Chill and Be Still
We are all like a bunch of two year olds when it comes to being still. In this fast paced multitasking world that is being forced to take a “time out” because of a pandemic, we are rediscovering the discipline of being still. Rediscovering? For some of us we never got the first memo! So maybe we never perfected the discipline of stillness, but at some point we were all told to stop jumping around at a young age. As younger people, many of us were taught that if we wanted to get close to animals in the wild we need to be quiet and be still. With God, the concept is the same as we make an effort to center our focus on RESTING in His presence and “being still” in order to hear and see what He wants to point out to us; things that are happening in a world filled with clamor and chaos. We have been told and taught that to succeed in life we need to have our finger on the pulse of the rhythms of making money and building empires, and we need to be ready to sync up with movers and shakers that are the so called "experts" at what they do. While we can understand why those things make good business sense, that process has a goal for your soul. Jesus said in Mark 8, “what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” This can easily happen when we invest more of our energy and life force into achieving what the system says is most important, while at the same time forsaking the quiet place of His loving stillness that IS life itself.
Let's shift gears over to the crazy things that are already happening all around us (actually since 2016), that can’t be naturally explained, as well as the things that have been foretold to be on their way soon. It’s going to get real UNUSUAL for all of us humans in the very near future and although we have plenty of time on our hands right now, we don’t have time to panic or to be stressed as we watch our old ways of doing life being torn down all around us, and replaced with something that we aren't familiar with.
Proverbs 17:27 (NASB)
“He who restrains his words has knowledge, And he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.”
You see, through this website and Blogosphere our goal is to prepare people for the changes that are here and are still yet to come, through the understanding of the ONE TRUE TRUTH, GOD HIMSELF. Now (more than ever) we MUST be people who are “chill” in the very center of adversity like Jesus was because we, like Him, MUST live by the understanding given to us by our Father in heaven of the times, seasons and prophesies fulfilled that have been appointed unto us. So let's all take a chill pill and be cool as a cucumber, maintaining that freshness, no matter what's happening around us.
Obviously, Jesus had stillness or a cool spirit because He wasn’t rattled by people, demons, threats or storms. If fact He spoke in a loud authoritative voice over the noise and commanded literal storms to be still and they obeyed the power and authority He had inside of Himself, because He lived in the STILLNESS of His Father’s presence within. Mark 4:39 (HCSB) “He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Silence! Be still! ” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm.” What Jesus had an abundance of, He unleashed with authority in the face of the destructive lying forces that were poised against Him. The results (we are informed of through scripture) paint a picture of what a follower of Jesus is to look and live like. You see life comes at us all, at the same speed 24hrs and 7 days at a time. The KEY to true success is how we respond to what’s going on, the timing of that response and the actions we take; and this is all dependent upon our preparation and composure. God’s advice is simple:
Psalm 46:10 (NKJ)
” Be still and know that I am God.” In Hebrew, the word for “still” is Raphah, which means to relax, let drop, sink, refrain. In all that He teaches us, God is saying, “I’ve got this. Just let it go and I’ll catch it and you." Most people only know God theoretically, but not by experience. Unfortunately, we will never know what sure hands God has until we just relax and collapse all the weight of our lives into His loving embrace. This is a real issue with many Christians, because as a whole, we have a bad reputation of sharing the credit with God for all of the good confessions, answered prayer and strong faith that we have. This is wonderful when see immediate results and good experiences, we call it a praise report and we Tweet it out to everyone. When the bad shows up, we have our fingers pointed at Him and we wonder WHY and HOW He could let this happen, "What we have here is a failure to communicate," so listen up and learn. God gives a clue right here in the book of Exodus, Exodus 14:14 (RSV) “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be still.”
In other words get the heck outta His way!
That whole stillness embodiment is what people don’t really get. There is a KNOWING inside of stillness,
(Psalm 46:10). "be STILL and you will KNOW for certain that I AM God who's in charge."
In the stillness of the presence of God we are infused with a knowledge of Him that inspires us to drop all of the unnecessary baggage and energy depleting weight that we have accumulated along life's way. Although it is easy to overlook, the stillness is rich with quiet assurance that God is in control.
We leave you with this, Psalm 23:1-4 AMP "The Lord is my Shepherd (to feed, to guide and to shield me). I shall not want. He let's me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the STILL and QUIET waters. He refreshes and restores my soul (life); He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake. Even though I walk through the (sunless) valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod (to protect) and your staff (to guide), they comfort and console me."