St. John Studies

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…

Time after time Dr. Willard tells us to go to the Bible to get a word from God.

Of course this raises a question. If we want to hear God and we would like to hear God’s voice, how can we hear a voice from a page?

Well, he is not talking about just “reading” the Bible. He is talking about God “seizing” him as he is reading the Bible.

How do we read the Bible?

Let’s be honest; often we just call out words as we are asked to read scripture in public. Sometimes we may read the Bible because of a commitment to read it through in a certain amount of time.  Both of those types of reading are not what he is talking about.

Do we read, think and even meditate on God’s word?

Maybe not.

Dr. Willard describes his experience: “I find myself addressed, caught up in all the individuality of my concrete existence by something beyond me.” This is the power that he is talking about when the Bible seizes him.

Is this an audible voice?

A couple of nights ago, my wife questioned me about an experience I had nineteen years ago. I was in a horribly tense situation and I was seriously crying out to God for help.  I had never really done that before but I was in a mess.  I had lost all hope.  My world was turned upside down and I did not know where to turn.

I cried out for an answer and I felt I heard an audible voice. I felt that it was God.

She said, “If I was with you, could I have heard God’s voice?”

The answer is no. The voice was for me.  I was in serious need of an answer and He gave it to me.  I don’t believe she could have heard God’s audible voice on that day.

Most of the time, for me and others,  God’s voice is a thought or a perception and in the reading of God’s word, that is probably what happens when God “seizes” Dr. Willard from the Bible.

You may think that he is a special man; a scholar of the Bible and the fact that he is gives him special insight into the meaning of the Bible. He disputes that.  All a person needs is to be open to God as your read and be humble as you ask God to expose His message to you in your reading.

This attitude is so helpful because we need frequent exposure to the Bible for four reasons:

1.The Bible is available to all of us 24/7. When we are “in the Bible,” we have a “computer terminal in place, from which we can communicate, act and interact with God in His work.” The beauty of finding God’s voice in the Bible is “direct, daily kingdom access for all believers” [Willard, 185].

2.We need a source of “confidence, comfort and peace” from time to time. Dr. Willard knows that as human beings we all go through hard times, stresses, upsets [the list goes on and on.  The reading of God’s word can calm us down as it sends us to a more peaceful state of mind.

3.Protection from mad religionists and legalists is a further advantage of the Bible’s “open line.” People have their hidden agendas, some folks want to try to manipulate others using God’s word.  Certainly we can point to “religious leaders” who have benefitted from twisting God’s word for personal gain.  The eighties saw Jim and Tammy Baker.  In the nineties, we saw Jimmy Swaggert.  In 2006, Ted Haggard suffered from his indiscretions.  The list goes on and on as people are caught in their efforts to speak one way and live another.  Ready access to God’s Word is a protection against a manipulator.  Ready access to God’s Word can also protect us from a legalist who makes us feel we are not working our way to heaven; these people put more guilt on good Christians because they are the ones who are making up the rules [can anyone say Pharisee?].  We all fall short from the legalist’s point of view.

4.The Bible can give us a “realization of a biblical quality of life.” Dr. Willard cites examples of the sons of Jesse and  famous Bible personage King David,  and makes the case that we need the Bible to relate to these people from another time.  Without the Bible as our reference, understanding their lives would be a mystery.  God has them in the Bible for us to learn from their lives, for us to figure out their impulses.

Before we get too caught up in searching for an audible voice from God, maybe it is better to go to our “computer terminal”.

Think of your Bible as God’s permanent address, “the telephone installed so we can take the heavenly orders and participate in decisions as we do kingdom business” [Willard, 185].

Hearing God  is about just that; hearing from our Lord and Savior.

Does Dr. Willard acknowledge other voices?

Yes he does…he acknowledges that Satan has a voice too.

In my life I have heard that voice.

Have you?

I have friends who refuse to believe that Satan exists.  I have one friend who got angry when a discussion of Satan came up.  He left the discussion.

Is he real?

Dr. Willard seems to think so.  He states “Satan…will speak in our heart once he sees he no longer holds us in his hand.”

What do we do when this happens?

First of all acknowledge that this is really happening.  Turning your back on evil will not defeat evil.  Joking about evil will not defeat evil [the “devil made me do it”].

What happens when this happens?

You have a thought or perception and it is not from God.

Is it some manifestation of Satan in the form of an evil figure?  No it is just a thought or perception…but it is opposite of the thoughts and perceptions of God.

As Christians we must be ready to identify this voice.  The appropriate term may be “discern.”  The dictionary definition of discern is  “to perceive by the sight or some other sense or by the intellect; see, recognize, or apprehend.”  This is something that happens over time as a Christian develops a strong sense of God, through study of the Scripture, attending church or hanging out with other intelligent Christians.

New Christians may have problems with discernment.  They just don’t have enough experience with God to know His principles.

As a child I was told by my parents about the concept of conscience.  That was a helpful concept, a helpful lesson.  You know the story.  The angel is on one shoulder telling you to do the right thing.  The devil is on the other shoulder telling you to do the wrong thing.  The devil is red with pointed ears, carrying a pitchfork and he has a tail with a pointed arrow tip on it.  It was a story and some may have thought it funny but underneath the story is a serious message.

Satan wants us to listen to him.

Just because we are  believers, we are not immune to the powers of Satan.  We are fallible.   Dr. Willard says “Our walk with the Lord does not exempt us from the possibility of error, even in our experienced discernment of what His voice is saying.”

We can fall to evil.

When I see a person who performs some action that I don’t approve of and I think horrible judgmental thoughts, that is not the voice of God working in me.   When I say something to my spouse that is not positive, that is not the voice of God working in me.  When I  pass along information about another person to someone and I don’t have the whole story, that act is not of God.  I could go on and on but you get the point.

I am far from perfect.

I am subject to fallibility.

Some would say, “I wish I weren’t so fallible”.

But that would put us in the garden with Adam and Eve wouldn’t it?  The world would be perfect and we would never tempted.  We have a flawless relationship with God.  He loves us; we love Him and we know no wrong.

But God has put sin into our lives.  The human element gives us the power to choose.  It is in the choosing that we demonstrate our love for God, for He knows we have other choices that we can make.

Jesus was tempted and He successfully resisted temptation.  In Matthew 4, Jesus encountered Satan at a time of dire need.  He was terribly hungry and in need of food.  He could have turned stones into bread but He had a laser vision of what God wanted from Him.  He had a special Divine Connection.  Dr. Willard says “He refused to allow Himself to be turned away from learning that God’s word is sufficient for His every need.”

If Satan is an active force in this world, what does all of this mean for us?

We need to make the best choices we can as we make positive responses to the voice of God.  We need to be in charge of our own growth or spiritual formation if you will.  What this means is we need to seek after the Lord and the more we seek Him, the more we will get to know Him.  This concept of discernment does not happen overnight.  It happens over time as we spend more time with our Bibles, in Bible studies and going to church.  The more you have a hunger for God, the more you will be able to discern.

As Christians we want to hear the voice that offers us the bread of life; we want to ignore the voice that destroys.

“Prosperity theology (sometimes referred to as the prosperity gospel, the health and wealth gospel, or the gospel of success) is a Christian religious doctrine that financial blessing is the will of God for Christians, and that faith, positive speech, and donations (possibly to Christian ministries) will increase one’s material wealth.”*

Dr. Willard states that in recent years, “innumerable spokespeople for God have offered ways we can use God and His Bible as guarantees of health, success and wealth.”

In short, Dr. Willard is not enamored with people who preach the prosperity gospel.

It is more than that though; he is not willing to say that Christian believers will be exempt from trouble.  Job 14:1  “Mortals, born of woman, are of few days and full of trouble.” 2 Timothy 3:12  “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”  Here are two Scriptures that say otherwise about the topic of trouble.

In short, Dr. Willard is not enamored with people who preach that Christians won’t go through trouble.

No one bypasses problems.  Dr. Willard refuses to call belief in God a “spiritual panacea”.  In fact,  he goes further and says “any voice that promises total exemption from suffering and failure is most certainly not God’s voice.”

However, we do live life and work through problem after problem with a source that can help us with our trouble.  That source is God.

But Christians go through the “mill of life” just like anyone else.

Before I became a believer, I watched Christian people a lot.  I watched them go through trouble.  Now as I think back on what I saw, I wondered about their demeanor.

How can they continue to carry on?

How can they function in their work?

How can they have some sense of hope?

The answer to all three questions?…

They were not of this world.  They lived in this world but they were experiencing a different life, a spiritual life that was connected to an eternal power.

I have had my share of trouble for the past nineteen years.  I have not always had it easy as some severe problems have showed up on my doorstep.  Early on, I felt the need to grow through my troubles.

What does this mean?

Trouble does not last forever.  It passes.   Some like to quote the Bible and tell us that “This too shall pass” regarding trouble but that phrase is not in the Bible.  It has a grain of truth in it though because trouble does not last forever.  As time passes, trouble does too.

Trouble teaches us hard lessons.   Some people repeat the same mistake over and over and they never learn.  I am one of those people that  when I touch a hot stove, I don’t have to touch it again and again.  I remember not to touch it after I get burned once.

Trouble allows us to help others.  When we experience trouble, that experience can be turned into valuable advice that we can share with others.  I have had problems in my past that uniquely equip me to help with problems that other people have.  I am not proud of my problems but I can speak from first-hand experience about some pitfalls that others may have found.  I have been there.

As Christians, we know that we will all have a time to experience no trouble.  That time will be when we go to heaven.  We know we have glory awaiting us in heaven and we must ever keep our eyes upon that goal no matter what we have to face in this world.

But while we are here on earth, it is important to remember that God does not promise you prosperity if you give to a preacher on tv, promising that you need to sew a seed for Jesus.  The seed will cause you to reap a bountiful harvest a hundredfold more than the seed you have sewn.

It is important to remember that God will never promise a life that is exempt from trouble.  I heard a Christian say, “if trouble is not present in your life right now it was recently and if not recently, it will be here soon.”  Problems are just a part of living.

In the context of Hearing God, if you think God is telling you these kinds of things, think again.

He’s not.

*From Wikipedia

Mark 8:35 “those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for My sake, and for the sake of the Gospel will save it.”

What in the world does that mean?

Truly for many this is one of the most esoteric passages in the Bible.  Jesus is speaking after predicting his own death and after rebuking Peter with the famous words “Get behind me Satan.”  He calls a crowd around him along with his disciples and talks to them about losing their lives.

Do we take the passage literally?   Is Jesus advocating suicide?

Of course He is not.

He is talking about dedication to Jesus, to God and to the Gospel.  If you dedicate your life to God [or lose your life] you will save your life.

This is a very important idea that is being expressed in God’s word.  This is “something you can take to the bank”.  This is God speaking through His Son.  It is an example of what Dr. Willard calls “a principle” of the Bible.

Too often people who say they study Scripture get wrapped up in the incidentals of Scripture.  Incidentals are specific instances of Scripture that apply to particular people in particular instances.  Do they apply to all people?  Are they general pronouncements?  No they are not.

In my Sunday School class we have been studying The Grave Robber, a focus on seven miracles of Jesus.   Recently we had a class on the miracle of the lame man at the Baths of Bathesda.  Maybe as we look at this miracle we can get insight about what Willard means about incidentals and principles.

For thirty-eight years an invalid had gone to the Baths, known for their healing powers.  He certainly needed a healing.  Superstition said that when the baths bubbled, the time was ripe to jump in and receive a healing.  The problem the invalid had was he could not get off his mat to get to the pool in time.  He was lame and had been for his whole life. Others jumped ahead of him.  When Jesus arrived on the scene, the invalid asked if Jesus could help him get into the waters as they are stirred.   Instead Jesus said “Pick up your mat and walk.”

Of course I am using this story to illustrate the difference between principles of the Bible and incidentals of the Bible.  What is the incidental?  Jesus is violating a Pharisaical rule that one must not work on the Sabbath.  This day was the Sabbath.  Jesus was telling the man to “pick up his mat” and “do work.”   This was providing Jesus’ detractors just another reason for Him to meet His death at the hands of the Jewish religious leaders, another “incidental” violated.

But dig deeper about what has happened.  What did this poor man need?  He needed a healing.  One of my Sunday School class members said it so well:  “Grandpa told me that when the ox is in the ditch, you had better get it out.”  He means certain circumstances supersede the incidental rules.

This is one of the meanings of the story of the invalid.  Jesus did what needed to be done.  Did He break a rule?  He did.  Should He have broken the rule?  You answer that one.   He was faced with a man who had been on a mat for 38 years waiting for a healing.  He healed the man.  He told the man to pick up his mat because he did not need to lay on it any more.  Maybe it was symbolic of his healing.

What’s the problem?  The problem is with the people who focus on the incidentals of scripture.

I have been writing about the words of Scripture lining up with what we are about to do.  Perhaps we feel God is giving us direction.  Perhaps God has spoken a word to you.  You have your doubt.  So you turn to Scripture for confirmation.

What if you start looking for incidentals?

You are probably going to be confused.

Dr. Willard says we need to focus on principles “something that wells up from the whole Bible and the totality of the experience of God’s people through history.”

Principles are the big issues that God and Jesus have expressed in Scripture, not the issues that will have us as Christians “lost in the weeds.”

Let me end on a principle that Dr. Willard cites, one of the most significant principles in the whole Bible [Mark 12: 30-31] “ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

Big idea?

It is.

Challenge for all of us to obey?

Oh yeah.

A principle to take to the bank?

You betcha.

*I hate to use the expression “take to the bank” but I think it communicates that you can rely on this idea.  That is my intention.

A very significant part of any message is the content.

Communication theorists state that all messages break down to two basic parts:  the content level and the relationship level.

The relationship level of a message is the part of the message that includes the powerful feeling dimension of the message.  Examples of the relationship-level factors include how the message is delivered [the tone], other nonverbal factors like facial expression, closeness of the communicator and even factors like what your relationship is to the person sending the message.  People who study how humans talk to each other will tell you that the relationship-level of a message is so significant that it can overpower the content of a message.

Let me give you an example of the power of this element.  I once knew a man who had a deep baritone voice.   Everything he said sounded authoritative.  I knew this guy so well that I knew he lacked intelligence.  In fact, he lacked intelligence in many areas of his life.  But he spoke in a commanding manner and usually got his way.  The relationship level of his message got results.

But what about content?   I have written about the “weight of authority” of God’s voice and I have written about the “spirit” of God’s voice.   Those factors may be akin to the relationship level of human communication but what about the content of God’s messages to us?

Literally, the content is the information that is being conveyed in the message.

Sadly, the content part is often overlooked as we react to the other factors.

But should it be overlooked?

Of course not.

Dr. Willard states “The content of a word that is truly from God will always conform to and be consistent with the truths about God’s nature and kingdom that are made clear in the Bible.”  Dr. Willard cites Pastor Charles Stanley who is even more direct: “God’s voice will never tell us to engage in any activity or relationship that is inconsistent with the Holy Scriptures.”

What if you are angry and you hear a voice in your mind telling you to talk badly about another?  That’s not God.  What if you are really needing money and you are in a position to take some money from someone and not be detected?  A small voice says “take it.”  That’s not  God’s voice.   You are having marital troubles and you are very sad about your relationship with your spouse.  You hear a voice that says leave your spouse.  That’s not God.

I hope I have not upset you but I feel strongly about the content of God’s messages.  We truly do not pay enough attention to the literal message that we think comes from God.

What happens to throw us off track is the interpretation of these messages?  We think we want something and we convince ourselves that we just have to have it.

Put another way, this is called rationalization.

This can cause serious problems in a person’s life.  What we want is not necessarily what God wants for us.  Yet we want it anyhow because we are so self-centered. We twist and turn our desires around in so many directions that we convince ourselves that we just have to have it.  Yes, we may even tell others that God has spoken a word to us.

What is the major factor that guides us in the content of a God message?

It is something that is consistent with the Christian worldview expressed in God’s word.

Ephesians 4:29-31 “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.”

The Bible is full of verses telling us not to speak ill of others.

Exodus 20:15 “You shall not steal”  Enough said.  That’s pretty clear isn’t it?  That voice urging us to take something is probably from Satan.

1 Corinthians 7:10-11  “To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.”  God would not recommend that you leave your spouse.  That is your desire, not His.

In closing, it is impossible to know the entire Bible and say that you cannot find some part that will support an ungodly desire that you have.  That is called “proof-texting” which is not a realistic way to study the content of the Bible.  Pulling a verse out of context to support your position is not good.  That’s why Dr. Willard says we need to be such good students of God’s word that we can make good judgments about the “dimension” of the content of the Bible.

If one knows Scripture well enough that he or she can interpret messages from God based on the overall knowledge, in most cases that will be good enough.

When it comes to hearing from God, let us not focus so much on relationship factors that we make mistakes about God’s will for us.

Think about what God is telling us to do…the content of His message.

Dr. Willard says that the “weight of authority” is the first element of the voice of God.

Then he states that the next element is the spirit.

Spirit is a tough thing to quantify, tough to describe, tough to explain but that is what comprises God’s voice, Part 2.

What is spirit?

He uses the words “exalted peacefulness,” “confidence,” “joy,” “sweet reasonableness” and “goodwill.”

Let’s explore those a bit.

Lack of peacefulness is something we all have from time to time.  When we don’t have a “solid” feeling about life, it is troubling.  Sometimes lack of peace is associated with worry about an uncertain future.  Sometimes lack of peacefulness is caused by not knowing what to do or experiencing indecision.   Sometimes lack of peace can be caused by dissatisfaction with our behaviors.  You get the point.  There is some reason for turmoil in your life.  I have had moments of turmoil but I have also had times when the turmoil was totally erased by God.   A few days ago, I was in transit to an event where I had to participate in multiple things and I did not know how I would do all that I had to do.  I was extremely anxious.  I was talking to God alone in my truck and then I felt sudden peace.  At that moment, I knew that all was going to be ok.  And folks, it was ok.  I made it through the day very well [thanks be to God].

Confidence is a misused word.  Confident people draw on lots of sources from new age thinkers to some “get rich quick” seminar leaders.  But can honest, humble confidence come from God? It surely can.  My spouse has an arrogance meter.  By that, I mean that she senses when I am a little too “full of myself” and she “helps” me adjust myself.  I don’t mean to feel confident by what I do all by myself; that is a prideful man’s trap.  I have to admit that I sometimes slip into that frame of mind.  I desire for my confidence to come from God instead of man because it will be based on something substantial.  God will allow me to do a lot more than I can do by myself.  It is “right-minded” to have confidence sourced from God because we want to do our best work and we want to have reasonable, humble attitude, not an arrogant attitude.

Joy is another thing that characterizes the spirit voice of God says Dr. Willard.   It means excitement about life.  You see a future challenge and look forward to it.  You have a “can do attitude” even in the face of obstacles.  I will be honest; joy is infectious.  People may show interest in the negative; I am convinced that news organizations lead with negative news just to get our attention.  The term “breaking news” is now so common and when you see it on the screen, it means something negative.  Newspapers may be dying but they are going out using the negative.  Bad news dominates the front page usually.  But just show some joy in your life.  People will gravitate to you because they really want that.  I don’t believe that humans want to be miserable.  They want to enjoy life.  They just don’t know how.  The key is living a God-led life.  That will bring joy.

Have you ever been around a person you would describe as having sweet reasonableness?  What does that mean?  After doing some research, I believe it means moderation.  People who have sweet reasonableness have a spirit of fairness and gentleness about them.  Today, I am afraid that extreme is the word of the day.  Politicians make extreme statements to garner attention from the news media.  Religious groups carry out extreme acts to terrorize the general public.  Even churches do extreme things to put their message into society [ever hear of Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka Kansas]?  A person with sweet reasonableness is not extreme.

Goodwill is the last word that characterizes the voice of God.  Goodwill is a seminal idea in our faith.  Luke 2:14 states “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men”, a foundational idea that is expressed from the very birth of Jesus Christ.  Jesus’ whole life is a study of goodwill.  God does not mean harm to us when He speaks to us.  He wants to show goodwill to us and wants us to pass along goodwill to others.

Dr. Willard writes, “The sweet, calm spirit of God’s voice carries over to the lives of those who speak with His voice”  He cites examples of a man who heard the voice of God tell him that he neededjkmnkm to go back to school.  The man described the experience as a word “spoken straight and strong right into my spirit…. I knew it was the Lord.”

It was not a demanding, urgent voice.

It was a peaceful, confident, joyful, sweetly reasonable voice, a voice that exhibited goodwill for the listener and for all the people he came into contact with.

What a wonderful God we have, with a wonderful spirit-filled voice.

When I was a speech teacher in college, I spent a little time toward the end of the semester talking about the human voice.   I always joked with my students about how there were so many other things to work on that I did not have time to spend on the voice. However, the voice is an important part of hearing a message.

Dr. Willard speaks of three factors in God’s voice that we need to attend to.

Today we are going to talk about one of those, the weight of authority or what I am going to call vocal quality.

Vocal quality on a basic human level is the sound that a person makes with the vocal equipment that God has given them.   We make sounds depending on certain physiological factors like nasal passages, vocal folds, and lung capacity.  The mouth cavity has an impact, especially how we manipulate the tongue, jaw and lips.  We can alter the quality of our voices on purpose.   For example, we can have the guttural sound of a pirate with manipulation of our vocal equipment.  As well, we can sound like an insecure person through the use of pitch, speech speed and a halting delivery.

But when we are normally talking, we have our own distinct vocal quality.

What would you think God would sound like?

Dr. Willard says God’s voice has the “weight of authority.”

What does that mean to a speech teacher?  If I wanted to show authority in my voice, I would do three things.  1. I would talk at a slower pace.  A slow pace shows confidence and thoughtfulness whereas a fast pace may mean excitement and lack of thought.  2. I would talk with a low pitch.  A lower pitch shows a person who is in control whereas a high pitch may indicate more lack of control.  3. I would speak at a steady cadence rather than a halting, unsure speed.

Some may argue with my descriptors, but a policeman or figure of authority would want to exude authority, not insecurity.  They would want to exude seriousness because they expect a response.  They would want to demand attention rather than encourage a person to ignore their commands.

Jesus spoke with authority to those He addressed in His earthly ministry.  Dr. Willard cites Matthew 7:29 “for He taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”  When I was in the business of creating scholarly writing in my university classes, I tried to learn as much as I could about my topic but my main authority rested on the expert sources that I cited in my footnotes.  My authority rested on others who knew my subject.

When you turn to Jesus’ words in the New Testament He did not reference others as He spoke His words.  He had the power of God behind Him.  His words had the “weight of authority.”  Dr. Willard describes the people who spent time with Jesus.  [They] “left the presence of Jesus with heads and hearts full of thoughts and convictions that He had authored in them through the power of God’s voice and word with which He spoke.”

I find it fascinating that Dr. Willard draws from John Wesley’s first sermon to describe the qualitative voice of God.  “How, I pray, do you distinguish day from night?  How do you distinguish light from darkness; or the light of a star, or a glimmering taper, from the light of the noonday sun?  Is there not an inherent, obvious, essential difference between the one and the other?  And do you not immediately and directly perceive that difference?…. In like manner, there is an inherent, essential difference between spiritual light and spiritual darkness…and that light wherewith the Sun of Righteousness shines upon our heart and that glimmering light which arises from ‘sparks of our own kindling.’”

In my experience, as with Dr. Willard, I have become more aware of God working within me as I have felt His word affect me and others around me.  Keep in mind that when God reveals something to you it is a special revelation for you and you alone. When I have revealed God’s words to me to others, something has been lost in translation.  That’s ok.   The word was not for others; it was for me and me alone.

I am going to close with a quote that Dr. Willard uses to describe God’s word of authority.  From Adele Rogers St. John: “You can mistake rhinestones for diamonds, but you can never mistake a diamond for a rhinestone.”

When you hear that voice with its weight of authority, you will know.  When you act on that command, you will know…

God’s guidance.