God's Mysterious Dealings
The sermon emphasizes the necessity of isolation with God to experience His mysterious dealings and miraculous interventions in our lives.
Charles E. Cowman preaches about the importance of being alone with God, emphasizing the need to shut out all distractions and rely solely on Him for miracles and guidance. He highlights the secret chamber of isolation in prayer and faith that leads to great fruitfulness in our lives. Cowman explains that God sometimes creates a mysterious wall around us, cutting away all familiar supports and leading us into new and unexpected Divine experiences where we must trust Him completely. Just like the widow in 2 Kings 4:4, we are called to detach from worldly things and cling inwardly to the Lord to witness His wonders, especially in the midst of trials where God often reveals Himself in the most beautiful ways.
Text
"Thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons" (2 Kings 4:4).
They were to be alone with God, for they were not dealing with the laws of nature, nor human government, nor the church, nor the priesthood, nor even with the great prophet of God, but they must needs be isolated from all creatures, from all leaning circumstances, from all props of human reason, and swung off, as it were, into the vast blue inter-stellar space, hanging on God alone, in touch with the fountain of miracles.
Here is a part in the programme of God's dealings, a secret chamber of isolation in prayer and faith which every soul must enter that is very fruitful.
There are times and places where God will form a mysterious wall around us, and cut away all props, and all the ordinary ways of doing things, and shut us up to something Divine, which is utterly new and unexpected, something that old circumstances do not fit into, where we do not know just what will happen, where God is cutting the cloth of our lives on a new pattern, where He makes us look to Himself.
Most religious people live in a sort of treadmill life, where they can calculate almost everything that will happen, but the souls that God leads out into immediate and special dealings, He shuts in where all they know is that God has hold of them, and is dealing with them, and their expectation is from Him alone.
Like this widow, we must be detached from outward things and attached inwardly to the Lord alone in order to see His wonders. --Soul Food
In the sorest trials God often makes the sweetest discoveries of Himself. --Gems
"God sometimes shuts the door and shuts us in,
That He may speak, perchance through grief or pain,
And softly, heart to heart, above the din,
May tell some precious thought to us again."
Sermon Outline
- I points: - Introduction to God's mysterious dealings - The importance of isolation in prayer - Understanding divine intervention
- II points: - The necessity of detachment from worldly things - Trusting in God's new patterns for our lives - Expectations from God alone
- III points: - Discovering God in trials - The role of grief and pain in spiritual growth - Finding peace in divine communication
Key Quotes
“Here is a part in the programme of God's dealings, a secret chamber of isolation in prayer and faith which every soul must enter that is very fruitful.” — Charles E. Cowman
“In the sorest trials God often makes the sweetest discoveries of Himself.” — Charles E. Cowman
“God sometimes shuts the door and shuts us in, That He may speak, perchance through grief or pain.” — Charles E. Cowman
Application Points
- Set aside time for solitude with God to deepen your prayer life.
- Embrace trials as opportunities for discovering God's presence and strength.
- Detach from worldly distractions to focus on God's guidance and purpose.