Samuel answered, “Speak, for Your servant hears.” —1 Samuel 3:10

Just because I have listened carefully and intently to one thing from God does not mean that I will listen to everything He says. I show God my lack of love and respect for Him by the insensitivity of my heart and mind toward what He says. If I love my friend, I will instinctively understand what he wants. And Jesus said, “You are My friends…” (John 15:14). Have I disobeyed some command of my Lord’s this week? If I had realized that it was a command of Jesus, I would not have deliberately disobeyed it. But most of us show incredible disrespect to God because we don’t even hear Him. He might as well never have spoken to us.

The goal of my spiritual life is such close identification with Jesus Christ that I will always hear God and know that God always hears me (see John 11:41). If I am united with Jesus Christ, I hear God all the time through the devotion of hearing. A flower, a tree, or a servant of God may convey God’s message to me. What hinders me from hearing is my attention to other things. It is not that I don’t want to hear God, but I am not devoted in the right areas of my life. I am devoted to things and even to service and my own convictions. God may say whatever He wants, but I just don’t hear Him. The attitude of a child of God should always be, “Speak, for Your servant hears.” If I have not developed and nurtured this devotion of hearing, I can only hear God’s voice at certain times. At other times I become deaf to Him because my attention is to other things— things which I think I must do. This is not living the life of a child of God. Have you heard God’s voice today?

_____________________________________________________

Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord, As usual, some of Chambers writing today resonates with me and pulls up a “Yes!” inside… while other parts cause me to question, Am I missing something? Is he missing something? Are we on the same page? On the one hand, he shows that we are friends and clearly states the goal…

The goal of my spiritual life is such close identification with Jesus Christ that I will always hear God and know that God always hears me (see John 11:41)

My question is, “Where is the place for “commands” in a Love relationship? or even a Friend relationship? I agree with Chambers when he says, “If I love my friend, I will instinctively understand what he wants.” There doesn’t seem to be much place for commands in my relationship with my friends or my spouse and I don’t sense Commands as the way to improve our relationship either. As you know, I find the word “Suggestion” to gain more traction with with regard to behavior change than “Command”
I know it sounds strange to call them the “10 Suggestions” or that Love is the greatest suggestion. But when I think about it, I see that a suggestion from a Loving Father, who I know and want to please, does indeed motivate me more than a command from a lofty Zeus type of God who will fling lightning bolts if commands are not obeyed. I know I can never measure up to that kind of God… so after trying for a time, a few decades, I give up, breathe a sigh of relief and find that loving Father who waited on the front porch for his prodigal son to return. He had never commanded him not to leave. Although I’m sure he had suggested that it wasn’t the best idea, He had divided the inheritance as the wayward son had decided he wanted… and then he had waited. Isn’t that what you do with us? Isn’t that the kind of God that you are? You want the best for us and give us suggestions. All the time. Lord help me to hear … Like Lauren Daigle says in the song….”First”

Commands and Suggestions are merely two ways for “blind men to describe their experience of an elephant. There are other perspectives also like “Laws” as in Law of Gravity, or Law of cause and effect. They are all true and you stumble if you think your way of seeing is the only way. Realize that you are a work in process, a wounded soldier on a healing journey and use whatever is working for you right now.   Remember the prodigal son left and the prodigal son returned.  Which do you think is more important?  Most would say the returning.  But without leaving, how could he return?  And remember the older brother never left OR returned.   So learn returning.   Learn returning.   Learn it after you’ve fallen off your horse.   And learn returning during prayer when your mind wanders off.   Practice it every day.   There are many ways to get closer to me. Why do you think there are all those names of God in the Bible that you were looking at on the poster in Church yesterday. They are all true. And one will resonate strongest at a particular time. And another time it will be a different one.

Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things… —Isaiah 40:26

The people of God in Isaiah’s time had blinded their minds’ ability to see God by looking on the face of idols. But Isaiah made them look up at the heavens; that is, he made them begin to use their power to think and to visualize correctly. If we are children of God, we have a tremendous treasure in nature and will realize that it is holy and sacred. We will see God reaching out to us in every wind that blows, every sunrise and sunset, every cloud in the sky, every flower that blooms, and every leaf that fades, if we will only begin to use our blinded thinking to visualize it.

The real test of spiritual focus is being able to bring your mind and thoughts under control. Is your mind focused on the face of an idol? Is the idol yourself? Is it your work? Is it your idea of what a servant should be, or maybe your experience of salvation and sanctification? If so, then your ability to see God is blinded. You will be powerless when faced with difficulties and will be forced to endure in darkness. If your power to see has been blinded, don’t look back on your own experiences, but look to God. It is God you need. Go beyond yourself and away from the faces of your idols and away from everything else that has been blinding your thinking. Wake up and accept the ridicule that Isaiah gave to his people, and deliberately turn your thoughts and your eyes to God.

One of the reasons for our sense of futility in prayer is that we have lost our power to visualize. We can no longer even imagine putting ourselves deliberately before God. It is actually more important to be broken bread and poured-out wine in the area of intercession than in our personal contact with others. The power of visualization is what God gives a saint so that he can go beyond himself and be firmly placed into relationships he never before experienced.

____________________________________________

Journal DJR
Good morning Lord, Recently I have been noticing you more in nature. Of course you are always there but I’ve been too busy “chasing butterflies and shiny objects”… thinking my thoughts, and feeling my feelings, simmering in my angst… just generally rotating around myself, the center of my universe. Yuck! It sounds pretty bad, when I list it all out that way. Chambers, and Isaiah call those things idols. And these idols seem just as effective at derailing my connection with You as if I were bowing down to some idol carved of stone or wood. Thru my struggles with Centering Prayer… bringing only a naked intent to connect… and fending off those idols, clamoring for center stage in my mind… I have found myself more able to see you in all of nature and all creation, and see “All things” working (Romans 8:28)

I agree with Chambers that visualization is a good gift you have given us… but only to get started. After a time, visualizing myself walking and talking with you along the shore of Galilee, or driving to Home Depot… those helpful visualizations eventually get in the way. So I come… with Naked Intent. Just to be with you. And let it look like whatever it looks like. And “see” you however you choose, Even if it’s dark. It seems like you spoke out of darkness and a cloud and in a still small voice more than booming thunder. So please help me with this. My butterflies and shiny objects are strong and don’t back off easily. I think I’ll listen to Leonard Cohen about You and Darkness one more time and see if you speak through that today…….

The everlasting God…neither faints nor is weary. —Isaiah 40:28

Exhaustion means that our vital energies are completely worn out and spent. Spiritual exhaustion is never the result of sin, but of service. Whether or not you experience exhaustion will depend on where you get your supplies. Jesus said to Peter, “Feed My sheep,” but He gave him nothing with which to feed them (John 21:17). The process of being made broken bread and poured-out wine means that you have to be the nourishment for other people’s souls until they learn to feed on God. They must drain you completely— to the very last drop. But be careful to replenish your supply, or you will quickly be utterly exhausted. Until others learn to draw on the life of the Lord Jesus directly, they will have to draw on His life through you. You must literally be their source of supply, until they learn to take their nourishment from God. We owe it to God to be our best for His lambs and sheep, as well as for Him.

May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely… —1 Thessalonians 5:23

When we pray, asking God to sanctify us, are we prepared to measure up to what that really means? We take the word sanctification much too lightly. Are we prepared to pay the cost of sanctification? The cost will be a deep restriction of all our earthly concerns, and an extensive cultivation of all our godly concerns. Sanctification means to be intensely focused on God’s point of view. It means to secure and to keep all the strength of our body, soul, and spirit for God’s purpose alone. Are we really prepared for God to perform in us everything for which He separated us? And after He has done His work, are we then prepared to separate ourselves to God just as Jesus did? “For their sakes I sanctify Myself…” (John 17:19). The reason some of us have not entered into the experience of sanctification is that we have not realized the meaning of sanctification from God’s perspective. Sanctification means being made one with Jesus so that the nature that controlled Him will control us. Are we really prepared for what that will cost? It will cost absolutely everything in us which is not of God.

Are we prepared to be caught up into the full meaning of Paul’s prayer in this verse? Are we prepared to say, “Lord, make me, a sinner saved by grace, as holy as You can”? Jesus prayed that we might be one with Him, just as He is one with the Father (see John 17:21-23). The resounding evidence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life is the unmistakable family likeness to Jesus Christ, and the freedom from everything which is not like Him. Are we prepared to set ourselves apart for the Holy Spirit’s work in us?

_____________________________________________________

Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord, Today, like many days, Chambers brings a mixed message. At least one that can be taken different ways. Depending on which part we focus on. Or the place we are already coming from and ready to hear. The verse says it’s God’s work to sanctify us

May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely… —1 Thessalonians 5:23

So phrases like, Are we prepared to pay the cost? … to “measure up” don’t seem to fit.

I suppose the reason that I react against those phrases are the insinuation or at least my association with bootstrapping, willpower and just trying harder. Which hasn’t worked for me. Like it didn’t work for the Pharisees in Jesus’ day. They were the ones who worked the formula the hardest… Went to church most, read their Bible the most, and prayed the most. So the “work hard” perspective can’t be what Paul and the Spirit are referring to. So what then? When I begin to see that Jesus has already done all the hard work, and said “It is finished” when he was done… it all begins to clear up. It seems that my job is to just get out of the way. And let the results of his completed work, work themselves out in my life. Perhaps the best definition of what gets in the way of that is my “Big Four” needs. To look good, feel good, be right and be in control. With those out of the way, there is room for your completed work to do it’s work in me. So, what then, is “my part?” And why do I seem to so easily de-rail this sanctification plan that you have for me?

You have identified 4 motivations that all humans are hard wired with. You have also correctly noted that will power will not be able to overcome them, long term. But I have overcome them. That’s what I came to show you how to do. It is at the cross that you can leave them behind. After the cross is resurrection. Not just after your last breath, but every time you come there. Remember I said, Pick up your cross DAILY. Many shy away from that, because a Cross is an instrument of death, not a pleasant thought. But a resurrection is on the other side of every cross. So as you bring those Big Four motivations to the cross, boldly know that there is a resurrection waiting for you. It is there that we will enjoy sweet communion.

Revelation 3:20 I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

And it is there that sanctification can happen easily. Like surfing a wave, where the wave provides all the power. I have provided all the power, and spent 3 years demonstrating it’s use for all humanity.

It seems so clear. Why do I fall off the surfboard so easily?

Like surfing, it takes practice. Just keep coming deeper in. You are on the right track. I will show you helpful tips along the way. That are customized and special for you… who I made like no other. But these basics we’ve been discussing are true for all humans.

We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. —Luke 24:21

I am already being poured out as a drink offering… —2 Timothy 4:6

Are you ready to be poured out as an offering? It is an act of your will, not your emotions. Tell God you are ready to be offered as a sacrifice for Him. Then accept the consequences as they come, without any complaints, in spite of what God may send your way. God sends you through a crisis in private, where no other person can help you. From the outside your life may appear to be the same, but the difference is taking place in your will. Once you have experienced the crisis in your will, you will take no thought of the cost when it begins to affect you externally. If you don’t deal with God on the level of your will first, the result will be only to arouse sympathy for yourself.

“Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar” (Psalm 118:27). You must be willing to be placed on the altar and go through the fire; willing to experience what the altar represents— burning, purification, and separation for only one purpose— the elimination of every desire and affection not grounded in or directed toward God. But you don’t eliminate it, God does. You “bind the sacrifice…to the horns of the altar” and see to it that you don’t wallow in self-pity once the fire begins. After you have gone through the fire, there will be nothing that will be able to trouble or depress you. When another crisis arises, you will realize that things cannot touch you as they used to do. What fire lies ahead in your life?

Tell God you are ready to be poured out as an offering, and God will prove Himself to be all you ever dreamed He would be.

We have been made as the filth of the world… —1 Corinthians 4:13 

These words are not an exaggeration. The only reason they may not be true of us who call ourselves ministers of the gospel is not that Paul forgot or misunderstood the exact truth of them, but that we are too cautious and concerned about our own desires to allow ourselves to become the refuse or “filth of the world.” “Fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ…” (Colossians 1:24) is not the result of the holiness of sanctification, but the evidence of consecration— being “separated to the gospel of God…” (Romans 1:1).

Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! —1 Corinthians 9:16

Beware of refusing to hear the call of God. Everyone who is saved is called to testify to the fact of his salvation. That, however, is not the same as the call to preach, but is merely an illustration which can be used in preaching. In this verse, Paul was referring to the stinging pains produced in him by the compelling force of the call to preach the gospel. Never try to apply what Paul said regarding the call to preach to those souls who are being called to God for salvation. There is nothing easier than getting saved, because it is solely God’s sovereign work— “Look to Me, and be saved…” (Isaiah 45:22). Our Lord never requires the same conditions for discipleship that he requires for salvation. We are condemned to salvation through the Cross of Christ. But discipleship has an option with it— “If anyone…” (Luke 14:26).

Paul’s words have to do with our being made servants of Jesus Christ, and our permission is never asked as to what we will do or where we will go. God makes us as broken bread and poured-out wine to please Himself. To be “separated to the gospel” means being able to hear the call of God (Romans 1:1). Once someone begins to hear that call, a suffering worthy of the name of Christ is produced. Suddenly, every ambition, every desire of life, and every outlook is completely blotted out and extinguished. Only one thing remains— “…separated to the gospel…” Woe be to the soul who tries to head in any other direction once that call has come to him. The Bible Training College exists so that each of you may know whether or not God has a man or woman here who truly cares about proclaiming His gospel and to see if God grips you for this purpose. Beware of competing calls once the call of God grips you.

Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel… —1 Corinthians 1:17

…separated to the gospel of God… —Romans 1:1

Our calling is not primarily to be holy men and women, but to be proclaimers of the gospel of God. The one all-important thing is that the gospel of God should be recognized as the abiding reality. Reality is not human goodness, or holiness, or heaven, or hell— it is redemption. The need to perceive this is the most vital need of the Christian worker today. As workers, we have to get used to the revelation that redemption is the only reality. Personal holiness is an effect of redemption, not the cause of it. If we place our faith in human goodness we will go under when testing comes.

Paul did not say that he separated himself, but “when it pleased God, who separated me…” (Galatians 1:15). Paul was not overly interested in his own character. And as long as our eyes are focused on our own personal holiness, we will never even get close to the full reality of redemption. Christian workers fail because they place their desire for their own holiness above their desire to know God. “Don’t ask me to be confronted with the strong reality of redemption on behalf of the filth of human life surrounding me today; what I want is anything God can do for me to make me more desirable in my own eyes.” To talk that way is a sign that the reality of the gospel of God has not begun to touch me. There is no reckless abandon to God in that. God cannot deliver me while my interest is merely in my own character. Paul was not conscious of himself. He was recklessly abandoned, totally surrendered, and separated by God for one purpose— to proclaim the gospel of God (see Romans 9:3).