A BROKEN, TRANSPARENT, AND TRULY APPEALING CHURCH

I hate false, unbiblical teaching, which poses as Biblical. I know that “hate” is a strong word, but I think that it is warranted here. Look at Paul’s reaction to those who had been preaching a false gospel:

·       But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8-9; ESV)

Yesterday, online, I was deeply grieved to read several testimonies of people who had departed from the faith. How did this happen? They had all been assured by the teachers of their churches that they should experience evidences of the Holy Spirit guiding them. They should be able to hear His voice and experience His presence. However, they didn’t and concluded that they were something the matter with them. Years later, they confessed:

·       "One of the main issues I had with trying to believe for so many years was no voice, no feeling of presence, no nothing. My only options were people were pretending or fooling themselves.

·       Everyone else I was surrounded by always seemed to hear that voice [of God], and I never really did, which is why I struggled a lot as far as fearing that I was doing something wrong or sinning all the time. I so much wanted to just follow God and obey him and hear him, and I tried and tried over the years. Everyone always seemed so confident about what God was "calling" them to do… I never felt confident confirmation like everyone else always seemed to have. Not hearing him wasn't what made me lose faith, but after I did stop believing, I was able to look back and realize there's a reason I didn't hear him."

Both of these young ladies had ceased to believe and insisted, and even though they had wanted Christ, they are now no longer interested.

Please, before you dismiss these two accounts by concluding, “Well, evidently, they were never part of the elect and never really believers, please consider Jesus’ condemnation of false teaching:

·       Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” (Luke 11:52)

Jesus didn’t question whether those “hindered” were actually part of the elect. For Him, it was enough that they had been hindered.

Or consider Paul’s lamentation:

·       For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. (Titus 1:10-11)

Whatever their motive, these false teachers had misled many, even driving some away from the faith.

What had driven those women away? Disappointment, doubt, and the tormenting sense that there must be something the matter with them!

Please understand, I am not trying to say that God doesn’t intervene miraculously. He does. However, because of doubts and a large dose of spiritual insecurity, many speak as if God is always audibly talking to them, and that this should be the expectation for any Christian.

Well, doesn’t the Spirit guide us and shouldn’t we have a sense or experience of this? Not necessarily. God is able to infallibly lead us without having a sense of His leading. There are so many biblical examples of God infallibly leading even those who were enemies of God. He was able to bring pagan kings to march their armies against nations He wanted to chasten.

The martyr Stephen had explained to his executors:

·       “And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.” (Acts 7:9-10)

God leading the kings and the Pharaoh didn’t require them to hear the voice of God. Instead, our God is able to lead, even pagans, to perform the very service that He requires:

·       The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will. (Proverbs 21:1)

God had been leading Israel’s first king, Saul, to the Prophet Samuel who would anoint him king. However, Saul was aware of only one thing. He was pursuing his donkeys who had run off. Meanwhile, God informed Samuel:

·       “Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have seen my people, because their cry has come to me.” (1 Samuel 9:15-16)

God was able to perfectly lead Saul to the exact place He intended without Saul having a clue about was really going on. This is why we are taught to trust in the Lord rather than to listen for His voice:

·       So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:6-7)

While God can provide miraculous reassurances, we mustn’t demand them like doubting Thomas who refused to believe unless Christ would appear to him. However, after Christ did appear to Thomas, He also reprimanded him:

·       Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)

Also, blessed are those who believe without hearing His voice. We are to trust in God’s leading without demanding evidence:

·       Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Some pastors attempt to validate their spirituality and authority by claiming that they hear God speak certain messages to them. While God can do this, a person who claims to be a prophet must also live up to the requirements of a prophet:

·       But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. (Deuteronomy 18:20-22)

My prayer is that we would learn the lesson God had taught Paul. So that Paul wouldn’t become proud of virtue of his spiritual insights, God had afflicted Him and wouldn’t remove the affliction, despite Paul’s many prayers. Finally, Paul got the message – that he should boast in his weakness and infirmities and not in his spiritual successes:

·       But he [God] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

Perhaps if Christians would be more transparent about their weaknesses, the church might become a more hospitable place for the suffering and the weak.

What does it take to become more accepting of our brokenness and neediness? Faith! Simple believing that it is no longer about us but about the One who loves us (Gal. 2:20)!

I asked the two women (and many others) if there is anything that can now be said to make things better – anything that might bring them back to Christ. They both resolutely informed me that this ship has already sailed, and that they are now glad to be without the church.

Hearing the Spirit: Through Mysticism or Scripture?

Religious pluralism – the notion that all religions are equally correct - is speaking, and where it speaks, there is confusion and uncertainty! We therefore ask, “How do I know I am hearing from the Spirit, that I am going in the right direction?”

There are many different answers. The popular writer, Brennan Manning, offers one in The Signature of Jesus:

• “The first step in faith is to stop thinking about God in prayer…” “Contemplative spirituality tends to emphasize the need for a change in consciousness…we must come to see reality differently.” “Choosing a single, sacred word…repeat the sacred word inwardly, slowly, and often.” “Enter into the great silence of God. Alone in that silence, the noise within will subside and the Voice of Love will be heard.” (Ray Yungen, A Time of Departing, 83).

Well, if you want to hear God’s “Voice of Love,” you need to learn Manning’s methodologies – all entirely unbiblical:

1. “Stop thinking about God in prayer,
2. Change in consciousness,
3. Repetition of one word in order to bring this change in consciousness about,
4. Practice silence to hear”

In contrast to Manning’s program, the Bible gives ample testimony that we don’t need to learn techniques to amplify or actualize God’s presence. He is omnipotent! He can even speak through donkeys and evil prophets (Numbers 22:30-31). Instead, it is our lack of repentance that prevents us from hearing God. This is what the Spirit stated to the Church at Laodicea:

• As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. (Rev. 3:19-20)

The Spirit didn’t criticize this church because they hadn’t learned certain mystical techniques for hearing God. Instead, it was a matter of their failure to “be zealous and repent!” Our God cares about righteousness, truth, and faith, not about learning generic methods to change our brain waves.

Jesus insisted that a relationship with God and hearing His voice had nothing to do with a mindless repetition of the same word:

• And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. (Matthew 6:7)

How then do we hear the voice of God and discern His will? The primary source of His voice is His Word! He therefore gave the church pastors and teachers to disseminate this Word for the edification of the church:

• So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

It is through this knowledge that we attain spiritual maturity and freedom from the suffocating demonic blindness:

• Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will. (2 Tim. 2:25-26)

God grants us repentance through Gospel preaching to produce a “knowledge of the truth” – the voice we should pursue - and this enables us to “escape from the trap of the devil.” There is no mention here or in any verses about the need to learn certain techniques to hear the voice of the Spirit.

In fact, Scripture explicitly tells us that we hear His voice when we read Scripture. Each of the seven letters to the churches (Revelation 2, 3) concludes:

• Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

By reading and meditating on Scripture, we hear what the Spirit has to tell us. Scripture is His Word to us:

·         [Peter] said, “Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas. (Acts 1:16 quoting Psalms)

Even the very personal Book of Psalms is the Word of the Spirit. Therefore, when we read the Hebrew Scriptures, we are hearing the voice of God. Jesus affirmed the same thing – that when David spoke (Psalm 110), he spoke “in the Spirit!” According to the Book of Nehemiah, when the Prophets of Israel spoke, they were speaking “by your Spirit” (Neh. 9:30). The Spirit and the Word are so closely associated that the Word is called the “sword of the Spirit” (Eph. 6:17)!

However, when we read Scripture, we naturally reject it, as the Hebrews had done (2 Cor. 3:14-18). This reading must also, therefore, be combined with a repentant heart:

·          So, as the Holy Spirit says [quoting Psalm 95]: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness.” (Hebrews 3:7-8)

We have erected a barrier against hearing what the Spirit says. We do not hear the Spirit because we do not want to hear Him. It has nothing to do with a failure to learn certain mystical techniques but a rejection of His Word (1 Cor. 2:14) – the voice of the Spirit. Consequently, blessedness is a matter of reading the Word of the Spirit with a willing heart:

• Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart. (Psalm 119:1-2)

Consequently, King David prayed that he would be granted a “willing spirit” (Psalm 51:12), not mystical practices.

In contrast, according to Manning, blessedness comes from the repetition of a single word which then changes our mental state and brings us into the silence of God. However, can we be certain that this changed mental state opens us to the Spirit? Roger Oakland cites the “Christian” mystic, Richard Foster, who acknowledges the inherent dangers:

• Richard Foster claims that practitioners must use caution. He admits that in contemplative prayer “we are entering deeply into the spiritual realm” and that sometimes it is not the realm of God even though it is “supernatural.” He admits there are spiritual beings and that a prayer of protection should be said beforehand – something to the effect of “All dark and evil spirits must now leave.” (Faith Undone, 99)

Perhaps Foster hasn’t heard from the Spirit at all, and perhaps he needs to re-examine his disciplines and where they are leading him.

I hope that reading Scripture, trusting that the Spirit will speak to us through it, doesn’t seem overly dry. On occasion, it has for me. I wanted more. However, years ago, in the midst of decades of intense depression, there were numerous occasions when God spoke profoundly to me through Scripture. These were occasions when I was at my lowest, unable to read even a verse. Suddenly, a phrase would jump out at me like, “And God heard him!” It was as if an explosion of light went off in my head. “He heard me, He heard me!” It was so powerful that all my depression was driven away. I looked around, but it just wasn’t there! I was assured that God had heard me, and nothing else mattered.

This hasn’t happened to me for about 25 years. Yes, God still does speak to me through Scripture, but not with such profundity. I guess He expects me to stand on my own feet now.