Professor Zacharias TaneeFomum, gave a four-point description of what a spiritual retreat is:
i.Spiritual retreat is a time when a lover of God obeys the call of God to come apart and be alone with Him, and so finds himself alone with God.
ii. It is a time when one withdraws from people and from all else to get lost in God, listen to Him, hear Him, make plans to obey Him and do something with Him, which is best done in seclusion;
iii. It is a time when all other voices and noises are shut out of the heart and mind and all attention is directed to the Lord on hearing His voice and doing His bidding.
iv. It is a time when a person goes away from the presence of men and their distractions to be alone in order to concentrate on a God-given task.
Retreats afford us the opportunity to reflect on who we have been, who we are now and who God desires us to be in the future.
Some have situated retreats in the precincts of love, when the human spirits responds to God’s craving for communion. Others have said it in the place of service and problem-solving, involving the application of God’s perspective as a winning edge. Yet, others have located it in the power need, the ability to command the divine influence into natural situations and circumstances.
Whatever concept anyone accepts, the important thing is that retreats demand:
• Withdrawal from the world and its activities.
• Cleaving to God and Godly activities.
Retreat is a time of communion with God and it is that kind of communion that existed from the Garden of Eden between the first man, Adam and his creator-God. Adam would retire to God in the “coolness of the day” (Genesis 3:8) to interact with Him on diverse issues.
The Almighty God, Himself, told His chosen people Israel, that “in returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shalt be your strength and ye would not,” (Isaiah 30:15). Yet not many Christians today realise the need for the inward peace available only when one goes apart to commune with God. This peace is supremely necessary to catching great visions and revelations needed to survive and thrive in a jet age bursting with a cacophony of highly distractive sounds and activities.
Wisdom demands, therefore, that one who wants to make it in life above his worldly contemporaries must seek the secrets of the same in Christ in whom is hidden all knowledge of the glory of God. When we retreat to God, we catch the light of revelation that affects the world for Christ.
Paul wrote glowingly to the Corinthian believers saying: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” (2 Corinthians 4:6).
From the text, we discover that the amount of light a person carries is a function of the volume of Christ in him or her. How much of the face of Jesus do you see in a day, in a week or in a year? Be sure, those who do not seek His face do not also see it. What you see in His face is what you will have. And where is the best way to seek Him? It is in a spiritual retreat.
• Today’s nugget: Retreat is a place of communion with God
Prayer: Lord help me to seek your face. Prayer lines: 08033299824. E-mail: [email protected]. Rev. Abel UkachiAmadi. General Superintendent, Assemblies of God Nigeria.
