The Power and Presence of God

Yesterday I wrote about the flow of energy in 'the normal Christian life,' as Watchman Nee called it. 
At the top of my diagram, which will not upload to this link, is the first step: God pours forth His Spirit into an open and receiving heart.  He begins to give us revelation from Scripture.

Normally, our 'natural man' resists the things of God.  Because we have been hurt as children or as adults, we have closed off our inner man -- our spirits -- and built up a wall of defense to protect ourselves against being hurt again.  The problem is that our own spirits are enclosed within that wall.  In order for God to reach us, Spirit-to-spirit, that wall must crack and crumble; we must be defenseless.  If we look at the patterns of Scripture, it is usually when we are weak, not strong, that we are touched by God.

In Watchman Nee's The Normal Christian Life, he tells the story of a group of monks who have taken a holiday and gone swimming together.  One of the young monks has ventured beyond the safety of the shore and had gotten into deep water, although he cannot swim.  When he realizes that he is in water over his head, he begins to call for help.  All of the monks look to an older man, a strong swimmer, who is watching the one who is drowning.  But the older man does not move.  He watches the young man flailing around, desperately attempting to save himself.  "Why won't you save him?" asks another monk.  "I have to wait until he stops trying to save himself," says the older man, "or he will pull both of us down in his desperation."  Once the young man gives up the struggle to save himself, the older monk quickly went to his rescue and pulled him ashore.

Watchman Nee said that it is the same with us.  As long as there is strength in us to 'save ourselves,' God will allow us to flail around with our own efforts.  When we at last know that we cannot save ourselves and give up, the Power and Presence of God can move into our lives.  The Apostle Paul, a strong man in his faith, well-educated, smart, familiar with the Scriptures, was useless to God until he was struck down and blinded on the road to Damascus.  Then, useless to himself, he was useful to God.  It is the same with us.  When we finally realize that all of our "power, education, strength" cannot save us, we are ready for the Power and Presence of God in our lives.

As I worked on the diagram of "The Normal Christian Life" yesterday, a friend called me.  I have been talking to her for about a year now, after not having had contact with her for about 30 years.  She and I had been in the same prayer group together many years ago, but I had gone on to work at the college and then moved out of state and had lost contact with her.  Last year, God suddenly put her in my mind and heart, and I called her out of the blue.  She was going through a terrible time in her emotionally abusive marriage of 45 years, and there was no one to support her.  She and I have been talking and praying together this past year.

Yesterday, she went to the adoration chapel at St. Clement of Rome, and there, she "yelled" at God, accusing Him of abandoning her, etc.  Suddenly, she was enveloped in total peace; the constant burden of anger and grief was lifted from her, and she began to pray for her husband and for other people, knowing for the first time in her life that she no longer had to fight for herself, that God would fight for her, that He would do it all.  That night, for the first time in over a year, she had a real conversation with her husband instead of screaming and yelling.

Nothing except the Power and Presence of God can bring about this kind of transformation.  I have seen it in my own life and in the lives of so many others.  It is the "Normal Christian Life:" I was hard-pressed and was falling, but the Lord reached down from on high and took hold of me.  He drew me clear and did not let my enemies rejoice over me (Ps. 18).

The first step in the Normal Christian Life is the realization that all of our own efforts are in vain: we have no power to help ourselves.  Then and only then are we ready for the saving action of God in our lives.  And he does not disappoint us -- his Power and Presence reveal to us what He has told us: I am with you, even to the consummation of the world.