Note: This is the fourteent in a series of letters written for those living at the end of the age, whenever that comes in the next fifteen years or the next one hundred and fifty years. Once complete, I’ll combine them into a book. You can access the previous chapters here. If you are not already subscribed to this blog and want to ensure you don’t miss any, you can add your name here.
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As I watch you deal with your cancer diagnosis, I love how you process your circumstances with God. It seems he’s involved in almost every decision you make. How can I learn to live like that? I try to listen for him to speak, but I rarely hear anything that I think is him.
Bart, 52-year-old surgeon in South Africa
Bart,
What a great question! The most important thing any disciple of Jesus can learn is how to sense and respond to the entreaties God makes toward them. Admittedly, this is more art than science, and no amount of proof-texting Scripture will let you know how to respond to the next circumstance in your life. This requires a sensitivity to him borne of a willingness to follow his lead.
I know that many people get hung up here, misunderstanding how life in his kingdom works. I don’t hear “voices” all the time in my head, but he has taught me how to engage him as life comes at me and although I don’t do it perfectly, not even close, I am growing in my awareness of what he has in mind as I navigate my life.
It’s like sharing a “conversation” through life, though it is not filled with voices, and it isn’t so direct as some make it out to be. I rarely ask God a question and immediately receive an answer. Learning to engage God’s thoughts inside our own is the essence of the Christian experience but you have to mine it like gold or silver, as Proverbs reminded us. Learning to follow him does not come easily. Trying to pretend it does usually leads us to make up the answers we want and thus, we end up lending God’s name to our agenda.
Because I know that his thoughts are higher than my thoughts, then my first reaction will not lead me to his life. In chapter 9, I wrote that discerning God’s ways is like putting together a puzzle out of various clues that come to me. That doesn’t mean he is playing me, only that I seem to recognize bits and pieces of what he wants me to know until it resolves in a fuller picture. On the rare occasion, a specific thought crosses my mind that seems Godlike, usually because it is better or worse than anything I would be thinking. And by worse, I mean more risky or more costly than I’d consider, though following those thoughts leads to fruitful outcomes.
“It is the Lord” 
The disciples had seen Jesus twice since his resurrection. They finally went back to Galilee to resume fishing. On the morning after a fruitless night, they spot a figure on the shore that they don’t recognize. The stranger told them to cast the net on the right side of the boat. When they did, they caught a load of fish so great it almost sinks them. That’s when John leaned over to Peter and said, “It is the Lord.”
Isn’t that the moment everything changes? No matter what we’re going through, when we recognize him in it, we know all will be well. It doesn’t always come quickly or easily, but when he makes himself known, hope replaces despair.
It’s hard for me to imagine Jesus not spending more time with his disciples after his resurrection. He came to them on the first day of the week, twice in Jerusalem and then at Galilee. The spaces in between must have been excruciating, but they couldn’t stay with him like they used to.
That’s a good illustration of how he works with me, too. He does not always respond to my beck and call, but there’s always a moment in any circumstance, even after days or weeks, where Jesus makes himself clear enough that my heart leaps with that same discovery, “It is the Lord.”
Our task is to watch for him; recognize him; then follow him as he reveals himself. If we want to walk with him in the last days, watching for his presence and following him are not optional.
Not by Bread Alone
After fasting forty days in the wilderness, Jesus was hungry. The enemy tempted him to turn stones into bread. What a novel idea! There were plenty of rocks around to satiate his hunger. There’s nothing sinful about it; it didn’t violate Moses’s law or any ethical concern. In a few days’ time, he would change water into wine. What’s the difference?
And yet, he knew not to. Why?
His first clue might have been the source of the idea—the enemy himself! It would have been an easy temptation to fall into, except that Jesus was living by a higher source of direction and wanted us to know of it.
Jesus answered the enemy from Deuteronomy. “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:2-4; Deuteronomy 8:3) Moses reminded the people that the manna they received each morning was God’s way of teaching them to rely on him, not their own ingenuity. Bread wasn’t even the most important part of the lesson, but learning to live by whatever words God speaks.
That’s as true for us today. We buy bread from the store or mix it ourselves without much thought about where it comes from. For Israel, manna was their primary source of food as they wandered in the desert. As much as they needed God’s intervention every day just to subsist, they also needed his leading to navigate the situations that would come their way. When Israel forgot that, they resorted to their own devices, complaining about food and even fashioning a golden calf in which to invest their hopes.
Jesus lived his whole life only doing the things he saw his Father doing and only saying what he heard his Father say. He lived “by every word” and, in doing so, was able to navigate his most harrowing circumstances.
The New Creation
What’s shocking is that he offered the same reality to us. He relied on God’s words as our example. In both Romans and Colossians, Paul referred to Jesus as the first-born of a new creation—a new race of men and women who would come out of the darkness of human passion and come alive in the Father’s kingdom. His life forged a pathway for many sons and daughters to live with the same dependence on God and by doing so, demonstrate his glory in the world.
That’s what it means to be saved; it is to come out of darkness and dwell in the light of God’s revelation. Salvation was never meant to focus primarily on the afterlife, but on how we live here—awakened into the New Creation where our life is hidden with Christ in God. The life of Jesus is a revelational journey, where he guides us by his Spirit through the joys and challenges of life.
Many think that our life is determined by the grand choices we make at propitious moments, and while those are not without impact, every circumstance in which we find ourselves is the fruit of hundreds of smaller decisions that established the trajectory we find ourselves in today. Either they led us to the deeper things of God or marooned us in the shallower waters of self-preservation. He wants us to lean into that which is loving, true, gracious, and generous, to partake of God’s passion to let his love flow through us into the world.
Wouldn’t this change our view of discipleship? It’s not about reading the Bible, time in prayer, church attendance, or even battling our sins. True discipleship teaches us how to recognize him as he’s revealed in us and then take his courage to follow him. It is less about mastering principles, even from the Bible, as it is about discovering a presence to follow. When we substitute obeying principles instead of following him, we’re still following the application of our best wisdom, rather than living by his.
So, don’t fly off with the first reaction you have to a situation. Take a breath, pause for a day or two to consider how God might have you respond. and longer if it takes time to know. What would it mean to be about the Father’s business instead of doing what you think best? Recognize that struggle within you and then you can see how he wants to lead you.
Those who are learning to live as part of the new creation are motivated inwardly by the wisdom and passion of God, but never draw attention to themselves or try to convince others of what they think is true. They encourage without manipulation, offer corrective counsel without malice or for their own benefit, and love deeply even when that love is not reciprocated.
The Questions We Ask
You can tell a lot about a person by the questions they ask of God. Are they hostile questions to guard themselves from harm or are they open-hearted questions seeking more insight or revelation? It’s not that God doesn’t want to answer the former ones, but that we are not in the frame of mind to recognize him.
Most naturally we ask the “why” question whenever something difficult happens to us. “Why me?” “Why didn’t God protect me from this?” In my younger days I launched “why” questions at God as if he were my adversary. Confused by the Scriptures I could quote to engineer God’s activity and by him not responding the way I hoped, I wondered what kind of God he was or how he felt about me.
But as I’ve learned to live loved, the “why questions” have gone away. My questions now often begin with “how,” “who,” or “what.” “How are you making yourself known in this?” “Who are you giving me to love today?” “What is it about your love I don’t know that if I knew it, I wouldn’t be anxious?” The questions that bear fruit are not the hostile questions of uncared-for children, but the honest seeking of what’s real from a beloved friend.
I hold some of my questions before God for weeks and months until his answers seep into my consciousness. As I look back, I can see how he put the pieces in place that would allow me to connect with his heart and wisdom. Those lead me to those it-is-the-Lord moments that show me the path to follow. This is less about words to follow as it is about discovering the wisdom that marks a better path, the love to navigate it with those affected, and the courage to trust his insights above my own.
This comes by learning to think with him and to recognize his thoughts inside our own about everything—opportunities, struggles, unhelpful attitudes, and the grace to move forward regardless of the challenge.
The Environment of Discernment
While we can’t control the nature of those engagements or how and when he makes his way clear, we can incubate the environment in our heart that makes it easier for us to recognize him when he gives us revelation.
Here are four tools I’ve found most critical in keeping a fertile heart for his appearing.
First, I immerse myself in Scripture, not as a magic book to find promises that please me, but to recognize that which is important to God. Principles of theology and guidelines for daily living are less important here, than it is to understand the breadth of the Scripture story and what it reveals about God and the way he works. Be careful here. You can find justifications for almost anything in Scripture as we take on some of the misunderstandings of the authors, especially of Old Testament writers.
God is love, and Jesus showed us exactly how God responds to people, especially sinners. He wants to win people into his love and help them find freedom to live in that love toward others. People who proof-text Scripture can “claim” anything they desire based on something they can quote. Time will prove, however, that God didn’t give us his words so we could manipulate him. He recorded the history of redemption so we could understand his nature, mostly in the revelation of the Son and then connect with that reality by his Spirit.
I read Scripture a lot, so I am familiar with the story of God that unfolds from Genesis through Revelation. I also read each day looking for something that will open my heart to God on that day or will shed his light on situations I’m facing. I don’t always find that, but I’m always looking and all the while gaining a deep background in how God thinks and acts.
Second, I interpret my journey alongside a community of other nonreligious brothers and sisters who are openly sharing their journey in Christ as well. The reason I say nonreligious is because I want to be encouraged in a relational engagement with him and not substitute that for religious rules that are lifeless. This community does not require sitting through endless meetings together but participating in a network of conversations of what others are discovering, receiving their help and wisdom in times of extremity, and to share the revelations we are having from Jesus.
Not only does this enrich others, but it also gives them the opportunity to be a check and balance on what we hear. Since we each only see in part, the wider wisdom of God comes through the collective insights of other followers. I also get some of this by reading books of people who walked well with God.
Third, I honor my conscience, which I affectionately call my Yuck Meter. It’s how the Holy Spirit often engages us. Conscience is not what we want to do, but what we feel compelled to do, often against our own self-interest. When I really want to do something but sense inside not to, even if I can’t argue with it in words, I honor that. It is how I learn to be just in my dealings with others, treating them like I’d want to be treated.
Fourth, what does love lead me to do? It is easy to navigate our lives by the star of self-interest, doing in each circumstance what serves me or my fears best. Love, however, invites us to a different trajectory and dislodges us from our narcissistic flesh. I look at love as a river that flows from the heart of God. When I am in that river, there’s a momentum that leads me to his fairness, kindness, and generosity toward others. It will encourage me to lay my life down for their good rather than do what’s best for me.
Those who live in love treat others with justness and reflect his character as best they can. Even in failure, they are quick to apologize and make amends however they can.
Of course, none of these will provide the answer we seek, but all of them will help us create the environment in our own hearts where it is easier to recognize him. But if you haven’t had time to cultivate this environment in your heart, look for him anyway. He is big enough to get his light through to you by whatever means he desires.
I have a friend who was raised in rural Mexico by parents who didn’t believe in God. He didn’t have a background in the things of God and yet God provided for him even when he didn’t know it. When he told me stories of his childhood, he often referred to a man, perhaps even an angel, who encountered him at difficult moments and taught him how to live justly even with his abusive family. Now, God often instructs him in dreams and while he doesn’t have the biblical background I do, the things he discovers are deeply anchored in Scripture.
Learn to recognize when the thought in your mind, the counsel of a friend, or the presence you sense is the Lord, and follow that leading no matter the cost. He will be enough to guide you through anything you face.
And then one day, even in the midst of the horrific circumstances of the last days, the sound of a trumpet will fill the skies, drawing every eye upward.
“It is the Lord.”
And thus it will be, as the faithful are gathered to him, and finally, the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ, and our revelation of him will be complete and full.
Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly!
