St. John Studies

Here it is.

You call yourself Christian and that is wonderful but are you seeking to live a life within God’s will?

“Yes I am”.

That is the best answer

But what does that really mean?

Maybe after we discuss the “seeking to live a life within God’s will” part of the question you may wonder if you are where you are supposed to be in your life dedicated to God. I hope not, but you may wonder if you are a “real” Christian.

Before we begin, I promise I am not judging you [dear reader] and me. That is not my job. For the most part, I know where I am in my “walk with Jesus.” I know in my heart if I am seeking to live within God’s will. To be honest, it is an up and down affair. At times I feel I am moving along in the right direction. At other times [usually when I fail in my battle with sin] I am not sure.

Why discuss this in the context of the book Hearing God?

The answer to that question is simple.

You won’t hear from God if you are not “seeking to live a life within God’s will.” [Willard Hearing God].

To begin, let’s break down the statement. Seeking means to try to locate or discover, to endeavor to obtain or reach, to go to or toward, you get the picture. To seek something is to want to have it, to work hard to get it, to sacrifice to achieve it.

What is your goal in life?

If your goal is to do what God plans for you, you may have more direct contact with Him.

Now, let’s stop before we go too far.

When a person is in the deepest bowels of the deepest, lowest point in life, will God speak to that person?

I believe He will.

He will speak to help that person consider a “course correction.” We have all heard of jailhouse conversions and foxhole prayers, times when people are broken or times when people are scared to death. In short, times when people desperately need help.

But I also believe that God speaks to those who seek Him, people who are not in dire straits, people who believe, people who just want more out of life, they want more through Jesus Christ.

Let’s turn to some goals. These may sound like clichés and maybe they are, but they are significant signs for the Christian who wants more, the Christian who is seeking God.

“My goal in life is to glorify and enjoy God forever.”

“My goal in life is to become more like Christ.”

“My goal in life is to conform to God’s plan for me, that I “be conformed to the likeness of his Son’”

Why is this important? You might be thinking “duh” right now but at the risk of being disrespectful to your intelligence, there are many things in this world that people seek other than God. Need we list a few: money, media exposure, human relationships, our routines, work, hobbies/pastimes etc. etc.

If you are truly a Christian, you have a new identity in Christ when you dedicate your life to Him, along with a new purpose for living. You are on a path to growth with Christ. You seek Him because you need to be inspired by His example.

The second part of the toughest question I want to comment on is “within God’s will”.

What does that mean? On the surface it means little I am not going to discuss surface meaning. I am going deeper. When you think about being within God’s will what happens to your will? When you think about being within God’s will, who gets what they want? When you think about being within God’s will, how should you approach God?

In my opinion, here are the answers.

1. My will is not important when I seek God’s will. His will is all that matters. I have to be willing to put myself last when it comes to God. I have to choose to let Him have control. Is this easy? No it is not. We want control. We want to steer our own ship. However when God is put in control, what happens? Things work out better.
2. Who gets what they want when I am within God’s will? God gets what He wants. What about me? Well, this is a bit hard to understand but the best plan for me in this life is to live God’s plan for me. That plan is based on Jeremiah 29:11 “ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” What happens when troubles come our way? Sometimes we may doubt God’s word but then we need to remember James 1: 2 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.…” Even when times are dark, God’s plan for us is bigger than we can comprehend but we must have faith: it is good.
3. The way to approach God is as a supplicant. It is no fluke that Jesus taught all His followers to pray the Lord’s Prayer with the lines “Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven”. We may ask but we know we will not get what we want unless we are praying in God’s will. Ultimately God’s will is what counts, not ours.

I hope you did not answer the “Christian’s toughest question” with “no I am not.” That is not my intent with this post, to make you feel guilty or judged.

But if you cannot truthfully say I am seeking to live a life within God’s will, you may not be hearing from God.

The siren songs of life may be what you are listening to, or maybe you don’t want to sacrifice, give service to others. Maybe you have to be in a circle of friends where being “Christ like” is not cool. Whatever the case you find yourself in, maybe you are choosing not to hear from the messages that will change your life, the messages that will improve your life, the messages that will give you a purpose that is more satisfying than any message you have ever received.

Words from the Lord.

 

“There is no reason in the established truths of science to suppose that God cannot reach us and be with us in order to guide and communicate with us.” Dallas Willard on God Can Communicate with Us…

One of the densest parts of the book so far has been Chapter 4 when Dr. Willard tries to confront science.

In simple words, he takes on a knowledge system that refuses to acknowledge God because the system cannot prove His physical reality.

Is this proof necessary?

I guess it is for people who deal with hard sciences. Hard science is science based on methodology, exacting measure and objective thought. Natural science is often labeled a hard science because it requires statistical confirmation for any idea to be accepted. If you don’t have that, your idea is not proven.

Which leaves us with God.

How can we prove God?

How can we prove that God communicates with us?

For most of us, it is not necessary to prove God beyond a shadow of a doubt. We know what we know and we have faith to cover the rest of it. However, for a “scientist” this is not enough.

For a scientist, God does not even have to be a part of the scientific world; in fact, many scientists don’t even figure Him into their worldview at all. Natural matter is in a constant state of evolution and God is not part of it at all.

What is the effect of this on ordinary man?

Some ordinary people may question God’s existence because of the influence of these learned scientists.

To make this personal, I have an educational degree with many years of exposure to science. I did not major in “hard science” yet I did have a well-rounded education that exposed me to these types of people in the classroom.

Besides being exposed to “hard science” professors in my education, I also had exposure to other religious worldviews, one of which was Buddhism. I did not feel compelled to become a Buddhist because I found the Buddhist deity too distant and the road to improvement to be too self-centered. After a dalliance with Buddhism, I returned to Christianity, or at least a feeling that the Christian Church was where I belonged.

One thing I do recall from those days which seems to bridge the gap between Christianity and science is the Buddhist idea that all matter is in a state of change. All matter is in a process of growth and then decay and after decay, matter takes on a new form. I found that idea very appealing at the time but I have never considered it to be a Christian idea. I don’t feel the need to cling to this idea as a way to explain Christianity.

Until now.

Matter is the main problem that Dr. Willard is tackling in Chapter 4. How can he prove that God is matter? How can he prove that God communicates to us through matter?

Then he speaks of Jacob and I can see a parallel. Jacob is asleep on a rock in a desert ravine in Genesis 28: 16-17. He goes to sleep seeing only a physical landscape. In his dream [it is not clear if it is a dream or not] he begins to see that God is interacting with the place where he has fallen asleep. He sees a stairway to heaven with angels ascending and descending on it. God tells him that he will be blessed as well as his descendants. In fact all people on earth will be blessed through Jacob’s offspring. Jacob awakens to see the world through different eyes. He says “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it! …How awesome is this place! There is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” [Genesis 28: 16-17].

Is our God in matter?

Is our God capable of communicating through matter?

What do these two questions do to the hard scientist who has to prove God through rigid methodology, exacting measure and objective thought?

When one ponders what happened to Jacob, the doubts become meaningless because Jacob sees that God is a part of it all.

Most of us have a hard time grasping that and truthfully, I would rather not think that God has to be in my water glass, the book I am reading and the pencil I am writing with.

But maybe Jacob has it right.

God is in everything; just as he awakened to see God in the place where he was, we can awaken to see God everywhere. He has control. He permeates reality.

Does God exist in matter? Of course He does.

Does God communicate through matter? Of course He can.

Why don’t “hard scientists” see this?

They may one day, if only they could have the dream of Jacob.

Let’s get a little uncomfortable.

I know you don’t want to but as we read about receiving a word from God let’s ask a very tough question.

What if the word you receive from God is not a word that you want?

Dr. Willard poses this question in a very Biblical way: “are you a ready vessel?”

We settle into our patterns of life. All of us do. We may not be happy. We may want more in life. We may think we are not living the way we are supposed to live.

However, we have adjusted to life as it is.

Human beings are like that, and even though we may think we want to hear from God, what if God sends us a “disturbing word?”

What if we hear God say, “give up a possession you cherish,” “change your occupation and become a more mission-oriented person,” “dedicate yourself to your church,” or “that habit you have; you have to quit that.”

As I have said in the past, for a message to be received, we have to play the role of the receiver. What if our attitude is “I am ok the way I am,” “thanks but no thanks God,” or “let me get back to you on that one Lord.”

The bottom line. We want God on our own terms.

When we have a terrific need, we pray to Him.

When we are in a pinch, we implore Him.

When we just have a desire for something, we ask Him for it like He is Santa.

But what if He says that to become my follower, “YOU NEED TO MAKE A CHANGE.”

What is your purpose for God anyhow? Is He just a convenience that you pull out when you need Him? Is He the edge you seek when you need a little something extra? When you want to make a good impression, do you “play the God card?”

This brings in the all-important question, “Why would God speak to someone who is not even in business with Him?” And if you are not in business with God, are you what Dr. Willard calls a “ready vessel.”

Let’s be honest.

If you are not willing to receive His messages, you are not getting them.

He may be speaking to you but you are ignoring Him.

He may be speaking a disturbing word.

You don’t want to be disturbed. Are you a “ready vessel?”

You are not.

This brings up the question. How do I become a “ready vessel?” What do I need to do?

1.Make sure that God is number 1 in your life.

Above all your other concerns in your life, He is on top. You exist to do His will. You are aware of the many distractions of life but you know that those distractions are just distractions and that is all. The most important thing for you is your relationship with God.

2.You know that your main acts in life are doing His will.

You may have to do some things to make a living, you may have to do what you have to do to keep your family together, but underneath it all you know that the job exists to give you an income to live and the family is a gift from God even though it has challenges from time to time. But when God calls in your life, you are there to do what He wants. Even if it is inconvenient. He is your real Boss.

3.Your number one objective is to find a way to be like Christ.

You know that is every “real” Christian’s objective. God has given you a job to do. To put it bluntly, He wants you to bless others in your time here on earth. Dr. Willard states that we should “live among His people and serve them and Him in this world.” We can say “My life is to bless others in the name of God.”

In Chapter 4, Dr. Willard challenges us. He makes strong points that there is a big difference between a “real” Christian and a Christian who uses God as a convenience.

He cites G. Morgan Campbell who basically says that the person who is not disturbed from time to time by God’s voice is not living a Christian life.   Christians who make their own plans and are content to do what they please are probably not living a true Christian life. To quote Campbell, they are “living still in the land of slavery, in the land of darkness.”

Then Willard cites Frank Laubach who felt he lived a dead life, like a “rotting tree” until he got real with God and decided to do God’s will in his life: “I would find God’s will, and I would do that will though every fiber in me said no, and I would win the battle of my thoughts.”

Are you ready to receive a word from God?

Dr. Willard makes a good point: a ready vessel is one that is open to receiving the Spirit that is poured out from our Lord and Savior.

God is not an intrusion in our lives.

God is the reason we are here on earth.

Know that and you will be ready to hear from Him.

                                                                                                         

Dr. Willard promises at the end of Chapter 3 that we will be getting into the nitty gritty of hearing from God in Chapter 4.

But…

He wants to make one more point before he begins.

“Indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God” [Proverbs 2: 3-5].

We must make sure that we understand God.

I found an interesting point or two on the “Christianity Net Website” about this topic. A human being trying to understand God is like a gnat trying to understand an Archangel.

Well that may be an exaggeration but you get the point.

What makes it hard?

According to “CN”, “As human beings, we are created – we don’t have our origins within ourselves, but because of someone else. And we are finite, whereas He is infinite. We are in time; He exists outside of it. To Him, every time is now and everything is possible, a mere expression of His will. By contrast, I can’t even prevent myself from doing the very things I know in my heart I don’t want to do. To say that humans and God are different is the ultimate understatement. No wonder we have a hard time understanding Him.”

The reasons we don’t understand God can go on and on but you know how hard it is…it’s hard.

Yet Dr. Willard says that hearing from God is based on our “correct general understanding of God and His ways.”

What help?

The Bible of course. However many people approach the Bible as a series of stories that are supposed to be meaningful. The Bible is more than that. It is a pathway to know God.

Still, many Christians struggle to understand the Old Testament and this is very believable. It is the story of God’s effort to contact man but the effort is basically through a “top-down” autocratic relationship. That is not to say that the God of the Old Testament was not benevolent from time to time but He could be judgmental from time to time too.

Then along comes Jesus, God’s Divine intercessor, God born into a human body, growing up and learning as a child, suffering and struggling just like all human beings do. This can be our best avenue to know God, but we still struggle.

I have been around a lot of Christians and it seems many of them want it “easy.” I hate to say this, but a truly hungry Christian is rare. Here are some things I see daily.

Adult Sunday School students who don’t read their lessons and come to class unprepared.

Adult Christians who thrive on study that is on a junior high level of reading.

Adults Christians who never open their Bible at all.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe God has to meet us where we are and then He will move us along. However, could you move yourself along a little bit? Commit to learning as much as you can. Make a habit of reading good Christian materials. Attend Sunday School and read the lessons and come prepared to discuss.

I sound fussy! My wife gets on me about this a lot, but as we enter this next section of Hearing God, Dr. Willard calls it an “intellectual and spiritual hard hat area” where many Christians may receive injury to their practical faith in God.

Don’t look for the easy; deal with the challenging.

Don’t be satisfied with comfort; study the tough ideas and experience real growth.

John Stott [many of you know he is one of my favorite authors] wrote a little book called Your Mind Matters. In his book he gives reasons why it is important for us to think: 1.God created us with minds 2.to understand God, we are going to have to think on the highest level we can 3.thinking renews the mind and we all need that from time to time 4.we are judged by our knowledge [on earth and in heaven].

So let’s do what Dr. Willard says we need to do: “Put on your hard hardhat, your hard nose and your best brains, and prayerfully dig in.”

To conclude Chapter 3, Dr. Willard talks about three mistaken interpretations of God’s Word. Even though I will draw heavily from the book, I want to discuss each of the three misinterpretations.

Let’s comment on the “message-a-minute view.” Some may think that God will tell you what to do every step of the way on your walk with Him but Willard says that God is unlikely to have that “constant” communication with us.

The problem: He wants us to make some choices on our own. He wants us to make our mistakes and learn from them.   Being a father myself, it is so hard to see a child goof things up but it is in the mistake that the lesson is learned. That has been my personal experience, as I violate a commandment, I suffer consequences.

What do I learn? I don’t want to do that again.

Dr. Willard says that God treats us “like a plant” and I know from personal experience that this is true. In growing things, you have to put them in the best condition that you can and you need to leave them alone. You can actually impede the growth process if you fiddle with the plant too much.

He says that too much direction can make robots of humans and that is not what God wants either. In working with humans, Dr. Willard states that God knows we work best as “unique” people who live in His glory. Could God give us moment by moment direction in our lives? Sure He could. “He could give us ten or a thousand messages a nanosecond” if He wanted. But what would be the purpose?

Choosing to live for God is much more significant than someone believing they have no control over their lives. They have to dedicate their life to God.

“I want to dedicate my life to God” is the statement that God wants to hear, that God wants to see.

The “it’s-all-in-the-Bible view” is erroneous too. Willard says it “is seriously misguided and very harmful.”

The fact of the matter: the challenges we have to face in life today are not all covered in the Bible.

Dr. Willard does say that the principles that we need to live a good life are in the Bible but the details about how life is to be lived are not and it is the details that we have to deal with in day to day life.

Will God give you the words you need to say to get a job? Maybe; maybe not. Will God tell you the prayer you are supposed to pray before the church? Maybe; maybe not. Will God tell you what to say to bring a person to Christ? Maybe; maybe not.

It is foolhardy to depend on God’s direction for all the details of life by turning to the Bible. Some can begin to use the Bible like a superstitious object. Dr. Willard uses the example of the Pastor who feels that your birth date will lead you to the verse that casts light on what you need to do. Another instance is the person who plops the Bible open and blindly puts their finger on the page, to a particular verse that is meant for them.

Dr. Willard calls this Biblical roulette. Carrying out acts based on these random visits to scripture can cause hurt, harm and maybe cause irreparable damage due to poor decision-making.

The “what-ever comes view” is the third mistaken view of God’s communication.

So many people who are Christian say that whatever happens is the will of God.

This view assumes that God is in control of everything on earth. I hate to disagree but often man interjects his will on earth and we have to deal with the effects of man’s will and not God’s. Some would argue that God can control everything and does, but the choice factor comes into play again.

If God is in total control, there is no role for human choice. We have no choice but to love God, but where does that leave God? He has “robot worshippers” as His kingdom.

Wouldn’t God rather have people who choose Him over other distractions? If God has total control, man has no responsibility because God has done it all for man.

To be honest, some of the horrendous things that happen in life today don’t need to be blamed on God.

The blame needs to fall exactly where it should.

Man.

Where is Dr. Willard leading us by discussing these three erroneous views?

The conversational view of interacting with God.

The view he will be discussing in the remainder of his book.

It is the conversation we want to have, a conversation with God.

“Do not be like a horse or mule, without understanding, whose temper must be curbed with bit or bridle.” [Psalm 32:9]

Dr. Willard* uses this Psalm to get us thinking about our role in the process of receiving a word from God.

Willard has talked about blind faith, about corporate sensing of the presence of God, and about the Divine effects of God’s word, the miraculous effect of His word on peoples’ actions.

But what if there is more?

I know that many Christians are content with what they have, saying that God has provided all that they need. I understand that. At times I feel like my blessings are extremely bountiful. Also, some Christian people believe that suffering is what we have to do on this earth and death and eternal life are our only true reward.

But look closely at these words quoted from the book by Brother Lawrence [my editing] “An actual presence of God; or, to speak better, a habitual, silent or secret conversation of the soul with God, which often cause me joys and raptures inwardly, and sometimes also outwardly, so great that I am forced to use means to moderate them and prevent their appearance to others.”

What is he talking about here?

Pure joy. The knowledge that he is on his right path toward God, the Father.

He is talking about more.

Here on earth, while we are alive.

Dr. Willard says that God can speak to us in a conversational relationship, “individually as it is appropriate—which is only to be expected between persons who know one another, care about each other and are engaged in common enterprises.”

To anyone reading this, this is personal development.   This is God giving you what you need to make you what He intends you to be.

How can this be?

It can be because we are humans with minds. Genesis 1:26: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

In short, God is not guiding some robot when he communicates to you and me. He is guiding a person who has a will.

We have the ability to choose and we should never forget that. This ability sets us apart from other organisms on earth.

We are unique, we have our own understanding, we have our own deliberation and we make our own decisions.

We can govern our own lives.

We can also experience more.

But here is the “catch.” We have to listen for a word from God and after we get it we have to obey.

Sounds simple but today it is not.

Listening is hard because it takes attending. We live in an ADHD world [my apologies to those who suffer]. There is too much going on. When I taught speech communication, I spent time trying to get students to grasp the need for attention-getters in speeches. Why does the audience need attention getters? Because they are straying far away from the speaker, paying attention to 5, 6 or 7 other things going on in the environment or in their mental world.

God needs to get our full attention. Too often He does not have it. We are ADHD sufferers trying to exist with too much information coming at us.   I likened it to having 5, 6 or 7 television sets on in front of you with good programs on each set. You want to watch all seven programs but you can only really watch one.

One set, the biggest set, the loudest set needs to be the God tv set. He is number one. The other sets might as well be background noise.

Hurdle number one is attending.

Hurdle number two is acting. If we attend to the Word, what are we going to do with it? Letting it set there is doing us no good.   God wants us to make a move. God wants us to take action. God wants us to change.

Oh no!

That would be too hard.

Yet without action, the Word does you no good.  1 John 3:18 “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” James 2:17 “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

Let’s say this happens: God speaks and you act. You do what He has asked you to do.

What is next?

Joy and rapture…

Sounds simple but it is not. I wish I could count the number of times when I felt that I should do something yet I did not do it. I wish I could count the days when I was too overwhelmed and did not take the time to think, to listen, to even put myself in a position to receive a word from God.

I must remember that [in the words of Dr. Willard] “We are led by—guided by—reasonable, intelligible communication, not by blind impulse, force or sensation alone.”

Pure joy. The knowledge that I am on my right path toward God, the Father.

That is where I want to go…

Right now.

*author of the book Hearing God

Google “blind faith.”

You see two definitions: 1. complete trust or confidence in someone or something 2. strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.

In my opinion those two definitions show the essence of the problem with blind faith for the Christian.

Complete trust or confidence is a good thing.

Don’t we admire it, the man or woman who takes on a task for God and maybe they don’t have the skills, the materials or the money to do the task. But they do it anyway. They have blind faith, complete faith that the Lord will provide.

This kind of faith is inspirational. I read a Christian classic, Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby a few years ago where the theme was “God will provide”. Over and over, Christians believed that God would supply their needs and over and over, the check arrived in the mail just in time. I was amazed at the number of illustrations of blind faith. Believers felt they had direct support from God.

Who are we to question that?  We can’t.  However, does Dr. Willard advocate that we become “blind faith” Christians?  He doesn’t.  Dr. Willard states, “Those who understand God’s presence only in these ways must be encouraged to believe that there is much more for them to know and receive. Otherwise, they will never enter into their capacities as kings and priests, never ‘reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ’” (Romans 5:17).  Why would he say that?

Let’s look at the second definition of blind faith, “strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.”  He feels that the foundation of a Christian’s belief should not be based on blind faith: “[blind faith is not] an adequate foundation for sustained spiritual growth.

As you look at the second definition, key words jump out. One is “spiritual apprehension.” What does that mean? To get a clear definition is difficult because the word apprehension means “anxiety or fear that something bad or unpleasant will happen.” That can throw someone off the trail as it seems that belief is based on fear but that is not what spiritual apprehension means. One of the best definitions I was able to find was contributed by Pastor Joey Rodgers who says that “While God has given us brains and we are all capable of understanding and appreciating many of the lessons of life, spiritual truth always requires Divine interpretation. In fact, the primary reason God gave us a brain was not so that we would attempt to figure it out for ourselves and do life on our own, but so that we might have the sense to turn to Him. There is a difference between comprehending and apprehending. This is the task of the Spirit. While we might gain head knowledge through our human reasoning and ingenuity, heart knowledge comes as a result of the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit interprets the deeper things of God giving us an apprehension of truth. Truth requires revelation, and revelation is the responsibility of God” [italics mine].

So spiritual apprehension is not a bad thing but it relies on God communicating to us via the Holy Spirit.

Again, why would Dr. Willard write that “there is much more for them [the blind faith Christians] to know and receive.”

Dr. Willard, I feel is very much in line with John Wesley on this matter. The Anglican founder of Methodism was a practical man and he developed a four-prong approach to spiritual growth called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. Wesley believed, first of all, that the living core of the Christian faith was revealed in “scripture”. The Word of God was at the center of Wesley’s concept of understanding God. However, doctrine had to be in keeping with Christian orthodox “tradition.” So, tradition became in his view the second aspect of the so-called Quadrilateral. What we know from the past does not need to be discarded. Traditional knowledge can inform present interpretation. Being a man who had some knowledge that God can communicate with us via our spirit, Wesley felt that we can all experience God in our daily lives. He called that “experiential” faith. The last “leg” of the quadrilateral was every doctrine must be able to be defended “rationally.” He did not divorce faith from reason. He was a highly educated man, a graduate of Oxford. Being a man of the Bible, he explained that tradition, experience, and reason, however, are subject always to scripture, which is primary.

I have not read Hearing God to the end. I am reading and writing as I go and this book has plenty to write about, but Dr. Willard is not content to say to us as Christians that we can just rely on blind faith to get us through life. He will not be content to disregard “head knowledge” in favor of “heart knowledge” if we have heads that are capable of understanding God’s word.

Too often Christians are attacked because we can’t articulate the basics of our faith to others. Is it because we have accepted God on blind faith? Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you [Matthew 28: 19-20]. How can we teach what we don’t know? How can we make disciples of the unchurched with blind faith as our tool or persuasion?

We can’t.

Chapter 3 in Hearing God is entitled “Never Alone” but Dr. Willard talks a lot about what can cause us to be alone.

We can work hard at being social and can have friends that surround us. Of course, if we are reasonably tolerable, family will allow us to hang around. The old adage of “get rich and you will never be lonely” will cure your loneliness problems but what about loneliness from God?

What can cause loneliness from our Father?

Dr. Willard points to Psalms 51:11 as an example of terror in the face of loneliness from God: “Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.”  What can cause this to happen?

Sin.

There are many areas of human life where temptation and sin come into play.  First of all, since Adam and Eve ruined man’s relationship with God by choosing to sin, man and woman have had sin as part of their human makeup. We have a natural tendency to sin and to be honest, it is impossible to avoid it.  Now that may offend you.  But it is true.  “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.   For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.” [Romans 7]

In the context of being alone and away from God, read Paul’s words carefully.

Are they excuses?

Are they explanations?

Are they just a “cop-out”?

Or is Paul just being honest?

I go through periods where I feel ok about my behavior. Sometimes I feel like I am getting somewhere. And then I “act up.” What causes it? Feeling too good about myself can cause it. Things going very well can cause it. Things going poorly can cause it. Feeling badly can cause it [physical feelings and mental feelings]. It seems that temptation and sin come at the time of the greatest highs or the lowest lows. Hardly ever in the “in-between times.”

When I am “on a high” I feel “bullet-proof” and when that happens, the devil knows I am easy pickings. He knows what to do to steer me in a sinful direction. Of course, I am never “bullet-proof.” I always have to give God the glory for whatever good happens in my life. Yet I don’t. I want the credit. I actually get in God’s way. I forget that I am not the trunk, I am merely a branch and through me I may have a chance to bear fruit but the fruit comes from God, not me. God is the energy that grows the fruit. I am merely the channel to send energy to the fruit.

When I am “on a low” it feels like very little matters. I get depressed in a short-term way and lose my ability to care what happens to me. I can get very selfish when I throw a pity party and I feel like I deserve something to “pick me up.” So I indulge. Do you ever give yourself a little reward to lift your spirits? What if that reward is a sin?

Guess what? Short-term depression can become longer-term depression because you know you have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.

I am going to be honest here, like Paul.  When I sin, I am ashamed.  I have a hard time facing up to God.  My prayer time is difficult.  I beat myself up and feel guilt-ridden.  I feel alone.  I have disappointed my best Friend.  I ask “why would He want me?”  Too often I answer the question with “He doesn’t want you. He doesn’t want anything to do with you.”  This is the essence of loneliness.

To compound the problem I sometimes don’t want to be around other people because I realize I am a fraud. I put on a “righteous act” and that is what it really is—it is an act. I can’t stand to do this when I sin because I feel so hypocritical.

Then I realize that maybe I have set the bar too high. God realizes I am a human and He knows my weaknesses better than I do. He created me and knows my heart. He knows the areas of my life where I am weak.

I don’t want to keep on sinning. I realize that it is a “dead end road” that can lead to spiritual death.  Spiritual death is greater than separation from God through sin. When Adam and Eve heard the voice of the Lord, they “hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God.” The fellowship had been broken. They were spiritually dead.

When we sin and don’t want to turn back from it, we can begin to fall so deeply that we don’t even want to hear of Christ, read about Christ, or even think about Christ. All we want is the pleasure of sin [we think it is pleasure].

But things of this world cannot measure up to the love and acceptance we can feel from God’s love. I want to repent and turn away from sin. I want to reestablish my relationship with God. I hate being alone.   I want Him back and I know He wants me. He offers me an avenue back to Him, His forgiveness. This is motivation for me to turn away from sin, believe in Jesus Christ once again and receive His Grace by Faith. This reconciles me back into fellowship with God and His Love.

I can stand to be by myself and away from people for short periods of time, but I don’t like it. I definitely don’t want the ultimate suffering and punishment, spiritual death.

The bottom line: I can’t stand to be away from God.

When I sin and feel far from God, I really feel alone…and I hate it.

“It was Pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” – St. Augustine

Evagrius of Pontus was a monk who drew up the eight deadly sins and slowly they came to the attention of the Catholic Church. In the late 6th century, Pope Gregory the Great reduced the list to seven items, folding vainglory into pride, acedia into sadness, and adding envy. Beginning in the early 14th century, the popularity of the seven deadly sins as a theme among European artists of the time eventually helped to ingrain them in many areas of Catholic culture and Catholic consciousness in general throughout the world.

They are not in the Bible.

However the idea of humility, the opposite of arrogance and pride is a common idea expressed in the Bible and humility was certainly a characteristic that one could attribute to Jesus Christ.

Google “humility in the Bible” and you will see numerous verses devoted to the need for humility, many of those very words were spoken by Jesus.

For most of my life, I have struggled to understand how one can be humble and yet effective in life; most of those years I stumbled along unsure whether I had remained humble or if I had crossed the line into pride. I want to be effective in my service to my Lord, yet in being effective, I find myself in a leadership role from time to time. When that happens, the fine line between humility and pride is so hard to walk.

In Dallas Willard’s book Hearing God the idea of hearing messages from God is the topic and in Biblical history, many Bible characters received communication from The Lord. When that happened, it always seemed to have a humbling effect on the recipient of God’s message.

Dr. Willard states that the normal human response is “Who am I even to suppose that God might guide me or speak to me, much less that my experience should be like that of Moses or Elisha?”

In short, “Who am I that I should receive Divine guidance?”

Dr. Willard feels that when man receives God’s word, it can lead to two mistakes. Number one is that we have a humble response and deny that the word is real. He calls that the “Moses response”. Moses stated that he was not worthy of the words from God and God was asking him to do something that he was incapable of doing.

When I receive praise from a person, I admit that I struggle with it. I can say thanks. I can deflect it to give credit to other people. I can deny it and say “it was nothing.” I can say “It is God working through me.” I have blogged on the last response, which for Christians might be the best.  They are serving God, doing His work with His help.

However the most common response to God may be the “Moses response,” pleading inadequacy.

Dr. Willard says the response is irrelevant. God gave His message to you and He wanted to. He had his reasons. Don’t doubt them. We all are special enough to receive a word from God.

The second mistake is claiming that receiving a word from God makes us special or important.   If we think that God’s effort to communicate with us makes us important, that response cancels the positive effect of God’s connection to us.

In short Dr. Willard states “His guidance will pretty certainly be withdrawn.” This mistake is pride and God does not want us to be “puffed up” by the reception of his word. He wants us to heed it, respond to it and use it to further His kingdom.

1.Refrain from pretending we are what we are not suitable

2.Do not presume you have a favorable position with God because you have received a word

3.Don’t use God’s message to push or override the will of others in whatever context you are in

These three rules are what Dr. Willard says are “the fail-safe recipe for humility.” In fact, he jokingly says try this recipe for a month and there is a money back guarantee if it does not work.

Pride is a problem for many of us. It is hard to be humble. It is a mystery to walk the fine line between effective living and the temptation of pride and the practice of humility.

Maybe we should all emulate Moses, even though he errs on the side of being too humble and doubting God’s confidence in him. He was a humble man and God admired this trait. Nevertheless, it says in Psalm 25:9 “He [God] guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.” Maybe we need to have faith that God will do this for all of us.

He has our best interest in His heart.

Our way should be the humble way.

Ok, I admit it.

I tend to put people up on pedestals.

Especially spiritual, righteous, religious people like pastors.

That’s what Dr. Willard says we should not do.

Today we are going to explore why he would advise us not to do this.

First of all, distance is a term I use when I refer to the level of understanding between one person and another. Distance is the amount of “space” between a speaker’s message and a listener’s comprehension. The more distance, the harder it is for the listener to understand, certainly to empathize.

I see this all the time in everyday life.

The person who says, “I could never do what you do” to the artist. The person who says “I don’t know why she said that” about the individual who has expressed outrage. The person who says “why did she go back?” to the young abused woman who has gone back to her abuser husband.

Examples of distance are everywhere.

Sometimes we like it. It is a comfortable cushion between us and others, a barrier to separate us from having to deal with problems we are too lazy to comprehend.

But when it comes to hearing God, distance is a killer.

Dr. Willard cites passages from Acts when the people in the crowd are stirred by Paul’s actions. They want to offer sacrifices because they think the gods have come to them in human form. The Apostles realize this and they say “we are mortals just like you.” [Acts 14: 11-15].

What are the Apostles doing?

Trying to decrease distance.

What are the people doing?

Trying to increase distance.

It is a common human response to see someone living a “righteous” life and saying “I can’t live like that.” The observer shrugs his or her shoulders, creates some distance and keeps on living the same old way they have been living.

It is easy, this distance thing.

It is denial of humanity just because some people have tapped into God’s will a little more. The person who seems to be connected to God spiritually is special.

Can anyone get that connection? Of course they can, but they have convinced themselves that they cannot.

It is easier to say “ I don’t have what it takes” than to develop what it takes.

There is one gigantic kicker in all this: the person who tries to develop “what it takes” is going to get an unbelievable reward.

They will find themselves more open to hearing from God.

The fact that we are human will not bar us from hearing God. Our lack of effort will bar us.   Jesus was a human, God on earth. Dr. Willard lists Moses, David, Elijah, Paul, Peter etc. as example of humans who heard from God.

When confronted with his humanity, Jesus admitted it. What he had that you and I don’t have is a Divine connection. He was also God and He knew it. The plan that God had was to have a human [Jesus] on earth to connect with us and to show us that He [God] was approachable. Nothing else since the Garden of Eden had worked, so now he was using Jesus to send us a strong message.

The message is connect with Me.

The message is I am approachable.

The message is don’t create distance between yourself and Me.

Talk to me.

Don’t fall prey to that tendency to put people up on pedestals. When we do that, we have to shout up to them. When we want to touch them, they have to reach down and we have to strain to reach up.

It is ok to admire pastors. Don’t get me wrong. There are some excellent men and women out there, leading churches in a world that is not friendly to their work, inspiring people to come to God when there are countless distractions to take them away, preaching a message that is often ridiculed by people who just don’t understand.

They work for God, not man. They let God use them.

That in itself is admirable.

But don’t create distance. Many have been right where you have been. Some have been in worse places, yet they are right there, doing God’s work every day.

Before you think you can’t hear from God because you are unworthy, before you think you can’t do more in your life because people who work for God are special, you need to think about this list of spiritual celebrities [this has been around the block a time or two in Christian circles].

“Jacob was a cheater, Peter had a temper, David had an affair, Noah got drunk, Jonah ran from God, Paul was a murderer, Gideon was insecure, Miriam was a gossiper, Martha was a worrier, Thomas was a doubter, Sara was impatient, Elijah was moody, Moses stuttered, Zacchaeus was short, Abraham was old, and Lazarus was dead…. God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the CALLED!”

Let’s not put them on pedestals. Let’s try to be the best we can be and see if God can use us.

He can.