God Is Hiding From Us:

God is hiding from us giving us a chance to repent and make up our own minds whom we want to follow and serve.

“Mercy” has been described as “time to repent”. We have heard the phrase in Matthew 5: 9: “Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy.” In other words, blessed are those who give others time to repent, for the Lord shall give them time to repent. Or, blessed are those who help others to find God, for they shall bring God out of hiding into their own lives.

God has a reservoir of His spirit children in Heaven waiting to come to this earth to receive a physical body and a physical experience. The ones God is sending to our time period are the prideful, self-willed, jealous, sinful, judgemental, independent, contentious, stubborn, worldly, depressed, miserable, vain, competitive, selfish, mean-spirited, lecherous, sinful, rebellious ones. Examine your own heart and see if it is not so. Most everyone who comes to this earth during the first 6000 years of human history comes with some kind of built-in spiritual defect. We are sent into this kind of environment where we can be tested and tried to see if we can overcome a few of our spiritual defects.

We are sent among people like ourselves. This fallen Telestial existence is the perfect school-ground for the spiritually defective to practice and learn how to overcome some of their spiritual defects. Fallen individuals like us can see all around them examples of how spiritual defects like the ones we harbor are holding other people back and preventing other people from reaching their full potential. If we choose to liken the lessons unto ourselves, then we can actually learn and grow in such an unfavorable or inhospitable environment. The negative examples of others around them can be particularly effective at teaching such an individual how to be better, because such an individual can easily see what’s wrong with other people even if that individual has no clue what is wrong with himself. By trying to help others to overcome their obvious defects, such an individual might at times identify and overcome a few of his own. The friction of a Telestial existence has the power to smooth-out some of the rough edges, if we choose to let it do so.

God is also processing the wicked and evil spirit children through this earth at this point in time also, where they actively and unknowingly serve the purpose of trying to make Saints out of sinners. The wicked and the evil people serve up the opposition necessary to give the luke-warm and the undecided an opportunity to make a choice and excel. A repentant sinner is infinitely more devoted to God if he or she has chosen to be so, than if he or she is forced to be so. Those who are forgiven much, love much. The most vocal against cigarettes tend to be those who chose to give up cigarette smoking. The most helpful and supportive against addictions are those individuals who have received God’s help in overcoming their own addictions. Those who receive God’s help in overcoming the sins of this world are typically the ones who end up loving God the most and being the most loyal to God and His Church. The repentant sinners often end-up becoming the very best of the Saints. The wicked and the evil often serve as the necessary catalyst to get a sinner to make-up his mind to become a Saint instead. Some of the most interesting, inspirational, and uplifting people on this planet are the sinners who chose one day to pursue God instead of choosing to remain forever in their sins.

When it comes to the humble, cheerful, reverent, obedient, teachable, trustworthy, loyal to God, kind-hearted, inspired, merciful, righteous, friendly, courteous, repentant spirit children of God, He is holding them in the Celestial Kingdom and will send them here during the Millennium. There are going to be higher quality individuals sent to this earth during the Millennium, when Jesus Christ is here on this earth reigning as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. They will fit better into that kind of situation. They won’t need testing or schooling or polishing because they are already good, and thus they will be a hundred times more effective and productive in such a peaceful environment. They will grow up without sin unto salvation and exaltation. They won’t have to learn to have faith in Christ as we do, because they will be born already having faith in Christ. They won’t have to go searching for the true Church of Jesus Christ, because they will be born with the ability to recognize it whenever and wherever they see it. They will be born with the ability to be it. They will be a higher quality, humbler, more spiritual, and more righteous group of individuals.

In chapter 58, Isaiah gives us one way to bring God out of hiding and into our lives.

Isaiah 58: 1-14:
1 CRY aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. [We need to identify our sins so that we know what is driving God away from us into hiding, so that we can repent of our sins and turn to God or return to God.]
2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God. [We need a paradigm shift in our lives so that we are living righteously and enjoy approaching God in prayer.]
3 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. [Why do we fast and pray? What’s the purpose? What’s the goal? Why do we waste time or afflict our souls with such pursuits?]
4 Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. [If you are fasting and praying to achieve vengeance on your enemies, you will get completely different results than what you get if your are fasting and praying to have your voice heard on high among God and His angels.]
5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? [If you are simply fasting and praying to make yourself miserable or to make others miserable, do you really think this is an acceptable fast to the LORD?]
6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen — to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? [The kind of fasting and prayer that God has chosen for us is the kind that will set us free and bring us peace. We are to pray for the ability to identify our sins and for the strength to overcome our sins. It’s not easy at first, but it brings results that are satisfying to our souls.]
7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? [We are to take the money saved from fasting an donate it to the poor. We are to pray for the courage and the ability to be around other people without taking offense and wanting to run away.]
8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward. [If we fast and pray in the manner that the Lord recommends, then the Light of Christ will come into our lives, and we’ll gain the ability to repent of our sins and live righteously.]
9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. [If you fast and pray in the proper manner with the proper spirit and intent, the LORD will come out of hiding and will answer you directly. He will say, “Here I am!”]
If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: [If we fast and pray the Lord’s way, our spiritual darkness or our lack of knowledge about God will turn to the Light as we get to know God, the source of all light.]
11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. [If we fast and pray in a manner so as to get to know God personally in our lives, there will also be physical blessings that will come as a result.]
12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. [Fasting and praying to bring the Lord out of hiding and into our lives will help our children to build Zion.]
13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. [If we choose to bring the Lord out of hiding and into our lives by keeping the Sabbath Holy and doing things the Lord’s way, then we will be blessed with His presence and influence.]

Most people want the Lord to remain in hiding, and they will do whatever they have to do in order to keep the Lord out of their lives. I have been one of them for most of my life. I haven’t wanted to find the Lord, and I have been afraid of the Lord, so the Lord hasn’t been in my life. I have gotten my wish. So many people say that there is no revelation, there is no God, and there are no prophets; and they are right, in their lives there is no revelation, they have no prophets, and there is no God. They are without God in the world, and they want it that way. They want God to stay in hiding so that they don’t have to do anything that God or the prophets ask them to do. It takes work and effort to bring God out of hiding, only then to have God give us even more work to do to bring Him even further out of hiding and into our lives.

Only when a person hits rock bottom and realizes that the burden of sin and ignorance is much greater and much more painful than being yoked with Christ does a person receive any kind of impetus or desire to know God and bring God into his life. Until a person gains a testimony that God’s yoke is easy and His burden is light, that person will continue to believe that the path of sin and ignorance is the easier and more enjoyable path. We sink our own boat, or we chose to keep it patched and floating. In the end, you are your own reward and your own punishment. The only one in this world that you can change for the better is you.

In the revelations or the scriptures, God admits that He is hiding from us as a way of protecting us and giving us time to repent. God is in hiding giving us time to repent, and that’s the very definition of mercy.

D&C 101: 89: And if the president heed them not, then will the Lord arise and come forth out of his hiding place, and in his fury vex the nation.

D&C 121: 1-4:
1 O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?
2 How long shall thy hand be stayed, and thine eye, yea thy pure eye, behold from the eternal heavens the wrongs of thy people and of thy servants, and thine ear be penetrated with their cries?
3 Yea, O Lord, how long shall they suffer these wrongs and unlawful oppressions, before thine heart shall be softened toward them, and thy bowels be moved with compassion toward them?
4 O Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven, earth, and seas, and of all things that in them are, and who controllest and subjectest the devil, and the dark and benighted dominion of Sheol — stretch forth thy hand; let thine eye pierce; let thy pavilion be taken up; let thy hiding place no longer be covered; let thine ear be inclined; let thine heart be softened, and thy bowels moved with compassion toward us.

Psalm 44: 20-26:
20 If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
21 Shall not God search this out? For he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
23 Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off for ever.
24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth.
26 Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies’ sake.

The thing we don’t realize is that God is hiding for mercies’ sake. What happens to those who are not ready for God’s appearance or God’s presence? They cannot abide the day.

Malachi 4: 1-3:
1 For, behold, the day cometh [at Christ’s Second Coming], that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.

God is in hiding and God is postponing His Second Coming in order to give us time to repent and turn to God. This reality also holds true in every Gospel Dispensation. God hides from the wicked, thus mercifully giving them time to repent and turn to God. It’s not going to be a good day for the wicked, the proud, and the rebellious when God finally chooses to come out of hiding.

I found this collection online at this link:
http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/God-Hiding

It adequately provides proof that God is hiding from us, and it tells us why He is doing so. God is not afraid of us, He is afraid for us. God knows that if He gives some of us time to repent, we will actually do so after we have learned better and gotten tired of sowing our wild oats.

Deuteronomy 31: 17-18:
Then My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide My face from them, and they will be consumed, and many evils and troubles will come upon them; so that they will say in that day, ‘Is it not because our God is not among us that these evils have come upon us?’ But I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they will do, for they will turn to other gods.

Deuteronomy 32: 20:
Then He said, ‘I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end shall be; For they are a perverse generation, Sons in whom is no faithfulness.

Micah 3: 4:
Then they will cry out to the LORD, but He will not answer them. Instead, He will hide His face from them at that time because they have practised evil deeds.

Ezekiel 39: 23:
The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile for their iniquity because they acted treacherously against Me, and I hid My face from them; so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and all of them fell by the sword.

Ezekiel 39: 24:
According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I dealt with them, and I hid My face from them.

Isaiah 57: 17:
Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry and struck him; I hid My face and was angry, And he went on turning away [from God], in the way of his heart.

Isaiah 54: 8:
“In an outburst of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting loving-kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD your Redeemer.

Psalms 30: 7:
O LORD, by Your favor You have made my mountain to stand strong; You hid Your face, I was dismayed.

Isaiah 64: 7:
There is no one who calls on Your name, who arouses himself to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us and have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.

Jeremiah 33: 5:
While they are coming to fight with the Chaldeans and to fill them with the corpses of men whom I have slain in My anger and in My wrath, and I have hidden My face from this city because of all their wickedness.

Psalms 10: 11:
He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it.”
[Atheist and sinner alike say that God does not exist, and thus from their point of view they believe that God will never see or judge their sins.]

Isaiah 8: 17:
And I will wait for the LORD who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; I will even look eagerly for Him.

Hosea 5: 6:
They will go with their flocks and herds To seek the LORD, but they will not find Him; He has withdrawn from them.

Isaiah 45: 15:
Truly, You are a God who hides Himself, O God of Israel, Savior!

Psalms 13: 1:
How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?

Psalms 89: 46:
How long, O LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath burn like fire?

Job 13: 24:
Why do You hide Your face and consider me Your enemy?

Psalms 44: 24:
Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and our oppression?

Psalms 88: 14:
O LORD, why do You reject my soul? Why do You hide Your face from me?

Psalms 10: 1:
Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?

Psalms 104: 29:
You hide Your face, they are dismayed; You take away their spirit, they expire and return to their dust.

Job 34: 29:
When He keeps quiet, who then can condemn? And when He hides His face, who then can behold Him, that is, in regard to both nation and man?
[You can’t see God if He is in hiding.]

Isaiah 59: 2:
But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear [you].
[It doesn’t get much clearer than that!]

Psalms 51: 9:
Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

Genesis 4: 14:
“Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

Psalms 22: 24:
For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; nor has He hidden His face from him; But when he cried to Him for help, He heard.

Psalms 27: 9:
Do not hide Your face from me, Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not abandon me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation!

Psalms 69: 17:
And do not hide Your face from Your servant, For I am in distress; answer me quickly.

Psalms 102: 2:
Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress; Incline Your ear to me; In the day when I call answer me quickly.

Psalms 143: 7:
Answer me quickly, O LORD, my spirit fails. Do not hide Your face from me, or I will become like those who go down to the pit.

Psalms 55: 1:
Give ear to my prayer, O God; And do not hide Yourself from my supplication.

Isaiah 30: 20:
Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher.

Ezekiel 39: 29:
“I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,” declares the Lord GOD.

While reading the Psalms, I got the distinct impression that God is deliberately hiding from us. What do you think? Did I get the correct impression? God hides so well from us that the atheists truly believe that there is no evidence for God’s existence. The wicked don’t want God to exist. Of course, after reading Psalms, I found myself asking, “Why is God hiding from us, and why is it so hard for us to find God?”

I found my answer in Malachi 4: 1-3:
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.

It’s not going to be a good day for the wicked when God comes out of hiding for real and takes up a permanent residence on this planet. If Christ is postponing His Second Coming, it’s done simply out of mercy thus giving each one of us time to repent.

Enoch

The Discussion of this Topic can be found here.