Daniel Dessinger

Month: November 2009

  • How Do You Respond to Adversity?

    We are walking through this issue in this very hour. A blessing we expected God to deliver has been withheld, at least for a time. Looking with natural eyes, we’d be tempted to feel lost and abandoned to a vision-less and terrifyingly empty scenario. But I don’t feel yet compelled to release this expected blessing. I don’t believe people have the ultimate say in everything.

    I trust in the word of the Lord, and I expect Him to perform His word. It’s not my job to fulfill His promises. It’s my job to simply trust Him. Will you do that with me? Will you trust in Him? When He speaks a word into your heart. When He leads you to something wondrous yet impossible. Hold fast to Him! Not to an object or a desired outcome. Hold fast to Him! He is the One.

    I know not what tomorrow brings. Man has spoken against the word of the Lord. I choose to believe God. He decides what is best for me, and what is possible. He takes the wealth of the wicked and pours out blessing onto the righteous. He gives good gifts to His children. He is the faithful Father.

    If He releases me from this vision, I will let it go. I will walk away. But not until. I do not hand my future over to simple and sinful men. May the word of Lord not return void.

  • Behavioral Changes Don’t Equal Intimacy

    I’ve written twice this week about the content I focus on, whether it be television, radio, music, news, books, blogs, and tweets. It’s very true that the content we absorb and constantly wash our minds with determines the inclination of our emotions, beliefs, and thoughts. All that information takes up residence in our memories and must be housed. Contrary to popular belief, the mind does not lose or discard “irrelevant” information. That information is simply stored differently.

    It’s possible, however, to only pour “godly” or “Christian” content into your eyes and ears and still be far away from God.

    He is always present, but your heart’s orientation can still be far from Him. I don’t want anyone to have read this week’s posts and think that all they must do is stop pouring junk into their minds. That is an important step, but it is not the step that ultimately leads us into intimacy with the Father.

    We must each have the desire to pursue Him. A clean and swept house that is not filled will eventually be darker than it was previously. This is not something to fear, but a truth to respect and believe. If you’re coming out of a deep dark hole and you think behavioral changes will keep you safe, you have been misinformed.

    Most God dealings are shrouded in mystery. Let’s go ahead and acknowledge that and get it out of the way. There is no PERFECT explanation for how most things happen to draw us closer to God in intimacy. We see in part, for certain.

    Somewhere in these mysterious dealings with our Father, I am drawn. Slight hungers and thirsts deep in my core. In the pit of my stomach or breadbox area. I long for Him. I feel the draw. It’s not always there. But when it is, I have more faith to draw near. For the briefest moment, my heart is not completely numb toward Him. And if I pay attention and honor that moment as a pivotal point in my life, I respond to the Father with an open emotional posture. I ask Him to come. I tell Him I long for Him. I tell Him I love him. I let myself cry when necessary to maintain the posture of longing that begins to swell in my being.

    And I know He is pleased. He already accepts me fully. But He is pleased by the moments I choose to nurture that longing and cause it to swell within me. It is the faintest romance. But it is where I start. It is where I am.

    I am not intimate or close to God because I set pop culture aside. I am intimate because I am sensitive and attentive to my own spirit and when I sense that a moment has come, I love on Him a little. I cast my cares at His feet. I let it all hang out and just BE near Him.

    He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Come. Let us seek Him together.

  • Changing What You Listen to Could Change Your Life

    I came across this blog post today via Twitter. It so closely mirrored the heart of what I wrote yesterday that I had to give you a taste here. JBMavrich writes of how he spent his daily commute to and from work (read his entire post here):

    I turned my sights to music, revisiting albums of my youth. I once again found no life in the secular music that I had so many times before sworn off. I was singing and declaring words of death, or at least nonsense, over and over. I found that this, much like my attempt at listening to the news, was bleeding me slowly.

    I know this feeling. Life is passing you by and you’re not making as much progress or growing as much as you think you should. Your mind feels murky and “full”. You wish you had more faith, but you are overwhelmed and engulfed by whatever Media you are tuned into.

    But something miraculous happens when we carve out emotional and mental space for the Lord. Our minds are quieted and calm. We have far fewer sparkly, shiny, barking advertising things floating around in our minds, looking for a place to settle. There is room for the Lord to speak, and room to listen.

    In short, changing what I fed my spirit has shown dramatic and swift results. My prayer life has increased; my intimacy with the Lord has grown; my revelation and discernment have developed; my heart has tenderized. I have even increased in visions and dreams. I say this not in pride, but to encourage you that these results are only the beginning and possible for us all.

    And that’s point of all of this, after all. Intimacy with the Father. Experiencing His love and acceptance. Finding the capacity to believe His Word.

    *A special shout out to @jbmavrich for writing and tweeting this encouraging post.

  • Day 101: Yoga and VFF Classics… Not So Much

    You read it right: I’ve completed my third yoga practice since last week, and I’m here to tell you it’s the hardest physical exercise I’ve ever encountered. I was fairly confident that my FiveFingers Classics would excel in yoga forms and stretches, but not so. No matter how I tightened my VFFs, my heels kept popping up out the back. That only really happened maybe four times.

    I don’t feel free to express all my impressions and feelings about yoga at this time. A deep internal work is going on, and I don’t want to spoil it. I WILL say that each of the three sessions I’ve attended are taught by different people, so I’ve experienced three very different approaches and speeds.

    The first practice last Thursday was slow and meditative. The woman leading spoke very gently and calmly. She explained every single move, and I was amazed by the experience.

    The second practice was late Saturday afternoon involved some pop music and we changed forms three times faster. I lasted 35 minutes and lay exhausted on the mat for the remaining 20.

    The third practice on Tuesday night involved more music and was led by a young woman who is no doubt attempting to take over the world. We changed forms at such a terrific pace that I basically only performed every fourth form. It was probably three times faster than Saturday’s practice. There were very few pauses or reflection. It was much more aerobic.

    Needless to say, I have many obstacles in my path, the first being my weight. The “resting” positions which are meant to allow you to completely rest for a moment are extremely difficult for me because of my belly. It’s in the way of everything. Some of the basic holds involve shifting most of your weight onto the shoulders and palms. At my current weight, my wrists and shoulders were hurting more than is healthy. It doesn’t help that I’ve gone from complete couch-potato-desk-job-man to pretzel-gumby-man.

    I am currently one of the LEAST flexible people I know. My muscles are WEAK from a lack of consistent exercise. This is difficult for me in just about every way. To give you a mental image, picture everyone else in a resting pose, breathing calmly. Now picture me panting like a dog and turning red because I can’t reach the resting position and my belly is shoving my organs into my spine. Yes. There you go. Feel my pain.

    Did I mention that only women lead my practices and they have no “parts” in the way when demanding we stand with feet together and thighs squeezed together. It’s just not that simple, ladies.

    That’s it for now. I have excluded most of the profound parts because for now, at least, these are all mine and not for sharing.

    Namaste.

  • My Grandfather’s Sermon Audio Now Online

    It’s been a long, drawn out process that I’m not at liberty to discuss with you yet, but I’ve finally managed to start posting my grandfather’s sermons in the form of a podcast.

    As a healing evangelist, Lennard Darbee traveled the States and the world, preaching and teaching from his heart. I’m blessed to have the tapes from his radio broadcast, Rays of Faith. I’m converting them from cassette to digital one sermon at a time and posting them on LennardDarbee.com.

    Stop by and check them out. His tone whe preaching was a turnoff to me in the beginning. But now I cherish it in all its historical accuracy.

    There are several hundred 15 minute sermons to go. My goal is to post one each week.

  • Christians Aren’t As Popular As Jesus

    Jesus would have been much better received today than most Christians are. Coming from an evangelical Christian background, I can testify that most Christians I know believe that they are rejected from society because of their moral standards. “Hollywood is so corrupt! Politicians are so corrupt! The Media is so corrupt!”

    But didn’t Jesus encounter corruption and depravity 2,000 years ago? Absolutely. He spoke with whores, thieves, murderers, and outcasts. And those people loved him. They weren’t repelled by his message. That’s right. They were drawn to him. Jesus was and is a friend to sinners.

    So what makes 21st Century American Christians so different? What is so different about us that the secular world ridicules and rejects us?

    In one word: LOVE. God IS love. Jesus IS love. Jesus walked the earth for thirty some odd years and deeply loved the people he encountered. He was moved with compassion for them. He longed to see them restored. He only said what he heard the Father say, and he only did what he saw the Father doing. And that was always, always, always love.

    We’re not rejected in 21st Century America because of our moral purity. We’re ridiculed, rejected, and scorned because we do not love. Our goal is to do what we’re supposed to do, and we think that is to tell people about Jesus and try to get them to join our side. And we’ve missed the first and foundational precept of Christianity:

    For God so loved…

    Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self-seeking. Love is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

    The Christian life is to be walking by the Spirit, with the Spirit, full of love ready to be expressed. And all of these come from the Father. He is the source. We do not strive to love. We do not push ourselves to love. We love because we are loved. This means that if we are not loving, we have not received love. To taste and see the love that God has for you is to in turn be moved with His love that now dwells in you and to desire to love others.

    I’m sharing this post not because I need to lecture, but because I need to learn. These are the thoughts God is leading me to.

    “Seek Me in the Word, Daniel. Meditate on Me and My attributes, My actions, and My words. You were led to believe falsely about me through the lives of men who taught about Me when you were a child. Now is the time to restore the Truth to you. Know me as I am, not as men have said I am. Know my love, and you will be transformed. Give yourself time to think of me and talk of me. I am better than you ever dreamed. You have nothing to fear. Come closer. Draw closer. Find rest for your weariness.”

    Lord, I am coming.