Knocking on Heaven's Door

This past semester I've enjoyed meeting several prominent Christian leaders. A few months back I wrote about my encounter with Chuck Swindoll, and since then I've also come in contact with David Jeremiah and Mark Dever. Lucky for me all of these men have had speaking engagements in the Dallas area in the last few months. Even if it's just shaking a hand and talking idly for a minute or so, something about being in the presence of men God is working through and using mightily serves as an encouragement.

At another recent event I similarly met and heard a young pastor by the name of JR Vassar. He is a DTS grad, and serves as the founding and lead pastor of Apostles Church in NYC. He spoke at a conference put on by RightNow Ministries, and the session I heard him do was on the topic of "Creating a Culture of Prayer". He started out by mentioning that we often affirm the necessity of prayer, but our lives are not saturated in it as they should be. His message's main objective was giving insights into how we can take prayer from the realm of Articulated Value into Activated Value.

A few things stood out to me about what he said from there on out. First, how many of you have thought of prayer as a privilege secured for us by Jesus, and that one of the main reasons He died for you was so that you might be able to pray to God? As it says in Hebrews 4:16, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence because of Jesus...Christ has won the ear of God for us!

So why don't we pray, Vassar then asked? He first cites the reason of our failure to reflect on who God is and who we are. He states that that which was Jesus' by nature becomes ours by adoption, that is "sonship". God is our wise, compassionate, merciful, loving, perfectly powerful, and limitless in power Heavenly Father. And we are His children! In order for us to view prayer in the proper light, we first must think truer thoughts about God and of ourselves. Only then will we commit more time to prayer.

Another reason he gives is that we simply don't hunger and thirst after God. And if we do ever pray, we see the reward as simply being an evident answer to our request. So if we don't see the results we desire, we chalk it up as a loss and we become discouraged and frustrated. This is the whole "vending machine" approach to prayer as he credits Paul Miller to coining in "A Praying Life". Instead of only moving quickly toward the vending machine to get what we desire and then going about our regular daily routine, we should instead employ a "family-meal" mentality and make time with God the reward. Just like when we gather in a few days with family and friends for Thanksgiving, we count the reward being simply getting to catch up and enjoy community and fellowship with loved ones. That's the whole purpose. The treasure is in the time we spend together! We should then in prayer aim our attention more on God and delighting in His presence. This should be our focus, rather than the quick-fixes and answers we want that trump intimacy with our Heavenly Father.

This next point was huge for me, and has the potential to radically change your prayer life. Vassar warns that we mustn't confuse our judicial favor with God with His relational favor. Those of us who have been saved by God's grace are accepted and favored by God solely on the basis of what Christ has done for us. The gospel is essentially that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, and He bridged the gap between a holy God and a sin marred humanity. Christ being fully God and fully man lived the perfect life that we as fallen humans could never live, and in so doing was also the only suitable and acceptable means to which God could apply His holy and perfect wrath. On the cross God poured out His wrath and punished Christ for the sins of the entire world. All who put their faith and trust in Christ's perfect life, His substitutionary death and punishment in our place, and His subsequent burial and resurrection can be set free from sin and be born again to a living hope. We as sinners can be viewed by God as if we had the perfect righteousness of Christ, because God viewed and treated Christ as a sinner at the cross. We are accepted unconditionally now by God in a judicial sense. His judicial pronouncement of us as righteous is binding and unconditional. Nothing can be done by those of us who are in Christ to compromise this pronouncement and all that it entails.

But relationally it is another story. We as Christians, eternally secure and saved, can still in this lifetime grieve God by neglecting to seek Him. We can grieve God by letting certain sins remain a part of our lives and letting them go unconfessed and unaddressed. There is a relational capacity we have with our Heavenly Father. Certain things He wants to do in our lives and give to us are conditional, and our receiving them is based on whether or not we persistently seek after and ask Him. We mustn't presume upon God and use our judicial stance with Him as an excuse for our laziness to seek Him and persevere in prayer and service to Him.

Vassar then asked us this question, "Are your knuckles bleeding from knocking on Heaven's door in prayer...is there anything that for the last say 6 months you have been just wrestling with God about, passionately pursuing both His presence and His provision in a matter you know is in line with His will?"

Man when he said that I was very convicted, because I realized that there really wasn't. But God only does business with those who mean business, and sometimes He withholds answers for a time to see just how much business we really mean.

So then, what should we pray for? If we shouldn't view God as a vending machine and instead should consider time spent with Him as the reward - BUT He also desires that we persist in asking Him for things...then what should we be asking Him for?

Start by praying the PASSIONS OF GOD! That the renown of the Trinity would be known in all the earth, and that the Kingdom of God would gain greater and greater traction. Pray that God might bring expressions of that future kingdom to earth now. For as Dallas Willard says "You hear God's voice clearest when your passions are in line with His." Pray also for the power of the Holy Spirit, because if we are going to carry the message of God it cannot be done apart from His power at work in and through us.

Vassar closed with this "May we be freed from the fear of man by replacing it with a healthy fear of God, so caught up in sonship that we might be unleashed into the world to radically transform it with the power of the gospel."

Charles Spurgeon, regarded by many to be the greatest preacher other that Jesus to walk the face of the earth, was once quoted as saying he'd "rather teach 1 man to pray than 10 to preach." Indeed there's power in prayer, and this oft untapped resource attained through long lingering and communing with the Father is available to all His sons and daughters.  Let's start knocking on His door!

"Our Quest for the Life which is Spiritual"

This is the Course Integration Paper I wrote for my Spiritual Life class.  It basically sums up the majority of the things we covered this semester, which served as a foundation for "our quest for the life which is spiritual", as my professor would say.


Perhaps the following phrase “of Biblical proportions” sounds familiar.  This popular saying used commonly to describe the immensity and magnitude of a given scenario or situation could easily be used as a tag line to depict our quest.  Though unlikely, its meaning could also very well have originated from this quest that God put mankind on from the beginning.  Indeed, God set the bar extremely high for all of mankind.  Through the creation process, God (who is Spirit) brought order to what was previously formless, void, empty, and chaotic.  And despite everything that was created by God, including the sun, moon, stars, mountains, oceans, etc., nothing except humans are said to be created in His image.  Only humans then can represent, reflect, and spread His likeness throughout the entire world.  We are to be fruitful and multiply by having children, and also work, rule and have dominion over all God’s creation, so that the entire world may be an enormous sanctuary filled with true worshippers.

The task sounds appeasing and light enough until we come to grips with God’s holiness.  For though God is Spirit, and we in His image likewise are spiritual beings, there still exists between our nature and His an unbridgeable gap.  Even before Adam and Eve sinned, this gap existed.  That God is holy means that He is distinct and set apart; unique, special and different in an awesome, out of this world kind of way.  Before He turned the pre-creation chaos into beauty and order, He alone existed.  If we are to follow in the footsteps of this Holy God who spoke the heavens and earth into being from nothing, and are called to represent Him and create and cultivate in a way that suitably reflects Him, we certainly have both an honorable and formidable assignment.

Fast forward to the Fall at Genesis 3.  When Sin enters, our mission becomes now all the more difficult and frustrating.  The enemy tempted Adam and Eve with the forbidden fruit, saying that if they ate of it they would be like God.  But they already were like God; they were made in His image!  Their disobedience in effect communicated that they’d rather replace Him than replicate Him.  Consequently, this rebellious act served as the inauguration of Sin’s rule over all of humanity.  All since then have been under Sin’s curse, and the quest for the life which is truly spiritual becomes tarnished at every level.  However, amidst God’s indictment of Adam and Eve and the serpent we hear a brief hint of hope in Gen 3:15.  This foreshadows Christ, the one who will bruise the serpent and in turn become bruised Himself.

A few Chapters later in Genesis 6 we read that every formation of man’s heart is evil, and God is grieved, pained, and offended.  Adam’s descendants were born into Sin’s wicked and oppressive dictatorship and they also willfully obeyed and followed suit by their sinful actions.  So God decides to start over, takes Noah and gives him the same opportunity as He gave Adam.  But Noah too fails, as does humanity as a whole throughout the redemptive episode of Genesis 1-11. 

Continuing on in Episode #2, God in Genesis 12 takes Abraham, and from his descendants (specifically Jacob) will come the nation of Israel.  He establishes this nation through the patriarchs and during the last part of Genesis guides them away from famine into Egypt where they can be safe under Joseph’s care and leadership.  Then after there for several hundred years, a King rises up in Egypt who remembered not Joseph or his deeds.  So God delivered them, parted and led them through the Red Sea, fed them and cared for them in the desert, gave them the 10 Commandments, and a track to the Promised Land.  He also later provided them a Temple in Jerusalem where His glory could descend, and gave them Kings such as David.  Yet after all these allowances Israel drops the ball and fails. 

Psalm 78:37-39 provides a fitting snapshot of the nation following the Exodus, and it also serves as a representation of Israel’s falseness and God’s faithfulness throughout the rest of the OT: “Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not faithful to his covenant. Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath.  He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again.” Countless OT passages portray them as a selfish, stiff-necked, idolatrous nation.  The route again that God desires for His people to take in displaying His Kingdom comes to the disappointing conclusion of “apparent failure”. 

For the next stage in redemptive history, God decides to send His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into the world.  Christ models perfectly what it looks like to live a life which is truly spiritual and does what all before Him had failed to do.  He being the last Adam does not balk at the opportunity given Him by the Father like the first Adam did, but instead embraces His role.  But as John’s gospel records, the light came into the world, and the darkness did not comprehend it.  God’s chosen nation Israel should have accepted Him as their King and Messiah but they crucified Him.  After His death there was darkness; chaos ruled over the earth as it did prior to creation.  The expected and just response of God would’ve been to give up. 

Instead God gives life to the body of Christ and raises Him from the dead.  He then at Pentecost births the Church, and we learn from history and the Bible that we too during this current redemptive episode will fail at spreading His image throughout all the earth.  So in the next and last episode of redemptive history, God creates a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells.  He establishes justice and rule and everything will be made new.  Nothing more will be accursed, no more darkness, and Jesus will make all of God’s commands and desires for humanity become certain success in reality.  Sounds amazing even just thinking about it, what a day that will be!  But until that day comes and the fulfillment is realized, we must obediently wait in eager expectation.  Our apparent failure as a whole doesn’t excuse our individual responsibility to engage in this quest God has called all Christians to. 

I’d venture to say most Christians genuinely feel the pull like countless others before us have to press on and seek after the things of God.  We desire to be distinct and not to chase after the things of this world.  Yet we are so easily drawn away from God toward idols and mirages.  These deceitful, false, and empty images fuel our selfish longings to replace God’s best for our lives with a counterfeit.  Why is this so?  Why do Christians along with God’s people from other episodes of history struggle so unsuccessfully to obey God and live lives that are truly spiritual?

One reason is that we have an enemy who relentlessly prowls about seeking to destroy the image of God on the earth.  Satan has been deceitfully destructive from the beginning.  His work in tempting Adam and Eve to sin proves this point.  Furthermore, for him to make sin appealing to us now, he uses the same tactics he did with them.  If sin seeks to do its worst, it must look its best.  It must look attractive and good in order to be destructive and deceptive.  Among other things, sin is a parasite that lives off of a host until it overcomes.  It acts in a perverting way to turn something God intended for good into something to be used for evil.  Sin twists and turns the truth to gain allegiance and loyalty.  This is how Satan and sin operate, and it is an extreme barrier to living the spiritual life.

However, through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we who have been saved through putting our faith in Him have been set free from the power of sin.  Prior to conversion a person has no choice but to submit to the rule of Sin.  Because Adam’s sin in the garden, Sin became ruler and we all are born into that kingdom.  Christ abolished this rule through His perfect life and subsequent death, burial, and resurrection.  For all believers in Him, we are not under the old mastery of King Sin, but the new order and rule of King Grace.  Through Adam’s disobedience Sin’s rule was inaugurated, but through Christ’s obedience Grace abolished the former rule in all the lives of those who put their faith in Christ.

This seems great for ivory tower theological discussions, but does it have any relevance for our pursuit of authentic spirituality?  If we’ve been set free from the dominion of Sin and it no longer rightfully has authority over us to make us obey its commands, then why do we still struggle and commit sins?  The answer is that although we’re now under a new ruler in King Grace, the same selfish desires and tendencies that were alive in us under Adam/Sin still remain with us.  Our new man united with Christ and under the rule of Grace still has the fallen flesh that is wrapped up in all of fallen humanity.  This does not disappear or go away upon conversion.  This is where we get to the heart of what it means to live a life that is spiritual.

Once saved, each believer receives the gift of the Holy Spirit.  This active agent animates a God-oriented life within us.  He reorients our affections and attentions toward loving God and loving others.  If we desire to live a life that is truly spiritual, we must trust and rely on the Spirit of God to produce in us what only He can.  Our job is to pursue intimacy with Him so that He might work through us to manifest the things in our lives which are in line with God’s will.  Everyone was saved by God unto acts of service and good deeds, and these things can only happen through the Spirit causing them to happen.  By practices such as confessing every known sin in our lives, yielding and surrendering our plans to His, and pouring out our hearts to Him in prayer, we can live Spirit-filled and led lives.  We already have as much of the Spirit as we ever will have upon conversion, so the key to living a life that is spiritual is letting the Spirit of God get more and more of us.  We can also grieve the Spirit of God by sinning or not completely yielding to Him.  When we act in these disobedient ways, the Spirit’s ministry shifts from working through us to working on us.

Since the work of the Spirit in our lives is vital and crucial to our becoming effective in our quest for spiritual living, anything we can do to strengthen our intimate dependence on the Spirit is welcome and beneficial.  This is where Spiritual Disciplines tremendously aid the believer.  Like any worthwhile pursuit in life, one doesn’t become adept and skillful overnight.  It takes consistency and dedication in almost any arena, and spiritual living is no different.  Dallas Willard uses the analogy of a young baseball fan imitating a big league player seen on TV.  If that little fan wants to really be like the star player, he’d do well to imitate his training regimen and not just his “in game, on the spot” style and technique.  So it is with us and our model Jesus Christ.  If we want to live a life that is truly spiritual like He did, we should definitely do more than seek to imitate His “in game, on the spot” actions.  Why not imitate what He did to prepare Himself for the big moments?  Things like prayer, fasting, meditation, service, etc.  These disciplines can serve to strengthen the Spirit as it carries out its primary role of doing battle against the flesh and its selfish desires which are in opposition to God and the spiritual life. 

When engaging in these practices though, we must be careful that we do not somehow falsely gauge our success in living a spiritual life by our own performance in certain disciplines.  Once we start thinking in that way we start drifting toward potential legalistic behavior.  Legalism is rooted in the idea that God’s holiness can somehow be attained and His favor can be to an extent merited by how well you conform to a strict pattern of rules or disciplines.  Legalism is toxic and destructive because it presents a diminished picture of God’s holiness and the person’s sinfulness.  This must be understood so it can be guarded against.  When we talk about living a life that is spiritual, and imaging God and reflecting Him, we do not mean these things to be attempted from one’s own spiritual stamina or strength.  Living a life that is spiritual and holy can only be accomplished through an agent that is both perfectly spiritual and holy, the Holy Spirit.  Our only chance is to live in dependence on Him to produce in us what only He can produce. 

He will not produce spiritual fruit in people who simply jump through religious hoops in hopes of somehow earning points or extra merit before God in order that God might owe them something.  God doesn’t owe us anything!  It’s not that setting rules or goals for yourself is bad in and of itself, but the flesh sees those rules and goals as an opportunity to fuel selfish ambition and pride.  So guard against that and check your motives to insure you are solely seeking a closer walk with God, rather than an opportunity to pat yourself on the back.  God is not impressed with people who keep rules for the sake of keeping rules, as if that somehow makes them better and more worthy of God’s attention and blessing.  We should obey God and serve Him because we are already infinitely blessed being united with Christ, and we should desire no matter what the cost to experience His presence and power.  To obey and serve with the motive of gaining superiority over others and an upper hand on God in hopes of disqualification from suffering is legalistic and impure obedience and service.

The quest for a life that is spiritual includes dying moment by moment to the flesh and to selfish ambition, so that the Spirit can most effectively work through you to selflessly serve and love others the way Christ did.  To embark on this journey of spiritual living means to commit to a life yielded to the Spirit, so He can empower you to put others before yourself, and Christ above all, to the glory of the Father.