I’ve mentioned Tim Keller here before. He’s an influential Christian leader known for his love for the city and winning cities for Christ - Christianity Today just did a cover story on him. For me, the thing I love about him is his focus on the gospel of Jesus Christ.
His most recent book is The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith. To him, the heart of the Christian faith is a God who is “prodigal” defined as “recklessly extravagant”. While most of us see the son as prodigal because of his “recklessly extravagant” lifestyle, Tim prefers to see a God who is prodigal because of his “recklessly extravagant” grace. The focus of Christianity ought to be on our Father’s recklessly extravagant grace, not on man. The heart of Christianity is the love of the Father.
On page 115, he writes:
We habitually and instinctively look to other things besides God and his grace as our justification, hope, significance, and security. We believe the gospel at one level, but at deeper levels we do not. Human approval, professional success, power and influence, family and clan identity- all of these things serve as our heart’s ‘functional trust’ rather than what Christ has done, and as a result we continue to be driven to a great degree by fear, anger, and a lack of self-control. You cannot change such things through mere willpower, through learning Biblical principles and trying to carry them out. We can only change permanently as we take the gospel more deeply into our understanding and into our hearts. We must feed on the gospel, as it were, digesting it and making it part of ourselves. That is how we grow.
The last part of this quote relates to something I’ve been thinking a bit about occasionally since the first part of this post last year. Pastor Prince recently did a series on the High Priest’s garments and 2 Corinthians 3:18 was emphasized throughout. The reason he was teaching on the High Priest’s garments was because Jesus is our High Priest and focusing on Jesus, beholding Him and His glory, would transform us into His likeness. A constant refrain throughout the series was that we don’t get transformed through our willpower or efforts or “behaviour modification”, but through beholding the glory of Jesus Christ. This is not a very common view of how change occurs in the Christian church, yet this is something that Tim Keller seems to agree with above.
In most churches, change is seen to come mainly through doing things like reading the Bible more or praying more or fasting more. It comes through exerting more of one’s effort. If we face sin, we just have to try harder to overcome it. We have to change our lifestyle so we don’t succumb to sin. We have to resist sin with all our might. Now, unlike many pro-New Creation bloggers who tend to baulk at any hint of willpower being involved in change, I do think there’s a certain element of truth in the above and a certain role that the will and our efforts play in our transformation. I don’t think it’s true to say we just have to let go and let God. At least, not all the time. That’s because I clearly see in Scriptures Paul’s exhortation to do this or that. He does tell believers to stop doing this and start doing that. That is, I see Paul talking about behaviour modification and using one’s willpower and efforts - for how else are we to do this or stop doing that but through our willpower and efforts and changing our behaviour? So I think it’s an over-reaction to not see that our will and efforts have a part to play. On the other hand, I think there’s a great danger in taking our eyes away from the gospel and failing to see that the more we focus on the gospel, the more we’re changed and get the power to change.
So I don’t think it’s an either-or thing. Both meditating on the gospel and exerting our will to change are biblical and needed. But the power to change comes from the gospel. And this has not been emphasized enough in the church as a whole. Many of us have a worldview that leaves the gospel behind when we’re Christians. We assume that we don’t need to hear the gospel regularly because we’re already Christians. “Now that we’re Christians,” we think, “we can move on to other things. We don’t need to hear the gospel (i.e. the message of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection) all the time. The gospel is for unbelievers and well… occasionally for believers to remind us that we’re not saved by our efforts. But surely we shouldn’t always hear the gospel preached in the church and shouldn’t always study about the gospel in the Bible, should we!”
And there’s where I think the majority of the church has got it wrong. The emphasis of church has got to be on the gospel of Jesus Christ. The message that is heard in churches nowadays has to be totally saturated with the gospel message. That’s because the heart of Christianity is the Father’s love as shown in gospel of Jesus Christ, and it’s this message that saves us and gives us the power to live for God. Learning biblical principles, using our willpower and efforts are all good, but all that has to be firmly grounded in the message of the gospel and ought never to be the main emphasis of any church or discipleship program. There ought only to be one overwhelming emphasis: the gospel of Jesus Christ.
While I learned grace (for justification/salvation) first through other authors, New Creation church has furthered my understanding of the importance of making grace and the gospel of Jesus Christ the focus of our sanctification or the Christian life - in fact, the whole of Christianity. The gospel is not just for unbelievers. It’s for believers too. Whatever we get is because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that’s why I’m not ashamed of attending a church that preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ in an overwhelming fashion. I think all churches should do this.
“Tim uses the gospel surgically on the heart. The gospel is what we need to come to faith and also what we need to grow”, it was said of Tim here. I think the exact same thing can be said of Pastor Prince.
The below interview excerpts about hearing God’s voice is taken from Vol. 11 no. 4 of Cutting Edge magazine. Cutting Edge is the church planting magazine of Vineyard USA. I’ve loved the Vineyard church association / denomination for over 10 years. There are a few church associations / denominations that I admire like Newfrontiers and Sovereign Grace Ministries, but Vineyard has been the one that has influenced my theology the most because of their balance. And I think many people would rate John Wimber, one of the founders of Vineyard and now with Jesus, as one of the most, if not the most, respected and influential charismatic leaders of all time. Charismatic Christianity wouldn’t be what it is today without Wimber. Besides the Vineyard’s emphasis on supernatural Christianity and signs and wonders, I also love their passion for the poor and marginalized.
I like this interview (full interview found here) because it’s refreshingly honest about the issue of hearing God’s voice:
Cutting Edge: Could you define conversational prayer and talk about how it’s unique or different from other forms of prayer?
Caroline Park: When I talk to God, I actively wait and expect him to reply to my talk. It’s different from other forms of prayer in that I don’t have an active agenda. I might have a question or some issue that I want to talk to God about, but like a conversation with a friend, I don’t really know where the conversation is going to end. I respond to His response. And in that way, I am more open to His agenda and how and where He’s taking the conversation.
CE: How do you know that you’re really hearing God and you’re not just making it up in your head?
CP: I don’t know (laughs). There is always the possibility that we are making it up. It’s always a possibility, no matter how experienced somebody is, just because we’re human beings, and we’re fallible. Many of our emotions, experiences, hopes and wishes do come in during these conversations with God. Having said that, I think by doing it a lot and by responding and acting on what we think we’ve heard, we can get a feel of what it felt like to hear from God. Sometimes, we can confirm it later by the actual circumstances or what other people have heard.
As we keep going, we get to know His voice, His tone. You get to know this person. That’s why the term conversational is very descriptive and appropriate here. The whole point of conversation is getting to know somebody; in a lot of situations, it’s more so than getting the answers.
I try to have faith in what I hear from God; at the same time, I am open to the possibility of mis-hearing Him, or misunderstanding him, or misapplying whatever He has said to me.
CE: Would you say you’ve gotten better at understanding Him over the years?
CP: I think so. Prayer changes me and gives me a deeper understanding of God. This helps me to understand and realize where He’s coming from. It has become easier and more consistent for me to have conversations with God. But there are still times when I feel stuck or feel like God is silent.
CE: How would someone get started in praying more conversationally?
CP: It’s helpful to keep in mind that everyone connects differently. Just because I have this type of relationship with God doesn’t mean that my husband or somebody else will have the same kind of relationship with God. When I talk to other people about hearing from God, it’s helpful to introduce a lot of different ways of connecting with God. Some people start a conversation looking at an artwork. Some people like to listen to music. For some people, it helps if they’re moving their bodies, and they have a very good experience when they’re exercising or taking a long walk.
For me, and for many around me, the first place we connected with God in a significant conversational way is journaling. In journaling, I usually recommend that people write down everything, including their own questions. I might just write down, “God, how are you doing?” and then wait and expect God to say something, and write down everything that comes to my mind without judgment.
When I journal, I can try to shut down the critical faculties in my brain and write anything, whereas when I’m carrying a conversation in my head, that’s a lot more difficult. So we write down everything, and then we go back, and—after the conversation’s over—try to discern what might have been from God and what might not be. That whole conversation sometimes might not be from God, but parts of it can be. This is the tricky part, but trying it over and over again, and especially talking to people who are doing similar things, will lead to a deeper conversational life with God.
CE: So you’re not saying to shut off your critical faculties entirely, but rather, in some sense, you suspend them for the time being so you can have the conversation, and then you can look back and say, “Okay, now let’s turn them back on and try to think about how this would relate to whether God was speaking or not.”
CP: That’s right. When I’m not sure about whether I’m hearing from God in my mind, I drive myself crazy trying to have a conversation and at the same time trying to analyze what I’m hearing. I mean, I’m sure we’ve all had this kind of interaction with another person that we can see. We can find ourselves thinking, “Is this person telling me the truth?” or, “Am I really understanding what he’s saying?” And then we cannot be really present in that moment and engage in the conversation. When we first start this kind of listening practice, or when we are emotionally charged about something, those doubts and questions constantly come and interfere with the conversation.
CE: So the key thing, both for Christians and non-Christians, is not following some set of rules, but actually just relating personally to God?
CP: …There is a power, amazing power, that comes from the word of God when it comes to a person directly, as opposed to me saying to somebody, “God loves you.” It is a power that unlocks people’s hearts and that enables and empowers them to really, truly believe it.
At the same time, it is a wise thing to have safety guidelines when you teach about hearing God. Even when they’re playing at the playground, kids can get hurt. When we hear from God, we hold it lightly, especially when we hear from God for other people. It is up to that person to decide whether this is from God or not. We teach people that they should talk to people they trust spiritually before making any major decisions on the basis of hearing something from God. We have to have humility in this practice.
I was asking one of my daughters “What should I do with my hair? Should I keep it long or short?” She was just kind of chatting with me, and at one point she said, “Well, maybe you can ask God about it,” In our family we talk about talking to God and asking him questions a lot. So I said, “Oh, yeah, maybe I could do that,” and she responded, “Yeah, but then again, God might ask you, what do you want to do with your hair?” It really touched my heart because she understands that God cares about how we feel, our desires, who we are. It’s not just about doing the right thing but about having relationship with God and knowing ourselves who we are in God.
It’s helpful to think about our relationship and our life with God as being in a garden with clear boundaries. But there’s a lot of space as well, where we can explore and expand, like the Garden of Eden that God gave to the human race. There are boundaries. But there are also a lot more things that are not about right and wrong—instead they’re about adventures, exploration, and the process of having relationship with God.
This image of a garden is opposed to the image of a tightrope, where there is one answer, and I need to ask God and hear from him so that I will know that right answer and do the right thing…because otherwise I will somehow fall and it will not be good for my life. That’s a lot of pressure, and it induces a lot of guilt and fear in our relationship with God. There are things that have a “right” answer, but most of the things in life are of a different nature. It’s more about enjoying him and enjoying myself and enjoying our relationship than getting the right answer.