Gregory A. Boyd - Seeing Is Believing: Experience Jesus Through Imaginative Prayer

2004 by Gregory A. Boyd

Published by Baker Books
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P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
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Ebook edition created 2011

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ISBN 978-1-5855-8344-7

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For my covenant group

Greg and Marcia Erickson, Alex and Julie Ross, Dave and Terri
Churchill, and all of our children

Over the last ten years you have taught Shelley and me the true
meaning of friendship and community in Christ. Our shared life
together is part of everything I am. I really love you guys!

When the Spirit of truth comes,
he will guide you into all the truth.

Jesus

contents

S everal words of appreciation are in order. First I need to express my gratitude to all the churches and organizations that have sponsored and promoted Resting in Christ seminars over the last sixteen years. I also appreciate the encouragement and feedback, both positive and negative, I have received from the thousands who have participated in these seminars. Your input greatly improved the seminars and significantly influenced this book as well.

I deeply appreciate and respect Baker Book House for agreeing to publish this work, knowing full well that its message may be controversial in certain quarters. I am particularly grateful to Bob Hosack and his outstanding editorial team for the excellent work theyve done editing and reworking this manuscript.

I also need to say, very emphatically, that neither the seminars nor this book would have been possible were it not for the loving support and continual encouragement of my wife, friend, and soul mate, Shelley Boyd. No one except the Lord and I knows how much of you permeates this and every one of my endeavors.

W hy doesnt God make himself more real? Lateffa asked with an exasperated tone.The bills I gotta pay, theyre real. The job I gotta hold, the kids Im raising, the car that wont work, the ulcer that acts up, theyre real. But God just seems like a vapor in the wind. I mostly do all the things Christians are supposed to do. I pray, go to church, worship, give money. But honestly, most of the time my faith doesnt seem to relate to the real world! Its hard to keep going on sheer commitment.

I knew exactly what Lateffa, a friend of mine, was talking about. I think on some level most of us do. We probably dont say it out loud very often, but all of us at one time or another wonder if all this Christian stuff is real. We believe God exists and cares about us but never or rarely have a profound experience of this truth. Naturally we wonder if were just involved in wishful thinking. We talk to God, but he doesnt talk back. So prayer seems unreal, like were talking to the ceiling.We believe were saved and have the Holy Spirit in our lives, but we rarely feel Gods transforming power in our lives.Whatever spiritual growth weve experienced seems more the result of our own hard work than that of the presence of God in our lives. Like Lateffa, many of us are tired of fueling our faith with mere belief and sheer commitment.

Wondering whether Christianity is real is not the same as wondering whether Christianity is true. If you question the truth of Christianity, you can do something tangible about it.You can read books, take a class, or talk to someone about it. But what can you do when youre already convinced its true but dont experience it as real?

Particularly frustrating is the Bibles promise that our faith will be filled with real things. People in the Bible experienced God all the time! They heard from God, saw visions, and seemed to sense Gods presence wherever they went. Furthermore, the Bible tells us were supposed to experience Gods transforming love, joy, peace, and power in our lives.Yet, like Lateffa, we often feel as though the only things we experience as real are the bills, broken-down car, irritating ulcer, and so on.

Why Arent We Transformed?

This lack of a real experience of God in our lives is not at all an academic problem; it has huge practical implications.You see, its not so much what we intellectually believe is true that impacts us; its whatwe experience as real. For example, most people who sleep around know its true they could contract AIDS or some other sexually transmitted disease. Yet they dont experience the possibility as realat least not as real as whatever pleasure or other benefit they receive from having multiple sex partners. If a close friend of one of these individuals contracted AIDS, however, then perhaps the possibility would be experienced as real and would be much more likely to alter the persons lifestyle.

In the same way, a person can believe Christianity is true, but it will affect his or her life only to the extent that its also experienced as real. When all we have to go on is our belief that its true, devoid of any real experience, our faith has little power to make us significantly different from non-Christians.

Through the media and other means, the values of our culture are communicated to us in experiential, vivid ways. They impact us. The experiences weve had and the messages weve received while growing up are vividly remembered and experienced as real. They impact us. And our inclinations to live in sinful, self-centered ways are continually experienced as real. They impact us. But our faith? Well, our faith is often experienced as unreal, something we simply believe and hope to experience as real when we die, but it doesnt impact us in an experiential, real way right now.

So is it surprising to learn that the faith of most American Christians makes very little practical difference in their lives?[] In terms of what we