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Embrace life

Lord, I have such a racehorse, driven personality. How can I function in this flow-timing-easy receptivity kind of way?

Change the channel. How did you morph from clumsy to graceful? Transformation is your answer. Metamorphosis. Your drivenness is based in a falsehood of having to do it all yourself, having to push, having to work so very hard…then you can feel proud—and exhausted—look what I did—as a way to keep yourself safe. To prove something. To feel worthy.

I want us to create something amazing together. Not just a book or a blog, but a life. Everything you struggle over, or with, or against, is from this striving. Straining at gnats.

I want you, I need you, to model relaxation without drugs. Peace and Love without being high. The world is trying to escape the pressure through drugs and alcohol. So many Christians have eschewed that, but they have bought in to thinking life is enduring the pressure and overcoming the hardships, the hard and bitter road. They endure. Others escape—or try to.

Yours is the third way—Embrace. Embrace Life as a joyous, loving partner. Embrace Me, My Life.

Embrace and Celebrate is your key to flow, to receptivity. See? That is why you always find hearts. They are My little love-notes, hidden in plain sight.

Be who you are, connected and celebratory. Don’t strive for anything, opportunity, success, a sustainable gallery income. Instead, receive. Receive each day. Say, thank You God for this day, every morning, and mean it! Feel it! Feel Me here with you now.

Receiving is the key to everything. You can live a deeply centered life—not by teetering on the verge of losing your balance every second, focusing on not-falling; by sitting in Calm, focusing on receiving all that I Am.

Imagine an operating system upgrade for your soul. Imagine deleting all malware. Imagine emptying your whole trash folder daily. That is all you have to do—simple as that.

Thank You, God, for this time and this quiet.

I will—I have said—expand Time for you, but I cannot do that while you strive against the clock. As I said to Paul, it is hard for you to kick against the goads. It is not that you won’t be passionate or intense, but your purpose will change. Imagine horseback riding without fear, that exhilaration. You will have an exhilarating life, in the flow.

Let Me show you, more than you’ve seen All I Am in your Now. In this home-place, on this planet, in this era. Living in this community, owning this business, part of this family. Let Me in, really in, and like the Cat in the Hat watch Me set all to rights with exuberance, with delight, with fun, with playfulness. Everything the world seeks, you shall have, in your relationship with Me.

I need someone with a big heart to say a big Yes so I can be a Big God. I Am choosing, asking, calling you to be My partner in this. What do you say?

Lord, I say yes.

You let Me take care of how. This is going to be fun.

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I Who Am Your…

Lord, what would You say about any of this? About anything, period?

 

You are always looking for the least crack, the least opening, to share about this life you have found, hoping your words inspire others to find their life in Me.

It is true, Lord. I am—but carefully. Am I doing any good at all?

You are opening the skittish to love and your reward will be their love and loyalty to you. And that is enough. That is as much—more—than they would ever have received on their own, or from any other source. Your approach is just right. Just keep loving on them.

Ok, Lord, but I feel like I am failing, in so many areas. You name it.

I haven’t “Named it”—you have. When have I ever Named you a failure? Even in those years you regret, I named Myself over you: Protector, Forgiver, Healer—and it was so. Liberator, Deliverer, Repairer of the Breach—and it was so. Why don’t you let Me Name Myself over you now? Over your worries and fears? Over your doubt? Over your tendency to listen to voices that name you lacking, not enough, displeasing?

Why don’t you hear My Names:

I Who Am well-pleased with you.

I Who Am your strength.

I Who Am your…

Lord, what a time to be interrupted, yesterday! Yet coming to the page this morning, I am realizing, fill in the blank: I Who Am your everything, everything you need.

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Rest

I know I’ve been pushing lately, rather than flowing. I can feel the difference. I’ve been trying to work, to “make it work.” So I’m going around to spots where magic has happened before, longing for it to happen again. Lord, I need to stop doing that. I need to instead move back into the current, where I sense, and then go. I have so much to say thank You for. I feel that as well as know that. So, what’s my problem?

 

Your problem is, you live in a body. Your body can tire and ache. So can your mind, and so can your spirit. Sometimes one carries the other: your body is tired, but your mind/thoughts or your spirit/feelings are buoyant, and they help carry your body. Sometimes physically you feel that sense of energy, and that helps energize your thoughts in a positive way. And sometimes all three aspects of your life need refreshing all at once. That is where you are now. Rather than trying to figure out why, which only tires your mind and spirit further, just bring your whole self to Me. It’s okay to say, “Daddy, Abba, I am so tired.” Crawl up into My lap and rest awhile. Sometimes “work” energizes you. Lately, it drains you.

This was supposed to be your rest, relaxation, restoration, rejuvenation time. Ssshhh. No “buts.” Just hear what I said. I planned this as a rest, relaxation, restoration, rejuvenation time for you. That doesn’t mean you lay around doing nothing, or that you become irresponsible. Write out things that mean rest and relaxation to you. List some.

Lord, I just re-read this old entry. It is several years old, and it could have been written for now. Well, not today, exactly, but certainly for the past few weeks, for the end of the year. Now a New Year is beginning. And You just talked to me over the past two days, again, about Flow. About sensitivity. And about rest and play balancing work.

So the first image that came to mind when I re-read those words was a hammock. It is 25 degrees outside. Even if I owned a hammock, I wouldn’t get in it now!

But you can picture yourself there. You use your mind all the time to picture an uncertain future, or to pre-plan the next day’s tasks. Why don’t you use your mind to imagine restful pursuits instead of working ones? Relax your thoughts and imaginations first, and watch your body follow. Try it now. What is your earliest hammock memory?

I was a kid. We had a fabric hammock in the yard under the big tree, oak or maple. Oak, I think. Out the kitchen window.

And?

I felt safe there. And cool. I think I even napped in that hammock.

I need the part of you who is a writer to relax, to stretch out, to close your eyes, to remember, to imagine and to dream. With some people, I have to energize work and effort. With you, I have to inspire you to slow down and relax. That is part of the transformation I seek for you in this new year—allowing yourself to really pause, and let the creative, playful aspects of your imagination have more space while you give your analytical, planning self a break, and a rest. This will be metamorphosis for you. You have always worked hard, studied hard, tried hard to do your best. I want you to give yourself the same permission to relax and to play as you do to work. I want to transform your nature, not into irresponsibility, as you fear. If you can trust Me with your working, responsible self, I can help you birth more creativity and more ministry than your reasoning mind can arrange. For it is your imaginative mind that is most sensitive to inspiration by My Spirit.

So come, rest. Hear Me say to your still troubled sense of duty, you’ve earned this. Receive. Rest is a gift of My Grace, your first gift of the new year.

 

 

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Watchword for 2018

So You know how I feel about New Year’s Eve, how I feel about rites of passage in general. I like them. I like assessing and planning. I like looking back, looking around, and looking forward. I like keywords and watchwords. God, do You have a word for our planet? For our country?

Love One Another. Everything falls apart without that.

Love is the oil that lubricates every relationship, that soothes every wound, that softens every scar. Love’s oil gives light, gives heat, gives fragrance, and transforms ordinary days into oases of great beauty and joy. It’s the one song the stars dance to, and the waves on the shore. You can never have too much love or give too much love. Love has the power to transform any situation, bring calm out of chaos, and give sight to the blind, especially those who are blind to others. Love is always in season, always in style, never grows old.

You say you want to change the world? Love one another. Begin and end with Love. End your year, start your year. Let love undergird every decision. Do all from love, with love, by love. It’s another way of saying, do all connected to Me. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it is connected to the Vine, neither can you, unless you are connected to Me.

You want fruit? You want impact? You want influence? You want a better world? Choose Me. Choose Love.

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Knowing

Lord, here is a concern. I don’t want to be deceived, and I sure don’t want to deceive others. So I write that and I think, the blurt is, what if I am just talking to myself, deceiving myself this is You, or worse? I think about the deception in Genesis, an egocentric focus, the whole first lie, you will be like God…

You are already like God—all humans are, in the sense that I made humanity to be spiritually sourced in Me. You are all meant to be “like God” – to walk in love and in peace with one another. That is not the stumbling block phrase. “Knowing good and evil” – that is the stumbling block phrase.

Remember “knowing” wasn’t used just for intellectual understanding but for intimate experience. I, the Lord, recognize evil but I don’t “know” evil. I do not experience evil in Myself, in My choices. The instant result in the Garden was shame (not-like God), blame (not-like God) and hiding from God and each other (not-like God). That is not wisdom. That was the lie, that experiencing evil would make humanity wise, make humanity more divine. But no.

I have spent all of human history in every culture trying to undo that lie, trying to restore individuals to Who I Am, to who each one can be in Me. Your lyric is right—you can’t hold My Fullness, but you can do your part. And your part is to shine and to inspire others to find their connection to Me.

 

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Refraction

We went to see The Last Jedi yesterday. What is that verse, Lord—Light shines in the darkness and the darkness shall not overcome it?

The least light transforms darkness, alters its very essence. You can dim or intensify light, but as long as there is light, any light at all, by definition there is no darkness. Your mission isn’t to fight darkness or rebuke darkness or overpower darkness or overcome darkness. Your mission is to shine light—that simple, that profound. Your mission is to light up your part of My world. All you have to do, to transform any darkness, is shine.

How do you do that? You forgive. You give another chance. You say please and thank you. You look for, actively seek, the good and true. You love. You believe. You hope.

If you feel your light is dimming, if discouragement or fear or worry are diminishing your ability to shine brightly, then shine dimly and bring your dim resolve to Me, and let Me reignite your fire once again. You don’t have to be loud or showy in order to shine brightly. You just have to be present and committed.

 Committed?

Committed to love, and to faith and to hope. Don’t lose hope. More lights flicker out of despair than out of anger.

You said I was, I could be, a hope-healer.

Yes, that is one of your names. Like Me, you have many names. You all do. So open the curtains, draw back the blinds. Let the light in and you will also let the light out.

Like breathing! Only breathing changes oxygen into carbon dioxide.

Each of you is like a prism. Receive My Light—let My Light refract through your life into the colors that will touch those around you. That is why some are called to be prophets or poets, some are called to be teachers or parents, some are called to be apostles or builders, some are given gifts of healing s doctors and nurses. Some–like you–are visionaries and heralds, always seeing the new possibilities, always believing for the best. Just as you have many names, each of you has many gifts, many ways to refract and shine My Light in and through your individual lives.

Rainbow light! It’s my favorite!

Of course it is. That is because one of your gifts is to see and encourage the individual gifts in those around you. It’s one way you shine, by beaming your light of understanding into the hearts of others, so they can see themselves through My eyes.

Thank You, Lord. Thank You so much.

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Life Movies

Lord, we started talking last night as I was falling asleep, and I really need to re-start that conversation.

I was telling you not to close your heart off, but to stay open, and vulnerable.

Lord, someone gave me that same advice years ago. I heard it then as a command to endure.

That may have been that person’s meaning, but it is not Mine. I never condone or excuse abuse or mistreatment. But when you are hurting inside, for yourself or for others, you tend to wall yourself in and work harder as if that will help. It won’t. It will only add more physical fatigue to your emotional weariness.

The truth is, I didn’t create humanity—or the planet itself—for sorrow, sickness, loss or death. I created for life, for I Am the Giver of Life. I created for Love, for I Am Love. My entire nature and being is Love. Out of Life and Love flow joy and peace and kindness and goodness—which you call the fruits of My Spirit.

So when humans encounter the elements of life they were not made for, they react. Some become stoic, so nothing affects them. Some become narcissistic so everything affects them or revolves around them. Some become addicted to pastimes or to substances to numb or distract them from which is too hard, too painful, to bear alone. But you humans were not made to bear such suffering, not in the beginning, and certainly not alone.

You said recently when a situation troubles me, to surround it, to picture it surrounded, like effervescent life, I can’t remember exactly what You said, and I don’t know how to do that. And I need to. Right now.

Imagine you are a movie director. You can film the scene any way you wish. You have an unlimited budget and any props or costumes you need. You have the world as your set. And you have Angels as part of your extras in your casting of characters. How would you film the next scene? What kind of movie would you produce and direct? Set that as your intention and prayer for them.

Lord, aren’t You the Producer and Director?

Sadly, no. People assume so, and that assumption has led to much additional sorrow and misunderstanding. Each of you is your own director. I direct only where and when I Am invited to do so. Oh, I try to interject into the plot, to give warning about where the storyline is going, or to give encouragement in character development. But the human power of choice is always in your hands. That is why I ask you to pray My Will Be Done. It is not a given, in this world—only in the next.

So take a few minutes. Imagine the scene re-written. Then offer that, as prayer. I Am the God of Reconciliation. Picture a peaceful resolution to all that troubles you.

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Open Doors

Thank You, sweet God. I needed to remember what I know. I needed to look ahead and look around with that perspective. Now what would You say?

Praise is a Key, a big Key to a Big Door. Not because I have a big ego that needs stoking like a fire with the fuel of your devotion, but because My whole heart is devoted to you. To all of My creation. I love nothing more than blessing those I love. Your praise, your trust, your recognition of Who I Am is what allows those blessings to flow. All the locks are on your side of the door. There are no locks whatsoever on My side. Your choices can create barriers, and those barriers sadden Me. Yes, just as with Jesus’ physical body, your earthly choices have the power to wound My Heart. A harsh word wounds My Heart. Lives devoted to destruction, theirs and others, wounds My Heart. My Great Work of Creation is ongoing, for I Am always creating new chances, new possibilities, new outcomes for everyone on the planet. Your steady choice to believe and receive has swung open the door for you and your life many times.

Now let’s take the next step. If you can commit to what you know of Me again this morning, we can take the door itself off its hinges. The door will transform into a bridge across to My Country. You don’t ever have to go back or even look back to that existence where you questioned or doubted My Love for you or My “plan for your life”—which is expanding blessing, just as the countryside opens up before you. Like Lazarus, like Jesus, you can experience a resurrection, but you still have to make the choice to come out of the Cave. I Am inviting you into yet a larger life.

How can this be? you ask. You can live without fear. You can live without anxiety. You can live without upset. All of those are cave-dweller mindsets. You can live without worry. You can live with confidence, live in assurance, and experience daily, hourly synchronicity. I will never withhold from you any true blessing. Trust My timing to be perfect. “Yes” to praise frees you. Begin again to see Beyond.

This is how time-travel works for you. See the future I promise as real in your now. See it for everything you care about, your business, your family, your friends. See it for anyone who struggles. You don’t have to tell Me what you see of the struggle, unless doing so helps you release it. Instead, let Me tell you and show you what I see so you can see with Me.

This is the point where you’ve always drawn back before. “What must I sacrifice?” you thought. “What must I give up?” “What must I suffer?” These are false questions and they lead back to false gods, not to Me.

Live a life so connected with Me, so overflowing with blessing, that it magnetizes others to good. Let your very presence cause them to open their door to Me, which is how healing happens. You will have to give up the world’s perspectives of fear and of anxiety in order to fully inhabit the life I have for you. You will have to give up an obsessive concern for what others think of you in order to wear well the mantle of what I think of you.

You are thinking, how do I begin. You’ve already begun. You’ve walked a long distance already. You can jog now. You can run now. You are not a beginner. You know this.

You have pictured your life lately like a finite water bucket that others dig down into a well, and draw from what you perceive as your small, leaky reserves of time and energy.

You are a river in Me, the Great River. Live connected and experience an unending flow.

Living in the flow rejuvenates you and it increases your capacity to flow. That is what we are doing this morning. We are excavating in the Spirit. Like a mighty Canyon River, we are carving new pathways of possibility—I Am, by My Power and Intention, and you are, by the power of your agreement. Alleluia, alleluia. I have waited long for this day. The last boulders are tumbling downstream and the floodgates are flung wide open. Alleluia, alleluia.

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A Time To Speak

Lord, how can I know when to speak and when to keep silent, when these words are meant only for me, and when they are meant for others, too? There are times I have shared in the past and then thought, I should have just kept my mouth shut.

You mean, should you have just kept My Mouth shut?

Here is a hard truth you know intellectually and biblically, but you are going to have to learn to live with it emotionally: not everyone receives. Not everyone hears. Not everyone wants glad tidings. Some much prefer judgment. Some much prefer hiding in their own darkness. And some—like feral cats—will hiss and even bite before they let themselves be loved.

You have to decide this work is worth rejection, that you are not in this to become popular, but to be a beacon of light in stormy times.

Lord, why wouldn’t everyone want the light to shine in a storm?

Almost everyone—unless someone is mentally ill—wants the light to shine in specific ways and specific places. My Light shines everywhere, on everyone. And that is a hard concept for some, who live by rank-ordering and who cannot conceive of a love, or favor, that is not based on merits. It seems unfair somehow to them.

Lord, like the parable of the workers hired late in the day?

Exactly.

 

 

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Name Me

So, I had a Christmas word for yesterday, what about today? What would You say about today?

Think about all the ways I Named Myself, all the ways I Am Named, in your scriptures:

Word

Light

Bread

Good Shepherd

Living Water

Truth

Way

Life

God-With-Us

Prince of Peace

Wonderful Counselor

You think of them as titles. What if you thought of them like nicknames, like affectionate nicknames: You say, honey, dear, sweetie. You call your kitty by her name but you also call her Sugar, same as you did with Freddi, your fox. You called Mikey, Mijou, as an affectionate nickname. Nicknames imply a close, special relationship. Even if someone becomes known only by a nickname, the origins of the name were always in relationship with someone special. So think again about all My Nicknames. Take the first one the Gospel of John uses. Word.

Think how you would use Word as a nickname in your relationship, your very personal relationship with Me. Ah, the writer of you is smiling now. Or Light. Can you picture this conversation—

Me, God: Hey, it’s Me, Word. Grab your coat and come outside, I have something I want to talk to you about.

You, Eve: Ok, Word, Ok, Light, I’m coming. Are You going to enlighten me?

Me, God: Yes, I as Truth Am going to Speak as Word, and Shine as Light on Myself as your Way, to give you wisdom in your decisions, direction for your day, which will bring Peace to your minutes and hours, and to your relationships with others.

Call on My Names—I have many more than these.

For everything you need, listen for My Name.

Wow, God, that’s…I don’t know what to say about that.

Anytime you don’t know what to say, look to Me to be Word.

Ok, so when I need…

When you need anything. For everything you need, I Am.

You miss your earthly father especially today. And I Am Abba, Father, Daddy. You miss your Mom, and I Am Bread who nourishes you and your truest cheerleader, saying, Well Done, and encouraging you along the way. You are never alone, not one of you. I Am—always, everywhere and for all time.