Many Times, Many Ways - Part 8

Part 1 – The character of our communicative God!

Part 2 – God’s good for us in silence or the quiet voice 

Part 3 – God is able and willing to speak over anxiety, one hindrance

Part 4 – What if we cease to pray? Can we thwart God’s will? The role of prayer in guidance

Part 5 – What if we cease to pray? The role of faith in guidance

Part 6 – Guidance, maturity, and dependence

Part 7 – Will God speak to me? Or only for kingdom purposes?

Part 8 – Our desires? Can we prevent guidance?

Find links to the previous here

Street lights. City lights. The starlight is drowned out.

Distractions. Desires. Thoughts. Temptations. Can we drown out the voice of God in guidance? Can we prevent guidance? Accidentally? Can our desires override his voice?

Just as the bright neon lights of the city can blind our eyes so that we no longer see the stars, cherishing sin and certain attitudes will blind us to God’s voice. Israel was entrusted with the great voice of God in his Word and his prophets. Yet, they loved their own righteousness, their rituals, their other gods, and their comforts more than him (Isa. 1:11-14; Jer. 6:14; Hos. 2:13; Mic. 6:6-7). Their ears were closed to his voice. His voice is majestic; his voice is precious. He will not throw his pearls to the swine. (See note 1 for specific obstacles to prayer being heard.)

But what about when we are searching for the stars? We are honestly seeking his guidance? Yet, his voice is not clear. Can our desires still overwhelm his voice?

We do have ungodly desires still. The neon lights of the world still glimmer and grab us, and our heart all too eagerly responds, needing no excuse. Paul instructs the Colossian believers to put to death the evil desires in them (Col. 3:5). If we hold onto these and are not willing to put them to death, it shows an orientation of our heart. We are not truly desiring to hear God’s voice. Why would he trust us with something if we are not willing to obey what he has already told us? James makes it clear that our selfish desires can hinder prayer (Jas. 4:1-6). Our ears are more attuned to self and to the world than to God’s voice. We may let our desires override. We may prefer the neon lights to the starlight.

But grace—we know that we are being transformed and that even our desires will become like his. Often, the search for guidance can be one of the means of transformation. As we search for guidance, we pray. As we pray, we seek him. As we seek him, we see him. As we see him, we see ourselves. Our desires are revealed for those that are selfish and for those that are like his. And as we see him, we trust him. As we trust, we surrender. Surrender shows he is our Father (Jn. 8:44). It shows we love him and value him more than our own desires. It shows we trust him with our heart dreams. Surrendering desires is an act of worship. God rarely just overrides, instantly removes, blots out an evil desire. For he wants a relationship; not robots.

What if we are willing? What if we feel like we’ve surrendered—but still aren’t sure if we are hearing correctly? Is it his voice, our voice? Is it our desires speaking? I think this fear and disconcertion comes from a few misperceptions about the nature of God, his relation to our desires, and our desires.

First, if we aren’t sure they are his desires too or are godly desires, perhaps we have a misperception of God and his relation to our desires. Perhaps we perceive God as a killjoy, out to smash any of our desires. Perhaps we see him as too small; his purposes and his kingdom cannot cover a desire for a family, a fulfilling career, a good education. Desires—big and small, spiritual and mundane—can be from God and God-honoring. Is he not a Father, delighting in his children? Is he not the one who knit the heart and its dreams in the first place? Is he not the one who has crowned man with dignity of dominion, even to judge angels, a dignity and dominion that gives rise to dreams and desires and decisions? Is he not the God who lavishly, excessively, needlessly colors the sky with stars, superfluous splendor?

Second, if we fear that these desires aren’t godly, we should consider that they aren’t. Yet, there can be a misperception here. Perhaps we expect a “perfect” desire, perfectly pure, something not promised on this side of the starry heavens.  There will always be a mix of God, flesh, the world, and even Satan in the mix. We need not fear this mix—our Lord knows we are but finite beings and he has compassion on us as he works in us and we strive towards greater purity (Ps. 103:14; Phil. 2:12-13). Furthermore, the journey to discern his voice and our voice, his desires and our desires, will help us learn to recognize both.

A third misperception can be the authority granted to a desire. Perhaps we feel that a desire or impression should have a grand clarity, a certain weight—we expect it to be authoritative, the very word of God to us. However, desires and impressions most often are meant to be weighed by wisdom, guided by counsel and Scripture (2). 

Back to the question, if we have surrendered and still aren’t sure? If God’s voice is silent, it does not mean there is a lack of surrender or sin on the seeker’s part. God may be silent for a multitude of reasons. Our surrender will never be perfect. Our actions cannot force God to act. We will never become holy enough to elicit a response from God. It is only through Christ that we can ever hope to hear from God. Turning the search for guidance into a heart-witch-hunt for some unconfessed sin or impure motive will take our eyes off of our Guide, and onto ourselves and create a fear-based misery. (While such searching is necessary, it is done by the Spirit, in the light of the freedom of Christ and God’s grace.)

In addition, there is spiritual warfare. Satan will try to cause us to go on sin-hunts in our own hearts to keep our eyes off of God. He will try to rob any peace that resting in Christ will give after our surrender. He will try to tempt us. He will try to keep us in love with our evil desires and focus on how much we would lose. He will try to give doubts. Anything he can throw at us to hide the light from God’s guidance. The neon lights can be a tool in his hand.

So, God can use our desires to speak to us. He can give them, shape them, incline our hearts. He can speak over our desires as well. He can transform our desires. Do not think that we are more powerful than God! The eternal starlight is far greater than the neons that will burn out. Time, waiting, discernment, asking, seeking will help prove what is from him. It will hone our listening. Build our relationship. If we are willing, God can direct and guide our desires. Some may be from him, just waiting the fullness of time. Some may be redirected. Some desires may be a door to a greater promise—a speaking of God, a fostering from him, that will eventually lead us to a different path than we had expected. A desire may open our hearts to other open doors. God has the power to incline our hearts, and so much more one that is willing and seeking (Ps. 119:36; Ps. 141:4; 1 Kgs. 8:58).

A lot of the answer to this question is time. Wait. Perseverance. It is a training. Discernment is hard. Waiting is hard. The neon lights flash constantly, searing the eyes, taunting, tempting. Anxieties and worries, my thoughts, your thoughts, what to do, where to go, I need to know now, pressure, decisions, I want to know now, what will happen, is this from you or from me, and is Satan part of this, and I don’t know, and the wee hours of the morning and sleepless nights…. Anxious. Anxiety. Search. Hunt. Question. Again and again and again. They all climax. Now. Dear Lord, answer me now. Distinguish now. But it is time that will tell. It is training that will help distinguish (and more on this later). Surrender, transformation, journeys take time. The starlight takes light years to arrive and touch us. Neon lights are quick, momentary. But the starlight is beauty. Yet, light will come. God will come. Train your eyes to see the stars. Your eyes will adjust, and beauty will explode on the horizon.

 “Generally speaking, God will not compete for our attention. Occasionally, a Saul gets knocked off his horse. But we must expect that God will not run over us. And if we are not open to the possibility of God’s addressing us in whatever way he chooses, then we may walk right by the burning bush…” (3).

NOTES

(1) Disobedience and rebellion (Deut. 1:42-45); iniquity (Ps. 66:18; Isa. 59:1-2; Mic. 3:4); indifference (Prov. 1:20-23); neglect of the poor (Prov. 21:13); despising the law (Prov. 28:9); blood guilt (Isa. 1:15); stubbornness (Zech. 7:13); unstable, one foot in the world (Jas. 1:5-8); self-indulgence and giving reign to flesh passions (Jas. 4:3); idolatry (Ezek. 14:3); unforgiveness (Mk. 11:25); poor marital relationship (1 Pet. 3:7). Thank you to Jeff Ely from Grace Point’s Sunday school class.

(2) Garry Friesen convincingly argues that impressions and desires are not meant to be authoritative. I agree with him there, but tend to give a little more weight to them as a means of God’s guidance. I do believe that God gives desires, guides desires, inclines the heart, and uses them as his means of guiding and speaking to us (if I understand Garry Friesen right, he would not completely contradict that either; the majority of his book is written to contradict giving too much authority to impressions, so he may state his case a little more strongly.). I lean a little more to Dallas Willard’s stance. Garry Friesen with J. Robin Maxson, Decision Making and the Will of God, 25^th Anniversary Edition (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2004); Dallas Willard, In Search of Guidance: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God (New York: Harper Collins, 1993).

(3) Willard, 92.