(upbeat music) Silence can deepen our relationship with God. It can give us clarity. It can bring restoration to our souls. - Welcome to Mind Matters with Dr. J. A. Jones. Dr. Jones is the head pastor of the Faith Community Church of God in Orange Park, Florida. Relationships, finances, our spiritual life, whatever it is, our problems start within, in our minds. Dr. Jones explores mental wellness through the application of God's word in our lives. It's just what the doctor ordered. Let's join him now and dig into Mind Matters because your mind matters to God. (upbeat music) - Welcome to Mind Matters. Today we're gonna talk about how silence helps us better connect with God. Do you ever feel like your prayers are hitting the ceiling and coming back down or not even reaching the goal or the noise of life is drowning out God's voice? What if the breakthrough you've searching for isn't found in doing more but embracing the power of silence? Today we're gonna explore how quieting the world around you and within you can help you to connect with God in a deeper, more meaningful way because your silence matters. So today I have Cindy with me. You wanna greet everyone? Thank you for being with me again. - Yes, it's good to be with you again. And hello everyone. Hopefully everyone had a great Thanksgiving and I'm looking forward to the Christmas season. I believe we're in the Advent season now. Days leading up to Christmas. - Absolutely, absolutely. It's a great day, no matter what time of the year that you're listening to this particular message. That's what I'm gonna call it, my matters message. You may be listening to it on a different platform, YouTube or you could be listening to it from thinking into success, spiritual solutions to real problems. But wherever you are and however you have tuned in to this message, I hope that we are able to help you by encouraging you and guiding you to a better place, spiritually, mentally, relationally, financially and physically. So I know you're having a good day because you're tuned in to mind matters. Now, amen, right? - Right. - Okay, awesome. So let's get into the thought for today. How silence helps us connect better with God. And I call it the power of silence because Cindy, I know there's power when we're silent, when we're quieting our mind and we're getting rid of blocking out the noise in this world or the noise around us. Just like sometimes a parent, probably more so a mother, not necessarily, are so a very glad that when there's less noise in the house, when you got a lot of children and it's like, wow, I can hear myself think. (laughing) - Yes, I read a quote from a Phyllis Dilla that said, we spend the first 12 months teaching our child to stand up and walk and to talk. - Right. - And then the next 12 months to sit down and shut up. (laughing) - Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. So, but yeah, we got to spend that time to just sit in silence, let our, and that's when our imagination, in creativity of our minds, it takes place. But when we're going and going and going all the time, we don't have that opportunity. - Right, because in our noisy world, silence often feels uncomfortable. But the Bible repeatedly shows us its value. Silence can deepen our relationship with God, it can give us clarity, it can bring restoration to our soul, scriptures like 1 Kings, chapter 19, verse 12. It reminds us that God often speaks not in the loud winds or earthquakes, but in a gentle whisper. Now that's a powerful verse in 1 Kings, chapter 19, verse 12. Because that's where God is. He's everywhere, but the point is this. He doesn't speak not in the loud winds, we think we need to hear loud winds or earthquakes, but just think about it, a gentle whisper. Because in 1 Samuel, chapter three, God calls Samuel in the stillness of the night, teaching us the importance of quietness in hearing his voice. - Mm-hmm. - And so I'm 62, I believe it says something like truly, in verse one, truly my soul silently waits for God. From him comes my salvation. Silence is an emptiness, like people think, it's a space where God fills us with his presence. Because we have many distractions. Now that we are in our, like for example, we may use our foam a lot, I know you forgot your foam. We use everything in our purse. We have earbuds and we have a lot of things that can distract us from our intention of where we're trying to go. But in our world, technology can help us to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Is that true? - Yeah, that's true. But in, you know, with technology, there's a lot of noise that wasn't originally meant to be in our ears all the time. - Right, well we, yes. It can get to the point where it's, wow, a habit, addictive, because of that. But, you know, we're not gonna focus on that because we gotta focus on the point of silence and what we're talking about. Mother Teresa said something, we need silence to be able to touch souls. Now that's a great quote from her. Because without silence, we may struggle to know ourselves and discover who God created us to be. 'Cause when our minds are constantly or continually filled with an outside stimuli, it becomes impossible to make space for the lessons that silence can teach us about God and about life and about ourselves and God's work in the world everywhere we go and everywhere we show up and whatever we see. So I think it's so important to understand silence. Cindy, I've talked to countless number of people, clergy, preachers, evangelists, anybody and somebody and those that think they're nobody. Most people do not like silence. They don't like-- - Why is that? - Well, they don't like to hear the words that are coming to their head, their mind, the running away thoughts, the way with thoughts, the ugly thoughts, the painful thoughts, the past experiences, adverse childhood experiences, neglect, household dysfunction and abuse, it's like they don't want to hear what they're thinking about because they don't like silence. A preacher even told me, "This is a pastor." I don't like the pray. I don't like to be quiet. I don't like it because I don't like what I'm hearing from within. - You know, some of that is from what you've been listening to. You're feeding your mind, that'll come back up. You know, what you've been looking at, who you've been spending time with, a lot of that will come back up in your mind when you're being quiet and getting ready to spend time with God. And oh, definitely when you're getting ready to spend time with God and being quiet, the enemy is gonna press rewind. - Rewind. - Rewind. - What you mean by that? - He's gonna bring up every negative thing that you've been listening to, everything. It's spiritual warfare taking place. Especially for preachers, like you said, when you're on assignment and you're gonna influence somebody else's life, of course he's gonna attack you. And so you have to be very, as the words say, guard your heart because out of it flows the issues of life. And so they have to be alert, intentional. - Intentional. I love that word. You know, that's my word. - Yeah. - Because you have to be intentional because that will always be a distraction. - Yes. So you have to be as a minister, that has to be intentional in protecting his garden is hard at all time. Garden is mine. And a lot of times that heart, the word heart is not just your spirit. It intertwines with your mind. - Okay. - So a lot of times when the word mentions heart, it's talking about your mind too. And so, yes, there's a lot of warfare when it comes, it depends on the person and how much influence they have in the attack that's gonna come. - Yes. - So. - Absolutely. So let's get into it because silence matter. Your silence matters, sir, ma'am. Thank you for tuning in to My Matters with myself, Dr. Jones, and I have Cindy with me. And we are so excited that you tune in at this point in this small hour at this second because it's so important to understand how your silence do matter. And we're gonna give you five lessons that you can learn in silence right now. The first thing is this, silence reveals, right? The scripture says in Psalms 46 and 10, "Be still and know that I am God." So silence reveals. When we commit to being quiet, silence helps us to notice all of the things inside that desires to come out. Both positive and negative. Some people dislike silence as we were discussing because due to anxiety about certain aspects of themselves, they get just antsy. They're thinking about what if all of those issues and a lot of times what if don't happens. If this happens then, I don't know if I can make it. I don't know if I can sleep through the night. I don't know if I can overcome whatever bad thing may happen in the meeting at the office or what's gonna happen when my spouse come home or when my son comes and do crazy things or we don't realize-- - Thank God for his word. - Yes, because silence reveals. - Yeah, the word says be anxious for nothing. So when anxiety comes, go back to the word, be anxious for nothing but all things, you know, trusting God, you know, casting our cares upon him for he cares for us. And you know, just going in prayer. - Oh, absolutely. - Yeah, we talked about negative thoughts, you know, before. Yeah, and so when that silence revealed all these things, the word of God is our weapon. It's our weapon, we gotta go back to the weapon. - Absolutely, absolutely. Because people, you know, they're avoiding something hard. They are all, who doesn't wanna avoid something hard? - Mm-hmm. - Because thoughts can be hard on you for the past, like childhood trauma, grief, discontentment, worry. There's an inner struggle that has taken place. - Yes. - But through silence, we can identify what disturbs our peace and take action to fix it. - Yes. - Because our first point is this, silence reveals. - And what is it revealing? - Right, right, it's just revealing who we are, because as a man thinks in his heart, that is who they are, right? Right, as a man thinks in his heart, silence will reveal, sir, ma'am. - How do you think him? - How you thinking, but who you are at the moment. And it's important to know that about yourself. A lot of times, as we talk about people, they in the TV a lot, sometimes the TV put people to sleep, right? Because they don't want to be silent. They don't need, they don't want quietness. So they just play the TV all night long. They play TV all night long. They put the radio on all night long. They want to hear music. I think there's a place for that though. If it's calming music, sometimes classical music can help just to calm you down. But some things shouldn't be a habit to allow those out with things to distract what we're thinking from the inside out. Because the scripture says, in Matthew chapter seven, ask and it shall be given, seek, you shall find, knock and the door will be open. And that's so important in Matthew chapter seven. I think that's verse number seven. This is important lesson today. Thank you for tuning in to Mind Matters because your silence do matter and will make a big difference in your life going forward. Dr. Jones is the pastor of Faith Community Church of God in Orange Park, reaching a hurting world with the love of Jesus. We thank you for listening to Mind Matters and we encourage you to show support for the many community outreach ministries that Dr. Jones and Faith Community Church tend to. You can give at Faith Communities website, faithccop.org or just text money sign and the amount you want to give to 833-435-8022. That's 833-435-8022. We are blessed to be a blessing. Now let's get back to the program. (upbeat music) In silence, distractions are revealed and fall away, allowing us to see ourselves clearly and hear God's voice distinctly. And I think that's so important because here's a quote I think that's so important for all of us to know from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He wrote this, "Silence in the face of evil is itself evil, but silence before God is where conviction and guidance are revealed." And here's some, I think that's a powerful quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Now here's some science. So help us to understand research from the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience shows that moments of stillness, enhanced self-awareness and emotional regulation, which are key to spiritual growth. And our goal in life, Cindy, is to grow spiritually first, mentally, relationally, financially, academically, intellectually and physically in every way. So I do like this quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer as well as the research that comes from the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. - That must be why I'll say some religions or yoga, they do a lot of meditating. They sit in silent and they meditate. So I guess that's based on that science you just read. - I don't know, I have no clue, I don't yoga so, but I just meditate, I relax, I wind down. - They take that time to spend time in silence and meditate, I guess direct their mind. And like you said, it says it causes a spiritual growth and brings awareness and you know. - Well, self-awareness and we should be aware of self, it's emotional regulation. - We should be aware of that. - I guess that's why they do a lot of meditating. - But the key component or the key aspects is spiritual. You have to incorporate spiritual, if not flesh, breathe, flesh, spirit, breathe, spirit. So no matter what's going on in our world and different things and methods and things that people trying to do to calm their life and to make their life better, to me, if it has nothing, if you take out God, then you just is all about you. So you won't progressively get better. Because what truths about yourself and your faith is God waiting to reveal when you embrace silence? That's a question. What truths about yourself and your faith is God waiting to reveal when you embrace silence? Because our first lesson of the five lessons is silence reveals. Because I think there's some truth about ourselves and our faith in God that God is trying to reveal based on who we are, how we are silent. And we gotta embrace it. - Yeah, like we said, it reveals what you've been feeding on, what you've been feeding yourself, who you've been hanging around with, what you've been listening to. Because when you sit in silence, that's when the enemy press rewinds, especially when you get silent and you wanna spend time in prayer, you know? But then Philippians 4.8 says, think on these things. Finally, brother, think on these things that are just lovely, pure, and of a good report. If there's any virtue and it prays, think on these things. You gotta own purpose, focus your mind, direct your mind. You know, not just let your mind wander on any and everything. Take control of your mind. - Cindy, easier said. - Been done. - Absolutely, come on now, come on. You give me a lot of good info-mation, info-mation. - Well, a lot of times we don't wanna take the action. That's why, you know, like the people you've talked to said they don't like to be silent because all these things come to their mind. So they wanna keep a lot of noise going on all the time. - Absolutely. - But you gotta take control of your mind, your thoughts. - Well, yes, but the point is we can take control. - Yes. - You know, I don't wanna push legalism to help people to just do it. But I want you to know why you should just do it. You know, that was a commercial back in the day. - Impressive. - Yeah, but God has given us all the ability, whatever you are, you could be seven years old, you could be 12, you could be 16, you could be 28, 45, 56, 78, whatever age you are, you can take control in the space of silence. I wanna give a shout out to Zaden Field Pot. Hopefully he's listening, he's a 12 year old young man, and he faithfully listened to mind matters every Sunday at five o'clock. But thank you, Zaden, for listening to mind matters, and you are an incredible young man. You're bright, you're resilient, you're an overcomer, you have come through a lot. You are amazing, and I know one day you're gonna become everything God has for you to be coming. It could be a great singer, an actor, an entrepreneur, a business person, a leader in your space. Just stay moving forward. Stay doing the right things, stay focused. One of the things that he told me recently that he hasn't forgot, and one of the shows we did, Cindy, was the triple A effect. Yes. The triple A effect. And y'all probably won, and what is triple A? He said, "I don't got triple A batteries in my house, I got double A batteries." So triple A to him, what he uses a practical example to remember what triple A is all about. Attitude, aptitude, and altitude. Attitude is the way you approach something. Your aptitude is your capacity to learn, and your altitude is how you will be elevated and how high you would go, because you have the right attitude. But thank you, Zaden, Philpot, for listening to mind matters. And you are one of many, many in why we do what we do. The second thing is this. You good? Yes. We want to cover at least two things as we move forward. Silence roots. R-O-O-T-S. Silence roots. Wow, I'm going to try to get through this. There's a time and season for everything. I believe in Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, verse 7. There's a time to be silent, and there's a time to speak. Jesus even said, John 10, 27, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Because our world, Cindy, is so busy and distracted, silence grounds us in our current reality and puts us in a space to understand distractions, right? Business, external pressures in their proper place. That's why silence can root you. It can ground you. That's the point. It allows us to listen to God amidst the chaos of daily life. Wow. You know, it reminds me of, like, in the Old Testament when Moses was trying to deliver the people of Israel. Right. And Pharaoh said, you know, he said, let my people go so they can go worship. And Pharaoh said, oh, well, they got too much time on their hand. Let them go pick up, get their own straw and stuff. So he said, make them work more. Right. Right. And see, that's the tactic of the enemy. Right. So you will not have time or think about and spend time worshipping God. Right. But you will be busy. Right. Working yourself. That's a distraction. As long as you're busy and you're working, you don't have time. Or you won't make time to worship. Absolutely. And because that's so true. So when we quiet the world around us and quiet our minds, we let go of worries about the future and regrets from the past to sit with God as we are in the present moment. I love this in the present moment. Because a lot of times people have a lot of regrets from the past. We just did a celebration of life recently. A person passed away and, you know, transition, that is, to eternity. And one of the persons that had a comment in the service said, they really regretted not visiting their family member when they could have. They had some health challenges though. But now their family member passed away. Not as too late. They can't visit that person. Right. They regret it. And because sometimes we can get too busy. I know we have other things going on, but the person seemed to be in guilt. Because of not making the move when they could have made the move. They probably didn't think that family member was that sick. They were sick, but not sick to death. And we don't know when things are going to happen. The Bible said tomorrow is not promised to nobody. So we've got to live life in its fullest today. Not tomorrow. Today. So because silence roots. Now in the movie, there's a movie. One of my favorite movie is called After Earth. It's by Will Smith. Right. He's one of the main actors in it. And his son, Katai, is reminded at the end of the movie as he was knocked down to the ground by a creature called Ursa. Right. He was knocked on the ground. His hands were bloody. And he was thinking about his past trauma growing up. He was like laying on the ground with his eyes closed. But eventually, he took a deep breath. He calmed himself. And he listened to what his father said. His father said, "root yourself in this present moment." Wow. That moved me when I saw it. Because he was going through a lot, but he was laying on the ground. The big monster, Ursa, was over him and coming at him. But he heard his father's voice. Root yourself. Ground yourself in this present moment. Don't focus on the fear. Don't focus on anxiety. Understand. Listen to the sight. I mean, look at the sight. Listen to the sound. What do you smell? What do you feel? He began to get himself together and conquered the creature without fear. He stopped functioning from fear, but from what he knew. Now, I saw it. I'm reliving the movie in my mind. He did. He just stopped functioning. He got up, took a little dagger and just sliced the creature. And he overcame. Wow. This is a powerful lesson today. Oh my goodness. Thank you for tuning in to My Matters. Thank you for being here with me, Cindy. That goes back to that research. What you said, it calms your emotions. Absolutely. It steals your emotions, you know, when you spend time in silence or meditating and so forth. It keeps us grounded. Right. And so, and really when you spend time in prayer, it does calm your emotions, calms us down. So it's important. Absolutely. Because silence grounds us in God's truth. We pause. We hear the Father. Right. We sink deeper into His Word and will for our lives. And that moves me. Here's another quote. Silence is the home of the Word. Right. Silence is the home of the Word. Silence gives strength and fruitfulness to the Word. That's powerful. Now, I want everybody to take time to sit silently with scripture, allowing it to take root. Take root in your heart. Once you do that, you're going to find yourself in a better place mentally, spiritually, emotionally, financially and physically. So that's your homework. Next week, we're going to pick up with number three, lesson three, about what silence does for us because your silence do matter. And thank you for tuning in to Mind Matters with Myself and Cindy. We'll look forward to seeing you next week when we talk about the continuing of how your silence do matter. Thanks for tuning into another episode of Mind Matters with Dr. J. A. Jones. Be sure to tune in next Sunday at 5 p.m. right here on Praise 107.9. We're more insightful discussion about how God's Word can get our minds right. You can also hear Dr. Jones preach in person Sundays at 11 a.m. at Faith Community Church of God at 1268 Gano Avenue in Orange Park, Florida, 32073. Thanks again for listening. Stay mindful and keep striving for improvement because your mind matters to God. Bye! [Music]
