Answers!
So, I attended church today. We had a bible study and it was actually not all that interesting of a topic. It was about health and living a healthy life, spirituality included. Somewhere in this discussion about spiritual health it was mentioned that we stay healthy when we keep our connection to God healthy. This can be done through conversation with God, but this conversation should, of course, not be monologue from either part. But how does God answer? It’s a very interesting question and many people must have asked this questions through time. I, for one, has been asking myself this questions many times. In the church today, when this questions was given, silence occurred for a little while. Then, a cautious voice answered: “We have to listen to our hearts”. God is in our hearts, he wants us to invite him to live in our hearts. Thats also what I was taught as a kid.
Silence as answer to a question can have different reasons. One can be shy and do not want to answer. You can be lost in other thoughts, not following the discussion. You can be without an answer not knowing it. And there is also the possibility that you think you might have the answer, but you are unsure if that really is an accepted answer in this gathered group of people. Observing this present group at the bible study, I think most had not an answer or was unsure how their particular answer would be received.
Listening to the heart. What this is, could be explained in a more human logic way( i assume, i’m no scientist), that it is our subconcious mind that speaks to us. Or, that our intuition is simply telling us to, based on previous experience that we do not remember, but we do know subconsciously. But how would this answer the question on what is the truth about this subject?
God can as well speak to us from external sources, from not ourselves. Say, an action happening not caused directly or indirectly by us, but what happens somehow includes us. But how would I know if this is really something that God did or it is just a random incident? I could ask God, listen to the answer. Now I’m back to status quo.
The bible says that Jesus is the truth. A simple man could say he knows the truth, and that the truth is not Jesus. Another one could say something different. But if I for myself should decide, I would have to go through the arguments, do some experiments to test the arguments then make up my mind. This is the frustrating part. I try Jesus, I have been praying all my life. My connection strength with God has been varying, right now I am doubting if it has been there. I want it to. I keep praying. But I don’t see that personal connection that supposedly should be there.
Can a man believe in a wrong way? Is it possible for a man to think he believe but really, he doesn’t? The tendency is to think more logical ways, the human way of reason, attempting to answer everything by itself, relating to past experiences. I dislike it, but I can’t overcome it. Thus, I don’t like where I am headed!
Reading this through I get this idea that the answer is in the bible. Would this just be my intuition telling me this, given my christian childhood with christian teachings and attending church every week? Or, is this supernatural?
Maybe this will give some answers (it’s a small compilation of a devotional that I read every morning, called My Utmost for His Highest. I compiled a couple of days, because in each of them I found little answers to your questions (I received some answers for my questions also from here).
What You Will Get
“Thy life will I give thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.”
Jeremiah 45:5
This is the unshakable secret of the Lord to those who trust Him – “I will give thee thy life.” What more does a man want than his life? It is the essential thing. “Thy life for a prey” means that wherever you may go, even if it is into hell, you will come out with your life, nothing can harm it. So many of us are caught up in the shows of things, not in the way of property and possessions, but of blessings. All these have to go; but there is something grander that never can go – the life that is “hid with Christ in God.”
Are you prepared to let God take you into union with Himself, and pay no more attention to what you call the great things? Are you prepared to abandon entirely and let go? The test of abandonment is in refusing to say – “Well, what about this?” Beware of suppositions. Immediately you allow – What about this? – it means you have not abandoned, you do not really trust God. Immediately you do abandon, you think no more about what God is going to do. Abandon means to refuse yourself the luxury of asking any questions. If you abandon entirely to God, He says at once, “Thy life will I give thee for a prey.” The reason people are tired of life is because God has not given them anything, they have not got their life as a prey. The way to get out of that state is to abandon to God. When you do get through to abandonment to God, you will be the most surprised and delighted creature on earth; God has got you absolutely and has given you your life. If you are not there, it is either because of disobedience or a refusal to be simple enough.
The Graciousness Of Uncertainty
“It doth not yet appear what we shall be.”
1 John 3:2
Naturally, we are inclined to be so mathematical and calculating that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing. We imagine that we have to reach some end, but that is not the nature of spiritual life. The nature of spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty, consequently we do not make our nests anywhere. Common sense says – “Well, supposing I were in that condition . . .” We cannot suppose ourselves in any condition we have never been in.
Certainty is the mark of the common-sense life: gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness, it should be rather an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. Immediately we abandon to God, and do the duty that lies nearest, He packs our life with surprises all the time. When we become advocates of a creed, something dies; we do not believe God, we only believe our belief about Him. Jesus said, “Except ye become as little children.” Spiritual life is the life of a child. We are not uncertain of God, but uncertain of what He is going to do next. If we are only certain in our beliefs, we get dignified and severe and have the ban of finality about our views; but when we are rightly related to God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy.
“Believe also in Me,” said Jesus, not – “Believe certain things about Me.” Leave the whole thing to Him, it is gloriously uncertain how He will come in, but He will come. Remain loyal to Him.
The Spontaneity Of Love
“Love suffereth long, and is kind …”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is not premeditated, it is spontaneous, i.e., it bursts up in extraordinary ways. There is nothing of mathematical certainty in Paul’s category of love. We cannot say – “Now I am going to think no evil; I am going to believe all things.” The characteristic of love is spontaneity. We do not set the statements of Jesus in front of us as a standard; but when His Spirit is having His way with us, we live according to His standard with out knowing it, and on looking back we are amazed at the disinterestedness of a particular emotion, which is the evidence that the spontaneity of real love was there. In everything to do with the life of God in us, its nature is only discerned when it is past.
The springs of love are in God, not in us. It is absurd to look for the love of God in our hearts naturally, it is only there when it has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
If we try to prove to God how much we love Him, it is a sure sign that we do not love Him. The evidence of our love for Him is the absolute spontaneity of our love, it comes naturally. In looking back we cannot tell why we did certain things, we did them according to the spontaneous nature of His love in us. The life of God manifests itself in this spontaneous way because the springs of love are in the Holy Ghost. (Romans 5:5.)
Insight Not Emotion
“I have to lead my life in faith, without seeing Him.”
2 Corinthians 5:7
For a time we are conscious of God’s attentions, then, when God begins to use us in His enterprises, we take on a pathetic look and talk of the trials and the difficulties, and all the time God is trying to make us do our duty as obscure people. None of us would be obscure spiritually if we could help it. Can we do our duty when God has shut up heaven? Some of us always want to be illuminated saints with golden babes and the flush of inspiration, and to have the saints of God dealing with us all the time. A gilt-edged saint is no good, he is abnormal, unfit for daily life, and altogether unlike God. We are here as men and women, not as half-fledged angels, to do the work of the world, and to do it with an infinitely greater power to stand the turmoil because we have been born from above.
If we try to re-introduce the rare moments of inspiration, it is a sign that it is not God we want. We are making a fetish of the moments when God did come and speak, and insisting that He must do it again; whereas what God wants us to do is to “walk by faith.” How many of us have laid ourselves by, as it were, and said – “I cannot do any more until God appears to me.” He never will, and without any inspiration, without any sudden touch of God, we will have to get up. Then comes the surprise – “Why, He was there all the time, and I never knew it!” Never live for the rare moments, they are surprises. God will give us touches of inspiration when He sees we are not in danger of being led away by them. We must never make our moments of inspiration our standard; our standard is our duty.