Hearing God

Author: Dallas Willard
Publisher: Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999
(Originally published as In Search of Guidance)
View: Synthesis of Traditional and Wisdom Views

Those looking for a simple formula for finding the "will of God" will not find it in this book. It covers much wider turf as indicated in the subtitle: "Developing a Conversational Relationship with God." Willard is a good thinker who loves tangents. He is widely read. The author index contains a wonderful feast of quotes. I would love to invite him to be a member of our Eagle and Child Reading Group.

His view is hard to describe using conventional categories. His "conversational relationship" with God is at least mildly quietistic as he listens for the inner voice. (To be fair, it's a "thinking man's" quietism.) He offers dozens of pages on how to know when God is speaking through your own feelings, impressions, and thoughts. His perspectives contrast sharply with the point of view reflected in chapter 6 of this book, "Impressions Are Impressions." The most disquieting feature is his use of prophets and inspired writers as a model of how to recognize God's voice. "It is essential to the strength of our faith that we be in some measure capable of inwardly identifying with Samuel's experience as he conversed with the Lord" (p. 218). However, in contrast to Willard's description of the inner voice, Samuel's experience was of direct revelation that was so clear he thought Eli was audibly calling him.

The premise of the "conversation with God" theme is that every friendship has clear, two-way communication. "All the guidance which we are going to receive from God, no matter what the external or internal accompaniments may be, will ultimately take the form of our own thoughts and perceptions. We must learn to find in them the voice of that God in whom we live and move and have our being" (p. 210). "In summary, then, what we learn when we learn to recognize God's voice in our heart is a certain weight or force, a certain spirit, and a certain content" (p. 209).

He quotes E. Stanley Jones. "The inner voice of God does not argue, does not try to convince you. It just speaks and it is self-authenticating. It has the feel of the voice of God within it" (p. 203). Willard adds, "The content or meaning of His specific and individualized communications to us always finally takes the form of the 'inner voice'" (p. 225).

He reminds us that there is "no formula for making decisions" (p. 200). In the process he criticizes F. B. Meyer's classic metaphor of the "three lights" that must line up: Bible, circumstances, inward impressions (p. 196). Checking one by the other will not work, and Willard even questions the reading of these signs. "For one does not know merely by looking at these 'doors' who is opening or closing them, God or Satan or human effort" (p. 199).

Throughout the book he quotes approvingly from proponents of the traditional view such as F.B. Meyer, E. Stanley Jones, Bob Mumford, and Andrew Murray. Then he takes a different tack from the typical traditional approach. He disagrees that we can know this individual will infallibly no matter how sincere we are (p. 226).

He further departs from the traditional view by saying that specific guidance will not be given for every decision. When none is given, guidance from Scripture will be enough. "[God] calls us to responsible citizenship in His kingdom by-in effect or reality-saying, as often as possible: MY WILL FOR YOU IS FOR YOU TO DECIDE ON YOUR OWN" (p. 233, emphasis his). We are to act as "God's mature children, friends and co-workers" (p. 234).

The traditional view says "wait on the Lord" until He reveals His individual will. Willard instead says that if one is afraid to go ahead, "So far from honoring God, such an attitude is blasphemous, idolatrous, and certain to prevent us from ever entering into that conversational relationship with God wherein sensible guidance is given as is appropriate and is clearly revealed and reliably understood" (p. 235).

Well, then, where does the "perfect will of God" come into this guidance? When God gives no further individual leading, "then whatever lies within His moral will and is undertaken in faith is His perfect will" (p. 236). Furthermore "Many different things, then, may each be His perfect will in a given circumstance" (p. 236). This changes the definition of "perfect will" as used by the traditional view into something most proponents would not recognize. How could there be more than one individual "perfect" will? "All are 'perfect' in His will because there is none better than the others and all are good" (p. 236). Willard uses the same key term as the traditional view ("perfect will"), but endows it with quite a different meaning.

It is in this context that he says that Decision Making and the Will of God "has done a masterful job of critiquing the view that God always has one particular thing for you to do in a given case, and that correct decision making depends upon your 'finding out' what that thing is" (p. 236). He concludes, "So the perfect will of God may allow, for a particular person, a number of different alternatives" (p. 237). I'm afraid that both the traditional view and the wisdom view will disagree. Both will contend that Willard has grafted together two concepts ("perfect will" and "different alternatives") that are mutually exclusive.

Willard seems to be trying to amalgamate the "freedom" of the wisdom view with the "perfect will" of the traditional view. Moreover, most traditionalists will find his explanations of how one hears God's voice to be more subjective than they are comfortable with.

This results in an interesting, mystical presentation of the traditional view with a concept of freedom attached. On a continuum I would place it halfway between the Traditional and Wisdom views. The viewpoint appears flawed by an internal contradiction, but the result is something much easier to live out than the traditional view's concept of one "perfect will" for each decision.