Ears to Hear

I have not been able to write for a while - my computer is in the repair shop! And in the meantime, a most remarkable adventure occurred. I left the Denver airport last Thursday on what seemed like a routine trip to lead a women's retreat up by Yosemite in California. When we flew into Phoenix for my connecting flight, the tail of the jet spun back and forth crazily, and the pilot told us the cross winds would make landing difficult. He did a masterful job in getting us safely landed - but the winds continued to accelerate until they finally closed down the Phoenix airport for the rest of the day and night, with every flight in or out cancelled! My last wait-listed flight cancelled at 9:30 pm and so I called the number for the hotel voucher given me by the airline. I was told, "You're too late. There are no rooms left in the Phoenix area."

I pulled out my itinerary for the trip, remembering it was made by Expedia. Perhaps they could help me find a room. The "Expedia Man" checked for me and told me he could not find a room in all their database of hotel chains; then surprisingly asked me, "Would you bear with me while I continue to check? I'm not willing that you should be without a room for the night." I thought this was rather extraordinary, and told him, "Of course I'll bear with you - I have no other option!" While I thought I was on hold - both times - I prayed in the Spirit. I never used English words, praying only in my prayer language. I was on the phone with Expedia Man for 40 minutes! When he finally came back on the line he told me he had found me a room. "It's in the industrial section. There is no shuttle and no food. You'll have to take a cab. But you'll have a nice clean room and a good bed. I wanted to keep trying until I found you something because you are my sister in the Lord." I was astonished! "How did you know that?" I asked him. "Because I heard you praying," he gently replied.

I was filled with the sense that this was not going to be just any ordinary trip! The devil was trying to turn me away, but the Lord sent "Expedia Man" to the rescue! The next morning I was diverted into Fresno airport and picked up by the pastor's wife. We drove up toward Yosemite Park and met the other women for dinner in a small nearby town. During dinner a most unusual snow storm hit the area, and none of the women had 4 wheel drive or snow tires. We were literally stranded there, unable to get up the mountain to the conference center. Staff from the center rescued us and little by little, transported us up to the mountain where roads were icy, snow-packed and treacherous. We were all weary and my Friday evening teaching time had been stolen from us.

But when I woke up the next morning, on this beautiful Shabbat glistening with sunlit snow, I knew God had something powerful in mind. I had not battled all those travel difficulties for nothing! Eighteen women gathered in the conference center and I taught them God's Hebrew names - and how He reveals Himself to them through His names, and how He desires a close, intimate relationship with them. I had been praying hard that there would be EARS TO HEAR what the Spirit had to say; but I could not have dreamed that YHVH would take this literally and unstop the ears of the deaf! Yet, that is what He did.

In the afternoon "free time," one of the women came to the library and asked me to pray for her. She was deaf, with large hearing apparatus in both ears. She told me much about her life - and I heard the Holy Spirit instruct me to ask her to begin forgiving those who had abused and wounded her. Timidly at first, and then with increasing determination, she named them and asked God's help in forgiving them. When she finished, the Spirit said to me, "Tell her to take out her hearing aids. She doesn't need them anymore." I summoned the courage to tell her this, and she responded in immediate faith, throwing the hearing devices aside and rejoicing!

Throughout the rest of this weekend this woman was among us, hearing every word, even in a crowded dining hall with its background noise. And the other women present were receiving new life too as they began to get excited about the Torah and all the new understandings they were receiving. Spiritual rebirths were occurring all around me - and the ears of the deaf were unstopped, both in the natural and the spiritual! Truly we ARE coming into a new time of outpouring of the Ruach haKodesh, and miracles that follow the teaching of the Word!

My trip home was uneventful. Satan lost another one!

Be Still

I just got a new cell phone. My children and grandchildren "ganged up on me" and told me if I got a new phone with improved "3G network" I would be able to use my cell phone in my house which I couldn't do before). So, I gave in. Then I spent hours, no days actually, trying to learn how to use all the sophisticated new bells and whistles. My last phone was from 2001: simple and easy! Now there are touch screens that ask 25 questions for each thing I want to do, including making a simple phone call. And there's a teeny-tiny keyboard for texting that I might have been able to see fifteen years ago! There is also something called voice-activation; I told my cell phone to call my daughter last night and the voice inside argued with me over her name!

In the process I began to reflect on my sadness recently in watching human beings going through life with their faces glued to tiny cell phone screens, their thumbs tapping texts, and their eyes pasted on the screen, never looking up. "How much are they missing around them?" I wondered. Is the beauty and the joy of life just passing them by?

In a recent social experiment, a world-class violinist who had played to a packed concert-hall in New York City the night before, set up in a small corner of a subway train station. He played the same thrilling music that patrons had paid $100 per ticket to hear - but nobody stopped to listen. He watched as thousands of people passed by, paying no notice at all, and never hearing the intricate melodies floating around them. Glued to their phones and their watches, they scurried by him in a mad rush of life. One youngster stopped her mother so she could listen; one old woman threw a dollar into the violinist's case and moved on!

The Chazon Ish writes in Emunah v'Bitachon, "When a person with a sensitive soul finds some quiet time to meditate on existence, away from the pulls of desire, astonishment overtakes him. The sight of the heavens above and the earth below fills him with emotion and wonder. The first step might be to do something called 'nothing.' In that pause be prepared to wade into the quiet of a Shabbat, away from the pulls of desire, and be overtaken by something astonishing.

This is what has happened to me in the past year as I have pulled away from all activity on the Shabbat Day (Saturday). Though I meet with my fellowship on Erev Shabbats (Friday evenings) I am refusing now to do anything on Shabbat but sit in my big chair with a warm cup of tea and my Bible, in the Presence of the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit). He always meets me there - and the experience of learning the Word directly from Him in the stillness is always astonishing! Even the gathering together of people ends up in food preparation, conversation, midrash, and travel. I found that it was zapping all my energy. Being in the silence of my home with the Spirit imparts energy such as I have never known! It has become a time to re-gather physical energy and to be fed spiritually; rather than expending physical energy and feeding everyone else! How can we continue to give life to others when we have no time alone with the Source of Life?

Elizabeth Hoekstra, in her book Be Still, speaks about the Scripture Jeremiah 6:16: Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. First, you have to stop and stand still. Quiet enough to hear God's Voice in a whisper or a shout. Still enough to feel His presence in and around you. Second, you have to look. Look at the landscape around you - search for hidden land mines and stumbling blocks. Third, you must ask for direction. Not once, but twice for confirmation. Search the scriptures for the 'ancient paths,' the way God has worked in the past. Fourth, take a step. Walk with faith on the road He points you toward. Fifth, He will grant you rest. No more fruitless searching, no more aimless wanderings. No more taking another and another spin in the revolving door. "

We are far too busy - and B.U.S.Y. means Being Under Satan's Yoke! The enemy of our souls knows if he can keep us so busy and distracted with work, computers, cell phones, television, entertainment, sports, kids' activities, and even church activities, we will never have time to sit at the feet of the Master and hear His Voice.

In Psalm 23, David says, "He makes me to lie down in green pastures." Can you find a time in your busy week to "lie down in a green pasture?" Do you wonder what you would do there even if you had time? Would you spend it texting your friends? Or, could you do as the writer suggested above - "the first step might be to do something called nothing. In that pause be prepared to wade into the quiet of a Shabbat, away from the pulls of desire, and be overtaken by something [or Someone] astonishing!"

Be still and know that He is God...

Be still and know...

Be still...

Be

I'm Just Wondering...

Four years ago in late December of 2005, I returned home from Jerusalem. I can still see the faces of my daughter and grandchildren as they greeted me at the Denver airport. It had only been five months, but it seemed like many years that I was away! I remember also my deeply mixed emotions: I was so happy to back in the bosom of my family, with my feet on American soil, yet I knew that I knew that I had left my true home and had come back to what is really my place of exile. My heart has been yearning to return ever since!

A few days after I got back home I watched pictures of then-Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, being transported by ambulance to a Jerusalem hospital, following a severe stroke. In those moments of watching the ambulance whizzing through the streets of Jerusalem, a scripture came strongly to my mind, written by the apostle Shaul (Paul) in Galatians 1:11-12, 15-17: "I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather I received it by revelation from Yeshua haMashiach. But when YHVH, who set me apart from birth, and called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia..."

Where was this "Arabia" Shaul visited and why did he go there? It seems to me that the trip to Arabia was a trip into the desert wilderness, similar to that of Moses, John the Immerser, Yeshua, and others, for preparation time for his future ministry. Where in Arabia did he go? That is not given to us in Scripture, probably because it was irrelevant. In the Scripture above Shaul is strongly making the point that in his wilderness time he received all the revelation he needed - directly from Yeshua and not from any man. It was his God-given time to be alone with the Master and learn everything he needed to know to endure suffering, hold fast to his faith, understand the full redemptive plan of YHVH through Yeshua the Messiah, and complete his assigned ministry among the Gentiles.

So, why did I contemplate all this while watching Ariel Sharon's hospital-bound ambulance? Is it possible that for these past four years Sharon has been in his own personal "Arabia" with Yeshua? Could it be that he will awaken from this coma (despite doctors' opinions) and have all the revelation he needs to awaken the Jewish people to the Truth - not having received it from any man, but from Yeshua Himself? Is Ariel Sharon being prepared for a last-days ministry to the Jews, as Shaul was prepared to preach to the Gentiles?

I don't know. I'm just wondering. But I did find it interesting that the very FIRST tiny article about Sharon appeared in a Jerusalem newspaper this week. He has been all but forgotten by the world; yet this week a tiny little reminder appeared:

Sharon in coma for 4 years
January 4, 2010
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Ariel Sharon's family and friends marked the fourth anniversary of the former prime minister's massive stroke. Sharon, now 81, has never regained consciousness from the Jan. 4, 2006 stroke. He remains in a coma, though he is breathing on his own. He lives in a long-term care facility in Ra'anana. Family and friends visit frequently, according to reports.
Sharon, who was elected prime minister as head of the Likud Party in 2001, suffered the stroke several months after overseeing Israel's withdrawal from Gaza. He formed the new centrist Kadima Party to run in the country's 2006 elections.
Medical experts say it is unlikely that Sharon will come out of the coma.