Category: wisdom

Gourmet Cooking

It takes time and effort to learn to cook God’s gourmet meals – but the results are so outstanding that we can be only glad that we spent our time and effort in learning to cook in this manner.

Meditation Thought: “Let your speech at all times be gracious and pleasant, seasoned with salt, so that you will know how to answer each one [who questions you].” (Colossians 4:6 AMP)

A good cook is accomplished because they have had experience. Just pouring ingredients together in any mixture or any proportion does not make a tasty dish, and in fact, can make on that is actually harmful or wasteful.

We can become good cooks with the ingredients God provides for us (His Word, His Spirit, our minds, our bodies, our spirit) – only if we follow His recipes and advice as to how to use and mix these ingredients. Even then, the more time and effort we spend in “cooking”, the better we will become at producing tasty, nutritious and attractive dishes for ourselves and for others. We must learn that perfect proportion and method to produce the best result for the particular dish we are preparing – for no salt can make a dish too bland to be interesting, and too much salt can make it unpalatable.

It takes time and effort to learn to cook God’s gourmet meals – but the results are so outstanding that when we are enjoying the dish, and others are enjoying it, we can be only glad that we spent our time and effort in learning to cook in this manner.

God is thinking about… You!

What are some of those thoughts the Lord is thinking about me?

Meditation Thought: “How precious it is, Lord, to realize that you are thinking about me constantly!” (Psalm 139:17)

What are some of those thoughts the Lord is thinking about me constantly? Perhaps His promises give me a clue: (Insert your name into each ____)
“I love ___.
I will help ___.
I will teach ___.
I will make ___ joyful.
I will make ___ peaceful.
I will allow ___ freedom, but provide the opportunity for him/her to find the ways of love, peace and joy – therefore “making” him/her these ways if he/she is willing.
I will help ___ to find Truth, to see wide vistas instead of narrow canyons.
I will help ___ to feel needed, appreciated, accomplished, enthusiastic, grateful, willing, and loved.
I will give ___ hope and justify his/her faith in Me.”

Prayer of response:
Dear Lord,
Just as you think about me constantly, I want to think about You constantly – I ask Your guidance in helping me bridle my ego and my worldly desires that more and more this thinking makes itself apparent in my life.
Amen.

Finally: Real Health Food!

This food will keep you in good health, good spirits, and enthused about life.

Meditation Thought:  “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)

“The Word of God needs to become more and more delicious: develop a hunger for the taste of it – a craving that is satisficed by no other food. For this food is the perfect nourishment for your total being: body, mind, and spirit. It will keep you in good health, good spirits, and enthused about life.”

Golden Moment

Treat yourself as kindly as you attempt to treat others.

Meditation Thought: “Be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient.” (2 Timothy 2:24)

‘To everyone’ – including myself! “Treat yourself as kindly as you attempt to treat others when you are really concentrating. If you think gentle thoughts about yourself, you can relax and absorb apt teaching more readily. And do not be impatient when you do not learn the lesson immediately: practice is needed – and there is a purpose in practice. Practice gives the opportunity to choose to grow, or to be slothful and neglect practice and miss the goal. It is a way of separating again the choice of good and evil, God’s way and Satan’s way, the Kingdom way and the world’s way.

Be diligent – but forgiving, set your standards high – but be merciful, step out in faith – but lovingly, not overbearingly. As you see Jesus’ qualities in those around you, note each one of them and picture them all incorporated into one person: this mage will help keep man made in the image of God more of a reality to you. Search out the commandments and the manner in which Jesus lived out these commandments as the model for your life.

Look at each moment of your life as a door to a new beginning – clean, fresh, unmarred by sin, by selfishness, and an opportunity to bring glory to Me and peace and joy to you. Condition yourself to react to each moment – not each circumstance – as a believer in faith, in hope, in love, in charity, in mercy and in My power and My grace that each moment will be considered a ‘golden moment’ unconnected with any circumstance, but standing apart as a covenant time between you and your Lord.”

Do as I Do

My people must be as lightening rods – raising themselves up to draw My Spirit unto themselves.

Meditation Thought: “Commit your work to the Lord, then it will succeed.” (Proverbs 16:3)

“Although you may chafe at the variety and number of your duties [you have not seen that because a wife and mother does fulfill so many roles that she is able to spread My Love, My Mercy and My Compassion to many more people than most persons are able to do], when you do your solitary tasks, absorb My teaching – when you do your public tasks, teach My Way by your example:
– Sacrifice as I sacrificed
– Love as I love
– Adapt as I adapt
– Be joyful as I am joyful
– Be understanding and kind as I am compassionate
– Communicate with your spirit – not just your mind.

My people must be as lightening rods – raising themselves up to draw My Spirit unto themselves.”

Mission Possible

Picture a row of ladders lined up against a wall. At the top of the wall is God’s ultimate fulfilled plan. Now with that in mind:

  • Each of us has a mission and talents to be used to perform that mission to the completion of God’s ultimate Plan and His glory.
  • We are to help each other discover the individual mission and to enable each other to complete the mission.
  • There is an inter-relationship in the ability of each mission to be completed; all missions are connected by a link of some kind so that the progress of the mission of one affects the progress of all. Therefore, it behooves each person to not only work on the completion of his own mission, but to give any possible help to the completion of all missions.

Back to the ladder image – each person must climb his own mission-talent ladder to God’s final Plan – but arms can be reached out: to pull another up, or push another down, or both arms can be used on one’s own ladder. However, since the final Plan can be realized only when everyone is up the ladder, the person who climbs without helping the others to rise too, finds that reaching the top alone has no purpose. That person has to wait longer to have the ultimate satisfaction because they must wait for the others to arrive at the top. Their ultimate satisfaction could be reached more quickly if they help others move ahead more rapidly as they move up, and if they push another down, it will take that person that much longer to reach the top and contribute to the completion of the ultimate satisfaction of all.

Protected Shelter

The choice is yours to use the knowledge or let it lie idle.

Meditation Thought: “ Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” (Colossians 4:2)

“Change your thought of the word “prayer” from being a verb “to pray” – to being a noun: being in a state of prayer – a continuous state of prayer. The atmosphere of prayer varies according to the workings in your life, but you must assure that by your awareness and your attitude that you stay within the confines of the prayer world: the prayer world is large enough to encompass all the places in heaven and in earth where you should be. If you wander outside of its confines, you lose your sense of direction, your protection, and your purpose.

Think of a mist of prayer enclosing all of the areas of your life – as a gentle rain renews the parched earth, the mist of prayer keeps your life renewed, refreshed, conscious of the Power and Love that have entered your life through your belief in that Power and Love. The scriptures in your mind are much of the reality of the mist of prayer; worship of any form, a grateful heart, a joy in seeing the works of the Kingdom being executed on earth – all these are as atoms of the composition of the prayer mist. The more densely these atoms are concentrated in your life-atmosphere, the more concentration you have of the Kingdom on earth. Just as your home protects you when you are inside it from the storm without, so the atmosphere of prayer surrounding you protects you from evil from without. You must be enclosed in the house before it provides you any shelter – you must place yourself in the prayer atmosphere before it provides your shelter. Enter into your shelter of prayer, and keep it closed about you. You know how to do this by the instructions given to you through My Word and My Ways: the choice is yours to use the knowledge or let it lie idle.

Spirit Banking

The scriptures in your mind are your deposit in the bank, and your prayer is the check that releases them for your use when they are needed.

Meditation Thought: “But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” (Matthew 5:39)

“Turn the other cheek in an act of love, compassion, understanding, a sweetness of spirit – of Spirit, a compliance with heavenly laws rather than “human nature”. Thus you are staying in the Spirit and not being of the world. Your Spirit-strength will not go unnoticed; an act which could have come and gone without note, or have exploded into a quarrel, will thus be turned into a victory: for God, for you, for the striker as he/she sees a new way.

Pray first, act later: even in the situations where action is quickly required, a ‘flash prayer’ is possible and required. This releases power from heaven, and power in you, rightly directed and effective. The principles are consistent in every situation, but you must know how to operate them appropriately. The scriptures in your mind are your deposit in the bank, and your prayer is the check that releases them for your use when they are needed. Keep your account well deposited so that you can pray constantly and have ample scriptures to supply every need.

The words of my Kingdom are foreign to you now, but the longer you reside in the Kingdom in your mind and in your spirit, the more competent you will become in understanding and using the language. Only by trying to use it can you become proficient in it. Knowing the language will facilitate communication but the sign language of love can always be used, even before the language is learned. We have come full circle now – turning the other cheek is an act of love and not an act of hate, which the world might expect as a reaction to being struck. Your nature is to become 100% love so that whenever it is touched in any way – whether by a loving expression, or a hateful expression, the only response that is capable of emerging is a loving response: an understanding, compassionate, truth-knowing, God-oriented and God-directed response.”

Hands On

“The mighty hand of God” may be used in many ways to bring us to that glorious moment.

Meditation Thought: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you…” (1 Peter 5:6)

We must come as a ignorant pupil, willing to be taught by our Teacher. We must trust Him, even when we chafe at discipline – for it is the wisdom and knowledge that He will teach us that will bring us to His exalting of us after we have proved to be His apt pupils. “The mighty hand of God” may be used in many ways to bring us to that glorious moment of exaltation:
-It may comfort us – or chasten us
-It may pour riches into our hands – or it may receive riches from our hands
-It may beckon us to a certain place – or be raised in warning not to take a particular path.
– It may point out words and ways of wisdom, and be placed upon us as a gesture of love and assurance.

And, when the lessons are finished, His hand reaches out to draw us to Him, to be His companion, His family member come home to stay, rather than being just a pupil – no matter how beloved a pupil. We are exalted because we are in His Presence in a new and glorious way. The exaltation is actually a mutual exultation that we recognized His love, we obeyed Him out of love, and now our mutual love has drawn us together in a fulfillment of purpose for God and for ourselves. God’s glory reign forever and ever!

Paths of Discovery

When you find yourself chopping at obstacles in your path, frustrated, tired and discouraged – stop!

Meditation Thought: “See, I am doing a new thing!… I am making a way in the wilderness.” (Isaiah 43:19)

“Give me your attention… we are starting on an adventure together. Enjoy the thrill, the excitement, the anticipation of discovery. The way will be cleared before you, for I prepare it before asking you to go that way. You must look for the path I have cleared for you – otherwise you will have to fight the wilderness by yourself – finding it very difficult to penetrate. When you find yourself chopping at obstacles in your path, frustrated, tired and discouraged – stop! Look at where you are, and look at where I am – are you following me? Are you taking the path which I have cleared for you? The jungle of circumstances holds no peril for you, no difficulty, if you put your efforts into finding my path instead of into hacking a path for yourself. Direct your efforts where the results will be fruitful and satisfying, not frustrating.”