Easily Interrupted?

“This is the way we have always done it” is a familiar line that almost always deadens creativity and progress. While there can be advantages to sticking to the tried and true, it does not work like that in the kingdom of God.

For one thing, God’s solutions to our problems and prayers are never predictable. There is no repetition in His idea file, no predictable pattern. Christians delight in His ‘surprises’ and those who know Him well never expect the same old, same old.

Tozer writes that the essence of our faith is spontaneity. The Holy Spirit moves in the spirits of His people in ways that surprise and bless. He calls it “the hallmark of spiritual excellency, the evidence of reality in a world of unreality.”

He also calls the ‘way we have always done it’ a “file-card mentality” that believes spirituality can be organized into a system of numbers, statistics, laws of averages, and other such natural human ways of doing, evaluating and measuring things . . . and “creeping death always follows.”

Could an opposite term be ‘hang loose’? Some use this to describe attitude of not making plans or just going whatever way the wind blows. However, this isn’t necessarily spiritual spontaneity either.

For a more accurate view, a verse from Proverbs comes to mind:

“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)

This grasps the essence of how I am supposed to live. I can pray about my day, make plans for this life, have a to-do list, yet at the same time realize that my life is governed by a sovereign God. I must yield to Him when He interrupts my plans with a different plan. The issue is listening and yielding, not sitting idle waiting for direction. God expects me to get up, eat, brush my teeth and do the normal chores of the day but not be so stuck in ‘my’ plans that I cannot drop them in favor of His.

Tozer points to this verse as a guide:

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:27)

Keeping myself pure can be a full-time occupation yet this is not about a total self-focus. It assumes that I am involved in the world and exposed to the temptations that go with it. Involvement means seeing and meeting needs as the first part of the verse says.

In biblical days the care of orphans and widows was not the obligation of a government agency but of families and caring Christians. Today, every culture has these and other needy people in various situations. Some need justice or homes or food or friendship. The thing is, we cannot categorize by making lists of who and what and keep track of how many loaves and fishes we hand out. God’s Spirit tells us where and when and what to do. We plan to do what He says so listen for that nudge and do it.

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Jesus, Tozer says many churches are in such a state that if the Holy Spirit withdrew from them, they wouldn’t find it out for many months. That is so sad. I don’t want it to be true of me as an individual. I want to hear Your voice and do what You say without responding with, “Just as soon as I’m done this . . .”