Discovering God Though Stillness

The counsel is, “Be still, and know that I am God,” Psalm 46:10. 

The advice isn’t to “imagine” God. The advice isn’t to take confidence in what we assume God is. The Bible is asking its reader to know God from first employing stillness. The Bible is actually asking its student to develop an understanding of and on God by simply living and proving their experience, idea, and prior knowledge of God. 

This is, to me, revolutionary. It is revolutionary because, who would imagine the Bible advocating for a knowledge of God without “God”? The Bible is asking its student to take what they think they know about “God” and prove it. How are they supposed to get proof of God? The Bible counsels to be still, to be silent, to hold peace, to “wait.”

Now, all of this may sound like the Bible is calling for a dormant or an inactive experience. It may even sound like the Bible is asking its reader to blindly employ whatever “faith” they imagine themselves to have, and to “let go and let God.” To the Bible’s mind, to be “still” and to “wait” actually means to “rest.” When “resting,” one isn’t passing through a lethargic experience. “Rest,” to the Bible’s mind, is a concept understood from how it says:

“Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little…To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear,” Isaiah 28:10-12

When “still,” one is at “rest.” To the Bible’s mind, “resting” equates to high mental activity. “Rest,” to the Bible’s mind, is the exercising of the mental faculties to experience spiritual or philosophical rejuvenation. “Rest” brings “refreshing” because of the enlightenment experienced when mentally examining and applying the scriptures. 

The advice to “be still” is counsel encouraging the Bible’s student to actually exercise mental energy for rejuvenating their spiritual understanding. When doing so, one may then “know God” by exercising the understanding acquired. This manner of devotional learning is for ensuring that our belief practically understands the reason behind its existence. 

It sounds so simple to say and to read, “Be still, and know that I am God,” but the reality of this counsel goes deeper than what is written. The Bible is asking the person to re-imagine their conversation by spending time not only with the Bible’s words, but with their conversation exercising those words. 

Every word and illustration within the Bible is instruction directing the person to set their devotional conversation in order. The mind inspiring the Bible isn’t content that its reader takes comfort in a public or private deity. The Bible’s mind is concerned about the state of the conversation’s thoughts and feelings, and to help the conversation understand reality, the Bible directs it to exercise its higher faculties. 

We can observe the Bible as a set of stories pointing to a moral human obligation. We can observe the Bible as a book counseling on practical religious ethics. Or we can see the Bible for what it is. We can see the Bible as a book correcting the human and religious moral and ethical character by instructing its reader to investigate the structure of their belief or assumption. 

The Bible is a book about firstly correcting the devotional conversation’s conscience. Beneath all of the illustrations, allegories, and parables, the Bible’s main concern is informing its reader that their conversation is unhealthy. 

We believe our spiritual belief and its idea is sound. We believe our conversation is sober. To the Bible’s mind, no conversation is healthy. This is why it says, “There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not,” Ecclesiastes 7:20. 

The mind inspiring the Bible is a disposition determined to elevate the devotional conversation’s thoughts and feelings. A key element to this elevation is “stillness” or “rest,” without which the conversation remains without a sure understanding not only of the Bible, but also of its own experience.  

Discovering The Bible's Redemption

When hearing, “Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation,” Revelation 5:9, we are hearing the sum of the controversy revolving around the crucifixion.

When hearing, “To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons,” Galatians 4:5, we are receiving the main train of thought highlighting that very controversy. 

There is only one “redemption” within the Bible, and that is the deliverance and the restitution of the conversation’s conscience from the core standard of “kindreds,” “tongues,” “peoples,” and “nations.” Said plainly, the “redemption” that the Bible is concerned with is one where the devotional conversation is taken from the religious world to exist only with the Bible’s devotional character. This is why it says, “Therefore are they before the throne of God,” Revelation 7:15.

When the Messiah is crucified, their death is supposed to echo the error in maintaining the conversation by popular religious means and standards. This is why it says, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree,” Galatians 3:13. 

Of course this changes and challenges the narrative of popular religious theory, and why shouldn’t it? When learning how the Bible thinks, when learning how the Bible interprets itself, and why it does so in the way that it does, the conversation is introduced to the Bible’s unadulterated character. For the sake of our personal and devotional growth and development, ought we not, in order to encourage its regeneration, challenge our own belief?

The Bible’s devotional character is not the religious world’s devotional character. The Bible’s aim and narrative isn’t the aim and narrative of the religious world. Concepts within the Bible are not the concepts given and endorsed by the religious world. The liberty advertised by the Bible is not the liberty advertised by the religious world. 

Just because something is labeled, it doesn’t mean that it is actually true to what the label says of it. Something can have a label highlighting its relevance, but when really looked at, we can see that it is actually disconnected from its label, deserving its label due to some linked association. While there are many associations linked to the Bible, when sincerely studying the Bible, one finds that those associations don’t truly represent the label connected to it. 

When reviewing the issue of redemption from within the Bible, what stands out is how it says, “Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth,” Psalm 31:5. The “spirit” is the subject of redemption, which is why it says, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind,” Ephesians 4:23, and, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” Psalm 51:10.

No one appreciates being viewed or judged outside of their personal context. Some even take it to be an insult if you don’t pronounce their name correctly. This same respect ought to be given to the philosophy and the devotional character within the Bible. If we fail to correctly articulate the Bible’s character, we do an immediate injustice to its personality, narrative, and philosophy.  

The subject of redemption is a subject about the conversation’s revival and reformation. This is why it says, “To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God,” Psalm 50:23.

An extra narrative is added when placing the Bible’s definition of redemption outside of its context. Our conversation has a work to do. The mind putting their conversation in order will understand the Bible’s definition of salvation. This means that the conversation must quiet its mind to embrace the Bible’s, which is why it says, “Put off concerning the former conversation…and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,” Ephesians 4:22,23. 

For Jerusalem's Sake

If there was something within the Bible calling for the conversation’s regeneration, what would it sound like? One of the issues I’ve found among individuals wanting to understand the Bible is the problem of expecting the Bible to be what is imagined. This isn’t too cool to do because while the Bible plainly articulates its own character, we venture into it assuming a character for it. By doing so, we miss its essence. 

The Bible advises the Jerusalem of its mind to wake up. It says, “Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion,” Isaiah 52:2. 

These words are present tense. When dipping into the Bible, Jerusalem is presently captive, and this “Jerusalem” is not a reference to any literal connotation we may think of. In the Bible, “Jerusalem” is a “city” and , in context, is a reference to an assembly. We read:

“And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken,” Isaiah 62:12. 

“…and they shall call thee, The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel,” Isaiah 60:14.

“Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee,” Isaiah 25:3.  

“…the city which is called by thy name…thy city and thy people are called by thy name,” Daniel 9:18,19. 

In context, a “city” is a “people.” In context, “Jerusalem” is an epithet for an assembly of individual conversations reflecting the living God’s devotional character. If a member of “Jerusalem,” one is a figurative member of a congregation whose conversation possesses the Bible’s devotional character. This is why there is a call for Jerusalem to quit their slavery. 

The message is philosophical. There is, within denominations subscribing to a Jewish religion, conversations having the potential to become members of “Jerusalem,” or members of the Bible’s intended congregation knit together in unity by mind. It would be remiss of me not to say that this congregation is “the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven,” Hebrews 12:23, not literally but, again, in mind and in devotional character. 

This assembly, this city, is invisible to the eyes yet visible in character. The Bible’s mind counsels potential members of its assembly and classroom to awake from their denominations and to begin to cultivate the character of their conversation. This cultivation is necessary because the individual is to be a member not of a religious denomination and not of their of self, but of the mind within the Bible. 

The illustration of shaking from the dust sends the mind back to Adam in Eden’s garden. Adam was created from and taken out of the dust. What does this mean? The meaning of “dust” is found in the saying:

“Thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth,” Genesis 28:14.

“And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth,” Genesis 13:16. 

In right context, “dust” equals “seed.” Adam arose from the ground of a seed of people, or from a denominated assembly. The record of Adam in Genesis is an allegory pointing to the regeneration of a conversation from a religiously erroneous denominated world. This train of thought is further emphasized by how it says, “…and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation,” Revelation 5:9. 

Bible philosophy is simple. The goal of the Bible’s philosophy is to redeem the conversation from out of people or nations (denominations) to personally cultivate a conversation matching the devotional character within it. This can’t happen if unwilling to awake or resurrect from one’s present self-cultivated or inherited belief. 

The Bible can only benefit the conversation willing to regenerate from the ground of its belief. Every message within this book, when held in right context, points to the fact of personal devotional resurrection. By letting go of what is believed, a living belief is to be assigned to the conversation, allowing our joy in the Bible to be where we know it should be.