His Heart, My Home

For the last three weeks we have been on a treasure-hunt together. We are pressing into the realm of the miraculous, not seeking the miracles themselves, but instead diligently seeking the Miracle-Worker.

Our primary text has been 2 Kings 4:1-7. Please take the time to read or reread this passage of scripture, and refresh your memory about God’s miraculous provision for a widow who faced a desperate situation.

There are several principles found in this passage of scripture that can be applied to our own walk of faith.

● First: STOP talking about the NEED, and
   START talking the language of FAITH!

● Next: STOP focusing on what you DON’T 
   HAVE and START focusing on and using
   what you DO HAVE!

● Then, last week we began to learn our
    third principle which is:

SHUT the DOOR to FEAR and NEGATIVITY

OPEN the DOOR to FAITH and POSSIBILITY CHANGING the ATMOSPHERE by PRAYER

We live in a highly toxic environment of fear and negativity. It’s all around us. Almost everything is contaminated by it. It feels sometimes as if the world is spinning out of control. Change comes flying at us faster than we can adapt to it. Before we can cope with one crisis, two more have popped up on our radar.

The Internet, where we spend so many of our waking hours, has over a billion websites. More than 250,000 new sites are published on the Internet every 24 hours. That’s a new website coming online every three seconds. Even Google is exhausted trying to keep up.

That world of constant connectivity is a world that is soaked in, and saturated with, fear and negativity: 24/7 streaming news, sports, data, video clips, games, memes, online shopping, social media apps and sites, and on and on. Not all of that is negative, but it is all overwhelming.

Emails, texts, group chats, direct messages, voice mail, user-names, passwords, subscriptions, log-ins, log-outs updates, downloads, uploads, save, delete, copy, paste… it’s a dizzying roller-coaster ride that never seems to stop.

Your smart watch is always ready to make you “smarter” constantly informing you of how poorly you slept last night, your blood pressure, your heart rate, your oxygen absorbtion, how many calories you’ve burned and the number of steps you still need to walk to reach your goal today. Even your refrigerator nags… I mean “informs” you that you’re out of eggs and butter. And of course, your ever-helpful nanny, Alexa, reminds you that you have a dental appointment for a root-canal in 30 minutes, and that the Amazon gift you sent to your sister has been delayed and won’t arrive till two days after her birthday. Whew! I’m exhausted

It’s a non-stop information tsunami, rising higher and higher, towering over us, and threatening to drown us with a deluge of deadlines, distractions, despondency, and despair.

It’s no wonder then that study after study shows us that excessive screen time and chronic social media exposure go hand-in-hand with inceased levels of stress, anxiety, and depression.

We desperately need a digital detox. We need time to unplug, power down, and disconnect from this tribulation-filled world in which we live.

God invites us to do what the prophet instructed the widow to do, that is…
SHUT the DOOR to FEAR and NEGATIVITY!

Our quest then is to enter the “secret place”, a place of seclusion with God, where He can purge, then refresh, the atmosphere of our individual lives, bringing us the supernatural supply we need.

So it is absolutely necessary for us to hit the “mute button” on the devil’s high-decibel distractions, if we’re going to hear and connect with God’s Word.

The SILENCE of the SECRET PLACE doesn’t cause God to speak. It enables us to HEAR HIM SPEAKING.

It is vitally important for us to know and understand this truth, because there can be no miracles without the Word of God!
Holy Spirit, the Miracle-Maker, creatively confirms the Word that God has spoken.

But be forewarned. The sensory silence we will experience as we shut the door to all those EXTERIOR DISTRACTIONS, doesn’t magically eliminate all our problems.

Instead, it reveals the messiness of our own minds, our INNER DISTRACTIONS: our negative thoughts, the flotsam and jetsam of our fractured consciousness, the clutter and clamor of our restless souls.

We can turn off the constant barrage of OUTER distractions by turning off our cell phones. But how do we turn off our INNER distractions?

How do we erase the endless “replay loop” of our past failures? How do we disconnect from our present doubts? How do we unplug from our fears about the future?

I believe the answer is found in this familiar passage of scripture.

⁶ “Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life, ⁷ then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ.”  (Philippians 4:6-7, TPT)

The New Living Translation renders it this way: “Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything…”

Once we have closed the door to those outer distractions, we can yield to Holy Spirit so that He opens the door to His world, the world of faith and possibilities.

He purges the atmosphere in our inner chambers, freeing us from our worldly burdens and cares. He then refreshes our hearts and souls with the fresh wind of His presence.

PRAYER transforms the PLACE of SILENCE (freedom from outer distractions) into the PLACE of STILLNESS (freedom from inner distractions).

The PLACE of STILLNESS is the PLACE of PEACE, where every burden has been laid at the feet of the Master, and our souls rest in His love!

“You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on you, because he commits himself to you, leans on you, and hopes confidently in you.”
(Isaiah 26:3, Amplified Bible, Classic)

The phrase translated as “perfect peace” in the Hebrew text is “shalom shalom”. I personally define “shalom shalom as “peace experienced exponentially.”

Simply put, through prayer with thanksgiving, we experience the double blessing of both external peace (i.e., health, wholeness, well-being, and prosperity) and internal peace (i.e., calmness, confidence and contentment, coming from a spirit-to-Spirit connection with God).

It’s in this PLACE of STILLNESS that we come face-to-face with God’s glorious presence, and realize there is no limit to either His power, or His willingness to use it for us.

The PLACE of STILLNESS is the PLACE of ASSURANCE. We are assured that the miracle we requested is now ours by faith!

“Be still, be calm, see, and understand, I am the true God…”  (Psalm 46:10, The Voice)

This is what we have been truly seeking, a place of greater intimacy with our Father, where everything else fades into the back- ground. It’s in our SECRET PLACE that our thankful hearts are filled to overflowing, and we worship Him in Spirit and in Truth!

The Lord says to us today, “Come inside. Shut the door on all your troubles, worries, and fears. Now unplug and disconnect from your unnatural and unhealthy lifestyle, and reconnect with me, the Source and the Sustainer of your life. Let me purge and purify your mind, your senses, and your emotions. Let me restore your soul, providing the things you truly need for living the abundant life. Let me fill the empty places in your lives to overflowing with my love, my peace, and my joy. Now yield to me as I transform your fear into faith, and overwhelm your negativity with endless possibilities. Abide here with me now in the embrace of my presence, one in spirit and one in love! You need nothing else!”

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We pray you were blessed by this teaching. If so, please let us know by “liking” below.

What about you? Have you ever sensed God drawing you into a “secret place” of silence and stillness in His presence? If so, we’d love for you to tell us about it in the comments section below.

Blessings and miracles to you and your entire family!