Christian Writers Circle

Intimacy ~ In The Silence Of Our Soul

by

Kathleen Shore

There is a chosen place of quiet that I rarely miss out on. It’s that thirty minutes before our four children are awake each morning when I come to life as I sip my coffee and eat of God’s word. This peaceful time in His presence that has become my source and well to drink from is a discipline that God desires of us. But there is a deeper place of quiet… a stillness that has a far greater eternal value. Maybe not one we would choose, but one that is delivered to us by God’s own hand of providence. This is the silence within the stillness of our soul.

This place is most often hidden in dark or difficult circumstances, covered over with uncomfortable restricting vines and has occupancy for only one. Yet it is the very place that reveals answers without words…. a place where His still small voice echoes a knowing in your spirit of “total resolve” to everything around you in the natural which seems contrary to Him and His promises. This is the silencing of our soul. And to the degree that we will surrender to God and give ourselves over to Him in this place, will be the measure which we experience His intimacy and the outpouring of His presence.

During my pursuit of God’s heartbeat as I began to write this piece, a visual aide came to mind from my childhood. I recalled a particular strength training exercise we were made to undergo on the swim team. Put in teams of two, the drill was for one of us to swim out to the deep end of the pool and begin to tread water. The coach would then give a signal for their partner on the side to go in and rescue them. But, the one who was to be rescued was not to stop treading water until the coach blew her whistle. So when given the signal, we dove in. As I reached my partner, I swam to her backside, wrapped my right arm up around her mid section and laid her head on my right shoulder. But because of her treading water, I found myself in more of a wrestling match instead of a rescue operation. Keeping calm (as I had been taught), I continued to reposition her head back on my shoulder in a restful place so that I could pull her to the edge of the pool. Just before my exhaustion gave way to frustration, the whistle blew and finally… she stopped treading water. Her body gave way to the restful position that allowed me to do what she so needed and desired from me.

And there it was again… Father’s heart clearly beating His repetitive message.

Our need is not for the wind and the waves around us to stop so that we could have peace and be rescued. Our need is for the Almighty God to overtake us. And all of Him will be ours if we would be still within our soul amidst the raging storm, silencing the agitation of our anxious fearful thoughts, emotions and words – believing that His miraculous arm IS mighty to save.

God speaks over and over in His word, choose Me over what “self” wants or how your flesh desires to respond. Lay your head back upon My chest… trust me and receive My rescue that is already right beside you.

Rev. Alexander Maclaren (b. 1826) wrote:

What disturbs us in this world is not “trouble,” but rather our opposition to trouble. The true source of all that frets and irritates, and wears away our lives, is not in external things, but in the resistance of our will to the perfect will of God in our external things. The one misery of man is self-will; the one secret of blessedness is the conquest over our own will.

Oh my friend, it is we who exhaust ourselves in our earthly circumstances that whip through our day like a torrent, thinking that if all this going on around us would just stop and everything would go our way, we could have peace and quiet… we would be without our ugly flesh uprising and live in the desired place of His abiding presence.

In perfect orchestrated timing, God followed up my childhood remembrance with an email from a beautiful woman of God, named Anne Graham-Lotz. She was calling believers upward to a new level of unified prayer. And although I was in agreement with her entire message, I could not get past her opening statement. She wrote, “As you may know, my husband is in declining health. I am no longer traveling and speaking as much as I have for the last 26 years since I am staying home to care for him. As a result, I have had time to be quiet and listen more to the whispers of the Spirit. He has revealed things to me in the stillness that I’m not sure I would have heard in my former busyness.”

I was so taken by Him in Anne’s peace-filled comment. Out of her surrender to the Father in the new season of her life, she spoke of the very truth Father was asking me to write about.

Most often, it is within our natural circumstances that we desire to see our victories. We stamp our feet declaring scripture over injustices done to us; we take authority over painful situations in Jesus name… all the while it is not within earthly difficulties that our victories lie. Oh yes, Father God may bless us by His own choosing to have circumstances go the way we would like them to. But it is upon the battlefield of our soul within being hard pressed on every side that we are to seek after and war for our victory…. which is to be still and know; to be satisfied with a greater likeness of Jesus Christ within us as our trophy for each battle won, not an earthly gain.

Psalm 46:10 NIV

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in all the earth.

Exodus 14:14 NIV

The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.

1 Samuel 12:16 NIV

Now then, stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes!

Psalms 37:7 NIV

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;

Would you bow your knees with me and ask Father God to complete His perfect work in us through all the circumstances of our day; that the example of Jesus Christ would become our very character and likeness, seen by all who look into the arena of our lives.

And if it is helpful, let us challenge ourselves with this question, “Is it not the painful adversity we are facing, that is escorting us into a deeper intimate place with our Lord?”