Resources for the Hungry and Thirsty
Artwork by David Costello www.davidcostello.com
Graham Cooke's Teaching: Stillness
Being still opens a channel of communication between us and Heaven. All of us have a background conversation going on in our minds. Head noise, as my friend, the British psychologist, Jim McNeish calls it, is an internal voice, a soundtrack for our lives. It's similar to a special feature on a DVD: an ongoing, one-way, stream of consciousness conversation, commenting on our life as it unfolds. Stillness is not about getting somewhere quiet, although that often helps, but about stilling that voice in your head. It takes discipline to quiet that voice, but you must do it. And you can do it, because God is with you.
It is this initial head noise that we convert into "prayers" when we rush too quickly into intercession. Because we have not stilled ourselves, we pray in our own strength, and we come to God's door under the weight and panic of the circumstances facing us. We speak often and are rarely still-in fact, we are the complete opposite of God.
God is always still and He rarely speaks. So there is a difference between the Lord speaking in us, and the Lord speaking to us. When we say, "Oh, God spoke to me," what has normally happened is that out of the storehouse of words, thoughts, meditations, conversations, and Scripture we carry in our spirit, God has selected something previously said to you and brought it back into your consciousness. Like a computer user loading a file, God pulls up the treasure He has already saved in us. "Oh yeah," we think. "That makes sense. That's the Lord speaking." God punctuates His silence with words, and when God speaks, it's an event. When He speaks to you, something is imparted. His presence is profound. He spoke once, and the whole earth was created. When God speaks, something happens, something is shaken, something is created and produced. When the Lord speaks to us, there is always a dynamic residue of His presence which remains with us-it is a signature moment!
In Psalm 46:10, God told David, "Be still, and know that I am God." It was a word that brought a profound sense of the presence of God to David in what were difficult circumstances. It's interesting that Psalm 46 began with an earthquake and finished with "Be still." Only God can talk about stillness in the midst of an earthquake. When the whole landscape of your life is shifting beneath your feet, only God can say, "Be still, and know that I am God."
Knowledge of God comes through peace and stillness. God wants to send us into battle, but if we don't find stillness beforehand, how will we ever find peace in the fight? Rest is our best weapon against the enemy, because rest allows us to hide in our secret place in God. The devil hates you with a malevolence and malignancy that is unimaginable, but he's not stupid: he won't chase you into the holy of holies-the very presence of God-because he knows who he's going to meet there. We need to learn how to use God as our refuge, as our fortress, as our high place, as our secret place where the enemy cannot touch us. If the enemy cannot find you, he cannot hurt you. God has provided a secret place in Him for you.
You have to lose your ability to panic if you're going to walk with God. You have to lose your ability to worry and be anxious if you're going to walk with God. There is a secret place set aside for each one of us. God is love and in His love He has set aside a place where you can live in Him no matter what. He loves to teach people where that place is, because when His children get into their secret place, they can fully enjoy life. It doesn't matter what comes against them--they rise to the challenge. Without stillness, our experience of God is limited. Stillness is the precursor to rest in the Lord; a spiritual discipline drawing us into a continual experience of His presence. It is this rest, this stillness, this secret place of God, which releases unbroken communion with Him; it releases what the Bible calls unceasing prayer.
Soaking Prayer
Drawing Near to the Source, Abba Father
Intimacy with Abba, Father begins when we radically pursue Him with our whole heart. King David wrote, When You said, Seek My face, my heart said to You, Your face, O Lord, I shall seek (Psalm 27:8). God invites us in James 4:8 to Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
God is saying to us, Seek my face! Draw near! Our hearts are crying out, YES! But our flesh is screaming NO! The sad part is our flesh usually wins.
We are instructed in Psalm 46:10 to Be still, and know that I am God. The wording be still literally means to cease from striving. It means to let go and relax, to turn down the volume of the world and listen to the quiet whisper of God. It’s getting still and coming into a place of rest. This type of rest is what we call soaking in His Presence. The result is that you will know He is God, and you will experience Him as Father.
The word “know” is literally an experiential knowledge of God. It’s not being still and knowing about God. It’s being still and knowing God experientially. You will experience God. You will know the Presence of God.
As we focus our heart, spirit, soul, mind, and body (the whole person) on His manifest Presence, we become oblivious to the natural physical world around us.
The key is where your focus is on the things of God or are we focused on the ministry or even the things of this world.
Bible reading and prayer is not enough. Although I spend countless hours in prayer at the International House of Prayer and try to read my 10 chapters a day as well as be a woman of the Word. I know this is not enough. We must take time alone with Him, not asking for anything but more of Him, more of His fullness, more of His presence in our everyday lives.
God releases power through us as we dwell in intimacy with Him. The natural outworking of His Manifest Presence is miracles.
How to Soak in the Manifest Presence of God
How do we soak? We soak like a sponge. Put a dry sponge in a bucket of water and slowly the water permeates the sponge. This is the same as soaking in God’s presence.
The more we soak, the more we become filled with His Spirit, the more you will find that you will begin to dream, remember your dream life and have the ability to interpret your dreams. Did you know it is Father’s desire to speak to you in the night seasons? Psalm 16:7
Through soaking times of resting in His arms you will also find your prophetic life reach deeper levels of accuracy and the things that would normally trouble you no longer seem as important.
I’m often asked, What do you do in your time of seeking His presence/soaking? I don’t have a set formula. In my life, it varies from time to time, but the basic components are as follows:
First, I go into a private room in this case it is the soaking room I have created downstairs that I have called The Hiding Place where my mom and I live here in Kansas City, and I get on the floor before the Lord. It doesn’t matter whether you sit or lie down. What’s most important is the attitude of your heart.
Second, I put on a CD that is either just instrumental or scripture based, Ruth Fazal or Alberto and Kimberly Rivera are excellent choices.
Third, I repent of any sin in my life and I receive Gods forgiveness. This takes some getting use to since we often repent but we never wait to receive His forgiveness. In order for the burden to be released we need to leave our sin and then receive His forgiveness. For me this is something tangible, I can almost touch it.
Fourth, I worship the Lord in both my native language (English) and in the language of the Holy Spirit, tongues.
Fifth, I begin to recall experiences with the Lord (i.e., provisions, healings, miracles) where He has manifested Himself in wonderful ways in my life and the life of my mom that is now living with me that I am caring for. This creates more of an expectancy and awareness of His Presence as I relive these moments. In Revelation 12:11 it states: And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." I believe the testimony that is spoken of here are those times that Father God came through for me that I know that I know it was God and no-one else that answered my prayers.
Sixth, I then tell the Lord: God, I want more of You, more of Your Presence, more of Your fullness in my life. Fill me with more of You.I may repeat this statement many times as I wait on the Lord and focus on Him.
Then, I get quiet and that’s when I sometimes begin to hear His voice. Many times, I begin to have visions and He brings me to another place in the spirit.
The key here is learning to wait in solitude. I cannot overemphasize the importance of waiting on the Lord until I experience His manifest Presence daily. I don’t come out of soaking room until I have experienced His Presence and both peace and rest has been restored in my life.
During our soaking times, we position ourselves to receive impressions, nudges, quiet whispers, pictures, angelic visitations, and supernatural revelations. Here is a partial list of what to expect:
Dreams (Job 33:14-16, Gen. 28:10-16)
Visions (Dan 7:1-3,9, Acts 16:9-10)
Trances (Acts 10:9-17, 11:5)
Out of body experiences (2 Cor. 12:2-4)
Angelic visitations (Luke 1:57, 11-17, Acts 12:7-10)
Being transported in the Spirit (Acts 8:39-40)
Experiencing the true intimate Presence of the living God will radically change your life. People describe His manifest Presence in different ways. To some, it is heat, electricity, or shaking. To others, it is lightness, peace, or weeping.
Experiencing the manifest presence is not the goal but the gateway to the supernatural realm. It’s the beginning. We go into the spirit realm where we can see Him, hear His voice, walk with Him, and be empowered by Him.
Isaiah 64:4 says God acts for the one who waits for Him. The Amplified version states, God...who works and shows Himself active on behalf of him who earnestly waits for Him. He’s waiting on us to wait on Him.
What if nothing happens?
Sometimes we may feel our soaking time has been unproductive. We ask, Is it worth it? because we see no immediate change or benefit. I realized some time ago that there is always something that is taking place when I spend time waiting in the Presence of the Lord.
From this cumulative effect, I believe God is making a deposit into my inner most being. As I begin to give out, the anointing flows out of the deposit He had been making all along.
We must learn to come quietly into His Presence just wanting more of Him in our lives. We need to soak in His Presence, extracting more of His fullness into those places where we are barren. The cumulative effect of spending time with the Lord will produce an increased anointing in your life.
The apostle John offers believers a mind-boggling statement in 1 John 4:17 (NASB) ...as He is, so also are we in this world.
The implication of this verse is clear believers should be like Him. That is next to impossible without spending quality time in His Presence. We will never even understand His compassionate nature for a lost and wounded humanity without regular, daily times with Him. I realize that I am able to care for my mother today with her illness because of the long hours I have and continue to spend waiting in His presence.
Intimacy with God is the simple means by which we access living in the miraculous. Spending time in His Presence is the discipline we must develop to access all that God has for us. And, the cumulative effect is what happens in our anointing (or gifting) to function in healing or any of the supernatural realms.
Now will you make the time to stop, wait, listen and receive?
by Nidia Rodriguez
The Importance Of Experience
Mark Burlinson
A revelation of Father God’s love leads each child of God into an adventure – the adventure of true relationship with our heavenly Daddy. I remember clearly the day when Father God’s love for me became an experience, not just a theology. I was attending a large conference with my wife, and the speakers had been sharing the revelations of Father’s love they had received. Some of their testimonies excited me, and some scared me with the wildness of their experiences. After all, I am an Englishman, and we are renowned for our reserve!
In one of the prayer ministry times I asked God to show me His love for me. As I stood in line waiting to receive prayer, I was nervous and excited. Would I experience the same things the speakers had spoken about? Would I feel His love? Perhaps I would laugh or cry. Something inside me wanted to run away, to avoid the risk of not receiving, or the embarrassment of some wild manifestation, yet a new boldness deep within told me to stand my ground and ask God to show up. I had become hungry enough to risk asking for more of God. Others around me began to laugh or cry, and many fell to the ground under the presence of God. As I waited, and then as one of the prayer ministers prayed for me, I felt an unfamiliar warmth spread from deep within me, and a heavy sense of God’s peaceful presence in the midst of the ‘holy chaos’ around me. It felt as though God was
holding me in His arms and filling me with the love and acceptance I had longed for all my life. Like a wave of love, this heavy peace filled me. As I yielded to it, I fell backward and a ministry helper gently lowered me to the floor. Suddenly a sense of relief and joy flooded my heart – He had answered my prayer and was showing me His love. I began to laugh and could not stop; and then as the unconditional acceptance of God flooded me, I began to cry. I laughed and cried alternately for over an hour. That conference became a landmark for me, and the doorway to deep and lasting healing.
The adventure of a two-way relationship with Father God contrasts starkly with our past
experience of self-effort and striving to be “good enough” for God. It is relationship that
defines a true child of God. The Bible is a written history of people’s experiences with
God. In this issue we are going to consider the place and value of experiences in
developing our relationships – with God and others.
Relationship with God is defined and developed by experiences, just as past experiences
demonstrated our distance from Him. So it is important to value experiences along with
understanding, because knowledge alone does not mature us in our relationship with
Father God. We rightly teach that we do not need experiences to enter that relationship – faith in Jesus alone is the doorway into Father’s house. But this does not mean that our
experiences are not relevant or valuable. Rather, every experience, both before and
after we accept Jesus and return to Father God’s arms, is used by God to develop our
relationship and mature us.
The writer of Proverbs teaches us, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of
knowledge,” and, “The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7 &
18:15), but knowledge is only a part of the picture. When Jesus came, He repeatedly
showed us the difference between living out of relationship with Father God and living
from our own knowledge and wisdom. He said, “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but
what He sees the Father do” (John 5:19). Later, He said, “You shall know the truth and
the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). In this passage, the Greek word, “to know”,
means “intimate, relational knowledge.” Again and again we see Jesus using
experiences to initiate, deepen, or restore relationship with Himself and with Father God.
He calls fishermen to follow Him, turns a despised woman into an evangelist, leads a tax
collector into repentance, uses countless experiences to teach His disciples, and sets up
a “rerun” of a life experience to restore Peter.
Knowledge alone can lead us to an inflated view of our selves and cause us to sin. For
example, Paul wrote to the church in Corinth regarding their knowledge that food
sacrificed to idols was no longer harmful to them. (See 1 Corinthians 8:1-13.) Paul
acknowledges their understanding, but points out that they drew a wrong conclusion
which is causing them to sin against unbelievers by leading them astray. He writes, “If
anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But
if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.” In other words, knowledge alone is
dangerous, leading to self-directed wisdom, but relationship with God is the only safe
path to maturity.
My theology became an experience and my life was changed. I have discovered that my experiences turn me to others, while my understanding focuses me on myself. Since that day at the conference, I have had a deep desire, and an increased ability, to help others experience God’s love for themselves. Many Christians struggle to do this. Experiences give me something to give to others, if I will allow God to take them and use them, as Jesus used experiences in His ministry. I believe Jesus had this in mind when He taught us the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” That word, “perish” means “to ruin by pulling apart, or separating.” Jesus is not talking solely about being lost in eternity, but living a lifetime full of ruin
without a relationship with God. We can understand this more fully by looking for other places where Jesus uses the same word (Greek: apollumi). In Luke 5:37, He speaks of damage to wineskins unprepared for new wine; in Luke 15, the same word refers to a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. Perhaps the clearest usage is in John 6:12 where, after miraculously feeding thousands of people with one boy’s picnic, Jesus says to his astonished followers, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost” (apollumi). God’s plan is to take our lives, with all the scattered fragments of our successes and failures, and gather up every piece in the basket of His love to
demonstrate that in relationship with Jesus, nothing is wasted.
So Jesus teaches us not to despise experiences, but rather to allow Father God to take
every one and form His likeness in me as His life lessons deepen our relationship.
When I feel that I am not experiencing God’s love, it is often because I am not looking for Him in the daily experiences of life. So how can I rightly value experiences without
becoming shallow or overly emotional? Here are some principles I have learned which
guide me and will help you. I turn to God in each experience. Recognizing that satan loves to take truth and twist it, we can choose in every experience to turn to God for His perspective. In the Garden of Eden, satan twisted truth (“did God say…?”), and in the wilderness he did the same (“if you are God…”). Jesus’ response, which overcame satan, was to turn to God’s revelation of truth in His Word. He responded, “It is written…” and confounded satan’s twisting of truth. In the same way, God intends us to develop the habit of turning to Him in each and every experience. When things go well, we thank Him for His presence and help. When something goes wrong or we are hurt in some way, we turn to Him for comfort, wisdom and guidance.
In this way, every turn of life’s path draws us closer to Father God. As I turn to God, let Him change my heart. If I experience powerful touches of God’s presence, either in a meeting or alone, those are likely to draw me to Him; but the lasting value of a spiritual experience is in the way God changes my heart. If my heart is changed to focus more on God, then the experience will have had value, even when it is a distant memory. But if I am not changed by my experience, then later, when the experience fades, God may seem far off. I have learned that my focus in life is a function of my heart, not my mind or my will alone. I can’t choose to focus on God by willpower or understanding; instead, I allow those life experiences where God becomes real to me to be the “red letter days” that fill my heart with passion for Him, and carry me through darker times. This is why God told His people to take His commands to heart (see Deuteronomy 6:6) and why the word “remember” appears so frequently in the New Testament. Of course, we also see in scripture the result of not doing this; God’s people frequently made the same mistakes and needed a further experience to bring them back to God. Our pastor described it this way: “In the school of experience, if you flunk a test, you get to take it again and again.”
I choose not to compare my experiences with those of others. Comparison is self-rejection, because when I compare myself with someone else, I am rejecting my God-given uniqueness. I am also falling into the same trap as satan who, in Isaiah 14:14, said, “I will be like the Most High”, and in comparing himself to God, sinned and was cast out of heaven. Another drawback of comparing myself with others is that I often focus on faults, causing me to judge or reject others (or myself). This is an affront to God, who does not reject us; neither does He compare us with anyone.
Each of us is uniquely loved and accepted by Him. Peter explained this to Cornelius by saying, “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him” (Acts 10:34-35). It is easy to compare our experiences of God with the ways God seems to be blessing others, and conclude we are less loved, or more wounded, or less able to receive. All these are beliefs that do not correlate with the truth of God’s Word, and we do well to avoid comparing, choosing instead to let God love us individually. I recognize that God uses relationships to give me experiences.
Although God loves and accepts us individually, He does not intend us to become solitary. Instead, He will use our relationships to give us experiences, and our responses will determine the fruit in our lives. Often it is those closest to us who have the greatest effect, whether positive or negative! Life is full of broken people, and I am among them; yet God intends to use my experiences to change me and make me more like Him. In His plan, they are intended to teach me to trust Him, to build my character, and to accomplish His purpose. Here is another choice I have to make – how will I respond? If I have already accepted the previous three suggestions, I will look past the faults of others, and my own faults, to find God’s love and His power to change my heart. Looking for God in each lesson of “The School of Experience” will help me learn quicker, and with less pain!
So I continue to love my wife if she upsets me, I keep my heart open to my boss when I disagree with him, I reach out to God for the right response when my children disobey or frustrate me. In each situation, God is committed to gathering up the broken pieces of my life, just as the disciples gathered up the food on the hillside after the feeding of the five thousand. If I turn to Him in difficult or painful relational experiences, I will turn them into experiences of His fatherly love. I focus on BUILDING relationships, not allowing experiences to damage them. With those closest to us, it is easy to find fault. Both our loved ones and the authorities over us have weaknesses, pain, and flaws. It only takes a moment for relationship to be damaged when I bump into one of those faults in someone close to me. Then the easiest reaction to that experience is to withdraw. But relationship can only be given, not demanded, so when I withdraw, I am withholding relationship. Honor is a heart attitude of connectedness; it can not be effectively expressed at a distance. So I stop honoring if I withdraw. The challenge when I experience a fault in someone close to me is to focus on building relationship through that experience. I have found I can do that by looking past the fault and choosing to continue to submit and love. In Matthew 5:22-28, God shows us that putting relationship right is His highest priority, above offerings and worship. He will help me. He is the one using this experience to teach and transform me. I bring painful past experiences to God. My greatest hindrance to rightly handling present experiences (and any perceived lack of experiencing God) is my past pain. If I still carry pain from my childhood experiences, or past wounding in adult life is still painful to me, there is a stored reservoir of pain and anger waiting to be inflicted on me and those I relate to today. We call this the pain tank, and often it overflows soon after an experience of God’s love in the way I have been describing. The reason for this is that God does not intend me to contain that pain, but wants His love to displace it. So He will ‘squeeze’ my pain tank, and the acid of past memories will come to the surface. If I continue to do what most of us have earned – to stuff that pain down and hope it goes away – then I will not find relief because I am holding on to the pain. Instead God brings the pain to the surface so I can recognize it and release it to Him. As I release pain to Him I receive His comfort, healing and freedom. The more I can deal with past pain, the easier I can give my heart freely to relationship with God and others. I am also able then to comfort others with the comfort I have received from God (see 2 Corinthians 1:5-6).
I seek new experiences flowing from relationship with God. As Father God’s love becomes an experience for me, not just a theology, and as I bring each daily relational experience to Him (whether positive or negative), I find it becomes increasingly natural to be aware of His presence daily. This is not just a feeling, but a deep heart knowledge; what Brother Lawrence referred to as “practicing the presence of God.” In this place of closer relationship, I believe God intends us to be like Jesus – doing what we see Father God doing, and speaking out what He is saying. (See John 5:17-20, 36-37, and 14:10.) If we rest in Him while daring to do what He says, we will see the greater works that Jesus promises to those who believe in Him (John 14:12). We will have new experiences of God’s love and power, flowing from our closer relationship with Him. In God’s heart, I believe that is the importance of experience.
So I encourage you to seek God through daily experiences, and welcome His perspectives and participation in your life. He will draw from your understanding and knowledge, making it the foundation of your fellowship with Himself and others. He will also take your past pain and pour in His comfort and freedom. You can enjoy the adventure of a two-way relationship with Father God because you are His child and He wants you to grow and mature through experiencing His love.
By Mark Burlinson
Shiloh Place Ministries, PO Box 5, Conway, SC 29528
www.shilohplace.org