Interpreting difficulties in the ministry

A question was raised by Suman in this week’s class. The prophet Haggai rebukes the people in Jerusalem for saying that it was not yet time to build the Temple, because of the difficulties they were facing. The question asked was, how we know that the difficulties indicate that God’s time had not come, and when it was the natural opposition one faces from those who are against God. Since the response we make is diametrically opposite we need to be able to distinguish between the two.

I tried to think of instances in the Bible where difficulties indicated that God’s time had not come. I could not think of any instance in the Old Testament!! In the New Testament Paul mentions of being hindered in his plans, which he saw as a means of God guiding him in Acts 16:6-9. But here Paul was actively attempting to perform some action for the furtherance of God’s plans and had not given up. It was in this activity that he experienced the guidance of God through a hindrance and a call to Macedonia.

It would appear from this that difficulties never mean giving up and waiting for God to reveal His will. It may mean that I need to seek God’s will for the moment, but it does not mean doing nothing. Most often it will be the natural opposition to the work of God and is not something for us to be surprised at. If God wants us to be doing something different you will get a clear word from God accordingly – just like Paul in Acts 16 and the prophecies of the 7^th and 8^th century prophets against the activities of the kings of the time. So if we do not have a word we need to assume that it is natural opposition to the work of God and not that God’s time has not come.

In this regard I have found the advice of Prakash Yesudian to have been very useful. He said that we would be continuously tempted to question the call we have responded to because of difficulties in our life. He advised that we should never question the first call we had received but stubbornly stay with the call till we hear a clear word from God otherwise.