In the biography “A beautiful Mind” Sylvia Nasar tells the story of John Forbes Nash a Nobel Prize winner for Mathematics, who is stricken with schizophrenia. Under the influence of the disease his behaviour becomes more and more bizarre until he is hospitalised. When asked why he did the things he did, he replied that the voices telling him to do the bizarre things sounded the same as the inner voice that gave him his insight that won the Nobel Prize.
It seems that our head only has one voice. For me the voice that says I would like an iPad 2 “sounds” the same as when I felt God speak to me about Zambia. I thought it might be helpful to share the process we went through to decide if God was really telling us to go to Zambia...and why I won’t be getting an iPad 2 just yet!
Look for the track record.
I have been part of a Church that believes that God speaks to people today, for the last 30 years. The basis by which we judge if God is speaking is always does it agree with what God has said in the Bible. No matter how passionately we might feel God is saying something, the Bible trumps our feelings if what we feel God is saying disagrees with the Bible. However the Bible is silent about Zambia and iPads (unless you count Exodus 32:16) From time to time, I have shared with our congregation what I feel God has been saying and on a regular basis, people have said that what I have shared has been helpful for them in their walk with God. On occasions, God has spoken to people in situations about which I knew nothing. There have been many times I have heard from God. I have found it helpful to share what I feel God is saying, asking people to weigh what I am saying. I felt God saying “Risk a year” was like the occasions when God had spoken to other people through me.
Elizabeth and I had moved 11years before this, from Downham Way Family Church to Bexleyheath Community Church and we had both felt that God was leading us to Bexleyheath, coming to the same decision independently. The lessons we learnt in that move would prove helpful in discerning the way ahead for Zambia.
Take advice from sensible people.
When I returned from Brighton, I talked over with Elizabeth what I felt God had said to me. I also discussed it with the elders of my Church: John Radcliffe and Martin Honeywood and with Dave Nunn who oversees Bexleyheath Community Church. Everyone was remarkably positive! This in no way makes them responsible for what happens to us in Zambia, but if they had had misgivings, I would have taken their thoughts very seriously. We were also very heartened by the encouragement of our children to go and see what God would do.
Understand that the Gospel is about risk taking.
John Piper writes:
Is the vision of God that we savor in worship—holy, sovereign, free, gracious—is this vision worthy of all our might?
Are we committed with all our strength to instilling and supporting and nurturing this vision in each other's hearts and in the hearts of our children?
And are we dedicated with all the power God mightily inspires within us to spread this vision of the glory of the grace of God across this city and to all the unreached peoples of the world?
If so, then let us be done with wavering. Let us put our hand to the plow and stop looking back. What risk have we ever dreamed of that would be too great for this cause? Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God! And may the Lord do what seems good to him!
Take encouragement from God
Elizabeth and I had a weekend away in May 2010 and attended the Church of Christ the King in Brighton. We were hoping that we might get some encouragement and direction about our plans for Zambia but if I am honest were a little disappointed when we discovered that Joel Virgo was going to preach about offerings for the work of the Church in Brighton, but at least we could sit with our wallets secure as we weren’t members there!
Joel spoke about the charge that giving sacrificially to God’s work was irresponsible. He told the story in Mark 14 where a woman pours a flask of very expensive ointment over Jesus’ feet. The cost of the ointment was a year’s salary; how irresponsible to waste a year’s salary! But to Jesus it was a beautiful thing.
This is the key for us and the yardstick by which we will measure our time in Zambia: was it worship?
Test it.
Elizabeth attended the Lusaka Church plant day in Honiton in November 2009 and we prayed that if God was saying no, she would hear no. If she didn’t hear no, we would travel to Lusaka in 2010 to see how it felt. She didn’t hear no so, so we visited Lusaka in October 2010. We met Tony and Val Harwood who have moved to Lusaka and who looked after us wonderfully. Read their blog Let's go Lusaka.
We returned to seek God about whether we could and should “do” a year in Zambia. I knew that we both needed to hear from God. Elizabeth comments that everyone was saying to her (including me) there’s no pressure...this was quite a pressure! She felt God speak to her through a book called the Shadow of the Cross, studies in self denial, the decision was made we are going to Zambia. We are not entirely sure what we will be doing, but we want it to be beautiful for Jesus, radical worship for the King of Kings.
In the next post I will write about Zambia and the people who are part of the big adventure.
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