We should be so one with God that we don’t need to ask continually for guidance. Sanctification means that we are made the children of God. A child’s life is normally obedient, until he chooses disobedience. But as soon as he chooses to disobey, an inherent inner conflict is produced. On the spiritual level, inner conflict is the warning of the Spirit of God. When He warns us in this way, we must stop at once and be renewed in the spirit of our mind to discern God’s will (see Romans 12:2). If we are born again by the Spirit of God, our devotion to Him is hindered, or even stopped, by continually asking Him to guide us here and there. “…the Lord led me…” and on looking back we see the presence of an amazing design. If we are born of God we will see His guiding hand and give Him the credit.We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the growth of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God’s appointed order. Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and everywhere.Beware of being obsessed with consistency to your own convictions instead of being devoted to God. If you are a saint and say, “I will never do this or that,” in all probability this will be exactly what God will require of you. There was never a more inconsistent being on this earth than our Lord, but He was never inconsistent with His Father. The important consistency in a saint is not to a principle but to the divine life. It is the divine life that continually makes more and more discoveries about the divine mind. It is easier to be an excessive fanatic than it is to be consistently faithful, because God causes an amazing humbling of our religious conceit when we are faithful to Him.___________________________________________________________

November 14 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, the song for today is my prayer; that I  can walk by faith.  I pray that I surrender and live connected, through the faith You provide me. And thank You for the trials that You have given me, and or allowed, that have brought about stronger faith.  I tried to run from the trials, hide from them, bury them, reconstruct them, define them and even dress them up into something else.  But Your leading (as it says in the song across the “broken road”) brings us back, over and over to the main things: namely that You are God, and through the sacrifice of Jesus You have demonstrated Your overwhelming love, grace and mercy. And when I simply surrender to You, I am connected to You by Your Spirit and can then live out of that, “knowing” with a joyous peace that passes all understanding.

And God says…”I wasn’t kidding when I said I came to give you life and life more abundantly. It was not hyperbole when I said that my yoke is easy. And when I said all things work for the good of those that love the Lord; that too was and is an extraordinary truth.  But in no way did I say I would take away your trials. Many believers do not understand how they can live out an abundant life without “cashing in” on material things and wealth. Many do not understand how to live in joy in the midst of trials and loss.  But you are learning that something supernatural can take place when you are first surrendered, connected and curious. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and I will provide everything else you require or need; including peace and joy in the middle of the pressures of trials that will and do come out of day to day living in the world.”