When God Comes Near

Part 2

We saw that one of the spiritual principles of the kingdom of God is that whenever God comes near—i.e., manifests Himself through His Holy Spirit—to a God-seeker, one of the results will be conviction of sin in the life of the sinner as well as in the life of a failing Christian. The outshining of His perfect holiness awakens in both the sinner and the Christian the awareness that all is not well.

When God came near to a disobedient king, he lamented, "I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me."(1) When God came near to an unclean prophet, with deep agony of soul he cried out, "Woe is me! ... I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips,...."(2) When God came near to an unbelieving disciple, he spontaneously responded, "I am a sinful man!"(3) Holy Spirit conviction of sin inevitably accompanies the manifest presence of God when sin is present.

The purpose of God in convicting the conscience of sin is that He might bring us into fellowship with Himself and conform us to the likeness of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ."(4) If we confess whatever God convicts us of, there is mercy and restoration.(5)

Hungering for Holiness

But there is more. Not only does God convict of sin whenever He manifests Himself to sinners and failing Christians, He also creates in them a hunger for holiness—the holiness we see manifested in our Exemplar, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Any so-called decision for Christ that is unaccompanied by a hunger for holiness, is a spurious conversion. Any baptismal candidate who has failed to discover an intense appetite for holiness of heart and life following a walk down the sanctuary aisle, will come out of the baptismal waters as much a sinner as when he or she descended into the waters.

The same convicted king who lamented, "I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me."—also prayed, "Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me."(6) The same convicted prophet who prayed, "Woe is me! ... I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips,...."—also wrote, "And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way;..."(7) The same convicted disciple who prayed, "I am a sinful man!"—also said, "But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy.' "(8)

One of the great tragedies of our day is that we are filling our church membership roles with people who do not evidence an intense appetite for God. Their lives are still characterized by the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life.(9) They're still in love with the world—they never left it! They still look like it, talk like it, smell like it and think like it.

A Soft Gospel

Is this a hard gospel? May I be so bold as to say that if this sounds to our dull, uncircumcised ears like a hard gospel it is because we have given in to a soft gospel, which is no gospel at all.

A soft gospel teaches Romans 7 without explaining Romans 8. A soft gospel tells people, "Neither do I condemn you", but doesn't say, "Go your way and sin no more."(10) A soft gospel tells converts that they are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, but God doesn't expect them to keep their robes white. A soft gospel emphasizes the doctrine of justification, but has little, if anything, to say about the doctrine of sanctification. A soft gospel tells people to love God and others but has nothing to say about hating and forsaking sin.

A Change of Appetites

The Holy Spirit is called the Holy Spirit, not only because He Himself is perfectly holy, but also because His primary mission is to conform believers to the likeness of Jesus Christ—which is Christian holiness.

When God comes near to a convicted, confessing sinner, who responds to His gracious overtures with a simple evangelical faith in Christ, He imparts to such His Holy Spirit.(11) The Holy Spirit then begins His mission—not merely to get this believer to Heaven eventually—but to make this believer into the image of Christ.

A genuinely repentant believer soon discerns a change of spiritual and moral appetites. He probably won't be able to explain it theologically, or even be able to quote a chapter and verse in the Bible to explain this change. But he will intuitively know that a radical change is in the making. Although experiences will vary from person to person, a changed appetite is the universal, common denominator in every conversion.

An Example

After fifty years in India as a Methodist missionary and following over sixty years his conversion to Christ, E. Stanley Jones reflected in his autobiography on the immediate change resulting from giving his heart and life to Jesus Christ:

"When I walked out the next morning following my conversion, I walked out into a new world. The trees seemed to clap their hands; the sky was never so blue, and nature was never so alive and radiant. I walked up to my chum, Ras, slapped him on the back, and said, 'My, what a d— fine day,' using the old vocabulary to express my newfound joy. The angels must have smiled and said, 'He's trying to say "Hallelujah," but he doesn't know the language yet. Let him alone; he'll get it.' I said to myself: 'Why, I can't say that again. I'm converted.' And it dropped away. I was to find a new vocabulary for a new type of life, for He converts us and our vocabulary....

"Sometimes while going to church the gang on the street corner would call out: 'Hello, Stan, going down to see Jesus?' And the inward answer was 'Yes, glory be!' For going to church is just like that–'to see Jesus.' But their taunts grew fainter and fainter and finally died as they saw I was lost to their crowd. I was marching to the beat of another Drummer, and I was trying to keep step with Him....

"One area of adjustment was made the next day after my conversion. Out of habit I went to the barber shop where a group used to play cards. But fortunately and providently I picked up a pocket New Testament lying on a table in our home and took it with me. And it was lucky that I did, for it helped me break a useless and harmful tie. As the group gathered at the card table, I went to the barber's chair and began to read the New Testament. They called me to join them as usual in the card game. I replied: 'No, I've been converted.' It was a bomb. A silence fell upon the stunned group. One of them, Ras, who had refused to take the step when I took it [the day before], spoke up and said: 'Well, then, read us something from that book.' "(12)

For every true conversion to Christ there are the attendant consequences: one of which is a hunger for holiness, which results in an immediate as well as ongoing change of life and lifestyle. A note of caution: though such a radical change will not be seen in a young child, the fruit of conversion will be the same.

Cultivating an Appetite for God

We can't give ourselves an appetite for God and holiness any more than a rock can call up an appetite for water. Apart from grace we are dead to God; without the life of God in us there can no appetite for God. But although we cannot create within ourselves a hunger for God, we can take measures to cultivate and encourage the appetite He first gave us when we trusted in Christ. How can we maintain a healthy appetite for God?

Give yourself to God totally.

You cannot maintain a strong, healthy appetite for God and be a straddler. God wants you to serve Him without reservation, with a single-mindedness of intention and will. To do this you must make a decisive, deliberate surrender of yourself to God. To those debating about taking such a step, the Apostle James exhorts: "purify your hearts, you double-minded." To those who have yet to make a complete consecration, the Apostle Paul challenges them: "I urge you ... to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."(13) Such a consecration will be affirmed again and again in the life of the hungry-hearted believer.

Meet with God regularly.

I remember Mary Ann Travis saying to me in a discipleship class soon after she gave her heart to Christ a number of years ago: "Pastor Tilley, I've cleaned out a spare bedroom where I can have my daily devotions." No one told her to do this. She did it because she wanted to have a quiet place where she could regularly meet with her new-found Friend.

A Christian without a systematic, regular devotional life is an undisciplined, careless Christian. To hunger after God is to set aside time to meet with Him in His Word and to talk with Him (prayer).

Walk in the light explicitly.

Your fallen sinful nature (the flesh) will provide you with a thousand reasons as to why you shouldn't obey the plain, revealed, written Word of God. But as a Christian you are called to walk in the Spirit, not to walk after the flesh.(14) By walking in the light (truth the Holy Spirit reveals to you through His Word directly, or by other means which are in harmony with His Word) you will enjoy uninterrupted fellowship with God, and maintain a healthy spiritual appetite.

Pray to God transparently.

A.W. Tozer once wrote that the only prayers that God responds to are honest prayers. There is so much phoniness in much of our praying because we ourselves are living a phony life.

When God comes near to us in our personal devotions, it's not a time for us to boast before God—we have nothing to boast of. It's a time of humbling oneself before God. It's a time for confessing: our lack of passion for God, our careless words, our deadness of spirit, our dry eyes, our lack of zeal in reaching out to the lost.

Let's quit pretending before God. The last time I looked, a synonym for pretense was hypocrite. God rewards transparent prayers and transparent people with His presence and blessings. Transparency before God engenders a greater appetite for God.

Abide in Christ Constantly.

To learn to abide in Christ is one of the open secrets to a life of power and fruitfulness in the Christian life. To abide in Christ is to exchange our inability for His ability; to exchange our self-sufficiency for His all-sufficiency; to exchange our independence for His power and control. "Abide in me", Jesus says to every thirsty-hearted disciple.(15)

Are you enjoying God's nearness in your life? Are you experiencing a real, ongoing hunger for God—a hunger for His holiness? Jesus promised, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled."(16) And they will be filled again and again, and again—as long as they are hungry.

Reader, join me and the psalmist in affirming, "the nearness of God is my good."(17)

– Soli Deo Gloria –

1. Psalm 51:3
2. Isaiah 6:5
3. Luke 5:8
4. See Romans 8:29; 1 John 1:7
5. 1 John 1:9
6. Psalm 5:10
7. Isaiah 35:8
8. 1Peter 1:15
9. 1 John 2:15-16
10. John 8:11
11. See Romans 8:10, 15
12. E. Stanley Jones in A Song of Ascents
13. James 4:8; Romans 12:1-2
14. See Galatians 5
15. John 15:4
16. Matthew 5:6
17. Psalm 73:28