Speaker 1: 0:00

It's a great privilege and honour to be here, because this is my father's world and we can look a lot at the negativity and not take time to look at the beauty, and that's why I want you, when you ever look in the mirror, to shave or do your hair or anything, say to yourself in my father's eyes, I am beautiful and we really really are, and I wondered about what to share, and I'm one of these people that I think through my fingers. I've done this for years. It's not something that I I don't know. I start to write and then continue to write, so I'd like to read something and share something with you. It's probably part of my life just now If my little iPad.

Speaker 1: 1:01

What I would like to share is something that is very vital for our life and for our well-being in life, and it's something that is very difficult for many of us, especially me with my kind of personality, and I don't find it easy to do, but over the course of the years, this practice has become the most transformative in my life that opens me up to God, opens me up to life and who I am as a person. More than anything else, it was this practice that opened me up to God as a father, god as a father, and we need, we desperately need, in this day and hour we're living in, to lay aside the schemes and plans and anxieties of a target-driven life that is so busy and anxious, trying to get somewhere, that it misses the journey, and we miss valuing the people we meet on the journey or the people that we meet on the way, and not even realizing that God, the Father, is with us all the time. And so when we do that, we miss the rhythm of life. That's why I love hearing there is a rhythm in Nico's voice. You see, there's a rhythm inside every one of us. There's a rhythm in nature as well, and one of the things that I believe we're missing in this day and hour is missing this rhythm of life, and one of the ways that we learn to do that is to come into rest and stillness. And when we come into rest and stillness, we follow God's heartbeat and we find that the rhythm of God is not a march where we walk in step with one another, but James Jordan said it's a dance, and we find that as we dance, others are drawn in by the allure of the Father's music. I can't dance with these legs, but I can dance on the inside.

Speaker 1: 3:07

There's always more to see and experience, for we're always on the border of two worlds. But the world we live in is willing to offer to us wonder upon wonder, if our senses are not dulled. And to increase this sensitivity we need to be able to move out from a complicated modern life to a simplicity of life. Now I understand that things in the world get very tense, and I know that.

Speaker 1: 3:38

But sometimes I think for me, I need to draw away to a place of silence. Think for me, I need to draw away to a place of silence. And when I do that, it begins to leave room for things to happen. And this simple way of living compels us to find places where we can be alone. And yet we're not alone, because God, the Father, is always with us. He is the ever-present God.

Speaker 1: 4:06

How many say, if I say where does God live, they'll say in me. And that's true. But do you know something even more In the book of Acts? In him we live and move and have our being. That's where our place of residence is. And I've learned, even with little children, when I worked with over 350 of them, I've learned to draw, sometimes just to have a little bit of simplicity and silence and solitude, and it helps me empty myself so that there's more room in my life for him. I don't know if you're aware, but I noticed you this morning and I felt him singing over you. You were singing, but he was singing over you, and I think there's an incredible beauty when we realize that that's what's happening to each one of us.

Speaker 1: 5:04

In the book of Hosea, god says through the prophet, I will lead you into solitude and there I will speak to your heart. You see, absence of noise or people is not necessarily peace. Silence is possible for all of us. Silence is possible for all of us, wherever we are in our minds and in our hearts, to come into inner silence. We need to consciously depart from sound and into silence. How do you think Nico gets his words for his songs? It's in silence. There can be a lot of noise around, but you can actually feel silence inside of you, in the stillness and solitude of our own hearts. We can journey to meet him there. This, what I'm about to share, which won't be very long, is something that is very fragile but needs to be carefully guarded. Do you know what prayer is? Sitting in the silence until it silences us.

Speaker 1: 6:13

I remember years ago I wanted God. I was walking out I think I was in Cyprus at the time, I can't remember and I was speaking in tongues, praying out loud, declaring scriptures out loud, and God went shh. Do you not know? He knows what we want. It's choosing gratitude until we're grateful. I've been reading a bit about the desert fathers and I read somewhere if these desert fathers say very little about God, it's because they know that when they've been close to God's dwelling, silence makes more sense than a lot of words. So a question arises how can I listen for God and learn to hear his voice? But you know something it's not about what to hear, but how to hear. In the scriptures it talks a lot about be you perfect, as your father is perfect. But the real meaning is be you whole as your father is whole. You see, we're reading words and think we understand them, but there's much more depth to these words than we realize. It's not about what to see, but how to see, and one of the people that shows us how to live this life is Jesus Christ. But there's a part of Jesus' life that often gets skipped over in the busyness of our lives. Because there's not a lot in the Bible about this. It's tucked away. But I decided some time ago I want to find out what it is. Listen to this, mark.

Speaker 1: 7:56

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, jesus got up, left the house and went to a solitary place, luke. At daybreak, jesus went out to a solitary place, mark. After leaving the crowd, jesus went up a mountain to pray. Matthew, jesus got in a boat by himself to go to a solitary place, luke. Jesus often withdrew to lonely places. What Jesus is looking for is silence, but not just external silence, but internal silence.

Speaker 1: 8:34

In 1 Kings we read about Elijah. Elijah was a prophet and he went away to try and find God. And the Lord said go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord's about to pass by. Then came a great and powerful wind, but the Lord wasn't in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord wasn't in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a great fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the earthquake came a great fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire, there came a gentle whisper.

Speaker 1: 9:07

Some versions of the Bible say a still small voice. Right after this, elijah covers his face and he hears God for the first time. You see, the Hebrew translation of a still small voice is really a gentle stillness, and there's something greater, even than a voice, that we're longing to hear, and that's stillness. I don't know about you, but I'm longing for this more and more, and it's a love beyond words. I think we sometimes say too many words, but there's a love that goes beyond words. I think we sometimes say too many words, but there's a love that goes beyond words. And I've only experienced this occasionally, but it was so alive, because a gentle stillness has a vibrancy and a life to that which is deeper than words, and this is really the deepest need for every one of our lives. This isn't about Bible reading, journaling, praying it's just being still. But the practices of Bible reading and journaling and praying are important.

Speaker 1: 10:13

But over the course of my life I looked a bit at the ministry of the Jesuits founded by Ignatius of Lola. I went to the Catholic House of Prayer and many times I went to the island of Lindisfarne. You should go there. It's off the coast of England. It's not far, and it's a place called Holy Island, very busy island. It's where a lot of Celtic spirituality began. But when all the people go off the island and you stay for at least two nights, it's like the stillness falls on the place. It's quite incredible. I went to Cyprus when I retired, where some of the disciples of Jesus went to preach the gospel. I went for a six-month sabbatical, ended up staying four years, but what all these people left behind has helped me on the journey of life.

Speaker 1: 11:05

All have told me you won't find out what you're looking for out there, but only from within. Where does he live? In you? But also you live in him, and that is what I believe the spiritual practice does. You begin to discover who you are and the question what should I do with my life changes? Because you find out who you are, you find that there is a dream that you have inside you. I believe that there's a dream inside the heart of every single person in this room and my dream has been very simple. It's still the same today as it's been for years. I want to leave something behind. I want people younger than me to go deeper into this revelation of love than I have ever gone. I don't know what tomorrow's going to bring, and that's why I've learnt about living in the moment, but I really believe that there's going to be a move of God. There's so much trouble just now, but I believe that what he wants to do is impart his life more and more into us, to realise who we are. You know, we think we're just a normal little person living in a little block of flats somewhere or that, but he is your father and you are created in his image. Jesus went to a solitary place One day.

Speaker 1: 12:36

I was driving the car with the radio on and I turned it off. Why? What has the acoustic stimulus got to do with the visual stimulus? You see, we've got five senses. We see, we smell, we sound, we taste, like the lovely food we've had. We touch, and if you accentuate one, the others are not as strong. You turn the radio down so that you can have a more acute sense of presence. This is what the practice of silence does.

Speaker 1: 13:12

When I lived in Cyprus, I lived in a little flat and I used to sit in the garden, and in the garden there was a lot of flowers. But I noticed some of the flowers were dying and I didn't realise that underneath there was a little pipe that watered the flowers every so often, but one of the pipes wasn't connected, and so the flowers began to die. We need desperately to be connected to the one that's the source of all life I am. I don't want to say much more, except one thing We've had beautiful food here, and I could have a big discussion about chocolate. I've said this before, but we could have a discussion of chocolate, speak on the history of chocolate, how it's made, scientific talks on your taste buds, pictures of chocolates that you've seen, but until you taste it you do not know what it's like.

Speaker 1: 14:13

You see, when Nico was singing, it wasn't just we were hearing the words, we were actually tasting what he was singing. When things are being spoken about in the church, you're tasting it, and I think that's the most important thing of anything. The only way to find out who you really are and what you're looking for is not to be found out there, but from within, because out of the heart the mouth speaks. I don't really want to say much more, but what I would like to say is I wonder if you can begin to realize who you are In the busyness and turmoil of life, the only way to find out who you really are is to experience the stillness you know after Nico sings. There's like something falls down and it's like I don't know how to describe it, except it's like a comfortable silence, and I would like, for a moment, just for a couple of minutes, to experience that silence.

Speaker 1: 15:31

So I wonder if you would like to close your eyes. Don't look at the person next to you or even the beauty outside. Just close your eyes and I'll read a little meditation Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am. Be still and know, be still, be, be Just, be Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Speaker 1: 16:54

Do you know that when you breathe deeply in through your nose and out through your mouth I practice this when you live in a beautiful place and listen to the sound of your breath, breathe in deeply and out, and the sound of your breath is Yahweh, the Hebrew name for God that Jews couldn't say because it was too holy. It's the sound of your breath. We're so busy trying to get hold of him, but it's coming more and more to the realisation that in him you live and move and have your being and, as you know, in Father Heart Ministries there's a lot of talk about the orphan spirit. It was so much more of my life I didn't feel anybody saw me or anybody knew me. It's not part of me anymore Because he's singing over you, beautiful boy. So I bless you on your journey, but remember, take one step at a time, live in what's been revealed.