The
next day add the third.
This will plant the
seed of these verses into your consciousness.
To keep it and make it useful, repeat it every day.
You can attach it to something that you are already doing.
Something like getting into your car.
When you touch the door handle start repeating what you have memorized.
This will help you keep that Secret Place of the Most High closer and
closer.
There are two places
in the Bible that say God will write His laws in our hearts and in our minds.
Jeremiah
31:33
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After
those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write
it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Hebrews
10:16
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the
Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write
them;
Notice that is says
it is a covenant that God makes with His people.
A covenant or we could call it a contract requires an agreement between
two or more parties. In this
covenant God is one party to the contract and we are the other.
God has His part to do and we have our part to do too.
Memorizing appropriate verses, planting them in our consciousness and
watering them with repetition is one way that we can do our part.
God will put His laws in our hearts and minds, but He uses us to do it.
Another verse that
you might want to plant into your consciousness is in Psalm 103.
Psalm
103:1
Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Psalm
103:2
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
Psalm
103:3
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
Psalm
103:4
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness
and tender mercies;
Psalm
103:5
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like
the eagle's.
You may want to
change some of the Old English words like forgiveth, healeth, redeemeth,
crowneth and satisfieth to more modern terms,
or you may want to look up the verses in a different translation and make them
more personalized. You can use the
same technique to memorize and plant these verses as was describe for the
verses in Psalm 91.
Prayer is another way
that we can help get God’s laws into our hearts and minds.
When we think of prayer we usually think of asking God to give us
something or do something for us. Sometimes
it works, sometimes it doesn’t and sometimes it works and the result is not
what you expected or even really wanted. Jesus
gave us an outline for prayer in what is known as The Lord’s Prayer.
The
Lord’s Prayer
What is known as The
Lord’s Prayer is in two places in the Bible.
They are Matthew Chapter 6 and Luke Chapter 11.
In Matthew, before the prayer starts there is a verse that we really
need to know.
Matthew
6:8
Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have
need of, before ye ask him.
God is omniscient.
He knows what we need even before we do.
So for us to pray for a new car, a promotion or whatever else we might
think we need can be counterproductive. That
is covered in verse 11 but let’s look at verses 9 and 10 first.
Matthew
6:9
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed
be thy name.
In Jesus’ outline
for prayer he tells us to start by honoring God with praise and worship.
This concept shouldn’t be too difficult to understand.
When we write a letter to someone we usually start with Dear so and so.
The Dear is a gesture of our admiration for the person we are writing
to. We show our admiration for God
by acknowledging that He is in heaven, a much higher place than where we are
and that He is Hallowed, or Holy.
Matthew
6:10
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
In verse 10 we ask
God to be a part of our lives. We
are asking for His omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient domain to be
acknowledged here on Earth. We are
asking to realize our oneness with God.
Matthew
6:11
Give us this day our daily bread.
This verse is where
we are asking for that new car, promotion or whatever else we think we want or
need. It is more than just bread to
eat; it is whatever our needs may be. We
don’t have to spell out what we want or think we need, He already knows.
God is omniscient. He always has a better idea.
Matthew
6:12
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
This is a key part of
the prayer. It is our part, what we
need to do. Verse 14 tells us why.
Matthew
6:14
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive
you:
If we don’t forgive
others, if we hold grudges we actually block God from blessing us the way He
wants to. This is also true of
ourselves. If we don’t forgive
ourselves for the times we were outside of God’s Love we block God.
When you screw up don’t run away from God in shame or guilt, run to
Him and seek forgiveness. Forgiveness
is part of the omnipotent Love that Jesus saturated the earth with when he
finished his mission on Earth.
Matthew
6:13
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the
kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
The prayer outline
closes with a final request for God to guide us in whatever we do, and with
more praise and worship. It closes
the same way it opened, with giving God the glory He deserves.
So the outline goes
like this:
Praise
and worship.
Connect to God.
Acknowledge that He meets our needs.
Our part to fulfill the contract with forgiveness.
Request for guidance.
Praise and worship.
The Lord’s Prayer
in the book of Luke is pretty much the same as it is in Matthew.
It’s not just a prayer; it is an outline for prayer.
Notice that it begins and ends with praise and worship.
That is one of the most powerful forms of prayer.
There are many songs of praise and worship that have been written and
sung that are good ways to help make and keep your connection with God.
Hearing
from God
Did you know that God
is always speaking to us? He is,
but we don’t hear Him because we never learned how to.
When we are born we breathed in the Holy Trinity of God, the Omniscient
Father, The Omnipresent Spirit and the Omnipotent Love of God.
It is in us but it is buried under the noise of the material world.
Our outer consciousness is predominant and the inner consciousness of
spirit and soul is in the background. That
inner consciousness speaks to the outer consciousness with the still small
voice within, sometimes referred to as intuition.
However we were and continue to be trained not to listen to it.
Instead we listen to the so called experts.
We research in books written by others and look for advice from others.
When we realize that we have within us the all knowing God we will want
to learn to listen to that instead.
Like God, the still
small voice of intuition is not pushy. It
speaks softly in the language it is most familiar with which to us would seem
like a language of pictures more so than words.
However, the more we listen and heed that still small voice the louder
it gets. Also, it doesn’t usually
give you a lot of detail at first. It
might say “go to the store on the corner.”
It probably won’t tell you why, it will just urge you to go there. If
you start questioning why you might get in the way of what you are supposed to
do and ruin the whole thing. Once
you get there it will probably tell you in some way what to do.
The more you follow without question the louder the voice will get.
Another way that God
speaks to us is in dreams. Not all
dreams are God inspired but when they are they are more memorable.
Most dreams are just a reflection of what is going on yesterday, today
and tomorrow in a picture like form.
An example of a dream
that made a difference to the whole world is the dream that Elias Howe had that
helped him invent the sewing machine. He
dreamed that he was lying on the ground on his back with several cannibals
shaking spears at him. At first is
seemed like a fearful dream but he noticed that the spears had holes in their
tips and they were moving up and down. That
gave him the idea to put the eye of the needle on the pointed end of the sewing
needle instead of the back end, and that is what was needed to make sewing
machines work.
God has many other
ways to speak to us. Once a man was
looking for a company to apply for a job but before he got there he made what
seemed to be a wrong turn. He
didn’t get the job he was going for but the next day he was asked to come to
another company that just happened to be on the “wrong” street that he had
turned down earlier and that is where he got a job.
God sometimes points us in the direction we should be going in.
A rule of thumb when
you are trying to follow God’s lead. If
you come to an obstacle and get past it only to find another obstacle, is that
second obstacle easier or harder? If
it is harder you are probably on the wrong path, but if it is easier you are
probably on the right path.
God can use movies to
inspire many people at once. Look
at the movie that came out in the 1970s called “Star Wars.”
If you can look past the blasters and light sabers and the fighting of
wars there is a lesson in omnipresence. The
concept of a Force present throughout the universe has been planted into the
consciousness of most of the world. When
Luke was training with his light saber and a training ball we saw him learn to
use his intuition. He was blind
folded and was trying to strike the moving ball with his light sword.
It was training his intuition.
God is omniscient and
He can use just about anything to get His messages through to us.
A song on the radio, a billboard on the street, the cover of a magazine
or any kind of media can be used to get the right message through to the right
person at the right time.
Music is another way
to plant seeds in your consciousness. Advertisers
strive to create jingles that will get caught in your mind and roll around in
your thoughts tempting you to purchase the product they are advertising.
You can use that method to plant an inspirational song in your
consciousness. Songs like “Holy
Spirit Thou are Welcome in this Place” or “Surely the Presence of the Lord
is in this Place” can be powerful seeds in your consciousness.
Many people memorize the lyrics of songs just for the fun of it.
You can do it with a purpose, to help you stay focused on God.
These are some tips
that can help you dwell in that secret place of the Most High.
There are 1189 chapters in the Bible.
If you develop a habit of reading one or two or three chapters a day you
will get through the whole Bible, then do it again. It can be a part of your
life that helps keep you pointed in the right direction.
While you are reading through the Bible you can look for more seeds to
plant in your consciousness. For
example:
Deuteronomy
28:2
And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt
hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.
You can just say:
“The blessings of the Lord overtake me.”
Deuteronomy
28:13
And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail;
You can just say:
“I am the head and not the tail.”
Isaiah
53:5
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities:
the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
You can just say:
“By His stripes I am healed.”
Isaiah
54:17
No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that
shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.
You can just say:
“No weapon formed against me shall prosper.”
Philippians
4:19
But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by
Christ Jesus.
You can jut say:
“My needs are met according to His riches and glory.”
1
John 4:4
Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he
that is in you, than he that is in the world.
You can just say:
“Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.”
These are just a few
samples of verses that make good seeds for you to plant and water.
Using the Bible in this way makes it a very good and very special tool,
but it doesn’t make it into an idol.
There is one factor
that can make all the difference in your successful journey to the secret place
of the Most High. That is desire.
If you really, really want it you will use the tips and put in the time
and effort to be successful. If you
could care less then you will probably not put in any effort at all.
If you are on the fence you might put in a little effort and get some
results but not a dramatic life change.
This verse might shed
some light.
Psalm
91:7
A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it
shall not come nigh thee.
This verse speaks of
eleven thousand and one people and only one of them is in the secret place of
the Most High. Not everyone cares.
Some that care don’t care enough to make a difference. Only one in
this number had the right stuff to get there.
There is a story told
in some Eastern religions that can dramatize this.
Instead of pastors and congregations they have teachers called gurus and
students. The story goes like this:
A young student came
to his guru and said “What must I do to receive God.”
The guru didn’t say anything but took the student down to the river
and pushed his head under the water. Then
he held it there for 10, 20, 30, 40 seconds and more.
When he finally pulled his head out of the water the student was irate.
“Are you trying to drown me?” he exclaimed.
The guru responded, “While you were under the water, what did you want
most of all?” “Air, air, I
wanted air” the student replied. The
guru replied, “When you want God as much as you wanted that air, you will
have Him.”
A tough lesson but it
really gets the point across. When
it comes to spiritual things your desire makes the difference.
With all the distractions and temptations in the world you have to want
God more than anything if you expect to dwell in that Secret Place of the Most
High and realize your oneness with Him.
And so it is.