Dark Night of the Soul- part 6 of 6

The last reason for this Holy Spirit caused desertion is that we may be a benefit to the lives of other believers through our own experience. We are brought into such an experience of desertion and depression so that we may reach out and comfort another in their time of great need. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:3-5, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ."



Nathaniel Whiting writes on this matter in his book, Old Jacob’s Altar Newly Repaired:
"I am much persuaded that if an experienced Christian would make a humble and faithful narrative of his own condition to a deserted saint, and tell him, ‘Such has been my case: time was when the Lord his face from me, when the loving kindnesses of God were shut up in displeasure against me, when I had lost all communion with God, all sense of pardoning and accepting grace with God, when I could not pour forth my soul in prayer unto God, and when I had no incomes by way of comfort from God…but by the goodness of the Lord, the mist is broke up, the clouds are scattered, the face of God appears again, and I find joy and peace and comfort in my soul: yea, the beams of God’s favour shine brighter, and the streams of consolation run on more fresh and freely than ever they did…’ that these experiments as to desertion and as to consolation…would marvelously revive a drooping saint, and make his stooping heart glad."


The one who by experience has gone through the trials of life and the sense of desertion by God has much more to offer another than the scholar who has read of such things through many books. Christopher Love sums it up best, "…those that have been tempted, those whose consciences have been troubled, those are the fittest men to succour those that are in that condition; God chooses broken vessels to pour into, that they may diffuse it unto others."