Lion-Tamers
Lion-Tamers
My guy Leo likes to perch himself atop high places, especially the china cabinets in our dining room. He parades himself as king of the room, proudly preening before the assembled guests. I don’t really think he would or could hurt a fly.
Let’s hope that, if I was attacked, he would come to my defense! It is a vicious world, one in which you may find yourself on the receiving end of all manner of attack, whether physical assault, slander or litigation.
There is little that is sacrosanct anymore; the so-called places of sanctuary that were built into the fabric of Old Testament life are rare to find today, as is the sanctuary of home and hearth. Life is either too individualistic or too exactingly regulated.
We see our trauma played out in the political world. Democrats bullied for what they wanted two years ago and Republicans, especially Tea Party adherents, are doing the same now. Bipartisanship has lost the high ground to the bullies.
We see the assault on our humanity played out in therapy rooms, as troubled men and women endeavor to come to grips with the effects of sin’s presence and power upon our lives. One can only feel for the well-intentioned therapists who attempt to help.
We see the ravages of war littering the landscape of home and hearth. Parents and children either can’t understand or refuse to appreciate one another; increasingly, children are either abused or spoiled. The generation gap may very well be Public Enemy No. 1.
Even the Church has been penetrated by assault. The Roman Church has allowed her children to be badly abused. The New Calvinists seem to have determined that the rest of us aren’t really Christians. Old-school Pentecostals had already written us off as being spiritually-destitute. And much of Mainline Protestantism did a job on the basic and time-tested message of the Gospel.
We wage our wars through military armament, intellectual jousting, legal wrangling and just plain condescension and presumption. “The world,” to quote William Wordsworth, “is too much with us.” Satan, to quote the Apostle Peter, “prowls like a lion, looking to devour” (1 Peter 5). And our flesh obstructively grows, like weeds.
Where can one find any sanity, let alone peace? One of our dearest ladies at church always tells us that all she wants is “a little bit of peace and quiet.” I get it!
Christian revelation assures us that one day, on that Great and Awful Day – the day of the Lord – the process will commence of bringing the world into submission and into alignment with the sovereign and peaceful rule of Christ. But, until then …
Until then we must allow God’s rule to penetrate, indwell and rule over our lives. His rule is one of holy love. It affords us the full measure of the Holy Spirit’s fruit, an abundance spawned in the ground of repentance, submission and deliverance.
But we must be true to Christ. We too frequently find ourselves professing Jesus Christ but practicing idolatry. Those idols make war against our spiritual welfare and, bogged down in the trenches, we can’t possibly attain to our high calling as healthy witnesses.
The problem, as already articulated, is tri-fold: The world, our flesh and the devil stand arrayed against our welfare and our growth. These are the forces that are either instinctive (i.e. our flesh), oppressive (i.e. the world), or insidious (i.e. Satan).
The sincerest of profession, let alone the best of intentions (and we all know to where that road leads!), isn’t adequate; we are left, with all due generosity of thought, to a scenario in which we are doomed to fail from the very start. It is frightful, but true.
We are at war on three fronts and, like the Europeans of seventy years ago, external assistance is desperately required. There isn’t one historian of sound mind or reputation who would argue the historical point; is there a theologian who thinks otherwise?
American troops can combat militant Islam, just as they successfully fought the Axis Powers, but a well-adjusted and spiritually mature Christianity is the need of the hour. Even a small cadre of trained and motivated believers can make a tremendous difference.
The debt-ceiling crisis that has hovered over our economy like the Sword of Damocles requires a sound and balanced agenda on the part of both political parties. But legislation can’t replace the transformation of the human heart.
I agree with Pastor Bill Hybels when he says that “The local church is the hope of the world.” It is in the sense that the local fellowship alone has the requisite tools of such transformation, for therein dwells both the Word and Spirit of God.
You may think that the church on the corner or in the town-center seems out-of-touch or life-less; perhaps, at least on the surface or (alas!) deeper still, though it tells me that such a church (or the observer!) hasn’t appropriated what God has offered them.
G.K. Chesterton has quipped that “Christianity has not so much been tried and found wanting, as it has been found difficult and left untried.” Those of us in within the precincts of God’s Kingdom have often turned to legalism or licentiousness.
We get impatient and nervous because the Holy Spirit doesn’t seem to be doing His job properly. We clamp down, fearing that the sins of others will get the best of us, or we open wide, fearing that if we don’t then others won’t want to join us.
Why don’t we simply trust Jesus by way of simply surrendering to Him, trusting Him to do His job and opening wide our hearts and minds to receive His healing and delivering provision for our lives? It’s as simple and as difficult as that!
But our flesh bristles, while the world beckons and Satan accuses us, allures us or assaults us. The Word merely speaks plainly and the Spirit of God, having no interest in taking us by storm, merely and directs to the extent that we are willing to listen.
(We say “merely” in order to accentuate the clarity of God in contradistinction to seductive aromas and destructive haranguing of the rest!)
The Apostle Paul counseled us about our flesh: “The sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want” (Galatians 5:17).
The Apostle John levied against the world: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone else loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the cravings of the sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he ahs and does – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever” (I John 2:15-17).
And the Apostle Peter (to expand upon an earlier quotation) warned us regarding Satan: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings” (I Peter 5:8, 9).
It must be evident that Christians, if we are to succeed in our Christianity, need some kind of plan, replete with strategic and tactical operations, in order to effectively combat this three-pronged assault upon our lives. God has provided one.
The problem is that His plan is a bit like going to the dentist. It is necessary, albeit frightening and painful, but, in the end, fruitful and effective. The prospect that Jesus holds forth is glorious but daunting. It is not for the feint of heart.
He says, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” (Luke 9:23-25).
Many of us find that the problem is not that we have gained the world at great risk to our soul, but that we haven’t gained little or nothing, or that a heap of difficulty has been thrust upon us by life-decisions that we or others have made. It is vexing!
We are being devoured by the very things that we want or that we have attained, or that we neither want nor after which we aspire. Life is a debilitating catch-22.
Jesus tells us to step aside from its grip. His plan is for us to die to ourselves and the world and to live in Him and for Him. He will take care of the rest; this means, in the very least, that our focus is on Him and our lessons are drawn from Him.
Dallas Willard, a sage if ever we have had one, offers this counsel in his splendidly helpful book, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives:
“What we need is a deeper insight into our practical relationship with God in redemption. We need an understanding that can guide us into constant interaction with the Kingdom of God as a real part of our daily lives, an ongoing spiritual presence that is at the same time a psychological reality. In other words, we must develop a psychologically sound theology of the spiritual life and of its disciplines to guide us.”
The Gospel will actually penetrate our thinking and our feeling and even that final spiritual frontier known as our instincts. Breakthrough follows as we are given and apply the tools by which to break free of the three-front siege that is set against us.
Willard correctly says that we “must take the need for human transformation as seriously as do modern revolutionary movements.” Transformation is the key whereby profession and intent are translated into reality and practice.
God wants to permeate and populate the world with His transformed children who will be used, in turn, to bring about the transformation of the world around them. We become the material with which the Holy Spirit has to work.
A consideration of the effects of John Wesley and the Evangelical Revival of the later-18th Century and you will understand. England was spared the horrors of the French Revolution because she was blessed with a reinvigorated Gospel at work.
It will take time, if only because God chooses to work in time, but also because the fighting is fierce. Your flesh does not wish to give way. The world does not wish to lose its profitable hold on you. Satan continues to lay claim to your soul.
An entire realm of existence needs to be contained and defeated. Jesus never said that it would be easy. He apprised us of how harsh and decidedly unpalatable it would at times be. He also told us as to why it was worth it!
We soldiers of the Cross fight for a worthy reason! We say “No!” to flesh, realizing that it makes war against our souls. We stand opposed to the world, if for the sake of the world. We rebuke the Devil, knowing that his power was nullified at Calvary.
We say “No!” to the flesh, knowing that God has said “Yes!” to us through Christ. Paul speaks so movingly when he makes joyous declaration concerning this Great Affirmative to a troubled church:
“As surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not “Yes” and “No,” but in Him it has always been “Yes.” For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through Him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 1:18-20).
We say “No!” to the world, but for the sake of the world. We aren’t called to be separate just for the sake of being separate. We are set apart by God for redemptive purpose, thereby giving the lie to all “holier-than-thou” mentality.
Chesterton’s beautiful little volume, Orthodoxy, speaks lucidly to this Great Paradox of Christianity for and against the world: “On this … one could fight all the forces of existence without deserting the flag of existence. One could be at peace with the universe and yet be at war with the world.”
We can never forget that God’s intent is not merely the salvation of our individual souls, but the redemption of the entire world; to this end, even God’s wrath is directed. “For God so loved the world …” (John 3:16).
And we say “No!” to the whispering accusations and allurements of Satan, just as did Jesus, “in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:11).
A friend of mine has the gift of discernment. He can identify satanic scheming at work in the Church, even in its early stages! Every church could benefit by such a gift.
John Milton magnificently captures satanic intent in his epic poem Paradise Lost. Sin and death have been spawned with malicious reference made to “a race of upstart creatures” living in “a place of bliss/ In the purlieus of heaven.” Satan is addressing sin, apprising him of how he will direct his twin-spawn of sin and death …
“’And bring ye to the place where thou and Death
Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen
Wing silently the buxom air, embalmed
With odours. There ye shall be fed and filled
Immeasurably; all things shall be your prey.’
He ceased, for both seemed highly pleased, and Death
Grinned horrible a ghastly smile to hear
His famine should be filled, and blessed his maw
Destined to that good hour…
(Book II, lines 840-848)
But poetic brilliance can never gloss over our existential malaise, nor can recognition of demonic activity provide a smoke-screen for our own self-made problems. That would be too easy!
Far too many of us have interior conflicts that prevent us from appropriating the victory that the Bible assures us as belonging to us. It was true of me and I know that it is true of many, many fellow believers.
We commit the fatal mistake made by the men who entered Canaan to spy the land. They returned, at least ten of them did, fearful of the “giants” who occupied the land. Their incapacity, fueled by their fear, prevented them from victory (Numbers 13:26-33).
Many others are actually quite comfortable with our lives, thank you very much! We don’t really want change; if we do, we want our circumstances changed insofar as they impede our lives. Willard has this to say:
“The persistence of evil rests upon the general drift of human life in which we all share. It rides upon a motion so vast, so pervasive and ponderous that, like the motion of the planet earth, it is almost impossible to detect. We delude ourselves about the sustaining conditions of people’s deeds because we wish to continue living as we now live and continue being the kinds of people we are. We do not want to change. We do not want our world really to be different. We just want to escape the consequences of its being what it truly is and of our being who we truly are.”
We have chosen to make a concordat with our enemies rather than score a victory over them. But we are the fools for it, even if we blame God for what has befallen us or query Him as to why He has allowed it to happen.
We want Him to change the world; He wants to change us. He wants to slay the flesh within us; we want Him to slay the world around us. We want Him to be courageous on behalf of us; He wants us to be courageous in Him.
We want Him to tame the lions around us; He wants to tame the lion within us and, through us, the surrounding population of wild cats. I draw upon the imagery of lions because Chesterton has already done it to extraordinary effect.
He writes of the theological battles of the early centuries of the Church. We can call upon his insight for our purpose in identifying and combating our spiritual assailants: He speaks thus:
“It is exactly this which explains what is so inexplicable to all the modern critics of the history of Christianity. I mean the monstrous wars about the small points of theology, the earthquakes of emotion about a gesture or a word. It is only a matter of an inch; but an inch is everything when you are balancing. The Church could not afford to swerve a hair’s breadth on some things if she was to continue her great and daring experiment of the irregular equilibrium. Once let one idea become less powerful and some other idea would become too powerful. It was no flock of sheep the Christian shepherd was leading, but a herd of bulls and tigers, of terrible ideals and devouring doctrines, each one of them strong enough to turn a false religion and lay waste the world. Remember that the Church went in specifically for dangerous ideas; she was a lion tamer.”
We are lion tamers! The ferocity of our own flesh, the brutality of the world and the malevolence of the demonic realm must all be tamed.
Such taming begins within the interior of one’s own life. It is not for nothing that the Spirit of God is entrusted with the task of what theologians call the “mortification of the flesh.” Our flesh must be smashed to smithereens!
Flesh must give way to Spirit for the fruit of the Holy Spirit to blossom in our lives. Jesus said that His people would be recognized by their fruit (Matthew 7:16) and actually commissioned us to “go and bear fruit – fruit that will last” (John 15:16).
Paul itemized the fruit in his memorable catalogue (Galatians 5:22, 23): Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. His listing speaks a kind of counter-culture amidst our three-front war.
He continued to say that “Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:23). Law, at least moral law, exists because of sin. Here is to be had a helpful corrective to the ills that beset the sin-stained, satanically-savaged lives of human beings.
What must we do to experience and exhibit this fruit? It is the most significant question of our lives. Are we willing to do what it takes to bring forth the fruit of the Holy Spirit? Will we allow Him to slay the lion of flesh within us?
Such taming proceeds outward into the world. One historian spoke of the Christian missionaries who went into unfortified areas of Great Britain where tough and hardy Roman soldiers refused to go! They were lion-tamers of the highest caliber!
We have our commission. Jesus told us to “Go and make disciples of all nations …” (Matthew 28:18). The word “Go” actually means “as you go.” We are called to take Jesus with us whether we are crossing the seas or to the other side of the street.
We have our enemy. Paul strikingly said: “Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:10).
This all makes for great copy; but what do we do about it? The litany that has been passed to generation after generation still stands authoritative and powerful, if we are willing to mend ourselves to its dictate. We have, in short, our equipment.
First, let the Word of God penetrate one’s heart and mind. Scripture exhorts us: “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly …” (Colossians 3:16).
The Word has the inherent capacity to cut deep: “The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
It can surgically rid us of any spiritual cancer, as it brings conviction of sin and healing from sinful effects. Scripture is, in this respect, not simply a narrative of historical events or a compendium of doctrinal minutia but a living and life-saving organism.
It will take all of this for God’s Word to be given bodily expression, which is also our mandate: “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship” (Romans 12:1).
There is no room, clearly, for the facetious quip that we are so heavenly-minded that we are no earthly good. A man or woman caught by the Hound of Heaven (thank you, Francis Thompson!) and tamed by the Holy Spirit, is a person of sound body and soul.
Second, we are told in God’s Word to pray. Prayer is not instinctive to us because we remain beholden to our flesh, not the Holy Spirit. But prayer is to a Spirit-filled person what a so-called smart-phone is to a wired or insecure person – It is life!
My early years in Christianity saw me on my knees in prayer for several hours a day.
I knew the difference. I am married to a woman of prayer. I see the difference. Prayer-led revivals have erupted throughout history. The world experiences the difference.
Intimacy with God is at issue. Prayer is far more than the presentation of glorified wish-lists. Prayer is our opportunity to commune with Him. We have weekly Friday evening prayer vigils in our church and I find myself refreshed when I come out of His Presence.
We are mandated to pray in the privacy of our closets (Matthew 6:6) and amidst the spiritual collegiality of His people (Acts 2:42). We are instructed to pray without ceasing (I Thessalonians 5:17), to pray in the Spirit (Ephesians 6:18) and to pray with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6). Our lives and churches are to be prayer-conditioned.
Third, we have been given entry into the household of God. Commitment to active participation in a local fellowship of believers is both our privilege and our responsibility. Church, in plain language, is not an option.
Aristotle recognized that human beings are social creatures, but it doesn’t take an ancient philosopher to apprise us of this basic fact of life. God had already recognized that it wasn’t good for man to be alone, so He gave us companionship.
Jesus sent His disciples onto short-term missionary assignment in the world in pairs of two, because he knew that companionship was both helpful and necessary. And on a particular rock He declared to Peter that He would build His Church (Matthew 16:18).
This so-called title-deed of the Church was not a referent to a piece of property or of a particular piece of ecclesiastical architecture but to the people of God. He spoke of the universal church (universal in the sense of being found in all places at all times), while Paul established and wrote to an array of local expressions of the one Church.
The current adage, “Think globally and act locally” has actually been embodied by the Christian Church for two millennia, down to the current day. We need one another and the world needs us acting together in cooperative godliness.
A spiritual esprit de corps will be the product of our commitment to one another. It will boost morale amongst church-goers, something that is badly needed. And it will speak volumes to a world of people who are looking for meaning and place.
This brings us to our fourth point. We need the Holy Spirit. We must ask Him to do His work within and amongst us. We needn’t get into a divisive debate concerning Him; that is the last thing that today’s Church needs. But we need Him!
The Holy Spirit came upon and indwelt Jesus; hence, Jesus, at least in the earthly sense, needed the Spirit of God to live His life on this planet and to do ministry. Who are we to think that He is optional?
Jesus assured us of His gift to us of His Spirit: “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth” (John 14:15, 16).
Again, He said, “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:25, 26).
Later, He said, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you (John 16:12f).
We are given a great deal of scriptural insight into the nature of the Holy Spirit’s work.
We are told to “love in the Spirit” (Romans 15:30), “pray in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18), “live by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25); also, we are clearly told not to grieve (Ephesians 4:30) or quench (1 Thessalonians 5:19) His Presence.
I have a vivid recollection of when He filled me to overflowing. It was a blessed evening in Boston during the winter of 2001. Billy Graham’s daughter was preaching and, providentially, it was as if she were speaking just to me amidst several thousand others!
God the Spirit confronted me right-then-and-there with His healing and restorative power. I entered the conference that night a broken man and left a whole man, thoroughly replete with His peace. I testify to what I know, having experienced it.
It may be asked: By what stroke of spiritual insanity do we dismiss or otherwise treat lightly of our need for the Holy Spirit and of His work in our lives?
Finally, Receive His peace. Remember, please, that we are fighting a three-pronged war against personal flesh, the world and Satan’s horde. A true soldier fights, but he wants peace. He fights for peace. This is true of the Christian as it is of the American GI.
Jesus gave us His peace: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:26, 27). He was quite clear; have we? Do we look to the world or Him for peace?
“Peace be with you!” His overture to His disciples in the aftermath of His Resurrection was the dissemination of His peace (John 21:19, 21). Have we received it?
Is our attention blocked by our own desires, however natural and even right? We should know by now that the world is not interested in what will bring peace to our lives. And there should by now be no question as to Satan’s intentions regarding peace.
Paul taught that we are to “Let us make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification” (Romans 14:19). But this is a bodily ramification of an interior prerequisite. What can we do?
We are told: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the God of peace, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:4-7).
His peace will guard us as we trust and rejoice in Him. I trust that we have heard Him. We are looking for our delights in the arena of the world and asking God to honor those same desires, but He is directing us to delight in Him.
Here is a beautiful addendum, worthy of helpful and healthy application: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, - think about such things … And the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:8, 9).
The good things of God are like the music that soothes the savage beast. They are the instruments of divine peace that tame the lions that are roaring within and all around us. My cat Leo can only dream!
May the Peace of Christ be with you!
Bradley E. Lacey
July 29, 2011