(Just a reminder that the next two books will be Deep Unto Deep (Dana Candler) and The Pursuit of God (A.W. Tozer). We will start the first one in September after a break in August when I will post some simple words of encouragement during the month.)
Chapter Six – Love-Empowered Holiness (through p. 105)
Jonathan Edwards: “…there is no man upon earth who isn’t earnestly seeking after happiness, and this appears abundantly by the variety of ways they so vigorously seek it (happiness); they will twist and turn every way…to make themselves happy…”
This chapter of Enjoying God is about discovering a life of holiness that is rooted in the love and joy of God. (By the way, I have come to understand that this kind of holiness is the only true holiness there is because it is how God is. That which is rooted in performance and religion isn’t biblical holiness; it’s contrary to the nature of God.)
The author points out that we Christians tend to shy away from the idea of seeking happiness. I would say that this tendency is for a couple of reasons at least. One is that we legitimately don’t want to be seeking our own comfort at the expense of others, but the other reason is that we have the erroneous notion that the most heroic and spiritual things are measured purely by the amount of pain and sacrifice attached to them.
As a preacher who I heard recently said (my paraphrase), “In the evangelical and missions world we believe that rather than pursue an encounter with God (which includes His coming to us with tender emotions that touch our emotions) we should be content to live and work without encountering God in intimacy.” This is how we tend to measure true faith; the less we feel of God, the more spiritual we are.
But we were designed to feel and experience God in all areas of our life. We can’t manipulate nor force this, but we can pursue Him wholeheartedly with our heart open to receive His tenderizing touch on our hearts. I’m not referring to “emotionalism” which is a state in which my emotions control me, but I’m referring to being fully alive – mind, will, and emotions. I don't want to be controlled by my emotions any more than I want to be controlled by my mind, but I do want to live with the faculties of my soul (mind, will and emotions) as fully alive and in touch with the Spirit of God as possible.
And so in talking about seeking happiness, the author is referring to how God created us for pleasure and happiness. Seeking pleasure is not sin; the places we go to get pleasure is where sin enters the picture. Adam and Eve were deliberately placed in a garden called Eden which means "delight". God wanted joy and pleasure for them, and as long as God Himself was the Source of their joy, they could enjoy fully the gifts He brought with Him for them. Their sin and misery came when they looked to another source for pleasure and peace.
Psalm 16:11 says, “You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” David knew the Source of joy and pleasures – the Father’s presence.
“No human relationship can ultimately satisfy us. Taking drugs…getting drunk…illicit sex can’t do it. Money can’t buy it. Only knowing and experiencing the Father can give us the happiness and pleasure that our hearts so desperately crave.”
The author quotes one of my favorites from C.S. Lewis: “The NT has lots to say about self-denial, but not self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.”
S.J. Hill says, “The belief that holiness and happiness are at odds with each other is a serious twisting of Christian truth…holiness can best be attained by finding our ultimate happiness and pleasure in God. Why do people sin? They sin because they enjoy the pleasures that it brings…The traditional approach to discouraging people from sinning is negative…but if a man’s heart is not being warmed by the passions of God’s personality, his heart will be captivated by the red-hot flames of temptation…just saying no alone doesn’t work. There must be something more appealing to which a person can say yes.”
The Transforming Power of Beauty
This “more appealing something" is the Person of God in all His beauty and holiness! David knew this and expresses it eloquently in Psa. 27:4, “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.”
This beautiful God is what we are made for, and He seeks for worshippers who will seek His beauty above all else. We need to help new believers step quickly into the wonderful discipline of meditating on and contemplating the beauty of God and His Word, because it is in this practice and habit of contemplating/beholding His Person that we are transformed (II Cor. 3:18).
At the end of this section of the chapter the author says, “Overcoming sin is not about gritting your teeth and holding on for dear life. The only way for you to successfully resist sin is by maximizing your pleasure in God.” While there is a place for making the hard core choice to say no, just saying no will not carry us into full transformation of our inner life. Only finding the higher pleasure (God Himself) will fully satisfy the human desire and need for pleasure.
I’ll close this week’s posting out with an admonition in relation to this. In this process of growing to enjoy God, you must allow Him to enjoy you. I want to reiterate what I’ve said before, which is that the flesh will protest His enjoyment of you, and you may not like hearing that He enjoys you in your immaturity and failings as well as when you feel you are doing well. In some ways it‘s much easier to declare my love to God than to hear Him say that He loves and even likes me.
A few years ago I was leading a small team of Bethany students on a 3-week short-term missions trip to Mexico. I have rarely been sick in my life and was taken by surprise by a reaction to an antibiotic that contained a substance that I was allergic to. It hit me so hard that I was sidelined the entire first week of the outreach; I was desperately ill one night in particular and hardly able to move. In the middle of that night I really thought I might die; in the face of that, things got crystal clear and I sensed the Lord asking me, “Nita, what is the one thing you are most sure of in life?” Without hesitating, I answered, “That I love You, Lord.” I sensed His smile over me in that answer, but then heard His tender and loving word to follow up on that: “There’s something greater and more fundamental/sure than your love for Me, Nita, and that is My love for you.” In that simple exchange between us, worlds of understanding began to open to me, and I haven’t stopped discovering the depths of the truth of I John 4:19, “We love Him because He first loved us.”
I think it’s perfectly ok to apply this truth of His being the Initiator in all areas and say, “I enjoy Him because He first enjoyed me…I am committed to Him because He first committed to me”, etc. It’s all in the cross where God took the initiative to do whatever it took to win our love, and the greatest human pleasure is to encounter this love firsthand!
A warning – the capacity to be enjoyed by God and to enjoy Him may take a long time to develop because of years of wrong thinking about Him and ourselves and the world, because of woundedness, because of unforgiveness and hidden bitterness, etc. You must be patient and persevering in your pursuit. God is patient, and we must agree with His patience with us, thanking Him that transformation is happening even if we can’t see the incremental growth going on in us.
God bless you and be with you this week…for next week, we’ll finish this chapter on Love-Empowered Holiness.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
Enjoying God - Week #6
Chapter Five (2nd half) – The Affectionate and Approachable Father
This week we finish the chapter on God as the affectionate and approachable Father. The author writes about the Father’s embrace by using the story of what we commonly call the “prodigal son.” He says that this story is really about the heart of the father and his response to his lost son. It really is an amazing story of this father when you realize that in Jewish culture, for a son to demand his inheritance before the father has died was to wish the father were dead; likewise, it was unusual for a father to run like this one did upon seeing his son at a distance.
Hill makes an interesting observation: “…the prodigal had hit bottom. Yes, he was desperate. But he could have stayed where he was…What gave the prodigal the courage to return home? I believe that during his childhood the prodigal saw something in his father that let him know he would not be rejected if he returned home…he had a realistic understanding of who his father was. It empowered him to return home and be restored.”
Hill goes on to make his point, which is so important: “For you to fully enjoy the Father, you need to have a deep understanding of His personality. If you’re continually afraid of being rejected by Him and you feel that He’s perpetually angry with you because of things you’ve done, how can you open your heart to Him? How can you freely give yourself to Him and obey Him?”
This is a fundamental reality – that to enjoy God we must know what He is truly like, and part of His nature is His affectionate heart and His joy over His children. When we begin to taste and see a bit of what He is like and how He feels about us, then we will find that the lesser loves and addictions begin to lose their hold on us as we believe His Word and Spirit and walk in obedience to that. “The only thing that will ultimately break the power of lust in your life is a revelation of the Father’s love.”
Speaking of the elder brother in the story of the prodigal son, the author says that because he was performance-driven, he couldn’t understand the response his father gave his younger delinquent brother. As I have mentioned a couple of times before, I am finding that my flesh is offended with the radical love of God, as was this elder brother. There have been times when I have allowed myself to ponder and meditate on the reality that God enjoys Nita Steiner that I have rejected that thought. I’m more and more accepting this, and it’s liberating me deep within from many fears.
Two reasons given in the book as to why we humans struggle with the unconditional love of God:
This week we finish the chapter on God as the affectionate and approachable Father. The author writes about the Father’s embrace by using the story of what we commonly call the “prodigal son.” He says that this story is really about the heart of the father and his response to his lost son. It really is an amazing story of this father when you realize that in Jewish culture, for a son to demand his inheritance before the father has died was to wish the father were dead; likewise, it was unusual for a father to run like this one did upon seeing his son at a distance.
Hill makes an interesting observation: “…the prodigal had hit bottom. Yes, he was desperate. But he could have stayed where he was…What gave the prodigal the courage to return home? I believe that during his childhood the prodigal saw something in his father that let him know he would not be rejected if he returned home…he had a realistic understanding of who his father was. It empowered him to return home and be restored.”
Hill goes on to make his point, which is so important: “For you to fully enjoy the Father, you need to have a deep understanding of His personality. If you’re continually afraid of being rejected by Him and you feel that He’s perpetually angry with you because of things you’ve done, how can you open your heart to Him? How can you freely give yourself to Him and obey Him?”
This is a fundamental reality – that to enjoy God we must know what He is truly like, and part of His nature is His affectionate heart and His joy over His children. When we begin to taste and see a bit of what He is like and how He feels about us, then we will find that the lesser loves and addictions begin to lose their hold on us as we believe His Word and Spirit and walk in obedience to that. “The only thing that will ultimately break the power of lust in your life is a revelation of the Father’s love.”
Speaking of the elder brother in the story of the prodigal son, the author says that because he was performance-driven, he couldn’t understand the response his father gave his younger delinquent brother. As I have mentioned a couple of times before, I am finding that my flesh is offended with the radical love of God, as was this elder brother. There have been times when I have allowed myself to ponder and meditate on the reality that God enjoys Nita Steiner that I have rejected that thought. I’m more and more accepting this, and it’s liberating me deep within from many fears.
Two reasons given in the book as to why we humans struggle with the unconditional love of God:
- Incomplete teaching about the nature of God, resulting in seeing Him as primarily a severe Judge without clear understanding of His goodness and affection for us.
- Our own awareness of our failures, so we attempt to overcome guilt by showing Him how genuinely sorry we are.
The Approachable FatherGod is not like the authoritarian father that is looking for perfection and pounces on anything short of that, always reminding the child of his failure or lack and thinking that will motivate him to do better.
I love this line by the author: “God is different than any authority figure you have ever known.” This is an important revelation to have since we all reflect onto God’s leadership what we have experienced from human authorities. Even the very best fathers and other authority figures taint our view of God since none are perfect.
“God is not an authoritarian Father. He doesn’t want you shrinking back in fear or apprehension of Him. He’s an approachable Father who loves you passionately…In ‘God in Search of Man,’ Abraham Heschel explains that the phrase ‘fear of God’ is derived from the Hebrew word ‘yirah.’ (Heschel) writes: ‘The word has two meanings – fear and awe. There is the man who fears the Lord lest he be punished in his body, family, or in his possessions. Another man fears the Lord because he is afraid of punishment in the life to come. Both types are considered inferior in Jewish tradition. Fear is the anticipation of evil or pain…Awe, on the other hand, is the sense of wonder and humility inspired by the sublime or felt in the presence of mystery…Awe, unlike fear, does not make us shrink from the awe-inspiring object, but on the contrary, draws us near to it. This is why awe is compatible with both love and joy.’”
Essentially the fear of the Lord is not something that makes us cower before Him in fear of punishment but is deep love for Him in His awesomeness that causes me to hate what He hates; anything that separates me from His love is to be feared and hated.
Even in His discipline of us, God doesn’t stop enjoying us as His children. In fact, His discipline and correction is because He loves us. Just like a good earthly father must discipline his child at times for his own welfare but never stops loving and accepting him, so the Father in heaven can separate me as a person from the behavior in my life that don’t align with Him. He doesn’t reject me as a person while correcting my behavior. “The Father’s correction is deeply rooted in His affection for us. Proverbs 3:11,12 admonishes us to ‘not despise the Lord’s discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.’”
Immaturity is not the same as rebellion even though it may appear the same in a person’s behavior. God has no problem with our being immature (when do we ever know when we’re “mature”?). He will not tolerate rebellion but immaturity is another thing. He deals with us according our heart of sincerity and repentance, so “as we set our hearts on obeying Him, He will make loving adjustments in our lives until we come to maturity.”
Jesus’ dealing with Peter exemplifies how God feels and deals with immaturity. Peter’s failure of the Lord left him full of shame, and Jesus restored him to confidence through love (John 21). He knew Peter genuinely loved Him in spite of his weakness and failure, and Jesus’ leading him to confess his love to Jesus broke the power of shame over Peter.
In conclusion of this chapter, the author says, “Once you begin to understand the depths of God’s love for you and the nature of His heart, then you’ll be able to be transparent with Him. Intimacy requires communication, vulnerability, and honesty…Like Peter, you may still be carrying the shame of your past failures and may be having a hard time forgiving yourself. You may have even become accustomed to a second-class relationship with the Lord because you’re afraid you might fail again…You can trust the Father. He fully understands…” And knowing all, He loves you and me radically to the point of death!
Rejoice in such extravagance this week! For next week, read the first part (up to page 105) of chapter 7, Love-Empowered Holiness.
To comment on the blog, click on this link and then click on "Comments" at the bottom of Nita's "words" for this week.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Enjoying God - Week #5
Chapter Five (first half): The Affectionate and Approachable Father
I remember so well what a preacher said a few years ago: “The worst case scenario is to be a Christian and not be able to enjoy God!” I’m discovering more all the time that God, like A.W. Tozer says of Him, “is easy to live with” and I’ll add that He’s enjoyable to be with.
And the reason I find Him increasingly enjoyable to be with is that I’m grasping a tiny bit of the reality that He enjoys me! I’ve studied the nature and character of God all my life, both in formal studies but also in my own personal study and mostly through walking intimately with Him, and that has fed and nourished me for years. But until I began to look more deliberately at the emotional part of His makeup, my relating to Him was without full confidence and joy. Not that I didn’t love Him nor even that I didn’t experience Him in all my being – heart, soul, mind, strength – but I lacked the abandonment to love that comes with seeing His jealous love for me, His weak child.
Consequently, I was still caught in the people-pleasing (fear of man) trap. What has lifted me out of that horrible pit has been the revelation of His love and enjoyment of me. It has also given me the courage to act in obedience to His voice of correction and conviction. This revelation hasn’t come in one fell swoop but over time as I have chosen to practice His presence and listen to His affirmation of me.
This chapter, in contrast with the previous one which spoke of broken human fathers, is about our heavenly Father and His affections and approachableness.
Romans 8:14-16: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”
In relation to this passage, I’ll quote the author:
“The word ‘abba’ is equivalent to the word ‘papa’ and carries with it the idea of intimacy, dependency, and vulnerability. The concept of God as ‘abba’ was a revolutionary one at the time Paul wrote this.
“Drawing on his experience with Greco-Roman law, Paul used the analogy of adoption to describe the Christian’s relationship and position with God. The legal status of a son in early Roman times was not much better than that of a slave. A son was the property of his father. A father was entitled to his son’s wages. A father could transfer ownership of his son at will and, under certain circumstances, even have him put to death.
“In contrast, the legal status of an adopted son actually put him in a more secure place than that of a son born into the family. He was no longer legally bound to old debts, andif he was a slave, he was set free the moment he was adopted. He had complete access to the father of the family and was guaranteed a position in the family as well.”
The book includes an interesting quote from Martyn Lloyd-Jones who emphasizes the experiential nature of the above Scripture from Romans 18:
“What the apostle Paul is emphasizing here is that not only must we believe this doctrine and accept it with our minds, but we must also be conscious of it and feel it; there must be the Spirit of Adoption in us as a result of this work of the Holy Spirit…Paul is really telling us that we are to feel – and I am emphasizing feeling – in this sense, what our Lord Himself felt.”
S.J. Hill encourages us to believe and receive the truth that like a child “you can crawl up into ‘Abba’s lap’ and experience the warmth and security of His loving embrace. You can know the pleasure of His heart as you allow your emotions to be bathed in the revelation of His love for you.”
Hill then speaks of the affectionate Father, giving the testimonies of men such as Charles Finney and Dwight L. Moody who experienced wonderful encounters with the affections of God. Then he gives a graphic description of the sufferings of Jesus on the cross (taken from an article by C.Truman Davis). Looking at the indescribable suffering of the Lord in His crucifixion speaks loudly and dramatically of the Father’s passion for a Bride for His Son.
We wonder and marvel at stories we hear about someone taking great risks to save the life of another person; and the reality is that we all have this story – a Man has died for me! Only ravished and jealous love will do such a thing, and Jesus has done it for all of us who are in Him and part of His Bride. (See Song of Songs 8:6.)
Just this week a young man was sharing with me the bit of revelation he’s beginning to have about God’s emotions and how that is revolutionizing his view of God and of himself. He’s been spending time in the book of Hosea, meditating on the fiery jealousy of God for His people and how emotional God is about us; our God is not a passive God at a distance but fights to win our affections and to deliver us from lesser loves.
I have been strengthened and healed by studying and believing the emotions that God has towards me. The Gospel is an unbelievable reality!! The longer I live, the more I realize how radical the Gospel of Jesus Christ is; worship and the offering of my life to Him is the natural overflow of this.
The Father looks at you with affection; you are His beloved and adopted child…May the grace of the Spirit rest upon us this week to believe and receive what His Word says about His feelings toward us. Blessings on your week in Him!
For next week, let’s finish chapter five on the affectionate and approachable Father. (Please see my note from last week's posting about when we will begin the next book...)
I remember so well what a preacher said a few years ago: “The worst case scenario is to be a Christian and not be able to enjoy God!” I’m discovering more all the time that God, like A.W. Tozer says of Him, “is easy to live with” and I’ll add that He’s enjoyable to be with.
And the reason I find Him increasingly enjoyable to be with is that I’m grasping a tiny bit of the reality that He enjoys me! I’ve studied the nature and character of God all my life, both in formal studies but also in my own personal study and mostly through walking intimately with Him, and that has fed and nourished me for years. But until I began to look more deliberately at the emotional part of His makeup, my relating to Him was without full confidence and joy. Not that I didn’t love Him nor even that I didn’t experience Him in all my being – heart, soul, mind, strength – but I lacked the abandonment to love that comes with seeing His jealous love for me, His weak child.
Consequently, I was still caught in the people-pleasing (fear of man) trap. What has lifted me out of that horrible pit has been the revelation of His love and enjoyment of me. It has also given me the courage to act in obedience to His voice of correction and conviction. This revelation hasn’t come in one fell swoop but over time as I have chosen to practice His presence and listen to His affirmation of me.
This chapter, in contrast with the previous one which spoke of broken human fathers, is about our heavenly Father and His affections and approachableness.
Romans 8:14-16: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”
In relation to this passage, I’ll quote the author:
“The word ‘abba’ is equivalent to the word ‘papa’ and carries with it the idea of intimacy, dependency, and vulnerability. The concept of God as ‘abba’ was a revolutionary one at the time Paul wrote this.
“Drawing on his experience with Greco-Roman law, Paul used the analogy of adoption to describe the Christian’s relationship and position with God. The legal status of a son in early Roman times was not much better than that of a slave. A son was the property of his father. A father was entitled to his son’s wages. A father could transfer ownership of his son at will and, under certain circumstances, even have him put to death.
“In contrast, the legal status of an adopted son actually put him in a more secure place than that of a son born into the family. He was no longer legally bound to old debts, andif he was a slave, he was set free the moment he was adopted. He had complete access to the father of the family and was guaranteed a position in the family as well.”
The book includes an interesting quote from Martyn Lloyd-Jones who emphasizes the experiential nature of the above Scripture from Romans 18:
“What the apostle Paul is emphasizing here is that not only must we believe this doctrine and accept it with our minds, but we must also be conscious of it and feel it; there must be the Spirit of Adoption in us as a result of this work of the Holy Spirit…Paul is really telling us that we are to feel – and I am emphasizing feeling – in this sense, what our Lord Himself felt.”
S.J. Hill encourages us to believe and receive the truth that like a child “you can crawl up into ‘Abba’s lap’ and experience the warmth and security of His loving embrace. You can know the pleasure of His heart as you allow your emotions to be bathed in the revelation of His love for you.”
Hill then speaks of the affectionate Father, giving the testimonies of men such as Charles Finney and Dwight L. Moody who experienced wonderful encounters with the affections of God. Then he gives a graphic description of the sufferings of Jesus on the cross (taken from an article by C.Truman Davis). Looking at the indescribable suffering of the Lord in His crucifixion speaks loudly and dramatically of the Father’s passion for a Bride for His Son.
We wonder and marvel at stories we hear about someone taking great risks to save the life of another person; and the reality is that we all have this story – a Man has died for me! Only ravished and jealous love will do such a thing, and Jesus has done it for all of us who are in Him and part of His Bride. (See Song of Songs 8:6.)
Just this week a young man was sharing with me the bit of revelation he’s beginning to have about God’s emotions and how that is revolutionizing his view of God and of himself. He’s been spending time in the book of Hosea, meditating on the fiery jealousy of God for His people and how emotional God is about us; our God is not a passive God at a distance but fights to win our affections and to deliver us from lesser loves.
I have been strengthened and healed by studying and believing the emotions that God has towards me. The Gospel is an unbelievable reality!! The longer I live, the more I realize how radical the Gospel of Jesus Christ is; worship and the offering of my life to Him is the natural overflow of this.
The Father looks at you with affection; you are His beloved and adopted child…May the grace of the Spirit rest upon us this week to believe and receive what His Word says about His feelings toward us. Blessings on your week in Him!
For next week, let’s finish chapter five on the affectionate and approachable Father. (Please see my note from last week's posting about when we will begin the next book...)
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Enjoying God - Week #4
Chapter Four: The Audience of One
The author begins this chapter with a fable which tells of a spring of pure water with miraculous healing properties, and whoever drank of it was healed instantly. As word got out, people came from near and far to drink of this spring, and eventually, all kinds of businesses and homes were built around this spring to support the multitude of visitors coming. In time an entire city was built.
One day a visitor came looking for the stream; not finding any signs, he asked a resident where the famous stream was, and after hesitating a moment, the resident answered with embarrassment, “I don’t even know. In all of our activity – our building and moving – we’ve somehow lost sight of the healing stream.”
This fable reminds me of the experience I had as a young missionary in Puerto Rico many years ago. In my regular devotional time, I was reading through the Scriptures and was in the book of Judges reading about Samson. When I got to chapter 6, I read of his being seduced by Delilah into telling her the secret of his strength…you know the story.
When I got to Judges 16:20, it was as if the Holy Spirit took out a bright highlighter pen and underscored the words as I read them: “He did not know that the Lord had left him.” A holy fear entered me that morning that has remained with me since. I saw clearly that Samson was anointed and called and chosen by God for a particular purpose in Israel’s life and destiny; he was doing the will of God by defeating the Philistines. But along the way, he allowed himself to slowly be drawn into compromises until one day he woke up from a night’s sleep to find himself stripped of his God-given strength.
What most hit me in that story that day was not the sin and compromises, but the fact that the sin and compromises had so dulled him that when Delilah wakened him to warn him that the Philistines were coming, he jumped out of bed with the same thought he had had the other times she had tried this on him: “I’ll show them…let me at them!” The Holy Spirit’s commentary on Samson at that moment was, “He did not know that the Lord had left him.”
And I realized that the worst part of it all was that this anointed servant of God had reached such a point of dullness in his walk with God that he had no clue that God was not around. I cried out to the Holy Spirit that morning to never allow me to get so engrossed in ministry and doing the work of God that my heart grows cold and hard and dull to the presence of the One I’m serving and I find myself one day unaware that His presence is missing and I’m just going through the religious motions as Samson was doing.
This chapter deals with religious busyness and the spiritual poverty many believers live in because of seeking the approval of men; I hope you can read it for yourself. It’s fairly lengthy and in the interest of keeping this to a reasonable length, I won’t try to cover all of it.
The author says, “Religious busyness drives us to develop programs and machinery that propel an institution rather than promote a relationship with the Lover of our hearts. It takes away the ability to sit at the feet of Jesus. It opens the door to performance-based faith and undermines what Christ did for us on the cross…We then begin developing our own substitutes – settling for good rather than God…We try to satisfy our hearts with the water of obligation and duty, and yet we remain thirsty for something more.”
I’ve spent my entire life within Christian community, particularly within Christian missionary community both as a daughter of missionaries then as an adult missionary among dedicated and genuine followers of Jesus; I count myself one of these. In more recent years, my heart has been given permission (through circumstances the Lord has orchestrated) to run fully with what I was always drawn to as a young woman: a wholehearted, lovesick pursuit of God, and this pursuit has bumped up against human and religious systems that were happier with me being in compliance with them. But the encounters I’ve had with the living God have ruined me for anything less, and I live my days more interested in His praise and affirmation than in that of others around me. (I’m not claiming to do this perfectly, but I’ve lived it enough now to never want to go back to people-pleasing.)
The human heart was made for wholehearted love for God, and I believe the Holy Spirit is stirring desire for God among His people more than ever now. I travel a little to share with different groups about these things, and in the past year or so I’ve seen a marked difference in how God’s people respond to these truths…our desire for Him is overcoming the obstacles that have hindered our seeking him with our whole heart.
The Gospel and the Word of God is given to us to free us to love the Father with all our hearts! That’s what we were created for and that’s why He has given us His Son and the Scriptures.
The great men and women of God have always understood the priority of loving God above all else, even above ministry to people (Mark 12:29-31; Revelation 2:2-5, etc.). The author quotes Watchman Nee in this chapter:
"Work for the Lord undoubtedly has its attractions for the flesh…you may be thrilled when crowds gather to hear you preach…If you have to stay at home, occupied from morning to night with mundane matters, you think: How meaningless life is…If only I were free to go around preaching…
But that is not spirituality. Oh, if we could only see that very much work done for God is not really ministry to Him!...The thing I fear most is that many of you will go out and win sinners to the Lord and build up believers without ministering to the Lord Himself. Much so-called service for Him is simply following our own natural inclinations. We have such active dispositions that we cannot bear to stay at home, so we run around for our own relief…
Many of us can enjoy working among people, but how many of us can draw near to God in the Holy of Holies?...Ministry that is ‘unto Me’ is in the inner sanctuary, in the hidden place…people may think we are doing nothing, but service to God within the Holy Place far transcends service to the people in the outer court."
Another well-known man of God, Oswald Chambers, said this:
"The only way to keep true to God is by a steady persistent refusal to be interested in
Christian work and to be interested alone in Jesus Christ."
S.J. Hill says that the biblical view of success for humans is the realization that we are loved by God and that we are lovers of God. In other words, our whole identity is wrapped up in God, just as the Apostle John’s was. He never names himself “John” in his gospel, but rather refers to himself always as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” I love that!
The more I believe and receive this truth that my success lies in who I am in Him (dearly beloved) and Who He is in me (my First Love), then I can do what He gives me to do with confidence, because I begin successful before I do anything and don't need to prove anything with what I do...it's simply the overflow of a lovesick heart.
Hill finishes the chapter talking about God the Father’s affirmation and blessing of His Son Jesus and points out five main parts that there are to full blessing that a human father can give to his son or daughter, which is seen in God’s blessing of Jesus at His baptism. (He takes this from Gary Smalley’s book The Blessing.) I will simply list the five components for you:
1. Meaningful touch
2. Affirmation or spoken message
3. Attaching high value to the one being blessed
4. Portraying a specific future for the one being blessed
5. Being actively committed to fulfilling the promise of the blessing.
“Many believers try to serve the Lord without having experienced the Father’s affirmation and blessing.” Our heads may know this but it must be a revelation to our spirit or we serve the Lord with insecurity and in fear of man.
I want to encourage you, as I have done before, to study the emotions of God’s heart in the Scriptures; and then take the time to be with Him without doing anything but having your heart open to Him. Sing to Him and listen for any word He may want to whisper to you or He may simply enjoy being with you in silence. As you give Him the chance to speak, He will affirm you in His love and with His affirmation, you will grow in confidence and minister to others without fear.
This is a life-long process. For some of us the healing that will come by simply being affirmed and blessed by God the Father will take a long time; but even after the healing of past issues, we will always need His affirming words in order to navigate a performance-driven world and church. As an adult woman, my earthly father's affirming words were super important to me; I never outgrew wanting and needing to be affirmed by him.
Living before “an audience of One” (for His praise alone) is only truly possible as we know how ravished He is with us. The Lord bless you and may His bridegroom zeal go after all the obstacles that are in the way of our experiencing His love! I don’t have the energy nor zeal to do this for myself, but I can say “yes” to His doing it on my behalf.
Next week we will cover half of chapter five (to the bottom of page 81): The Affectionate and Approachable Father. We are now a year into this book club, and there are a number of people reading it regularly. Thank you for sharing these books with me. When August comes, I’m going to take a break and not blog about a book but rather make a couple of postings during the month of simple and short words of encouragement. Then in September we’ll go back to a new book.
With this in mind, I’m going to take the remaining three chapters of Enjoying God at a slower pace, spending two weeks on each of these chapters. These chapters are quite lengthy anyway and this topic of the lavish love of God for weak humans deserves to be gone through slowly.
God bless you this week!
The author begins this chapter with a fable which tells of a spring of pure water with miraculous healing properties, and whoever drank of it was healed instantly. As word got out, people came from near and far to drink of this spring, and eventually, all kinds of businesses and homes were built around this spring to support the multitude of visitors coming. In time an entire city was built.
One day a visitor came looking for the stream; not finding any signs, he asked a resident where the famous stream was, and after hesitating a moment, the resident answered with embarrassment, “I don’t even know. In all of our activity – our building and moving – we’ve somehow lost sight of the healing stream.”
This fable reminds me of the experience I had as a young missionary in Puerto Rico many years ago. In my regular devotional time, I was reading through the Scriptures and was in the book of Judges reading about Samson. When I got to chapter 6, I read of his being seduced by Delilah into telling her the secret of his strength…you know the story.
When I got to Judges 16:20, it was as if the Holy Spirit took out a bright highlighter pen and underscored the words as I read them: “He did not know that the Lord had left him.” A holy fear entered me that morning that has remained with me since. I saw clearly that Samson was anointed and called and chosen by God for a particular purpose in Israel’s life and destiny; he was doing the will of God by defeating the Philistines. But along the way, he allowed himself to slowly be drawn into compromises until one day he woke up from a night’s sleep to find himself stripped of his God-given strength.
What most hit me in that story that day was not the sin and compromises, but the fact that the sin and compromises had so dulled him that when Delilah wakened him to warn him that the Philistines were coming, he jumped out of bed with the same thought he had had the other times she had tried this on him: “I’ll show them…let me at them!” The Holy Spirit’s commentary on Samson at that moment was, “He did not know that the Lord had left him.”
And I realized that the worst part of it all was that this anointed servant of God had reached such a point of dullness in his walk with God that he had no clue that God was not around. I cried out to the Holy Spirit that morning to never allow me to get so engrossed in ministry and doing the work of God that my heart grows cold and hard and dull to the presence of the One I’m serving and I find myself one day unaware that His presence is missing and I’m just going through the religious motions as Samson was doing.
This chapter deals with religious busyness and the spiritual poverty many believers live in because of seeking the approval of men; I hope you can read it for yourself. It’s fairly lengthy and in the interest of keeping this to a reasonable length, I won’t try to cover all of it.
The author says, “Religious busyness drives us to develop programs and machinery that propel an institution rather than promote a relationship with the Lover of our hearts. It takes away the ability to sit at the feet of Jesus. It opens the door to performance-based faith and undermines what Christ did for us on the cross…We then begin developing our own substitutes – settling for good rather than God…We try to satisfy our hearts with the water of obligation and duty, and yet we remain thirsty for something more.”
I’ve spent my entire life within Christian community, particularly within Christian missionary community both as a daughter of missionaries then as an adult missionary among dedicated and genuine followers of Jesus; I count myself one of these. In more recent years, my heart has been given permission (through circumstances the Lord has orchestrated) to run fully with what I was always drawn to as a young woman: a wholehearted, lovesick pursuit of God, and this pursuit has bumped up against human and religious systems that were happier with me being in compliance with them. But the encounters I’ve had with the living God have ruined me for anything less, and I live my days more interested in His praise and affirmation than in that of others around me. (I’m not claiming to do this perfectly, but I’ve lived it enough now to never want to go back to people-pleasing.)
The human heart was made for wholehearted love for God, and I believe the Holy Spirit is stirring desire for God among His people more than ever now. I travel a little to share with different groups about these things, and in the past year or so I’ve seen a marked difference in how God’s people respond to these truths…our desire for Him is overcoming the obstacles that have hindered our seeking him with our whole heart.
The Gospel and the Word of God is given to us to free us to love the Father with all our hearts! That’s what we were created for and that’s why He has given us His Son and the Scriptures.
The great men and women of God have always understood the priority of loving God above all else, even above ministry to people (Mark 12:29-31; Revelation 2:2-5, etc.). The author quotes Watchman Nee in this chapter:
"Work for the Lord undoubtedly has its attractions for the flesh…you may be thrilled when crowds gather to hear you preach…If you have to stay at home, occupied from morning to night with mundane matters, you think: How meaningless life is…If only I were free to go around preaching…
But that is not spirituality. Oh, if we could only see that very much work done for God is not really ministry to Him!...The thing I fear most is that many of you will go out and win sinners to the Lord and build up believers without ministering to the Lord Himself. Much so-called service for Him is simply following our own natural inclinations. We have such active dispositions that we cannot bear to stay at home, so we run around for our own relief…
Many of us can enjoy working among people, but how many of us can draw near to God in the Holy of Holies?...Ministry that is ‘unto Me’ is in the inner sanctuary, in the hidden place…people may think we are doing nothing, but service to God within the Holy Place far transcends service to the people in the outer court."
Another well-known man of God, Oswald Chambers, said this:
"The only way to keep true to God is by a steady persistent refusal to be interested in
Christian work and to be interested alone in Jesus Christ."
S.J. Hill says that the biblical view of success for humans is the realization that we are loved by God and that we are lovers of God. In other words, our whole identity is wrapped up in God, just as the Apostle John’s was. He never names himself “John” in his gospel, but rather refers to himself always as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” I love that!
The more I believe and receive this truth that my success lies in who I am in Him (dearly beloved) and Who He is in me (my First Love), then I can do what He gives me to do with confidence, because I begin successful before I do anything and don't need to prove anything with what I do...it's simply the overflow of a lovesick heart.
Hill finishes the chapter talking about God the Father’s affirmation and blessing of His Son Jesus and points out five main parts that there are to full blessing that a human father can give to his son or daughter, which is seen in God’s blessing of Jesus at His baptism. (He takes this from Gary Smalley’s book The Blessing.) I will simply list the five components for you:
1. Meaningful touch
2. Affirmation or spoken message
3. Attaching high value to the one being blessed
4. Portraying a specific future for the one being blessed
5. Being actively committed to fulfilling the promise of the blessing.
“Many believers try to serve the Lord without having experienced the Father’s affirmation and blessing.” Our heads may know this but it must be a revelation to our spirit or we serve the Lord with insecurity and in fear of man.
I want to encourage you, as I have done before, to study the emotions of God’s heart in the Scriptures; and then take the time to be with Him without doing anything but having your heart open to Him. Sing to Him and listen for any word He may want to whisper to you or He may simply enjoy being with you in silence. As you give Him the chance to speak, He will affirm you in His love and with His affirmation, you will grow in confidence and minister to others without fear.
This is a life-long process. For some of us the healing that will come by simply being affirmed and blessed by God the Father will take a long time; but even after the healing of past issues, we will always need His affirming words in order to navigate a performance-driven world and church. As an adult woman, my earthly father's affirming words were super important to me; I never outgrew wanting and needing to be affirmed by him.
Living before “an audience of One” (for His praise alone) is only truly possible as we know how ravished He is with us. The Lord bless you and may His bridegroom zeal go after all the obstacles that are in the way of our experiencing His love! I don’t have the energy nor zeal to do this for myself, but I can say “yes” to His doing it on my behalf.
Next week we will cover half of chapter five (to the bottom of page 81): The Affectionate and Approachable Father. We are now a year into this book club, and there are a number of people reading it regularly. Thank you for sharing these books with me. When August comes, I’m going to take a break and not blog about a book but rather make a couple of postings during the month of simple and short words of encouragement. Then in September we’ll go back to a new book.
With this in mind, I’m going to take the remaining three chapters of Enjoying God at a slower pace, spending two weeks on each of these chapters. These chapters are quite lengthy anyway and this topic of the lavish love of God for weak humans deserves to be gone through slowly.
God bless you this week!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Enjoying God - Week #3
Chapter Three: The Wounded Heart
As I’m reading through this book now, I’m struck with the reality that a big part of what the author is teaching in this book is the need that we humans have for “storge” love. Storge love is the foundational family love that a baby must have if he or she is going to relate healthily to other loves that will come later into his/her life. This is the foundational love that comes primarily through the gracious mother who loves the child unconditionally before he or she has ever done anything to “deserve” to be loved and accepted. (See C.S. Lewis’ The Four Loves for teaching on four basic loves, among which is storge love.)
It’s this unconditional and never-ending acceptance and enjoyment of the little one that lays the foundation for future relationships and other loves. If a child misses out on this early in life for whatever reason, he is more prone to falling into illicit relationships when he gets older because he is lacking the core sense of being that makes him know he is a person of significance and doesn't need to find his identity in someone else. When there is a solid sense of being, one isn’t as easily seduced by substitutes (drugs, alcohol, perverted sex, even work and ministry, etc.) that come along to fill the longing for love and significance that all of us humans have.
The heart of God the Father is fascinating and intriguing to me, because in it are all the wonderful virtues of a mother as well as those of a father. And so the ability in God to fully accept and own me as His daughter (no matter how weak and immature I am) is what we see in a mother’s unconditional love but also what we should see in a human father’s unconditional acceptance and enjoyment of his child.
As the child grows up, boundaries that are established in order to bring discipline and responsibility into his life are constructive and life-giving when set up within the context of unconditional love and acceptance.
In this chapter on the wounded heart, S.J. Hill addresses the failure of human fathers primarily (though it’s true to a lesser extent with mothers as well) to unconditionally love and enjoy their children and how that impacts the child’s view of God the Father. After giving a specific example, the author says, “Because the teenager had a bad experience with his own father, he was unable to grasp the goodness, kindness and loving nature of the heavenly Father...Ideally, our experience with our father should point us to the heart of a greater Father who loves His children more than any earthly father ever could.”
As I continue to mature in God’s love, I’m more impressed with how important it is that we really know God the Father. I am going slowly through the Gospel of John now, taking the time to allow the Holy Spirit to apply the words of Jesus to me personally and let them seep down deeply into me as I say “yes” in agreement with what He is saying to and about me. Right now I am in John 14 where Jesus is saying that He wants to introduce us to His Father; what He says about being the Way to the Father suggests that knowing the Father is the ultimate experience a human can have and is where true healing takes place. (Philip confessed to Jesus, “Show us the Father and we shall be satisfied”, in this portion.)
(I heard the story of Clay McLean who was healed and cleansed of homosexuality; in his journey as a young Christian, He loved Jesus but one day when the Lord said to him, “Clay, I want to introduce you to my Father,” he panicked because of his experience with his earthly father.)
In this chapter, S.J. Hill speaks of several types of earthly fathers that are not unusual even within the Christian community of faith and points how that can impact our view of the heavenly Father:
1) The Performance-Oriented Father – this is the father who expresses his approval only after his child has accomplished something of significance. “While our achievements should be recognized and celebrated, they should never be a prerequisite for receiving parental love and affirmation…The performance-driven mentality eventually spills over into our personal relationship with Christ. Initially, as young Christians we may sense God’s love and experience the simplicity of relationship, but it doesn’t take long before we think we’re not doing enough.” Speaking of his own experience as the son of a pastor, Hill says that “even when I hadn’t done anything wrong, I felt guilty for not doing all the things I believed I should be doing…I used to believe that to experience success in my Christian life, I had to work harder. But I discovered that the key to spiritual success was not strenuous work, but spiritual rest and intimacy with my heavenly Father…”
2) The Passive Father – a passive father appears distant and rarely gets involved in the personal affairs of the child’s life; he isn’t very affectionate and seldom shows his emotions. If we have had this kind of father, we may believe that God doesn’t care about the little things of our life and consequently, we run to Him only in emergencies. This hinders us from a truly intimate relationship with Him because we fear He’s not that interested in us.
3) The Punitive Father – this kind of father places demands on us that break the child’s spirit. “An authoritarian father tends to rule with a mixture of fear and guilt…(he) believes that if he reminds his children of their faults, they will be motivated to try harder…If you grew up with a father or mother who was demanding and abusive, you may have difficulty receiving the love of the heavenly Father; you may tend to think He is always looking for some fault in you. As a result, it will be difficult for you to picture Him smiling over you in loving approval.”
Does God have a Good Heart?
The strongholds of rejection and fear that get set up within us because of wrong parenting can only be broken through coming to grips with the inaccurate concepts that we have in our minds about God.
“The human heart longs to know God and be known by Him. But like a lover who has been wronged, we guard our hearts against future disappointments…Wrong ideas about God are not automatically flushed from our minds when we are first saved. We must continually reshape our way of thinking through an accurate knowledge of God’s heart and character (II Cor. 10:4,5; Rom. 12:2).
Satan’s goal is to keep us in the dark about God’s true feelings and intentions for us…
If we want our hearts to be captivated by the beauty and splendor of God, we must aggressively attack these demonic strongholds. We must allow the truth of God’s Word not only to wash our minds of fleshly, immature ways of thinking but also to tenderize our hearts so we can walk in the freedom of God’s love. It’s only as we understand how God feels about us that the strongholds of the enemy will be overthrown in our hearts and minds.”
In closing I want to underscore what the author says about the importance of understanding how God feels about us. I’m discovering that one of the most effective ways to be healed of emotional brokenness is to experience personally the wholeness of God’s emotions; we begin to touch His emotions towards us in adoring prayer. In other words, prayer that looks into His face, listens for His words of affirmation, says “yes” to what He says (in spite of what my guts scream out in reaction), then obeys anything He may say to me to do. After doing this, do it again…and again…and again. His Word and His Spirit will do the work that we cannot do, as we simply lay our heart before Him and reach out for Him; but it takes time and perseverance to dislodge deeply ingrained mindsets (strongholds), so don’t give up easily!
It helps to pray a lot in your prayer language (tongues) if you have that gift; it is a powerful means of cooperating with the Holy Spirit in the strengthening of your “inner man” (Eph. 3:16). Singing the Word and fasting are other ways of accelerating the work of the Spirit in reversing inaccurate ways of viewing God.
The Lord bless you and keep you and cause His face to shine on you and be gracious to you… this biblical prayer reflects the understanding that the human heart longs for the gracious smile of the Father, just as the infant looks into the mother’s gracious eyes for her approval. And so I pray this prayer for you this week as you pause periodically to look and listen for His affirming word that you are His child, unconditionally accepted in the Beloved and enjoyed by Him!
For next week we’ll read chapter four, The Audience of One.
As I’m reading through this book now, I’m struck with the reality that a big part of what the author is teaching in this book is the need that we humans have for “storge” love. Storge love is the foundational family love that a baby must have if he or she is going to relate healthily to other loves that will come later into his/her life. This is the foundational love that comes primarily through the gracious mother who loves the child unconditionally before he or she has ever done anything to “deserve” to be loved and accepted. (See C.S. Lewis’ The Four Loves for teaching on four basic loves, among which is storge love.)
It’s this unconditional and never-ending acceptance and enjoyment of the little one that lays the foundation for future relationships and other loves. If a child misses out on this early in life for whatever reason, he is more prone to falling into illicit relationships when he gets older because he is lacking the core sense of being that makes him know he is a person of significance and doesn't need to find his identity in someone else. When there is a solid sense of being, one isn’t as easily seduced by substitutes (drugs, alcohol, perverted sex, even work and ministry, etc.) that come along to fill the longing for love and significance that all of us humans have.
The heart of God the Father is fascinating and intriguing to me, because in it are all the wonderful virtues of a mother as well as those of a father. And so the ability in God to fully accept and own me as His daughter (no matter how weak and immature I am) is what we see in a mother’s unconditional love but also what we should see in a human father’s unconditional acceptance and enjoyment of his child.
As the child grows up, boundaries that are established in order to bring discipline and responsibility into his life are constructive and life-giving when set up within the context of unconditional love and acceptance.
In this chapter on the wounded heart, S.J. Hill addresses the failure of human fathers primarily (though it’s true to a lesser extent with mothers as well) to unconditionally love and enjoy their children and how that impacts the child’s view of God the Father. After giving a specific example, the author says, “Because the teenager had a bad experience with his own father, he was unable to grasp the goodness, kindness and loving nature of the heavenly Father...Ideally, our experience with our father should point us to the heart of a greater Father who loves His children more than any earthly father ever could.”
As I continue to mature in God’s love, I’m more impressed with how important it is that we really know God the Father. I am going slowly through the Gospel of John now, taking the time to allow the Holy Spirit to apply the words of Jesus to me personally and let them seep down deeply into me as I say “yes” in agreement with what He is saying to and about me. Right now I am in John 14 where Jesus is saying that He wants to introduce us to His Father; what He says about being the Way to the Father suggests that knowing the Father is the ultimate experience a human can have and is where true healing takes place. (Philip confessed to Jesus, “Show us the Father and we shall be satisfied”, in this portion.)
(I heard the story of Clay McLean who was healed and cleansed of homosexuality; in his journey as a young Christian, He loved Jesus but one day when the Lord said to him, “Clay, I want to introduce you to my Father,” he panicked because of his experience with his earthly father.)
In this chapter, S.J. Hill speaks of several types of earthly fathers that are not unusual even within the Christian community of faith and points how that can impact our view of the heavenly Father:
1) The Performance-Oriented Father – this is the father who expresses his approval only after his child has accomplished something of significance. “While our achievements should be recognized and celebrated, they should never be a prerequisite for receiving parental love and affirmation…The performance-driven mentality eventually spills over into our personal relationship with Christ. Initially, as young Christians we may sense God’s love and experience the simplicity of relationship, but it doesn’t take long before we think we’re not doing enough.” Speaking of his own experience as the son of a pastor, Hill says that “even when I hadn’t done anything wrong, I felt guilty for not doing all the things I believed I should be doing…I used to believe that to experience success in my Christian life, I had to work harder. But I discovered that the key to spiritual success was not strenuous work, but spiritual rest and intimacy with my heavenly Father…”
2) The Passive Father – a passive father appears distant and rarely gets involved in the personal affairs of the child’s life; he isn’t very affectionate and seldom shows his emotions. If we have had this kind of father, we may believe that God doesn’t care about the little things of our life and consequently, we run to Him only in emergencies. This hinders us from a truly intimate relationship with Him because we fear He’s not that interested in us.
3) The Punitive Father – this kind of father places demands on us that break the child’s spirit. “An authoritarian father tends to rule with a mixture of fear and guilt…(he) believes that if he reminds his children of their faults, they will be motivated to try harder…If you grew up with a father or mother who was demanding and abusive, you may have difficulty receiving the love of the heavenly Father; you may tend to think He is always looking for some fault in you. As a result, it will be difficult for you to picture Him smiling over you in loving approval.”
Does God have a Good Heart?
The strongholds of rejection and fear that get set up within us because of wrong parenting can only be broken through coming to grips with the inaccurate concepts that we have in our minds about God.
“The human heart longs to know God and be known by Him. But like a lover who has been wronged, we guard our hearts against future disappointments…Wrong ideas about God are not automatically flushed from our minds when we are first saved. We must continually reshape our way of thinking through an accurate knowledge of God’s heart and character (II Cor. 10:4,5; Rom. 12:2).
Satan’s goal is to keep us in the dark about God’s true feelings and intentions for us…
If we want our hearts to be captivated by the beauty and splendor of God, we must aggressively attack these demonic strongholds. We must allow the truth of God’s Word not only to wash our minds of fleshly, immature ways of thinking but also to tenderize our hearts so we can walk in the freedom of God’s love. It’s only as we understand how God feels about us that the strongholds of the enemy will be overthrown in our hearts and minds.”
In closing I want to underscore what the author says about the importance of understanding how God feels about us. I’m discovering that one of the most effective ways to be healed of emotional brokenness is to experience personally the wholeness of God’s emotions; we begin to touch His emotions towards us in adoring prayer. In other words, prayer that looks into His face, listens for His words of affirmation, says “yes” to what He says (in spite of what my guts scream out in reaction), then obeys anything He may say to me to do. After doing this, do it again…and again…and again. His Word and His Spirit will do the work that we cannot do, as we simply lay our heart before Him and reach out for Him; but it takes time and perseverance to dislodge deeply ingrained mindsets (strongholds), so don’t give up easily!
It helps to pray a lot in your prayer language (tongues) if you have that gift; it is a powerful means of cooperating with the Holy Spirit in the strengthening of your “inner man” (Eph. 3:16). Singing the Word and fasting are other ways of accelerating the work of the Spirit in reversing inaccurate ways of viewing God.
The Lord bless you and keep you and cause His face to shine on you and be gracious to you… this biblical prayer reflects the understanding that the human heart longs for the gracious smile of the Father, just as the infant looks into the mother’s gracious eyes for her approval. And so I pray this prayer for you this week as you pause periodically to look and listen for His affirming word that you are His child, unconditionally accepted in the Beloved and enjoyed by Him!
For next week we’ll read chapter four, The Audience of One.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Enjoying God - Week #2
Chapter two is entitled The Divine Romance. I’m “creeping” through the Psalms now and am using a wonderful book by Patrick Reardon (Christ in the Psalms) as I go through them. This week I’m in Psalm 45 and read the following commentary that fits this chapter perfectly:
“'The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son' (Matthew 22:2), that marriage’s consummation being the definitive aim of our destiny, and all of history constituting the courtship that prepares and anticipates the yet undisclosed hour of its fulfillment. Thus the end of time is announced by the solemn proclamation: “Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him.” (Matthew 25:6)
This interpretation of history as the preparation for a royal wedding ceremony is so pervasive and obvious in Holy Scripture that we Christians, taking it so much for granted, may actually overlook it or give it little thought. Indeed, in this modern materialistic world there is a distinct danger that we too may forget that the present life is but the preparation for another…
To counter such forgetfulness of our future, therefore, God’s Holy Writ repeatedly reminds us of that coming wedding day of the King’s Son…"
When we pause to look at the story of the Bible, we can all recognize that it’s a love story from beginning to end, and the more I see it through the lens of the Bridegroom God, the more I understand, not only the Scriptures, but also the reasons behind why God does what He does, even when it doesn’t make sense to the natural mind. It helps me understand better why we humans are easily caught in addictions of all sorts – we were made for pleasure and fascination so will do anything to satisfy those desires if our hearts aren’t fascinated with God. This is as true of Christian believers as it is of the world.
S.J. Hill, referring to the battle for Helen of Troy (I’m assuming you know the story), says,
“'The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son' (Matthew 22:2), that marriage’s consummation being the definitive aim of our destiny, and all of history constituting the courtship that prepares and anticipates the yet undisclosed hour of its fulfillment. Thus the end of time is announced by the solemn proclamation: “Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him.” (Matthew 25:6)
This interpretation of history as the preparation for a royal wedding ceremony is so pervasive and obvious in Holy Scripture that we Christians, taking it so much for granted, may actually overlook it or give it little thought. Indeed, in this modern materialistic world there is a distinct danger that we too may forget that the present life is but the preparation for another…
To counter such forgetfulness of our future, therefore, God’s Holy Writ repeatedly reminds us of that coming wedding day of the King’s Son…"
When we pause to look at the story of the Bible, we can all recognize that it’s a love story from beginning to end, and the more I see it through the lens of the Bridegroom God, the more I understand, not only the Scriptures, but also the reasons behind why God does what He does, even when it doesn’t make sense to the natural mind. It helps me understand better why we humans are easily caught in addictions of all sorts – we were made for pleasure and fascination so will do anything to satisfy those desires if our hearts aren’t fascinated with God. This is as true of Christian believers as it is of the world.
S.J. Hill, referring to the battle for Helen of Troy (I’m assuming you know the story), says,
“…like Helen of Troy, we won’t return to an eternal love affair with our Bridegroom King without a battle. Many of us carry baggage into the Christian experience that has never been unpacked. Rejection, insecurity, and fear stand against the divine romance in such stark contrast that it’s hard for us to fully grasp the heart of the Gospel...We’re reluctant to open ourselves fully to God because we don’t want to become too vulnerable.”
Relationship with the Divine Romancer
I so appreciate the author’s taking us further back than Eden in his attempt to help us understand the heart and nature of our God. He points out that the divine romance did not begin in Eden but has been who God is forever in relationship. “…before man was created, the Father was already in relationship with Someone.” (Prov. 8:27-31 gives us a picture of this eternal relationship: “Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.” This is referring to Jesus and shows both His delightful relationship with the Father and His delight in mankind.) And in John 14 and John 17 Jesus expresses His desire for us to be with Him forever and to have the same love relationship with humans as He and His Father have.
This all sounds great on paper but I am discovering that the full embracing and receiving of this kind of extravagant and unconditional love is offensive to my flesh because it cuts across the grain of the deeply embedded desire in fallen humans to somehow deserve to be loved.
The book quotes St. Augustine’s eloquent prayer of desire: “I came to love you late, O Beauty so ancient and so new; I came to love you late…You called me, you shouted to me, you broke past my deafness. You bathed me with your light, you wrapped me in your splendor, you sent my blindness reeling. You gave out such a delightful fragrance, and I drew it in and came breathing hard after you. I tasted, and it made me hunger and thirst; you touched me, and I burned to know your peace.”
The greatest demonstration of the love of God for us is the cross. Referring again to Helen of Troy, he says, “The Father did more than launch a thousand ships to get you back. He gave His unique Son – the One He delighted in – even before time began.”
This chapter tells a story that Soren Kierkegaard told about a king who fell in love with a humble maiden; everyone trembled before his power, but his heart melted with love for this maiden. Being king tied his hands from being able to declare his love for her; he could bring her to the palace and give her all that accompanies such a position and she would not dare resist him; but would she love him freely? He didn’t want a cringing slave but a lover; he wanted her to forget his was king and she a simple maiden and to let shared love bridge the gulf between them.
John Eldridge continues with this story: “The king clothes himself as a beggar and renounces his throne in order to win her hand. The Incarnation, the life and the death of Jesus, answers once and for all the question, ‘What is God’s heart toward me?’”
There is too much more in this chapter to try to get it in this posting, so I’m simply going to list several quotes out of the chapter and make a closing remark.
The Bridal Paradigm in Scripture
* (Speaking of the last days)…She (the Bride) will be empowered by holy romance with her bridegroom God. From her sense of spiritual romance, she will view everything differently. Because this bride is lost in the spiritual pleasure and the delight of lovesickness, she will interpret the events of the last days through the lens of love. As God’s temporal judgments disrupt the human race, the end-time bride will see God’s hand of mercy in them…
* God wants lovers who will submit to Him from their hearts…He longs for a lovesick bride. He is looking for those who will keep themselves unstained by the world and will save themselves for Him.
* Through the poetic, romantic language of Scripture, the Bridegroom God is trying to capture our imagination…He will call us out of immaturity and weakness and correct us with His love. He will remove the areas of sin in our lives so we can enjoy Him as the Husband of our hearts and live with Him forever.
* There is nothing more invigorating to the human spirit than the revelation of a Bridegroom God who has intense, pure, passionate desires for us. Something deeply significant takes place in us when in our weakness and immaturity we feel wanted and pursued.
The Divine Kiss of God
* The dominant theme in the Song of Solomon is the revelation of the passionate affections in God’s personality…The divine kiss is a metaphor for the deepest affections that God can give to the human spirit.
* By its very nature, the divine kiss empower you to share God with others. It enables you to run with God…
* The primary way (God communicates His kiss to us) is through meditating on the Scriptures.
A Jealous Romancer
* Exodus 34:14 It’s interesting that God would name Himself “Jealous.” There is something within the nature of God that burns with jealousy for the undivided love and affections of His people.
* God is also emotional. Within the depths of His being he experiences extraordinary passions, including jealousy…Holy jealousy is an intense passion to protect a love relationship that’s priceless and to avenge it when it’s fractured. God’s holy anger at any threat to this relationship is in direct proportion to the burning fire of His love.
The chapter concludes with thoughts on repentance and on man’s free will to choose love, which God will never violate.
It’s been in recent years that my eyes have been opened to the bridal paradigm in Scriptures; seeing God in this light has changed me deeply. Taking the time to listen to His loving affirmations of me and agreeing with Him has brought wonderful healing and strengthening of my inner being. In this process of experiencing the “divine kiss”, I have gained new confidence and no longer live my life dominated by fear of man and needing people’s approval.
I have always loved Him deeply but now I’m confident in His love for me; now I love Him more than ever and without the insecurity that there was when I attempted to love Him without the ongoing revelation of His unchanging love for me. The freedom and joy and spontaneity that comes when this reality dawns on a person is hard to describe!
Because I know that He loves and likes/enjoys me, I love and enjoy Him and others more and find myself free from judgment of myself and of others (even secret inner judgments that hide deep within).
I encourage you to begin to take regular time simply to listen to the Word of God, especially His expressions of love and affection, and just say “yes” to what He is saying to you and soak in that a long time until it penetrates your heart and spirit. If you are interested in Scriptures that are particularly about the emotions of God towards His own, I would be glad to send you some references.
Holy Spirit, You Who love the Father and Jesus passionately and purely, come and reveal God’s love to us by Your grace and power. Win our hearts so that we may love Him radically and to the death, for the sake of Jesus and those for whom He died. Thank You that You hear and answer our prayer!
Next week’s reading is chapter three, The Wounded Heart. Have a great week enjoying the God who enjoys you!
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Enjoying God - Week #1
The Lord bless you! I trust you are expanding in your capacity to receive His love as you continue to mature in Him. A favorite prayer of mine that I often pray is that of St. Augustine: “The house of my soul is small; do Thou enter in and enlarge it.”
The more I open my heart to freely receive the love of God in Christ Jesus, the more aware I am of how offensive God’s love (the real thing) is to my flesh! When I pause long enough to let Him tell me how He loves me even in my worst moments, the flesh rises up to say, “Yes, but…” and then goes on to protest why it can’t literally be true that He likes and enjoys and wants my company.
So the next book that we’re just starting this week could be problematic for us, but I have chosen it because of my own experience in recent years of understanding the radical nature of the love of God, seen most clearly in the cross of Christ Jesus.
I’ll start with a line from the foreword of S.J. Hill’s book: “He has designed you with the characteristics and personality to touch His heart in a way that no other human being has ever been able to do. It’s a simple truth. But if it doesn’t dominate your spirit, then most of what you’ll do will come out of duty rather than delight…” (Mike Bickle)
Chapter One is entitled The Drawing of the Human Heart. This book is very simple, and I’m praying that the Holy Spirit will take its simple but foundational truths and stop us in our tracks once in awhile; I encourage you, as I have before, to take this slowly and allow yourself to “soak” in these bedrock realities, without which so many of us as Christians live stressed-out lives in these days of massive pressures coming from all sides.
Hill quotes Blaise Pascal: “There once was in man a true happiness of which now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present. But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, by God Himself.”
Each human personality is an infinite abyss – you are and I am; because of our sin and fallenness and the sin of others against us, we spend our lives trying to fill that infinite void with finite things and people, what Hill calls “lesser loves.”
I have become convinced that without ongoing revelation of the relentless and unchanging love of God for me always (not just when I’m doing well), I cannot break free from chasing after second loves which I look to for affirmation and for my identity.
The author says, “The ache deep inside your being is a blessing. It invites you to something greater than you could ever fathom: the lifelong pursuit of knowing and enjoying God.” That ache is the desire to be fully known and fully loved; the good news is that we are fully known and loved, but the scheme of the evil one is to keep this truth hidden from us, even those of us who are in Christ.
One basic Christian reality that has become real to me in recent years is that I love God because He loved me first. I have “known” this truth (I John 4:19) for most of my life but am now beginning to “know” it. Much of my life and service for God has been unconsciously based on my love and commitment to Him rather than on His love and commitment to me. But without knowing at the core of my being that He loves and enjoys me, I cannot hope to freely love and enjoy Him. And so the author underscores the reality that GOD is the Initiator/Seeker, not man, in this love affair. This is unlike other religions that have man seeking a disinterested god(s).
“There is a place within you – a deep place – that only God can touch. It’s in that place that God’s echoing invitation emerges and penetrates your spirit. It’s the invitation not only to pursue Him but also to enjoy Him. This call comes out of an even deeper place, a deeper longing, in the heart of God. As much as you may want Him, He wants you more.”
Using the story of Helen of Troy, Hill talks of the fact that there is a war being fought over you and me; the war is between God and the enemy – God in Christ has fought for you; that’s how valuable you are to Him.
He goes on to say that today’s Church suffers from spiritual boredom “because believers were never made for a program, an institution, or a weekly pew-warming ceremony. Christians were never made to be satisfied by a three-point outline that contains just enough advice to get over the ‘hump’ of the week. The human heart was made for passion. It was created for relationship. It was designed to experience the fullness of God.”
In our state of dissatisfaction, we go after adventure in many forms. Some Christians find adventure in sports or camping or missions, etc., while others look for adventure in romance novels and movies, etc. While some of these activities aren’t evil in their rightful place, today’s western Christian culture has lost its way in its pursuit of substitutes for what our hearts really long for.
The thing that is filling my heart with faith for His Church these days is that God is jealous over His Bride, and I believe that wherever He finds a hungry heart, He begins to do whatever it takes to win our wholehearted love for Him. I am witnessing this among Christians everywhere I go these days – hunger for the true God. The jealous Bridegroom is warring for His Bride and awakening desire for Him in our weariness over chasing second loves that have left us disappointed and devastated.
There’s a good prayer by S.J. Hill at the end of this chapter that I encourage you to pray (or pray your own prayer of saying “yes” to God); but I want to close with the prayer quoted by the saint of long ago, Julian of Norwich:
“God, of your goodness, give me yourself, for you are enough for me. If I ask anything less, I know I shall continue to want. Only in you I have everything.”
God bless you this week with the certainty that He is with you and is not discouraged with His good work in you! He knows He is able to win and woo us into wholehearted love and enjoyment of Him through revealing to us His wholehearted love and enjoyment of us. All He needs is our “yes” to His work!
Let’s read chapter two for next week, “The Divine Romance.”
The more I open my heart to freely receive the love of God in Christ Jesus, the more aware I am of how offensive God’s love (the real thing) is to my flesh! When I pause long enough to let Him tell me how He loves me even in my worst moments, the flesh rises up to say, “Yes, but…” and then goes on to protest why it can’t literally be true that He likes and enjoys and wants my company.
So the next book that we’re just starting this week could be problematic for us, but I have chosen it because of my own experience in recent years of understanding the radical nature of the love of God, seen most clearly in the cross of Christ Jesus.
I’ll start with a line from the foreword of S.J. Hill’s book: “He has designed you with the characteristics and personality to touch His heart in a way that no other human being has ever been able to do. It’s a simple truth. But if it doesn’t dominate your spirit, then most of what you’ll do will come out of duty rather than delight…” (Mike Bickle)
Chapter One is entitled The Drawing of the Human Heart. This book is very simple, and I’m praying that the Holy Spirit will take its simple but foundational truths and stop us in our tracks once in awhile; I encourage you, as I have before, to take this slowly and allow yourself to “soak” in these bedrock realities, without which so many of us as Christians live stressed-out lives in these days of massive pressures coming from all sides.
Hill quotes Blaise Pascal: “There once was in man a true happiness of which now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present. But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, by God Himself.”
Each human personality is an infinite abyss – you are and I am; because of our sin and fallenness and the sin of others against us, we spend our lives trying to fill that infinite void with finite things and people, what Hill calls “lesser loves.”
I have become convinced that without ongoing revelation of the relentless and unchanging love of God for me always (not just when I’m doing well), I cannot break free from chasing after second loves which I look to for affirmation and for my identity.
The author says, “The ache deep inside your being is a blessing. It invites you to something greater than you could ever fathom: the lifelong pursuit of knowing and enjoying God.” That ache is the desire to be fully known and fully loved; the good news is that we are fully known and loved, but the scheme of the evil one is to keep this truth hidden from us, even those of us who are in Christ.
One basic Christian reality that has become real to me in recent years is that I love God because He loved me first. I have “known” this truth (I John 4:19) for most of my life but am now beginning to “know” it. Much of my life and service for God has been unconsciously based on my love and commitment to Him rather than on His love and commitment to me. But without knowing at the core of my being that He loves and enjoys me, I cannot hope to freely love and enjoy Him. And so the author underscores the reality that GOD is the Initiator/Seeker, not man, in this love affair. This is unlike other religions that have man seeking a disinterested god(s).
“There is a place within you – a deep place – that only God can touch. It’s in that place that God’s echoing invitation emerges and penetrates your spirit. It’s the invitation not only to pursue Him but also to enjoy Him. This call comes out of an even deeper place, a deeper longing, in the heart of God. As much as you may want Him, He wants you more.”
Using the story of Helen of Troy, Hill talks of the fact that there is a war being fought over you and me; the war is between God and the enemy – God in Christ has fought for you; that’s how valuable you are to Him.
He goes on to say that today’s Church suffers from spiritual boredom “because believers were never made for a program, an institution, or a weekly pew-warming ceremony. Christians were never made to be satisfied by a three-point outline that contains just enough advice to get over the ‘hump’ of the week. The human heart was made for passion. It was created for relationship. It was designed to experience the fullness of God.”
In our state of dissatisfaction, we go after adventure in many forms. Some Christians find adventure in sports or camping or missions, etc., while others look for adventure in romance novels and movies, etc. While some of these activities aren’t evil in their rightful place, today’s western Christian culture has lost its way in its pursuit of substitutes for what our hearts really long for.
The thing that is filling my heart with faith for His Church these days is that God is jealous over His Bride, and I believe that wherever He finds a hungry heart, He begins to do whatever it takes to win our wholehearted love for Him. I am witnessing this among Christians everywhere I go these days – hunger for the true God. The jealous Bridegroom is warring for His Bride and awakening desire for Him in our weariness over chasing second loves that have left us disappointed and devastated.
There’s a good prayer by S.J. Hill at the end of this chapter that I encourage you to pray (or pray your own prayer of saying “yes” to God); but I want to close with the prayer quoted by the saint of long ago, Julian of Norwich:
“God, of your goodness, give me yourself, for you are enough for me. If I ask anything less, I know I shall continue to want. Only in you I have everything.”
God bless you this week with the certainty that He is with you and is not discouraged with His good work in you! He knows He is able to win and woo us into wholehearted love and enjoyment of Him through revealing to us His wholehearted love and enjoyment of us. All He needs is our “yes” to His work!
Let’s read chapter two for next week, “The Divine Romance.”
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