I attended a church conference once where they featured spiritual dancers as part of the service. If you’ve ever seen someone respond to the Holy Spirit in dance, you know it can be breathtaking. Unfortunately, at this particular conference, the people in charge were trying to reproduce something they did not understand. They were not responding to God’s spirit because, honestly, they did not know God. (I won’t tell you where this happened so don’t bother asking.) Far from being lovely, the dance became a parody, an awkward kind of exercise that had little to do with spiritual intimacy.
As I consider the dancers lumbering around the stage out of step with each other and the worship music, I am impressed with how vital is for us to learn to hear and recognize God’s voice. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice.” Even when God became flesh only a handful of people actually “heard” him. Only a relatively few were able to grasp the lifeline he threw out – to receive the treasure he offered. Even if they didn’t completely understand the big picture, they recognized that He, alone, offered them “the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)
What is good fruit?
I suppose this is on my mind as I reflect on the scripture that says we will be known by our fruit. A bad tree does not bear good fruit, etc. This always leads to the question, “What is good fruit?”
I’ve heard many answers to this particular question: your fruit is the number of people you lead to salvation; your ability to exhibit the fruit of the Holy Spirit; how moral and/or productive your life is; the amount of service you render to the church; and so forth. The problem is, quite often, the things we consider fruit are actually performance oriented and when we become performance oriented, we disempower grace. It’s as if we are declaring “You are saved by His grace not your efforts” on one side of a record (I’m not old – just retro) and on the flip side is a little number titled “Prove your salvation by trying hard.”
A better understanding of fruit comes when we realize that fruit is simply a plant reproducing itself. When Jesus said, “A good tree will bear good fruit,” He was illustrating that you will reproduce what you are, you will bear good fruit because you are good. So now the question is, “How do I become good?” Contrary to popular teaching, goodness does not come from trying harder. We have to be mindful that Jesus was not equating morality with goodness. There were no people more moral than the Pharisees and teachers of the law, yet He addressed them as vipers! No. Goodness was a spiritual aspect (“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good–except God alone.” Mark 10:18 (NIV)) So how do we become more like Him?
Abide in Me
The answer is found in John 15 when Jesus tells us to abide in him. To stay connected. This leads me right back to my original thought – how important it is to be able to hear and recognize His voice. To be able to ask questions, listen for answers and then act. This is what it means to pray without ceasing, to be in constant dialogue, to abide. It is the primary way we communicate – by talking and listening. It is how we grow in relationship. It is how we learn.
How can we love like He loves, judge as He judges, be merciful as He is without His voice leading? Apart from Him, these things become performance and often perverted because we are trying to produce a holy response out of who we are without the ongoing revelation of His heart. . This is where we see the extremes of liberalism and judgementalism within the church. Love becomes absolute tolerance and holiness results in pious judgement when we get cut off from the source of holiness and love.
Trying to be good without the connection of His ongoing presence, His voice, is like trying to dance to music you cannot hear. The dance becomes disjointed and out of step – a parody of something that was meant to be beautiful.
I am praying to experience a greater awareness of His voice. I’m also praying for the church as a whole to hunger to hear better.
What are you praying for today? Please let me know what you think by leaving a comment.