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Every human serious about spiritual formation must be discipled on how to handle challenging situations where God will not give an explanation. We must learn how to operate without receiving the answers we prefer when God has determined that those answers are not actually what we need.
Many of us have been trained on how to respond when God speaks, but we have not been equipped on how to act when God is silent. A lot of frustration with the Father isn't with what He says—it's what He doesn't say. It's not in the answers we receive, but in the explanations we don't. We need to be equipped to engage with a God who has promised to reveal Himself, but is not obligated to explain Himself.
Revelation and explanation are not the same thing. God has committed to making Himself known, but He is not committed to making His decisions understood.
The enemy understands this reality and uses the absence of answers as an opportunity to open the door to disappointment. Disappointment is the emotion you feel when there's a gap between what you expected God to do and what God actually did. When disappointment comes through the door, it never comes alone—it brings its cousins: doubt, disillusionment, and sometimes dysfunctional behavior.
Let's turn to John chapter 9. The passage introduces us to a blind man, and while this is a literal physical condition, it also serves as a metaphor for spiritual conditions. Just as Jesus healed literal paralysis to reveal His ability to heal metaphorical paralysis—the ways we get stuck in our relationships, careers, and mental states—His healing of blindness speaks to spiritual sight.
Spiritual sight is the ability to see a thing the way God sees it. It is possible for us to look at the same thing and not see the same thing. Some of our frustration with the Father is because He's not responding the way we think He should. The reason? He's not seeing what we think He's seeing.
You see a closed door as rejection. God sees it as protection. You're upset; He's protecting you from a trap. When you look back in retrospect, you realize God was using the setback as a setup for a comeback. We're looking at the same thing, but we don't see the same thing, so He's not responding the way we think He should.
Consider Abraham. While Abraham walked up one side of the mountain, God had a ram going up the other side. God didn't let Abraham outpace his provision. He kept him at a steady pace so that when Abraham arrived at the right place at the right time, the ram was there. Somebody ought to praise Him—not just for when He speeds you up, but for when He slows you down.
When this man doesn't have sight, understand that he doesn't just lack one thing—he lacks everything that sight provided. When you lose something, you don't just lose that something; you lose what that something gave you.
Don't just see a man who lost his sight. See a man who didn't have speed. Your sight affects your speed. When visibility is limited, speed is restricted. You go further when you're clearer. When you know your turn, you don't worry about missing your turn.
Don't just see a man without sight and speed. See a man without the sanity that you have. Your sight affects your sanity. Imagine the paranoia of living in darkness: All I hear is footsteps. Are you coming to hurt me or help me? I don't know because I can't see. Being unclear produces anxiousness. When your sight is clear, you not only avoid what's evil—you're also able to discern opportunity.
I call these "pregnant problems." One problem produces three more. He couldn't see—that's the first problem. Now he has a speed problem, a sanity problem, and a safety problem.
Then this man runs into Jesus, and the disciples ask: "Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind?"
Notice they call Jesus "Rabbi"—not just a redeemer who gets you to heaven, but a teacher who shows you how to live on earth. The disciples asked a question. What do we see throughout Scripture? Them asking. They asked questions. They were free from the prison of pretention. They weren't trying to act like they knew when they didn't. They understood that asking for help was wisdom, not weakness.
But notice their question: "Who sinned?" They saw an issue and looked for an explanation. Their assumption was simple: If there's suffering, there's got to be sin. They thought they already knew—somebody sinned. Who did it?
They operated under what's called a theology of retribution: the righteous prosper, the wicked suffer. So if you're suffering, you must have done something wrong. They had a God whose wrath was not an expression of His love. This theology came from misinterpretation of Scripture.
Notice the logic problem: the man has been blind from birth. So if he sinned to cause his blindness, when did he sin? In the womb? Bad theology will have you making absurd assumptions. And sometimes you don't know the absurdity of your assumptions until truth challenges them.
They were misreading Exodus 20. If they had simply studied the word "iniquity," they would have corrected their theology. Iniquity doesn't mean the activity of sin—it means an inherited crookedness or leaning toward certain behaviors. It's not the behavior itself; it's the propensity for it. It just means I'm leaning. It doesn't mean I fall.
And watch Jesus's answer. They're trying to find the reason, looking for someone to blame. Jesus says:
"Neither this man nor his parents sinned."
They wanted an answer. What do we want when we go through John 9 experiences? An answer. We need to know why. And He says, "Neither." He tells them what is not, but He doesn't tell them what is.
Why me? Is it what I did? It's not that. What is it then? That's all you need to know. Could it have been all of that? Yes, it could have been. But it's not that. Neither. And He doesn't give an answer.
Then He says something crucial:
"But this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him."
He's not talking about causation; He's talking about usage. God didn't cause the blindness, but He's going to use what happened. He will display His works—platform them, amplify them—in this man.
Here's a grown-folks conversation: God said He would use His works in him, not through him. He's not going to use this man's skill. He's going to use his story.
Be careful when you tell God to use you, because very often we want Him to use our skill. He says, "Not only will I use your skill, I'm going to use your story." I'm going to let people know you were blind since birth, and then one day you ran into somebody like Me, and I picked you up, turned you around, and placed your feet on solid ground.
Jesus didn't use Lazarus's skill. He used Lazarus's story. We don't even know what Lazarus could do, but we know he stayed in that grave four days and Jesus got him out of it so that you know He can get you out of yours.
He's setting you up to use your story. This is going to be a comeback story, a bounce-back story—a story of something that shouldn't have happened, couldn't have happened, wouldn't have happened.
Sometimes He allows the crucifixion to be public because the resurrection is going to be public as well.
Jesus says: "I didn't cause it. This is a consequence of living in an imperfect world where the created order is not aligned with My original intent. Creation itself doesn't operate the way I intended. Fault lines shift and earthquakes happen. Hurricanes and tsunamis and tornadoes occur. Animals that should be in harmony with you are in enmity with you. Stuff that shouldn't hit your body hits it."
You're like, "God, it happened!" And He says, "Neither—I didn't cause it. But I'm going to use it. I'm going to use your story, your example. There's some stuff I'm not letting stay private. It's too much. I'm going to use it."
Here we are thousands of years later being encouraged by the story of a man whose name we don't even know. And the same God who used him in this way will use us in this way. He uses your story.
You and I won't just have one John 9 experience throughout our lives. You're going to have several—where there's a gap between what He's doing and what you see.
Lord, I heard what You said. You said no weapon formed against me shall prosper. I believe You. But right here is prospering. That's too real.
I heard what You said: When I'm confused, trust in the Lord with all my heart. Don't lean on my own understanding. In all my ways acknowledge You and You'll direct my path. I'm trusting You. I'm acknowledging You. I'm still confused.
I prayed and I'm still confused. I called prayer partners. I'm more confused now after I talked to them.
I heard what You said. I don't see it. You said healing is the children's bread. I'm Your child. Where's the healing? I don't see it.
It's John 9. You and I are going to have John 9 experiences where there's a gap between what He's doing and what makes sense. And He refuses to give us an answer.
So now I have to decide: How will I handle that gap? Because God wants to use that gap for spiritual formation, and the devil wants to use it for spiritual deformation. I determine who gets to use it.
God won't fill the blank with an answer, so what do I do? Why did they do me like that? Why did I go through that? Why me? Why did they pick somebody else? Why did You let this happen to me? Out of all people, this shouldn't have happened to me. I actually did what was right.
Is this too real? Lord, I'm trying. I'm trying. And I don't see it. So since You won't give me an answer, I have to choose what I fill that blank with.
I can fill it with suspicion. Or I can fill it with trust.
Maybe this is why throughout Scripture we're encouraged and commanded to trust. God is subliminally saying, "I'm telling you to trust Me because you're going to need to. I know some answers you're going to want, and I'm never going to give them."
"I told you all things work together for good. I never told you that you would know the good that those all things are working. You just have to trust that good is coming out of this that you don't even see."
When I want an answer God will not give, I choose to fill that blank with trust. And trust is actually the logical choice. It's an expression of faith, but it's quite logical. When you objectively look at your past and your track record, when you see the consistency of God's faithfulness, to doubt God is what's actually illogical. Doubt doesn't make sense when you look at what you've come through, what you've survived, and the faithfulness of God. Faith makes sense.
If you read the rest of the narrative in John 9, here's what you'll see: God didn't give them an answer. But He did give them a solution.
He never told them why, but He helped them fix the what. The Father may not give you an answer, but here's what He will give you: A solution. I'm not going to always tell you why you're in the condition you're in, but if you'll listen to Me, I'll give you a solution to handle the condition you're in. I'll give you a solution even when I don't give you an answer.
Are you going to pout about the answer, or are you going to accept the solution? If you're like me, you pout a little bit. Lord, why now? Why me? Why this?
But in the text, the Bible says Jesus spit in dirt, made the dirt mud, put mud on the man's eyes, and told him to go to the pool called Siloam. The man went, washed, and came home seeing.
Jesus didn't tell the man, "I'm putting this on you and I'm going to heal you." He just put it on him and said, "Go to the pool of Siloam." The man had to trust. He had to obey without any promise of an outcome.
Lord, I don't know what You're going to do. You may heal me, or You may not. But I'm going. You may open the door, or You may not. But I'm going. You may turn this around, or You may not. But I'm going. My obedience is not attached to an outcome. I trust that if You're sending me here, You're sending me here for a reason.
They had to trust the way God was going to do it. This man couldn't see, but he had to hear when Jesus spit in that dirt.
Sometimes we're going to wish God would do it in a cleaner way. Have you ever been going through something and thought, "God, this is messy"? But you have to trust that He uses the mess. It's a messy miracle, but you have to trust that the way He's doing it is the way it needs to be done. It is messy and it is muddy and you don't like it, but the way He's doing it must be the way it needs to be done. You have to trust the way He's doing it.
They had to trust where He was going to do it. He sent this man to a place called Siloam—which means "sent." He sent him to sent because that's where He was going to do this. Have you ever just looked at life and wondered, "How did I end up in this place? This wasn't on my vision board." God is saying, "You have to trust where I'm going to do this. This is the place in your life where I'm going to do this. I'm sending you to Siloam because this is where I choose to do it."
And last but not least, they had to trust when God was going to do it. This man had been blind since birth, which means he probably had released himself of any expectation that he would ever see. He probably accepted long ago that he was going to have to live with this forever. Some of you almost—I heard that almost. Some of you almost resigned yourself to accept living without something forever because you've lived without it so long.
Blind since birth can be a metaphor for "as long as you can remember." Some of us say, "Pastor, I can't remember the last time I had joy. I can't remember the last time I was not exhausted. I can't remember..."
But probably right when he accepted that he was going to have to live with this forever, here comes Jesus to say: "No, you're not. I'm about to do for you what you thought would never be done. I'm about to shift your expectation. I'm about to change your reality. I'm about to show you that it doesn't matter how long you haven't had it. When you run into Me, I do something called unprecedented. I will do what hasn't been done before."
May God push you into a season called unprecedented. If you receive that, come on and raise your voice and thank our God for unprecedented.
Some of you are in a John 9 right now. You're like, "God, I don't see it." But here's what I will do: I will fill that gap with trust. You've earned it. You not only deserve my trust, you've earned it.
