Michele: 0:00

Hey friends, it's Michele. Welcome back to New Creation Meditations. Today I want to talk to you a little bit about where you're putting your attention and awareness. There's so many things around us, just in this seen realm, that vie for our attention, right Like our kids need things, our spouse needs things, our house might need our attention, not to mention everything going on in social media and in the news right now. Everywhere we look, there are things in this world that are just clamoring for our attention and our awareness, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Like we definitely want to give our attention and our awareness to things in this physical world, we don't want to just ignore ourselves or ignore our spouse or our kids or our house or our car or whatever else needs us. But if we want to grow in the things of the spirit, one thing that we need to do is set aside some intentional time every day where we can shift our awareness and shift our attention to the kingdom realm, to the unseen realm, not so that we can just ignore everything going on down here, but we can see it through a new perspective. Because here's the thing we get to choose which world we want to be most aware of most engaged in and that's the world we're going to carry the most inside of us. So if we're carrying stress and political upheaval and world wars, that's the atmosphere we're going to release in the environments that we find ourselves in. And take a look around the kingdom and get ourselves filled with hope and get ourselves filled with peace and get ourselves filled with joy unspeakable, then that is the atmosphere that we are going to carry inside of us and release to all the environments we find ourselves in. So we're not ignoring this physical realm, but it's almost like we're swapping out glasses, like the old glasses we we had those on and we saw everything through the lens of stress or anger or discouragement or despair, anxiety, trauma. But after we spend some time in the heavenly realm and we get filled up with hope and filled up with peace and filled up with joy, it's like we swap out those old glasses for new glasses, kingdom glasses, and we get to see things through a kingdom perspective, your heavenly glasses. On your new lenses, you might be surprised the new ideas or new solutions or just renewed hope that you gain after spending a little bit of time just breathing in that atmosphere of heaven, breathing in that atmosphere of heaven. So I have a great idea.

Michele: 3:31

Let's do that for a few minutes together. If you're able to lie down, close your eyes, put on some headphones, that would be awesome. If not, no problem, you can still do this meditation. But let's start out with taking just a nice deep breath in and hold that breath for just a moment and let it out. Let's engage your imagination for a moment. You know, God didn't give us an imagination so that we could dig ourselves into a ditch of despair and anxiety and imagining the worst case scenario. He gave us an imagination so that we can encounter him there. So your imagination is a super powerful place. In fact, Jesus said that if you imagine doing something, it's as if you did it real life. So we're going to use our sanctified imagination for the kingdom right now. I'm going to start out by just reading the first few verses from Revelation 4, and you can just listen and just take it in.

Michele: 4:41

After this, I looked and there before me was a door standing open in heaven and the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said come up here and I will show you what must take place after this. At once, I was in the spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it, and the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were 24 other thrones and seated on them were 24 elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also in front of the throne, there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man and the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night, they never stopped saying Holy, holy is the Lord, god Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

Michele: 7:20

Now, still in your imagination. I want you to take a look around, do a 360 view. You are in the throne room, the most majestic place in all of creation, and you were invited here by the king himself, who said come up here, you belong here, you belong with him, you were made to be here and you're safe here. In this atmosphere of pure love and majesty and safety, I want you to take a deep breath in and breathe in the air of heaven, air that is pure and clean. Breathe it in and let it permeate your entire being. It was, is, is, is.

Michele: 8:26

You can gently open your eyes and wiggle your hands and feet a little bit and get grounded, maybe take another deep breath and just kind of reorient yourself back to the here and now. But remember that you can go back to the throne room whenever you need a little perspective. You have an open invitation from the King of Kings to come join him in his throne room whenever you need or want to Remember that he loves your company and being in this place, this place that we were made for, born for. It reminds us of what's eternal and lasting and what isn't. It helps us put our kingdom glasses on and see things from a higher perspective.

Michele: 9:28

Cs Lewis once said if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy. The most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. You, my friend, were made for another world, the world where the King of Kings resides, and you have an open invitation to join him there whenever you want. He loves to be with you and give you that fresh perspective, that kingdom awareness, whenever you need it. Thanks for joining me today and I'll see you on the next one.