Gay and I travelled down to George last week to spend time with the Prime Plus group studying Dallas Willard’s teaching on “Hearing God”. This was a particularly valuable learning experience in the context of our current times when there are so many other voices shouting at us from different perspectives all the time. Just before leaving, for instance, I was shocked at the way certain ideologies emanating from the States where being bandied about as if they were the actual words of Jesus. I can tell you, after a study of the Word that some of the conspiracies and ideologies coming out of world politics in these days carries no weight in Scripture at all.
My brothers and sisters, may I appeal to you that before you pass on something that you find exciting or ostensibly “spiritual” you run the concept through Scripture first and then you turn-it-in to God in prayer to seek His mind.
Dallas Willard was very helpful in this context. I loved his quote that God doesn’t come to us in the hype and the popularity of an individual or of a loud and popular preacher. Willard said that God pre-eminently speaks to us in a very different way – “The still small voice is the preferred and most valuable form by which God addresses us. It is more important than spectacular guidance” and “The voice of God is always consistent with the character of God as revealed in Jesus Christ and the Holy Scriptures.”
In a previous book by Willard, “The Divine Conspiracy, Renovation of the Heart, Hearing God”, while speaking to his compatriots in America had this to say to those vehemently espousing either the far left or the far right “The Kingdom of God is not something that human beings produce or legislate. It is the range of God’s effective will. That is why it cannot be identified with any human program—right or left.” He warned that confusing Christianity with a political movement is a distortion of the gospel. He goes on to say that “An ideology is a substitute for the Kingdom. It takes one aspect of reality and makes it the whole truth. That is why ideologies—whether capitalist, socialist, left or right—always lead to idolatry if they are made ultimate.”
He ultimately presents a much better way – the Jesus way – by drawing us back to the Word – to the Sermon on the Mount, in particular. Surely, the test of authentic discipleship, is whether we obey Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. That includes:- loving our enemies (Matt. 5:44), refusing contempt and hatred, seeking reconciliation over division. Obviously, any movements that thrive on fear, anger, or demonizing others—including forms of far-right/far-left rhetoric—stand in direct tension with this. This is as true for South African politics or Middle Eastern or Western politics.
As you pray into the various trouble spots of the world and you consider the plethora of ideologies being thrust backwards and forwards – turn to the Lord in prayer. Here is a sample prayer for you:-
Lord of heaven and earth,
Your Kingdom is not of this world,
yet You have placed us in this world to live as salt and light.
Guard us from being swept away by ideologies and fears.
When voices call us to anger, division, or contempt,
tune our ears instead to the still small voice of Your Spirit.
Shape our hearts after the way of Jesus—
to love our enemies,
to bless when cursed,
to seek reconciliation where there is strife.
Make us a people who bear Your Kingdom in daily life,
through humble obedience,
through Christlike character,
and through love that never fails.
Amen.
Blessings,
Canon Rob Penrith