Category: joy

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!

Embracing Challenges: Faith as Your Strength

Do not fret over what is past.

Meditation Thought: “I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:9-10)

“When you are too weak to stand and to walk alone, I stretch out my arm to support you. Lean on Me! Do not fret over what is past. Challenges will strengthen you and bring you into closer companionship with Me if you seek me in them and rely on my supporting strength.

Our working closely together will enable you to understand Me more clearly and emulate Me more perfectly. You very need of Me focuses your mind and spirit more fully – always this works good! Therefore, rejoice in your need.”

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.

Transforming Chaos into Harmony

Harmony out of chaos, health out of sickness, hope out of despair, joy out of grief, and love out of hate.

Meditation Thought: “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” (Ephesians 6:10)

To realize that there is power beyond myself is to have confidence. And to have confidence gives courage. To have courage is to release action. Action causes change. When the power, the confidence, the courage and the action are all working out God’s will, then the change is for the better. The change is “all things working together for good”. (Romans 8:28)

The change is bringing harmony out of chaos, health out of sickness, hope out of despair, joy out of grief, and love out of hate. Grace abounds. Beauty evolves. All of life glows with the newness of the dawn, light penetrating into darkness and revealing Truth: Truth that removes fears which were manifested in the darkness. I can think and speak and move in the confidence of knowing “surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life”. (Psalm 23:6)

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.

Your Path to Wisdom

Only respond.

Meditation Thought: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight.” (Proverbs 3:5)

Trust in your Father rather than your less wise, less informed, less experienced, less competent self.

Trust in your Brother (Jesus) rather than your own incomplete understanding of the Father’s will.

Trust in your Helper (Holy Spirit) rather than your own unclear perception of the way.

How do you actually accomplish the act of trusting Them – of then understanding them – and consequently heeding them?

By the intention of your heart.
By the desires of your heart.
By the will of your spirit.
By the sacrifice of your body to minister to others.
By giving rather than taking.
By forgiving rather reacting.
By creating rather than being passive.

And you do you do those things?

The glory of the Lord shines forth – only lift the veil from your perception of it. By the study of the Word, gain knowledge and wisdom. By listening for the whisper of the Holy Spirit to know the Father’s will. By believing in Jesus as Lord – your personal savior, your personal minister, your enabler.

There are marvelous works to be done, love to be shared, new vistas to be explored.

Only respond.

The results will amaze you, delight you – and do the same for many others too.

Let Your Light Shine: Finding Faith in Darkness

Meditation Thought: “Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. (Philippians 1:12-14)

“What has happened has served to advance the gospel” – if ever God worked in a seemingly undesirable situation to bring much good, it was Paul’s imprisonment – a pattern first revealed by Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection: the apparent victory of those who would destroy the Truth of God revealed – and then the blossoming of God’s revelation from the seed of distress.

It almost seems that the very darkness and distress were the nurturing places for the strength and light of God to burst forth in newness of health and visibility and the generation of HIs power as never before. Surely the Holy Spirit working in Jesus and in Paul was the start of the bursting forth of new growth – but the faith of Jesus and Paul – and the faithfulness of their faith nurtured the growth and expanded it once it was started.

So, we too, can allow the Spirit to plant the Truth – to plant God’s love and God’s character in our hearts and so, we too, in faith, can nurture it and cause it to grow ’til it bursts forth wherever we are in what is a prison for us.

Let Your light glow, O Lord,
Within my mind and soul,
So brightly, penetrating, invigorating
That my “prison”
Is transformed
To cozy home
For You and me –
A place where hope, and love and joy
Are evident –
And thus shock
Those who observe
The transformed place
Into awareness
Of Your power, your love, your call and your presence.

Transform Trial into Triumph

You shall be guided, step by step, prayer by prayer, revelation by revelation, to success.

Meditation Thought: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4)

Success! Success is exhilarating, it gives energy and joy and willingness to put forth effort to try new ventures. But ‘success’ can never be achieved unless there is some trial to overcome – something that it takes effort to change.

Do not be discouraged as trials are met – but call upon your knowledge of Truth – that the Word is sure, that Jesus has released the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome every trial in your life.

You shall be guided, step by step, prayer by prayer, revelation by revelation, to success – not by your own power and might, but by the Spirit’s power and might working within your spirit, mind, emotions and body.

The Spirit cannot work, however, without your consent and cooperation to bring success.

Boundless Energy!

I give you more refreshing energy than anything provided by the world. There are depths of Truth, Joy and Fulfillment which you can never exhaust in your lifetime.

Meditation Thought: “So the word of the Lord grew and prevailed mightily.” (Acts 19:20)

“The Word grew and prevailed mightily through Paul’s example, through his teaching, and through his ministry – through the power and control of the Holy Spirit. This pattern is precisely the same pattern Jesus has given to you through the Word.

Use the pattern through your faith in Jesus as Lord, as Savior as Spirit living in your spirit, your mind and your body. You have been successful in accomplishing tasks which were unappealing by knowing you were doing them for Jesus dwelling within you in addition to them being for your own benefit. Expand this concept.

Try to respond more quickly as I seek to teach you. You need not feel pressured: just be more content to seek My counsel and to follow it, knowing that I give you more refreshing energy than anything provided by the world.

Do not seek what others seek – seek the kingdom within you. There are depths of Truth, Joy and Fulfillment which you can never exhaust in your lifetime. Dig deeply, dig enthusiastically – for the treasure is within you. You know you uncover treasure every time you spend your energy to look for it. Do not be distracted.

Develop a mind-set and a heart-set that enables you to be digging for treasure every moment, even when you are at the same time doing other tasks. Let these thoughts inspire you to use your moments and your energy to follow the pattern of the Way, the Truth, the Life.

Do not fear: I have called you in love, and sustain you in love, and am your partner in love. I need your thoughts directed to My Word, your emotions embracing My will, and your actions doing My works. But you need these very things as much as I!