A True Experimental Knowledge of Religion

July 20, 2008

“And besides the things that have been already mentioned, there arises from this sense of spiritual beauty, all true experimental knowledge of religion: which is of itself, as it were a new world of knowledge. He that sees not the beauty of holiness, knows not what one of the graces of God’s Spirit is; he is destitute of any idea or conception of all gracious exercises of soul, and all holy comforts and delights, and all effects of the saving influences of the Spirit of God on the heart” (Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections, 275).

Last time I noted the following: “Reformed theology can be nothing more than a logical system that sets out theology and morality with God as part of the system that feeds unregenerate and self-centered people. Without God being the true center in the beauty of His self-centeredness, Reformed theology is nothing more than a refined form of self-centeredness. Without the true beauty of God at its core, Reformed orthodoxy serves to blind self-centered men to the true glory of God.” This may seem like an attack on Reformed theology, but it is not. It is an effort to see true God-centered theology returned to its rightful place at the center of all things. In Volume VI of his works, John Owen noted that we cannot simply point out an external sin without taking that sin to the real source of it, which is the heart. If we only point out the external sin and do not go to the real source of the sin, which is the heart, we are not dealing with sin at all (Mortification of Sin, chapter VII). The same thing is true about theology. We cannot just deal with the external doctrine and then expect people to state an intellectual belief in it.

If we are going to see the true beauty of a doctrine we must trace it back to its source of true beauty. We must trace each doctrine back to its source which is the Trinity and the infinite mutual love of the triune God. If we rest satisfied with a doctrine as it sets out some benefit for man we have not moved beyond the self-interest of man which is really the heart of sin. This should show us that we can feed the sinful heart of men with orthodoxy and men continue on in self-centered and prideful ways without a change in heart. There is no beauty in holiness unless it is the beauty of God Himself.

The views that Owen and Edwards had of the experimental nature of Christianity are far different than that of today. That is because they started and ended with God with man being an instrument of God. We tend to see God as an instrument of man’s love for himself. The danger is pointed out by Edwards in the quote above: “He that sees not the beauty of holiness, knows not what one of the graces of God’s Spirit is.” This statement is a shot that should be heard around the world. The beauty of holiness is God Himself in the souls of men displaying His love for Himself in sharing His love for Himself with men. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love and the Holy Spirit does not work any love but a holy love in the hearts of His people. This love must be a love for God which can only come from the source of love and that is the God who is love itself. All of the graces of the Spirit will be from this love and in working that love in the human soul. This ends up with those men admiring the true beauty of holiness.

We can see from this that there is no way that a person who has no idea of the beauty of holiness can share in the graces of God’s Spirit. This would mean that there is no true experimental knowledge of religion in that person’s heart. At this point we must note again that the true experimental knowledge of religion is not the same thing as having true doctrine, though one must have true doctrine to have true experimental religion. The grace of God in the soul is never apart from the truth of His love for Himself, which is the true beauty of Christianity. The true beauty of holiness cannot be apart from what true holiness is within the triune God and apart from what the Spirit works in the souls of human beings. If we don’t love the true beauty of holiness then we are strangers to true holiness. All the grace and graces that the Spirit works in human hearts will always be flowing from the source of true holiness and love which is the very nature and character of God and is how the triune God relates within Himself. How can we have a true experimental knowledge of religion if we are not connected to and so obtaining all we have from the true source of religion itself? All of the gracious influences and actions of the Spirit in the soul will always tend toward love for God because the Spirit can work nothing but love for God as He is holy and lives in the love and holiness of God Himself. True theology, then, must always move human beings from a love for themselves to a true love for God. True theology that has God at its center rather than man will always have the grace of God in true holiness and love at its center. It is this beauty of God in the soul of man that is always moving man to taste of the glory and beauty of God and be His instrument in the world to manifest Himself. After all, that is true love and that is true salvation from sin which consists in pride and self-love as the devil has.

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True Spiritual Beauty vs. Natural Beauty

July 17, 2008

“And besides the things that have been already mentioned, there arises from this sense of spiritual beauty, all true experimental knowledge of religion: which is of itself, as it were a new world of knowledge. He that sees not the beauty of holiness, knows not what one of the graces of God’s Spirit is; he is destitute of any idea or conception of all gracious exercises of soul, and all holy comforts and delights, and all effects of the saving influences of the Spirit of God on the heart” (Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections, 275).

What is so rampant in our day can be seen by this statement of true Christianity. A person can be very religious and do many moral things but not see any real spiritual beauty. This person may see some beauty in one sense, but that might be the beauty of not going to hell or the beauty of self-righteousness. There is a form of beauty in the Bible and a form of beauty in theology that can be seen by anyone. That is the beauty of how all things fit together along with the beauty of consistency. But people can still miss the true spiritual beauty. We must remind ourselves that spiritual things are the things from the Holy Spirit and how they fit with God’s infinite mutual love of Himself. This is the true beauty of God and it is this that opens up what true experimental religion is. Notice the language of Edwards in this passage. It is from the sense of spiritual beauty that all true experimental knowledge of religion comes. He then goes on to say that the person that does not see the beauty of holiness does not know what one of the graces of God’s Spirit is.

Holiness is thought to be so dreary in our day and is presented as something that will benefit later if we will just labor on in its dreariness in this life. But if we could just once have a glimmer of Divine glory shine in our eyes and give us a taste of true spiritual beauty we would know what the experimental knowledge of religion is and then some idea of the beauty of holiness. On the one hand we live in a day where immorality flourishes, but on the other hand we also live in a day where the spirit of the Pharisees flourishes. The idea that there is a true spiritual beauty and that holiness is a thing of beauty is rather distant. Within religious circles we stress morality, the disciplines, and in some circles doctrine. The beauty of external morality can be self-righteousness; the beauty of the disciplines can be of self-discipline, while the beauty of doctrine can be nothing more than intellectual consistency. There is a beauty of Reformed theology in that it gives a philosophical system that answers so many questions. But unless all of those things have true spiritual beauty, they are deceptive and will lead to the perishing of the soul.

Notice Edwards says that it is from this sense of spiritual beauty that “all true experimental knowledge of religion” arises. He did not say that all experimental knowledge of religion arises from it, but “all true experimental knowledge of religion.” In other words, there are many types and kinds of experimental practices in religion but only one true one. All that we do in the realm of morality, the disciplines, and doctrine must arise from a true spiritual beauty, which arises from God Himself. We can use all of those religious things and still see nothing but the beauty of self in them. We can use the name of God but the only beauty we see is what we think He has done for self. The beauty that we will see, then, is only the beauty of self and what is beneficial to self. “For men will be lovers of self” (II Timothy 3:2) and they will pursue the beauty of self in sin and the beauty of self like the Pharisees unless their eyes are opened to see the beauty and glory of God.

The affections of people can be raised in a form of experimental religion and they think they are holy as they follow the ways of men in forms of holiness. They may love the study of doctrine and be quite orthodox in it all, but they will not have seen the glory of God in it. To be destitute of this, however, regardless of how much doctrine one knows and how outwardly moral one is, and even how much one follows the disciplines, is to be destitute of the grace of God. We simply must wake up to the true concept of God as centered upon Himself and His glory. We must see that He saves sinners to the praise of the glory of His grace (Ephesians 1:3 -7) rather than the goodness of men. We must also see that He sanctifies sinners by grace and not by their own efforts or morality. This is because God delights in the display of His own beauty and glory that He works in and through hell-deserving sinners rather than in what they can do in their own strength. Reformed theology can be nothing more than a logical system that sets out theology and morality with God as part of the system that feeds unregenerate and self-centered people. Without God being the true center in the beauty of His self-centeredness, Reformed theology is nothing more than a refined form of self-centeredness. Without the true beauty of God at its core, Reformed orthodoxy serves to blind self-centered men to the true glory of God. We must search our hearts.

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The Seeking Church, Part 4

July 17, 2008

The modern professing Church seems to be completely turned around. The Lord has hidden His face from us and yet we are continuing on a path trying to do things for Him rather than seek His face and seeking the return of the shining of His glory on His desolate sanctuary. The name of the game is to see who can do the most and get the most involved. We have buildings to build and programs to carry out. We have activities to carry out and busy things to keep us busy. While many recognize that the professing Church is weak, it seems as if the answer to the predicament is more business and more to do. Books are coming from the busy presses on how to do church and all the other how to do things. Those of the Reformed persuasion have their own list of things to be done, but they are still things. After all, to reform a church we think that the church must fit a specific standard.

The real mark of a local church that is truly seeking the Lord is one that seeks the face of the Lord by spending much time in prayer. Without hearts that truly pray, correct theology is nothing more than information. Without hearts that pray, outward prayer is simply cold hearts uttering correct words. Without hearts that pray, the marks of a church are marks of deceit. Without hearts that pray, one can institute elders and have a biblical form without true substance. Without hearts that seek the Lord in prayer there will be people seeking themselves in various forms in words with the Lord’s name attached. Without hearts that seek the Lord’s interests in prayer there will be people seeking their own interests. Without hearts that seek the Lord’s glory in prayer people will seek their own honor and glory. Without hearts that seek the Lord’s kingdom in prayer people will seek their own kingdom in reality. Without hearts to seek the Lord’s will in prayer people will seek their own will and call it the will of the Lord. Without hearts that love the Lord and so seek His face in prayer people will simply seek the things of self that they love. In other words, what the professing church needs to do is to stop its activities and programs and begin to seek the Lord from the heart pleading with Him to turn His face and make it shine upon His people.

In years past this was seen by some. One of them was a man named A.W. Pink. He wrote several books and two on prayer. The following is from his book on Fervent Prayer:

“Consider also the burden of them. In the recorded apostolic prayers there is no supplicating God for the supply of temporal needs and (with a single exception) no asking Him to interpose on their behalf in a providential way (though petitions for these things are legitimate when kept in proper proportion to spiritual concerns). Instead, the things asked for are wholly of a spiritual and gracious nature: that the Father may give unto us the spirit of understanding and revelation in the knowledge of Himself, the eyes of our understanding being enlightened so that we may know what is the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe (Eph 1:17-19); that He would grant us, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith, that we might know the love of Christ… and be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph 3:16-19).”

When we read words like this, we should be humbled and broken for our own shallow and misguided words that we have called our prayers. Out of all the apostolic prayers, he says that not one of them is a supplication to God for temporal needs. He could only find one prayer that asked God to interpose in a providential way. Rather than focus on temporal things, the apostolic prayers were for spiritual things. We need to read these prayers and we need to hear the focus of those prayers today. Is it any wonder that the modern professing Church is so weak and helpless in spiritual things if even Her prayers show there is nothing spiritual about Her? What is the difference between asking God for things and seeking the face of the Lord for spiritual power? What is the difference between uttering words and truly having a heart to pray these things? For the rest of this newsletter I want to focus on the heart behind the prayers in the things mentioned by Pink as he quoted Scripture. We could learn the proper words and repeat them just like the apostles wrote them down, but if our hearts are not engaged we are not truly praying. We can learn how to pray in the sense of learning a proper method, but we have not learned to truly pray until Christ Himself by the Spirit has taught our hearts to seek the face of the Lord in prayer.

What kind of heart is it that is engaged in prayer like this if it is more than just words? What kind of heart is it that pours forth its true desires like this? What kind of heart is it that instead of praying for the things of self it prays that the Father may give to us the spirit of understanding and revelation in the knowledge of Himself? This is a heart that desires the face of God more than the world. It is a heart that has a love for God Himself rather than the things that the world offers and even things that religion offers. It is a heart that loves God Himself and desires His presence more than buildings and programs and all the pomp of religious ceremony. If this type of prayer is truly the deepest desire of the heart, then that heart is one like Moses who desired to see the glory of God more than anything else. But we must always force ourselves to think and dwell on the fact that a heart like that is not one that is worked up or can be obtained by human effort. A heart like that is one that grace alone can form.

We must get away from the modern approach to education. It teaches people the facts and then says they understand it. We have not learned to pray when we repeat correct words, for even a parrot can pray if we spend the time teaching it words. True prayer can only come from a heart that has been humbled and broken by the mercy of the Lord and then tempered by the hand of God in the soul. Prayer can only come from the heart or it is nothing more than any pagan could memorize if s/he wanted to bad enough. Interestingly enough it seems as if the focus of much of our words we call prayer is most likely what a pagan would ask for. We ask God to help us in our temporal concerns and help people with their physical issues. We ask God to add to our number and give us money for the buildings. But we do not see those things in the apostolic prayers. What we do see is Paul’s heart poured out in prayer pleading with God “that He would grant us, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.” When we live in our own strength and think we just need a little help from God I suppose his prayer does not make much sense to us in our self-reliant day. But Paul thought that the people needed to pray like that. Why do people need to be strengthened in accordance with the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man? Why is that vital to prayer?

The answer to the previous question is from the rest of the text: “that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith, that we might know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:16-19). What a beautiful prayer this is if people want to know what it means to have Christ dwell in their hearts and they want to know the love of Christ and they want to be filled with the fullness of God rather than to spend all of their time praying over buildings, programs, and the physical problems of people. The real need of any person that is having a physical problem is to rest in the sovereignty of God in the matter. They need the love of God in their soul more than they need their bodies to be healed. When we only pray for the physical problems of other people it shows that we are spiritually unaware at best. No matter a person’s physical condition they need Christ and more of Christ far more than anything else. In fact, if we truly believe in the sovereignty of God then their physical problem is in the hands of God and He has brought it to pass for a spiritual reason.

The professing Church in America does not pray because it does not know by the understanding or experience how to pray from the heart and in the Spirit. Praying in the Spirit is not a charismatic approach, it is a spiritual approach. We are not spiritual enough to truly pray because we want to pray in our own way and pray for the things that concern us rather than according to the Spirit. We don’t have a prayer because we don’t have a heart to truly pray. Anyone can repeat words or say certain things, but for spiritual prayer the heart must be broken by the Spirit and taught to pray by the Spirit. The Spirit will lead us to Christ and give us a love for the Father and only then will we really be praying. We are good at having so-called prayer meetings where we run through a list of things and go home satisfied that we have done our duty. But where are the prayer meetings where people are broken of self and seek the Lord and His presence? Where are the prayer meetings where people groan for the living God from a heart that aches with love and desire for Him? Without that, is it true prayer at all?

We must learn to pray as Paul prayed and our learning must be of the heart and by the Spirit or we will be doing nothing more than filling our minds with information and the air with similar words. Notice the difference between learning to say what Paul said and praying those words from the heart full of desire for the glory of God and the spiritual good of His people. We must seek the Lord for a heart that loves God from the depths of its desires and a heart like that seeks the Lord and His glory. We think something is prayer when we bring our ever so slight desires (if at all) to God for the physical well-being of another. We are more excited over a new dress or a new toy than we are over God Himself. We will ask for things and have greater delight over another human being’s attainments than we do over the glory of God. Until our hearts are broken and the Spirit teaches us to pray, we will continue on in our words we call prayer and yet we will not have a prayer at all. Accurate theology and the best words in prayer are not what the Lord looks for. He is looking for broken and humbled hearts that will learn from Him to pray.

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All True Beauty is Found in God

July 13, 2008

For as God is infinitely the greatest Being, so he is allowed to be infinitely the most beautiful and excellent: and all the beauty to be found throughout the whole creation, is but the reflection of the diffused beams of that Being who hath an infinite fullness of brightness and glory. God’s beauty is infinitely more valuable than that of all other beings upon both those accounts mentioned, viz, the degree of his virtue and the greatness of his being, possessed of this virtue (Nature of True Virtue, 14-15).

As we try to take in this statement by Jonathan Edwards, our souls will balk at this and try to look in another direction if we do not grab ourselves by the collar and ask for grace to behold the brightness of the glory that shines. God is the greatest Being and as such He must be the most beautiful and excellent Being. Human beings (not myself or yourself or the combination of all selves) are not the most beautiful and in fact they have no beauty but what shines in and through them from God. It is in beholding His glory that we are transformed from one degree of glory to another (II Corinthians 3:18) and not beholding our own glories or that of other human beings. Perhaps there is a bit of irony here in that human beings are guilty of looking at their own glory and in some way they are formed after that, but that is simply more ugliness and defilement rather than true beauty. Human beings are to behold the glory of God and be transformed by His work of grace rather than to behold self and other human beings, becoming more and more defiled with pride and self-centeredness.

Any beauty that exists in the entire creation (He created all things) is but a reflection of Himself who is full of beauty and glory. In other words, all true beauty in nature that can be beheld by a child or by a scientist is the beauty of God. When anyone denies the being of God, that person has done nothing but cut off what is truly beautiful from himself and perhaps others. In gazing into the sky and beholding the shining of the stars, the only true beauty that truly shines is God Himself. This is not to say that unbelievers do not see beauty, but they don’t recognize what is truly beautiful and ascribe the glory that is due to the Creator.

What we must see is that this statement has massive ramifications for us. God is infinitely full of brightness and glory. All He does manifests that glory in some way. When He created, therefore, He was manifesting that beauty and glory that He is infinitely full of. In all that He did and all that He does His glory shines forth whether human beings recognize it or not. His beauty and glory are what is truly worthy in this world and in all other places and realms. It is that glory that shines with such beauty that all human beings are to behold and cry out for grace so that His beauty and glory would shine in and through them. His beauty and glory are so great that it is a vile and wicked thing not to live and do all for His glory (I Cor 10:31 and Romans 3:23). When human beings do all for their own beauty and glory they are being just like the devil and show who their father really is. Sin is ugly and hideous because it is the image of the evil one who does all for himself rather than doing all for the glory of God. A human being that is living for self is a being that is doing all for self and for the glory and honor of self. That human is in a sense admiring his or her own beauty rather than the beauty and glory of God.

The Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ is when God restores the shining of His glory and beauty of holiness in the souls of human beings. The one who is unholy is all about self while true holiness is only found in those who love God and His glory is in them and shining through them. This happens because of the Gospel and of the God who can do nothing but manifest His beauty and glory. It is because the Gospel is all of God from the planning of it from eternity past to the carrying it out in Christ and then the application of it by the Holy Spirit that His beauty and glory shines through it. Because it is all of God and He can do nothing but manifest His glory in all that He does the Gospel is the shining forth of the glory of God in Christ.

All theology including Reformed theology is ugly and hideous when it does nothing but shine forth the intellect and morality in its teaching as it focuses on human beings. Theology must shine forth the glory of God or it is like the scientist that focuses on his study after the attempt to strip it of God. Theology can use the name of God while doing nothing to display His true beauty and glory. God can do nothing but display His beauty and glory so if we are preaching and doing theology in a way that is from Him His beauty and glory will shine forth to those with eyes to see. We live in a day of ugly preaching and theology. Let us pray that the Lord will shine His face on us that we may delight in His beauty and glory. If we do not repent of preaching Christ our own way and trying to make God look good, we will continue our descent into ugliness. It matters not how Reformed a person is in his or her external theology, apart from the beauty and glory of God shining in it that person, their preaching and theology is ugly. There is no true beauty apart from the God and that includes our preaching and our theology. That includes our preaching of Christ and our most orthodox statements. There is only one God and His beauty and glory shine through His triune being. If we miss that, we miss true beauty and fall into the most hideous and despicable ugliness even while we are orthodox and busy in the externals of religion. Our worship, our prayers, and our evangelism are despicably ugly apart from the beauty and glory of God. Even our works of righteousness are as filthy rags (menstrual cloths) if the beauty of His glory is not in them.

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A Spiritual Taste of the “Moral Beauty of Divine Things”

July 11, 2008

We will start this post with more quotes from The Religious Affections (RA) of Jonathan Edwards:

“From what has been said, therefore, we come necessarily to this conclusion, concerning that wherein spiritual understanding consists; viz, that it consists in a sense of the heart, of the supreme beauty and sweetness of the holiness or moral perfection of divine things, together with all that discerning and knowledge of things of religion, that depends upon, and flows from such a sense. Spiritual understanding consists primarily in a sense of heart of that spiritual beauty… When the mind is sensible of the sweet beauty and amiableness of a thing, that implies a sensibleness of sweetness and delight in the presence of the idea of it: and this sensibleness of the amiableness or delightfulness of beauty, carries in the very nature of it, the sense of the heart… the sense of the heart, wherein the mind don’t only speculate and behold, but relishes and feels” (RA 272-273).

Here we see a direct and frontal attack on many forms of theology as taught today. A person could (hypothetically) have a perfect grasp of all the teachings of Reformed theology and even the major theologians and preachers of theology throughout history and still miss the most important issue of it all. God has such a beauty that is so far over and beyond what a historian or theologian can teach that truly the greatest of them all can teach nothing but the barest rudiments of the understanding. There is a beauty and sweetness that God alone can teach in the heart that makes all other knowledge either beautiful or perhaps simply pale in contrast. Mortal man can only point toward spiritual things of beauty and direct others toward them, but no mortal man can give another the sense of these things in the depths of the soul. In other words, the depths of true theology and true Reformed theology cannot be gained from the Puritans and the older Reformed theologians. While much can be gained by reading them, the truest knowledge of spiritual understanding can only be given by God Himself.

We can teach the creeds until they are perfectly known in one sense and even memorized backwards, but God alone can give a true spiritual taste of His glory that those things teach. We can teach men and women those things in terms of the word, but only the Spirit can give them a true sense of the beauty and glory of them. We must never let people rest in an outward understanding no matter how great that outward understanding is, but instead we must tell them about and point them to what true beauty is which God alone can give a relish for. A person in a local church is not truly taught unless the Holy Spirit gives that person a true spiritual taste of God in the teaching. A person in a seminary is not truly taught unless the Holy Spirit teaches that person what a true spiritual taste of God is and then gives that person a taste of it. The people in the pews that are truly converted are starving in their souls because we are giving them dry bread in the form of dusty dry orthodoxy and not pointing them to the true beauty of His glory. Many others are lost and yet assured of their salvation because they have an intellectual understanding of things only and so do not see the true glory of God. If they were given a sight of the true glory of God they would hate Him because He does not stand for their self-interests as they think He does now.

“Spiritual understanding primarily consists in this sense, or taste of the moral beauty of divine things; so that no knowledge can be called spiritual, any further than it arises from this, and has this in it. When the true beauty and amiableness of the holiness or true moral good that is in divine things, is discovered to the soul, it as it were opens a new world to its view. This shows the glory of all the perfections of God, and of everything appertaining to the divine being: for, as was observed before, the beauty of all arises from God’s moral perfections.” (RA 272-273).

As we see from this quote from Edwards, no knowledge can be called spiritual knowledge apart from this sense or taste of the moral beauty of divine things. We must also remember that eternal life is said to consist in knowing God and the Son (John 17:3). Surely, then, we can see that to know God must be a spiritual knowing rather than in knowing data given to us by some means. It is in knowing God by seeing His moral beauty which is His love for Himself which is His holiness that we can see how all things shine forth the love of God for Himself which is the display of His beauty and glory. This opens up an entirely new world to those with this spiritual view or to those with eternal life. These people see the true glory of God and how everything manifests this glory. Instead of seeing the beauty of things as they relate to self, they now see the true beauty of things as how they relate to God’s love for Himself which is His moral perfection.

How lovely the Gospel is when it is seen as the very display of God’s love which is truly only seen in His love for Himself as triune. A Gospel that thinks of the love of God as focused on man at the center is a gospel that makes God out to be an idolater. That is repugnant to the soul that loves God in the beauty of His love for Himself and sees God’s love for Himself as true holiness. Until the modern professing Church repents of teaching a man-centered god and its man-centered gospels, it will never see the true glory of God in its majestic glory with its majestic and delightful gushing forth of God’s love for Himself shared with sinners. It will never know that true repentance is being turned from man-centeredness to being focused on God’s God-centeredness. It will never know the Gospel of the glory of God in the outshining of it in Christ as discovered in the face of Christ. It will continue on its spiritual barrenness and ugliness of a man-centered though orthodox gospel that kills souls. Oh that God would give us a taste of the springs of living water as it flows from His infinite love for Himself!

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The Seeking Church, Part 3

July 9, 2008

For several weeks we looked at how the modern professing Church is under the spiritual judgment of God. The last two weeks we have looked at taking steps to seek the Lord for Himself. We did this by looking at prayer and by the kind of heart that it takes to truly pray. Very few people would deny that we need prayer and a lot of it. What is not so generally recognized and understood is the heart that it takes for true prayer. Prayer is not just the uttering of words; it is lifting the desires of the heart to God. Prayer is not just a religious activity; it is communion with the living God. Prayer must be from the broken and humble heart and God is sovereign over the heart. Scripture tells us that God “is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous” (Prov 15:29). It also tells us that “He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, Even his prayer is an abomination” (Proverbs 28:9). We are also told that ” you ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasure” (James 4:3). Without question, then, the real problem in terms of prayer is the heart. There is no returning to the Lord and no seeking of the Lord apart from returning to Him with the whole heart.

The Pharisees were quite well known for their many prayers, but we should not make them our example. Instead we should look at them and understand that our hearts must be changed in order to pray. Matthew 6:5 gives us one example from the Pharisees: “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.” When those men prayed they prayed in the synagogues and even on the street corners. It seems as if they prayed a lot. They were not ashamed to pray in public and even before the watching world. But they were not seeking God in prayer, they were seeking honor for themselves. This text along with James 4:3 (given in the previous paragraph) sets out to us one of the real problems in the modern professing Church. When we pray it is for reasons of self rather than for God and His glory. A selfish heart’s deepest desire is always self in some way.

Love is the deepest language of prayer and when looked at in the depths of the soul it will tell us what our real prayer is. The Pharisees prayed and prayed but Jesus saw that their motives were for themselves in the sense that they wanted to be honored by others. In other words, they prayed to be seen and wanted the honor from others. This is the same thing as saying that they were praying to themselves and were praying for themselves. This is why Jesus said that they had their reward in full. They prayed while the deepest desire of their hearts (their true love) was that they themselves would be honored. They actually received what they really prayed for and that was the honor of men. In much the same way, then, our prayers come from motives in the heart that reflect our deepest desires. The Pharisees deepest love was for self (themselves) and that was seen in their self-centered motives when they prayed. Jesus understood that and set out their sin for all to see. We are born with the same hearts of the Pharisees. We also desire honor for others in many ways when we pray unless God has truly changed our hearts and unless He is the One working the prayer in our hearts. We pray in order that others will think we are religious and perhaps draw an “amen” from the others. We pray so that others will admire our fervency or that others would admire our deep theology and biblical knowledge. Our prayers are like the Pharisees in that we are not truly praying to God. As long as we pray out of love for self and desire the honor of men, our prayers will be answered. The problem, however, is that we would not be praying to God and He will not shine His face upon us until our hearts are turned from seeking ourselves to seeking Him in prayer. Our prayers are answered in that we obtain what our hearts desire. Despite our pious words, like the Pharisees it may be nothing but the honor of men.

The Greatest Commandment continues to stand against all of our prayers that have motives for self, even if we continue to deceive ourselves about the motives of our hearts. When we pray what we love the most is in fact what we are truly praying for. If I stand and praise God for the beauties and glories of who He is it may be that the real desire of my heart is to be thought spiritual or for people to think highly of me as I pray. In that case I would be using God and that which is to be used to exalt and know Him is really an effort to exalt myself. My deepest desire and my greatest love would be for self and my prayer would be for me to be exalted. To put this in yet another way, the person that prays like I just described is a person that loves self more than God and uses religion as a way to obtain honor and to manipulate God to his or her own will. This is a horrible thing, but unless we are truly seeking the glory and honor of God from our hearts we are in fact doing something like that with each prayer. It is not enough to pray if by that we mean offering up words with the name of God on our lips, but it is only prayer to God when our hearts love God and our prayers are moved by that love to seek Him and His glory.

Let us look at this from another view. Let us imagine a person standing in the pew leading the local church in prayer. Imagine that the person praying begins to warm to the task and his prayer begins to be fervent. An amen is heard and then more and more are heard. The one praying seems to get more fervent in the prayer. The one praying raises his voice and utters glowing and exalted works about God. The prayer then pleads with God to do certain things on earth. There is now a chorus with amen after amen ringing through the sanctuary. Let us then move a few thousand miles to a jungle where a tribe of natives are praying to their many gods. They are even more fervent and they gash themselves to show their devotion and the louder and more animated they get the more excited others get and they end up shouting praise and prayer to their gods with great excitement. It could be that there is more in common with these two services than we would care to see. But which one is worse?

The object of prayer in both of the services is self. The one praying in a local congregation desires to fulfill his religious duty and along the way to obtain honor from others. It might also increase the offering. But the real motive and intent of the prayer is self. It is an act of self-love and it is self that is the object of that love and so using the name of God is a violation of the third commandment as much if not more than a callous and worldly person using God’s name in cursing. Using God’s name in a church service to gain honor for self is worse than cursing (personal opinion) because it is using His name directly in a vain way for self. The group in the jungle is not using the name of the true God in the way that those in the local churches do. They are indeed praying for self in that they want their gods to act for them, but that is all that the people in the local church are doing if the deepest desire of their hearts is not for God Himself and out of love for God and His glory.

We can also note that both groups were fervent and grew in fervency and earnestness during their prayers. But if the love they had was not for God but instead was for self, then the fervency and earnestness that grew during the time in prayer was really the display of a greater and warmer love for self. When the fervency of prayer is increased based on an amen chorus from the people, it might be nothing more than an increased fervency based on the honor of men. Our very fervency can be nothing more than an increased idolatry of self and be nothing more than self-love warming at the giving of honor toward self. Our fervency may indeed use the name of the Lord and so our deceptive hearts may deceive us into thinking that we are really praying, but the eyes of the Lord know what the real love of our heart really is. When our love is for ourselves in our prayers we do nothing but offer incense of the heart to our true love and idol which is self. Our prayers are nothing more than acts of love to self which is the self-god in that case and so our very prayers are acts of enmity with the true God we claim to pray to.

God has turned His face from the professing Church and we will not see His face again unless we seek His face in prayer. It is not just that we need to pray more, it is that we need to really pray. We will not truly pray and seek the face of God until we are broken from self as our god and from seeking the honor of men. We will not truly pray until we love God more than self and so desire Him in prayer rather than self. We will not truly pray until our hearts are broken from using His name as an excuse to pray for stuff we want and we truly desire His face more than the things of the world. Regardless of our excuses and religious activities, if we love the world the love of God is not in us (I John 2:15-16). Seeking God is not seeking Him to get us the things of the world that self loves; it is to seek Him to deliver us from love for self. The professing Church will never know the presence of God and of what it means to truly love His glory until it is broken in heart and crying out for God Himself.

Seeking the Lord in prayer is the only kind of prayer to God that there is. Self-seeking prayer is words that seek self even if it is trying to use God to do so. Ministers can pray with great fervency that God would bless the church while their hearts desire their own honor rather than the honor of God. It is so easy to pray for God’s blessing on self and the plans of self, but it is harder when the will of God crosses our selfish hearts. Yet seeking God’s will in prayer is an important part of true prayer in seeking God Himself. But until our hearts are broken from self, we will do nothing but pray for self and we will not see the face of God. Until our hearts are given love for God, our love and therefore our prayers will be for self and we will not see the face of God. We must learn to ask God for broken and contrite hearts in order to seek His face. Even then we can desire those for selfish reasons. We need to seek the Lord for grace in order that our hearts would be broken and we could plead with Him for Himself. The Church is on earth to manifest the glory of God and it is to that end that it must pray with desire and love for that.

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Do You See the Beauty of God’s Glory?

July 8, 2008

Today we will look at two more quotes from Jonathan Edwards:

“If persons have a great sense of the natural perfections of God, and are greatly affected with them, or have any other sight or sense of God, than that which consists in, or implies a sense of the beauty of his moral perfections, it is no certain sign of grace: as particularly men’s having a great sense of the awful greatness, and terrible majesty of God; for this is only God’s natural perfection, and what men may see, and yet be entirely blind to the beauty of his moral perfections” (RA 263)

Here we have an indictment of a massive percentage of the practices of the modern professing Church. We have people running around telling others that God’s greatness and glory is seen in that He wants all to be wealthy and lavishes riches upon them. So people will repent of something and seek after religion because wealth has a certain luster and glory to it. God is glorious to the degree that He is thought to give people money. In other circles God is thought to be glorious because He delivers people from hell. Hell is set out to be awful and terrible, and so it is. But if hell is only terrible because of human comforts, then hell has not been set out for what it is. If the Gospel is there only to deliver human beings from those things which take away from human comforts then the Gospel is essentially centered upon human beings and God is human centered as well. If that is all that people hear, then they will never repent of their self-centeredness and see the glory of the God-centeredness of God. In other words, they are entirely blind to the true beauty of God and of how that beauty shines in all of His perfections and of how that glory shines in the Gospel of the glory of God. The Gospel is all about the true glory of God and how that shines in Christ. If we only set the glory of the Gospel out in human centered ways, we are being used of the devil to hide the Gospel of the glory of Christ from people (II Corinthians 4:3-6). So when people have a sense of the greatness and majesty of God, but they do not see His glory other than what is possible from a man-centered view, that is no sign of grace at all. If we are moved by a sight or sense of the greatness of God as set forth in the universe, again that is no certain sign of grace. We must be taught in our soul by the Holy Spirit and have the love of God for Himself poured out in our soul by the Holy Spirit to see His true glory and majesty in all things.

“Wicked men and devils will see, and have a great sense of everything that appertains to the glory of God, but only the beauty of his moral perfection. They will see his infinite greatness and majesty, his infinite power, and will be fully convinced of his omniscience, and his eternity and immutability; and they will see and know everything appertaining to his moral attributes themselves, but only the beauty and amiableness of them: they will see and know that he is perfectly just and righteous and true; and that he is a holy God…and they will see the wonderful manifestations of his infinite goodness and free grace to the saints; and there is nothing will be hid from their eyes but only the beauty of these moral attributes, and that beauty of other attributes, which arises from it. And so natural men in this world are capable of having a very affecting sense of everything else that appertains to God, but this only” (RA 264).

This paragraph from Edwards is simply shocking when applied to the modern professing Church. Wicked men and devils see much of the greatness and glory of God but simply do not see the beauty of His moral perfections. They see His infinity and are awed. They see something of the beauty of that and they also see how He is just and righteous. They may see what they think is His holiness and be melted by what they think is free grace. They see all of these attributes as beautiful in the sense that they see them as working for their eternal good, but they do not see the true beauty of His character. Men in academia may know more facts about God than a thousand other men, but they can still miss the true beauty of God. We have preachers who preach something of the wonders of Jesus Christ and set Him forth as beautiful and lovely for all that He has done for human beings, but all they are doing is preaching Christ as centered upon human beings and are not preaching the Gospel of the true glory of God. A man can preaching nothing but truth about Christ in one sense and dwell long and loud upon the cross and resurrection of Christ and preach nothing that will move a soul from being dead in its self-centeredness to being alive to the true glory and beauty of God.

Much has been written and preached on the assurance of salvation. In those books and sermons people are taught to look to Christ and all that He has done for them, but only in a self-centered way. Are they taught to look for true assurance in a way where God is truly holy and where His true love flows? Are they taught to look to the true beauty and majesty of God or are they taught to look to those things in a way that the devils can see and understand? Is there anything taught from the majority of the modern pulpit that the devil and an unbeliever cannot understand and at least the unbeliever have a sense of some greatness of God based on the unbeliever’s self-interest alone? Is this true within Reformed circles as well? It most certainly is. Within Reformed circles we have the intellectual truths of the Reformed faith taught and people agree that it is biblical. Some if not most see something beautiful about it, but do they see the true beauty of it? Do they see the true glory of God as God-centered in it? It matters not how much intellectual truth a person has of God if a person does not see the true beauty of the glory of God in it. After all, that person is seeing nothing more than a wicked person and the devil himself can see. Edwards is teaching us something very important here. We need to listen.

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Jonathan Edwards & God’s Love for Himself

July 6, 2008

The section that immediately follows is taken from The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards:

“So the holiness of God in the more extensive sense of the word… is the same with the moral excellency of the divine nature, or his purity and beauty as a moral agent, comprehending all his moral perfections, his righteousness, faithfulness and goodness… From what has been said, it may easily be understood what I intend, when I say that a love to divine things for the beauty of their moral excellency, is the beginning and spring of all holy affections… Holy persons, in the exercise of holy affections, do love divine things primarily for their holiness: they love God, in the first place, for the beauty of his holiness or moral perfection, as being supremely amiable in itself… The true beauty & loveliness of all intelligent beings does primarily & most essentially consist in their moral excellency or holiness. Herein consists the loveliness of the angels, without which with all their natural perfections, their strength, and their knowledge, they would have no more loveliness than devils…But though the devils are very strong, and of great natural understanding, they be not the more lovely: they are more terrible indeed, but not the more amiable; but on the contrary, more hateful. The holiness of an intelligent creature, is the beauty of all his natural perfections. And so it is in God, according to our way of conceiving of the divine Being: holiness is in a peculiar manner the beauty of the divine nature. Hence we often read of the beauty of holiness (Ps 29:2; 96:9, and 110:3). This renders all his other attributes glorious and lovely. Tis the glory of God’s wisdom, that tis a holy wisdom, and not a wicked subtlety and craftiness. This makes his majesty lovely, and not merely dreadful and horrible, that it is a holy majesty. Tis the glory of God’s immutability, that it is a holy immutability, and not an inflexible obstinacy in wickedness. And therefore it must needs be, that a sight of God’s loveliness must begin here. A true love to God must begin with a delight in his holiness, and not with a delight in any other attribute; for no other attribute is truly lovely without this, and no otherwise than as (according to our way of conceiving God) it derives its loveliness from this; and therefore it is impossible that other attributes should appear lovely, in their true loveliness, till this is seen; and it is impossible that any perfection of the divine nature should be loved with true love, till this is loved. If the true loveliness of all God’s perfections, arises from the loveliness of his holiness, then the true love of all his perfections, arises from the love of his holiness. They that don’t see the glory of God’s holiness, can’t see anything of the true glory of his mercy and grace; they see nothing of the glory of those attributes, as any excellency of God’s nature, as it is in itself; though they may be affected with them, and love them, as they concern their interest: for those attributes are no part of the excellency of God’s nature, as that excellent in itself, any otherwise than as they are included in his holiness…. As the beauty of the divine nature does primarily consist in God’s holiness, so does the beauty of all divine things. Herein consists the beauty of the saints, that they are saints, or holy ones: tis the moral image of God in them, which is their beauty; & that is their holiness” (RA 255-258).

As noted in earlier posts, Jonathan Edwards, speaking of God, said that “His infinite beauty is his infinite mutual love of himself.” In fact, without going into great detail at this moment, Edwards would say that God’s holiness consists in love for Himself. In other words, when God swears by His holiness He is swearing by His love for Himself as triune. That which gives all the attributes of God their beauty is His holiness, which is His love for Himself. As Edwards says in the above quote, “If the true loveliness of all God’s perfections, arises from the loveliness of his holiness, then the true love of all his perfections, arises from the love of his holiness. They that don’t see the glory of God’s holiness, can’t see anything of the true glory of his mercy & grace; they see nothing of the glory of those attributes.” If Edwards is correct in saying this, then it is of the utmost importance that we see this love of God for Himself, which shows what His true holiness is because in that alone will we see the true beauty and glory of God in all of His attributes.

Edwards says in the quote above that people can see beauty in God in the sense that they are affected by them and love them but only “as they concern their interest.” In other words, people see God as beautiful and have something called love for Him only because they think He provides them with some benefit. But the true beauty of God is that in which His love for Himself or His holiness shines. This shows us that studying God of and for self-interest will never give us a sight of the true glory of God and teaching and preaching self-interest is at odds with true holiness. True holiness in humans, as Edwards sets out, is the reflection of God’s own holiness and in it alone will we see the true beauty and glory of God in all of His attributes. We can study and know about the attributes of God until the cows come home (to use an old phrase) and we will never see the true beauty of God until we see God’s love for Himself as triune. We can be affected and have great feelings with a lot of weeping but those would be for nothing but self unless we see the true beauty of God which is His love for Himself. We can teach people to fear hell and to love the God who delivers them and we have done nothing but teach them according to self-interest. While it is true that we should preach the biblical doctrine of hell, until we teach people the true holiness of God which is His love for Himself we have not taught them how they should be holy and we have not taught them to love what heaven will be like. In other words, we have not taught them what it means to love God which is what heaven will primarily consist of. Certainly it is what God will do for all eternity.

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God-Centered Love is Foundational in Understanding His Attributes

July 3, 2008

As we have been making an effort to think of God as centered upon God, I would like to ask a provocative question. Can we understand any attribute of God apart from understanding how this displays God’s love for God? Can we understand the character of God apart from understanding His love for Himself as displayed in Christ? We say of the secular scientist that s/he has no way of understanding the real nature of anything apart from God. We quote Proverbs 1:7 with enthusiasm to the secularists: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” Then we go on our own self-centered ways in theology and morality. But again, can we understand any attribute of God (and therefore God Himself) apart from understanding how this displays God’s love for God?

The glory of God is a word that refers to the whole character of God as summed up. The glory of God refers to the expression of the attributes of God and to God as beautiful and lovely. The beauty of God refers to the symmetry with and within Himself and even His inward delight when the loveliness of His glory is seen. As noted several posts previously, Jonathan Edwards wrote that “His infinite beauty is his infinite mutual love of himself.” Man sees something beautiful and desirable in God in terms of what man sees as good for self. But God sees Himself as beautiful in relation to Himself and this is seen in terms of His glory shining forth in perfect beauty from within the Trinity. Now if an attribute of God is only beautiful to God as it flows within the Trinity, then for us to understand an attribute of God as truly beautiful we must understood it as it flows within the Trinity. If we want to see the true beauty of God in the fullness of its glory, we must see it as it shines in the Trinity which is how God sees it.

The joy of God is His happiness or affection of love (pleasure) that flows toward the object of true love. God’s joy has to have a perfect object and so all of His joy must be in Himself as triune because there is no other perfect object. This is seen when He speaks from heaven and says “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased” (Mat 17:5). God has perfect pleasure and delight in His own true beauty and glory which is God manifested in the Son. When God does all for His own pleasure and glory He does all He does through the Son and to see Himself displayed in the Son. God’s pleasure is the manifestation of His glory and can only be in Himself. Psalm 115:3 says that “our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.” Sovereignty is really God doing all that pleases Him, and no human being can stand in His way of obtaining His own pleasure. For God to do all that pleases Him also tells us that Christ who is the shining forth of His glory is the object of all that He does.

God’s glory is seen as His perfections shine forth in that beauty which He has joy and pleasure in (Christ). God created all things to manifest His beauty (love for Himself) and His love for Himself as triune. All that He does is a shining forth of His glory (Christ), which is doing all for His own glory and pleasure. God is pleased to see Himself manifested in the world through Christ. The unregenerate look like the devil and their best works the looks like the devil because the source is not God. For Him to be pleased He must see Christ in us, which is God looking upon us and seeing Himself (His pleasure). When it is Christ and the Spirit in us and what we do flows from grace, then what we do is a manifestation of the glory of God and He is pleased to see Himself. We must learn to live by grace and be a manifestation of His glory and in that be pleased and find joy in Him which is His joy in Himself.

The beauty of God is His love for Himself within the Trinity. It is only when we see God’s love for Himself as triune that we see perfect love in glory & beauty. We can only see the beauty of the cross when we see it as the love God has for Himself and His own glory. If we think that the glory of the cross is what He did for me, we have missed it and will never see its true beauty. We will have looked upon the cross as if it was all about me rather than a manifestation of God Himself as triune. When we do anything (religious or not) for our own honor (glory) and/or in our own strength or to please ourselves, we seek our own pleasure, beauty, and glory rather than His. That is wickedness in the form of idolatry. Even if our joy and pleasure has Him as its object, He is not glorified apart from His own glory being manifested through us and only then is it His pleasure to see Himself in us. To have joy in God as beautiful because of what I think He does for me is nothing short of idolatry. We must have joy in God in the same way that He has joy in Himself and that is to see His glory manifested in Christ and to share in His joy and pleasure in Himself. In other words, it is only when we understand and have joy in the character and glory of God as displayed within Himself as triune that we can really understand His glory and have true worship. Only then is our worship sharing in the joy and pleasure He has in Himself. In Edwardsean language, only then is our joy and pleasure in God really His joy and pleasure in Himself shared with us and in reality an instance of His own.

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The Seeking Church, Part 2

July 2, 2008

The professing Church in America and beyond is in deep darkness while it goes on with its carnal pursuits and programs. It thinks and functions like a business and so its standard of success is like that of a business. It thinks that buildings and activity will lead it to more numbers and bigger offerings. Then it thinks that the buildings and the offerings are signs of success and of God blessing it. But these things are also the signs of judgment. In Amos 8 God sent a spiritual famine on the land and the people continued with their business in seeking the Lord. They went from coast to coast and from north to the east looking for the word of the Lord. At various times when Israel was under the judgment of God their activities did not cease at all but God was not with them. In the days after the time of Christ we are in a more spiritual time. The true success of a church is spiritual and the true judgment of a church is also spiritual. One of the surest signs of a people that are religious without being spiritual is the lack of anything resembling prayer but also the lack of a true seeking God in prayer. If this is true, then we are in the depths of judgment in our day. We are given to buildings and to religious activities as the Israelites were but we are not given over to seeking the Lord from the heart in prayer. The Lord has hidden His face from us.

It seems as if we pray for God to teach us to pray and we think that once we have the proper method we know how to do it. Perhaps we should think of being taught to pray as something that must happen each and every time we pray. While it is the case that the Lord’s Prayer can be thought of as a method, we must not think we are praying because we have taken the name of God on our lips and offer up requests of Him. Prayer is of the heart and without the heart there is no true prayer. Worship must be done in spirit and truth and prayer must also be done in spirit and truth. Unless prayer is in truth and unless it comes from the depths of our souls it is not true prayer. God alone can conform the soul to Himself and teach it to pray. He does not do this just once as a permanent teaching, but since prayer is new each time He must teach the soul each time. God must teach the soul true humility and He must cast pride out of us Himself each time for there to be true prayer.

True prayer is worked in the soul by grace. So often it appears as if we think prayer is something we do that is worthy of praise or as if it is a work. True prayer is the soul communing with God and that only happens by grace alone. True prayer is the precise and exact opposite of the modern professing Church which is given over to self-love, methods, and programs. The modern professing Church goes to God and asks Him to bless its plans and to give it money to carry out its inordinate building programs and all of the things it does that makes it look like a business and the world. True prayer only happens when the soul is delivered from its own plans and seeks the plans of the Lord. True prayer is the soul being conformed to God and asking after the will of God. True prayer is when the soul is in communion with God and its desires are given to it by God and it seeks the Lord in accordance with those desires. While it is thought in our day that prayer consists of words for external things, we must know that the soul is of far more worth than the body and that should be the focus of our prayers. The soul is the dwelling place of God and so we must pray for our souls only what leads to His glory being manifested.

It is the work of the Spirit to work true love and joy in the hearts of the saints of God. Without love and joy there is no true prayer. Love is the language of prayer because it is love for God that should move us in true prayer. The Greatest Commandment is to love God with all of our being at all times and as such that includes our prayers. It seems as if we think of prayer as being a means which we seek things from God for self, but in reality prayer is a giving over of self in order to seek God for Himself. Edward Payson was known as the Praying Payson of Portland. He describes prayer like this: “From the fullness of a heart overflowing with holy affections, as from a copious fountain, we should pour forth a torrent of pious, humble, and ardently-affectionate feelings; while our understandings only shape the channel, and teach the gushing streams of devotion where to flow, and when to stop.” It is the Holy Spirit who is referred to as the springs of living water and it is the work of the Holy Spirit to give us such love and joy in God that they will pour out in love for Him in true prayer. Even when the heart is mourning for the state of the professing Church or when the heart aches because of trials, there is an underlying joy in the Lord that should bubble forth. It is true that the Lord will withdraw Himself and give us periods of dryness in order to seek Him by grace alone for grace alone in prayer, so we should not expect rapturous times in prayer each and every time. But where is prayer like this in our day? Is it here at all?

True prayer is to come to God empty of self rather than full of self as many in our day teach. But again, we must come to God asking Him to empty us of ourselves if this is to be done by grace. Even if we teach something of humility it is taught as a virtue and something we must do of ourselves. But the heart that is taught of God knows that humility is the work of the Lord in the soul casting out self and the desires and loves of self so that the life of humility which is Christ Himself may dwell in the soul. Jesus Christ is Lord over His dwelling place and He is the absolute sovereign over our soul. He is the One that can cast things out of the soul and He is the only One that cleanse the soul according to His own will.

If prayer should be thought of as the life of Christ in the soul expressing its desires for the glory of God or the Spirit working in the soul a love for God, then it is obvious that there must be humility in the soul in order to pray. We must also think of humility as the emptiness of self rather than a virtue that can be worked up. So often we hear that Scripture commands us to be humble and so we set out to accomplish that in our own strength. We see all the examples in Scripture of prayer and then we see the commands of Scripture to pray, so we set out to pray in our own strength. Here is a great error in our day. It is the idolatry of man in thinking that he is sovereign over his own soul. It is the idolatry of man in thinking that he can be spiritual by means of his own works and efforts. Yet prayer is a spiritual work and Jesus has taught us that we can do nothing apart from Him (John 15:5). We think of that which is spiritual as that which is non-physical or perhaps that which is for God. But the Bible calls that spiritual which is of the Holy Spirit. Man is not sovereign over God and so God is sovereign in the spiritual realm and not man. Spiritual prayer, then, is not the work of man in his own strength but is the work of the Spirit in the soul of man. True prayer is as much beyond the strength of man as man giving himself a new heart or of working a new heart in another person. How we must learn this lesson in our self-seeking and self-sufficient day.

It is not that the command to pray is a command to do something in our own strength, but that the command to pray is to show us that we cannot do it and that we need Christ in us to truly pray. The Law of God was not given to us to keep in order to be saved, but to drive us to Christ in order to be saved. So the command to pray is not something we can do but is to drive us to Christ in order to do so. We must be emptied of our self-strength and our self-sufficiency to pray. It is only when the soul is emptied of self does the humble Savior live in the soul and shine the glory of the Father through the soul because Christ is the very outshining of the glory of God. Only the soul that is empty of self will truly desire the glory of God for the sake of God while the proud soul may work up some deceitful form of humility and desire the glory of God for the sake of self. True prayer is far, far beyond the natural power of man and is utterly dependant upon the Spirit of the living God. That is why it cannot be done in accordance with the programs of men and that is why true success cannot be measured by out buildings, numbers, and of offerings. True success is the presence of God. It matters not if we have a million people in attendance in a church on Sunday and our building is the size of Disney. Without God we are not a successful church.

Matthew 26:42 gives us a picture of true prayer. The context is that of Christ in Gethsemane just before He was arrested in order to be tried and then crucified. “He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.'” Here is the picture of what must be the hearts of the people in prayer rather than just the words. The humanness of Jesus cried out in wanting to be delivered from going to the cross and suffering the wrath of the Father. But His heart was obedient and wanted above all to do the will of the Father. Who would willingly go to a cross and be the most wicked person in the history of the human race because the sins of others were heaped upon him? Who would willingly suffer such shame? Who would willingly do all of this out of perfect love for the Father? Only the Lord Jesus Christ could and would. We see, then, true prayer. It was seeking the will of the Father despite all the suffering that would take place and despite all the shame. It was seeking the will of the Father despite all that the world thought of Him. It was seeking the will of the Father despite the appearance of utter failure. It was seeking the Father for the strength and spiritual strength to have all those human desires in Him to be put to death in order to carry out what must be done. Until the churches in our day learn this lesson, they will be utter failures in the spiritual realm while they bask in the glory of apparent success. Until we learn that true success is dying to self which includes the desire for self to be spiritually successful in its own way, we will have utter failure despite the appearances. If Christ would have become king of Israel and the world and not went to the cross, He would have failed. Let the churches in our day look to the cross and learn what true success is rather than listen to the world. Let that instruct our hearts and our prayers. If we don’t, our failure will only multiply in the face of our outward “success” as we blindly go on.

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