Category: Guidance

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Balance

It’s about 8:45 a.m. I keep the house quiet, and he sleeps. What would You say?

 

Do all from love; do nothing from worry. Like the stacking game, you are afraid if you remove worry from your foundation that your entire life will come tumbling down. No, no! It is an illusion. Your life will be more beautiful without it. Worry is making your heart like a wall, solid, featureless, with no windows.

God, I can see it visually. Like how the game starts—it’s just a solid pillar.

 The key to stability is balance. Not yin-yang, good/bad, light/dark. That’s not balance, that’s neutrality. I don’t want you neutral—I want you exuberant! I want you overjoyed! I want you rejoicing—hopeful—expectant! You counter balance the world view that says “gloom and doom,” that says “be cautious,” that says “be careful,” that says “hide your light.” “Don’t draw attention.” I say, Shine your light! I say, Shout from the rooftops! Quit being neutral. Be positive.

Wow, Lord, I never, ever thought of balance like that. So…You’re saying…when I am, uh, stubbornly hopeful, I’m actually balanced?

YES. That is exactly what I Am saying. Joy more abundantly is My definition of balance, because My Joy is your strength, is your stability. Your compass, your True North, is Joy and Peace. These are your balance points. A circle is balanced. No part pulls another.

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Stay Tuned

OK, Lord. Here I am at this point, where I need and want to get quiet. Try to hear You. Ask You to speak, to break in.

Imagine tuning a radio, the kind you grew up with, with its dial. Hear the crackle of static? Hear how stations get louder or softer as you dial them in or out? Here’s a secret—the music is always playing. I Am the Word, so I Am always speaking. I Am always speaking over you, over your life. Over your world. Over everyone in it. Like a radio station broadcasting 24/7, I Am always speaking. You just need to turn the dial.

Now, there are a lot of voices in your radio. Not all come from Me. Not all are inspired voices, just as a radio broadcasts all sorts of music and programs all across the dial. But each station has its own identity, its own voice. Be careful which stations, whose voices, you tune in to. Keep the dial of your mind and heart near Me. The other voices you hear in proximity to My Voice will ring true and can give you good counsel and encouragement.

This is a role you can play yourself, for others. You wonder, where is my own voice in all of this? Keep closely tuned to My Voice, and what comes from the depths of your own heart, and the reaches of your own mind, will be inspired, and give life.

Your broadcasters often end a segment or a program with the invitation, Stay Tuned. That’s good advice for a musical instrument, too. Stay tuned. Like an engine—stay tuned, stay tuned up. Stay tuned in to My Voice.

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The Third Way

Lord, what do we do when we want two things that are—or seem—mutually exclusive?

A Third Way.

Lord, there is a third way?

There is always a third way. That is one message of My Resurrection: on the third day, a third way. Neither the life I had before, nor death as finality, but resurrection, a third thing, a third way. Neither a caterpillar nor a chrysalis but a butterfly—a third way, a third thing.

So, Lord, when I get trapped in either/or thinking, I should look for a third way?

 The third way is not rational. It is not a logical conclusion. Nor is it a synthesis of what has gone before. The third way is new in every sense of that word. The third way can seem miraculous even, because it is so fresh, so unexpected. It is nothing you can dream up on your own. The third way is a Divine surprise, a solution so far beyond the obstacle or problem or challenge as to render it insignificant.

The third way is the doctor coming into the room, puzzled, and saying, I don’t understand these test result but the cancer cells are gone. Healing is a third way solution. So is miraculous provision, like the coin in the fish’s mouth, like the net bursting with a catch, like the loaves and fishes multiplied. Seek the third way, even in business. No, especially in business. I promise you, there is a third way, and it doesn’t involved you weighed down, drowning in debt, but walking on the water of provision.

 

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Talking and listening

Now I’m at that awkward pause point where, in a conversation, you realize you’ve been doing all the talking.

There never needs to be any awkwardness between us. You assume I don’t care what you have to say, that your thoughts or feelings or words don’t matter. Of course they matter–they are the fabric of your daily life. Out of your thoughts arise your choices–and those matter a great deal, how you spend your time, and with what attitude. If you didn’t have Me to talk to, here, much of what you think and feel would remain locked inside you, never to be acknowledged or directly expressed, or worked through. Your thinking would be more muddled than clear.

Sometimes, I Am like a therapist who asks one question just so you can listen to yourself. So, what do you hear when you listen to yourself this morning?

I hear focus, Lord. I do. I have a lot to get done, but I don’t feel panicked. I feel…confident, actually.

You see, spending this time with Me has already done you much good. You’ve checked your compass–you know you are on course.

And that’s it?

Isn’t that enough for one day? These conversations don’t always have to be profound. Sometimes they can be, they need to be, very practical. What good is a relationship if it doesn’t touch you where you really live?

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Vision Quest

The year is racing downhill and I am indoors lying in a recliner with an ice pack on my back and a very poor attitude. Not a good way to begin a Vision Quest.

There is nothing wrong with beginning a Vision Quest out of frustration. Or sorrow, or grief or anger, or any other emotion. The only “wrong” would be not beginning at all. Everyone who came to Me for healing was healed: body, mind and spirit. That is all you need to remember.

Lord, I don’t know how or where to start.

You start a hike by picking up your pack. Why don’t we see what is in your pack?

Okay. It feels disorganized, thrown together, like my life feels right now. If I wanted or needed anything, like a flashlight, it’d be hard to find it.

So the first step is to clear out the clutter. That is what meditation does, it clears your mind.

Lord, when I go outside now, I am almost desperate to come back with a saleable image, as justification for going. Like no other reason counts.

Usually, the only way you rest is by being sick. Or injured. This is a long-standing problem. Even your vision quest you are treating like a march, hurry up and get there, rather than as an adventure.

Lord, it’s true. I am hurrying because I am anticipating being interrupted before I really even get started. I just want to understand.

Understanding is over-rated. You can experience without actually understanding. You can know without having words to fully explain. Here is what you experience, in your best moments: a connection to Me and to this earth that you are certain of. A joining. A call and response. I call, you answer; you call, I answer.

Lord, it is true. I say all the time, I don’t know how the radio works, or the tv, or the computer, or the phone, even!

But you enjoy all of them. It is time you experienced the joy again. What if I told you your new lens was a special gift from Me? That I—not your ego—planted the desire for that lens, and I pre-arranged its availability? What if I planned the whole thing? See, there is so much you “never thought of.”