“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matt 5:8)

Introduction

Recently we had a week of sustained prayer for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) here in Perth[1]. During this time, men, women, children, young, old, Chinese, Indians, Africans, Indigenous and people from all sorts of churches united together in Christ and prayed concerning the success of CHOGM and the penetration of the kingdom of God into all the realms of society and culture[2]. Whilst the Australian Church is generally preoccupied with its own narrow concerns on this occasion the emphasis was lifted to an international level. This reflects the reality of which we should constantly be conscious, Christ is “Lord of all” (Acts 10:36). As Abraham Kuyper, Prime Minister of Holland famously said around a century ago, “Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’” Everything inside and outside of us belongs to Jesus, and to bring everything it all into his glory must be the passion of our lives (Eph 3:21). No true Christian could deny this call, but the absence of the manifest glory of God in our nation and Church testifies that our words do not match the state of our hearts (Isa 29:13 cf. Rom 10:9).

After the week of prayer many people were filled with enthusiasm to go on with the next step in seeing revival come to our town; but I was personally filled with a sense of deep vulnerability. Since this painful sensitivity turned me to prayer I know that it was a share in the sufferings of Christ (Phil 3:10; Col 1:24), it has led me to reflect on a deep inner issue which bring tremendous grief to the heart of God[3]. This is the perpetual human tendency to turn from childlike simplicity to God-avoiding complexity.

Simply Created

One of the outstanding features of the creation story in Genesis 1[4] is its simplicity; God’s Spirit is moving and when God speaks things simply come into being.   This immediacy of creation applies also to the making of man and woman by the uttered Word of God (Genesis 1:26-28). In Genesis 2 the in-breathing of the spirit of life into the nostrils of the first man is similarly straightforward (2:7). Consequently, Adam and Eve enjoyed a Jesus over the City, Wesley Uniting Church Chapel Perth17:26, 29). As long as the Word of God remained in their hearts the first couple were indwelt by the glory of God (Isa 43:6-7; 1 Cor 11:7). At this stage of the human story, Adam and Eve were innocent children[5] who, knowing no good and evil, lived shamelessly before God and one another (Gen 2:25).

There was however one command of God that opened up an intriguing possibility. “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”” (Genesis 2:16-17 ESV)  Whatever “the knowledge of good and evil” meant at the time to Adam, the divine warning surely shattered the naive atmosphere of Eden.

Fallen Children

Enter the devil; “He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1 ESV). This is the first recorded question in scripture, and it was asked with a motive that marked it out as evil, for Satan questions God’s Word in order to put the LORD in the wrong and himself in the right. Eve was faced with an immediate decision, to internalise the snake’s accusation or proclaim the truth of God’s Word as a good Word. This was a real choice because the Word of the Lord concerning the tree indwelt both her and Adam, and the abiding glory of the presence of God in them had the power to protect them from evil. In rejecting God’s glory and turning to evil the first humans set up a pattern that has been relived in all our own lives[6]. The implications of siding with the devil are indescribably horrible.

“Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3:7-8 ESV)

It is not so much their physical eyes that were opened, but the eyes of the understanding of their hearts (Eph 1:18), or what we would call their conscience. The accusing question originally pointed against God is now directed by a Satan-inspired conscience inwards producing an ineradicable sense of guilt and shame. Instead of the simplicity of innocence Adam and Eve are driven to shield themselves from each other and the presence of the Lord by all available means. The sewing of the fig leaves represents the perennial human tendency to use whatever lies at hand to avoid a face to face confrontation with the presence of God. Having abandoned the glory of God (Rom 3:23) all fallen queries about the meaning of spiritual and material reality will be asked from the heart of a humanity that sees itself as a Fatherless cosmic orphan.

Stitched Together Still

Having abandoned the glory of God the conscience of every fallen human person is permeated with shame and guilt. These are not merely psychological states of mind but ineradicable life-conditions that carry the memory and expectation of divine judgement as something deserved[7]. Such a disturbing condition is intolerable and must be covered over by all possible spiritual, psychological, material and corporate means.

A world that has abandoned God can never stop questioning[8]. In the realm of religion, philosophy, science, education, law, health, business, family life etc; Adamic humanity constantly asks questions about the functioning of the created order, but in a manner that serves to justify itself and protect the threat to its own heart from the ever present implicit judgement of God. God-avoidance is the great fallen enterprise[9] and requires the creation of a complete alternative worldview. This is the common foundation behind paradigms as diverse as capitalism, communism, post-modernism, psychoanalysis, Buddhism, Islam and so on; all thought systems whose centre is not in Christ are mechanisms for evading the divine presence.

Humanity’s anti-God project is no simple task and requires a community of specialists, an elite of counterfeit “prophets, priests and kings” whose claim it is to show men and women the way to the good life. These were once termed seers, shamans, gurus, or emperors, but in today’s world are called business analysts, psychologists and neuroscientists[10]. It does not matter what the latest experts are called, but wherever Satan holds sway[11] they are unwitting representatives of an anti kingdom whose chief aim is to function as a counterpart of God’s kingdom and to substitute human for divine glory (Isa 42:8; John 5:44). Such a situation is appalling and disastrous, but since it is the customary spiritual atmosphere that surrounds us, all cultures are characteristically oblivious to its reality.

The fool may say in his heart, “There is no God” (Ps 14:1; 53:1)[12], but God has never abandoned man. The Lord upholds dignity and order in the physical and moral universe by a common grace extended to all without exception[13]. The “only wise God” has a saving plan for the redemption of the human heart.

Redeeming the Heart

From Abraham on God’s plan of salvation reveals that he has a single desire, to find a man after his own heart (Acts 13:22). The goal of the Law of Moses was not obedience to external commandments but a circumcised heart full of love for God and tenderness towards to his will (Deut 10:16; 30:6; Acts 7:51)[14]. The rationale behind Solomon’s Temple was not that the LORD required countless sacrifices (Am 5:25) but that his glorious presence might dwell there as he promised, “My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.” (1 Ki 9:3). Sadly however the old covenant always lacked the ability to cleanse the human heart from the power of sin (Heb 10:1-4). Israel consistently lapsed into idolatry so that by Ezekiel’s day false images had been taken into the interior of the Temple itself; the habitation of God’s very heart. This created an unbearable grief for the Spirit of God so that in great pain the glory of the LORD departed from the temple (Ezek 8, 10-11) never to return.  All however was not lost. The prophets spoke of a new and unbreakable covenant written on the human heart (Jer 31:31-34); the presence of God would no longer dwell in a house made by human hands (cf. Isa 66:1-2) but within a humanity given a new heart and a new spirit (Ezek 11:19; 36:26). The glory of God would find a way to fully indwell humanity, this way is Jesus.

Jesus: a Heart Exposed

John says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14 ESV). The humanity of Jesus was the visible manifestation of the glorious presence of God because in him the Spirit lived without measure (John 3:34). Most Christians think that Jesus was able to heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons and feed the hungry because he possessed a special power not available to us. This is a deep confusion. When Christ said, ““Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.””(Matthew 5:3 ESV) he was merely speaking from his own experience. It was the simple uncomplicated condition of his own heart towards God as his Father that released the presence of the kingdom of God in the midst of fallen men and women.

Jesus boldly stated that his dependency on God was absolute, “the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.” (John 5:19). Through the Holy Spirit he also knew himself to be the Word “through whom all things were made” (John 1:3). This means that Christ was conscious that the existence of everything around him depended on his dependence on the Father. Miracles flowed out of Jesus not because he possessed some special power, but because of his simple submission to God. As he yielded his will to the Father he knew that all creation would submit to the expression of his Father’s will through him.

This dynamic relationship between inwardly depending upon God and the outward manifestation of his presence was not restricted to Jesus but imparted to his disciples. After they returned from healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons and preaching good news to the poor Jesus responded in prayer; ““I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”” (Luke 10:21-22 ESV). As long as the disciples maintained a simple child like trust in God the kingdom of God was manifested in power.  This trust does not come easily for the reign of God is always resisted by evil.

The author of Hebrews says about Jesus, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” (Hebrews 5:8 ESV) and Isaiah pronounces that “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (53:3). It is important to acknowledge that the rejections Jesus endured were not restricted to the cross. I sensed the Lord speaking with me recently about what happened to him at Nazareth when the crowd rose up against his preaching and tried to throw him over the cliff (Luke 4:16-30). I could sense him saying, “I knew all these people by name – to me they were childhood friends, neighbours, “aunties and uncles”, grandmother and grandfather figures. This attempted murder was an extremely painful experience for the heart of the Son of God. How did he cope, not only with this event, but with the raging of demonic powers, the lies and plots of his enemies, the unbelief of his brothers (John 7:5; 1:11) the betrayal of Judas and the desertion of his closest companions. Jesus himself explains why he was always able to do the will of God no matter how great the opposition, “Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.” (John 16:32). The cloud of the glorious presence of God’s Spirit surrounded, indwelt and protected the heart of Jesus at all stages of his earthly life because his single passion was to honour the Father[15]. There appears however to be one tragic exception to the protective presence of God in Jesus’ life.

“[A]t the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice…“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34 ESV)”.  No one wants to feel abandoned by God, least of all Jesus, but such an experience of dereliction was utterly necessary if our hearts were to be wholly healed.  Scripture says, “God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.” (Ecclesiastes 7:29) Since the deceitful human heart (Heb 3:13; Jer 7:19) has multiplied countless devices for avoiding the presence of God, Jesus must take this web of evil into himself to deliver us from the field of guilt and shame which surrounds us. He must be stripped of the awareness of the cloud of glory and become immersed in the useless compounded complexities of our transgressions (2 Cor 5:21). Christ is deprived of the simplicity of the relationship with God as a Father for which were created, and for Jesus such darkening of the vision of God is unbearable.

Jesus’ terrible question, “why have you forsaken me?” is not however an Adamic question about the useless suffering of the innocent cleverly designed to put God in the wrong and to justify self[16]. His question has a single goal, to put God in the right, to justify God (cf. Rom 3:4). The fruit of the suffering of his soul[17] reveals that this indeed was the intention of his question. The promise to “the pure in heart” is that “they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8 ESV). The resurrection of Jesus from the dead and his ascension into glory where he sees God face to face (1 Tim 3:16; Heb 2:9; 2 Cor 4:6) proves that his was a pure heart that suffered for the sake of the kingdom of God.

But what about our hearts, I fear that we are mostly like those fair-weather disciples who healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons and preached good news to the poor but who stumbled at the cross[18]. All of Jesus’ closest friends abandoned him because their fiendishly complicated hearts could not accept that the wisdom of the kingdom of God involved suffering (cf. Ps 103:7). As they listened to the accusations of Satan denying the goodness of the cross they felt like God was abandoning Jesus and so was abandoning them (Luke 22:31-32; 24:18-25)! Adam and Eve went and hid themselves because in their self-clothed state they feared the presence of God (Gen 3:10), the disciples likewise went and hid themselves from the Jewish leaders (John 19:38) because they did not believe the gospel. Today most Australian Christians are hiding themselves in their churches and religious devotions for exactly the same reason. Praise God however there is a way back to true godliness (2 Pet 1:3-4).

The Fire of Christ

As Jesus was walking with his depressed and disconsolate disciples on the road to Emmaus he said to them, ““O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:25-27 ESV).  A little later the impact of Jesus’ testimony on the disciples is recorded in their own words, “They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”” (Luke 24:32)[19]. Has your heart been burnt by the fiery testimony of Jesus in this way?

John Wesley spoke of his conversion as the strange warming of his heart at the hearing of the gospel, the German Pietists spoke of a heart on fire for God, and I personally know folk whose lives were totally transformed by such a baptism in the flame of God[20]. This fiery experience is not reducible to a mere emotion, it is what Paul speaks about in 2 Corinthians, “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6 ESV)”. The countenance of the glory of God in Christ burns in our hearts, and it blazes for the exact same purpose that it burned in Jesus, to destroy all evil (Heb 12:29) and to set the whole world on fire in love for God.  This is the flame which consumed all the power of the world, the flesh and the devil on the cross, and it is “the baptism of the holy Spirit and of fire” (Matt 3:11) which was poured out at Pentecost.

The Church today is full of passive people who happily mouth songs about the presence of God, but the true and holy presence of the Lord penetrates and purifies the depths of our hearts from all the enticing complexities of this world.  Those who know this presence will never abandon its intimacy for the “cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches (which) choke the word” of God (Matt 13:32). It is an outpouring of this fire from the throne of God which alone can bring sustainable revival to Australia (cf. Dan 7:9).

As I was praying recently I saw a map of Australia surrounded by a huge high wall designed to keep undesirables (like boat people) out and to keep our national treasures to ourselves. This emotional and spiritual wall is sustained by a very great fear. If such a national situation were not disturbing enough, the heart of the Church is enclosed in a fear that distorts the manifestation of the glory of God[21]. God however has a word of encouragement for us. Zechariah was commanded to prophesy concerning the future of Jerusalem, “‘I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the LORD, and I will be the glory in her midst.’” (Zechariah 2:1-5 ESV). Since in Christ we have come “to the city of the living God” (Heb 12:22) his will is to surround our hearts with a wall of fire that will cast out all fear (1 John 4:18), this fire is the glory of God in the love of the cross.

Our World Today

I believe we have entered into a time when the clash between the kingdom of God and the dominion of darkness is intensifying. Countless “fire walls” are being raised up against the message of the gospel by the ingenuity of evil spirits and men. In the exploding complexity of every level of human existence, psychological, material, and technological, these walls present themselves to the shamed and guilty conscience as man’s answer to the burning wrath of God.

Through philosophy, theology, science, medicine and technology we have developed way of seeing God, ourselves and our world through inter-penetrating layers of complex structures. Christian counsellors are taught that you need years of professional training to understand how people function so you can provide them with therapy. People come to a Christian college hoping to sort themselves out spiritually through greater Bible knowledge. Many contemporary churches are dominated by a “spiritual technology” whereby everything is carefully and attractively choreographed to ensure people feel good and will keep on coming back to our services[22].

Jesus and the apostles knew no such worldview. Do we really think that Jesus lived according to the “spiritual laws and principles” that fill our Christian education systems, book shops and conferences? In his heart all that Jesus knew was that he was loved by his Father in the power of the Spirit. Only an incredible cleansing of the sophisticated Australian Church can see a sustained outpouring of the Holy Spirit of freedom (2 Cor 3:17). Can you conceive that these words from The Message translation of Amos could apply to us??

“I can’t stand your religious meetings.
I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice—oceans of it.
I want fairness—rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want.” (Amos 5:21-24)

We wonder why there are so many moves of God amongst the poor in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and from time to time powerful outbursts of the Spirit in aboriginal Australia. It is because these peoples possess the spiritual simplicity of a child that to us is incomprehensible. Jesus said, ““Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.”” (Mark 10:14).

The Revival We Do Not Want

The Church in Australia today is ensnared in a great evil; it is keen to see revival but wants it to come with minimum modification[23] to the structures of popular culture which it so fully enjoys (prosperity, peace and pleasure). This state causes intolerable grief to the heart of God because it sets us up for a cycle that has drawn his judgement again and again. Over the centuries the Church has sprung into life with a simple heart whose only resource is God, it grows in the power of God, often explosively, then becomes wealthy and resourced surrounding itself with the protection of the cultural complexities of political power, finance,  and status. Necessarily such idolatry evokes the divine displeasure and the glory of the Lord is withdrawn.

I believe in the discipling of nations, but to pray that Australia once again become a “Christian nation” requires wisdom framed by the cross[24]. A prevailing image of a “Christian nation” can be just as much a means of protecting our hearts from the direct presence of God as can any other idol[25]. Have we forgotten the long history of the distortion of European Christianity[26] which had the appearance of godliness but was devoid of power (2 Tim 3:5)? Or that only a few decades ago the largest Church in a nation as “Christian” as South Africa supported a policy of blanket racial discrimination. Time and again institutionalised churches have resisted the outpouring of the Holy Spirit[27].

One of the strangest texts in the book of Revelation describes the manifestation of the antichrist in this way; “And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads….And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marvelled as they followed the beast.” (Revelation 13:1-3). The implicit death-and –resurrection of the spirit of the beast occurs repeatedly not only in the history of the political world but even within that realm of organised religion we call Christianity[28]. In the paradoxical world of God’s kingdom where the first are last and the last first (Matt 19:30), the forces of evil raise their ugly heads most profoundly when the Church is outwardly at its most rich and powerful[29]. A profound prophet of culture once said, “The Church can become the antichrist, and when it denies this, it already is.” It is not the death of Christianity in its traditional Western homelands that we must most fear, but the resurrection of old forms of Christendom across the world which “have the outward appearance of godliness, but deny its power” (2 Tim 3:5)[30].

Conclusion

The biblical model of life is radically simple; the human heart is always directed either towards God or away from him. The true disposition of our hearts will be revealed by the character of the questions we ask of life- they are either God glorifying or God avoiding? In Christ our questioning can share in the intention of his great question from the cross whose only purpose was to see God put in the right through the coming of his kingdom with power. If we question our Father in this way we shall most surely experience resurrection power in our midst (cf. Phil 3:10). But we should not think that it is all up to us and the feeble efforts of our own spirituality.

I sense that we should ask the Lord for a shaking (Heb 12:26-29), in the economic, political, material and spiritual realm that will utterly confound[31] the world’s best experts in both Church and state. Yet we can never authentically pray this way if doubts arise in our hearts (Luke 24:38) concerning the judgements of God. Only if we are secure in Christ can we possibly live at peace in a world where everything seems to be falling apart. Contrary to popular wisdom this requires not strength but a very special vulnerability, the weakness of the cross (2 Cor 12: 9-10; 13:4 cf. 1 Cor 14:20). It is only in such a child like weakness can the manifest presence of God be revealed. Such vulnerability is a gift and a necessary preparation for the immersion of our hearts in the covering fire of the glory of God and comes only when we are stripped of all the devices of the complexity of our hearts.

Years ago during a pastors prayer meeting I saw the figure of a person with layer upon layer of clothing covering them, I immediately knew that this was a picture of the Church in Perth self- clothed with protective layers of popularity, titles, money, ministry gifts and so on in a futile effort to cover her shame (cf. Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27). As Jesus’ submission to the Father meant that he was stripped of every possible defence against evil, so we must submit to Jesus to strip us of every self-constructed mental, moral, spiritual or material layer that would separate us from his glorious presence. Only in this was can we experience his kingdom coming with power in our midst.