Category: Faith

The Source for Power, Love & Self-discipline.

Relax your mind, and your emotions. You will not be disappointed. Trust Me.

Meditation Thought: “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

Do no allow others’ actions to affect your knowledge of who you are, and what is going on in your life – especially your inner life. I am your strength; I am your power; I am your guide; I am your stronghold.

Trust Me. I have brought you to this place for a purpose. Seek Me; seek My will. There is much good to be done for many. Do not anticipate Me. Pray constantly; be a cheerful, faithful servant to all who enter into your life. It is in servanthood that you will find and demonstrate power, self-control and love. Relax your mind, and your emotions. I go to prepare a place for you. When it is ready I shall come for you, to take you that you may have the thrill of a happy surprise. You will not be disappointed. Trust Me – trust Me.

Release Your Burdens & Rejoice

O, Little One, My beloved child, My precious lamb – I would, I did, lay down my life that you may live. You are my beloved, my pride and joy.

Meditation Thought:  “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

“Yield yourself to Me – including your emotions and your desires. When you absorb My word, do My works of kindness and love, rejoice in the Spirit and seek Me as your constant companion, you can trust that I will provide the emotions which are pleasing to you and the fulfillment of your deepest longings and desires.

‘My yoke is easy and My burden is light’ (Matthew 11:30) is to be your theme song. When you yield the stress of decisions to Me, through prayer, praise, trust and doing what seems appropriate without fretting, you then put into operation My grace and My strength. I cannot take your burdens unless you let go of them as I reach for them.

I will not violate your free will. No, even I, who created you, who created the marvels of the universe, will not force you to do My bidding. Does this reveal to you the extent of your value to Me? Do you have any ides of the joy it brings Me to have you freely listen to Me and believe Me when I say I love you and seek good for you in all circumstances? (Romans 8:28)

O, Little One, My beloved child, My precious lamb – I would, I did, lay down my life that you may live – truly live – not just exist. This is who you are – a new creature in Christ: My beloved, but more than My beloved, my pride and joy.”

Crushing Evil: The Role of Peace and Wisdom in Our Lives

Evil can mask itself as good to an unsuspecting mind, and especially to unguarded emotions.

Meditation Thought: ” I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” (Romans 16:19-20)

Only by the power of the indwelling Spirit can we know what is good – and what is evil. Evil can mask itself as good to an unsuspecting mind, and especially to unguarded emotions.

To be filled with the Spirit is to allow eternal wisdom to flow into the mind, peace and joy flow into the heart (the emotions), and energy to do good works course throughout the body. Given these conditions, evil is simply not known – it is ‘crushed under the feet’, never being allowed to affect the Spirit-protected body. It is the way Christ lived, and the way the Father would have all of His children live.

When the children realize it is the way we want to live as well, then the Spirit is able to rush into our being – cleansing, renewing, transforming, reforming – doing a complete remodeling job according to the specifications set down at the beginning of creation.

Fruits of the Spirit: Cultivating Peace and Joy

Sighing shall flee away

Meditation Thought: “…a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way… the redeemed shall walk there… they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (Isaiah 35: 8,9,10)

The Holy Way is the Father’s will. It is the way of the Son’s obedience and it is they way of the Spirit’s power. It is the natural way – the way which is best for God’s beloved children.

So long as we do not, out of rebellion brought on by stubborn self-will, refuse the walk the Holy Way, we travel with peace, joy, love and all the other fruits of the Spirit which we can gather along the way. This is true regardless of circumstances. Only as we believe this, and integrate it into every area of our lives, does the kingdom within become recognized. And as we realize that we are in the kingdom, through our knowledge that it is an internal place, we are able to bring changes in the external world which liken it to the kingdom.

We all seek approval – but we need to seek the approval of the Father more than the approval of our human companions if we are to be producers of the fruits of the kingdom. The world needs farmers to feed fruits of the spirit to a starving world!

Seeds of Opportunity May be Found in the Weeds

Which means we may have to get dirty.

Meditation Thought: “Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.” (Acts 7:9-10)

“God rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharoah.” God raised Joseph from despair, from a low place, and put him in a place where he could be happy, fulfilled and honored while at the same time helping others. This was a process; it took time.

This is often the pattern. We may not choose to go where we must, to do what we must. Yet in those very circumstances are the seeds of the opportunity God perceived for us. If we are faithful, trustful and work to do our best no matter what the circumstances, then God’s provision for His faithful results in a joyful conclusion.

GPS to God’s Kingdom

There is no coercion, for love must be given freely to qualify as love.

Meditation Thought: “nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” (Luke 17:21)

The kingdom of God exists wherever it is recognized as existing. When we, who have the capacity to do so, respond to God’s Presence within us, we are transformed by the knowledge of the magnificence of the Whole of which we are a part.

When we recognize that we are a part of a Whole and that the Whole is good – good for us and for others – and that goodness is that Whole’s innate Character and Nature, we perceive ourselves in an entirely new way. We perceive that the kingdom which Jesus referred to is actually within us! – to be discovered there and to be explored there.

We are so accustomed to having outside forces be the influence of our perception and decisions that it is difficult for us to realize that the Force within our own being is available and more powerful than any other.

We look inward in the wrong place: we look to the way we feel, and to the selfish desires of our own heart. We need to look inward to the right place: to the Father, the One who can guide us surely through the maze of life, that the Whole is healthy, as the parts are healthy.

We can find the Father and His kingdom within. Jesus is the key. God constantly urges us, and gives clues to us as to His whereabouts – but He desires for us to seek Him that both He and we are aware that the choice is ours. There is no coercion, for love must be given freely to qualify as love.

Lost & Found: Joy, Peace, Fulfillment

…we gain joy, peace and fulfillment.

Meditation Thought: “For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 16:25)

In any system, when the lower is subject willingly and enthusiastically, cooperatively, and harmoniously to the higher, the whole functions more perfectly. So it is when we yield our lives to Christ – in one sense we lose them because we no longer have control – even partial control, which was really all we had to begin with.

But when we lose that control, we gain everything else that is good for us, everything that will bring joy and peace and fulfillment. These are the very things for which we searched by our own control. We could not find them, for that was not the nature for which we were created.

Only when we realize that we are a part of the whole can we make decisions which are in harmony with the whole, and thus accomplish our goals of finding peace, joy and fulfillment. If we fight the whole, we cannot win! We are weaker, less informed, and incomplete.

Once we recognize that Jesus is our head, – and what a head that is! – we are content, grateful, even, to delegate the functions of the head to Him, and to function as the body ourselves. We become a great body when we have a great Head to instruct us properly!

This understanding can only be achieved by faith – believing in the possibility of the truth that we are not merely what we observe, think and feel, but that we are part of a fantastic whole – and can become far more important, effective, and content as a part of such a glorious whole that we can be alone.

Vanquish Fear and Shame

God is pure love, and I am His. Hallelujah! I cannot have any basis for fear; I am the beloved of Pure Love!

Meditation Thought: (Suggestion: where you read the word ‘you‘ insert your name instead; the prayer is for you!) “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:14-21)

I am strengthened by God’s might in my inner spirit. Christ dwells in my heart through faith. I am rooted and grounded in love and have power to comprehend everything God desires me to understand. God is able to do far more abundantly than all that I ask or think! Therefore, I shall not be afraid; I shall not be ashamed of myself.

I will trust this Force of Love within me – through my faith and works of faith I can trust my Lord to see me through all the happenings on the way, for we walk together – no, we “shall mount up with wings like eagles, we shall run and not be weary, we shall walk and not faint”.

We walk by faith – in Truth, not by sight of circumstances. God is pure love, and I am His. Hallelujah! I cannot have any basis for fear; I am the beloved of Pure Love!

Vague Longings vs. Realized Hope

Do we imagine so vividly how we think an event should happen that when it takes place in a manner which is different than we pictured, we don’t even recognize that this is what we have waited for?

Meditation Thought: “…I have lived as a Pharisee [believing in resurrection of the dead]. And now I stand here on trial for hope in the promise made by God to our fathers… and for this hope I am accused. Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead? (Paul speaking to King Agrippa – Acts 26:5-8)

It is one thing to think and believe in a vague, remote, some-day-it-might-happen attitude and quite another thing to adjust to facts indicating that what was believed for and hoped for is actually real; its time has come.

Are we comforted by vague longings which require little of us – but fearful of what the reality of our longings fulfilled may require of us? And do we imagine so vividly how we think an event should happen that when it takes place in a manner which is different than we pictured, we don’t even recognize that this is what we have waited for?

Although this can – and does – happen frequently, we are blessed in our generation as for us the hope of resurrection, and the whole concept of God is concerned – for we have the record in total of the events that must have been mind-boggling as the actually happened.

Perhaps we need to combine our knowledge that Jesus and Paul spoke truly, and events through history, as well as the Spirit and workings of God in our own lives confirm their contentions, with an imagination that “fires up” our emotions in a way that happened for those who saw Jesus and saw Paul in the flesh.

Then we could realize the significance of the magnitude of that which was hoepd for being fulfilled.

Listening to Wisdom: The Power of Quiet Reflection

It is not wise to share your knowledge indiscriminately: wait for the leading of the Spirit.

Meditation Thought: “…pay attention to my wisdom, turn your ear to my words of insight, that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.” (Proverbs 5:1-2)

Guarding knowledge is discretion: there is a balance and an order to be kept in the realm of the mind. The more knowledge you have of Truth, the more adequately you are prepared to do My will. But it is not wise to share your knowledge indiscriminately: wait for the leading of the Spirit that it may be most effective in the renewal of minds and the changing of hearts.

It is for this reason that you need to have times of quiet to listen – to receive instruction. The times will vary in length – in fact even a split second’s awareness of the Spirit can guide your thoughts, words and deeds.

Do all you can to develop “Spirit-awareness”: get the Word implanted into your mind; welcome the Spirit into your spirit, embrace Christ in your heart. This is to be attentive to wisdom, incline your ear to wisdom’s understanding, to be discreet, and to use knowledge wisely.

The advice in Proverbs is desirable, it is advantageous – but it cannot be totally comprehended nor fully used without Christ within interpreting the knowledge that it may be used wisely.