The Last Battle

Copilot comes to the rescue again. I will say that I was so much more attuned to what was happening in the Narnia books spiritually this time, but I didn't jot all of them down. I am relying on Copilot. It knows I am a spiritual director. So, it tailors the answers to that. 

Here are the most spiritually rich, direction-ready quotes from The Last Battle, drawn from authoritative sources and curated for contemplative use. These are the passages that speak most deeply to themes of homecoming, courage, discernment, longing, and the nature of true reality.

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🌿 Homecoming, Heaven, and the “Real Country”

• “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here… Come further up, come further in!”
  A jubilant declaration of ultimate belonging and spiritual arrival. [^1]
  Why it matters: Ideal for exploring desire, eschatological hope, and the soul’s orientation toward its true home.

• “All their life in this world… had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story… which goes on forever… and every chapter is better than the one before.”
  A vision of eternity as unfolding intimacy and joy. [^1]
  Why it matters: Helps directees reframe endings, grief, and transition as thresholds into deeper reality.

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🦁 Trust, Courage, and Divine Holding

• “But courage, child: we are all between the paws of the true Aslan.”
  A tender assurance of divine protection and presence. [^1]
  Why it matters: Beautiful for sessions involving fear, uncertainty, or surrender.

• “The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.”
  A metaphor for death as awakening. [^1]
  Why it matters: Supports conversations about mortality, hope, and spiritual awakening.

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🔥 Discernment, Deception, and Inner Freedom

• “They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their minds… so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out.”
  A piercing insight into self-made spiritual prisons. [^1]
  Why it matters: Useful for exploring resistance, mistrust, and the ways fear constricts spiritual openness.

• “He is not a tame lion.”
  A reminder of divine wildness and sovereignty. [^2]
  Why it matters: Helps directees examine expectations of God, control, and the mystery of divine action.

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🌱 Seeking, Desire, and the Nature of True Devotion

• “Beloved… unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.”
  Emeth’s encounter with Aslan. [^1]
  Why it matters: A profound text for exploring desire, vocation, and the sincerity of the seeker’s heart.

• “My happiness is so great that it even weakens me like a wound… that he called me Beloved.”
  Emeth’s astonishment at divine acceptance. [^1]
  Why it matters: Supports conversations about grace, identity, and being seen by God.

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🧭 Justice, Surrender, and Holy Fear

• “How should we know what he would do? We, who are murderers… Do you think I care if Aslan dooms me to death? That would be nothing… Would it not be better to be dead than to have this horrible fear that Aslan has come and is not like the Aslan we have believed in?”
  Tirian’s anguished honesty. [^3]
  Why it matters: A raw text for exploring guilt, repentance, and the fear of divine abandonment.

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✨ If you’d like next

I can shape these into a printable reflection sheet, curate quotes by spiritual theme (grief, hope, discernment, calling), or create guided journaling prompts for use with directees.

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References (3)

[^1]: The Last Battle Quotes by C.S. Lewis. https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1059917-the-last-battle

[^2]: Best Quotes Of The Last Battle With Page Numbers By C.S. Lewis. https://www.bookey.app/book/the-last-battle/quote

[^3]: Last Battle Quotes (4 quotes). https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/last-battle

P.S. I found this interesting that one of my Facebook friends posted an opinion piece on Susan's fate. 

Jeremy Rios

July 23 at 6:15 PM ·

70 years ago, in 1956, C.S. Lewis published “The Last Battle,” the final children’s novel set in his fictional world of Narnia. One element from that book has troubled readers ever since: Susan.

If you don’t know, Susan is one of the four Pevensie children, who first enter Narnia through a magical wardrobe in a country estate where they are temporarily housed to escape the dangers of the Blitz. Susan is the oldest daughter and the second oldest child in the family. She returns to Narnia in the second book, “Prince Caspian,” and features as a character in the fifth book (set in the past) called “The Horse and His Boy.”

But, in the final instalment, when nearly every character returns to a renewed Narnia during and after what will be Narnia’s last battle, Susan is notably absent. When asked where she is, the children reply that Susan “is no longer a friend of Narnia.” And we learn that not only does she now dismiss their stories as fabulous fantasies, she has become more and more interested in things like “nylons and lipstick.” In other words, Susan has chosen the world, and that choice has left her outside of Narnia at the end. It is quite a stark warning, especially within the context of a children’s story.

Readers, however, were and are bothered. A frustrated Neil Gaiman wrote a book about Susan’s perspective. J.K. Rowling took issue with what she perceived as the implicit sexism of Lewis’s comments on Susan—as if the problem was Susan’s discovery of sexuality. Others, like Francis Spufford, inclined to fan-fiction, attempting various corrective re-writes to “fix” the problem by including Susan and remedying Lewis’s perceived mistakes.

I don’t think Lewis made a mistake. Moreover, I think that people’s unwillingness to address the hard news of Susan say a lot more about them than it does about Susan.

Let’s explore this. Taken on its own, the closing narrative of Susan’s self-distancing from Narnia may feel like a throwaway. In other words, it can seem as if Lewis wanted to teach a lesson, picked on the girl, and then picked the most easy way to get the girl out of both the world of imagination and—with it—of salvation. So he picks sex, makes Susan boy-crazy, and, in a flash, she’s a Narnia-apostate. This reading is odd, because to make it work we have to imagine that Lewis, were he writing today, would be an advocate for what is sometimes called “purity culture.” But Lewis doesn’t think sex is bad. Far from it, the sixth novel in the Narnia series “The Magician’s Nephew,” is anchored on romantic love and its corruption.

“Wait a minute,” I hear you say, “How can ‘The Magician’s Nephew’ be about romantic love?” This will take a moment, but it’s worth recounting. One of the things we know now (thanks especially to the groundbreaking scholarship of Michael Ward in his book “Planet Narnia”) is that Lewis orchestrated and designed the seven Narnia books around the seven medieval planets. The clearest example, in case this is news to you, is found in “The Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader’” which is the Narnia book designed around Sol, the sun (which was, in medieval thinking, a planet). The whole journey takes place as the ship moves toward the sun, images of gold are replete throughout the book, and several dragons are killed (or un-dragoned) throughout the book—and this is because Apollo, god of the sun, is regarded as a dragon-slayer.

Each book has an underlying theme like this, and, when we come to “The Magician’s Nephew,” the governing planet is Venus, planet and goddess of love. Lewis shows in the novel a contrast between a figure he calls “Venus Infernal”—Jadis, Queen of Charn, is referred to as a “Dem Fine Woman”—and a Venus Eternal, the right love of Digory for his mother, the creative love of Aslan, and a love that, in the plot, is uniquely manifest by not eating fruit without permission. Important as a theme throughout all of Lewis’s work is an affirmation of the goodness of everything God has made. Therefore, Lewis doesn’t hate sex, but he is keenly aware of how our physical desires can lead us astray.

Why do I go through all of this? Because it is highly unlikely that Lewis’s treatment of Susan at the end is an afterthought. If Lewis orchestrated his books this carefully, we should presume that he employed a similar measure of care in how he describes the end of one of his significant characters. Lewis is not dismissing Susan in a casual way because of “sex.” When we start to look at Susan in this more robust way, a few things emerge.

First, of all the children who travel through Narnia, Susan is the only one who does not have a significant personal encounter with Aslan. Recall the events with me: Edmund is going to lose his life, and Aslan gives his own life for Edmund. Afterwards, they have a conversation—that no one hears—and from that point Edmund is transformed. Lucy, most sensitive of the Pevensie children, is almost always first to see him, hear him, and respond to him. Peter, in his enthronement must exercise leadership—he is Aslan’s agent in a way that none of the other children are (especially in “Prince Caspian”). Eustace is actually physically un-dragoned by the claws of Aslan! Jill Pole has her terrifying encounter with the Lion by the brook in Aslan’s country, and Digory comes face to face with the Lion’s tears at the dawn of Narnia.

But Susan has no such life-changing encounter. She is one of the four, and she is a witness, and she has adventures, but it very much looks like she goes through Narnia unchanged.

Second, Susan’s beauty and potential for vanity are seeded throughout the books she features in. Suitors pursue her at the end of the first book (LWW), and a major plot point of “The Horse and His Boy” is Rabadash’s desire to take Susan as his queen, against her will. Far from being an afterthought, Susan’s beauty—and its dangers—have always been a part of her character.

Third, and finally, recall that in the second Narnia book, “Prince Caspian,” the children return to Narnia and a great deal of time has passed there—so much time, in fact, that the landscape has changed and they struggle to recognize where they are. While journeying toward their destination, one by one the Pevensie children begin to see Aslan. Lucy—again, the most sensitive!—sees him first, but the others disbelieve. Edmund, seeking to make amends for his previous behaviour towards Lucy, chooses to trust her and is rewarded by seeing Aslan second. After a time, finally, Peter also sees Aslan. Who sees him last? It is Susan, and this suggests that the seeds of a kind of resistance to the transformative magic of Narnia are already in place, embedded in her character.

Far from being a problem, the absence of Susan at the conclusion of Narnia’s stories provides us with two pieces of terrifying instruction. And the lessons look like this:

1) You can travel through Narnia and not be changed by it. You can live adjacent to profound transformation, and not be transformed yourself. You can witness miracles and not believe.

This is very sobering, but necessary for us to hear. It is similar to that old preacher’s phrase that “Sitting in church no more makes you a Christian than sitting in your garage makes you a car.” Proximity to transformation is not in itself any guarantee for personal transformation. There is always something more that is required. In this, I think of the phrase that I sometimes have heard people say: “If only God would show me a miracle, then I would believe.” But I think the message of Susan is that you can see all the miracles in the world and still not believe.

2) You really can choose the world. A lot of people are upset by the idea of exclusion, that God might shut people out from His Kingdom. But the truth of the matter is that God gives us freedom to choose not-God. We can choose the world. We can choose our own way. And the truly terrifying part is that He lets us make that choice. Lewis puts this explicitly in his book “The Great Divorce,” where George MacDonald, his guide to the lands between, says these words, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.” Susan, therefore, is vivid illustration of a sobering point that runs throughout Lewis’s books and theology.

During a typhoid epidemic in London, John Donne was himself sick and bedridden, forced to listen repeatedly to the funeral bells that rang from the church. Responding to the queries of people wondering who had died, he wrote these words: “Send not to ask for whom the bell tolls/it tolls for thee.” His message was pastoral: do not focus your curiosity on the death of others, take care of your own soul. Do not fixate on the news, look to your own salvation. Something similar can be said of Susan’s final state—do not fixate on Susan, but look to yourself. Have I journeyed in the Kingdom without entering it? Have I chosen the world over the King?

King of Kings - The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion, and Catastrophic Miscalculation

Wow! I learned so much from this book. I had it on hold BEFORE the US started bombing Iran. By the time I go it, the conflict had started, and this book was a hot commodity. 

I was in college when the "King of Kings" fell. This book gave me context for the fall.

This book makes Carter and his administration look like fools. Everyone was asleep to what was brewing. 

I will say that there is a review on Goodreads by an Iranian woman, Helga Martiros, who is very critical of the book:

Did Not Finish

October 8, 2025

I'm going to regret this review, but here goes:
I am furious at this book and can’t go on reading it. It’s a DNF after reading approximately 200 pages.
This book may be interesting for a non-Iranian, but for me who was born and raised in Iran and knows the events and their 'when and why and who and where', this book was not ‘it’!

First off, when writing about a historical event, do some research about the country, her history, culture, customs and psychology of the people of the country you're writing about.

For example, you should know that in Iran we have had arbitrary rule for ages. Meaning, from the start, in Persia there had been kings and those kings had been revered and obeyed like gods. The Shah wasn’t even comparable to your Carter. You are comparing a president with a king? Really?
He was the king with certain duties and very specific understanding of how to behave as a king, inheriting what he had been taught. Meaning, when someone was in his presence, that someone should be standing until invited to be seated.
The same goes for every royal country. There are etiquettes to be observed.
I’m sure you couldn’t just barge in the Oval Office and high-five Trump and sit your ass down without leave? So, the criticisms directed at Shah about his behavior is uncalled for. By the way, just so you know, Shah was an extremely introvert person, hence his not mingling. Jesus Christ!

Secondly, that’s Shahbanu Farah to you, not just Farah, like you’re talking about a pet puppy. And, you are still at it, criticizing her for caring for her country?? She does charity work and your tone implies that she’s doing it for show? Shah crowns her as Queen, not because of his arrogance, but because he wants her to be an example for the downtrodden women of Iran, to show them that 'yes, they can too! Iran had never seen a woman become a queen until then. The wives of the kings used to be confined in the harems. But I digress...

Thirdly, don’t rely on some minister’s diary entries. You are basing your opinion of Shah and what went on behind closed doors using a third person’s perspective who for all we know wrote a bunch of lies in his diary to suit his narrative. And at the same time you are bashing the Queen’s own memoir, telling us without shame that she lied or exaggerated?

Right at the beginning you ask us ‘why didn’t the US support Shah and prevent his downfall. Well if you don’t know why, then you have no business writing a 700 page book.
But I will tell you why your country and your revered Carter didn’t back Shah. It was because Shah didn’t want to give free oil and concessions to other countries anymore. Shah was striving to become independent. That's why. He had to go, so another puppet regime would do whatever your country demanded.
And Shah went, because if he stayed, there would have been bloodshed and he didn’t want that.
You portray Shah as some kind of a ninny who didn’t know shit. Shah knew shit, the only thing he did wrong was trusting the wrong people. He was a dreamer, a patriot and an idealist and those traits cost him his country.

An excerpt to show what kind of a history book this is. Notice the “In all likelihood… probably…just as probable…” ?

"In all likelihood, that morning’s meeting of the two men followed the same general pattern as the hundreds that had preceded it. The shah had probably been reading from one of the stacks of papers on his desk with his oversized, black-rimmed bifocals when Alam entered. It’s just as probable that he neither spoke nor looked up as his minister approached, but instead absently raised his right hand from the desk to let it hover in the air. Drawing up at the shah’s side, Alam would have executed a deep bow, then taken the proffered hand and, while kissing it, whispered a prayer for the continued health and safety of the man known as the King of Kings, Light of the Aryans, Shadow of God on Earth. This incantation complete, Alam would have then rounded the desk, careful not to show his back to the monarch while doing so, to stand on its opposite side. Because their meeting that April morning was scheduled to be brief, perhaps a mere twenty minutes, the court minister probably remained standing for the duration."

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

Here is my review from ten years ago. 

My oldest son is rereading these, and we relived a memory of our kids hearing Narnia for the first time as kids. It inspired me to reread the whole series this summer.

The part that stood out to me was the reactions of the four children when they heard about Aslan for the first time. Here is a summary:

When the children first hear the name Aslan in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, they do not yet know who he is, but the mere mention of his name instantly evokes strong, distinct feelings in each of them LitCharts.
According to the text, the Beaver says, “They say Aslan is on the move—perhaps has already landed.” At that moment, each child feels something “jump in its inside” — a sudden, powerful sensation LitCharts. Specifically:
 

• Edmund feels a sensation of mysterious horror — a mix of fear and unease, possibly because he is already suspicious of the White Witch and wary of danger eNotes.com+1.

 

• Peter feels suddenly brave and adventurous — his reaction shows courage and a readiness to face whatever comes next eNotes.com+1.

 

• Susan feels as if some delicious smell or delightful strain of music had just floated by her — a sense of beauty, delight, and something pleasant and uplifting eNotes.com+1.

 

• Lucy gets the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of summer — a sense of warmth, hope, and the joy of a new, better time eNotes.com+1.

 
These reactions show that Aslan’s name carries deep symbolic weight — it can inspire fear, courage, beauty, and hope — even before the children understand his identity or role. Lewis uses these contrasting responses to hint at the complex nature of Aslan: a powerful, good king whose presence can stir both awe and apprehension in those who hear his name.
 

How do you feel when you hear the name of Jesus?

Weeks after reading this, we went to the C.S. Lewis room at the Hotel Sylvia. Here are some pictures from the room that go along with this particular book in the series:

Meditation in the Morning from Psalm 3

Psalm 3

https://insighttimer.com/thesoulcoach/guided-meditations/psalm-3-a-lectio-divina

1 O Beloved, how numerous are my fears!

    They rise up within me 2 whispering

        there is no help for you.

                                                        Pause in his presence

3 Yet You, O Beloved, radiate Love

            around me, my glory; (The implication is that God shields us by taking us to himself)

    gratitude becomes my song, ("You lift my head" acquittal when judged, freed from                                                                    prison of shame)

4 When I cry out to You,

        You answer within my heart.

                                                Pause in his presence

5 I lie down to sleep; if I should

    awaken, my Beloved is there

            holding me with strength

                and tenderness.

                I feel secure.

6 Now, I shall forgive all illusions

        that my ego tries to build.

For my courage is in You, O Love,

You who are the Lover hidden

            in every heart. 

7 Rise up, Love! Set me free!

        for through your guidance,

        my fears will fade into love.

8 Free from fear, I will know

        the Oneness of Being that 

            encompasses Everything!

I shall be free to serve Love

        with a glad and open heart. 

                                               Pause in his presence 

What are your fears? Nan C. Merrill makes the point of equaling enemies/adversaries with fears. I notice she did it in Psalm 23 (You prepare a table before me in the presence of all my fears) too. This has touched my heart deeply this morning, and I cannot step away from this. 

I love the line, "Now, I shall forgive all illusions that my ego tries to build/For my courage is in You, O Love/You are the Lover hidden in every heart."

Perfect love castes out all fear. 

"Free from fear, I will know the Oneness of Being that encompasses Everything!"

You are the lover - the "secret sauce" as Ray W. would say. Thank you, LORD.  "Gratitude has become my song" this morning."

Aslan is on the move. 

How to Hear God: A Simple Guide for Normal People

I liked it even better this THIRD time of reading. This time, I listened to Pete reading the audiobook, and it was worth the third read. 

I just felt so edified. So built up. 

Here is my first review: 

Pete does it again. This is my fourth (or maybe fifth) book by Pete, and he does such an excellent job at making things so simple. I really love Dallas Willard's book, Hearing God, but it is theologically and philosophically very thick whereas Pete's book is very down-to-earth (thus why it is called a "simple guide for normal people"). Maybe we can call it "Dallas for Dummies"! (Both are wonderful men of God.) He does recommend Dallas' book at the end of one of the later chapters too. https://carolhomeschool2.blogspot.com/2022/07/how-to-hear-god-by-pete-grieg.html 

What makes Pete so extraordinary as a writer is his storytelling. I loved the audiobook because he imitated the accents of the people he was telling stories about, and it was so endearing and funny. He apologized for his readers putting up with his "terrible accents" at the end of his narration, and I think he had nothing to apologize for! It made this third reading so delightful. 

So, here I sit. I have always believed with all my heart that I could hear the voice of God. I was not raised in the church. So, I wasn't biased to believe that you could not. (Reading Surprised by the Power of the Spirit many years ago I was struck by Jack Deere's comment that you could put a new believer in a room with a Bible and they would come out believing all the gifts are relative for today. Deere had to resign from his position from Dallas Theological Seminary because he became convinced of this himself, but they did not believe that. So he had to go.)  I still wholeheartedly believe in the Bible as the authoritative Word of God, but there is too much Biblical evidence that sees God reaching out to people through dreams, visions, prophecy, direct words, etc. I don't think you can deny that. 

I wrote a lot about this after this paragraph, but I don't want to offend people. So I deleted it (or will put it in my personal Penzu journal). I am so thoroughly Biblical in everything. (See the Bible Book Club that I started in January 2008. Has it really been 18 years?) I have always gone off the premise that hearing God does not negate the Bible.

For that reason, I love that Pete has some tests for prophecy:

Exercising a prophetic gift: Since all believers can be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2: 4; 19: 6; Eph. 5: 18), we can (and should) all receive and exercise his gifts, including prophecy. But our first attempts at prophecy can be scary, so it’s helpful to ask yourself, “Will the thing I think I’m seeing, hearing, or sensing bring encouragement if I share it? Will it be edifying?” And most important of all, “Does it sound like Jesus?” A simple, memorable rule of thumb is therefore to apply the ABC filter:

• Affirming: Does this word fulfil the criteria of 1 Corinthians 14, by being strengthening, encouraging, comforting, edifying, and upbuilding? 

• Biblical: Is this word consistent with the broad teaching and witness of Scripture (not just a specific verse taken out of context— see chapter 2)? 

• Christlike: Is this word consistent with the character, mission, and message of Jesus?

Greig, Pete. How to Hear God (Kindle Locations 2220-2224). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.  

I get it. There are some who abuse prophecy as we are seeing in some of the prominent charismatic churches, but I like Pete's biblical and balanced approach. It is a both end situation. We can be adhering to the Word of God and still hear His gentle whisper! 

I could say more, but I have friends on both extreme ends of the spectrum. I am solidly in Pete's camp on this one.

Here is my notebook of things I highlighted from my second time (or maybe my first too) through this book. (It is hard to take notes when you are listening to it:

How to Pray by Pete Greig Notebook

How to Read This Book In Five Minutes

 172 The Bible says that you were created to enjoy a real, conversational relationship with God. Hearing his voice is therefore the most natural thing in the world.

 180 Jesus is what God sounds like. He’s literally the “living Word of God.” Hearing his voice is not so much a skill we must master, therefore, as a master we must meet.

 188 When it comes to hearing God, the Bible is the language of his heart. Nothing he says in any other way in any other context will ever override, undermine, or contradict what he has said in the Scriptures.

1. Hearing God’s Word In Jesus

 339 magnificence.” Human beings are hardwired to worship. You have been meticulously made with an extraordinary ability to walk and talk with God.

 340 In fact, the Bible says that your primary purpose— the reason for which you were born— is to enjoy a real, conversational relationship with an infinitely loving divinity, which is why you almost certainly hear him already, more than you realize.

 640 Thus grace, for the most part, acts slowly. He works little by little.” 19

 646 Hawaiian word haoles, ‘without breath,’ or those who failed to breathe life into their prayers. 20

 649 I am terrible at tarrying on the other side of asking to slowly breathe life into the embers I have spread before the altar of the Lord.

 675 “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” [John 5: 39– 40]).

Part 1: God’s Word: Vox Externa

Hearing God’s Word In the Bible

981 “We present you with this book, the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is wisdom, this is the royal law, these are the lively oracles of God.” 11

1006 If I understand what the Bible means but never hear what it says to me personally, I have information without revelation. But conversely, if I disregard its original context and ignore the bits I don’t like or don’t understand, I will be in grave danger of abusing God’s Word by confusing it with my own feelings, preferences, and prejudices.

1053 Some people view exegesis with suspicion, worrying that it stops us taking the Bible at face value (which it does) and that it therefore undermines the authority of Scripture (which it does not) and detracts from our ability to engage with the Bible devotionally (which it can actually enhance). In fact, reading the Bible with our heads, so that we understand it intellectually, only strengthens our ability to receive the Bible as God’s Word with our hearts. Let me give you an example.

1196 survey of forty thousand people aged between eight and eighty discovered that reading the Bible has a profound effect on both our mental health and our spiritual growth, but only if it is done at least four times a week. Once or twice a week provides a negligible benefit, and three times results in only a slight improvement. But among those who study the Bible at least four times a week, there is a dramatic inflection point, a sharp uplift in their mental and spiritual well-being. In fact, these regular Bible readers are 30 percent less likely to feel lonely, 32 percent less prone to anger issues, 60 percent less likely to report feelings of spiritual stagnation, and 228 percent more likely to be active in sharing their faith. 35

3. Hearing God’s Word In Prayer: Lectio Divina

1256 Scripture is, in some sense, the music of God, which we hear; in another sense, it is the instrument of God, which we play. —Origen of Alexandria (185– 254)

1326 we learn how to approach the Bible as a window frame as well as a picture frame, not just looking at it but also through it to the world, and the Word, beyond.

1552 “Don’t swallow it in a big lump,” Bernard of Clairvaux said of the Bible in the twelfth century. 11 Chew over each word. Savor its flavor and sample its depths.

1565 But meditation is cyclical, not linear. It’s a labyrinth in a world of ladders, more concerned with discoveries made than distance traveled.

1568 Cistercian Order.

1578 Some bunny trails take you down dark holes, but others lead out into the light.

1583 As it did for the couple on the road to Emmaus, whose conversation about God was interrupted and redirected by a stranger, the living Word will sometimes interrupt the written Word.

1586 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls. —Psalm 42: 7

1592 Don’t try to make sense of your reaction or analyze why it’s speaking to you. Just acknowledge it and ask the Lord to show you why it’s captured your attention.

1597 But an insight that exceeds the bounds of sound biblical interpretation does not need to lead to heresy, provided it reflects the word, character, and example of Jesus.

1654 How on earth are we to know the difference between God’s thoughts and our thoughts, things imagined and things imaginary? These are important questions because our imaginations are indeed both powerful and impure, but the answer is not to switch them off (even if this were possible), but rather to use them wisely and enthusiastically for God’s glory. We don’t need to be afraid of doing so, provided we apply the usual tools of discernment.

1662 life researching such things, concludes, “The devotional masters of nearly all persuasions counsel us that we can descend with the mind into the heart most easily through the imagination.” 15 Conversely, conservative Bible teacher A. W. Tozer warned starkly of the dangers of ignoring our imaginations when it comes to the Bible, saying, “The weakness of the Pharisee in days of old was his lack of imagination, or what amounted to the same thing, his refusal to let it enter the field of religion. He saw the text with its carefully guarded theological definition and he saw nothing beyond.” 16

1742 In this chapter I have talked about the essential role that Benedict of Nursia played in the development of lectio divina, but not yet about a character almost equally influential in popularity: Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. Arising in sixteenth-century Europe, the Jesuits championed a practical spirituality that sought to find God in all things. They became the great popularizers of such ancient practices for spiritual formation as the examen, the Spiritual Exercises, and, of course, lectio divina. Armed with these powerful tools, Jesuits went out and truly changed the world. It was Jesuits, for instance, who located the source of the Blue Nile, discovered quinine, invented the humble trapdoor, founded the Brazilian city of São Paulo, championed Baroque architecture, wrote the first dictionaries of North America’s native languages (enabling cross-cultural communication), gave their names to thirty-five craters on the moon, and provided education for leaders from Descartes and Voltaire to Bill Clinton and Denzel Washington. 19 The Jesuits embody the intrinsic link between spiritual formation (prayer, listening, meditating on the Scriptures, etc.) and social transformation. “Saint Ignatius was a mystic,” wrote William James, the American philosopher, “but his mysticism made him one of the most powerfully practical human engines that ever lived.” 20

1788 embracing interruption, exercising intuition, and engaging imagination— we are, in fact, training ourselves by these very means to hear God’s word in all of God’s world. We start to make secular places sacred, simply by the way we listen to them. And, of course, wherever in the world God’s word is received by faith, his kingdom has already come. In the words of the Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, “The world has little by little caught fire in my sight until, aflame all around me, it has become almost luminous from within.” 23

1819 dreams and visions will pass away, prophetic utterance speaks for a season, “the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever” (1 Pet. 1: 24– 5).

1829 There’s an old joke about a Franciscan, a Dominican, and a Jesuit who were praying, when the lights went out. The Franciscan said, “Oh, this is a wonderful opportunity to live more simply.” The Dominican launched into a sermon about the significance of darkness and light. And the Jesuit went off to change the fuse.

1836 These tools include the Spiritual Exercises— a four-week, in-depth journey of spiritual

1837 It is not only 4 weeks. Pete should correct this or clarify that it is four phases or weeks.

1865 Anima Christi (A Prayer from the Start)

1932 No one should feel any pressure to use icons in prayer. But if you are visual and find it helpful to focus on something physical in a time of prayer, an icon can be helpful and is arguably more meaningful than, say, staring at a candle or a sunset or lyrics on a screen.

1942 Recommends David G. Benner, Opening to God:

4. Hearing God’s Word In Prophecy

2035 In both Old and New Testaments, prophecy is predominantly a means of declaring God’s will and powerfully communicating his heart. 4

2042 There were no chapter divisions in Paul’s original letter. He is urging us to “eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy” (1 Cor. 14: 1) precisely because we love other people and therefore want them to be strengthened, encouraged, comforted, and edified by God’s Word. And he is also telling us that spiritual gifts are useless—“ only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13: 1)— unless they are administered with love.

2061 “Does God really speak today? If so, how does he speak? And how do you know it’s him?” For three months, he says, no one anywhere could answer him.

2068 “I began to discover,” he says, with his eyes twinkling, “that in everything God has a voice.” I would go about my day talking to him, asking, “What are you saying in this situation? Where are you at work in this place? What was that encounter all about?”

2090 Kermit predicted all those years ago. In fact, I was with him the day he heard the news that his song “Raise a Hallelujah” had reached number 1 on the airplay charts. 5 And as for his award-winning anthem “No Longer Slaves,” it contains some especially poignant lines: From my mother’s womb You have chosen me Love has called my name I’ve been born again Into Your family Your blood flows through my veins I’m no longer a slave to fear I am a child of God6

2119 ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’

2142 But also because our Creator understands that we are seasonal beings, living in a seasonal world, and we don’t thrive and mature in a mode of continual harvest. 8

2216 Exercising a prophetic gift: Since all believers can be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2: 4; 19: 6; Eph. 5: 18), we can (and should) all receive and exercise his gifts, including prophecy. But our first attempts at prophecy can be scary, so it’s helpful to ask yourself, “Will the thing I think I’m seeing, hearing, or sensing bring encouragement if I share it? Will it be edifying?” And most important of all, “Does it sound like Jesus?” A simple, memorable rule of thumb is therefore to apply the ABC filter:

4. Hearing God’s Word In Prophecy

2220

·       Affirming: Does this word fulfil the criteria of 1 Corinthians 14, by being strengthening, encouraging, comforting, edifying, and upbuilding?

·       Biblical: Is this word consistent with the broad teaching and witness of Scripture (not just a specific verse taken out of context— see chapter 2)?

·       Christlike: Is this word consistent with the character, mission, and message of Jesus?

Part 2: God’s Whisper: Vox Interna

5. Hearing God’s Whisper

 2551 Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth’s superb surprise As Lightning to the Children eased With explanation kind The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind— 1

Carolyn Arend's (head of Renovare Book Club) favorite paragraph ever:

2561 Billions of people wake up each day precariously balanced on a rock traveling at 66,627 miles per hour around the sun in a galaxy that is itself moving at 1,342,160 miles per hour in relation to extragalactical frames of reference. Quietly these people make themselves coffee, stare out at the dawn breaking, the dew glistening and, for the most part, barely give the maker of so much mystery a second thought. Their three-pound brains churn through eleven million bits of information per second, and their ten-ounce hearts pump five liters of blood through 100,000 miles of tubing, and yet the great Giver of Life demands neither allegiance, acknowledgment, nor thanks. “The Lord is not slack . . . but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish’ (2 Pet. 3: 9 NKJV).

Greig, Pete. How to Hear God (p. 148). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. 

2588 of course, is that his presence is manifest in the dullness after the drama. The Great Elemental Force shows himself gentle and makes himself personal in “a still small voice” (1 Kings 19: 12 KJV) or, as a more literal translation of the original Hebrew says, “the sound of gentle silence.”

2602 Breathe through the heat of our desire thy coolness and thy balm; Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire; Speak through the earthquake, wind and fire, O still, small voice of calm. 4

2717 There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God. —Brother Lawrence

6. Hearing God’s Whisper In Dreams and the Unconscious >

3062 Millennia before Freud and Jung and psychoanalytic theory, the Bible regarded dreams as a window to the secret motivations and hidden thoughts of the “innermost mind” (or the “unconscious,” as Freud would later describe it).

3229 As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

7. Hearing God’s Whisper In Community, Creation, and Culture

 3313 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who combined being a Jesuit priest with being a scientist, paleontologist, and philosopher, put it like this: “By means of all created things, without exception, the divine assails us, penetrates us and moulds us.” 2

3497 Hearing God in the Culture There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places. —Wendell Berry

8. The Word, the Whisper, and the Way

3790 Gradually, my neural pathways get realigned by ten

3877 Sometimes he speaks dramatically, but mostly quietly with “words . . . full of the Spirit and life” (John 6: 63). The more we say yes to the things he says, the more familiar and precious his voice becomes, until, ultimately, at the end of the road, at the end of the day, at the end of our lives, we look back with a mixture of wonder and joy and say: Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked?

3882 And so we arise, put on our coats, and step out into the night.

Recommendations for Further Reading On Hearing God

 3897 Dallas Willard, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2012). (My favorite book on the subject)

 3903 David G. Benner, Opening to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer (my favorite book on Lectio Divina)

 3927 Christine Westhoff, ReFraming the Prophetic (online Bible-study), www.reframingtheprophetic.com. (Now a book)