A Paradox About Hearing God
“The Lord spoke to me.”
These are words that are spoken so often that one would be forgiven for taking it for granted that the Lord – the creator of all things – does, in fact, speak to people. The ease with which such a statement is uttered often leaves people who cannot make such a claim, wondering why they never hear from God. Oftentimes, as was the case with Willard’s wife’s grandma, the people who are doing the wondering do have a deep spiritual life. They just aren’t able to identify how they hear from God. And the ease with which the speaker says, “The Lord led me,” only adds kindling to the fires of doubt that is burning within those who are wondering why they don’t hear. It begins with them wondering why they never heard from God, and can lead to them wondering if they are even accepted by God. What a frustrating position! Unfortunately, many people find themselves here. Are you one of those people? The problem, Willard suggests, may not be that God isn’t speaking to them, it may be that they simply need help understanding the how behind God’s speech.
It is abundantly clear in scripture that a relationship with God is conversational and interactive. To know God is to speak to God, and be spoken to by God. This is seen clearly through the stories of Adam and Eve, Enoch, Moses, and many other great ones in scripture. But it isn’t their greatness that caused the speech to happen. We don’t need to “get on their level,” before God will speak to us. But, as Willard says, “they are examples of the normal human life God intended for us: God’s indwelling his people through personal presence and fellowship.” Therefore, we look to these biblical giants, not to see what is extraordinary, but to see what is ordinary and what is to be expected.
“People are meant to live in an ongoing conversation with God, speaking and being spoken to.”
But this fact does not eliminate the problem. For it is naturally accepted, and widely practiced, that our speaking to God is a good and healthy practice. Even those who do not believe in God, regularly pray to him. This practice is normal. What is abnormal is the thought that God would speak to me. So abnormal that many people who believe that they have been spoken to, silence their tongues out of embarrassment when the topic arises. This all points to the need for Willard’s book to be given a new hearing. This new hearing is needed, not simply so that more people can say, “God spoke to me and said…” but because there is growth and depth in the spiritual life that accompanies such an interactive relationship with God.
As it is in our normal person to person relationships, we discover more about who we are as we dive into deep relationship with another. Married people have made this discovery, so too have parents. Indeed, any relationship that is substantive causes one to learn more about who they are. If this is the case with created things, how much more must it be true of a conversational relationship with the creator. We come to know who we are, as we grow deeper in him.
But there is what Willard calls, “A Paradox about hearing God” that hinders faith. He notes that history (biblical and extra-biblical) is full of accounts of those who have had deep and meaningful conversational relationships with God. Even those who haven’t claimed to hear directly from God have been guided by a leader that they believed did hear from God. So many people believe that it is, in fact, possible. But there is also a “painful uncertainty about how hearing God’s voice actually works today and what its place is in the church and in the Christian’s life.” Willard points out that even characters like Gideon struggled with the idea and reality (see Judges 6).
This “painful uncertainty” leaves people grasping for answers, and this grasping causes them to become the kind of people who actually can’t hear from God. Thus you have those who are eager to join themselves with “Religious dictators” who are oh so ready to gain followers by saying, “The Lord told me.” And you also have those for whom every coincidence must be a sign from God, like the young man who asked God which college he should attend, and chose Ohio State because a commercial came on soon thereafter. “It must be a sign,” these people are so eager to say. Unfortunately, this is a condition that describes many earnest attempts at hearing God. It must be addressed; they must be helped.
Willard closes chapter 1 by offering three steps toward a solution.
1. “We need to understand that God’s communications come to us in many forms.” A study of scripture will reveal the kinds of ways that God typically speaks to his people. Knowing this, we can focus on learning to hear God in those prominent ways and spaces. It is only when I have had regular one to one conversations with Ashanti (my wife) that I am able to pick her voice out in a crowd, or develop other forms of nonverbal communication. The same approach can work with God.
2. “We may have the wrong motives for seeking to hear from God.” In this section Willard points to the obsession with knowing the future. He mentioned how classes on “Knowing the will of God,” always fill up very quickly. I’ve experienced this as both the teacher, and as one who signed up! This is problematic because, “seeking to know the future causes people to take these classes and workshops over and over without coming to peace about their place in God’s world.” He goes on to say that it may cause people to treat God “as a device for obtaining their own safety, comfort and sense of being righteous… [and it] may only indicate that I am over concerned with myself.” Along with the desire to know the future, is a desire to avoid responsibility. But God will not have robots for children. Instead, a relationship with God will persistently grow ones character into the kind naturally does the will of the Father… without being told to do so!
3. “Misconceiving the nature of our Heavenly Father and of his intent for us creates a truly overwhelming problem to block out understanding of God’s communications with us as his redeemed children and friends.” In other words, when we think wrongly about God, we will think wrongly about everything, including ourselves.
As he continues the book, Willard will build upon the foundation that hearing from God is determined by the nature of God. The Lord wants to have an interactive relationship with each of us, and he has made ample provision for this to happen. In the next few chapters Dallas Willard will show us how.