Not Mute Like the Idols

In the last few years I have been repeatedly brought to the realization that God wants to speak to us. He is not mute like the idols. As I have grown in my desire to hear His voice and to enter into a real conversational relationship with God, I have been surprised by the resistance to this idea that I have received from people. What has been more disturbing is that the resistance has come from within the Body of Christ. Many have discouraged me from this pursuit, assuring me that what looks like a road toward Him is really a blind alley. Some have argued from scripture that since the Bible has been completed that God doesn’t speak to us personally. Others have cautioned me that He might speak in extreme circumstances, but that we shouldn’t expect to hear from Him frequently or regularly. Others have been worried that I was “going off the deep end” and would spend my life in a fruitless pursuit of “more” when I should be content with what God has already revealed.

The more I read scripture the clearer it has become to me that relationship with God is the central theme. We were created to have relationship with Him and since the fall, the restoration of this relationship has become the defining quest of God on earth and occasionally of man. It is in relationship with God that man becomes fully human and the restoration of the marred image of God begins. It is in through this relationship that we get what our hearts desire and God gets glory for Himself.

God speaks to us! He does this in many ways, but one of the clearest and most trustworthy is His Word. The Bible is the only objective standard, the unchanging revelation against which we can measure our other, more subjective, experiences of God; but it is more than that. The Word of God is active. The Bible contains the logos, but the logos is not limited to the Bible. God’s Spirit is the key to hearing God’s voice. It is the Spirit that guides us into all Truth. It is the Spirit that illuminates our minds and allows us to rightly understand scripture. It is the Spirit of Christ that pierces our hearts and cuts us to the quick. He is the one who holds of the mirror of the Word and uses it to show us ourselves and the areas that need to be attended to. He wields the Word like a surgeon to lance our Spiritual infections and to cut out the cancerous growths that threaten our life. It is telling that the only unforgivable sin is to blaspheme the Spirit. Without the Spirit there is no life in us, no new life in Christ.

The last two weeks I have had a very interesting experience during the Sunday morning worship service. In both cases the simple reading of scripture was used by the Spirit to pierce my heart. Last week as I sat and listened to Eph 2:11-22 being read, I was suddenly aware of the implications of verses 14 for my life. Christ came to abolish the dividing wall of hostility, but in my heart I still harbored prejudices against certain peoples. It was as if a spotlight shown into a dark corner of my life, suddenly exposing the filth that I had hidden there. I had rationalized and excused my perspective and had found many in the Body willing to be co-conspirators with me. We subtly reinforce the rightness of our disobedience, and in the process grieve the Spirit of God. As I sat there I was suddenly doing business with God. It wasn’t something that I had planned on, or had been expecting. I hadn’t been ruminating about this beforehand. The only explanation is that the Spirit decided that this was the time to clean out that corner. God spoke to me by His Spirit and His word.

This week in church Eph. 3:1-20 was read, and again, I felt like God suddenly intervened through His Word to speak to me personally. As I read about the ministry that God has entrusted to Paul, I was suddenly aware of my own attitudes about ministry and my unworthiness to be used by God. As I saw Paul boldly proclaim both his status as “the least of all God’s people” and his role as the minister of an incredible mystery, I was deeply touched. I realized that I have been afraid to accept all that He might have me do or be. I have not felt worthy. As I told this to God in the quietness of my heart, He reminded me that no one is worthy. “Am I worthy?” is the wrong question. “Am I willing to obey?” is the right question. I find that like Moses I argue that I am not the right person or am not gifted enough to do what He asks me to do. But God is gentle and kind to rebuke me when I need it and to remind me that He is God and that He knows the good works that He has prepared in advance for me to do. Who am I to talk back to Him and to explain to Him what He ought to do? I am the clay, and He is the potter. But more than that, He is my Father and my King, and I am His child and his servant. He parents me and speaks to me. This is what He offers, if we will but listen.