For the last decade, I have given much time and ink to the importance
of “Tuning in to the God who speaks.” Mainly, this has involved
encouraging Christians to take seriously God’s promise, “When you call
on me, I will answer you,” (Jer. 33:3) and Jesus’ own declaration: “My
sheep hear my voice” (Jn. 10). Jesus anticipated that his followers
would come, listen, and then follow the voice of God’s Spirit into all
truth (Jn. 16)—a gift given generously poured out upon “all flesh” from
the Day of Pentecost forward (Acts 2).
In spite of and because of the
general cynicism of modernist Christianity to such mystical claims,
I’ve focused much of my teaching on helping people to hear God and to
count what they are hearing as God’s voice. We need our hearts prepared
for the still small voice of God so that we don’t let every little bird
of doubt steal the Sower’s seed before they can sprout in our lives. So
many who incline their ears to heaven object that what they are hearing
is too good to be true—that they are hearing only what they want to
hear. An odd dilemma for the Christ of the Gospels if He’s not allowed
to tell you any good news! I imagine that we’ll need to keep pressing
this message until the Lord confirms it to us face-to-face.
Having
said that, it’s time that we address the flip side of the coin. When we
have firmly established contemplation or “listening prayer” as a
discipline and a lifestyle, we must obviously attend to weighing what
and who we are actually hearing. How are we to discern whether the
voice we hear is truly from God, or merely the demands of the ego,
projections of our own temperament, whispers from the dark side, or
simply a piece of undigested meat? In Can You Hear Me?, I dealt with
these questions in some depth, centering especially on the need for
every alleged “word from God” to align with the Scriptures, the
community of faith, and the witness of the Spirit. We called this
threefold test “the three-legged stool.” Thus ends our review.
Herein, I hope to develop a more stringent grid for testing the spirits
of the prophets (1 Jn. 4) in the belief that far from quenching God’s
Spirit, that “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in
a furnace of earth, purified seven times” (Psalm 12:6). If we are truly
hearing the God of the Bible, then He not only tolerates such fiery
discernment—He requires it of us. In these days when internationally
respected prophets are hearing drastically conflicting words, both the
prophets who claim to speak for God and those who heed them are
accountable to distinguish just which God they are listening to.
THE GOD WE HEAR
Would this be a fair statement? Christians who claim to hear God are
claiming to hear the God of the Bible, so what they hear must conform
to what the God of the Bible finally reveals about Himself. In other
words, we don’t get to make up our own version of God or Jesus and then
receive messages from that contrived self-version of Him as if we were
getting genuine revelation. Such a pseudo-Jesus can range from
hyper-condemning to saccharine sweet and truthfully, all of us are
susceptible to creating such projections. Yet the Scriptures never lead
us to despair or confusion about this—rather, they argue that God is
able to get messages to His people and continually does so. The trick
is to habitually compare the God we hear (in church and in our hearts)
with the God of the Bible whose character and message are finally
revealed fully (Col. 1:19) and perfectly (Heb. 1:2-3) in Jesus Christ.
Let us not assume by memory of past teaching or experience that we know
Him—let us perpetually search the Scriptures for the nature of this God
we seek to hear.
1. “FINALLY”
When I refer to what the Bible “finally” reveals about God, I am
acknowledging the progressive and polyphonic nature of Scripture.
Practically speaking, Christians live as those who know God through
Christ. This is true (or should be) in a few ways:
First, Christians understand that we live under a new covenant. The
Torah laws which demand animal sacrifices, ritual cleansings, and
stoning for a plethora of sins are no longer authoritative in our
lives, although they continue to testify about the faith journey of our
forefathers. What the Torah teaches us about God (He wants us to stone
sinners and sometimes their whole family) has been eclipsed by what
Jesus reveals about God (“Let those without sin cast the first stone”).
Jesus not only introduces a covenant that alters God’s law from fear
and punishment to love and forgiveness: he also seriously upgrades the
picture we have of God. He is the image of the formerly invisible God.
What he does and says reflect perfectly the will and voice and
character of God as Father and Friend. This means that the Christian
must filter everything they hear, not only in their hearts but even in
the Scriptures, through the life and message of Jesus. Only that which
passes through Christ holds active authority over our lives. Therefore,
we cannot claim to hear from God about something the Old Testament
allows which Christ now forbids. David may have invoked (under
inspiration) God’s blessings about dashing his enemies’ heads upon a
stone—Jesus says, “No. You will forgive, bless, and pray for your
enemies. You will be persecuted and even killed, but you will not
strike back. If you hear God tell you otherwise, you’re hearing the
wrong God.”
Second, I notice that individual Christians tend to replicate the
progression of religious experience seen in the Bible, and this affects
how and what they hear from God. I’m not exactly saying that they are
hearing the wrong God—it’s just that as their spiritual ears mature,
they generally hear God differently, which is to say, more accurately
as to tone and content. The progression of religious experience that
I’m talking about goes roughly like this:
a. Fear – God is a fearful Being. When He speaks, I sense He wants me
to fear Him, so His messages are usually threatening and involve my
sin. I obey Him to avoid punishment.
b. Reward – God is a generous Father. When He speaks, it’s usually
because He wants to reward me with blessings. I obey Him because of all
I receive from His hand.
c. Love – God is an intimate Lover. He is mine and I am His. I love Him for Himself.
I see this progression in the Scriptures, and even in the Gospels. I
also see it in individual believers as they learn to listen to God. God
desires to walk His people beyond fear of punishment or need for
rewards into the maturity of mutual friendship. He doesn’t seem afraid
to take this walk with us, but understand that the stage of your
journey will determine to a degree what you hear from heaven. Finally,
we’ll have a faith in which perfect love casts out fear (esp. fear of
punishment) and even when our hearts condemn us, God is greater than
our hearts (1 Jn. 3). At this level, what we hear will be
condemnation-free and the fear of abandonment or rejection will be
expunged (Rom. 8).
OT PROPHETS – Their message and function
We should also expect that the God we hear is the same God who spoke to
the prophets of the Old Testament (Heb. 1:1). If so, then we will find
ourselves sharing a great deal of overlap concerning their core values.
What did the prophets really care about? What was the heart of their
message? In all too brief a summary, I would distill the OT prophetic
message as follows:
The full-orbed prophetic gift, the tradition passed down by the true
prophets of Scripture and history, entails a calling well beyond
in-house personal prophecy. The primary themes of the mature biblical
prophet always include mercy, justice, and peace—both personal and
public. Perhaps it would be best to define these terms.
A. MERCY – By mercy (Hebrew – hesed), the prophets mean the
lovingkindness and compassion of God towards the poor, the oppressed,
and the marginalized. Mercy refers to his active care for the widow and
the orphan. Mercy is God’s answer from heaven to those who cry out for
help. Prophetic mercy spills out through God’s people in humanitarian
aid to bring relief and reconstruction wherever tragedy strikes. It
also relates to God’s patience and longsuffering for the wayward, not
treating us as our sins deserve. Mercy means that God is slow to anger
and abounding in love. His goodness and generosity are ever towards us,
especially to those in need.
B. JUSTICE – (Hebrew – tsadaq, tsedaqah, often translated
“righteousness”) Justice in the prophets refers to fair treatment and
active equity for all. It is quite literally “making things right.” It
is a shame and a sign of ill spiritual health when a society reduces
the word justice into a simple synonym for punishment. Biblical justice
is not only retributive, but also preventative and restorative. It is
equally troublesome when the church diminishes the term to nothing more
than an opposite for grace.
Justice is not to the law what grace is to the gospel. Rather, justice
and righteousness are aspects of God’s character that are founded on
his love for all. They are expressions of his desire to see his
children treat one another with respect and without discrimination.
Only a society that learns to love and care for its citizens as God
does can be called a “just society.” Prophetic justice advocates for
the helpless and challenges the powerful.
I find it helpful to compare mercy and justice without playing them
against each other as opposites: Mercy helps those who have not
received what they deserve (by way of basic human rights) and relents
from inflicting punishment on those who deserve it. Justice makes sure
everyone gets what he or she deserves (by way of human rights and
freedoms but also penalties for wrongs done). Grace adds to justice the
additional blessings and gifts that we definitely do not deserve. Mercy
is like the ambulance at the bottom of a cliff, ready to help those who
fall. Justice builds a fence at the top of the cliff to protect them
from falling in the first place (Deut. 22:8). Mercy wipes the tears
from the eyes. Justice asks, “Why are you crying?” Mercy welcomes the
hungry to gather around God’s banqueting table. Justice addresses why
some are under the table aching of hunger while others are sitting on
top of the table aching from gluttony.
Mercy seeks and saves those lost in the darkness. Justice asks, “Why is
it dark? Who is keeping it dark? Who is benefiting from this darkness?
Is it I, Lord?”
C. PEACE – (Hebrew – shalom) Peace takes us a step further. More than
relief from darkness, peace is the presence of light. It is that
classic Hebrew blessing that includes wholeness, health, and security.
It embodies a sense of spiritual and social equilibrium that is not
merely the absence of war but the presence of justice and mercy. Peace
is the natural byproduct of doing justice and loving mercy (as opposed
to simply destroying all of one’s enemies). Prophetic peacemaking is
restoring shalom wherever it has been lost or broken:
• Between God and people (reconciliation)
• Between one person or people and another (mediation)
• Between people and themselves (healing)
• Between people and creation (environmentalism)
Thus, while the prophets heard and delivered scathing (though tearful)
critiques of both individuals and society, what set them apart from the
fashionable cynicism of our age was their message of peace and hope.
If you examine the fruit, the cynic is a thief of hope. The prophets,
on the other hand, could be brutally satirical yet somehow they also
proclaimed good news. When they sound most despairing, suddenly they
drop on us a vision of God’s redemptive plan. Abraham Heschel explains:
What is history? Wars, victories, and wars. So many dead. So many
tears. So little regret. So many fears… The world is drenched in blood,
and the guilt is endless. Should not all hope be abandoned? What saved
the prophets from despair was their messianic vision and the idea of
man’s capacity for repentance… History is not a blind alley, and guilt
is not an abyss. There is always a way that leads out of guilt:
repentance, or turning to God. The prophet is a person who, living in
dismay, has the power to transcend his dismay. Over all the darkness of
experience hovers the vision of a different day.
The God we hear, if He is the God of the prophets, will speak a word that echoes them.
Further, modern prophets will serve a similar function to that of their
forefathers: they will largely be enforcers of God’s covenant. When I
attended Briercrest Bible College, our Old Testament professor, Ken
Guenter, painstakingly led us through the biblical prophets,
demonstrating verse upon verse that most often, their ministry centered
on referencing and enforcing the covenant blessings and curses of Lev.
26 and Deut. 28-32. In some cases (esp. Micah, Zephaniah, and Malachi),
the prophets go on for chapters virtually quoting the terms of Moses’
covenant to God’s people (for better or for worse).
Now while modern prophets ought to mirror this function, the fact that
we’re enforcing a completely new covenant will also sponsor highly
different messages from what we see in some of the old prophets. The
God we hear will be the same, but the new deal makes for rather
different content at some points. God’s heart for mercy, justice, and
peace remains, but the New Covenant foretold by the prophets (Jer.
31-33, Ezek. 36) and preached in the Gospels by Jesus comes to the
fore. This means that what we hear now will largely point to the good
news of Jesus Christ, in whom the Kingdom of God has come. Those who
fancy themselves as the prophets of old, calling down the fires of
judgment as James and John suggested, ought to hear Jesus rebuking them
with the same response he gave to the “Sons of Thunder”: “You know not
what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to
destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” (Lk. 9:54-55)
JESUS THE PROPHET
In our commitment to Jesus as Lord and Savior, let’s not forget that he
was also the prophet par excellence (i.e. No one heard the Father as
well as Him). He came preaching that the kingdom was at hand (available
in him) to those who would follow him. “Following” means something. It
means that it’s not enough to worship him in corporate cheerleading
sessions—we must also hear and obey his message. His disciples must
actually do what he says. I am alarmed by how much of Jesus’ teaching
is unknown or simply dismissed with ingenious theological slight of
hand. For example, when I was a dispensationalist, we easily deleted
core aspects of Christ’s teaching, such as the Sermon on the Mount
(Matt. 5-7) or the Judgment of Sheep and Goats (Matt. 25) by relegating
them to another dispensation (the Millennium), or by assuming that he
was just making an idealistic and impossible point so that we would
despair and cry out for grace. All that Jesus taught us to do and to
teach others to do (Matt. 28) was swept into oblivion by our doctrine
of sola fide and a quick reminder of Eph. 2:8-9. If salvation is not
achieved by good works, we surmised that we could actually be Jesus’
disciples without doing what he said (in spite of Jesus’ grave warning
in Matt. 7:21). The God we hear will never say that, for it was God in
Christ, Father to Son, proclaiming exactly what He expects of His
disciples, not merely good works, but a transformed life.
So what did Jesus actually teach? Of course we ought to simply reread
the words of Christ—not through our theological grids or even through
the commentary given by other New Testament writers. Let’s just start
with Jesus and take Him seriously. It can be quite enlightening! Even
jarring! Let me give just two examples, passages which represent the
true voice and will of the God we hear.
THE DIVINE LIFE OF THE BEATITUDES
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of [justice], for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say
all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad,
because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they
persecuted the prophets who were before you.
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how
can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except
to be thrown out and trampled by men.
You are the light [out there in] the world. A city on a hill cannot be
hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead
they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see
your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:3–13)
In early Christian use, the word we translate as “blessed” or “happy”
(makarios) meant much more than “how lucky you are” or “what a good
feeling you’ll get” or even “God will bless you if…” The classical
Greeks spoke of it as “the life of the gods” and for us, means sharing
in the life of our God, the ultimate joy, “partaking in the divine
nature” (2 Pet. 1:4). Orthodox teacher, Jim Forest, says:
There is no higher gift. We are not simply capable of an abstract
awareness that God exists, an infinitely remote Being whom we can
faintly glimpse through an intellectual telescope. In the kingdom of
God, the blessing extended to us is nothing less than participation in
the communion of the Holy Trinity. It is being received into God’s
immortality. It is being blessed with qualities that seem humanly
impossible.
So Jesus is describing “the divine life” of God, given to and lived in
us, a transformed character observable by others, necessary for the
salvation of the world and the praise of the Father.
SEEING CHRIST IN THE LEAST OF SOCIETY
A second teaching of Jesus that we need to keep recalling is the
Judgment of Sheep and Goats in Matt. 25. Again, we have Jesus the
Prophet sharing His vision of the Last Day. His criterion for judgment
is so different from our typical evangelical understanding that we
hardly know what to do with it:
“When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels
with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious throne.
Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the
people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting sheep
to his right and goats to his left. “Then the King will say to those on
his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming
to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s
foundation. And here’s why: I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty
and you gave me a drink, I was homeless and you gave me a room, I was
shivering and you gave me clothes, I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’ “Then those ‘sheep’ are going to
say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you
hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever
see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say,
‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to
someone overlooked or ignored, that was me–you did it to me.’ “Then he
will turn to the ‘goats,’ the ones on his left, and say, ‘Get out,
worthless goats! You’re good for nothing but the fires of hell. And
why? Because– I was hungry and you gave me no meal, I was thirsty and
you gave me no drink, I was homeless and you gave me no bed, I was
shivering and you gave me no clothes, Sick and in prison, and you never
visited.’ “Then those ‘goats’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you
talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless
or shivering or sick or in prison and didn’t help?’ “He will answer
them, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of
these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was
me–you failed to do it to me.’ “Then those ‘goats’ will be herded to
their eternal doom, but the ‘sheep’ to their eternal reward.” (Matt.
25:31-46 MSG)
No sinners’ prayer, no baptism or confession of faith, no specific nod
to a creed. What are we to make of such a divergent version of the
final judgment? I would suggest that rather than attempting to dissect
the passage for its unique soteriology or eschatology, we opt instead
for directly responding to the point Jesus is making. He is not
explaining how this harmonizes with the grace alone message, nor is He
concerned with end times charts and timelines. He could not be clearer
about His intent: feed hungry people, clothe naked people, welcome
immigrants, visit prisoners, and care for sick people.
Obvious? Not so obvious when we look at our nation’s record on these
matters. We somehow find it impossible to give more than $3 out of
every $1000 from our Gross National Product to foreign aid even after
the tremendous outcry of the “Make Poverty History” campaign (the US
managed less than $1 / 1000). The equivalent of two or three World
Trade Centre disasters occur every day in Africa from preventable
diseases while we watch it on TV. That’s a Matthew 25 issue. Bono of U2
put it this way:
“Not too long ago, I met Congressman Lantos and he told me about being
a child in Nazi Germany and being put on the trains to be taken to
Auschwitz. And as a child, looking around at the passers-by who were
watching him be put on the train. And him just, later, just not
figuring that one out. So here we are, watching people be loaded onto
the trains because today we have CNN and satellite and the Internet. We
can all see the people being loaded on the trains. History will judge
us on how we deal with this crisis. God will judge us even harder. When
the history of the 21st century is being written, it’s not far fetched
to think I have a funny feeling that some of the people in this room
will be the ones who laid down on the tracks.”
These are just two examples of the prophetic witness of Jesus—the
plumb-line by which all prophetic are to be measured. As to the God
we’re hearing: if the God we hear neglects or contradicts the testimony
of Jesus—to take a way other than the path Christ prescribed–then (a.)
we are likely hearing the wrong God, or (b.) we are hearing the right
God through a bad filter (e.g. Ezek. 14:1-6). As a result, we may hear
God well on some issues but have serious blind spots in other areas.
You would think that such a simple test as checking every revelation
against the word of Christ would be a breeze for anyone with a Bible,
but when one is immersed in and loyal to cultures contrary to the
gospel, identifying and revoking those idols can be a challenge.
FALSE GOD’S OF OUR AGE
Western evangelicalism, if it is to hear God aright, must be far more
aggressive in rooting out the gods, the idols, the bad filters which
distort messages from the one true God. As evangelicals, we’d best be
aware of where we have parted company with the values of Christ. I’ll
just share three examples:
I. CONSUMERISM – The rampant consumerism that drives North America is
one thing. Hearing God’s endorsement of it is quite another. Some
streams of the faith which claim to be prophetic find a multitude of
Scripture passages upon which to base a strong prosperity teaching.
God, by His character, is a generous Father who delights to bless His
children with good things. But how much of this teaching is driven by
our own covetousness and greed? How might one discern between the
blessings of God and the cravings of the flesh. My understanding is
that the blessings of God are given for sharing with those in need—not
a measuring stick of God’s favor with which to beat those with less for
being lazy or having no faith. I need to ponder the wealth of which I
am a steward. How much was given by God? And for what? And how much was
taken by me? At whose expense? These are prophetic justice questions
that supersede a mantric recital of the “prayer of Jabez.” Why did that
obscure prayer become more popular than the New Testament commands to
share what we have with those who do not? One tiny verse seemed to
unleash a mighty spirit of consumerism: guaranteed to affect our
listening ears.
II. CAPITALISM – Because the West fought for supremacy with atheistic
communism for so long, I think we came to believe that capitalism is
the official Christian economy. We’ve come to believe that Jesus’
vision of the Kingdom is somehow in sync with the free market system.
Consider this assessment by Bill McKibben in the latest Harpers:
“Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that ‘God helps
those who help themselves.’ That is, three out of four Americans
believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our
current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered
by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture. The thing is, not
only is Franklin’s wisdom not biblical; it’s counter-biblical. Few
ideas could be further from the gospel message, with its radical
summons to love of neighbor… This is not a matter of angels dancing on
the heads of pins. Christ was pretty specific about what he had in mind
for his followers. What if we chose some simple criterion—say, giving
aid to the poorest people—as a reasonable proxy for Christian behavior?
After all, in the days before his crucifixion, when Jesus summed up his
message for his disciples, he said the way you could tell the righteous
from the damned was by whether they’d fed the hungry, slaked the
thirsty, clothed the naked, welcomed the stranger, and visited the
prisoner. What would we find then?”
It does no good to justify ourselves or look for loopholes. A chief
raison dêtre of the prophetic tradition is to empower self-criticism—a
unique feature of the Christian biblical tradition. Now is the time to
ask where evangelism and Jesus are not on the same page. Capitalism has
much to commend itself in terms of free enterprise, but among its flaws
are the importance of profits over people. For example, when big
business doesn’t make its expected profit increases (not just profits),
we see (i.) layoffs, (ii.) options for part-timers to avoid benefits,
and (iii.) outsourcing which can be exploitive. And in our system, we
counteract these issues with labor unions that, by design, engage as
adversaries, sometimes putting companies out of business at the expense
of their employees. It’s not divine. It may not be evil. But let’s not
call it Christian. Rather, let’s try to be and act Christian even while
we explore better alternatives (e.g. production based business which
looks to increase products and employment).
III. MILITARISM – In an age of terror and of nations gone mad, it is
tempting to employ the Old Testament record of military proliferation
and religious warriors to argue for modern day crusades and “just
wars.” Indeed, some of the modern day prophets are rather gung ho in
taking up the sword. Occasionally I contribute to the written war
against war, but I’m reminded that I’m speaking from the comforts of a
peaceful Canadian suburb (which I think argues for my point). For this
piece, I will let Dr. Miroslav Volf make his case. He developed his
thoughts in the midst of the Yugoslavian civil war, preaching “embrace
of one’s enemy” to a congregation whose building was being shelled.
This is no armchair theologian, but someone whose life and teaching has
been tested by the horrors of armed conflict:
“It is possible (though not necessary) that the coming about of the new
creation will require divine violence of exclusion of what is contrary
to the world of perfect love. The crucial question for our purposes is
whether this possible divine violence at the end of history sanctions
actual human violence in the middle of it. The response that resounds
throughout the New Testament, including the book of Revelation, is a
loud and persistent ‘No!’ Though imitating God is the height of human
holiness, there are things that only
God may do. One of them is to deploy violence. Christians are
manifestly not to gather under the banner of the Rider on the white
horse, but to take up their crosses and follow the Crucified. If they
were to do otherwise, once again, they would be involved in ‘thinning’
out a ‘thick’ element of faith and making a mischievous use of it. They
would be arrogating for themselves what God has reserved only for
Himself, to transpose the divine action from the end-time to a time in
which God explicitly refrains from deploying
violence in order to make repentance possible, and, finally, to
transmute a possibility of violence into an actuality. ‘Thick’ reading
of Christian eschatological convictions will not sanction human
violence; to the contrary, it will resist it.”
Consumerism, capitalism, and militarism: these are some of the
evangelical culture’s filters that I believe mess with our spiritual
ears. We need a fresh washing by the word of Christ that ensures that
the God we hear is the God that Jesus heard. I will close with a pure
filter—one that puts things in prophetic perspective.
THE CROSS: A PURE FILTER
At some point down the road, I hope to rework a theory of the atonement
based in the mystical way. Let me suggest it by way of outline as a
filter for that which we hear from the Lord:
The mystical ladder of the Cross of Christ might be said to include four rungs. These are:
I. Purgation – We hear more clearly when we come to the Cross poor in
spirit, experiencing the death of ego so that it ceases to project
false messages into the mouth of God. As we are progressively purged of
blame-shifting, ego-building, denial of our shadow, and the cravings of
the “old man,” the death we die with Christ enables us to hear truth
without fighting it or fleeing from it. We learn to let go: forgiving
others and ourselves so that the voices of judgment and condemnation
are silenced.
II. Illumination – This describes an awakening to the passion and
passions of Christ. “The light goes on,” so to speak, whereby we begin
to see more clearly into the heart of the Father—the heart that beats
with love for the world. We begin to see through Jesus eyes with a
prophetic vision once clouded by a million other visions.
III. Union – At the Cross, we experience a co-identification with
Christ in which we identify with His death and resurrection and He
identifies with each of us. When I asked the Lord how it is that we see
Christ in the unbeliever, I believe He responded, “You do not see
Christ in them because men become Christians. You see Christ in them
because Christ became human.” The open and welcoming arms of the
crucified Christ lead to an embrace, a union with Him that Jesus
described as “abiding—you in me, I in you” (John 15).
IV. Transformation – Finally, at the Cross, having been purged,
enlightened, and united with Christ; we co-suffer with Him in love for
the world as agents of transformation. As Teresa of Calcutta prayed,
“May God break my heart so completely that the whole world falls in.”
This kind of love—this “world-vision” gives us ears big enough to hear
God’s “open door” message for all people.
This is the God we hear.
Footnotes:
1. Brad Jersak, Can You Hear Me? Tuning in to the God who speaks
(2003), Brad Jersak with Ken Save, Children Can You Hear Me? (2003),
Eden and Brad Jersak, Rivers from Eden: 40 Days of Intimate
Conversation with God (2004), Brad Jersak, Fear No Evil: Breaking Free
from the Culture of Fear (2005).
2. Chapter 3 – “God, Is That Really You?” and Chapter 4 – “Was That Just My Imagination?”
3. Ibid, pp. 220-222.
4. Abraham Heschel, The Prophets, Vol. 1, p. 185.
5. Jim Forest, Windows to Heaven: Seeing the Beatitudes Part 1
(http://incommunion.org/forest-flier/jimsessays/seeing-the-beatitudes-1).
f. Jim Forest, The Ladder of the Beatitudes (Orbis Books, 1999).
6. Cf. the forthcoming book by Ron Dart, The Beatitudes: Where Peak Meets Valley (Fresh Wind Press, 2005).
7. Bono’s Remarks – Africare’s Annual Bishop Walker Awards Dinner, 2002 (http://www.data.org/archives/000229.php).
8. Bill McKibben, The Christian Paradox: How a faithful nation gets Jesus wrong (Harpers Magazine, Aug. 2005).
9. For businesses looking for a healthy business model that allows
production and employment growth along with good management and labour
relations, I would commend readers to investigate Friesens Printing in
Altona, MB (www.friesens.com).
10. Miroslav Volf, Christianity and Violence (www.life-peace.org/tfp/volf.pdf).