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March 19, 2006
James Goll: "QUIETNESS--WHAT
TRUE COMMUNION REQUIRES"
Recovering Lost Messages--Be Still and Know
I want to share with you one of the keys to greater intimacy with God.
As a student of Church History and the Word of God, I have found many
hidden jewels over my years of reading and study. This is a small
attempt to bring to the forefront some the hidden messages that need to
be recovered for this generation.
I have found that intimacy with the Lord cannot be fully realized
without quietness of body, soul, and spirit. An atmosphere of stillness
is absolutely essential for the believer in Jesus to enter into the
experience of His deep, communing love.
In order for us to hear His still, small voice within us, we must become
quiet. (Psalms 46:10), the New
American Standard Version tells us, "Be still
and know that I am God." Other translations of that verse are: "Cease
striving, let go, relax, and know that I am God." This
"knowing" goes far beyond informational knowledge. It is rather, His
Spirit in union with ours, His breath in us, His heart in our heart.
This "knowing" is inseparable with the spirit of revelation that causes
us to "know" and thus experience our true union with Christ.
Our lives are in such a rush that often we miss the imperative of
quieting ourselves as we approach God. We just run up to God, blurt out
our prayers, and rush away again. When we do this, I am convinced we
will never fully enter His presence.
The psalmist David summed it up when he wrote,
"Rest in the Lord; wait patiently for Him to act ... don't fret or worry
... all who humble themselves before the Lord shall be given many
blessings, and shall have wonderful peace." (Psalms. 37:7, 8, 11)
Quietness is not a new discovery or a recent innovation. It isn't even a
new slant on an old discovery! It is a time-honored and proven method of
fellowshipping with God that is almost totally ignored by modern-day
Christians.
This type of contemplative waiting is, of course, just one of the
expressions of prayer. It is not a quick fix to all our problems. It is,
however, one neglected weapon in God's arsenal that will help us find
His path through life's perplexing maze.
The Contemplative Lessons on Quieting
Our Soul
Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ greatly influenced Watchman Nee,
John Wesley, Hudson Taylor, and Madame Jeanne Guyon. Much of Madame
Jeanne Guyon's life was spent in confinement and prison in France, due
to her religious beliefs. Her devotional writings compel the reader to
move into a living experience of Jesus Christ, and her writings are
still some of the most widely read classics of our day. From the
writings of Madame Jeanne Guyon (1648-1717):
Beholding the Lord
In "beholding the Lord," you come to the Lord in a totally different
way. Perhaps at this point, I need to share with you the greatest
difficulty you will have in waiting upon the Lord. It has to do with
your mind. The mind has a very strong tendency to stray away from the
Lord. Therefore, as you come before the Lord to sit in His
presence...beholding Him, make use of the scripture to quiet your mind.
The way to do this is really quite simple. First, read a passage of
scripture. Once you sense the Lord's presence, the content of what you
have read is no longer important. The scripture has served its purpose:
it has quieted your mind and brought you to Him.
Distractions--What about distractions? Let's say that your mind begins
to wander. Once you have been deeply touched by the Lord's Spirit and
are distracted, be diligent to bring your wandering mind back to the
Lord. This is the easiest way in the world to overcome external
distractions.
When your mind has wandered, don't try to deal with it by changing what
you are thinking. You see, if you pay attention to what you are
thinking, you will only irritate your mind, and stir it up more!
Instead, withdraw from your mind! Keep turning within to the Lord's
presence. By doing this, you will win the war with your wandering mind
and yet never directly engage in the battle!
Disciplining the Mind
As you begin this venture you will, of course, discover that it is
difficult to bring your mind under control. Why is this? Because through
many years of habit, your mind has acquired the ability to wander all
over the world, just as it pleases, so what I speak of here is something
that is to serve as a discipline to your mind.
Be assured that as your soul becomes more accustomed to withdrawing to
inward things, this process will become easier. There are two reasons
that you will find it easier each time to bring your mind under
subjection to the Lord: first of all, the mind--after much
practice--will form a new habit of turning deeply within; secondly, you
have a gracious Lord!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jean Nicholas Grou (1730-1803) lived in Holland and France and was a
Jesuit priest. He entered into a deeper life with God on a retreat in
1767, where he learned to live his life in the spirit of prayer and
complete abandonment to God's will. The following passage comes from his
famous book, How to Pray: The
Voice of the Heart
You ask me what this voice of the heart is. It is love, which is the
voice of the heart. Love God, and you will always be speaking to Him.
The seed of love is growth in prayer. If you do not understand that, you
have never yet either loved or prayed. Ask God to open your heart and
kindle in it a spark of His love, and then you will begin to understand
what praying means.
If it is the heart that prays, it is evident that sometimes, and even
continuously, it can pray by itself without any help from words, spoken
or conceived. Here is something which few people understand and which
some even entirely deny. They insist that there must be definite and
formal acts. They are mistaken, and God has not yet taught them how the
heart prays. It is true that the thoughts are formed in the mind before
they are clothed in words. The proof of this is that we often search for
the right word and reject one after another until we find the right one
which expresses our thoughts accurately. We need words to make ourselves
intelligible to other people, but not to the Spirit. It is the same with
the feelings of the heart. The heart conceives feelings and adopts them
without any need of resorting to words, unless it wishes to communicate
them to others or to make them clear to itself.
For God reads the secrets of the heart. God reads its most intimate
feelings, even those that we are not aware of. It is not necessary to
make use of formal acts to make ourselves heard by God. If we do make
use of them in prayer, it is not so much for God's sake as our own, in
that they keep our attention fixed in His presence.
The Prayer of Silence
Imagine a soul so closely united to God that it has no need of outward
acts to remain attentive to the inward prayer. In these moments of
silence and peace, when it pays no heed to what is happening within
itself, it prays and prays excellently with a simple and direct prayer
that God will understand perfectly by the action of grace. The heart
will be full as aspirations towards God without any clear expression.
Though they may elude our own consciousness, they will not escape the
consciousness of God.
This prayer, so empty of all images and perceptions... apparently so
passive and yet so active, is--as far as the limitations of this life
allow--pure adoration in spirit and in truth. It is adoration fully
worthy of God in which the soul is united to Him as its ground, the
created intelligence to the uncreated, without anything but a very
simple attention of the mind and as equally simple application of the
will. This is what is called the prayer of silence, or quiet, or of bare
faith.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Andrew Murray was a gifted 19th century Dutch Reformed pastor who was
born in South Africa in 1828. After receiving his education in Scotland
and Holland, he returned to South Africa where he spent many years
pastoring, teaching, and writing. He was a staunch advocate for Biblical
Christianity. He is best known for his book, With Christ in the
School of Prayer. The following are excerpts from his classic,
Waiting on God: Quietness and
Faith
Take heed and be quiet; fear not, neither be faint-hearted. In quietness
and confidence shall be your strength. Such words reveal to us the close
connection between quietness and faith. They show us what a deep need
there is of quietness, as an element of true waiting upon God. If we are
to have our whole heart turned toward God, we must have it turned away
from man, from all that occupies and interests, whether joy or sorrow.
The message is one of deep meaning--take heed and be quiet.
An Unspeakable Blessedness
As long as the waiting on God is chiefly regarded as an end towards more
effectual prayer, and the obtaining of our petitions, this spirit of
perfect quietness will not be obtained. But when it is seen that waiting
on God is, in itself, an unspeakable blessedness--one of the highest
forms of fellowship with the Holy One--the adoration of Him in His glory
will of necessity humble the soul into holy stillness, making way for
God to speak and reveal Himself. Then it comes to the fulfillment of the
precious promise that all of self and self-effort will be humbled. "The
haughtiness of man shall be brought down, and the Lord alone shall be
exalted in that day."
It will come--though at first it may appear difficult to know how thus
quietly to wait, with the activities of the mind and heart for a time
subdued, every effort after it will be rewarded. We will discover that
it grows upon us and the little season of silent worship will bring a
peace and a rest that give a blessing not only in prayer, but all day!
It is good--it is good that a man should...quietly wait for the
salvation of the Lord! Yes, it is good!! It will not be done with our
willing and running, with all our thinking and praying. It is the
confession of our desire to sink into our nothingness, and to let Him
work and reveal Himself. Do let us wait quietly. In daily life, let
there be in the soul that is waiting for the great God to do His
wondrous work, a quiet reverence and an abiding watching against too
deep of an engrossment with the world. Then, the whole character will
come to bear the beautiful stamp: quietly waiting for the salvation of
God!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Simple Prayer of Application
Father, lead me into these forgotten ways. Silence the inner raging of
voices contending for my attention. Quiet my soul that I might know you
and your precious Son Jesus. Holy Spirit, take your liberty to write
these laws in my heart. Lord, I want to know you. Teach me for your
Kingdom's sake. Amen!
Blessings!
James W. Goll
www.jamesgoll.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
James and Michal Ann Goll's Itinerary:
March 23, 2006
Prophetic Encounters
Encounters Ministry Center
2389 Henpeck Lane; Franklin , TN 37064
(615) 599-5552 or
www.encountersnetwork.com
March 30 - April 1, 2006
International Congress on Prophecy
Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center
2800 Opryland Drive; Nashville , TN 37214
(888) 965-1099 or
www.globalharvest.org
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