some musings...

I've been thinking lately about the fact that God often speaks to us... even more than the "still small voice", sometimes, he even likes to speak loudly, blatantly into our lives to catch our attention... and yet even with such overt gestures, many times we remain unable to hear and unable to perceive what He is doing and what He is saying... and therefore also unable to respond to them... and it is a scary bothering thing if God is right in front of you and you miss out on what He's saying... especially since I've learned that faith, the lifeblood of the Christian walk, comes from hearing (in the present) continually, progressively... faith without action is dead... and better a movement than a monument...

ooh... i have much to say about this... for example music... music is always moving... and when one stops moving, he stops making sounds.. he stops making music... and yet when the sound of his walk with God is expressed in song, it vibrates... it stirrs the air molecules... they begin to vibrate in order producing sound... sound then moves... it disrupts the air around it... it ruffles feathers... it disrupts the status quo.. it forces other "comfortable" molecules out of their comfort zone... and some may find it disturbing.. upsetting... sound travels even through solid mediums too.. if you put your ear to a wall, you can hear the sound passing through it... cos the wall vibrates too... Dead things dun make music. Only the living praise Him! (The dead are never dangerous... only the living are! Those who are living with a purpose!)

And yet that very praise of Him can stir the dead into life to praise the very Same!
Surely the stones must cry out!

ooh... i can go on and on... we haven't even covered dance yet! oh but that's not why i wanted to write this piece... i wanted to talk about revelation.. and how we all need to catch it so that we can start moving... it's that first spark that causes earth to respond to heaven's call... and lately I've been thinking and meditating on aspects of revelation...

i began to ponder how revelation was direly lacking in my own life... and because i lacked that pure substance from heaven, i've been turning to other undeniably lesser sources of "inspiration"... like entertainment for example... watching detective dramas and playing Super Mario Galaxy are really a sad substitute for the life that can only be found in relationship with the Father and abiding in Jesus Christ... like Cain wandering aimlessly on earth is movement without purpose. It has no direction... and it comes about when we move in the flesh.. and attempt to get ourselves motivated apart from relationship and communication... music is movement with order... There is rhythm, distinction between notes and variations between sound frequencies... but sound movement without order is noise... and noise serves no purpose... it is counterfeit... neither can it glorify the One who is the Author and Audience of all true music... and we can be moving and moving but still have no direction, no goal, no purpose... we can be going around busying ourselves and doing lotsa lotsa things but have no fruit, much less fruit that is glorifying to the Father... and that is not called living... it's called existing...

and sadly how often is this true of church ministry? when we do so many things but are we sustained by the glorious Life inside? I've learned the hard way and i can indeed say that i am still learning! without vision, the people perish, cast off restraint, become restless... moving without purpose... and so we might see ppl get bored, discouraged, frustrated.. coming week after week.. going through the motion... service after service... but no life change! and so we try to engage them... perhaps generate a little excitement here and there... blast the music louder? sing new songs? run a few more activities and add a few more incentives? the devil mocks! When Jesus Christ come back for His glorious church, what will He find?

we are spiritually impoverished, spiritually bankrupt, spiritually weak and spiritually sick... (and do we even know it? and those who do- do we deny it?) and the remedy must match the condition... but how can it match the condition if we have the wrong diagnosis? spiritual problems require spiritual solutions! It has nothing to do with programmes and activities but with the condition of the heart! Isaiah 6 presents us with God's throne-room diagnosis of Israel... eyes seeing but never perceiving... ears hearing but never understanding... hearts that are hardened before God... and even if we get the best Bible teachers, apostles and prophets, they still won't get it... Jesus was the best there was and they crucified Him! unless the heart is dealt with, we are laying on shaky foundations... and we know where that leads...

i found myself severely lacking in revelation... and i told God i wanted more... I told God... How can I be hungry for that which i cannot see? well... he who has will be given more... and he who does not have, even what he has will be taken from him... and the only way i'm gonna get more is to begin responding and applying and stewarding that which I have already been given... and oh boy.. i'm so thankful that God has begun to answer my prayer... when i applied myself to the Word, a lot of rich treasures began to unfold... lemme share a testimony...

i was walking along the road on Tuesday for my usual prayer-stroll... and then God deposited in my spirit Psalm 1... and it talks about meditating on His law day and night, etc... and as i progressed walking, i ended up in Thomson Plaza where... surprise surprise... Dot and company were having Bible study! And guess what was one of the topics covered? Meditation! And I knew that God wanted me to come back to this foundational discipline of meditating on the Word... and then i thought to myself... Psalm 1? But I've read that Psalm so many number of times! What new thing can get from it?? And so when I went back home, I opened my Bible and then the Psalm arrested me and came in a whole new light...

It is not for the people of God to walk in the counsel of the wicked! We have so great and genuine and superior a Source of wisdom in the Holy Spirit that only spiritually impoverished people would take counsel from the wicked! That is because they lack the counsel of God in their lives. People stand in the way of sinners.. they follow their path/programmes/formulas... to try and achieve their own definition of sucess for they do not know the ways of God and the heavenly reality... And they sit in the seat of mockers, not doing anything constructive but having become embittered, the only thing they can do with their fruitless lives is to sit by the wayside and criticise people, especially the fruitful ones who serve as testimony against them for the failure of their lives and the betrayal and forsaking of their God-given right to live towards a heavenly purpose and destiny- the goal of anyone's existence!

But we are of a different breed! Our delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law we meditate day and night... we meditate and focus upon and magnify what we delight in... and we meditate upon them with tangible musings- not just thinking about them but also uterring them, confessing them and even blogging of them... and according to the confession of our tongue, even in the midst of meditation, the course of our lives are shaped by the heavenly reality gleamed from this faith-experience... for we confess with our mouths what we believe with our hearts and it becomes reality in our lives and that's how we experience God! And what we meditate upon nourishes us, it gives us life, it directs our quality and manner of life and determines our fruit! Fruitfullness begins with what we delight in and is birthed and conceived in our imagination (vision) and by our confession in our meditations!

We therefore prosper not by having people direct us (especially not the wicked) nor by following programmes (ways) nor by sitting down and criticizing but we prosper by delighting in the right things- the Word of God, and meditating upon them and allowing them to define, direct and determine the course of our lives! (And I'm not just talking about prospering in ministry but more importantly, in our personal lives where we flourish inwardly with the reality of the life of Christ!) And because we prosper by what we delight in, this speaks of the place of rest where we do not grow tired or weary.. but our life is in the Word and the Word becomes our life... and as we allow the Word to take hold of us, strivings cease... we do not become dependent on following the instructions of the wicked or the scheming and plans of the ungodly.. doing this and doing that... and we do not operate by criticisms in the flesh.. not even our own criticisms of ourselves where we try to push ourselves hard enough "i must be stronger... be more productive, etc etc..." but fruitfullness is begotten in that place of rest.. in that place of delighting and dependence and communion with God... and faith coming from hearing the Word.. and hearing with revelational understanding!

And this is the only way that our fruit is gonna last! The wicked are like chaff.. which goes away easily enough.. because their works are founded upon themselves- their schemes and by their own wisdom.. their fruit does not last/abide or remain when tested under fire...

Ooh.. and i thank the Lord for as i plough into His Word with an open heart, he opens it up easily enough... and because of this, i want more! i really do! and i'm really excited about this for very long, i've been dry and i've substituted true communion for pop-corn and instant-noodle type of spirituality... the kind lacking in substance.. and the kind that is more interested in putting up a good "spiritual" face in church while severely neglecting my inward condition!

work in me, Lord! work in me!

I don't wanna stop moving! ;)