How Do We See, Hear and Know God?
Acts 10 - Peter and Cornelius
How do we know God? I don’t just mean how do we have an idea of him, or know some of his characteristics. I am talking about truly knowing God’s presence, hearing his voice, and knowing him as you might know your spouse, best friend, brother, and sister. It is something we can easily ignore, but the biblical world does not present this as some kind of pipe dream. If we take anything from Scripture it is that God, our creator wants to be known as he consistently comes down, sends messengers, visions and speaks to us.
We probably struggle with this for three reasons. First, as a causal society, that looks at causes and consequences, both negative and positive, we have a habit of looking at the closest and most evident cause, instead of the primary, the first cause. This means that just like when we are sick we often treat the symptoms before the disease or source. Knowing God means knowing the source. It means looking beyond the beauty of the trees, our friend's face, the temporary joy and seeing what is behind it. This first struggle presents us with a simple fact, we have to want to see and know and then search.
Second, we struggle with the idea of knowing God, because we have never heard his voice or seen him. Except I think we need to clarify that idea a bit. It is not that we have never heard God or seen him. The truth is that we have never recognized His voice or His face. In 2 Peter we hear that God longs for all people to come to salvation through a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. All of Scripture presents the way he does this. He draws close, often personally, or often sending someone or thing bearing his image. So once we want to know God and begin searching, we need to get to know him and hold onto those moments of recognition and experience. For getting to know God, we are also immensely blessed to have the bible and the internet. The Bible as one of the primary ways that God communicates his saving presence through history and then the internet for the community of faith’s exploration and experience of that presence. We are unlike most of history in this regard, but we also lack one of the other primary ways God communicates himself: through His image bearers, Christians.
It's not that we aren’t Christians or that there aren’t enough in this world, it's that we have stopped communicating God’s presence. Part of that might be that we don’t know God’s presence. Part of it is that we might not always understand what this would do to relationships. One of the biggest fears when communicating God’s presence is that we won’t know how. Yet, if we look at these stories of people sharing faith, mostly it is just them sharing what they have experienced or their limited knowledge, really just telling the story and inviting or urging others in. The beautiful thing about a lot of these stories though is that there is an air of mystery and the Holy Spirit, so they create space for God to enter into that mystery and answer people’s biggest questions.
The third reason we struggle with the very idea of knowing God, seeing and hearing his voice is that we probably have heard or have some idea of the fanaticism that has claimed hearing God’s voice and following it. I think there are two options when thinking about fanatics. Either they are right or they are partially wrong. John the baptist, the Old Testament Prophets, and even Jesus himself, were probably seen as fanatics by many people. Yet, they were confirmed by God again and again, and they led people to a closer relationship with God and one another. I have little doubt that there have been some modern fanatics for God that have been ignored, but if we think about it, most people that really challenge the world we live in and the way we live are seen as fanatics.
On the opposite side, fanatics could be wrong. This is most likely because they have held onto one aspect of God or creation to such an extent that it blinds them from anything else. This can even happen to those who read their bible. Remember even Satan used Scripture to tempt Jesus in the desert. What is to say Satan doesn’t also tempt us with Scripture or God’s beautiful creation? Instead, we need to hold onto all of Scripture, hold onto the whole Christian community, and ultimately spend more time with God, so that we might see and understand the depth of God. A lot of harm has been done in the church by picking and choosing what we believe and then yelling across picket lines, rather than sitting down to allow a conversation with Scripture, God, and one another. Community becomes one of the essential ways that we come to know God more fully.
Now that we have dealt a little bit with our struggles, we can finally look at our passage today, where we hear that both Peter and Cornelius hear God’s voice, are given visions, and are sent a messenger from God. How did they come to a place where they could do this? Ultimately, we are asking how do we come to a place where we too might experience God in such ways?
I believe there are two major things we lack or that we need to grow in. The first thing is that to hear the voice of God or to see him, we have to make a lot of time and space for him. We hear that Cornelius was a devoted man who was constantly in prayer toward God. This becomes the context for his vision and hearing. For Peter, we hear that he was hungry and while he was waiting for the food, he goes outside, traditionally on the roof to pray. It is then that God gives him a vision. If we have a moment while we are waiting, what do we usually do? Pull out our phones, and try to do something else, but how often do we use that time and space for prayer, and connection with God? Then how are we also purposefully creating time and space for God? Do we set time aside in the morning or evening? Do we purposely set time aside to pray with our friends and family to pray, to worship, to discuss faith, to read Scripture?
I will admit that I have not heard God’s voice as much as I wish. I have definitely known his presence more than I have known his voice. That being said, the times when I have heard his voice are the times when I have taken the most time and space for him so that he might draw close. During the last year of my seminary time when I would dedicate at least an hour a week to consistent and uninterrupted prayer. In the grand scheme of things, this is not a lot of time, an episode or two of TV, half a movie. Yet, from this time I would often hear his guidance, get answers to my questions, and dig deeper. Some things I learned during that time. God wants to answer our questions, even within our limited understanding, so yes and no, or questions with options are often easier to hear and understand his response, but sometimes we can be asking the wrong questions, or only perceiving the wrong solutions. So, sometimes we have to dig in more. The result of this was that God lead me to a seemingly impossible reality, that I couldn’t perceive or understand. I can tell you that story another time. So, we need to purposely take time and space, but also find those spare moments to dedicate to God.
The last essential to hearing and seeing God is that we have to do it with humility. God’s voice is somehow both gentle and loving as it is powerful and definitive. Most of the time, we don’t want to hear it or perceive him, because that would force us to change, which might push us into a challenging or scary situation. We don’t even need to think of ourselves as the best, but the higher we think of ourselves the less we will really be willing to hear someone else and understand them. Even if we just think that we can stand before God, we may spend more time arguing, asking, or challenging, than bowing down to listen, see and follow.
In our story today, God depends greatly on the humility of his followers. First, the fear of God lived in Cornelius. Not an imprisoning kind of fear, but the fear of awe, wonder, the fear to disappoint or let down love, the fear of passing up an opportunity to share and be with God. This kind of fear might create edges, but it opens up a lot more roads and doors. Then he serves others. As a centurion, he never needed to. In fact, he might be urged not to, by his own people. He also serves and seeks out the God of a “lesser” people. Rome is in control and rules over Israel and yet, Cornelius seeks out Israel’s God. Then he seems to have a part in bringing his household to faith. He follows God’s calling to seek out a Hebrew man and listen to him. Finally, he is humble enough to bow at Peter’s feet and let the Holy Spirit work in him. Peter also needed to humble himself to change his understanding of what was clean and unclean so that he might enter Cornelius' house and welcome nonjewish people into faith. The result of their humble listening and following is that they come to know God even more.
In my life, the times when I have most known God’s work, his words, his presence and even seen him are those times when I most new I needed him. Those times when I didn’t know where else to turn and when I humbly asked for help again and again. I think this is one of the reasons we often need to be humbled or distressed in order to see God, because it helps us recognize the need for God that is always there.
So, to know, hear and see God, we need to humbly make space and time for God. Knowing that our ultimate need is for him, so that we come to know him better. We need to take time to search for the ultimate and primary cause of everything so that we might see the source of our needs and wants. To recognize God’s voice and face, we need to take the time to get to know him, reflecting and holding onto our experiences of God whatever they are. We need to know that it is not fanatical to hear or know God, it is rather the product of an intimate and purposeful effort to know him. We do this through prayer, through community, and ultimately through the desire to know and follow God first, even before ourselves.
