Category: Transformation

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When The Tide Turns

Lord, it’s as if I have been hearing You say, “When the tide turns.” There’s a moment, right? When it changes? And it might not seem obvious at first but soon, very soon, you can tell it has turned? Are You saying this is it?

I AM saying the tide has turned. You are now in the phase where you are beginning to notice, to see the evidence of the shift. You were thinking just of the challenges of this year, the challenges of a couple years back. I’m saying, this has been a much longer period, financially, emotionally, spiritually. This period of difficulty really began six years, six long years ago, with Patrick moving in that December, with Pete’s fatigue not yet correctly diagnosed, with all that happened in 2011, with having to relocate Yellowhouse, with Pete’s other health challenges.

Here is what I saw, what I know, what I want you to know: in all of that, your heart stayed true and strong, and pure. Did you worry? Yes. Did you fret and fear? Yes. Did you mourn and cry? Oh, yes. Did you turn from Me, or Pete? Did you turn from Patrick? Did you turn from anyone who really needed you? Never. Not once. In fact, your light shone even brighter. Did you have some occasional grumpy days? Yes, but your overall nature stayed sunny and sweet. You did it! You came through the worst drought and low tide period you’ve been through since your early 20’s. Yes, there were blessings, which you received because you were determined to stay in gratitude and be as alert as possible for them.

So if you could receive all those gifts in drought–Meditation and Freddi’s kits, and Moonrise, and Currituck, and your sales increases, and trips west and to Florida and to Maine and to Connecticut, imagine what awaits you on a flood tide!! Think about everything you have received, everything, on an ebb tide. As the tide was going out, flowing away, look at what you received: Pete’s miracle. You reunited with family you thought lost to you. So look for amazing bonds and connectedness on the flood.

Part of flood for you will be the publishing piece. for now, create the body of work. Just create it. Write the stories, lay out the books. The music will flow in this era too.

 

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Transformation by Forgiveness

I am remembering an old lyric: I am just a little one, but I want to do my part. To the extent, oh Lord, that I can hold Your fullness, Lord Jesus, come and fill my heart.

Every time you pray the intent of that prayer, your capacity expands. You set the tone of your day, you set the tone of your life, here.

Now it’s time for another step of growth. You still harbor secret, buried feelings of anger toward the angry. This just gives them and their anger power over that part of your mind and heart. I don’t want you to agitate and fight against. I don’t want you to ignore and pretend it doesn’t exist or doesn’t hurt, or doesn’t do harm, either. I want you to do a third thing. Some call it forgiveness.

I want you to surround, in your mind and heart, every bit of news you hear, whether national or global or personal, with an effervescence of goodness, of love and peace and joy and mercy and healing and light. Bring Color to the grey. Where there is just harsh, shrill, loud noise, bring melody and harmony. Surround in your mind’s eye every bit of it with floating, dancing bubbles of Better. Better choices. A Better outcome. Someone says something nasty about someone else? Surround them both. See an ad for an abused animals fund? Surround the whole thing. Gang violence? Surround the neighborhood. Corruption in business or politics? Surround it.

This new response will take practice. You will sometimes feel discouraged. The task will seem too great, the needs to be surrounded too many and overwhelming. Come back to small at those times. Let intention grow. I promise you, this will become a signature part of your life, just as gratitude has. Your gratitude lists began as small daily observances and thanksgivings. Let this be that way, too.

Oh, Lord, You’ve spoken to me this way before. I need to ask Your forgiveness—I haven’t been doing this. I forgot.

This is why I never tire of telling you the same things, as many times as you need to hear them again, hear them fresh. Don’t fret over minutes or days past. Just begin again.

Just like that?

It only takes one second, one decision, one yes, to change everything.

Ok, Lord, thank You. And, yes.

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Incubation

Dear God, before I jump into “do”—what would You say?

There is much within you, waiting to come forth. Some lies at great depth and some is just below the surface, awaiting only your attention to emerge. Incubation is all about waiting, but purposeful waiting. Waiting in the foreknowledge and assurance that powerful and wonderful changes are already underway and will soon be manifest, be visible. You are incubating now.

Incubation is not passive. A diligent mother turns her eggs, makes sure they are warm and sheltered. A diligent mother feeds herself so that when the babies hatch, she has the energy she needs to take care of both them and her. A diligent mother keeps knowledgeable about her own food sources. You are afraid that paying attention to the stirrings within will somehow harm them. This is a lie. You must heed the stirrings within in order to birth them, and in order to nurture them to their full potential.

Again I say, I did not give you this life to strip it from you How would you live each day differently if I told you that your nesting place would weather any storm and that you are destined for both wondrous migratory journeys and a stable home-base? That your calling is to combine word with image and bring hope and encouragement and healing to the broken-hearted, and encouraging vision to the newly emerging, and a sense of purpose to those seeking direction or lost in confusion? What if I said, beauty is your Bible? That your lens—your view of My world—is the Yes and Amen that I, the True Word, intend and need to speak through you?

Your eggs are hatching asynchronously: word gifts, visual gifts, and music gifts. And you have had earlier seasons of hatching, which you’ve assumed were to be your only times of bringing-forth. No, you have many seasons yet, many incubations to come. For now, pay attention to this season. Quit apologizing for what stirs within you, for those inner longings you keep trying to silence. They are trying to emerge—encourage them! They will soon have wings. Pay attention to every dream, every longing. If it is stirring within you, it is from Me. We are birthing together. Don’t let these become stillborn. Turn your eggs, feed yourself and incubate in joy.

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Pray for New Things

Lord, You keep talking to me about change, and about fresh. But Ecclesiastes says there is nothing new under the sun. Right?

What about “His mercies are new every morning” in the Psalms? What about Isaiah’s “Behold I am doing a new thing?” What about the “I make all things new” as a final promise in scripture? What about those?

You have to discern who is talking when you read sacred words or words that purport to be sacred. “A tree is known by its fruit,” remember? There is a fatalistic cynicism that masquerades as religion. Some of the tenets of that belief system are that human actions are pointless, that everything that happens is pre-arranged and that humans are merely puppets in some Divine morality play. That belief system bears fruits of despair, apathy, helplessness, and hopelessness. Does that sound like a tree of My planting?

How about this? Every human born has limitless potential to be unique and to offer the world a fresh perspective on life, on love, on joy. Every expression of personality, every latent talent, every overt impulse to creativity are all gifts of the Divine ensconced in humanity. The great challenge for every human born is to become. To become the best self possible.

Lord, then what about tragedies? What about kids born in poverty? Born in abuse? Born into the drug culture? Born in war-torn villages? Born sick from day one? What about them?

Do you think My Love for these, for those the world would term “the least of them” is less than My Love for those born into wealth? Into health? Into loving, caring homes? Do you think I rank-order by circumstance?

No, of course not. But I think so many have the odds against them before they even start out. And it’s not fair. I’m sorry to say it that way. But take me—I was born late, to a family that very much wanted a child. I was loved, cherished, taken care of. I had so many advantages even in being born to older parents. And I had difficulties too, like no grandparents because of that. But my folks really wanted me, and I have carried that knowledge, and their telling me I was special, all these years. So I had a head start over so many others.

And you have felt guilty for your advantages. Isn’t that true? You have felt ashamed of having such love, and over being gifted in the areas you are. Listen to Me. Every child is gifted. Every child born is loved by Me. But I don’t wave some magic wand and send a child into hell on earth or heaven on earth. Children are conceived naturally, and not everyone who conceives is an ideal parent. Inherent in that conception is a spark of divinity that includes creativity, personality, and the capacity to give and receive love. Some have those gifts cut short before they can even be opened. You have heard there is great joy among angels when someone decides to change their path for good, for the better. Well, there is also great sorrow among angels for every injustice, for every life cut short before its potential is realized. Eventually, on humanity’s last day, there will be no more tears. That is the day of rejoicing that is coming, for all of creation.

But what about now? What do we do about now?

Follow your heart. Follow your path. You love to pray—pray for newborns, pray for foster families, pray for communities where drugs and gangs have taken over. Pray for peace. And don’t buy into the cynicism that says nothing can change, or that there is no possibility of newness in these homes, in these families, in these communities, in these villages, in these nations. Pray for New Things to increase and abound. Pray for a spreading ripple of grace and mercy, of kindness and compassion. Pray for hearts to rule hands and heads. Ask, and watch how you receive. For your very act of asking can change the flow of events, can alter circumstances, can reveal choices to others that might otherwise go unnoticed and unheeded. Pray for miracles of enlightenment. Pray for aha moments all over the globe. What do you have to lose? Try praying instead of lamenting, and see what happens.

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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.