I love Dallas Willard (sadly, Willard passed away May 2013). I estimate that Willard’s work stands among the classics of Christian thinkers of the millenium. Willard’s work has brought tremendous light and depth to my own thought-life, especially on the level of spiritual disciplines and the nuts and bolts of spiritual growth and formation (see Renovation of the Heart). Willard, with great clarity, brings answers to the age-old questions of “how does spiritual growth work?” Willard also offered a prophetic voice to the church today in terms of balancing out north american evangelical theology with the teachings of scriptures (see Living in Christ’s Presence: Final Words on Heaven and the Kingdom of God).
One of my favorite books by Willard is Hearing God. In this book, Willard tackles the question of “How does one know that they have heard God speak?” This is a fundamental question, however, a question that demands a clear answer. Many Christians make decisions in life with the backing of “God told me to”. This is good, however, how do you know that God told you to? Usually the response is, “because it feels right”. Almost always, when I ask people how they know that God said such and such, they say it had to do with a feeling. Feelings are good, but they can also deceive us. We need further affirmation that goes beyond feeling.
In Hearing God, Willard conceptualizes that God can speak to us by giving us thoughts. I think this is exactly right and is a profound truth that changes everything. This is a game changer for how we go about everyday activities in life as well as our prayer lives.
Some people talk about hearing the voice of God. I even had an experience once that made me believe that I heard the voice of God. After reading Willard, however, I’ve come to believe that I didn’t hear God’s voice, rather, God put a thought in my head in the form of a statement. I didn’t “hear it”, I “thought” it. After all, we do think in words (as well as in images).
Modern research in the field of psychology shows that the human subconscious is vast and powerful in the lives of people. We have thoughts that we aren’t conscious of and they can shape they way we think (and thereby feel) about ourselves, how we related to people (including God), and reality at large. Is it possible that God can work on our subconscious? Can we go about our days with a subtle joy, peace, and contentment in our lives because the Holy Spirit is working on us just beneath the surface, or possibly even on a deeper level of our thought-lives?
Here is my challenge: draw your attention to your thoughts and feelings. Pay attention to the subtle thoughts that may attempt flutter by hardly noticed. Take your negative thoughts captive to Jesus. Invite the Holy Spirit into your thoughts, both conscious and subconscious. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the negative thoughts just below the surface (or perhaps even deeper). Ask the Holy Spirit to bring the light of truth, the light of reconciliation, forgiveness and peace into your thought life.
God wishes to reign in your thoughts. He wishes to clean up your thought light and bring light into darkness.
God will make himself known. He is the best communicator there is.
Yes… I loved it. I wanna explore this topic always. It changed my life and relationship with the Lord completely since I started two-way journaling. I love to connect with others who love this topic too.