(I'm doing some quick notes on my morning time and the nuggets He gives me.)
Hear and Live!
The past few days the Lord is speaking to me about the
necessity of getting quiet in order to hear Him. There is a war for our
attention; not just for the focus of our attention, but our attention itself.
Our minds. Our ability to get still and to live in a place that is still enough
to hear His faintest nudge.
Psalm 32:7-10
Thou art my hiding-place: thou wilt preserve me from
trouble; Thou wilt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah I will
instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will counsel
thee with mine eye upon thee. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which
have no understanding; Whose trappings must be bit and bridle to hold them in,
else they will not come near unto thee. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; But
he that trusteth in Jehovah, lovingkindness shall compass him about.
This passage fills me with a sweetness and a peace that is so
lovely. How precious of Him to keep His eyes upon us. What gentle
lovingkindness takes us by that hands, patiently teaches, disciplines, leads,
and instructs as a parent with a small child. “Else they will not come near
unto thee” the psalmist says, and He bids us come into His chambers, to gaze
upon His beauty and to inquire in His temple. He calls us to Himself. In
another beautiful passage the psalmist says that he was about to tumble into a
pit of deception as he beheld the prosperity of the wicked.
“When I thought how I might know this, it was too
painful for me: Until I went into the sanctuary of God, and considered their
latter end. Surely thou settest them in slippery places: thou castest them down
to destruction. How are they become a desolation in a moment! They are utterly
consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh, So, O Lord, when thou
awakes, thou wilt despise their image.”
Psalm 73:16-20
When he was out of the Lord’s presence, looking with his
physical eyes and mind upon the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of
the righteous, he began to enter into sin. If he would have continued in this
way, the deception of sin would have further hardened his heart and, if given
enough time, the knowledge of God’s goodness would be wiped from his heart and
mind. Sin blinds us to God’s goodness. The pure in heart see God. As he drew
away from the noisy world to get alone with God, he received the word of the
Lord. He gained understanding. The lamp of His Spirit grew warm and enlightened
with the knowledge of God-that He is good, and He will give the wicked their
due. Be patient!
God can only speak into the stillness of our souls, and without
a quiet heart, we will not hear His guidance. We will not be given the
understanding needed to escape the claws of deception, error, and unbelief.
“Let your heart lay hold of my words; keep my commands and you
will live.” Proverbs 4:4
John 12:50
And I know that his commandment is life eternal: the things therefore
which I speak, even as the Father hath said unto me, so I speak.
Jesus
could remain in the zoe life of God to the extent that He spent quiet time
hearing the voice of wisdom-the instruction of His Father.
Psalms
says that the wicked have the poison of adders under their tongue, but the
righteous have milk and honey under their tongues. So too, Jesus spoke words of
life. Milk gives nurture and strength, and honey is the sweetness of the
revelation of God.
As we win
this battle with distraction and bind our minds to God’s voice in the quiet
place, more and more honey and milk will flow from our tongues. We shall speak
the very words of God to one another! But only those who have first heard Him,
and keep on hearing Him in the quiet place where the battle with distraction
has been won.
Songs
4:11
Thy lips, O my bride, drop as the honeycomb: Honey and milk are under
thy tongue; And the smell of
thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.
A few years ago I had a dream that I finally understood this morning. In
the dream, I was standing in front of the people at my church saying, “Do you
feel like you can’t see Jesus as you did before?” And they all raised their
hands. I said, “Look around you. We all feel that way.” Then I went to grab
some notes that I had wanted to share with the group, but when I returned to
the room everyone had drifted outside to have lunch.
Today I realized that the Lord was showing me the distracted church. We
have so many things taking our attention, and instead of patiently waiting for
the Lord’s word, the bread from heaven, they drifted unconsciously outside into
the world to sit at the world’s table. This is the reason why so many of us
have felt that we can no longer see the Lord as we once did. The soil of our
hearts are full of distraction, idols, pleasures worries and cares.
1. Heart sins (the hardest to see and most
subtle): pride, fear of man, jealously etc all stem from these.
2. Busyness. Not sin per se but just too
distracted to hear Him, and then to continue in what we hear. This is the
parable of the birds that steal the seed. His word always comes as a seed. It
takes care, attention, and a waiting heart to grow it into a mature tree.
Psalm 1:2-3
But his delight is in the
law of Jehovah; And on his law doth he meditate day and night.
3And he shall be like a
tree planted by the streams of water, That bringeth forth its fruit in its
season, Whose leaf also doth not wither; And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
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