Category: Encourage

Choose the Weight of Your Burden

The burden of sin is far heavier than the burden of the cross!

Meditation Thought: “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 4:27)

“To follow Me is to die to the self” – this is the cross to bear: the loss of “playing God” in your own life. At first the cross seems heavy – really unbearable – but as you persevere, the experiences serve as rough places which take off pieces of the cross, making it lighter and lighter.

The longer you follow Me, the more intimate we become, the dearer to each other, the more oblivious you become to the cross. You no longer are conscious of the cross, but you are conscious of Me and our relationship. You become so excited, enthused, fulfilled in our relationship and the activities we do together that you give no thought to the cross; it neither slows your movements nor occupies your thoughts. Your acceptance of the cross has actually resulted in a whole new dynamic, satisfying way of life.

Stand firm against any who would relieve you of the cross! If you relinquish the cross, you revert to your selfish, sin-burdened state, and the burden of sin is far heavier than the burden of the cross!

Gardening from Seed

The kingdom is available for the taking – and its very essence is to work good for many at one time.

Meditation Thought: “The kingdom of heaven… is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.” (Luke 13: 18,19)

“A man took” – the man acted to take the seed given by God and place it where it would grow to his advantage and delight – fulfilling the purpose for which God had created the seed, fulfilling a need of the man, and fulfilling a need of the ‘birds’.

The kingdom is available for the taking – and its very essence is to work good for many at one time.

To live your life according to the laws of the kingdom is an assurance of growing good fruits for yourself and for others.

To the extent you know that a seed needs to be sown and cultivated to produce the best fruit, to the extent you make effort to provide what the seed needs, to the extent you thank your Father who provided the seed, your Brother who gave you the perfect instructions for its cultivation, and your Helper who enables you to carry out the instructions – to that extent will the tree thrive and provide the maximum for which it was created.

Seek knowledge, enjoy cultivation, anticipate the results, and the harvest shall be sure,  plentiful and pleasing.

Prepare for Joy

By adhering to your duty of the moment, you unknowingly prepare for yourself a joy in the future.

Meditation Thought: “You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (Luke 12:40)

“Surprise, surprise.” And in an instant, every thought and plan you had is changed. For someone has, unknown to you, made plans which affect you greatly. Be prepared, even though surprised, for any event which comes to you by seeking the best precepts on which to base your momentary thoughts and actions. By adhering to your duty of the moment, you unknowingly prepare for yourself a joy in the future.

Look to the guidance of the Word, the Spirit, the circumstances, to make proper preparations for whatever may be in store. Trust that when you attend to your duties that you will receive your reward – sometimes in the pleasure of a peaceful conscience, and sometimes in a more glorious exciting event.

Poisonous or Delicious: You Choose

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.

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.”

Coexist on Two Planes

You have the Word, and so have the light: you may use it to light your way, or you may leave it and go into darkness and stumble.

Meditation Thought: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11:28)

The Word enlightened by the Spirit is shining Truth to illuminate the pure content and intent of all that is of the King and the Kingdom.

Seek the Word, seek the Truth, seek the Kingdom: you shall be transported in mind, in emotions, even in body as in spirit onto a higher plane of life. You shall exist in two places – the earthly plane and the heavenly plane: the one influences the other, you being the lever which connects the parts and creates the design of each. You have a place on earth and a place in heaven which are yours: the homes prepared for you. Make of them what you will! For your will shall determine whether your homes are havens or hell, beautiful or ugly, welcoming or distasteful, managed by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, or managed by you, with the aggravation of Satan reaching into your management. You have the Word, and so have the light: you may use it to light your way, or you may leave it and go into darkness and stumble.

Treasure Hunt

Where is your treasure? In the objects that the Father placed on earth for your pleasure – or in the joy of the Father’s love who placed them there?

Meditation Thought: “Power came forth from him and healed them all.” (Luke 6:19)

Power came forth from him because he had yielded his will to the Father, his mind to the Father, his body to the Father, his emotions to the Father, his spirit to the Father and his time and energy to the Father.

Where is your treasure? In the objects that the Father placed on earth for your pleasure – or in the joy of the Father’s love who placed them there?

 

Follow Where? How? Why?

Come let us go together to pastures green and soft – to water fresh and pure, and the safety of the Spirit – protected haven prepared for you in the midst of a treacherous world…”

Meditation Thought: “‘Follow me’ and he left everything and rose and followed him.” (Luke 5:27-28)

“Yes-yes-yes- ‘follow me’. I take you not away from your family and your duties, but deeper into them. Do not fear that I will divide your loyalty: I come to integrate one part of your being with another. You are the one who has fragmented yourself, fretting over choices, talking yourself into doing what you ‘ought’ to do when your desire was in another direction. Follow me into the sweet places of love, of delight of a child at the provision of his father for him. He does not question his right to the delights that his father provides him. He just enjoys them.

Walk uprightly, and do good – but with happy abandon, not with solemn stiffness.

Relax – I will give you what you need when you need it. Do not anticipate where you will be struggling with what may be completely alien to what will come – but deal with this moment according to My Word and Spirit. Pray for guidance. Listen fr guidance. Believe that you act according to My Will if you have done the first two steps, and then forget the action when it is over, so that you have cleared your emotions for the present moment.

Come let us go together to pastures green and soft – to water fresh and pure, and the safety of the Spirit – protected haven prepared for you in the midst of a treacherous world…”

The Table of the Spirit – for You

You swallow spiritual truths into your being as surely as you swallow food into your body – or you refuse to swallow truths as surely as you refuse to eat food placed before you!

Meditation Thought: “your faith has made you well.” (Mark 10:52)

“Your knowledge and acceptance of My mercy has made you well (no longer sick with sin). You are functioning properly, having the disease of sin no longer within you, but removed by taking the medicine to counteract it – which is the acceptance into your spirit and mind of My sacrifice being the purifying medicine, and the ingestion of it into yourself as you swallow it with your spirit and mind focused on Me and My mercy. You swallow spiritual truths into your being as surely as you swallow food into your body – or you refuse to swallow truths as surely as you refuse to eat food placed before you!

The table of the Spirit is set before you; but you must see it and acknowledge it in order to be able to partake of its food.

As you learn more surely to see clearly and believe that the table is for your delight and nourishment, you shall reap more of the health of spirit, mind and body which it provides, as you enjoy feasting from it.

Oh, the variety to tempt your palate! And all of the various nutrients you need are included. You may need to learn to enjoy particular dishes, just as you learn to enjoy foods you at first have no taste for. But keep tasting whatever is offered to you, knowing that if it is on the table which has been prepared for you, it is for the benefit of your healthy body, mind or spirit.

And so as you trust your Chef and Waiter, you receive the good food which We prepare for your enjoyment and your health! The Chef has prepared the food, the Waiter is eager to serve you: will you walk to where the Host waits to show you your own special table so lovingly prepared for you? Once you set your will to seek the Host, to follow the Host’s leading, then do you assure yourself of obtaining the feast of Life: life temporal but transformed and life eternal. No longer are you weak with the desires of sin or starved for lack of knowledge, but strong with the works of the Spirit and the wisdom of the Word.”

Divine Power

To have meaning in your life you must believe in something…

Meditation Thought: “All things are possible for one who believes.” (Mark 9:23)

“All things are possible for one who believes because believing opens the lock in the dam of sin which has impeded the flow of divine power.

Accept the truth of the Word: believe the Word, have courage to stake your very life on the truth of the Word. Every thought, every act which expresses your belief in the Word opens the lock in the dam a little more.

To have meaning in your life you must believe in something: choose the Way. It is not the easy, downhill path – but it is the path along which you will find excitement and beauty and inspiration. Throw every facet of your being into the Truth as revealed to you, that the lock may be thrown open fully, and divine power rushed into your life:
cleansing,
thirst-quenching,
life-sustaining holy water.

The difference between stagnation and a resurrected life;
a born again life;
a new life;
life no longer in flesh only but transformed by the Spirit of Living Water.”

Favored Position

Do not be ashamed of yourself, but accept yourself, imperfect, yes – but with value as a person created in love and to be loved and to love.

Meditation Thought: “In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ ” (Hosea 1:10)

“I am here. Turn to Me. You are looking in the wrong direction, taking the wrong paths. Check your compass: My Word. You are checking circumstances – they will mislead you. My Word is a lamp unto your feet. Take up my lamp and you will see the way to go. Fret not. Fear not. Trust me.

I say to your back, ‘you are not mine’ – for I cannot follow you. You must follow Me to be Mine. When you are turned toward Me, then you are demonstrating that you are Mine: you are realizing your position as My child and are able to act upon the favored position, moving in confidence of unburdened conscience, of energy engendered by My loving approval of your following Me, doing the works I long for you to do. I will teach you a new way to accomplish your tasks. I will be your efficiency expert, instructing you and exposing to your mind and spirit new truth, new methods. But you must turn to watch Me, not turn away to circumstances.

Believe on My Name; claim your inheritance as a member of My family in good standing by virtue of your desire to do My will. Your claims to my riches of the Kingdom need not wait until you are rid of the flesh, but ask for a portion of your inheritance as of this day. It is My pleasure to share with My beloved at all times, but you must make your desires known to Me by word and deed, according to our covenant as Father and child. Your requests are your act of turning to Me, recognizing My claim as being your Creator, and Sustainer. Why should you go grumpily and resentfully tramping off into the world to seek your desires when, if you will lay down your pride of childish attitude of ‘doing it myself’ you can then be free to ask Me, knowing I love you and desire to express that love to you in ways pleasing to you, for whatever it is you seek.

I wish to teach you full, clear communication. Misunderstandings and disappointments occur when purposes are not fully revealed, when desires are not clearly stated, when attitudes are assumed. Be honest: be transparent: be true to yourself as you are at the moment. Share yourself – not another self. Then all can know with whom they deal – including you! ‘Know thyself’. Do not be ashamed of thyself, but accept thyself, imperfect, yes – but with value as a person created in love and to be loved and to love.”