It makes a difference.
Heart-led obedience to the Lord is a partnership. You conform yourself to the moral fabric of Creation and experience the full joy and power His personal Presence. The very core of this kind of abundant life is a recognition that Creation itself lives, that you can be in harmony with it, and that you can hear its voice helping guide you to God’s intentions for us.
Yeah, to Western ears that sounds all spooky and magical. To those of us who have learned to let the heart lead — we who are seeking to make use of the heart as a sensory organ in its own right — Creation is simply alive to us. Perhaps in your calling and context you receive some of that Creation Communion in different ways from another, but the basic principle is that Creation as a whole is consistently calling us to God’s truth and His moral character. Within that vast symphony of celebration, your particular redemptive needs will touch your own heart strings in ways uniquely yours. This isn’t “special” for a few rare individuals; this is the Created norm. It only seems strange because Western Civilization hatefully rejects the whole thing.
We who live by the heart are in rebellion to the West. That puts us at odds with virtually all human institutions, since we can scarcely find any such institutions that are not fundamentally westernized. A few tribal societies here and there, harshly oppressed and silenced, might offer a different viewpoint if they were permitted. In many ways, we are another such tribe, sharing a spiritual DNA and living in harmony as a virtual family. The West cannot own us.
While it’s possible to pass through this world without provoking human wrath, you should expect a measure of suffering from it. At the same time, when we walk in the divine moral purpose of God, He remains firmly in control. Unless He permits, our hostile governing institutions can’t even see us. When it suits His whims, they may even decide to favor us, and may never themselves understand why. God intervenes for the sake of His glory.
Meanwhile, all the non-human portions of Creation are just so thrilled to see us walking in God’s truth. Creation itself works actively to support and enhance the experience. If we pay attention, everything we need to walk in our individual callings is right there, provided richly. While God certainly reserves His inscrutable plans that include general difficulties in this life, our presence in the situation changes things. Because we are in communion with the elements, they tell us ways to minimize the sorrows. Thus, we see God’s blessings on two levels: first as the pre-programmed action of the moral fabric in Creation, and second as the direct intervention of God. This is divine mercy and divine justice.
God burns into our hearts the faith necessary to embrace His will. My book, Heart of Faith, serves as a bare introduction to the subject. While it is not necessary to embrace my book to be a part of Kiln of the Soul or Radix Fidem, it does serve as a valid expression of the truth of God.
Yeah, it makes a difference.
