Basics of Meditation
Meditation means to engage in contemplation or reflection. It is letting go of all the things in this physical world and focusing on something in your mind; your imagination. The Bible tells us that our thoughts are important. Scripture instructs us in what we should be meditating on:
“I will meditate also on all Your work, and talk of Your doings.” (Psalm 77:12 AKJV)
“Meditate on these things; give yourself wholly to them; that your profiting may appear to all.” (1 Timothy 4:14 AKJV)
Paul instructs Timothy to meditate and think on the gifts that had been given to him by the Holy Spirit. When we meditate on the things of God, it honors Him. This allows Him to reveal more about those things to us.
A few more scriptures about meditation are:
I will meditate in your precepts, and have respect for your ways. I will delight myself in your statutes: I will not forget your word (Psalm 119:15-16 AKJV)
When I remember You on my bed and meditate on You in the night watches. (Psalm 63:6 AKJV)
Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them. (Psalm 111:2 ESV)
On the glorious splendor of Your majesty and on Your wonderful works, I will meditate. (Psalm 145:5 ESV)
These give us a few major ways to meditate:
- Focusing on God’s ways (precepts)
- Rejoicing in how awesome He is
- Thinking about the things He has done
We should have all three of these in our lives.
Focusing on God’s Ways
To become a healthy, mature Christian, we should have a steady diet of the Word of God. Meditating on God’s ways is more than reading the Bible. This is thinking about what you’ve read throughout the day and applying what you’ve learned to the world around you. This form of meditation is for every day as we walk through life. It will help us develop a deeper relationship with our Lord and the Holy Spirit.
Rejoicing in Him
The most common way to rejoice in Him is when we worship God with songs about how great He is. For it to be considered meditation, we have to let Him be the focus of our thoughts. This often opens the door to the Secret Place.
What He Has Done
This can be the hardest of the three types of meditation to do. Problems and worries of this life often intrude into our thoughts. It can be very hard to stay focused on Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. You may want to begin with a more secular practice of meditation.
Focusing on physically letting go is a good starting point. There are many secular teachings about meditation but often they hold dangers I will not go into. We teach about that in another course at the Courts of Heaven Academy. Here are the steps I use:
- I relax my entire body
- If I sense tension in any area, I focus on making that part relax
In grade school when we took naps our teachers would walk us through an exercise something like this:
- Move your head, side to side, it is time to say goodnight
- Waggle your fingers, nice and loose, no more to use
- Round and round let your wrists go all the way to your elbow
- Your shoulders are done after having fun (flex up and down)
- Your body’s work is complete, it can rest and go to sleep
- Legs are not needed, they can rest
- Say goodnight to your ankles after you flex
- Wiggle your toes, then let them go, now your body is like jello.
It is a silly way to take stock of the tension in your muscles. By addressing and releasing all the anxiety in our physical body, we are also letting go of all the troubles that cause that tension. Doing this before bed may help you relax and get into the habit of letting go of things. We should try to always reach the state of letting go of our needs and focusing on God before entering prayer. This will help us receive information from Him rather than from our own minds.
The Right Focus
These three basic aspects of meditation, prayer, journaling, and going to the Secret Place will help you get ready to hear from God. However, there is a singular key that will unlock the door to not only journaling and Secret Place visits with Abba, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, but also to operate in the Outpouring of God’s glory. It is the way in which we perceive what Jesus has done for us. Many good-hearted Christians have lost this key, misplaced it, or perhaps never had it in the first place. The good news is, it can be found and is always available if you have never received it!
In many ways we have become like the Jewish people right before Jesus came to earth: we depend upon a single prayer dedicating ourselves to Jesus as they depended on the fact that they were circumcised, showing that they were God’s chosen people. The first two chapters of the Book of Romans is Paul’s letter to the Jews in Rome. Much of these chapters can be summed up in one verse:
Are you unmindful or actually ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repent (to change your mind and inner man to accept God’s will)? (Romans 2:4 AMPC)
God’s chosen people had decided that the outward appearances were sufficient, that their sin didn’t matter. They judged the world for their sin, yet they were doing the same things and then making yearly sacrifices to atone, thinking that was good enough. Because of the disobedience of His people, their eyes and ears became dull, meaning they couldn’t easily recognize the things of God and they were easily led astray. Aren’t the majority of Christians in the very same boat?
We say a prayer and then continue with life, not really considering what it really means or what God now expects of us. Things that are detestable to God, His children readily walk in, counting on the cross as our way to heaven. We have been raised in a world where we have easy access to God and take for granted the sacrifice that allows us to come boldly before the Throne of God.
We can go into any church at any time and usually receive prayer quite easily. There is now 24/7 access to Christian brothers and sisters online who will readily agree with mostly any prayer. Despite this easy access to His house and His people, the presence of God isn’t often apparent because of disobedience to His ways.
This vicious cycle has caused us to undervalue what it means to be called a child of God and be able to BE in His presence. Before we begin trying to remove sin and walk in the ways of God, we must realize what has been done for us. Without knowing the full value of what has happened, we cannot worship Him. How can you thank someone with the level of gratitude they deserve if you are unaware of what has been given? Think of it this way:
You are given the keys to a car. The one in the parking lot looks 100 years old and like it might make it home (to heaven) if you are lucky.
Yes, you’d be happy about getting even a clunker like this; especially if you didn’t have one at all. However, how much happier would you be if:
A friend sees your beat-up ride and says, “Man, where’d you get that!”
It was a gift…” You shrug. Not thinking much of it.
Your friend smiles, “You know that it's got a secret engine, right? All you have to do is push that red button and you can go anywhere, instantly.”
Now this would be a super awesome gift that you would be totally thrilled to have. That is the way we should feel about being a child of God through our Lord, Jesus. Unfortunately, too many of us feel like we are driving around in a sketchy rust bucket that we hope gets us home.
Looking at the gift we’ve been given from a different perspective is the key to being able to walk in the ways of God which will open up the Secret Place and allow you to operate in the Outpouring of God’s glory. Like with meditation, let’s go through an exercise to look at this differently. Here is what it would be like today if Jesus had not come:
There is a group of people who believe they are better than everyone else. They set themselves aside and won’t do what everyone else does. They only:
- work on certain days
- eat meat prepared a particular way, if they are allowed to eat it at all
- socialize with others who are like them
Not only that, there are “normal” things they refer to as sin. This “living God” that they worship demands they don’t do a lot of fun things. Sure, you have seen many healed by God, though many more are not. If anyone guilty of sin approaches God, they fall over dead, right there in the temple!
Your hunger to know about this God grows. The things you learn cause you to support the temple where they gather even though you are not allowed to enter. You try to live right, do what their laws say you should, but you know that you will never be a child of God like them which means you probably won’t go to Heaven when you die. Some form of eternal suffering in Hell will be where you wind up for all eternity.
Then you begin to hear stories. There is a man telling people to prepare to meet the Son of God who will visit earth where He will rule and reign. When you learn that everyone can now be one of God’s children this is not just “good news,” this is the absolute best thing you have ever heard!
This is a free gift from God because you cannot buy it with money or earn it by what you do. You only get this gift by coming into a covenant or an agreement with the Son. Jesus lived a perfect life without sin. He has taken all the punishment for everything you have done wrong if you will give Him the rest of your life on this Earth.
The KEY to receiving more from meditation and being able to enter the Secret Place is to remember that He is LORD. This means you are His willing slave, ready to do whatever He says you must do. You may not hear from Him, experience things just the way you think it should be: You must be okay with this. He is in charge, not you. Let go of your expectations and be glad to be called a child of God. When you are able to relax and rejoice in these things, then He will begin to move in greater measure.
Of course, the journey begins by learning more about His ways, but even that is taken care of because He will send the very Spirit of God to be IN YOU, to teach and guide you. You can be set free of anything that would hinder you from receiving from the Holy Spirit. Jesus has paid the price for that freedom!
Once you complete the core classes at the Courts of Heaven Academy, our prayer team would be happy to pray with you so that you can receive the freedom to begin this journey with Him.
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