Category: Faith

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Fear of the Future

Lord, I feel like Kingsley. Sometimes he is content to play or chew, sometimes to nap or cuddle, but the last couple of days he is so wiggly, so squirmy, as if he can’t settle or get comfortable. I am picturing myself exactly like that—arms and legs flailing, wanting down, wanting to run. For him, this is natural and healthy; he is growing and running towards his future. Me, I feel as if I am trying to run away from it and it is looming larger and scarier every day.

Do you think I have changed? Do you think I no longer Am already in your future, preparing you, preparing your life for the days ahead? Do you think the future is some country where I Am not present, not involved, not caring about and for you?

Some people struggle with anger or pride or selfishness. You struggle with fear and worry. These are your challenges. You have made much progress in trust and faith, but let Me ask you a question. I already know the answer, but I want you to hear yourself say it: do you think I Am no longer good? No longer Love? No longer Peace, or Joy? Do you think hope is foolish and gratitude is empty? Do you think all I have said, all I have done, is a lie—or am I a truth-teller still?

Oh Lord, I know You are all those things—and more. I know You are good and kind and that Love and Peace and Joy are not only Your gifts but also Your very nature.

But…? You are thinking a But…

But we get thrown curve balls. You have said You are not testing us, or not just for testing’s sake. You have said You don’t cause natural disasters—or, I am paraphrasing now—human health ones either. So if these challenges are not You, then what are they? How can I understand them?

Do you remember what I said the other day about a clockmaker, making and winding a clock?

Yes.

Now I want you to imagine the clockmaker doing something that in your limited viewpoint seems pointless, even unacceptable. I want you to picture the clockmaker holding in his hands a clock that no longer keeps time, that constantly stops and starts. Picture that clock scratched and scarred, with vestiges of its earlier beauty marked by years of use, faithfully ticking away, but no longer able to function anywhere near its peak performance. Now picture the clockmaker carefully disassembling the clock, the very clock he himself made. I want you to imagine the clockmaker taking all these parts and laying them out, cleaning and polishing them, repairing where needed, and adding new parts to the pile. Now watch as the clockmaker assembles a new, even more beautiful and intricate instrument that doesn’t need winding and that keeps perfect rhythm for eternity. Who wouldn’t want that? Who wouldn’t want to be that? You see clues in nature even now. Why do you think you are noticing all the butterflies this season? Why do you think you got to watch the caterpillars and chrysalis formation? These were all meant as gifts to encourage you, to give you hope. What do you do with Kingsley when he seems frantic?

I hold him close so he can hear or feel my heartbeat.

And?

And he calms down, almost immediately.

Let Me hold you close. Listen to My Heartbeat. Remember Who I Am. Remember Whose you are. And know this: every human clock you watch unwinding is being readied for a limitless life of perfect rhythm, perfectly balanced, perfectly in tune, perfectly aligned. Do you—can you—believe for this?

Yes, Lord, I can.

Then let this strengthen, encourage and comfort you. If you can calm your new puppy, why can’t you let Me calm you? And don’t run away from your future. I still have much to give you, much to show you, much to share with you. And you have much to share with others. Be at Peace, Little One. Sleep easier tonight. I Am with you, and with everyone you love. I will never leave you, nor will I leave them. So, you rest in My care and let Me care for your loved ones.

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More on Faith and Love

The vet came, and we are going to have to put Mikey down, soon. I am thinking maybe even today. It’s wild, I journal yesterday about him, and now, this. I might’ve said, I don’t have the faith to see him healed but now, after what You said yesterday, that is not it. Is it?

Love would let him go. Sometimes Love holds on and sometimes Love lets go. True Love is discerning–it knows its time. It knows its purpose in each situation, each decision. When Love knows it is not yet time to let go, then Love energizes faith; the knowing what is best, what is most loving, gives the power for healing to happen. True Faith is believing in the reality and power of Love, in what Love can do in the world, whether it be in a sick body or a broken heart or a devastated community. And since I Am Love, Faith at its deepest and purest has eyes to see Me in every situation, to see My Hand in everything–not as Cause, necessarily. Sometimes as Cure.

If you can learn to live from Love, let Love be the foundation for everything you do and think and say, you will have the kind of faith that can move mountains–if moving a mountain is truly what Love needs to happen! You can also have the kind of faith that moves you–that inspires you to take action, all based in Love. So you see, letting Mikey go is an act of Love, and therefore, also an act of faith, an assurance you are doing the best thing.

But it still hurts.

(Gently) Yes, little one, I know. I better than anyone know the hurt Love experiences in the world. This is little comfort to you now, but the world I envisioned, the world I first created, the world where Mikey is now, has no hurt, no time, no limit, no end. It is only and always Love. Mikey has simply returned to that which he was created to inhabit all along. He is the one who is Home; you are the one still absent. Remember how I said yesterday, Faith connects others to Me through your Love?

Yes. What did You mean, exactly?

If you can believe, you will experience the connection to everyone you have ever loved, who has passed from sight, but is with Me, alive, in joy. There is no separation within Myself. You really do inhabit parallel universes–that is one way of phrasing it. The more you can open yourself up to eternity, the more of eternity you will experience in your earthly life. You have had moments of this, dreams of this, flashes of this. These were not anomalies. In a real sense, any sense of separation you experience–from Me, from those you love–is the anomaly. Love Is. Mikey is now held in purest Love. Allow your heart to rest in this knowing, if only for brief minutes at a time, and that knowing will comfort you beyond your mind’s understanding. And you will experience what you call “faith”–walking the bridge that connects you to Me, and to others. You pictured a tightrope, high, scary, windy. See how solid it really is? See how beautiful the country? You have glimpses and then the vision fades. Be not discouraged. Just feel the Love.

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Love and Faith

I rescued a locust yesterday, on its back on the deck and I thought it was dead. But I picked it up and it gripped my finger…I put it on a branch and all of a sudden, a whir of wings and gone! Yay! That was joy. I was thinking ahead as I was writing this, thinking, what happened? And quick the answer: Love happened. Aha. Yes. So, it’s Love, then, that heals? Not faith?

Love is the engine. Faith is the caboose. Faith seems to fail when it tries to drive without Love. Love energizes Faith. Think of it like this–

Lord, I can’t think. Mikey is crying, and I just had him out.

Listen and look with Love. What does he need?

I think he needs my attention. And breakfast.

So, faith without love would say to ignore him and keep bending over the page, waiting for some mystical revelation. What does love say?

Love says, stroke his ears and get up and feed him, which is what I am going to do…Ok, I’m back.

And what happened?

Well, he’s eating. He’s content.

And here you are, with Me, quiet again. Love undergirds your entire life, when you are living fully connected to Me. While Quiet helps you focus, you were not disconnected when you made the choice to pause and tend to his needs. Look how many examples there are of Jesus leaving His quiet time and place to serve the needs of the crowd. You need both. You need time devoted here, yes. But you can’t LIVE here, on the page. This time is meant to empower you for the rest of your day, where you live in community with others. This time is meant to fill you so your love can overflow. That’s what I mean by faith is the caboose. Faith is Love’s bridge in the world. Faith connects others to Me through your Love.

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Divinity and Humanity

Lord, do You still experience human emotions? I never thought about that before. Are You still, so to speak, the God-Man, Jesus Christ: Or—in other words, are You still Jesus? Lord of All…but still Jesus?

The reason Thomas could put his hand in My side, and his finger in the nail-wounds in My hands is because I Am “still” Jesus. Glorified, Risen, but still and always Myself. So yes—I Am still weeping over My Jerusalem—over My world. And yes, I Am still seething over the money-changers and over the Pharisees within My own church, and yes, I Am still rejoicing over every single lost lamb brought back into the fold. I Am still the Door of the sheep, I Am still the Good Shepherd watching over the flock, I Am still the Light of the World. I Am not a helpless, dependent infant, and the day of My handing Myself over to the world’s authorities is past—but I Am still risen in My humanity. I still weep with those who weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice. I will never stop being Who I Am.

So when I am afraid…or worried…

I share your fears. Not to give power to them but to transform them—and you. That is the real message behind Flawless. There is nothing I can’t overcome.

Lord, can You—would You—overcome disease? Can You—would You—overcome fear? Overcome depression and lethargy? There is brilliant beautiful sudden light!

I have already overcome. Focus on My Resurrection. The reason for the Cross was to get to Resurrection, to set the stage for it. I needed to become the Overcomer—for your sakes, all of you. You all still struggle with receiving. I Am not defeated, I Am Alive, Risen, Triumphant, and I Am calling you, all of you, to live in the power of My Rising.

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Adjust Your Sails

Lord, You know I am still stressing over finances. I can’t seem to stop worrying. And when I worry, I react badly—inside—to what others say or do. And I second-guess my every decision, even decisions I thought I heard about from You.

You are waiting for the wind to shift before you adjust your sails. It is what the world does. I am saying to you, adjust your sails and the wind will shift. Get ready, anticipating a blessing. The man in the parable was greedy and stingy, but I am telling you, build a bigger barn. A bumper crop is coming; it is even now growing. It is even now on its way. Take in the rainbow; it is a sign for you of My provision.

Am I not still Jehovah-Jireh? Can I not now also be your Jehovah-Rapha?

You are reacting as you always do, trying to make up a deficit at cost to yourself. What about the loaves and fishes? What about the lost coin? What about the pearl of great price? What about the coin in the fish’s mouth? If the Kingdom of God doesn’t touch you right where you live, and in your society—which includes money, the very foundation of exchange for everything except the air you breathe—then what good is it?

My Kingdom is not esoteric. My Kingdom is based on Love. My Kingdom is not ascetic. It is not a system of exchange, your wealth for poverty. What would miraculous provision look like, to you?

Let Me provide, as a lesson to you. Let Me work, so you can clearly see it is I. I have shown a spotlight on what you call a deficit to illuminate a much bigger deficit in your thinking, in your pattern of thought and belief—about money, and Me, and you, your life. That is the deficit that must be overcome, and the miraculous is the only way that will happen. So I don’t want you to engineer anything in the natural. Instead, set your sails. Instead, watch Me shift the wind. Instead, watch Me work. Continue to be generous, and watch Me give to you.

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Believing for myself

God, why is it so easy for me to believe You will hear my prayers to bless others…and so hard for me to believe for myself? Is it just a lack of faith on my part?

When you pray for others, you are relying on what you know and believe in your heart about Me–that I Am good, that I Am Love, that I long to bless everyone. From that perspective, it is easy for you to ask, and to ask large. And look what you receive! That kind of faith opens all sorts of possibilities. It is not that you have to convince Me to act; I have told you this before. Rather, it is that much of My acting involves prompting humans to act in certain ways, to be sensitive to certain impulses, to follow their own hearts’ leadings.

When it comes to asking for yourself, a curtain drops down between what you know to be true, and what you were told about Me and about yourself many, many years ago. The curtain is thinner now; it is more gauze than thick brocade, but it still clouds your vision and thus your belief. You begin to doubt your inclinations, doubt your impulses, and unwittingly close the door to much that I would otherwise be able to give you. It is not that I become reluctant to give; it is that you cut yourself off from the very ways I mean for you to receive.

Let’s try this. Try pretending, the next time you feel uncertain about asking Me for yourself, that you are asking for your best friend. What would you ask for then? Ah, you see, you are smiling already. Remember, abundance really means “more-than-enough.” More than enough for everyone–including you.