fbpx

Category: Spirituality

Posted on

Following God In Practice

The hallmark of a life yielded to God is a commitment to listening and obeying. However, I have found that both listening and obeying are disciplines that require practice.

When I was a babe in Christ I could not hear God very well at all and my life was at the mercy of those whom I allowed to guide me. It was not pretty. As an adolescent (in terms of spiritual maturity), I transitioned into taking responsibility for my decisions. I could hear God but only in a very general sense. I knew the general direction that He wanted me to go but not much more than that. Thankfully, today I can hear God much better. The beautiful thing about that is that when you have a word from God, and you know that you know that you have a word from God, staying the course of obedience is easier (still not easy mind you but at least you KNOW that it will work out in the end for your good and His glory).

At the beginning of this year, God spoke to me and said that 2024 would be a year of victory in every area of my life. Like Joshua, I would be taking territory in my health, finances, career, ministry, sanctification, relationships etc. Now, a decade ago I might have been naively excited about this word but not today. I knew what that word really meant. It meant: Get ready for war! I’m still excited, but it’s more of a sober excitement if you know what I mean.

Again, a decade ago I might also have thought that I had nothing more to do than wait for God to drop this victory in my lap. And, of course, I would have ended the year frustrated and disappointed. But not today! I have learned that God wants me to partner with His word; to partner with Him. So, I made a plan of how I would partner with this word to see it come to pass in my life.

One of the first things I did was to rearrange my schedule to prioritize physical exercise and time with God. I slowed down. I got focused. I disengaged from social media. I’m not running around attending a lot of church events. Instead, I’m focused on quiet alone time with Him. In other words, I prioritized self-care. War takes a toll and I know my victory depends on my ability to stay connected and refreshed in God’s presence as well as physically and emotionally healthy. This is what it takes to persevere. It’s all about the long game.

The second thing I did was to engage the services of a professionally trained Christian therapist. I stress professionally trained because we Christians have this belief that any pastor with bible knowledge makes a good therapist. I can tell you from experience this is not the case! Not only that, but many church leaders do not even have a pastoral gift/calling and are really frustrated by having to deal with people’s problems which is not who you want counseling you! You want someone who, first of all, can hear God, and secondly has been called and trained to facilitate transformation in your life. Someone who enjoys helping people become the best version of themselves. Someone who can deal with all of our mess without shaming us or condemning us and who genuinely finds joy in their work. Someone who is your die-hard advocate and is full of hope for who you can become in Christ. I am blessed to have found a therapist who fits that description to support me in this season. If I am to have victory in my personal life I need to put in the inner work.

Next, in each area of my life, I seek God daily for the details of how to engage the enemy and secure victory. While the word of the Lord for 2024 is my rallying call, my inspiration, and my anchor, experience has taught me that the pathway to victory relies on a daily partnership with God. How do I handle this situation at work, Jesus? How do I deal with this issue with my son, Papa? What do you want to do at our church meeting this morning, Holy Spirit? The Spirit-led life is the only pathway to fulfilling God’s word for my life in 2024.

So has it gone smoothly thus far? Ha! Finances are tighter than ever, one of my sons had his first car accident, my granddaughter had a health challenge, I just strained my hamstring this week, I have a cough that won’t go away, and there are contentious issues brewing at work. Just to name a few of the challenges… But this is what I expected. This is the nature of war. There is no victory without war. It is only in our fantasies that a ‘take the promised land like Joshua’ word means a comfortable stroll around Jericho singing a few songs and then we walk in and take over while the enemy hightails it for the hills. At least that was what it looked like in my head in my more immature days.

I am thankful that He has brought me to the place where I can genuinely rejoice through trials because I hear His voice and I KNOW that I am following the Commander of the Armies of Heaven! “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4) This is my peace in the storm.

Every day I see victory in my circumstances. I see it in the unexpected heart-to-heart conversation when one of my children has an uncharacteristically teachable moment. I see it in an unexpected call from someone I do not know that connects me with purpose in a way I could not have planned. I see it in just-in-time resources to help me navigate difficult relationships. Most of all I feel it in His voice and the nearness of His presence. I know I am victorious because He is with me every day. This was God’s word to Joshua:

Joshua 1:9 (NLT)

This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

There are a few things I want to leave with you:

  1. Hearing God takes practice. It develops over time. But it is essential for every one of us to be working on developing this ability. Your effectiveness in living a purposeful life that is pleasing to God is determined firstly by how well you can be directed by Him in your daily walk. This is not just knowing the bible. This is knowing His voice. There is a difference.
  2. When God gives you a word, know that it will not (generally) come to pass without your active participation. God wants to do things with you, more than He wants to do things for you. Active participation means digging into the details of what God requires from us. Never stop at just receiving a word with joy. Dissect it. Ask questions. Work it out daily with Him. God often gives scant details so that we will not run off without Him.
  3. God rewards obedience. When you begin to do life His way and in His timing, you will reap the rewards!

#2 in my opinion, is what makes all the difference in our experience of this Christian life. I know many people who are stressed, anxious, discouraged, and exhausted by following Jesus. There was a time when I was all of those things. We press on and hold on in the hope that all things work for good… But that is not how God wants us to live! We are designed to live in fellowship with God and His presence is supposed to be the source of our internal atmosphere. Our experience of life should be full of peace, hope, and joy not because circumstances are peaceful, hopeful, or joyful but because He is and He is with us! I am not afraid or discouraged because the Lord my God is with me wherever I go! If as a Christ-follower there isn’t peace and joy on the inside of you that is BIGGER than your circumstances then there is a deeper walk in God available to you. Press into it now!

Copyright 2024, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
Posted on

The Fast Track to Maturity

Richard Rohr talks about ‘second half of life maturity’. It is something I have experienced myself but have been grappling with recently for reasons unknown to my conscious mind. The rough idea is that one has to live a bit and experience pain and loss and failure in order to overcome our immature mindsets. Caught up in there is the idea that we must go through the phase of ‘the law’ and religion before we can experience grace and spirituality.

I have done religion with great gusto. I have done sin with great gusto. Now, I am doing spirituality with great gusto. (Do you see the trend?) My struggle is this: Were religion and sin optional or necessary? Fr. Rohr seems to think that it is par for the course. I’m not 100% convinced. Much of what some would call ‘ministry’ that I do these days is premised on the belief that one can be birthed into the kingdom of God straightaway into a relational intimacy with Father, Son and Holy Spirit without the need to go through the intellectual, self-righteous, Christian membership club phase. I have even seen spiritual growth models that show an initial phase of rapid growth that includes becoming a church member and getting involved in church activities etc. But then we hit a wall of some sort (loss, sin, divorce, health issues, burnout, spiritual dryness). You can get stuck at the wall or overcome it to start growing again in deeper relationship with God.

It does seem difficult to traverse from a very black-and-white, biblical mindset to a more mystical (union with Christ) mindset. You can’t really teach someone into maturity if they are already convinced that they know all the truth and have all the answers. I know. I have tried and failed repeatedly. It is because of these experiences that I tend toward agreeing with Richard. It is very difficult to jump 2 or 3 steps from where you are. This realization has helped me to be more patient and far less inclined to try to influence others. It is far better to wait on God to bring to me those who are ready to go deeper and leave those who are not yet ready to go their way in peace (or hit their wall). Perhaps the adage is true – when the student is ready, the teacher appears.

There is one problem with this school of thought – Jesus. Paul (formerly Saul), the self-named Pharisee of Pharisees has one encounter with Jesus and leapfrogs over years of tradition and indoctrination and self-righteousness into the most mystical understanding of the faith recorded in the Bible. Jesus appears to him as a blinding light and a booming voice and Paul is never the same again. Listen to Paul:

…You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God’s law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God’s law Book. The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness. I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally…

(An excerpt from the Message translation of Philippians 3)

One encounter with Christ is all it takes. I believe that a newborn babe in the faith can be catapulted into second-half-of-life-maturity with one encounter with the Son of God. I don’t believe that you have to wait until you are over 40 like me. You don’t have to be sucked into religion. An encounter with Jesus is available to you now. No frills. No holds barred.

This is of course, what Jesus offered when He said the Kingdom of God was at hand. He did not just offer a message, He healed the sick and cast out demons. He offered a foretaste of heaven! Any message without a spiritual experience is what Paul called persuasive words of human wisdom without a demonstration of the Spirit and of power! (1 Co 2:4)

Nothing less than a knock-your-socks-off, high-voltage contact with the very power of Love personified is yours for the having… if you want it.

Copyright 2023, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

Hungry for an encounter with God? Stay tuned to our Events page.

Posted on

ONLINE WORKSHOP: SPIRITUAL FORMATION 101

DATE: Mondays from 19th September 2022 to 21st November 2022

TIME: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm AST

VENUE: Online Zoom Event (Cameras On)

FACILITATORS: Matik Nicholls, Tricia Celestin-Nicholls

DESCRIPTION: Participants will be taken on a 10-week journey that explores topics such as intimacy with God, identity, transformation, what it means to be a mature Christian, and how we can become mature. The sessions will include teaching, discussion, reflection, and activation in an environment of loving community.

TARGET AUDIENCE: This workshop is open to anyone seeking to walk more intimately with Jesus Christ and become more like Him.

COST: FREE

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Spiritual Formation 301 was EXCELLENT!!
Like the previous Sessions SF 101 & 201, packed with solid Biblical content, thought provoking, life transforming activities and discussions. I believe the facilitators through the leading of Adonai took us all on a journey each session where we were confronted, inspired and motivated to pursue authentic deeper intimacy with our Father. All my relationships have benefitted significantly from what I have gleaned as a participant in these sessions and if possible I would be willing to do them over again!

Thank you Matik and Tricia for making yourselves available and willing to process life with us in community as we provoke each other unto good works, and grow up into mature sons. God bless you and your ministry. We love you.

Rose, Turks & Caicos

It was a great pleasure to be a part of Spiritual Formation 101, 201 and 301. It has been a very enlightening, informative and eye-opening experience.

The purpose of these sessions was to encourage spiritual growth; to move from a place of immaturity to a place of maturity in Christ. It was about teaching the participants how to form new habits to help us grow and be more intimate in our relationship with others and with God. We identified where we were at in these relationships and through teachings and practice, looked at ways to find our identity in Christ. We learned and discussed ways to move from individual mindsets to a Kingdom mindset.

I loved that this was an open place to share. I had quite a bit on my plate at the start of 101, and being in that space was a healing in itself. It renewed my trust in God. At that time, my husband was having some issues with his sight; he couldn’t see. But listening to the teachings and hearing what others had to share helped me to see God’s hand working in my life, and that of my husband, even in that situation.

It seems like there was something happening in my life for each fraction of Spiritual Formation. In 201, I was having some issues with my alcoholic brother. He was drinking and getting into fights. But being in a place that I felt safe to share and being taught about God’s continued grace, helped me through. During 301, I was not in the best place spiritually; I wasn’t giving God His due, not spending enough time in His presence. But Matik’s presentations (practice and
assignments) helped to pull me out of that place and be more focused on my
relationship with God.

I truly believe that spirituality is much more important than religion. I also believe that God isn’t about saving only one religion but all of mankind. These three ‘courses’ reiterated that fact. Interacting with people of different countries, religious persuasions and socio-economic backgrounds, taught me that I take a lot of things for granted in my life.


I truly enjoyed these sessions and looked forward to them. I would this again if given the opportunity, because there was so much to learn that I’m sure I missed something(s).

Thanks so much for this Matik! May God continue to bless your efforts to spread His Kingdom message to others.

Jeneil, Trinidad & Tobago

Hi everyone. My name is Gillian. My husband and I met Matik and Tricia virtually during our search for a greater level of understanding of the Kingdom of God and desiring a greater daily impact in our lives through a deeper intimacy with God. I have had the great opportunity to sit expectantly through the Spiritual Formation sessions for the 201 and 301 courses. At the time when the 101 course was being offered, I was not available, but caught up, I believe, with the Basic, and Phase One sessions on the Authentic Joy website- https://authenticjoy.org/.

The Authentic Joy journey has been a real eye opener for me. In their loving way, I was encouraged to ask myself some deep questions, that allowed me to understand who I am and who God created me to be. My fellow course-mates helped in the process by sharing their experiences and what they gleaned as well. I especially liked the exercises and the habits we were encouraged to develop. Journaling is still a challenge but I appreciate the value of it and will settle in one day. Our model was always Christ Jesus and I learnt that real life was thriving in His love, joy and peace and not the false self of the survival mode where I had the tendency to perform for acceptance.

We are all to continue to seek the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and in this, mature in love and purpose. I encourage you to go on this journey of Spiritual Formation. For me although the course has ended, the transformation journey continues. I am committed to ardently pursue intimacy with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. My life depends on it.

Thank you, Matik and Tricia for your passionate pursuit of God and joy in giving this course. I love you both.

Gillian, Jamaica
Posted on

The Grace Of Failure

I’m my worst critic. I want to obey God. I want to make all the right decisions. Most of all, I want to love people well. Somehow, I do not live up to that standard on a daily basis. And sometimes, when I fail, I beat myself up about it. I had a particularly bad self-flagellation episode recently. I was teaching an online class about spiritual growth. I had given the participants an exercise to do and as one participant was sharing her experience with the exercise, I interrupted her to ‘correct’ what I thought was a misunderstanding of the instructions that I had given.

I went over that interaction in my head for days. “Why did I feel the need to interrupt?” “How could I have acted in a way that was exactly the opposite of creating a safe loving space which was the foundation of the whole course!?” I sank deeper and deeper into a depression.

After I had a chance to apologize (and realize that this was bothering me much more than it was bothering her) I was able to begin to see God’s grace in my failure. I was able to see myself starting the session that day with a cavalier air about myself. I had been doing the sessions for a while now and I was becoming a believer in my own expertise. I was losing the ethos of the ‘eternal amateur’ as I call it. I believe that great moves of God, great churches and great men usually start off in a place of ‘Oh God, we need you, we don’t know what we’re doing.’ That place of dependency is not meant to be a phase that we graduate from but a lifetime heart posture.

God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

Matthew 5:3 (NLT)

God moves in the midst of and on behalf of those who live in the reality of their dependency on Jesus. We can do nothing Godly without God.

My failure was God mercifully letting me know that I had taken a step away from that place of dependency. I was becoming a professional. I remember how I prayed at the start of that session… I didn’t pray for God to help me. I prayed for God to help them. They needed help, not me. What a delusion!

If it takes failure for me to remember the mess that I am and my utter need for God, oh God please give me failure. When God begins to move in your life and the spheres that you inhabit, it is a seductive fantasy to buy into your own competence. I’ve seen it. I’ve witnessed the exit of God as man exalts himself to god-like status. I’ve seen mere mortals become THE man of God to the point where it is anathema to even remind his church members that he is just a man. I’ve seen churches buy into a ‘we are the chosen ones’ narrative to the point that they sincerely believe that no other church can steward God’s purpose like them. The thing is, this happened to sincere people who genuinely wanted God. They just bought into their own success.

Success is a strong drink. It can intoxicate the heart and distort reality. Failure has the potential to sober us up to the delusion of our competence.

...I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. 8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.

2 Corinthians 12:7b-9

Oh God, whenever I begin to buy into myself as the source of my success, please send me the grace of failure. I don’t need a reputation as a perfect Christian who has it all together. I do not want a reputation as successful in man’s eyes when I am not in Yours. I only want You. I only need You. I only want Your ‘Well done.’ On the days that I feel successful, please help me to remember that it is only by Your grace. And on the days that I feel like a failure, please help me to remember that that too is grace – an invitation to see You at work more deeply in my life.

Copyright 2022, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

If you haven’t yet, check out our FREE Spiritual Growth Foundation Course in which we cover the four foundational principles for spiritual growth and much more! In addition to on-demand videos which you can watch at your leisure, there are downloadable handouts for those who prefer written content.

Posted on

The Mourning – A Valentine’s Day Poem

Somewhere back there,

I lost You.

I don’t know when it happened.

All I know is loss, grief, anguish consume my soul.

Once we laughed and played.

Once my eyes were full of love,

For You only.

For You only.

When did I look away?

When did I become distracted?

Too busy to notice the creeping darkness;

The joy oozing from my soul.

When did doing good,

Replace being in love?

When did I start,

Taking Your Presence for granted?

Oh how I am overcome with remorse!

This isn’t the first time,

I’ve strayed so many times.

So many times…

One small step, one small step,

‘I will return to Your embrace later’

‘After this meeting’

‘As soon as I finish working on…’

Oh! I hear Your voice on the Wind!

My love, my love,

I am coming!

The basket of baubles,

That consumed me so,

Spills from my lap.

I must run to His voice!

I hear You my love.

Now I see You!

I see You leaping over the mountains to me!

To me! You have found me!

You have awakened my heart

Your breath hot on my lips.

The deadlines I was chasing, now forgotten.

The great deeds and heavy duties,

So much paler in the shadow of Your love.

Captivate me Jesus!

Cup my chin and turn my head,

Whenever my eyes wander.

Hold my hand tight,

Whenever I angle to turn away.

My heart is utterly in Your hands Jesus,

Only Your love holds me up.

Only Your love keeps me from utter ruin.

Enthrall me now and forever Jesus.

Amen.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. ~ Matthew 4:4 (ESV)
Copyright 2022, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
Posted on

Make Room For Intimacy

I recently read this verse from the NLT translation of the bible and it resonated deep in my soul:

I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings. (Hosea 6:6b emphasis mine)

God’s heart cry is to be known by us. Stop and let that verse sink in for a while. Seriously. Take a minute.

God wants intimacy more than service. Put another way, He wants sons and daughters, not slaves. Consider all the way back to the newborn creation when God walked and talked with man in the cool of the garden. God’s original intent, distinct from His intent toward all other created beings, was to walk in fellowship with man. Often, we are busy busy busy doing things for God instead of being with God. God does not just want our prayers, our fasting, our tithes, our church attendance, or our bible reading. He wants our fellowship. He wants us to seek a real heart-to-heart relationship with Him. Getting to know the Eternal One is the most necessary and serious endeavour of our Christian life.

The unfortunate reality is that our culture is more rational than relational. Consider the first 20 years of your life. What was the emphasis of all those years of preparation for adulthood? In our early years, we were taught how to talk, walk, read and write. Then we went on to more difficult things such as Algebra, Geography, football, playing the guitar, and driving a car. Then we graduated to real challenging subjects such as plumbing, performing surgery, or doing a theatrical performance. But how much did we learn about listening, processing our emotions, vulnerability, empathy, or handling conflict well? Not nearly as much.

This academic, task-oriented, performance-driven culture has fully saturated our religious lives as well. We measure our Christianity by things like bible knowledge, church attendance, ministry engagements, missionary work, and doctrinal understanding. How far have we drifted from “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35). Or what about, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31). The central issue of being like Christ is relational – loving God and others like Christ did. And all relationships begin with the desire to know and be known by the other.

I do not think we are even aware of how plutonic our relationship with our Heavenly Father has become. Consider how universally the bible has come to be considered the Word of God. It used to be (in biblical days) that the Word of God included a personal encounter with the Divine. There was no separation of God’s voice from His Presence. The Speaker was inseparable from His words. When the Word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, God personally spoke to him and said, “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”. When Balaam announced what the Lord had spoken to him, he said, “This is the message of Balaam son of Beor, the message of the man whose eyes see clearly, the message of one who hears the words of God, who has knowledge from the Most High, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who bows down with eyes wide open”. Can you hear the echoes of someone who has been in the presence of the Voice of Many Waters?! In New Testament times the people gathered around Jesus to hear the living Word of God speak to them!

Nowadays, we casually read from the bible and believe it is synonymous with hearing God’s voice. This is a deception. Without a doubt, He can speak to us as we read, but hear me well, it is not the act of reading that brings connection with the divine. No no no. Many souls have read the good book (and some have memorized it as did the Pharisees) without any interaction with God whatsoever. I myself have come away from the book at times remaining empty of the Bread of Life. Hearing from God is a far more relational endeavour in the same way as reading someone’s biography is very different from spending time with them. Hearing from God requires a pure heart and an undistracted mind turned with burning desire and rapt attention toward the only One who has the words of eternal life. “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life.” (John 6:68)

The Holy Spirit lives in us. The whispers of God echo in our hearts if we hearken to His quiet voice. I implore you. Take a step back from doctrinal debates and endless studies and make room in your hectic schedule of good deeds to seek God. Intimacy is nurtured in SLOW time. Awake before the dawn and set your affections toward God in hushed silence. Take long slow walks in nature and soak in the wonder and the beauty of His handiwork. Linger in heart-to-heart journaled conversations with your Eternal Lover. Instead of approaching the bible like a manual for life to be studied, approach it like a love letter that fills us with an inexorable desire to turn from the pages toward the Author of such amazing love. Instead of approaching times of prayer with a list of petitions, approach it with a curiosity to discover what Your Heavenly Father might want to speak to you today.

In this season of advent let us make room in the inn of our lives for the Saviour. Let us make room for intimacy.

Copyright 2021, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

If you haven’t yet, check out our FREE Spiritual Growth Foundation Course in which we cover the four foundational principles for spiritual growth and much more! In addition to on-demand videos which you can watch at your leisure, there are downloadable handouts for those who prefer written content.

Posted on

Give Thanks

My journal entry today February 14th, 2021:

“My Father, Papa, Dad, thank You for today. Thank You for this moment of silence. Thank You for the opportunity to serve Tricia. Thank You for the gentle breeze on my back. Thank You for the bright shining sun and the bright blue sky. Thank You for Your presence in everything. Thank You for the power of Your Word that is upholding us all even now… and now… and now. Thank You that You are near. That You are in me. That You are as near as my attention. Thank You for the paradise I live in. For the birds. The birds that flip and dive and rise and twist. And the birds that soar in ever higher circles of placidity. Thank You for life. Life that displays Your glory and gives continuous praise to the Creator of all Life.”

Posted on Facebook on October 26th, 2016:

“The sky looked like an artist’s impression. The wind had painted beautiful sweeping flows with the clouds from horizon to horizon. Meanwhile, in the valley where I stood sunlight raced down the side of the mountains and embraced the treetops, leaving a trail of golden glitter in its wake. The cold morning air smelled of woody trees and freshly cut grass. The kind of scent that made you breathe long, deep breaths with your eyes closed. And birds. Everywhere. Hummingbirds zipping by chit chittering. Blackbirds stalked their territory. A Kiskidee darted at a bug on the ground and then sat on a branch displaying its prize naturally attracting would-be thieves. Further away familiar calls rang out from birds I recognized only by sound.

Good morning Maracas Valley!”

Posted on Facebook on December 15th, 2016:

“It was a sunny morning, but the air was cool and crisp as is typical at Christmas time in Trinidad.

I was passing on my usual route to work that took me past the Caroni roundabout and past a lineup of vendors. This morning there was a doubles man, a doubles/saheena/pie lady, a coconut man and, the newest arrival to the Trinbago melting pot, a Veni arepa lady.

My eyes were drawn to a man with his head thrown back with a coconut pressed to his lips. In that moment my soul rejoiced with that man. In that simple act was a validation of the simple joys of the island life which I often take for granted.

I pulled aside, reversed and parked. I sauntered up to the stall (aka the tray of a beat up pickup truck filled with coconuts and empty half shells). I was quietly exuberant in my decision to be spontaneous. The coconut man did not disappoint my mood. He was bareback and barefoot. His pants and skin were the same colour; an earthy brown. Although for the pants, earthy was probably a more literal description.

‘Lemme get a medium jelly.’

‘Yuh taking it here?’

‘Yeah.’

He picked up one and started cutting.

‘How much?’

‘Ten.’

I pulled out a $20.

‘Take two nah.’

‘OK. Just shave that one fuh meh.’

He handed me the first one and I drank it all in one smooth motion. The water was slightly sweet and completely delicious. I handed the empty nut to him and he cracked it open with two deft chops and twists of his cutlass. He cut the ‘spoon’ and handed it back to me. The jelly was perfect. Soft but thick. I scraped every last bit off of the inside and licked my lips.

‘I will take the next one one time.’

‘It nice eh? I know what yuh want.’

‘Yeah boy.’

The procedure was repeated with similar gusto and satisfaction.

And this is why despite all the crime I not leaving my lovely twin island.”

There are always areas of difficulty in our lives. Right now, there are a few in mine that are not insignificant. I’m sure many could say the same, especially in light of a global pandemic. I wrote those last two pieces in 2016 while going through a divorce. Life was tough. Back then and today one thing has not changed, I am not alone. Christ is my constant companion. My focus always goes back to Him. Gratitude is an attitude that fuels my life. It’s a thankfulness that is deeper than my circumstances. In good times and tough times, the nearness of the Lord has been my joy and the lens through which I see the world.

Today, you may be overcome with challenges that seem to have no end in sight but take a moment with me right now and give thanks for life.

I Thessalonians 5:16-18 (ESV)

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Copyright 2021, Matik Nicholls.
All rights reserved.

To receive more content like this in your inbox and to receive a free e-copy of my book, The Primacy of The Voice of God – Elevating the Word of God to Its Rightful Position, please subscribe to www.authenticjoy.org.

Posted on

Amanda Gorman – The Power of Words

As this beautiful, articulate, fierce, young woman spit lines from the podium my heart burned and tears came to my eyes. Emanating from this force of nature was something exquisite and powerful. My consciousness was re-awakened to a truth that must have grown dim – words have power.

It seems to me that many of us had forgotten this truth. For a time, we were caught up in a world where words were flung about without thought or care. Sprayed wastefully like cheap cologne or maliciously like rubber bullets. We set our eyes on political power and legislative agendas as the saviours of our world. Our hearts fibrillated in anxiety or exulted in victory, as our preferred narratives collided with reality.

Then came Amanda, armed only with a slingshot full of words. She took aim. And let loose. Straight between the eyes of hate, ego, division and fear-based-manipulation! She stood astride the divide and aimed high. She called out the best in us, over and over again. The sound waves seemed to cleanse and heal. The sonic pulses fanned the flames of convictions that had grown cold and polished ideals that had become dull.

The clarion call rang out over Capitol Hill: hope, harmony, truth, justice, faith, unity, perseverance, bravery, mercy…

Could God use a poem just as powerfully as legislation? Indeed, could a poet be more powerful than a President? Out of the mouth of babes God has ordained strength. We are designed to shape our world by the words we speak.

Let us not forget, words have power.

James 3:3-5 (MSG)

A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!

Copyright 2021, Matik Nicholls.
All rights reserved.

To receive more content like this in your inbox and to receive a free e-copy of my book, The Primacy of The Voice of God – Elevating the Word of God to Its Rightful Position, please subscribe to www.authenticjoy.org.

Posted on

My Best Advice for 2021

OK here’s my best advice for 2021. Ready for it?

DO LESS

In 2020, COVID-19 reset the planet and for many of us it should have been a wake-up call to the reality of the hurried and exhausted lives we were living. I am currently listening to The Power of Vulnerability by Dr. Brene Brown and totally enjoying it. She manages to share powerful truths in a way that is both funny and thought-provoking. Highly recommended! She discusses 10 guideposts for wholehearted living and one of them is “cultivating play and rest and letting go of exhaustion as a status symbol and productivity as self-worth”. I found this to be a powerful guide to a better quality of life. But what struck a deeper chord with me was how much more relevant this is in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was as if we simply refused to shut down, so the universe hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete and forced us to end all our tasks. Then the universe said, “Your move.”

Unfazed, we replied, “Pffft. We re-launch all our tasks aaaand we add the Zoom upgrade on top of that. So there!”

I believe the universe is now shaking its head and saying, “Puny humans.”

Suffice to say, I don’t think we’ve gotten the message. We are addicts. Addicted to busyness and distraction. Brene has already called us out on one of the ingredients that can keep us addicted to lives of busyness and distraction:

  • A lack of self-worth. We are constantly trying to produce enough to gain the approval of others and justify our existence to ourselves.

I would proffer a second:

  • Pain avoidance. Keeping busy is just another means of avoiding the internal demons that haunt our souls when things get quiet. We haven’t faced them, and we don’t want to. So, we keep busy.

The point is our exhausting pace of life is just a symptom of our brokenness or incompleteness. This is not an indictment. This is just the reality of being human. We all have brokenness that needs healing. We each have our unique brand of fractures and some of us are further along the path to healing than others but none of us are issue-free. We do have a choice though… a significant and powerful choice: will we continue as we are or press into the work of inner healing?

I believe that this is the gift of 2020 to humanity – a wake-up call to action. We got a glimpse of ourselves in the mirror and having seen the truth we are faced with a choice. The question is do we want to be more? Will we choose to be more? Enter, the second part of my advice:

BE MORE

I always remember a powerful perspective that I heard from Dr. Ruth Haley Barton that went something like this, “A powerful yes, enables you to say no.” She explained that in the work of doing less we need to be able to say no to things, even good things, and what gives us that power to say no is a strong yes to something else. Perhaps we are asked to attend a social event for work but it’s the same night as we promised to watch a movie with our daughter. Usually, we rationalize that we can always do the movie another time or we have to show up to get a chance at that promotion or maybe we tragically try to do both. But if we have a powerful yes to the kind of parent we want to be, or the kind of relationship we want to have with our children, then saying no to the social event is really saying YES to something bigger!

I want to leave you with some powerful things to say YES to and reasons to do less in 2021. I have found these to be useful in my life. Perhaps one or two will resonate with you:

  1. Doing less is an act of faith. Saying no to some activities or responsibilities is saying YES to a life of supernatural productivity. When the Israelites observed the Sabbath in the desert for 40 years, they had to believe that every Friday (or whatever day before Sabbath) God would supernaturally send more manna than usual and that it would keep for the next day unlike all the other days of the week when it would become full of maggots. Saying no to work was saying, “YES God I believe in Your provision!” Later on, they had to believe that God would take care of the survival of their businesses that would close for Sabbath while the competition remained open. The same can be said of us today. If we choose to do less (even observe a Sabbath, like I do) in obedience to God’s call to rest, then we enter into a beautifully supernatural faith-walk with God as He steps in to do more with less than we could do working ourselves ragged. I have seen this at work in my life and I know you will too if you try it.
  2. Doing less is an act of obedience to your call. The most important call on our lives is not what God has called us to do but who God has called us to be. If we have a big YES for living a life fully authentic to who God has called us to be then saying no to anything that is less than that, no matter how attractive, is easy. It is also a much more joyful way to live. Doing things that just aren’t who we are to please people or help a friend out or to get ahead socially or financially is draaaaining. We can fool ourselves into thinking it is a stepping stone to what we really want to do but it isn’t.
  3. Doing less is a commitment to a higher quality of work/worship. The work we do is an act of worship. It is glorifying God with the talents, personality and time He has given us. If we have a big YES to the quality of our worship through our work, then we will sacrifice quantity for quality. We all know what it feels like to be rushing from project to project and meeting to meeting always giving just enough of our attention and effort to move it along but never enough to be truly creative or extraordinary. Wouldn’t it be more God-honouring (not to mention personally fulfilling) to do our best work? To do work that is truly meaningful and transformative?
  4. Doing less is a commitment to a higher quality of relationships/life. All relationships require investing time to build connection and intimacy. Setting aside dedicated time to invest in the people closest to us and being present with them is a big YES to a more fulfilling life. They say the quality of our life is the sum of the quality of our relationships. We all know this is true. Just like we know that we cannot build meaningful relationships if we never have time to take our spouse to dinner, or play board games with the kids, or just listen to our direct reports without simultaneously checking emails or text-messaging. No to constant busyness is a big YES to better relationships.
  5. Doing less is a commitment to spiritual growth. I have read many books about seeking God and one of the things all the authors agree on is that busyness and distraction are the enemies of spiritual growth. Saying no to a life of constant busyness and distraction is saying a big YES to more of God and more of God in us. Some of the things that require us to be fully present and undistracted are: practicing gratitude, reviewing our day with God, two-way prayer (as opposed to rattling off a monologue without waiting for a response), meditating on scripture. Getting away from the noise of life and getting with God is a prerequisite for becoming present to the places in our lives that need His touch and direction and bringing them into His Presence for guidance, redemption and restoration. You may think that you have too much to do to spend time in ’wasted’ activity like prayer for more than 15 minutes but you will be surprised at the impact you will have on your world when you spend more time with God. Try it and see!

In summary:

MORE BEING, LESS DOING

Copyright 2021, Matik Nicholls.
All rights reserved.

To receive more content like this in your inbox and to receive a free e-copy of my book, The Primacy of The Voice of God – Elevating the Word of God to Its Rightful Position, please subscribe to www.authenticjoy.org.

Posted on

Forsaking The Known, Embracing The Unknown

God is in many ways a mystery. The bible says it this way in Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV):

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

    so are my ways higher than your ways

    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God is inscrutable. He is above human scrutiny. If we could understand God; if we could pin Him into a package that our minds could comprehensively define, then you can be sure that that would be a god of our own making. The clay cannot understand the ways of the Potter. The mind of Creator is, by definition, on an unfathomably superior plane to the created being.

I think we constantly need reminding of this. We too easily become arrogant and presume levels of enlightenment beyond our endowment. We become too sure of what God would and wouldn’t do; too convinced of our theology and doctrine; too secure in our denominational position. God does reveal Himself to us, of course, but be assured that what we know is far less than what we do not know.

The minute we become too sure of what we know is the minute that we lose our ability to receive the next revelation of God; to transition to the next season in God gracefully. You see, we never have it completely figured out. We read the historical accounts of the bible (with full knowledge of the end of the story) and feel that the way it all panned out would have been obvious to us had we been there, but consider this:

  1. John the Baptist actually witnessed the Father speaking from heaven and the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus as he baptized Him. Yet, when John found himself in prison and heard what exactly this Messiah was doing (or not doing) he asked, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” What Jesus was doing did not fit into his prophetic interpretation of scripture. And this was the great prophet John! Jesus said of John that among those born of women there had arisen no one greater than John the Baptist!
  2. What about the disciples on the road to Emmaus? Jesus had been crucified and there were rumours of His resurrection. They bemoaned, “…we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” A dying Saviour and an Israel still under Roman occupation was nowhere in their frame of reference of the Saviour.

What’s my point? God often defies our expectations of Him. We cannot follow Him through our human reasoning or academic study of the scripture. Only the Spirit knows God’s next move.

1 Corinthians 2:8-11 (ESV)

8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

    nor the heart of man imagined,

what God has prepared for those who love him”—

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

To this very day, the Western world is bound in an intellectual approach to God mainly through the study of scripture. Studying scripture is good and necessary but without actively engaging the Spirit it is inadequate.

Those who have embraced mystery, often called mystics, have frequently been vilified by the rest of us. A spiritual approach to seeking God has often been misbranded as New Age. This tragic misunderstanding has cut off many from an abiding relationship with Christ.

I was recently reminded of the amazing access to tangible relationship with God that opened to me when I first came across the concept of Contemplative Prayer. A very well-respected mother of the faith expressed her appreciation of my contemplative position and I realized how much it had now become a part of me. When I first discovered the contemplative, it was rare to hear about it in mainstream Christian media but recently I have been hearing preachers mentioning names like Thomas Merton, Richard Rohr, Brother Lawrence and Madame Guyon and I have rejoiced. Contemplative Prayer is better known by our Catholic brothers and sisters and I would dare say it is something that they have that we all need.

Listen to Madame Guyon in her book Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ:

“You see, the only way to be perfect is to walk in the presence of God. The only way you can live in His presence in uninterrupted fellowship is by means of prayer, but a very special kind of prayer. It is a prayer that leads you into the presence of God and keeps you there at all times; a prayer that can be experienced under any conditions, any place, and any time… May I hasten to say that the kind of prayer I am speaking of is not a prayer that comes from your mind. It is a prayer that begins in the heart.”

This type of prayer is a way of life that is not very common but, in my opinion, an absolute necessity. However, my overarching purpose is not a contemplative prayer sales pitch but rather to unearth the mindsets that cause some of us to throw out ‘different’ viewpoints like contemplative prayer without any serious consideration.

I personally have found that every time I get comfortable with accessing God in a particular way or to a certain religious routine, God shakes things up. The life of a disciple, I have learned, is a commitment to constant movement. My revelation of God and how He works in my life is constantly evolving and broadening. The minute we become so rigid, so right, that God can’t change our doctrine, is the moment of departure from His will. Imagine if Peter had dismissed his vision of God telling him to eat unclean food. (The thought is not so far-fetched… Anything contrary to the Law (Bible) must be from the enemy right?) What if Abraham had said that God would never ask him to kill his son? Would a good God ask such a thing? I think if we honestly place ourselves in these stories, we might find that we are not so sure that we would have accurately discerned God. These pioneers of the faith had to follow God into uncharted waters, down paths that even seemed unbiblical initially. But they had faith; they trusted beyond human reasoning.

Even the Christmas story is a reminder that God comes to us in unexpected and unanticipated ways. Mary had to believe that she could conceive the Messiah by the Holy Ghost, something that never happened before in history. The Jewish world had to grapple with their King coming as a helpless child from an inauspicious family. Emmanuel, God with us, rarely draws close exactly the way we imagine.

Walking with an inscrutable God necessarily entails embracing the unknown even if it offends our understanding of God up to that point. Our mental understanding cannot be allowed to be the arbitrator of our trust and obedience.

Copyright 2020, Matik Nicholls.
All rights reserved.

To receive more content like this in your inbox and to receive a free e-copy of my book, The Primacy of The Voice of God – Elevating the Word of God to Its Rightful Position, please subscribe to www.authenticjoy.org.