Guarding His Flock Ministries

Paul to Timothy: a pastor's job description.

"I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." 2 Timothy 4:1-2, KJV

A standard joke about pastors is that they have the easiest job in the world—they only work an hour a week on Sundays! However, for those inside the ministry, who daily face the emotional, mental and spiritual stress that God's calling places upon them and their families, it is no joke. There are people to counsel, meetings to attend, hospital calls to make, funerals to conduct, administrative duties to attend, and sermons and Bible studies to prepare. Incessantly, the beat goes on. God's high calling oft times extracts a high price on those involved in local church ministry, which is why quitting the ministry in these times has become epidemic amongst pastors. In local church ministry, the stay of youth pastors can be measured in months and senior pastors in a few years.

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A study of 1 Thessalonians 5:19.

"Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances." 1 Thessalonians 5:19-20, NASB

In The Bible the work of the Holy Spirit is sometimes likened to fire (See Isaiah 4:4; Revelation 4:5.). On the Day of Pentecost when the Spirit came in His fullness upon the believers who waited, "there came a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house . . . And there appeared to them tongues as of fire . . ." (Acts 2:2-3).

Fire has many uses in life. It provides warmth in the winter. It allows for the preparation of food, or driving an automobile. In fact, fire is essential to life. Without the continual burning of the sun, earth, as we know it, would die a cold death. So when the "tongues as of fire" appeared on the believers that first Pentecost, that event indicated that the sovereign God was infusing into the church new life from above. But having received it from the Holy Spirit, maintenance of that life becomes the responsibility of individual believers and churches. So in his letter to the church at Thessalonica, the Apostle Paul commanded, "Do not quench the Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 5:19).

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Do people really see Jesus today?

"Jesus said to him, 'Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed'." John 20:29

Now and then, people claim to have physical sightings of, close encounters with, and mystical visions of Jesus. Once upon a time, evangelist Oral Roberts saw Him.

I felt an overwhelming holy presence all around me. When I opened my eyes, there he stood-some 900 feet tall, looking at me. . . . He stood a full 300 feet taller than the 600-foot-tall City of Faith. There I was face to face with Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God.[1]

Once upon a time, Jesus visited a Texas man in an Oklahoma motel room. "He looked like his picture," said George Wood, "but when you're talking to the man for three hours, you forget the details."[2]

Another person reports her visionary experience.

Hello, My name is __________. I have had encounters with Jesus Christ . . . My first vision was when I woke one day. I looked over at my alarm clock and saw that I still had a minute left before the alarm was set to go off, so I closed my eyes and thought "great, I'll get one more wink." Then I felt sort of paralyzed and saw Jesus Christ's eyes looking at me! They were his eyes only. They were green with a hint of yellow and twice the size of a human's eyes. . . . I can not say how long it lasted because it seemed that time had stopped. The next thing I know I opened my eyes and saw that my clock still had one minute left![3]

These "close encounters" with Jesus Christ raise issues about the present nature and appearance of His body, its current location, and the meaning of His second coming.

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Contemplative prayer and Psalm 62:1.

"Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation." Psalm 62:1, KJV

Supporters of silent waiting in cite such Scriptures as 1 Kings 19:12, Psalm 46:10, and Psalm 62:1 to encourage the practice. Regarding the last mentioned verse, Richard Foster writes:

Contemplative Prayer is the one discipline that can free us from our addiction to words. Progress in intimacy with God means progress toward silence. "For God alone my soul waits in silence," declares the Psalmist (Ps. 62:1).[1]

But does David's description of waiting in silence qualify as a proof text for practicing listening prayer?

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Habakkuk 2:20 and contemplative prayer.

"But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him." Habakkuk 2:20

"Without a doubt" writes one prayer trainer, "the most difficult step in intercessory prayer is this one--keep silence, be still."[1] Along with nine other biblical passages, the online adviser cites Habakkuk 2:20 to teach:

It is the mandate of God that we still ourselves before him in order to find his peace and hear his voice. So thus we have as the first and most important step in the believer's prayer life to still ourselves before the Lord.[2]

The BE STILL DVD also employs the Habakkuk verse to invite viewers to practice contemplative, centering, or listening prayer.[3] But as cited by contemplatives along with Psalm 46:10 ("Be still, and know that I am God"), is this prophetic verse a superficial use of scripture that ignores the verse's real meaning?

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Benjamin B. Warfield on Contemplative Mysticism

Of all the conceivable forms of enlightenment, the worst is what these people call the Inner Light. Of all horrible religions the most horrible is the worship of the God within. Anyone who knows anybody knows how it would work; anyone who knows anyone from the Higher Thought Center knows how it does work. That Jones should worship the God within him turns out ultimately to mean that Jones shall worship Jones.[1]

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are . . . mighty in God for . . . bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ . . ." Paul, 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, NKJV

As endorsed by a glut of books written by its various leaders and authors, the pan-evangelical movement--that "once-upon-a-time" embraced the Reformation principle of sola scriptura, that Scripture alone is sufficient in matters of faith and its practice (2 Timothy 3:16)--is promoting and embracing mystical spirituality. Because parachurch ministries, local church pastors, and spirtitual directors encourage practices of spiritual formation, increasing numbers of devout souls are uncritically engaging the contemplative disciplines. For reason that they desire a closer walk with God, these sincere souls engage in spiritual techniques which they hope will open new doors and vistas of spirituality to them.

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Does saying "breath prayers" make us God's "best friends"?

"Pray without ceasing." 1 Thessalonians 5:17, KJV

To direct people on a spiritual journey for 40 days, Rick Warren wrote The Purpose Driven Life. The bestselling book has impacted millions of persons. Some of Pastor Warren's purpose involves recommendations for "Becoming Best Friends with God." To become God's friends, the author shares six secrets, one of which is practicing God's presence by being in "constant conversation" with him. After quoting 1 Thessalonians 5:17 ("pray without ceasing"), Warren asks how a Christian can practice unceasing prayer to which he answers:

One way is to use "breath prayers" throughout the day, as many Christians have done for centuries. You choose a brief sentence or a simple phrase that can be repeated in one breath.

Then after providing ten examples of short biblical phrases that could work as breath prayers, Warren advises "Pray it as often as possible so it is rooted deep in your heart."[1] In this context, Warren also cites the book of Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), The Practice of the Presence of God, who advocated experiencing God's presence in the most menial of circumstances by praying short conversational prayers throughout the day. The Roman Catholic practice of praying the rosary is akin to breath prayers.

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Contemplative prayer and "the Elijah experience" of 1 Kings 19:12.

"And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice." 1 Kings 19:11-12, KJV

Elijah's Mt. Horeb experience, when he heard "a sound of sheer silence" (1 Kings 19:12, NRSV), stimulated in the church a tradition of desert spirituality which pursues solitude in order to experience the divine presence and hear God speak.[1] Practitioners of lectio divina (i.e., reading sacred things) also desire such encounters. They say:

When we read the Scriptures we should try to imitate the prophet Elijah. We should allow ourselves to become women and men who are able to listen for the still, small voice of God (I Kings 19:12); the "faint murmuring sound" which is God's word for us, God's voice touching our hearts. This gentle listening is an "atunement" to the presence of God . . .[2]

About Elijah's experience of hearing God's "still small voice" (KJV, NKJV), questions arise. Does 1 Kings 19:12 endorse contemplative spirituality? Was the prophet's encounter with God in the cave on Mt. Horeb/Sinai a mystical "atunement"?

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What might it all mean, and where might it all lead?

"Therefore I make known to you, that . . . no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit." 1 Corinthians 12:2, NASB

Amongst pan-evangelicals nowadays, there’s a lot of talk . . . talk . . . talk . . . going on about “Jesus,” the name that bespeaks the humanity of the historical person known by that name. The best selling religious allegory The Shack humanizes Jesus as a relatively unattractive Middle Eastern Jewish man with a “big nose” who functioned as the retreat center’s repairman.[1]

At face value, there is nothing wrong with portraying Jesus as human. In Jesus, God became incarnate. Paul the Apostle wrote, Jesus was “made in the likeness of men . . . [and] found in appearance as a man” (Philippians 2:7-8). Christians cannot deny—though Docetism, an ancient heresy in the early church, taught that His body was not real, that He only “seemed” (Greek, dokein) to have a body—Jesus possessed and possesses a genuine humanity. To counter the false teaching of Docetism, John the Apostle wrote that “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,” and that “many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh” (John 1:14; 2 John 7). For reason of His incarnation, no true Christian believer denies Jesus' humanity. But with all this “Jesus-Jesus-Jesus” talk, believers ought to be concerned that a Christ-identity crisis is going on amongst professing evangelicals as they attempt to deconstruct the traditions surrounding Jesus in order to discover the authentic Jesus of the primitive gospel.

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Contemplative, or Listening Prayer and Psalm 46:10.

"Be still, and know that I am God . . ." (Psalm 46:10). Those promoting contemplative or "listening" prayer refer to this Scripture as a biblical endorsement for pursuing this spiritual discipline. As a precondition for experiencing Soul-to-soul communication from God, contemplative Christians advocate cultivating quietude for the purpose of creating a spiritual tabula rasa (i.e., Latin for blank slate) in which personal communication from God can be received. Influential Christian leaders and spiritual directors encourage listening prayer (praying without words) as a means to experience "God's guidance in everyday life." At face value, Psalm 46 verse 10 appears to endorse this increasingly popular but ancient and mystical way to pray.

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