Oct 31
The Dark Night of the Soul (Part I)
SOUL SANCTIFICATION
While the Outercourt takes you through a process of cleansing your flesh from sin, it also helps you learn the sacrifice of the moment (repentance), as well as helps you place God as Lord over your life. The Sanctuary addresses two more issues necessary to complete the Sanctification of your tripartite nature (spirit, soul and body). The covered room you have just entered begins that work by addressing your soul. To do this the Holy Spirit will work on you from the inside – out in order to prepare a place for Him dwell and in doing so He works to totally fill every space ‘within’ you – even the smallest of spaces you have historically ignored. You see these Rooms of Mystery are actually you, and in here you will learn how God wants to change you. The Kingdom really does begin within you (Luke 17:21)
The Wilderness of the Outercourt cleanses your flesh, but the first Room of Mystery must go deeper in order to cleanse your soul. You will quickly find the hopeful exhortation of Paul coming true, that God would “sanctify you, spirit, soul and body.” Before you exit this room, you will have had the second of the three dealt with. As you journey through the Amber light of this room you will begin to think differently, respond more maturely, and not give up so easily. You will expect the chaos in your life to turn to a higher order and the result is deeper joy, peace, and faith that you can accomplish all things if Christ strengthens you. All this is the fruit of The Dark Night of the Soul. The problem is that it seems so dark when you first enter. When your eyes eventually adjust, you will have “eyes to see” even when others cannot.
OBEDIENCE RATHER THAN SACRIFICE
In this room you learn that God sets the rules of the Rooms of Mystery. Rules that He knows will benefit you, give you hope and reveal your future – that is if you finish the journey and do not quit. It will take great courage – do you have that? Remember, the Outercourt is about sacrifice. This room - the first room - in the Sanctuary, the Holy Place, is about the mystery of obedience. Remember, the Spirit of God will not violate your will even if it means prolonging your journey.
It was the mental arguments, emotional fears, and the stubborn will of the Hebrew children that delayed the entry to their future by forty years. May it not be so with you.
FROM MY EXPERIENCE
One final thought that I would like to leave those of you who feel, think, and believe that God has not come through for you. The truth is that you more than likely have never completed the transforming process of this room. Sorrow, disappointment, and disillusionment do not mean you have completed The Dark Night of the Soul and God has not come through. It means you are still thinking you can make the rules of the room and how God must respond to your perceived needs. Notice I said, “perceived needs”, because what you think you need is not the reality of what you actually do need – even if you currently think it is.
To the degree you have anger, bitterness, resentment, and pain seething within you about how your life has turned out – is the degree of your need to be in control. These feelings and thoughts are an indicator that you have set the ground rules that will prove God is real and working on your behalf. Therefore many think that if God does not do it your way, in the manner you expect, then He is not God or He has not held up His end of the bargain. The reality is that there is no bargaining with God. No greater, pure, and perfect light will be given to those who think they set the rules. Perhaps what you are feeling as you read this is the very reason you were brought into this room – to help you think, feel, and respond like He does - instead of the way you historically have.
More on the Dark Night of the Soul in my next post.
Blessings,
John Paul
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I began to think about when Israel left Egypt. The scriptures say that Israel left Egypt prepared for battle yet the Lord led them the long way around because He knew they were not ready to face battle with Syria… (I think it was Syria)… He led them the long way around because He knew that if they faced the Syerian army prematurely they would lose heart and return to Egypt.
I think often times the Lord wants to do a deeper work in our lives of getting rid of Egypt in our hearts so to speak. Israel probably still had the mentality of being slaves instead of actually being a Soveriegn Nation. Even along the way they began to think of what it was like back in Egypt, they thought of the foods and it was a familiarity to Israel and to step into what was actually the unknown would take an incredible step of faith.
I can say from my own experience that to leave a way of life, to leave a “safe” community, and to embrace a community filled with not so “safe” people to me because of how the majority of people within the church as a whole have responded to me.
For sure, in my times of feeling completely alone I have looked back at “Egypt”. However, I’ve never really understood why some people would return to Egypt and back into bondage and slavery. Perhaps the Lord has just opened my eyes and allowed me to see that would be what I’d return to if I did.
There is definatly something more to what I’ve experienced so far in my relationship with God. I know that I’ve just barely scratched the surface and perhaps since I no longer feel as though God has to meet me on my terms, perhaps I’m coming through the other side of the Dark Night of the Soul.
It makes me want to ask a few question…
What’s next?
What do I have to look forward to?
What challenges are before me?
What are some of the things that can hinder a person’s ability to actually walk into the next phase?
Thanks JPJ I really was feeling guilty about the feelings of anger, bitterness and resentment I was feeling toward God. I was starting to think I was being punished rather than blessed. I am glad to know that 1- What I am feeling is not abnormal and 2- that this feeling only comes from me wanting to be in control when it is God’s will not mine that must be done, Thanks so much for your insight!!!!
Thank you so much for your ministry. I have been so blessed by this series of teachings. I am looking forward to hearing about the Holy of Holies. I seem to have this never ending hunger for more of God. And I realize that it does take my cooperation to get to that deeper place with him. So, I say more of him and less of me.
Blessings
I am so amazed at the fine details you give explaining the rooms and how it relates to our spiritual purging so to speak. You just described me and where I am at as in the dark night of the soul. A place where there seems to be no escape and nothing is in your favor for ever working out as you have been praying. It really feels like a place of torment with nothing but frustrations.
I am currently in this room and feel I have been here way to long. My eyes are taking awhile to adjust in this room, but it seems suddenly my eyes are being adjusted to see what the Lord is asking me to do. When you are praying for something and believing it will be accomplished as you think it should is probably the biggest part of the battle within yourself. Like you said it probably is the reason why I have been here in this room for so long because I am laying down my ground rules and not understanding or grasping what the Lord wants me to do. Even when I do understand what the Lord wants me to do my flesh doesn’t agree when I am tested. Sometimes I really think I am a slow learner because just like Paul said, I do the things I do not want to do and the things I want to do I do not do. I just hope I can finally get out of this room and pass the test and go to the next level. Lord Help Me pass the test to get out of this room!!!!!!!
Just reading through your last posts on the rooms are like post it notes for various dreams and visions I have had on the shelves. You have brought little hints of light to those things I wasn’t understanding. Now I can say AH HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!This part I believe is the eyes adjusting to the lamp!!!!!!!!!The understanding is coming and the beginning to grasp to see how things are layed out for a purpose and reason is making more sense spiritually.
Speaking on the Dark night of the Soul on Halloween. I think that it humorous. tongue in cheek if you will.
But realistically, This particular posting is something I feel is one of the most important ones to date in this series of conversations you have been speaking on.
We are on the eve of great change in America, the principles and life flow you have mentioned in this blog are a critical mass for the hearts of people, may they secure themselves in the inward chambers of the kings palace. Challenges for many lay ahead.
Dear John Paul
Is the reasoning for calling these latest post titles Dark Night of the Soul. . . . because our souls have not yet experienced the True Pure Holy Light of Our Lord? Very understandable if so.
How will we know when we have become True Lights of Glory? To think we are so close … !!!
Wow! This is EXACTLY the thought process I went through yesterday and was left in tears. I didn’t know how hard it would be to give up control. This DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL is something awful but in a bittersweet way as I am praying and worshipping more than I ever have in my life in spite of getting little to no response. No manifest presence, no weighty glory, no angels showing up, although His hope comes in more dreams and visions than I can imagine.
The MOST difficult time I have right now in this position of the DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL is battling my strongholds and mindsets. I am in such utter darkness from the veils they cause and I find myself every now and then nearing the point of insanity. Because of my desperate cry for freedom, I find myself struggling to make it through an hour of worship and prayer, fighting for my life to not succumb to the attacks of my mind and thus give it all up. I keep going and stick to scripture, pray in the spirit and stand to praise when I am often in physical pain. God is faithful and I know I’ll make it through.
I ask continually for the strongholds to be torn down, killed at the root and for all hidden darkness and sin to be exposed. (I practice your 30 day ‘guarantee’ JP
Could you please address the strongholds and dominions and how they play a part in getting free during the DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL? Will you talk about how they skew our perception about our needs and possibly prevent us from getting ‘clean’? It seems as I am trying to get free, the strongholds are trying their best to maintain rule and often I feel like after months of praying and asking, they are not leaving and I’m not getting anywhere, perhaps getting worse? HELP!
I couldn’t help but think of Jeremiah 33:6 as I read the first paragraph. “But now take another look. I’m going to give this city a thorough renovation, WORKING A TRUE HEALING, INSIDE AND OUT. I’m going to show them life whole, life brimming with blessings.” TMB It makes giving up “self” control worth the while. It’s unfortunate we find it so difficult …
Reading “Seven Days Behind the Veil” I was struck by what you said on pg. 52, Out of the Box.
Jesus taught us to pray the Lord’s prayer because Heaven is reality, not earth. This is a hard-to-grasp, completely foreign concept, but what we see here on earth all around us is merely a shadow of reality, not reality itself “Now we see a poor reflection …then face to face. Now I know in part …then I shall know fully.” (I Corinthians 13:12) Temporal is always inferior to eternal. So in order to touch the heart of God, we must learn to mirror on earth the activity of heaven. Worship has everything to do with the mystery of eternity and the world beyond - all that He created.
My question is: will the disclosure of the mystery that we discover along this path lead us to a place where we can begin to see things not just from a temporal perspective but an eternal heavenly one? As you have said, this heavenly reality is a hard-to-grasp and completely foreign concept.
Lyle
“…if He does not do it your way, in the manner you expect, then He is not God or He has not held up His end of the bargain.”
There seems to be no end to my attempts to set the agenda with God. He recently revealed to me that I valued understanding more than abiding in Him, loving Him. That is, I want to know where everything is headed. Since insight is a gift upon which I rely, it is something that I have allowed to disturb me when it was not given.
All that seems to pour out of my spirit when I pray now is for more of Him (more, more), whatever the cost… although that cost seems to be a complete lack of perspective. I believe that it has to do with abiding in Him in the spirit, learning to abide in the spirit and rely on Him, rather than insisting that my soul consents to it first.
John Paul, I don’t know if you read these posts, but I wanted you to know that I have been helped by what you have written.
Thanks.
All that seems to pour out of my spirit when I pray now is for more of Him (more, more), whatever the cost… although that cost seems to be a complete lack of perspective. This loss of any sense of where things are going makes stark my refusal to simply trust and abide in Him in the spirit- relying on Him, rather than insisting that my soul consents first.
John Paul,this helps. It is difficult.
Thanks.
Dear John Paul,
Thank you so much for what you have shared regarding the “Dark Night of the Soul”. You have gone deeper than any other book I’ve read about this subject…..and it has been quite an eye-opener!
I am very challenged by what you have shared and I realise that in some ways, I have completely missed the point of what God is trying to do in me during this difficult season. As others have described, I have been feeling confused, frustrated, sad, scared - all mixed-up.
The very thing God is trying to do in drawing me closer to Him, getting to know Him - I find myself running away from, as I feel like I’ve let Him down in so many ways…..But, I know I must push through, even though its painful (not hearing from God, not being directed, not feeling His presence)… for He is still worthy to be praised!!
Adam, thanks for sharing what you’ve been feeling. You have put into words what I have been experiencing, but couldn’t describe myself. I have been trying to ‘Understand’, when what God wants, is to have relationship with me.
As Oswald Chambers said: “”Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led….but it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason – a life of knowing him who calls us to go.”
God bless you all.
John Paul Wrote:
The problem is that it seems so dark when you first enter. When your eyes eventually adjust, you will have “eyes to see” even when others cannot.
My Response:
John Paul, it has often times been my experience that whenever the Lord had placed me or positioned me in difficult situations and circumstances of my life that appeared to be unbearable at first, the grace of hope through the fire of affliction and purification that became available for me through the Holy Spirit was enough to get me through the particular situation. This grace of hope, has often times given birth to the “revelation” that I would need to understand what God was doing deep inside of my soul. However, at first the room of my soul that appeared to be the darkest would seem very dim due to the dark emotions that live in that particular part of my soul. At the point that I was able to surrender these dark emotions to the Lord,was the same time that I was able to see what was in the room little more clearly and what God wanted to do in that room. However, the end result was always a bit vagued until I got closer to the desired transformation of the particular issue in question that the Lord wanted to work on with my complete cooperation deep within my heart. Thanks for the posting.
Blessings To You!
Shirley C.
This is one of the most divinely timed writings I’ve ever been able to account to in twenty years of Christianity. My heart breaks in that someone could finally define this place. I have been in this place five years, and just a few months ago did I hear on two accounts the phrase “Dark Night of the Soul.” Yet, noone could account for it in any aspect other than it leads to “transformation.” I am in a reverential awe, relief, and overwhelmed in compassion to finally hear that this experience can be accounted for, brought to the light, and released in understanding. Though I identify with every aspect of this journey and more, I too long to see the conclusion, the purpose, the plan brought to fullness, completion, just to get to the other side of this, and at this point, I wonder that I haven’t gone back to egypt, stopped the process, am gonna die in it without having seen the otherside, or God Help, have to go through it all over again. But my heart is exceedingly glad for the Body, its expression, wisdom, and how in the most perfect timing we can obtain that which we need in truth and comfort, it lightens, it brightens, and it gives HOPE.
This is a hard teaching but I am grateful for it and accept it rather than settle for mediocre.
Thanks again,
Oyinda
JPJ:
Good blog. I’ve been following it for several weeks and I resonate to most of what you’ve written. I’m not sure where I am along this pictographic journey through the tabernacle and at this point it may not really matter.
As insightful as this current topic is, my guess is that it’s arriving for me too-little-too-late. During a miraculous physical healing about 2 years ago, (for some unknown sovereign reason) I was blasted/blessed (circle one) with a revelatory gift that I didn’t understand, petition for, nor have a single clue as to how to process.
Finding your ministry answered several questions and offered hope and insight along the way, but unfortunately, couldn’t prepare me for where I am today.
As the gap between my hopes and reality widened, I began to experience burnout until I finally hit the wall this week and said, “Enough is enough.”
I wanted to post this quick note to your blog, not to vent my frustrations towards God in a public forum, but rather to offer my testimony/experience as a precaution against setting unrealistic expectations.
I suspect I’m a little too subjective to the moment to offer any real insight as to what went wrong, so I say with sincerity that I don’t know what I could have done any differently to change the outcome. To those reading this blog and growing weary, I caution you to be careful not to allow any bitterness, resentment, or unmanaged expectations drive a wedge between you and the Father.
Regardless of my present circumstances, I know God is good, and right, and loving. But speaking from the raw emotion of the moment, I no longer plan to pursue the prophetic, and instead, plan to settle into my church a little deeper, learn to listen to people better, offer prayer without the pretenses I so often hide behind, and study the scriptures that I have now truly grown to enjoy.
Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be able to offer some strand of guidance to someone walking down the same path I chose to abandon perhaps too quickly.
p.s.
Mr. J: Assuming you’re moderating this thread, I’ll understand if you don’t post my comments. Maybe there’s more appropriate way to communicate the same point sans the color commentaries.
John Paul, This one is the most divinely writen. I want Gods best not mans best. Several times I thought I was ready for something and was not. When I WAS ready God gave me his best and it was several times better than what I thought. For example I prayed for a house: 2 bedroom on a half acer land. I am so glad I waited for God, he gave me a 4 bedroom home on a whole aces,2000 sq ft house in the country. WOW, what a dance of glory and still dancing 2 years later. I look around my house and still can not belive it. Give God all the glory/// Now I have been praying for a good christian man to marrie. I can not waite to see what God has for me… Glory to God in all he does. Pray and ask nock and seek. Thank You Lord Thank You for all your Love
Dear JP, very challenging teaching that touches real issues in my heart. I cannot hide!! Need to hear this regularly lest I forget…
Blessings
That is really interesting John Paul - “Not what we think we need … ”
Like shedding false motivations - to achieve a synchronicty with and of the Lord … moving with Him.
Very cool,
Thanks,
Vincent
“No greater, pure, and perfect light will be given to those who think they set the rules.”
Well (this is the Lord’s opinion), prophet A says he saw the Lord reacting with joy when we come into His presence. Setting the rules is the equivalent of believing the Lord ALWAYS reacts with joy when we come into His presence. Sounds unrealistic? But that’s prevalent in our thinking and in the church. The greater, pure and perfect light is knowing God can behave as He wills, and there is a whole spectrum of emotions God is capable of…including anger, weariness etc…
I hope you can catch this.
Dear John Paul, I accidently stumbled onto your website. Thank God there are none with Him. I was married to a Pastor, was on the mission field with 6 children, and since my divorce have felt God left for good. I have not walked away but have wondered why life has been so hard. Through tears, I write this has been the greatest eye opener and heart,and soul. May God once and for all lead me out of this wilderness of death to self. Thank you for your faithfulness and obedience to the Lord
reminds me of jerimiah the prophet..recently been led to read some more of prophets and judges…”for i know the plans i have for you…declares the LORD. plans to prosper,” and yet tho i have survived toils and snares, i know there’s more to come.
oh brother…. more hocus pocus christianity
Wow! Thanks John Paul! This teaching is great and it is helping me to think and process this experience you are talking about “the dark night of the soul”. I did not understand how to respond to God in this, and your teaching has helped me so much. Thank You!
If we want our thoughts and ways to be like God’s then we better get in the heavenly realm and let go of worldly thinking and ways. Jump out into the Glory and let God catch you.
This teaching has impacted me the most thus far but have not read the others yet as I just found these “coffee talks”. I am thankful for your careful words and love as you write down the mere things deep within my own soul that need to be dealt with in order that I may become totally set free from being in control. My “perceived needs” have been keeping me on that long journey around the mountain time and time again, however, it is His response I desperately want and the new journey I am about to partake will be a life lived by thinking, feeling and responding as God does.
What an incredible journey. Courage wanes every time I tend towards fear rather than faith. There is nothing I want more than to be completely set free from this treadmill of of having my personal agenda thwart the things God is trying to bring to pass in my life. It is so tiring. And your weekly writings almost chronicle the painful journey I’ve been on this fall. I wish I had found Coffee Talk it a month ago; it may have saved a couple people a great deal of pain.
Thank you so much for this article it was extremely helpful and helped make sense of alot of what is happening to me right now. The exposing of the nitty gritty the little darl places that need the light of the Holy Spirit to come.
You have addressed this well because in 2008 I was giving up…I was loosing heart and thinking God couldn’t use me anymore. I felt so helpless ans ashamed.