Category: Relationship

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Nourishment

Now, late in the day, I need a fresh word like fresh bread. I don’t even eat bread anymore, Lord. It’s not good for me, for my system. I’ve given up wheat.

But there are breads you can eat.

Yes, and I am grateful for those.

Part of wisdom is knowing what nourishes you, what are empty calories and what is actually detrimental to your system.

Yes, so…

So what nourishes you and what is detrimental to you is not necessarily the same as it is for someone else. You might have deficiencies others don’t have. You might have a lower tolerance than others do. You might need supplements, or to avoid certain foods altogether.

Think about this spiritually. There is music that draws you closer to Me, and music that doesn’t move you at all. There is a preaching style and there is subject matter that opens your heart, and there are other styles and subjects that close your heart. Isn’t that so?

You know it is.

The key is not to judge yourself or others but to recognize what nourishes and nurtures your soul’s connection to Me. Don’t worry about what others are eating–you choose what is most beneficial to you.

Lord, this page is. Quiet listening is. Music that affirms Your lovingkindness, that does it for me.

Don’t try to fit yourself into last year’s clothes, or last decade’s diet. You gauge the weather and choose your daily wardrobe accordingly. You don’t wear sandals in a snowstorm or your down vest in a heat wave. You carry a raincoat when a squall is in the forecast. If you pay attention, you can be clothed and fed in each day’s unfolding, in both the natural and the spiritual.

 

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God with us

Lord, when we started Now Through A Glass, I thought we were going to talk about profound things. Instead, it’s gotten very personal, my daily life, its current challenges. 

What is more profound than Emmanual, than God-with-us in your daily life? Is anything more important than that?

Even all the hearts you find are meant to remind you, God with us. I carry your heart–and you carry My Heart within you. This union, deeper than parent/child, deeper than spouse, is a union of spirit. In Me, you really do live, and move, and have your being, your you-ness. There is a philosophy that individuality disappears in the Divine, that any “you” is swallowed whole in a cosmic conglomeration of consciousness.

You know why I wanted you to stop picking your fingers? Not only because that was an outward manifestation of your inner upset and worry, but primarily because I created your fingerprints, unique, individual and different as a sign to you of how special every human being is to Me, and you were tearing at that very sign of My creating. You were destroying that which I declared Precious, precious in My sight.

I have told you before, I don’t want a lockstep army of soldiers, but a field full of creative and playful children–children of God in every good sense childhood implies–innocent, open, growing fun-loving, creative, inventive, imaginative, living every day all-out and all-in. Unburdened. Free. God-with-us promises and prompts that kind of life, those kinds of choices. Color outside the lines a little today. Invent some new shapes. Mix up some new colors. See in new ways. In other words, go be you! Live your life. And know that I Am with you.

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Nurture your inner life

God, do You—You always do—have anything to say to me today?

Breathe. Being frantic or fretting won’t help you. It won’t help your body or your mind, and it won’t help you get more done. Consider the lilies. Consider the thought that I love you just as you are right now, even while drawing you on to greater growth. Every winter, underground, lilies multiply. The “more blooms” that appear above ground come from more bulbs underground. Nurture your inner life, your underground life.

How do you do that? Worship is one way, because you are focused on Me and all I Am in your life and in the universe. Not sermons, not fellowship—as good as they may be, they don’t multiply your bulbs. Random acts of kindness, compassion and thoughtfulness help multiply your outward fruit and influence. Intercession as long as it is not a disguised worry is a bulb-grower.

Notice the metaphors: bulb for flowers and growth; bulb for light; bulb for inspiration, for creative ideas, for epiphanies. Anticipate surprises. Live expectant as you used to, and let your expectation be filled with My Presence, for in My Presence, nothing is impossible, nothing is too hard. The only defeat in My Presence is defeat itself. Defeat is defeated, overcome by victory. Overtaken by Love. Begin to anticipate a healthy body, a healthy lifestyle, a healthy business season. Begin again to visualize thriving. Trust that in this winter, which you are seeing as time lost, trust that underground, within, beneath the surface, is tremendous growth, is a field of multiplied bulbs, all ready, all waiting for the signal to burst forth into glorious flower. “A crop so great you cannot contain it all” – that is My Promise to you, renewed. So much fruit you can easily share, easily Give-Away. Is any of this too hard for God? Am I not God for you? Focus on that.

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Sourced in God

Gosh, God, the schedule…the stress…I need You to help me so I don’t tumble into either burnout or fallout, meaning broken health. What is your solution for me?

You are not responsible for your family’s—your grandchildren’s—your son’s—happiness. All you can be to anyone is a loving inspiration. Be that. Model what a full life centered in Me looks like. Right now you are modeling a full life centered on your own effort and strength—and it’s not working. It’s not working because you—humans—were never meant to go it alone, by yourselves, or even with one another without Me.

You were meant to be Sourced in Me, My input, My watering, My Presence, My leading, My anointing. Sourced in Me each day, with set-apart times for filling up the well on a regular basis. Make Time to be Renewed in Love. Let Chronos become Kairos again. Right place, right time. Right person—you. Take a next step in this journey we are on together. Renew your pledge to live in synchronicity. Let My Spirit guide you.

 

 

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The Most Peace

The sun, this Sunday morning, threw a pink glow into the clouds at 6:30. The color gave me peace, like I could breathe. I think “outdoors” as a generic term is my peace-place, my peace-time. But You asked me yesterday, what gives me the most peace? I think of peace in two ways–as a connection to everything and everyone, and as calm, or non-agitation. So the most peace, I guess, is the experience I have outside either in beautiful light or with critters, or in combination. You made me, You said, to connect with You. And with the natural world. So is it wrong that I find my greatest peace outside, in that connection?

Little One, you have been so schooled to think in terms of right and wrong, excel or fail, okay or not-okay. I Am trying to teach you, to show you, another way of looking at your life. If you think in terms of Joy, of Peace, of Love–of all the fruits of My Spirit like gentleness and patience and kindness or in terms of gratitude–you will find yourself making “right” choices, “excelling” in all the ways that matter, and living a very “okay” life indeed. In fact, you will be living an abundant life.

So right and wrong don’t matter?

I Am trying to shift your perceptions away from that duality into a mindset, into a heart focus where Love and Peace and Joy matter most of all, where your connection to Me matters most of all. Can you see that, if you could live in deliberate, conscious connection to Me every minute, even for 24 hours, you would be living in a realm in which “wrong” becomes literally irrelevant? This is what heaven is like–and it is the Kingdom-Come-On-Earth I tried to teach My Disciples when I came as Jesus. It’s the life I lived in a human body. It’s a life I Am inviting you to live. The more you live here, the less you live in fear or doubt or angst or stress–or at odds with any other living being.

What if they live at odds with me? Or my values? What then?

What do you want for someone like that? What do you truly want?

Lord, I want them to be well. To prosper. To have a wonderful, amazing, abundant life. I want that for everybody. I want them healed, in body or mind or spirit.

Now you are thinking as I think, feeling as I feel.

Lord, this idea of always being connected, of there being no wrong in that state of being–is that what You meant by praying without ceasing?

Yes. Praying without ceasing doesn’t mean you have to become a cloistered person, on your knees, chanting religious sounding words every waking minute. It means what I have been saying to you: stay connected. Don’t unplug. Live in My Life. But live life. Life is My Gift to you. So embrace it. Relish it. Cherish it. Live it–but live it connected to Me.

 

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Questions

I guess if I can write lyrics on envelopes, I can talk to You on envelopes!

You can talk to Me anywhere, anytime, about anything.

Okay, then, I want to follow up about hearing from You. I mean, hearing from You about others. 

In what way?

Can I? May I?

Sometimes the best way to talk is to listen. Ask a question and then listen to the answer. Often the answer is itself a question.

Yes. So?

So instead of talking to those you love, if you ask a question, an inspired question, you will actually be prompting them to listen to their own heart. And that is where they will find Me–just as you did.

Okay, I understand. So…what’s the question?

Ah, yes, the question. Well, there’s not really the question. But here is a question. What in your life, right now, brings you the most joy? Why don’t you answer it first?

The most joy? A lot of things bring me a lot of joy.

Yes, but I asked about the most joy.

Honestly, Lord, it’s You. It’s knowing–I am smiling just writing this–it’s knowing I am connected to You. That You hear me and I can hear You. I didn’t use to have this connection and I so treasure it.

You always had this connection, you just didn’t know it. And now you do.

Yes, and that knowing–that brings me the most joy.

So here is a question for you to think about for tomorrow. What brings you the most peace?

 

 

 

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The Clockmaker

Lord, You know what Oct. 18th means to me, that day long ago that I heard from You in that church service when those visiting pastors came. I can’t believe I spent that day of all days in the ER!

Every day is that day for you, now. Unlimited access, 24/7, 365. Then, you needed validation, assurance, healing. Now, you need confidence, boldness, healing. Then, you believed hearing directly from Me was reserved for the few, and you felt fortunate to receive a few paragraphs, spoken from the mouth of a prophet, with your name attached. Now, you know My Heart is to have a deep, abiding relationship with everyone, everyone on the planet. That is My Purpose. And, as the Cross demonstrates, I will go to any length to have it, even play to human wants for justice that are misguided.

Misguided?

Much of what passes for justice is really revenge. What I want is so much bigger, so much deeper. I want forgiveness because I want transformation. I want everyone and everything in right relationship, in harmony and in balance. I created the Universe as that place.

But we sinned, we didn’t listen to You—and we got kicked out of that place.

 Think of the story this way. Humans managed long, long ago to upset the Balance, to introduce enmity between themselves and the natural world and between one another.

Wait a minute! Wasn’t the Serpent the Enemy?

Not until they listened. Not until being out of balance seemed more attractive than in balance, and war seemed more attractive than peace, and hate seemed more attractive than love. Imagine a different ending. Imagine Eve saying to the serpent, I think you are mistaken. Let’s go talk to God about this. Imagine a role where humans were—as I intended—stewards and teachers, learning from Me and teaching others.

But the kicked out part?

Eden is just another word for life lived in balance. They destroyed the balance. That is what led to the separation and the sense of shame, guilt, and fear I never intended for My Creation.

But…but if You really are the Creator, I mean, if You began everything…

Think of Me like a clockmaker, crafting and then winding a clock. The clock is designed to keep time and keep it accurately. But dust or dirt can clog the works, causing the clock to malfunction. A good clockmaker will clean and oil his clock as well as keep it wound. The possibility of it winding down always exists—but so does the reality of all running smoothly as long as the clockmaker stays involved. But what if the clock could somehow run itself, wind itself? I gave the clock—humanity—the power of creative choice. I give that same power to every baby born.

Because each child is born now into an out of balance world, each child has to choose at some point, and then choose over and over, who to believe and who to be. You are choosing to believe in Love and Peace and Joy as a Way, a Way of Being in the world, a way of living moment to moment and day to day. It is, in Native American terms, the Good Red Road. It is, in both eastern and western terms, the Way.

Every human who chooses this way helps tip the earth ever so slightly back toward the balance I created in the first place.

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Steadfast Purpose and Power

 

Lord, is it wrong to want things to get easier?

No, not at all. But easier really isn’t the issue–neither is harder. The issue is, approaching your whole life, which is to say, your life moment by moment, in joy.

How do I do that?

By remembering the why–the why behind the what and the how.

The why?

Yes, the why, which is another way of saying the reason or the purpose. What is your purpose? Not the general purpose that might list work or marriage or family. Those are components of your life, and how you approach each of these components is determined largely by your why. Your purpose. So let Me ask you again–what is your purpose?

Lord, we worked this out before. Like a personal mission statement, one for life. And my life’s purpose is to connect deeply with You–with You and the natural world–and to share those connections, in words and images, with others. 

Your connection is like the electrical current that runs all through your house and it powers everything, from the essential-to-you appliances to lights and heat to communication devices to entertainment. You know how dark and quiet it gets when the power goes out in a storm. Don’t let your power go out. Stay connected and flip your switches on. This means recharging here with Me and outside, where you take your deepest cleansing breaths. Your friends who told you to get some time outside were speaking My words to you. I made you to connect in both ways to Me, here at the page and in My creation. So take some minutes in this storm and make sure your power and the lights don’t go out.

Now, when the power is working efficiently, you can almost take it for granted. Some malign that phrase but I want you to think a minute about exactly what it says. My Power is granted–to you and to everyone who plugs in–as a gift, for you to receive, to take. I WANT you taking My power, as granted, as gift. I WANT you living My joy in all your circumstances, in all your relationships. Power all your relationships just as the electricity in your house powers all your rooms. Power with purpose, in Joy.

Even in the storms?

Especially in the storms. That is when you need the light and warmth the most.

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Seeking and Finding God

I think I am listening for Your voice. It’s like a singer with a distinctive voice—like Barbara Streisand. Anyone could sing the words, but you immediately recognize her voice.

And what do you think of as My voice?

Well…the words themselves can be firm, and pointed, but always loving and fair. And Your voice, at least to me, is always gentle. Loving and gentle. And I am not hearing that in many places.

What if I said to you, “Go where you find Me.” Then what would you do?

I guess I’d need to go look for You. Spend time trying to find You.

 But I didn’t say, “Go try to find Me.” Or, “Go and Seek.” Read it again. “Go where you find Me.” Where do you find Me NOW? Find Me consistently? Or to put it another way: where are you enriched? What do you look forward to with gleeful anticipation? Go where. Go there. Don’t waste your time turning over rocks in a dry streambed, seeking for gold. Mine the gold you have. Treat every morning, here, as church. Play worship music on your guitar and in your car. Sing Me the love songs that you delight to sing. And as for your book—books—they are to be love stories. Write Love Stories. My Love Story always has a happy ending!

You praise Me—really—because you love Me. You are singing love songs. That is what sets you apart from so many others—you fell in love, with Narnia and Aslan—and Me. Your Door was different for a reason. I didn’t bring you in the Church Door, or the Bible Door. They came afterwards. I brought you in the story door, the Love-story door, and a story focused on Talking Animals to boot—for a reason. Yours is not a traditional path and it is not a traditional calling. There are a lot of, too many, mixed messages in the traditions.

You are a Creativist and a Creationist, meaning that two of the offshoots of your spiritual path are creativity and the natural world. You find Me in both, and yet I Am Beyond both. So are you—you find sustenance in and through both, and yet there is more to you, and more to what you have to give—that is why I keep saying your work is beyond natural history. It’s not that natural history won’t be a part of it—of course it will, because you love to share about creation—but your work is beyond that, as you are beyond a naturalist. So your watchword for today is Beyond.

 

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A Relationship with God

Lord, I am—we are—always asking You for things. Please do this, or heal that. Please help us or guide us or protect us. And we do try to remember to thank You and praise You—is that what You mean by a reciprocal relationship? Our praise? Or our offerings, our money or tithes? Or when we help someone else?

When you give your money or your time to help someone else, you are really practicing one facet of “love one another.” And yes, of course that pleases Me, just as a parent rejoices to see a child sharing toys or treating someone kindly.

God, it’s hard to think of You as needing anything from us.

Can you believe your behavior at times breaks My heart?

Yes, Lord. I can, definitely.

And can you believe your behavior can delight My heart?

Well, yes, of course—as You just said, like a child doing well and making a parent proud.

So can you stretch your belief beyond God-as-Parent to consider the implications of God-as-Friend and God-as-Spouse? Think of what parents provide children—food, shelter, safety, a place where they can grow and discover the world around them and who they are. I Am all of that. All of that is contained in a relationship with Me. But it can be so much more, and that is what I Am inviting you into—and through you, inviting others, many others, as many as will listen, into.

Think of the way you began to feel about your husband, how you couldn’t wait to see him, to be together, to tell him all about your day and hear all about his. Think of the excitement you felt to hear his voice or to be in his arms.

But isn’t ours more of a cerebral relationship, all this dialog?

Is it? What about the hearts you find? What about the Light Shows I put on, just for you? What about those times you heard My Angels singing? What if I heighten your senses to experience My Presence with you in a holy way, so your taste, your sight, your hearing, your smell, even your sense of touch is ramped up to make you more aware of what life in Heaven is like?

Wait—heaven is sensory?

What did you think, that your senses disappear?

Well, yes, like when You said we don’t marry, we are like angels.

All I meant by that statement is, your loving others is not exclusive, but expansive. Your heavenly capacity to love is too large to center on just one or even a few persons. And you can begin to expand your capacity even while on earth. It is what couples do when they adopt, or when someone starts a rescue shelter.

Remember I ate before My Disciples after My Resurrection. I had a Body. I have a Body, without the limits an earthly body has, limits of time, space, strength, and stamina.

So what do I need to do, to heighten our relationship?

Let Me woo you. Trust Me to give you good gifts; trust Me with your dreams. And when I open new doors, go through them joyously! Little one, you are so worried, about time. Tell Me your dreams.