Message from the Garden

Today as I was walking around our block, I took notice that after just a few days of rain, and being unable to work in the flower gardens,  the weeds had crept in.  Some must have been hiding from the last weeding, as they seemed quite huge.

Looking at the house I thought,
"Wow it looks like no one is living there with all those weeds growing around the house." So I headed out to the still wet yard, while the ground was soft to pull the weeds from my beautiful flowers.
As I was working many thoughts passed through.

Things like: 

• "Wow, when peoples lives are overgrown with weeds such as adultery, fornication, laziness, idolatry, rebellion, hatred, strife, envy, pride, gossip, quarreling, jealousy, temper, anger, divided loyalties, selfishness, gossip, arrogance, disorder and  other carnal attributes... they  look as no one is living there too."   Can people tell if Jesus is at home in you?   Do they look at you and wonder if He is away on vacation? 

• "Look at how quickly those weeds have came to take over ... just imagine how quickly spiritual weeds come to ruin a persons life,  leaving them void of the beauty that lies just beneath the weeded mass."

• "Hum, that weed kinda looks like a flower however, it is wrapping itself around the beauty of the other plant and smothering it out, just as sin can come in looking quite lovely only to snuff out the beauty of truth."

• "Oh my goodness, that thing is deep rooted. it might take a sharpe edged tool to get to the root of that one.  I wonder how long it takes for just a little sin, to become deep rooted and a strong hold in peoples lives.

• "Why, is it we can go for days, weeks, years and never see such things in our lives?

• "Why is it no one likes weeding their gardens?"

Yes the thoughts rolled, as I pulled those ugly things out of my garden. Thinking of how many times I had ran to Jesus, riding myself of such spiritual weeds.  Also,  how some things seemed to be dealt with quickly while others more of a challenge, but none to difficult to remove.   No sin attriubute, no flesh desrie, no addiction or ugliness is to hard for him who loves us.

Scriptures them begin to pass through my heart.

Gen 2:8-9
God planted a beautful weed free garden and made a way for it to be watered.
Gen 2:15
Then he left it in the hands of men to tend, guard and keep.
Gen 3:18
But with the fall came thorns and thistles.

Ugliness came in with the fall ... weeds came in to take over the beauty ... and then beauty (Jesus) rose up to take out the weeds!  He came to restore the beauty of light and life to those who sit in darkness and decay.

 

Then my spirit mind soared to the Song of Songs as the fragrance of the roses filled the air from which I was working...

Draw me! 

I will run after you!

Bring me close to you! 

I will be glad and rejoice in you!

"You favor your people with love and your fragrance is sweet. The upright are not offended, but sincerely love you. You can take what is dark as night, and illuniate it, until it is flowering light show!

"Nothing is to hard or difficult for you, nothing beyond the transfiguration of your love."

"You are a fountain [springing up] in a garden, a well of living waters, and flowing streams. 

You, Jesus are a fountain in our garden.

You are living waters for our souls, and a flowing stream of life to all who find you."

"How amazing that you have called me a garden (your garden)!  Oh, I pray that the [cold] north wind and the [soft] south wind might blow upon this garden which I offer to you,  and that its spices may flow out [in abundance for you in whom my soul delights]!"

"I am my beloved’s [garden] and my beloved is mine!" 


I am the very soil of which you planet your seeds of life. Yes, I am your garden, given to you to tend as the husbandman should, and I am as yielded as the earth beneath my feet unto the germination of the seed. Seed that might grow within me, so that I become your delight, as you are already my echanted satisfaction.


Oh, you are my beloved ... and yes I am yours!

Oh, but some are left as I was one day ... a [deserted] booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, like a besieged city, until you came to me and restored me. 

Today I pray for those in dry places, among the thorns of the world. 

I pray that you might call them to yourself. 

I remember the day that you called me by name; the day when I became yours.  I have branded in my mind the joy that overflowed my soul in that hour.

My mind was free to be transformed, my emotions were jubilantly restored, and my will was forever yours. 

I pray for such a day to come to those who's minds are jumbled, confused and tormented; for those who's emotions are shattered and wills are amiss.

My desire for them is that they experience your love and life; that light might dispel the curse of their darkness.

Like mighty Oaks that wither and die without wells springs of waters, so is the soul that does not have a water source.

And yet, a promise has been given to those who will turn from the counsel of the ungodly [ following their advice, their plans and purposes].

Yes, a promise has been given to those who do not stand [submissive and inactive] in the path of sinners. For those who will not sit down [to relax and rest] with the scornful [and the mockers].

For those who delight in the law of the Lord, and habitually meditates (ponders and studies) it by day and by night, they shall be like a tree firmly planted [and tended] by the streams of water, ready to bring forth its fruit in its season, with leaves that shall not wither nor fade in beauty, and everything they do shall prosper [and come to maturity].

Today I call on the Lord to call you out;
Out of barren lands to the life of fertility, to a land flowing with the abundance of beauty and supply.

 

I ask the Lord to comfort you, even in waste places. And make your wilderness like Eden, and your desert like the garden of the Lord.

My desire is for joy and gladness to be found in you, that thanksgiving and songs of praises will ring free and loud from your soul.

I pray that your life, becomes a song unto Him and a testimony among men.

May the God of Love guide you continually, and satisfy you through droughts. And as you walk in dry places, may He cause you to be as a well watered garden, and like a spring whose waters fail not.



I have not doubt of My God's potential to both hear my prayers and call you 

out!  I have no concern that the very one who created the universe, can keep you. 

For as [surely as] the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring forth, so [surely] the Lord God is able and will cause rightness, justice and praise to spring forth [through the self-fulfilling power of His Word], into your life.

You will never know what is just beneath the mass of weeds in life, until you call on the husbandman (the Christ) to tend your garden; until you allow him to take you lovingly unto himself.

My job is complete. I have prayed, and placed this word before each reader.

Your journey just begins, as you place you life into his hands.  

Will you allow Him to fill you with His incorruptible seed (Word of God), and cause you to bring forth the life that is within the seed? 

I pray that you will!

Team up for Success

One of the most important traits in having a winning attitude is taking full responsibility for our actions.

This does not mean dwelling on the error; make it, acknowledge it, correct it, then go with a positive attitude and do your best not to repeat the mistake.  

None of us has the luxury of going through life without making mistakes.  The Word tells us in Romans 3:23 that all have fallen short of the Glory of God.  Making mistakes is a given; how we react to them and move on is what is important.  We must not forget we though we make mistakes, we also have an advocate with the father. A place to turn for the acquital for our failures.  

I Joh 2:21

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

Once we recognize we have made a mistake we need to repent and take again  a positive attitude; study to show ourselves approved; practice, and then look forward to moving on in this overcoming life.  Becoming negative or fearful is setting oneself up for yet more failure.

                                                                                                                   

One of the best winning attitudes is to praise one another for successes and encourage each other when things are not going the direction we desire.  Teamwork is vital in life.  Those who think themselves islands or recluse find themselves in unfulfilled and difficult places. 

In the body of Christ (as in life) there are various skilled members.  Each having a great importance and each a gift to the other; when we accept this we become stronger and more apt to win.  We need one another. 

Do not become critical of others’ mistakes, instead encourage them through the mistake unto victory.  Encouraging one another is vital.  Had Barnabas not encouraged John Mark, he may have never gone back out to help Paul on the field, when Paul needed him.   

There are some great steps to success.  Here are just a few of the simple ones:

1. Joy 

You should enjoy what you are doing, if not, you may be on the wrong course or in the wrong place. From your position in Christ, there are many roads, lots of positions.    Some roads lead to the ministerial callings and/or the mission field, others to your local community with positions that vary.  You should not be living your life tumultuously.  Life should be full of love peace and joy, as well as service.

This does not omit times of trials and test when things might seem a little tough or you a little low.   But you should be able to rise above those times with fair ease, knowing the joy set before you. 

Paul while in prison spoke 19 times of joy.  He was the man who thought himself happy along the way, and wrote of holding fast to joy unto the end. 

Joy is a powerful factor in life.  Proverbs speaks to us as to how a merry heart does good like a medicine.  Both, Nehemiah, and the Psalmist speak to us of the joy of the Lord being our strength.  And how we are to embrace each day with gladness.  We are even told in Deuteronomy 28:47 how curses make their entrance into our lives if we do not serve the Lord with joyfulness and gladness of heart. 

2. Personal responsibility 

The person who always blames others for their problems, failures and difficulties will never become successful.  They will stay stuck where they are, without reaching the altitude that is intended for them.

There was a man who laid daily by the pool (John chapter 5) and never obtained his healing.  He was always waiting.  Waiting for someone to come and help him in the pool to obtain a divine healing touch.  He excused himself saying, “Someone always beats me in.”   “I just can’t seem to make it.  I’m to sick, I’m to weak, I’m just not fast enough.”   All these excuses this man could have been using, since he said, “someone always steps in before me,” and I miss out.

Jesus had no part with those excuses, instead He tells him to get up, roll up his bed and go home.  We should never toy with people’s excuses, but instead aid them unto success.  

3. Hold fast your confess.  Take hold of the Word of God and never let go.  Continue to hold fast to truth no matter how things look outwardly, or what people may be saying negatively.  You need to be a finisher.  Jesus is the author AND finisher of our faith.  When we step out into a field or a position in life we must not only start, but finish to be successful.  Provided of course you are on the right course.  If not shift gears and then move on from there, knowing that once you are in your proper position life is not only God, but success is sure if you continue in faith.

4.  Give and Receive encouragement

To move forward happily and successfully we all need to be encouraged by others from time to time.  But in the encouragement, we in turn must encourage others.  The Word tells us to consider others better than ourselves and to be kind one to the other.  Making some of life’s simple principles high priorities will aid us along life’s way.

5.  Never take others for granted.

Each person is a gift to you.  Even the ones who seem to grind us like sandpaper.  That sanding will bring us forth very polished.  The people who are weaker, may just be the added strength we need to accomplish our goal.  A little is a lot when God is in it.  And the Word tells us when we are weak, He is strong, not to mention we are to honor those who are less comely.  I Cor. 12:24 For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked. 

I Thes. 5:14 says it best:

And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.