The Close of a Chapter

It has finally happened. I am finally done with school...maybe. The maybe all depends on the Lord's leading and guiding, but for the first time since I was five, I won't be going to school for at least a year. It is pretty exciting. I love school and I love learning, but 16 straight years of it can really get old. :) I am excited for a change of pace and the change that the Lord is bringing about in my life. I am excited to wait patiently on Him while passionately pursuing Him and the things He directs me to do. It is crazy to think that this chapter of my life will be completely over as of Saturday afternoon when I get that fake diploma that they give you til they send you the real one 6 months later (side note...honestly, how can it take them 6 months to print a piece of paper...really now), but I am ready to turn the page and start reading the new chapter that God already has written for me.

No Room for Sin

One of the verses that the Lord has given me as I walk through this life and one that I cling dearly to is I John 3:5-6:

"You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him."

In Christ there is no sin and if I abide in Him, I will not sin. I found a great quote by the Puritan John Owen:

"When someone sets his affections upon the cross and the love of Christ, he crucifies the world as a dead and undesirable thing. The baits of sin lose their attraction and disappear. Fill your affections with the cross of Christ and you will find no room for sin."

How true that is. When we fill our thoughts and desires with Christ, there is absolutely no room for sin. How wonderful this is. Sin loses its attraction and Christ fills our hearts completely with Himself. We are His temple...may His glory dwell therein.

Hearing God

"Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground." Psalm 143:10

"Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.'"
Isaiah 58:9a

"And the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail."
Isaiah 58:11

A couple of weeks ago I read a book called Hearing God by Dallas Willard. It was a very illuminating read and only increased my desire to know my Lord more and learn how to listen to Him. I just want to share some of what I learned from the book.

There is a paradox when it comes to hearing God today. This paradox is that most followers of Christ believe that God speaks to them individually, yet there is a great uncertainty in hearing God speak. Not only that, but often our motives for wanting to hear God are wrong. If we are over concerned with ourselves or seeking personal advantage instead of God's glory, it will be impossible for us to find God's purpose for us.

There are some guidelines for hearing from God:

1. God doesn't desire us to be robots, but to be mature people in a loving relationship with Him.
2. God doesn't always enjoy having to explain His will, but enjoys it when we understand and act on His will
3. We need to be in communion with God (practicing His presence with us) to have the proper context in which to communicate with God.
4. Our humanity will not by itself prevent us from hearing God just like it didn't prevent Moses, Elijah, David, or Paul.
5. We must believe that God can speak to us just like He did Elijah or Paul.
6. We need the grace of humility. Ps. 25:9, "He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble His way."

Willard gives 6 ways God addressed people in the Bible:

1. A phenomenon plus a voice
2. A supernatural messenger or angel
3. Dreams and visions
4. An audible voice
5. The human voice
6. The human spirit or "still, small voice"

Willard believes that the primary subjective way (the 6 options above) God addresses us is through the human spirit because it most engages the faculties of free, intelligent being involved in the work of God as His co-laborers and friends. He says that the still, small voice takes the form of our thought, but that these thoughts are not from us. He also points out that God usually addresses individually those who walk with Him in a mature, personal relationship by using the still, small voice. God comes to us in and through our thoughts, perceptions, and experiences.

The Word of God is His speaking and communicating. When God speaks, He expresses His mind, His character, and His purposes. Thus, He is always present with His Word. There is great power in God's Word. We will truly be at ease hearing God only if we are at home with the Word of God, with His speaking throughout creation and redemption. 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. We need to dwell and meditate on the Word of God because it is by doing this that our minds are transformed and renewed and we are able to discern what the will of God is (Rom. 12:2). For the mind that is transformed by the washing of the Word, it is a reliably clear and practical matter to hear God. It is through His Word that Christ removes the old routines of the heart and in their place He puts His thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, and words. He washes our minds and brings clarity, truth , love, confidence, and hopefulness where there once was none. It is in understanding the Bible that we will come to share in His thoughts and attitudes and life through His Word.

Recognizing the voice of God:

We learn by experience to hear God. At first, we must often be helped to detect His voice and His speaking to us, and it is only later that we come, without assistance, to distinguish and recognize His voice. There are 3 points of reference (or 3 lights as they are often called) in helping to determine what God wants us to do:

1. Circumstances
2. Impressions of the Spirit
3. Passages from the Bible

When these 3 point in the same direction, it is usually the direction that God intends for us. The voice of God is not any or all of the 3 lights, but usually comes in conjunction with them. There are 3 factors in the voice of God:

1. Quality- the weight or impact an impression makes on our consciousness
2. Spirit- the attitude or characteristics of the voice
3. Content- what the message says (must be consistent with God's written Word)

If God wants us to know something, He will be both able and willing to communicate it to us plainly just as long as we are open and prepared by our experience to hear and obey. There is, however, no sure fire technique to squeezing out of God what we want to know. Instead, we should live a life surrendered to God, have a humble openness to His direction even when it is contrary to our wants and assumptions, and have experience with the way His word comes to us, and make fervent but patient requests for guidance. It is God's will that we ourselves should have a great part in determining our path through life. This doesn't mean He isn't with us. God both develops and tests our character by leaving us to decide.

Waiting...

It seems as though everything in my life is unknown right now. I'm graduating college in about three weeks and the infamous "what are you going to do now" question is being met with some major eye rollage. I always tell people that I'm not sure. I've come to realize though that what I'm going to be doing is just waiting on the Lord. I don't know what the Lord is going to do with my life, but I'm just letting Him have it all and am learning to wait patiently on Him for His best and His timing in all things. I feel like the Lord is telling me that over the next year things will become a whole lot more clear and He will reveal all I need to know when I need to know it. I am trying to live by Philippians 4:6-7 which says,

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

I have hope in Christ and I know that He knows all things and that He upholds all things. He is the Alpha and the Omega and there is no one like Him. The Lord says to Job,

"Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, and caused the dawn to know its place that it might take hold of the ends of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of it." OR "Have you understood the expanse of the earth? Tell Me if you know all this." OR "Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth a constellation in its season, and guide the Bear with her satellites?"

Our Lord is GREAT!!!! Who can compare to Him? That is what I have peace in. That is what I rest in. I abide in Christ and trust in Him. I abide in the Lord of the earth and the creator of all things...to Him be all honor and praise and glory forever. May I ever and always moment by moment abide in Him and find the peace that He gives. Where can I go from His presence and besides, there is no where else that I would rather be.