Spiritual Retreat

This coming week I'm going on a spiritual retreat... while staying at home. My husband is going out of town - and I absolutely cannot wait to turn the house into a temple, with my own special prayer closet right in the center. We've been blessed with owning a house that's on over 2 acres of wooded land, with small rock cliffs and a running creek. It's perfect for being alone with God! I'm so excited about it!!

This is a picture of a small part of our front yard ↓
We've made a trail that goes down through the woods beginning at the driveway that leads down to the creek. Surrounded by nature on all sides, hearing the sound of the water as it flows over rocks, it's a great setting to worship God in His creation!

For inside - I've got candles and incense, and praise and worship mix CDs. I've even got wine and unleavened bread for a communion service. I know it'll only be myself and Jesus, but sometimes ritual can really usher you into the Presence of God when you do it purposefully. Sometimes you need to build a physical altar to focus your heart on your spiritual altar to the Lord. It'll also be refreshing to read and meditate on God's Word for a change rather than study and disect it, like I spend the majority of my time doing normally.

I'm especially looking forward to hearing from God. All month I've been feeling like I'm on the verge of something - like entering in to a deeper intimacy with God or hearing a clear directive. Even if nothing profound comes out of my days dedicated to seeking more of Him, at least it will be time well spent at the Lord's feet!

I used to have this habit of taking one day a month to pray and fast and worship God besides my regular every day prayer closet time - and it was incredibly focusing, it was very grounding in power and tuning in for keeping Jesus in front of me - realignment and/or conformation. But in the past few years - I have let that monthly God-time slip, and I've really been missing it. It's a hard habit to maintain when you are married and share the house with someone. Hopefully I can use this week as a re-initiation into that pattern.

God has been knocking into my head recently the dangerous way I've been creeping too close to the world - letting it work it's way into my heart. So this coming week will be a week without TV or email / internet, without clients, or the phone ringing - without my husband! I'm using it as a pure time of starving my fleshly desires and feeding my spirit soul! It's amazing how incredibly easy it is to hear God when you turn the world off - slow down the busy-ness and set time apart as holy on purpose! It's like I finally get that God is constantly talking to me, but I am just usually too distracted to hear Him. It's also amazing to see how much more easily prayer gets answered when I am undivided in my devotion to Him through dedicating hours and days to Him without a self-agenda or having to rush off to do this or that! The one lesson God keeps trying to teach me is that nothing that we do in this life for Him equals the time we spend with Him. The more time I spend in His Presence, the more effective I am in ministry - but that's not even the main incentive for me. For me, it's being near to God and making Him smile - that's the whole point. Having long, uninterupted quality time with God is SO important. I wish I had more opportunities to do that, but I'm at least glad I'll be able to take advantage of my time this coming week!