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I was reflecting this week on intimacy with God. I have noticed that often when my intimacy with God goes to a deeper level there are two things that happen around that time.

First, there is often a new purging or cleansing that precedes the new level of intimacy. Hebrews 12:14 says, “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see The Lord.�� Matthew 5:8, Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.�� Purification precedes perception. Sin clouds are vision of God. As I track my spiritual journey I can see that the times I have experienced new depths of intimacy almost always involve deeper works of purification. Ironically, right before the new level of intimacy comes, we often feel like we are losing ground spiritually. We are living in heightened awareness of our impure motives and selfish and sinful actions. But, if we allow the Holy Spirit to move conviction to brokenness and contrition, He will do a deeper work of cleansing in us. And this new work will lead us to new depths with Jesus. The key is to embrace the new work of purification. The one indispensable quality of a passionate lover of God is brokenness. Brokenness removes the obstructions and barriers that keep our hearts from God. When our hearts are broken and contrite before The Lord we give Him unrestricted access to our hearts.

Second, there is often a need to change our rhythm in order to advance in intimacy. Sometimes to get to a new level of intimacy we have to change our rules of engagement �� we have to change our approach to God. Psalm 63:1, David says, “O God, you are my God, earnestly i seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.��. David is in a desert place longing for God. He is spiritually thirsty. Verse 6, David says, “I think of you through the watches of the night.�� David stays up at night to pursue God’s face because of his passion to know God. Sometimes I need to go on a fast to break through that pattern of sin that obstructs my heart from God. Sometimes I carve out time with God in the middle of the night to seek His face like David. Sometimes I need to shift my approach to God from singing along with worship to sitting in silence. But often before I break through to a new depth with God I feel stuck, plateaued or even declining (because of a new awareness of sin) and I need to change my approach to break through. I establish a new rhythm with God and I enter into new intimate depths with Him.

If we are going to get to new depths of intimacy with God, we will often enter a season of purging �� you may feel worse, but take heart, change your approach and pursue that next level!

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I spent much of last year meditating on Psalm 23. I still go back to it frequently. The Psalmist says that the Good Shepherd leads us beside quiet waters (literally waters at rest) and He restores our soul. I spent a lot of time the first two days of this week in solitude and silence at the Quabbin Reservoir. I saw two beavers and an otter there on Tuesday (you can see the beaver peeking out of the water in the picture below). Every time I walk to this quiet place, and stand by these still waters, I meditate on Psalm 23.

This week I reflected on the restorative power of solitude, silence and stillness. Let me share some of the ways stillness restores my soul.

First, solitude restores my energy. When I take time alone with God, I find that the life of Christ flows into my inner being and refreshes me. As I sat out there by the still waters and meditated on Psalm 23, I could feel my emotional and spiritual energy being replenished. It always helps me to practice silence and solitude in nature. Being outside in God’s beautiful creation, feeling the fresh air, seeing the creation, listening to the sounds of nature, always helps the re-creative process. There I feel God’s goodness and my soul is refreshed.

Second, solitude, silence and stillness restores my peace. When my schedule is hectic my mind and heart race to keep up with my pace. My soul, which I often liken to a lake, gets choppy waters. But when I take time to slow down, to be still, the lake of my soul becomes calm and peaceful. Jesus is always at peace. He offers us His peace. It is the peace of heaven �� it is undisturbed and unperturbed peace. When we take time to be still and fix our eyes on Him, His peace is restored to our busy, sometimes turbulent souls.

Third, solitude, silence and stillness restores my capacity to love. When I am too busy, I can become impatient, and irritable. My compassion wanes as my emotional energy is depleted by busyness. But when I sit still before The Lord, with my eyes fixed on Jesus�� loving presence, He restores my soul and fills my heart with His love once again. We love, the Apostle John said, because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). When, in quietude, we create space for His love to renew us, our capacity to love is re-filled.

Fourth, solitude, silence and stillness restores my ability to notice. As I am more rested in God’s presence, I become more attentive. It is hard to notice things when I am sprinting past them in life. But when I begin to slow down, I begin to notice things again �� like beauty in creation. I become more attentive to other people’s needs as I slow down my busy pace. And I begin to notice more of God’s activity in my life �� I am more attentive to His workings, His ways and His whispers.

Robert Frost once wrote a famous poem called, “The Road Not Taken.�� He ended with these words:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I ��

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Solitude, silence and stillness are the road less traveled in our day. In our wordy world, where we are constantly connected through our technological devices, we seldom disconnect and practice true stillness. We run from work to home, eat a quick meal, and run to some other event, only to run home and take in more activity �� all the while we are bombarded with emails, texts, phone calls and FaceBook messages. Stillness is the road less traveled. Over the last year and a half in my life I have spent far more time traveling down this wooded trail “and that has made all the difference.��

Travel down this road. Practice 10 minute retreats regularly. Be still. Quiet your soul. Fix your eyes on Jesus. And He will restore your soul.

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God always comes through . . . Sometimes His timing feels off. Sometimes His idea of coming through differs from mine. But He always comes through. David put it like this: “The righteous cry out, and The Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit�� (Psalm 34:17-18). David knew about heartaches and troubles. He spent long years on the run, in physical and psychological peril. But over and over God came through. God doesn’t always come through the way we expect or when we think He should. You have to factor that in. Faith isn’t about immediate gratification, it is about trust in an eternal God who has the last word in all matters. I think God comes through in three ways.

First, sometimes God comes through by changing our circumstances. He delivers us. He heals us when we are sick. He restores our broken hearts. He mends our broken relationships. He fills our empty souls. This is our favorite way that God comes through and the most obvious way. It is the way we all hope for.

Second, God comes through sometimes by standing with us in our darkest hour. The hour doesn’t pass with an immediate victory, but we discover His presence is sufficient. The pain isn’t healed, but His loving presence is surprising. The relationship isn’t restored but His comfort is palpable. The empty place isn’t filled, but His presence, while not obvious, is enough to get us through the dark night of the soul. The darkness doesn’t lift, but we discover He is still with us and we learn to see in the dark.

Third, sometimes God comes through by taking us home to heaven. Ultimately every heartache will be healed. Every physical pain will be alleviated. Every empty place will be filled. Every battle will be won. and every evil will be done away with. Heaven awaits those who hope in Jesus. Victory is certain and satisfying, if not immediate. This is the hope we hold with absolute certainty. God delivers.

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Psalm 62:1, “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.�� I have been spending a lot of time meditating on and praying through this Psalm these days. It is one of my favorite Psalms. There are times in my life with God when I have to press in, push through, cry out to God for victory. There are times that I have felt God calling me to go after a spiritual victory, to claim promises, to pray and fast for an answer from heaven, to engage in the spiritual battlefield for conquest. Paul said that our battle was not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and rulers in the heavenly realms. There are times we need to pray through an issue and it involves intense seeking and crying out to God. The old timers knew about this �� they spoke about importunate prayer. Praying through until the answer came. And I think we need more of that in the church today. But, there is also a time to rest. David, who penned Psalm 62, was a great warrior. A king. He knew about battle. He was a fierce fighter. He also was a man of prayer, a seeker after God, and he knew about importunate prayer. But, he also knew there were times when all we could do was wait on God. We had prayed through. We had claimed our promises. And now all that was left was to wait on God in silence; wait on God to deliver the victory. In the pressing in prayer there is great exertion. In the waiting in silence prayer there is rest and restoration. Few things restore my soul as much as solitude and silence. As I wait on God in silence, I realize so little depends on me. As I wait on God in silence, I am strengthened by His presence. As I wait on God in silence, my need to control the outcomes of life’s circumstances drains and heaven’s peace comes. “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from Him comes my salvation.�� God alone. God alone can supply what I need. God alone can restore my soul. God alone can bring about our most needed victories.

So I wait in trust filled silence. I highly encourage you to take 10 minute retreats several days per week where you sit before The Lord in silence. Don’t say anything or pray anything. Just fix your loving attention on Jesus. When your mind wanders, bring it back to Jesus. Try it for a few months. Stick with it and see the benefits to your soul.

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We are back home. Thank you all for praying. I was meditating on Psalm 77 today. The Psalmist writes, “I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, that He may hear me. In the day of my trouble I seek The Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted. I think of God, and I moan; I meditate, and my spirit faints.�� Sometimes in order to get the breakthrough we need in life, we must seek God with all we have. We come after Him with a holy desperation. There is nothing so arresting as the faith-filled tearful cry of a desperate person. It never fails to move the heart of God. I think there are some answers to prayer that only come to the desperate. The Psalmist is desperate for God to intervene and he is willing to pay the price of pursuit, but He sustains a faith-filled, surrendered heart. He submits to God. He trusts God. One of the things necessary to this kind of breakthrough prayer is that we have to feed our faith. Often in our desperation our faith wobbles. So we must find ways to strengthen our faith through the long ordeals of life. The Psalmist feeds his faith by remembering the miracles. Psalm 77:11-12, “I will call to mind the deeds of The Lord; I will remember your wonders of old. I will meditate on all your work, and muse on your mighty deeds.�� He remembers the things God has done in his life, and in the life’s of the ancient heroes of the faith. This intentional recollection steadies his faith and encourages him in his breakthrough praying. God is the God of the breakthrough. We all need breakthroughs. This week come join us at church and listen to stories that will encourage your faith and inspire you in your pursuit of breakthroughs!

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We had our final service in Brazil last night. We had over 300 people in attendance & saw close to 80 healings once again. I prayed for one man who had suffered a knee injury & it had been exasperated by a lack of medical care, so it had started to effect his leg & his back as well. In the village we were in, most people did not have cars & in order to get to a hospital they had to travel by boat which took them over 24 hours. So most people went without medical care. They were desperate for miracles & God visited. God touched this man’s knee very quickly; he gave me a thumbs up & patted his leg. I prayed for his leg & he gave me another thumbs up, then pointed to his back. We prayed over his back for a while, but no relief came. I waited on God & asked him if he had been hurt & needed to forgive anyone (I got a translator for this part & discovered his knee & leg where indeed healed). He told a story of an abusive family, said he had forgiven them, but still felt rejection. I prayed over his wounded heart for God’s healing to come. And God came again. Then we prayed for his back �� and the pain left! A pretty good day for that man & the Kingdom of God! His wife then had an amazing healing �� but that story I will tell on Sunday!

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Yesterday we went on a treasure hunt. We prayed and asked The Lord for specific words, clues, that would lead us to people of peace. People who are open to the things of God. Jesus came so that none should perish. And when he sent out the disciples to tell people the message of God News about the Kingdom of God coming to earth through Jesus, he told them to go through the towns looking for ‘people of peace�� �� people who were open to the God & the things of His Kingdom. So, we were looking for people of peace. God gave Tina Zunino a picture of a yellow house with a purple flower out front. As we walked down the street, we saw the house. We told the woman that we were praying & had this picture & asked her if we could pray for her. She had physical pain in her arms. We prayed & she was healed. Then she asked us to pray for her 39 year old daughter �� who had some mental illness, but she didn’t specify the illness. While we prayed I had a word from The Lord that she was struggling with depression, anxiety & was struggling sleeping. I asked the Mom if that was the case & it was. We prayed for the daughter. We left the household touched by the love & presence of God.

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We are back at the church where we ministered yesterday. We trained them yesterday to hear God speak and then sent them out to pray for people God spoke to them about. We just heard a cool testimony from one of the Brazilians. When he listened to God he saw eyes. He went out with his prayer team and they met a woman. They asked if anything was wrong with her eyes. She had one eye that she hasn’t seen from in 20 years. They prayed for her in Jesus�� name. At first she felt nothing. They kept praying. She started to smile because for the first time in 20 years she began to see something with that blind eye! Come on!

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Today we went on the Amazon River. Very cool experience. We actually got off the boat & went swimming for a bit.

I spent some time sitting & praying while people were swimming. One of my slogans for seeking God is: Never satisfied, ever grateful, never take offense. I never want to be satisfied in my pursuit of God, because I think there is always more to be had, more intimacy to discover, more mysteries to be revealed, more love to be experienced, more depth to uncover. So I never want to become complacent. I want my heart to long for God & I intentionally seek to cultivate that longing. But, if you are always longing & not ever grateful you will be in danger of grumbling, &

complaining. Your heart will grow hard.

Never satisfied. Ever grateful. Never take offense. When you seek hard after God & you get a gentle sense of His presence & someone else gets a download from Heaven it is easy to take offense. So I have determined not to take offense.

This has been my slogan for the week, once again. It continues to serve me well on my spiritual journey.

God’s best to you, friends. Much love. From the Amazon �� Rob

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Last night at the crusade I prayed for a man who had back problems and sciatica. He was probably in his 60′s & was in a lot of pain. I started praying. Nothing happened. I waited on God. And sensed he needed to forgive someone. I asked him if there was anyone he needed to forgive. He said it was his son. I told him to pray blessings on his son. Pray for the good things he wanted in his own life for his son’s life. He prayed & just sobbed. After the tears had slowed down I prayed again for his back & all pain was relieved in Jesus�� name!

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