Made New - Listening Anew
Bible Reading:
John 14: 23-29
PREPARED BY
KEN GEHRELS
PASTOR
CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
NEPEAN, ONTARIO
Recently, I heard of a chap here in Ottawa who was offered a job with a competing hi-tech firm in San Jose. Salary was about double what he was making. He began to pray, asking the Lord for some direction. His son was chattering with a buddy a few days later who asked, "So, what’s going to happen?" "Oh," said the son, "Dad’s praying, but mom’s packing."
There are many stories like this. They’re light hearted and sometimes even funny. But beneath them is a serious question -
Do we hear from God...... or not?
In three weeks we’ll be asked to vote for elders & deacons here at Calvin. Before the vote is held, a prayer will be offered. Should that prayer include a request for God to provide guidance? Or not?
When committee meetings are held, it is right to pray for the Spirit’s leading and guidance? Or not?
When you’re looking for a life’s partner, is that proper to ask God for direction in this matter? Or not?
Does He guide His people in specific, direct ways...... or not?
Please join me in reading from God’s directive for our lives:
John 14: 23-29
Focus with me, if you will, on these words of Jesus:
"But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." John 14:26
Can you recall the words we used to open our service, from Psalm 25?
Ps 25:5 "Guide me in your truth and teach me...."
The Lord God – teaching, reminding, guiding....
Activities that the Bible points to, and promises as an ongoing part of the lives of believers.
Activities -and that’s the first thing to take home this morning -
activities that come within a specific context;
the context of relationship.
salvation, love relationship;
between Bridegroom and Bride,
between Creator and Image Bearers,
between Saviour and Redeemed,
between Comforter and Comforted
I hope you picked up the tone of what Jesus was saying in John 14. It is all about relationship – father language, being "with" believers, peace-giving, coming, God making His home with believers.
It is in that relationship context that the leading of the Spirit is experienced.
Which is a good check for us who seek His voice. It reminds us that, more than anything, we want to be about the task of seeking the presence of God..... not His presents!
And it is when we experience His presence that we will experience His direction and leading.
All of which takes time, focus, space. Just like any other significant relationship. You can’t have a solid relationship with your spouse without having time alone, or time to focus on each other, or deliberate space to enjoy that relationship. You may be able to carry on for a short time without these elements, but soon things begin to deteriorate.
The heavenly bridegroom, Jesus, looks at His Church as a bride and seeks an intimate relationship with Her — with us.
Time alone, time to focus, deliberate space ---- we need these.
And so the scriptures speak of our living in God’s presence, and remind us six times: "Be still......."
And so Jesus visits the home of two sisters, one busy serving Him and the other quietly sitting with Him, listening to Him. Jesus points to the one with Him and says, "she has chosen the better way." (Luke 10).
Our tradition loves the phrase of John Calvin, "Ora et labora" – "Pray and work." Let me suggest that we lean heavily to the labora side. We are quick to move past praying and meditation, seeing them as preliminaries. You’ve probably heard.... or said:
"John, can you do devotions at the meeting tonight. But keep them short. We have a lot of business to cover."
Martin Luther is popularly quoted as saying, "I spend an hour a day in prayer. But when I am busy and the tasks press in on my, I can afford no less than 2 hours a day in prayer."
We cannot hear God’s directive to us while racing around like mad fools.
Second thing that I hope you take home this morning is that we listen for the Lord’s voice because we desire to obey Him. We want to respond to Him.
Loving Communion; enjoying His holy, love-filled and gracious presence; sharing the richness of divine fellowship;
out of which flows obedience.
This is what the Lord desires!
It becomes our desire, too.
And so we rip up and throw away any attitude towards seeking to hear God’s voice as a way to manipulate or to get from God.
We make sure we’re not like the old Scottish woman I once heard about. She went from home to home across the countryside selling thread, buttons, and shoestrings. When she came to an unmarked crossroad, she would toss a stick into the air and go in the direction the stick pointed when it landed.
One day, however, she was seen tossing the stick up several times. "Why do you toss the stick more than once?" someone asked. "Because," replied the woman, "it keeps pointing to the left, and I want to take the road on the right."
In Matthew 21 Jesus describes a father with two sons - one who listens quietly to his father’s requests and then goes away without obeying; the second son grumbling, but then heading out to obey. Neither is ideal. "But whatever you do," Jesus says, "Don’t think that just sitting quietly and listening to the Lord, without putting it into practice, will please Him at all."
Sunday pew sitting, or Wednesday quiet time – which doesn’t get translated into active Christian living and service is pew sitting and quiet time that are as good as never done, in the eyes of the Lord.
We listen that we may better obey.
"But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."
John 14:26
"Guide me in your truth and teach me...." Ps 25:5
As we pray this, we can grow in this. Listening to the Lord’s voice, coming to recognize it is something we can learn.
In that regard, please, please, please, people of God ---- don’t put it off and figure that you’ll worry about learning to discern God’s voice in depth sometime down the road later, when you need it.
Waiting till the crisis point to learn to hear God won’t work!
In sailing they tell you that it’s important that at least one other crew member know at least the basics of handling the boat. That way, if trouble arises, action can be taken. You don’t teach the basics in a storm. That’s when you need the skills ready for use. Teach them in times of calm.
The world of faith is no different. Learning to live and walk with the wind of the Spirit in your life sails is not something to leave for the stormy times. Get it right when times are calm. Then, when the storms hit, you’ll have something to lean on.
And so....... where do we look? I’d like to get direction in that regard from one of the doctrinal statements of our Church - The Belgic Confession, art 2:
We know God by two means:
First, by the creation, preservation, and government
of the universe,
since that universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book
in which all creatures, great and small,
are as letters to make us ponder
the invisible things of God:
his eternal power and his divinity...
Second, he makes himself known to us more openly
by his holy and divine Word,
as much as we need in this life,
for his glory and for the salvation of his own.
The greatest way God speaks is through the Bible, The great Word of God.
There we meet Jesus.
There we hear His general will for life, the great path in which all believers are guided and directed toward blessing (Ps 37:3).
For example, in that Word we hear - again and again - that justice and care, advocacy for the voiceless is something very close to the heart of God.
We see ourselves in a world of need.
We have resources.
And so, together with all believers, we know God’s will - Act!
It’s a standing Kingdom order.
As is the order to spread the Gospel.
In the Word we hear the need for all to personally surrender to Jesus.
That is God’s standing order to every human being.
A general revealing of universal truths and imperatives for all.
Beyond this general revelation, then, comes a searching for the specific will of the Lord into my specific and immediate circumstances.
And that’s where most of the questions land.
How does God provide specific direction into my immediate circumstances?
Let me list a few:
- Converging circumstances: things somehow come together, opportunities suddenly present themselves, doors open or close in ways outside of your control, people happen into your life in unexpected ways.
- a dream that leaps out at you, or a vision that comes into your mind which you cannot shake, an impression or thought that won’t leave you alone.
- the word or actions of another person
- occasionally an audible voice
- a phrase of scripture leaping out and whacking you between the eyes, grabbing hold of you and not letting go.
- a thought in our mind; perhaps in a particular setting in creation, perhaps in the reading of God’s Word. We "get this idea....."
- a situation or circumstance that stands out at you, which you can’t shake. I think here of someone who encountered a report of suffering among children in a certain part of the world. She couldn’t get rid of that image. It left an impression that brought her towards volunteering her efforts in focused relief actions and political lobbying for the welfare of children in places of global conflict. She was convinced it was God’s will for her.
- a divine angel appearance. I recall talking to someone who had been active in the Allied Resistance movement in World War II. There were dangerous missions. On one of them the worker saw a figure walking beside him in the ditch through the most dangerous stretch of terrain. When he hit the safety of bush on the other side, the figure vanished. And the worker, a believer, was left with absolutely no doubt that God had sent a vision of an angel as a sign that His holy protection was with him.
Some of the ways in which God speaks.
Ways that we can block.
We can do that, you know. Block our ears, clog our hearts, close our minds, disrupt our lives and prevent ourselves from hearing, clearly, the Word and guidance of the Lord.
Psalm 66: 18 names sin as one of the biggest culprits. If we insist on hanging on to lifestyle issues and patterns that we know from Scripture to be displeasing to God, we cannot glibly expect that the Spirit’s voice will ring loud and clear in affirming, guiding, comforting ways.
Or busyness. We’ve spoken of that earlier.
Even if they’re very good things, busyness can get in the way of relationships and communicating in relationships. With God, too.
Or distraction - The Scriptures speak of God’s word coming through as a "still, small voice" [1 Kings 19:11-12]. If we don’t ever remove ourselves from the constant barrage of internet, TV, other people chattering, phone ringing, etc we clog our hearts and put corks in our ears and a blanket over our soul.
Hearing God becomes VERY difficult.
Or - and I really need to name this one within our circles - do we even expect to hear God’s voice? Do we, in practical terms, live out the statement, "God doesn’t speak like this anymore."
Comedian Lily Tomlin once quipped, "Why is it that when we speak to God we are said to be praying, but when God speaks to us we are said to be schizophrenic?" [Lily Tomlin quoted in Hearing God Dallas Willard p.19]
Perhaps we say, "God only speaks through the Bible." That seeks to be faithful, but takes the matter TOO far. The Bible gives direction to salvation. The Bible provides basic principles for life. The Bible trains us in being capable agents and stewards who can make decisions and cultivate creation. But there remain many smaller circumstances, specific situations and occasions that we want to take to the Lord.
So are we, or are we not, sincere when we pray and ask for guidance?
Do we, or do we not, believe that God will answer?
If we don’t, why is it that most of us still pray as if He will?
Final way is that when we’re facing an issue we sometimes can prejudge solutions and get locked in to them:
- something that has worked before in my life or the community’s
- the way we traditionally have done it.
And anything that doesn’t fit that bill is discarded.
When we pray, "thy will be done" we don’t want to be praying and really meaning, "Thy will be done...... as long as it looks like....."
We need to acknowledge that sometimes the Lord may want to pour the wine of His Spirit’s presence into new wineskins (Mt 9:17).
Acknowledging these struggles, then, we seek to grow in our ability to hear God. Recognizing that on this side of Christ’s return we won’t always get it right. We don’t see the picture with full clarity (1 Cor 13).
We seek to learn, just as musicians learn in time to recognize the sounds of different instruments out of the full sound of a symphony.
Just as a mother learns to pick out the sound of her child’s cry.
We seek to walk in the truth of Mt 13:12 concerning spiritual momentum:
"to the one who has will more be given."
The more we practice and seek to hear from the Lord, the more He will honour that, and the better we will become at discerning His will.
Mt 5:8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
Work at it.
Be open to God’s direction from many directions - scripture, and as the Belgic suggests, other ways as God speaks through aspects of His creation. As one person observed:
"If God could speak through a donkey to Balaam, He can speak through anybody to us." [P.Lord Hearing God p.57]
Take time with it.
Nurture your personal quiet time and relationship with the Lord. Take time, quiet and apart time to "soak" in His presence. Simply quietly being with Him – no agenda, no noise, no reading. Just welcoming Him in.
And - Remember: "The infallibility of the Speaker does not guarantee the infallibility of the hearer." [D.Willard Hearing God p.196]
John Wesley wisely said, "Do not hastily ascribe things to God. Do not easily suppose that dreams, voices, visions, or impressions are revelations from God. They may be from Him. They may be from nature. They may be from the devil. Therefore, do not believe every spirit but try the spirits to see whether they are from God." He’s working from 1 Thes 5:19-22:
"Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil."
How do you test?
- With Scripture first of all. It’s the big rudder for life. If there is any hint of contradiction reject it immediately as being work of darkness or imagination cloaked in light.
- Check it with God’s people. 1 Cor 14:29 commands the community to weigh what 2 or 3 prophets say. Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:20 that He is present with power where 2 or 3 gather together.
To suggest that you’ll get it right by yourself, without the support of other believers is a myth of contemporary society. It is folly, even sinful. Is 53:6 speaks about believers going astray, and says, "each one has turned to his own way...."
A third way of testing is by looking at the fruit that results from listening to certain thoughts or circumstances. (Mt 7:20; 12:33) Ask:
- does it build faith
- does it provide hope
- does it restore creation
- does it produce gratitude
- does it exalt Jesus Christ
Remember - the word of the Lord comes to bring life (John 10:10).
Words of darkness seek to break and destroy.
Living the new life as believers, and learning to hear God speak.
Listening anew.
It is a challenging task - a full and deep challenge, but one that promises great fruit. So let me close with these words of encouragement from the prophet:
Jer 29:13 "And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."
