Feeding the Spirit

Driving. Multitudes of doves flying up from the sides of the road. Busy working and cleaning. The voice, that staccato tweet, of a red bird. Crowds of buzzing voices. The noise fading and the sound of the rain and a soft, thoughtful guitar filling the senses.

Feeding the spirit

Colors, coolness, and wondrous, terrible sights and sounds. They bring tears that haunt the soul with loveliness; they break the heart with the whisper, the witness of a Beauty that is bigger, sweeter, truer... more than the heart can quite hold just yet.

Feeding the spirit

Stillness. The Bread of Life. The Word, like food, that fills and satisfies. The Word that lives and speaks and breathes.

Feeding the spirit

Catastrophe. Disasters. Pain. Anger and bitterness. Confusion. Wars and rumors of wars. Circumstances that oppress, that are so fragile you can almost see them falling apart before you, that are under a shadow that grows thicker and darker. 

The spirit senses that prophecies are being fulfilled, that the End will come, sooner or later.

A call, a reminder, a caution to Feed the spirit - to attend to it with time and care and good, wholesome food. A push, a pressure to minister to the soul - to starve the flesh and feed the soul.

A new glimmer of light and wisdom on sowing to the flesh and reaping corruption, on sowing to the spirit and reaping life. Realizing afresh that every soul will exist forever and will "rise" even as a dead and lifeless being because the spirit was never fed... or "rise" even as one more wholly and fully alive than before because the spirit was fed with rich and powerful food.

Waiting, hoping, longing for the renewing of mind and spirit that brings life. Watching, wary of the longings that limit the focus to this earth, this body that will pass away. Watching, wary of the ways and longings and worries that starve the soul and bring forth the dead, lifeless existence of it.

Thankful for the whisper, the demand, the Word of Love that says, Feed the spirit.

Back to Blogging: Focused Thoughts, Still Meditations

Any of you still reading can see I haven't been blogging much in the past few months. Rather than trying to give any reasons why, I'll just say, I'm here, and I want to write - focused thoughts and still meditations to calm my mind, pull my thoughts away from circumstances, and capture in words my journey of seeking and being found: stirred and challenged, chastized and changed... LOVED by my King.

My soul doth praise the Lord God, Gracious and Holy.

A mind, a soul, a body can feel as if melting in the oppressive heat of an Alabama summer - thoughts and feeling and lungs can easily believe themselves to be suffocating in the dense air of a humid day... and yet the mind and soul and body do not melt and thoughts and feelings and lungs keep breathing.

Endurance.

It's astonishing how much a body can endure, miraculous how much a Spirit-sustained soul can endure.


And this is the instruction delivered to my mind and heart: endure; be diligent; be deliberate; shun cold/indifferent ways; fight; love; pray; trust. DO NOT drop your sword. DO NOT linger where the lion waits to devour. You, who are easy prey, be alert; watch; stay close to your Father King, your Brother Husband... for His Victory, for yours.

It has stuck in my mind how Eric Ludy* describes our fight for spiritual maturity. It's laying aside weight and excess - spiritual flab - to nuture and focus and build up a lean, muscular soul - a soul that eats and drinks only the truth, that doesn't sit down and rest in the middle of a foggy night.

This soul watches. This soul says, Thy Will be done. This soul says, Come, Lord Jesus - to my heart now, to finish all things in Your own time... but soon.

My soul doth praise the Lord, patient and able to save.



*Christian writer of books like Wrestling Prayer, Bravehearted Gospel, and more.

Full and Hungry

Dusk. Sitting under a dome of deep blue, seeing the last glow of light in the sky, looking into it, through it, past it. Feeling my soul aware of a Power and Presence beyond the evening, beyond the beauties I saw. Glad to feel my heart touched, moved, ministered to, fed and watered.

Old lyrics coming to mind... "Pardon for sin, and a peace that endureth. Thine Own dear Presence to cheer and to guide. Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside. Great is Thy Faithfulness..."*

Sweet. Precious to taste the food for my spirit, to drink the cool and refreshing water of life. Wondrous to feel the Spirit allowing me to know hunger and thirst for Him.

Blessed to know that I am "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation" though "for a season" I find myself "in heaviness through manifold temptations" and trials and sorrows (1 Peter 1: 5-6). Many times of late, these trials and temptations pull me down to earth, distract me, worry me, draw me away. So many things I won't describe here.

But at dusk, in the morning, driving in the glow of sunset, sitting at work, there He Is. I am humbled and thankful to feel my heart being warmed, moved, comforted, and empowered. I rejoice in reading "they that stumbled are girded with strength" and "He will keep the feet of his saints... for by strength shall no man prevail" (1 Samuel 2: 4, 9). I am relieved in knowing by our own strength, we... I... cannot overcome, but He can overcome!

I am glad to feel so full, so stirred and full of His Spirit... and yet so in need, so hungry for more of Him, more strength, more wisdom, more submission to His Will, more love.

...every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4: 12-13


*Chrisholm, Thomas Obediah and Runyan, William Marion. "Great Is Thy Faithfulness"