Participants: Ivor and Atonte Myers
Series Code: BOF
Program Code: BOF000028
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00:14 Welcome to Battles Of Faith,
00:15 we're your hosts, Ivor and Atonte Myers. 00:18 Today's program is entitled "The art of stillness" 00:22 "and the art of silence", now if you were watching 00:25 last weeks program, you learned that we are in a holy 00:29 war and as Christians we need to realize that so we can learn 00:33 how to fight back, and you're probably wondering 00:35 "Hey, they ended the program last week without teaching us" 00:38 "any of the arts, or how to fight. " 00:40 Well, we're going to start that process today, 00:42 and we're going to start with the art of stillness. 00:45 That's right, we have, in our studies, seen that, 00:49 holy war, talking about spiritual warfare, is actually 00:54 an art form. It is something that needs 00:58 to be learned just as if you were in the military, 01:03 there are principles that need to be understood 01:05 in this war against self, and we discussed 01:08 many of these principles in our last program, and we're going 01:11 to learn some more of these principles, but we want 01:13 to focus in on 2 arts in particular, the art of stillness 01:17 and the art of silence. 01:20 You know, it's interesting, as we look at holy war, 01:24 and as we realize that we are called to fight 01:27 this fight of faith, we have to understand that God 01:33 is the one that empowers us with His grace, 01:37 God is the one that enables us 01:39 to fight this good fight of faith. 01:42 Atonte, many times people 01:46 don't understand that as Christians, we're not just 01:49 called to fight an "OK" fight of faith, we're called to fight 01:52 a good fight of faith. 01:55 If you have ever seen a good fight, or a good boxer, 01:59 a good martial artist, a good athlete, 02:02 they are expert in what they do, and believe it or not, 02:06 God calls us to be expert in war, to be expert fighters, 02:12 to be masters, as it were, I think of 1 Corinthians 9:25. 02:18 I want to read that verse because it says something 02:21 very interesting, it says: "And every man that striveth" 02:24 "for the mastery is temperate in all things. " 02:29 We are told here that as Christians we ought to be 02:33 striving for the mastery. That means, Atonte, you and I 02:37 should be striving for the mastery over ourselves, 02:42 because that's who we're trying to master, 02:43 we're trying to master self, this is the conflict 02:46 that we are engaged in. 02:49 It is the conflict against self, and we're not only called 02:52 to fight against self, we're called to fight a good fight 02:55 against self, and on top of that, we're called 02:58 to master self, so that's excellent news, that God 03:01 actually calls us to be masters. 03:04 I know when I was into martial art, I always wanted to achieve 03:07 master status, that meant that I was at the top of my art 03:11 and that I was an excellent fighter, 03:15 but in the grace of God, He calls us to master self, 03:19 to dominate self, and this is exactly what we see as we 03:24 begin to look at these various arts of warfare. 03:28 I want to read 1 Corinthians 9:25, 03:30 from the Amplified Version, it says: 03:32 "Now every athlete who goes into training" 03:35 "conducts himself temperately and restricts himself" 03:38 "in all things. They do it to win a wreath" 03:41 "that will soon wither, but we do it to receive" 03:43 "a crown of eternal blessedness that cannot wither. " 03:46 So there's training involved. Paul's here saying that we have 03:50 to endure some training if we're going to be able to fight 03:54 this good fight of faith. 03:55 That's right, and the first thing that we have seen 04:00 that the Christian needs to be trained in is the art 04:04 of stillness. 04:06 I want to read from Psalms 46:10, 04:10 the Bible says here, very simple verse: 04:12 "Be still and know that I am God. " 04:20 Stillness, Atonte, allows us to be able to recognize 04:24 the divine presence of God, and in the world that we're 04:28 living in today, stillness is something that is very rare 04:32 and God calls us to understand that as warriors, 04:38 the first thing that we need on our side when we are 04:43 fighting against self, we need the presence of God. 04:48 God has said in His word "Be still", which means 04:53 stop moving, "Be still and know that I am God. " 04:57 As Christians, many things that Satan tries to throw out there 05:01 to the world, we don't follow, we're like: "Oh no, I know" 05:05 "better than that. The Bible says don't do that," 05:07 "I don't do that", but as Christians we still find 05:10 ourselves so busy that we almost find it impossible to be still 05:15 and have a quiet moment. 05:18 Another very important reason why we are told to be still 05:23 is because it is in stillness that God fights for us. 05:28 Again, we can read 2 Chronicles 20:17 to see 05:31 this principle of stillness, and it says here: 05:35 "You shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves," 05:39 "stand ye" - and if you know the verse you know what word 05:41 come next - "stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD" 05:47 "with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not," 05:51 "nor be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them:" 05:54 "for the LORD will be with you. " 05:58 Again we see this concept of stillness, 06:02 providing that setting where we can sense, feel and understand 06:08 the divine presence of God with us. 06:12 And this presence is so important for us because it is 06:15 only by the presence of God that we can win the victory 06:19 over self. 06:20 So the very first thing to be able to engage in this war 06:24 is to be still? 06:26 Is to be still. 06:28 Isaiah 26:3 tells us: "Thou will keep him in perfect peace" 06:33 "who's mind is stayed," - or stilled - 06:38 "remaining on Thee. " 06:40 We receive that peace that we are looking for, 06:43 we receive that peace in experiencing victory over 06:47 ourselves when we keep our minds stayed, or I will says stilled, 06:51 upon Christ, that's why He calls us to, before any other 06:55 principles are learned, He says "I want you to master" 06:59 "the art of stillness. " and we can look at today's society 07:03 and see that many Christians are failing at this art of stillness 07:09 I can hear mothers out there saying: "How can I be still" 07:12 "when I have all these little children, who are blessings," 07:15 "but they're running around, constantly making noise," 07:18 "causing whatever kind of havoc in the home, it's very hard" 07:23 "to be still. ", but you know, going back to what 07:26 1 Corinthians 9:25 says, we have to train, so we're going to have 07:32 to be disciplined; An athlete, when they go to the Oympics, 07:35 they get to the Oympics because they were very disciplined, 07:38 and they took time to train, and we're going 07:40 to have to do the same thing; As a mother to other mothers, 07:44 we most importantly, need to be training 07:47 to be able fight this battle because we have to train 07:50 our little children to do the same thing, and so 07:53 I find that the best time to be still is to take that time 07:57 early in the morning because that is the time where those 08:01 little ones are still sleeping and we can have the still 08:04 time with the Lord, but that means that we have to go 08:07 to bed early, it's really a lifestyle, to fight this war 08:10 it's really a lifestyle. 08:12 Some people may be watching and saying: 08:15 "Stillness... is that all there is to the art of war?" 08:18 If you were to join the military or any other fighting system 08:24 in the world, you are trained at levels. 08:27 You start out learning the basics and you move up, 08:31 you don't jump automatically to the top, 08:33 and this, I believe is the basics. 08:37 God calls us to understand that it is in stillness, the setting 08:40 of stillness where every other principle is learned. 08:45 Without stillness, the other principles that are vital 08:48 to understanding how to overcome the cigarette, the alcohol, 08:51 how to overcome the addictions to the entertainment industry, 08:55 how to overcome these plethora of temptations 09:00 that we got through, without that foundation of understanding 09:03 how to be still, we can't learn the other principles. 09:08 It's in stillness that in God's presence comes to us, 09:12 and it's in God's presence that we begin to learn and understand 09:17 how to fight that good fight of faith. 09:20 You know what? Sometimes if we're not willing to arrange 09:22 our lives so that we have the time to be still, 09:24 God will allow things to happen to arrange that for us. 09:28 I've seen that happen many time as well. 09:30 Psalms 4:4 tells us: "Stand in awe, and sin not. " 09:35 "Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. " 09:40 That's a place where we can learn stillness, as we're 09:44 in our bed in the morning, in our bed at night, 09:47 getting ready to go to sleep, God says take that time 09:50 to practice the art of stillness. 09:53 That means to just allow all the other things that cloud 09:59 our minds to be taken out of our minds, 10:03 and to slow down, to stop, to be still, 10:07 and to seek for God's presence. 10:10 One of the major problems that we have, 10:11 as Christians, the reason why we don't obtain this stillness 10:14 is because we go into a communion with God 10:18 with the wrong mindset. If we went in really believing 10:22 that we were worshipping God, you cannot worship God 10:26 and be on the move, if you will, you have to have a time 10:30 of stillness to worship a holy God, and be in awe of Him. 10:34 That's right. I want to read a quote here 10:36 from the book "Education", page 260, which really brings 10:40 out this principle, it says: "Many, even in their seasons" 10:44 "of devotion, fail of receiving the blessing of real communion" 10:49 "with God. They are in too great haste, with hurried steps" 10:54 "they press through the circle of Christ's loving presence. " 11:00 "Pausing perhaps a moment within the sacred precincts," 11:05 "but not waiting for counsel. They have no time to remain" 11:10 "with the divine teacher, with their burdens" 11:13 "they return to their work. " 11:15 That is very powerful. 11:17 What we see from this is that it is as we master stillness, 11:22 learning to be still in the presence of who? 11:25 The Divine Teacher. 11:36 "I will teach thee and instruct thee in the way" 11:39 "that thou shalt go. " I think it's Psalms 32:8. 11:42 God says I will teach you and instruct you, 11:45 and He will teach us and instruct us in war, the war 11:48 against self, how to become masters, but before we can 11:51 become masters at this active war of faith, 11:56 we must first learn, coincidentally, 11:59 the art of stillness. 12:01 In the quote it says "so many times they hurry" 12:03 "and press through his loving presence", it's almost like 12:09 when it's time for worship to be over, they'll slip out of it 12:13 almost moaning, like: "Oh, I don't want to leave" 12:16 "His loving presence", and it also, it talks about 12:19 we rush through it so fast that we don't leave enough time 12:23 for Him to speak back to us, to commune with God, 12:26 us talking to Him, and Him talking to us. 12:29 Daniel 12:4 has a very interesting 12:35 concept presented to the reader, especially in light 12:38 of what we're talking about, because in Daniel 12:4 12:42 it says that in the time of the end knowledge shall be 12:45 increased, many shall run to and fro. 12:51 When we hear this verse spoken in a prophetical context, 12:56 we know that at the time of the end, 12:59 knowledge would be increased and society would begin 13:04 to multiply, and technology, inventions, would begin 13:09 to increase, and that's a good thing, and some people 13:14 also look at this verse and say that the knowledge of the Bible 13:17 would increase in the last days, but I also believe 13:20 that the running to and fro in the last days, also has 13:24 a negative context in the fact that we see a world 13:29 where people are just busy, caught up in the affairs 13:33 of life, running to and fro with no time to be still. 13:36 You look at the internet, the television, media, 13:39 and everything that this world has to offer, 13:42 men are running to and fro, especially in these last days: 13:47 eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, 13:49 and just going about their business with no time 13:54 to stand still and know that God is God. 13:57 I'm sure there's people out there who are very similar 14:00 to myself, who find it very difficult to be still 14:04 because our mind moves at such a fast pace, it's hard to slow 14:08 everything down, but my challenge to you, and I'm sure 14:12 God's challenge to all of us is practice it, say: 14:16 "Ok Lord, I have a hard time being still and having" 14:19 "a quiet moment with you. " Do 5 minutes at a time, 14:23 and then up it to 10, and 15 and so on and practice 14:26 like an athlete, remember, we're training so that 14:28 we can fight in this battle, and in the war. 14:31 Exactly. 14:33 There's an account where Jesus is casting out a demon 14:38 out of a possessed man, and at one point in this 14:42 account, Jesus asked this demon: "what is your name?" 14:45 and the demon replies "My name is Legion, for we are many. " 14:50 You see here, the demon being named according to his 14:54 characteristics, he was called Legion because he was many. 14:58 This is not in the Bible, this is my own thing, but I believe 15:02 that there is a demon by the name of "Rush", 15:09 ...And he has a first cousin named "Busy". 15:12 Yeah. 15:14 The demon of Rush, he is responsible for teaching us, 15:18 for getting us into a rushed state of mind so that 15:22 everything is about "Rush, rush, rush", and with the 15:26 specific purpose of never allowing us to have time 15:31 to be still and know that God is God because it is 15:35 in that stillness again, stillness is the classroom 15:39 in which we learn the art of warfare, in which we learn 15:42 the principles of war that we'll be discussing in this series. 15:47 It is in this setting that the demons of rush say: 15:51 "Whatever you do, keep them busy. " 15:54 That's right. And God wants us to be still 15:57 so that we can hear His voice, it is through His word 16:01 that we receive power to overcome and to fight the enemy 16:04 which we know everyday we're going to have to fight. 16:07 Now that takes us to the next phase, once you're still, 16:11 you need to be silent. 16:12 Right. This is a good transition because 16:15 when we look at the entertainment industry, 16:18 everything is moving so quickly, the movies: fast paced, 16:24 the music: fast paced, 16:27 the entertainment industry is a fast moving entity, 16:32 and I believe that that has a lot to do with how we, 16:35 in essence, live our lives. When we're continually being 16:39 bombarded by these scenes of quickness, 16:43 these scenes of everything is fast, everything is motion, 16:45 everything is happening now, now, now! 16:48 When we live in a society like that, it trains the mind 16:51 to be busy. 16:52 Busyness is a state of mind, it begins in the mind, 16:56 and if busyness begins in the mind then stillness must also 16:59 begin in the mind, and that's where prayed comes in, 17:03 that's where we learn to be still in prayer, and that takes 17:06 us over into the art of silence. 17:11 God not only wants us to be still, but He also wants us 17:16 to master silence. Why? 17:19 Because in silence we hear the instruction, 17:23 the voice of God. 17:27 Being silent, hearing God's voice, again, that's what 17:31 empowers us to be able to fight. 17:36 Many of us say "I don't hear the voice of God. " 17:39 We do, the Holy Spirit is leading us all the time. 17:42 Sometimes we hear it when things are not so busy and not so 17:47 loud, if you will, and most of the time we don't 17:50 because our life is on fast forward all the time, 17:53 and we're just not hearing His voice. 17:55 That's right. Another quote from the book 17:58 "The Ministry of Healing", page 58, says this: 18:01 "He that is God, bids us: be still and know that I am God. " 18:06 "This is the effectual preparation for all labor" 18:09 "for God. Amidst the hurrying throng, the strains of life's" 18:14 "intense activities, he who is thus refreshed will be" 18:17 "surrounded with an atmosphere of light and peace. " 18:21 "He will receive a new endowment of both, physical, and mental" 18:24 "strength, his life will breath out a fragrance" 18:28 "and will reveal a divine power that will reach men's hearts. " 18:34 It is this being still, knowing that God is God, 18:37 listening for His voice, that teaches us, 18:41 that prepares us, not only to go out and fight 18:44 the good fight of faith, but also to be a witness 18:47 for those people around us, to have that fragrance 18:51 flowing out from us, because it is there that people then become 18:54 attracted and say: "whatever you have, that's what I want. " 18:58 We get that through learning how to be still, 19:01 and learning how to be silent to hear God's voice. 19:04 Now this is the real challenge, because some of us 19:07 can take time out and spend that quiet time in the morning 19:10 and in the evening with the Lord when we get up, or before 19:14 we go to bed, but we're finding that the problem is 19:17 when we get out of those special times with the Lord, 19:20 it seems like we leave it at that time. 19:22 How can we be still and silent going throughout the day? 19:25 Going to work, going to school, doing all the many different 19:28 things that we must do. It's a training of the mind. 19:32 And this is what Jesus had, He had the constant communion 19:35 going on with His Father, where things around Him were going on, 19:39 and He's talking to people, but His connection was always 19:43 flowing so He could hear everything 19:45 that His Father was saying. 19:46 This connects back to the entertainment industry. 19:50 It's not that God doesn't want you to engulf yourself 19:57 with the entertainment industry just because... 19:59 it is because he knows that if you're constantly feeding 20:02 all that stuff into your mind, you're not going to be able 20:06 to walk around during the day with that stillness, 20:09 and the silence. 20:13 So if you have all that stuff in your mind, 20:15 it's almost impossible. 20:17 That's right, stillness and silence, these arts are not 20:20 limited to our prayer time, 20:22 even though in prayer time, understanding the art 20:24 of silence is very important because many times we go down, 20:27 we kneel to pray, and who's doing all the talking? 20:29 We're doing all the talking. 20:31 We stop, we get up, we go about our way. 20:33 We don't understand what it means to be silent, to hear 20:38 God's voice speaking to us, do we really expect God 20:42 to speak to us? We're not talking about 20:44 an audible voice, Isaiah 30:21 says: 20:47 "And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee," 20:50 "saying 'this is the way, walk ye in it. '" 20:53 What way? 20:54 The Bible tells us that God has provided a way of escape 20:58 from every temptation, so in the midst of every trial, 21:02 every temptation, if we listen close enough, we can hear 21:06 the voice of God, speaking to us saying: "this is the way," 21:10 "walk ye in it", and so stillness and silence 21:12 become something that spills out into our life. 21:15 When everything is going chaotic around us, we are able 21:20 to keep our minds still on Christ, stayed on Christ, 21:24 and silent, so that we can hear, and this becomes crucial 21:29 in the fight against self. 21:31 Also, being still and being silent helps to keep us 21:35 in perfect peace, that's what the Bible calls us to do. 21:39 Many times, we're not in that way and so we're moving 21:42 around so fast and things are not peaceful in our minds, 21:45 and here comes sin and we run right into sin. 21:49 Sin is just waiting for us to come, 21:50 because Satan sees that everything is so chaotic 21:54 and it's not peaceful and so we just fall right into sin. 21:57 That's right, we need to learn how to master peace in the midst 22:00 of a crisis. How do we master peace 22:03 in the midst of a crisis? By practicing the art 22:05 of stillness, by practicing the art of silence. 22:08 When we understand those things, we may be like Jesus 22:11 in the boat in the midst of the storm, who, when everything 22:14 was going on around Him, He was able to rest 22:17 in peace, so that's something very interesting. 22:21 When you think about a fighter, an earthly fighter, 22:24 an external fighter, a person who's involved in fighting 22:27 systems of the world, they understand that remaining calm 22:32 in a fight is crucial. Let me read something here, 22:37 this is speaking what happens in a conflict, and how it can 22:43 seriously affect any battle that you're in. 22:46 At 115 beats per minute, talking about heart beat, most people 22:52 will lose their fine complex motive skills. 22:56 At 105 beats per minute, most people will lose their 22:59 complex motive skills, without complex motive skills 23:02 it is difficult to execute movement, to make matters worse, 23:07 the part of the brain that hears also shuts down. 23:10 This is when you're heart beat begins to increase 23:13 because you're in the middle of a conflict and you're not 23:15 remaining calm. 23:16 At 175 beats per minute, a person will experience 23:21 tunnel vision, and visual tracking can become difficult, 23:26 opening a person up to multiple attacks. 23:29 On an average, a person will experience a 70% decrease 23:32 in their visual field during a violent attack, and their 23:36 heart beat is increased. 23:40 Depth perception now begins to be lost, and critical stress 23:44 amnesia can occur, causing a person to forget up to 70% 23:48 of the encounter. 23:49 At 185 beats per minute, most people will go into a state 23:54 of Hypervigilance, meaning they will go into 23:56 the "deer in the headlight" mode. 23:59 Now, that's for physical fighting. 24:02 How do you think it is when we are in the middle 24:05 of a temptation and we don't remain calm. 24:09 Our heart beat begins to speed up, 24:12 all of a sudden we're in spiritual 24:16 "deer in the headlight" mode, sin is coming right at us, 24:20 temptation is coming right at us and we're frozen because 24:23 the temptation has such a grasp over us, we have not learned 24:26 how to be still, how to be silent and we just fall 24:30 right into that temptation, brought on to us by self. 24:35 Let's keep it practical, "let's keep it real" 24:37 as the young people would say, I mean, this happens 24:40 on a daily basis in the home. If we were experiencing 24:44 that peace, that stillness, that silence, 24:46 when your husband or wife may say that thing to you, 24:50 everything is in a much slower motion, you're so much 24:53 more calm, you're going to wait, hear God's voice, and respond. 24:59 And if you're obedient to what God tells you to do, it is going 25:02 to not cause whatever that person said or did to 25:05 escalate and take it to the next level. 25:07 This formula can be used in any situation, and this is what true 25:12 Christian fighting should be. 25:14 That's right. Be still. 25:17 Don't respond, be still. Know that God is God, 25:20 listen for His voice. 25:22 These are the very fist steps, and God trains us in this 25:25 through prayer. Another powerful quote, 25:27 I've got so many here, but "Ministry of Healing", page 58, 25:30 says this: "All who are under the training of God" 25:33 "need the quiet hour for communion with their own hearts" 25:37 "with nature, and with God. In them is to be revealed" 25:41 "a life that is not in harmony with the world, it's customs" 25:44 "or its practices. We must individually hear Him" 25:48 "speak to our hearts. When ever other voice" 25:51 "is hushed and in quietness we wait before Him," 25:54 "the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God." 26:00 Beautiful, beautiful concept there. 26:03 Learning to be still, learning to be silent 26:06 gives us that peace, and when we're in conflict, 26:09 like Jesus, in the midst of conflict, 26:11 the Bible says that when Jesus was in His last days 26:15 and He's being questioned before Pilate, the Bible says 26:18 that Jesus held His peace. 26:21 Most people read that and they say "Oh, He didn't say anything" 26:23 no, He held His peace, He held His composure, 26:27 He held His connection with God because He had practiced, 26:30 He had mastered the art of stillness and the art of silence 26:35 Amen. 26:37 This is what these programs are all about. 26:39 We want to help, with God's Holy Spirit and His power, 26:43 to train people to experience this because this is powerful. 26:48 When people see that you are so connected to God 26:52 and you are being still and silent so you can hear 26:55 God's voice, when you don't react the way that 26:58 the average person would react, this is a testimony. 27:02 This is what speaks to people, and they say: 27:05 "I want what you have. " It's evangelism power working 27:09 and walking, it's very powerful. 27:10 That's right, that other attack of the enemy, 27:13 is that he will bombard our minds with music, 27:17 with the programs so that we've got all these other voices 27:20 in our heads when we kneel down to pray we cannot be silent. 27:24 Why? Because those things are playing in our minds: 27:27 the latest movie, the latest music, 27:29 and what we hear is the voices of the world 27:33 and not the voice of God. 27:35 So we've got to understand that this is the beginning 27:39 of the warfare, it may sound simple, but it is profound. 27:42 The art of stillness, the art of silence, 27:46 these are 2 arts of war that help us to learn 27:50 how to master self. 27:52 That's right, and remember, challenge yourself, 27:55 take time and allow God to train you in this art. 27:58 It will take time, but with God all things are possible. 28:02 We're all out of time, until next time, God bless. 28:05 [Music for Credits] |
Revised 2014-12-17