Peaceful Mediations

On November 11, 2014   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Joshua 1: 8

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

Let us talk about meditation a little today. Yesterday we looked at Psalm 62:5 and Psalm 46: 10 which teach us to be still and quiet in the presence of God so that we may know Him as God. In the still, quiet peace of our souls is where we most easily connect with God. However, it is quite one thing to agree that you need to be still or that you need to meditate and another to actually do it. At least that was my experience. 

I decided one year that I was going to pray for an hour a day and I actually did it for quite a while. Now, you would expect my life to have exhibited a dynamic metamorphosis after praying for an hour a day. There is, however, an element of prayer that is necessary for it to have any power at all. That would be God. My prayer was an endless stream of syllables but I believe it lacked substance. It probably was noise in the ears of our Lord. I never bothered to connect with Him or the Holy Spirit so it was a soliloquy rather than a dialogue and prayer is not meant to be one-sided. Prayer is communication with God through the three persons of the trinity. My spirit, soul and mind were rarely quiet, still or silent. So, I would try with all my strength to be still and quiet. I would try to meditate. How many of you know that when you try that hard and apply power that you just create more noise. There is no effort in stillness. Remember, Psalm 46: 10 says to cease striving. So striving to hear the voice of God or striving to meditate is just not going to work. I was in violation of the principles of prayer and the kingdom of God. God teaches us that we connect and have deep fellowship through peace and ease. David commanded his soul to silence so that he could hear what the Father would say. David knew in whom his hope rested because he had many times experienced that saving grace of the Lord. 

It is exceedingly unfair for teachers to constantly intone about meditation and never teach us how to meditate. For some of you I understand this comes easily. I cannot even fathom. Others of you may have struggled with me. How then do we enter that rest that we often hear about? 

My revelation was not my own. A dear friend and mentor led me, this year, to two ministries which in conjunction have opened the prison doors and set me free. The first of those ministries is Communion with God Ministries whose founder is Dr. Mark Virkler. How appropriate. Now, do you think a ministry with that name may be able to help you find God and assist you in communing with him? Absolutely! And it was certainly true for me. Dr. Virkler’s foundational program is 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice. If you want to hear God’s voice speaking directly to you, then this program will make it happen for you. Dr. Virkler very subtlety teaches us left brained people to stimulate the right side of our brains bringing us into greater balance and causing us to experience the other half of the world (maybe more than ½). His website is a great beginning place and it is loaded with tons of free content. Free is good. I learned how to use the 4 keys just from his website and had an immediate breakthrough. The website is www.cwgministries.org. 

The other ministry that has radically altered my life this year is Impact Ministries with Dr. James Richards. Dr. Richards has many areas of expertise which can impact your life but the Heart Physics program is what has taught me how to be still. It was amazingly easy too. I was absolutely astounded at how quickly I began having significant breakthroughs. In fact, during the first week I had several major ideas just “come to me.” That which Dr. Richards teaches can alter every area of life. And while it takes a few minutes to go through the heart exercises, that time and more is added back in productivity and creativity. He also teaches you how to have more energy. You will be amazed at the peace you gain through heart physics and I guarantee you will learn how to calm yourself down and to meditate. It is a very fruitful program. Find all of Dr. Richards’ resources at www.impactministries.com or www.heartphysics.com.

We can all have peace. We can all find God in the stillness of our hearts. These two ministries can help you find that place of calm serenity where Jesus is waiting for you. Be still and know your God and savior. Find peace and truth in meditation.

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Be Still

On November 10, 2014   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 62: 5

My soul, wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him.

The first thing I needed to understand about this verse in order for it to minister blessing to me is that David is actually addressing his own soul. I think there is an entire message in the truth that sometimes we need to speak to our souls commanding them in a particular direction but what I really want to talk about today is being still before God so that we can enter into deep communion with Him. 

This has been a contemplation of my heart for a long time now and a focus for this year. I have never been very good at being still. Psalm 46: 10 tells us, “Be still and know that I am God” or as it reads in the NASB version, “Cease striving and know that I am God.” Either phrasing is equally difficult. Being still relates to both physical stillness and mental quiet. I found being still and quiet physically challenging but mental quiet near impossible. I would sit down to pray and my mind was all over the place. I thought I had a quick, active mind but in truth I had an undisciplined mind. In my experience, it is very difficult to have an active communication with God when my mind will not shut up for one moment. Something, therefore, really struck me about the silence David commanded to his soul.

It turns out that this “silence” is an interesting word. It is the word “damam”. Its primary meaning is “to be or grow dumb, silent or still – ceasing.” Not surprisingly, we see the expected silence but there is also the concept of stillness that is found in Psalm 46: 10 as well as the mandate to cease striving. This is a profound silence then, akin, in my mind, to peace. When we look at all of the definitions and synonyms for this word “silence” we find the words relax, rest and wait. There is an imperative tense too in made silent, kept silent, stand still, stay still, wait in silence. These are the commands David spoke to his soul. He tells his inner being to be still, quiet, relaxed, etc. knowing that God will speak into the silence.

We know David to be a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13: 14). We also see in David a person who fully expected God to be an active player in his life. I have to conclude that this internal discipline that David exercised and his core belief that God would speak into the silence were critical factors in the enviable relationship that He enjoyed with God. There is nothing, however, that God did for David that He will not also do for you and me. Therefore, it may be wise for us to look into this man’s behaviors and attitudes, no, not to observe only but rather to model his behaviors so that we may enjoy the same fruit. For I am convinced that if we sow the same seed that David sowed, we will reap the same fruit, that of a close, personal, Psalm 23 kind of experience with the Father of lights, the God of the universe, our very own dear father.

Finally, for some of you quiet contemplation may come easily though that is beyond my comprehension. Others of you may find this topic challenging. All of us probably need to meditate (think on, cogitate, ponder) over this topic. Quiet spirits, still minds and bodies are not the stuff of modern society. If, however, we want to enjoy daily communion with our Father, if we want to hear His voice speaking into our everyday life then we are going to have to master the art of silence, the skill of still.

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Dwell on These Things

On June 30, 2014   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Philippians 4: 8

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

Last Friday I went for a bike ride. I had plans to meet some people for lunch at a trailside restaurant 29 miles down the trail later in the day. I thought I allowed enough time for me to cover the distance without keeping them waiting but I have not done many long rides lately so I was a bit concerned about my mph average and arriving at our meeting spot on time.

I started out at a good pace and was really pleased to feel good at that pace. Before too long though, at around 14 miles, I think, I noticed that my average was beginning to drop. I wanted to go faster but I had also noticed that my legs were beginning to enter the conversation with input of their own. I really focused on going faster and that is when I learned this important life lesson. The more I thought about my legs the more tired I felt. But our dear Father switched my thoughts from the fatigue in my legs to thinking about my cadence and to watching the average speed display on my bike computer. I stopped thinking about my legs and began thinking about the mph. A few minutes later when I looked at the current mph indicator I saw that I was going 15 mph which was the fastest I had gone all day. I had an epiphany right there on my bike. I realized that the more I focused on the bad news, i.e. my legs being tired, the more I reaped tired legs. When, however, I put my mind on my goal, my body just achieved the goal despite the obstacles. In fact, I didn’t even feel my legs. I just achieved a new level of success simply by shifting my thinking.

As I rode I thought to myself that this must be what God is trying to teach us in this verse. Whatever is good or worthy, let your mind linger on those things. If you meditate on your tired legs you are going to reap weariness. If you let your mind camp out on the goal, you are going to reap success. I remember thinking as I rode along, “If we think about being tired, we will be tired. If we think about being sick, we are going to be sick all the days of our lives. But, if we will meditate on the healing, the success, the blessing, etc. then we will be healthy, successful and blessed.” Yahoo! Now that was a bit of practical education that I could apply immediately.

I have a few other strategies that I have developed over the years of riding that I think might work in many aspects of life. First of all, I pray at the very beginning of my ride. I say to Dad that this is our time and that I will be glad to listen and He can talk. I love to acknowledge (even out loud many times) that this is something that He and I are doing together and that not only do I invite Him to share this time with me but that He is just automatically a part of it. Then I often tell Him that we will ride together but that the last 3 miles are all His because I have noticed that no matter how far I ride it always seems that the last 2 – 3 miles become difficult. So we start out with an expectation that He is with me and is doing the bulk of the work. Those are two of my secrets but there is a third which is my emergency ration when I am out of gas and I needed it on this ride.

As I continued Friday, I began to weaken again so I put my earbud in my ear and turned on Praise music. Now I did not say Christian music because I need something more specific in these moments and it is Praise music. Say it loud! Play it loud! I start praising the Lord and listening to anointed singers glorifying the Lord and I get revived. The joy of the Lord can pump your legs even when you feel like there is nothing left in them. One caveat – trying to sing along can really be hard on your wind but then again who cares? Well, maybe some of the other people on the trail would prefer I didn’t start singing out loud but it just may make them ride faster too if only to get away from me.

The end of the story is that I did arrive on time. Actually, I was 40 minutes early. I had a great ride. I asked Dad to use the time to fellowship with me and to speak with me and He taught me this brilliant lesson about what we allow ourselves to meditate on impacting our immediate life. He used my leisure time to develop a Word of the Day teaching me that we can work and play. We had time of praise and I got some exercise. I’ve gotta say, that is a good day.

Bottom line, we can affect our lives by what we think about and those impacts are immediate and lasting. There is something we can do right now to change the outcome of today. There is a lot of power in that.

I hope you enjoyed going on this little 29 mile journey with me. To find out what my “out of gas” refueling music was check out the blog post for Sunday, June 29, 2014 at www.iveyministries.blogspot.com.

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