From what you have read, it might seem that the cleft is a place to go to and leave again. But one of the great mysteries of the Christian life is learning how to live in the presence of a Holy God but be in a fallen world. I do not claim to have achieved this – indeed, I believe that it is one of the lessons that we must continually be taught. However, I know that I can now choose to seek the face of God when there is more around to distract me than when I first knew Him.
How has He done this for me?
First, He has done it by grace. I listened to believers who had walked with God longer than I had. They told me to spend time with Him in His word and prayer daily. They encouraged me to seek teaching, to read books, to spend time with His people. When I had questions, I went to those in my church who were mature, sought their counsel and understanding of the scriptures, and often did as they suggested.
Before taking in teaching from people outside the church where God had planted me, I sought information about those new opportunities from those in my church I found to be grounded in His word. In addition, I learned God’s worth and word through my own reading and formal Bible studies so that I knew how to seek Him and how to learn His ways. I have always attended a church based on the Word of God where maturity is valued and where a lifestyle of holiness is supported and encouraged. I have learned that worshipping together there can be a cleft in itself.
Sometimes the cleft can include other believers as well. A time of prayer can become an encounter. A confession and asking forgiveness can evolve into a sweet place of refuge. A Bible study with a group, large or small, can enter that refuge of the Rock and become engulfed in the sweet perfume of His presence.
All I have learned has been because God longed to teach me, longed to be known by me, longed to let me know I am loved and valued beyond measure by Him, and longed for me to love Him in return. He wants the same for you.
Only by acknowledging that we are just like every other person, guilty before God, and believing on Jesus and the atonement of His blood, can any of us be accepted and adopted as children of the Lord God Almighty. Jesus said that no one could reach the Father by any path bus this one, Jesus Himself. There is an enemy of your soul that would like you to think that there are many ways to God. But the enemy knows the Book and seeks to deceive and misinterpret what God wrote there at every opportunity. Do not be deceived. The only price acceptable to God to redeem you from sin and death is the one He paid Himself. He paid by sending His Son to be the Lamb of God, to fulfill the sacrifice for sin required for Passover – that God might pass over us with judgment and grant us eternal life with Him instead of damnation and separation from all that is good, all that is God.
If you would like to accept this free gift of salvation of being bought back from being a slave to your sins, pray this prayer to God: Father in heaven, Maker of heaven and earth, I know I cannot be the person You made me to be. Left to myself, I will eventually choose evil. Instead, I accept the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross of Calvary and the atonement of His blood for my sins. I ask Your forgiveness and receive it because You want to forgive. I ask You to love me, teach me, and remake me into the person You created me to be. I ask in the name of Jesus Christ.
If you just prayed this prayer, welcome to the family of God. You are accepted where you are. You have just opened a door to a world that will be trying and exciting, demanding and rewarding, costly and fulfilling.
As a new believer or one who has known God for a long time, I encourage you to choose to enter the Cleft with Him, learn of Him, and let Him love you, and return His love. Maybe you have been there and not returned often enough. Will you choose Him and His love today?
“The Cleft” Copyright 2001