May 31, 2024 • 18 mins
In this recording, Helene shares her practice of silence, solitude and simplicity; a practice she has developed over the years. It has become transformative in her life. She believes, “It opens me up to life and God and who I am as a person.”
We can become so busy and absorbed in our target-driven life that we miss the journey we are on, and the people we meet on it, and we may not even realize that God is with us the entire time. When this happens, we are not in the true rhythm of life.
But, when we come into rest and stillness we feel the heartbeat of God and His rhythm which is not a march we fall into step with, but rather a dance we have with Him.
The practice of silence gives us a more acute sense of His presence. We desperately need to be connected to the ONE who is the source of all life.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's a great privilege and honour to be here,
because this is my father'sworld and we can look a lot at
the negativity and not take timeto look at the beauty, and
that's why I want you, when youever look in the mirror, to
shave or do your hair oranything, say to yourself in my
(00:23):
father's eyes, I am beautifuland we really really are, and I
wondered about what to share,and I'm one of these people that
I think through my fingers.
I've done this for years.
It's not something that I Idon't know.
I start to write and thencontinue to write, so I'd like
(00:46):
to read something and sharesomething with you.
It's probably part of my lifejust now If my little iPad.
What I would like to share issomething that is very vital for
our life and for our well-beingin life, and it's something
(01:10):
that is very difficult for manyof us, especially me with my
kind of personality, and I don'tfind it easy to do, but over
the course of the years, thispractice has become the most
transformative in my life thatopens me up to God, opens me up
(01:31):
to life and who I am as a person.
More than anything else, it wasthis practice that opened me up
to God as a father, god as afather, and we need, we
desperately need, in this dayand hour we're living in, to lay
aside the schemes and plans andanxieties of a target-driven
(01:53):
life that is so busy and anxious, trying to get somewhere, that
it misses the journey, and wemiss valuing the people we meet
on the journey or the peoplethat we meet on the way, and not
even realizing that God, theFather, is with us all the time.
And so when we do that, we missthe rhythm of life.
(02:16):
That's why I love hearing thereis a rhythm in Nico's voice.
You see, there's a rhythminside every one of us.
There's a rhythm in nature aswell, and one of the things that
I believe we're missing in thisday and hour is missing this
rhythm of life, and one of theways that we learn to do that is
(02:37):
to come into rest and stillness.
And when we come into rest andstillness, we follow God's
heartbeat and we find that therhythm of God is not a march
where we walk in step with oneanother, but James Jordan said
it's a dance, and we find thatas we dance, others are drawn in
(02:59):
by the allure of the Father'smusic.
I can't dance with these legs,but I can dance on the inside.
There's always more to see andexperience, for we're always on
the border of two worlds.
But the world we live in iswilling to offer to us wonder
upon wonder, if our senses arenot dulled.
(03:22):
And to increase thissensitivity we need to be able
to move out from a complicatedmodern life to a simplicity of
life.
Now I understand that things inthe world get very tense, and I
know that.
But sometimes I think for me, Ineed to draw away to a place of
(03:43):
silence.
Think for me, I need to drawaway to a place of silence.
And when I do that, it beginsto leave room for things to
happen.
And this simple way of livingcompels us to find places where
we can be alone.
And yet we're not alone,because God, the Father, is
always with us.
He is the ever-present God.
(04:06):
How many say, if I say wheredoes God live, they'll say in me
.
And that's true.
But do you know something evenmore In the book of Acts?
In him we live and move andhave our being.
That's where our place ofresidence is.
And I've learned, even withlittle children, when I worked
(04:27):
with over 350 of them, I'velearned to draw, sometimes just
to have a little bit ofsimplicity and silence and
solitude, and it helps me emptymyself so that there's more room
in my life for him.
I don't know if you're aware,but I noticed you this morning
(04:50):
and I felt him singing over you.
You were singing, but he wassinging over you, and I think
there's an incredible beautywhen we realize that that's
what's happening to each one ofus.
In the book of Hosea, god saysthrough the prophet, I will lead
you into solitude and there Iwill speak to your heart.
(05:12):
You see, absence of noise orpeople is not necessarily peace.
Silence is possible for all ofus.
Silence is possible for all ofus, wherever we are in our minds
and in our hearts, to come intoinner silence.
We need to consciously departfrom sound and into silence.
(05:33):
How do you think Nico gets hiswords for his songs?
It's in silence.
There can be a lot of noisearound, but you can actually
feel silence inside of you, inthe stillness and solitude of
our own hearts.
(05:53):
We can journey to meet himthere.
This, what I'm about to share,which won't be very long, is
something that is very fragilebut needs to be carefully
guarded.
Do you know what prayer is?
Sitting in the silence until itsilences us.
I remember years ago I wantedGod.
(06:16):
I was walking out I think I wasin Cyprus at the time, I can't
remember and I was speaking intongues, praying out loud,
declaring scriptures out loud,and God went shh.
Do you not know?
He knows what we want.
It's choosing gratitude untilwe're grateful.
(06:37):
I've been reading a bit aboutthe desert fathers and I read
somewhere if these desertfathers say very little about
God, it's because they know thatwhen they've been close to
God's dwelling, silence makesmore sense than a lot of words.
So a question arises how can Ilisten for God and learn to hear
(07:01):
his voice?
But you know something it's notabout what to hear, but how to
hear.
In the scriptures it talks alot about be you perfect, as
your father is perfect.
But the real meaning is be youwhole as your father is whole.
You see, we're reading wordsand think we understand them,
(07:24):
but there's much more depth tothese words than we realize.
It's not about what to see, buthow to see, and one of the
people that shows us how to livethis life is Jesus Christ.
But there's a part of Jesus'life that often gets skipped
over in the busyness of ourlives.
Because there's not a lot inthe Bible about this.
(07:47):
It's tucked away.
But I decided some time ago Iwant to find out what it is.
Listen to this, mark.
Very early in the morning, whileit was still dark, jesus got up
, left the house and went to asolitary place, luke.
At daybreak, jesus went out toa solitary place, mark.
(08:09):
After leaving the crowd, jesuswent up a mountain to pray.
Matthew, jesus got in a boat byhimself to go to a solitary
place, luke.
Jesus often withdrew to lonelyplaces.
What Jesus is looking for issilence, but not just external
(08:30):
silence, but internal silence.
In 1 Kings we read about Elijah.
Elijah was a prophet and hewent away to try and find God.
And the Lord said go out andstand on the mountain in the
presence of the Lord, for theLord's about to pass by.
Then came a great and powerfulwind, but the Lord wasn't in the
(08:52):
wind.
After the wind, there was anearthquake, but the Lord wasn't
in the earthquake.
After the earthquake came agreat fire, but the Lord was not
in the fire.
After the earthquake came agreat fire, but the Lord was not
in the fire.
After the fire, there came agentle whisper.
Some versions of the Bible say astill small voice.
Right after this, elijah covershis face and he hears God for
(09:16):
the first time.
You see, the Hebrew translationof a still small voice is
really a gentle stillness, andthere's something greater, even
than a voice, that we're longingto hear, and that's stillness.
I don't know about you, but I'mlonging for this more and more,
and it's a love beyond words.
(09:39):
I think we sometimes say toomany words, but there's a love
that goes beyond words.
I think we sometimes say toomany words, but there's a love
that goes beyond words.
And I've only experienced thisoccasionally, but it was so
alive, because a gentlestillness has a vibrancy and a
life to that which is deeperthan words, and this is really
(09:59):
the deepest need for every oneof our lives.
This isn't about Bible reading,journaling, praying it's just
being still.
But the practices of Biblereading and journaling and
praying are important.
But over the course of my life Ilooked a bit at the ministry of
the Jesuits founded by Ignatiusof Lola.
(10:21):
I went to the Catholic House ofPrayer and many times I went to
the island of Lindisfarne.
You should go there.
It's off the coast of England.
It's not far, and it's a placecalled Holy Island, very busy
island.
It's where a lot of Celticspirituality began.
But when all the people go offthe island and you stay for at
(10:41):
least two nights, it's like thestillness falls on the place.
It's quite incredible.
I went to Cyprus when I retired, where some of the disciples of
Jesus went to preach the gospel.
I went for a six-monthsabbatical, ended up staying
four years, but what all thesepeople left behind has helped me
(11:03):
on the journey of life.
All have told me you won't findout what you're looking for out
there, but only from within.
Where does he live?
In you?
But also you live in him, andthat is what I believe the
spiritual practice does.
You begin to discover who youare and the question what should
(11:25):
I do with my life changes?
Because you find out who youare, you find that there is a
dream that you have inside you.
I believe that there's a dreaminside the heart of every single
person in this room and mydream has been very simple.
It's still the same today asit's been for years.
(11:49):
I want to leave somethingbehind.
I want people younger than meto go deeper into this
revelation of love than I haveever gone.
I don't know what tomorrow'sgoing to bring, and that's why
I've learnt about living in themoment, but I really believe
that there's going to be a moveof God.
(12:09):
There's so much trouble justnow, but I believe that what he
wants to do is impart his lifemore and more into us, to
realise who we are.
You know, we think we're just anormal little person living in
a little block of flatssomewhere or that, but he is
your father and you are createdin his image.
(12:31):
Jesus went to a solitary placeOne day.
I was driving the car with theradio on and I turned it off.
Why?
What has the acoustic stimulusgot to do with the visual
stimulus?
You see, we've got five senses.
We see, we smell, we sound, wetaste, like the lovely food
(12:53):
we've had.
We touch, and if you accentuateone, the others are not as
strong.
You turn the radio down so thatyou can have a more acute sense
of presence.
This is what the practice ofsilence does.
When I lived in Cyprus, I livedin a little flat and I used to
(13:16):
sit in the garden, and in thegarden there was a lot of
flowers.
But I noticed some of theflowers were dying and I didn't
realise that underneath therewas a little pipe that watered
the flowers every so often, butone of the pipes wasn't
connected, and so the flowersbegan to die.
We need desperately to beconnected to the one that's the
(13:38):
source of all life I am.
I don't want to say much more,except one thing We've had
beautiful food here, and I couldhave a big discussion about
chocolate.
I've said this before, but wecould have a discussion of
(13:59):
chocolate, speak on the historyof chocolate, how it's made,
scientific talks on your tastebuds, pictures of chocolates
that you've seen, but until youtaste it you do not know what
it's like.
You see, when Nico was singing,it wasn't just we were hearing
the words, we were actuallytasting what he was singing.
(14:19):
When things are being spokenabout in the church, you're
tasting it, and I think that'sthe most important thing of
anything.
The only way to find out whoyou really are and what you're
looking for is not to be foundout there, but from within,
because out of the heart themouth speaks.
I don't really want to say muchmore, but what I would like to
(14:57):
say is I wonder if you can beginto realize who you are In the
busyness and turmoil of life,the only way to find out who you
really are is to experience thestillness you know after Nico
sings.
There's like something fallsdown and it's like I don't know
(15:19):
how to describe it, except it'slike a comfortable silence, and
I would like, for a moment, justfor a couple of minutes, to
experience that silence.
So I wonder if you would like toclose your eyes.
Don't look at the person nextto you or even the beauty
outside.
Just close your eyes and I'llread a little meditation Be
(16:03):
still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know, be still, be, be Just, be Beautiful,
(16:40):
beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
Do you know that when youbreathe deeply in through your
(17:00):
nose and out through your mouthI practice this when you live in
a beautiful place and listen tothe sound of your breath,
breathe in deeply and out, andthe sound of your breath is
Yahweh, the Hebrew name for Godthat Jews couldn't say because
it was too holy.
It's the sound of your breath.
(17:28):
We're so busy trying to gethold of him, but it's coming
more and more to the realisationthat in him you live and move
and have your being and, as youknow, in Father Heart Ministries
there's a lot of talk about theorphan spirit.
It was so much more of my lifeI didn't feel anybody saw me or
anybody knew me.
It's not part of me anymoreBecause he's singing over you,
(17:54):
beautiful boy.
So I bless you on your journey,but remember, take one step at
a time, live in what's beenrevealed.
It's a great privilege and honour to be here,
because this is my father'sworld and we can look a lot at
the negativity and not take timeto look at the beauty, and
that's why I want you, when youever look in the mirror, to
shave or do your hair oranything, say to yourself in my
(00:23):
father's eyes, I am beautifuland we really really are, and I
wondered about what to share,and I'm one of these people that
I think through my fingers.
I've done this for years.
It's not something that I Idon't know.
I start to write and thencontinue to write, so I'd like
(00:46):
to read something and sharesomething with you.
It's probably part of my lifejust now If my little iPad.
What I would like to share issomething that is very vital for
our life and for our well-beingin life, and it's something
(01:10):
that is very difficult for manyof us, especially me with my
kind of personality, and I don'tfind it easy to do, but over
the course of the years, thispractice has become the most
transformative in my life thatopens me up to God, opens me up
(01:31):
to life and who I am as a person.
More than anything else, it wasthis practice that opened me up
to God as a father, god as afather, and we need, we
desperately need, in this dayand hour we're living in, to lay
aside the schemes and plans andanxieties of a target-driven
(01:53):
life that is so busy and anxious, trying to get somewhere, that
it misses the journey, and wemiss valuing the people we meet
on the journey or the peoplethat we meet on the way, and not
even realizing that God, theFather, is with us all the time.
And so when we do that, we missthe rhythm of life.
(02:16):
That's why I love hearing thereis a rhythm in Nico's voice.
You see, there's a rhythminside every one of us.
There's a rhythm in nature aswell, and one of the things that
I believe we're missing in thisday and hour is missing this
rhythm of life, and one of theways that we learn to do that is
(02:37):
to come into rest and stillness.
And when we come into rest andstillness, we follow God's
heartbeat and we find that therhythm of God is not a march
where we walk in step with oneanother, but James Jordan said
it's a dance, and we find thatas we dance, others are drawn in
(02:59):
by the allure of the Father'smusic.
I can't dance with these legs,but I can dance on the inside.
There's always more to see andexperience, for we're always on
the border of two worlds.
But the world we live in iswilling to offer to us wonder
upon wonder, if our senses arenot dulled.
(03:22):
And to increase thissensitivity we need to be able
to move out from a complicatedmodern life to a simplicity of
life.
Now I understand that things inthe world get very tense, and I
know that.
But sometimes I think for me, Ineed to draw away to a place of
(03:43):
silence.
Think for me, I need to drawaway to a place of silence.
And when I do that, it beginsto leave room for things to
happen.
And this simple way of livingcompels us to find places where
we can be alone.
And yet we're not alone,because God, the Father, is
always with us.
He is the ever-present God.
(04:06):
How many say, if I say wheredoes God live, they'll say in me
.
And that's true.
But do you know something evenmore In the book of Acts?
In him we live and move andhave our being.
That's where our place ofresidence is.
And I've learned, even withlittle children, when I worked
(04:27):
with over 350 of them, I'velearned to draw, sometimes just
to have a little bit ofsimplicity and silence and
solitude, and it helps me emptymyself so that there's more room
in my life for him.
I don't know if you're aware,but I noticed you this morning
(04:50):
and I felt him singing over you.
You were singing, but he wassinging over you, and I think
there's an incredible beautywhen we realize that that's
what's happening to each one ofus.
In the book of Hosea, god saysthrough the prophet, I will lead
you into solitude and there Iwill speak to your heart.
(05:12):
You see, absence of noise orpeople is not necessarily peace.
Silence is possible for all ofus.
Silence is possible for all ofus, wherever we are in our minds
and in our hearts, to come intoinner silence.
We need to consciously departfrom sound and into silence.
(05:33):
How do you think Nico gets hiswords for his songs?
It's in silence.
There can be a lot of noisearound, but you can actually
feel silence inside of you, inthe stillness and solitude of
our own hearts.
(05:53):
We can journey to meet himthere.
This, what I'm about to share,which won't be very long, is
something that is very fragilebut needs to be carefully
guarded.
Do you know what prayer is?
Sitting in the silence until itsilences us.
I remember years ago I wantedGod.
(06:16):
I was walking out I think I wasin Cyprus at the time, I can't
remember and I was speaking intongues, praying out loud,
declaring scriptures out loud,and God went shh.
Do you not know?
He knows what we want.
It's choosing gratitude untilwe're grateful.
(06:37):
I've been reading a bit aboutthe desert fathers and I read
somewhere if these desertfathers say very little about
God, it's because they know thatwhen they've been close to
God's dwelling, silence makesmore sense than a lot of words.
So a question arises how can Ilisten for God and learn to hear
(07:01):
his voice?
But you know something it's notabout what to hear, but how to
hear.
In the scriptures it talks alot about be you perfect, as
your father is perfect.
But the real meaning is be youwhole as your father is whole.
You see, we're reading wordsand think we understand them,
(07:24):
but there's much more depth tothese words than we realize.
It's not about what to see, buthow to see, and one of the
people that shows us how to livethis life is Jesus Christ.
But there's a part of Jesus'life that often gets skipped
over in the busyness of ourlives.
Because there's not a lot inthe Bible about this.
(07:47):
It's tucked away.
But I decided some time ago Iwant to find out what it is.
Listen to this, mark.
Very early in the morning, whileit was still dark, jesus got up
, left the house and went to asolitary place, luke.
At daybreak, jesus went out toa solitary place, mark.
(08:09):
After leaving the crowd, jesuswent up a mountain to pray.
Matthew, jesus got in a boat byhimself to go to a solitary
place, luke.
Jesus often withdrew to lonelyplaces.
What Jesus is looking for issilence, but not just external
(08:30):
silence, but internal silence.
In 1 Kings we read about Elijah.
Elijah was a prophet and hewent away to try and find God.
And the Lord said go out andstand on the mountain in the
presence of the Lord, for theLord's about to pass by.
Then came a great and powerfulwind, but the Lord wasn't in the
(08:52):
wind.
After the wind, there was anearthquake, but the Lord wasn't
in the earthquake.
After the earthquake came agreat fire, but the Lord was not
in the fire.
After the earthquake came agreat fire, but the Lord was not
in the fire.
After the fire, there came agentle whisper.
Some versions of the Bible say astill small voice.
Right after this, elijah covershis face and he hears God for
(09:16):
the first time.
You see, the Hebrew translationof a still small voice is
really a gentle stillness, andthere's something greater, even
than a voice, that we're longingto hear, and that's stillness.
I don't know about you, but I'mlonging for this more and more,
and it's a love beyond words.
(09:39):
I think we sometimes say toomany words, but there's a love
that goes beyond words.
I think we sometimes say toomany words, but there's a love
that goes beyond words.
And I've only experienced thisoccasionally, but it was so
alive, because a gentlestillness has a vibrancy and a
life to that which is deeperthan words, and this is really
(09:59):
the deepest need for every oneof our lives.
This isn't about Bible reading,journaling, praying it's just
being still.
But the practices of Biblereading and journaling and
praying are important.
But over the course of my life Ilooked a bit at the ministry of
the Jesuits founded by Ignatiusof Lola.
(10:21):
I went to the Catholic House ofPrayer and many times I went to
the island of Lindisfarne.
You should go there.
It's off the coast of England.
It's not far, and it's a placecalled Holy Island, very busy
island.
It's where a lot of Celticspirituality began.
But when all the people go offthe island and you stay for at
(10:41):
least two nights, it's like thestillness falls on the place.
It's quite incredible.
I went to Cyprus when I retired, where some of the disciples of
Jesus went to preach the gospel.
I went for a six-monthsabbatical, ended up staying
four years, but what all thesepeople left behind has helped me
(11:03):
on the journey of life.
All have told me you won't findout what you're looking for out
there, but only from within.
Where does he live?
In you?
But also you live in him, andthat is what I believe the
spiritual practice does.
You begin to discover who youare and the question what should
(11:25):
I do with my life changes?
Because you find out who youare, you find that there is a
dream that you have inside you.
I believe that there's a dreaminside the heart of every single
person in this room and mydream has been very simple.
It's still the same today asit's been for years.
(11:49):
I want to leave somethingbehind.
I want people younger than meto go deeper into this
revelation of love than I haveever gone.
I don't know what tomorrow'sgoing to bring, and that's why
I've learnt about living in themoment, but I really believe
that there's going to be a moveof God.
(12:09):
There's so much trouble justnow, but I believe that what he
wants to do is impart his lifemore and more into us, to
realise who we are.
You know, we think we're just anormal little person living in
a little block of flatssomewhere or that, but he is
your father and you are createdin his image.
(12:31):
Jesus went to a solitary placeOne day.
I was driving the car with theradio on and I turned it off.
Why?
What has the acoustic stimulusgot to do with the visual
stimulus?
You see, we've got five senses.
We see, we smell, we sound, wetaste, like the lovely food
(12:53):
we've had.
We touch, and if you accentuateone, the others are not as
strong.
You turn the radio down so thatyou can have a more acute sense
of presence.
This is what the practice ofsilence does.
When I lived in Cyprus, I livedin a little flat and I used to
(13:16):
sit in the garden, and in thegarden there was a lot of
flowers.
But I noticed some of theflowers were dying and I didn't
realise that underneath therewas a little pipe that watered
the flowers every so often, butone of the pipes wasn't
connected, and so the flowersbegan to die.
We need desperately to beconnected to the one that's the
(13:38):
source of all life I am.
I don't want to say much more,except one thing We've had
beautiful food here, and I couldhave a big discussion about
chocolate.
I've said this before, but wecould have a discussion of
(13:59):
chocolate, speak on the historyof chocolate, how it's made,
scientific talks on your tastebuds, pictures of chocolates
that you've seen, but until youtaste it you do not know what
it's like.
You see, when Nico was singing,it wasn't just we were hearing
the words, we were actuallytasting what he was singing.
(14:19):
When things are being spokenabout in the church, you're
tasting it, and I think that'sthe most important thing of
anything.
The only way to find out whoyou really are and what you're
looking for is not to be foundout there, but from within,
because out of the heart themouth speaks.
I don't really want to say muchmore, but what I would like to
(14:57):
say is I wonder if you can beginto realize who you are In the
busyness and turmoil of life,the only way to find out who you
really are is to experience thestillness you know after Nico
sings.
There's like something fallsdown and it's like I don't know
(15:19):
how to describe it, except it'slike a comfortable silence, and
I would like, for a moment, justfor a couple of minutes, to
experience that silence.
So I wonder if you would like toclose your eyes.
Don't look at the person nextto you or even the beauty
outside.
Just close your eyes and I'llread a little meditation Be
(16:03):
still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know, be still, be, be Just, be Beautiful,
(16:40):
beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
Do you know that when youbreathe deeply in through your
(17:00):
nose and out through your mouthI practice this when you live in
a beautiful place and listen tothe sound of your breath,
breathe in deeply and out, andthe sound of your breath is
Yahweh, the Hebrew name for Godthat Jews couldn't say because
it was too holy.
It's the sound of your breath.
(17:28):
We're so busy trying to gethold of him, but it's coming
more and more to the realisationthat in him you live and move
and have your being and, as youknow, in Father Heart Ministries
there's a lot of talk about theorphan spirit.
It was so much more of my lifeI didn't feel anybody saw me or
anybody knew me.
It's not part of me anymoreBecause he's singing over you,
(17:54):
beautiful boy.
So I bless you on your journey,but remember, take one step at
a time, live in what's beenrevealed.
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