Hearing God Speak in Solitude Jonathan Rue How to Hear God Series 01/24/10 Last week we began a new series called How to Hear God. GRAPHIC How To Hear God Series And we looked at last week how clear Jesus is in the New Testament about the fact that he wants to speak to us and wants us to learn to listen to his voice as our shepherd. Now, for the last 2 thousand years the church has read the Bible and studied the life of Jesus closely and thereby come to recognize that there are a few ways of positioning ourselves that are very helpful in hearing from God, and these practices have historically been called spiritual disciplines. One Christian author named Dallas Willard points out that spiritual disciplines are necessary in exactly the same way that physical discipline is necessary if we are going to excel in any activity in life. So take a professional basketball player for example. It would make no sense for somebody who has never played the game of basketball, who has never taken a jump shot, who has never spent any time in the court playing pick up bal, to step in to a game of the NBA Finals, and think that they can perform like LeBron James because they read about him, and believe that his way of playing basketball is the best way. No way, because LeBron has spent tens of thousands of hours working on his jump shot, his dribbling skills, his defense, his Yeah-I m-going-to-slam-dunk-this-in-your-face-and-embarrass-you-dunk. More than that, he s worked on his diet, he s hit the gym and lifted weights a lot! He s running and conditioning his body. Discipline, discipline, discipline. That is how he can walk on the court and play like he does. Dallas Willard says in the same way spiritual disciplines are essential for us as followers of Jesus if we are ever going to expect to live a life that looks like Jesus. It would be foolish to think that we could become a great basketball player without ever practicing basketball. Without ever taking a jumpshot. And it would be foolish to think that we could ever become mature followers of Jesus without practicing the disciplines of the Christian faith. If you are interested in this topic, one of my favorite books on this is by Richard Foster and it is called The Celebration of Discipline. 1
IMAGE Celebration of Discipline And one of the cardinal spiritual disciplines that we have to pay attention to if we want to learn to hear God s voice is the spiritual discipline of solitude. The spiritual discipline of solitude And what solitude is is drawing away to be alone with God in prayer. You cannot practice solitude in a crowd or in a life of noise and activity and voices screaming at you. Solitude is the practice of drawing away to be alone in prayer with God. A great spiritual writer of the 15 th century. Thomas A Kempis said this If you aim at a fervent spiritual life then you too must turn your back on the crowds as Jesus did. The only man that can safely appear in public is the one who wishes that he were at home. He alone can safely speak who prefers to be silent. Only he can safely govern who prefers to live in submission, and only he can safely command who prefers to obey. Thomas a Kempis If we want to hear God s voice and connect with him in a personal way we must withdraw in solitude. I have called tonight s talk How to hear God speak in Solitude. Let s pray TITLE Hearing God Speak in Solitude Jonathan Rue How to Hear God Series 01/24/10 Well I think a great question to ask as we approach any spiritual discipline is why do it? What are the gains and benefits to doing this spiritual discipline? And with solitude we need to know why solitude? Why solitude? And I want to point out 3 things that solitude enables in our lives. And the first thing is that solitude is about silence. Solitude is about silence In Ecclesiastes the author begins chapter 3 by saying 2
Ecclesiastes 3:1,7 (TNIV) There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:...7 a time to be silent and a time to speak So there is a time to speak, to engage with people in the world, but there s also a time for silence. A German theologian of the last century named Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a great little book called Life Together, in which he distinguished the two necessary parts of life of being alone and being together with other people. Let him who cannot be alone beware of community let him who is not in community beware of being alone each by itself has profound pitfalls and perils. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation, and despair. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer So there is a time to be together with people and to be vocal and to engage, but there is also a time to be silent and the Psalmist tells us in Psalm chapter 4. The Psalmist is crying out to God in distress and despair and God s response back is Do not sin, but Psalm 4:4 (TNIV) When you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. See God knows in the moment of distress and despair we want to reach out and to sin. We want to fill ourselves with any other form of escapism and medicate our pain, but God says be silent and search your hearts. Listen for my voice to speak see when we are silent in life we are creating space for God to be loud. And we cannot hear his voice speak if we are inundated with all kinds of other voices. If we never take the time to turn off the TV, if we never turn off the voices of our friends and our family and sit alone to be with God, we are never going to be able to hear the voice of God, because his voice is drowned out by the louder voices all around us. So when we are silent and in solitude we are turning off other noises and we are closing our mouth so that we might hear God speak. This is the prayer of listening, not the prayer of speaking. So solitude is about silence, but secondly solitude is also about stillness. 3
Solitude is about stillness And is Psalm 46 God speaks a powerful and profound word when he says Psalm 46:10 (TNIV) Be still, and know that I am God BE STILL. See silence is about turning off noise and turning off our mouth so that we might listen well to God, but stillness is about calming our hearts. Bringing calm and bringing peace into our lives in to the chaos and into the swirl of our day and all of the productivity and our to do lists and all of our need to get things done. We set that aside and let our lives settle. See when we do this, what we are saying to God is, You are God, not me. And I don t have to try to make my life happen. I am not the accumulation of goods and the ability to produce, life is about more than that. Be still and know that I am God. Thirdly, solitude is about submission: Solitude is about submission And this is the second half of that statement in Psalm 46. Psalm 46:10 (TNIV) Be still, and know that I am God See when we re still God says know that I am God and this is about submitting to him. When we are in solitude with God we are submitting our life under his authority and his leadership. What biblical solitude is about is not giving yourself the space to come up with a new great idea. It is about creating space for God to speak his ideas. For you to see the world and see your problems and see your relationships through the lens of God s eyes, instead of just your best ideas. And so solitude brings us silence, stillness, and submission in our lives with God. And we see in the scriptures as we open up the Bible the greatest model of solitude comes to us in the person of Jesus Christ. The model of solitude Jesus Christ 4
And what I want to do is to run through 6 snapshots of Jesus life where he made time for solitude and the first place is where Jesus made time for solitude before starting his ministry. He made time for solitude: Before starting his ministry We see this in Luke chapter 4 Luke 4:1-2 (TNIV) Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. So right at the start of his ministry he takes 40 days to go out into the wilderness and be alone. The Spirit leads him out there. He is in solitude at the beginning of his ministry. Secondly, Jesus made time for solitude before calling his disciples. He made time for solitude: Before calling disciples And we see this in Luke chapter 6. Luke 6:12-13 (TNIV) One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. 13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles. So before making this massive decision on who is Jesus going to call to be his closest friends and ministry partners? He takes time to go out on a mountainside and spends the whole night praying to God in solitude. This is a great idea to spend time in solitude praying to God about who your friends are. Who are you going to open up your life to, who are going to be your closest friends that you can trust and make lifelong friends? That kind of a decision isn t something that you take lightly. Thirdly, Jesus made time for solitude before going to the cross. He made time for solitude: Before the cross And we see this in Matthew 26. Matthew 26:36-39 (TNIV) 5
Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, Sit here while I go over there and pray. 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. 39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. What a powerful scene when Jesus knows what s coming and he is withdrawing in solitude in order to pray to God and ask that if there is any other way than having to go to the cross and drinking the cup of God s wrath. He spends time in solitude before going to the cross. And Jesus did not only spend time in solitude before things, but he also spent time in solitude after things. And so he made time for solitude after a big success. He made time for solitude: After a big success We see this in Matthew 14, when he had just done a tremendous miracle of feeding 5000 people with only a couple of loaves of bread and some fish. So after the people eat the text says Matthew 14:22-23 (TNIV) Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. And fifthly, he made time for solitude after hearing bad news. He made time for solitude: After hearing bad news So earlier in the chapter in Matthew 14 we hear that John the Baptist has been beheaded by King Herod and Jesus hears this news about John the Baptist and verse 13 says this. Matthew 14:13 (TNIV) When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. 6
And the last one I want to point out, there are numerous more examples of this, I hope you are getting the idea that Jesus did this a lot, made time to be alone to pray to God. But lastly, I want to point out that Jesus made time for solitude when he was really busy, after a long night of work and when people still wanted him to work again the next day. He made time for solitude: After a long night of work So we se this in Mark 1 beginning in verse 32. Mark 1:32-37 (TNIV) That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon possessed. 33 The whole town gathered at the door, 34 and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: Everyone is looking for you! So I hope you get the idea that Jesus practiced solitude! He made time for solitude: Before starting his ministry Before calling disciples Before the cross After a big success After hearing bad news After a long night of work He made time for it, he withdrew to be alone with God to pray. Time after time after time, the gospels record it again and again. It was because Jesus did this that he was so clued in to what the Father was leading him to do in his life and his ministry. And it is the same for you and for me. If we are going to know what God is requiring of us and what God is calling us into and what the purpose of God are for our lives, we must spend time in solitude. And one thing about solitude that we cannot neglect, make no mistake about this; solitude is a practice. Solitude is a practice 7
See it is something that you do. It s not just that, Oh I have solitude in my heart so as I do life I don t really need to take time to be alone with God, I just kind of carry God around with me everywhere I go. That is not solitude, that s something else, that is the Spirit of God living within us, he s always in us and we can make any moment in life into a moment of prayer. But solitude is a specific practice for us to hear and discern the voice and will of God in our lives. So to practice solitude we must withdraw from people. We must get alone with God and turn off the noise of the world in order to listen to God who speaks in silence to our hearts. And this takes patience. It takes patience This is not something that you can rush, it s not something that you can hurry, it s something that you must patiently wait. Even thought a million thoughts might be running through your mind and it s so difficult to do. We have to be patient. And secondly, it takes perseverance. It takes perseverance And I love what G. K. Chesterton says about the Christian life he says "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried." GK Chesterton Isn t that true? That so many of us have not pressed in with patience and perseverance into solitude and found that, There s no fruit in this, this doesn t work, there s nothing to this. That s not the case, most of us have found solitude to be difficult and so we ve left it untried. We haven t pressed into it, we haven t spent time patiently waiting for God in silence while being alone. We haven t had perseverance in pressing in to solitude in our lives, because it s hard. It is not an easy thing to do. I love to read the great spiritual writers, but when you read them on solitude you feel like a complete failure, because for most of us solitude is extremely difficult and so I like reading from authors like Paul Tournier who was a deeply Christian Dr. and counselor who lived in Switzerland in the last century. And he wrote a number of books on silence and solitude and I want to tell you one story that he recounts about not how great he is at solitude, but at how honest he is at the difficulty of it. Slide: One time God directed me to share with a patient something that to me seemed so trivial- indeed faintly embarrassing- that only years of learning to trust Him made me do it. This particular man had been coming to see me for weeks without ever getting down to what was really bothering him. 8
One morning he asked me, How do you use the quiet time you speak of in your books? Suspecting that he was not really interested but just seeking again to avoid some subject that frightened him, I said, Let s not talk about it. Let s try it. We closed our eyes, and I prayed earnestly that he might have a real experience with God. How faith building it would be if He would give us both some inspiring message! But instead of inspiration all I seemed able to think about was the bills that were due this month. I ve got to sit down tonight, I thought, and go over the household accounts with my wife. This would never do! I should have been setting an example of prayer, not fretting over money! Then came the unmistakable directive: Confess to this man what you ve been thinking about. Well, I wrestled as I always do, but I finally got it out. He looked startled. That s my problem! he cried. I must lie to my wife about money every day because I have a secret life. How did you know? With the truth at last out in the open, we were able to face his problems together. But it might not have happened if I had tried to hide behind the façade of spiritual mentor For I have found that it is not when we are most lofty minded but when we are most human that we come closest to God. It is a truth He must reteach me every day. -Paul Tournier So let me challenge you this week to try to spend 5 minutes a day in silence before God, not praying to God and asking him things, not speaking to God, but sitting in prayer listening to God s voice in silence. Turning off the TV, turn off the ipod or radio, going to somewhere in your house where you can find silence and listening to God s voice. 9
Hearing God Speak in Solitude Jonathan Rue How to Hear God Series 01/24/10 The spiritual discipline of solitude Why solitude? Solitude is about silence Solitude is about stillness Solitude is about submission The model of solitude Jesus Christ He made time for solitude: Before starting his ministry (Lk 4:1) Before calling disciples (Lk 6:12) Before the cross (Mt 26:36) After a big success (Mt 14:22) After hearing bad news (Mt 14:13) After a long night of work (Mk 1:35) Solitude is a practice It takes patience It takes perseverance 10