Upon discovering that God/Jesus/The Holy Spirit is inside of us, some of us may ask why we don’t feel the Presence of The One more often. Why is it so hard for us to see Him or hear His Voice?
He promised we would see Him. Remember Jesus’ Words, as recorded in John 14:18-19,
I will not leave you as orphans;
I will come to you.
Before long, the world will not see Me anymore,
but you will see Me.
Because I live, you also will live!
He promised we would hear Him. Isaiah 30:21 records,
Whether you turn to the right or to the left,
your ears will hear a Voice behind you, saying,
“This is the Way; walk in it!”
As recorded in John 10:27, Jesus said,
My sheep hear My Voice,
and I know them,
and they follow Me!
Are those Words true for us? Yes! So how can we get Him to turn up the volume, so we can hear Him? Could it be that we need to turn down our volume?
Be Still!
Let’s look at each part of the Power Packed Directive From God that David recorded in Psalm 46:10.
BE STILL AND KNOW I AM GOD!
How long has it been since you were still? How long can you just sit quietly and and be … be still? Someone aptly described many of us today. We are a human doing, not a human being.
We become accustomed to tv, radio, computers, and many other forms of distractions. We have become people who are not comfortable unless there is multiple outside stimulation coming in. Why is that? Is it possible we believe we need outside stimulation to assure us we are really alive and connected with the world?
Or might it be that we find that what is coming from the inside of us is disturbing, or even frightening? When you attempt to screen out all the sensory cues from the world, what do you see and hear?
Be Not Afraid!
There are 365 different times the Bible tells us not to be afraid. It appears God knew that if we really paid attention to the stray messages from inside of us, we would end up afraid.
“Well,” you might say, “Have you watched the nightly news recently? Have you taken a good look around? Sounds like there are plenty of reasons to be afraid. I’m not neurotic, just realistic!”
There were some things that happened to me in my life that resulted in continuing fears. Even after the initial threats were gone, I was afraid “the monsters” would come back.
I tried to conquer my fear by praying. However, much of my prayer centered around, “Oh God, please make the monster go away.” David could have done that with Goliath. He could have gone off in a corner and covered his eyes and begged God to make mean old Goliath just leave.
But He didn’t. The One inside of Him rose up in righteous indignation that the one inside of Goliath would dare to speak against His God. And He took action to take Goliath out for good.
As I was doing what I called “spiritual warfare” against a giant of a situation, I prayed, read the Word of God, and positively spoke everything I could think of. I remember saying in my shaky voice, “I am not afraid.”
I heard God’s Voice in my spirit, saying, “What are you?”
I answered, like a cheerleading exercise, “I’m not afraid!”
Again, He spoke, “OK, what are you?”
I was getting exasperated at this point. Did God have a hearing problem?
He added, “You know what you are doing? You’re whistling in the dark. Drop your flashlight and turn on the Light!”
God didn’t want me to keep tiptoeing past that giant, in the hopes I would not wake him. God wanted to end that fear once and for all.
Be still! See what thoughts come out of your mind, when nothing is covering it up. Know that He who lives in you is greater than what has snuck into your thought life.
Let God talk to you about the giants in your world. Let Him give you the battle plan. David did that on the day of his Goliath encounter. At the end of the day, that particular giant was gone. But satan never leaves for good. He is always waiting for the opportune moment to jump back up and say, “Boo! Gotcha!” How will we react the next time? David tells us.
I sought The Lord, and He answered me;
He delivered me from all my fears!
Psalm 34:4
Seeking the Lord is not a one time thing. It is an always thing! And remember God/Jesus/The Holy Spirit is with you always!
He Who is in you
is greater than he who is in the world!
1 John 4:4
Where Do You Spend Most of Your Time?
So am I recommending that you have to be a hermit to be still? Absolutely not! Many people enjoy going to a retreat or quiet place where they attempt to focus on The One inside them. Sometimes they return refreshed, and filled with great revelations. That’s wonderful, but if they don’t bring home with them the lesson of how to be still in the midst of life, then they did not not learn how to live Life. They just learned how to escape Life.
While Jesus took times away to just enjoy the company of The Father and The Holy Spirit, He demonstrated being connected with Them, while on the move, right in the midst of earth life.
Being still is about being still on the inside, no matter what is happening on the outside. We are missionaries to this world. But we live in the Kingdom of God that is within us.
As recorded in John 17:14-15, Jesus said to God,
(Speaking of His Followers)
They are not of the world any more than I AM of the world.
I do not ask that You take them out of the world,
but that you keep them from the evil one.
When you come to the end of a day and realize you got more news from the outside world than you did from the inside world, you may find you are in danger of being “body snatched” by the evil one, who is called the “prince of this world.”
Know I AM God!
The Dictionary defines the word, know, as “developing a relationship with someone through meeting and spending time with them.”
Often we say we know someone when in fact, we only know about them. To know someone involves a much deeper level of relationship than knowing about them.
When we just use God as our 911 operator or as a short cut to try to get everything we want, we never get to know the real Him, in all His Glorious Complexity. God wants us to know Him, but it will take some time.
The first and perhaps hardest lesson to us to learn is that He alone is God. While He invites us into all The Fullness of His Glory, He will never let us replace Him as God. While we move from Glory to Glory within the One, we will never get to the point of knowing all He knows. We will always be dependent upon Him.
He is the Great I AM! He is God! We, quite simply, are not!
Jesus Shows Us How It Works!
Jesus let the Kingdom of God shine through Him into the earth world. Sometimes That Light offended people, who thought they already knew everything there was to know. Sometimes That Light frightened people. As their sins were exposed, they wanted to run and hide … or at least stay a safe distance away.
But there were those who saw and heard Jesus and wanted more than anything to be with Him in His Kingdom. They were willing to give up everything, including their life on earth, to see Him and hear Him.
Hear His Revelation again, as He tells us how much He is in us and we are in Him!
When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said,
“I AM The Light of the world!
Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness,
but will have the Light of Life!”
John 8:12
You are The Light of the World!
… let your Light shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds
and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:14 and 16
Then Jesus declared, “I AM The Bread of Life!
Whoever comes to Me will never go hungry,
and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty.
John 6:35
Jesus said, “You feed them!”
Mark 6:37
Points to Ponder
Can you see and hear God/Jesus/The Holy Spirit right now?
What do you need to do to remove anything that prevents you from seeing and hearing The One?
When you are still and listen to your inside world, what do you see and/or hear? Are there any troubling intruders, who have sneaked in?
If you find anything inside of you that does not line up with God’s Kingdom, evict it! Call on the One Whose Home it is to boot them out and don’t bring them home again!
Plan your own retreat of stillness. Ask God where and when that should be. It will be different for each person. God does not do business as “one size fits all.”
Start now! Let God speak through your voice. Say out loud,
BE STILL AND KNOW I AM GOD!
And now, be still and quiet for at least five minutes. You may find it such a Joy just to rest in His Presence that you will want to “practice” longer!
To listen to the audio version of this post, click here.
