PARKS BROWN

One day last week provided me with a moment of clarity. A haircut resulted in a lap full of gray hair clippings. A picture while trimming the dog’s nails revealed an ever growing bald spot. I was reminded of what I know but I tend to forget because I see it every day. We become so accustomed to the ordinary and lose sight of the truth right in front of us. So much truth is being hidden and lost in the ordinary because of spiritual warfare.

The truth is there is an underlying angst in our world today. The signs are unrest in your job and marriage, discontentment with the ruling authorities, anxiety about the future, loneliness in a crowded world and a decrease in deep relationships and community. The cause is spiritual warfare and it is taking the joy out of daily living. The results are the usual suspects…divorce, sexual perversions, idolatry, envy, greed, anger, hatred and unforgiveness. The casualties are disconnected families and a generation that doesn’t fear or even KNOW God. This fight is waged in the hearts and minds of every person on the planet and no one is exempt. Spiritual warfare is the snake you can’t see and don’t hear about. It’s the snake on the plane that is biting everyone.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12. Until you accept this FACT, you’ll only see gun control, racism and politics as topics of conversation. Spiritual warfare is the difference defined by the red pill or the blue pill, Neo. To see the underlying condition of the hearts and minds in people, you need to recognize spiritual warfare. Then, you must deal with the enemy that is attacking your very soul.

Remember the story of the guy who died in the flood because he had never seen the water rise so high? He wouldn’t listen to the sheriff who came by, the highway patrol who warned him, the guy in the boat or the helicopter when they came to rescue him. The guy drowned. It wasn’t until he met the Lord after he died, that God reminded him how many people He sent to save him from the flood. We need to get back to knowing and seeing God in the natural, everyday commonplace things. Only then will we see the profound implications in the war around us. Only then, will we see the real enemy, the devil.

Another FACT to never forget, the devil IS real. When you see pure evil like the school shootings in Florida, I can promise you he is spreading lies in the hearts and minds of the players involved. When a Christian couple thinks maybe they married the wrong spouse, the devil is trying to make you doubt God’s sovereignty and power to unite and hold everything together. Remember, the devil LOVES to lie. “He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44….You wanna know who’s really behind fake news?

When the Bible recounts Christ being tempted in the wilderness for 40 days, the devil is revealed in spades. When speaking about the kingdoms of the world and the authority, splendor and control of this world, the devil says, “…it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” Luke 4:6-7. In this world the enemy runs rampant, but under the radar.

The devil is a “schemer”, a “thief” and a “liar”. He is also “the god of this age (and) has blinded the minds of unbelievers..” 2 Cor. 4:4. When your thinking is limited to what you can see in this world and doesn’t include the spiritual realm, you become blinded and conformed to it’s patterns. Don’t lose the ability to renew your mind to truths in the Bible. Truths that were established when God created the world and time was new. Truths that never change.

To see truth in the ordinary everyday, “Set your minds on things above, not on Earthly things.”Col. 3:2. Then, listen to the news and talk to your friends to hear and feel the battles in their lives. Don’t trust Facebook to give you the whole story. Don’t believe the lies in the headlines. Learn to discern the truth by reading the Bible. Deflect the devil’s lies with faith in Jesus and fellowship with like minded believers. “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Ephesians 6:11.

Just because you don’t see the warfare doesn’t mean it’s not real and you can’t be injured in the battle. Odds favor, you’re wounded whether you know it or not…and these wounds can hurt and kill. Truth is the first line of protection against being a casualty.

Spiritual warfare is at the root of ordinary issues in society today. Spiritual warfare is causing profound problems in marriages, schools, politics and all relationships. If you start to look for it, it’s as easy to see as a bald spot.

A recurring topic of conversation is balancing the demands of life in 2018. Balance is another way to ask, “Am I living it right?” From the minute we start running to ball practice, cheer leading and music lessons, we join the rat race. The fast lane is different for everyone and it changes the older we get, but the need to balance everything remains the same. I played golf two weeks ago for the first time in forever. I was having a blast until I looked at the time. We had enjoyed an hour and forty minutes together and were teeing off on the 7th hole. When I learned our pace of play, I stopped having as much fun.

Asking for divine intervention in balancing life and time is near the top of too many prayer requests. “Help me balance my…everything!!” FOMO has become epidemic and the result is multitasking on steroids; and opioids for that matter. The attempt to balance our time is a control issue. At the core, control is a spiritual issue.

The Bible says “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures.” Psalm 90:10. At the pace most people are running that’s a very big IF. We try to balance our incessant wants and growing list of demands on our time. Anxiety arises because we were not meant to manage time on our own. We were designed to submit and let God direct how we use our time, where to spend it and what to do with it. If you don’t have a connection to the Holy Spirit, you’re on your own to balance life. Good luck. That’s why there are books, videos and college degrees on time management…and so much frustration.

So, does God know more about balancing and managing time? Proverbs is a book “for obtaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight.” Proverbs 1:2. Wisdom is seeing things as God sees them. “For through me your days will be many, and years will be added to your life.” Proverbs 9:11. Obviously, if God can add years, we need to let Him speak into how we balance our time.

The writer of Psalms reminds us that with God, “..a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by..” Psalm 90:4. If we can get advice from a God who has that perspective, understanding and sight, I have to think balancing our schedules can become a whole new ballgame.

As everything with God, it takes faith and believing. “Listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many.” Proverbs 4:10. The practicality of this means starting each day in communication with Him through the Holy Spirit. Giving Him props and submitting to where He leads us to spend our time is a discipline that can yield hours to your day and make the years of your life more numerous.

God has become a common name accepted in our culture. Jesus is known to his followers but can be divisive to others. The Holy Spirit is more unknown and rarely taught and talked about from the pulpit today. Letting God dictate your pace of play each day requires listening and obedience to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is critical to your faith and crucial to time management.

Why and how is the Spirit such a vital component to letting God manage your day? For starters, He is the guiding voice in a believer’s head and heart. He is the EXPERT in looking ahead and seeing around the next corner. Jesus vouched for the Spirit to all of His followers. “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” John 16:13. I can’t think of a better resume and referral.

Balancing your time and settling into a comfortable pace of play in life might require a few changes in your daily routine. It begins by submitting control of each day to the leading of the Holy Spirit. This requires a relationship with Jesus and getting to know the voice of the Spirit. It isn’t difficult, but it does take a commitment and discipline.

The Holy Spirit gives power, revelation, warnings of things to come, speaks truth, gives hope, renewal, rebirth and gifts from heaven. With these abilities, balancing your life and schedule doesn’t seem far fetched. Your pace of play will never be an issue again.

Certain words have become taboo in our culture. A word can elicit love or animosity and division. Words are gatekeepers to our patience, attention, heart and loyalty. Words can reveal issues and the nature of powers at work. None more so, than the word ‘submission’.

Submission is at the root of the Parkland shootings, the political divisions in our country and the future of our nation. Submission is at the core of why our world was created and why it will be destroyed. Submission is the key to eternity and the balance of your daily activities. In other words, it’s pretty important.

Submission can be a four letter word, a spiritual foundation or a worldly perversion. History is replete with examples of misplaced trust and submission. The dark ages were represented by submission to leaders who lived lavishly at the expense of others. Our nation fought against submitting to a tyrant that wanted taxation without representation. For a long time, women submitted to a government that didn’t allow them to vote or a husband that was abusive. It all boils down to yielding to a superior force or authority. To whom and what do you yield and put first in your life. To what and whom SHOULD you trust and submit?

In 2018, we are rebelling from submission and it is causing chaos. We trust and submit to ourselves first and foremost, but is that the right path? “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.” Proverbs 3: 5-7. We have put our own understanding above all else. With our rebellion, we are elevating ourselves to deity.

The lack of political trust is well founded, right? Politicians come up with tax schemes that benefit themselves. Political parties pass laws that kill unborn babies, break up families and keep prayer out of our schools. And what’s the Biblical advice? “Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account…” Hebrews 13:17. Are you kidding? Submit to people or a party we can’t trust to protect our kids at school? Authority issues cause one more brick to fall out of the wall of submission.

Lack of submitting to leadership has been building since creation. Lucifer was cast down from heaven because his pride wouldn’t let him submit to a greater authority. Adam and Eve submitted to a lie the devil spread about God. Peter gave some advice in the New Testament, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men:… Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.” 1st Peter 2:13,17. In simple terms, fear God and submit to Him. Then, show respect and submit to every other authority among men. Facebook, Twitter and TV are rife with rantings about a Trump Presidency because there is no longer room in people’s hearts to submit to elected authority. This is a spiritual issue. Look in the mirror.

Folks are trying to unsuccessfully balance their lives between work, jobs, family and friends because they don’t submit to even the most simple leading of the Holy Spirit. Not calling a friend who has been on your mind for 2 weeks. Not applying for the new job someone brought to your attention. Not speaking up when you see a coworker forced into submitting to a sexist boss. This leads to rebellion from an elected President you don’t agree with, talking badly about your boss or not giving financial help to a family member who can’t find a job. When we turn from submitting to the highest authority, the fiber of society breaks down…AND so does our relationship with God.

Christ followers are most at risk. When we ignore the leading of the Holy Spirit we harden our hearts and submit to an authority and power other than God. How much of the contentious atmosphere in our lives and nation stem from a spiritual battle caused by submitting to the same enemy as Adam and Eve? “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you..” James 4:7-8. Be aware of who you submit to with each word, action and inaction; each tweet, post and email.

The stresses in your world and THE world can be relieved by a return to recognition, fear and submission…in the rightful and ultimate authority of all creation. Mass shootings can be avoided, world peace and balancing the demands of each day can be achieved. Deny your own understanding and submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit in your daily life. The right career path, peace, and joy for each day all start by submitting to the Holy Spirit first thing in the morning, then continuing to submit as He leads all day.

Don’t kid yourself, submission is at the core of our being and our world. We all submit to something and someone.

Adages and acronyms rule the day. OMG, ‘Actions speak louder than words’, LOL, ‘Attitude is everything’, TTYL, ‘Winners train, losers complain’, TGIF, ‘You play the way you practice.’ We love things to be short and sweet. These days, we NEED things to be short and sweet or we don’t pay attention.

We live in a day where careers, relationships and lives are expressed with brevity. Cell phones and technology are blamed for our lack of patience and inability to wait. Truth be told, ‘everything old is new again.’ The deeper truth is that everything is a spiritual issue. The issue behind impatience and a short attention span is a spiritual battle.

The Psalms are full of encouragement to wait and exercise patience. “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” Psalm 27:14. “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;..” Psalm 37:7. Popular mentality is if the word ‘wait’ is in the solution, there’s a better answer. Today waiting is portrayed to be a sign of weakness, a lack of control and power and not being confident or decisive. Entrepreneurs flock to opportunities where consumers have to wait for more than mere seconds because they believe a quicker solution is always better. The worldly route to glory and riches is found in speed and convenience. Waiting is old school.

Millennials and Gen X’ers feel the brunt of criticism in regards to wanting it all and wanting it now, but they shouldn’t. Impatience has been around forever and is more a reflection on humanity and not how old we are. In this day of instant data and analysis, why did God choose to send His Son in the relative stone age? It’s not as if God doesn’t understand the value of time, but He sees and uses it differently. “…With the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day…Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:8-9. God assigns a greater value to patience and waiting. But, why?

Time is a gift given to us FROM God. In turn, when we give it to someone or something else, it shows the value we assign to that person or activity. How we give our time shows the submission of ourselves and our valuable asset. No one reads a long paragraph much less a long blog or novel. The lie is that everything can be understood and experienced in a condensed version. God may be talked about in a tweet, but He is found and known in the waiting.

The LAST thing Jesus ever said involved waiting. “‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.'” Acts 1:4. God gave the early Christians a gift that allowed them to do greater things than Christ himself, but, they had to wait for it. Jesus was teaching believers to learn the importance of patience and waiting. How long do you wait for a Google search or the ATM to read your debit card? Have you heard the adage, ‘good things come to those who wait’? Do you believe it? Do you practice it?

So, why does everything need to be done so quickly these days? The submission of your time is what it takes to KNOW God, not know OF Him. Next time you get bummed because you’ve been in a taxing job for 4-5 years, remember Abraham was blessed after he waited 25 years for a baby. Noah saved humanity by building a boat that took about 100 years. The world battles against God and does not want you to wait on Him or anything. The world is training you to be impatient and wait on nothing and no one. ‘I want it all and I want it now’ is a lifestyle that can lead to trouble. The Biblical adage is, ‘lust of the flesh’, LOTF.

Judgement is not a popular word, but it is coming. Christ “..will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting on him.” Hebrews 9:28. If popular culture can train us to look for and gain our rewards without having to wait, many will miss salvation.

I believe patience and waiting are a spiritual discipline that we need to return to. Not just for a weekend but as a lifestyle. Yes, it requires a sacrifice of your self and your time. But, “you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:5. Waiting and the giving of your time can be a spiritual sacrifice. Build the house you want to live in.

Next time you are tempted to turn from something because it will take an extra minute or two, don’t. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and the use of your time. View your time as a spiritual sacrifice, then WFI, ‘wait for it.’

In musical notation, a caesura is a break in the music. In conversation, a caesura is a pause or an interruption that gives way for silence. If you want to hear and feel the power of a small dose of silence, listen to Phil Collins timeless hit, In the Air Tonight. Right before the infamous drum solo there is a pause that sets up the sound you will never forget. Science has shown that such intervals are what generate intense neural activity. The contrast of brief silence stirs our senses. It is in the silence where ALL of our senses are engaged and we become alive.

Silence is one of the most valuable assets we possess and everyone is after it. Proof lies in the technology we use for convenience and the data that is so invaluably associated with it. What we browse, how we communicate, when and where we are located. The data that reveals how we spend our time and what occupies our minds is all for the purpose of being able to fill the silence with a desired message. There is a battle for your silence but no one talks about it.

Why is silence so valuable? In the Bible, God is in the silence. God told Elijah to go out and stand on a mountain and be in His presence. “Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” 1 Kings 19:11-12. Elijah heard the voice of God in the quiet, in the caesura, in the silence.

Many believe silence is a luxury. I believe silence is a gift from God designed to bridge the gap between heaven and earth. Silence prepares us and is the environment where we become fully engaged. “Engaged for what?” you may ask. That’s the great thing about silence. It’s unique and different for everyone because it is the space that allows us to hear from our Creator. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11. If silence allows us to hear those plans, we all need more of it.

If you are intrigued and attracted to silence, let me add a note of caution. Everything in and of this world will fight for your silence and against the truth that lies therein. There is no fake news in the solitude that comes with silence. There is noise that battles against the silence but not in the silence. God is in the silence. He reminds us in blunt terms. “He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.'” Psalm 46:10. In the book of Genesis and elsewhere in the Bible, the Holy Spirit is referred to as a wind and a breath. Sound is air in motion. The voice of God is sound itself, everything else is just noise.

In the book of Revelation there is a scroll that reveals what will occur before and during Christ’s second coming. This scroll has seven seals and the 7th seal represents both the wrath of the Lamb and the mercy of God. When the 7th and last seal is opened, guess what follows. “When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” Revelation 8:1. Silence gets our attention, prepares and allows us to hear the voice of God.

Songs have been written about silence. Some say silence is golden. YOUR silence is measured, fought for, coveted, packaged for sale and is more valuable than gold. Everything points to the value of silence and that is why the war exists to take it away from you.

Make the effort to hear what’s in your silence. Listen to the sound of your silence.