I've been trying to figure out ways to articulate (put into words) the changes I'm feeling and what we're seeing in our church. We can talk for days about the details, but I think I've come up with a interesting way to look at it.
I think in the past we've focused on "Learning and Obedience". Obviously this isn't a bad thing. I think the challenge is that in me, it promotes a view that the essential part of a relationship with God is knowing all the facts. Once we have enough information we'll be able to obey perfectly.
While understanding the Word of God and study is certainly a key to being able to live a life in the God pleasing way, I don't think that obedience is all about knowing all the rules. A perspective on obedience as mostly the "Don'ts" goes along with the learning based obedience model. These are the things my kids come up with when talking about what having Jesus in your life looks like. They say, "Well, we shouldn't kill people, or be mean, or lie."
I beleive obedience should be considered in the context of a relationship with a loving God that wants to be involved in your life. The way that I think about it now is "Listen and Obey". Sure, God speaks through His Word and there are many areas that God wants to know what is right that are usually communicated in "Don'ts". But for me, the more important is the daily interaction that God wants to have with us. The things that come to mind that may be easily discounted. Depending on your experience we can call these "the prompting of the Holy Spirit", or things "God lead you to do" or "God spoke to me", or "I felt like I should" or "I felt in my heart". Regardless of words you use to describe these situations, I beleive that anyone with a heart that is open to hearing from God, will hear from him. I'm confidnent that God speaks to everyone and the question is simply if we will obey. This is how God draws us to himself both in the process of finding God for the first time, and I beleive regularly in the context of our Christian life.
At this point in my life, it could be easy to look at obedience and largely a non-issue. Sure, there are things that I struggle with, but it seems that the "Do's and Don'ts" that were big issues of obedience and failure in the past are much less. Today, the big questions of obedience are if I am really willing to listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and obey. Right now, for me, these prompting sound like "go talk to that person", "go pray for that person", "go to church early for prayer" and "raise your hands in worship". I get the feeling that God is wanting a kind of relationship with us where he can interact with us on a regular basis and our responsibility is get into the place where we are aligned with Him enough that we can hear with us when he speaks.
So for me, "Listen and Obey" seems like a much better goal.
I think in the past we've focused on "Learning and Obedience". Obviously this isn't a bad thing. I think the challenge is that in me, it promotes a view that the essential part of a relationship with God is knowing all the facts. Once we have enough information we'll be able to obey perfectly.
While understanding the Word of God and study is certainly a key to being able to live a life in the God pleasing way, I don't think that obedience is all about knowing all the rules. A perspective on obedience as mostly the "Don'ts" goes along with the learning based obedience model. These are the things my kids come up with when talking about what having Jesus in your life looks like. They say, "Well, we shouldn't kill people, or be mean, or lie."
I beleive obedience should be considered in the context of a relationship with a loving God that wants to be involved in your life. The way that I think about it now is "Listen and Obey". Sure, God speaks through His Word and there are many areas that God wants to know what is right that are usually communicated in "Don'ts". But for me, the more important is the daily interaction that God wants to have with us. The things that come to mind that may be easily discounted. Depending on your experience we can call these "the prompting of the Holy Spirit", or things "God lead you to do" or "God spoke to me", or "I felt like I should" or "I felt in my heart". Regardless of words you use to describe these situations, I beleive that anyone with a heart that is open to hearing from God, will hear from him. I'm confidnent that God speaks to everyone and the question is simply if we will obey. This is how God draws us to himself both in the process of finding God for the first time, and I beleive regularly in the context of our Christian life.
At this point in my life, it could be easy to look at obedience and largely a non-issue. Sure, there are things that I struggle with, but it seems that the "Do's and Don'ts" that were big issues of obedience and failure in the past are much less. Today, the big questions of obedience are if I am really willing to listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and obey. Right now, for me, these prompting sound like "go talk to that person", "go pray for that person", "go to church early for prayer" and "raise your hands in worship". I get the feeling that God is wanting a kind of relationship with us where he can interact with us on a regular basis and our responsibility is get into the place where we are aligned with Him enough that we can hear with us when he speaks.
So for me, "Listen and Obey" seems like a much better goal.
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