In this piece, Gabriel Hughes shares everything he’s written after reading through Jesus Calling, the flagship title of Sarah Young’s bestselling devotional series. He informs us that publisher Thomas Nelson recently released Jesus Calling for Christmas. The new book in the series should not be purchased by anyone, let alone Christians. Pastor Gabe explains why:
A Tale as Big as a Kite
At the start of the year, I posted a blog about the book God Calling by Two Listeners, Sarah Young’s chief inspiration for her bestselling devotional. The two anonymous women behind God Calling likely never existed—author A.J. Russell invented them to give his own writing the appearance of being verified by the testimony of two or three witnesses. Nevertheless, Young followed the method for receiving messages from God detailed in the introduction to God Calling.
Like Russell and his two anonymous women, Young said that she did not feel whole with simple Bible study and prayer. Those were ways you know about God, she thought, but it’s not how you get to know Him intimately. She wanted something more. Young had a specific room where she would go and listen for God to speak to her. She started by praying that her mind would be protected from any distractions, distortions, or deceptions. She only wanted to hear the voice of Jesus and understand clearly every single word He meant for her to receive. She said, “Help me, Holy Spirit.” Then she sat patiently and listened.
Phrases and sentences began coming to her mind, and she wrote them down. It was Jesus speaking! Er, calling! Or something! She would later clarify, likely in response to criticism, that this was not an audible voice she heard—she “heard” Him in her mind (to the best of my knowledge, she’s never explained how the voice of Jesus sounds different than her own thoughts). During these sessions, she would take breaks and read what she’d written, encouraged by such fresh, new words from the Lord.
“This new way of communicating with God became the high point of my day,” Young wrote. She had changed her prayer time from monologue to dialogue—she said something to God, and He said something back to her. Which she just had to write down and get published, right? Her writings became the bestselling daily devotional Jesus Calling. And then Jesus Lives. And then Jesus Today. And then Jesus Always. Et cetera, ad nauseum. (By the way, you knew I was kidding about the Jesus Delicious candy bars, right? Don’t get any ideas, Thomas Nelson.)
But as with God Calling, when tested with the Scriptures, there’s no way Jesus Calling could be the voice of Jesus. Someone might say, “Well, maybe Sarah didn’t actually hear Jesus’s voice, but at least the content is still biblical, right?” No, it’s really not.
Research: