Which God? The Exclusivity Issue: (Part 4 of 0)

The Hard Questions: How Can I Sense His Presence? – Part 27

Some people run into trouble with their faith not because of intellectual matters such as the existence of God or the exclusivity problem (these we addressed in previous articles), but because of personal issues such as not sensing the presence of God in their lives. Prayer and providence are the two ways we connect with God in any personal, experiential way [i.e., related to experience as opposed to other methods of acquiring knowledge]. Prayer can strengthen our faith, but it can also lead to disillusionment and despair if prayers seem to remain unanswered and the believer does not sense that a real, personal God is actually listening to any request made in prayer. Although answered prayers, especially those that arise from immense distress and desperation, can lead one to sense the presence of God in a powerful fashion, there is also a huge caveat with such prayers: God has no obligation to affirm any prayer that requests a specific outcome for a specific situation. Expectations and hopes unfulfilled from prayers for specific outcomes have become a snare for the faith of many.

Until this series took a leave of absence several months ago, the articles focused on two general issues: (1) The existence of God, and (2) belief in a single Truth concerning God. We might summarize these two areas of apologetics as first demonstrating a God, and then demonstrating the God.

The former we could call the issue of theism [the belief that one God created and rules the world]; those articles focused on topics such as:

  1. theodicy [the argument in defense of God’s goodness despite the existence of evil],
  2. classical teleological arguments [relating to the study of ultimate causes in nature], and
  3. classical cosmological arguments [relating to the proof of God’s existence from experimental information about the universe].

This led us at last to consider various aspects of what we can call the exclusivity issue. Overall, the articles argued that the existence of God is more likely than not, and thus it is rational to accept theism. Further questions and inquiries, especially concerning the historical matter of the resurrection of Jesus, lead us to determine what we can know about God, moving our thoughts forward, from theism in general to the particular worship of our Heavenly Father, YHWH, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

There is no more important question or problem in life than the question of belief. As Blaise Pascal observed, if you are convinced of God’s existence, you must set your heart on serving Him. If you are not convinced of God’s existence, you must set your heart on finding Him.1However, there is more to belief than knowing the intellectual arguments; belief has an equally large experiential component. We can know the arguments and reasons for what we believe, but still find ourselves coming up empty when we attempt to catalogue our actual personal experience with God.

Most Tidings readers have no significant problem with the existence of God issue or the exclusivity issue. We are comfortable, at least at the catechismic [pertaining to simple question-and-answer instruction] level, with our answers to such questions as “Does God exist?” and “Does it make a difference what we believe?” If asked about what we believe, we can come up with some sort of theological verbiage. Some of us, however, encounter problems with our faith at another level, when we attempt personally to encounter that very God whose existence we can pas­sionately affirm. Herein we find the impetus for the next articles in this series. We want to shift from the academic questions about God’s existence to personal questions about our ability to sense the presence of that same God. We turn our attention to this topic because the question “How can I really sense the presence of God?” is a “Hard Question” of prime importance. (Of course, all the hard ques­tions are of prime importance, or they would not be hard questions!)

This question takes us into new and dangerous territory that is seldom trod or mapped. When we inquire about our personal experience with God, we are no longer dealing with knowledge resources, logic, reason, or evidence. We are talk­ing about experience with the Divine. We can know much but experience little, leaving us with an empty, unsure feeling.

  • Do I really believe what I know is true? Is my heart in tune with my head?
  • If I know God exists and is a personal God, why can’t I have any experi­ence of Him?

When we explore these questions, we are dealing with other forms of evidence and knowledge, and our approach now must take into account these different forms of knowledge.

Two levels of knowledge

To illustrate the difference between these two forms of knowledge of God, think about parachuting from an airplane or bungee-jumping over the Grand Can­yon. You know that a parachute allows a person to descend safely while falling thousands of feet. You can read the technical specifications of the bungee cord and learn that it is easily capable of preventing your headlong plunge ending in the Colorado River. You’ve even seen people perform such feats on TV or at an air show. At an informational level, you know that the simple technologies of a parachute or a bungee cord provide for a safe descent.

However, people who have actually skydived or bungee-jumped will have this knowledge at a much deeper level. I can easily say, “I know that a parachute al­lows a person to descend safely after jumping out of an airplane in flight.” But that might not at all translate into my being willing to give skydiving a go. And no matter how much I “know” that a bungee cord would support my weight after so many feet of free fall, I have zero interest in putting my life on the line to test the truth of this knowledge.

Experiential learning involves people testing in practice what they know in theory. I will never really know about how parachutes work, and I don’t think that the lack of that particular experience will, in any serious way, be detrimental to my life. But what of experience with God? In some sort of analogous way, we can believe that God exists, but still lack an experiential knowledge of God. The gap between the statement, “I know God exists”, and the experience, “I know God exists”, can lead to doubt of even the academic knowledge claim.

If our truest persuasion of God’s existence arises from experience, not “book knowledge”, what can another article possibly contribute? Certainly reading this article, or even the entire series, or all the articles in the Tidings, won’t provide any experience of the living God. We don’t experience God through words, written or oral; we experience God primarily through a relationship with the Lord Jesus (Heb 1:1). However, we can write about some of the topics and issues regarding that experience so that we can move our spiritual insight toward that end. We want to know what a genuine experience of the Divine presence would be — if and when we do experience it. And it has to be so that we must know about the Lord Jesus before we can know the Lord Jesus.

Our task for the present, therefore, will be to examine various points of discussion that bear upon the issue of knowing God in a personal, experiential way. Two topics stand out as especially suitable to this discussion: prayer and providence. These are popular areas of discussion, teaching, and writing in our community, and I don’t intend to make any comprehensive approach to these. I only want to point out certain features of them that bear directly on the matter of sensing God’s presence.

What does it mean to experience God?

Many times I’ve heard believers express sentiments on the order of “I really felt God’s presence with me”, or “I know this was an answered prayer.” Experience with God and/or Jesus seems to come in two manifestations, one being some sort of exceptional peace, comfort, or calmness — that is, an emotional response. The other type of experience is more thoughtful than emotional, but still falls under the heading of personal experience. This occurs when a believer concludes that a particular unusual circumstance, such as a deliverance from certain calamity, could only have come about via Providence. In both types of encounters, the key issue is that the experience provides affirmation of God’s love and care, and that God is indeed present and active in the lives of at least some humans.2

Both types of experience —

(a) the emotional/sense-of-presence experience and
(b) the reckoning of circumstances as Divine — are subjective and unverifiable. No one except the individual herself or himself could in any way assert that the person did or did not experience such and so. However, we are not addressing at present the use of personal experience as an apologetic tool. We do want to look at the lack of experience, or the inability to achieve such experience, as a difficulty that can lead to dissolution of faith.

We will first take up the issue of prayer and later explore aspects of providence. Remember, I will confine my inquiries to those aspects of these topics that relate to the maintenance of our faith. We are asking one of the “Hard Questions”: “Where is God? If God exists and does care about me, why don’t I experience him in my life?” This is a major issue of faith.

When prayer fails

Proper prayer never fails, but praying people can fail. We fail when we don’t find our prayers answered in the fashion we desire, and then ask where God went, not where we went amiss. We fail in prayer because we request the wrong things. We know that from James 4:3, but James also says that fervent prayer does avail much (5:16). We can ask “amiss”, but “amiss” can include more than the obvious. The following categories will cover most of what we generally reckon as “wrong” praying that won’t move God on our behalf:

  1. Asking for selfish goals or ends,
  2. Not really believing the prayer will be answered, and
  3. Failing to be in the proper spiritual frame of mind to communicate with God.

Obviously, there’s some overlap among my hastily-thought-out analysis here, but the idea is that praying “amiss” doesn’t necessarily mean asking for a pay raise or parking space. It isn’t confined to the evangelical “send us fifty dollars and we’ll pray for your kidneys.” Neither is it limited to the shallowness of the modern form of the “prayer of the just”: “Lord, we just want to thank you and we just want to praise you…” (as if boasting that nothing else could possibly be on our minds). The fact is that prayer that makes any specific request (I’ll clarify that phrase shortly) is asking for trouble. God will only answer two prayers always in the affirmative; anything else must be understood as auxiliary to the main intent of prayer.

Prayers that are ALWAYS answered “Yes”

As I just provocatively wrote, God will regard only two types of prayer always in the affirmative. Heartfelt prayers for forgiveness and for spiritual growth will always receive a “Yes”. Any other prayer request is “maybe, conditional, and not necessarily”. These others prayers are prayers for specific outcomes, and even though we can offer them with great passion, goodwill, and faith in their posi­tive outcome, God cannot regard them as necessary directives.3We pray for the safety of those we know who are traveling; we pray for the repentance of our loved ones who have left the fold; we pray for God’s healing hand to bless the sick and infirm; and we pray for the success of our preaching efforts and Bible seminars. We pray for the welfare of those at Bible school and those attending weekend gatherings. We pray for unity, and we pray for our brothers and sisters who live in lands impoverished by war and natural disasters.

There can be no question that we can be fervent in prayer on behalf of others, and we would certainly not think for a moment that such prayers could qualify as “amiss”. Probably in the strict sense and context of James 4:3, they aren’t. However, the outcomes are not always as prayed for. Our sick members don’t always recover. Generations of believers have prayed for unity in North America, but it seems as evasive as ever. The afflictions of the world befall our members just as surely as they do the population in general, even with massive prayer on their behalf. We can prepare dutifully for a preaching effort, and organize specific ecclesial prayer for God to give the increase, but the seats in the seminar room remain empty. All these examples aim to promote causes the Almighty surely endorses: the welfare, increase, and unity of the Body of Christ, causes for which we are specifically enjoined to pray (e.g., Rom 15:30,31; Eph 6:19; Matt 9:38). How then could such prayers fall short or fall into the “amiss” column? Because two other significant and weighty implications bear on these types of prayers. One of these has to do with God’s sovereignty, and the other with our own spiritual welfare.

Before I detail these, however, let me back up and conclude the brief discussion about the two prayers to which God always answers “Yes”. These are prayers for forgiveness and spiritual growth. How can we be so bold as to assert that God will always answer these prayers affirmatively? If we asked the question from the negative side, it might be more obvious: “Will God ever refuse anyone’s prayer for forgiveness or spiritual growth?” Aside from the objection that such prayer must be sincere, the answer to these requests clearly differs from a materially specific request or for a specific outcome of some trial. As for the “sincerity” of the prayer, that’s always an issue, and a subjective matter between the disciple and God. Sincerity is an issue for any type of prayer, so we needn’t place any special caveats on prayers for forgiveness or spiritual growth. Instead, consider the following Scriptures:

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him” (James 1:5).

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1Jo 1:9).

These clear “if-then” declarations tell us that God will answer these prayers with a “Yes”. God is the only true source of forgiveness and spiritual wisdom. Not only is Scripture clear here, but it is also obvious that God will always be in concord with our desires for forgiveness and spiritual growth. As for specific outcomes (such as physical healing), we have no such guarantee or assurance. In our cur­rent situation (this “mortal dispensation”), God will not always grant physical healing, but will always grant the spiritual resources we need to keep our faith during any calamity. If we focus ourselves on gaining the spiritual resources needed to deal with problems, we will receive strength, we will experience God, and we will endure the trials of life.

Praying for a favorable outcome as the main focus — while neglecting or mini­mizing God’s hand in those areas where He will surely bless — will limit our contact with God and hence our sense of personal experience. For instance, if you are looking for a job and pray fervently for God to help, you could become discouraged if God’s purpose for you at that time is best suited by your failing to get the job. However, if your prayer is that God will help you to use the situation to grow spiritually, regardless of the outcome of the job search, then you have the certainty of God’s presence and the opportunity truly to experience God as a personal being in your life.

What about Jesus’ own words?

You might be thinking of a few places that state otherwise. The words of Jesus re­corded in these Scriptures seem to give a carte blanche to our prayer requests:

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will” (Mark 11:24).

“Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:13,14).

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7).

“Truly, truly I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name” (John 16:23).

What might we want to include or exclude when Jesus says “whatever” and “anything”? Do we have any warrant to limit what the Lord repeatedly asserts? Yes, we do, on the grounds of experience, context, and other Scriptures. We have experience to the contrary, for it is plain that we do not always receive whatever we ask. James’ provisos of “asking in faith” (1:6) and not “asking amiss, to spend it on your passions” (4:3), apply in a general sense, but they hardly make sense as limiting Jesus’ open-ended invitation. It is still plain that when we pray on behalf of others, we are asking in deep faith and certainly not indulging our passions, yet we still don’t have assurance of an affirmative answer.

The context of the passages in Mark is that of forgiveness, as you will note by reading the next verse. Forgiveness is also the context in John, although it is less obvious.4In brief, the passages in John are all in Jesus’ final exhortation and appeal to the disciples. The entire context has to do with his continuing work and the disciples abiding in him. His continuing work comes under the heading of “the Counselor” (KJV “Comforter”; Greek parakletos), who turns out to be his risen self, the resurrected Jesus. John himself identifies the parakletos and interprets the breadth of “whatever” and “anything”:

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin; but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate (parakletos) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1Jo 1:9-2:1, RSV).

When John writes that Jesus will cleanse us of all sin, he is clarifying the Lord’s apparently open-ended statement made just before the offering of himself for sin. In context, “anything” and “whatever” mean “any sin”. There is no sin that is so great that we can’t find forgiveness in Jesus. These Scriptures are not just general spiritual encouragement; they assure us of the certainty of forgiveness despite whatever mess we might make of our lives.

Spiritual growth and trial

Forgiveness and spiritual growth are closely related concepts, but they differ “as far as east is from west” in their emotional and practical dimensions. Forgiveness brings the breath of life, the touch of Divine healing, the burden lifted and the restoration of our spirit (e.g., Psa 51:7-10). Spiritual growth, on the other hand, entails trials and despairs of life, as attested many places in the Bible (e.g., James 1:2-4; Heb 12:5-11). In short, the prayer for spiritual growth is very likely a prayer for pain and suffering. Is it possible to follow Jesus any other way? Yet, this is the prayer that God will always answer “Yes”, and we must remember that James 1:5 comes directly after James 1:2-4.

*****

Note: There is the specific caveat regarding the following section, “Con­necting with God”. Prayer is one of the two dimensions of faith (the other being providence) that experientially connect us with God. If the focus of our prayer life is on specific requests that are either likely to remain unfilled, or worse, telling God what we expect Him to do, we run a high risk of disil­lusionment. Expectations unfulfilled is half of the issue; the other half would be that when we reduce prayer to evangelical tokenism, we are missing a good part of what our prayer life should involve. And if this dimension is missing from one of the two avenues in which we can experience God’s presence, we will obviously suffer from some sort of disengagement. Prayer is a far too spiritual venture to have it focus on the temporal circumstances of life, no matter how much they present their urgency upon us. If we come to think of God as primarily one to go to in the day of physical troubles, the snare is set for the trap of disillusionment — a spiritual sickness for which I have yet to see a prayer request sent out for anyone. It’s almost paradoxical at one level, but thinking a bit further, it makes sense. If we get a skewed perception of how God answers prayer, we have a skewed perception of God and His overall purpose, and that will unquestionably tax our faith when we most need it.

Connecting with God in prayer

I still endorse the practice of our widespread communal prayer on behalf of our hurting members, exactly the same way as we do. But I endorse it with a wider perspective on the meaning and purpose of prayer. Remember, any prayer that requests a specific outcome (whether it be the healing of a sick brother or sister, or to get a job, or anything else) — no matter how beneficial the outcome might be on the temporal scale — is problematic. It places us in uncertain waters and emphasizes an aspect of providence that may or may not be realized. However, the very same prayer can offer absolutely certain spiritual benefits both for the people praying and for the person for whom the prayer is offered.

When we pray, we are talking to ourselves as much as we are talking to God, and we are telling ourselves what is important to us. When we find ourselves highly focused and emotionally involved in praying for another’s welfare, we know that this is an act of love, and we feel connected to that person and to the God of comfort. We have tested our hearts, and found ourselves moved with compassion. Further, there is hardly anything more encouraging to a recipient of prayer than to know that your brothers and sisters are appealing to our Heavenly Father on your behalf. That will always have a positive effect; it depends not on any outcome. Even if the person might be unconscious or otherwise unaware of the prayers taken to the highest altar on his or her behalf, the person’s support system will know that, and convey that encouragement and hope to the suffering person. We recognize the power of prayer, and we ought also to recognize the avenue of prayer’s efficacy. It is in the act of prayer that we find focus, connection with God, the sifting of our values, and the encouragement of the faithful. When we pray in this vein, we cannot fail to comprehend the presence of a living God who has a personal concern for our welfare.

When our prayers remain focused on seeking spiritual strength to cope with the problem, regardless of the outcome, we are requesting what God will surely bestow, spiritual growth. In doing so, we will most assuredly experience God, and know God in the manner that comes only through real life learning. If our prayers, however, are based primarily (or solely) on asking for a specific outcome, we will find the presence of God only if the petition comes to pass. If not, discouragement and ultimate disillusionment ensue, in many cases leading to damaged faith.

If we pray that God grant the afflicted individual and his or her support system the strength to bear up to whatever the situation demands, then we will feel con­nected to God; and the afflicted person(s) will have spiritual support no matter what the temporal outcome. The ultimate recipient in petition for another’s welfare is, in fact, our own sense of nearness with God. God will support the afflicted party in his or her own prayers to understand and endure trial, and our prayers will be in concert with theirs and with God’s will. We cannot fail to draw closer to God with this attitude, regardless of what temporal outcome God might direct for that individual, or what that individual’s free will choice has determined for his or her life.

Community petitional prayer

We have a well-developed aspect of our spiritual community that keeps us in­formed as to the welfare of our brothers and sisters. Should any of us encounter a major health, financial, or other crisis, we know that our spiritual family will be solicited for prayers on our behalf. We have a wonderful and supportive network, and I wouldn’t want my comments here to be taken as critical of those who dis­seminate information and pray for the sick and distressed among us. In our home we regularly pray for the temporal welfare of our afflicted brothers and sisters. I do want to point out, however, the perspective we ought to have so as best to use the resource of prayer. Some basics to keep in mind include:

  1. The only prayers to which God will always answer “Yes” are those for spiritual growth and forgiveness. Asking God for any specific blessing or outcome exceeds our knowledge as to what is in our eternal best interest.
  2. Anytime we pray for a specific outcome, such as someone’s recovery, we don’t know God’s will for that person. Asking for a specific outcome (usually the recovery of the person) is telling God what He ought to do. This may not ac­cord with His intentions in the matter, and thus we could be praying for an outcome contrary to God’s will.
  3. Even when we append “If it be your will” to such prayers, we are still praying for a person’s recovery, and thus we are setting our hearts on that outcome. We want the person to recover, and we are hoping to align God on our side.
  4. Everyone is going to die of something, and there is absolutely no guarantee of that being of natural causes in our dotage (see earlier articles in this series on theodicy and the fairness of God).
  5. What distinguishes God’s children from the rest of humanity is that we have an understanding of human nature and our suffering, not of any protection or expectation of relief from suffering.
  6. The greatest need of a person enduring a crisis (and of that person’s close family and support system) is that of God’s grace and peace. The suffering need to understand the meaning of their anguish and pain, and to be com­forted during the trial. “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?” (Prov 18:14). God is more interested in how we spiritually cope with the trial than in the physical outcome. If this is God’s perspective, should ours be any different?
  7. Setting our hopes on the “cure” can lead to disillusionment and even greater despair if physical restoration is not God’s will for that person. This is a major concern. If we lose perspective of our position before God and expect that we can alter the course of life by prevailing upon enough believers only to pray hard enough, then we are setting ourselves up for serious despair.

In summary, let us return to the reason I put a discussion of petitional prayer into the agenda of our Hard Questions. We have a contextual issue. We do pray appropriately, but I’m not so sure the context of our prayers is often well un­derstood. Many people do connect with God in prayer, and many others find this a vain exercise that leaves them empty and void. It is to these that I address my remarks. We can experience God through prayer, regardless of any specific outcome, when we pray in the context of what God has already taught us about mortal life before our Lord’s advent.

  1. Blaise Pascal, Pensées, #194.
  2. These types of evidence for and of a personal God fall into a category other than the academi­cally oriented arguments we have previously employed. Typically, personal experiences have very little apologetic value; they might serve to bolster the faith of the individual with the experience, but very few people would come to be believers based on others’ account of God’s activity in their lives. The use of personal testimony in apologetics or preaching work has very limited utility; their value isolates upon the individual who has had the experience.
  3. A contemporary comedian, Emo Phillips, has humorously lighted upon this principle: “When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and asked for forgiveness.”
  4. For a more extensive analysis of these passages, see my Tidings articles, “The Comforter”, August and September, 1995.