Tag: Hearing God

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Tough Talk from a Good Father

I conducted hundreds of interviews throughout my professional career. Some candidates were fascinating, as were their answers, and a few dialogues were downright fun. Along the way, I began to include what would become a “make or break” interview question: How do you handle criticism? Without fail, responses fell into one of two categories—fear or openness. The former came forth emphatically, as nearly a muzzled shout, “No one likes criticism!” The more reasoned response sounded something like this: “I think about the criticism and how it was expressed. If it is true and constructive, I appreciate their observation and work toward improving myself, but if it is not true, I regard their comment with a grain of salt.” I could work with these latter folks.

God speaks to us as a good father would speak to his children—with loving words of instruction, encouragement, and affirmation. Yet good fathers also speak words of correction, discipline, and even disapproval of certain actions and attitudes; it would be cruel for them to sit idly by and not give their children at least the opportunity to learn potentially costly lessons at the comparatively small price of reproof. For it is regarding our “struggle against sin”1 that the writer of Hebrews recalls this “word of encouragement”2 from Solomon’s proverb, “Do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”3

God would prefer we continually submit ourselves to Him and to follow His Spirit in the ways that are good and right; His Word inclines our renewed hearts in this direction. Yet when our sinful nature is tantalized and we succumb to temptation, God just as lovingly speaks reprimand and correction. Paul teaches us the way of our Heavenly Father: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.”4 David likewise lauds the value of divine discipline, “Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law, to give him rest from days of trouble.”5

Then how do we receive celestial rebuke, and how must we respond to godly correction? It begins with trusting the heart from which God speaks: “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline,”6 said the ascended Savior to His apostle John. Then we turn back to Him, not in timidity, but in the confidence of our Father’s embrace. Concluded Jesus to John, “so be zealous and repent.”7

You are our good Father. Correct us as You must, that our lives would be pleasing to You. Even in reproof we will trust You, for Your love for us, Your children, knows no end. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Hebrews 12:4
2 Hebrews 12:5
3 Hebrews 12:5-6 (cf Proverbs 3:11-12)
4 2 Timothy 3:16 NLT 
5 Psalm 94:12-13
6 Revelation 3:19
7 Revelation 3:19

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The Good Life

I was 13 when “the Jesus revolution” (not the film, but the real thing) began to sweep through my home town of five thousand people. Like new movies, this Holy Spirit movement reached us two or three years after “release,” but when it came, it was enthusiastically received. Now, small town people know most of the others, or at least we know of them, and I began to see lives change. Drastically. Once-steely faces now shone in newfound gratitude. Rebellious hearts became humble, their testimonies overflowing in eager hopes that others might also discover new life in Christ and the indwelling of the Spirit. I kept waiting for people to “change back” to their old selves, but few ever did. So, I wanted the joy that she had, the peace that he had, and the certainty that they had. But what exactly was this change, this apparent newness of life?

In the New Testament, we find three Greek words translated “life” in English. “Bios” [bee’-os] refers to the physical body (think “biology”), and “psuche” [psoo-khay’] refers to the breath that gives life to our bodies, and also our feelings, desires, and emotions (think “psychology”). With these we are born, and without them we die. But the life Jesus brings us is very different; in Greek it is “zoe” [dzo-ay’]. This is the very life of God—it is His by nature, it was His before creation, and He sustains it through His ever-enduring being. It is this life—God’s own “zoe” life—that is born in us when we place our faith in His Son. Jesus said that if He is not in us, we have no [zoe] life in us, but if He lives in us through faith, we have eternal [zoe] life, and He will raise us up on the last day.1 We who are in Him will always live, because He who is in us will never die.

Jesus once said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit, and are [zoe] life.”2 It is, perhaps, a deeper glimpse into Jesus’ assertion of this from Deuteronomy, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”3 God speaks His Word—His life—into our very being. Knowing this, why would we ever deprive ourselves of His Word? For through it, God speaks life to us—the new and forever life of joy, peace, and certainty.

“In Him was [zoe] life, and the [zoe] life was the Light of mankind.”4

Father, You are my life and before You I quiet my soul. Speak that I would hear Your words of spirit and life—Your “zoe” life. In Christ I pray. Amen.


1 John 6:53-54
2 John 6:63 NASB
3 Matthew 4:4 NASB (cf Deuteronomy 8:3)
4 John 1:4 NASB

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Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

I once told a friend about a book I had recently enjoyed, titled, The Introvert Advantage. After relating to him a few tidbits I had gleaned throughout its pages, he asked, “Well, what is the introvert advantage?” I chuckled at having talked all around the book without landing on its main point, then directly answered his question: when an introvert speaks, people listen. For introverts usually process a matter internally before sharing their thoughts out loud. Yet I hasten to add that most people—introverts and extraverts alike—give voice to what is important, and repeatedly so to that which is most important. Then may we assume that, if God repeats a matter, it must be most important to Him, as well? If so, we cannot overlook or minimize His deepest yearnings, voiced to us time and again. Listen to His heart expressed through His Word.

It began with a promise to Abraham. “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.”1

It was in God’s heart when He called Moses to lead Israel out of Egyptian captivity: “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God”2

Establishing the letter of the Law, God revealed His heart behind the Law: “If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands . . .I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.”3

Calling the Israelites into a covenant relationship with Himself, God voiced His desire through Moses: “to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he promised you . . .”4

Even toward His people in exile, God’s heart remained steadfast, as spoken through the prophet, Jeremiah: “My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. . . I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.”5

Foretelling a new covenant—of a Messiah’s leadership and a good shepherd’s protection—God’s eternal purpose remained unbending: “The time is coming when I will make a new covenant . . .I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.”6

Jeremiah’s contemporary, Ezekiel, also prophesied a new covenant, proclaiming God’s promise: “My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”7

Returned from exile to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, Zechariah foretold a time when God’s desire echoes back to Him through His people: “They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”8

And to John, God revealed a time yet to come when His desire is completely and eternally fulfilled “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”9

As we read “all around His book,” may we not miss this most important, repeated point: God wills to be our God, and He purposes for us to be His own. This is the heart from which God speaks; may we hear Him in great comfort and joy.

Father, at great cost, You have made us Your people. With grateful hearts we proclaim You as our God. Lead us in Kingdom work today. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Genesis 17:7
2 Exodus 6:7
3 Leviticus 26:3, 12
4 Deuteronomy 19:13
5 Jeremiah 24:6-7
6 Jeremiah 31:31, 33
7 Ezekiel 37:27
8 Zechariah 13:9
9 Revelation 21:3
See also Exodus 29:45-46; Leviticus 11:45; 22:32-33; 25:38; 26:45; Numbers 15:41; Jeremiah 32:38; Ezekiel 34:30; 36:28; Hosea 1:9-10; 2:23; Zechariah 8:8; 2 Corinthians 6:16; and Hebrews 8:10.