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“Come follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men. At once, they left their nets and followed him.” Matthew 4:19
At once. That is the operative word. Would they have done it if they had thought about it? Written out the pros and cons? Sought advice? Prayed about it? Wondered if it could possibly be God’s will for them to NOT provide for their wives and children? To abandon the vocation for which they had trained all their lives? And all their assets? To follow someone they had never heard of? With no reputation or references?
No sensible person would have done that.
When we hear Jesus speak, it’s safest to obey him at once. Once we get into wondering if what we have heard him say “makes sense,” we often end up not doing it.
Because why should it make sense to us? God often hands over just one piece of the jigsaw at a time, illuminates just the stretch of the road on which we are to walk.
* * *
Our friend Paul discipled Roy and I over a five year period during which I was struggling with two things–to break the hold of writerly ambition over my heart; and to do my fair share of housework. The former we decided could only be done by laying that ambition on the altar for God to do with what he pleased.
I was most unsuccessful in both these projects. I’d lay my writing down one day; take it back the next day. Be the perfect helpmate and housewife one day. Not do a stitch of housework next week.
I used to send in several typed sheets of homework to Paul weekly. (We studied two courses he had written together–Sonship and The Love Course.)
Finally, he said quietly, “Anita, your insights are priceless. You should publish them. But if you do not obey God’s voice, he will take them away and not give you any more.”
I was silent. And chilled.
And my ability to obey God’s voice, even when it is difficult and costly began to grow.
* * *
Jesus issued his invitation to Peter, Andrew, James, John, Matthew. And moved on. If they dilly-dallied or refused initially, they might have missed the adventure of their lives.
The risk of not obeying what we hear God say, when we hear him say it, is that “later” too often becomes never.
There’s an adage, “God is a gentleman and soon gives up speaking to those who do not hear his voice.” I don’t know if that’s true or not. But if we continually ignore God’s promptings to be kind, generous, or self-sacrificial in specific ways, we harden our hearts, deafen our ears, and train ourselves to shut out God’s voice.
And the greatest risk of often saying “no” is that we can lose our ability to know for sure what God’s voice sounds like. Is that God? Or not? We are unsure.
But the more we obey, the more we hear his voice with crystalline clarity.
“How you know it’s God?” one might be asked. Because I have often heard him before. I recognise the timbre of his voice. His accent.
* * *
I sped-read Living at the Edge the autobiography of David Pytches a few years ago. He had saved money for university, and then, as a young man in the army was lovingly mentored and discipled by an older couple who lived in an abandoned railway carriage, and poured themselves into the young servicemen. He hears God tell him to give all the money he had saved to the older Christian. He does so, potentially giving up his opportunity to go to university.
Later on, David has amazing adventures with God, is instrumental in introducing the Charismatic renewal and John Wimber to Anglicanism, and in founding New Wine, Soul Survivor, you name it. Mike Pilavachi emerged from his mentoring, as did Matt Redman. His own children are key players in the charismatic revival in England.
“Wow,” I thought. “How scary.” What if David Pytches had refused to give away his college money at God’s prompting? What if he had procrastinated? What if he let himself believe he had imagined it?
Then the next time he heard God speak, he could again have told himself that he imagined it, that obeying God in such things was something impulsive hotheads did. That other people did.
He might have left sad so many times that he would no longer know God’s voice, no longer be able to pick up the still whisper from the noise around him.
He would have lost the ability to be absolutely sure that the voice he heard was God’s. Or not.
And so might have missed the adventure of following that voice, calling. Calling him to adventure. As he calls all of us.
Oh, Lord, strengthen my resolve to obey you promptly.
Read my new memoir: Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India (US) or UK.
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Thanks much, Archer.
I do think remaining silent to protect the spiritual abuser in a church situation at whose hands we suffered, or the bully, or abuser who have bullied or abused us merely enables them to continue abusing both us and other people.
I am not sure we need to need to expose evil we have not personally suffered from. For all sorts of reasons. Dwelling on dark things introduces darkness into our minds (and even perhaps our bodies) (Matthew 6:23). Exposing evil can expose us to the same temptations as the one we are attacking. (Romans 2:1, and Galatians 2:6. ) We may be misjudging them. We are playing the role of the accuser of the brethren.
I was in a church in which the leaderships would say “Don't tell anyone,” after bullying or spiritual abuse. If we've suffered, we should certainly tell. But sometimes I am tempted to “out” spiritual charlatans at whose hands I have not suffered, and try not to because of the darkness and stress this will introduce to my own soul.
Tricky stuff, the spiritual life…
Hi Anita —
I'll re-read through what you wrote!
It's hard for me to find the balance of being vulnerable when others are involved! Guess we have to trust God for it…but I remember you saying before that evil should always be exposed.
That's so interesting that you saw your writing as a self-indulgence rather than a gift — I see God writers as those with a God given voice to get out what He has called them to say. I pray God pours out even more of Him on your writing, and that you experience more and more freedom in writing as you continue to use this gift! I also pray God blesses your obedience in responding to the writing gift He placed inside of you.
Archer, you are right. I will modify the post. I think God keeps speaking to us, but our continued not- hearing can make us unsure whether the voice we hear is God's or ours.
Yes, it is the laundry-basket guy. He'll kill me, if he reads my blog. He did help me a lot, but also put a lot of guilt on me, so that I saw my writing as a self-indulgence rather than a gift and calling from God. There is a fine line between a mentor and tormentor
which is why we need to hear the voice of God, first!!
Anita, your insights are priceless. You should publish them. But if you do not obey God's voice, he will take them away and not give you any more.”
Hi Anita,
I loved this post. I wrote down a time management lesson I learned from it on the top of my daily routine sheet. THANKS.
However, I feel like what your friend (the laundry basket guy) said presented God as a rigid father who won't give you “any more”. As if He had zero tolerance of you not listening right away…Would God really not give you any more writing prompts when His desire is for you to use the gifts He placed inside of you to draw all people to Himself? Seems weird that He would take it away for that reason…Just wanted to share… 🙂
Miss Mollie, we can always start again as if we were new Christians. I guess his voice is not always rational, because he sometimes gives us just the new few steps in a winding road, or the next piece of the mosaic. And the more you obey, and, sometimes, see how that was the wisest course of action, the more you recognise his voice.
Welcome to my blog, The Identity Project. I suppose God's voice does not always make sense, though it often does. And by obeying, we learn what is definitely Him. I guess, we learn listening and obedience to the inner voice, like anything else, by trial and error, and God knows that, and it is okay with him.
This is a beautiful, truthful perspective on how we respond to the Father. I admit that I struggle with wanting to think all my options over several times before acting–but I also struggle with the tension that no good thing should be rushed into either. Andy Stanley in his book “Visioneering” reminds us to pray and plan–but also to wait for the Lord to move us forward. I suppose I am answering my own dilemma: If it truly is GOD moving us forward, we'd better go! Thanks for this!
This post hammers away at my insides. Have I been missing God's voice all these years? In big and small choices, I wonder at missing that opportunity He set before me. I try so much harder to always listen. I do know His voice, yet, sometimes, I don't act on His command as I should. Former decisions affect how I can respond now. I pray young people listen to that voice.