Have You Never Heard?

Have You Never Heard?

Have you never heard?

Have you never understood?

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth.

He never grows weak or weary.

No one can measure the depths of his understanding.

He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.

Even youths will become weak and tired,

And young men will fall in exhaustion.

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.

They will soar high on wings like eagles.

They will run and not grow weary.

They will walk and not faint.

 

 I have called you back from the ends of the earth, saying,

“You are my servant. I have chosen you and will not throw you away.

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.

Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you.

I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

          ( Isaiah 40:28-31; 41:9-10 [NLT]

 

Lenten Blessings

I wanted to take this opportunity to offer my Lenten blessings to those of you who keep this tradition of the Christian faith. I have long been a member of the United Methodist Church, so our denomination follows the church seasons and for this I am very grateful. I find it a most rewarding spiritual practice.

As for myself, this year, after much prayer and reflection, I am giving up something intangible for Lent, but something that often has very tangible conseqences. For the next 40 days I am making a very special effort to give up all forms of negative thinking. In a very real sense, I am attempting to go on a 40 day fast of negative thoughts.

Granted, I try to avoid negative thinking throughout the year, but I am making it a highest priority during Lent. We shall see how it goes.

Such an adventure is an exercise in the renewal of the mind. Not too long ago, Pastor Gregory Dickow from Chicago led a similar fast from negative thinking. He spoke of this, and still does, on his television ministry, which I think is entitled, Change Your Life. He reported many positive results from the 40 fast from negativity.

My prayer is that each and every one of you have a blessed Lenten season and that the true spirit of the season can be discerned and practiced.

Mick

 

Principles of Manifestation: Desire and Dedication

Mick Turner

As we begin to apply the spiritual principles of manifestation to our lives things can get a bit confusing. We often wonder whether or not we are “doing it right” or if we are following proper procedures. Experience has taught me that the best thing to do after developing a thorough understanding of the principles involved in positive or affirmative prayer, is to keep things as simple as possible. With this in mind, let’s explore two important issues that come in to play right from the start: desire and dedication.

 

Desire

 

Let’s begin by looking at desire, because all good things, whether or not they are brought to fruition, begin in the realm of desire. It is desire that gives rise to our dreams in life and it is desire that provides the fuel for performing the positive activities that will allow us to bring those dreams into reality. In this sense, desire provides positive motivation. When we truly desire something with our whole heart we set in motion the powers of the mind to achieve that which we desire. If we have as a goal to deepen our walk of faith and manifest some degree of success in living the genuine Christian life then we must recognize that this positive goal began as a desire. Further, the power of a strong desire, when properly applied, helps insure our success. Christian Larson tells us:

 

…it is readily understood why the wish, if strong, positive, determined and continuous, will tend to produce the thing wished for…It is not occasional desire, or half-hearted desire that gets the thing desired. It is persistent desire; persistent desire not only desires continually, but with all the power of life and mind and soul. The force of a half-alive desire, when acting upon a certain faculty (the subconscious mind) cannot cause that faculty to become fully alive….it is true that the desires of most people are neither continuous nor very deep. They are shallow, occasional, wishes without enough power to stir to action a single atom.

 

Let’s look more closely at what Larson is trying to tell us when we apply these principles to the process of spiritual formation. If you want to develop spiritually you must first possess the desire to do so. Lack of desire is why so many Christians fail. They just don’t have any desire to improve. Larson goes on to say that our desire must be strong, positive, determined, and continuous. He further states that it is persistent desire that brings about results. When applied to our spiritual formation it means specifically that we must have:

 

Strong Desire:       From the outset of our desire to improve must be strong and unwavering.

 

Positive Desire:    We must always keep in the forefront of our minds the concept of positive thinking and positive faith in ourselves and especially in God. We should always remind ourselves that part of our purpose in life is to grow and develop, in short, to become all that we can be.

 

 

 

 

Determined-

Desire:                      Our desire must be paired with a willful determination to make every effort to see it through to completion.

 

Continuous-

Desire:                      Continuous desire means ongoing desire. If we are to be successful our desire cannot be here today and gone tomorrow. Although there may be days when we feel like our energy is low and our desire is at low ebb, we must maintain the power to resurrect our dream and keep it ever before us. This is the surest way to success and fulfillment.

 

In addition to these four vital characteristics of positive desire, Larson goes on to

Tell us that an “occasional, half-hearted desire” will avail us nothing. It is easy to see, based on Larson words, why so many apathetic, ambivalent, and lethargic Christians fall short of their goals. Their desire is occasional and half-hearted. Ambivalent and lethargic Christians have the dream but not the drive. Apathetic Christians don’t even have the dream.

 

What is the opposite of occasional, half-hearted desire? A desire that is continuous and full-hearted. It means that we give our all, all the time, to deepen your walk of faith and, more importantly, deepen you relationship with Christ.  Application of this type of desire with diligence will insure our success.

 

 

Dedication

 

 

The second aspect of our subject to consider is the concept of dedication. Dedication is fundamental to any successful endeavor in life, including spiritual development. Dedication is defined as the act of “devoting oneself wholly and earnestly to a specific goal or purpose”. If we are to improve our application of Christian principles of living we must dedicate ourselves to that specific aim.

 

Dedication is an act of the mind. We begin with a strong desire to improve our relationship with the Lord. We follow this by firmly dedicating ourselves to making this goal a reality in our lives. We can best do this by the use of affirmations. Affirmations are powerful, positive statements that we make to ourselves over and over again, thereby deeply impressing them into our subconscious mind. According to the discoveries of Cognitive and Transpersonal Psychology, it is those things that we deeply plant in our subconscious minds that actualize into physical reality in our lives. So, if our goal is to become closer to God, we begin by dedicating ourselves to the process. We do this not only in the conscious mind, but also in the subconscious.

 

           Look at the process like this. Suppose a farmer wants to grow corn. He begins by preparing the field, then he carefully plants the seeds in the fertile ground, then waters and cares for the field so that, at harvest time, his yield of corn will be bountiful. Your conscious desire to deepen your Christian walk is the farmer. The affirmations are the seeds, and the subconscious mind is the field. Based on your desire, you use your conscious mind (the farmer), to plant the seeds (affirmations) into the fertile field (subconscious mind). You then water and nurture the field through constant repetition of your affirmations. Try the following: Each morning before you get out of bed, relax your breathing and repeat silently to yourself the following statement:

 

Every day, in every way,

I am getting closer and closer

To Christ

 

During the day, at lunch- time for example, repeat this statement over and over to yourself. Each time that you repeat the statement you are not only planting more seeds, but you are also watering and nurturing the field of your subconscious mind. This is the way to insure success. It may sound simplistic and perhaps it is. That’s the beauty of positive thinking. It is simple! But in spite of its simplicity, it is a proven method of personal and spiritual transformation that has worked miracles in countless lives. Try it and see.

 

The keys to making successful affirmations are: repetition, faith, and expectancy. We need to repeat the affirmation many times and have faith in the process, a living expectancy that if we continue, we will surely succeed. The key again is repetition. Do it over and over again. In this way, your subconscious mind will be saturated with positive thoughts of dedication.

 

 Keep It Simple!

This procedure that has also come to be known as affirmative prayer is a fairly straight forward process but, as with many things, we humans have a marked tendency to complicate it. I know this from past experience because I have been as guilty of exhibiting this “genius for complexity” as anyone – probably more than most. It was with some degree of difficulty that I eventually learned that with most things it is best to keep it simple. With this truth in mind, let’s see if we can simplify the basics of affirmative prayer by stating the following:

When we use our affirmative thinking, put into the containers which we call words,  and animate it speaking with living faith, we are able to manifest that which we desire, providing of course, that it is in alignment with God’s will.

There is really no need to mystify the process any more than that. Granted, the underlying laws and cosmic principles associated with affirmative prayer can seem a bit mysterious, but in actuality, even the laws are not all that complicated.

It is essential that we understand that this process begins with our thinking and moves forward from there. Everything that we see began somewhere as someone’s thought. Creation in all its glory began as God’s thought and came into being at God’s command, using His words. He literally called things into existence from the world of the unseen, into the world of the seen. On a smaller scale, this is how we manifest reality as well. Our thoughts begin the process and or faith-filled words empower and animate the process that results in the creation of the thing desire.

Two important factors are also involved in the process of bringing our desired outcome down out of the spirit world and into concrete manifestation. These are emotion and intention. Centuries of working with these principles has revealed that the more deeply you feel about your desired goal, the more readily it manifests in physical reality. I have found that this is precisely where imagination comes into play. When we clearly visualize what it is we desire we arouse our feeling nature, which is a natural part of our soul. We facilitate this by focusing not only on repetition of our positive prayer, but we also form a clear, concise image of the desired outcome and bring our attention to bear on that outcome. We allow the feelings that arise to become magnified and these feelings, along with our thought, image, and faith-filled words form a powerful magnetic force that will pull our desired outcome out of the spirit world, where it already exists, down into physical reality.

Intention is perhaps the most important component of affirmative prayer. Your intention is what gathers and focuses your cognitive energy in a specific direction. It is for this precise reason that your intention must be constructed carefully and spoken clearly. This is not some sort of cosmic, New Age mumbo jumbo, but instead, is a fundamental principle of positive cognition. Your words of intention accomplish several vital functions in the process of affirmative prayer. First, speaking your intention gives direction to your energy and gives firm direction to your prayer. Second, your intention lets your subconscious mind know exactly what it wants to bring down from the spirit realm and why. And finally, your spoken words contain the power necessary to animate the unfolding of the process of affirmative prayer. As stated before, your words, especially when joined to a vital foundation of faith, serve as a magnet to attract the very thing you desire.

So keep these two aspects of affirmative prayer before you at all times. Positive emotion amplifies the power of your prayer and positive intention supplies even more punch to the process. Without these two vital aspects of prayer, you may find your prayers unfocused, impotent, and ineffective.

Here at LifeBrook we conduct a training program entitled, “Conscious Cognition,” which is basically the capacity to be acutely aware of what we are thinking on a consistent basis. It has as its goal the honing of our ability to recognize negative thoughts the moment they arise and take those thoughts captive. Rather than climbing aboard our negative “train of thought,” we never allow it to leave the station. Instead, through the development of our capacity for conscious cognition, we replace these negative thoughts with positive ones. At first this process will seem quite cumbersome and highly unnatural. This is to be expected because we have been thinking in unproductive ways for many years. It takes time to delete this negative process from our memory banks and reprogram our minds to think along positive avenues. Persistence and patience are the keys. Keep at it and you will eventually find that you are responding to life in a healthier, more optimistic manner.

Another key principle when using affirmative prayer can be expressed this way: use frequent repetition in present tense. Your patterns of negative thinking and behaving were not formed overnight. Instead, these unhealthy thoughts were repeated over and over again until they were firmly planted in your subconscious mind. Once that happened, these damaging thought patterns seemed to have developed a life of their own. This same principle of repetition, however, can also be utilized to your benefit. First, understand that positive thoughts are more powerful than negative thoughts. Formal research and well as the experience of countless pilgrims who have used these methods of cognitive reprogramming have confirmed the fact that one positive thought can counteract many negative ones, provided the positive thought is constructed in the present tense and is repeated many times.

The principles we have discussed here are basic but essential to the process of creating and using affirmative prayers. As stated at the outset, these principles are not overly complicated, unless of course we choose to make them so. My suggestion is that you study the relevant literature available on affirmative prayer, positive thinking, positive imaging, and the Law of Attraction. By doing so you can deepen your understanding of what is going on when you utilize affirmative prayer as a part of your spiritual path. However, don’t let your studies lead you into any unnecessary confusion or complexity. Above all:

 

Keep it simple!

(c) L.D. Turner 2009/All Rights Reserved

 

The Seven Mirrors of Sacred Living

Mick Turner

As many of you know, Sacred Mind Ministries is the training component of LifeBrook and recently Sacred Mind has been conducting several two-day workshops using the curriculum entitled, “The Seven Mirrors of Sacred Living.” Below is a brief description of each mirror and what is covered in the work associated with each one. It is important to understand that we used the term “mirror” for a reason. Put simply, each component reflects the other components, thus forming a kind of “reflective hologram.”

 

Participants in the program are educated first about the fact that each mirror is defined accurately only when it is seen in connection with the other six. In this sense, no mirror stands alone. Instead, each mirror is engaged in a interactive choreography with the others. Further, the training and subsequent application of the mirrors to one’s daily life is less like a sequential ladder and more like a spiraling dance in which the mirrors sort of circle back on each other.

 

The Seven Mirrors of Sacred Living, briefly explained, are as follows:

 

Sacred Consecration

 

Consecration is a sacred act in which we formally proclaim our intention to do whatever it takes to tread the path of becoming all that we were designed to be. It involves a firm and consistent commitment to excellence.

 

Sacred Connection

 

Connecting with our Divine Source is foundational if we are to become the optimal version of ourselves. From the outset we must understand that:

 

We cannot do this alone

 

The Divine Source is there and wants to help

 

Our task is to establish and deepen our connection to the Divine Source

 

Fostering this vital and positive connection involves prayer, meditation, contemplation, and contact with others.

 

Sacred Comprehension

 

The universe operates according to basic laws that hold all things together and move them toward the Creator’s ultimate purpose for his creation. There are not only physical laws, but mental and spiritual laws that are equally inalterable. If we expect to move forward on the spiritual path, a practical, workable understanding of these laws and principles is indispensable. This also involves a basic comprehension of who and what we are, especially our psycho-energetic anatomy.

 

Sacred Character

 

We must ever keep before us the ideal of Sacred Character. Our world today needs more people of sound character and this entire program of endeavor is designed to cultivate what we at Sacred Mind Ministries call “Sacred Character.” It is the character exhibited by Christ and is marked by a foundation of integrity, love, and compassion.

 

Sacred Calling

 

The Creator planted a divine purpose within each of us prior to our birth on this planet and it is vital that we discover that purpose and bring it to fruition in our lives. Discovering and manifesting our Sacred Purpose is our “calling” in life and we cannot hope to become the optimal version of who we are without walking in our divine purpose. We also must understand that our individual purpose (our personal mission) is a component in the Creator’s universal mission.

 

Sacred Companions

 

We do not walk this journey alone. Instead, we need to form spiritual bonds with those who share a similar sense of mission and purpose. The development and establishment of healthy, vital, and committed spiritual communities is a fundamental component of the universal purpose for this age in which we live. These communities share common values, goals, and ideals and have a unified vision that fosters group cohesiveness and enhances community effectiveness. These groups may consist of as few as two members or can number in the thousands. It should also be mentioned that each member’s individual calling is enhanced and achieved within the milieu of the community’s overall vision.

 

Sacred Contribution

 

Through walking in our manifest Sacred Character we are better able to realize our Sacred Calling. In doing so we also are able to give flesh to grace. Just as Jesus did his Father’s work while on earth, we, too, are to embody God’s grace by making a positive contribution to the world in which we live. We do this in many ways, all of which flow out of our compassion and a sacred heart of service to others. By realizing our personal mission, we become the optimal version of ourselves and by doing so, we work toward being optimal benefit to others. Put simply, we incarnate God’s love and God’s light in this world.

 

© L.D. Turner 2009/All Rights Reserved

 

Wise Words for Today

Vision is the force that invents the future, because it is the ability to see your dreams and desires before they manifest in the natural. If you can’t see it in your heart and mind, you may just only be having a temporary thought, idea, or fantasy. Wishing that something might someday happen for your betterment is nice, but it is not enough. Having vision is seeing the invisible and making it visble with a tenacity and determination to never let it go….The key to having vision is “seeing” with spiritual eyes. When you “see” a vision, you “see” your desired future state, and it becomes the purpose of everything you do, motivating you every hour of every day.

Art Sepulveda

(from Focus: What’s In Your Vision?)

 

Thoughts About My Four-Year-Old Roshi

Mick Turner

As this final month of the year is winding down and the New Year is already taken up residence in the birth canal, I have been reflecting a bit on the past year and some of its blessings. I suspect this is a healthy thing to do, given the general negative state of the economy and just about everything else we hear about on the daily news.

 

As some of my readers are already aware of, I have a daughter, Salina, who just turned four this past May. She is my jewel and my angel, all rolled into one, but then, I need to refrain from gushing like a proud Daddy. Otherwise, I won’t make the point I want to make. Some of you are also aware that I was 55 years old when Salina was born.  She came along late in my life and I am certain that she was a gift to Li and I for some special reason I can’t even begin to fathom. Let it suffice to say that Sacred Spirit surprised us back in 2003, when my wife and I discovered that Li was pregnant. Also let it be said that Salina has been my Roshi, Guru, Rinpoche, and Great Teacher for four years now. I have learned so much from her; far more than I have taught her.

 

More pertinent, perhaps, is the fact that she has done this by just being who she is – a four-year-old girl in whose eyes I can still clearly see the smile of God.

Salina has always amazed me with her curiosity, her sense of discovery, and especially her spontaneous wonder and awe as she encounters things new and exciting. Further, she never tires of things that strike her fancy, especially if I do something that she likes but has never really seen before. I am reminded, for example, when I first showed her how to blow bubbles with bubble gum. For me, it was old hat – but for her, this simple act was like seeing a rainbow for the first time or discovering the wonders of ice cream. Whenever I produced a large, pink bubble as if by magic, she would pop it with her hand, laugh in that way that only children can laugh, and say, “Do it again, Daddy; do it again.”

This amazing ability to turn something new into an almost sacred event is, I think, part of that unsullied and untainted aspect of the image of God that we are blessed with in our creation. Moreover, children never seem to tire of monotony, at least until they get a bit older. At those miracle ages of two through five or so, kids just seem to revel in both newness and repetition. I am reminded of the famous words of G.K. Chesterton:

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity to make all daisies appear alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never grown tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite for infancy: for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

Sometimes when I sit quietly and open myself to what Chesterton says in these few words and what Sacred Spirit speaks to me when I reflect on them, I am literally stunned into silence; and then I shiver.

Children have not forgotten how to experience our world with a sense of wonder and awe. Noted Jewish philosopher Abraham Heschel, one of my very favorite authors, calls this capacity for reverence in life “radical amazement” and affirms that the spiritual journey cannot be completed until we regain this inborn spiritual quality. Heschel makes this statement, “The beginning of awe is wonder and the beginning of wisdom is awe.” When I first discovered these words, I pondered on the meaning for weeks and eventually discovered by doing so I totally lost their true import. I have come to see that Heschel is alluding to the fact that true wisdom begins with the experience of awe, and this basic sense of “radical amazement” has its birth in a childlike wonder at the incredible thing we flippantly call “life” ; the unfathomable creation that surrounds us every moment. I will let Heschel say the rest:

The secret of every being is the divine care and concern that are invested in it. Something sacred is at stake in every event…..The meaning of awe is to realize that life takes place under wide horizons, horizons that range beyond the span of an individual life or even the life of a nation, a generation, or an era. Awe enables us to perceive in the world intimations of the divine, to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance, to sense the ultimate in the common and simple; to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal.

Deep in my personal spirit, when it is connected with and animated by the Holy Spirit, I know with certainty that my daughter Salina innately understands this. She cannot articulate it with the eloquence of Heschel but she expresses this sense of radical amazement nonetheless. Every time she giggles when Daddy blows a bubble; every time she sits on the deck and watches birds feeding in the back yard and cows feeding in the field beyond; every time her eyes dance with wonder when she sees a sunset and screams, “Look Daddy, God is smiling,” – I know she gets it just as much as Heschel ever did and just as much as I long to once again.

© L.D. Turner 2008/All Rights Reserved

 

Realizing Your Divine Potential and Purpose: A Fundamental Question (Part Two)

Mick Turner

If my own experience is a valid indicator, it seems that most of us come to a point in our spiritual journey where we are confronted with the reality that things are not as they should be. On a surface level, we may be struggling with a persistent sin or shortcoming; on an emotional level, we may find ourselves wrapped up in a cloak of despondency, bitterness, or guilt. Whatever the surface manifestation, however, if we really take a look at what is going on and if we have the backbone to be brutally honest with ourselves, we find there is a deeper struggle occurring. More often than not, that struggle is between that still, soft voice calling us to move forward in our journey of faith and that other voice of complacency, which tells us that stepping out into the territory of the unknown can be a dangerous affair – at best unpredictable, at worst, downright terrifying. The late Brent Curtis and his co-author John Eldredge describe that voice we often hear in the dead of night:

 

The voice often comes in the middle of the night or the early morning hours, when our hearts are most unedited and vulnerable. At first, we mistake the source of this voice and assume it is just our imagination. We fluff up our pillow, roll over, and go back to sleep. Days, weeks, even months go by and the voice speaks to us again: “Aren’t you thirsty? Listen to your heart. There is something missing.

 

Indeed, my friend, that still, small voice calls us to the grand adventure. It calls us to get up off our seats, step out of our comfort zones, and walk forward in the light of Christ. It calls us to become His partner, to share his mission, to challenge the status quo, just as He did. Yet his calling is a high calling. It is a high honor, but does come with a price tag. The price tag for most of us is, first of all, getting past any sense of complacency and satisfaction with things as they are.

 

The call of Christ is without a doubt counter-culture and has no association with maintaining the status quo for the sake of personal comfort. The divine call is a grand calling, but to follow it is to guarantee a degree of daily discomfort. I have always loved these words by Houston Smith, so much so that I will give them to you in there entirety. I think Smith speaks clearly about what the call of Christ entails:

 

…we have heard Jesus’ teachings so often that their edges have been worn smooth, dulling their glaring subversiveness. If we could recover their original impact, we too would be startled. Their beauty would not paper over the fact that they are “hard sayings,” presenting a scheme of values so counter to the usual as to shake us like the seismic collision of tectonic plates…We are told that we are not to resist evil but to turn the other cheek. The world assumes that evil must be resisted by every means available. We are told to love our enemies and bless those who curse us. The world assumes that friends are to be loved and enemies hated. We are told that the sun rises on the just and the unjust alike. The world considers this to be indiscriminating; it would like to see dark clouds withholding sunshine from evil people. We are told that outcasts and harlots enter the kingdom of God before many who are perfunctorily righteous. Unfair, we protest; respectable people should head the procession. We are told that the gate to salvation is narrow. The world would prefer it to be wide. We are told to be as carefree as birds and flowers. The world counsels prudence. We are told that it is more difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom than for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye. The world honors wealth. We are told that the happy people are those who are meek, who weep, who are merciful and pure in heart. The world assumes that it is the rich, the powerful, and the wellborn who should be happy. In all, a wind of freedom blows through these teachings that frightens the world and makes us want to deflect their effect by postponement – not yet, not yet! H.G. Wells was evidently right: either there was something mad about this man, or our hearts are still too small for his message.

 

 

It is imperative that we don’t become complacent. I am convinced that one of the primary obstacles we Christians face is our own tendency to be too complacent. We come to treasure our comfort zones and, as a result, keep our hearts too small for the message of Jesus.

 

Many of us start out well, accomplish numerous positive things in our lives, and then settle into a pattern of general comfort and complacency. We live not to grow, but to maintain the status quo. This is a tragic mistake.

 

God did not create you to rest on your laurels. Instead, he hardwired you to keep on moving – keep in growing. So beware of settling in for too long. “But wait a minute,” you might be saying. “We all need to rest. All work and no play makes for a dull boy.” Yes, that’s true. We do, indeed, need to take time off from time to time in order to rest, recuperate, and recharge our spiritual batteries. However, these periods of recuperation were never meant to be a career. No, we have to keep on moving.

 

The Pakistani poet and psychologist Ahkter Ahsen, in his epic poem “Manhunt in the Desert,” describes the journey through the desert of a man in search of truth. After wandering for days in the scorching landscape, he is at the end of his tether. Without respite, he is going to die. Fortunately, he eventually stumbles into a small oasis, just in the nick of time.

 

The oasis is a God-send. Not only does it have fruit and coconuts, but there is also a well. The man becomes rested, watered, and fed and he grows quite fond of the oasis, in spite of several issues he encounters there. After a time, the man developed the habit of each day going to sit on the edge of the oasis, right where it met the desert. As he sat there, he began to feel a vague sense of anxiety. He wasn’t sure where this feeling of anxiety was coming from and he fought to keep it at bay.

 

Pretty soon a voice within him insisted it was time for the man to continue on his journey. The man argued with the voice, reasoning that he would be a fool to head back into the heat, sand, and tremendous aridity. The voice, on the other hand, kept reminding the man that his goal could not be found in the oasis; instead, it existed beyond the desert.

 

This state of affairs went on for quite some time, but the man remained steadfast in his resistance to the voice within. One day he goes to sit in his accustomed place at the edge of the desert. He notices that way out on the horizon, a sand storm is blowing. He watches the cloud of dust dance across the desert, first in one direction, then in another.

 

Soon, the man becomes somewhat alarmed as the storm now seemed to be heading right toward him. The man, still enjoying his seat, did not move because he was certain the storm of blowing sand would change direction, just as it had so many times before.

 

He was mistaken.

 

Before he could react, the storm was upon him. The wind whirled around about him and blew a single grain of sand up his nose. He found the grain of sand highly irritating to the lining in his nose, and frantically trying to dig it out, he uncoiled himself from the lotus position and began dancing about in great discomfort. With the storm continuing around him, the man repeatedly tried to dislodge the grain of sand.

 

Eventually the storm abated and when his field of vision finally cleared, the man discovered two startling facts. First, the grain of sand was at last gone. That was the good news. The bad news was the fact that he was now back out in the desert with the oasis nowhere in sight.

 

It seems God used the storm to push the man back out to where he needed to be. There was no way the man was going to reach his divine destiny parked on the edge of the oasis in the lotus position. The man had to get up, stretch himself, and get moving again.

 

How many times are we in similar situations? We create our comfort zones and rigidly live within their confines. Any attempt to dislodge us from the walls of this comfort zone meets with great resistance. I know in my own life, the pattern depicted in this epic poem plays out in pretty much the same way. I first begin to feel a bit anxious. After this, a voice within me tells me that if I am to reach  my goals I have to get back into the desert, even if it is unpleasant.

 Sometimes, I heed the voice and get moving. At other times, I require a sandstorm to get me to move.

 

(to be continued)

 

(c) L.D. Turner 2008/All Rights Reserved

 

Wise Words For Today

Christians must face the scriptural reality that life in Christ is not an automatic exemption from difficulties, hardships, and handicaps. When we face difficult, distasteful, disastrous times, we must choose to overcome them through faith in God. The maximized life is the life of the “overcomer.” This is one who faces the less-than-optimal situations in life and instead of throwing in the towel or buckling under and quitting, works through them to realize his dreams and full potential…..Real quality of life is determined by what you do in less-than-optimal situations and the way you fare under pain and pressure.

I.V. Hilliard

(from Living the Maximized Life)

 

Encouragement for Living: You Are Never Disqualified

Mick Turner

One of the greatest gifts of God to each of us is the placing of a divine plan for our lives deep within us. God has his generalized plan for humanity and a personal plan or mission for each of us. You, me, the butcher, baker, and even the candlestick maker have a divine purpose scripted on our hearts by the Creator and it is a plan just for us. More incredible is the fact that God has equipped us to carry that plan out and in so doing, help establish his kingdom right here on earth and bring great glory to his being. What a wonder! What a blessing! What a responsibility!

 

It doesn’t matter who you are, where you have been, and what you have done. That divine purpose still exists inside you and with a little effort and a lot of faith, you can discover it. Start with prayer, asking God through the Holy Spirit to reveal his divine plan for your life. Be persistent in your asking; be vigilant in waiting for an answer; and be confident that the answer will come.

 

Also, keep in mind that it is never too late to get started on the dreams God has for you. God created you to accomplish extraordinary things and no matter how old you are, how sinful you have been, or whatever afflictions you may suffer from, God can and will use you because that is one of the primary purposes you were created in the first place. Listen as Jim Graff speaks clearly to this issue:

 

God uses ordinary people – with all their flaws and problems – to accomplish extraordinary dreams. You and I don’t have to wait until we have it all together, achieve a certain degree of fame, earn a specified amount of money, get a better job, or meet the right person. Instead, we can start today to embrace who we are and how God made us, knowing that he will use us. From this knowledge, wellsprings of confidence water our hearts. That confidence allows us to see our dreams and visions as God’s road maps to significant lives.

 

A significant life – that is what God created you for. Make a consecrated commitment right now to lead a life of excellence in cooperation and divine partnership with the Holy Spirit. The life of excellence is what Jesus demonstrated for us and it is that same kind of life to which each of us is called. Sure, we may foul up things from time to time, but God is right there with us offering a hand to pick us up, dust us off, and send us on our divinely appointed way.

 

As said earlier, it matters not where you have been. In fact, your past failures and problems may be part of your qualification for the task God has for you to perform. I worked for many years in the field of addiction prevention and treatment. The most effective professionals ministering to those suffering from addiction were those people who were former addicts themselves. It is this foundational philosophy upon which Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are built.

 

If you think your past sin(s) prevents you from carrying out your purpose for God, you have been lied to by the Master of Deceit himself. Satan would like nothing more than for you to continue walking around half-alive, depressed, despondent, and spiritually paralyzed. That’s why that little voice tells you time and time again that there is no way God will ever use you. Granted, he may use others but you, you’re a lost cause.

 

Listen my friend – God saved you and God will use you. The God Christians worship is not a God of wasted effort. God never does anything without a reason, a plan and a purpose. If you are saved, you are to be used. You are destined to be God’s instrument for something special. If you doubt what I am saying, go to Scripture and conduct a detailed study of Paul’s life.

 

Paul, formerly known as Saul, was there when Stephen was stoned to death. He even held the coats for the men who pelted the first Christian martyr. Saul was the most persistent and ardent persecutor of the early church. By the world’s way of reasoning, you would never expect that God would use Saul to spread the faith across the Mediterranean World. But that’s exactly what God did. God, thankfully, doesn’t necessarily think as the world thinks.

 

If God can use Paul, he can surely use you.

 

In China I knew a wonderful believer named Mr. Zhou (not his real name.) Now in his 60’s, Mr. Zhou was a successful businessman and used much of his income to support the efforts of the house churches in his Province and also to support young pastors in training. He also spent most of his free time training Chinese missionaries to live and work in Muslim countries. Mr. Zhou had many business interests in the Middle East and often used his stores for employing young Chinese missionaries.

 

What makes Mr. Zhou’s story so fascinating is how it is similar to that of Paul. Back in the chaotic years of the Cultural Revolution Mr. Zhou was a young man and a leader in the Red Guards. His specialty, as he put it, was ferreting out Christians and torturing them. He often beat them horribly, put dunce caps on their heads and signs on their backs, and then marched them through the city streets while a gathering mob hurled insults, bricks, and bottles at them.

 

Later, when in his late 30’s, Mr. Zhou found Christ through the efforts of a pastor he had once tortured. Now Mr. Zhou does God’s work out of a sense of love and service. God used Paul and God used Mr. Zhou.

 

If God can use Mr. Zhou, He can use you.

 

Once you finally accept the fact that God can use you, wants to use you, and will use you, it is then time to get to work. Many times sincere believers put themselves in a holding pattern, waiting for specific directions from God as to what their ultimate purpose is. Yes, we do need to discern what our ultimate purpose is and with prayer and patience we will do just that. Yet in the meantime there is plenty that we can do. No matter where you live I am certain of one thing: there are people living there who are in need of something and who are suffering. More than likely there are already groups of Christian servants working to meet some of those needs. Find out about these groups and find a way to get involved. The real question is not so much what you should do. The real question once you know in your heart that God wants to use you as his compassionate servant to a hurting world is, “Are you available?”

 

Only you can answer that question.

 

Hopefully, you are, indeed, available. You are gifted for service my friend. And no matter what form that service may take, you can rest assured of one absolute certainty: the Holy Spirit will empower you not only proceed, but succeed. He will make sure you not only survive, you will thrive.

 

My primary purpose in writing this article is to encourage you to understand and accept the reality that God put a potential and purpose in you before you were born and, further, he still wants that purpose to be realized. Stop looking back at the past and instead, step forward into the service that God has for you. You cannot change the past but know this: whatever happened is history in God’s eyes and in God’s heart. As a Christian you have been forgiven so turn your eyes forward instead of keeping them riveted in your rear view mirror.

 

Do all that you can to let this truth sink deep into the depths of your heart: where you are going, what is in your future is far more important that what’s behind you. Scripture tells us that with God, all things are possible. So if it seems your dreams have died, let the Lord resurrect those dormant dreams and allow those dreams to drive you and motivate you to be all that you can be for the glory of God and the sake of others.

 

Our world is a hurting world and there are many areas of need. The dream God placed in your heart is designed to deal with one of those areas. More than anything, the church, the Body of Christ, needs compassionate people of noble character and a heart of service. That’s you, my friend.

 

© L. D. Turner 2008/All Rights Reserved

 

Wise Words For Today

Sadly, because many are not knowledgeable of their divine potential, they limit their growth and development and forfeit their covenant rights that have been granted to them by their faith in Christ. They deprive their families and communities of the wonderful benefits they could provide for them…..Just as God spoke to a nonexistent universe and it came into being, God has spoken words over you that have given you immense power – power to alter and control your environment, power to excel and not fail and power to do great exploits in the earth. We have a choice to either accept or deny what God has spoken over us……There are no worthless people in God’s creation. He has given everyone a divine potential to do supernatural exploits that bring glory to his name. When you fall short of this potential, you deprive yourself and your family of the optimum life-style that was planned for you and them. You also deprive your generation and the world of your unique gifts that were given by God to bless mankind. God has chose you and made you extraordinary and special. Therefore, you have tremendous value.

 

Jim Lowe

 

(from Achieving Your Divine Potential)