Power to Live

For all of my life I have been a Christian and a member of a church body. There were brief periods when I was a member of more than a single church and denomination. Educated Catholic, mentored by Disciples of Christ and preached to by Baptists, I thought I had enough religious preparation for my coming years. But with all of the above I found myself wanting and desperately seeking some direction for my living. You see it was my living that needed assistance. All of my prior religious experience prepared me for dying and death. Heaven being my focus and goal left me without substantial information on what to do on this earth before I arrived in the Kingdom.

Now what happened to me is exactly what I don’t want to happen to everyone else. I stumbled, backslid a couple hundred times, made mistake after mistake, bad choice after bad choice, had disaster after disaster, calamity after calamity, good fortune, bad fortune, then good fortune and bad fortune again. I literally spent the first forty-two years of my life confused and disoriented. There were some successes and achievements however my spiritual ability was null and void. What I accomplished, I accomplished, and what I accomplished, I could not sustain. My life was the proverbial roller coaster with countless numbers of “ups and downs.” What I longed for was some kind of spiritual stability that would influence my life, my living. I had the seed of God’s Word planted in me, but it was ineffectual because I did not know how to activate it.

Here is the problem; the manner by which I received God’s Word did not take firm root. I heard it but I did not truly receive it. How many sermons have I heard? Thousands. How many sermons did I need to hear; one which would take root in me. I needed one good message teaching me how to live and how to apply God’s Holy Word to my daily living. All of us need to know how to manifest our faith into daily action. As I look back I realize that most of the sermons I heard did not have enough “how to” information to manifest them into my living. Nothing profoundly touched me. It is not my point to simply decry my pastors of the past. They were all good men, serving God to the absolute best of their ability. It was, and still is to some degree, the culture of the church that left the void. Some people come to church looking for God and the church gets in the way. It is the culture of some churches that prove counterproductive to successful living. My Catholicism was wrapped in mysticism and I never bought into that. As a Disciple of Christ member I was bored and as a Baptist I was bewildered.

Faith does come by hearing, but what type of hearing? I suggest that we need to be taught how to hear. I listened, but I did not hear. I remember the story of Ray Charles, the singer, blind from his early childhood being confronted by a policeman when caught driving a car with the assistance of an employee. The policeman asked the singer, “Why do you think you can drive a car Mr. Charles?” Charles replied, “I’m just blind, that does not mean that I can’t see!” Ray Charles understood that he could see through the eyes of others, however blind himself. There are times when our vision is impaired and we need guidance. There must be willingness and a longing when we hear God’s Word. There must be a “seeking-after” attitude that creates the pathway from the ear to the heart. Pastors and preachers must know that homiletical perfection and hermeneutical excellence will not always accomplish the task of delivering a good sermon. The power in preaching is in what comes from the heart to reach another heart. I will dare to say that the power of one good testimony will out perform most sermons. But we preach, and continue to preach, for the purpose of faith. It is the duty of the listener, the worship attendee, to seek after the manifestation.

The Word of God must flow from the ear to the heart. Without reaching the heart it lies dormant and unattended in the mind. If we sit in worship service and simply listen we won’t learn. Our listening must be accompanied by an opening of the heart. We must listen by inviting the words to penetrate into our deepest and secret place. We must allow the words to have full consideration before the enemy has time to convict us with some form of doubt. A sermon must be eaten, consumed. This is why the Lord often instructed His champions to eat the words. Our ears are direct channels to the mind, but in Christ we allow the words to flow directly to the heart.