Category: Encourage

Determine Validity

If I, who am altogether righteous, am able to forgive you, how is it possible that you should hesitate to forgive yourself?

Meditation Thought: “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” (Mark 11:25

“Forgive anyone: any one includes yourself. Jesus came that I may might forgive you. If I, who am altogether righteous, am able to forgive you, how is it possible that you should hesitate to forgive yourself?

To burden yourself with guilt is to carry extra weight which slows down your doing My works.

Do not look to any one’s expectations of you but My expectations to judge whether your thoughts, your words, your actions are sin and therefore guilt needs to be forgiven, or whether they are compatible with My righteousness and the individuality with which I blessed you, and therefore not sin in My sight.

Distinguish between the influences which should be a factor in your decisions, and those which are not of validity because they originate from a source other than My principles which I seek to teach you.

You must be able to determine if your advisor is speaking to you as an emissary for Me, or as a sinful human advisor at that moment, for the source of the advice determines if you are to give it value in your decision. If you pray about the revelation of truth, you shall know the truth.”

Growing Season: Seed to Fruit

Faith in Me shall allow you to bend gracefully through the storm.

Meditation Thought: “Blessed is the man
    whose… delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree
    planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
    and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.” (Psalm 1: 1,3)

You cannot look at the seed and call it fruit. Yet within the seed is all that is needed for the fruit if the proper environment for sprouting, for growing, for maturing is provided.

The environment has been provided. Now you choose to sprout, to grow, to mature. And do not give up when storms rage, and drought comes: your obedience to My law waters your deep roots in the righteous water of My Spirit, and faith in Me as Loving Father, Powerful Father, Grace-filled Father, shall allow you to bend gracefully through the storm, and not rigidly oppose the force of the wind by your insistence upon doing things your way.

To the degree that you absorb My principles, to that degree do you find nourishment to shorten the time between seed-planting and fruit-bearing. If the time is shortened, so are some storms avoided during the growing season.

Now do you understand? “He has shown you, O man, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

Promises Kept: at the Pace We Choose

If we rebel and complain of trials, we keep ourselves from the peace and joy of the Spirit of the Son.

Meditation Thought: “We are setting out for the place of which the Lord said, ‘I will give it to you’.” (Numbers 10:29) “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” (1 John 5:20)

As God sought to lead the Israelites to the good land He promised them, so He seeks to lead us who know of the Son to the Spirit of the Son.

As the land existed, but the Israelites were not yet in it, so the Spirit of the Son exists, and we must make the journey of faith in order to dwell in the place of the Spirit of the Son.

As the Israelites, through ignorance of what significance lay behind the trials, rebelled and complained and thus kept themselves from the Promised Land, so we, too, if we rebel and complain of trials, keep ourselves from the peace and joy of the Spirit of the Son.

If we approach trials calmly, realizing that they are an opportunity for God to reveal new truths to us and to more completely fulfill His purpose through us, then He is able to speed us along through our lessons and move on into more and more possession of the place of the Spirit of the Son.

Grow & Thrive

In giving is the growing; in seeking is the growing; in trusting is the growing.

Meditation Thought: “…let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.” (1 John 3:18-22)

Sprout, sprout! Only put out a tentative little growth by your own choice, and great movement of growth will take place. Such a little movement of faith is needed on your part, for all of the rest of the maturing process comes naturally.

To the extent you seek to express your faith in deed and truth, to that extent do you grow.

To the extent that you live out the commandments expressed by the Father and more fully and accurately interpreted for you by Jesus, to that extent do you thrive and grow.

As a plant will thrive if it seeks the direction of the sun and seeks the depth of the earth to find moisture, so shall you thrive if you seek truth in the commandments, and seek to fulfill the commandments with your deeds.

Plants do not grow by stagnant inner concentration, but by thrusting both upward and downward, and so it is with you.

Seek to find the Light of God and the depth of love in fellowship with others. Both are necessary for your proper growth: too much neglect of fellowship and you grow top heavy; too much neglect of God and you cannot find enough to nourish the fellowship.

If you are to grow to the maturity of blooming, you must absorb both the Light and the nutrients found in fellowship and ministry to each other.
In giving is the growing.
In seeking is the growing.
In trusting is the growing.
To neglect these is to shrivel and die missing the purpose for which the seed was made, was planted, was given a place where all that was needed for growth was there.

Do not despair when you must seek the Light with pain of difficult turning from your present direction; do not despair when you find hardness and resistance as you seek the depth of loving relationships and ministry.

To make greater effort is to strengthen you – to make you even more the best you can be.

It may not be a pleasant way, nor the way you would choose for proper growth – but it is the only way.

The Light is constant and you must turn to it.

The consistency of the human experience is varied – there is sandy soil and clay as hard as brick. The only way for you to get your roots set firmly where they should be to find the nutrients you need is to persist in pushing through each layer of resistance by your roots of love.

If little plants crack boulders, cannot your love crack the hard ground of resistance of envy, bitterness, jealousy, and apathy? Of course it can – for the strength from the Light pouring into your spiritual ‘tap’, making it strong, thrusts down to your roots of love and causes them to grow: slowly or rapidly, visibly or invisibly, they grow – and in doing so, aerate the soil that others may grow too.

Turning on the Light

To the greater degree that we live out the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves, to that degree do we, in essence, by our choices, bathe our own selves in light.

Meditation Thought: “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.” (1 John 2:9-10)

If we do the will of the Father, if we delight the Son, if we make welcome the Holy Spirit, how can we possibly be in the dark? We cannot: to the greater degree that we live out the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves, to that degree do we, in essence, by our choices, bathe our own selves in light.

The light is available, the light is created to dispel darkness: but we must know where the switch is that turns it on, and we must go to turn it on once we know where it is.

Of course, we may stumble on the way, we may lose our sense of direction for a time – but if we persevere, determined to find that switch and to turn it on, we shall have light, as we were intended to have light.

Our error is often believing that we can stay where we are and the switch will be placed in our hand and turned on for us.

Our way is sometimes made easier by the faint light from others’ lights showing us the path more clearly – but in order for this to happen, we must be looking for light in them and not for darkness, for what we seek we shall find.

Climate Change

If we have the choice to love or not love Him, obey or not obey Him, then our choice to please Him is magnified in its significance.

Meditation Thought: “…if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)

When we are cleansed from sin we are being images of the Father, Who is
loving,
good,
kind,
forgiving,
righteous,
willing to give free choice.

Furthermore, He respects our individuality and realizes that if we have the choice to love or not love Him, obey or not obey Him, then our choice to please Him is magnified in its significance. We must allow others the same choice – and as the Father does, by our words, principles, and actions, prepare a climate which encourages others to love – to act rightly – to find closer fellowship with God and with all.

A Green Thumb

Through Him are my talents moved from the potential of the seed through the maturing of the plant into the yielding of the fruit.

Meditation Thought: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature.” (2 Peter 1:2-4)

Through His promises, through His example, am I made well and whole, am I released from the weight and dark of sin and able to fly into the light of the glorious day – the revealing light that enables me to see the beauty and grandeur of the Kingdom. Through Him are my talents moved from the potential of the seed through the maturing of the plant into the yielding of the fruit.

So long as we are pure, by the power of the indwelling Word, the cleansing through prayer, and the indwelling Spirit revealing to us the divine nature through the knowledge of Jesus Christ, then we are who we were created to be. We are trusting and obedient to the Father as was Jesus, and consequently we partake of the divine nature of the natural growth of the fruits of love falling everywhere we go: of minds excited with new knowledge, of burdened hearts lifted up into joy, of the desperate making the 180 degree turn in the direction of hope. The one common denominator of all movement which pushes everything from bad to better is LOVE: unselfish, humble, trusting, determined, faithful love.

New Views; New Inspiration

Take time to be holy.

Meditation Thought: “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?” (Psalm 121:1)

Lift your eyes from the valley of despair and feast them upon the serenity of the hills – the stillness, the overall pattern of the whole. Lend Me your eyes that I may take them to see where you have not been able to go – let Me put new views into your eyes and return them to you to inspire your mind and your initiative. Take time to be holy – My purpose is worked through this more than in any other way. You do not see the spirit-waves of strength and force and direction which are released through this action – but nevertheless they exist, they are effective, and the are needed. That is why we have a relationship – to release these waves of My Spirit to the world.

Do not let stones I have placed for stepping become stumbling blocks.

How Things Work

The world calls this “miracle”, God calls it “standard operating procedure”.

Meditation Thought: “As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” (John 15:4)

(Message perceived to be from Jesus.)


As the root thrusts deeper in search of life-giving water, so must you thrust your life deeper into Mine. You cannot live, let alone bear delicious, outstanding fruit, if you do not have the nourishment to grow it.

You must come to know Me as if you were one of My disciples who could see Me, hear Me, touch Me. The Holy Spirit will be your sight, your hearing, your touch. As My words penetrate into you, you must be receptive to their nourishing power, using that power as I teach you through the Holy Spirit. I have promised that whoever believes in Me will do the works that I do. Believe the healing works into reality. You are My eyes, My ears, My hands to the world. Let Me activate them by turning your will, your brain and your heart to Me to activate for you. In this manner do I live in you and you live in Me, and the Father dwells in both of us. His creative power is released anew – the world calls this “miracle”, God calls it “standard operating procedure”. The process was intended to run smoothly, but through free will misused, sin clogged it. I will clean out the dirt of sin and allow the process to run smoothly again – if you will move out of the way so that I can get to the machinery of the process.

Jungle Adventure

The jungle of circumstances holds no peril for you if you put your efforts into finding My path instead of hacking a path for yourself.

Meditation Thought: “Behold, I am doing a new thing… I will make a way in the wilderness.” (Isaiah 43:19)

Give Me your attention – we are starting on an adventure together. Enjoy the thrill, the excitement, the anticipation of discovery. The way will be cleared before you, for I prepare it before asking you to go that way. You must look for the path I have cleared for you – otherwise you will have to fight the wilderness by yourself – finding it very difficult to penetrate. When you find yourself chopping at obstacles in your path, frustrated, tired and discouraged – stop: Look at where you are, and look at where I am – are you following Me? Are you taking the path which I have cleared for you? The jungle of circumstances holds no peril for you, no difficulty, if you put your efforts into finding My path instead of hacking a path for yourself. Direct your efforts where the results will be fruitful and satisfying, and not frustrating.