Tuning fork (Diapason) on resonance box, by Max Kohl, Chemnitz, Germany. CWRU Physics Dept. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For those of you who have just joined us –welcome. Let me explain what we ramblers are chatting about. We are looking at the way God is bringing us from this old culture into a kingdom culture. To help us do this we are looking at the culture in the Philippines and looking at what God is saying to us through it.
Language
In the Philippines there are over 700 dialects. This means that you could be living on a street and one side of the street could speak one language and the other side could speak another. Tagalog is the language of Manila, the capital, although many people with education do speak English (American English). The words ‘magandang gabi’ (seen in the post title) means good evening in tagalog. Most of the street signs are written in English and official documents are in English. This means that to get a job you need to be educated.
In this new kingdom culture that we are looking at, words that used to sound the same to me now mean something completely – just like a new language. Please let me explain:
When I heard the phrase ‘Father God loves me’ I understood it. It made sense and my heart responded in faith and love. But a cosmic shift has occurred in my understanding, over the last 18 months, of what that looks like, feels like and how it expresses itself. It is almost as though I didn’t really understand what it meant at all. The words “My Father loves me” look the same as before but my heart is resounding in revelation to those words differently. It is such a different sound – like learning a new language.
All I can compare it to is a tuning fork. My parents had a few at home that had belonged to my granddad and I loved to play with them. He played in the Halle Orchestra during the war and would use them to tune his cello. They are basically just a stick of metal that branches out into two arms (there is a fancy one in the picture above). If I hit the tuning fork it would vibrate but made so little noise I could barely hear it. This would change, however, when I placed the base of the fork on one of my father’s lovely wooden chests – the sound clear and pure would come ringing out. The vibrations resonating from the fork found a new medium through the hollow wood in which to produce new and clear sound. This is how the words resonate through me. When I say the word ‘loved’ the sound that comes out of my mouth may sound the same, but it is different than before because the word is resonating in my heart vibrations of a different tune. I can actually feel it sometimes almost vibrating with excitement inside my heart. It is a new sound from inside me.
These are a few other words that sound new to me grace, honour, love, respect, authority, relationship, openness, healing, unity, trust……….
It is no longer enough just for me to do bible studies gaining knowledge, and understanding, in my head – it needs to make the ‘18 inch journey’ from my head to my heart. The words need to be understood at the very centre of me with a reality that overwhelms my soul. The words can then rise out from my depths bearing all the truth and understanding I have grasped at my very core.
Heart responses look very different from head logic. Should you have that 3rd scoop of ice-cream, jump from a plane with a parachute, fall in love or scream on a rollercoaster? Heart responses are made with passion and life. They take us out of the boring, safe and mundane onto a different level of living. That is why heart responses can be scary, because they don’t always seem make sense.
The way of understanding this new language cannot be done with the head, it is a case of letting the heart find the truth and then letting the head work it through. No we don’t steer away from biblical truths, but there are far less absolutes than I once thought and much more freedom. We can let our hair down, find some space, relax and respond to the vibrations of heaven’s truths. We can respond to the God who “in the beginning was the word” – in a new language (1John 1:1). We can know God heart to heart, core to core on the same frequency.
Today: Are you responding to Gods love language with you head or your heart? How can you cause your heart to vibrate to the love song of God with a clearer sound?
Come walk with me 