St. John Studies

Give us, O God
Give us, O God, the vision which can see your love in the world in spite of human failure.
Give us the faith to trust your goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness.
Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts.
And show us what each one of us can do to set forward the coming of the day of universal peace.

Amen.

I found this Christmas prayer and it has no author.  As I read it, I thought it may be reflective of Dr. Willard.  It is not his prayer, but in this Christmas season, my post today reflects the need that we all have to pray.

My love to all St. John Studies Readers.

DC

I have a son who wants a perfect job. He is gainfully employed and has been since graduating college but after a year or so, he feels the need to move on to other employment.

For the purposes of illustration, let’s say he is a praying Christian.

He has been talking to God about the direction of his life. He has prayed for perfect employment.

He keeps praying and praying. The job has not presented itself.

What is wrong?

Like my son, do you pray for specific things in your life?

A new direction for employment? A person who will come into your life and be your partner?  A decision about where to go to school?

Some people ask specific questions and they want specific answers.

Final Question Number 4 is: If God does not give you a specific answer about a specific question does that mean that you are not living in God’s perfect will?

There is more to this question than meets the eye.

What is this perfect will? Romans 12:2 gives us a scriptural reference:  “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

In essence, if we turn our backs to worldly concerns and allow God to enter our lives, we will be transformed through the “renewing” of our minds. Then we will be able to experience God’s perfect will.

There are many references to God’s will in the Bible but Dr. Willard refers to perfect will, a level of knowledge of God that I would assume all serious Christians would want to attain.

But back to the question; if God does not give you a specific answer about a specific question does that mean that you are not living in God’s perfect will?

Dr. Willard says “most assuredly it does not” [Willard, 206].

He states that we should not blame a lack of a word from God on our “wrongness.” This idea is a human idea.  So many of us see life as black and white, right and wrong, when it is not.  God has a multi-faceted, complex approach to our world and His ways are not our ways.  Dr. Willard says God can and will give specific directions to those He wants to give them to, but perhaps He does not desire to give them.  Maybe it is best that He not be specific.

Have you ever considered the fact that our choosing without God’s direction is the “perfect” scenario for a Father who wants us to learn how to choose without His intervention? “It is perhaps more perfect precisely because He saw no need for precise dictation” [Willard, 206-07].

Also, several different courses of action occur in every circumstance. Several different choices could be pleasing to God.  If you are in God’s general will, you will pick one that is pleasing to God and you won’t need His directives.

As we have seen throughout this book, we just want the easy answer. We want the confirmation.  We want to see far down the road we are getting ready to take, even though we have to walk in faith.

We want to know!

Because we are insecure in our faith.

“The sincere seeker should assume that this [a number of alternatives] is so and should move forward with faith in God if no specific word comes on the matter concerned after a reasonable period of time” [Willard, 207].

How can we feel assured that we can do this?

It happens if you are a mature Christian.

A mature Christian gets on with the work of God. Dr. Willard references William Carey who said [a mature Christian] “attempts great things for God and expects great things from God.”

Maturity does not require assurance.

The mature Christian has it already.

Mature Christians are not obsessed with doing the right thing. They know what is right.

They know because they are used to being immersed in the flow of God’s life; they experience the good-hearted companionship of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit on a daily basis.

Maybe you are not there yet. You still need specific answers.  You need assurance.  Don’t give up.  God wants you to experience the flow of a life lived with Him at the center.

Maybe you can have it…

Maybe it can start with your next decision.

What message is God not sending you about a particular problem that you are facing?

Does He think you are disobedient?

Does He think you are not attuned to His will?

Are you displeasing to God?

Is God manipulating you?

Dr. Willard says no to all of this. He discounts all our worries in the words “God does not play little games of hide and seek with us… He is not frivolous or coy; He will not tease or torture us…there is no mysterious catch to receiving His word for us, no riddle to solve, no incantation to get just right….We must make a point of not thinking of Him in terms of human beings…who may have enjoyed tricking us.”

What is going on?

An answer is that it may be God’s will that we decide instead of having God give us a word and that word decides for us.

Does this mean that God does not care about us and our concerns? No, it merely means that He wants to see how we will choose to carry out our lives.  In essence, God says “My will for you is that you decide on your own.”

What is happening is the construction of a person’s character in God’s kingdom. The following quote from John Wood Oman is tough to understand until you parse it.  “We can only be absolutely dependent upon God as we are absolutely independent in our own souls.”  To have a soul that is dependent  totally on God is to have a life that is not a life of choices.  God does all the choosing for you.  “A saved soul, in other words, is a soul true to itself because, with its mind on God’s will of love and not on itself, it stands in God’s world unbribable and undismayed.”   A person who is saved and is making choices is honestly doing God’s work because that person wants to.  The choices are clear; the actions are real; God has not intervened but His work is being done anyway.

The last phrase is the most telling: [the person’s soul is] “having freedom as it has piety and piety as it is free.” In other words, the believer has total freedom due to excellent choices.

Galatians 2:20 is illustrated in this process…”I live! Yet not I, but Christ lives in me.”

Dr. Willard says this character building shows the fullest expression of an individual’s human personality.

I like the way Dr. Willard elaborates on our choosing. It is like a child who is turned loose to do what he or she wants.  The choices the child makes reveals the person that the child is going to be.

To be a mature Christian is to make excellent choices.

So many people are scared to death to choose anything. They are obsessed with being right all the time.  If they are right, they are safe.  They wait upon the word from God as their deciding word.  Maybe this person is thinking God is a tyrant who will mete down severe punishment for bad choices.  Maybe this person is afraid to make choices because they don’t want to be responsible for their actions.

Dr. Willard says this approach to decision-making is not respectful to God; the hesitant decider is harboring a low opinion of God.

I simply love the way Dr. Willard cites Pastor Bud Robinson’s story about the widow’s suits. Her husband died and she called up Pastor Bud.  She reported to him that “God told me that I should give my husband’s suits to you.”  Then she said that she would like for the pastor to come over and try on the suits.  His very intelligent reply was that will not be necessary: “If God told you to give them to me, they’ll fit.”

What is the point?

God has a plan and we need to accept it. If God intends us to be decision-makers and have growth through the decision making process, that’s good enough.

Make the decision.

Don’t try to hedge your bets by waiting for God.

Don’t play waiting games because you are afraid to make a mistake.

Don’t avoid responsibility by trying to shove that off on God.

Believe in a competent God.

Come on folks. Maybe we don’t know what we are doing but…

He does.

“Thy will be done.”

If you have ever gone to church, you know that little sentence is in the Lord’s prayer.

The problem most of us have is that we say the Lord’s prayer so many times that the little sentence becomes rote.  The words spill out thoughtlessly and we don’t take the time to consider what they mean.

I think they mean that God’s will is going to be done, no matter what. He is in control.

“Thy will be done” is our acknowledgment that He is always the Master and we are always the humble requestors.

In yesterday’s post I commented on Dr. Willard’s idea that there are practical means to get a message from God, but now Dr. Willard says practical means should not make us think we can engage in God abuse.

God cannot be commanded to speak to us and hearing from God is not just the utilization of a set of gimmicks.

He uses King Saul as an example and the more you study the life of Saul, you can see he is a perfect illustration of this concept. Saul had specific instructions from God about what he was supposed to do; he was supposed to wait for Samuel the priest before he offered up burnt offerings to God.  However he was in the midst of a campaign against the Philistines and he had a sense of urgency.  He wanted God’s blessings now.  He forced everything; he wanted his blessing when he wanted his blessing.

Samuel knew Saul did wrong and announced he would lose his kingdom. What did Saul do?  He disobeyed again.  He was told to destroy Amalek and not leave a remnant and he did not do what he was told.

Later, Saul was in a terrible condition. The Philistines were on the verge of destroying his army and killing him and he did not know what to do.  Samuel the prophet was dead at this time.  He summoned a witch to contact the spirit of Samuel.

Dr. Willard says this is “sadly typical… of the human view of God and His guidance.” [Willard, 202].

We get it so wrong; God controls us. We don’t control Him.

If things go right, it is God’s will that they go right.

If things go wrong, it is God’s will they they have gone that way.

Our problem is, we want things going our way, all the time.

Saul did not get the message that he wanted. The spirit of Samuel said he would be dead tomorrow and his army would be defeated.  This was Samuel’s spirit speaking to Saul.  God would have nothing to do with Saul.

Dr. Willard is so right. “We treat [God] like a celestial  asperin that will cure headaches brought on by the steady, willful tendency of our lives away from and even against Him.  We treat him as a cosmic butler who is there to clean up our messes.”

Yes, there may be practical things we can do to get a word from God but the human tendency is to take practical advice and turn it into a gimmick to get our way.

That’s sad but it is so human.

God refused to be used by Saul any longer.

Saul forgot key facts.

God is always in control. God commands; we don’t.

Remember that short sentence?

“Thy will be done.”

We don’t need to say it without thinking about it.

It’s a fact. Not Saul’s fact.

It is our fact.

Here we go; the first of the final questions at the end of Hearing God.

What is practical advice for a person to hear the voice of God or what can a person do to have a chance to hear Him?

Dr. Willard starts his answer to this question by quoting James Dobson. Dobson is very practical.  He says this:

“I get down on my knees and say, ‘Lord, I need to know what you want me to do, and I am listening. Please speak to me through my friends, books, magazines I pick up and read and through circumstances.’”

Is that direct enough for you?

It is not complex but it shows commitment.   Let’s break it down.

You are asking God what He wants you to do. You are not telling God what you want Him to do.  Dobson knows that God can use many means of communication to get His message across.  Lastly, we need to be ready to receive the message because we have asked God to speak to us through circumstances.

Have you ever told someone you were ready to listen and then you did not listen? Not good to do to God.  Not if you want God to reveal His will for you.

Regularity of time with God is a good idea too. A person who asks God for Him to reveal His will every three or four months is not going to get many messages.   Daily time for listening to God is best.   Frederick B. Meyer says “Be still each day for a short time, sitting before God in meditation, and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the truth of Christ’s indwelling.”

Dr. Willard reveals his practical approach to God’s voice. After spending daily time with God asking for a word, he does something unrelated to his prayer time; working in the garden, doing errands, housework.   This takes his mind off of the need for a word and it puts him into a confident mode of thought.  Instead of worrying about not receiving a word, he carries on, with the idea that God will contact him if a message is forthcoming.  God commands us; we don’t command God.

“If nothing emerges, I am not alarmed. I set myself to hold the matter before God as I go about my business and then confidently go on with my life” [Willard, 200]

It is important to note that Dr. Willard does not shift into a mode of ignoring God. He still listens for God’s Word or voice.  He just figures that God will speak to him when He wants to.  It is funny to hear him admit that God “slips up on me” from time to time.  When he least expects it, God will share an idea.

I have to admit that some concerns that we take to God are more serious than others. A person who is trapped in a burning car needs a way out.  A mother who is losing her son to a disease is in a dire circumstance.  A man who is in a failing marriage and is being tempted by a very available woman [not the wife] is in a tense situation.

Dr. Willard says God will always speak to the “mature disciple” and give direction if “serious harm would befall people” if He did not speak.

A key here is the word mature. Mature Christians have a working relationship with God.  They have a regular time to spend with the Lord.  They put themselves before God and ask Him to use them to do His work.  It is not always “give me this or give me that.”  Too often, immature Christians approach God with a “what have you done for me lately” attitude.  Mature Christians give to the Lord, their time, talent and finances.  They are before God constantly and they have ready open ears to listen for the Lord’s directives.

Dr. Willard says it best in his words “It is much more important to cultivate the quiet inward space of a constant listening than to always be approaching God for a specific direction.”

So what do we get from this first answer to the first question?

Go before the Lord and ask Him for direction.   Be open-minded and let God use whatever means He wants to deliver His message.  Be patient and know He does not have to answer your prayer or give you a word until He wants to.  Be persistent in listening to the Lord, even though it may take awhile.

Wear the knees out as you go before the Lord at a regular time every day.

Dr. Willards says copy Dr. Dobson’s prayer down and read it. That’s really practical.  Here is another tip.

Get knee pads.

You will need them.

It may have hurt your feelings to read the quote. You know the one that expresses the cold hard reality.  The one in the previous post.

“Very few humans really do concretely desire to hear what God has to say to them.”

In the context of the previous post, I tried to express the idea that we don’t listen well to God.   We stop listening if the message interferes with our lives and if we do listen, we distort the message to fit our life desires.   Do you think God wants to waste time with someone who does that?

I don’t know.

I wouldn’t. Would you?

But I don’t know the mind of God.

I know God speaks to sinners. Jesus spent his life listening to sinners and Jesus spoke to sinners.  Matthew 11:15 “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” This verse is not addressed to believers; it is addressed to all.

But let’s get to the topic I pose in the title of this blog entry.

Who does not hear God’s voice?

The most common time that someone wants a word from God is in times of crisis.  During wartime, this is often referred to as a “foxhole prayer.”  For any who are not familiar with that term it means that when the bombs are bursting and one’s life is in immanent danger, many soldiers pray for deliverance from harm’s way.  That is all they have.   A desperate plea for God to let them live.

Talk about a crisis.

Believe it or not, Dr. Willard says that when we are “backed into a corner” that’s when we pray for a word from God.   We are ready to listen.  When we are not in trouble or when we are not faced with a tough decision, we don’t want to listen to God.

But He is speaking.

Yes, when you are looking for the perfect Christmas card and you have gone to three places and then you see it as you are leaving the card section of your third store, He is speaking. When you feel the need to call a sick friend and you do and you can tell in their voice that you have touched them, you have done His work and He has worked through you.  He has spoken and you have done His bidding.

These are the uneventful times of life.

But believers who want to hear from God, listen to Him and want to hear Him all the time.   They are not just foxhole prayer people.

Dr. Willard says “Those who want a word from God when they are in trouble cannot find it. Or at least they have no assurance that they have found it…they do not first and foremost …want to hear God speaking in their lives in general.”

Dr. Willard goes further in excluding people from God’s Word. He feels that people who have blatant disregard of God’s directives may have little chance to hear from God.  He points to 1 Thessalonians 4:3 on sexual immorality as an example.  People ignore that instruction with impunity.  Certainly the person who does not care to pray in the midst of an uneventful life is ignoring 1 Thessalonians 5:18.  “It is not wise to disregard these plain directives and then expect to hear a message from God when we want it.”

Here is the “bottom line” for people who receive words from God. These people desire God’s Word because they know God has our best interest in His heart.

These people want to receive daily help to be more “Christlike”. They seek transformation.  They know that getting from where they are to where they want to be will not be possible without God’s guidance. God guides in the little things and in the big things.   God is there in the happy times and He is there in the unhappy times.

The person who does not hear from God is the person who does not have ready ears. To be technical [since I majored in communication] the person who hears from God is the one who is trying to receive the message from God 24/7 and is willing to accept it as it is, without selective listening or distortion.

If you have a heart for The Lord, He will speak.

Dr. Willard cites G. Campbell Morgan: “wherever there are hearts waiting for the Voice of God, that Voice is to be heard.”

Is your heart ready?

One of the things we know about human communication is the fact that it does not occur in a vacuum.

When a person speaks to another person, “history” with the other person is involved.

Dr. Willard acknowledges that in the words “careful study of personal relationships shows that recognition of a certain voice is often the cue for someone to stop listening or even to distort the message in particular ways that are relevant to the specific nature of the relationship  between the people involved.”

Let’s stop for a minute and break this down.

We can all relate I think.

I have been doing better since I have retired from full-time employment but there was a time in my life when my wife Susan would ask me to do something around the house. There was a certain tone to her voice as she made her request.  Over the years I became an expert on detecting that tone.  Let’s say, I often did not have the best attitude toward her requests and when I heard that tone, I was not happy to get that message.  Yes, I would stop listening or I would distort her message instead of taking it at face value and prepare to get the requested work done. [Oh the things I do for this blog; many know that Susan is my editor].

Let’s give credit where credit is due; my wife never has requested extremely difficult things from me. She has never given me a jobs list requiring days of work or complex jobs that make me think long and hard about how to do the work.  In short, she did not deserve my poor responses.

But she got them anyhow.   The bottom line, her message was not the message I wanted to hear.

Dr. Willard says this relates to Divine-human communication. In other words, some people may hear from God and they are in rebellion against God’s Word [they don’t listen or they distort the message].

Why would this be?

Maybe it is like a message from my wife. I know what is coming when I hear the vocal tone.  I know it will have a negative impact on my plans for the day; doing her work is not “on my list.”

I engage in covert rebellion against my wife.

You see, communication is an active process whereby the speaker forms an idea using words and submits that idea to the listener. Certain words are selected because they fit the intention of the speaker and they may be selected because there is a history with the listener.  Some words work better than others.  If you have a joking relationship with a listener, you will use less serious language.  If you have a knowledge of their intellect and you know they are not that smart, ideas may be expressed in simple vocabulary.  If you have a long relationship with the person, private words and expressions can be used because those private terms mean something to you and the listener.

Listeners hear those words and they may “select or omit from, as well as reshape, the message intended by the speaker….If we do not want to be converted from our chosen and habitual ways, if we really want to run our own lives without any interference from God, our very special perceptual mechanisms will filter out His voice or twist it to our own purposes” [Willard, 197].

God is ignored because what He is asking of us is inconvenient. We would rather not have to hear what He has to say.

If His message does not fit our plan for our lives, we will have to alter our lives to fit His request. If the Divine message requires some commitment on our part, that is too much for many people.  Maybe the message will cause us to alter our strong habits and we can’t give them up.

Dr. Willard just makes a hard judgement against us all: “The doleful reality is that very few human beings do concretely desire to hear what God has to say to them.”

What happens when God makes His requests and we turn Him down? What happens when God tells us what to do and we don’t listen?  What happens when God intends for us to alter our lives and we stay the same?

What will happen is God may begin to speak to us less.

Why does He do this?

Well, He knows our history.

Dr. Willard is complementary of our efforts to study his book. It has been challenging but I feel it has stimulated growth.  Congratulations to all of you who have stuck with me to this point.

After challenging us to study more in my previous post, he says if you have reached this last chapter, “you have made that study. You have endured the hardship of thinking carefully and in-depth about hearing God’s voice.”

But before he endeavors to give us his answers to our final questions he wants to review.

As an educator, I know review is very important. Let’s do it.

1.Individualized communication takes the form of the “inner voice, a characteristic type of thought or perception. Whenever God tries to guide us our thoughts and perceptions bear within them the “marks of divine origination.”  Discernment is our guide.

2.Most commonly people who receive God’s Word do so in conjuction with the study of the Bible. But God can also speak through other people and any way that He chooses.

3.People who really want to determine if God is speaking to them can get clues by the quality, spirit and content of God’s voice but we need to be aware that our discernment is not infallible.  It very well could be.

4.Receiving a word from God does not guarantee that a person will understand it. In fact, we put many confusing barriers between ourselves and God which can distort the meaning of His Word.

5.We need to reiterate that just because we are confused and “fallible” does not mean that God is “fallible.  God’s Word to us is perfect.  We are the imperfect listeners to His communication.

As we have reviewed now, let us look forward to answers to the following questions and as we get those, I will have my comments on the answers. I already know that I am going to comment on the element of active listening regarding God’s Word and I will discuss people who really don’t want to hear a word from God.  But in this last chapter Dr. Willard will talk about how we come to live confidently and sensibly with God as a conversational presence in our lives.  He will also comment on how much we can count on hearing God.  What does it mean when we don’t hear His voice and what are we to do when we hear Him?

In other words, this chapter is mega important for our study. It may take a few days to get through but it is my prayer that those days are fruitful.

I am going to say it…

They will be.

As we begin the last full chapter of Hearing God [Chapter 9] I am confronted with thoughts that make my mind explode.

You know I value learning; that is not a big deal. We all value something and I just happen to value that.  Get to know me and you know that I am a school nut.  I love school.  I love education.  I love learning.

Ask my wife.

What I am about to tell you is just fact to back up what I just told you. It is not bragging.  I got a Bachelor’s degree and then that was not enough.  I had to go for a Masters.  I got hired at a community college where I had to teach a subject I did not feel qualified to teach.  I got a 2^nd Masters degree in that subject.  I got fascinated with that subject and I wanted more knowledge so I got a Ph.D. in that subject.

Then my wife threatened divorce.

“Any more education and I am gone.”

I got the message.

The fire to learn still burns brightly and when Dr. Willard opens chapter 9 with his thoughts about learning about God, I naturally respond.

It is in my DNA.

Dr. Willard states that we are compelled to study God as much as possible because if we don’t we are not going to be the stable Christians we can be and should be. We will also be “unstable and vulnerable” in our Christian actions, our Christian thoughts and our Christian feelings.

He is adamant in demanding our commitment to the study of God. If we don’t commit to a life of study we will have “misunderstandings, mental confusions and mistaken beliefs.”

Recently I had a conversation with a Bible teacher who feels a commitment to study God’s Word. We commiserated about the state of the church and Bible study.  I guess we got a bit negative.  I told him I felt that most people who come to Sunday School have not read the lesson or have not watched the teaching video.  In other words, they are not doing their homework; they are not prepared.  They depend on the teacher to serve them the lesson on a platter.  We both felt the most owned book by Christians is the Bible but the least read book is the Bible.

Why don’t Chriatians get serious about study?

Dr.Willard stings us when he says that the best books to describe Christian study could be entitled “The Lazy Person’s Guide to Getting into Heaven When you Die” or “The Passive Persons Path to Paradise.”

One of the most famous quotes from Dr. Willard shows up on page 194 of the book:  “Faith is not opposed to knowledge; it is opposed to sight…Commitment is not sustained by confusion but by insight.”

Over and over, I have heard statements from Christian men and women who are excellent people but their lack of Bible knowledge worries me. Dr. Willard calls those “whimsical ideas and preconceptions about His way that happen to be flying around us.”  Half-baked ideas that are founded on lack of study can be dangerous for our faith and the faith of those around us.

I don’t know everything.

In fact, I don’t know a lot.

If I have any saving grace, it is that I admit it and try to work on learning more, as I can.

I take seriously the words of Mark 12:30 “ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” [bolding and underlining is mine].

I fall short.

I don’t study enough. I could do more

What does Dr. Willard demand of us? What does he say God demands of us?

Commitment.

He does not have nice words for us if we are not trying to learn about God’s ways. He uses words like lazy, passive and even the word rebellious.

Wow, when he states “The conscious rejection of thoughtful and careful study is not faith, and it does not spring from faith. It is the rejection of the God-appointed means to God appointed ends.”

I have been hard on us.

I apologize.

Like I said in my title, “Oh Oh”; I knew I would get out of control.

My intention is not to make you feel guilty. My intention is not to make myself feel guilty.

But I do……..

As we get close to the last chapter of Hearing God Dr. Willard has some important things to say about God communicating to us through plain speaking.

You might ask, what is plain speaking?

Here are some descriptions. Talking in simple, clear words.  Speaking the truth directly to another person.  Communicating to someone without a hidden agenda.  Expressing thoughts that are not manipulative.

Can God speak to us plainly?

Dr. Willard thinks He can.

As we have explored every “nook and cranny” of this book, we have encountered people who describe the voice of God as “mysterious”. The voice of God has come in “curious circumstances”.  Some readers of the Bible have reported “special scriptural nuances” [Willard, 190].

But does it have to be that way?

Can God cut through all the “mumbo jumbo” and communicate to us in a plain manner?

Of course He can.

In fact, Dr. Willard says “God is not a mumbling trickster.”

Vague communication is a style of talking that is common with many people. The first type of person who seems to be the master of this type of talk is the politician.  They are hard to pin down.  What does this sentence mean?  What does it mean when they say one thing and then contradict themselves?  A salesperson can be vague as they only want to mention certain positive aspects of the product they are selling.  They don’t want to express the “whole truth.”  If they express everything positive and negative about their product, there are reasons not to buy it.  A husband employs vague language when asked a direct question by his wife.   How does this dress make me look?   Is this a good color on me?   Have I lost a few pounds?   All questions that will impact life in a negative manner if the wrong answer is given.  Husbands don’t want that so they employ extremely vague responses.

But one must ask the question, what benefit does God get by being vague?

No benefit at all.

What does He require from us to receive His words in a plain way? He wants us to be prepared to hear what He has to say and be prepared to obey His message.

That’s the catch.

You might think that is not too bad, but what if you are not willing to hear His message and more than that, you are not willing to obey His words? What if God asks you to change your career?  What if God asks you to commit a large sum of money to a person in need?  What if God asks you to reach out to someone, someone that you don’t like?  He wants you to mend fences and work with this person.

In short, the message is not really what you want to hear.

My guess is that God is probably not going to send regular messages to the hesitant Christian. Whereas, the Christian who is willing to obey may be “the men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” [2 Peter 1:21].

The bottom line is when we get a message from God that has that “divine quality, spirit, intent and origination” we need to act.

Dr. Willard closes Chapter 8 with words I want to use.

“Our faith is strengtened by this, and we are able to claim our part in the unified reign of God in his people throughout history on earth and in heaven” [Willard, 191].

Step 1: God speak’s plainly.

Step 2: We hear the message.

Step 3: We act.

Step 4: We are happy and God is happy.

The value of plain speaking…