Hi Guys,
I'm taking your advice on writing down what came through at our prayer meeting last night. I also want to send this to people who weren't there last night, so I'll just put it in context as well.
We meet for prayer at Andy and Ang's house on a Thursday. Last week Andy started with a teaching series on hearing God's voice. Last night we did Chapter 2 in the series. There is an exercise at the end of the chapter to make things a bit more hands on and to give you the opportunity to do it – Hear God's Voice.
The chapter looks at things that might stand in the way of us recognizing God's Voice. The Bible tells us that He is always speaking to us, but some things might stand in the way of our ability to discern when God speaks. One of the things that can get in the way is our "natural man". 1 Cor 2:14 says that the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, because they are foolishness to him. The voice of God is spiritually discerned – we hear God's voice through our "Spiritual Man". While we were still busy with the theoretical discussing I felt rather challenged in my ability to grasp what that means – what does it look like? How do I know when my natural man is in the driver's seat and when are my spiritual ears doing the hearing….
The practical exercise suggests taking a piece of scripture – wherever you are in your Bible reading. Read it and while you're reading be aware of any revelation or insight that God might be giving you. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you about what you've read, ask Him to make it personal to your life and your situation.
So, there I was, trying to remember where I was last in the Bible – I'm not so good with remembering the numbers! I knew it was Luke, so I just skimmed through the chapter headings to find my place and then I stopped at Luke 7:36. This is the story of Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman. Simon, the Pharisee, invited Jesus to have dinner with him. As I read it just came into my head that the Pharisee is my natural man. There was this sinful woman who lived in the town and she heard Jesus was there so she went into the house to Jesus. This (the Holy Spirit revealed) is my spiritual man.
Now I must digress a little. Andy and Ang have been listening to Rob Rufus's teaching on living under Grace (vs. living under law). I started listening to it last week. In this context the Pharisee in Luke 7 is also the man who lives under law. The sinful woman is the one who lives under grace. She's the one who doesn't have to justify herself – she is justified by Christ. She can come into Jesus' presence without the burden of having to deserve his love. She is drawn by it from across the city and when she finds Him she cries, she dries his feet with her hair, she pours perfume on them – how's that for real intimacy!
What a wonderful revelation: my natural man, my Pharisee, will sit and have an intellectual conversation with Jesus – maybe quizz Him on some psychological issues, try to subject Grace to the laws of science, reason about the plausibility of hearing a divine Spirit speaking to me and I'll come away with a feeling of frustration: I'll conclude that the things of the Spirit is foolishness and I'll feel rejected because I don't experience myself as part of the family where the father speaks to His children. (An interesting point here is that the natural man is not the one who is characterized as the sinful one – it is not that our sinful nature stands in the way of hearing God's voice. The Pharisees were after all the "holy" ones, but they removed themselves from intimacy with Jesus because of their clinging to the law.)
But my spiritual man, my sinful woman, can hear God clearly. She comes to Jesus despite my natural man's presence. She sits at His feet, touches Him, cries because she is so overwhelmed by the love He has for her and can rejoice in the knowledge that she is justified – just as if she has never sinned. AND GOD SPEAKS TO HER!
Thanks Andy, for listening to when God spoke to you because now I can also hear.
XXXXXXX
Lydia
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