Two Way Mindfulness

UV 1785/10000 Two Way Mindfulness
The LORD hath been mindful of us: he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron.
Psalm 115 v 12

The Lord’s mind is full of thoughts, feelings and actions that He plans for our good. The enemy’ s mind is full of thoughts of how to rob our peace, of how to kill our joy, of how to steal our lives as he is a thief, a robber and a murderer. The Lord is a life giver, a life enhancer, a joy-giver, a benefactor or one who blesses all who live in relationship with Him. He blesses us in a generic way with good health, the ability to work and earn a living. He blesses both the great and the small in small and great ways. He causes it to happen in a natural way such that mankind takes these blessings for granted. But we ought to be thankful and joyful about every earthly or temporal blessing as well as every heavenly or eternal blessing. Our Praisebook account should find an entry every day of our lives. We should be thankful even for our problems and challenges. Our shortages, weaknesses, problems, difficulties and challenges are but opportunities for the miraculous power of God to be manifested. We have access to a divine ATM- anytime miracle. If the Lord were not mindful of us, none of this is possible. But as He is mindful of us, as He remembers us, as He cares for us, everything is possible. He revealed His grace, truth and power in the profession of the disciples, in the course of their meals, in their ministry, in healing, in deliverance, in provision, in teaching and training. We are often blinded to the workings of the Spirit as we are conditioned or accustomed to only knowledge or awareness by virtue of our limited intellects, our limited experience, our perceptions that are guided by our five senses. These senses make us purblind for our knowledge is not accompanied by wisdom. We have the spiritual equivalent of our five senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell in the realm of faith. We need to increasingly use these spiritual faculties. Saul was temporarily blinded in order that these faculties would be awakened and used. A complete reversal as well as a fulfilment of his earlier convictions was facilitated thereby. The zeal with which he used to persecute and hunt down the early believers was now transformed into zeal plus knowledge of Jesus Christ. As a result He did more than those disciples and apostles who had seen, heard, smelt, touched and tasted of the goodness of the physical Jesus.

We ought to reciprocate by being mindful of the Lord at all times, to be conscious of His presence in us and with us, to live a life worthy of our calling and anointing, to be aware of His commands and to be enthusiastic about His promises, to follow the examples of the good role models in scripture and avoid those that are bad. Mary was mindful of the presence and grace of Jesus while Martha was only mindful of her responsibilities. Mary enjoyed the fellowship of Jesus. If we are mindful of Jesus, we should love to sit at His feet daily and learn from Him. The mindfulness of Jesus should affect our thoughts, emotions, actions, reactions, words, temperament, goals, priorities, faculties and gifts.

Our human productivity is a factor of our blessedness, of how connected we are with the One who can bless, who can cause the desert to bloom, who can start rivers or the continual flow of blessings in our lives- spiritual, emotional, intellectual, social, physical and financial. He will bless us as He blessed Jacob, transforming Him into the father of the nation of Israel, giving him the power to bless his twelve sons. He will bless us in our existential and relational struggles so that we will taste more of victory and defeat only to teach us to depend on Him or to teach us some other lesson or to give us a course correction. He will bless us like Aaron to be a spokesman for God on earth, to be a royal priest, to be a leader among His people, to be anointed, powerful and fruitful. Our bare almond stick will bear almonds in the tent of His presence or the covering of His presence.