Dear cell, I think I have discovered the secret of living a victorious Christian life. Well, it is not exactly a secret since what I am going to write about can be found in the Bible. In fact, the scriptures cited here will be very familiar to most of you. The overarching rule of a victorious Christian living is to listen to God’s spirit and obey. This sounds easy enough. From a secular point of view, all of us are told countless of times to obey our parents because daddy and mommy know best. True to this saying, we parents only want the best for our children and obedience is expected of our children if they want to stay out of trouble, come up tops in class, and marry the right partner. Well, maybe the last goal is out of our league as parents. But the point is that reality is usually and frustratingly much harder to do than oral admonishments.
Many of us have been Christians for many years and we can sit each other down beside a campfire to recount all those times that we had failed God in our thoughts, words and actions. In this world of much distractions and temptations, we sometimes feel like those seeds that have been cast into the shallow soil where our spirit has failed to take roots and our spiritual walk with God falters off after an initial jumpstart. After a while, it suddenly dawn on us that we have yet to surrender everything to God. We still have lots of skeletons in our mental closet, locked up airtight by us, refusing to let go and let God deal with our hurts, bitterness and pain accumulated over the years through betrayal, disappointments and unforgiveness.
Galatians 3:3 may sound very familiar to some of us, “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” Let’s be warned that religion by our own strength is not the gospel, it is in fact humanistic and counterproductive. Again, let’s not lose our focus. The gospel is crystal clear about our Christian obligation. It is to listen to God’s spirit and obey. The apostle Paul warned us, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30) He went on to say in 1 Thessalonians 5:19, “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire.” How many of us have through deliberate choice put out the Spirit’s fire?
It takes little to put out the Spirit’s fire and a good start to avoid it is to digest Ephesians 4:30, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God…Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God…” Words like these are quickly forgotten because in actuality it demands too much from us. Sure, we can change or be transformed to be kind, compassionate and forgiving. We can even get rid of bitterness, rage and anger, keeping brawling and slander at bay, and controlling our tongue from all forms of malice and hurtful words. But the question is: For how long? For how long can we keep up appearances?
As I have said earlier, what is our motivation truly spirit-led or by sheer effort of human strive? Let me get this off my chest: Authenticity as a Christian does not come cheap. The above scripture talks about “being imitators of God, or Christ, as dearly loved children and live a life of love.” How many of us find this a tall order? An uphill climb? A spiritual shoe too big for our tiny, faithless feet to fill? Sadly and very unfortunately, many of us feel more like counterfeits than true imitators of Christ. And often, the calling for being Christ-like is subconsciously being understood as being Christ-less or Christ-lite (a new derisive term to describe Christians who avoid all the hardcore stuff that Jesus commanded us to do, like dying to self, worshipping God in spirit and in truth, and serving only one master and not two). Billy Graham once said that the devil seems to get 75% of God’s best servants through sexual temptation alone. This statistics is truly scary.
Recently I bought a book titled The Case of the Pope – Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuse by Geoffrey Robertson QC and I was greatly spiritually agitated. The author was on a crusade for justice for the many tens of thousands, perhaps hundred thousand children, some as young as four years old, mainly boys, who have been continually sexually abused by the clergy and most of them have suffered permanent physical and psychological damage, not to mention the fact that many have left the faith in utter disgust, disillusionment and confusion.
I remembered Jesus once said, “But if anyone causes one of these little one who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.” You’d would think that the Catholic Church, with its many years of historical relevance, with its many righteous teachings and godly literatures, and being founded on the direct lineage of the very first exemplary disciple of Christ namely apostle Paul, would have done the right and proper thing to defrock these offending priests immediately and to extend all cooperation with the authorities to bring and subject them to the penal laws of the land. In other words, giving justice to those who were abused over the years by the priests.
But sadly, the Catholic Church did just the opposite. The Holy See did nothing to defrock the offending priests. They transferred them to another state, another parish. Some of them were even assigned to run young boys orphanages or schools. Imagine the idiocy of such a move! These priest were protected by the Holy See, the records of their crimes were kept secret and locked up to prevent further probing or investigation. Most of them received only minor admonishments, did short term penance, recited prayers in confessionals, and wholly forgiven without facing their accusers in the Court of Justice. Talk about divine immunity with papal impunity!
In one of the concluding passages, the author of the book struck the nail on the “man-driven, counterfeit religion” head with these words, “The priest who molest children are frequently those who are the most punctilious in religious observance and in good works. The suspicion must be that for many, the combination of spiritual powers, genuine affection and sexual craving led to acts which were committed because – and only because – there was no deterrent in the form of any likely prospect of arrest and punishment…These men believed, with good reason, that they would get away with it, because priests usually did.”
Beloved, the Christian walk is not an easy walk but it is not impossible. Hebrews 3:7-11 has this to say, “So, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” Have we hardened our hearts to the soft whispers of the Holy Spirit? When Jesus said, “My sheep hears my voice.” Are we His sheep? Do we hear His voice? Or are we wandering goats, stubborn and rebellious, too righteous and too smart for God’s molding? Didn’t the Bible say in Ecclesiastes 7:16, “Do not be over-righteous, neither be over-wise, why destroy yourself?” Indeed Proverbs 14-12 echoed the same sentiment, “There is a way that seems right to man, but in the end it leads to death (or self-destruction).”
So, with this, we return to the overarching rule of a victorious Christian living, that is, to listen to God’s spirit and obey. For in the eyes of God, “to obey is better than sacrifice”. (1 Samuel 15:22) Of course, this Christian journey cannot be trekked alone. Like every successful endeavor, it starts with a divine partnership and our partner is the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 reminds us to be “filled with the Spirit.” Needless to say, filling anything takes time, it takes patience, it takes consistency. The filling can never be complete if we become distracted along the journey and detour off the beaten path set by Jesus to run our own devises and plans. Remember, man proposes, God disposes. Reversing the order only makes religion serve our own agenda and not the Holy Spirit’s.
RT Kendall once recounted an amusing tale in his book The Sensitivity of the Spirit and this was how he wrote about it, “This situation reminded me of a pastor in Kentucky who was struggling with his church. Suddenly, out of the blue, he got a call to become a minister of a Church in Hawaii. He said to his wife, “You pack up while I pray about it.” RT Kendall wisely concluded, “It is hard to seek the mind of the Lord when our own minds are already made up.” Have we made up our mind to follow Jesus or have we made up our mind to serve our own worldly masters?
In the book Disciplines of the Holy Spirit by Dr Siang Yang Tan and Dr Douglas H. Gregg, the authors simplified the work of the Holy Spirit in three broad directions: “The Holy Spirit works to (1) draw us near to God in deep love and intimacy (2) help us surrender to his will and purpose, and to (3) reach out in compassionate ministry to others through us.” In Philippians 2:12-13 we are called to work out our salvation as it requires obedience and sacrifice: “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
So, listening to God’s spirit and obeying are a process and it becomes easier when we surrender to the gentle persuasion of the Holy Spirit since the latter is not only our helper but the gatekeeper of our conscience, convicting us of sins and, the Spirit of Truth, guiding us in this world like a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.
Before I end, I would like to bring to your attention the encounter between a Samaritan woman and Jesus (John 4). We all know the story. The woman came to draw water from the well and met up with her Messiah. Jesus then asked for a drink and the woman was shaken by the request since Jesus, being a Jew, shouldn’t have any dealing with her, a Samaritan.
To her, Jesus had broken an important protocol. But we all know that Jesus was a deliberate protocol breaker. In addition to this, Jesus also knew that this woman has had a very complicated romantic entanglement. She had five husbands before she met Jesus and the one whom she is currently sleeping with is not her husband. To put it mildly, she was a loose woman; maybe a very confused soul and Jesus, being the Messiah, shouldn’t have chatted with her. Surely, it was a social taboo to do so and tongues would definitely wag crazily if others get to know about it. So, in one hot afternoon, Jesus broke two protocols. But protocol breaking was not the message our Messiah wanted to impart to us. His message, which is relevant for us as growing Christians, is this: “…whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of waters springing up into everlasting life.”
This powerful spiritual metaphor of the “fountain of waters springing up into everlasting life” brings to mind an analogy of spiritual growth that I would like to share with you. Teresa of Avila, Spain, who was a 16th century theologian, and whose life was filled with mystical experiences, once likened our spirit to a garden of soul, which is beautified by four Water analogy. This water that flows into the garden of our soul symbolizes the Holy Spirit that Jesus was talking about to the Samaritan woman.
In a concise overview, the four Water analogy is as follows: “The garden of the soul, she says, can be watered in several manners. The first, drawing the water up from a well by use of a bucket, entails a great deal of human effort. The second way, cranking a water wheel and having the water run through an aqueduct, involves less exertion and yields more water. The third entails far less effort, for in it the water enters the garden as by an effluence from river or streams The fourth and final way is the best of all: as by a gentle but abundant rainfall the Lord himself waters the garden and the soul does not work at all.”
Beloved, doesn’t this water analogy aptly describes our spiritual journey and growth? First, we cannot do without the “watering” of the Holy Spirit. He is our partner and guide. Second, spiritual maturity takes time. It starts with a convicted and repentant heart. Then, we initiate a process to work out our salvation through engaging in spiritual disciplines like meditating, praying, worshipping, servicing and witnessing. Of course, all these take effort on our part. At first, it is difficult for the simple reason that it is called “spiritual disciplines” and not “spiritual playtime” or “spiritual manicure”. The word “disciplines” entails deliberate or intentional personal effort, a high and consistent level of purposeful engagement, and a dogged determination to complete the task at hand.
Third, as we get into the groove of these spiritual disciplines, we also enter into a self-sustaining spiritual momentum like cycling a bike and we realize that advancing forward starts to take less and less self-effort and more and more of letting go. This is the third stage of the four Water analogy above whereby “water enters the garden of our soul by an effluence from river or streams.”
Ultimately, when we surrender ourselves fully to God and submit to the whispers of the Holy Spirit, we quite unknowingly and graciously enter into the last stage of our spiritual maturity whereby we experience “a gentle but abundant rainfall the Lord himself waters the garden and the soul does not work at all.” I guess this is the stage when we can echo the sentiments of the Psalmist who said, “One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple.” And when that day comes, we can confidently declare that we have indeed sought the Lord, because we have sought Him with all our heart.
Have a victorious weekend!
