I spent a week at the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City last month.  The DHF Board wisely saw that I needed rest and fresh vision and they ordered me to go to IHOP.  I was more than glad to oblige them, and spent an incredible week, mostly “soaking,” or sitting before the Lord in a 24/7 prayer room and getting my heart quiet enough to hear from God. 

As part of the week, I felt led to do three things that are not normal for me.  I took off my watch, turned off the radio and watched no TV.  I like to think I’m not addicted to those things, but the silence of the media and the lack of a watch to control my life made for a lot of adjustment.  I couldn’t believe how often I looked at my bare wrist.  Every time I started the car, I had to fight the instinct to turn on the radio.  When I got back to my room, I automatically looked for the TV remote, then remembered that I had put it away.

The old saying goes, “The silence was deafening.”  It started that way, but once I got past missing the distractions, the silence opened my spiritual ears.  The Bible came alive, and I spent hours being led from passage to passage and having them speak to me in ways I hadn’t experienced in a long time.  I had a number of issues to lay before God, particularly relating to DHF and God’s vision for my ministry.  He spoke to my heart in bits and pieces, and by the end of the week the bits and pieces had merged into a pattern that will impact my ministry for the rest of my life.

I’ve known for several years that I needed to get away and spend some quality time alone with God, but it just never seemed to be convenient.  I’ve got ministry to do, both in the office and on the road.  I’ve got deadlines to meet and people to talk to.  My “to do” list is never “to done.”  Besides, I feel guilty when I’m not doing things that look like productive work.

On one level I know that the only things I will ever do that matter are those things I do in the Spirit of God.  And on that same level I know I can move in the Spirit only by giving the Spirit time to do His work in me.  But it’s hard to translate that truth into my schedule and my lifestyle.  I feel better about myself when I appear busy and indispensable.  As a local pastor I was regularly reminded that many people didn’t believe I had a “real” job and I mostly hung around the church and talked a lot.  I learned to overcompensate by keeping up the appearance of being busy all the time, whether I needed to or not.

I’d been thinking of going to IHOP over a weekend sometime, but hadn’t even done that much.  When the board said to take a week, it seemed like too much time away, since the world won’t stay on its axis if I’m not around to keep it spinning. 

The DHF Board had to push me into going to IHOP for a week, and they enabled me to renew my connection with God at a level I’ve not experienced in a long time.

I tell you all this to make a couple of points. 

1)   If you are in full-time ministry, you need to make more time for God.  Time where you aren’t pushing to get a message, striving for some quick answers or trying to assuage your guilty feelings because you haven’t prayed much lately, but time to just soak in Him.

2)   If you are not in full-time ministry, you need to see that your pastor is made to take time away with God.  Y

3)   It’s not just preachers.  You also need to give God extended, unpressured time. 

The ways we do these things vary greatly from person to person, but the bottom line is this: Does God have enough of your time to settle your heart and speak to you at a deep level?  If not, when are you going to change that?

--Doug