Musings

Barrier of the Closed heart

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UnknownWe have been dealing with Crossing the Sound Barrier of hearing God and have seen how a barrier of the closed mind can affect the sound of God’s voice.   The same is true of the closed heart, how can I discover that the heart has no sound barriers?

“We might die…” It’s quite amazing as we read of the journey of the children of Israel through the wilderness, the times of the complete nation responding as one person and reflecting the human heart. In Exodus 20: 18-19 we are told of the story when the people gathered around mount Sinai, they knew that God had something to speak to them but they were terrified at the prospect. From that experience they said to Moses “ speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die”.

The fear of God saying something sometimes closes the heart. We don’t like uncomfortable direction that draws on our obedience. What if we were called to some great sacrifice?

Reality is that unfortunately quite often this is what God does, If fear is deafening us to God’s voice encourage yourself and realise that hearing God are priceless and eternal gifts, Paul said be encouraged for the moment troubles are far outweighed by the eternal glory (2 Corinthians 4:17)

“We’ve got…” sometimes it’s our ego, our pride that builds a barrier.  We have things are under control we don’t need to talk with God.  God has a cure the deals with our confidence in ourselves: circumstances and life in its challenges often lead us to a conversation with God.

God chooses compassion towards us by speaking to us in the narrative of Isaiah 30, God calls Israel to trust in God’s protection, the people’s response was V 16  “no, the trouble comes we got horses for a getaway”.  Following all the events around this story verse 21 culminates with a speaking God “ whether you turn to the right door to the left,” the promises, “your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying this is the way walk in it.”

“I’m not listening to a donkey” pride can also lead us to presumption of the kind of messenger God uses to come to us. We know well the story of Balam’s donkey in Numbers 22 when God spoke to such an animal. It is repeated time and time again throughout the Scripture, God coming and speaking to a child, through the unacceptable ways God.    Even in John 9 the people struggled with the healing of the blind man because Jesus was the vessel of a troublemaker.

It’s not often the strange-looking but more often the person so near to us we can’t see them for what they are. Our perception of the person locks the person out, and we become unable to hear God through them. And of course this is never us!?

When the sound barrier is broken through that messenger that we have classified as unworthy, the easiest thing, simplest thing, why is it so hard to thank the person that they are the voice of God to you?  this could  help avoid future presumption.

“You’re not the God of me” sometimes we just missed God because we are rebellious, trying to be so different. Sometimes it’s a simple that you don’t belong to my stream, the school of thought that I believe is now central to God, and becomes the only thing God is saying, by them, really. We can sometimes live as if a person does not belong to the same God.

Barrier of the Mind

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The Barrier of a Closed Mind – Breaking through Sound Barriers…

imagesWe can deliberately and inadvertently close the possibility of hearing God.   This Sound Barrier (see preceding blog)  comes in a number of ways.  As already mentioned one barrier is the lie of believing our lost-ness which makes us unworthy.

Lost-ness is where we have not only a barrier created in our hearing it’s where another sense is changed our seeing becomes skewed, and it is where our insecurities arise and self-centeredness is created.   This Sound barrier creates a preoccupation with ourselves and our welfare, a feeling of loneliness, a need of acceptance, and the drive to prove ourselves, it provokes us to finding something that makes us secure.  This belief we are lost creates threat, aloneness, guilt, it creates a fear and anxiety of the soul, which drives us and forms our relating and responses, the lost-ness in us, forms its own world and history.

The sound barrier is there when we struggle with our worth, this lie has not awakened us to the mission of the Holy Spirit which is to lead us to KNOW what the Father has made of us in Christ.   We are not known as we are known (1 Cor 13:12). NASB    For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

Don’t get caught in the barrier of “somebodiness” find your self in Christ.

“Who, me?” when God speaks it is accompanied by disbelief and discredit.  Gideon’s story paints this picture well, a reaction of disbelief and self dis-credit.   Gideon an unimportant member of a minor family in the weakest clan Judge 6:1, I want a sign to prove I am hearing you, is it really you?    I wonder why we ask for signs, which is such a gift from God, but what is the basis of my asking?

This young unconvinced general doubt, not that God would speak but that God would speak to him, why would the God of the universe and beyond converse with a nobody?

Would God speak to little old me?  O yes remove the sound barrier as God has asked us to ask, align our will to Gods and ask Luke 11:9, the God that has numbered even the hairs on my head Luke 12:7, the Father of the detail of our lives cares enough to speak to you.

“That’s just thunder”, in John 12:29 a place where a conversation between earth and heaven went on, even the voice from heaven was spoken for those around that had a sound barrier.

Some times the closed mind is such we can not hear God because our expectations of how God might speak did not include the way God did speak.  In this passage clearly the way God would speak did not include an audible voice.    When God spoke they heard a noise…thunder.

To Elijah he spoke in the opposite expectation of the prophet 1 Kings 19:11-13 tells me.  Not in wind, fire, earthquake but a whisper a prophet who expected sensational ways would have had a sound barrier.

Our open minds are sensitive to ordinary and surprising ways of God speaking.  images-1

“I might not believe it” or “it might get weird”, “its not the way our protocol is”.   How many cults start with ”God told me…”, how many unbalanced people have engaged in action, crimes and said God told me?   How many times do normal people make poor decisions as they acted under God’s private, specific instruction?

We don’t want to ascribe to God our silly notions, do we; by claiming God told us that and it proved untrue.   No one brings any one to account for it.    April 2014/15 has been announced as being the importance of the four ‘blood moons”, along with this will be climax of the end of the end (Fall 2015), when international prophets through TV sit and affirm this, yet if your reading this, after the ‘Fall of 2015’ – it has not happened and the Christian world brings no one to account…?   How many times doe this need to happen before we say enough….

Caution is admirable, yet we are those who hear God voice, know Jesus speaking don’t switch your new birth right off, you are meant to hear God, designed to hear God.

We live in a world where we all have access to so much information, so many teachings, so much we find agreeable and information we disagree with.   Years ago it was about teaching what we must believe taught from pulpits now we must train, teach, help and empower people on how to hear God in the midst of so much sound.     Train to discern, we have to work with the sound barrier of so much noise to hear God, the Father.

The hearing of God will always be affirmed by other confirming ways.   Simple, we all know it but why don’t we do it?    Confirm it through the scriptures, affirm it through wise counsel our friends.

What a loss to our lives if we did not take heed of some “weird” direction from time to time, the experience, the meeting of God would not have been if I had allowed a fear of “weirdness” to keep me from responding to that word from God.   Do not fear, but do confirm.

Sound Barrier Removed

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UnknownLet me hear – Breaking the Sound Barrier

The Need for Speed has been the desire of mankind for a long, long time it seems, getting faster and faster whether a ‘land speed record’ or in flight.   Since mankind ran, caught horses, built carriages and different powered engines there has been a desire to speed things up.   I hope to break sound barriers, I wonder how many of us have heard the boom across the sky when the sound barrier is crossed, as it not only creates a sound but you also feel a thud inside and some times being close enough the ripple of the air.

The need for speed affects us all, speed in travel, the speed of your computer, yesterdays speed is too slow for today’s application.   Faster communication, being able to Skype each other across the world immediately with no time delay, with no regard to time differences but all down to the speed of your Wi-Fi.   Breaking sound barriers in many disciplines has become our pastime and desire then.

Yet there is a sound barrier that many struggle with, today we live in a world with so much noise, hustle and bustle, the world is a hive of sound.   One of the thrills of traveling into Africa for me is the still silence you can find there, the stillness and silence has a volume.   A stillness that has a sound of empowering and ministering to the soul that says, “…be still and know that I am God…”

Breaking the Sound Barrier has been the outcome of the gospel for you and I, that is the barrier of not being able to hear God has been removed, we now live in the realm that we have the ability to hear Gods voice.   The tension is that all around is sound; a hive of cluttered noise it seems that it does cluttered our hearing. Our worlds full of sound in every space, every void silence filled with sound, we even develop techno gadget that help us to fill the spaces, and the sound barrier is to remove in our hearing of God.

I am always thrilled when the youngest amongst us breakthrough the sound barrier and hear Gods voice, so simple some times and yet so clear.   When the hard of hearing, those who have no God consciousness hear Gods voice that transforms them,  when sound barriers are broken.

I have heard it said God is never silent always speaking yet there is a necessity of breaking the sound barrier between us.

We have all perhaps found the reason the barriers of sound are there, it is that God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit speaks to each of us in unexpected ways.   We all get so confident, God has spoken to each, often times, however it is more helpful to say with great confidence ‘…for God said…”,  then better if we preface with “…I think…”, is this not where faith makes sure?

Breaking the Sound Barrier to enable us to hear God starts with our hearts and minds turning towards God, taking a disposition to listen would be helpful, that we train our inner selves to become conscious of our Father God speaking.

I wonder if one hindrance is that we only want God to speak to us, rather than being those who are willing to listen to what God is saying, be careful of the self-centered sound barrier of listening.   Only listening for a word for me rather listening to the whole medium of the sound of God, return what God is saying back to God in our confession, conversation with God (prayer).   Perhaps we would hear more if we just listened as a desire, following listening and hearing comes the doing, the obedience.

Breaking the Sound Barrier – the scripture says that “my people hear my voice”, “know my voice” yet we hold conferences on hearing God, every prophetic instruction will have at least one session on ‘How to hear God”.   But my sheep hear, know my voice, it seems we know and yet we need instruction…?    I can hear some saying but we need to know how to hear God do we not?  My response is ‘of course’ I am suggesting perhaps it’s the instruction focus we have incorrect, instruction on how to hear God when Jesus said we hear and know if we are his.   May be the instruction should be more about believing we are UNITED, ONE with God rather than steps of how to hear God, God is not silent to us.

Having said that to breakthrough the sound barrier and settle hearing God we have to settle who we are in God that we are in UNION with God.   The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are happy to be one with me; the good news of Christ is that we have been made one with Christ.   We need to believe this, rather than believe the lie that we are lost, producing a perception of lost-ness and everything we do is an attempt to be “somebody’s” and hear God when we are actually in union with God.

For over 40 years I had good hearing then one night I went to bed as usual only to be greeted in the morning with total deafness in my right ear.  The consultant, following long enquiry determined I had ‘nerve deafness’, I had gained a sound barrier, somewhere in my past, some infection as a child or like had come home to roost and I had picked up a sound barrier in my hearing losing 50% of hearing overnight.     We pick up or have Sound Barriers when we come to hearing God, they hinder our ability to hear what is natural for the sheep of Christ, as sheep we hear his voice, hearing God is not our struggle it really is doing the will of God, becoming obedient is the struggle.images

I will attempt to consider some of the barrier to sound we can accumulate in our journey toward God.

Be nostalgic or Seize the NOW…

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imagesAs we take stock of life and take a look towards the future and being wise looking back over the events of days gone, for this is true wisdom when we can draw from our past and now to mold the future.  As we do this I am sure we all have different thoughts of what the future holds.  Even as we consider the past we would have different thoughts about what got us to this point.

We all get asked in the light of world events what does this mean?   I have to say some times I don’t know helps us Lord in the changes that are rushing towards us all.   Several years ago I picked up a book called “The Tipping Point”, I am told it has become rather a buzz statement for many, with many taking it up to sum up their feelings of now.    The notion is that everything comes to a point of balance, one that is ready to tip and throw its weight towards a certain direction.   Many things can tip the balance, it could be  a reasoned thought, an emotional response, or a circumstance that tips the balance and takes you over an edge.    In other words the statement we often used to hear of  “its got to break” has now moved into a roller coaster a movement, beginning a direction that seemingly has its own momentum.    So many people I talk to feel as if they are either on the approach to or at the point of just starting over, on the edge of their own “tipping point.

Whatever way we consider, the past, the present and the future I have come to one conclusion, that echoes out loudest over all my thoughts, and I have shared this in several settings over the last 3 years.  It was so loud in my thinking that it drowned out every other thought in my mind; it is “what got me here will not get me there”.   An understanding formed in me, that what ever brought me to know what I now knew, whatever had positively assisted, empowered and served me/us, was not sufficient to carry me/us into tomorrow.  A now, new moment had arrived, in every new moment there is a new encounter, which is necessary to envision and equip the day.   Moses saw God in the burning bush, Abraham met God for his journey and new pilgrim life style, even Jesus encountered the Father in the Garden to face he cross, earlier he encountered the Father at his baptism in preparation for the wilderness and the 3 ½ years of function.

Wherever you are, I think the tipping point is becoming a life-style, not just a moment but also a way of life that we are always negotiating.  There is in fact a cost to be considered in every tipping point, be it into an event, a way of life, or a life choice, that will not even allow us to return to where it all began.

A place of no return so to speak, a rub-icon crossed?, this all sounds high and mighty, but we make these kinds of decisions daily.    Decisions effecting people and relationships, how we use our money, our job/vocational choices, we even see it in the small events of life as they may be.    Please realize that most lives are a sequence of small events and we cross rub-icons daily that have no pain attached but certainly are transformational in terms of our friendships and families – people, what we do – time, and the final resource in our lives, money and how we dispose of and work our money – finance.

Can I encourage you to think out of the box before you negotiate the “tipping point” and set your roller-coaster along life’s chosen pathway. Clear the house, your life first with start by determining I QUIT!   This I Quit will help the process of going over the edge taking that step forward I will give you just 4 “I Quit”

Quit making excuses

Quit complaining

Quit living in fear

Quit complaining 

Having chosen to negotiate my “tipping points”, having then welcomed them these “tipping points”, they have in turn set up various directions of life for me over the last 8 years.   It has caused much re-evaluation of resources, hearts, and direction as events and situations continue to present themselves.   I have had to remodel my view of life and more than that, remodel my view of God himself.    Which of course allows the remodeling of how we function.  Knowing this discovering View of God that will determine how well we all live.

Following all that I am excited over the phase we have now began to live though, a phase that clearly brings multiplication in a new way into my thinking.   Seeing Apostolic networks possibly becoming Apostolic families, heavily relational rather than organizational, realizing that we should not replace the single grace that so empowered many and much in last 30 years + with another grace, endorsing a Papal system again, but seeing the release of multiplication of apostolic graces across the countries and world in this phase.    Many networks or movements are giving way to family expressions with a relationship life flowing across them and through them, which is releasing the possibilities of continual multiplication.    It must then continue to fill the world we live in with organic family expression of Christ.

It’s a time not to be  the new phase and take hold of the circumstances that now face each of us.

Keep Kissing…Art of honesty

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imagesProverbs says as we have discovered “An Honest answer is like a Kiss on the lips – Kiss of friendship” – this is our continued thinking into the art of using your lips…

Be gentle. Proverbs 15:1 contrasts the results of different approaches to honesty. A “harsh word [one lacking tact, kindness, and sensitivity] stirs up anger.” Anger can lead to a rejection. A “gentle answer [characterised by preparation, wisdom, and care] turns away wrath.” Gentleness can remove the barrier to honesty.

Since many of our relationships are not accustomed to the light of honesty, we need to move carefully and slowly. Because the truth does hurt, it only makes sense to handle it with care.

Be appropriate. Timing is crucial with the truth. If you need to confront your spouse, stay away from the loaded minutes when you first get home at the end of the day. A truthful conversation should be held in a private and quiet place.

Communication that holds potential for discomfort needs time and space. Don’t hurry. Don’t dole out a healthy portion of honesty on your way out the door in the morning. Don’t offer up a truth bomb as the last thing before you close your eyes for sleep and then defend your lack of discretion with, “I’m just being honest!”

Proverbs 25:11 compares “a word aptly spoken” to fine gems that have been set into gold and silver jewellery. That word of honesty will be true no matter where and when you share it. Put it in the right setting, and the result can be beautiful. Proverbs 15:23 says, “A man finds joy in giving an apt reply—and how good is a timely word!”

Build an environment of trust. Truth comes as a shock within a relationship where the norm has been denial. The resulting fallout may be devastating. Work on creating an atmosphere of acceptance and grace.

This is especially true when dealing with children. A parent who uses the truth like a sledgehammer, inflicting pain without grace, is an abuser.

Simon Cowell-type criticism without the safety produced by grace and love is rude, obnoxious, and malignant. It has no redeeming value. But, in a family where love is the main course on a consistent basis, a side dish of critique can be offered without fear of harm.

The honesty equation goes something like this: More honesty brings more intimacy—and more intimacy brings more honesty.

When you are in a friendship that is new or tentative, don’t unload truth all at once.

Set the stage for greater vulnerability later by sharing only a little now.

Perhaps Peter didn’t walk out on Jesus when Jesus called him “Satan” because by that point in their relationship, Peter knew that Jesus loved him. Did it hurt? Sure! But Peter trusted the giver of such forceful truth.

“In our desire to be an inspiration to one another we often veil what is true, because what is true is not always inspirational. But hurting believers whose lives are in tatters often need real help. If we were able to put aside our need for approval long enough to be authentic, then, surely, we would be living as the church.” Taken form Sheila Walsh book

Unpleasant truth is sometimes necessary. But our truth-telling needn’t be a slap in the face. Rather, it can be as gentle as a kiss that honours our relationships, demonstrates love, and confers value.

Learn the art of Kissing…. Truth telling….