“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27)

For a 12-hour stretch between 7 p.m. last Friday and 7 a.m. Saturday, a group of 30 followers of Jesus, including me and Sulojana, were at a Soakathon at Forks Road East United Church in Wainfleet, Ontario in the Niagara Region of Canada.

Most of us were stretched out on the floor or on the pews, doing nothing but remaining still, with quiet music playing in the background in between occasional 10 minute intervals of total silence.

As you know from the past three posts, we were soaking in the presence of the Lord, marinating in the River of God, being transformed by the Holy Spirit, like a cucumber into a dill pickle!

A total stranger walking in cold actually mistook us for a homeless shelter and offered his home to those who preferred such creature comforts J

Since the lighting was dim, he could not see one unusual feature beside every “bed” that would’ve made him question his conclusion about who we were.

You see, we had instructed everyone to keep a piece of paper and a pen beside their pillow (or equivalent) while they were soaking.

Experience has shown us that when we start the process of soaking, there are bound to be distractions.

Some of the external distractions such as other sources of sound/noise can be easily eliminated until your atmosphere is reasonably quiet.

Alternatively, you could turn the volume of the music high enough that it would drown out the extraneous noise.

However, there are still the internal distractions that need to be dealt with.

Our minds wander. Our thoughts go astray. We end up having difficulty focusing on Jesus and hearing His voice.

Jesus makes it plain in John 14:27 that His sheep hear His voice. That is a given.

Is it possible that we are not able to hear His voice as clearly as we should because of the distractions?

Jesus warns us repeatedly that the enemy of our souls would like nothing better than to prevent us from receiving His word and hearing His voice.

In the familiar parable of The Sower, the birds steal the seed before it ever has a chance to fall on the field (Mark 4:4). No seed. No yield.

Jesus’ interpretation identifies the birds with satan (Mark 4:15).

This is where the pen and paper come in handy.

We write down the thoughts that prevent us from being still, whatever they may be.

It is amazing how this simple process clears the clutter from our mind and paves the way for us to simply stay still in the River.

The unexpected bonus is that many end up writing out their next grocery shopping list in the process J

Once we get the distractions out of the way, now we are free to fix our eyes on Jesus and enter into His rest, amen?

Please share with the rest of your DWOD family how this works for you.

Would you also share other strategies you use to eliminate distractions? Thanks in advance.