Behind Unmasked
Linda Guy
The poem, “Unmasked” took around 30 years to write. I penned it in a very short time some 12 years ago, but every line written, every mask described, every emotion expressed spanned my life as a Christian until then.Linda Guy
“Unmasked” predates my work as a counsellor to defeated Christians, it predates my teaching seminars, it predates my training in the Abiding Life Ministries materials, it predates my contact with that ministry, and it predates my knowledge of psychological terms. In fact, I thought I was the one who first invented the phrase ‘masks”! What is the significance in all that? The significance is that Truth is not imposed on us; it is exposed from within. The significance is that God revealed to me, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, my condition and the fact of my life hidden in Christ. When I first received Christ into my life, He bought into my spirit all that He is. I received His teaching when I received Him. Teachers, counsellors, preachers are only witnessing to the Truth that is already in the believer. God allowed failure to bring about a revelation of my self-life that I might have a revelation of Christ’s life.
A woman in Australia was telling me how God had bought her to the end of herself. She described how she had eaten from the “good” side of the tree of self-righteousness, only to fall into the evil side, and into unrighteousness. I said, “when did you attend an Abiding Life seminar, when did you read the book, when did you hear this teaching?” She looked at me in a puzzled way. “I’ve never heard of Abiding Life”, she said. “God revealed this to me”. I took the rebuke! I enjoy this poem “Unmasked” because it always reminds me that God alone is the one who reveals Truth, and when we cry out to Him He will bring about the counsel and revelation that we need. Then, in His time, He may bring witnesses into our lives, and we will hear the Divine “amen” within. I know that!