Touching God

The Michelangelo painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel of God creating man is certainly well-known, highly recognizable and iconic. The hand of Adam touching the hand of God is also, I think, very symbolic of the human need to touch God. Is it possible to ‘touch God’ in some manner? Does he even care? Is he real enough to touch, if not physically then in some spiritual connection?

Touching God…knowing him intimately, communicating with him, knowing his presence. It is not only my belief that you can do so but this is something we must nurture. A very important part of knowing and touching God is prayer. Prayer’s most basic definition is talking to God. Just about all religions pray in some form even if it is something pre-written by their religion or a silent meditation reaching in to a higher self. Prayer is either viewed as ritual or some way to coax some form of ‘god’ or ‘the universe’ over to our side usually to get something we can’t seem to get in our own power. But prayer is so much deeper than anything human beings can define!

Many would like to believe that this physical world is all there is and then proceed to come up with all kinds of ways that we got here preferably without bringing ‘God’ into the equation. The world we live in for the large part is believed to be ‘all about us’; whomever we are or our particular affiliation, country or political party is. Yet deep down inside something draws us to something deeper than ourselves. There is that part of us that longs for a connection to a greater, higher power. We behold a majestic waterfall or some overwhelmingly beautiful sight and suddenly we cannot help but feel small somehow and whether we believe in God or not at that moment in time we secretly think surely this could not have just happened through some natural evolution. At that moment something draws us to a deeper part of ourselves we did not know or acknowledge even existed; a spiritual part.

Prayer is the very lifeblood of the spirit but it is sadly the least emphasized or it is taught as just a way to get something from God. As blood is to the body, prayer is to the spiritual man. It carries away impurities, fights spiritual diseases and furnishes oxygen to our spiritual minds. Prayer tears down walls between you and God. It heals our spiritual deafness so we can believe and hear the voice of God.

This author pleads for you to put aside religion and tradition and whatever excuses you have for not believing and consider these words and PRAY. This is how we touch God and connect to Him. —Raven

ARE THERE OTHER WAYS THAN PRAYING TO TOUCH GOD?

I have many friends who are Native American by blood and some by heart only. Many of them practice smudging and I also know they are sincere followers of Christ and born again. Some burn herbs and smoke a ceremonial pipe; a special pipe set aside for sacred purposes. Smudging is burning some incense like sage and as they pray they may even take a feather and direct the smoke over their body symbolically cleansing themselves, clothing themselves in the righteousness of Christ. I am a Cherokee and a Christian. One misses the point if they think the act of smudging in and of itself accomplishes anything. Smudging is just a way of focusing one’s energy and faith upon the Creator as is the ceremonial pipe. As long as it is a prayer going up to the Creator just like the smoke traveling upward it is fine. The Jews burned incense in the temple. Just don’t give OBJECTS power. If you do you give them power over you. I know a person who would not have a black cat or any pictures or statues of cats in their house. They gave the image of cats power over them and lived in fear. I know people who give crystals power over them. I’m not saying smudge or don’t smudge just remember its purpose. Yes, I smudge sometimes and I pray other ways. I don’t have to have an OBJECT present to connect to God. To give power to an object is idolatry. Some Christians have made their church or denomination their object of idolatry. If you smudge in your act of prayer to God and it helps you focus on who HE is then it is OK. It is just another way to pray like some people fold their hands and close their eyes to help them focus. It isn’t in our method and actions. We humans are the ones that need to get our focus off ourselves and our rituals. Don’t let the methods and the focus be the THING. Let God be the THING. One philosophy I like that is held among many Native Americans is believing their life is a prayer. They believe everything they do, think or say is going up to the Creator. What a wonderful way to live! Keith Green used to sing a song called Make My Life A Prayer to You that embodies this notion. Kind of sounds like “Pray without ceasing” 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

Make My Life A Prayer To You

Make my life a prayer to you
I wanna do what you want me to
No empty words and no white lies
No token prayers no compromise

I wanna shine the light you gave
Through your son you sent to save us
From ourselves and our despair
It comforts me to know you’re really there

[Chorus]
Well I wanna thank you now
For being patient with me
Oh it’s so hard to see
When my eyes are on me
I guess I’ll have to trust
And just believe what you say
Oh you’re coming again
Coming to take me away

I wanna die and let you give
Your life to me so I might live
And share the hope you gave me
The love that set me free

I wanna tell the world out there
You’re not some fable or fairy tale
That I’ve made up inside my head
You’re God the son and you’ve risen from the dead

I wanna die and let you give
Your life to me so I might live
And share the hope you gave me
The love that set me free

Songwriters: Green, Melody

Make My Life A Prayer To You lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Meditation is another practice that confuses some people. I know many Christians that just blanket condemn meditation because they associate it with Far Eastern and New Age disciplines like astral projection and out of body experiences. I say don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Meditation has been studied and it has been proven that there are many health benefits from meditating regularly like stress and anxiety relief. The Bible is full of references encouraging meditation:

Psalms 1:2 – But his delight [is] in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

Psalms 19:14 – Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

Psalms 119:15 – I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.

Psalms 104:34 – My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.

Philippians 4:8 – Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things.

Proverbs 4:20-22 – My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.

Psalms 119:97 – O how love I thy law! it [is] my meditation all the day.

Psalms 49:3 – My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart [shall be] of understanding.

Isaiah 26:3 – Thou wilt keep [him] in perfect peace, [whose] mind [is] stayed [on thee]: because he trusteth in thee.

Matthew 6:6 – But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

Psalms 1:1-6 – Blessed [is] the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

Psalms 119:127 – Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.

Psalms 119:11 – Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Psalms 119:97-99 – O how love I thy law! it [is] my meditation all the day.

Psalms 63:6 – When I remember thee upon my bed, [and] meditate on thee in the [night] watches.

Beware of course of meditation practices that encourage you to empty one’s mind and invite whatever spirits in or that encourage you to allow your soul to leave your body. Beneficial meditation is two-fold. One is just for health purposes. Get comfortable in a sitting posture. Take three deep breaths. Close your eyes and just focus on one thing like your breathing. When other thoughts try to distract acknowledge them and send them on their way and get back to your single focus. This teaches you to control your mind, body and thoughts. It also relives anxiety and stress and relaxes you.

The other form of meditation is similar but you add another element to it. You make it a point to invite the Holy Spirit to speak. You may also use this time to focus on a particular Bible verse or a word like ‘peace’.

Like posture, burning incense or playing music it is just a tool to help you focus. There is nothing magical that takes place just because you do these things. It is not by our own efforts that we benefit but by our connection to the Holy Spirit. It is a means of producing a sanctuary anywhere and anytime. It is acknowledging that sacred ground is wherever and whenever we consecrate that moment to God acknowledging his presence and our dependence upon him. It is at these times that he empowers us in a way like nothing else can.

by Terry Barlow

There is something that has tremendous power to lift us out of the pit of our self-centeredness, our so-called Christian or religious self-centeredness. It is entering into the flow of Christ’s intercession that is flowing everyday like the stream that feeds our neighborhood lake. (Romans 8,v34) I can tell when I have entered that flow. My heart’s eyes typically open wide as I think something like this, “Wow! There is so much to pray about, there is so much going on within so many needs. These are such urgent concerns, how did I miss them for so long? Where have I been all this time?” Didn’t Jesus frequently ask his disciples similar questions? Not everyone is called to be an intercessor as certain ones are, even as not all are called to be evangelists as certain ones are, but all believers are called to intercede, just as all believers are called to evangelize.

I can tell I have entered the flow of His intercession when there is a freshness or newness about my prayers, though maybe not totally. There is still a day to day regularity, like a repeating framework, but upon that familiar framework and structure are being hung new prayers and prayer concerns, and prayer strategies, such that I marvel, “Gee, I never thought I’d be praying for this or for this one, or in quite this way.” Prayer capillaries are forming to serve or irrigate new areas, new territories. Inroads are being made by and through faith. The Blood is flowing, His blood. The prayer life is alive and growing. How else can we tell something or someone is alive but that they are growing or changing in some needful way?
That’s probably enough to say about it for now, for this much has been incubating for some time. More recently though it took on this curve, this additional appendage: the flow of Their fellowship. This too is something we can enter that will rescue us from our aloneness and our self consciousness. These seem to be two tributaries mingling in the same River; their intercession (for the Holy Spirit is also intercessor) and their fellowship which always was… except for that skip-a-beat, unfathomable interruption for our sake at the Cross when Jesus cried out, “Father, Father, why have You forsaken Me!?”
But I will let that particular flow incubate some more for now.