Discipline of Silence

I was given a gift at the Moms in Prayer 2013 Southern California State Getaway.  I had been given this sort of gift before and was happy to receive it again.  What made this time different was how USA National Director Sharon Gamble set the stage and gave us a theme: SOAR

I’m passing this gift onto you!  What is it?  It’s a Discipline of Silence.  

A Discipline of Silence is being still and quite before the Lord.  Listening to God and not any other voice including the one in your head.

Before you read on make sure that you have at least a half of an hour ahead of you that is responsibility free.  If you don’t then come back when you do.

For the next half hour you are not to speak.  Not one word.  Do not text, answer your phone, click on links or start up any conversation at all.  Check your surroundings to make sure you do not have any blaring distractions.  Keep a pencil and paper handy, just in case there is something you might want to jot down, but do not use it as a substitute for talking.  When you feel your mind drifting, planning out your next meal, stop.  Come back to listening.  Everything else can wait.  You are now on an intimate listening date with your Daddy...

Consider the acronym SOAR:

S - Surrender (Isaiah 30:16)

O - Obey (Isaiah 30:21)

A - Adore (Isaiah 30:18... 40:26)

R - Rest (Isaiah 30:15)

Understand the imagery of an Eagle soaring:

Like an Eagle

Isaiah must have watched eagles closely to see the way they soar.  As birds go, eagles’ wings are big, but the muscles that make them flap aren’t.  Pound for pound, an eagle’s strength is no match for the strength of a hummingbird.  The strength of eagles is not in their flapping but in their soaring.  An eagle will perch high atop a canyon wall and wait for the thermals - warm wind currents that rise up from the canyon below.  When the rising wind is just right, the eagle will fold its wings to its sides, literally cast itself into the chasm and plummet into the abyss.  Isaiah would not have known this in his day, but God has equipped eagles with tiny sensors in their beaks to let the birds know when they have reached the optimal speed.  When this happens, the bird will spread its wings, catch the thermals, rise up into the sky and soar.  Isaiah didn’t know the mechanism, but he could see the effect.

This is a great picture of hoping in God.  Through no strength of our own, we cast ourselves upon God, fall into His mercy and soar on His promises.  Our strength comes from trusting and soaring, not flapping and working.

~ Ben Patterson

Meditate on these Scriptures and Listen:

Isaiah 30:15-18

This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:

“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
    in quietness and trust is your strength,
    but you would have none of it.

You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’
    Therefore you will flee!
You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’
    Therefore your pursuers will be swift!

A thousand will flee
    at the threat of one;
at the threat of five
    you will all flee away,
till you are left
    like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
    like a banner on a hill.”

Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
    therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
    Blessed are all who wait for him!

Isaiah 40:31

But those who hope in the Lord

will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

Shush...