In Jeremiah chapters 37 though 39, it records the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon. In chapters 37-38, just prior to the fall, Jeremiah is imprisoned for speaking about the coming judgment and claiming God's way to avoid such destruction was to surrender to Babylon. Neither the people nor their leaders heeded Jeremiah's words and judgment came upon Judah. From the greatest to the least, Judah could no longer deny that Jeremiah's word was true. Their imprisonment and persecution of him accomplished nothing for them except to give evidence of their continued rebellion. The remarkable thing I noticed in these chapters is the repeated denial of Jeremiah's prophecies. Men like Zedekiah and other leaders operated in denial even as they saw Jeremiah's word fulfilled with their own eyes.
In the world of psychology, such denial is the result of the "normalcy bias." In short: People believe that since something is outside there normal experience, it will not happen. In extreme situations people will do the normal thing rather than the thing that would save their life. People have a really hard time preparing for and dealing with something they have never experienced. When Mt. Vesuvius erupted the normalcy bias likely explains why the residents of Pompeii watched for hours without evacuating. We think. They all died and it was before iPhones and the printing press, so can’t be sure. But we know with better accuracy, when passengers on the Titanic refused the evacuation orders, possibly because they underestimated the odds of a worst-case scenario and minimized its potential impact. The normalcy bias strikes again. In such extremes, the normalcy bias can causes smart people to underestimate the possibility of a disaster and its effects. Another great example is found in Barton Biggs' book, Wealth, War, and Wisdom:
"By the end of 1935, 100,000 Jews had left Germany, but 450,000 still [remained]. Wealthy Jewish families... kept thinking and hoping that the worst was over... Many of the German Jews, brilliant, cultured, and cosmopolitan as they were, were too complacent. They had been in Germany so long and were so well established, they simply couldn't believe there was going to be a crisis that would endanger them. They were too comfortable. They believed the Nazi's anti-Semitism was an episodic event and that Hitler's bark was worse than his bite. [They] reacted sluggishly to the rise of Hitler for completely understandable but tragically erroneous reasons. Events moved much faster than they could imagine."
This is a tragic examples of the effects of the "normalcy bias". Just think about what was going on at the time. Jews were arrested, beaten, taxed, robbed, and jailed for no reason other than the fact that they practiced a particular religion. As a result, they were shipped off to concentration camps. Their houses and businesses were seized. Yet many Jews Still didn't leave Nazi Germany, because they simply couldn't believe that things would get as bad as they did.
The normalcy bias pops up in many areas of our faith. We may have never experienced a miracle but it does not mean they never happen. We may have never heard God's voice but we should always believe he is a living speaking God. We may have never, "done it that way" but if Scripture affirms it then we can't call it “anathema” on the grounds of the normalcy bias.
When the normalcy bias pops up around spiritual matters, it is a smoking gun, undeniable evidence of hidden faithlessness in the heart. Whether you call it, "normalcy bias" or just good old fashion stick your head in the sand denial. The bottom line is such denial places ones experience over the truth of scripture. It disregards the word of God with a flippant “probably not.” In short it is nothing more than faithlessness, hiding behind personal experience. It is a dangerous thing to believe that just because you have never experienced it means it does not happen. This denial is a façade, a thin layer of pretense that can blind us from seeing reality, in the light of scripture. If it is allowed to operate unchecked in our lives both the gifts of the Spirit and/or God’s warnings of judgment are ignored.
We should want to be the type of person who hears clearly when God says, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isa 43:19a). As he did in Isaiah’s day. The kind of Christian that responds rightly with obedient courage when God says, “surrender to Babylon”. As he did in Jeremiah’s day. Yet the question is how? How do we become such a people?
The opposite of the normalcy bias is situational awareness. It involves having a real perception of your environment and a comprehension of what may realistically transpire in the near future. A Christian's situational awareness is rooted in a Christian worldview. An awareness guided by the measure of wisdom in the heart and the word of God in the head. We have assurance of our long term future so we can act courageously to respond to situations in the short term. Generally, scripture requires us to be watchful, vigilant in prayer, and always open-hearted to God's leading and exercise clear thinking about the facts of a situation. So whatever comes we can respond in faith, the kind of faith that overcomes our lack of experience. The kind of faith that moves us to act courageously even if you don't like what you hear.
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A minister, about to write an article criticizing a fellow minister for his lack of orthodoxy, wrote to John Newton of his intention. Newton replied in a letter that has now become famous, called Letter 19 - on controversy. The letter is one Calvinist writing to another Calvinist. In light of this, John Newton may sound a bit opinionated but He was sincere and wise man.
The former slave trader turned pastor and author of the hymn Amazing Grace, gives us insight into a problem we still deal with today. Newton explains that self-righteousness can feed upon doctrines, as well as upon works. He describes how men of his day, on both sides of a debate, can find their identity in such doctrines and feed on those doctrines to their moral detriment. Newton believed doctrine was important, yet without humility operative in our life we can grow sick. Humility keeping our spiritual immune system strong. Without it we quickly succumb to the intellectual and moral sickness of self-righteousness [with accompanying Covid like symptoms]. Consider for yourself his advice:
“There is a principle of self, which disposes us to despise those who differ from us; and we are often under its influence, when we think we are only shewing a becoming zeal in the cause of God. I readily believe that the leading points of Arminianism spring from, and are nourished by, the pride of the human heart; but I should be glad if the reverse was always true; and that to embrace what are called the Calvinistic doctrines was an infallible token of a humble mind.
I think I have known some Arminians—that is, persons who, for want of clearer light, have been afraid of receiving the doctrines of free grace—who yet have given evidence that their hearts were in a degree humbled before the Lord. And I am afraid there are Calvinists, who, while they account it a proof of their humility that they are willing in words to debase the creature, and to give all the glory of salvation to the Lord, yet know not what manner of spirit they are of. Whatever it be that makes us trust in ourselves that we are comparatively wise or good, so as to treat those with contempt who do not subscribe to our doctrines, or follow our party, is a proof and fruit of a self-righteous spirit.
Self-righteousness can feed upon doctrines, as well as upon works; and a man may have the heart of a Pharisee, while his head is stored with orthodox notions of the unworthiness of the creature and the riches of free grace. Yea, I would add, the best of men are not wholly free from this leaven; and therefore are too apt to be pleased with such representations as hold up our adversaries to ridicule, and by consequence flatter our own superior judgments. Controversies, for the most part, are so managed as to indulge rather than to repress this wrong disposition; and therefore, generally speaking, they are productive of little good. They provoke those whom they should convince, and puff up those whom they should edify. I hope your performance will savor of a spirit of true humility, and be a means of promoting it in others.”
–John Newton, “Letter XIX: On Controversy,” The Works of John Newton, Volume 1 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2015), 1: 272-273.
I am sure there are more, yet here are the principles I gleaned:
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1. “Some well-organized business enterprise?”
“We tend to think of Christ building his invisible church, and our building the visible church. We tend to think in this kind of dichotomy. So our building of the visible church becomes much like any natural business function, using natural means and natural motives. How many times do we find that in doing the business of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a rapid opening of prayer, a rapid closing prayer after half the people have left, but in between there is no difference between doing the Lord’s business and the business of some well-organized business enterprise? Instead of that, we should always look to Him, and always wait and pray for His leading, moment by moment. This is a different world.”
–Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 1971/2001), p. 152.
2. “The simple tragic fact”
“The church’s or Christian group’s methods are as important as its message. It is to deal consciously with the reality of the supernatural. Anything that exhibits unfaith is a mistake, or may even be a corporate sin. The liberal theologians get rid of the supernatural in their teaching, but the unfaith of the evangelical can in practice get rid of the supernatural.
May I put it like this? If I woke up tomorrow morning and found that all that the Bible teaches concerning prayer and the Holy Spirit were removed (not as a liberal would remove it, by misinterpretation, but really removed) what difference would it make in practice from the way we are functioning today? The simple tragic fact is that in much of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ – the evangelical Church – there would be no difference whatsoever.
We function as though the supernatural were not there. If the Church does not show forth the supernatural in our generation, what will? The Lord’s work done in the Lord’s way does not relate only to its message, it relates also to the method. There must be something the world cannot explain away by the world’s methods, or by applied psychology.”
–Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 1971/2001), pp. 150-51.
3. “The central problem of our age”
“Christians must humble themselves to know the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. To the extent that we do not humble ourselves, there will be no power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The Lord’s work in the Lord’s way is the Lord’s work in the power of the Holy Spirit and not in the power of the flesh.
The central problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism, nor the old Roman Catholicism or the new Roman Catholicism, nor the threat of communism, nor even the threat of rationalism and the monolithic consensus which surrounds us. All these are dangerous but not the primary threat.
The real problem is this: the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, individually or corporately, tending to do the Lord’s work in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit. The central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them.”
–Francis Schaeffer, No Little People(Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 1974/2003), 66.
4. “The church is something beautiful”
“One cannot explain the explosive power of the early church apart from the fact that they practiced two things simultaneously: the orthodoxy of doctrine and orthodoxy of community in the midst of the visible church, a community which the world could see.
By the grace of God, therefore, the church must be known simultaneously for its purity of doctrine and the reality of its community. Our churches have so often been only preaching points with very little emphasis on community. But the exhibition of the love of God in practice is beautiful and must be there.
We have, then, two sets of parallel couplets: (1) the principle of the purity of the visible church, and yet the practice of observable love among all true Christians; and (2) the practice of orthodoxy of doctrine and observable orthodoxy of community in the visible church. The heart of these sets of principles is to show forth the love of God and the holiness of God simultaneously. If we show either of these without the other, we exhibit not the character, but a caricature of God for the world to see. If we stress the love of God without the holiness of God, it turns out only to be compromise. But if we stress the holiness of God without the love of God, we practice something that is hard and lacks beauty. And it is important to show forth beauty before a lost world and a lost generation. All too often people have not been wrong in saying that the church is ugly. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are called upon to show a watching world and to our own young people that the church is something beautiful.
Several years ago I wrestled with the question of what was wrong with much of the church that stood for purity. I came to the conclusion that in the flesh we can stress purity without love or we can stress the love of God without purity, but that in the flesh we cannot stress both simultaneously. In order to exhibit both simultaneously, we must look moment by moment to the work of Christ, to the work of the Holy Spirit. Spirituality begins to have real meaning in our moment-by-moment lives as we begin to exhibit simultaneously the holiness of God and the love of God.”
–Francis Schaeffer, “The Church Before the Watching World” in The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century in The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, Volume Four, A Christian View of the Church (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1982), 152.
5. “What Christians are to wear”
“First, Christians are called upon to love all men as neighbors, loving them as ourselves. Second, we are to love all true Christian brothers in a way that the world may observe.
This means showing love to our brothers in the midst of our differences– great or small– loving our brothers when it costs us something, loving them even under times of tremendous emotional tension, loving them in a way the world can see.
In short, we are to practice and exhibit the holiness of God and the love of God, for without this we grieve the Holy Spirit.
Love -and the unity it attests to– is the mark Christ gave Christians to wear before the world. Only with this mark may the world know that Christians are indeed Christians and that Jesus was sent by the Father.” (John 13:34-35; 17:21)
–Francis Schaeffer, The Mark of the Christian in The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, Volume Four, A Christian View of the Church (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1982), 204.
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,Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.
Psalms 40:10
When I was a around 7 years old, I would help my dad fix things around the house. I wanted to build a porch or pant a room. Instead my dad would have me sit and hold a hammer, while occasionally handing him the water jug. As a child with A.D.D and an over active imagination it was boring. No, it was torture. I felt like a slave chained to the floor. I did not have much to do and I wanted to do so much more. I enjoyed my time with dad yet I felt underwhelmed and disconnected. I would think, “If only He would let me swing a hammer. He would be so proud of me.” Many times I would become frustrated. Out of frustration I would try something rash and mess up a day’s work. I was striving to do more than he wanted of me. He would remind me I was there for him and ask if I would get him some water. For me, it was “weighted” time. Time that dragged on like a car in neutral. My Dad saw it as time well spent. He loved hanging out with his son. I felt chained down. My desire to do something clanked like clamoring chains. All I could hear was the sound of me doing nothing. My distracted frustration would often drowned out the stories dad told me about when he was a boy. Occasionally I would eagerly listen and he told them with a big smile on his face. He would say when you listen like this, it makes me happy. My simple undivided attention would bring a giggle to his heart. Looking back I long for those days of holding his hammer and fetching some water but most of all I miss the stories.
Being and Doing
In our spiritual life, we can get ahead of God’s work in our lives and begin to do for him and forget to be with him. Our first calling as Christians is to love the Lord your God. We are to lovingly wait on him until he says, “fetch me the hammer”. It is in simple obedience that we enter into co-operation with our heavenly Father. If we focus on the doing we miss what makes such times special, the relationship we have with him. The irony is without His presence, our work is a fruitless mess, without his being, his abiding, our work is like digging a hole in a lake.
It took 15 years of following Christ to learn this truth. I know now I am not God’s publicist. He does not need me to make him look good. I am not Middle Management is God's company. He does not need me to get others to work for him. I am not in God's labor force. He does not need my work to accomplish his task. Yet as a child, abiding, being, living in Him, I will spread his fame, inspire others, and build his kingdom as a produce of faithful abiding and heartfelt adoring. In short, When you in the family being alway comes before doing.
We should remember, when God is working it is best to let him do the work. He can do the best job. Yes, it is boring. Yet waiting on God is about full engagement not doing for him. We may hear the ring of boredom but he sees it as time with his child. We are getting time to get to know him. I did not see that while I was dad’s little helper. He just wanted to be near me. My father wanted me to sit and wait on him because he loves me and enjoyed our time together. In the same way God enjoys us. When we fully engage in relationship with him, place our expectations aside, enjoying the reality of communion. In this we enter life with him, the abiding life.
Doing everything but life together
Many Christians have a doing addiction. All they know is how to do for God. They can’t just be with God. It is unsettling; something eats at them demanding they do something for their relationship is unstable without it. The deep demand of duty reveals a deeper need for the gospel. It is in believing Christ’s finish work on our behalf that we rest in Christ and enjoy the relationship He won for us. When we stop our doing and reverse the order, I believe that bringing a giggle to the heart of God. Being always comes before doing. For doing everything but life together is no life at all. The eternal kind of life we are called to his a with God life, where we are known fully and still loved. A life of knowing God, where we know as truly as we are loved (John17:3).
When we let go of our desire to do and open our hearts to just be, life takes on a new dimension. Our vision shifts from our work to His greatness. Our Father is bigger than our doing. He is greater than one hundred generations. He holds history as a fine worked sculpture, the cosmos as pebble in his palm.
God wants us to fellowship with him; depend on him, like a child would its father. He wants children more than workers; children who occasionally act as his instruments but always cry “abba” like his child. As we rest in him – ministry is just obedience, and life just fellowship. It is through such simple obedience and unending fellowship that history has been shaped. Those who first learn to be with God and not just do for him become history makers.
He is the artist, we are the brushes. He makes history we just get to help. We get to finger paint our part in the epic grand narrative. One fine day, we will look back from the eternal shore and see it all so clearly. We will see that in being with God we were molded by him, and through the journey we were both the produce and the instrument in the hands of the redeemer. Yet, in this moment, under the strapping of time and breath, we enjoy life together with God and it is together we mold life into history as we move through it.
You can fake it but you can’t make it. I need not do for him if I am not abiding with him by faith. I am only asked to enjoy the fruit of faith in the gospel; life with my heavenly Father. If I am his desired instrument for his desired season it is only for a season. Yet for eternity, I will always be his child.
When we rest in the finished work of Christ and cease striving. God smiles. When we sit before God’s word, hearing with undivided attention the tales of redemption history. God is happy. When we hear God’s story and by faith enter into that story, seeing self, others and all creation through Christ’s ‘scarlet’ narrative. God is pleased.
For God’s children, being with God, for the sake of God, by the work of God, brings a giggle to the heart of God.
In the middle of the book of Acts, the Apostle Paul dominates the pages of the New Testament. We focus on his teachings, but sometimes we fail to see the spiritual insight woven into the tapestry of his Christian experience. On the one hand, he was a trophy of God's grace, a terrorist turned preacher, one who would pen, “I am what I am by the grace of God”. While at the same time he was a poster child for grit and determination, a man as persistent as he was a peace seeker, a man familiar with weakness and the power of God. He knew he was bad preacher (by oratory standers of his day) but he knew a great God and That God know him. The accounts of his exploits are only surpassed by the Christian character that under girded them. By applying the lessons of Paul's life to our own, we too can learn to draw upon God's strength to become people on mission in our times. His life includes an extended period of preparation which I want to focus on in this post. (1)
Lessons from Paul's Early Christian Life
The Damascus road experience was only the beginning of a long process of preparation in the life of the future apostle. God doesn't need talented people; He's looking for people with insight, deep" people. But how many of us proactively set aside the time necessary to deepen our spiritual walk?
A life marked by real root growth can only be cultivated in long periods of time spent in solitude, quietness, and obscurity. Times of preparation and obscurity are concepts foreign to those who live their lives in the hustle of today.
The biblical examples of God’s preparation is quite impressive. Moses spent 40 years tending his father's sheep. David waited more than a decade to assume the throne. Joseph must have felt abandoned when he was locked up in an Egyptian jail. Elijah hid by a brook, where he was fed by ravens.
During these periods of retreating, these men developed spiritual root systems. They became aquatinted with their weakness. They did not fall prey to the temptation to rely on their talents and ignore the need to rely on God. The cultivated their spiritual roots so they could drink living water in even a dry season.
Paul right after his conversion became an important spokesman for God less than a week after his blinding encounter with the Living Christ. Yet it was God’s mercy did not allow him to continue on the frontlines. He spent the next three years in Arabia. I like to call Paul’s time in Arabia, as God’s Desert school of theology. Their Paul learned to seek the Lord. God dealt with his pride, as this highly educated Pharisee learned to surrender all that had once been important to him. As He learned and developed his theology. He learned the discipline of delay.
Our society glorifies independence and worships at the altar of individual achievement. Paul had the right stuff to climb that ladder. But God taught him the value of dependence at the very onset of his public ministry. Paul was preaching in the synagogues, wowing the people of Damascus. As a result, the Jewish leaders put out a contract on him, ending his newfound popularity. He was forced to rely on his followers, who placed him in a basket, and ignominiously lowered him down through a hole in the city wall to safety.
Then it was on to the church at Jerusalem, where perhaps he expected a glorious reception as the murderer-turned-preacher. What he encountered, however, was mistrust and suspicion. Enter Barnabas, who vouched for him and introduced him to the apostles. Only then was Paul able to have a significant ministry among the believers.
The importance of Barnabas vouching for Paul cannot be under stated. Barnabas cared little about his reputation willing to take on the same suspicion and stigma hanging over Paul. While a double edges sword and should never become a good old boy system, Learners vouching for someone unfairly and unjustly is powerful. Someone suffering under a cloud of suspicion can’t fight for themselves, they are often not privileged to be apart of those conversions. Had Barnabas has a competitive spirit, one who secretly desired the spot light, what would have been Paul’s story? Without Barnabas believing in Paul, and vouching for him we may not have the Letter of Paul in our New Testament.
Although a great hurdle was cleared in fellowship extended to Paul by the Peter, John and James. God was not through humbling Paul's independent spirit. Paul’s mouth got him in trouble again. Paul had an argument with the Hellenistic Jews, who decided to do away with him altogether. Some unnamed christian, however, saved Paul's skin, whisking him away to Caesarea and then on to Tarsus.
But hadn't he been commissioned by God? Was he not promised by God he would preach to kings? What was he going to do back in Tarsus? And how would the Jerusalem Church fare without him? According to Acts 9:31, they were doing great. They fared very well, thank you. Talk about a lesson in humility! When God makes us dependent on those who are less well known, it teaches us to value others instead of flying solo. It encourages us to be humble rather than to promote ourselves. It should motivate us to trust in God, who wants us to do the work in His way.
7 to 10 years later Paul was still riding God's bench in Tarsus, waiting in the wings. By then he was in his mid-40s. He had probably been ostracized by his family and suffered expulsion from the synagogue. As he waited, the world and, indeed, the missionary mandate seemed to be passing him by. He worked in his trade as a tent maker, sitting and knitting a tent when he was called to so much more.
There are those who feel as if God has put them aside. Perhaps they don't have the influence they once had; maybe their platform for ministry has evaporated. They have trained and sacrificed, but they don't feel that God is actualizing His investment in their lives. They should be encouraged by the fact that some of God's servants like Paul have spent a season of their lives in the shadows, waiting for God's moment. During these times God creates the depth of character out of which He will later work. God does not call us to ambition; he calls us to patience and surrender. Exceptional work is preceded by extended waiting. As one pastor told me “The word ‘hurry’ shows up far more in our vocabulary than it does in God’s plan.” Learning to deal positively with frustration and failure by knowing God is in control of the process is important.
In Acts 11 we read that a great revival was going on in Antioch. When news of this reached Jerusalem, they sent Barnabas, who was more in tune with Hellenistic culture, to provide leadership for that church. But when Barnabas saw the scope of the work, he realized that he was in over his head. But he remembered Paul, now prepared to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit and not in his own strength. The two had a marvelous ministry together.
I am always encouraged by the fact that it was Barnabas that platformed Paul. It was Barnabas that vouched for Paul. Barnabas 'the encourager', a man of hope and vision, saw what others did not see. Without Barnabas we would have no Paul. We need more people like Barnabas’ in the church, single minded when it comes to mission of God, willing to work to make others great more than make a name for themselves. People who seek out those that the church has discarded and makes opportunity out of ashes, much like the Jesus, Barnabas loves.
From the pre-ministry life of Paul we can distill five principles about the dynamic of God's preparation:
Considerations from Paul’s Preparation
On a personal level, how do we respond to time of preparation:
Footnotes
(1) Theologians and biblical scholars have noted plot points from Acts 9-13 and Paul's letters to form a timeline of his early life. Some aspects are debated but a common order exists.
Suggested Reading
INTRODUCTION
When I was young in the faith. I had the pleasure of being mentored by an evangelist, named Algernon Tenyson. Yes, He was my black old brother and I was his young tag-along (affectionately known as white chocolate). He taught me the simplicity of the Gospel and how to give the word with love and oil on it. This was reinforced by a little-C-Charismatic Methodist pastor who instructed me to go off by myself somewhere, in a room, in the woods, in an empty church and preach to myself, not so much to practice my oratory skills but to learn how to submit to, bend with and let God’s anointing guide me. I can say from experience the Spirit is faithful in such situations. Such “preaching” is more than passionately presenting truth, though that might be present. It is more than a clearly organized argument, and intellectually stimulating points though both should be present. It is more than an experience of the holy, though many wittiness to it. Of what I speak, rises above such externals for it is God's work in man’s words, unseen and untamable.
I have started an old book by "James S. Stewart" on preaching called the 'Heralds of God' (1946). The first chapter reminded me of the advice given me by both Algernon and My Methodist preacher friend:
Your task is not to send people away from church saying, 'That was a lovely sermon' or 'What an eloquent appeal!' The one question is 'Did they, or did they not, meet God today?' There will always be some who have no desire for that, some who rather than being confronted with the living Christ would actually prefer what G.K. Chesterton described as 'one solid and polished cataract of platitudes flowing for ever and ever.' But when Peter finished his first great sermon in Jerusalem, reported in the Book of Acts, I do not read that 'when they heard him they were intrigued by his eloquence' or 'politely interested in his literary allusions' or 'critical of his logic and his accent' or 'bored and impassive and contemptuous'; what I do read is 'when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart'[1]
We might ask, how would we know if we met God in preaching? Stewart points to the response at Pentecost. We might also look to Jesus in John 10 who tells us his sheep recognize his voice. If we meet God, hear his voice, we know if it's happened. And when it does it'll be something more than just hearing words spoken from a pulpit, though it may not be less.
Stewart tells of Robert Wodrow's testimony of such preaching: 'that man showed me the majesty of God... the loveliness of Christ... and showed me my whole heart' (p72-73). May God grant every pastor such a testimony in preaching. I wish to call pulpit and pew to recognize and delight in this mysterious dimension of preaching.
EXPOSITION
What happens beyond the hearing in the pew and the speaking in the pulpit? What happens when preaching happens? In the excellent lecture, "Preaching as Mystical Event", Robert Rayburn gives what i think is a definitive answer to that question. He explains the reformation understanding that through faithful preaching we most often and most powerfully hear the authoritative voice of God. Rayburn argues that today's preaching has forgotten this dimension. Rayburn is conservative and reformed so I am not encouraging some weird leave your bible at home, preaching. What Rayburn means by mystical is not ethereal fluff but the authority of God experienced in human word.
Jesus is describable in this way, as one who spoke with authority (Luke 4:32). In John 7 Jesus is preaching and soldiers coming to arrest him were arrested by his word and captive to his authority. Jesus' words had a deep magic to them. A mystical power that could stop a solder in his tracks. When confronted with their change of heart the soldiers replied, "No one ever spoke like this man!" Like the soldier's, it is an event in which we meet encourager a mysterious authority. By "Mystical" i mean to implies a kind of power or dare i say it magic. What C.S. Lewis called the "deep magic". If you have ever heard it you know it. Preaching that was clearly Gospel but laden with a "deep magic" beyond the words, an unseen, transcendent whisper, barely tangible yet deeply palpable.
Rayburn begins with:
"And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers."
(1 Thess 2:13 ESV)
Rayburn sites that the hearing of preaching is a mystical event. In that it transcends what one hears in a lecture or seminary exposition of a text even though style and content may be similar. In 1 Thess we read Paul's description of the Thessalonians approach to his ministry. They received his preaching like it was from God.
Paul did not say they rejected his word as the word of man. what does Paul mean by "accepted it not as the word of men"? Accepting a message as the word of man is not meant in a strictly negative way. You can except something as the word of man and still honor and respect it. It is accepting the authority of a good argument as man's invention. Accepting a message as the word of man means it does not carry with it the authority of Heaven that pierces the heart. Thus, a Gospel message can be accepted as biblical but not received without authority.
Accepting a message as the word of man is our fallen tenancy for we appoint and anoint ourselves as Judge and King. Let me clarify with an example: Do you have a BBQ every Sunday lunch? Many Christians do. Not BBQ pork, but BBQ preacher. As many race home for Sunday lunch they roast the Pastor's message for they act as if it was only a lecture about God. They pick it apart and only digest those things that appeal to them. Yes, it is a pull pork BBQ. Unlike the Thessalonians, they do not encounter God only good ideas for it was not received as the authoritative Word of God.
Along with countless historical and ecclesiastical references Rayburn also cites the book of Romans:
"How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?"
(Romans 10:14 ESV)
And notes, as with the ESV footnote, that the "of" isn't there. Which is to say, in preaching we don't just hear of God, but we hear God. Paul says if you want to hear God then you need a preacher to explain the Scripture and proclaim the gospel. Preaching in this manor is the word of God. This is not some Barthian theology of the Word. This is classic reformed theology. Here is how the second helvetic confession puts it:
"THE PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD IS THE WORD OF GOD. Wherefore when this Word of God is now preached in the church by preachers lawfully called, we believe that the very Word of God is proclaimed, and received by the faithful.”
Some might say, such authority finds its locus in the true proclamation of the Gospel. The authority of the word is the power of the right interpretation preached. Truth plus proclamation equals powerful preaching. There is truth in that but when I speak of "preaching as a mystical event" I speak of the ministry of Word and Spirit in preaching to reveal Christ. It’s not a case of pulling Christ down through correct exegesis. If we think like this we’re basically falling for an "ex opere operato"[2] of the pulpit. That is, the we (preachers) must not imagine that our correct priestly exercises ensure a divine encounter. The pulpit must never give in to the thought that we earn the ministry of the Spirit in preaching by our exegetical and homiletic craftsmanship. The pulpit must resist this – we must begin from above. Illumination is grace. It is Christ by the Spirit who chooses to condescend in proclamation (not we who bring Him down). But in this divine condescension it is Christ Himself who encounters us.
Further, it is the sovereign and unrestricted Spirit, who is truly God and as God is free to do and help as he wills. The Spirit will bring the authority if we have the faith. God, the Spirit is illuminating and speaking Christ to a believer through the preaching. A message of light and heart, the result of what my granddad called the unction, the anointing of the holy spirit in operation. In Power Through Prayer by E. M. Bounds writes on this operation:
“This divine unction is the one distinguishing feature that separates true gospel preaching from all other methods of presenting truth. It backs and interpenetrates the revealed truth with all the force of God. It illumines the Word and broadens and enrichens the intellect and empowers it to grasp and apprehend the Word. It qualifies the preacher’s heart, and brings it to that condition of tenderness, of purity, of force and light that are necessary to secure the highest results. This unction gives to the preacher liberty and enlargement of thought and soul—a freedom, fullness, and directness of utterance that can be secured by no other process.”
Some say, He is the Spirit of Truth and will not bless any falsehood, which is true if you speak of lies such as, "Christ is not God" or "The blood is not enough". For the Spirit to deal with humanity he must deal with less than perfection. The pulpit should seek faithful proclamation, clear and simple, yet if we err or misspeak, or in any other ways fail we are not left without hope or help. Man in his ignorance will dilute the pure truth of God but God in his grace has saved many though the diluted words of under-qualified unprepared preachers. Sometime ignorant preaching can be empowered. I once knew a guy who had the gospel down but beyond that he had a loose grasp on the text yet you always felt like God had spoke to you after he preached. In our weakness, our ignorance, our humanness, it is the Spirit who protects the hearers and ministers. There is grace permeating the event of preaching. (exceptions and qualifiers do apply) [3]
APPLICATION
There are to sides to this mystical aspect: the pew and the pulpit.
1.) A Heart of Faith in Preaching
As my dad taught me, The pulpit need to be prayed up, studied up, and filled up. So you can spend the the next thirty to forty-five mins, being broken and spilled out. we are called to rightly divide the word of truth, consistently pray for guidance and help. When it is time to preach, we should faithfully preach and preach with faith. It is the later that most stumble over. As I wrote above it’s not a case of pulling Christ down through correct exegesis. If we think like this we’re basically falling into a works based assessment of the pulpit. That is, the pulpit must not imagine that our correct priestly exercises ensure a divine encounter. The pulpit must never believe we earn the ministry of the Spirit in preaching by our exegetical and homiletic craftsmanship. Thus, bad preaching can be used by God.
Preaching with faith means not putting any confidence in our ability nor trusting ones own skill and intellectual power to make the word effective. We should not believe we can by our action stop or mediate a divine encounter. The Holy Spirit's work is not conditioned on the grounds of our ability or limited by our inability. We are called as heralds of God to trust God to work. Trust that the preaching of the word of God is the Word of God because God loves people. Luther agrees:
“Tis a right excellent thing, that every honest pastor’s and preacher’s mouth is Christ’s mouth, and his word and forgiveness is Christ’s word and forgiveness… For the office is not the pastor’s or preacher’s but God’s; and the Word which he preacheth is likewise not the pastor’s and preacher’s but God’s.”[4]
Calvin also understand the authority of Word and Spirit:
“When a man has climbed up into the pulpit… it is [so] that God may speak to us by the mouth of a man.”[5]
God can speak in our preaching, if we only have faith He is willing and able. Many preachers trust homiletic skill or in there exegetical skill that they rightly interpreted the text. While both are good things and a part of any faithful preachers preparation it is not where we place our trust.
It all comes down to faith. So why is prayer so connected with powerful preaching? I use to think if I spent 10 hours praying for my sermon i would be blessed with a powerful anointing come Sunday. The connection between prayer and preaching is simply that prayer strengths your confidence in God and your dependence on the Spirit. Prayer strengths our trust and that is the important thing.
Something powerful happens when a man preaches with faith, desiring to Glorify God and believing God will use him because of who God is. When a man preaches with full confidence in God, it is as if he lights himself on fire. Often he decreases into ash and all that's left is the beautiful light of faith. A man awed by the glory of God and burned by it's heat can speak a whisper of Gospel truth and find the pews ablaze with holy tongues of fire.
2.) The Right Hearing of Preaching
First, the pew must, "Take heed what you hear," (Mark 4:24). We must hear nothing with approval except what we know to be the word of God. We must, therefore, be well acquainted with the Scriptures ourselves, and test the things which we hear. we should remain open yet resisting a critical spirit and watch out for the hopelessness of a cynical attitude, as the men of Berea did (Acts 17:11).
Second, the pew should "Take heed how you hear," (Luke 18:18). That which we know to be grounded upon the Scriptures we must receive, "not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God," (1 Thess. 2:13). We must with reverence hear it; we must in our hearts believe, if we intend to obey it.
Third, The pew needs to come with the expectation that they will hear from God. No more lectures only sermons. Every heart in every pew needs to wait and want the authority of heaven, the word of God to be reveal God, the living God. No matter how a sermon is packaged, submitted heart and the Spirit's work makes bread from even the weakest straw. If the people's hearts cry "Preacher, We would here God!" Then even the words of the most cantankerous self-willed preacher may shine with the dew of heaven.
Now, do you want to hear from God? How many time have you felt like, the preacher was speaking right to you. After a sermon you felt like you had the strength to obey, the energy to endure, the clarity to trust and a heart renewed to worship, then you have touched on it. The hem of Jesus' garment has brushed your heart, power left him, and the word was spoken to you. As you pass the church doors into the wide open world your mind is calmed and centered on the simple fact that you met God.
The pew, needs to learn to open to hear God in the sermon. God is the authority. God's word changes us, transforms us in deep penetrating ways that are mysterious and transcendent, as the psalmist explained it is like deep calling to deep. God's word is proclaimed and we experience it mystically, spiritually, authoritatively. Now this is just one aspect of a sermon so let's have some balance but if such a thing has not happened to you in a while you may need to ask are you open. Could you be conditioned by so many lectures, anesthetized by power point that you come to church to hear about God and not from him.
Do you desire to hear from God? Certainly study the Bible, wait on the Spirit's conviction, listen to others, but we're playing games if we do all of that and don't take a really high view of preaching. Do I come to the church gathering expecting that kind of encounter with God? When it's my turn to preach do I prepare and pray and preach with the expectation that God will speak, that the preaching of the word of God will be the word of God to his people?
End Notes
[1] James S. Stewart 'Heralds of God' (1946) p.31
[2] Ex Opere Operato is a Latin phases meaning "by the doing it is done" or "from the work worked". It is used in the Roman Catholic system of theology it deals with the sacraments which are said to convey grace by the fact of being performed correctly by an authorized priest. (http://carm.org/dictionary-ex-opere-operato)
[3] I don't speak of the one who proclaims another Christ excluding the stiff necked heretic unwilling and undaunted.
[4] Quoted from CD I/1, p107
[5] Sermon XXII on 1 Tim 3:2 “apt to teach”, quoted in THL Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, Westminster/ John Knox, 1992, p24
Is anything more important than knowing God? Most would answer "Nothing is more important." Yet J.I. Packer and C.S. Lewis would beg to differ.
J. I. Packer:
What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it—the fact that he knows me. I am graven on the palms of his hands [Isa. 49:16]. I am never out of his mind. All my knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me. I know him because he first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when his eye is off me, or his attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when his care falters. This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort—the sort of comfort that energizes, be it said, not enervates—in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench his determination to bless me.Knowing God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 41-42.
C. S. Lewis:
In the end that Face which is the delight or the terror of the universe must be turned upon each of us either with one expression or with the other, either conferring glory inexpressible or inflicting shame that can never be cured or disguised. I read in a periodical the other day that the fundamental thing is how we think of God. By God Himself, it is not! How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important. Indeed, how we think of Him is of no importance except insofar as it is related to how He thinks of us. . . . To please God . . . to be a real ingredient in the Divine happiness . . . to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.The Weight of Glory: And Other Addresses (HarperCollins 2001), 39.
Being know by God is more important than knowing God. J.I. Packer and C.S. Lewis are two Christian thinkers, who prove that using your initials in your name makes you smarter. They also remind us that God is first in everything.
Just consider four verses (Hint - note the verb tense).
“But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.” (1 Cor. 8:3)
“But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?” (Gal. 4:9)
“On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'” (Matt. 7:22-23)
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (1 Cor. 13:12)
Intimacy is often defined as knowing and being known. So in light of Packer and Lewis, being known by God is the first step toward experiencing intimacy with God. In the Christian life it is being known that sustains our knowing. Or we could just quote the first letter of john, “We love because he first loved us” (I John 4:19) It is the fact that ‘he first loved’ that sustains us, that he knew us from eternity that defines us. It is not our ability to maintain a passion for God or even “White knuckle" a love for God that sustains our spiritual life. (1 Jn 4:10). Life in the Spirit begins with living from being known and being loves by the Triune God. The knowledge that he knows us and STILL loves us (often in spite of us) is a sure foundation. A foundation that makes possible real intimacy. Such a foundation calls us to sink our roots deep into the life of God, and find there the warm welcoming embrace of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
John of the cross thinks we can. In the spiritual classic “Dark night of the soul,” He lists a series of sins that are poison to the Christian life. In it He explains how one vice can turn spiritually into a bad habit.
Beginners in the spiritual life are apt to become very diligent in their exercises. The great danger for them will be to become satisfied with their religious works and with themselves. It is easy for them to develop a kind of secret pride, which is the first of the seven capital sins. Such persons become too spiritual. They like to speak of “spiritual things” all the time. They become content with their growth, They would prefer to teach rather than to be taught. They condemn others who are not as spiritual as they are. They are like the Pharisee who boasted in himself and despised the publican who was not as spiritual as he. The devil will often inflame their fervor so that their pride will grow even greater. The devil knows that all of their works and virtues will become valueless and, if unchecked, will become vices. For they begin to do these spiritual exercises to be esteemed by others, They want others to realize how spiritual they are. They will also begin to fear confession to an other for it would ruin their image. So they soften their sins when they make confession in order to make them appear less imperfect. They will beg God to take away the imperfections, but they do this only because they want to find inner peace and not for God’s sake. They do not realize that if God were to take away their imperfections from them, they would probably become prouder and more presumptuous still. But those who are at this time moving in God's way will counter this pride with humility. They will learn to think very little of themselves and their religious works. Instead, they will focus on how great and how deserving God is and how little it is that they can do for him. The Spirit of God dwells in such persons, urging them to keep their treasures secretly within themselves.
What is john describing here?
He is describing a Christain who is “too spiritual”. In John’s estimation, Christians can become so spiritual it’s devilish. I think he is right. I even think, being too spiritual is a major problem in the church. It is a subtle and seductive sin. A sin that kills the soul. That’s what John means by capital sin. A capital crime is a crime punishable by death. Pride, as a “capital” crime against God, carries with it a sentence of death. Pride poisons the soul and deadens the spirit.
Being “too spiritual” is pride. But what is meant by pride? Pride is a disordered self-love, which seeks attention and honor by comparison and competition. A prideful person assumes on their own ability and find in themselves the resources necessary to accomplish what they set out to do, consequently they set themselves in opposition to God, by being in competition with God. In this way, the vice of pride is privatized autonomy, which the Bible calls being a “slave to sin” (John 8:34). The devil’s first strategy is always to puff us up and in so doing poison our souls. Dennis F. Kinlaw explains how serving the self is a trap of Satan and the essence of sin.
Satan disguises submission to himself under the ruse of personal autonomy. He never asks us to become his servants. Never once did the serpent say to Eve, 'I want to be your Master'. The shift in commitment is never from Christ to evil; it is always from Christ to self. And instead of his will, self-interest now rules and what I want reigns. And that is the essence of sin." (1)
But how can something so dangerous be so seductive? Consider this, everyone has been given a unique set of gifts and talents. God certainly wants us to put them to good use. For many of us, when we’re using our gifts the way God intended, we feel a sense of exhilaration. We feel alive because we’re fulfilling a purpose, in a way, we have found our place in the world. But it’s the moments that follow this exhilaration that matter most to God. If we take those feelings of exhilaration and accomplishment and turn them inward, giving credit solely to ourselves, then we have sinned against God. We walk the path of pride. We may know to give God credit but it’s little more than lip service, credit in name only.
John also brings up the parable of the publican and the sinner revealing another aspect. Spiritual pride can work its way into our perspective, into our judgments, and into the way we see ourselves. Just like the publican in Jesus‘ parable, we see others through the lens of Comparison and competition. A person whose eyes are trained for critical Comparison and a spirit of competition. Such a prideful perspective creates an “us-them” mentality. The good people are like us. the bad people are like them. Scripture tells us the reality of the situation. It’s not us vs. them. True is we are all bad guys and Jesus. Jesus is the only good guy. If we are being lead to somehow compare ourselves to each other, to exalt ourselves over others, we are in grave danger. Because the practice of the gifts that are meant to humble us, meant to keep us close to God, and lead us to grow can become themselves a stumbling block for us.
Here are a few thoughts on avoiding being “too spiritual”.
Footnote:
(1) Dennis F Kinlaw This Day with the Master, (Grand Rapids Zondervan 2004) entry of Nov 14.
'People are different by design. One way we can speak of this difference is by the concept of personality types. After having a conversation about personality and spiritual development I dusted off some old notes and took another look at how personality traits and temperament influence our practice of the spiritual disciplines (prayer and bible study etc.).
Personality types are helpful descriptions that enable us to get a sense of who we are. Because of our personalities, we have preferences, and our preferences relate to how we relate to and process the world. Robert Kaplan and Dennis Saccuzzo believe "the underlying assumption of the MBTI is that we all have specific preferences in the way we construe our experiences, and these preferences underlie our interests, needs, values, and motivation"[1] Just as we tend to favor either the right or left hand, so too we exhibit a particular direction in the way we view life, God, and even how we practice spirituality.
The danger with preferences when it comes to spiritual disciplines are that we practice what is easy or comfortable to us. Our personality type naturally inclines us to some disciplines more than others. We enjoy those spiritual disciplines that are in line with our personality and rarely, if ever, engage in the disciplines that actually take, discipline! When you were young Christian this is part of the process. But there comes a point you must enact some measure of structure and discipline if you are to grow as a christian. This a far cry from legalism for grace opposes merit not effort.
I’m not necessarily advocating that you take a personality test, just that there is a measure of wisdom in knowing yourself. Especially, when it comes to practicing the spiritual disciplines, knowing your natural tendency and common avoidance explains why you do some spiritual practices but not others. In An Invitation to a Journey, theologain Robert Mulholland notes,
“Left to ourselves in the development of our spiritual practices, we will generally gravitate to those spiritual activities that nurture our preferred pattern of being and doing. The shadow side of our preference will languish unattended and unnurtured...The results of such one-sided spirituality can be devastating to our spiritual pilgrimage.” (Mulholland Pg 69)
So for the undisciplined knowing what practices will be a good entry point is wisdom. Also for those a little farther along the path knowing that resisting your preferences and doing some spiritual disciplines that are harder for you is the next big step in growth. Those things that run against our preferences needs to be developed and strengthened.
Just because we are not inclined or “good” at doing something does not excuse us from action, particularly when that action is commanded by Scripture! No one gets to say because of my personality type, that scripture does not apply to me.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a helpful tool for grasping the effect that personality has on our life with God. Myers-Briggs is comprised of 8 preferences in pairs on a sliding scale
E - I extroversion ----- introversion
S - N sensing ------ intuition
T - F thinking ----- feeling
J - P judging ----- perceiving
The first and last pairs are called attitudes because they represent the orientation of the individual in regard to the world and where they gain energy and motivation.
E – extrovert: stimulated by the outer world of people and things
I – introvert: derives energy from the inner world of ideas, concepts, feelings, and spirit
J – judging: primarily concerned with how things should be.
P – perceiving: primarily concerned with how things are.
The middle pairs of preferences are called functions. They have to do with the method one uses to relate to the world or to oneself.
S – sensing: concentrates on what is available to the senses (visible, audible, etc.)
N – intuitive: concentrates on the inner sense of things
T – thinking: uses the intellect to arrive at a conclusion through reasoning
F – feeling: makes decisions based on how one feels about things
Since the Myers-Briggs is an epistemological-based assessment. It is very helpful in the field of education. David Keirsey an educational psychologist categorized the 16 Myers-Briggs types into four major temperaments. The simplified groupings touch on the predominate way we gather and understand information as well as our general temperament in relationship to the world.
SP: The Artisans
SJ: The Guardians
NF: The Idealists
NT: The Rationals
One thing of note, Myers-Briggs is not a personality test. In populate culture a personality is thought of in a deterministic way, like it is a fixed absolute that determines who you are. Myers-Briggs is an Assessment or indicator of your preferences and personality traits that you currently hold. If used correctly it can function as a self-assessment to identify areas in which to develop. Part of Christian growth particularly in the areas of character and ones inner life (desires, and preferences) aims at becoming a whole person. Said another way, Part of holiness is whol-i-ness. Seeking wholeness is fundamental to becoming a mature human, who exhibits basic self-awareness, social and relational appreciation, natural empathy and clear headed thinking.
Christian seldom ask the question, "Which area of life do I need to work on to become a whole person?" Some people are good at being Christian but unable to spend a day in solitude, silence, and self-reflection without turning on the TV or swallowing their tongue. Others can't sustain personal relationships without becoming codependent or burning every bridge in sight. Since i am on this rant, still others are so spiritual they act like odd balls of uncomfortable awkwardness or "holier-than-thou" dysfunction. Sadly the reason is because they skipped over growing as a human and ran head long into Christian experience and practice.
Assessments like the Myers-Briggs help you see yourself from a vantage point. Such a perspective allows the person to learn about themselves in a constructive way. This new perspective opens an avenue in which you can give all you know of yourself to all you know of God. An avenue that allows you to work on balancing overtly strong preferences with its counterpart bringing them to a balance and understand how God personally made you to most naturally engage with him. As well as see those aspects of yourself where you need to exert more discipline for you don't naturally engage in those disciplines.
Below are some characteristics of each Myers-Briggs type and some notes on how they will tend to experience God in prayer and in the existential aspects of spiritual life. Look for both the one most like you and unlike you realizing that both are important in becoming well rounded christian. But first, let me set the stage by introducing Lectio Divina.
Lectio Divina (“sacred reading”) is a historic, time-tested method of Scripture study and prayer dating back to the Middle Ages. (If you are getting nervous, go read Martin Luther’s “Letter to My Barber” and you’ll see that this is exactly what he prescribes). Here are the various aspects of practicing the Lectio Divina. They are not steps per say more aspects but many move through them in the order given.
Lectio: slow, thoughtful reading of a text of Scripture
Meditatio: welcoming this word from God into our lives; chewing and ruminating on it
Oratio: responding to God in prayer
Contemplatio: Listening to the Holy Spirit and enjoying the presence of God
NT Prayer:
Thomistic Study and Spirituality
Recommended by St. Thomas Aquinas and using syllogistic methods of thinking (looking at it from every angle) and orderly progression of thought from cause to effect (rational thinking to arrive at an appropriate conclusion). NT's have a great thirst for truth and for the freedom that flows from knowing truth. They desire to comprehend, explain, predict and control. The tend to be leaders, and also tend to pursue perfection and see stupidity and incompetence as the worst possible faults. They can be overcritical and are often work-a-holics. They are poor losers -- very competitive. They tend to be impersonal in relationships. NT spirituality is ordered and question-oriented. May use seven auxiliary questions: "what, why, how, who, where, when, with what helps" to explore the text. the discipline of deep Bible study with a systematic method, consulting commentaries and theologians as you come to the objective and reasonable meaning of the text is natural to this type.
NF Prayer
Augustinian Prayer and Spirituality
Named in honor of St. Augustine -- who developed rules of spirituality for the monks and convents in North Africa. The key word is projection, using creative imagination to transpose and apply Scripture to today's situation. Especially used by NF's who are usually creative, optimistic, verbal, persuasive, outspoken, writers and speakers; good listeners, counselors, conflict resolver and peacemakers. Handling negative criticism is difficult for NFs, but they blossom under affirmation. Visionaries. Prayer is a discourse between God and the self. Journaling prayers and writing a confession to God is an natural discipline for the NF. What is meant by confession means more than just asking for forgiveness of sins. It means probing one's past to see God's hand and search out one's inner motives and psychology in a written conversation with God. (For more on this way of writing read Augustine's confessions).
SJ Prayer
Ignatian Reading and Spirituality
People drawn to this kind of reading often have a strong sense of duty, and a good imagination. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit Order, developed this method in the 16th century. He took his inspiration from the psalms, which show a way of praying rooted in God's character and past works. In remembering and celebrating the salvation event, the people relive, participate in, and symbolically make past events real. practically it involved reading the bible with ones senses. Through multiple reads one engages what it would have smelt like, looked like, sounded like, until the reader can fully engulfed themselves in the story. Casting oneself back into the events of the past, one imagines the scene through all five senses, making the story real and present and becoming part of it.
SP Prayer
Fransiscan Prayer and Spirituality
St. Francis introduced this type in the 13th century. It is characterized by an attitude of openness and willingness to go where the Spirit calls. SP's are impulsive free spirits, often witty and charming. They love action and work best in a crisis. They are good at unsnarling messes, making them good negotiators and diplomats. They tend to be flexible and open-minded, living in the present. They are best at short-range projects, because they need to see results. Centering life in God. Creation is a Bible – every sense is impressionable; Gospels are appealing as another example of the incarnation of God in creation. Appreciate the grand gesture, and given to just behavior. Although very sacrificial, SP's don't respond well to the symbolic. They usually dislike formal prayer, preferring spontaneous, impulsive prayer or seeing work, celebration, or enjoying nature, etc. as prayer.
End notes
[1] Kaplan, R.M., & Saccuzzo, D.P. Psychological testing: Principle, applications, and issues. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth 2009) p. 499 A helpful book in this area is "Prayer and Temperament: Different Prayer Forms for Different Personality Types by Michael and Norrisey"
Suggested readings
Harbaugh, Gary L. God's Gifted People (Augsburg, 1990).
Keirsey, David and Marilyn Bates. Please Understand Me (Gnosology Books, 1984).
Michael, Chester P. and Marie C. Norrisey. Prayer and Temperament (The Open Door, 1984).
Oswald, Roy M. and Otto Kroeger. Personality Type and Religious Leadership (Alban Institute, 1988).