Do you have the same experience I have? Often, when I begin to pray my mind wanders. Or, when I start reading the Word, soon I am aware that I’ve been staring at a page for a few minutes; but something has been taking place inside: a deep meditation and communion with the Lord from which I reluctantly draw myself to concentrate again consciously upon the Word. The more spiritual I become, the more it happens.
We’re concerned about becoming more spiritual. We want to create the meat and the motivation for the heart. We’re not too worried about feeding the conscious mind; we’re not stressing concentration, but the implanting of the word of God into our hearts. It is to be written upon our hearts.
Lessons that I learned years ago are coming back on a different plane. When I’d wait on the Lord, the first thing I’d do was fall asleep for maybe four or five minutes and then wake up. I felt condemned for falling asleep, but I began to realize, that it was the most fruitful time I had. The Lord was trying to bypass the conscious mind the only way He could. When your mind wanders or blanks out, the Lord can reach it and go on to your spirit.
The Bible speaks repeatedly about the human heart. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). That doesn’t mean you’re to go along every day saying to yourself, “I’m trusting the Lord, I’m trusting the Lord, I’m trusting the Lord,” because that’s with the conscious mind. You trust in the Lord with all of your “heart.” It’s such a deep thing that sometimes you don’t even give it conscious thought. Don’t condemn yourself if you blank out as you wait before the Lord. If you fall asleep, you’ll wake up soon; just keep waiting on the Lord. If you have the Bible recorded, turn it on; it doesn’t make any difference if you find that several chapters have gone by and you haven’t been listening. You’ll be surprised how much you absorb unconsciously.
The world has known the power of reaching the unconscious mind and it has affected people in giving them unconscious motivation. Young people are given to it in the music they play. They can do their lessons while playing a radio program that is pure noise with a beat to it. They’re not even listening to it, but their spirits are absorbing the spirit of the music.
You can absorb the spirit of the prophecies and the sermons into your spirit. That’s why, although we should have a children’s church for the very young, we bring the little children into the church as soon as they can sit still. Don’t give them crayons and toys to play with—if nothing else, let them doze, it isn’t going to make any difference; their spirits will absorb the spirit of the service. The motivation that’s behind the message will become the motivation of their hearts. What difference does it make if it bypasses the conscious mind?
How foolish it is for intelligent people to lean upon their intelligence. It wasn’t a key to get us into this walk in the first place, and it isn’t a key to walk on with the Lord. The key is the openness of our spirits to the Lord. This walk is predominantly a thing of the spirit, and we use the intelligence as a tool for the spirit. If we do not depend upon our intelligence but simply upon the Lord communing with our spirits, God will get through to us.
In listening to the Lord, and arm isn’t necessarily of any value, or whether you clasp your hands or fold them a certain way—just wait on the Lord—you don’t notice them, until they go to sleep and you begin to feel their numbness. The same thing is true of your intelligence. If you’re waiting on the Lord and it seems like the peace of God, that communion with the Lord and awareness of Him is there, don’t worry about your conscious mind being in full concentration. The concentration of your spirit is more important than the concentration of your intelligence.
Those of you who are intellectuals should learn to use your intelligence as a tool. Don’t let it be on the throne; make it a servant of the Lord. There isn’t anything quite so foolish as to lean on your own understanding and intelligence.
At that very moment you have dethroned Jesus as Lord over your life and have made your intelligence the governing influence; it becomes the king and Lord of your life. This doesn’t mean that we are not to use our heads, but we use them as tools. Many times what I would reason out in my mind was not the right picture at all, but by waiting on the Lord, He would give me the true picture. “Don’t lean on your own understanding. In all ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5b, 6).
The direction of the Lord may not come through the intelligence. Do you ever have little checks and hindrances when you start to do something? In your mind you’re fully convinced that it is the wisest thing to do and as you start to do it, something hinders you, something checks you and you don’t do it.
In the Book of Acts, we read that Paul started to go up into the mountains of Bithynia and the Spirit suffered him not to go. He was going to go into Asia, but the Spirit forbade him to go and he came down to the seashore not knowing what to do (Acts 16:6–8). All of his reasoning was suddenly set aside, and if he had followed it the gospel would have gone from there to the Orient instead of to Europe. (Probably the Chinese would be sending us missionaries today, instead of our wanting an open door to send them missionaries.)
It was God’s time to send that word on into Spain and Italy. It started in Greece, went into Italy, Spain, on up to England, and eventually came to America. That was the way the Lord was moving. The Apostle Paul didn’t have it all reasoned out in his mind, but aren’t we glad that he was able to follow the little checks and hindrances? He didn’t lean on his own reasoning; the checks that came to his spirit were more important.
As we learn to walk with the Lord, it isn’t always the things that we have figured out in our minds that are important; it’s those little hindrances, and leadings, listening to the voice of the Spirit as it tugs at our spirit. It comes from a subconscious level, from our spirit; and after awhile, if we follow it carefully, the awareness of the Lord leaves the conscious mind, goes deeper to the unconscious mind and reaches what we would call the superconscious. This is where the real awareness and direction of the Lord are developed.
Don’t insist on worshiping and walking with God on a conscious level. When you try to concentrate on something and find that you can’t, begin to meditate and let the Lord take your heart and lead it right into His presence. Instead of condemning yourself, abandon the conscious level. The real worship comes when we leave the conscious level. Whenever there is difficulty with the worship in the church service, keep to a minimum new songs which require concentration and just sing completely from memory and worship the Lord.
The real worship comes when you don’t have to worry about one word you’re singing; the conscious mind is thrown out of gear and you’re in the Spirit. Suddenly you’re free and your heart rises and you find yourself glorifying the Lord. As you stand there your mind will blank out and you may think, “I’m not concentrating on my worship.” If you begin by concentrating with your whole heart, its force will bring you to the place where you can continue worshiping unconsciously; and without any effort, the worship will flow. During that time, something very good takes place in your spirit.
It would be good to have a recording of some of the choruses, the worship, and the singing in the spirit, to listen to over and over. Why? Because it begins to penetrate the subconscious level and goes on to your spirit and God really meets you. Listen to the sermons over and over again; and even if you concentrate on little of what is being said, each time appropriate some of it and meditate upon it. The spirit of it comes through and you absorb it. Read your own prophecies on a recorder, if you don’t have them recorded; and listen to them over and over. Something new will be picked up each time, but it’s what you do with that new thing you pick up. You will be lifted into a new awareness of what the Lord has for you.
There is something beyond our wisdom and intelligence—and when God hasn’t spoken to us, we can become condemned because we are dragging our feet, but when we finally get an answer from the Lord, we must be ready to move. None of us have the motivation unless something comes through to our spirits and says, “This is the Lord.”
We cannot bring ourselves from an intelligent level into the enthusiasm and motivation we need. The battle against us is relentless and the minute we lean upon our own understanding, everything begins to come in on us and we’re overwhelmed. But when we keep trusting in the Lord with all of our heart, the conscious mind fades out and we rest in the Lord; soon the answers we’ve been seeking are there. That is what will make us mystics who will walk with God in the end time: who will ignore antichrists and false prophets and “love not their lives unto death” (Revelation 12:11b), and “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (Revelation 14:4b).
As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? (Psalm 42:1–3). Consciously he hears what they are saying to him: “Where is He?” But something within him is ignoring what they are saying as he is hungering and reaching to the Lord. That’s what you have to do when you are going through problems—keep opening your spirit up to the Lord.
When I remember these things I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Psalm 42:4–5a. “Why am I suddenly heavy?” We are not to be creatures of moods. We should remember all the joyful times and let that be our motivation. There is a deep spiritual atmosphere that the Lord creates which He can draw us into with our emotions, feelings, and moods. Let’s be sensitive to that and not to the atmosphere about us—let the Lord create the meat and the motivation for the heart so that it reaches into God.
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. Psalm 42:5.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:4–6.
Paul wrote this in prison during the most adverse circumstances. “Rejoice in the Lord … in nothing be anxious.” The conscious mind will continually revert to a problem, but there is something deeper that will overcome it. Have you ever had something deep within you rise up and give you peace when problems were troubling you? The conscious thought could not continue with anxiety because the Lord kept overcoming it with something stronger.
If we could learn to wait more on the Lord and rid ourselves of this conscious level, the depth of spiritual dedication would take over. It comes up in an hour of pressure when you consciously face a difficulty; something has to erase that conscious worry, so “In everything give thanks … be anxious for nothing.”
Let the worship of the Lord come up from the depths; this is where miracles originate. You don’t stop and think, “Now I’m going to concentrate on the promise,” and keep telling yourself, “I’m going to get the answer.” You won’t get any answer. You speak it consciously and suddenly it seems the subject is dropped consciously, but the prayer sinks deep into the unconscious level and your heart keeps resting and believing God. That’s where you make your prayer without ceasing. The prayer without ceasing begins when you say, “Amen,” then it takes over and you meditate on it and it keeps coming up.
You don’t walk with God by going down the street saying, “I’m walking with God, I’m walking with God, I’m walking with God,” but you walk with God when your spirit is in tune with the Lord and constantly communing with Him. Then, the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7. It’s like a wave that washes away the oppressions: every time it starts to rise up, the peace of God washes it away, because that peace comes up from the inner spirit.
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things. (The Greek reads, “take account of these things” which means that it’s not just a mental exercise, it’s what you put your dependence on.) The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things; and the God of peace shall be with you. Philippians 4:8, 9.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. Proverbs 3:5–8.
That deep awareness of the Lord isn’t something that you consciously strive for, but through following this message you can have it with you continually.