Meditation Thought: “Instead, seek his kingdom and these thing shall be yours as well.” (Luke 12:31)
The fruits of the kingdom are sweet! If you concentrate your time and energy in cultivating the Words which are the seeds of the fruits of the kingdom, you will always be satisfied – more than satisfied: delighted in both the taste and the nourishment of the fruits of which you partake.
“Try it you’ll like it” pertains to the urging of the Word and the Spirit as aptly as the phrase does to materialistic motives of those who use them in the world. Just as you weigh the urging of the words against your experience and knowledge to determine whether you heed the advertising, so weigh the “advertising” of the Word and the Spirit against your experience and knowledge to determine whether their prompting “rings true” for you.
Not one time in your experience has the Word or Spirit disappointed you or failed you when you have waited till all of the evidence has been presented before judging the results. Therefore, your weighing is not a matter of whether to believe the message, but of determining if the message originates from the Word and the Spirit, or if the deceiver is manipulating your perceptions to think that the message he presents is coming from the Word and the Spirit.
- Test the message against the scripture in the Bible, and not the remembrance of it in your mind
- Test the “still small voice” manner of the Spirit and the blatant manner of the deceiver
- Test the circumstances as to confirmation of other previous circumstances which are true to the Word and right in your experience
- Test the thoughts and feelings of trusted Christian friends and advisors.
Do not be afraid of trying anything that passes your judgment tests – if it be the work of God, it will be His wonderful fruit which you taste – if you have been misled after proper testing on your part, God will render the deceiver’s fruit harmless to you, though he would have poisoned you with it had you eaten it in an attitude of greed for selfish gluttonous satisfaction, not caring for those who might be starving if you gobbled the fruit yourself.
Just as both good and poisonous mushrooms grow, and your own knowledge and choosing determines if what you eat nourishes you or poisons you, so it is with learning which things are of the kingdom, and which things are poisonous to you. Many things appear to be nourishing, and are poisonous, and many things which look unappetizing are actually the fruits of the kingdom which will nourish and delight you if you have the courage to try them.
Thus the paradox of “he who would be first must be last.”
Meditations of Marie's Heart 