Category: SpiritFilledLiving

Tears Shall Reflect Rainbows

They who wait for the Lord – instead of rushing in to take matters in their own hands – shall have the wisdom and the strength of the Lord motivating and activating them.

Meditation Thought: “but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)

They who wait for the Lord – instead of rushing in to take matters in their own hands – shall have the wisdom and the strength of the Lord motivating and activating them.

  • The contrast in the power of self and Lord can hardly be comprehended or measured.
  • The difference between the motivations of self and the Lord can hardly be compared.
  • The difference between the actions of self and Lord are almost totally unrelated, having little in common.

But when self is by faith embraced in the Father’s arms and the Father does the moving, carrying the child, then the whole picture changes.

The knowledgeable, mature, wise, loving, powerful, righteous Father, full of grace and glory, sweeps along time and circumstances doing His good will and good works. He allows the child to accompany Him, to help Him, to enjoy the varieties of experiences as they participate together in all that lies along the chosen path. But the point is that the path is the choice of the loving, wise Father and not the wilful child.

May pain yield to the pressure of His love,
And the darkness of the night yield to the brightness of the dawn.
The tears shall reflect rainbows
As a new spirit is born within:
The heart of stone is removed
And the replaced with a heart of flesh.
The heart of flesh carries the waters of the Spirit
To give abundant live and peace forevermore.

Heart Transplant

You can have My power working only to the extent that you yield your power to it.

Meditation Thought: “ Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! ” (Ezekiel 18:31)

“A new heart” means “a new you” – a new you which is formed by a new spirit: the spirit sent by Jesus to dwell within you – my Holy Spirit.

Your belief in Jesus as Savior and Lord, coupled with your yielding to the Holy Spirit as controller of your life (spiritual and temporal) is the process by which you acquire a new heart and a new spirit.

Do not allow yourself to reject this transplanted heart and spirit: they are not foreign to your spirit, mind and body, but are super-strength ‘replacement’ parts: My power being the power that moves them instead of your power. But you can have My power working only to the extent that you yield your power to it. Our two powers cannot work at the same time, as two objects cannot take up the same space at the same time.

You can choose to allow My power to flow – you know the way of clearing your power from blocking it: Praise, Prayer, a humble attitude (not subservient – simply an acknowledgement of My authority over you as Father to child), and the expectation that your loving Father works all thing together to good for you.

Undefeatable

The power of God is within us as long as we desire that power to be within.

Meditation Thought: “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

“Power, love, self-control.” Nothing can defeat the person who views themselves as having these attributes. And how are the attributes obtained? They are obtained by receiving a new heart of flesh and God’s spirit within (see Ezekiel 36:26). The heart of flesh is the compassionate, forgiving heart of Jesus replacing the selfish heart of stone, and God’s spirit is placed within as we acknowledge Jesus as Savior, Jesus as Lord, and seek to know our Triune God intimately.

The power of God is within us as long as we desire that power to be within, as long as we are willing for this power to energize us. This power is the power that is in harmony with the power that is also energizing the worlds of the spirit and the world – for this reason, all works better for us if we are willing to yield to this power our own power of self-will.

Cross Transformed to Crown

This is the tool which transforms the shape of the cross into the shape of a crown.

Meditation Thought: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come…. You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” (Revelation 4:8,11)

“You are my child and I am your Father. Know that by humble obedience and gracious respect for my power and authority, you shall exchange the cross for the crown. If you learn to love the crosses in your life because you recognize them as My works to perfect you in My image (character, thoughts, words and deeds), you will live your life simultaneously in the world and in the Kingdom.

As a prisoner can serve concurrent sentences, so you can serve concurrent lives in the two dimensions. I am the flowing stream which connects one body of water to the other: the physical body and your spiritual ‘body’.

As an indoor swimming pool may have water flowing into a connected outdoor pool, so I remove the barrier of sin that would separate the interchange. You were created to span the inside (spiritual) and outside (physical). If sin divides the two, then the physical is confined to retaining all of the debris that lights on its surface as it is the ‘outside’ part of the water. But if through prayer and obedience you seek Me to remove that sin barrier, then the pure water of the protected spirit-water rushes in, flinging the debris over the edge of the pool, removing it from the whole body of water.

Neither pool should be isolated, but always interconnected as one pool so that both areas may be refreshing to all who come in contact with the water. Although this analogy is not perfectly clear to you at this point, trust that your searching for the truth in both your spiritual and physical life will result in greater understanding, which in turn is the tool which transforms the shape of the cross into the shape of a crown.”

Daylight After the Darkness of Night

A poem of hope.

Meditation Thought: “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.  I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.  Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.  Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:17-20)

Know ye not
That I am the
Way, the Truth, the Life?
Forbid me not:
Open the door of your heart
That I may enter in.
A more welcome guest
You could not entertain.
For I come not to take,
But to give:
I am your daylight after the darkness of the night.
I give you joy after tears.
I give you victory from defeat.
I give you a depth of knowledge
That confounds the wise.
I give you love that never ends
And life that is ever sweet.
The glory of God
Shall surround you:
It is without, waiting to pour in
Through the opening of the door of your heart unto me.

Beginning, Middle, End

Is this your desire? Is this your desire for your family? for your friends? for strangers? For ‘enemies’?

Meditation Thought: “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)

” ‘In the beginning was the Word’ – and in the middle is the Word, and in the end shall be the Word. To you is given knowledge of the Word that you may have life and have it abundantly.

Recall the Word: the history of the Word; the history of the Word and the living Word; all words which are true are words of Mine intended to prompt My beloved children to seek to know Me, to love Me, and to do My will.

And My purpose in encouraging My children to know Me, to love Me, and to do My will is to bring them to abundant, fulfilling life.

Is this your desire? Is this your desire for your family? for your friends? for strangers? For ‘enemies’?

If this has become your desire, then shall you fulfill the promise of John 14 through Him who stated: ‘I am the Way, the Truth, the Life’: you shall also do the works that He does because your belief in Him causes Him to do His works through you. It appears as if you are doing the works because your body is visible, your words hearable, and your actions seeable, but the power that is doing the works is not yours: the power is of the Father, transmitted by the Son, and manifested in you.”

Pest Repellent

Those who have already started to grow serve as inspiration and encouragement for those who are considering growth.

Meditation Thought: “The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor…you are God’s field, God gives the growth.” (1 Corinthians 3:8,6)

Plant the seed of faith by your witness to My love. Everyone has been given a measure of faith as the growth potential contained in the seed. But the seed must be planted in the nourishing soul of willingness to grow, and nurtured in the acts of obedience to My Word and Spirit, that the fruits may be made manifest.

Those who have already started to grow serve as inspiration and encouragement for those who are considering growth.

If you act at all times as my faithful child, then at all times you are both growing and encouraging others’ growth.

Think of the potential harvest as you endure storms, drought and weeds and pests. Seek to concentrate on the sun (Son), on the parching of your thirst by the Living Water, on the strength of the natural repellent against pests as given you by your Creator: the repellent of the Word standing against the spirit-pest of evil, including the evils of self-will and selfishness and self-pity.

Goodness, righteousness and mercy shall be the fruits in My fields, flavored by love, savored by all.

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)

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.