Paradox About Hearing God: Hearing God by Dallas Willard (Recap)

My favorite author is Dallas Willard, and his books on the spiritual life and God's Kingdom have made a tremendous impact on my life. His first work in this theme is "Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God". Knowing "God's will" is a huge desire in Christian circles but one that is confusing to most believers. While it is not the same as prayer, seeking a deeper relationship with God is of the same vein, and why I am interested in writing about it.

I definitely recommend anyone to read it. Like all of Dr. Willard's books, it has a bit of a scholarly tone, but that does not mean a difficult read. Willard often sets the table so to speak in lining up points to prove or disprove a point. Thus, it requires a bit of concentration, but I find that far better than just tossing a glib (even if it is true) spiritual statement without the background to understand and apply it fully.

This is not so much a review but a recap. I will go through each chapter and discuss some key points from those sections, hopefully to encourage you to read it and assist in understanding it. Any page references are off of the paperback book I currently have checked out from my church's library. My personal hardback copy is backed away in some boxes awaiting the move to our home.

The preface is just a few pages long and gives a basic introduction into the book. The key point made here is Willard's emphasis that "hearing God is but one dimension of a richly interactive relationship, and obtaining guidance is but one facet of hearing God" (pg. 10). This is important to remember that even if you perfectly understood God's direct guidance to your life that it would not perfectly equate faithfulness to Christ's call or the highest calling of your spiritual life. People may often state that just want to know "God's will for their life" but even knowing that does not fully get you where you need to be.

Chapter 1 is "A Paradox About Hearing God", and the paradox is this: we have widespread testimony and belief within the Christian church that God does "speak" and "lead" us but the Christian church is filled, probably mostly filled, with committed believers who have pervasive and painful uncertainty as to exactly how to hear and recognize God's voice.

It is this paradox which Willard is focused on unpacking. Before leaving this chapter and starting the process of understanding and deciphering this paradox, he does give 3 general problem areas people encountering in trying to hear from God. They are summarized below but he of course goes into greater detail for each in the book, starting on pg. 26.

1.Wrong priority on the forms of God's communication and ignoring the variety of means God can communicate with us.
2.Wrong motives for wanting to hear from God (e.g. seeking God's voice solely for securing their own safety and comfort).
3.Misconceptions about God's nature and intent, especially with respect to expecting hyper-level of detail and control in the "guidance".

Prayer of Jesus: "Dad"

We are nearly half way through with the Prayer of Jesus study. Dr. Hemphill outlines the Model Prayer into 4 parts: The Address, The Committment, The Petition, The Benediction. Last week we focused on the Address. He emphasized that the "Father" part of the prayer and made the statement it is similar to our modern expression of  "Dad" to our earthly father. In fact, Hemphill often referred to God as "Dad" through out the video.

Needless to say, a majority of the group participants struggled with this phrasing. For most in the group, I would categorize it as at best uncomfortable and at worst disrespectful and wrong. I definitely understood their point, and I don't think I would be comfortable using that term in prayer. "Father" is much more natural for me. Once a word or phrase establishes a contextual meaning in our minds, it is hard to change that meaning. In this sense, tradition matters.

I definitely don't think Dr. Hemphill was trying to be disrespectful or "cute" in using this term. He was just trying to convey the intimacy we are to have in our prayer life. The fact is that Jesus use of "Father" was a radical concept in His day. The Jews considered this phase disrespectful as well. We certainly must not be caught throwing stones here.

But as I said, I do understood the concern. The best advice here it to follow Jesus' response to John who questioned what they should do about the man who was driving out demons in the name of Jesus but was not part of Jesus' disciples. "Do not stop him," Jesus said, "for whoever is not against you is for you."

Prayer of Jesus Study: Pt.1

We had our first small group session on Dr. Hemphill Prayer of Jesus study. I enjoyed the video and the discussion. We had 10 in attendance (4 others could not make it), and they were quick to share their thoughts.

The key point that Dr. Hemphill made, and probably the key point of the entire study, is that prayer with our Father is in itself our reward and motivation for prayer rather than "getting" thinks through prayer.

His other key point is that the Model Prayer is not just a prayer to say but a model or framework for our prayer life and relationship with God. We can pray without ceasing if have the mindset of an unceasing relationship with God through out the day.

He made an interesting observation that after Jesus gives the Model Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, He gives 6 "Do Not Worry" commands. Dr. Hemphill concludes that this worry free life is only possible or even partially attained  once we implement the prayer lifestyle. Thus, we will likely worry about the very things Jesus told us not to if we don't first establish the relationship with God through prayer.

I am working through the workbook which I have surprisingly enjoyed. I typically don't like workbooks like this, but so far it has been a blessing.

Where Have I Been

This is the first thing I have written on my blog in 2010. The reasons for this absence are 1.) my work at DGI has been extremely busy. It is our great fortune to be part of not 1 but 2 government contracts for enhancing our nation's electric grid. Being government projects, they require hourly accounting for billing. Thus, I am trying to put as many hours as possible toward these projects.

2.) my family/home life has stepped up. With Shannon working and the kids at daycare/preschool, my mornings are busy getting kids dressed and ready and sometimes driving them to school. Once Shannon and the kids get home, we do dinner, baths and bed and then our my bedtime. Free time gets gobbled up quickly. This has been especially true in our first few months of this new lifestyle.

But probably the biggest reason I have not written is 3.) I have not had much I wanted to write about. Lots of cool things have happened, and I am loving our new life in Nashville. But I did not feel like writing about the "ordinary" aspects of life. Nothing wrong with ordinary, but it felt a bit trite and commonplace describing the inns and outs of my life. I needed something else to motivate me.

I think I have found my tonic for post-lessness. On Sunday nights at our church, I am facilitating a small group study on the prayer of Jesus. It is based on the book The Prayer of Jesus by Dr. Ken Hemphill. Prayer has been a major driver of my spiritual growth these last 12 years or so since my rededication so I am excited to be in this study. We have 14 of us in the class. We met last Sunday and will meet another 5 Sunday nights.

I will be writing some about prayer, the book and the group study here on my blog. Maybe be short posts or long, but thoughts on prayer. I expect it will help me in the discussion aspect of the study to think through some thoughts here. I am sure I will then mix in more the ordinary topics of life which I have eschewed, but now that I have something else to motivate me. Not that I can post every day, but more often than every 6 weeks which is the current pace.

Now I have said. Now I have to do it. Pray for me.