Deliver Me
RP#2 - Learning Stillness in the Well of His Presence.
This will be the second in what might be a very long post. Under the topic of Deconstruction and Reconstruction, I’ve had a lot of various posts that lean more to the deconstruction side. These upcoming posts are meant to lean the other direction. That requires a deep transformation within the garden of your soul. This is NOT a light switch moment, where you can push some button, check off a box, and call it good. This is an attitude change
Post #2
Ever thought about what a well is? Modern wells are so very different than the wells our ancestors dug by hand. As a result, we have a disconnected symbolism that is lost in our present age of advanced technologies. These days, a powerful, well-drilling machine often digs or punches its way through the earth to the hidden reserves below.
A few generations back, establishing a well was serious handwork. With a hand shovel and hopefully a group of other men, you dug a hole in the ground. As the hole got deeper, you reinforced the walls with stones and timbers to prevent them from caving in and killing you as you continued your back-breaking work. There are many older stories of hand-dug wells so deep that the atmosphere above was no longer blue but black as the night, forcing them to lower lanterns during the day just to see.
Fighting the nagging doubt that all their effort would be fruitless, and clinging to the faith of hope that they would eventually find water, they continued day after day, month after month, until the water was found.
That’s serious dedication, and there were many who gave up, moving on to hopefully find a better place to try again. Do we have that kind of dedication? To keep pushing on, to push down deep spiritually to the vast resources that await us?
What is a well? A well is an access point, a hole through dirt, stones, and clay of bad teachings, mental strongholds, and traditions of men to a hidden aquifer of clean water. Spiritually, a well is abundant and full of things beyond our limited understanding. The Father has been waiting for us, with such a blessing in his hand. It will take all of Eternity to fully understand it, and that is its Glory. The distance from it to you can be as far away as the moon or as close as your next thought.
So let’s take a journey.
Margaret Becker - Deliver Me
“I was just about to tell You, what I’m sure You already know.
How my throat is tight with crying, Yet my soul is arctic blue.
‘Cause I’ve seen some tears that didn’t move me, whispered words I didn’t mean.
Held back all my love for anger, grown so weak in all these things.
So in all these things
Deliver me from me, and deliver me to You.
Come and set me free, come and find me tried and true.”
It’s a risky thing to say to the Lord, deliver me from me. Because in that very statement is the acknowledgment that you are your own problem, and just like a homeless beggar, we know we need help beyond ourselves.
The requirements for our journey become a little uncomfortable as we become aware that all the stuff we thought was so important in our lives is most likely the very stuff that we must now leave behind. The “Stuff of Earth,” as the late Rich Mullins once put it in a song, becomes entangled in pride, self-centeredness, and the need to impress others, along with the need to justify all these things around us. This is part of what we inherited from our original parents when they ate from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The taste of such a dark inheritance will always linger around us until we are freed forever of this body to be with the Father in Eternity.
So, as a result, from time to time, we must wash this old body odor off with the Blood of Jesus in order not to be distracted by it as we continue our journey to a better life in him.
With the stinky smell of sin from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil tamed down for the moment, we can step forward into the unknown. We can smell the rain in the distance and hear the joy of the water as we start to realize that we, logically, should not be able to hear or see these things. But still, something within us tells us it’s true, “Is there really a rest waiting for us?” (Hebrews 4)
That stinky smell of sin is the rational thinking of humanism that justifies your stuff and gives you a ‘pardon’ away from the holiness of God. We inherited it from Adam because the tree of the knowledge of good and evil will always cause us to look at ourselves first and not at God, who made us. And that is the very stuff we wrestle with to surrender to the Lord so that we can find the peace He promises us. “Therefore there remains over a rest for the people of God...” Hebrews 4:9 WET.
I am of the personal opinion that the human stench of fallen man invades the spiritual realm like a bad onion someone forgot in the pantry. Everything Angelic or demonic out there is watching, and if you are declaring how “powerful” you are to the spiritual realms, like it is so popular in some Charismatic circles these days. Well… all you’re really doing is giving them a good laugh. Because your stench just makes the demons feel at home.
Washing away the stuff of Earth by the Blood of Jesus and learning to live in the Lord’s presence makes the spiritual realm change, Angels finally smile, and devils cry as their food source (the dust of your sin) no longer feeds them. These things start to unfold as we learn to find the well of His peace. “And the God of the peace will trample Satan under your feet soon...“ Romans 16:20 WET.
Demons relish in your sin and encourage it because that is how they feed. We are made of the dust of the earth, and this is why the Lord cursed the serpent: He told him, “you shall eat dust all the days of your life,” Gen 3:14b. So why do we need to live in the peace of his presence? Well, there are many good reasons to list, but learning to starve the demonic host is a good one.
There is simply a large volume of scriptures that clearly demonstrate the value of peace. It opens doors and closes others; it’s a blessing and a sign for those who inhabit it. Because like all things with the Trinity, if you inhabit it, it now inhabits you.
Learning Stillness
Many years ago, while camping in a National Park, I could “feel” a profound peace, a presence moving through the wind and trees. The holiness and wisdom of it filled every tree, rock, and flying bug around me. I wanted to be a part of it, but could not. I was frustrated because everything within me wanted it, but it felt like it was just beyond me.
“Wisdom shouts in the street, She lifts her voice in the square; At the head of the noisy streets she cries out; At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings:” Proverbs 1:20-21 NASB.
Months later, an opportunity to acquire a spinning wheel for turning wool into yarn came along. The concept of a spinning wheel has always been kinda cool to me, but not a real priority. The Father, however, impressed on me that I should get it. Not sure why I went ahead and acquired it, thinking I was perhaps getting it for my wife, Kathy.
Turns out my wife, Kathy, just might have had less of a desire to use it than I. Then I realized the Lord wanted me to learn! So, as a person who always tries to do a good job if I can. I quickly found that the only way I could turn out perfect yarn was to learn to be still, deep within myself. Forcing things to be quiet did not work; I had to wrestle with myself to let go. Not only did the yarn turn out well, but I discovered the first steps towards the Well of His Presence.
Letting go was the start of cracking the door open to engaging deeper with the presence of His peace. It was this Peace that became the door to an even deeper level of His Presence that was waiting for me. I had to discover it by letting go of what was within me to exchange it for His Peace to enter.
“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure which has been hidden in the field, which, after a Man has found it, he hid, and in his joy goes off and sells as much as he possesses, and buys that field.” Matthew 13:44 WET.
The well of his presence is a personal thing; it is literally the Sacred Space within that everything springs from. Neglect it, try to live without it, and you become a white-washed wall, Acts 23:3. And all the work of your hands has no spiritual value. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.
What would you rather be?
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