Power Verse

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and He shall direct thy paths.

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Morning Devotion

Open Heavens of Wednesday 9th October 2013.

WORK-IN-PROGRESS

Memorise: For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. Mark 4:28

Read: Mark 4:26-29
And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; Mark 4:26

And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. Mark 4:27

For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. Mark 4:28

But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. Mark 4:29

Bible in one year: Psalm 64-66
Message
God wants your hope to rise. He wants you to rise up. You can rise by being pushed up, pulled up or carried up. This season, you shall rise up. In 1 Kings18:41-45, we notice that while the fist-like cloud that appeared in answer to the prayer of Elijah was rising, it was also spreading. Verse 45 of the scripture says,
“And it came to pass in the mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel.”
This simply, tells us that God does certain things in stages. The Gospel of Jesus Christ that would spread to all part of the earth started one day in Israel through the Saviour Himself. A business that would cover the world may start small in a hidden location.

This speaks of progressive increases. Sometimes, some blessings are received bit by bit progressively, yet they are from God. The lame man started rising, then by walking, then leaping and praising God at the beautiful gate (Acts 3:1-11). Even naturally, God designed trees to grow progressively.
“For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.”
Mark 4:28
God takes some people from nothing to being great and allows that greatness to spread and to keep on rising until the fellow becomes very great and is envied by nation. There are some people who are too impatient with God. When He starts a miracle, they sense it. In the process of Him moving it from one stage to another, they become impatient and start to complain that their miracles are hanging or incomplete. In the process, many have bungled their miracle. Be wise! Has the Lord started something good in your life or circumstance? Thank Him. You are a work-in-progress in His hands. You may not get the clear picture until He either shows it to you or when you meet Him on the other side of eternity. Know that the One who has begun a good work will surely complete it. He will perfect every good thing that pertains to you. Is there any unfinished business in your life? Engage thanksgiving from today.

KEY POINT
The gap between where you are now and where you are going can be filled with thanksgiving

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Morning Devotion

Unshakable Confidence

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.”
(Hebrews 10:35, NIV)

TODAY’S WORD from Joel and Victoria

When God places a promise in your heart, you have to come to the place where you believe it’s going to happen so strongly that nothing can talk you out of it. It may seem impossible. All the circumstances may tell you that it’s not going to happen, but deep down you have to have this confidence, this knowing, that God is still on the throne. He is bigger than any obstacle. He already has a way, and at the exact time, what He promised will come to pass. You have this unshakeable confidence. You know that God is fighting your battles, arranging things in your favor, making a way even when you don’t see a way.

Instead of being discouraged, you get up in the morning thanking God that the answer is on the way. Instead of talking about how big the problem is, you go through the day talking about how big your God is. Your mind is set in one direction: victory, favor, healing, restoration. It may be taking a long time, but God didn’t bring you this far to leave you. You’ve seen Him do it in the past, and you know He will do it again in the future. You are fully persuaded because when you know your God, you have unshakeable confidence!
A PRAYER FOR TODAY
Father, today I profess that my hope and confidence is in You! I choose to believe Your Word which says You are faithful and Your Word is forever settled in heaven. Show me Your love as I keep my heart and mind stayed on You in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Proverbs 23:7 and Our Emotions

Have you ever wondered how to purge yourself of a particular negative emotion that keeps repeating itself in your life? It’s not as hard as it may seem. If you are currently experiencing negative emotions in your life, this post may be particularly beneficial to you.

The first thing that you need to realize is that you are not your emotions. This may seem obvious when you think about it, but most of the time we take this for granted. You may feel a certain way in a certain situation and subconsciously you identify with it. That’s why people sometimes think, “I’m a depressed person.” Or, “I’m an angry person.”

Most of the time the truth is that they subconsciously believe they are a depressed or angry person which continually reinforces itself in certain situations. But do they have to continue being that way? The Bible gives us a pretty straightforward answer that is quite encouraging.

Proverbs 23:7 states that whatever a person thinks in his or her heart, so is he/she. This means there is a tremendous opportunity to experience positive emotions. The Biblical writer could make such a statement because he realized that his true self, the eternal aspect, is the power that gives rise to thoughts and emotions. This means that the true self can give rise to different thoughts and emotions, and whatever a person chooses to think, they become.

There is something that should be immediately obvious to us then: we are certainly not at the mercy of external events and the emotions they sometimes cause. We are magnificent beings with the power to express more positive emotions even in the midst of a seemingly unhappy circumstance.

But Doesn’t Time Heal Anyway?

You have heard the saying, “time heals.” If so, can’t we just wait it out? This is only partly true, and it’s not a conscious strategy. The negative emotion you might feel over a particular event, like a bad break-up with a partner for example, does seem to naturally dissipate in time. But that particular feeling is still buried in the subconscious somewhere and certain events can trigger it again. It hasn’t really been healed; your conscious attention just hasn’t been placed on it in between the circumstances that cause it to manifest. The same emotion may even rear its ugly head in a totally different type of situation that you can’t make any kind of conscious connection with. In other words, thinking time will heal you is only a temporary fix; you’re still going to be at the mercy of a particular pattern of emotion in the long run. Isn’t this the very opposite of the idea that time eventually heals everything?

I remember a person that I became quite close to when I was younger. We spent every weekend together. Often we went to the beach, went on walks, or just hung out around the house. I was very happy with her and enjoyed her company immensely. After a few months I told this person how I felt about her. She reciprocated and I believed we were both on the same page. But then I went out of town for a month over the summer and when I came back she had had a relationship with someone else. I had been downgraded from a relationship partner to casual friend just like that. As you can imagine, I was in shock. The entire time I was away I was looking forward to returning and picking back up where we left off. We had communicated during my time away, and I thought for sure we had something good going. To make a long story short, I became very hurt by the experience. But that wasn’t the particularly damaging part. Most of us have had a similar type experience. But the emotion that initially arose from such an experience became such a permanent part of who I believed I was that it carried over into my next relationship. It then carried over into the relationship I had with the woman who would eventually become my wife. I was very distrustful and it was a long time before I could tell the wonderful girl I loved how I really felt about her. This confused her and it definitely started us off on the wrong foot. Looking back now, I can see how much damage that did to the early phases of our relationship and marriage. So no, time doesn’t really heal. It just allows certain emotions to stay dormant awhile.

Becoming Conscious of Your Emotions.

I am going to propose a better solution: allow consciousness to transmute a negative emotion into a positive one. How do you do this?

The best way is to simply acknowledge the emotion when it arises. Hold it there. Meditate on it. Observe it. Just observe it. Don’t let a mental commentary begin running. The minute you let a mental commentary run you have identified with it. At that moment you are it. You have taken the eternal power that you are, consciousness, and identified that power with an emotion that does not uplift you. Remember, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he! (Proverbs 23:7).

Of course that is not what you want. But consciousness is impartial. It’s powerful, yes, but impartial. It becomes what you allow yourself to experience. This is part of what being an unconscious human being is.

Make sure you do not meditate on the situation that made the negative emotion manifest in the first place. This is what you are naturally tempted to do. But that is a mistake. That’s part of the running mental commentary and it only reinforces that emotion becoming more established in your personality.

Just let it be. Meditate on the feeling itself. Understand and acknowledge that you are not that emotion. It’s just a temporary experience. As you do this, the power of consciousness will begin to dissolve it. Its vibrational frequency will begin to change. Remember, just observe. No judging. No thinking. If you haven’t developed the ability of concentration power yet in meditation, (like I talked about in a recent series HERE), then I suggest you begin with this first. It won’t effectively deal with the negative emotion you might be having now, but it will allow you to later. We all have to begin somewhere.

Why does this work, anyway?

Consciousness itself is naturally at peace. Higher emotions, those of a higher vibrational frequency, are inherent in consciousness. When you shed the light of consciousness on a negative emotion, it must begin to change. This can’t be explained scientifically very well. Consciousness just is, and it is the beginning and end of everything.

For those of you that like analogies, I’ll provide a simple one:

Picture holding a magnifying glass on a hot sunny day over a dried-out dead leaf. The natural sunlight is your consciousness. The magnifying glass is the meditation. The dried up leaf is your negative emotion. As you hold the magnifying glass over the leaf, the sun’s light is concentrated into a beam that chemically changes the leaf. Without the concentrated sunlight the leaf remains. It would take quite a long time for it to break down naturally. But with enough concentrated sunlight that leaf must change. In the same way, when you observe your negative emotion, consciousness is turned on to that emotion and its frequency must change.

When you notice that the negative emotion is losing its power over you, it’s time to replace it with something positive. You are what you think. So think on something positive.

This process isn’t an instant fix, but it works. Let me know how it turns out for you should you decide to try it.

In the next post we’ll get a little more philosophical and discuss the true meaning for the symbol of Noah’s Ark. Hint: it’s not really a boat!

Blessings!




Source: Spirit of the Scripture

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Greater meaning of Biblical Adultery

Have you ever wondered if there is a greater meaning of adultery in the Bible than what the church preaches? What if I told you it isn’t what you think it is?

The Word Web dictionary states adultery as meaning:

Extramarital sex that willfully and maliciously interferes with marriage relations.

The authors of ancient scripture used adultery to illustrate a much broader sin than the definition you see above. In fact, the definition you see above didn’t really have anything to do with its true meaning in scripture. I’ll give you some pretty strong evidence to support my claims.

In Mark chapter 10:11-12, Jesus states:

“…whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, commits adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and marry another, she commits adultery.”

Is Jesus really saying no one can ever get remarried? There are a lot of people in this world that deny any hopes of finding eventual happiness with another spouse because of Jesus’ words. Taken literally, they’d have the right to be cautious because Jesus really does seem to be saying that once you’ve been married, that’s it! You don’t get a second chance.

In another scripture Jesus states that the only grounds for divorce is when the other partner commits fornication. But something seems wrong here. What about an abusive husband or wife? Wouldn’t that be grounds for a divorce, Jesus? What about a spouse that’s addicted to drugs and alcohol, or treats their own children horribly? Did Jesus really expect someone to put up with this kind of behavior from a spouse their entire lives? Of course not. Jesus would have wanted a happy and healthy marriage, not one that makes you feel stuck in a prison!

Let me give you another example of adultery in the Bible that can’t be restricted to meaning an extramarital relationship. In John 8:3-11 the Pharisees brought an adulterous woman to Jesus to see what he would say. Verse four states:

“They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.”

That scripture states the women was caught red-handed! According to the law, this women would have to be stoned. But Jesus tells them that whoever among them is without sin should cast the first stone. Being guilty in their conscience, all of the Pharisees left the woman and Jesus alone. Jesus then tells her:

“…Woman, where are your accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, no man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (John 8:10-11).

There are many problems with this scene. First of all the law stated that the man the women cheated with also had to be stoned, but the Pharisees never even involved him. This has always puzzled scholars. That’s our first clue that something’s amiss. Second of all Jesus would have had to obey the law and allowed this woman to be stoned. Thirdly, did Jesus have any compassion for the husband of this women that was cheated on? It’s almost as if Jesus didn’t think it was a big deal as long as the woman didn’t go out and do it again. That’d be like me realizing that my next door neighbor’s wife was having an affair on him. I find out and then tell her, oh, everything will be fine as long as you stop it. But what about my neighbor? Would everything really be okay for him? There’d be a lot of emotional baggage that would have to be dealt before everything would be okay.

These are not some petty claims I am bringing to the table. They are serious issues that can’t be explained away. So what gives?

The answer is simple: Biblical adultery is not a physical issue, it’s a spiritual one.

Biblical adultery is about forsaking the higher life for the lower one. It is a symbol for forsaking higher conscious living in order to be yoked with your desire nature and the gratification of the senses. It is about denying your soul’s evolution. What greater sin could there be, because once you forsake higher consciousness for the lower desire nature, that’s it! You have lost that precious moment in this life forever.

Adultery is a perfect symbol for this greater meaning because our wills are either joined to our higher or lower natures. It’s like a marriage. And you’re either faithful to one of the most important spiritual laws of the cosmos, the soul’s evolution, or you’ve cheated on it and you’re sleeping around with your desire nature and the immediate satisfaction of your senses.

Fortunately, the soul’s evolution cannot be denied in the end. We go round and round the mountain until we eventually advance. It may take a few dozen or even hundreds of lifetimes, but we eventually learn our lessons.

Genesis states that when a man marries a women the two shall be “one flesh.” This one flesh is a symbol for the divine marriage of the higher and lower self. In order for this to be accomplished, we must stay faithful to the spiritual path.

Now we can understand why Jesus doesn’t have to condemn the woman caught in the very act of adultery. The entire story was a metaphor for all our spiritual lives. Jesus and God aren’t sitting up in heaven right now waiting to punish us if we live to gratify the senses. The very moment we do it betrays us and we reap the consequences within our own consciousness. Understood in this light allows us to see that Jesus didn’t need to condemn the woman or follow any law that would bid him to do so. He was able to allow all present (the Pharisees) to realize their own conscious setbacks. We should all do the same.

All this information also sheds a little more light on Jesus’ words when he states:

“…whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her commits adultery with her already in heart” (Matt. 5:28).

It is the heart we must guard against adultery. The woman we lust after in the scripture above of course represents our desire nature. When we give into it, spiritual adultery has been committed and we have violated the spiritual law of God and the cosmos.

Closing thoughts

We are all guilty of not following the spiritual path. We are all guilty for jumping in bed with our desire natures from time to time. At least I am. And I realize that that moment in time has been lost to me when it happens. I don’t feel guilty, because we can’t take it back. But let it be a reminder to us to look forward to the higher calling again.

I also hope this post liberates any Christian who thinks that they are not able to remarry and enjoy an intimate relationship with someone again. Jesus never meant anything of the sort. If you have been in this predicament, you are certainly free to marry again. God would be happy if you’re happy.

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Power Verse

Proverbs 18:24
A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly:
and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

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Morning Devotion

Take Hold of Your Dream

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses”
(1 Timothy 6:12, NIV)

TODAY’S WORD from Joel and Victoria

One of the keys to seeing your dreams come to pass is to see them come to pass in your mind’s eye first. One of the greatest baseball players of our time told me that all through the day he sees himself hitting the ball. Before he gets up to the plate, he visualizes getting on base. He has this picture of himself succeeding. It’s gotten deep down on the inside, and now he’s moving toward it.

Of course, it takes more than just visualization to see our dreams come to pass. It takes obedience; it takes prayer, and it has to be a part of God’s plan for our lives. But what I’m saying is that if you’ll keep the right pictures in your imagination, seeing yourself rising higher, seeing yourself healthy and whole, that’s going to get deep down on the inside and set the course for your life. When your mind is in agreement with God’s Word, it will help guide you toward your destiny. You will have a supernatural strength and power to see those dreams and desires come to pass in your life!

A PRAYER FOR TODAY
Heavenly Father, today I submit my dreams, desires and thoughts to You. Use my imagination for Your purposes. Help me to see the dreams You’ve placed within me coming to pass. Help me to see myself rising higher in every area and bring You glory in everything I do in Jesus’ name. Amen.
— Joel & Victoria Osteen

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