{"id":9008,"date":"2021-04-13T13:20:40","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T18:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedisciplemaker.org\/?p=9008"},"modified":"2022-06-03T15:41:16","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T15:41:16","slug":"when-the-lights-go-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/","title":{"rendered":"When the Lights Go Out"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div>\n<p>I can remember my initial awakenings to God like they were yesterday. Born and raised in a Christian home, I lived most of my life with a general awareness of God. I would even say that I had a relationship with God. I believed in and trusted in Jesus. But there comes a time in your life when God \u201cbreaks through\u201d in a way that marks you forever, when God makes himself not just intellectually or theoretically real to you, but, well, really real\u2014in a way that leaves no doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That moment for me happened when I was a junior in high school. In the midst of a season full of doubts and questions and a great deal of spiritual hunger, I found God. Or better, God found me. Or even better yet, I found myself found by God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However you describe it (words are pretty limiting sometimes), what I can say for sure is that one morning before school, in my devotions, God crashed in, and I knew him to be the God the Bible speaks of when one of Jesus\u2019 best friends, John, writes that \u201cGod is love.\u201d[i]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was an experience unlike any I had had up to that point, and it totally altered my way of seeing the world. Suddenly, every conversation, every interaction, every experience of corporate worship, every private devotion was for me a profound encounter with the living God. I saw him everywhere, in everything, effortlessly. For months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>And then just like that, as suddenly as it came, the lights went out. God vanished.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Or, that\u2019s how I felt. Whatever the case, this divine vanishing act caught me completely off guard. Much of my upbringing had conditioned me to think that the \u201cawakening\u201d I had experienced months earlier was the beginning of a process that would take me\u2014to use the words of Paul\u2014from one experiential \u201cdegree of glory\u201d to the next[ii] until I died or the Lord Jesus himself returned. In my tradition, as in many, the experiential dimension of faith was prized. If your faith is working right\u2014so we thought\u2014you will experience more of God\u2019s presence, have more and greater revelation, and will know more and deeper dimensions of intimacy with God. An unbroken, upward, experiential spiritual ascent. What else could \u201cglory to glory\u201d possibly mean? We simply had no language for making sense of experiences of God\u2019s seeming absence. When you no longer see the Artist in his works, when you no longer hear the Singer in the song, when you no longer sense the Lover in the love, what then? What do you do when all consolation has evaporated, and your soul and senses are barren, arid, and dry? Where is the God that you have come to know as Father (if anywhere) in that, and how do you make sense of it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-coblocks-author\"><figure class=\"wp-block-coblocks-author__avatar\"><img alt=\"Andrew Arndt\" class=\"wp-block-coblocks-author__avatar-img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-content\/uploads\/ARNDT-Author-Photo-bordered.png\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-coblocks-author__content\"><span class=\"wp-block-coblocks-author__name\">Andrew Arndt<\/span><p class=\"wp-block-coblocks-author__biography\">You\u2019ve been reading from Andrew Arndt\u2019s book,\u00a0<strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/3e3av1F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">All Flame<\/a><\/em>.<\/strong>\u00a0Do you struggle with seasons of divine obscurity? Here is a powerful book on how to experience the Trinity\u2014vivid and accessible.\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/3e3av1F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read chapter 1 for free here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link\">More from Andrew<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/3e3av1F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-content\/uploads\/AllFlame_PNG-833x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7675\" width=\"600\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:9px\"><strong>Sources<\/strong><br>[i] 1&nbsp;John 4:8.<br>[ii] This would obviously be a misapplication of Paul\u2019s words in 2&nbsp;Corinthians 3:18, CEB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I can remember my initial awakenings to God like they were yesterday. Born and raised in a Christian home, I lived most of my life with a general awareness of God. I would even say that I had a relationship &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"When the Lights Go Out\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/#more-9008\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">When the Lights Go Out<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":9009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[38,46],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>When the Lights Go Out | The Disciplemaker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There comes a time in your life when God \u201cbreaks through\u201d in a way that marks you forever and makes himself real to you.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When the Lights Go Out | The Disciplemaker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There comes a time in your life when God \u201cbreaks through\u201d in a way that marks you forever and makes himself real to you.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Disciplemaker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-13T18:20:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-03T15:41:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/04\/ARNDT-When-the-Lights-Go-Out-scaled-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Disciplemaker Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Disciplemaker Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"The Disciplemaker Team\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#\/schema\/person\/5ce8c0ea9d53a579d4f8b55f3156f239\"},\"headline\":\"When the Lights Go Out\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-13T18:20:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-03T15:41:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/\"},\"wordCount\":550,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"All Flame\",\"Andrew Arndt\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Know\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/\",\"name\":\"When the Lights Go Out | The Disciplemaker\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-13T18:20:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-03T15:41:16+00:00\",\"description\":\"There comes a time in your life when God \u201cbreaks through\u201d in a way that marks you forever and makes himself real to you.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"When the Lights Go Out\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/\",\"name\":\"The Disciplemaker\",\"description\":\"Bold. Loving. Sensible.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#organization\",\"name\":\"NavPress\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/cropped-The-Disciplemaker.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/cropped-The-Disciplemaker.png\",\"width\":4092,\"height\":818,\"caption\":\"NavPress\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#\/schema\/person\/5ce8c0ea9d53a579d4f8b55f3156f239\",\"name\":\"The Disciplemaker Team\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f75b7c58baf045787aa05eb620352af2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f75b7c58baf045787aa05eb620352af2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"The Disciplemaker Team\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/author\/robin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"When the Lights Go Out | The Disciplemaker","description":"There comes a time in your life when God \u201cbreaks through\u201d in a way that marks you forever and makes himself real to you.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"When the Lights Go Out | The Disciplemaker","og_description":"There comes a time in your life when God \u201cbreaks through\u201d in a way that marks you forever and makes himself real to you.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/","og_site_name":"The Disciplemaker","article_published_time":"2021-04-13T18:20:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-06-03T15:41:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1920,"url":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/04\/ARNDT-When-the-Lights-Go-Out-scaled-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"The Disciplemaker Team","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"The Disciplemaker Team","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/"},"author":{"name":"The Disciplemaker Team","@id":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#\/schema\/person\/5ce8c0ea9d53a579d4f8b55f3156f239"},"headline":"When the Lights Go Out","datePublished":"2021-04-13T18:20:40+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-03T15:41:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/"},"wordCount":550,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#organization"},"keywords":["All Flame","Andrew Arndt"],"articleSection":["Know"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/","url":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/","name":"When the Lights Go Out | The Disciplemaker","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-04-13T18:20:40+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-03T15:41:16+00:00","description":"There comes a time in your life when God \u201cbreaks through\u201d in a way that marks you forever and makes himself real to you.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2021\/04\/when-the-lights-go-out\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"When the Lights Go Out"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/","name":"The Disciplemaker","description":"Bold. Loving. Sensible.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#organization","name":"NavPress","url":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/cropped-The-Disciplemaker.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/cropped-The-Disciplemaker.png","width":4092,"height":818,"caption":"NavPress"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#\/schema\/person\/5ce8c0ea9d53a579d4f8b55f3156f239","name":"The Disciplemaker Team","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f75b7c58baf045787aa05eb620352af2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f75b7c58baf045787aa05eb620352af2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"The Disciplemaker Team"},"url":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/author\/robin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9008"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11843,"href":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9008\/revisions\/11843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}