This is an important aspect of faith – trust, acceptance. This is immersion into the dimension of being one. We are now all in the present moment: we are neither in the past nor in the future. We are in the present moment. This moment is called life. What I lived in the past no longer exists. I did things for which I was responsible, and I will do things in the future. I can change this process. The Lord gave me free will. I can stop doing the good works that He prepared for me if I step away from my purpose. But we live now – in this moment, and this moment is our life.
I decide what my life will be like now: will I worry, get “hysterical”, choose to live in fear, or will I enjoy trust. This is my decision. And this is very important. Abundant life, its quality, also depends on us.
One of the arteries for mystical experience, for mystics who love mysteries with the Lord, is that always, no matter what we do, it is not us seeking God, but He is seeking us. God is always seeking us. Think that He has set off to seek us – do you think He will find us or not? The best bloodhounds in the world are not Bedouins. If God started something, He will finish it. He started seeking us. And even if I’m seeking Him, it’s because He started this process.
This frees us from hysterics, fears out of the blue. Well, that’s something one would find a “hard thing to do”: to believe and still be afraid. We are good at that. But if we consciously believe, we will shift to such aspect of faith as to believe and trust.
You can believe God, but not trust Him. We have to do everything with our own hands. And we “sort out” providence.
I want to inspire us today to trust. Test the trust by experience that God is always unshakable and good. He is firm in His promises. We can trust His promises. We can trust many things: promises, revelations, but we need to trust God Himself, Him. I want to live now, in this moment, trusting. This is a different life.
We have come to God Himself. We can choose right now to “surrender” to Him so that He “overcomes us.” Therefore, now we are talking about awareness, of what you believe in, how you stand.
My day, my encounter with eternity – is recorded by God. Why should I be troubled if He cares about me?!
I haven’ prayed for my protection for years. And He protects me like never before, because I don’t interfere with His protection. Not because it is carelessness, it is a conscious trust.
And this should extend to many other areas – more collective, which turn into the spirit, which trust can be extended on: my head, thoughts, intellect, mind, memory – everything is in His hand, I can give them to Him. Very often the Lord gives His thoughts and feelings, which are from Him.
Someone said that if you live by your past, then you’ve gotten old. Need to stay awake. To hide even behind good things, but old ones, means to relieve oneself of responsibility for the present. We are called to do the same exploits. And in this moment – now – we must make history. We need to take the best of history.
David crossed over religion, and he didn’t bring defilement into the tabernacle. He took the musical instrument of Gath, took the bladed weapons of the kings, and dedicated all this to the Lord. He took the best things from peoples, cultures. Even Solomon took some wise parables, translated them through sanctification and subdued them to the Lord of Hosts. The Queen of Sheba was baptized into the mentality of Solomon, brought praise to God, even the Queen of Sheba bowed to the Lord because she bowed to Solomon.
And Solomon transferred everything into God. Have to have this ability today – to take the best, knowing the best – and give to Him – and He will receive the glory. This is what David did: he took the best and gave it to God. It was an incredible ability of the prophet, a sweet singer of Israel, a king, a priest. He even practiced in an ephod and could even enter the sanctuary, where access was forbidden to a mere mortal.
And this is done through prophetic-poetic admiration, the peak of worship. He was already moving like a being before the ark, by which Uzza died. David moved in a trance. At the same time, he put on a linen ephod and moved in such a way that Michal was torn in her soul.
Natural people can’t stand that. Michal was so well in the palace. But that time she rebelled against David – how could he perform such a thing in front of the servants. And he is the king, the anointed of the Lord. She came out in opposition to the Holy Spirit, because the king went into a trance.
Trance is a powerful weapon. Enter into a trance and attack the heaviest strongholds of the devil. This is the most powerful cutting pen, it cuts through the most powerful strongholds, where any other way doesn’t work – neither prayer nor singing – trance will go through.
David dances by the ark in a trance, cutting through the glory of Israel for ages to come, and the ark moves along the path that David cut through. The Lord smiles and enjoys, Angels dance with him!
The greatest Christian mystics, the saints from the cloud of witnesses lived this moment in different measures of life – someone lived for months, years – those are the sons of the resurrection. They already know the entrance into eternity. Eternal life will come for them. Paul says that he would rather depart, but it is better for the people that he stays. Jacob put his feet on bed and left, Abraham did the same. They didn’t leave from sickness, but from the Holy Spirit.
It is in this state of trance that we can dwell.
In a trance in the spirit you are a lion, and the body is only a tent, it often can’t tolerate. It is amazing what authority the Lord has given to man to be called and be the children of God.
Here is David dancing by the ark at the point of eternity – he decides to choose the state of worship higher – he chooses to be in the glory of God already here.
We can be happy at any moment of life, if only we can overcome ourselves, if only we dare to do so. You don’t want all things around to be good, to be your way. If you move like this, you will suffer all the time because of it. And all the time you will be guilty, but there are no guilty ones, there’s chaos. The person who “harmed” you is not an enemy, it is chaos, and this is your chaos. What man can be an enemy? Is man an enemy? He is a victim. How can a man be an enemy? Christ understood this when he hung on the cross. What man is an enemy? We have to forgive people.
Therefore, we must accept the best things from the history of mankind. Learn selective grace. As it is written that as we choose the best, we will comprehend.
It is written that “He will eat curds and honey until he knows to reject evil and choose good” (Isaiah 7:15). From honey with curds we come to “meat” – solid food. When we learn by experience, when we train our senses to discern – not just good and evil, but to discern in a large sense – God and chaos, God as a Personality, not as a force.
Many Christians are “stuck” at the level of seeing God as correctness. If you behave correctly – God is pleased with you, if not – He is disappointed. “God of correctnesses”
Firstly, this is just your experience. Who can say that your experience is correct?
Secondly, it is the traditions of the church – isn’t the best option either. One can do this, the other can do that.
The third is the doctrine, which is also not known to the end.
And here we have such an understanding of “correctness”. We come and begin to behave “correctly” in order to earn favor – in front of brothers and sisters, priests.
But God is not any law! Do you know what He does? – “Whatever He wants”! Does He follow the rules that He Himself has appointed?! By what rules does God live? I think not a single one. God does whatever He wants!
Many will exclaim: “What shall we do? How to behave…
The language which we speak and communicate with Him and enjoy Him as a reward for the faithfulness of the path – isn’t a language of correctness. Delight is like a reward. Delight in life, delight in God. It is the language of joining with the Personality. It is not the language of correct behavior.
I’ve noticed that often Christians “earn” God’s favor. But all this has already happened. You have a “passport”. Whether you do or not, it has already happened. Jesus died for me on the Cross. He chose me no matter what. He didn’t choose my projection. He chose me for who I am today.
The language in which we approach Him today is the language of love. Just come to Jesus and lie on His bosom, despite your dirty shoes, your not bowing to the elders, not saying “Our Father”. This is the shortest way, but the most difficult for us. We have done so many things, so many betrayals, so many traditions and books. While the bosom of Jesus is right here, His open heart is pulsating, calling us and looking for this pure faith so that we can come and lay down at His heart.
This is the language of love. He has to fall in love with you. Make God fall in love with you – with no rules. See, we’re talking with no rules. I feel the breath of the living water in this language. I’m talking about Christ.
Do what you love the most. This is a form of worship. This is true freedom. Liberation is the complete freedom of the spirit into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God. From there comprehension of all thing begins. If we started from there to return to ourselves, we would restore Eden.
“And one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was leaning at the bosom of Jesus” (John 13:23).
You think: no, this is not about me. But put your name in here! God is waiting. God is looking for us to do this with us. What hinders us is that we are afraid that we will have to respond. This is what we need to do – run and hug Him – no matter what you think about yourself, what experience you have.
Jesus is lying, and the chosen worshiper is at His heart. This is the language the Lord wants from the church.
There hides the first love – in this simplicity, this beauty, this radiant holiness. This is what true holiness is. Holiness without love is impossible, and holiness without freedom is also impossible.
This is not any topic. These are the words of eternity. The Lord is waiting for me at His heart today. Because Jesus came to the footstool of the Lord and revealed His heart. The Heart of Jesus.