analyzing, I wrote it down right at that moment. Obviously then I had to ask about the content, although I already had a clue. I believe this post is something Father simply wants to remind us about. There won't likely be much here that you don't already know, but instead it will be more of an encouragement to do more of what we may not be regularly practicing as we should. In this last hour, I can say with all my heart, this topic of silence is not only something we need to grow, it is something we must have to stay in our Father's perfect will as we begin down the final stretch towards Home! Yesterday evening I was listening to a teacher talk about clearly hearing the voice of our Heavenly Father, and in less than 15 minutes he had shared some incredible simple points. Can you guess one of the points? Of course... silence. This is a topic I feel am only able to write about because it's something Father has been teaching me for many years in His great long-suffering -- and that's because this does not come easy for me!! I have always struggled to rest, be quiet, and mostly be still in both body and mind. I come from a family of busyness, productivity, and an inability to just rest and be; and so yes, I was born this way! Because of this, I have continually prayed, studied, listened, and sought Father about how to finally master this. I feel such an urgency about this, because again as I stated above, I believe hearing our Shepherd in this late hour is absolutely critical in order to know His will, His way, and His desires for us personally. We cannot afford to mistake his voice for another. I thought to look up where this "moment of silence" concept came from that we see played out in our world today, which is typically done when we honor someone who has passed or to pay respects to the sorrow of a national tragedy or unfortunate event. Obviously I found that this is an act to basically "honor the dead", but it is interesting what I found out about its spiritual origin. Wikipedia states, "Quakers have practiced silent worship for more than 300 years, believing that all people have the light of God within and that no priestly intercession is needed for the divine to speak. Silent worship in Quaker meetings is seldom entirely silent, and individuals speak as they are moved by the spirit." So there we go... definitely founded in Christian spirituality as we suspected! Isn't it something that in the worldly sense silence is now given to the dead as a sign of honor and respect, but in the spiritual sense, it is a way to show honor and and respect our Living God so He may speak and move??! Notice that the Quaker meetings were "seldom entirely quiet"... this is because the silence of the people made the way for the Holy Spirit to speak in power and clarity! Silence truly is golden!! So now that this has been solidified, I would like to share a bit more so that this post can be helpful! Taking a few points from the teacher I listened to last evening, I want to expand upon silence and stillness, which are two completely different things. First, we can typically control our silence, right? My time in the early morning is carved out for communion with Yahusha (Jesus), and while my intentions are adamantly such, there are times when I have allowed various types of "noise" and activity to distract me, even against my will and desire. The fact remains though, I can easily control this through disciplining myself. We know the enemy will always come to disrupt our silence, so we have to prepare with setting boundaries and stick to them. Obviously, we set our phones aside, we don't make plans for this time, and we ensure we are in a quiet space of our home. This is the perfect setting to sit with Father and learn of Him, and it is usually very rich and wonderful. In comparison, this is the easier part. Let's move to the hard part... stillness. So many of us struggle to become still in our bodies, our souls, our minds, and our spirits. It's just difficult to silence all this inner working, especially in this chaotic, busy, and evil world in which we live. I have struggled with this so much throughout my spiritual walk; it has not come easy, and I still have not mastered it. My mind wants to pick things apart, daydream, wander, and the list goes on and on. I've heard so many devout believers who are truly seeking the Father say they struggle with this. But the true fact of the matter is that we need to keep trying, because a gold mine is waiting for us! We need that moment of silence in our external environments, but more importantly, we need it within. A dear sister of mine just shared with me a couple of days ago a "pearl of wisdom" Father had shared with her, and it is so applicable to this subject. He said to her, "Be still in your heart, because that is where I am." Oh, how sweet that is!! Within us is where He is, and if our "within" is never still and quiet, how can He make Himself known? How amazing must it make Him feel when we are willing to go away with Him to a quiet place where we just sit or lay with Him, silencing all our inner-self stuff, just to allow Him the space and time to share His heart? Experiencing this with Him will always bring His nature into us, which in turn deposits into us revelation, worship, praise, restoration, and refreshing! It is a time that we can truly experience oneness with Him; and I don't know about you, but this is something I want all the time!! And onw final thought on this as spoken by the teacher from yesterday... he said that when we are waiting in complete stillness within, the flesh dies! Pondering on that on too.... To compact and confirm all of this, the following are just a few precious scriptures that reflect the connection of stillness and silence to our relationship with our Father and Savior. As I read this, my spirit just says, "Aaahhh..." Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! Psalm 46:10 ESV For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. Psalm 62:5 ESV It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:26 ESV The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent. Exodus 14:14 ESV How awesome is it to know that our divine, holy Creator and God is waiting for us to come to Him in rest and stillness? Just to meditate on that brings a sadness within me to know He wants this and I have been so slow to give it to Him. I want this with all of my heart, and I pour this out to all of you in hopes that you are craving this as well. May our Father hear this yearning within us and instill deep in our hearts the ability to be still and do it well -- for our good and His glory! Saying this reminds me of two scriptures that reflect my deepest desire... As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. Psalm 42:! KJV Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee. Song of Solomon 1:4 KJV In closing, I hope this has been encouraging. I believe this is the message Father wanted to share, and all this says to me is... He wants to be with His children now! He wants to love us, instruct us, share His heart, and show us the way we should go, especially now when time is of the essence. Praise Him for His mercy and love, for it is beyond our ability to fully understand. I would like to leave you with a few things that I pray will be a blessing! The first is something I wrote from my heart about 10 years ago as I gained more understanding about the importance of quiet and silence (click here). Secondly is a special song to help you enter in to a place of stillness. Listen to the anointed words and know your Heavenly King is speaking this to you personally! It is truly lovely!! And finally to give credit where due, and in case you would like to listen to the short teaching I mention in this post, you can access the video here.
2 Comments
I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Revelation 2:2-7 Most of us know this scripture as Yahusha (Jesus Christ of Nazareth) is speaking to the church of Ephesus, and I feel like many of us may not believe that this pertains to us. We love Him so much and are seeking to truly know and please Him, so surely we don't fit here. Well... I don't know about anyone else, but I found this to have some truth in my life. It is surely not what I wanted or intended, but about a little over a year ago, I had to accept that this was the case for me in some ways. Not a good feeling, honestly. The gist of this whole issue is love. For me, it came down to two questions... First, have I fully received His perfect love that casts out all fear (1John 4;18), and secondly, am I giving all my love to Him... the pure love that comes from intimately knowing Him and obeying Him (John 14:!5)? This right here was my vice... gripping me for so many reasons and for too long. By His graceful hand, the last seven years of my life have been pointedly focused on this, and I have learned so much! It has come with intense trial, heartache, correction, and inner searching -- and has resulted not only in greater faith and a deeper level of obedience, but also an understanding of how to receive the long-suffering, patient, and infinite love of a God who not only authored our faith but promises to bring it into the fullness of completion in Him. And then.... yes... my love for Him grew more and more intense and pure and real. This overall topic is so vast and has recently culminated in such a wonderful truth that I cannot write about it here; it's too much. However, I am compelled to share this journey in the form of a "book", just because it is way too long for a blog post. I pray that by the grace and wisdom of the Father through His Holy Spirit, I will be able to write this in a manner that flows with the power, pain, intensity, and joy that I experienced throughout, and that it may result in healing and encouragement for others as well as praise and glory unto His name. I share all of this for this particular blog post to say that I am thrilled to be working back towards my first love of almost 28 years now and doing the things I did back then. One of those things was to be overflowing in the love of Yahusha to the point that I wanted to share His love story - the gospel of salvation - with anyone and everyone. Granted, He sets up perfect circumstances for us to do this, and there can also be times when it's just not the right time; but the key is, being alert, watching, ready and willing for this at any given moment... having a craving spirit to pour out of myself all that has been so lovingly put in... for the sake of the lost. I can say with all assurance within me... now is the time! The lost are everywhere amongst us, and they need our attention, our prayers, our compassion, our love, and our voice! All that is placed within us, learned and attained first through His grace and mercy, and then through much discipline and experience, is not just so we can be righteous and be in His presence for all of eternity... it is also meant to be poured out, shared, declared, and used to bring in the rest of the Body of Yahusha of which we are a part. The Body is still incomplete, which means we are also incomplete! All must be reconciled back to the Son so then all can be subjected back to the Father that He may be all in all (1Corinthians 15:28)! Much of the way we love our God as well as our brothers and sisters, which Yahusha said are the two commandments that sum up all of the law, is to be a willing vessel to be used in any way the Master desires to bring in the rest of His beloved children! This is His heart, and because we are of His body, this is ours as well! There are so many verses to support this calling! For the sake of space, I will list a few below with links so you can view them if you desire: Finally, I wanted to share something special with you on this post. I haven't published a blog post in a while, and one of the reasons is because I've been in the midst of what I would like to call the culmination of the last seven years of my life. And once again, it's all about love. I have been working on a few things that Father has placed before me, all of which have been rich and fluid and even fun! I would like to share one of the little projects that I have now almost fully completed. This is something I plan to spread out as a call to the lost... something I have been praying will be used by the Father, through His Holy Spirit, to send His call to those wayward sheep -- those right now struggling with fear, doubt, loneliness, confusion, and all the workings of the enemy in this last hour -- those Father has prepared to now receive the words of His Son. I share this now with you in hopes that you will see it as something you can also use to spread the most wonderful truth that the created human being has ever heard. The link below will take you to an evangelistic website that is actually something that was birthed over 10 years ago. I pray and believe that Father used this as a foundation and then expanded it through wonderful truths, learnings, and experiences gained over time, as well as the critique and input of a few of my close sisters, and made it into a call... His loving call for this time for those who are ready. I would say that this site is about 90% His word, so it is truth and will only have any anointing or power through that. I pray this is something that you find useful and will desire to use as you are led. And if not, of course that is good too, as all things should be directed by Him. You can access the site by clicking on the picture below or here. Please note, this picture is actually the front and back of a business card that has been created and will be distributed throughout the highways and byways! And also please note that this site is best viewed via a desktop at this point in time. I am working with the website builder to make improvements to the mobile view, but it is currently a challenge! |
Special NoteThese writings are written in love and a spirit of servitude. They are not designed to judge but make us think. We are all sinners in need of saving, and we all need encouragement and absolute truth to endure on the narrow road to sanctification and ultimately eternal life. Categories
All
Archives
May 2024
|