There is a new Country song out lately that resonates with me due to the underlying spiritual issue it depicts – that of the overwhelming noise we in the modern world are surrounded by daily.
In Kenny Chesney’s song, “Noise” is a fundamental lesson and truth. We very rarely experience silence anymore. Yet the soul that thirsts and hungers for God, and wholeheartedly follows the path of spiritual perfection and growth in holiness, automatically seeks out more silence and less noise. In fact, to those who know them, these souls also become an oasis of silence and peace of spirit that can be tangibly sensed. They seem to have less interior ‘noise’ and can bring that peace and silence to every interaction. I have heard that God dwells and speaks quietly in that place of silence. One goal of the spiritual life is to cultivate that interior and exterior place of silence to invite God in, and create the space and open demeanour to listen to His small, still quiet voice…which sometimes echoes like thunder when we create the space in our hearts to listen…
I have experienced both in my spiritual journey – words of quiet perfect form as I rose from sleep, which summed up succinctly a dream experience of our God, but also the loud and clear immense, powerful, booming Voice of Talking Thunder of God the Father, as when He spoke to me many years ago saying,
SO THAT THOU SHALT NOT SUFFER BECAUSE OF THE FINITENESS OF YOUR MIND, I SHALL ILLUMINE YOU TO KNOW MY WORD AND UNDERSTAND MY MESSAGE!“
I have said before on this website that I shall never forget that experience, or how each of His words boomed like talking thunder. Each word was like the footstep of a Giant on the earth! When God speaks – be it whisper or shout – one listens! I took to heart the ‘shout’ command I received at church many years ago as well – this time from Jesus:
“GO!!! PREACH UNTO THE NATIONS!”
So for 16 years now I haven’t just been listening; I have been dutifully recording and slowly sharing that which I have seen and heard. Moreover, I have all the while been responding in the reciprocal relationship of love that then flourishes with our God, who is Love.
So many people wonder at my faith, but either don’t investigate for themselves the possibility that the spiritual truths of the Bible are real, or don’t care to find out – that is until some life experience gently, or sometimes brusquely, pushes them into the Quest. I think part of the reason it takes people that wake-up-call moment, is that we are surrounded by far too much noise and distraction. So many things and voices clamour for our constant attention…and so many of them are so less worthy of our time than the time that would be well spent in seeking God.
Don’t get me wrong. I know the demands of daily life all too well! As a mom of six kids, two dogs & two cats, who works outside the home (in a school full of noisy children(!)), runs a part time business and a women’s spiritual support group, while keeping up the demands of home, marriage & friendships, I too am surrounded by busyness and noise. However, I crave and carve out silence. It is those moments apart – in prayer, reflection and retreat that give me the serenity, peace and strength to do all I do (and it also helps to get regular rest & exercise to care for the tent that houses our soul!).
The key to the Quest is in seeking the Pearl of Great Price. Matthew 13:45-46 speaks of this parable of Jesus:
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” (NIV)
The value of closing off as much as possible the noise of your life to embark on the Quest for this Pearl is illustrated in several dreams God saw fit to send me in March of 2008:
March 12, 2008 – Three dreams
First I dreamt that I walked down the basement stairs of my home in Heart’s Desire. As I approached the bottom landing I was picked up and carried by a woman to an unfinished portion of the basement where a circle of people were meeting. As I was being carried to this circle, I was held with such love and was repeatedly given sweet and tender kisses all over my face. I wondered what the meeting was about and why I was being brought to it. When I awoke I pondered this dream and the fact that it was the ‘unfinished’ portion of the basement that I was brought to.
Then I fell back asleep and dreamed a second dream:
I dreamt that I was then in the finished portion of the basement. I stood talking to many people from my circle of life. They seemed standing in a line for something. I spoke to those who would listen in this line about the spiritual life and the necessity to seek the things of God. I told them to seek and they would find. I told them if they truly desired peace they would find it. I asked, though, if they truly sought it in truth:
Do you truly seek it? Then you will have it.”
I saw Dara (a character in the dream whose name means ‘pearl’) in particular listening to me as well as others – men included.
Shekinah
These two dreams had followed a previous one from March 7, 2008 where just one silent word rose to consciousness as I emerged from sleep that night. It was “Shekinah, Shechinah, or Schechinah (Hebrew: שְׁכִינָה). which, according to Wikipedia, is the English transliteration of a Hebrew noun meaning dwelling or settling, and denotes the dwelling or settling of the divine presence of God and his cosmic glory.
I had pondered “Shekinah” as I did not know what it meant. I was still pondering it in the middle of the night after the above two dreams on March 12th. In my journal I had then recorded the following:
I lay awake after the first two dreams (of three) I have recorded of earlier this morning, pondering God, pondering Shekinah – hungering with every fibre of my spirit, mind and body for Divine indwelling. Then, a still, small voice said:
Dispose yourself to receive the High and Mighty Lord.”
I immediately responded:
I am so disposed.”
I began to pray with even greater fervour for the Father to possess me completely with His Divine Love. Then the voice said again:
Exposing yourself to this mass will require that you in turn expose yourself” (I sensed this meant to others) (and surprise…here I am doing just that on this website)…
I acquiesced (agreed). I prayed, and offered myself to the Father in a prayer too intimate to repeat to others…but essentially I prayed:
No human heart is disposed to receive my heart as completely as You. Together we shall create love for all eternity.”
As I prayed to God our Father, He very gently and slowly infused me with His attributes: patience, kindness, love, tenderness, gentleness, mercy, compassion, purity, wisdom, love and His holiness. I just but said yes! And so I ponder still the meaning of Shekinah…perhaps others can shed light as to the full meaning of this experience.
However, it didn’t end there. I was given to understand this:
There are no walls in the Heart of God that prevent Him from giving Himself to us, only the walls in the hearts of humans that make them unable to fully possess the living God. Amidst such a tender experience as I have detailed above, I was saddened at the inability of human hearts to be disposed to receive the Father (who is LOVE) completely because of the walls that are put up against Him. They shut themselves out of the deepest recesses of love…
And after I fell back asleep on this very busy spiritual night of March 12, 2008, I dreamed a final third dream:
I dreamt I saw myself and the Father, lying together in the most sweet and tender state of loving embrace, and a voice said:
Thus the soul finds itself, already here on earth, in the loving state it will enjoy for all eternity.”
So I ask you, what are you waiting for? Start the Quest, and turn off the noise!
Karen
The Deliverance Ne†work 