Yesterday I pondered this verse and thought, what is the promise of the Spirit?  Then I thought, the promise is that we would receive the Holy Spirit…the promise of the Spirit, for isn’t that what Jesus promised before He ascended?

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. John 16:12-15 (NIV)

It’s the Holy Spirit who gives Life.  I like being alive; I don’t want to just live my life rehearsing what happened in the past or memorizing Scripture; I want to live Life.  So God rewarded me with the Holy Spirit; certainly the reward is to all who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).  Hey, there is nothing more to ask for because there is nothing more to want!  The promise of the Spirit—yeah!

Lord, you said, “see, I lay before you life and death, the blessing and the curse, therefore choose Life.”  It’s your Life that we want Lord, so be our Life, okay? Okay, so when the Spirit comes what did He come to do?

Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; John 16:7-9 (NIV) (Emphasis mine)

The Holy Spirit is here to reveal God “with us” in Jesus Christ so that we will believe in Him—in other words to reveal Jesus the Christ living in us through the Spirit, by faith.  Jesus, the actual vision of God; Yes!  Jesus, the revelation of God and of the Life we live now through Him.  Jesus is the place we ground ourselves when we are interested in living Life!  No longer do we even want to try and imagine what our lives could be like; instead we want to live Life and experience it on His terms.  Jesus is not some idea about God; He is the one who keeps us attentive to how God defines Life.  Satan likes to get us excited about thinking and acting for God to the point that we detach from relational intimacy and surrender.  Anyway, he gets us to substitute our godlike egos for the Holy Spirit and to act “for” God rather than “from” Him and thus earn Satan’s applause.  Jesus offers shape, energy and vision to our lives.  He is the vision of God.  Jesus is an actual person who lived at a datable time in a land that grew flowers, vegetables and weeds; Jesus who traveled cities that had mountains, trees, and wildlife, the likes of which are still on earth today, was a solid personality who drank the water, ate the fish and brought God out into the open where we can see Him.  We no longer have to guess what God is like.  Jesus, the incarnation of God is the one making God’s word “personal” to us.  He comforts, heals, forgives, loves and causes God to come alive within us.  By shaking our irrational thinking that we can know God apart from Him, He makes us realize that apart from Jesus, God is just another concept or idea that breaks down as quickly as our egos decide to shape Him into yet another concept or idea.  Jesus saves us from wasting our lives on illusions and cheap thrills.  He enables us to take God and ourselves seriously so that we know who He is and who we are in Him.  He keeps us in God’s love so that we live our lives in our own circles of influence, talking–crying—laughing with friends and family, praying with the grocery store clerk, reading stories to our children, planting flowers, cooking meals, hiring people, training teenagers how to manage their money, touching the sick, lifting a heavy load for our neighbor and surrendering to God right here, right now.  Jesus is the one who makes us know for sure that God “IS” and that His reward is the promise of the Spirit.

Lord Jesus, your Life is manifested and made real to us by the Holy Spirit—the one who makes us know that we know Christ IS our Life! And the more real Christ becomes in us as us, the more we see and know that we are like Him! You make us know that the life we used to live and call “life” was no life at all.  You open the eyes of our understanding.  We get it!  Only through Jesus Christ do we know Life as our very own life.  Thank you for quickening our mortal eyes, bones and flesh to see it, walk it out, and live it on earth today, right here, right now.

Jesus said, “”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. John 14:15 (NAB) So the first thing is “If you love me…”  It’s easy to obey if we love Him.  We don’t have to study obedience or try to conjure it up for if we love Him, we effortlessly obey. If we love Him obedience just IS.

The key to loving Him is in holding the vision of Him.

…and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. Mark 12:30 (ASV)

Abandoning our attention to Him, the value and amount of concern given to others comes easily. Then any person may state his or her request or opinion and we habitually ask, “Lord, what do you think?”  We desire nothing less than God’s opinion in every matter because we love Him, and of course we know that He is not separate from us.

…keep yourselves in the love of God  Jude 1:21 (ASV)

Is my ear so keen that I easily hear the whisper of the Spirit and know His direction for my life? Do I know that I know what Love wants in this instance or that? Do I understand that in being made one with Him I am His love in action?  It is mine to listen, for the Spirit seldom if ever shouts.  His is the still small voice speaking through my conscience (we are one in love) and my soul offers the response: “Lord, I am delighted to obey you in this matter.”  And with my response, viola!  Here—right here—He is!  Knowing that He is, I love Him passionately and I attentively keep ‘me’ in His love.  I am no longer seeking but never finding as is the case with so many inside and outside the church who struggle in the illusion of separation.

It’s in loving Him that we find Him, and in finding Him we know how He first loved us.  Here in loving Him we grasp the reward.  Him—the One for whom we lay down our lives. Never again do we struggle with the word obedience, for it is His promise effortlessly enjoyed by His keeping ‘through us’ the very first command.

The other night I had a dream that, at first, disturbed me very much.  I was stealing and stock piling meat and butter, and my next door neighbor intuitively knew “I” was doing it.  She worked for the meat plant and her suspicions were true, but it didn’t matter to me.  I insistently denied all accusations. (Sounds like a sinner to me).  Again I found another opportunity to steal more meat and butter, and again, she came pointedly looking me in the eye and saying, “You did it” and “I” know you did.”  I awakened very disturbed and prayed, “Lord, why am I even having a dream like this?”  When I fell back to sleep the dream continued.  Remorse hit; I felt so bad about lying that I decided to find my neighbor and confess my sin, even though it would mostly likely mean a jail sentence.

The difficulty I then endured to get her alone to make my confession was part of the angst in my dream.  When I wanted to confess, it seemed almost impossible to access the one necessary to do so.  I pursued and pursued and finally managed to get her alone, but yet not alone.  There was another woman by her side who I knew agreed with her suspicions, so I decided to confess to both of them.  (Two witnesses)  I confessed; “I’m wrong and you’re right.  I did it.  Do with me as you will.”  To my surprise the response of them both was grace, grace and more grace.  They forgave immediately and expressed amazing gladness at my confession.  “But,” my neighbor said, “You still need to pay for the meat and butter.”  “Gladly,” I replied, and headed for my car to retrieve my checkbook.  Arriving at my car I noticed a wad of crumpled white meat paper in the back seat—a wad of “evidence” of the crimes I had committed.  With meat blood and butter stains all over the paper it was my new most immediate concern, so instead of getting my checkbook I took the “evidence” so I could quickly dispose of it.  As I did so two (evil) men from the meat plant saw me trying to hide the evidence, and I intuitively knew they wanted to confiscate it and kill me.  I began to run as they chased.  (Don’t you just hate ‘running from the chase’ dreams?)  As I ran my feet began to lift off the ground and very soon I was flying.  Then I knew they couldn’t catch me, for they hadn’t enough Life in them to do so.  As I flew over plush and beautiful meadows God’s voice rose from within.  “Jaque, drop the evidence.”  “But” I argued back, “Lord, if I drop it, it will clutter the earth.”  Again the voice rose, “Jaque, you are completely forgiven; drop the evidence.”   I dropped it and watched as it disintegrated into thin air.  It was no more.  It was “as if” it had never existed.  I awakened with a tremendous feeling of exhilaration and freedom.

This dream is an example of how God preaches Good News in night seasons.  I who had sinned and confessed was completely forgiven “as if” I’d never sinned.  What good would it do to carry the evidence into my “high” life and allow others to accuse or threaten me with it?  When God forgives it is a complete and final work…if we but receive it that way.  No evil can catch or kill us once we’ve entered God’s kingdom, for here in His “Highlands” we rise above earthly, devilish and evil accusations. Yes, in the world but flying above it, we are not “of” it anymore.  What can man do to us? God is for us and has proven it in Christ’s atonement and forgiveness.  We are, however, responsible to pay for the meat and the butter, you know, things we use to sustain our bodies, and this is a good thing.  The fact that my checkbook was in the car is a sign that I didn’t “need” to steal the food but must have enjoyed sin for the moment just to see if I could get away with it.  Nobody gets away with sin; it may seem sweet for a moment but a vision of God causes us to take flight as nothing else can.  Well, I’m firmly planted now and headed for my checkbook!

“Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you’re there! If I go underground, you’re there! If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon, You’d find me in a minute— you’re already there waiting! Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I’m immersed in the light!” It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.”

Excerpt from Psalm 139 The Message

Jaque, darkness isn’t dark to Me because I don’t just dwell in light; I am the Light; I am consuming fire—the Creator of Light. I am God “Within but not enclosed, without but not excluded, above but not raised up, below but not depressed. I am wholly above presiding, wholly beneath sustaining, and wholly within filling.” (Hildebert of Lavardin)

Lord, how can I comprehend your being everywhere at all times? I am desperately dependant on you for every breath, thought and answer. I want to recognize you in the dark and in the light; I want to SEE You everywhere and feel You living within me. So if you are everywhere present, does your presence in hell make hell what it is?

Jaque, I am a consuming fire but dark souls’ make hell what it is. Fire has a different affect on dark hardened souls than it does on humble souls transformed by its light. If the noonday sun shines on rotting flesh the stench is worse because of the heat; right? Jasmine under the noonday sun smells like heaven, but putrid flesh like hell. The sun never changes, so how I am everywhere present depends upon that which I am shining.

Be assured Jaque, there is not one molecule of space from which I am absent. Realize then that My omnipresence and omniscience cause your faith to begin. Also realize that I am not imagined presence. I am everywhere present right now. Focus on Me until you mature to the place of no longer guessing about Me but knowing Me. Here I am filling you with Myself—equally present within and without all time and space.

Recently I’ve been digging for health answers, and after much exploration learned that I need to get some dentistry done.  I admit it; I didn’t expect to find the answer in dentistry, but that’s where God put my answer.  Well, I don’t “have to” know what I think I know or intercept God with “reason;” mine is only to accept the gem I found in this field. So off I go to another state to see a very special dentist.  Please keep me in your prayers–I’ll be back later to update you.

Gems to you,

Jaque

Every good gift and every perfect ( free, large, full) gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of all [that gives] light, in [the shining of] Whom there can be no variation [rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [as in an eclipse]. And it was of His own [free] will that He gave us birth [as sons] by [His] Word of Truth, so that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures [a sample of what He created to be consecrated to Himself]. James 1:17-18 (AMP)

Everything is God;  it’s all His Story Jaque, of My own will I have loved you from who I am. I can’t not love you, because I am love. Your ability to love (Me or anyone else truly) comes because of your receptivity to My love. If you didn’t respond I would still love you, but you wouldn’t know it. You would miss out, but I couldn’t let that happen, because I love you.

You know Me because I drew you and you responded. Would you think of Me as a loving God if I didn’t draw you to what is best for you, even if that happens to be Myself? I’m willing to bring you to Me the easiest way you will come. Does not My luring you, calling you, pressing you, and even using the threat of hell should you not respond demonstrate My love for you? If I didn’t do these things wouldn’t you think of Me as unloving? I’ll use any measure (according to who I am) to draw you to Myself. (All of God does all that God does)

Does that mean I’m forcing you to love Me? By no means. You have a choice. Many have resisted and taken the journey to hell. Still, I will that all would be saved, because I am love.

Father, I like who I am as a loved creature, and I don’t like who I was as an unloved creature. Even though you always loved me, I was loved without tangible knowledge of the truth. My head knew you loved me but my heart was far from you.

I never experienced your tangible, touchable presence until I let go of my preconceived ideas about your love and just let You love me. I see that even Christians living on the fringes of your love sense a hell that is far too close for comfort.

You want more for us. Thank you. Wanting me, You pursued me again and again. I was caught up trying to earn your love with religious good works and You used my husband (before his death) to pursue me. Through him you showered me with more love than I had ever experienced. I felt smothered sometimes and didn’t know how to respond, but I learned.

Now I can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch your love. Now I want more of You Lord. I will never quit wanting to experience You for who You are. Yes, I feel eternity creeping into me like leaven. I’ve tasted enough to realize that I am a first fruit of what You have consecrated for Yourself. Enjoy me Lord, for I am certainly going to keep enjoying You. Thank You, thank You, and thank You!

To journalize is to enter the prophetic with God. Hearing the voice of God is
the heritage of every disciple of Christ. Journalizing is a tool that connects the written word of God (the Bible) with the word that is written on your heart (Christ) in order to make Him a living reality to you. It takes the word and makes it applicable, teaching, comforting, correcting, and confirming in the middle of life’s situations.

That God is good is taught or implied on every page of the bible and must be received as an article of faith as impregnable as the throne of God. It is the foundation stone of all sound thought about God and is necessary to moral sanity. To allow that God could be other than good is to deny the validity of all thought and end in the negation of every moral judgment. If God is not good, then there can be no distinction between kindness and cruelty, and heaven can be hell and hell heaven.

A.W. Tozer – Knowledge of the Holy

As I reread this journal I can’t help but think of the following verse:

He who is holy will see that you are holy; but to the man whose way is not straight you will be a hard judge.”

2 Samuel 22:27 (BBE)

The verses I journalized from were Psalm 145:9,14-16, Job 38:25-27, 39-41, Matthew 5:45.

Jaque, all expectation is predicated upon My goodness—the ground of all anticipation. I am good, and I do not force My attention upon you. It’s easy to have you in My thoughts at all times, but if you would know Me you need to direct your focus towards goodness. Also, if you would be welcomed as a Prodigal, you must come as the Prodigal came.

Your attitudes determine how you experience My reception of you. If you expect goodness you will soon see that I am not slow to give it. But if you expect harshness you will find Me cold and aloof. Your heart determines how you know Me. To the humble heart I am good. In My goodness I show that to live well and be happy means expecting Me in all goodness and favor. It means carrying an uplifting attitude toward Me.

My word shows how good I am, even though your attitude can either reject or receive it. You choose how to know Me Jaque. If you choose Life you choose Me in goodness but if you choose death you choose dark moods and negative outcomes. Yes, because I am good you can move away from negative states.

Choice Jaque. As to how you will know Me is yours to make. This is My gift to you. Choice; the rudder of your ship. Where will your soul sail today? Into seas of goodness or onto seas of tumult? Choose this day how you will serve your Master. Let goodness open the eyes of your heart so you can serve in the light of My goodness. Then nothing but “goodness” will be your experience—no matter what.

Father, I wholly devote my heart and mind to you. Thank you for choosing me to know goodness and to be utterly delighted by it. I expect you to present Yourself as awesomely good. My attitude toward You is elevated above the clouds. Thank you, thank you, and thank you forevermore. Amen.

“Paul puts his finger on the thing that dims the spiritual life more than any other: timidity.  If I had one gift to give myself and others, I would unhesitatingly give courage.  For more people grow dim and need rekindling of the divine gift through lack of courage than through any other thing.  First of all, the courage to take from God what He offers.  That is the supreme courage: to pay the price and take the gift.  That takes courage, for it shifts the whole basis of life from self-sufficiency to God-sufficiency.  Then the next step: the courage to face up to the world with this appropriated gift of God and to believe that this and this alone will meet every need–and to say so, even when men are pathetically trying unworkable ways.”

“To pay the price and take the gift.”  To me that means to swallow my pride and take the gift.”

In the Character of God course one of the attributes we study is God’s goodness.  I believe we are afraid to believe God is as good as He is.  Yes, it takes courage to believe in His goodness.  If we used the faith and courage He gives to believe, I think we would see a lot more miracles occurring in our daily lives and others watching the church with gaping mouths…and being drawn to Jesus.

“We never receive a complete knowledge through mere research, with our minds.  Knowledge of God comes through our hearts—the windows of our souls.”

That immediately reminded me of Malachi Chapter 3, where God promises, see “if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Mal 3:10 (AMP)

The windows of heaven—the windows of our souls—blessings the size of which we don’t have room enough to receive.  The mind can’t comprehend it, but the heart can.  Oswald goes on, “During the Boxer uprising in China, a lady I knew learned of the murder of her husband and two of her children.  Their bodies were found beheaded and mutilated.  After this astounding catastrophe she testified:  “I could not pray, have faith, or lay hold of God.  But my heart knew Him and no matter how this tragedy seemed to contradict so many things, I rejoiced in Him.”

Wow.  After my husband Chuck passed away I too experienced what it meant to rejoice in God without prayer, faith or feeling of God. I saw that my faith wasn’t in my faith, my hope wasn’t in my hope, nor was my confidence in my confidence.  Everything I had was in God.  I knew Him by heart and rejoiced.

Even now blessings are poured out in abundance and beyond any mental ability to fathom how my glorious God accomplishes this. But the one thing I know by heart: God is God.  Not joy.  Not peace.  Just God.