Riassunto
How do we develop a deep lasting intimacy with God? One of the problems with being a Christ follower is that we can substitute religious expressions and religious behaviors for authentic experiences and encounters without even know we are doing it. The longer we go to church the more we know the right words to say and the right things to do, but we can easily say those words and do those things without transformational intimacy with Jesus? We can start with significant, transformational encounters with God, and end up with dusty old religion.
In
Authentic, we will explore the following:
- What is religion and how do we avoid falling into its traps and snares?
- How does intimacy with God and people work?
- How do we develop depth with God and sustain it over a lifetime?
- What are the practices and attitudes that we can develop to help us draw near to God so we can learn to live an authentic spiritual life in Christ?
We don’t want to settle for the counterfeit, when Jesus offers us abundant life.
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Introduction: From Learned Behaviors to AuthenticExperience
Think about the season of your lifewhen you connected with God most deeply. When was it when you felt His love thestrongest, heard His voice the clearest, experienced His presence the deepest?I remember the first time I experienced Jesus in a significant way. It wasafter a breakup with a girlfriend in college, and I had a life-alteringencounter with the risen Christ. I felt His overwhelming love. Then, yearslater, I remember experiencing Jesus deeply in the midst of a crisis in theearly years of my marriage with Jen. I experienced God’s voice, His sustainingpresence, His daily strength, His tender compassion, and His transformationalwork. I remember the time I began to hunger and thirst for God’s presence, whenI longed for more.
I sought God with all my heart inseasons of prayer, fasting, retreating, and prayer watching through the night.And God met me in amazing ways. I was living in the floodgate of God’s presence.I could write about many deep seasons I have had with God. Thinking back onthese times makes my heart long for more of God. I don’t want to lose thepassionate edge, the palpable presence, of God in my life. I don’t want tosettle for the mundane, the routine, or the ruts of religion. I want theauthentic. I don’t just want to know about God; I want toknow Him deeply and personally. I want to experience more of His love,presence, and power. I want to hear Him more clearly, follow Him more closely,and honor Him more completely. I want to draw near to God in real and authenticintimacy.
One of the problems with being a Christ-followeris we can substitute religious expressions for authentic experiences and noteven know we are doing it. We can start with significant, transformational,authentic encounters with God and end up with dusty old religion. We can losecontact with these real connections with God and look back on them with distantmemory, wondering how we lost our way and how we get back to where we were. Orwe can chalk them off as anomalies.
After that firstencounter I had with God, I remember asking people about their spiritualjourneys, if they had similar encounters. I asked them about experiences wherethey were filled with the Spirit. Many people told me about some encounter theyhad many years ago, but it was now a distant, twenty-year-old memory. When Iasked about their current experiences with God, they were often left with aloss for words. They weren’t living in the current fullness of the Spirit. Theyhad a previous encounter they recalled with fondness, but they were now livingin a bit of a spiritual desert. And sadly, they often talked with me as if thatwere the norm.
I think there are a multitude of reasons whywe trade authentic encounters for religious activities. As Christians,sometimes we can end up doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons.We spend regular time alone with God, pray, and read our Bible every day, becausethat is what good Christians are supposed to do. Over time our motivation forour spiritual practices morphs from moved by love to motivated by duty, and wedon’t even notice the subtle slide. We keep doing the right thing, but we nolonger draw near like we once did. We keep on with the old activities, but weno longer have that fire burning in our hearts. When we continue to practicethese disciplines devoid of the authentic encounters with Jesus that lead todeep, life-changing intimacy, our spiritual life often becomes dry and shallow.At other times we shift toward religion because our rhythm becomes tired. Itwas once fresh and powerful, but now it is stale and routine. We are stilldoing the same spiritual activities, but we’re no longer seeing the results weonce saw.
Still other times we move away from the authenticbecause we are carrying unprocessed pain. We are hurt and disappointed. Webecome a little distant from God because our trust has been undermined bylife’s pain. We still do what we once did because it has become our routine,but we no longer carry the trust, enthusiasm, and passion that used tocharacterize us. Sometimes we drift into the ruts of religion because we arebusy doing so many things—good things, things with family, things at church,things for God—but we lose our first love for Jesus in the process of life’swearisome busyness.
Too often the problem is we are stilldoing the same things we were doing. So much is the same that it makes us feellike we are on the right track, but in reality we have lost our way. We aren’tdoing bad things, but our hearts are drifting from Jesus. We are no longerpassionate for Jesus like we were, and we are no longer encountering Him likewe once did. We look back on those earlier days with gratitude and nostalgia,but they are fading into a distant memory. So many other people have the samestory to tell, so we normalize it and, all the while, live beneath ourpotential.
We can be on this road toward religion andspiritual dryness . . . and not even know it, because we are doing the rightspiritual things. We miss the subtle shift that has taken place in our heartsbecause there hasn’t been a significant shift in our behaviors. Remember: thePharisees read their Bible vigilantly, yet they killed Jesus. Their reading wasfull of knowledge but devoid of revelation. They learned all the rightreligious behaviors, engaged in all of the right spiritual disciplines—likefasting, praying, tithing, and Bible study—but they missed out on authentic,life-giving encounters with God. Somehow all their religious activity didn’tlead them to the right outcome. Engaging in the right spiritual activitiesdoesn’t guarantee the right results. It could just make us religious andactually lead us far from God. It could leave us hard-hearted, judgmental,angry, and not like Jesus at all. How do we avoid simply being religious, andlive a vibrant Christian life? How do we avoid substituting learned behaviorsfor authentic encounters?
One of the keys is tolive an examined life. If we keep doing our regular routineswithout reflecting and inviting the Spirit to examine the condition of ourheart, we will inevitably end up in the spiritual desert. Jesus said, “For outof the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). The Proverbwriter said, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flowsfrom it” (Proverbs 4:23). An unguarded heart will never drift in a spirituallyflourishing direction. A field left alone does not naturally move towardabundance; the law of entropy says the field will tend toward chaos. So it iswith our souls. We need to take time before the Lord, and others, to live anexamined life; we need to be sure we are doing the right things for the rightreasons. This book will help you reflect on your life and help you root out anyweedy entropy robbing you of spiritual fullness.
Years agoI went to a conference and the speaker called the pastors up front after theservice. He and the other conference speakers laid hands on all the pastors whocame forward. There were probably one hundred and fifty pastors standing acrossthe front of the large auditorium. As these famous pastors went down the rowand laid hands on the pastors, one by one, they all fell over. By the time theyfinished praying for everyone, I think I was the only one left standing. Now,please hear me: I wasn’t resistant to receiving whatever God had for me. Infact, the whole reason I came to the conference was because I was hungry for moreof God. But I wasn’t going to fake an experience to please the people prayingfor me, or to fit in with the crowd, or to meet anyone’s expectations. I wantedan authentic experience with God; I didn’t want to act likeI had had one. I wanted a real encounter with the living God—in any way Hewanted to visit me. But I wasn’t willing to manufacture emotions or substitutea learned behavior. I felt God’s presence as I stood there, but my knees didn’tbuckle. I didn’t sense God’s weighty presence in such a way that it caused meto fall to the ground. I have prayed for thousands of people who have had thatexperience, many of whom never experienced it before. I have read about thiskind of thing, again and again, in the history of revival. It happens to Johnin the book of Revelation and to Ezekiel multiple times in his encounters withGod’s glory. But I wasn’t willing to pretend, and I wasn’t longing for themanifestation—I was longing for God Himself.
Did every other person in line experience a powerfulencounter with Jesus that caused them to fall over? Maybe. Were there somepeople who took a courtesy fall because they learned that was the expectedbehavior? (When a holy person prays for you, that’s what you’re supposed todo.) I don’t know. Is it possible God had something for all of them and not forme? Sure. But I do know that I just wanted God for Himself,not for any particular experience or manifestation. When we substitute learnedbehaviors for authentic encounters, we are in danger of spiritually driftingfrom the source of life. We begin to substitute something learned for somethingreal, and the problem is, if we are not careful, we will convince ourselves wehave the real when all we have is a learned behavior. I don’t want to findmyself resisting God, nor do I want to find myself pretending to meet someexpected spiritual standard. I just want the real; I want to know God Himself.
John Wesley was one of the great revivalists in history.Yet Wesley was most often rejected by the church of his day. He was unwelcomedby his own church, the Church of England. When Wesley entered a new town topreach the gospel in the open fields, there were often clergy and other peoplefrom the Anglican church who met him along the road with jeers and derision.There were even times they threw rocks at Wesley because they thought he was aheretic. These rock-throwing religious zealots who attacked the great preacherfelt like they were doing a service to the church and to God, yet God was usingWesley to bring hundreds of thousands of people to know Jesus. Many Christianswere revived under Wesley’s ministry; entire regions were transformed by theSpirit of God through Wesley’s work. Yet people resisted him and fought againsthim in the name of God. How did they miss what God was doing in their day?
I surely do not want to miss what God is doing in my day.Listen, here is the scary part: they thought they were right. They wereconvinced they were doing good. Like the Pharisees before them, they resistedthis upstart movement in the name of God. They were passionate, zealous, andreligious, but they were missing out on a real move of God. They hadsubstituted the learned behaviors of religion for authentic experiences oftransforming encounters with Jesus. And they didn’t even know it. God wasvisiting them in one of the greatest spiritual movements in the world, and theywere missing it.
God help us. I desperately want to avoidthat in my life. I want to love Jesus most of all, represent Jesus well toeveryone I encounter, and follow Jesus with my whole heart. I want to knowJesus personally, and not just know about Him. I want to encounter Him,experience Him, and be transformed by His presence. I want to cooperate withGod to foster fresh moves of the Spirit; I don’t want to find myself fightingagainst God. I want to avoid the pitfalls of religion and live an authenticChristian life, a life in touch with a fresh flow of the Spirit day by day. Iwant to be known more for Who I stand for rather than what I stand against.
I am a bit of a history buff; I love reading biographiesof people who have made history. I have read over one hundred biographies ofAbraham Lincoln, for example. But I don’t know Abraham Lincoln. I know abouthim. I never had a chance to know Lincoln because he died long before I wasborn, so I have never been able to interact with him personally, talk with him,share my life with him, or spend time with him alone in a personal encounter.But God isn’t like that, and my relationship with God can and should be muchmore personal than that. He doesn’t just record what He is like for us in abook so that we can know about Him like any other historical figure. He isalive. He speaks, He reveals Himself, and He makes Himself known to uspersonally. Jesus has risen and we can not only read about Him, we canencounter Him, experience Him, know Him, and hear from Him directly through theillumination of Scripture and through His direct communication. His risen presencecan touch our souls, our bodies, awaken our hearts, and visit us intimately. Wecan actually draw near to Him, much like we can experience and know our livingfriends—not like we read about with a historic figure. Yes, He reveals Himselfdifferently, but it is no less personal and no less real than a humaninteraction.
The problem is that it’s easy to fall into allthe outer trappings of a religious life without experiencing the inner workingsof God. The pages of history are replete with fakers and resistors. I want toavoid both traps. I want the authentic.
Why do so many people fall into this religious ditch alongtheir spiritual pilgrimage? We are people of routine. Most of us have a set ofroutines we follow every day. When I come home after driving someplace, Ifollow the same routine every time: I put my wallet and my keys on my dresserin my bedroom. I follow the routine so I’ll know where these important itemsare. Doing this becomes rote, and these routines make our life easier tomanage. They help us. But sometimes our routines can get us off course. Forexample, if I’m in a conversation with someone while driving and I’m notthinking about where I’m headed, I’ll start driving on autopilot and go in thedirection I travel most often. As I start toward my most common destination,Jen will say to me, “Um, we aren’t going to work.” In that instance my routineno longer helps me; it leads me off course.
Every day, oneof my routines is to spend time alone with God. It’s a great routine; it is amagnificent discipline to develop. I have benefited immensely from thatroutine, and I want to continue the habit of engaging in spiritual practicesevery day. That discipline has helped me know my Bible, meet with God regularly,and prepared me to encounter His presence and hear His voice. It’s been anintegral part of growing up in Christ and getting to know Him more personally.I don’t want to lose my routine. But I do want to be aware of the dangers ofthis routine. I can easily put my time with God on autopilot and end up goingsomeplace I wasn’t intending to go. When my routine becomes a rut, I becomereligious. If I’m not careful, I may find myself reading my Bible and praying,but not going deeper with God, not becoming more like Jesus, and not maturingin love for God and people. The real problem is I may measure my maturity basedon my knowledge of the Bible and my participation in these spiritual practicesand not realize I am headed far from my intended destination. If I’m notcareful, I may end up settling for the outer workings of religion and miss outon transformation.
Jesus said, “Not everyone who says tome, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do thewill of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord,Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and inyour name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knewyou. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:21-23; [Today’s NewInternational Version, which will be the predominant version in this bookunless otherwise stated). Jesus could have said that many will come on thatday, saying, “Haven’t we read our Bible, preached many sermons, taught manyBible studies, served at church, prayed in tongues often, and engaged in a hostof other good spiritual activities?” But if all these religious activitiesdon’t lead us to love and obey God and now Him intimately, what good are they?The activities are a means to an end, not an end in themselves.
How do we develop a deep, authentic Christian life withoutfalling prey to the religious snares? That’s what I want to talk about in thisbook. I want to look at how we can tell when we are falling into the trap ofreligion. We will pay particularly close attention to the Pharisees in thegospels because they often exemplify what a religious life looks like—in allits worst aspects. They serve as a lesson and warning to us all. We will learnfrom them what religion looks like so we can avoid it and live a deep, intimatelife with God.
We will also talk about howintimacy is developed—and not just with God but with others as well.What are the components of intimacy? What can we do to develop true intimacywith God and people so we can fulfill the first- and second-most importantcommandments: love God and love people? Why does our intimacy get stunted andstalled, and how can we get out of the ruts and back into the deep waters ofauthentic experience?
We will look at ten shiftswe can make, attitudes and practices we can engage in so we can livewith freshness in our relationship with God. These practices and attitudes canlead us to authentic encounters that result in deep life change andsoul-satisfying intimacy. I will offer you some exercises along the way thatcan be helpful to developing an authentic Christian life.
We all fall prey to religion from time to time, and,periodically, every one of us needs renewal. That’s one of the great lessons ofchurch history. Sadly, as I travel the world, visit churches, and talk toChristians, I see a lot of religion. For most of these believers, it isn’t thatthey will die and not go to Heaven. It’s more that they’re missing out on what couldbe on earth; they have settled for too little. I see a lot of religious peoplewho need renewal. But all too often they don’t realize they are religious; theyhave taken a wrong turn and are driving on autopilot, but they don’t realizethey are headed in the wrong direction. You can’t get out of the trap ofreligion if you don’t realize you are ensnared.
One of thetraps of religion is that we learn all the right language. We know the rightwords to say, and we assume because we know the language and can speak theright words, we have the right experience. But that isn’t always true. In themovement I am part of, The Christian and Missionary Alliance, historically wetalked and wrote about “the deeper life.” This was part of the old holinessmovement and language of the deeper life. It communicated concepts of living aholy life that came out of an intimate relationship with Jesus and wasempowered by the Holy Spirit. Over time people continued to speak the deeperlife language, yet they missed the experiences of those who had gone beforethem. They talked about the deeper life, but they were living in the shallow,stagnant waters of religion. The problem is because we know the right words,and we can state the doctrines and quote the right verses to support thosedoctrines, sometimes we don’t know we are missing the authentic. We assumeknowledge means mastery, but knowledge without revelatory experience that leadsto obedience only results in religion. When our knowledge isn’t combined withthe appropriate experiences with God, we fall into the ruts of religion. Andtoo often we have substituted words for encounters and learned behaviors fortrue experiences.
Often for religious people to experiencerenewal, new language is going to be required. The new language creates anupdated presentation of old concepts to make them new and fresh again. It helpsus live an examined life. We begin to see where we are missing out, and westart to hunger for the real and authentic spiritual life. We begin to see howwe have settled for less, and we begin to long for more. We need to stop,pause, evaluate our lives, and make changes that are necessary for renewal. Weneed to move past dusty old religion and into the deep waters of life inChrist.
One day one of our denominational leaders came tome and thanked me for writing on the deeper life. He said I had taken all theold concepts of the deeper life and put them into fresh language so a newgeneration could tap into the old wells of rich experience. Ultimately, my goalwasn’t really to create new language for the deeper life; my goal was to createauthentic experiences that led to renewal, and that required fresh language. Sooften religious people need to hear old concepts again, as if for the firsttime, so they realize there is something more. That’s the nature of thisjourney. We have to update our language, revive our experiences, revisit ourencounters, reawaken our hearts, and move from old, learned routines to freshnew experiences with the living God. That’s where I want to take us in thisbook—from the religious to the authentic.
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