Contemplative Prayer

Contemplative Prayer

by Sonia Thomas

Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. Mark 1:35 NKJV

Of late I have been finding this form of prayer helpful in receiving an awareness of the Presence of God. This is what I would like to talk about today.

In the Scriptures throughout the gospels, we see these specific remarks about Jesus rising early and coming away from the crowds and even his own disciples. He specifically had the goal of going to spend time with the Father, alone. You know, I have heard this saying, that you spend time with the one you love if you have a choice. Jesus had a choice and chose to sacrifice his sleep to spend time in His Father's Presence. It was there amongst other things, that he gathered all the spiritual resources he needed to tend not only to the needs of all that were desperate for help and healing, but also the needs of his own disciples. What appeals to me though is the impact that contemplative prayer or meditative prayer, has on the one that engages in it.

There are several things that I have found beneficial with this practice. Before I continue though, I want to give credit to Joyce Huggett’s book Listening to God for aiding me in this. I had read this book many years ago and lost my original copy to water damage. My current copy was given to me by some young friends of mine. The book belonged to their mother who passed away unexpectedly a few years ago. She was a dear precious friend of mine and so it has more significance. Some of the information I already knew but had put down. So, with great delight I picked it up some months back and began to navigate my way through monastic understandings and behaviors and Joyce’s own experience, that reflect the beauty and simplicity of knowing God.

Anyways, what have I learned?

1.       Our one-on-one relationship with God is the most profound relationship we will ever have this side of heaven. No human relationship will ever give us what God can give us in these unique solitary moments.

2.       It is necessary for the believer, to be available for solitary moments with Father God, on a regular basis. I have a place that I go walking in the early morning when there are less people around driving to work. Every time I go there, I can feel God’s smile arising in my heart. Yes, you can feel smiles. 😃

It is like He is saying, “I'm so happy to see you.” As I walk and listen and talk to God, I can feel His Presence and some of the questions I have in the beginning of my walk I do not even raise as the time goes by. It is like they do not matter because all that matters is that I am with Him.

3.       With that said it is good to have a special place to retreat to in the house, if walking is not your thing. Joyce talks about setting up a room and making it a prayer space for that purpose, and that purpose alone. It can be simple or very decorative but not to the point of distracting. Setting a regular time is so important too. This involves serious discipline but its oh so worth it. Many times, when I am waking up and I am discussing with my body what I am going to do as it gets a bit lighter in the mornings, I can hear its voice saying “no not today. Let us sleep in. You deserve it.” I say, “no you can rest another morning but today we are walking.” Sometimes it is a walk, sometimes it is a space but whichever way it is, we are doing this.

4.       I have found it to be a place of purging. Let me clarify. God will begin to cleanse me inwardly of stuff I do not even know I am carrying. Burdens, offense, sadness at the state of our world. He replaces them with His peace and gladness. Something that is not humanly derived. How do I know that, because when something arises later that day that would in the past get me a little riled up, it does not? It has lost its power. Instead, I have a Holy Spirit response and the response differs depending on what it is, but I know it God's perspective, because peace is the conclusion to my thoughts at the end of the matter.

5.       God wants us still even if we are in motion and by that, I mean walking. It’s a matter of positioning the heart. In this way we are being unburdened so that we can receive His love and his wisdom to aid us in this journey called life and, on the way, help others.

6.       This is often a place for silence when contemplating. Being in a place of stillness, silence gives one an appreciation for words. I have tried it. Stillness often requires no words. It’s like learning another language that your whole body participates in, your mind and your emotions as well. My experience is that the whole of my being becomes more fully aware of the presence of God and as a result feels the benefit. Some might say that this is like the results that they get from soaking. Maybe so but in this case, if I am in my home there are no words, For me, no music, just silence. There is something powerful about silence when God is invited into it. When I move away from that place, I see and feel words differently. It is a magnificent awakening when this happens.

I sense that more and more believers, in the days to come are going come apart to this form of prayer as our world gets busier and busier. We must not allow the noise inside and outside to take us to a place of being intolerable. God does not want that. That’s the place of the desert. the place of dryness or the place of many answers except for the one that you need right now. He is available. We can go there to that place of stillness as often as we want.

Watch this space for future blogs on contemplative prayer. Come with me as I explore the regions of this rediscovered form of prayer.

Role Model

Role Model

by Duane Thomas

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. 
1 Cor 11:1 ESV 

Jesus as role model  

Today let us look at the topic of role models. You know, in our media saturated world there are so many role models or influencers, some good some not so good. I want to talk about Jesus as our significant role model. It does not matter what your career or your position is whether you are a mom, dad, manager, pastor, employee, Jesus as role model, His ways, His outlook on life applies to us all. He is the perfect role model. He acted from a place of perfect understanding of why He came to the earth, and He was fully aware of the nature of man and acted accordingly. His actions and his motives towards man was never to hurt, but to bring healing and wholeness. He was acquainted with the full spectrum of human emotion and temptation and yet did not sin. 

One of the things that comes to mind when I think of an influencer is this, the will is involved. Whoever we follow consistently, to some degree or another we have submitted our will to the one being followed. Think about it, a person can engage their will to varying degrees. The degree to which their will is open is the degree to which they will receive. I will return to this point later. 

Paul the apostle said, “Imitate me just as I also imitate Christ” 1 Corinthians 11:1. The KJV says “Be ye followers of me, even as I also of Christ. “ 

The Greek word for imitate is mimētḗs. It means the positive imitation that arises by admiring the pattern set by someone worthy of emulation   

In the Bible days many people were defined by the people they followed. The same is true of today 

When I was a chef, in that world, an up-and-coming chef was judged by whoever mentored him or her. It was important to be under the wings of a chef that you had high regard for. If you could be mentored by a celebrity chef, that would take your career to the next level. It was easy to see who had been discipled by whom just by observing the skill and creativity of some of the chefs I was around. You could see who they were influenced by. 

I want to be like Jesus. Don’t you?  

How is Jesus influencing you today? In what way is He impacting how you think; the decisions you make the people that you interact with; and the things you pursue? 

His attitude was this He did not live His life to please Himself. Let us read Philippians 2:5-8 NKJV

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 

His attitude was the opposite of what we see today. The selfishness we see in our world has become normalized. But for the Christ follower this is not how we are to operate. We live from a deep understanding of love and consideration of others. 

As Paul told the believers in Romans 15:1-3 ESV We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” 

Jesus loved us so much that He chose to die for the world. See John 3:16. For us it may not be so extreme, dying for someone, but the principle is the same. We choose to live a life of selflessness with the help of Holy Spirit. For the believer, this is the place of peace. And not only a place of peace but also a place of power. When He lived on the earth Jesus demonstrated His power in so many ways. People were healed; people were delivered of demonic spirits; people were prophesied to and so forth.

This cannot be overstated. If you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, He is the role model of role models. He is the one that you and I are actively in partnership with. We do not have put our sole confidence in another human being no matter how successful they are. They are not God.  

Back to my earlier point about receiving. I said the degree to which a person is open, is the degree to which they will receive. If we are fully open to receive Christ, then He is fully open to giving us all that we need to fulfill destiny. Do you want to see the dead raised? Do you want to bring effective solutions to someone in despair because of poverty? You can do this and more as you open yourself to Him. It is a beautiful thing to be an instrument in the hand of God. Powerful! 

Choose God. Choose His Holy Spirit. He will always for as long as He is here in the earth realm, help you in your walk. Others may not know the challenges you face as you choose to live a disciplined lifestyle following Christ. But take heart, joy will be your friend. You have access to it because it is a part of the package of salvation. God knows that true joy and satisfaction is found in Him. There is no other substitute. Do not allow passivity to have its way or discouragement. Tap into God. Stay open to Him and become the follower that our world needs today. 

Duane

There Is So Much More

As kingdom citizens God has given us certain rights and benefits. There is so much more to knowing Jesus and today I sense that the Lord wants to remind us of this. Why is that you may say? Well, too often when the busyness of life is aiming to take over our existence here on earth, and turmoil seems to be at every turn, God sends a word, to bring relief and comfort and to set things straight.

Today I want to look at two kingdom benefits

1)      You have a right to peace, specifically the inward peace that comes with knowing Jesus.

2)      You can hear from God. He has a personal word just for you.

Let us look at peace. In John 14:27 Jesus is speaking to His disciples, preparing them for His departure. He said “peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” They were to face, up until this particular point in their lives, their greatest trial. Fear, sadness, betrayal, grief, uncertainty, and much more was beckoning. Sounds a bit like what is happening around us today, doesn’t it? He said to his followers before the onslaught of all these emotions and circumstances “I give you peace” He is saying the same thing to us today as we confront an ever-changing world and various demanding situations. He gives us peace.

What is peace?  According to the Strong’s #1515, it is described as “peace of mind; wholeness; to join together.” Note it is not a denial of what is going on around us. It is referring to an inward state where in this case, we are joined to the peace that God alone can provide. It does not originate from, and cannot be manufactured by the world we live in.

If we are disturbed, upset, confused on the inside let us stop for a moment and avail ourselves of Jesus’s offer of peace. The Prince of Peace says “I am here, let me give you rest.” He will not condemn; He will not scold us. He will draw us to Himself by precious Holy Spirit and lovingly swap out the confusion and pain for His peace. This is His promise. So just take a moment, focus on Him, and posture your heart to receive.

The next point is linked to the above. You and I can hear from God.

In John 10:27 we see Jesus answering accusations from some of the Jewish people who were antagonistic to what He was doing and who He said He was. Jesus started talking about sheep and how His sheep hear /know His voice and they follow Him. One of the things I have noticed about sheep whether it is a shepherd herding in the Mediterranean or in the countryside in England, they are obedient. They know their shepherd’s voice, they listen, and they follow.

No doubt it took them a little time to become familiar with the shepherd’s voice. It takes time to get to know His voice. How do we do we get to know the voice of the Lord? How is God’s sound, distinct from all the other sounds/voices in this world? First, we ask Jesus to come into our lives and be our Lord and Savior. Then we commit to reading His Word; to praying to Him and to attending a Bible based discipleship group where the Lordship of Jesus and the baptism of the Holy Spirit is emphasized. Discipleship is the means by which every believer grows in their relationship with God. It requires us to be in a posture of learning what it is to follow in the ways of Jesus. It requires that we always stay open in great expectation that God wants me to progress and develop in my relationship with Him and others. This aspect of our life in God is crucial and cannot be absent. If it is, then we are subject to becoming vulnerable to worldly fears and philosophies that are in contrast to God’s word and the peace that we talked about earlier on.

It is a process. Do not give up. God wants to speak His children. He loves us and is more than willing to talk with us and have us pour our hearts out to Him. He wants to give us direction on our life’s purpose; what kind of business we should involve ourselves in; how we should talk with our spouse and children and show us how to tap into the grace available to carry out these endeavors well. If we remain obedient to Him, we will hear His voice.

Peace in Him,

Sonia.

Prophetic Word from the Lord…

The Lord says there is no other voice like your voice. He longs to hear you. Your tone, your unique way of saying things. He delights in this. Do not believe or come into agreement with the thinking that He doesn’t want to hear from you. He does! He wants to hear, listen and respond.

You were made for connection with your Creator. This connection, this communication stimulates Life. God longs to give you this Life and strength to deal with the activities you face daily. He longs to give you Life and strength to be a blessing to others. He longs to give you Life and strength so that you can know with crystal clear clarity what direction to take. He doesn’t want you to maintain. He’s looking to build a foundation in you that is so strong that you will not waver when circumstances come to shake. So pursue and obtain and build. You will look back in years to come and rejoice at what He has done.

Growing Spiritually

Growing Spiritually

As we come to the end of 2021 this is a great time to reflect. A great time to look back on how we have grown in certain areas of our lives or not grown.

Sometimes we can look back and say “Wow” based on the evidence of what we have before us in the present. There has been development and depth apparent in our walk with the Lord.

There are other times though when the growth isn’t as noticeable because stuff is still being developed. It just doesn’t look beautiful...yet.

During my reflection I began to look at a houseplant that my mom had given me. This plant was given early 2021 and started off as a few leaves. She instructed me to put them in a jar of water and place them in a well-lit place to help the roots grow.

Now you have to remember this is Duane Thomas former chef not former gardener. I knew very little at the time about transplants and how to grow a plant like this. I just thought you just had to put it in a pot of dirt and keep watering it. But I listened to my mom and now nearly a year later my plant has transformed.

During the process I kept on wanting to pull the plant out of the water and put it a pot. Mom said “leave it. You must let the plant develop strong roots”. When I finally placed the plant, in a pot with soil the plant had thick roots. It was ready to develop on its own.

From that time on I used three different sizes of pots during its growth. With each stage the plant became root bound. The plant kept needing more space to grow. With heat and humid conditions involved this plant grew faster and bigger than I had ever envisioned.

My point is when a person, any person is placed in the right condition, especially if they have come to that place in a weakened state, they will grow. We must all grow roots and sometimes this means staying in a season of being uncomfortable or in a place that is not entirely familiar. But it is there in that season when we are immersed in the water of the Holy Spirit, that we will see substantial growth. The development that we need to take us through future seasons, is essential. We must be patient and let God do a work in our hearts. Let Him do what He does best, while we do what we need to do. And you know while there, learn all you can and be intentional about your growth and the growth of others.

God wants all our situations, our disappointments, and not so good decisions to be made into a something that not only will beautify us, the object of His affection, but which will also bring Him glory!

Look at Isaiah 61:3

To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”

Growth is stimulated by proper nourishment and the right kind of environment.

Question: Ask yourself “What adjustments do I need to make to foster new growth in 2022?”

Stay Planted.

Duane.