J.I.Packer is a modern day Reformed Evangelical theologian that I've come to appreciate. And though I lean towards a more charismatic theology, I am still committed to pursuing good solid biblical exegesis and humble Spirit led hermeneutics which I believe J.I. Packer embodies. I take to heart Jesus' words "Yet
a time is coming and has now come when true worshippers will worship
the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of
worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth" (John 4:23-24 NIV).
In watching the video, there is something magnetic about his words that not only draws me in, but also deeper in greater reverence and awe of the Lord. I think it's because I see a man who has walked humbly and faithfully with Jesus for over 60 years and I can see the Lord's humble gentle heart behind his words. "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:29 NIV). Without a doubt J.I. Packer has taken Jesus at His word and taken His yoke upon himself and learned from Jesus and through this he has found rest for his soul. I believe it is from this place of rest that we can all begin to truly learn to embrace our weaknesses and learn from Jesus who desires to place His humble and gentle heart within all of us.
I hope you were as blessed as I was with this short yet profound teaching on embracing and accepting our weaknesses. Sometimes less really is more...
The end of the year can be a very busy season which is why it is also a perfect time to intentionally and actively lean into and rest in God's presence. Something that I have practiced over the years has been soaking prayer. Soaking prayer falls into the category of Christian mysticism and focuses on the manifest experience of union with Christ. Soaking prayer is simply positioning oneself to behold the beauty and majesty of Christ and be loved by Him. It is not uncommon for a person to receive visions & revelations and encounters & breakthroughs while soaking in God's presence. Soaking prayer makes room for God to move and bring deeper transformation to us.
"Because God's presence is always with us, He is the answer to the spiritual warfare we face. The peace of having Him overshadow our lives gives us a powerful weapon. Many times in Israel's history, God told the people to do unconventional things: sing, march, shout, wait. "you don't need to fight," He whispered to them "because this isn't about you, it's about Me. I'm not asking you to strive and pull down things, I'm asking you to make room for Me too act." (Graham Cooke, "Beholding and Becoming" p.16).
Soaking prayer also involves actively embracing the rest Jesus offers to a person. "Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30 NIV).
Resting is the act of quietly and confidently allowing yourself to be in the presence of God. Resting is the absence of work, worry, fear, even performance. Resting empowers us to learn from Jesus in how to be with God. Rest is a gift from Jesus to us.
Soaking in God's presence is one way we can learn to entering into God's rest. When we soak in God's presence we learn to switch off our souls and allow our spirit to be attentive to God. Resting helps us become more aware of His love, care and purposes for us.
When we learn to rest in God, we learn how to receive and respond to who God is for us. Resting removes both the inward and outward pressures we feel and opens us up to the person of Jesus. In a place of rest our heart, our inner man, becomes accessible to God. It is in rest that we receive ministry from the Holy Spirit.
Rest is a form of freedom from work, from human striving and acquisitiveness and from worldly preoccupations. It is the relinquishing of human self-assertion and an embracing of greater trust in God. The willingness to rest is a sign of peace and faith in God because rest is a form of letting go of human control.
Hebrews 4:9-11 (NLT) " So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God's rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall."
This means we must make the time to actively enter into the rest God has already allocated to us. The best image I can think of in terms of soaking prayer is that of laying on the sandy shores of an ocean and letting the waves continually and consistently wash over you again and again. So when soaking, it is best to physically lay down while listening to various worship songs and allowing the love and presence of God to wash over you like ocean waves.
This can mean meditating on the Word of God and allowing the biblical truths about God Himself and His Kingdom shape and define us in deep and significant ways. This can include listening to the names of God being recited over and over again, letting them wash over you until the truths about who God is sink into and shape your heart and mind towards God.
This can mean listening to worship music that focuses on the love and peace of God over and over again, allowing the Spirit of God to manifest and release His rest upon your heart and soul until you open up wide to receive the flow of God's love and peace into the deepest parts of your being.
This can mean listening to prophetic words and songs that help to position your soul to receive the ministry of the Holy Spirit in searching out any dark and lonely places that need the light and gentle touch of God's presence.
If you have never experienced soaking prayer, give yourself time to learn to rest and receive from the Lord. Oftentimes, it takes time for us to learn to slow down from the busyness of life and allow the Spirit of God to declutter our minds and unburden our hearts. Here are a few links to some songs that I myself enjoy during my times of soaking prayer and that also help me to lean into and rest in the presence of God.
I am just coming out of a long season of busyness and I've come to realize that this busyness has been slowly robbing me of my deeper passions and longings of 1) growing in deeper intimacy with the Lord and 2) reaching out to the lost children of God. Now the good work that I have been busying myself with has been within the walls of the church which like I said is good work. But, each day I take in breath and walk in the world, what I am confronted with the reality that there is much more urgent good work to be done outside the walls of the church.
Now don't get me wrong, I love serving the local church and ministering to the found children of God. But, we are living in precarious times with so much pain and brokenness happening all around the world. Everywhere I go, the Holy Spirit highlights to me the loneliness and lostness of those around me and their desperate need for faith, hope and love. In the past months, I befriended a neighbor who has been battling depression for 30+ years. To hear his story of pain and suffering pulled at the strings of my heart. I prayed for him in that moment and invited him to come to church which was all the time and energy I had at the time. I know that I need to be Jesus to this man, but to pursue a deeper relationship with him will take time and energy which is a scarce commodity.
In the past few weeks, I've made the decision to intentionally slow down and begin seeking to be simply present with Jesus.This will mean clearing my schedule and saying no to the many expectations that others may place on me. A word that a very wise and insightful person spoke to me recently which has helped to bring some reorientation to my disorientation was: "People's expectations for us are often much higher than God's expectations." If I'm honest, in this last season of busyness I regretfully got tangled up in trying to live up to people's expectations, rather than checking to see what God's expectations were of me.
Thankfully, Jesus is faithful and has begun to break me out of this. I know that it will take some time to shake off all the baggage and poor habits that come along with living in busyness, but I know that the Holy Spirit is Almighty and that He is passionate about drawing all of God's children into the rest that Jesus extends to us: "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light" (Matthew 11:28-30 NLT). If you are in a season of busyness, then receive Jesus' words with faith and know that this is His heart and will for you.
This is my prayer: Lord Jesus, I pray your words would come alive in me and whoever else needs them. In Your Name I pray Jesus. Amen.
