Volume 2 Number 4 February 28, 2007

MarketFaith Ministries is an equipping ministry which is focused on helping Christians become more effective
in living out their faith in the midst of the increasingly diverse worldview environment of modern society.
Introduction

I know that the name of this newsletter is Worldview Made Practical. And I know that you might not see the practical as-
pect of some of the articles right off the bat as you read them. Unfortunately, it is necessary to have a certain knowledge
foundation before practical implications can be gleaned and applied. So, some articles are designed to give you that foun-
dation.

But today’s article is practical to the core – if you consider your devotional life to have practical implications for your life. I
hope that what you read below will help you understand your relationship with God in a more profound way and will give
you new understandings that will help you help other’s, as well.

If you find this helpful, please take the time to pass the article on to your friends – and encourage them to sign up.

Worldview and Your Devotional Life

When throwing a punch in karate, there are several things
which must come together properly in order for the punch to
be effective. If your punching technique is not right you
might end up breaking your own hand rather than hurting
your opponent. If you are off balance, you might end up fall-
ing down yourself rather than knocking your opponent
down. An effective punch depends on proper technique.
There are many improper techniques you can use, and all
of them will end up causing your punch to be ineffective.
But if your technique is right, your punch will accomplish the
purpose for which it was thrown.
You may be wondering, at this point, what a karate punch,
worldview and your devotional life have in common. In fact,
there is a very important principle in common that will abso-
lutely determine the effectiveness of your personal devo-
tional expression. Your worldview is the basis for your
devotional life with God in the same way that your tech-
nique is the basis for the way you strike someone in karate.
Implications of the Worldviews
Worldview is the set of assumptions you have about the
way reality is organized. What you think about God and the
way you interact with him is based on that set of assump-
tions. If your assumptions are wrong, you will, at best, have
an incomplete relationship with God. At worst, you will be
separated from him completely. But if your understanding is
correct, you can have an intimate and satisfying relationship
with him. Let’s look at the implications of each of the world-
views at it relates to interacting with God.
How Would You Interact with God If You Were a Natu-
ralist?
To begin with, a Naturalist does not believe that the super-
natural exists, and thus does not believe that God exists.
The implication here is abundantly obvious. There is no de-
votional life because a Naturalist does not acknowledge
that there is anyone to interact with.
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How Would You Interact with God If You Were an Animist?

An Animist does believe in the supernatural. In fact they believe that there are many gods. Not only that, they are con-
vinced that the god’s are responsible for their well-being. As a result, Animists are very active in praying and in perform-
ing various rituals and sacrifices to make sure the gods remain appeased. But the interaction with the gods is not
personal. Rather it is mechanical; do the right actions and the gods are pleased, but do the wrong ones and they be-
come angry. Individuals are mostly concerned with making sure the gods are appeased.

How Would You Interact with God If You Were an Adherent of Far Eastern Thought?
Those who follow a belief system based on Far Eastern Thought understand reality to be completely impersonal. There
is no personal God to interact with. There is only the great impersonal cosmos. Various systems may acknowledge
physical manifestations of God, but the overall view is that ultimate reality is the aggregate of energy which is already
totally connected and moving toward the unity of the whole. Since all of the energy is connected, that which is related to
any individual is already a part of the “godhead.” Since there is no personal God to pray to, they do not pray. Rather,
since they are already a part of the ultimate cosmos they see themselves as a part of the divine – and people don’t pray
to themselves. Rather the appropriate spiritual expression is meditation in order to contemplate how to more effectively
progress in life.

How Would You Interact with God If You Were a Theist?

Theists believe that there is a transcendent God who is an objective person and who created the material order
(including humanity) for a reason. The typical understanding of God recognizes that he has done something to reveal his
will and his ways to mankind, usually in the form of some kind of scripture or through some prophet. The typical re-
sponse to all of this, by mankind, is to try and get a grasp of God’s will and follow it. A part of that is to pray to God in
order to acknowledge his presence and ask his favor. In most, though not all, forms of Theism, God is acknowledged as
an objective person, though he is not seen to be personal in the sense that he forms an intimate and personal relation-
ship with individual human beings.

The Christian Faith and God

Relational Revelation is a form of Theism, so there are some things that it will have in common with what has already
been said above. As with all of the worldviews, though, Theism is a very broad category and cannot fully express the
specific features of individual belief systems. As a result, if we are interested in how a particular faith system treats the
topic of one’s devotional life, we have to address that system specifically. In our case now, since we accept Relational
Revelation (Biblical Christianity) as being “the Truth,” we are particularly interested in knowing how that will be ex-
pressed in our own devotional life.

First let’s mention the things that are common with Theism in general. As with the Theistic explanation above, those who
consider themselves to follow Relational Revelation believe that there is a transcendent God who is an objective person
and who created the material order (including humanity) for a reason. We recognize that he has done something to re-
veal his will and his ways to mankind, and that revelation comes by means of his created order, the teachings that he
gave through the writers of the Bible and his Holy Spirit. As with Theism in general, we also attempt to respond to this
revelation by working to get a grasp of God’s will and making our best effort to follow it. A part of that is to pray to God in
order to acknowledge his presence and ask his favor.

Now all of that is great as far as it goes, but there is one more thing that is essential to understand. In the case of Rela-
tional Revelation, God is understood to be personal in the sense that he created us for fellowship with himself. He has
specifically revealed the way for that to happen and provided the means to accomplish it through the death and resur-
rection of Jesus Christ.

Now, an intellectual understanding of that revelation is essential, but is not enough. We must also have an experiential
understanding of it. In other words, we must actually establish the relationship and interact with God within it. This rela-
tionship is an actual objective reality in the same way as the relationships we have with other human beings.

For some, this may seem a little strange since other human beings have a physical body and God doesn’t. But a physi-
cal body is not the necessary ingredient for a relationship. If that were the case, we could have a relationship with a
dead corpse.

What we need to understand is that a relationship is a spiritual activity and occurs between the essential spirits of two
individuals. As for ourselves, we are not physical beings who have a spirit. Rather, we are spiritual beings who have a
body. Our essential spirit is the fundamental core of our personhood and when we relate with someone else, the es-
sence of the relationship happens spirit to spirit, not body to body.
(Continued on page 3)
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Perhaps you now see where this is going. The fact is, God is spirit. In fact, the reason we are spiritual beings is because
God created us in his image. He put the elements of personhood in us – things such as free will, self-consciousness, cre-
ativity, analytical ability, and so on. We are persons because God is a person and created us in his image. As a result, it
is possible for us to interact with God on that essential spiritual level. Certainly there are necessary differences because
our human relationships operate within a material environment. But it is possible for us to actually communicate with God
in an objective sense because he made us spiritual like himself.

This means that when we pray, there is an actual communication taking place where information is being exchanged be-
tween ourselves and God. Since it is not being filtered through our physical senses, we must learn how to listen to God’s
communication through strictly spiritual channels. But make no mistake, an actual conversation between ourselves and
God is possible, and is his desire.

One more thing we must be aware of. Since it is possible for us to receive actual spiritual communication from the spiritu-
al realm, we can also hear from Satan and his minions. Typically we refer to this as a “temptation,” but it is nothing less
than a spiritual communication designed to lead us away from God. As a result, it is essential that as we learn how to
communicate with God, we must also learn how to discern which communication is from him and which is from Satan.
This is what scripture is for. God’s written revelation includes instructions related to how we make this distinction.

Do It!
The only thing left is to take the understanding, that we are able to intentionally and objectively communicate with God,
then actually begin communicating. God created us for the purpose of relationship with himself. He provided the means
which allows it to happen. And he has initiated the process. What remains is for us to make the decision to interact with
him and to do it. When you figure this out, your devotional life will take on a level of meaning that before you could only
dream about.

Coming in March - What is Relational Revelation?

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