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WilHear 01-03-26 |
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Hearing
God Developing
a Conversational Relationship with God Dallas
Willard InterVarsity, 1999, 228 pp |
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First published in 1993 as In Search of Guidance, this book provides a biblical and
experiential understanding that clarifies what it means to live in an ongoing
conversational relationship with God. Hearing God relates to a whole life in the
will of God, including who God wants us to be as well as what he wants us to
do. I found it the most helpful book
for my spiritual life since Follow Me by Jan Hettinga. Theme: “I have tried to clarify what hearing God
amounts to and to make a life in which one hears God’s voice, in the Way of
Jesus, accessible to anyone who would enter it. I have aimed to give a biblical and
experiential understanding of the theory and practice of that life.” (217)
“My hope is to leave you with a clear sense of how to live confidently
in a personal walk that is complemented by an ongoing conversational
relationship with God.” (13) “Generally
speaking we are in God’s will whenever we are leading the kind of life he
wants for us. And that leaves a lot of
room for initiative on our part, which is essential: our individual
initiatives are central to his will for us.”
(11) “I
deal with hearing God as it bears upon a whole life in the will of God
– upon the question of who God wants us to be as well as (where
appropriate) of what he wants us to do.” (12) Ch.
1 – believing we should hear from God but not understanding the practice Ch.
2 – common misunderstandings Ch.
3 – various ways in which God communicates with us Ch.
4 – objections to the idea of God’s communicating with individuals Ch.
5 – the various ways God communicates, the centrality of the “still, small
voice” Ch.
6,7 – God’s speaking – the Word of God at the very heart of all reality Ch.
8 – how we can be sure we are hearing God Ch.
9 – when God is not speaking We
have faith in God’s personal, guiding communication with us but we are
painfully uncertain about how we hear God’s voice today. (25) The aim here is to provide “a clear
understanding and a confident, practical orientation toward God’s way of
guiding us and communicating with us.”
(26) Willard
addresses three problem areas: that God communicates with us in many ways, that we may have wrong motives for seeking to hear
from him, and our misconceptions about his intentions for us. (26-8)
“Our
failure to hear God has its deepest roots in a failure to understand, accept
and grow into a conversational relationship with God, the sort of
relationship suited to friends who are mature personalities in a shared
enterprise….” (29) “…God’s
speaking to us…is intended to develop into an intelligent, freely cooperative
relationship between mature people who love each other…. We must therefore make it our primary goal
not just to hear the voice of God but to be mature people in a loving
relationship with him.” (31) “If
we are to hear God’s voice ourselves and on an individual basis, we must
above all else observe how his word came to those people described in the
Scriptures.” (26) His
speaking to us does not make us important.
It only gives us more opportunity to do good
and care for and guide others.
(38) “When God speaks to us, it
does not prove that we are righteous or even right. It does not even prove that we have
correctly understood what he said. The
infallibility of the messenger and the message does not guarantee the
infallibility of our reception. Humility
is always in order.” (39) Loneliness
is the leprosy of the modern world.
(per Mother Teresa) (45) God
is present with us in three forms: when we are not aware of him but trusting
him by faith, when there is a strong impression of his presence, and “when he
acts in conjunction with our actions to change our surroundings in ways
beyond our own powers.” (51) “Why,
if God is personal, would he not also talk with us?” “God is also with us in a conversational
relationship: he speaks with us
individually as it is appropriate – which is only to be expected between
persons who know one another, care about each other and are engaged in common
enterprises.” (51) “The
primary manner of communication from God to humankind is the Word of God, or
God’s speaking. The Bible itself is
God’s speaking preserved in written form.
God spoke directly to Moses, to Ezekiel, to Paul and to many
others. Through them he spoke
indirectly to the people of Israel and to the church, and now – in the bible
– he speaks to world history.” (53) “God’s
world is an arena in which we have an indispensable role to play. The issue is not simply what God wants but
also what we want and will. When we
accept whatever comes, we are not receiving guidance. The fact that something happens does not
indicate that it is God’s will.” “Many
things that happen are not the will of God, although obviously he does not
act to stop them.” (61) “With
respect to many events in our future, God’s will is that we should determine
what will happen. What a child does
when not told what to do is the final indicator of what and who that child
is. And so it is for us and our
heavenly Father.” (61) “The
role of the Scriptures and of scriptural interpretation is to provide us with
a general understanding of God and to inspire and cultivate a corresponding
faith. The power of stories alone to
generate life-changing faith is overestimated today.” (66) “Very
often in my experience the word given to me is actually spoken by
me. In a way I have come to recognize
through repeated occurrence, it simply comes out, with no preliminaries.” (66) “Are
we ‘in tune?’”
God may be speaking to us and we don’t hear him. (68)
“Are we ready vessels?’” Some
may not be able to make any good use of a word from God because of how they
are living. Are they ready to obey and
change if God should so direct?
(69) When
God speaks it is to accomplish his good purpose in our lives. “When our lives are devoted to the will of
God, he has reason to speak to us.”
“…we must come to grips with the issue What are we living for?”
(70) When
God speaks to us it comes as a disturbing element in our lives (quoting G.
Campbell Morgan) (71) Regarding
Leadership. “To manipulate, drive or
manage people is not the same thing as to lead them. The sheepdog forcibly maneuvers the sheep,
whereas the biblical shepherd simply calls as he calmly walks ahead of the
sheep. This distinction between the
sheepdog and the shepherd is profoundly significant for how we think of our
work as leaders of Christ’s people. We
must ask ourselves frequently which role we are fulfilling and constantly
return ourselves, if necessary, to the practice of the shepherd.” (81) “If
you believe God has told you to do something, ask him to confirm it to you
three times: through his Word, through circumstances, and through other
people who may know nothing of the situation.” (quoting Joyce Huggett) (85) “In
the still small voice of God we are given a message that bears the stamp of
his personality quite clearly and in a way we will learn to recognize. But in contrast with other cases, the medium
through which the message comes is diminished almost to the vanishing point,
taking the form of thoughts that are our thoughts, though these thoughts are
not from us.” (87) This
still small voice is the most valuable form of individualized communication
from God. “God usually addresses
individually those who walk with him in a mature, personal relationship using
this inner voice, proclaiming and showing forth the reality of the kingdom of
God as they go.” (89) “Generally
speaking, God will not compete for our attention.” (90) “The
reality of God’s voice does not make seeking for it unnecessary. When I seek for something, I look for it
everywhere. It is when we seek God
earnestly, prepared to go out of our way to examine anything that might be
his overture toward us – including the most obvious things like Bible verses
or our own thoughts – that he promises to be found (Jer 29:28). But we will be able to seek him only if we
honestly believe that he might explicitly address us in ways suitable to his
purposes in our lives.” (91) “But
no means of communication between God and us is more commonly used in the
Bible or the history of the church than the voice of definite, individual
human beings. In such cases God and
the person he uses speak conjointly.
It may be that the one spoken to is also the one spoken through.” (95)
“That is, of all the ways in which a message comes from outside the
mind or personality of the person addressed, it most
commonly comes through a human being.”
(96) This “most fully engages the faculties of free, intelligent
beings who are socially interacting with agape love in the work of God as his
colaborers and friends.” (96) God
also addresses us through our own spirits, the “still small voice. This is the primary subjective way God
addresses us. (99) “God uses our self-knowledge or
self-awareness, heightened and given a special quality by his presence and
direction, to search us out and reveal to us the truth about ourselves and
our world. And we are able to use his
knowledge of himself – made available to us in Christ and the Scriptures – to
understand in some measure his thoughts and intentions toward us and to help
us see his workings in our world.” (100)
“In this way we are addressed by him, spoken to by him, through our
own thoughts.” (101) “Therefore
we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom 12:2). God’s gracious incursions into our souls
can make our thoughts his thoughts. He
will help us learn to distinguish when a thought is ours alone and when it is
also his.” (102) “Although
reoccurring thoughts are not always an indication that God is speaking, they
are not to be lightly disregarded.”
“So the thoughts and feelings in the mind and spirit of one who is
surrendered to God should be treated as if God were walking through one’s
personality with a candle, directing one’s attention to things one after the
other.” (102) “But
a biblical Christian is not just someone who holds certain beliefs about the
Bible. He or she is also someone who
leads the kind of life demonstrated in the “Often
God does not give us what we ask for, but I believe that he will always
answer, always respond to us in some way.”
“God is not impassive toward us like an unresponsive pagan idol; he
calls us to grow into a life of personal interchange with him that does
justice to the idea of our being his children.” (105) “As
Bible history proceeds, we notice that in the process of divine communication
the greater the maturity of the listener, the greater the clarity of the
message and the lesser the role played by dreams, visions and other strange
phenomena and altered states.” (110) “The more spectacular is the less mature.”
(111) “God
in his mercy often speaks to us in obscure ways in order to allow us the room
and time we need to respond.” “It is
therefore natural and right that God’s word comes to us in forms that we must
struggle to understand. This is even
true of the Bible which is very explicit in many respects but still requires
persistent and energetic work to understand it.” (112) “In
guidance, when God shows us a sign, it doesn’t mean we’ve received the final
answer. A sign means we are on the
way.” (114) “There
is, finally, a silence that speaks – which, paradoxically, ‘says’ all….” (115) “The
word of God, when no further qualification is added, is his speaking, his
communicating. When God speaks, he
expresses his mind, his character and his purposes. Thus he is always present with his
word. All expressions of his mind are
‘words’ of God.” (121) “We
are told that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. How did he do it? By speaking, by a sequence of directly
creative words.” “According to the
record he said, ‘Let there be light.’
God’s speaking – the word of God – is simply the expression of his
mind. By the expression of his mind,
then, he created light.” “The word of
God is invisible; it is the spiritual reality that produces all that is
visible.” (122-3) “In
all these cases, as God spoke the object concerned came into existence…. That is the creative power of the word of
God. The word of God – the thought and
mind of God – continues its presence in the created universe, upholding
it.” “What we call natural laws, then,
must be regarded as God’s thoughts and intentions as to how the world should
run.” Therefore, “God himself speaks
every day and in every place to the eyes of all men.” (quoting George Bekeley)(125) “…reality
– including the material world – is ultimately a kingdom in which authority,
personal relationship and communication are basic to the way things
run.” (135) “God
reigns in his kingdom through his speaking.” (142) “Only
by showing how to live can we teach how to live. It is by our example – more precisely, by
the kind of life that is in us and makes us examples of God’s indwelling….”
“Collectively the ‘called-out’ people of God, the church, is empowered to
stand up for wandering humanity to see,….” (146) “Individually
the disciple and friend of Jesus who has learned to work shoulder to shoulder
with his or her Lord stands in this world as a point of contact between
heaven and earth….” “Thus the disciple
stands as an envoy or a receiver by which the kingdom of God is conveyed into
every quarter of human affairs.” (147) “It
is through the action of the word of God upon us, throughout us and with us
that we come to have the mind of Christ and thus to live fully in the kingdom
of God.” (148) “As
the word of God in creation brought forth light and matter and life, so the
gospel of Christ comes upon us while we are biologically alive but dead to
God. The gospel both empowers and
calls forth a response by its own power, enabling us to see and enter the
kingdom of God as participants. It
opens the door of the mind and enters the heart. From there it is able to progressively
transform the whole personality.” (150) “…Christ
through his word removes the old routines in the heart and mind…and in their
place he puts…his thoughts, his attitudes, his beliefs… - he brings clarity,
truth, love, confidence, and hopefulness.”
“We now have the character to which listening for God’s voice is
natural.” (154-55) “Once
the new life begins to enter our soul, however, we have the responsibility
and opportunity of ever more fully focusing our whole being on it and wholly
orienting ourselves toward it. This is
our part, and God will not do it for us.”
(158) “We
will be spiritually safe in our use of the Bible if we follow a simple rule: read
with a submissive attitude. Read with
a readiness to surrender all you are – all your plans, opinions, possessions,
positions.” “Those who wish to hear
the word and know the truth are often not prompted by their desire to do
it.” (161) “It
is better in one year to have ten good verses transferred into the substance
of our lives than to have every word of the Bible flash before our
eyes.” (163) “We
may mistakenly think that if God spoke to us we would automatically know who
is speaking without having to learn, but that is simply a mistake….” “…it seems that at first we must be told
that God is speaking to us and possibly even be helped to detect his
voice. Only later do we come, without
assistance, confidently to distinguish and recognize his voice as his
voice. That ability comes only with
experience.” (169) “A
life lived by listening to God speaking is not one that excludes our own
judgment. Listening to God does not
make our own decision-making process unnecessary. We … are still the ones who make the
decisions.” (173) “In
my own experience I first became aware that it was God’s word that was coming
to me by the effects it had on myself and others around me. My main work for God is that of a teacher. I have occasionally received insights that,
while perhaps of little significance in themselves,
were experience by me as literally staggering.” (176) “The
content of a word that is truly from God will always conform to and be
consistent with the truths about God’s nature and kingdom that are made clear
in the Bible.” “In order to qualify as the voice of God, a thought,
perception or other experience must conform to the principles – the
fundamental truths – of Scripture.”
(178) “We must be alert to any
voice that is in contrast with the weight, spirit and content of God’s voice,
for that may signify that we are under subtle attack.” (181) “Likewise,
followers of Christ must be encouraged to believe that they can come to
understand and distinguish the voice of God.
They need only to look within their thoughts and perceptions for the
same kinds of distinctions as they would find in spoken or written
communications received from other human beings: a distinctive quality,
spirit and content. All of the words
that we are going to receive from God, no matter what may accompany them
externally or internally, will ultimately pass through the form of our own
thoughts and perceptions. We must
learn to find in them the voice of the god in whom we live and move and have
our being.” (182) “More
of God’s speaking to me has come in conjunction with study and teaching of
the Bible than with anything else.”
(183) “We
all know what foolishness sometimes follows on the heels of the words ‘God
told me.’” (186) “We need to know what the voice of God is like,
how it comes and what kinds of things it might way if we are to protect
ourselves and those around us in the fellowship of the faithful from people
who are malicious or who are being carried away with voices contrary to God,
which they themselves may not understand.”
(186-7) “Faith
is not opposed to knowledge; it is opposed to sight. And grace is not opposed to effort; it is
opposed to earning. Commitment is not
sustained by confusion but by insight.
The person who is uninformed or confused will inevitably be unstable
and vulnerable in action, thought and feeling.” (194) “The
infallibility of the speaker – as is the case when God is the speaker – does
not and need not guarantee infallibility of the hearer. But fortunately, as we all know, speakers
who are not even close to being perfect still communicate reliably and
regularly. I know my children’s voices
well and would recognize them under a very wide range of circumstances. Generally I understand what they say. But I would know it was one of them
speaking even if I could not understand what was said.” (196) “I
get down on my knees and say, ‘Lord, I need to know what you want me to do,
and I am listening. Please speak to me
through my friends, books, magazines I pick up and read, and through
circumstances.” (quoting James Dobson)
(199) “Personally
I find it works best if after I ask for God to speak to me in this way, I
devote the next hour or so to some kind of activity that neither engrosses my
attention with other things nor allows me to be intensely focused on the
matter in question. Housework,
gardening, driving about on errands or paying bills will generally do. I have learned not to worry about whether or
not this is going to work. I know that
it does not have to work, but I am sure that it will work if
God has something he really wants me to know or do. This is ultimately because I am sure of
how great and good he is.”
(199-200) “Generally
it is much more important to cultivate the quiet, inward space of a constant
listening than to always be approaching God for specific direction.” “…I am led to the following conclusion:
Direction will always be made available to the mature disciple if without it
serious harm would befall people concerned in the matter or the cause of
Christ.” (200-201) A
specific word may not come to us from God because “in general, it is God’s
will that we ourselves should have a great part in determining our path
through life. This does not mean that
he is not with us. Far from it. God both develops and, for our good, tests
our character by leaving us to decide.”
(204) “We
are dealing here with the essence of human personality as God has ordained
it. A child cannot develop into a
responsible, competent human being if he or she is always told what to do. Personality and character are in their very
essence inner directedness.” (204) “The
great height of our development as disciples of Christ is not that we should
always be hearing God’s voice but that we should have been trained under the
hand of God – which includes hearing God as he speaks and guides – in such a
way that we are able to stand at our appointed times and places in faith,
hope and love even without a word from God: ‘and having done everything, to
stand firm’ (Eph 6:13).” (209) “God
wants to be wanted, to be wanted enough that we are ready, predisposed, to
find him present with us.” (218) “Today
it is the skeptics who are the social conformists, though because of powerful
intellectual propaganda they continue to enjoy thinking of themselves as
wildly individualistic and unbearably bright.” (218) “…very
few people ever develop competence in their prayer life. This is chiefly because they are prepared
to explain away as coincidences the answers that come to the prayer that they
do make.” (218)
“Spiritual
people are not those who engage in certain spiritual practices; they are
those who draw their life from a conversational relationship with God.” (222) |
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