To Teach as Jesus Taught

Men are trying to live the Christian Life in the Light and Teaching of My three years' Mission alone.  That was never My purpose.

I came to reveal My Father, to show the God-Spirit working in man.  I taught, not that man was only to attempt to copy the Jesus of Nazareth, but that man was also to be so possessed by My Spirit, the Spirit actuating all I did, that he would be inspired as I was.

Seek to follow Me by the Power of the In-dwelling Spirit which I bequeathed to you.  This Spirit WILL guide you into all Truth.

I told my disciples that I could not tell them all, but the Spirit would guide them.  That is where My followers fail Me.  Dwell more and more upon this Spirit-Guidance, promised to all, and so little claimed.  [God Calling 2: May 21]

How can we tell when the Spirit is leading, guiding, teaching us?  How do we know we are not just "making it up?"  From my own experience, I have discovered the infinite patience of the Spirit, Who, like a wonderful teacher, does not get tired of repeating the same thing over and over until we get it.  I have also discovered that sometimes the Spirit is speaking to us, but we are not yet ready to hear what He is saying.

I started painting classes about a year ago, and as a former teacher, I am amazed at the dynamics I see in the classroom, from this side of the desk. I think every teacher should have to take a hands-on class that is totally foreign to them, to experience all the mental processes their students go through.  There is so much "mental clutter" that must be cleared away before we can truly hear the instructions being given.  For example, when the teacher is telling the class which colors we'll be using that day, my mind is often pre-occupied with something else -- I haven't quite finished setting up my easel, or I'm looking for something in my bag, or I'm trying to pry open the medium we use.  When I am finally ready to listen, I ask him to please repeat the list of colors.  A few minutes later, someone else in the class will ask him which colors we are using today.  And then, for a third time, someone else will say, "Which colors do we need?"

As a teacher, I remember thinking, "I just said that!" or "Were you listening when I explained all of that?"

As a student in an unfamiliar situation, I now realize that until we are ready to listen, until all of the mental clutter is taken care of, we hear, but we don't hear.  One of the characteristics of the Spirit's leading us into all truth is that He repeats His Words to us in different ways until we finally "hear" Him.  When we've heard the same thing for the third time, most of us will pause and start thinking about what we are hearing.

Tomorrow, I'll tell the story of how the Holy Spirit finally got me to go to Graduate School.  Today, however, I just want to point out the lesson of the day.  Every morning, I begin my prayer time by reading God Calling; then, I slowly go through Give Us This Day, a meditation book; and I end up by reading a little from the book du jour.  A few days ago, I re-discovered a book I had read some time ago and loved -- Richard Rohr's The Great Themes of Scripture: Old Testament.  I decided that I needed to re-read it.

So I began this morning with the passage quoted above, from God Calling 2.  It really spoke to me, as it is something I have experienced over and over for the past 35 years.  Then I went on to Give Us This Day and read this:

...the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them...(Jn. 17).

Thinking of the 11th-grade students I teach for Confirmation, I prayed that I could learn to teach as Jesus taught, that is, receiving the words given to me by the Father, teaching not from a book, but from listening to what the Spirit is saying, and passing that on.  I did not immediately connect my prayer to the quote from God Calling, but I was soon to do so. 

When I picked up the introduction to Rohr's book, the first thing I read was this:

Meditating on the passages [of the Bible] is one of the principal ways of opening our hearts and minds to the Word which speaks to us through the Scriptures, for it is the same Word which the inspired authors listened to when they composed the sacred texts....The Bible is a record of people's experience of God's self-revelation...it was written by people listening to God.

Then it hit me:  the Holy Spirit had said the same thing three times to me this morning, through three different venues.  I didn't really hear it the first time, even though I did "hear" and understand the words on the page.  I kind of heard it the second time, when I prayed to learn to teach as Jesus taught -- by listening to the words spoken by His Father.  But the third time, it was spelled out so clearly that I couldn't miss it:  we have to learn to listen to the Spirit when He speaks to us. 

That is why I have always found God's word and work such an adventure -- He is always leading, teaching, guiding, telling us which direction in which to walk.  But most of the time, He has to shout three times or more before we are finally ready to hear Him tell us "which colors to use."