Greetings again my Brethren. Let us continue to look at the critical need
for us to be able to move correctly with God and to allow Him to build our
concepts and principles correctly. It is
important to know God must do the building, not us. Now God does not build the
way we do. Oh no, God begins to build by
first tearing down. God tears down
everything in us not of him. Everything
that is not built on him is put down and placed in the captivity of Christ
Jesus. Now we MUST allow God to do this
in our lives, God will not force us into obedience. I wish He would, but He
does not. He desires we wilfully submit
to His direction and correction in our lives.
Last month we began to look at the
critical need for Godly communion.
Everything we get from God begins with a communion with God. Please do not confuse communication with
communion or a time of fellowship (communing) eating dinner together. Many Churches today have fellowship dinners
or a prayer breakfast hoping to build a unity between them and mistakenly call
this communion. Even time spent around
the Lord’s table, taking communion is not real communion unless you have
touched the Spirit of God and He has touched your spirit. Communication is
talking both verbal and non-verbal, praying, beseeching (asking, some call it
begging), but true Godly communion is absent of words, intentions, desires, and
is of the Spirit of God. Real Godly
communion is always birthed out of a desire for closeness, to be held, and a
longing for oneness (unity) and love. It
is from a position of great weakness where our flaws and infirmities are exposed. The direction of real Godly communion always starts
down and moves upward. It is always from
man to God and if God desires (which He does) to commune with man He will. Does
not God have the right not to commune with us?
Not to even communicate with us? For us to be able to truly understand
communion we must start with God’s sovereignty. Communion with God and God’s
sovereignty walk hand-n-hand. Many
Christians today do not have communion
with God because they have failed to address their relationship with Him. There is much more by way of relationship
with God then Him forgiving our sin. Oh
their sins are forgiven and if they would die they might (God’s choice not really
ours) go to heaven, but there is no real relationship where there are thoughts
of the heart exchanged, where there is a
flow of security, wellness, and wholesomeness expressed back, by the Holy
Spirit, to us from the Father. How
shallow we can be when we think of our self first in our relationship with
God. Oh no my friend, it is us who NEEDS
to make contact with God not for what He can do for us, but to just receive
from Him whatsoever He has for us today.
It is like the communion the birds, grass, and flowers have with God. The birds do not ask God for more worms to
eat. The grass and the trees do not ask
for more water or to be planted in another field. They are content and
satisfied with whatsoever God brings their way. And out from this correct relationship
they are nourished can grow, develop, and flourish coming to a maturity and
completion as God has created them. So
to in our life this correct communion must be operating to bring us to the end
and purpose God has created us to become.
As I travel around
the world I often share of the importance of communion with God. We seem to most often focus on other things
thinking they are more important; God’s plan for our lives, His will for our
lives, and one lately that seems to get a lot of air-time on TV our destiny in
God, but remember everything we get from God comes out from our communion with
Him. If we have quality communion with
the Father we will have a spiritual understanding and a knowing that will
transcend our human logic and fragilities.
Many will ask me to explain how I have communion with the Father, so I
tell them every morning I get up out of bed, go down stairs, and prop my feet
up on a pillow on our coffee table. Then
I do nothing. I try not to do anything,
but focus my thoughts and spirit toward God.
There is no praying, reading of the Bible just silence. I strive to silence my inward being. There is a place of silence in God that brings us to
nothingness. A place where we have
nothing to say. There are three types of
silence: a silence of words, a silence
of desires, and a silence of thoughts.
The first is perfect. The second
is even more perfect and the third is the most perfect.
In the first, the silence of words, there is
virtue (strength) that is acquired. In
the second, the silence of desires, quietness is obtained; and in the third,
the silence of thoughts this is our goal:
the internal recollection of all of our senses. To lay hold of the silence of thought is to
arrive and abide at the center of our being where Christ dwells. I then tell them of the great expectation of
seeing Karen after a long trip and flight.
It seems to start building when I depart, but with each passing day I
miss her more and more. After about a week of missing Karen it begins
to impair my ability to minister. My thoughts are on her and the family, but
most on her my love. After two weeks,
well all I want in life is to see Karen.
At night I would play my expectation of our reunion over and over in my
mind time and time again. Then finally
the big day comes, homeward bound. My
heart beats stronger and my step grows faster, I want nothing to prevent me
from seeing my love. I arrive at
Raleigh/Durham airport and quickly exit the plane, my love is waiting for
me. As I come down the escalator I see
Karen patiently waiting for me. I smile
she smiles back my heart is pounding in my chest. No words are spoken at this
time none are needed. There is a great
desire for communion not communication.
There is time to talk later, but for now what is needed is
communion. We rush into each others
arms, pulling each other to our breasts, and feeling our arms providing a sense
of security and wholesomeness. What
communion, what love. What an exchange of thoughts and desires we intimately
share. Now that my brother is holy. Communion is always intimate and full of
expression one for the other. Let us
allow God to so work in our lives so that we may be able to have communion with
Him and he with us. Next month (maybe) on our great need for
obedience to the Father and other topics.
ARTICLE REVIEW:
Coming
into the Light
There is a process of becoming something great
in God we must endure as we come out of the darkness of our self-seeking carnal
nature into the light of God. This is
God’s intention for us, to move from the death of the darkness in our hearts
and in the world into the glorious light of the life of God. This coming into the light is a wonderful,
but at the same time a very painful process to behold as God uses our life
experiences, people, His word, and much more to conform us into the character
and nature of Jesus Christ, so that we may be able to receive His Father’s
divine and precious promises. Many
Christians believe we are conformed into the character and nature of Christ so
that we can become divine. Well as nice and wonderful as that all sounds it can
never happen. We are of and made for the
earth, at this time in our existence, and as long as we live in this lower life
form called “human” we will never be able to attain to the lofty heights and be
seated with God. Now God’s ultimate intention and purpose for us to live a life
separated unto Him. Paul shares these
words with the church at
Today within the church there is a
great need to come into a place of submissiveness to ALL authority. Sadly today
the Church in
Brethren we must get back on track. The Church in
You know the more we come
into the light the more we can see the darkness in others, and if we have not
allowed God to soften our heart, by His dealings and judgments, we will react
to their darkness and not to their great need for the light. Written
by David Stahl
THOUGHTS FROM KAREN:
Karen will not be adding
something this month, but remember, the best is yet to come.
POETRY CORNER:
PRISONERS OF HOPE
By John Wright Follette
While dwelling in
the prison-house of flesh, And bound by limitations of its clay, My longing
spirit waits to take its flight, To realms beyond this little life and day.
My spirit used to
beat against the bars And long for freedom from this dreary cell, Until one day
a tender dove found room Within my heart and settled there to dwell.
This Guest who
shares this prison-house with me Has come to tell me of a home above, And tells
me secret things of One I love.
He is so very quiet
in His ways,
By gentle wooing He has won my
heart.
My lonely cell would be a
cheerless place Had He not liberty in every part.
And when the
prison-door shall swing, He will not flee and leave me here to roam, For I
could never find my Father’s house – Together
we shall make the flight back home.
Poem taken from Smoking Flax and other poems,
page 53.
DEAR FRIENDS:
Last month I shared some on self-seeking. Back
in Dec 2005, God was strongly dealing with me about some health issues. God is good at getting our attention when He
wants to. I always find the last week or
so of the year is a good time to real slow down and get still with God. There seems to be a greater connection
between God’s will, on earth as it is in heaven, is communicated before a major
event on earth like a rolling over to new year.
As I said God knows how to slow us down.
Well, I either herniated my back more from a complete two day thrashing
from Dave and Joshua in basketball or an
chronic prostate ailment flared up again at any rate God got what He was
after for me to slow down and spend extra time with Him. Make no
mistake God is very good and getting our attention. All He has to do is threaten our life and He
has our complete attention. How we love
our self-life. Now I am no different
then anyone else. We love our life and
hold on to it with every breath. We will
do and say anything it takes to keep our self alive. And, the older we get the more we see our
moral end coming into greater view and the more we want to hold on to our life. But Jesus said, “For whosoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whosoever
loses his life for My sake will find it.”
(Matthew 16:25) How can we
loss our life for God’s sake? The answer
is right before your eyes. Jesus said, “whosoever desires to save his life” but,
in the loses and finding there is no “desires”
involved. It is our “desires” to save our life that most often prevents us from losing
our life. And to find His life we first
must lose our life, the spiritual order is us losing first then our
finding. But we do not want to lose even
for His sake.
Over a three day period Karen would
take my blood pressure which was high.
But each time she would take my blood pressure (at my request) my
self-life would scream more and more and imagine things that are far from the
truth. You would say did God do this or is all of this a product of your fear?
Well, I would say this is God at His finest. Brethren I know fear, it lives in
the pit of our stomach. Over these many years I have faced fear time and time
again. And, over these many years I have
had God bring me into His dealings and judgments in my life so that He could
communicate with me. I have had God slow
me down long enough to share things with me I will need to be successful in
Him. It is when we allow God to slow us
down He can do a great work in killing our self-life. God has our undivided attention and now He is
going to get as much of Himself in us as we will allow. Our mouth has been stopped. We agree, “Indeed, let God be true, but every man is a
liar . . . “ (Roman 3:4) He and He
alone is true. All of our self-seeking
and religion does not work. When we
allow God to bring us to such places, “let
God be true, but every man is a liar,” we will be able to deal with the
self-seeking in our lives and with our “desires”
to save our self-life. Let us allow God
to bring His dealings and judgment in our lives.
NEEDS NOT WANTS:
1. In
Silistra,
2. In
3. In
4. Pastor
Joseph Mutua in
5. Pastor
Mike Olufemi in the north of
6. Pastor
S. J. Peter, Founder of DAWN Ministries and Pastor Wilson and his son Pastor
Julian both near
7. Financial
support for the printing of: “Adventures with God.”
8. Pastor Metin Mintaz and the members of
Uskudar Son Buyruk Kilisesi in
9. Pastor
Elieti Msangi in Dar Es Salaam and Pastor Isreal Mutaitina in
10. Major Rob McIntosh, Chaplin,
11. Vivian’s Maternity and Child Care Clinic
project in
12. Pastor
Tek Dahl and his Church in
FUTURE SCHEDULE:
March: Sankarguptum
and
April: Local Ministry
May:
I am still available to share what God has given me at
churches and/or home groups. If God
moves on your heart to bless the ministries I visit and share God’s love I
would be honored to make it possible for God and you. God told Abram, “I will bless those who bless
you and curse those who curse you.” (Genesis 12:3) If you want a blessing, then bless someone. Remember, God is to you what you are to God.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Address:
David and Karen
Stahl
Jacksonville , NC 28546
Phone:
Home: (910) 346-1739
FAX: (910) 346-1739
Email:
dstahl@ec.rr.com
Website:
I am
pleased to announce “God Still Performs Miracles: A Book of Personal Encouragement” is now
available and
If you
know someone you think would enjoy
receiving this newsletter or if you receive this newsletter and do not wish to
please let me know. Contributions to
this ministry is always appreciated and
needed the more time continues. Please feel free to contact me with the
above information. The cost is great, but the cost for not supporting to others
is even greater. And remember, all donations are tax deductible
