Staying in Rhythm, Part Seven: A Participatory Experience
John Wesley included within his standard sermons two on the topic of assurance. He believed and taught that we could have confidence in our salvation. He called this assurance the witness of the Spirit, and he taught the Methodists that this gift of God’s grace was the common privilege of the children of God. When someone asked, “How can I know that I am a child of God?” Wesley would say that there are two ways we can know. I will add a third and a fourth way. #assurance #witnessofthespirit #assuranceofsalvation #witnessoftheHolySpirit
First, we have the direct witness of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God resides in every child of God and makes his presence felt or experienced. Second, Wesley said, we have the witness of our spirit. These two, God’s Spirit and our spirit make us aware that something has changed within us. Here is how the Apostle Paul says it:
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him, we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. If we are children, then we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ; if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” –Romans 8:15-17.
How can we know that we are the children of God? Two ways: first, we have the Spirit of God residing in us. Second, a change happens within our spirit. Let’s talk about each. And then, I will add the third and fourth ways.
First, let us talk about the presence of the Holy Spirit. The experience of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives is not to be confused with some kind of mystical experience, which not everyone will experience in this lifetime. Many people will never mystically experience God. But all can experience his presence. I will clarify what I mean. #presence
But, I start by saying this because a high-profile celebrity has recently declared that he is no longer a Christian because of this very issue. He told his audience that the beginning of his walk away from Christianity started because he did not feel God as he sat in worship on Sunday mornings. He would sit with his eyes closed, trying to feel something. Those around him thought he was super-spiritual. He wasn’t. He was trying to make some kind of connection with God but was failing to do so.
There are several problems with this approach to worship and Christian spirituality. First, one is very unlikely to experience God by focusing on self. Instead, if we want to experience God, we must join God in what he is doing. The late Dallas Willard was fond of saying that we can hear from and experience God if we are willing to rearrange our lives around the practices of Jesus.
When we move beyond ourselves, learning to love God and others, we get caught up in the life of God and experience God’s presence. In this way, it is like swimming. Many people who set out to learn to swim start the learning process by trying too hard. They struggle against the water rather than just surrendering themselves to it. You can’t make yourself float. You have to let yourself float. There is a big difference. You have to give yourself over to the water.
The same is true with dancing. We will only learn a small amount by watching. Dancing is participatory, and we will never fully understand the dance until we get in and begin to dance. Dancing is fun to watch but is not meant to be a spectator sport. To really understand dancing, we have to give ourselves over to the music. If one is too self-conscious, embarrassment will prevent one from really dancing. One has to possess a certain amount of self-forgetfulness to join the dance.
I have written an entire book on this, called The God Dare. The summary of it is this. You will experience God when you meet him in the places and in the ways that he has promised to show up. Too many are looking for God in all the wrong places and ways. But, we can know and experience the presence of God’s Holy Spirit when we meet him where he has promised to be.
Second, we can know that we are the children of God because something has changed in us. That change is what the Apostle Paul and John Wesley call the testimony of our spirit. Let me make this simple. Before I became a Christian, I did not love God. Now I do. Before I became a Christian, I did not feel the need to love my enemies. As a Christian, I do. That doesn’t mean it is always easy or that it comes naturally. Sometimes I want to hate my enemies, but something in me has changed. I know, deep within, that it is not right for me to hate my enemies. I know from the inside that I must love them. That is something new in me.
A transformation is taking place inside of me. I am learning to love in a new way. I see these changes taking place in me, and the Apostle Paul and John Wesley have taught me to identify these changes as the witness of my spirit.
Let me tell you about my friend Cheryl (not her real name). Cheryl has struggled with severe chronic depression her entire life. She has had far more bad days than good ones. Yet, most people do not know this about Cheryl. She is quiet, but her life is pretty successful. She works in a high profile job and is very good at what she does. She has been married to the same spouse for more than forty years. She and her spouse have two adult daughters whom they love very much. Cheryl is also very active in her local church.
I only know about Cheryl’s struggle because I spoke publicly about my own struggles with anxiety and depression. My openness invited her to speak openly to me.
Cheryl feels sad most of the time. At other times, she feels nothing emotionally. She has seen therapists and doctors. She has received electroshock therapy. She takes medicine for her condition, but nothing has cured her condition. Yet, she lives a healthy and productive life. I asked her how that was possible.
She said, “By acting on what I know to be true.” On many mornings, she does not feel like getting out of bed and going to work. She doesn’t feel like facing the world. It would be easier to sleep the day away. But she doesn’t act on her feelings. She acts on the fact that she is good at her work and is committed to the job she performs each day.
In her relationships with her spouse and her children, she doesn’t usually feel affectionate toward them. Yet, she doesn’t wait for her emotions to cue her behavior. She knows how important her family is to her, and she acts on what she values. She acts in loving ways and lets her emotion catch up with her actions rather than allowing her emotions to take the lead. If she lets her emotions take the lead, on most days, she would end up doing nothing for her family.
She does the same with her faith. Cheryl knows that she loves God, and so, she acts as if she loves God. Though she seldom has the confirmation of her emotions, she has the confirmation of her spirit. She can see the change God has made in her.
There is still a third-way whereby we know that we are the children of God. The community of faith reminds us that we are God’s children. Hebrews 10:23-25 says, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another-and all the more as we see the day approaching.”
An old preacher’s tale tells of a man who had stopped going to church. His pastor stopped by to see him. It was a cold winter’s day, and the parishioner invited the preacher to come in and sit by the fireplace. As the two men sat talking about life and faith, the preacher took hold of a fire poker. He used it to pull one of the logs out of the fire onto the brick floor. Apart from the blaze, the small log smoldered out and grew cold.
The pastor said, “That is what happens when we lose our connection with the family of God. Our fire goes out.” And so it does. In the family of faith, we encourage each other. We help each other to remember who we are. We also take turns lending our faith to each other. When one Christian goes through a tough time, one can lean upon others to help her through. In short, the family of faith helps us to remember who we are and whose we are. We help keep the fire burning in one another.
For almost a decade, I participated in a jail ministry. Some of my lay leaders and I helped create a church for the prisoners in our county jail. We led worship there every fourth Sunday. One year, the fourth Sunday in December happened to fall on Christmas morning. Though it meant making some sacrifices at home, my lay leaders and I decided we would not skip that Sunday.
To our dismay, only one inmate came to worship. He told us that the rest of the men were too discouraged and depressed to come to worship and that he himself had almost made the same decision. Obviously, you cannot do a sermon and congregational singing with just one person. So we just started talking.
The inmate had been praying all morning, saying to God, “If you really love me, send me some kind of a sign.” He then asked us, “Where is my sign?” Without missing a beat, one of my lay leaders said, “Right here. He sent us.” What followed was one of the best church services of which I have ever been a part. We spent the rest of the hour reminding each other of how much God truly loves us. We were each a witness of that love. We lifted our hearts in praise and thanksgiving to God.
Finally, we know that we are the children of God because we take God at his word. I risk writing a litany of proof texts in this section, but I want to make something clear. God has made promises to us about our relationship with him.
Jesus says in Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all of you who are weary from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.” All means all. Jesus will turn away none who come to him. In Jeremiah 29:13, the Lord promises, “You will find me if you seek me with your whole heart.” God desires to be found by us.
Jesus says in John 6:37: “All that the Father gives to me will come to me. And any who come, I will not push away.” If we run into the arms of Jesus, we will not find them closed. That is very good news. Paul says in Romans 10:13: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Notice again, this verse is an invitation to all.
In 1 John 1:9, we read: “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” And 2 Peter 3:9 says, “God is very patient with us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
I know that I have quoted many verses here, but I want to make something clear. We can take God at his word. And his word assures us that he will not reject any that place their trust in Jesus. He is the strong link in the chain – not us. We can be assured of our salvation based on who he is and what he has done. As the old hymn says, “On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.” #spiritualsecurity #spiritualadoption