Part 7 (1/2)
For the mind to aid the spirit, we must learn to pull back from all the distractions around us. There will always be demands on our time and energy, and we can always find plenty to do. But if we want to live with the mind of Christ, the one that should be normal for Christians, it means we must learn to imitate Mary. Despite all the clamor and activities going on around her, she was able to sit, relax, and listen to the voice of the Master. That's how the mind is supposed to work. It should be quiet and under the control of the Spirit. However, we often find that our minds are so set in a wrong direction that they actually hinder the Spirit from helping us, as they should be free to do.
If you realize from this devotion that your mind has been behaving abnormally, ask G.o.d to forgive you and teach you what a normal mind is in His kingdom.
Dear G.o.d in heaven, distractions constantly come at me. When I try to pause and focus on You, my mind seems to be filled with dozens of things I need to do. I realize that I truly need only one thing-to focus on You. Please help me push away every distraction and noise so I can hear only Your voice that says, ”Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.” Amen.
39.
Still, Small Voice And He said, Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord pa.s.sed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire [a sound of gentle stillness and] a still, small voice.
-1 KINGS 19:11-12 Someone once told me of a one-act play with three characters-a father, a mother, and a son who had just returned from Viet Nam-who are sitting at a table to talk. The play lasts thirty minutes, and they all get their chance to talk. There's only one problem: No one listens to the others.
The father is about to lose his job. The mother had once held just about every office in their church, and now younger women are pus.h.i.+ng her aside. The son struggles with his faith. He had gone to war, seen chaos and death, and now is bewildered about life.
At the end of the play, the son stands and heads toward the door. ”You haven't heard a word I've said,” is his parting remark, as he walks out of the room.
The parents look at each other, and the mother asks, ”What did he mean?”
What the parents didn't get-and the audience obviously does-is that the son struggles to believe in a loving, caring G.o.d. Every time he tries to explain, one of the parents interrupts with something they want to say. The soldier needed to hear from G.o.d. Hoping his mother or father would be the channel through which G.o.d would speak, he went to them. However, they were not available for G.o.d to use because they were not quiet enough to hear Him. All three of them were so distraught and noisy that they all left the same way they came. What might have happened had they really listened to one another, and then quietly prayed and waited on G.o.d? I am sure the outcome would have been very different and much more rewarding.
In the opening scripture, I quoted part of the story of Elijah to make this point clear. That deeply committed prophet had defied the wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel for years. The big moment came on Mount Carmel when Elijah destroyed 450 prophets of Baal. Later, when Queen Jezebel threatened to kill him, he ran away, apparently in terror.
He must have been worn out by the powerful events. Then suddenly the man was alone, with no crowds, no one trying to kill him, and no one to talk to. Just before the two verses mentioned above, Elijah had gone into a cave to hide out. When G.o.d asked him what he was doing there, he spoke of his zeal for G.o.d. Then he told G.o.d that the children of Israel had gone astray, killing prophets, ”And I, I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away” (v. 10).
G.o.d brought strong winds, falling rocks, an earthquake, and fire. I think that was the way Elijah expected G.o.d to appear-in the miraculous and powerful. But the writer tells us G.o.d wasn't in those things.
This is really the spiritual principle of G.o.d at work. We can find the devil in the noise and the shouts. We can find the devil with big attractions to lead us astray. But G.o.d likes to speak in the still, small voice-the voice that not everyone will hear-the voice that only the committed will listen for.
As long as Elijah sought the dramatic, he wouldn't hear G.o.d. But when he pulled back and listened for the inner voice, the soft, non-demanding voice of the Holy Spirit, Elijah could communicate with G.o.d.
What kind of voice from G.o.d are you listening for? Will you recognize the still, small voice when you hear it? Do you take time to be quiet and just listen? If not, there is no better time to begin than right now.
Wise G.o.d, like Elijah and many others, I often look for the loud, the exciting, and the showy. I know that You sometimes use healings and miracles, but I ask You to help me listen most of all in the soft stillness for the quiet ways in which You speak. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
40.
Spiritual Praying Then what am I to do? I will pray with my spirit [by the Holy Spirit that is within me], but I will also pray [intelligently] with my mind and understanding; I will sing with my spirit [by the Holy Spirit that is within me], but I will sing [intelligently] with my mind and understanding also.
-1 CORINTHIANS 14:15 Earlier I referred to ”the mind aiding the spirit.” For many people, this is a difficult concept to grasp. I understand what Paul meant because it's something I've learned to use in my own spiritual growth.
For example, one morning I set aside my usual time for prayer. I began to pray, but my prayers felt flat-nothing energized them-and there was no help from my spirit. As I struggled, I reminded myself that I had made myself available to G.o.d, and I wanted the Spirit to use me to change lives.
I continued to pray but nothing changed. This had happened before, so I wasn't discouraged. I kept on praying and telling G.o.d the things about which I was concerned. After several minutes, a powerful energy took hold of me. I knew I had touched the area where the Holy Spirit wanted me to pray. This became more than my concern-this was G.o.d's concern.
I began by praying out of my mind-about things that I knew of and thought needed prayer. I was praying in English because that is my normal language, and I understood what I was saying. But when the energizing power of the Spirit came, without any conscious thought, I began to pray with my prayer language, or what many of us refer to as an unknown tongue.
Paul was our example and teacher in this area. He said he knew how to pray with the Spirit, and he knew how to pray with the understanding. This may not make sense to everyone-and it certainly can confuse people at first. However, I encourage you not to reject a gift of G.o.d that is available to you merely because you have not experienced it and don't understand it. Be open to G.o.d, and ask Him to teach you about praying in other tongues.
Think of it this way. G.o.d calls us to prayer. That's our joy as well as our responsibility. Sometimes when we talk to G.o.d, we hardly know what to say. We pray, but our words feel inadequate. It's as if there is a depth to our burdens that transcends words. Something is going on that's so strong within us-so overwhelming-we have no words to speak. To use English feels utterly useless. No matter what we say to G.o.d out of our own minds (understanding), we feel we have not broken through and obtained a victory.
Then comes what I call a prayer release. I speak in words I don't understand-words that are beyond the grasp of my human mind-and yet my spirit ”understands,” or bears witness that my prayers are correct and are getting the job done.
The best biblical reference I can give for this experience is Acts 2, which tells the story of Pentecost. The disciples prayed in an upper room while Jews came from all over the world to the city of Jerusalem. The 120 people in that room were so filled with the Holy Spirit that they burst out speaking in unknown languages-unknown to them. But the visitors heard them, ”And when this sound was heard, the mult.i.tude came together and they were astonished and bewildered, because each one heard them [the apostles] speaking in his own [particular] dialect” (Acts 2:6).
The apostle Paul thanked G.o.d that he spoke in tongues, and he also said that n.o.body should forbid anyone to do so. There has been a great deal of division in the church over the issue of speaking in tongues, but I encourage you to go straight to your Bible and see what the Word of G.o.d says about it. Don't have a closed mind to any of the precious gifts of the Holy Spirit. We need all the supernatural help we can get to help us live our lives victoriously.
Some people teach that the gift of speaking in tongues went away with the early church, but there are millions of people worldwide who speak in tongues today. Those who speak in other tongues are certainly no better, nor are they more spiritual than those who do not speak in tongues, but once again, I encourage you to seek G.o.d for yourself in this area, so your prayers can be as powerful as possible.
When we pray in the Spirit, our minds and our spirits work together. Our minds yield to our spirits, and we are praying the perfect prayer that G.o.d desires.
Holy Spirit, I desire all the supernatural gifts You have made available. I need all the help I can get to enable me to live victoriously. I want to pray powerful prayers that are led by the Holy Spirit. I know You hear and answer the prayers I pray in my known language, but I am open to receiving the gift of an unknown language that will enable me to speak secrets and mysteries unto You. I trust You, Jesus, to lead me in the right direction. Amen.
41.
G.o.d's Vision for You For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.
-JEREMIAH 29:11 G.o.d's plan for the people of the nation of Israel was only for their good. Yet they wandered around in the wilderness for forty years on what was actually an eleven-day journey. Why? Was it their enemies, their circ.u.mstances, the trials along the way, or something entirely different that prevented them from arriving at their destination in a timely manner?
G.o.d called the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt to go to the land He had promised to give them as a perpetual inheritance-a land that flowed with milk and honey and every good thing they could imagine-a land in which there would be no shortage of anything they needed-a land of prosperity in every realm of their existence.
But the Israelites had no positive vision for their lives-no dreams. They knew where they came from, but they did not know where they were going. Everything was based on what they had seen in the past or what they could presently see. They did not know how to see with ”the eye of faith.”
We really shouldn't view the Israelites with astonishment, because most of us do the same thing they did. We keep dealing with the same problems over and over again. The disappointing result is that it takes us years to experience victory over something that could have and should have been dealt with quickly.
I come from a background of abuse. My childhood was filled with fear and torment, and my personality was a mess! I built up walls of protection to keep people from hurting me, not realizing that while I was locking others out, I was also locking myself in. I was filled with fear, and believed that the only way I could face life was to be in control so no one could hurt me.
As a young adult trying to live for Christ and follow the Christian lifestyle, I knew where I had come from, but I did not know where I was going. I felt that my future would always be marred by my past. I thought, How could anyone with a past like mine ever be all right? It's impossible!
But Jesus had a different plan. He said, ”The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon Me . . . to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity]” (Luke 4:18).
Jesus came to open the prison doors and set the captives free-and that included me. However, I did not make any progress until I started to believe that I really could be set free. I had to get rid of my negative thinking and replace it with a positive vision for my life. I had to believe that neither my past nor my present could determine my future. Only then could Jesus free me from the bondage of my past-and free me, He did. What a marvelous miracle!
You may have had a miserable past; you may even be in current circ.u.mstances that are very negative and depressing. You may be facing situations that are so bad it seems you have no real reason to hope. But I say to you boldly: Your future is not determined by your past or your present!