Listening to Voices in the Heart

  Sometimes when thinking about spiritual things I find myself tempted with a small voice in the back of my head saying, "What if this is really the way things are?" as an alternate and unscriptural view of reality is suggested to my heart. For example a common suggestion like this that comes to my mind is that maybe although Christians have a view of reality that God is answering prayer this is just a perception and really things just happened to work out the way you prayed. Or if things didn't go according to how you prayed then you think of it as though God had other plans or maybe that you are just going through a time of testing where you have to just hang on and have faith. The nagging suggestion in my mind says maybe in reality things just didn't go like you hoped and God's will wasn't a factor, in fact maybe there is no God. This thought or voice when it comes to my mind is quickly dismissed and pushed away. In fact sometimes I find myself carefully avoiding a fully focused attention on these ideas. Why? Because they are so contrary to the Word of God and the core of my Christian faith. These ideas completely remove God from the picture and place chance as a new god in His place. I think it makes sense that my initial reaction as a Christian would be to push these ideas away as they try to press into my heart, however I began to realize that the best way to eliminate these is to stop running from them and turn and face them.

  First of all consider the complexity of the universe and of our human bodies and of DNA and the cell. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to rationally realize our single planet Earth teeming with amazingly complex life and no other planet even remotely like it as far as the eye or computer aided telescope can see is not something that could just occur by chance. When you begin to study on the topic of the chances for life to spontaneously exist it quickly becomes obvious that it is beyond absurd to believe that things just happened to fall into place for us. Maybe we could reason that the universe is infinitely large and that in an infinite playing field every possibility that could be is. (By the way most scientists would probably dismiss this idea, because if there were infinite amounts of matter the planetary bodies would not behave as they do. Stephen Hawking and other scientists seem to think our universe is likely in the shape of a giant horse's saddle. Even if we do allow for this, what was the initiator of time and reality? It is not logical to assume things just are and always will be.) Although we can already see that we are stretching our minds beyond common every day human reason to some grandiose philosophical idea for the purpose of what? Eliminating a creator from the picture? Why are we so anxious to dismiss the most obvious answer to this question? There is a creator God who made it all! The reason is because this is a religious answer and it comes with the potential for a whole slew of spiritual ideas and commitments. Some people just feel more comfortable thinking of the world as a Creator-less place. Keep in mind I am not trying to prove Christianity or any other religious idea here, but simply point out that it is a rational theory for one to hold. In fact it seems more rational to me than others.

  When it comes down to it, what anyone believes is a decision of faith. Faith is influenced by logical rational discernible factors, but ultimately what to believe is a decision by the believer. So, maybe when the suggestion or voice enters my mind indicating that the hand of God is really just a silly perceived reality that Christians make things out to be and the real reality is chance I can turn the tables with reason and faith now. By doing this I can understand that probably more likely is that much of the world has a percieved reality that the world is a place of chance, but the real reality is that there is a creator God who governs and listens and interacts with the creation.

Romans 1:20
  For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.


  Something I've been studying and learning about recently is the voice or communication of God to his people. After reading a book by Kevin Harney called Seismic Shifts in chapter six I saw where he talks about the common perception Christians have regarding their relationship, interaction and communication with God.
He points out that the majority of Christians pray and expect God hears them, but do not consider God as one that commonly or frequently speaks back to them. Something I found fascinating was when he pointed out that hearing God speak takes just as much faith as believing God hears you when you speak to him. "They are two sides of the same coin.", he said. He pointed out that many people perceive God's communication to them in different ways. Some hear God speak with their ears, others with their heart and still other by divine nudges. All of these require faith to be believed as communication from God to you. Why would the loving father God we read about in the Bible not speak to His children?

John 10:3-5
  The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice.

  In fact I believe the nagging voice in the back of my mind that I feared to confront for a time and mentioned at the beginning of this entry is most likely the voice of my enemy that the Bible speaks of. It is the stranger's voice. Although, I did not perceive it as anything other than my own idea at first. Many times I think when the Lord speaks as well I consider it my own idea, when in reality it was Him all along who gave me the thought. A lot of times in cartoons you will see the little angel on one shoulder and the little devil on the other trying to whisper things in a cartoon character's ear and persuade him to do or think one thing or another. Although, we may associate this idea with cartoons and things that are whimsical which are not usually true, I believe there is truth in this picture. The Lord speaks to our hearts just as the stranger's voice may speak. But His sheep know His voice and follow Him. Believing that you hear the Lord's voice when He speaks is a matter of faith. Since I am speaking about the heart I am going to list my idea about what the heart is... Obviously your physical heart is an organ and nothing, but blood pumping happens there. But, I think the proverbial heart is much more than just my mind, brain or the place where thinking occurs. The heart is at the core of who you are physically. The proverbial heart is at the core of who you are as a whole person including spiritually, mentally and physically.

Definition of the "heart":
heart = place of: believed truths, thoughts, ways of thinking, desires and beliefs that I hold most dear, the core of who I am, what I passionately love or hate is dealt with and perceived here

It is in this core that notions or ideas to believe are proposed to me. Sometimes the ideas come from my own reasoning, sometimes from the Lord and still other times from a stranger. As children of God we must learn to listen to God's still small voice in our hearts or wherever it may reveal itself to our attentions. But perceiving a revelation as one from God always requires faith, just as believing I can pray to God and he will hear me does.

  I've also been reading a fascinating and exciting book by T.D. Jakes called "Overcoming the Enemy" that I recommend. T.D. Jakes carefully examines Ephesians 6 in this book and points out that in order to stand your ground against the enemy there are some basic core pieces of spiritual armor that you must wear to be prepared to face him. One of these basic pieces of armor is simple faith that God is who He says He is and is capable of what He says He is in the Word. As Christians we've already considered rationally and logically whether it is plausible or not to believe chance or some other thing as god or the Lord told of in the Bible as God and we've made our choice. Now is the time to mature and move forward and not continually revisit the very foundational things we stand on in faith. If we face the enemy in battle and we are busy studying our foundation instead of standing on it he will quickly knock us down for sure. Stop doubting and believe! You must if you want to stand and fight the tempter and enemy of our souls.