Category: Hope

The Road to Friendship

Our loving Father is determined that we should remain in His chosen path for us so that we can be exposed to all of the wonderful things He has placed there for us.

Meditation Thought: “The Lord is a friend to those who fear him.” (Psalm 25:14)

I will respect the Lord and do His will, for His will is for my good. I will heed the Lord that my mind may be at peace and my heart full of joy. Blessed be the Lord! He is merciful and full of grace.

To fear the Lord, we must know of His power. To know of His power is to fear Him – but also to realize that the power is intended to be for our good. Only when we cross the will of God do we move from the positive side of His power into the negative side. When we are in the negative side, He is bathing us in the harsh chemicals of circumstance so that we might be changed and moved back to the positive side; in the positive state of being in God’s will, we are seen in focus, we are clearly outlined – no confusion or fuzziness clouds our image.

We need to fear God so that we can put forth the effort needed to submit our self-will and ego to His will and Christ’s ego or Presence within us. We need the incentive of knowing that God is more powerful than we, that He cares enough about us to guide us “on the straight and narrow” even if it sometimes hurts! Sometimes we are so aware of the confinement of the narrow way that we forget to look at the opening in front of us – the vision of all that is truly dear to us being right within that narrow way. While at times we may envy the broad road of the world where we could wander without bumping into the confines of righteousness – our loving Father is determined that we should remain in His chosen path for us so that we can be exposed to all of the wonderful things He has placed there for us – if we wander off to the broad roads of the world, we move along in time, wasting our movements and our thoughts on mundane, even evil and harmful things not planned for us by God.

Walking Paths

We walk in the peace of forgiveness, and the hope of the future for we know that future is secure.

Meditation Thought: “for we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)

We walk by the inner light and not the outer darkness.
We walk in the joy of the Lord and not the confusion of the world.
We walk in the righteousness of the way and not the the selfishness of the heart.
We walk in love, not in envy.
We walk in service, and not in demanding to be served.
We walk beside the still waters, while the storm rages only a short distance away.
We walk in the peace of forgiveness, and the hope of the future for we know that future is secure, fashioned as a place of refuge and heart’s desires by our loving Father, if we will walk by faith in Him and not by faith in ourselves.

Homemaking

Cleanse me, shine me, beautify me.

Meditation Thought: “ Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1 Corinthians 3:16)

Oh Lord, help me to every day improve my temple to be more fitting as a place for You to dwell. Cleanse me of sin, shine me with your righteousness, beautify me with your love. Let me be a place where others are drawn to worship You, to come to learn more about You, to rejoice in You. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Take time to compare the temple you are with the temple of those who walked with Jesus. This will help you to restructure and redecorate your own temple in a manner more befitting the residence of God on earth. Jesus as man was the perfect temple: no mortal can become a perfect temple – but it is possible to yield to the Spirit within you to the point of becoming a pleasing temple, a temple based on the Ideal Temple, copying it as you come to study the Ideal Temple.

Guaranteed Supplement Strength

Grow into a tree that stands firm in the storms; one that shelters.

Meditation Thought: “The desert and the parched land will be glad;
    the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; (Isaiah 35:1-2)

Life – life – life- the dormant seed of your life comes into true Life when Jesus is injected by the invitation of the seed to let Him in.

Grow – grow into a glorious testimony of the ways of the Lord: into a fruitful tree; a tree that shelters, that stands firm in the storms. Take your nourishment that you may grow: the Word, the obedience, the works, the heart-attitude – these are the supplements that make you stronger than you are without your Lord being within you – for these are the ways He constantly fills you with His Presence.

Do not look for supplements where the simple look: to the world. Those supplements will harm you, render you weak and ineffective, fruitless and sparsely leaved, as a blight.

Send your roots down, searching deeply for the foundation of the Truth to uphold you that you might fulfill the potential that was contained in the seed of your birth.

Rehearse, Practice, Perform

The wisdom on the ages is set before you; will you partake?

Meditation Thought: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)

The wisdom on the ages is set before you; will you partake? It is the background for the action taking place in your life – its presence affects your performance. Your performance affects your audience.

Come, the time is ripe to be directed into a great performance of the Father’s will – you have been rehearsing, practicing, now come the years in your life of the performance of what you have been learning. Each performance brings its own peculiarities, its own joys and hazards – but always the Director is in charge – if you will listen to Him, that the performance of the moment is the only performance to be considered for it it be as effective as possible to you and to your audience.

You know not the effects of your performance, you must believe with all your heart that the instructions of your Director are bringing your performance to exquisite perfection that it may bring enlightenment and appreciation into all who see it, that they might rise up to give glory to the Author, and recognition to the Director, how by His own direct example demonstrates to you how you are to perform. Will you obey the Director, trusting His judgment is better than yours?

Infinitely More Healthy

Obedience is easier when the Word is saturating your mind and subconscious.

Meditation Thought: “…present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1)

As you can learn to bring health by proper nutrition, so you can learn to bring health by proper spiritual food: you are ‘wonderfully made’ – many interrelated and interacting parts, which need to be kept is good working order. Sin would rob you of the best health of body, mind and spirit. By the sacrifice of choosing what is healthy instead of choosing what is appealing at that moment, you bring the blessing of the peace of a healthy body, mind and spirit. The healthy foods are all listed in your nutritional handbook: Read it every day that your choice of all the foods may be healthy: the physical food, the spiritual food. Only by the power of obedience to God being released can you have the willpower to choose healthy foods over those which are deceitfully appealing as prepared by Satan.

Obedience is easier when the Word is saturating your mind and subconscious. ‘Brainwash’ yourself with the Word, for this kind of cleansing of old sinful thoughts will purify your mind and renew it with the thoughts of the Father being fed into it. His thoughts prompt actions which are within His will, and acting in His will is the presentation of a holy body to Him as sacrifice. You sacrifice your own will but in doing so, His will is given to you – and His will is infinitely more healthy, more desirable, more rewarding to you than your own will.

Divine, Practical Interpretation

The Spirit is the interpreter.

Meditation Thought: “The Spirit himself intercedes for us… in accordance with the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27)

The Spirit is the interpreter between God and people; the message-bearer; the One who understands God and understands people and brings the two together that the bond might be closer, the communication more complete, the Father’s works done more speedily and completely.

Prayer of Response:

Holy Spirit – dwell in me mightily; I know you will not push me in any way – but I ask you to work in me to your fullest desire, that the Father’s will might be also my way, my path, my works and my manner. Take my personality and clean it, shine it, give it the glowing health of my Savior’s ministrations and inheritance brought to me through you, who move from the realm of heaven where He resides to the realm of the world where I reside. Holy Spirit, move in my mind, in my heart, in my spirit, in my soul, my emotions, my body – cause them to vibrate with Your power – the power of love – of LOVE, divine love, beyond any love I’ve known or could know without Your Presence within me. Through You I cry to the Father – in need, and in joy too – “Have your own way, Lord, have your own way.”

Claim it Now

Follow Me to your new nature in Christ, reflecting the character of your Father, expressed in your unique personality and expressed where you are.

Meditation Thought: “For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.  And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.” (Romans 8:16-17)

“Trust Me when you have pain – for the pain is caused by the digging out of the infection of sin that has set in your body, your mind, your spirit, your emotions. When the last of the infection is rooted out, the health of righteousness pervades and prevails.

In this world, the process is constant but when you shed the physical body for the new body, the only state of the new body is health in the Spirit, unchallenged by sin.

Yield to Me – relax whatever the moment brings forth, for I am your loving Father who desires above all that you prosper in My care and in My teaching.

Seek My will and obey Me – this is the process of being crucified with Christ, for you must go against your own sinful nature, and the battle is constant and at times very difficult, for that sinful nature can be very hard and very misleading as to its true nature.

But you are My heir, and knowing you are My heir – go with confidence to claim your inheritance: eternal life, yes – but the full life in the Spirit now:

  • sin conquered
  • soul prospering
  • body prospering
  • a mind renewed in Christ
  • emotions guilt-free and rejoicing in My blessings and works in your life and those whom you know.

I will lead if you will follow – do not turn back to sin, to self-will, to rebellion, to selfishness and pride – but follow Me to your new nature in Christ, reflecting the character of your Father, expressed in your unique personality and expressed where you are, and delighting in the doing of the works.”

Impossible Explanations

You shall receive by revelation what is impossible to receive by explanation.

Meditation Thought: “ Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1)

You shall receive by revelation what is impossible to receive by explanation. Only through faith exercised in trust can revelation be released. And only through belief in the promises of the Word can faith be exercised. Assuming the premise that the Word is the Truth, and acting upon that premise moves your mind and your spirit into a hidden realm – the realm of the Kingdom. You can, at will, move in and out of the Kingdom from the world. But through the conscious seeking of the constant infilling of the Holy Spirit, you can dwell in the Kingdom and commune with the world at the same time.

Think of your choosing of a place to live: you can be a citizen of the United States, but still reside in another country. Or you can choose, as a citizen, to live within your own country, with all its attendant privileges and protection and compatibility. As a believer, your home is the Kingdom, and you keep your residence within it by the opening up of yourself to the filling of the Holy Spirit.

You can still communicate and affect and be affected by the citizens of the other countries (the ‘world’) – but your first loyalty is the the Kingdom and your decisions must be based upon your residence within the Kingdom.

The beauty of God’s plan is that your loyalty to the Kingdom does not in any way harm the citizens residing in the world, and, in fact is beneficial to them. At the point where it becomes beneficial to the point that they wish to become citizens of the Kingdom in order to reside in its superior atmosphere, the great commission is being fulfilled.

Promises Kept

The method of fulfilling the requirements to move God’s word of promise to God’s works completed is: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Meditation Thought: “No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:20-22)

A promise is only a potential until it is believed enough to be acted upon. Your belief prompting you to action, despite obstacles arising against that action, is the means of the promise moving from potential to actual. The actions take to fulfill God’s promises have a power found nowhere else, for these actions are backed by a guarantee of success by the One who promised. His power is the one power that can adapt to any obstacle which might thwart fulfillment of the promise. But the power must be activated by faith when an obstacle is encountered. The promise is true but it comes into fulfillment only when the one promised cooperates in making it come true by fulfilling the requirements set down by the Promiser. If the promise is not fulfilled, it is not due to the promise being false, nor the Promiser being unable to keep His promise: it is due to the ‘promisee’ not fully following the requirements needed for the progression from spoken word to actual deed. The method of fulfilling the requirements to move God’s word of promise to God’s works completed is: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.”