Why do we so frequently suffer from spiritual lethargy? What is hindering us? One word--- NEGLECT! I want to redefine this word and explain why it is our greatest enemy. Neglect is of two types--- passive or aggressive. As an attorney, I used to represent the State in the area of saving children who were being NEGLECTED by their parents. Some parents passively neglected their children by ignoring them by failing to provide clothes, food, care, support, attention and love. Other parents neglected their children by physically, verbally or mentally abusing them. Both were horrible. The cold shoulder of indifference can cripple a child's hope just as much as a hot hand of anger. The tap root of both though is a SPIRIT OF NEGLECT, which runs rampant in the fallen world.
Satan's NUMBER ONE strategy is to get you to "neglect so great a salvation" (Hebrews 2:3). And not just "any" salvation, but "YOUR" so great a salvation. Every sin starts and ends with NEGLECT. This spiritual neglect can also be passive or aggressive. We can neglect our salvation with a whimper or a bang. We can neglect it by aggressively casting it behind us as we lustfully leap into our sins. This leaves our lives in the CHAOS OF CARNALITY. Or we can neglect the great gift of God by passively taking it for granted. This leaves our lives in the LIMBO OF LUKEWARMNESS. Either way, NEGLECT IS THE CULPRIT.
The word "neglect" comes from the Latin "neglectus" and literally means "not to pick up," with the related meaning of, "to make light of, disregard, or not select." Synonyms of the verb "neglect" include "drop, leave out, miss, omit, overlook, shrug off, discount, underestimate, slight and tune out." Synonyms of the noun "neglect" include "carelessness, chaos, limbo, slackness, forgetfulness, delinquency, dereliction, dilapidation, laxness, and lapse." Applying these terms to our own salvation-focus is chilling.
Now, concerning SPIRITUAL NEGLECT, I want to stress that I am not talking about bad habits or anything we "do." In fact, good habits can actually mislead us to spiritual neglect IF our robotic reliance on them keeps our hearts from leaping into God. Also, I am not talking about the sins that might occur in the wake of our neglect, but rather in the neglect itself which precedes any and all sin. I am talking about a state of being which LACKS or has LOW LEVELS of heart awareness, mind alertness, and gut desire for the deliverances of God. "Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the issues (literally 'deliverances') of life." Proverbs 4:23.
Of all the synonyms describing "neglect" given above, the four words which best explain this tragic dynamic are: UNDERESTIMATE, OVERLOOK, CHAOS and LIMBO. Whenever we experience worry, fear or dread, we are "underestimating" the salvation of God. We continually doubt God's ability to save us to the uttermost.
The more we UNDERESTIMATE God, the more we start to OVERLOOK Him. Then the roaring lions of lust, apathy, misery and pride move in for the kill. These deadly forces combine to produce states of CHAOS and LIMBO both internally and externally. These cursed states come not FROM God, but rather from US "heart-neglecting" ourselves AWAY FROM GOD. While God is certainly never away from us, we are quite capable of removing our focus from Him. This is the very core of neglect. It is the pillow we smother our faces with so that we can ignore His light.
I never thought I would fall into this type of neglect, but I did last year. I actually remember saying to myself that God could not deliver me of an evil desire I was suffering under. The desire was just too strong. When I BELIEVED that thought, I grossly underestimated and overlooked my so great a salvation, and I lost the battle. The battle maybe, but not the war, hallelujah! Even though my life fell into utter chaos and limbo for a season, the Lord delivered me in what I personally believe was the greatest rescue operation I have ever seen--- bar none. The reason I say this is that in the midst of my sin, I did not want to be saved. He did it anyway. And now I explode in awe at His goodness. HE WOULD NOT LET ME DAMN MYSELF!
But why me? Others appear to be able to successfully destroy their lives without God rescuing them. Why was it different for me? I don't know all the answers to that, but I know one major reason. I had a righteous wife who stood in the gap for me. She refused to believe that the goodness of God would allow this evil to overcome and destroy me. She would not take no for an answer. She would not NEGLECT her so great a salvation or mine. For THIS reason, God had more access to pull me from the fire, even against my apparent will. Had she given up or given in, like many others around us, God's access would have been constricted and I might have destroyed myself. There was also a group of friends, near and far, who cleaved to the goodness of God for me. They would not let go of me, even though I was asking them to. These saints, along with my wife, stood in the gap for me and formed a bridge that allowed God to pull back me from the pit.
I am now convinced that the reason most prayers fall to the ground is that most people don't really believe in the goodness of God to the extent that they won't take no for an answer. Don't miss this: for the prayer of faith to work, you must believe that God does not allow evil, but more than that, you must also believe GOD'S SALVATION TOTALLY DISALLOWS ALL EVIL. Only from this mindset can a believer stand in the gap and PRAY DELIVERANCE UNTO MANIFESTATION.
People unsure or unconvinced of God's goodness have already neglected their salvation because they really don't believe that salvation is totally good and totally available. These poor souls can't possibly stand in the gap for anyone if they have any doubt about God's nature. If they believe God might approve or allow destruction or wrath in anybody's life, then they can't pray deliverance with absolute confidence. Desperation maybe, but not confidence. I have only seen this unshakeable confidence a handful of times in my life. The most recent time I saw it was my favorite, because it saved my soul.
Do you believe God is only, always and totally good? Do you know that His heavenly mercy always triumphs over earthly judgment, that His grace endlessly supplies our every need, that His angels guard us in all our ways, that there are NO EXCEPTIONS OR LOOPHOLES in our so great a salvation, that there are no limits to the depth, breadth, length and width of God's love for you? If you want to believe in a totally good God, then DO IT! Let every man be a liar but God be true.
Let the following passage be our daily vitamin against all forms of neglect. "Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and FORGET NOT (NEGLECT NOT) all His benefits: He forgives all your sins, He heals all your sicknesses, He redeems your life from destruction, He crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies, He satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed as the eagle's." Psalm 103:3-5.
In conclusion, I want to leave you with my personal translation of Hebrews 2:3 which I have modified as a confessional prayer. This verse has a crucial truth about why we don't receive the full monty of God's blessings. That truth is this: neglecting our salvation keeps us from fully escaping evil. The original King James translation is at the top of this Reflection.
My translation is as follows: "I escape every evil temptation and tribulation I encounter because I never underestimate or overlook my so great a salvation." NEVER UNDERESTIMATE AND NEVER OVERLOOK YOUR SO GREAT A SALVATION! EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR LIFE AND GODLINESS IS YOURS NOW AS A FREE BENEFIT OF YOUR SO GREAT A SALVATION!
As you can probably tell, I love that term, "so great a salvation." May these four wonderful words be spiritually tattooed to all our foreheads. May we welcome God's light every day with pillow-less delight. May we be giddy GOD-LEAPERS who always jump into God's light at first gleam. May God's light shine deep into the hidden caverns where our sloth and neglect hide and corrupt our passion for God. May the days of CHAOS and LIMBO be forever behind us!
