the Practice of Stillness

Stillness

​Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. (Psalm 46:10)

Be Still...

There is a key to entering into a deeper place in our relationship with God. It's a key that not only allows us but helps us to hear His voice better. It's a key that makes it easier to sense His presence and His nearness... a key that will keep the noise and distraction of the things of the world at bay. It is stillness.

We can read a scripture like Psalm 46:10 and have an idea of what it might be saying to us. For years I looked at this verse and thought that it meant pretty much that when everything is said and done we should just believe God to fulfill His promises. This is true on one level. There is a deeper meaning that only seemed to become clear to me as I spent more time with a focused desire to get closer to the Lord and live a more Spirit-led life according to Galatians 5:25.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)
Be Still with expectation....

Being still for me is a time of coming before God and just sitting in His presence. It isn't a time of prayer or worship, it not a time of replaying the day in my mind or focusing on the issues in my life. It is simply sitting in God's presence and being with Him. I don't meditate on the scriptures normally when I am still before God but I do keep an expectation in my heart that as I spend time with Him that He will manifest Himself to me in some way.

When people have asked "What do you think about as you sit in stillness", this is my answer... I keep in my heart an expectation.

You see, we hear a scripture like John 10:27 and sometimes we wonder why we don't hear better.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (John 10:27)

It is so very easy to let the distractions of everyday life to crowd out that still, small voice that God can be speaking to us and even answering the desires of our hearts and we might never know it. Let me give you a practical example... If you were watching television in a room crowded with people taking, and suddenly an important breaking news bulletin came over the TV, you would more than likely ask everyone to be quiet so that you could hear this important message. How much more do we need to hear the important voice of God?

Be Very Still...

What is stillness exactly? The dictionary says that it is the absence of movement and sound. The complete absence? Yes. Just how much do we desire to make this heavenly connection? In complete stillness my focus is upon my proximity to the Lord and my expectation of being with Him. If I am moving about or listening to natural sounds it shifts my focus from the spirit to the natural, even if unintentionally. Many times we have to train ourselves to stop allowing random thoughts to invade this stillness. If you are just learning this discipline, I suggest that you think about a scripture, not to analyze it but rather to allow the Lord to give you an understanding that perhaps you had not considered before. Another thing you might do if various pictures try to invade your thoughts is to picture the Lord's face. (Or what you imagine the Lord might look like)

The Bible says to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. This is something we must actively do.

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; (2 Corinthians 10:5)

Be Still a While...

As I began to put this practice into place in my own life, there was a period of learning that took place. I would constantly have to tell my thoughts to be still or my body would want to move around, or I would even begin to wonder if this had the value I had heard that it had. It was all part of the process of learning to be still. In the early days I would wait upon God in stillness for 10 minutes and sometimes even that was a struggle. I gradually increased the amount of time I spent in stillness, but the real breakthrough happened as I began to encounter the Lord and the things of His Kingdom as I practiced stillness before Him.

Once Heaven began to open around me and my life, the struggle to wait on God and be still was gone. What could have happened that was so powerful to take the struggle away from me? Encounters with God...real and powerful encounters with God.

That's the place where I desire for you to go... that place of encounters with God. Everything changes in His presence!

​God bless you
Michael