Time and God's Presence
A few weeks ago, I looked down to find the hands of my wrist watch had frozen. The battery had been replaced a few months ago and I was surprised to see it might already need a new one. I mentioned my predicament to a friend who was in the room with me. A few minutes later I looked down to see my watch had begun to work again and was displaying the correct time. I heard the Holy Spirit whisper, “I am taking you outside of time.” Completely confused, I asked the Lord to unpack to me the meaning behind this episode. Throughout the rest of the week, the Lord made time a theme of my learning with Him.
God’s intention for all of His children is that we would experience continual connection and communion with Him by His Holy Spirit. The more we grow in Christ, the more we become aware of the ability to flow with Him every moment of our lives. Jesus is our Sabbath rest. This “rest” permeates every area of our lives. Rest in Christ begins with the worship of the heart.
We tend to worship the past. We do this by allowing past experiences and emotions, no matter how distant, to influence our existence in the present. When we are growing and developing, we learn that certain stimuli trigger certain thoughts and emotions. Over time, these thoughts and emotions becomes conditioned and we begin to respond to triggers in the same way almost every time, without thinking. They become part of us.
We also worship the future. We create an idea of what we think of as our “ideal future.” Our thoughts and actions will align to this ideal as we stay fixed on it. Gradually, for better or for worse, we will naturally become what we envision as the “best” version of our own future. We become anxious and fearful when the image of our ideal future is threatened in any way.
Both of these things - the worship of the past and the worship of the future - lead to unnecessary pain and striving. Proverbs 19:21 says “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” What if we could learn to avoid pain, disappointment, and deferred expectations by learning how to remain in the moment with Jesus? What if we could just enjoy Him every second of our lives and let Him direct every single step of our lives?
We must train our minds to focus on the now with Jesus, remaining wrapped in His loving Voice at all times. By doing so, we disarm the power that the past and future can hold over us. In Christ, we are new creations, no longer defined or bound by our thoughts, actions, or intentions from the past (2 Corinthians 5:17). All that matters is the NOW with Jesus. The future has already been set in place by the Author of history, Jesus Himself. He has things for us to walk in that are beyond our ability to even think or imagine, at any given time. We can let divine purpose and dreams guide us, but we must hold them very loosely, knowing He is constantly modifying and adjusting them to match our growth. When we worship our vision, we can set up an idol in our heart that distracts us from the beauty of His presence in the moment.
Remaining in the now requires practice and mental awareness. As we grow in Christ, we become more and more sensitive to His Voice in our minds, the stream of consciousness that is always flowing from heaven. We become progressively less identified with what has happened or will happen to us. Instead, we become more identified with what He is saying and doing in the moment. Our focus shifts from the temporal to the eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).
The “now” is a powerful place to live. It is where Jesus lived with His heavenly Father. He did not do anything He did not see His Father doing (John 5:19). The past and the future had no hold over Him. We become powerless when we allow the past and future to hijack our thoughts, feelings, and emotions. The mind of Christ enables us to live in the “now” with Jesus. As we take thoughts captive and make them obedient to our identity in Christ, we disarm any power the past and future may hold over us. As our mind is renewed, we are brought into greater and greater rest. Rest is trust - trusting who God says I am and His intricate plan for my future. It comes from abiding in Christ keeping my eyes fixed on Him alone.
This doesn’t mean we abandon our responsibility to steward the dreams and purposes God has placed in us. Rather, we disarm spiritual powers that promote anxiety, shame, fear, and worry by the power of the mind of Christ. When our worship remains focused on Him, we recognize that He is in everything and has us exactly where He wants us. Our minds become still in His Presence.
A few mornings after the incident with my watch, I woke up with the words “He makes everything beautiful in its time.” I looked up the words and realized they were from Ecclesiastes:
Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV) “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
The Lord began to explain that everything we will be and do, for all eternity, has already been written into our hearts. It is all already there, ready to be realized and accessed as we walk in intimate relationship with Jesus. We must let go and let Jesus continue to set the course of our destiny, He has been directing it all along. We thus move “outside of time” when we allow the Lord to change our perception of it. Time works for His purposes, not the other way around. He is outside of time, adjusting all circumstances and situations for our ultimate good and His glory.
