Present Presence

On March 31, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Habakkuk 2: 20

But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.

This verse brought up a couple of thoughts in me. First, the further we go in our study of the Bible the more we find the connections throughout it. The first sentence in this verse screams of the New Covenant and our place in it, or more specifically God’s place in it. The second sentence reminds me of Psalm 46: 10 which teaches us to “Be still, and know that I am God” (NKJ). Let’s look at today’s verse with the insight it shines on these two thoughts.

First, when Habakkuk wrote these words, the temple of God was a building. Habakkuk was remarking about the presence of the Lord. “The Lord is here, let us be silent and listen to Him,” he might say. How much more potent are these words now that we have become the temple of God. “Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3: 16 GW). In all of history, in all of time, God has never been more present in the lives of humans than He is right now. While this is true, it is hard for us to understand or have any tangible application of this truth. His presence seems remote to us and because we perceive Him as far off, perhaps just sitting on His throne in heaven, we find it difficult to be still and listen to Him. We have not developed our awareness of His presence. Therefore, we also lack the awareness that He is speaking to us. We don’t need a cloud of His presence going before us day and night because He is in us at all times. We just need to learn how to tap into that which is already true.

The interesting fact about developing the awareness of God with you at all times is to first accept the veracity of these verses that tell us that we are His temple and that He abides with us and in us. Once you do, you begin to look with more enlightened eyes. Just knowing He is there makes us more attentive. Think of it like this. If you have a house guest and you think you hear a voice, aren’t you more likely to perk up your ears because you think your guest may have just spoken to you? When we think of God as far off, then the voice that keeps speaking to us is easily ignored.

Likewise, if you accept that God is speaking to you or wants to, doesn’t the imperative to be still and silent so that you can hear become more sensible? If I told you that tomorrow at 2:00 PM God is going to speak to you, and you believe me, would that affect what you do at 2:00? Of course it would. If you believe that He is here with us and that He wants to speak specifically to you, I think you would attempt to accommodate hearing.

Well, I am telling you that if you want God to speak to you at 2:00 tomorrow, then He will. Would you rather have a 3:00 appointment? The calendar is open. You can have anytime you want. He will be there. Will you show up?

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Answer the Phone

On January 12, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Isaiah 42: 9

“Behold, the former things have come to pass, now I declare new things; before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.”

It seems like every time I have opened my Bible this week, my eyes have fallen on Isaiah 43: 19, which reads, “Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth.” Today I found Isaiah 42: 9 quite by accident. Do you think God is trying to say something? Are you the person to whom God is speaking; for whom God’s insistence is palpable?

God has a message for you. Behold, old things have passed away. He is doing a new thing in you and with you. It is the beginning of a new year and your Father has good plans for you. He wants to do something new in your life this year, something grand. There is more for you, bigger and better things.

Allow me, please, to remind you of Psalm 46: 10, which says, “Cease striving and know that I am God.” The King James says, “Be still.” If I were in your shoes, I would very much want to hear what these new things are that Jesus wants to proclaim to you. The best ways I know to hear these plans and revelation is to slow yourself down, be still and let your heart and mind ruminate over the scriptures. The Word gives you a foundation, a structure for your musings. Without it your mental wanderings will sometimes be vague and unanchored. I also find that the Word helps me to be still and ponder God.

I know from Jeremiah 29: 11 that God has a good plan for you this year; a plan for your well-being. He wants to encourage you and give you a hope for new and great things. Get alone with your Father and ask Him what it is that He wants to tell you, show you. He is loudly calling you. Are you listening? Answer the phone!

(See also Isaiah 48: 6, 2nd Corinthians 5: 17)

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Busy, Busy Bee

On February 18, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 46: 10

Cease striving and know that I am God. 

Well, I’ve done it again. I’ve allowed myself to get busy. Now to some of you that might sound good. Well, I do like to be busy and to have a lot on my plate. I like having a lot going on. But here is the thing, sometimes I get out of balance and get so busy that in the end I find myself not very effective, certainly not efficient. Always I look around and find that I am trying to do everything in my own strength again. Then, as now, I have to stop and put the pieces back in place. For me that means pulling out my calendar and scheduling my time. It means analyzing my work time to determine what I am doing with my time and it almost always means I have to clean up my diet and workout schedule too.

In the United States these days we wear our busyness like a badge of honor. Well, not me, not any longer anyway. In my life, “busyness” invariably means I have stopped living in grace in favor of living in effort. In fact, being “busy” has become a bit of a profanity to me because our Father has already corrected me in this and loudly. When I find I am beginning to feel the stress of too much to do and not enough time, then I know it is time for a checkup. You see, it always means that I have stopped leaning on Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit to be the work horses in my life and have put all of that heavy load back onto my shoulders. 

What did I find this time? My devotional life is nowhere as strong as it was, my Bible time is weak, prayer time limited, my workouts have fallen to almost nothing and my diet stinks. I have more and more to do so I am drawing further and further into myself instead of reaching out to the source of all strength, power and helpfulness. I am no longer yoked with Jesus. Heck, I am not even including Him in the emails. What?! I am working hard at getting little done. So, I repent – turn and go in a different direction.

I have personally experienced and also witnessed in others that we can actually get more done when we first connect with God. So instead of going straight to my computer, I must first go to my Bible. Time with the trinity must supersede work if I wish to be as effective as possible. Jesus really will do the heavy lifting if I will let him. Let’s make “busy” a bad word by devoting our hearts and time first and foremost to our Lord and savior. Let’s put the entirety of our lives in his loving hands, even our work, even our busyness. When we begin to tell people that we are busy, when we begin to think it and when we first begin to feel the stress of too much to do and not enough time, let us run, not walk, to the throne room of God and lay down our heavy burdens in humble repentance. Let’s turn our busyness into worship instead of it being a source of pride. Let’s get more done in less time while spending all of that time with the Lord. Now that sounds good, doesn’t it?

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Waiting to Fly

On February 25, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   1 Comment

Isaiah 40: 31

Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.

I have been learning a lot about this verse recently and I discovered that I had no idea as to its real meaning. We all want the result that this verse promises. Some people think this is just poetic language with no real meaning. Well, they would be wrong. This is an actual promise from God that you can begin living today.

It took a bible teacher to unveil what this verse really stands for. Dr. James B. Richards of Impact Ministries reveals that the word that we translate into the English word “wait” has a much richer meaning in Hebrew. The Hebrew word used in this verse is qavah. It does not mean to sit around on your hands waiting for God to do something; far from it. In fact, the NIV Bible translates this word as hope. Both of them are right but each is only a nuance of the fullness of the Hebrew meaning. Dr. Richards explains that the most illustrative rendering of this word would be to intertwine. And now following his cue and doing my own brief study on the word I can concur. One of my sources says “to bind together by twisting.” Doesn’t that sound like intertwining? The word also expresses expectancy and looking patiently. We wait not because we are waiting on God or that He is tardy but rather that we are expecting something to happen. We have a hope, a joyful expectation that God is on the scene and about to show Himself.

There is also, within this word, a sense of unity; getting together, binding together. Think of it as harmonizing. It is getting together in one accord. We are one, we harmonize. We are of one mind, one voice. It is to bring into unity, oneness.

I would also interject into this verse and this word the sense of stillness from Psalm 46: 10 where God tells us to “Be still and know that I am God.” The New American Standard Bible reads, “Cease striving and know that I am God.” In other words, when we cease striving in our own strength, when we still our hearts and minds for a moment, then we can experience God and His strength. Then we can be united with Him, intertwined around Him. When our lives become intertwined with God, when we stop running off half-cocked, then we can actually experience what is promised in today’s verse. We will, “gain new strength; … mount up with wings like eagles … run and not get tired … walk and not become weary.” This isn’t a metaphor. This is God. When we bind ourselves together with God, entwine ourselves with Him, wait in expectation of the good that He is, when we bind ourselves with Him in harmonious unity of heart and mind, then we will have a real experience of His strength. 

We can run around in our own strength going places God isn’t even leading us and completely wear ourselves out. It is so like listening to an orchestra where one person is out of tune. Your whole day is loud with the cacophony of discord. Instead, we can start each day listening for the sweet sound of His voice singing in our hearts and join our voices to His. We allow Him to sing the lead and we set ourselves in harmony with Him. When we do this we really do enjoy the power of His might. We get more done, with less time and effort. He has ways that we may not yet understand but this I know, His answers and His blessings flow to us when we are intertwined around and with Him. We enjoy life. We breathe more easily. Everything is better. 

Dad is waiting for you to come connect with Him this day. He has been waiting on us for years. Before you run out of the house, wait a moment. Take a deep breath and join yourself with the Father. Get in harmony. I think you will find your days much more melodious and smooth.

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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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Let God be God

On March 18, 2014   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 46: 10 King James Version

Be still and know that I am God.

I am again on this journey to better know God. It is a daily journey for us all but do you also have seasons where your search is hungrier and your need to know Him more compelling? That is where I am and I would like to take you along with me on this journey and really I have little choice because I cannot separate anything I am doing from this deep need to know Him better. It is my prayer that my exploration will benefit you.

Clearly God is telling us in this verse that to know Him better we are going to have to be still for a bit. I wonder if he had our time and our culture in His mind when He gave these words to the psalmists. We are a busy people and being busy is a badge of honor most of us wear proudly. I have found that I can fill up a day with no trouble. Sometimes I get to racing around so fast that even when I sit down to have some quality time with our father my insides are still racing a mile a minute. I don’t think we are ever going to know our father at the deepest levels if we do not learn to slow down and be still. This stillness certainly starts in our bodies. It is difficult to quiet your mind if you can’t first slow down your physiology. How long can you sit absolutely still? You should time yourself. I found I was terrible at just being physically still.

Next, can you release the thoughts going through your mind? I found that I had a very undisciplined mind. It was constantly on one thing or another. So I focus on a picture. I have a couple that I use. Sometimes I picture Christ on the cross. That is very sobering for me and slows me down. At times, though, seeing our Lord on the cross is too much so I picture him beside a stream at one of my favorite places. It is a spot along the Appalachian Trail in South Carolina where I used to like to stop, take off my boots and put my feet in the cool water and its being very picturesque and detailed helps me to focus. Still sometimes that doesn’t work either and then I imagine a single candle burning. I watch the flame dance around. When I can slow down I invariably find Father awaiting me. I am sure that you have ways of quieting your mind, heart and body. When you do, there is the place where it is easiest to hear the father.

However, there is something deeper in this stillness than just slowing our spirits, souls and bodies. In this passage I hear, “Cease your endless striving and experience me, know me as your God.” So many of my prayers over the years have asked God what I should do. Increasingly the answer has been, “Nothing. Just pray.” Now I hear Him saying “Be still and know that I am God.” In other words, He wants us to let Him be God. He wants to show Himself in our lives and through our lives. The key for me is to let God be God and endeavor not to get in His way. “Don’t worry. Don’t strive. Don’t let anxiety have a place in your heart. Be still and at ease knowing that I am your God. I will keep you and care for you.” This is what I hear God speaking to us.

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