Learning with God

LEARNING WITH GOD

(By Terry Hayward)

Copyright 2015 by Terry Hayward

Smashwords Edition

"Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest" (Mt. 11: 29)

INDEX

Prologue

Chapter 1 learning

Chapter 2 looking

Chapter 3 Practice

Chapter 5 prayer

Chapter 6 Truth

Chapter 7 creation

Chapter 8 Spirit

Chapter 9 Habit

Chapter 10 Work

Chapter 11 Self

Chapter 12 Everyday

Chapter 13 Obedience

Chapter 14 Peace

Chapter 15 Love

Chapter 16 Morals

Chapter 17 Surrender

Chapter 18 Persevere

Chapter 19 being

Chapter 20 Holy

Chapter 21 Persecution

Chapter 22 Finally

Epilogue

All quotations from the Bible are taken from the South African Edition of the Good News Bible, unless otherwise stipulated.

This book is dedicated to the Glory of God!

PROLOGUE

I think as this is the third book in my trilogy of …With God books, maybe I should have started it with the heading Epilogue instead of Prologue, but be that as it may, I think I’ll rather end with an Epilogue in the correct place.

In John’s Gospel (7: 28) Jesus asks that most pertinent of questions, "Do you really know me and where I am from?" This is the Good News translation but the NIV translation puts it differently as Jesus states, "Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from." This apparent discrepancy of translations comes about because The Good News Bible is trying to give a more accurate meaning than a merely literal translation. I don’t think this really makes much of a difference as in my opinion Jesus is actually challenging the crowd to ask themselves about their beliefs and prejudices. What He’s saying is, I challenge you to think about me and what you actually believe about me because I think most of you have got it all wrong.

The purpose of these …with God books I’ve written is to help us become aware of Christ’s Presence with us at all times so that we can truly get to know Him and to know exactly what He expects of us as we follow Him. To do this we will have to commit to making time for God because to develop a relationship with Him we will need to ‘find’ Him, even though He is always with us. It is in silence and our quiet times with Him that we will find Him (Is. 30: 15) when we seek Him with all of our hearts (e.g. Jer. 29: 13) and all pour minds.

The primary challenge in this trilogy of books is to ask ourselves if we do really know Him, and whatever our answer, we need to develop a deeper and closer relationship with Him than we started out with. Learning with God is not something we can do one day and then give it a break. God tells us through Jeremiah that we will find Him only when we seek Him with all of our heart. This must be a constant search, and the single-minded purpose of our search must be to find Him and learn with Him because in doing so we must honour Him (Jer. 32: 39).

I really love that small Book of the Bible, Song of Songs, as it is so full of incredibly beautiful snippets that can only increase our joy of Wandering with God. A perfect example of what I’m saying is, "We will be happy together…and lose ourselves in love" (1: 4). All my Christian books have not only the single-minded purpose of honouring God, but also of trying to teach us the unsurpassing joy and security that one can almost physically feel when we lose ourselves in love with Him.

I have tried very hard to get people to find a special place where they will spend their Coffee with God quiet times with Him, a place which they will over time come to associate with the Presence of God in a very special way. This can become a place where maybe we will be able to say with the author of the Song of Songs, "My sweetheart, my bride, is a secret garden" (4: 12), a place where we will experience in a special way the Presence of the Holy Spirit with us where, "North Wind, South Wind, blow on my garden" (4: 16).

Once again I must stress that in order to learn with Him, our Lover, and lose ourselves in Love, we will have to spend plenty of quiet time with Him and do that on a regular basis. We will need to study our Bibles diligently so that we can learn all about His laws and commandments. We will need to seek to understand His will and follow it, all the while being aware that He, "never gives us the satisfaction of fully understanding what He does" (Ecc. 3: 11).

That our God is a mystery (e.g. Eph. 1: 9), must never be an excuse that will stop us seeking Him with all our heart, because we will find Him when we so search. My hope and prayer is that the …with God books will encourage us to get ever closer to Him and never give up on trying to learn His Will.

Chapter 1.

LEARNING.

"…Every pupil, when he/she has completed his/her training, will be like his/her teacher" (Lk. 6: 40b) and therefore the whole object in ‘Learning with God’ is for us to become Christ-like, like our Teacher. God said that he would give His people the single-minded purpose of honouring Him and so becoming Christ-like must very simply be the way we hope to honour Him as we seek to learn with God (Jer. 32: 39). This learning, and the consequent training that this will entail, is not something that we can expect to happen overnight, as it will take our entire life to get there, just as learning anything takes time. Jesus, I’m sure, understood this because He had already pointed out that we would need to make some really drastic changes to our lifestyles.

Through Isaiah (54: 13) God gives us the promise that, "I myself will teach your people, and give them prosperity and peace." And then Jesus builds on this promise in John’s Gospel when He gives us the assurance that all those taught by God "and learns from Him comes to me" (6: 45). That is why I feel it is so important that we open ourselves up to Learn with God so that we can come to Jesus!

In the Wedding at Cana incident the Master of Ceremonies makes a prophetic statement when he says, "you have kept the best…until now" (Jn. 2: 10). This statement heralds the arrival of Jesus on the scene of salvation.

Whereas previously God had sent His prophets to bring this important message, but which had been repeatedly ignored, He has now at last sent the best, Jesus. The importance of listening to Jesus is echoed by Mary when she says, "Do whatever He tells you (verse 5). This is also what God told the three disciples on the mountain of Transfiguration when He instructed them, …listen to Him (Lk. 9: 35). This instruction, directly from God Himself, should be all the motivation we require to be obedient and ‘Learn with God’. The prophetic statement of Nicodemus (Jn. 3: 2) is a timely reminder to each and every one of us that in Learning with God it is Jesus who will teach us when he says to Jesus, …you are a teacher sent by God."

I truly prefer the Good News translation of the Bible because I find it so often expresses in words the thoughts that I have been searching for, and then in a language I can understand.

For example, the translation of Proverbs 15: 33 is so much more relevant and understandable for the purpose of this book and our grasping exactly what learning with God is all about, where the Good News Bible tells us, "Reverence for the Lord is an education in itself." And this in a world where reverence has become a dirty word where people are encouraged to find out what makes them feel good, and then do it. We have been taught by the secular world that everything is about me and my personal enjoyment. I even know of a priest whose congregation refer to him as the I specialist because his sermons speak more of him and his likes and dislikes than they do about God. He makes himself the benchmark!

The world tells us that self-fulfilment is to be our life’s objective and if something feels right, then we must do it. For example, whereas the world we live in is a ‘dog-eat-dog’ world in which sharks eat dolphins and lions eat gazelles, where big business teaches us that the ‘winner takes all’, Jesus on the other hand warns us, "Do for others just what you want them to do for you" (Lk. 6: 31). Jesus insists that we unlearn everything that the world has taught us, and that instead of ‘going for the jugular’, we must "Love your enemies and do good to them" (verse 35), "Do not judge…and condemn others…and God will forgive you" and that we must be "merciful just as your Father is merciful" (verse 36).

Let me continue now by giving an example of Jesus in His teaching mode. I will give many more examples as the book progresses but for now lets take a brief look at the tale of the Good Samaritan (Lk. 10: 25 – 37), which I will deal with again later on in the book in a slightly different context. What I want to point out here in this first chapter is simply to show you one of the methods Jesus uses to teach us.

Firstly then, in this parable we meet a teacher of the Law who comes up to Jesus and at first glance it appears that he genuinely wants to learn from the Master as he asks Him, "What must I do to receive eternal life?" And so the lesson begins as Jesus doesn’t simply tell him the answer, but instead challenges him to think for himself.

"What do the Scriptures say?" Jesus asks the man. The man then gives the correct answer by zeroing in on the need for love, but this is not necessarily the full answer as Jesus also wanted to teach him that theory is on its own not sufficient but that real love also demands action.

The teacher of the Law, however, appears to have missed this point and so because Jesus complimented him on a correct answer, he tries to get smart and he in turn challenges Jesus by demanding, "Who is my neighbour?"

Jesus then goes on to tell the parable about three men who came upon the injured man and what they did, or didn’t do, to assist him, and then concludes with yet another question, "which one of these three acted like a neighbour?"

I believe this question was specifically designed by Jesus not just to solicit the correct answer but also to challenge the man to realise that to receive eternal life everyone, even his enemies, must be treated as his neighbours. The man once again comes up with the correct answer, "The one who was kind to him," he responds and then once again in His teaching mode, Jesus challenges him to "go…and do the same."

The action Jesus had in mind that He wanted the questioner to take, I believe, was from the Scripture Exodus 23: 4 & 5 which demands that if you see a person in need you are to give your complete help, even if that person is your perceived enemy. I believe Jesus was thinking about this particular Scripture because the Jews regarded the Samaritans as their enemies and I believe that’s why He chose the Samaritan man as the victim who was in need of help.

A point that is often missed is that the Old Testament Scriptures demanded that both the priest and the Levite in this parable avoid the injured man and do exactly what they did by not going near what they thought might have thought was a dead body (e.g. Num. 5: 2). These Scriptures also insisted that women during their period were ‘unclean’ and anybody suffering from certain skin diseases and bodily discharges were also unclean (e.g. Lev. 15) and as such must be not touched during these times. They were in reality to be treated as outcasts.

But Jesus interpreted differently this Law of Moses. What He is in effect saying here is that God is different and greater than Moses. Because we are told to be like our Heavenly Father (e.g. Ex. 19: 6 & Lev. 11: 44) we must act accordingly and see people not only as ‘laws’, but we must see them as being children of God who are in need.

As such Jesus could tell the story of the Good Samaritan and make a hated foreigner the hero, he can go against convention and be touched by a woman with a flow of blood (Lk. 8: 44) and He could in turn touch a dead body (Lk. 8: 54 & Lk. 7: 14) without being contaminated, for the simple reason that they were persons in need and because of His unconditional love for everyone He was filled with compassion for them.

To Jesus, claiming to be a Christian is all about love and so when He said that the two most important laws for us to observe were to love God with all your heart and to love your neighbour as you love yourself (Lev. 19: 18 and also Lk. 10: 27), He showed by His actions that He actually meant what He said.

Jesus wants us to learn what God is like by looking at Him, Jesus, because He wants us to learn to be like Him and He wants us to learn that we must not be swayed by what other people say, we must not be swayed by their perceived importance, or often their own self-importance (Mt. 22: 16). Our station in life does not impress God; what He is impressed by is our righteousness!

Jesus is in effect also teaching us that God is not some ogre of a policeman sitting at the intersection waiting for us to cross the line and break one of His laws so that He can catch us out and punish us. God is not like you and me, so full of pride and self-importance that only the High Priest can approach Him, and that only once a year on a special