The Normal Christian Life -- Part Two

Yesterday, I wrote about the first step in "the Normal Christian Life" -- a touch from God, a "close moment" when we know His Power and Presence and Peace in the midst of trials and terror.  It may be that this is not our first encounter with the Power and Presence of God; many of us as children knew His closeness as we grew up, or experienced drawing close to Him along the way.  But, as we grew, we also experienced our own 'power and presence' and wanted to 'be as gods' to save ourselves, to exert our own powers and to build our own 'towers of Babel."  Usually, it is when our lives have more or less fallen apart -- like the woman at the well -- that we cry out to God and experience really for the first time what He said to Abraham: Do not be afraid, Abraham, I am your shield and your very great reward (Gen. 15:1).

I remember when I first met the local neighborhood evangelists, who wanted me to say with them 'the sinner's prayer,' confessing that I was a sinner.  I was at that time still in the pride of my life, and I did not think I was "that bad."  In my own mind, I was not perfect, but 'trying to do right.'  Like most people, I had absolutely no spiritual understanding at all of what they were talking about.  I did not think I was a 'sinner.'  HA!  It took direct revelation from the Holy Spirit several years after that to show me the huge crumbling wall of my sin -- but that's another story.  Now I understand that to be a 'sinner' does not necessarily mean that we are doing 'bad things;' it means that without the guidance and instruction of the Holy Spirit in our lives, without listening to God in our hearts, we will (and do) inevitably make the wrong choices, based on our senses, our knowledge, and the 'natural man.'

The result, though we thought we were doing the right thing at the time, is what David describes in Psalm 32:  my strength (literally, "moisture") was sapped as in the heat of summer. We find ourselves and our lives "dried up," without joy, without richness.  David goes on to say, "Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found...."  and Yahweh's answer is this:  I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.  Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle, or they will not come to you.  Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord's unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him (Ps. 32 -- just read it all).

So, in the 'normal Christian life,' we find ourselves like David, with our strength sapped and our 'moisture' dried up -- and then, like the woman at the well-- we have a 'close encounter' with the Lord.  In one moment, we experience "living water" flowing through our entire being---the water of the Holy Spirit for which we have been thirsting -- and we immediately want more!

In Hebrew, there is a close connection -- almost a pun --between the word for 'blessing' and the word for 'stream of water.'  All through Genesis, we see the connections again and again -- and Jesus uses this connection in the Gospels also.  There is a direct connection between the Hebrew Adam and adamah -- the earth, the soil, the ground.  Whatever happens to man himself spiritually is reflected in the state of the earth.  This is an entire lesson in itself, but for now, let me just quote Psalm 65:

When we were overwhelmed by our sins,

you atoned for our transgressions....

 

You care for the land and water it;

you enrich it abundantly.

The streams of God are filled with water

to provide the people with grain....

You drench its furrows

and level its ridges;

 

You soften it with showers and bless its crops.

You crown the year with your bounty,

and your carts overflow with abundance.

The grasslands of the desert overflow;

the hills are clothed with gladness.

the meadows are covered with flocks

and the valleys are mantled with grain;

they shout for joy and sing.

 

This description of the land blessed by God after atoning for man's transgressions is a perfect description of the feeling, of the reality, of a life touched by God.  Its joy overflows and cannot be contained; for the first time, the person  not only cries out in helplessness and despair, but begins to sing with joy and thanksgiving for the richness of the blessings received.  Gratitude instead of despair; songs instead of cries -- this the mark of one whose cry has been heard.  As Isaiah says:

 

to provide for those who grieve in Zion--

to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair (61:3).

So, the "second step," if you will, in the 'normal Christian life' is the overflow of joy -- again, look at the woman at the well, who left her water jar and ran the mile and a half into the village to shout to those who had no regard for her as a person: "Come with me; I have found the Messiah!" 

 

Tomorrow, I will continue the pattern -- but I should warn you that I do not really know if this is the pattern laid out by Watchman Nee in his book or not.  It has been too many years since I read it.  I rather think I am using his title and my own insights, based on my own experience and the experience of so many others I have watched grow in God over these years.



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.

The Flow of Energy in the Spirit

If a child hears fine music from the day of his birth and learns to play it himself, he develops sensitivity, discipline, and endurance.  He gets a beautiful heart.  -- Shin'ichi Suzuki

What Suzuki discerned about music is so true about life in general, and especially true of the spiritual life.  The one part of our souls that tends to be blocked in its "flow," or expression, is the spirit that God has placed in us.  It is the most fragile, the most delicate, the most easily damaged, part of us -- and also the most beautiful. 

Yesterday, I wrote that God wants to reveal Himself to each one of us; He wants direct, Spirit-to-spirit communication with us.  He wants the kind of energy-exchange that most of us will truly experience only when we fall deeply and sincerely in love for the first time.  He wants openness, not fear.  He wants us to be able to open our hearts fully to Him, as lovers exchange freely and fully all that is in them without fear --- and He wants us to be able to hear fully and freely what He has to say to us.

When Jesus was baptized as an adult, the Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove, and he and others around him heard the Father speak:  This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.  Before that time, Jesus listened, studied, prayed, and asked questions in the Temple, was instructed by his parents, who had great stories to tell of his birth, the flight into Egypt, and the revelation of Simeon and Anna in the Temple.  He knew....He knew... that He was the annointed one, but now He hears directly from God.  Now He is led by the Spirit into the desert -- alone-- to hear the Voice of God speaking words not only for Himself, but for others.  And there, maybe for the first time also, he also encounters the voice of Satan, the tempter.

When we fully open our own spirits to hear the Voice of God, it is possible that we also will hear the voice of the Tempter.  How do we know the difference, for Satan can and does appear as 'An Angel of Light," deceiving even the elect, if possible?

In the authentic, genuine, Christian life, there is a discernible flow of energy that is from God: by their fruits you will know them.  This is a long explanation, involving several steps that I will begin tomorrow with a diagram of the energy flow of what Watchman Nee called The Normal Christian Life and Sit, Walk, and Stand.  These two books are amazingly clear and simple explanations of the Christian life, and even though I read both of them about 35 years ago and not since, I can still recall his explanations.  I recommend them to everyone who is interested in how the Spirit works.

 

A Little Scary; A Lot Exciting

I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up.  I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ (Gal.1:11).

 

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which you have been called, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe (Eph. 1:17-18).

 

Almost everyone today has a cell phone with an incredible 'receiving cell' embedded in it.  It blows my mind to consider how words, paragraphs, even entire books and movies, can be delivered across the air to a tiny receiver, and then somehow 'unpacked' to deliver the message in a way we can comprehend it.

 

Deep within each one of us, there is also a tiny receiving station, one that can receive messages from the Spirit of God -- Spirit-to-spirit.  If our hearts are pure and ready to hear what God wants to say to us, His Spirit writes a message on our hearts.  Sometimes, the mind is a little slower to grasp and understand what the heart knows; the message has to be 'unpacked' in a way we can comprehend it.  But those who want to hear God speaking will hear Him.

 

Books like God Calling, God Calling 2, and Jesus Calling contain powerful messages of love; and encouragement that are "received by revelation," and not "made up by man."  Perhaps not everyone will believe or accept that God speaks directly to our hearts; maybe they will choose to believe instead that these books are written by clever men.  Some people even believe the Gospels were written by clever men -- but how uneducated fishermen could have been this clever is beyond me!  And how the Gospels could contain so much agreement so long after the events is an even greater mystery.

 

There is such a remarkable congruence and similarity among those who know Jesus Christ -- their stories differ in detail, but not in overall pattern.  Almost any testimony we hear, or any book we read has the same theme, the same revelation, as the Gospel:  I was hard -pressed and was falling, but the Lord reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me (Ps. 18: 16-17).

 

When I teach, or even when I speak, I just want so much to open up the hearts and minds of my class or of my friends and pour into them all the love, all the wisdom and knowledge, all the treasures that the Lord has given to me over the years.  I ache to impart to others what words cannot tell.  But I know who is the Lord, the Spirit of Truth -- and it is not me.  Jesus promised to send the Spirit of Truth to those who love Him.  It is the Spirit in us who reveals to us the Truth that sets us free from condemnation, from fear, from clinging to the world around us.  And only Jesus can reveal what it is we need to hear and to know at this moment; only He knows what we are ready to receive.

 

It is a lot scary to sit down to receive a message from God, a message for today, like manna in the wilderness.   But if we have the faith to believe that He wants to reveal Himself and His Truth to us, if we are willing to pick up a notebook to record what we hear from Him, we find find the most exciting adventure of our lives.

Descent Into Hell

Last night, I watched Pit Bulls and Parolees, a program on Animal Planet that I have not seen before.  I wound up watching it because it was set in New Orleans, and I recognized scenes from my home town.  The "characters" were all "rough," covered with tatoos, earrings, nose rings, and lip studs -- not the kind of people I usually associate with.  And yet....they were full of mercy and compassion for lost and stray pit bulls -- those who were just waiting to be caught by evil men who wanted to use them as 'bait' for training fighting pit bulls.

The key players in this drama are prison parolees and the founders of Villalobos (literally, "the home of wolves.)  People who come out of prison have no jobs, no place to live, and no community to welcome them.  But Villalobos takes them on as workers in a dangerous occupation -- rescuing abandoned pit bulls.  In this job that no one else wants, the parolees learn a useful occupation and are motivated not by greed, or power over others, or advancing their own cause -- but by compassion for helpless creatures who cannot help themselves.

In last night's episode, Villalobos had received a phone call that there was a mama dog with five pups living under an abandoned house in the St. Roch neighborhood.  As the dogs emerged from under the house, there were obviously teens across the street waiting to capture them and sell them to the pit bull fighters.  The team went into action to rescue the dogs, an effort that took about 10 people and several days.

First, they had to get a fence company to donate and install a temporary fence around the entire house.  Once that was in place, the team began to crawl under the house in 100 degree heat to try to flush out the dogs from their place of security.  Unfortunately, parts of the floor had caved in, and the dogs were able to crawl up into the house as well as underneath it.  That meant that some of the team members had to enter a boarded - up, dark, Katrina flooded, smelly house -- still in 100 degree heat -- to find the dogs.  All the while, mama dog was fiercely protecting her pups and trying to bite the rescuers.  This program was more suspenseful than any NCIS I had seen -- and it was real.

Waking up this morning, I suddenly realized that this is exactly what Jesus has done for us: He descended into the 'hell' of our existence to keep us from being destroyed by those who seek our souls as 'bait.'  And he pursues us in all of our hiding places until he brings us safely into a new home.  To do that, He enlists a team of former prisoners, who themselves are 'rescued' by being part of His team and learning His compassion for the lost. 

Francis Thompson wrote The Hound of Heaven many years ago, in which he described the Great Pursuer:

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;

I fled Him, down the arches of the years;

I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways

of my own mind; and in the midst of tears

I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

 

Thompson's poem is long and not easy-- it takes prayerful meditation and slow digestion to get it, but it is worth the reading.  For "The Hound of heaven" will not cease His pursuit until we surrender.  He dare not, for the day He stops pursuing us, our enemies will have won.

The Narrow Gate

Enter through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it (Matt.7:13)

 

I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.  The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep.....I am the gate for the sheep.  All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.  I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.  He will come in and go out, and find pasture...I have come that they may have life and have it to the full (Jn.10:1-10).

 

"I am the gate...."  "I have come that they may have life..."

 

This morning, for some reason, I kept thinking about The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the children's story written by C.S.Lewis. For the sake of argument, let us assume that the whole story is "real," -- what my 10th grade English teacher taught us as "the suspension of disbelief," the sine qua non demanded of one who reads a novel, for example.  Suppose they really did fall through the back of the cupboard and discover the world of Narnia, the world that no one else could see unless they too fell through the back of the cupboard.  The "real" world, the world of skeptics and scoffers, would look and say, "It's only a cupboard, and a rather shabby one at that," and "It's only children's fantasy, this world of which they speak."  No rational adult would willingly enter the world the children had discovered, though they might listen with polite amusement at the tales told by children.

 

Those of us who have stepped through the 'narrow gate' into another world tell tales of fantasy to those who cannot themselves step through the door to eternal life -- from bios to zoe.  "Zoe" is the Greek term, the one that Jesus used to indicate not biological, but eternal life ---energy, enthusiasm, overcoming the 'world' life.  Those who have tasted zoe have both lost their dependence on bios and at the same time embraced the physical world in a way they had never done before.  Everything in bios reveals the Creator, the Lover of the Universe, the Light of the world.  Because of the enthusiasm (literally, "God within") for life given to them by the Creator of life, everything tastes better, is more beautiful, more satisfying, richer than it was before they experienced the "eternal life" that Jesus came to give.  The life that Jesus gives raises every other experience to the fullness of God Himself.

 

My brother, who lived for many years in Utah, used to tell me that those who live in the desert see further, hear further, live more deeply than those who live in the city.  Having experienced both worlds, he knew that of which he spoke.  In fact, when he would return to New Orleans to visit me, he had a hard time driving because he no longer saw stoplights -- his "desert vision" took time to re-adjust to the 'real' world.

 

We can recognize the true shepherds of the sheep by their relationship to the Good Shepherd.  If they come to us from the world of "Narnia," the world given to them by Jesus Christ, we will listen to them.  If they come to us from this world, we will not recognize them, not listen to their voice.  If they themselves have entered through the 'narrow gate,' they are genuine.  But many are wolves in sheep's clothing; they come to us in their own name, in their own strength, and they want us to 'enter' through the door they describe to us.

 

Thanks be to God, the true sheep of Jesus Christ know the difference between the real shepherds and the 'thieves and robbers."  When I was in Medjugore in the 80's, I decided to take a short cut across the fields from the back of the church to the residence where we were staying -- about a half-mile.  During my walk, I came across a sheep fold with about a hundred sheep in it.  When they saw me coming from a distance, they all crowded forward near the gate and watched me intently to see if I was coming to let them out, I guess.  Because they stared at me so intensely, I felt it only "polite" to speak to them.  What a mistake!

 

As soon as they heard the sound of my voice, they all with one accord turned their backs on me.  I was astonished!  My first thought was, "Hey, I'm a good person!"  But I was not their shepherd, and they knew the difference the moment they heard my voice.  I took a picture of all those sheep with their backs turned to me, as a reminder off Jesus' words about the Good Shepherd -- but unfortunately, lost that picture in Katrina.

 

When we hear the Shepherd's Voice, we will know it.  

Why We Need Mystics

To what can I compare this generation?  They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: "We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn."  For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, "He has a demon." The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, "Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.  But wisdom is proved right by her actions (Matt.11:16-19).

 

Yesterday I wrote about dwelling in the "Secret Place" of the Most High, and a friend asked, "Who is this 'world' of which you write?  What is fascinating to me is that I don't read comments on the previous day's blog until I am ready to write today's -- after a long period of morning prayer.  And so, this morning I came to my computer with the words stored up in my heart -- only to find two things: (1) the quotation above, posted today on FB by one of my friends, and (2) the question on yesterday's blog -- Who is this 'world' of which you write?  I never know what the Holy Spirit is going to do, and He never fails to astonish me.

 

The New Testament uses the term "world" in a" number of different ways.  A fascinating study would be to just go through all the Gospels noting the uses of the term "world" -- clearly, it has different meanings in different contexts.  In John 14, at the Last Supper, Jesus promises that He will not leave His friends as orphans, but that He would send them the Spirit of truth:  the world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you....before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me (vv.15,19).

 

Who is this "world" of which Jesus spoke -- the one that does not see the Spirit at work, the one that cannot "receive" Him?  It is the 'generation' that sees only the surface of things, the people who condemned John the Baptist for being a 'demon' and Jesus for being a 'glutton.'  In other words, those who cannot see into the heart.  Jesus warned His disciples not to throw their pearls to 'swine,' who would 'trample them underfoot and then turn and tear you to pieces' (Matt. 7:6).

 

Our hearts and minds are the battleground between the Spirit and the 'world.'  The 'world,' the one that fails to recognize the Spirit, calls to us to join them on the path to destruction: we played the flute for you and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.  Those who are listening to the Spirit of God hear a different song, and because they do, they will not join in the 'song of the world.'  And the world cannot understand why. 

 

Our 'inner man' is pure; the 'world and the devil' seek access to that kingdom to destroy it.  The reason I included the circle image above is that it represents the layers of our soul, from the external -- the physical -- the only one the 'world' can see-- to the most secret, the inner man, our hearts and souls.  The battleground is the heart and mind of man, the one that is wounded and scarred and therefore closed to both God and man in self-defense.  When we are hurt as children, as teens, or even as adults, we add a layer of protective wall against further injury -- "I won't be hurt again!"  Unfortunately, that closes us off to the Spirit as well as to the world outside. That is exactly why Jesus told Nicodemus that unless we are 'born again of water and Spirit,' we cannot even see the kingdom of God. The 'world' could not 'see' Jesus; they crucified him as a charleton and a blasphemer because He 'made himself equal to God.'

 

To see Truth, we need mystics -- those who can see beyond the physical -- those who can penetrate the spiritual world inside us and the Spirit of God that the "world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him."  When my students are reading about their 'saints,' those they are choosing as their 'patrons,' I try to get them to go beyond the facts of that person's life -- when he lived, what he did, when he died.  These 'facts' are all that the 'world' can know, and it is all they will ever know.  But beyond those 'facts,' what else can we know about that saint?  Ah, only mystics, poets, and the Spirit of God can tell us that -- those who are willing to receive the Spirit that the "world" does not know.