Caring for your spirit





For the sake of ease and understanding, I want to use the terms spirit, soul, heart synonymously.  If you recall my last blog, I introduced the idea of receiving revelation.  The primary vehicle for receiving revelation is the heart.    
Mark 6:50-56 50 “They were all terrified when they saw him.
But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage! I am here!” Then he climbed into the boat, and the wind stopped. They were totally amazed, for they still didn’t understand the significance of the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were too hard to take it in.”  Note that the issue was a heart issue, not a head/mind issue.  Heart here, is defined as "the centre and seat of spiritual life.”

Martin Laird speaks of the heart “as the symbol of that human depth that is deeper than thinking and feeling; this is where you discover yourself as already found by God.” (Into the Silent Land, Martin Laird, p 39) 

Laird further quotes a Russian monk Theophan who says: “You must descend from your head to your heart.  At present your thoughts of God are in your head.   And God Himself is, as it were, outside you, and so your prayer and other spiritual exercises remain exterior. Whilst you are still in your heart, thoughts will not easily be subdued but will always be whirling about, like snow in winter or clouds of mosquitoes in summer.” (p 27)

So now I put forth the question: How do we strengthen our spirit and be prepared for,  and expect more revelation?

Let me suggest four things that will assist you:

# 1.  Learn patience, quietness, solitude.  This is a hard thing to learn in our fast paced, noisy culture.  This takes practice, practice, practice.  A trained spiritual director can help you learn this. 
# 2.  Take intentional hours/ days/ of uninterrupted time with God. A receptive heart takes time to develop.  This will take more than a daily devotional experience. 
# 3.  Stop asking for stuff from God all the time.  Learn to just be with Him. 
St John of the Cross wrote: Preserve a loving attentiveness to God with no desire to feel or understand any particular things concerning God.

# 4. Learn to be comfortable with mystery, ambiguity, and paradox.  The disciples missed lots of Jesus’ teachings because Jesus was drawing outside the box.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Learning to hate your sin

Image
   John 5:13-15 (NLT) 13 The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. 14 But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” 15 Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.   Lord give me grace, power, and effort to maintain a resilience against sin.  Sin is ALWAYS a dark path. It ALWAYS pays wages.  The wage of sin is death.  Sin will always hurt, always destroy, always wound—you, relationships, stuff, goals, etc.  It is a killer.  It is a wound-er.  It is a consumer of all that is healthy, strong, good, and perfect. Learn to hate sin. Learn to fear sin. Learn to run as fast as you can away from sin. Search deeply for hidden sin. Be disgusted with your sin.  Repent, repent, repent daily for your sin. Be afraid of your sin. Be petrified of your sin. Be worried ab...
Read more

Meditation

Image
Meditation I realize as we move on with this series that there are two things that need some clarification.  We already looked at the idea of silence and quietness—this week we will look at meditation.  Let’s begin by giving you the descriptions of the differences between these two disciplines.  Although from an outsider’s position there may be little or subtle differences, I want to help you process the vast difference between these—-and the immense benefit from both of these disciplines: Silence/ Quietness: Here the idea is shutting out your active mind —leaving lots of space for two things.  First, space to give your mind a rest, relaxing your mind.  It is a stopping of your mind from racing around solving all the problems of the world.  Second, giving space to hear from God! It is laying aside your agenda.  It is putting aside the debris, hurriedness, and hectic pace to relax in God’s presence.  Often music can help...
Read more

God is after you! And... for a different reason than you think!

Have you ever been pursued by a suitor—a lover—someone who is very interested in you? Was it pleasant to be liked?  Was it pleasant to be wanted?  Well, yeah—for sure.  Who doesn’t want to be loved? Who doesn’t want to be sought after?  Who doesn’t want to be appreciated? I do!  I am sure you do too! Did you know that is actually the message of Christmas—and the actual ‘story’ of the Bible?  It’s a story about God pursuing humanity. Too often when we think of God, or church, or the Bible—we think of behaving ourselves enough to get God’s attention.  Or, we think of trying hard to impress God—so that God would appreciate the hard work we are doing down here and give us His nod. Well, actually that is not true.  That is not the message of the Bible—nor the core message of Christmas.  It is actually the total opposite.  The core message of Christmas is not our chasing God—it is God chasing us! God is so in love with ...
Read more