Receiving: Tuning Into the Station That Is You

by Pastor Gina Johnson

As we continue in our series for Lent, last time we were talking about sacred stillness and finding the pause. And this time we're going to be talking about tuning into the station of you. What does it mean to be receiving what the Spirit has to offer?

As I was writing this message, I was like, you know, the radio is just the best analogy, but I don't know how much the radio is something that any of the younger people really have to ever fool with. As a matter of fact, myself, when I get in the car and it doesn't instantly connect to my phone and I start to hear the radio, “I'm like, what the heck is that?” So we'll make it a fairy tale, once upon a time there could be times where you try to tune into a radio station.

Can you all recall that? Trying to tune into a radio station, but the static was too overbearing. You would hear a song and think, “Oh, wow, I've been waiting to hear that,” but there was a little bit of talking in the background. And so you try to turn the dial just a little bit, but you'd either lose the song or somehow you'd keep the song, but you'd also increase all of that noise in the background.

You know, I can't count how many times I would just shut off the radio because it wouldn't pick a station. And then technology, it advanced to where you just press the little seek button and it'll just keep seeking until it finds something. I can remember being on a road trip, hitting the seek button and it went clear through about a dozen stations and then finally something came on for like a whole split second, but it wasn't the rock and roll I wanted to hear, or my alternative grunge, or my R&B hip hop. It was some person speaking. It might as well have been talk radio. And I'm thinking, “What are you doing on the FM station? And how come in the middle of this busy place, you're skirting through 20 different stations to give me this?” You know, the stations are broadcasting the entire time. But for whatever reason, we can't get it to come through.

So let me bring it down to a more modern day example.

How many of you have gone into your Google search bar and typed something up and you see the little guy just spinning and spinning and spinning? And you check your site, you're like, “Nope, I know I put in the right site.” Just like I know I've tuned it to the right station, but nothing is coming through.

You see, these radio stations are broadcasting. The internet is constantly going, but sometimes just like the way God's voice is always speaking, we're not the ones that are tuned in. And maybe a good example, is how many times have you heard someone talking? And it's like, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. And you know, all you have to do is shift a little bit of presence to hear what they have to say.

But who wants to? Well, hate to break it to you guys, but sometimes we all feel the same way towards others.

How often do we let the noise of our lives tune out the spirit? How often in all of the busyness we think that we are tuned in, but the external noise is too loud. And last week, we talked about how do you drown out that external noise? How do you get yourself into that stillness?

We talked about meditation. We talked about prayer. We talked about finding an opportunity to journal, just coming to that moment where you separate yourself, even if it's just five minutes a day, so you can be in the sacred stillness, so you can be in the pause and clearly hear what's being offered to you.

Well, guess what? The external is not the only thing making noise. It’s like trying to find that perfect station, but it just won't come through. How many of us sit down to be in the silence, but we cannot quiet the noises in our mind, the self-doubt, the clutter of fear and overthinking, our own beliefs that drowned out the stillness.

Before we even have a chance to hear that small voice of wisdom, we've already started going through a million different things in our head, so the external noise is there, the internal noise is there, and we're not able to receive.

Jesus often spoke about the receiving, not the striving or the forcing, but simply being open to what is being given to you, and our verse today is one that we are all very familiar with, and it's from Matthew 7, verses 7 and 8, and it says,

Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks, receives. The one who seeks, finds. And the one who knocks, the door will be open.

See, Jesus is reminding us here that God's voice is already moving. The question is, as the voice is moving through us, as the Spirit is speaking, as we are being given clarity and discernment, are we listening? And what does it take to get ourselves to that place of receiving?

The first one that we elaborated on last week is just being still and open.

Are you creating the space to receive? If you are not creating a space to receive, how do you expect to receive? I remember a time when I was going to be out of town for a while, and I had to make sure that I either held my mail or someone was going to check it. Because as much as I may not get a lot of letters and packages from people, I sure get a lot of junk mail. A lot of junk mail, can we all relate to that? I mean, how many days am I sifting through, and I got like one thing that I'm not throwing away, and the rest, I'm just throwing it in the recycling or the trash.

Well, when I go out of town, like taking a family vacation for a week, if we don't make sure that something's being done, that mailbox gets so full, it's not going to receive any mail. And I remember when I used to live in an apartment complex, and someone might move out, and there would be a note on one of the other boxes that said, “Come to the post office and get your mail, the box is too full.”

Is your box too full? Are you creating a space to receive what's being sent to you? What are you currently filling your mind with? Because if you read that scripture again, it says, ask and it will be given to you.

So when you're asking, you’re saying “I am open. I have a curiosity. I have a desire. I have a need. I have something that I would like to know more about, so I can understand myself better, so I could step into my call and my purpose more, so I can be a better teacher or guide to my family.”

Maybe perhaps you're in a position of supervision. What questions are you asking, and are you open to the reception so you can continue in the work that you're doing?

Sometimes I go to Starbucks, and I decide not to go with anything tasty and fun. I just go with a cup of coffee. And one thing that I always say to them is, I would like coffee with cream, and I would like a heavy amount of cream. And it's kind of silly, but I'll show them the inside of my arm. I'll say, “I like my coffee to be the same color as my arm. So put as much cream as you need to put in there to make it that light color.” And they'll say, “Okay, we got you, we got you,” and they'll put a little note on the cup and everything.

Then I get it and it probably looks more like the brown of my hand than like the inside of my arm. I'm like, “Nope, that looks like coffee. I don't want to drink coffee. I want to drink cream with a little bit of coffee,” but I can't put any more creamer in it because it is full to the brim.

How full is the mental cup of your mind? How do you expect to hear anything, to receive anything, to get those directions that you have been waiting for when your mind is so overloaded with fears, with worries, with even just busyness? Because there's nothing wrong with being busy and productive. As a matter of fact, I told you all last time, I'm a full plate girl.

If my plate's not full, I start to wonder what's wrong with me. But even in that, there's a section of my plate that is nothing but emptiness. That part of the plate is purposely clear and always going to be that way, so that when I am in that space, I am able to receive what's always being given to me.

It's so easy to say things like, “Oh, I never have time for this.” Or, “Oh, I always get caught up in it. You don't understand. You're not living my life. This is what I always go through and I'm trying. And once this happens, then I'm going to do this. And once that happens, then I'm going to do that.” But do you ever stop and intentionally clear a space to receive?

It's important that you understand that if you continue to fill your mind with worries, with assumptions, with judgments, with self-sabotage and beating up on yourself and not taking time to allow that space for God to pour in, you're not going to receive and hear the messages you want.

You might hear the noise of the world telling you who you are and what you should do and by when you should do it and what it should look like. You might hear the noise of your fears saying, “You're not good enough, so just go ahead and put that down.” Or, “Hey, didn't you mess that up last time? Why are you trying that again this time?” But unless you allow yourself to have that space and really receive, you're going to continue to be in that rut.

What are you currently filling your mind with?

I want you all to take a moment at some point, whether it's today or tomorrow, and think about those things. And then challenge yourself to empty your cup just a little bit. Clear a space in your calendar.

You know, I could say, “I have such a hard time finding time to have my soul care.” Well, then, go in your calendar and pick that time and mark that you're unavailable. But I can hear you thinking, then what if someone says, “Well, what do you have going on?”

It’s okay. You don't have to give that explanation. If someone says, “Hey, can you do this Tuesday at eight o'clock?” Say, “No, I'm sorry. I already have something going on.”

“Oh, what do you have going on?”

“I just have some things going on.”

It's okay to do for you in order to receive what God has set aside for you.

The other thing when it comes to receiving is recognizing that God's voice is already within you. You don't have to seek it outside of you. Sometimes we search and we look and we're doing the seeking. We're doing the knocking. We're doing the asking, but we're looking all towards external sources. I'm not saying a book or an audio, a teacher, a friend, or a parent isn't going to be that source of wisdom. But the voice that you want to make sure you're listening to first and foremost, the voice that you're tuning into has got to be that voice of Spirit that's already residing within you.

Jesus said that my sheep will listen to my voice. Have you had that moment where you're hearing something and you're like, “Wait, is that God or is that my own selfish desires? Wait, is that God or is that my own ego? Man, both of these options look really good. How do I know which one is God?” And again, it comes down to recognizing that God's voice is not external.

Though we may have synchronicities and we may have affirmations and confirmations all around us, the voice of God will be heard through the peace, will be heard through the clarity, the discernment, through the alignment that takes place within us. I know some of the toughest decisions I've had to make where those ones were, gosh, you know, both directions look really good and I could ask a thousand people for opinions. I could read a bunch of articles. I could listen to a bunch of audios. But until I sit still and I open myself up to receive the discernment from the Spirit, I don't know how I'm going to find the right answer.

It says that everyone who asks, receives, the one who seeks, finds and to the one who knocks, the door is open. But when you seek, you have to have that space for what you're seeking.

And when you're seeking, are you seeking fearfully? Is it one of those things where you say, “I want the answer to this so bad. I want it so bad.” But you actually don't make any movement towards it. You don't go into the solitude. You don't spend time in the stillness. You don't clear that hour on your calendar or even five minutes because you're afraid.

And if you go into these things, if you go into these questions with fear, you might not be able to recognize that what you've been asking for is already right there.

You'll allow your fears to come up in front of you and be so much more powerful than being able to hear the voice of God. When you're truly seeking, your heart is open and you have peace and trust and knowing that if I submit to what the Holy Spirit has to give me, if I actually sit here and I'm open to whatever may come my way, you can release the fears.

There's a little saying out there. It's a kind of cliche, but it's that if God has brought you to it, God will bring you through it. It's easy and quick to say. And sometimes I just laugh because, you know, I say it in those moments where everything looks like it's falling apart and we're having a nice messy storm around us. And it's like, “Oh, if God has brought me to it, God will bring me through it.”

But how much do I believe that in that moment? Because I'm caught in the middle of the chaos, but there's truth in it. If you have come to it and you're genuinely seeking how to move through it, you're asking, you're knocking, you're listening, then you will move through it.

And not just because God has some magical powers like, bam, move through it, bam, move through it. No, but because you have the power, because each and every person reading this right now has the empowerment of the I Am within them. And if you truly come upon any obstacle, upon any task, upon anything that is set before you, and you trust that you are empowered and you trust that the Spirit is with you, you will move through it.

And the clarity of how and when and what will I do? Well, that's part of taking that step. That's part of asking those questions. And that's part of being still and quiet enough to receive.

Those of you who know me, know that I talk a lot, right? Case and point right here, right now, you're probably like, Gina, how do you receive anything as much as you talk? But that's one of the biggest lessons that had to come to me. Some of the biggest parts of the seeking and the asking and the knocking are just being quiet. Are just shutting our mouths for a moment, shutting the voices in our head for a moment, and being open to whatever will come through.

We talked last time about Elijah and how he couldn't hear the voice of God because he looked in the wind, he looked in the fire, he was looking everywhere. But where was God's voice? It was in the stillness.

Do you seek out those stillnesses for receiving, or do you just look for God in dramatic moments? Are you one of those people who, you know, makes no difference what God's doing and where the Spirit is leading me in the day-to-day motions because life is good. But the minute there's drama, the minute there's chaos, the minute there is some kind of block in your way, now all of a sudden you have time for God. Because, “ I see God most at work when I'm in the middle of my chaos and things are traumatic, and I don't know what else to do, and I've already exhausted every opportunity, so now I'm gonna call on God.”

You have to recognize that God is always present. And whether you use the term God or the universe or creator, whatever you go with, it's always present. That I Am is always within you.

And if you ignore that Presence all the time, except for when it's those chaotic, I'm finally down on my knees, I've finally hit rock bottom, so now I'm going to call out times, good luck. Because, yes, God will be there, the Spirit will show up, because it can't be anywhere else, but how many times are you going to exhaust yourself with that pattern?

Life is really good right now, so I don't need anything. Oh, crap, life really sucks right now, now I need you, God. Oh, life is really good right now.

Go for it. Go back and forth and back and forth and see what that's like.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, and I was talking about the movie Mrs. Doubtfire. It's a really cute movie and there is a scene towards the end of the movie, where Robin Williams is trying to keep up with two different identities. He's out to dinner, trying to be the dad who's really got his act together, because he wants to be able to be with his kids when he can, have a good relationship with his wife who is becoming his ex-wife. And at the same time, he's trying to impress this boss individual over here, and it's interesting because he's been in disguise as he's been taking care of his children.

I don't want to say too much, but let's just say when he's with his family, he is doing this role of Mrs. Doubtfire, and this is his way of getting himself together, and they don't know who it is. But when he's going to meet this potential employer, he's being that well-put together man trying to secure a new job. And he's running from one side of the restaurant to the other, back and forth, and back and forth. And it gets so chaotic that he ends up running into the meeting with the businessman wearing his costume, wearing his disguise.

My friend and I, we were talking about duality. We were talking about how much time we spend being this person over here, and then that person over there. And eventually, if we keep trying to do that, if we keep playing pretend, keep doing the “God, I need you” over here, but “I don't need you over here.” “God, I need you over here, but I don’t need you over here. When are the two going to collide together?

And when do we get so caught up in our mess, in our chaos, that we get in the space of saying, “Wait, wait, God wasn't here. Wait, God's not here either. Wait, wait, there's no God.” How often do we get in that space where we feel so alone, feel like everything is up to our eyeballs, feel like we don't know what to do here and now, but really God's been there the whole time.

We just blocked it all. We're the ones that got so busy. We're the ones that got in the chaos. We're the ones trying to live in duality, going back and forth instead of stopping, instead of pausing, instead of creating that space to receive. I guarantee you that though I may not have done the best job of telling you that movie scene, I am positive you understand what I’m saying. You understand trying to play today I'm so-and-so and tomorrow I'm so-and-so. Today God is this important, tomorrow God is that important. But the truth of the matter is, is you are always exactly who you are and that is a representation of Christ. You are always a child of God. You are always created in that divine image. You always have that full empowerment. It's just a matter of taking a moment and receiving it.

It's a matter of taking a moment and recognizing you can't lose what's always there. Life gets chaotic and full of questions and uncertainty. Maybe it's just that thing we don't like, the waiting. Maybe there's no stress, maybe there's no anger, maybe there's no chaos, but we're just in that waiting. And when we are in those moments, we can remember that we have everything we need within us, the answers, the directions, the opportunities, they are all within us.

I want to take you guys through that big old question. How do we know when something is from God? How do we discern and trust what we receive?

The first way is recognizing that it aligns with love and peace.

In 1 John 4:18 it says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” When you are taking something on and you have a message coming through, you have the Spirit speaking to you and through you, there should be that feeling of love and peace.

There should be that alignment. Even though you may not know how it's going to work out, there is that feeling of, “This is where I'm supposed to be, and this is peaceful. Maybe I don't have all the little pieces I need, but I know that I'm headed in the right direction.”

Number two is it brings clarity, not confusion. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to you.”

I know a lot of times when I am working on something and I'm trying to understand, is this the path that God is sending me on? Is this the task I'm supposed to be doing right here, right now? I look at the amount of clarity versus confusion.

If I am confused, if I am stressed, if I'm feeling like I have to strive and exhaust myself to even take a step or even half a step, then I know that, I might just need to set this down for a moment. I might need to reevaluate. I may need to spend more time in that silence and in that solitude to make sure this is right for me.

Challenges are great. Adversity is great. It gives us opportunities to grow and stretch and come out on the other side even better than we were, but it doesn't mean that everything we take on should be so complex.

I love a challenge, but if I'm entering a challenge like, “What is going on? This is really confusing. I'm not enjoying this.” Then, perhaps that challenge isn't for me, but if I'm entering into a challenge, and I'm like, “You know, this is going to be hard, and there's going to be moments where this is going to suck just a little bit, and I'm not sure how I'm going to get through the whole thing, but I feel called to it. I'm ready for it, and I have enough evidence that the Spirit has led me this way.” That’s when I know it’s the right choice.

And that goes perfectly into the last point. You know it's the voice of the Spirit when it calls you towards growth and not fear. Isaiah 30:21 says, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way. Walk in it.”

This is not me up here saying, “Hey guys, if you find a time to pause, if you open yourselves up to receiving, everything will be perfect. No cares, no worries. All will be sunshine and rainbows.”

That's not what I'm here to say. I'm here to say that, life is full of challenges and adventures, opportunities and adversities, moments where we feel like we are all alone and moments when we feel like we can't escape the suffocating crowd, but in all of that, we always have the Spirit within us, giving us, telling us, showing us exactly what we need. The Spirit is always there like a lighthouse, beckoning us and calling us to it, and when the seas are calm because we've taken the time to assess ourselves, to catch our bearings and to be open to where we are being called, then you know that it'll be in alignment with God.

I know that there's a lot of reasons to say, “I don't have time to do that. I don't have, I don't have five minutes in my day, Gina. What do you mean take an hour a day or take an hour a week? Where do I have time for that?” Well, that's fine. I'm never here to tell you what to do. I'm just here to kind of stir the pot a little bit. So keep going that route.

If you like the busyness, if you like letting go of stillness, if you like the confusion, keep going that route, but those of you who actually want to feel what it's like to feel empowered, to feel your soul at peace and alignment, to have clarity, although you may still have questions, then I invite you to open yourself up to receiving.

There is a Persian mystic from the 13th century called Rumi, and he says, “Try not to resist the waves of your life. The river knows where it is going, just listen.”

We are all in the flow of life, and Jesus demonstrated for us that when we sit within the stillness and we are open to receiving, then the river will take us along gracefully, joyfully, and we will be exactly where we're supposed to be.

Please pray with me. Our Father and Mother God, we come before you with thanksgiving again, Lord, because your word is always present to guide us along the way.

We thank you for the Spirit that speaks to us, and God, I always ask that whatever was meant to be heard in this moment, that it was heard, that it not only sinks into our minds, but to our hearts, into our very soul and being, and whatever was just noise, that it be taken away, that we hear the truth, that we hear the love, that we feel the light, and for that we give thanks. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.