The Sylvr Pen

Intense stillness. Not a leaf moves. Even the crows are silent. I wait.

Okay, it’s time. I must do this!

I shouldn’t blog in August. So far, I did. But life became a fragmented confusion with much left undone. I need to remember this next August. Every August seems fraught with overload, blog or no.

And now, now that August is essentially over, I must do what I should have done a month ago: I need to take a hiatus from blogging, and most internet doings, to tie up loose ends, get autumn routines into place, and especially, get my bearings—or rather, God’s bearings for me!

The last post prompted some excellent comment questions about the role of peace in determining and carrying out God’s specific personal will for us—so excellent and compelling they almost pulled me back into the soup, and away from this draw-aside time I know is what I most need, and what God would have me do right now.

It’s enormous, this topic of determining God’s specific will (or not bothering to… “Which shall I choose?” “Shall I consult God on this question, or just decide it myself?”… etc.) I realized, in starting to respond in the comment area, there wasn’t enough space there. Then I began writing a post, which became two posts, and I had a third one on the topic all ready to publish sometime. But I realized three posts wouldn’t adequately cover the questions, either. And when I got discussing all this with my husband, more and more subtopics kept emerging, till the whole thing was getting like an octopus, then an octopus brood to which it gave birth (if octopi do give birth… I don’t know…)

Meanwhile, what I need more than to write about determining God’s specific direction is to do it myself, right now! Many questions and uncertainties about blogging, blog content, blog networking, etc., have been assaulting me. And I know if I had taken the time to do a George Müller before I jumped into blogging in the first place, I’d have more settled peace of mind and sense of direction about many of these things right now.

So…

That said, I’m going on VACATION. Meaning, I’m going to vacate this blog for at least two weeks, probably three, maybe more. The length of time depends on how God enables me to see His way, and how yielded I am to hearing exactly what He says.

In that time I may do a lot of writing, in journal, on computer, but private stuff, between me and God. Afterward I hope to have assurance of His path for me.

I love you, sisters who frequent this blog. And I will miss “talking” with you. I know things will try to pull me back. But this is important. And right now, as I’m starting my hiatus, numerous good bloggers are finishing theirs, and returning, refreshed. So there should be lots out there to chew on.

However, through this time, let’s all continue to do our utmost to look mainly, even completely, to Him for our wisdom and guidance! God bless all who read this!

 *****

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A shelf full of notebooks confirmed it: An astounding number of specific answers to  his prayers. One of the reasons: He prayed according to the will of God.

He knew what this really meant.

.

He also knew how to determine God’s will, for himself personally, in matters beyond the Bible’s musts and must-nots.

He simply proceeded in any endeavor only after getting full assurance it was God’s specific design for him to follow. That and his powerful prayer life, made his life and works a glorious display of God’s power in man’s weakness.

Starting with literally nothing but trust in God, fervent effectual prayer, and seeking God’s direction on everything, he established orphanages that housed, fed, clothed, and educated over ten thousand orphans. And he told no human, ever, the orphans’ needs — only God. 

Many people I highly respect declare that beyond obeying the principles of scripture, we can simply choose as we like among many morally neutral action choices. But with the messes (and waste of time) I’ve made myself by that approach, and verses like Proverbs 3:5-6, James 4:13-15, and Psalms 119:133 in mind, I lean toward George Müller‘s approach, and think it’s worth any of us considering.

So, on the L– topic of Listening to God, I share with you today how he “Listened” to “hear” God’s preferred will in any given situation: 

• Release Your Own Will

First, I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter.  Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is at this point.  Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord’s will, whatever it may be.  When one is truly in this state, it is usually just a little way before one discovers the knowledge of what God’s will is.

• Do Not Trust in Feelings

Second, having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or a simple impression.  If so, I make myself liable to great delusions. 

• Look to the Spirit and the Word

Third, I seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. 

The Spirit and the Word must be combined.  If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I also lay myself open to great delusions.  If the Holy Spirit guides at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.

• Consider the Circumstances

Next, I take into account providential circumstances.  These often plainly indicate God’s will in connection with His Word and Spirit.

• Pray for God to Show You His Will

Fifth, I ask God in prayer to reveal His will to me so that I may understand it correctly.  [My note: this certainly doesn’t need to be fifth only in steps outlined.]

• Assess Your Peace regarding the Decision

Thus, through prayer to God, the study of the Word, and reflection, I come to   a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues to be after two or three petitions, I proceed accordingly. 

Both in trivial matters and in transactions involving most important issues, I have found this method always effective.

…..

It’s the way he’s sowing the seeds that grabs my attention, and makes me grab my camera.

So primitive. So ancient.

I watch, and shoot, and think of the parable (Mt 13:3-23)…

Some fell beside the way.

Some fell on stony ground.

Some fell among choking weeds.

And some fell onto, and into, good, receptive ground.

How can my soul bear fruit if my heart can’t readily receive God’s words? How can His words deep-root, if beneath its surface that heart is calloused hard or blocked with “fat” (Is 6:10 NIV [and fn], Is 6:10 ESV [fn])? How can any resulting growth survive if it falls amid choking thorns of fleshly desires and cares?

That man out there in the field takes but minutes to sow the small patch of reclaimed ground, where bad drainage had let water dig ditches and make ponding places, where tractor tires had to churn to get through, even in arid weather. Truly, just minutes for the sowing. And a few more for raking in the seed.

But how many days did he, and the farmer who seasonally hays the field, pour into ground-preparing! And with many-man-power machines. Ripping out brush, removing rocks, moving soil, leveling ground, plowing and discing and all. Day after full-long day.

I want to come closer, walk closer, with God. To do that I need to call on Him. Then, when He answers (which He will), I need to Listen. Truly listen. Listen to HEAR. Not just His words but His heart in His words. Not just to register His messages mentally or leap about with them emotionally, but to root them rich and deep within the me of me, to nurture and grow and produce an outcome worthy of the Sower. To have no noxious sinweeds rooted in, between me and Him.

It seems He’s done some plowing. Some digging up. Some yanking away.

I’ve felt the tearing out of huge rooted things I thought were good, but that now lie dying as heaped up refuse. I guess they were “thorns,” cares and worries and weeds of willful wishing after deceitful “wealth,” not necessarily the monetary kind.

I’ve felt the big yawning emptiness of holes that had looked well occupied by soil, but where rocks of personal hardness or potential stumbling stones had filled the space.

When I reconsider the concept of “I can’t but He can,” I realize His work on my will  may be where my greatest need for Divine aid lies!

I chafe so sometimes under God’s cultivating action, not recognizing it for what it is. I fail to realize it’s for my blessing, that I desperately need it, for His planting in my life to prosper and grow glorious.

Lord, may I have a yielded heart, yielded to your soil preparation, that it might yield a crop worthy of Your love and grace and holiness.

“For those God foreknew He… conformed to the likeness of His Son…” (Rom 8:28-29).

*****

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Sometimes gray funk clouds form out of nowhere, gather together… deepen and darken, overhead heavy, thickening—stall there.

I pray, sing hymns, give thanks, praise God, even plead, but none of this prevails to blow the gray away.

I ask a word, of cheer, of comfort, encouragement, strength, even of wisdom as to what’s made this storm.

And nothing. Just nothing.

So I wait. For wait I must.

Wait on Him. While rain comes, and clouds stay, and sky weeps.

Wait and watch and pray and hope. And do. one. thing. And then. do. another. And wait while I work or walk or whatever…

Still, the clouds. The rain.

But look! What do I see?

His light is shining in the west,

the clouds still hanging in the east.

The rain is raining in between…

That means…

And I watch a rainbow climb the sky.

Thanking God…

~for faith to continue when skies are gray.

~for rainbows amazing

~for clouds and rain that make them happen.

~for promises that go with rainbows.

~and joy that comes with light from heaven and glowing colors and clearing skies

And counting…

REASONS TO PRAISE GOD

(from Genesis 1, 2, 6, and 8):

• 470 – Because in the beginning His Spirit hovered over the waters  before He even created earth.
• 471 – Because in the midst of those waters He made the firmament which He called heaven—and it was good.
• 472 – Because on the third day He gathered the waters under that firmament into one place, for dry land to appear, thus forming the seas. And this was good.
• 473 – Because on the fourth day He made sun and moon and placed them in relation to earth to rule its day and night, and to divide the light and the darkness. And one of these, the moon, would rule the tides, and keep them from overwhelming the land. And all this was also good.
• 474 – And God made the earth bring forth grass, and herbs, and trees, that drink in water from the earth, which gets that water from the skies.
• 475 – Because He made a garden, and for that garden He caused a mist of water to keep it alive and green.
• 476 – Because He made mankind to tend the garden and oversee His earth. And this was all very good.
• 477 – Because after man went wrong and sin multiplied to dreadful extent on the earth God had made, He did not let that sin prevail, but wiped it out with a flood.
• 478 – Because He then caused rain to fall, heavy torrents for forty days. And the water from the rain and from the fountains of the deep covered all the earth, even over its mountaintops.
• 479 – Because even so, He preserved mankind by saving Noah and his family, through the flood.
• 480 – Because after the flood and its terrible destruction, He caused a symbol of promise, a sign of His peace, to appear in the sky with earth’s rainstorms, a reminder that never again would He destroy the earth with a flood.
• 481 – Because that sign was a beautiful rainbow. A sign, always a sign, of His grace.
• 482 – Because Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
• 483 – Because by that same grace I too am saved, because it’s a gift from God (Eph 2:8).