What Happens When We Stop Dwelling?

The Lord continues to impress on me to dwell. To be honest, I thought I already did that. I feel His precious presence so much of my day. Anytime I speak his name, I feel Him. When I first started to sense His presence, I was afraid to move. I thought I might risk losing this awareness if I so much as took a step in a different direction. I have learned over time that I can move and still have Him with me. It has been a wonderful thing to experience.

So, the question I had was what more about dwelling did I need to learn?

Well, in typical Lord fashion, He took me through an exercise. It turned out to be a moment of learning many lessons.

Long story short, I was writing at a location Jesus had designated for me. When I came to a stopping point, I understood the Lord impressing on me that I could go to a particular store. But, I didn't know why I would go, so I decided to push forward in writing a few more minutes before I stopped for dinner. (Looking back on it, I had a sense that I was not doing the right thing. But, I pushed it aside.) 

When I finally headed out on my merry way, I saw a fire truck pulling up to that store. Wondering what may have happened, I said a prayer for the emergency personnel and the victim.

Later, after a Bible study that focused on asking the Holy Spirit into conversations and asking ourselves why we didn't follow through on what we hear from the Holy Spirit, the Lord reminded me of the fire truck at the store.

I realized at that moment the Holy Spirit wasn't telling me I could go to the store, He wanted me to go to the store. He had planted the visit to the store in my mental plans earlier that day. So, when I came to a stopping place in my writing I was to stop and go. But, without realizing it, I had stopped dwelling in His presence and proceeded forward in what I wanted to do... telling myself it was still in His plans.

Joshua 7-9 shares how the Israelites stopped asking what they needed to do to conquer the next town. They just went ahead and took actions that followed what they understood of God's plans. They learned the hard way that they skipped a step. In a sense, they stopped dwelling.

My take away from this exercise was to acknowledge that I had stopped following the directions from the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, when I hear my part of the plan, I think it's the whole package of plans. As a result, I set it in stone... not to be moved by anything. This experience opened my eyes. 

When I confessed my wrong, immediately I felt the return of His presence and equally important I felt His forgiveness and grace wash over me. He also kept bringing to my mind the apostle Peter. The man blundered so many times. Yet, each time, God picked him up and continued to use him to do wonderful things for the building up of the church. In other words, I hadn't blown a gasket in my work for God.

I don't know if I would have been part of the emergency or not on that night of my lesson. That is not the issue. The teaching I received from this was that I should have gone to the store, so if God chose to use me, He could. I need to keep checking with Him for any changes in the plan of the day. We each need to dwell on Jesus and the Holy Spirit, so that we can be used by them for the purposes of the Kingdom.

Are You Dwelling?

The Lord has impressed on me to dwell. 

I looked up the definition. It means to live or stay; to linger over, emphasize or ponder in thought, speech or writing. The Hebrew word used in Psalm 91 for the word dwell translates to sit, sit down (as to judge in quiet), to be set, to remain or stay, to dwell, have one's abode, to abide. We could add, to stay with or keep thinking.

So the question is... What do we dwell on? What are the things we think about frequently?

Usually, we dwell on people, things, or ideas. 

If you find an activity that peaks your interest, how often do you think about it? Do you intentionally find time to do that activity? Do you look for someone who also likes that same thing?  Or, do you move your schedule around so you can spend time with someone who makes you feel good on the inside? Or, maybe it's people who accept you even if you goof up or do something really stupid? Do you think about doing things to make those people happy?

In order to spend time with people who fulfill these desires and needs requires coordinating schedules. To some degree this is not a bad thing, but if that is all consuming with our time then when do we give time to Jesus? 

One of the cool things about Him is that He fulfills all those things. He loves us and wants to spend time with us, even when we mess up. So, are we bending over backwards to do the same thing for Him? Or, do we press the snooze button rather than crying out to Him to help us wake up? Do we choose to read a book that our eyes shouldn’t see rather than reading a book that uplifts Him? Do we listen to songs that speak of negative things or that uplift and glorify the Holy Trinity?

I hope through my questions I am showing that you don't need an all day long quiet time to dwell with Jesus. Dwelling means talking to Him throughout the day, wherever you go. The Lord writes with me. He travels with me. He even helps me with gardening. He's so much fun, and I love Him for that.

There have even been times the Lord has taken me on dates. One day, not long ago, He told me to set aside a specific afternoon for Him. He took me for frozen custard then over to the park, even arranged for my favorite bench to be open. We watched children played, families and friends talk as they lounged on blankets, all while the geese ate and swam in the distance. It was great. To the human eye, it may have looked like I was alone. What they couldn't see was the Lord's comfort enveloping me.

He's also been there as I cried my heart out when I've messed up and when I've been emotionally wounded. I could not do life without Him. He is my hope.

He can be your hope too. Start today by making an effort to dwell on Him and to dwell in Him. You won't be sorry.