Dwell Ministries helps Christians deepen our relationship with God in learning to listen to Him. Listening involves not just our ear and mind. Listening to the Lord requires a holistic approach of body, soul and spirit. As integrated human beings we need to hear with our whole being. God is LOVE, infinite, eternal, invisible. His Love for us heals us, body, soul and spirit. The spirituality of learning to be still to listen and receive with all our being takes us beyond mind and emotion which have often been the limits of our seeking God. Always centred on the Word, the Lord releases its power and truth to our lives to work His healing in us.
Be silent before the Sovereign Lord, for the day of the Lord is near.
Zephaniah 1:7
Dwell Ministries offers various opportunities to draw aside to take the time to listen to God with our whole being. Through guided meditations, or specially focussed retreats, Christians are enabled to explore holistic listening. Individual Spiritual Direction affords opportunity to be still, articulate what stirs in the soul, and listen with the ‘director’ to what the Lord may be speaking to the situation. Various publications, CDs and a YouTube channel, offer teaching and experiences in listening and communing with God.
To hear the Lord in the depths of our soul, where deep cries to deep, often in our struggles, takes stillness, space, silence and solitude. Reflection with others enriches and can hone what we hear.
Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls.
Psalm 42:7
Stillness
Be still, and know that I am God.
Psalm 46:10
Stillness is to put aside all else to simply attend to the Lord. To wait in His presence. We may not hear a word from Him but the peace of His presence ministers to our soul.
Space
Jesus said to His disciples, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”
Mark 6:31
Jesus would withdraw and go to a quiet place to commune with His Father. It’s vital to be in an uncluttered space, with no negative associations, where an aspect of God’s good creation surrounds you. It may be flowers, plants, the light of a candle, a peaceful painting or the real deal, outside, surrounded by the work of the Lord’s hands.
Let the external space highlight the space in your own soul, into which you invite the Lord, who brings His love and peace.
Silence
The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.
Habukkuk 2:20
To spend time in silence helps empty the noise of your own soul. Slowly the stresses, fears, disappointments, insecurities, etc surface. We don’t become overwhelmed by them but simply release them to the Lord’s hands. As we wait, the Lord ministers His peace to us, preparing us to apprehend His word or work in us, which we may not even be able to articulate, apart from a sense of simply being in His presence.
Scriptures may stir in our soul, or we may have a sense to read a particular passage. Necessarily these should be short in order to hear the the depths of the particular word.
Solitude
Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
Genesis 32:24
Solitude is to be alone with the Lord. It does not necessarily mean being away from others, but to be in a separate mental and emotional place apart from interaction with others. It is not loneliness, but aloneness, the beloved in the presence of the Lover.
Solitude is most easily found when space, stillness and silence align.
Dwell Ministries provides opportunities to experience and grow in these graces which provide the Lord with a path to our heart. Then, reflecting about what we see, hear or experience with others, the Lord blesses us with the spiritual gifts of His Body, to enhance His work and Word in us.
Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by washing with water through the Word.
Ephesians 5:25-6
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