Haunted By The Master?

I have never regarded my relationship with my Master as if I were “haunted” by Him.  I suppose in a time when referring to the Holy Spirit as the “Holy Ghost” was common, such a term would be more common.  But I suspect that Chambers is unique in using this term for a tight relationship with the Master even in his day.

In Psalm 25:12, the psalmist (probably David again), is complaining of his plight and those seeking his undoing, but he is also seeking forgiveness.  He sees that part of the reason he is in the trouble he’s in is his own sin, not just wicked people.  So, I can easily see myself in this psalm.

Chambers begins this entry by asking, “What are you haunted by?”  He then proceeds to point out that when I am “haunted” by my Master, then that relationship will be my automatic default for my life.  That is what it’s supposed to be, and I’m still working to empty my life of everything hindering such a relationship. 

Haunting has such a negative feel to it that I would never have used it to describe my relationship with my Master, but I see the value in it.  But even as Chambers uses it, he changes what I would have thought it meant.  I would have thought it meant that the Holy Spirit was constantly around me as a “brooding presence”.  But he sees it as an unconscious connection to a person that is the first to spring to consciousness when good or bad things happen.  To me that’s different than “haunting”.  I’m not sure what I would call it, but I wouldn’t call it “haunting”.

I can see that in the last six months, I am much closer to this than I have been at any point in the last 10 years.  I remember when I was in ministry, I would have characterized my life this way as well.  But that was because I found ministry so overwhelming I was constantly driven to my Master.  I would seek sinful pleasurable sins occasionally when I thought I could get away with it, but my usual default was my Master.  So, really I am at a point even better than that.  I’m not even overwhelmed by ministry, and I’m more dependent upon my Master.

But I see, sense, feel, and can almost touch the vast grace of my Master poured out on me these past months.  A review of my blog entries shows a clear progression up from a pit, where now I see light at the mouth of it.  That is the work of my Master.  Here I see His fingerprints, there the marks of His chisel, again the texture of His brush.  His signature is not yet upon me, since I am not yet finished.  But one day I will have a new name which only He knows.  His final signature will be upon me, and I will finally be the completed work of art of my Master. 

Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost For His Highest": June 2nd.