The Turning (31 page)

• How can I overcome the barriers in my life that keep me from being still?

• Am I worthy to have God speak to me directly, individually?

The aim of these forty lessons is to help supply answers to all the above questions, except the first: Do you hunger for this form of direct communion with our Lord?

You must decide if this sort of experience calls to you. If so, please commit now to spending a few minutes every day for the next forty days on preparing yourself. The amount of time is less important than the daily commitment. Five minutes, ten, whatever feels comfortable.

These lessons are intended to be both down-to-earth and easy to follow. Listening to God is a
universal desire
. This means that all such lessons should be accessible enough for us all to take to heart, regardless of our circumstances.

The easiest question to answer is the last. No one is worthy. All have fallen short. But our Savior has granted us entry into the divine presence. Rest assured of this. Move beyond any such fears or sense of inadequacy. Set aside your doubts. And let us begin.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!’”
        
Isaiah 6:8

We all want to be ready when God speaks. The question we need to ask is, how do we prepare for that event?

The issue has been of intense interest to believers since Old Testament times. In the coming days, we will discuss how they spoke of this, and what they did. But here at the outset, we need to address one question first: Do you yearn for a greater space in your life where God might dwell and work?

The simple fact is, if you knew what to do in order to bind yourself closer to the Father, more than likely the step would already have been taken. But
asking
and
doing
have only taken you so far.

Now may be the time to learn the discipline of attentiveness.

Over the next forty days, we will study a series of straightforward steps that can, if you are willing, bring you to a clearer understanding of what is meant by the discipline of listening, or attentiveness, or patience. All three of these terms refer to the same act. Be still. Be alert. Be ready to receive.

We begin with a lesson that has been taught since the Desert Fathers, in the era immediately following our Savior’s death:

• When listening to God, it is important that you:
Set no goals
.

• There are three reasons for this:

1. First, you need to allow God to set the agenda. Too often the temptation we face is to put words into God’s mouth. When we are being attentive, it is important that we accept that we don’t have the answer, we don’t know what is needed. We learn to listen, so that God may redirect our attention.

2. Second, success here is not measured by God delivering a message. The aim is for us to learn what it means to be attentive. God will speak as he wills, when he wills, and in the manner he deems best.

3. Finally, it is important to remember that we are not after perfect silence. God invites us simply to make room for him. Nothing more. The perfection is left up to him.

“The wisdom I proclaim is God’s hidden wisdom, which he had already chosen for our glory even before the world was made.”
     
1 Corinthians 2:7 GNB

Through learning the discipline of attentiveness, we join in a tradition set in place by the early Protestants four hundred years ago. One key reason for the Protestant Reformation was that believers sought to retake control of their walk in faith. They wanted to forge a deeper connection directly between themselves and their Lord. As a result, they developed a group of common practices that they called the spiritual disciplines. Among these were prayer, study of Scriptures, tithing, and listening to God.

• While prayer is the act of speaking
to
God, the discipline of listening is an act of
making ready
. These days, silence is often seen as the impossible barrier. In truth, silence never came easy to most believers.

• But as these early followers discovered, listening is nowhere as difficult as some make it out to be.

• We do not stop praying simply because our prayers are not perfect. The same is true for the discipline of listening. God’s gift of His perfect Son is our beacon here. We do what we can, we take the first step, and trust our Father to reach across the impossible divide and bring us home.

• In the coming days we will form a series of Bible-based concepts to help you achieve a clearer understanding of what it means to be spiritually attentive.

• We are not here to discuss theory. This is an exercise in
drawing near
. So at this point, two concrete steps need to be taken.

1. First, commit now to spending a few minutes each day for the next forty days in silent attentiveness. Three minutes, five, ten, twenty. Once each day, twice, these are decisions you can take along the way. What is important now is to
commit
.

2. Begin now.

“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
         
James 4:10

An active part of humbling ourselves before God is accepting that our strength is not enough. That alone we cannot accomplish what needs doing. We want to grow closer to God. This is a theme that runs through the lives of most believers. When we have a moment to reflect on our relationship with God, we feel the soft yearning to draw near. And yet for many of us, another action is not the answer. Our lives are already too full of doing. What we may feel called to at his point is to stop and allow God to approach us in his own miraculous way. Too often the barrier is not a lack of desire, but rather a flawed concept of what attentiveness means. Remember what was said in lesson one: The goal is not perfection. The goal is to try.

• Since the first moment of giving our lives to Jesus, our souls have hungered for a deeper connection to our Lord. We yearn for the wisdom that might come if we listened more closely, and God spoke.

• When we stop using an impossible goal of perfect silence as a barrier to listening at all, we discover that the simple act of
trying
carries great reward.

• Therefore make a pledge to try. Beginning right now, set aside a small segment of your day. Give what you can—twenty minutes, ten, five.

• Do not seek perfection. Do not intend to completely separate yourself from the pressures and noise of your life. But do take a small step each day.

• And in so doing, you will discover what our fellow believers have known for centuries. That the act of listening can be a time of not just peace, but arrival.

• Starting right now.

Dig deeper into the theme of listening to God. Go to
www.TheTurningBook.com
for the full devotional that will help you prepare to hear from Him.

DAVIS BUNN, a native of North Carolina, has lived in Europe for thirty-five years. Davis’s academic background includes degrees in psychology and economics from Wake Forest University and a master’s degree in finance from the City University of London.  Fluent in three languages, he has traveled extensively in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Davis enjoys a particularly strong following in the inspirational market, often ranking on the Christian Booksellers’ Association bestseller lists. He has collaborated with Janette Oke, one of the leading names in Christian publishing, on a series of novels. Davis is a
New York Times
bestselling author and has garnered a number of industry honors, including three Christy Awards for excellence in historical and suspense fiction.

Davis teaches in the Creative Writing Programme at the University of Oxford, where he holds an appointment as a Core Lecturer in the subject of fiction. He splits his time between Oxford and Florida with his wife, Isabella.

To learn more about Davis, please visit
www.DavisBunn.com
.

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