I’ve been going through a rough patch recently (slowly getting out of it) and I’m also now moving into a new phase in my life at least in terms of work and perhaps in other areas (e.g. spiritual) too. Being a charismatic for the past 14 years plus of my Christian life, I’ve always been intrigued with hearing God’s voice. I have a category on my blog called Hearing God for the posts I’ve written on this issue. As I’ve written before, I’m no expert on this issue - quite the contrary. I’ve read a lot of books on this subject and also talked to many Christians about this - including the past few days.
About a year plus ago, I started reading John Eldredge’s Walking With God, which is on the topic of hearing God’s voice. I blogged a bit about this here and here. I thought that was one of the better books I had read up to that time on the subject of hearing God’s voice and it inspired me to read up more about this subject. I think it was around that time I was searching the Net on this topic and I somehow came to know of Mark Virkler’s Communion With God Ministries. I read about him and his books and I was very excited because somehow I felt that learning from him (his books, experiences) was going to answer a lot of my questions I had and bring me into a new level in this area. Basically, he specializes in this area - in teaching Christians about hearing God’s voice. In 1979 (the year of my birth!), he set aside one whole year just to learn how to hear God’s voice and God gave Him a breakthrough. He was that desperate to learn to hear God’s voice. And God gave him a breakthrough and now his ministry is mostly about this area.
I guess I was excited because this man was a bit like me. I think I read somewhere that he struggled with this issue for a long time and he read many books but none of them actually helped him to hear God’s voice. That’s why he set aside one year to learn how to do so and God taught him many things. Like him, I’ve read many books on this issue and somehow they all really haven’t helped me. And I guess I understood why. Mark talks about how it’s easier for right-brain people to hear God’s voice:
Right brain individuals simply say, “Oh, hearing God’s voice is easy: you just know that you know that you know!” Well, that doesn’t help a left-brain person at all. (How To hear God’s Voice, p. 43)
He’s left-brain like me and so I guess when he read all these books about hearing God’s voice by these men of God (probably right-brain Christians) who could hear God’s voice well, it was written in a way that didn’t help a left-brainer as we think differently and it’s harder for us to “get it”. We left-brainers tend to go by logic and reasoning, rather than imagination and intuition. And so Mark actually wrote two main books on hearing God’s voice - one for a left-brainer (called How To Hear God’s Voice) and one for a right-brainer (called Dialogue With God). And his books have really helped many Christians start hearing God’s voice - see here.
Anyway, I ordered the two books straight away. They’re not very popular books so for Singaporeans reading this, if you want to buy these books, you can use this great online bookstore website, Open Trolley, that actually sells both of them. For those who are like me who struggle or want to progress more in this area (and especially for those who are left-brain), you have to get these two books as I think they are probably the best books around on this subject - for biblical support and for practical steps one can take.
I read the left-brain book last year and recently I just started to read the right-brain one. And I guess circumstances in my life have just created in me a greater desire to really start taking the time to apply what I’m reading (e.g. using visioning and journaling) so I’m quite excited.
Anyway, if any of you actually purchase these books, do drop a comment here and/or email me at idealist at stillhaventfound.org as I’d love for us to share our experiences putting what we’ve learned into practice!
PS: Even if those who read this post aren’t interested in hearing God’s voice, Mark Virkler’s Communion With God Ministries website contains a lot of very interesting materials - including excerpts from tons of his books. I’ve involved in both sides of the Charismatic - non-Charismatic Christian divide for about 14 years. As a left-brain person, I love good teaching (Word). However, I also wish to be open to the Spirit. I think it’s generally the case that left-brain Christians are attracted to churches with good solid teaching (normally non-Charismatic churches) and right-brain Christians to churches with less solid teaching but which are more open to the Spirit (normally Charismatic churches). Generally, non-Charismatic churches are stronger in the Word and Charismatic churches move more in the Spirit (supernatural). And it so often seems that never the twain shall they meet…
At one time of my life, my love and understanding of both the non-Charismatic and Charismatic worlds of Christianity made me want to become a bible college lecturer and touch on bringing both sides together. I have always loved good biblical teaching that touched on more Charismatic issues. That’s because it’s so hard to find really solidly biblical Charismatic teaching. And this is probably because those who flow in the Spirit are normally right-brainers who probably aren’t that gifted in logical/analytical thinking. I’ve always been stronger in the Word (being a left brainer) than the Spirit and so I have always wanted to encounter more of the Spirit - but in a biblical way, not in a way that is very often seen in charismatic churches with all the excesses and abuses.
Anyway, it’s really refreshing to see what Mark Virkler, a self-confessed left-brainer, has written. I think he’s done an absolutely brilliant job in writing on Charismatic topics from a solidly biblical and philosophical perspective. I intend to purchase lots of stuff from that website so if there’s anyone from Singapore interested in doing so too, contact me so we could perhaps share on shipping costs.
A reader (let’s call him Jack) of this blog recently emailed me, asking me for my thoughts on his spiritual situation because he’s read/listened to a preacher that I’ve quoted on this blog (Paul Washer) and has also listened to a few of Pastor Prince’s sermons - both of whom preach pretty contradictory messages in one sense. I asked for his permission to put an edited form of his email on my blog for others to respond to his struggles, as I think some readers will have some helpful things to say . He was fine with this. So below is his email (edited) followed by an introductory response by me. In subsequent posts, I’ll write more on this topic. For now, I welcome the responses of other Christians from all tribes of Christianity!
…I recall reading on your blog that you like the way Paul Washer preached about the gospel, though you didn’t agree with some of the things (too legalistic if I remember correctly?). I’ve been reading/watching his sermons/teachings, including his Ten Indictments Against the Modern Church in America and his shocking youth message. I have to admit that I’m really shocked/afraid after reading his teachings. I have not had time to find opposing teachings, but I have listened to one or two sermons from Joseph Prince.
Just to give you some background:I’ve been a “Christian” for about 5 years - I’m in my late teens now. I’ve attended 3 different churches (Anglican, Pentecostal and now an Independent church). My spiritual life has never been really good and sadly ,although there have been bouts of improvement in my struggles with anger/vulgarities/insecurity, my struggle with lust has led me down a road to where I’m now nearing a point, I believe, of no return. =/ I’ve doubted my salvation many times, wondering if I’m one of seeds that has no root or will fall away due to the worries of life/wealth (Matthew 13:18-23). This is especially so because every time I make a re-commitment/dedication to start living my life for Christ, I either give up quickly or forget after a few days… eventually going back to square one or worse, regressing.
I would really appreciate it if you could share your opinion on Paul Washer’s teachings. I have nothing to go by, as his teachings seem biblically sound and logically valid. However, if ALL are true, it would terrible news for me because it would mean all these years (5yrs), I have not grown, or worse, not been saved at all.
The post where Jack encountered my quote of Paul Washer is here, written in 2006. This was before I started regularly attending New Creation, though I still held to pretty much the same view of grace then as I do now. As I’ve mentioned many times on this blog, I learned about grace over 10 years ago before I even heard of New Creation Church.
It’s interesting he mentioned that Paul Washer post because I remember that post very clearly as I’ve been wanting to revisit his teachings again in a future blog post. I wanted to do another post on Washer’s teachings because while I absolutely love his passion for missions, I also profoundly disagree with his view on salvation and assurance of salvation.
I agree 100% when Paul Washer said:
I don’t wish the same things your parents want for you. They want for you security and insurance and nice homes. They want for you cars and respect. I want for you the same thing I want for my son. That one day he takes a banner…the banner of Jesus Christ. And he places it on a hill…where noone has ever placed the banner before. And he cries out, “Jesus Christ is Lord!” Even if it costs my son his life.
This was taken from Paul Washer’s famous message here. But I also wrote, as Jack correctly noted, that other stuff in his sermon was too legalistic for my liking.
I’ve listened to a bit of Paul Washer’s stuff and while I am inspired by his passion for missions and agree with his call to go and really reach the lost even if it means great sacrifice and even his view that Christians today (especially in the Western world) are too comfortable and not really living as we should, I’m less fond of his views when he questions whether such Christians are saved.
I’m all for calling Christians to live sacrificially for Jesus and His Kingdom. I’m all for missions. I’m all for (honestly) mentioning that we’ve failed and there is so much more we can do. I’m 100% with him in being against the typical Western comfortable middle-class lifestyle in the light of the fact that there are billions lost out there. We middle-class Christians are big-time hypocrites in many ways. We proclaim our first love is Jesus, but most of us are focused on ourselves and our life. So in all honesty, the church has failed greatly in many ways.
But, I will not go so far as to say that Christians who struggle with sin and do not live “godly” lives should question their salvation. To me, that crosses the line into legalism and works-righteousness.
You see, I’m really enthusiastic about missions and all that. But I’m not about to scare Christians into thinking that if they’re not doing enough for God, or do not show enough evidence that they are saved, they may not be saved at all! That’s my great disagreement with Paul Washer, which I’ll mention more in my subsequent posts.
I know where Paul Washer comes from because for over 5 years of my life I was really into the Reformed/Calvinistic theological tradition. Many young Reformed/Calvinistic Christians nowadays admire Washer’s sermons greatly because he’s extremely passionate about what he sees as compromised Western Christianity. And he’s preached a lot of on this area - e.g. his Biblical Assurance series and Examine Yourself sermon that can be found here. The issue of grace and legalism was one of my two pet topics for those 5 years plus (the other being bringing together the best of the Reformed and Charismatic worlds) and I read and discussed a lot about this issue with many Reformed Christians. So I think I know a bit of where he’s coming from and the theological issues involved.
The main thing I want to address in Jack’s post is the issue of “assurance of salvation”. To me, this is an extremely important topic and one that gets to the core of what the gospel is all about. Christians believe different things about how one can be assured of their salvation. Most (not all) Reformed/Calvinistic Christians believe that we ought to look at our lives to see if we have evidence that we’re saved. They believe that we should not naively think that just because we believe in Jesus, we’re saved. Instead, we need to also look at our lives to confirm we’re saved. Such Christians believe that too many Christians have the false assurance that they’re saved when they actually are not saved so they preach about assurance of salvation and tell Christians that if they are not living godly lives then they should not have any assurance that they are saved. And they think preaching like this would wake Christians up! This is what Paul Washer does a lot in his sermons. And other preachers too (from the Reformed tradition mainly but also from other traditions).
Such preachers sincerely believe that the reason why Christianity is in such a bad state is because many Christians aren’t actually saved. So they preach sermons that make their hearers question whether they are saved. They want Christians to examine themselves and to be more introspective - i.e. to look inside themselves to see if they have the qualities that are meant to be in the hearts of every true Christian. And they are happy when Christians do look inside themselves and feel that they are not saved because they don’t see any evidence. They are not sadistic people who delight in seeing people doubt their salvation. They are sincere preachers who believe that “Christians” will start to wake up if they start to examine themselves and find they are not saved. And the result is these “Christians” would become “true” Christians and live godlier lives. And I think they’ve been quite successful in getting Christians to question their salvation. That’s why Jack wrote above, “I’ve doubted my salvation many times.”
I disagree with Paul Washer’s teachings in this area of teaching though I know many, if not most, evangelical preachers would agree with him. Maybe not as hard, forceful or direct as Paul Washer, but definitely they would preach something similar. I’ve heard it many times in many churches. It’s not that these churches or preachers don’t believe in justification by faith alone. It’s not that they believe we have to earn our salvation. On the contrary, they believe in justification by faith alone and believe we can’t earn our salvation, yet preach in such a way that is confusing and legalistic. Perhaps Michael Eaton, a Reformed theologian and pastor, said it best in his scholarly book No Condemnation - A New Theology of Assurance, a revision of his doctoral thesis, when describing his own experience:
These evangelical commentators seemed to offer freedom with one hand, only to take it back with the other. Having liberated the believer with wonderful expositions of grace, they then took everything back again with dark mutterings about temporary faith and works confirming salvation and talk about self-examination. (p. 7)
It is because such confusing and legalistic teachings pervade many evangelical churches that many people have found New Creation Church such a breath of fresh air. I’m sure some from there can share their thoughts with Jack here. In my subsequent posts, I’ll share a bit more about why many Christian leaders and theologians disagree with such legalistic messages that cause people to doubt their own salvation.