Streams of Thought (5/24/07)

From this morning...

"Prayer is a release of the spirit...the Holy Spirit in the human spirit expressed through our soul (mind, will, and emotions)..."

"We pick up preconceptions like children pick up illness...we have so many thoughts about God and so many ways we approach Him...when really all we want is simply to know Him"

"Its unavoidable to pick up methods, and that is not wrong or bad, it is what it is...but praise the Lord that we are free to set them down again..."

"When Martha Kilpatrick turned to the Lord just before sharing with us she got quiet before Him, but the thing I loved most about it was she smiled...as if she really enjoyed Him!"

"I feel like the last several years have been, endure, endure, and MORE ENDURE!!! Somewhere along the line I lost that sense of 'enjoy'."

"It's so rare when we smile as we pray. Our faces are always twisted and screwed up--because we are concentrating--it's as though if we concetrate with our mind enough we will be able to activate our spirit...but in truth it's just the opposite...we have reversed God's order! That sense of concentration is really just trying a conjuring up something in our spirit..."

"We think the more effected our voices are, the more sensitive and tender our whispers are, the more spiritual we are being and becoming ...but really the Lord is no more impressed with this than if we shouted at Him (imagining Him to be hard of hearing)... It's just very difficult to be uneffected and honest (ie ourselves) with Him."

EXPERIMENT ONE: Let's take the next three minutes and be REAL in front of Him--talk to Him just like we would one another...no hoarse whispers...no need for yelling either...just truly be with Him as the living Person He is...and speak to Him...cares and praises...adoration and petition...whatever is there...Let's just be real...

"How scary and exciting...it feels like tilling new ground and over turning old ground..."

"I'm just glad we only did it for three minutes! That was the hardest thing just to speak, UNRELIGIOUSLY, to Him...I slipped back into my faux-effected-spiritualized speech for a minute but then you guys kept on and so did I!"

"I think I whisper to the Lord because I'm not confident before Him...I lack boldness before Him..."

"There is more...He's new every morning, He is more!"