Archive: Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit (2020)

Be Still

(Reference: Psalms 46:10; 62:1)

After I completed my undergraduate degree, I wanted to have a period of rest. I also wanted to practice my hobbies and focus on my career. The start of the year has been an extraordinary experience. God has been speaking to me and reassuring me of what he has planned for my life. The main idea has been to utilise whatever is necessary to remain grounded (and balanced) in achieving my goals. It is beneficial to listen to God in quiet solitude. This period has been insightful and filled with rest and gratitude.

The most important part of being a Christian is remaining firm in spirit when things are not going as we planned them (John 16:33). It is also essential to maintain our faith to protect ourselves from feeling down or depressed (Psalm 23). There are several ways to achieve this, including being sensitive to the spirit (Matthew 6:33). Here are three points that I will explain:

1. Inheritance

2. Perfection

3. Stillness​

1. Inheritance

The first one is the inheritance. We can have anything our heart desires through our heritage that is in Christ (Matthew 6:33). This idea means that through faith, we can establish ourselves within the kingdom of God. By remaining in His presence and conforming to His will over our lives, we can access His promises (2 John 1:8). There is joy and freedom when we hand over our lives to Christ. When we commit to His will, this reduces stressors that try to captivate our line of thought. We must continue to persevere when we sense the Spirit moving to receive insight AND to inspire growth.

2. Perfection

The bible says to strive for perfection (Matthew 5:48). It is challenging to complete a project or process of development with environmental or social pressures that convince us that we are not performing well enough. The most important thing we can do is attempt to work hard to complete it to the best of our abilities (Colossians 3:23-24), whilst competing with who we were yesterday. 

In the broader sense, when I think about why it is so difficult to fully achieve a perfect world system, I realise it is because when sin entered man's heart, it became tough to communicate with one another to achieve peace and perfection. Before anything happens in the physical world, it occurs in the spirit realm first. That is why we pray for the supernatural to occur. God is a spirit, and we are spirit beings - He made us in His likeness and image. For this reason, He sent His son to save us. To communicate love in a way that everyone can receive (1 Peter 3:8). We can talk to people in a way that they will understand and encourage friends based on their love language. We can also showcase our good fruits so that they feel blessed, rather than discouraged (Matthew 5:14-16). The bible says to let your light shine out onto others so that they can see it and praise your heavenly Father (Matthew 5:16) since we are the light of the world.

The world is the physical universe that surrounds us, or the personal "world" of an individual related to our five senses, or the laws of nature. The bible expresses (Matthew 6:10) a hope for His will to be completed on the earth. When we walk in the Spirit, we can achieve more cohesiveness and structure in the physical world and our world. We can only achieve this by obeying His instructions as a community to affect our physical world positively. On the other hand, when we venture on a personal endeavour that is not pleasing to the Lord, even if more than one person is involved in the project or concept, the system may still fail, no matter how grand in appearance (e.g., the tower of Babylon). So, we must obey his instructions individually and within a community of people. We can achieve this by incorporating love into our language, into our lives, into everything that we do, and by continuing to abide by the Spirit to fulfil His perfect will over our lives. I believe that I naturally build people up and influence them in the right way.

3. Stillness

My last point is about stillness. I have always been intelligent, happy, smart, kind, modest, and creative while growing up. Although when I am striving toward a specific goal, I may be discouraged if I am not performing at a fluid pace. As an example, in primary school, I was a keen learner. I experienced three different curricula in high school. I had to move schools due to the first school being in another country - I did not fit the catchment area criteria for the school I was supposed to attend. 

The competition for places was high at the time, so there was no other option. The school is usually oversubscribed. It's not novel for children to get turned away, and then their siblings can gain access later, or children who attend the feeder school can be denied entry. Even though the area we lived in was decent, my parents didn't want me to go to school in our neighbourhood. After travelling abroad for one year, I moved to another private school and then to a public school with less competition for places. The plan was for my siblings to have a similar experience abroad, but I discouraged it.

I began to feel discouraged due to environmental and social stressors that started to interrupt what God had placed inside me. Specific factors in my physical world that I could not control. They attempted to slow me down or interrupt my productivity or progress. This experience was an excellent example of one of the concepts I enjoy practising when things aren't going perfectly.

"Kanketsu (i.e., simplicity through a complex process)

and

Wabi-Sabi (i.e., Wabi - freshness or quietness, 

Sabi - beauty or serenity that comes with age/growth)." - Me (:

It is important to practice patience and to achieve stillness when we are on the path toward our destinies (Psalm 62:1). Timing is also an essential factor here, as we must prepare to move when we feel the spirit lead. Where he provides us with the mental capacity to succeed in a specific calling, it will eventually materialise as we continue to seek His guidance. Sometimes God can use a certain period to show us something unique or to provide us with an opportunity to prevail in a specific area He has called us to. He could even manipulate/stop the world's rotation for us to achieve a particular purpose (Joshua 10:12-15) - imagine that. Whenever there is a period of stillness, this comes with a period of faith and sensitivity. In Japanese culture, some theories describe the joy that comes with achieving peace. These are Kanketsu (i.e., simplicity through a complicated process) and Wabi-Sabi (i.e., Wabi - freshness or quietness, Sabi - beauty or serenity that comes with age/growth). The latter suggests that nothing can last forever, and it is impossible to achieve a complete state of perfection. This theory helps me accomplish a gentle stillness in my style of living and in designing or planning. I also feel that the concept is in line with my beliefs as a Christian with an intelligent, creative, dreamy spirit.