Learning Spiritual Direction Training Program Phase II

Retreat • September 17-19, 2004

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 = • 2004
9
17
 19

Discernment Session I


The Spirit Assures Us of God’s Love




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Gordon T. Smith

Transcribed and edited by Waichu Luk

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When I was growing up, I was taught that emotional
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people are superficial people, and that deep people are those
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who think rationally. This kind of teaching is so contrary

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to the witness of the Scriptures that people who live from

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the depths are people who attend to what is happening to

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them emotionally. Actually, the basic question when it


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comes to discernment is: What is happening to us
emotionally? In discernment, we would like to hear the

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voice of Jesus and discern whether it is genuinely his voice.
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When we attend to the voice of Jesus, we need to respond
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intentionally to the witness of the Spirit in our hearts, in

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our lives, and in our midst.

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I find it helpful to identify the witness of the Spirit in

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having four particular expressions: the Spirit assures us of

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God’s love; the Spirit calls us to repentance; the Spirit calls
us to truth; and the Spirit guides us in times of choice. I am
going to address each of these four expressions emphasizing

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the matter of emotion.

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1
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The Awareness that We Are Loved
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The whole of the Christian life, I cannot overstate this,
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is lived out of a confident assurance that we are loved. The
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whole text of Romans 5:1-8 builds on the phrase “God loves
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us while we were yet sinners”. This is the heart of the
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• 4 •
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Gospel, that God demonstrated his love for us by sending his Son to
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the cross while we were yet sinners. There is nothing that you can
Regina
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do to make God love you more. He loved you even before you were
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born. I remember when my wife and I were flying to Regina before

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my third grandson Riley was due to be born, it dawned on me on the

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airplane that I loved Riley. I never met him; but I loved him, and I

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could not love him more. Why? Because he is my grandson. In a
similar way, God loves you for the very simple reason that you are
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his.
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I had another experience that captured this dimension of Jesus’
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relationship with us. On the day after my son Andrew got his driver’s
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license right after he turned 16, he borrowed my van for the evening,
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bringing along his younger brother Micah, driving out by themselves

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the first time. They promised to return home by midnight but were


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not home until 2:00 am, and they did not bring the key. Before I

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went down to open the door, my wife said to me, “Bless them.” So
as I opened the door, I had two alternatives. Alternative A: I am
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angry. I grant them the furrowed brow. They are going to feel my
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disappointment because they violated the mutual understanding.
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Alternative B: I love my sons dearly. Now they are home, so I

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embrace them both. I make them hot chocolate and then send them

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off to bed.

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John 21:1-17 brings us to the stunning exchange between Jesus

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and Peter. What did Peter do after he denied Jesus? Peter, perhaps

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feeling he could not face the resurrected Jesus, went back to fishing

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with six other disciples. They went fishing all night and caught
nothing. In the morning, somebody standing on the shore told them
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to cast the nets on the other side. When John, the other disciple,
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recognized that it was Jesus, Peter immediately jumped into the

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water. He made it ashore and discovered that Jesus was making
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breakfast for them. Then Jesus asked Peter three times if Peter loved
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Jesus. Here is my point: Jesus did not ask if Peter loved him until

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he had first demonstrated to Peter “I love you” by making breakfast
for him, which was the ancient practice of acceptance. Why is that
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so important? Because we cannot live the Christian life unless we

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know that Jesus loves us.
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Almost every time I tell that story about my sons, people would
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say, “You needed to discipline them and tell them what was right

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and what was wrong.” But what is the problem if I embrace them?
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Is it the great danger that they will not be formed morally? This is,
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in a sense, Paul’s concern in Romans 6:1 when he says, “Shall we

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First Evangelical Church Association Bulletin • April 2005 • 5 •

 then sin that grace may abound, because we know that grace is there?
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” Paul’s concern is to demonstrate that unless the Christian life is
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lived out of the awareness that we are loved, it is legalism and an
affront to God. God loves us. This is the point of departure in the
Christian life, and the whole of the Christian life then becomes always
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coming back to this point, to know and to live in the awareness that

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“I am loved”.

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The Inner Work of the Spirit and
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the Assurance of Love
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Have you ever heard people say, “I know that I am loved, but I
don’t feel it”? The problem is if they do not feel that they are loved,
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then it makes no difference in their lives. If I don’t feel that I am
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loved, then somehow it does not connect with the inner recesses of
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my life and it does not really transform me. Whereas Romans 5:8
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demonstrates the evidence that God loves us, notice in verse 5 what
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leads up to that: “and hope does not disappoint us, because the love

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of God is poured into our heart by the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit


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pours the love of God into our heart, such that I will stress again and


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again that what really leads to a Christian life that is anchored in the
love of God is particularly the emotional awareness that “I am loved”.
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How do we get this? We respond with the great liturgical phrases of
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the last 2000 years: “Lift up your hearts to the Lord.” “We lift
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them up to the Lord.” In modern language, it means: “Open yourself

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up to God.”

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Lift up your hearts to the Lord. But it is all too easily to keep
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my heart closed. Henri Nouwen points out that all of us have been

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wronged and wounded. For people who have been betrayed by their
spouse, parents, teachers, authority figures, or anybody who should
by right demonstrate love to them, their inclination is to close down.

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But dear people, we will not live in a dynamic awareness of the love
of God unless we start to unclose and let the Lord touch our hearts.
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How do we do this? There is the simple spiritual practice of
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thanksgiving.
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The Knowledge of God’s Love

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in the Midst of Difficulty and Suffering

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Romans 5:5 tells us, “hope does not disappoint us.” It actually
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begins after a comma, which is linked directly to perseverance in the
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• 6 •
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face of difficulty and suffering: “Rejoice in tribulation, for tribulation
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leads to perseverance, perseverance leads to character, and character
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leads to hope.” It is a very naïve Christian who does not realize that

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suffering is integral to the Christian life. Indeed the words of Jesus
in John 16:33 are these: “In this world you will have trouble.” Our
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lives in North America tend to be almost impervious to suffering.
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We think that every time we have difficulty, we can fix it with
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technology, money, or modern medicine. But the actual fact is that
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this is a fallen and broken world. Suffering intersects our lives.
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Who you are as a Christian will ultimately be determined by the

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quality of your response to suffering.

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Every time we experience difficulty, we are essentially faced
with a choice, like a “Y” in the road. Will you go this way or that
way? Will it lead to perseverance, character, and hope? Or will it
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lead to anger, bitterness, and cynicism? What leads us down one

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side or the other? It is thanksgiving that makes all the difference.
We give thanks in all circumstances, except for evil. There is no
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circumstance of our lives where we are not able in the midst of the
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darkness even to give thanks for the little point of light that is there,
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because God never leaves himself without a witness to his goodness.
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The Practice of Thanksgiving
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In the hardest chapter of our lives, during those four months of

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harassing phone calls and even death threats in the Philippines, the

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standard question my wife asked me everyday when I came home
was: “What was it today?” But what was intended by her question
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was: “What was the sign of God’s goodness today?” It is all too
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easy to describe the brokenness of the world, but a discerning
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Christian is one who is attentive to the signs of God’s goodness.
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So when we gather for worship, we do not divide between those

who have had a good week and those who have had a bad week.
We all gather together to give thanks to the Lord for he is good. We
live out an awareness of God’s goodness to which we give thanks,
and then God in his good pleasure by the witness of his Spirit
grants us the emotional awareness that we are loved. How do we
know what we are experiencing is indeed God’s love? The two
indicators suggested by Jonathan Edwards are: God’s love humbles
us, and God’s love empowers us to love others as we have been
loved.

First Evangelical Church Association Bulletin • April 2005 • 7 •