- Father, nothing's going right with the mortgage. It's been such a time of stress. I've failed miserably to trust...to Rest...to "Be still and Know that You are God." They say you find out what's in a person when they are squeezed. For the past two weeks, I've been squeezed and not much of You has emerged, only my fretful - myopic- anxious - grudge-holding self. Now is when I need to turn away form this unflattering mirror and look only at YOU, Who came to save me from myself. Oh, how I want to walk in triumph through these tests! To praise You no matter what! To thank You no matter what happens! Help me, oh God of my heart! Help me let go and let You arise and shine in my deepest being. 

+ My beloved, It is for just such moments of weakness and failure that I gave you the Comforter, the Advocate, the One Who 'gets you'...sees your potential....bypasses your disappointment in yourself and lifts your tear-stained face to the One Who loves you perfectly. He has the power to work even these moments of weakness into good! Trust Me NOW...this day and refuse to contemplate anything but the triumph of My dazzling will for your life. Death has been eating away at you. The enemy of your soul loves to kill your faith and any hope you have in My goodness. He loves to make you believe that you are a hopeless case and that your God is a fraud. Hah! Look at that! Would you ever think I am a fraud - one who is out to hurt you...cheat you...take from you? See the lies? When you look at them in print, they seem like something you never would believe! But, my little one, this is exactly what you have been choosing to believe these past few days. This liar, who is out to steal your identity is a master at identity fraud! You must resolutely hold on to the irrevocable facts that I have placed deep in your spirit...the promises that declare that "Nothing will ever separate you from My Perfect Love...that "God is For you...never could be against!" Listen, beloved. You must be ever diligent to step back and look at what you are believing. When you embrace the Truth of Who I am and will always, always be for you...your ONLY response can be Joy and Rejoicing because you know I never change. You know you are Mine. This enemy cannot be ignored. You have allowed him to literally eat away at all of the promises that you possess. You have listened as he has whispered these dark lies (about Me!) and it has taken a toll on you. But, my beloved, fret not! You have sought Me...called out for help and I am right here to help clear the air. What you need to always remember is that I have Promised that "no weapon formed against you will (ever) prosper."... that "I have come that you might have LIFE and have it to the full! This is the Truth and it will never fail to set you free! So, relax my honey. Drop all the ways you blew it and rejoice. In Me all things are new. That includes YOU!
!  

-Speak Lord...I'm listening.

+ Be still and know that I am God. I am your God...the One and only God of the universe Who oversees His vast creation and knows the number of hairs on your head. I neither slumber nor sleep. I am deeply aware of the most seemingly insignificant details of your life. The expression says, "The devil is in the details." Interesting expression, considering the fact that I am the Creator of the details! Perhaps you can interpret that phrase to mean; the devil can tie you up into knots in the details. He can use the little things to break down your resolve and get your focus completely off of the Big Picture (that would be Me!) This is why My perfect Son said: "One thing is needed." and " Seek first the Kingdom and everything else will be given to you." Details can clutter your mind and heart. They can be like a dust storm that swirls through a landscape, rendering it hidden. When the dust is flying, it takes all one's energy to be able to see what's right before your eyes. You have eyes, but you can't see. But when you know the Truth...the one Truth that opens blind eyes..confusion is dispelled and storms are stilled. When you understand that truly, only One Thing is needed, you are able to sit at the feet of your Master and King and be completely still. You trust...as you cast all your concerns on the Lover of your soul....that all is well. You have all you need. Peace stills the turmoil and Joy fills every moment...covering all the details with a calm expectancy that declares: "All is well." All IS well! So, no matter what is going on, choose to be still and know this Truth as the one focus of your mind and heart. Peace is yours. I give you My Peace, that your life may be full and overflowing with the Joy of My Presence. When you are still, you are able to know that I am God. This is the best detail of your life. 

-Lord, I want to fully live this day that is before me in Your presence. I want to live it through Your Power and Your Joy...which is my strength. 

+Joy to the World, the Lord has come! I have come for you! I have come to you. It is for perfect, exhilarating, Love-filled freedom that I have come.When you see your much-beloved Christmas lights...think of every tiny, shining light as a life rescued from the darkness. Be my little Christmas light. Be My Christmas song. Let your life be a Christmas Carol declaring Joy to the World. This was the Joy set before Me as I faced that first Christmas tree. This is what I purchased when I became the first and eternal Christmas gift. Daily unwrap your gift. Study the instructions...the Word. Give yourself away. Give Me away everywhere you go. I am the Gift that keeps on giving. I am transforming you. Rest in the sweetness of My Unfailing Love.I know everything you're going through and if you rest in Me...you can learn many lessons of Joy. Don't look at the past. Don't hold on to the things you think you can't live without. I can put windows in your soul with better views...more expansive and penetrating Light than you have now! Do not fear tomorrow. I've got that covered. Live today in the warmth of your Perfect Father's Love. That's ALL you need. The Holy Spirit will take care of getting you from here to there...from beginning to end. It's His job and He loves it! He loves to begin a good work in you and enjoys being faithful to complete it. So...in this season of frenetic racing around and the intensity of preparing to shed this beloved life and step into a new one...continue to seek to rest and to rejoice. Every minute of now can be lit from the light of eternity. You don't have to wait to die. "Pass through - pass through the gates. Prepare the way for the people. say to the ends of the earth, 'See, your Savior comes. See, His reward is with Him'." (Isaiah 62:10) This is who I want you to be...a living, Christ-bearing Christmas carol, singing Me with your whole being.  

-Lord, I need You. I need to feel close to You...to truly know You are in me and I am in You.

+ My love, you are completely unaware, as you go through your day, of the steady, constant breathing that sustains you from minute to minute. A good way to feel close to Me is to be more aware of this life-breath...breathed into you from your first moment of life and sustained for you continuously from that moment until now. Be conscious of your breathing and then think about Me. It's no accident that breathing gives you life. You pull in oxygen and it knows just what to do. It goes into your system...helps clear your blood of impurities and you breathe out those impurities to make room for more and more oxygen....more life.Your amazing Father designed this system* (and every other perfect system of your body). This gives you a tiny glimpse of His unmatched intelligence and love. You know, because I promised, that the Holy Spirit is in you...He is the gift of Life eternal...empowering you....filling you with Light and Wisdom....Guidance and Grace. Just as you are constantly replenished by the oxygen you mindlessly pull into your body, there's not a second that the Holy Spirit is not filling you with Me! It's a mystery beyond fathoming. 
So yes, My love, you are miraculously close to Me. You are filled with the answered prayer I prayed to the Father Who gave His All for you.  Try to be more conscious of your breathing....whispering My Name throughout the day as you breathe in and out. It will help you remember and experience just how close I am. Didn't I promise I would never leave you or forsake you? Believe it! It's true!

*I looked up how breathing works and was astonished at the intricacy and detail God created. See below:

When we breathe in, air enters our nose where dust and other particles are filtered out--the 1st line of defense. Here the air is warmed and moistened before  it travels down, past the throat, through  the windpipe or trachea. The trachea and  other air passages are lined with a sticky  mucus that traps germs and particles be- fore they enter our lungs-our 2nd line of defense. Special cells called cilia have  tiny waving hairs that push this mucus  up and out of our lungs along with all  the pollution it has trapped--our 3rd line  of defense. After the air flows down the  trachea, it passes into two large tubes  called bronchi that carry air into our  lungs and then into smaller and smaller  branches called bronchioles. The  bronchioles lead to tiny air sacs,  the alveoli, which transfer oxygen to  the blood and remove carbon dioxide  that makes the same return trip when  we breath out. Here, there is even a  4th line of defense, the alveolar  macrophages. These scavenger cells  eat foreign particles and bacteria that  would make us sick. All this is happening as we obliviously go through our days....amazing!

   


  

-Lord, You know me. You know my heart. You know how much I want to experience Your Presence from  moment to moment. I come before You now and ask You to inspire me by the power of the Holy spirit. Come, Lord Jesus. Live in me and let me know it!

+All around you is great turmoil. The world is vibrating with the sound of hatred...the sound of terror. Your friends are in terribly sad marriages. some are terribly sick. You are about to leave your beloved haven. Hatred,trauma and sadness swirl around you like thick smoke trying to blur your vision and suffocate you. Stop! Right this moment, whisper the Name above all Names! Let it reverberate throughout your inner being until that's the Only thing you know. This is the Door out of the darkness into the Light. This is sickness to healing...war to peace...hatred to love. This is the impossible Good News that declares in the midst of all the evil "GOD IS GOOD"! This is the Hope that demolishes hopelessness and fear. God IS good...every moment of every day of every year...forever and ever GOOD! How then does this immovable fact impact your life? This is the challenge. This is the crossroad. This is where you see before you Life or Death. No matter what things look like - always choose life, My love. Choose to have Hope. Choose to Believe. This is how you walk into the fulfillment of all the Promises of God...right here...right now...no matter what things look like....no matter what the unbelieving world declares. This is where you lay hold of the Kingdom of Heaven...aided on all sides by the mighty Power won for you on the cross...reinforced by the indomitable Joy of the High Holy Spirit, Who walks you triumphantly through each challenge you face and surrounded on all sides by angel armies who line your path to victory. Remember always: "In Me you live and breathe and have your being." Your inheritance has already been given freely to you from your eternally good Father. So Rejoice!

- Lord, my world is spinning with so many changes. Calm my spirit and help me only have eyes for You. Too many things and feelings are clamoring for my attention. I know intellectually that only One Thing is needed. Please get me from here to there, so that I many live each moment in the secret place...totally at peace...totally full of Your Joy. "In Your Presence Lord is fullness of Joy." I seek the fullness of Your Presence. I always want to remember the words of the song by Housefires:

"You're a good, good Father. It's Who You are. It's Who You are. It's Who you are. And I'm loved by You. It's who I am. It's who I am. It's who I am."

I want always to live out of this simple truth.

+My Goodness...My Faithfulness know no bounds. I'm never one thing one moment and another at another moment. I am steady. I am One. I am at the heart ...the core of everything you are. I know you so much better than you know yourself (or anyone else for that matter! This is always a critical thing to remember. You don't really know anyone's mind or heart.This is why it's so extremely important not to judge!) I don't want you judging yourself either! What I want is your child-like trust. When you cultivate Joy and Trust and Thanksgiving, you are insuring that you are not vulnerable to the winds and waves of each changing day. There is no change in this place of constancy. I never change. You are IN Me. And so the things that could buffet your mind and heart have been prohibited from gaining entry. This is True - A Mighty Fortress IS Your God! You've not really seen fortresses in your life, but you have seen them in movies. So, imagine a huge- impenetrable, walled-in fortress. This is Who I am to you. This is where you REST...unconcerned and unmoved as you live your life in Me.

And so, my dear one, know that indeed, you are My dear one. Think of all the ways this identity impacts your life. Daughters of royalty are well cared for. They are protected. Favor precedes their every move. You are Mine. You belong to Me. My Love keeps you safe and fills you with Peace. Light fills you. No matter where you go...darkness is dispelled. Living water bubbles out of you...you have no thirst - your needs are quenched. You live in Fullness...the satisfaction of the Kingdom. No weapon forged against you will ever prosper. No buffeting winds or raging storms of change can penetrate the massive, protective walls of My Love. You are IN ME. this thought...this Truth is what insures your Peace. Peace! Be still! I am your God.

+Rejoice with me, My beloved one! Look at this dazzling day as My gift to you. Yes..."The world is drenched in My affectionate satisfaction!" You, my precious girl, are meant to be drenched in the same way! As all the trees put on their BEST show...wildly throwing their colorful caution to the wind...painting bright murals against the bluest skies...know, deep in your spirit, that these beautiful signs of My Love are tiny specks compared to the Majesty and Glory of My Kingdom. I want you to know My Kingdom. I want you to appropriate My Kingdom within you! You can't fathom it, but through the great and wondrous gift of the Holiest Spirit within you, you have everything you will ever need to be "filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." This is why it is so appropriate that you live in continual thanks...that your heart shimmers with praise. This is how you shine My Presence everywhere you go. This is how everywhere you are can be holy ground...holy ground..the bright-colored landscape of My Love made visible. You can't experience a day like this exquisite day and not sense My Glory. That's how I want YOU to be! I want you to be My mirror too...letting Me love the world and bless the world through you. The best joy for Me...the best gift you can give Me is to be YOU in all your splendor! Everything you are is My design, so embrace who I have made you to be. There's no holding back with these outrageous trees. Learn from them the meekness of the Kingdom. This is a form of humility, even though it might look like these trees are showing off! Actually, they are! They are showing ME off and this delights the Father. The key is total abandonment to the God of all creation. He ordained the bright beauty of these autumn trees. Guess what? He ordained everything that shines about you too! So shine and enjoy the Kingdom of God within you. Embrace it! This is called Salvation...life from death...freedom from slavery. This, my honey, is the Good News. Live it full-out for the pleasure of your Father. Yes!

- Speak, Lord, I'm listening.

+ If you look, you will see that every moment of your life is a wilderness of sorts that I lead you to, where I speak tenderly and to your heart. My desire is to have full communion with you at all times. I know you better than you know yourself, so I come to you with all the Love of a Bridegroom. Can you believe that I yearn for you? Do you know what you mean to me? Every good gift I give is a gift of love (the owl singing into the breeze...the painted, ever-changing sky...the sunrise on the dancing pines as they catch the wind). I know the language of your spirit and I am ever singing love songs to prove My Love to you over and over again. What joy it is to Me that you delight in My gifts...that you unwrap the early morning with the expectation of a beloved child-friend-bride! I have secrets for you, My dear one, deep and beautiful things that you do not know. As you live your life moment by moment in the security of My love, expectation and hope surround you...praise mounts up with all creation. You hear my heart. We live together in the warmth of the Father's great and perfect Love. We are empowered as one by the incomprehensible Presence and creative Joy of the Holy Spirit, Who opens the way before us. This is how the plan was designed from the beginning of all time. This is the Joy that was set before me that helped Me say yes to the Father. Truly, all the promises you see in the Word are fully yours. All the promises are irrevocable. They are sure. They will not fail. My Father is LOVE...PERFECT LOVE. You are His own beloved one...purchased at the highest price so you could know the height and breadth, the width and depth of this love. It will take all of eternity to absorb it. And eternity is already now! That is why you can rejoice with all your heart and be eternally glad!

 "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows."      Psalm 23:5

+This, my love, is absolutely true. This is not figurative language...not analogy...but Truth. This is the covenant I purchased for you...that no matter what or who (thoughts or situations) are against you...I am FOR you...and this is why you are fed to satisfaction as your enemies are rendered powerless. See this in your mind and spirit. Even when you look for your enemies, you will not find them. The mystery and triumph is that they are present, but you are before them celebrating the fact that they have NO POWER, NO INFLUENCE in your life anymore! You see them, but not as you saw them before. Before, they intimidated you...shut you down...surrounded you with paralyzing lies. Now - the tables have been turned! The banquet table is set. You feast on Truth and Freedom and Love and Joy and your foes are helpless before you. This is the freedom that is your inheritance. It is irrevocable. It is forever. It applies to every situation...every moment of your life. You have been invited to the Banquet of the Lamb. It has already begun. You taste and see that God - your God and Father - your Redeemer and Lord lives. You know that His love is the banquet and that He is the sum and substance of all that is Good! Rejoice and come. Live in celebration and wonder as you enter into all that the Father has prepared for you. Praise Him and live your moments fully in His healing, empowering Love. Indeed, your cup overflows. Let it overflow on all who are in your life. This is how you carry out His plan on earth. Rejoice and love! Give. Give. Give!

 - Lord, I need Your Word in my heart. I so want to let all the clamoring voices that vie for my attention fade into silence.

+ I can silence all the noise in your head. I can push it into nothingness. My love, believe I am with you right now, when you don't feel it and don't think you can believe. You see...My Love is so vast and transforming...it covers over sin ( I never tell you to do something I myself don't do for you. ) Yes...My Love covers over all sin. This starts with you! Right now, a general sense of failure and disappointment in yourself is translating everything you feel and see in your mind's (blind) eye as loss, failure and a general sense of dis-ease. This has your attention. These are the voices that drown out My still small voice. Ah...but the power in My voice can silence any storm and render it calmed. Remember, my love, you belong to the Master of the Universe. I paid the price to set you FREE...to calm your storms .,..to silence all the noise that distracts you. I know that you don't have the power to be still...but just your turning to Me with hope in your heart is enough. I can help you be still. I can send the whirlwind away and leave you luxuriating in the deep peace of My Presence. I never want you to be living your life in interior turmoil. I've taken care of that. Discord and inner turmoil are the enemy's tools to keep you distracted and deaf to My assuring words. Be still My love. I will help you. Pay no heed to the clatter of a fallen, defeated foe. He wants you to feel like he does. He wants you to feel fallen and defeated too. Of course, you are not! Nothing could be further from the Truth...which is your Father's resounding "Yes"...that He wants to ring like a bell deep within you!
   So hear the  chimes ring, my love... the chimes that remind you deep in your heart that the risen Lord lives to redeem every moment of your life. He silences every storm. He calms every wave. You are overshadowed and empowered by Love Himself! Nothing can withstand the mighty force of this Love. Peace is the bell that rings throughout your entire being. My Peace I give you ...and the Holy Spirit helps you have the strength to receive it "that you may be filled with all the measure of all the fullness of God." Don't you feel better now? 

 - Lord - this day is before me. I want to live it in YOU. I don't know how to resist the busyness that seeks my attention. I want to rest in You...live in You...belong completely - moment to moment - to You. Show me how to be still and know that You are God.

+ Your friend, the owl, just started singing his plaintiff song into the day. I had him sing because I know that his song reminds you of Me. His chant, "Who...Who...Who" is a joyous song of praise to the One...the only One Who is worthy of all praise. I had your little friend sing because you, My love, have ears to hear. This makes Me glad. Of course, your beloved Spirit is the One Who gave you those ears to hear! We always work together to give the Father what He wants...and what He wants is You...your love...your attention...your heart of praise. What the enemy of your soul does not want you to know is that there is nothing you can do that can stop this stream of Love coming to you. He wants you to think this favor is dependent on your good behavior...your being worthy. If he can grab your focus off of your Perfect Lover and get you to focus on how you're doing, he can build a wall that makes your Papa seem aloof and withdrawn. He (the enemy) is such a liar and oh...he is so powerless! Everything about you is completely protected. That's because your mind and heart and spirit have been purchased. There is nothing that can separate you...nothing about you...that can prevent the flood of God's winsomeness and faithful care from sweeping over you. You are loved by Love Himself and this is...and always will be....the Greatest Truth of your life. You want to live in Me? My beloved, you already do! You are irretrievably MINE and nothing...nothing will EVER separate you from My protective, empowering arms of Love. I will give you ears to hear My Voice throughout this day and I will give you eyes to see the Father's delight. His smile envelops you and empowers you to be completely His throughout the minutes and hours of this one moment in time...this 1st day of September in the year of the Lord, where there is no time....only the eternal NOW! And so I say to you:

"Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in Him, for He shields him all day long and the one the Lord loves rests between His shoulders"
                                     (Deuteronomy 33:12 ~NIV)    
(You are) God's beloved: God's permanent residence. Encircled by God all day long, within whom God is at home."  (Deuteronomy 33:12 ~The Message)


   

- I'm so grateful for Who You are Lord. You are such a faithful God. You give a crown of beauty for ashes,the oil of gladness for mourning and a garment of praise instead of despair. Your love and faithfulness are unfailing.  Help me Lord to always view my life with expectancy...looking to see what You are doing right here, right now..

+ I love to turn things around. I love to take what was meant for evil and change it to good....water into wine...death into life...captivity into freedom...darkness into light. At every turn, when you view your life through the trusting eyes of faith, you see Who I am, shining through every moment. You might not even be able to see Me initially but you know...sure as the night succumbs to day...I am in the midst of wherever you are! I am always transforming...redeeming...healing. It is Who I am - the One Who speaks those things that are not into existence. When you look for My handiwork, you experience My Presence filtering through everything you do and are. My Love always goes before and behind you. Your faith gives me pleasure and I love to watch you experience the strength of my Joy. These are what transform the most mundane moments of your life into little pockets of Heaven. Your expectancy rises - your worries fade- your security and sense of total fulfillment guard you. You know without a shadow of turning (just like your Father) that All Is Well. I am yours and truly, nothing else can alter that truth. Your life expands...you take ground...your mountains disappear...you are in that wide, spacious place no matter what! You taste and see that you are cherished and that your seemingly insignificant life is replete with value. The God of the Universe came that you...the Bridegroom's bride...may have Life and have it to the Full! This is the covenant that will never change. This colors everything into Kingdom. This is why you can continually rejoice!  

 - Speak Lord of my heart....I'm listening.

 +My love, plunge into rejoicing. Do not pay any heed to how you are feeling or what you feel you have attained or whether you are pleasing to Me or not. Be reckless and forceful in your mind and heart in determining to believe in Me. The Holy Spirit is right with you...in you ...confirming your choice as you let not your heart be troubled. Step into thanksgiving as you walk through the moments of this day.  See it as a path...gold and brightly lit, that makes your day clear and purposeful. Laugh. Love. Choose My Joy which is your Strength. This alone is cause for rejoicing. Just as I faced the cross because of and by the Joy set before me...you can make this day shine in eternity. I have gone before you...opened the way to the Light and Laughter of My Glorious Father...you adoring Abba.  All these books you've been reading about Heaven should get you excited. I know they do, even though they reveal only the tiniest glimpse of the shimmering GLORY that awaits you. Let what I have done be enough for you. Trust that I know your undreamt dreams  - even the ones you can't imagine - and I keep you safe and content because you have learned to trust Me and wait for Me. So live this day in High Praise. Sense the power of the Spirit living ME IN YOU! This is a thought too deep for words, but as you rest in it...live out of it...rejoice because of it...this will truly be a day you enjoy. The Spirit sets you eternally now in Me. I set you eternal now in the Beauty - the Warmth - the Healing - the Hope - the Magnificence - the Tenderness - the Laughter - the Perfect Love of the Father. This is life to the full. This is My plan for you. Enjoy the Father's Love and let everything else go!!

+You have prayed for years to learn to love with My Love. I have had to pull down all your false images of love and show you all the ways you have misunderstood what true love (My kind of Love) looks like. Most of your life, you have sought heroes...people you could look up to and ...yes...worship. You only had eyes for their unique gifts and you resolutely choose not to let them be human. They were high on the pedestal of your heart and there they stayed as you loved your perfect image of who you created them to be. But you are older and wiser now, My love. One by one, I have knocked down the pedestals and each one has tumbled to the ground and your heart has broken each time, as one by one, your heroes let you down. It's so easy to see with the perspective of time, isn't it? Not one has been left standing. And here in this valley of dry bones (where you've mourned the loss of your Kathy-made idols) I say "prophesy to the breath and breathe into these slain... that they may live." What does this timeless prophecy mean? It means Resurrection! From these ashes and your tears you will finally have eyes to see that these heroes are all those that I died for....sinners with weaknesses just like you! These fallen heroes...each one...these are who you now will be able to love with true, eternal, God-empowered Love. And your love (like Mine) will bring life. You see, My love, you can never know how to really love until your eyes are opened to the flaws and failings and even sins of your heroes. "None is righteous...no not one!" So how is it possible to love? What is love if not ignoring flaws and sins? Here's the difference. Before, you chose to deny the truth. But now, you embrace the truth. Only the truth can set you free to truly love. A good example of how this feels is your husband, who loves you even though he knows intimately your every flaw and sin. Doesn't that make you feel truly loved? He's a good model and gift from your Father. I am the Perfect Model and by the gift of the Holy Spirit, I live in you and can love through you! This is the mystery that is your inheritance. You don't need to summon up love. You simply need to REST in MY LOVE and I will empower you to love truly and to love well. Now, rather
 than ignoring, you will cherish the weaknesses you see in others because that's what I do. It's why I came! Now you will have grace to give them grace as I do you! You will learn to love even the things you hate about yourself because these are what keep you running to Me! This is topsy turvy kind of thinking to the world,that loves the strong and the successful like you once did. Now your heart will melt as you see others struggle to get things right. Now, you will be able to love as your exquisite Father loves and it will not lead you to sadness and disappointment but to perfect JOY. When you love in and through the Love that binds Father Son and Spirit, you know the secret of salvation. You have been saved so that you can experience this wondrous Love. You are then healed and free enough to give this love to all you meet. This is how the Kingdom comes to earth...one redeemed...perfectly loved person at a time. So revel in how much you are loved, My beloved and let the Light of this Love shine on everyone that crosses your path. You know what true Love is....So LOVE!