These verses highlight the themes of trust,  , and faithfulness in God throughout the Old Testament. But make no mistake, it takes from you a repentant heart. What is that? Well, it is simple. Die to any idea of coming to God for you to keep or gain. Come to God with the same humility as Mary, and let Christ be formed in you. As ruler of your heart, He is as ready to transform the world through blood as Then. Not the shedding of another’s blood but the shedding of His blood now coursing through His life in your veins.

“But Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.’” (Matthew 26:52, NKJV)

What if the heart was ill, not physically but spiritually, and the cure was embodied in the Person of JESUS’ residence within it? Furthermore, what if this spiritual remedy was freely accessible to all? Jesus is the ultimate solution for the deeper matters of the soul. He encourages us to accept Him with gratitude, acknowledging His unmatched value and having brought healing to the very core of our being.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Luke 13:34, NKJV)

This verse expresses steadfast trust and devotion to God. It reflects a personal declaration of faith, affirming God's sovereignty and acknowledging Him as the ultimate source of guidance, protection, and provision. It's a declaration of loyalty and reliance on God amidst life's surprises, affirming He is worthy of your trust and adoration. 

See Him, then trust Him!

“And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:40, NKJV)

To experience the full expression of God through us, we must first completely trust in His ability to do so. Our attempts to do good on our own accord are ultimately flawed. However, we can witness His glory shining through by surrendering to God’s natural ability to meet the challenges in our lives. This glory can transform our minds and hearts, allowing us to let go of our efforts and trust in both His divine plan and methods.

“For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us, therefore, be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.” (Hebrews 4:10–11 NKJV)

If you asked a friend to help you, you would want them to have your exact address. Let God know your coordinates. How? Pray! What is prayer? Prayer is a simple conversation. Jesus said it was as easy as saying…

“In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:9–13 NKJV)

Imagine having skin cancer, and only one company possesses a cream to cure it. Would you hate, despise, or reject them over being the only remedy? What if that life-saving remedy were named JESUS and offered the cure for free? The analogy highlights the value of the remedy provided by Jesus, urging us to embrace it with gratitude and recognize its unparalleled significance for the soul. Those who choose to dis this cure remain in peril. Your soul attached to your flesh is death. The solution that separates your soul is Christ’s blood. Then, His love binds you to God.

“They hated Me without a cause.” (John 15:25b NKJV)

Simply put, this verse tells us that our salvation comes from trusting in God's mercy. Some people believe that God despises them, but Jesus' sacrifice shows that he took the punishment for their sins, offering them forgiveness. However, this belief can trap them in a cycle of doubt, always questioning if they're truly saved. Instead, those who seek freedom from relying on themselves find fulfillment in Christ's love, which reassures them of God's affection. By turning away from worldly desires, they experience the power of Christ's sacrifice, which sets them free from doubting God's love.

“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12 NKJV)

Our complete reliance on God affirms that we cannot do better than follow. We have the privilege of doing exactly what God is doing. If He desires to feed people in a starving nation, He, in human form, wakes up early to plow, plant, tend, harvest, and distribute the crops. At the same time, He also energizes sailors to transport goods. He desires to work through us to live out His ways of love. He, even through our selfish desires to harm others through acts of greed, can become His opportunities to provide abundance for all.

“You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.” (Acts 2:28, NKJV)

The world often inundates us with various forms of fear, suggesting our lives are in danger. From a shortage of food to destruction, we are constantly urged by our independent living to think God is out to harm us, and it is our responsibility to prevent it. However, entertaining such a notion implies a lack of trust in God’s love for His creation. Jesus Christ came to dispel this belief. From what have you been saved? You have been saved from the limits of your mistaken identity! The old ‘i’.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever trust Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16–17 NKJV)

Within Christendom, mercy is commonly understood as the gracious act of not receiving the consequences one rightfully deserves. However, a deeper perspective emerges, transforming your behavior into a covenant with God’s acceptance by our unwavering trust in God's loving character. This broader view sees mercy as a continuous attitude, where God not only withholds deserved consequences but perpetually accepts our reliance on His love as the foundation of our trust in Him.

“Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And put your trust in the Lord.” (Psalm 4:5 NKJV)

Your ways! Your path. Or His ways and His paths.

God, as the master of your soul, reveals His way of bringing forth life. Those who place their trust in Him can do what they desire to do: give life. Similarly, those who distrust Him will do what they want to do: take life. Ultimately, the question is whether you did the things you did or trusted God to do them through you as if it were you. Once settled, He has you; you can have Him.

“Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 3:5, NKJV)

Exercising trust in God means receiving His love as His very Person who shares His love. When we feel secure in God, we can help others feel secure. By God being Himself within us, they, too, can begin to acknowledge God in them. To the extent you do not trust God loves you, you will not love yourself, nor can you love your neighbor. The ability to reject God comes through doctrines or methods to gain God, get More, or become. Your new you is empty of self and bound to His love to express Christ’s person and will.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5–6 NKJV)

Let's go beyond mere apprehension of Mr. Love and fully welcome His presence into our hearts. Allow His love to course through you. This is more than a sentiment; it is truth in action: you were recreated to manifest His love. In the world, we strive against participating with rejection, hostility, discrimination, exclusion, intolerance, indifference, alienation, neglect, and criticism. Through His Spirit, we reflect love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these.

“The Lord has taken away your judgments, He has cast out your enemy. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; You shall see disaster no more.” (Zephaniah 3:15 NKJV)

Embodying His love becomes a liberation bounded only by His will. Not only the will for you as an individual but for all. He unlocks the doors of self-imposed confinement, freeing you to embrace the essence of charity. In this liberated state, you become a beacon of love, radiating kindness and compassion to those around you. He in you becomes the catalyst for true freedom – freedom to extend a helping hand, offer a comforting word, and contribute to the well-being of others. This is His law in action, His image reflected.

“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:23, NKJV)

Christ Jesus overcame our wrath for Him. When Mr. Love envelops you, you become Christ’s goodness, one who is acceptable to God and perfectly free to do God’s will.

Yet, in the absence of experiencing His love, one finds oneself entangled in the confines of one’s mind and body – a state better known as death. Without the life of Mr. Love, one remains trapped in a self-imposed prison, disconnected from one’s intended destiny, which is to experience existence as God’s eternal expression.

“Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; ‘For Yah, the Lord, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.’” (Isaiah 12:2, NKJV)

In the embrace of Mr. Love, you don't just have life; instead, Life 'has you.' It's an immersive experience intertwining your being with the very source of all love. As He holds you, others around you can't help but experience the life-giving warmth of His love emanating through you. In this union with God, you become a vessel, a conduit through which the boundless love of Mr. Love flows into the world. Your submission becomes their opportunity to accept the one you have humbly accepted.

By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

The awe of encountering Mr. Love lies in acknowledging that His love stands as the paramount force in the vast expanse of the universe. His abilities draw us, entwining us with purposes so empowering they escape the limits of our imagination. Mr. Love is not merely a fleeting sentiment but a person, in fact, the Person of persons. When you embrace Him, you don't just feel His love. Instead, your encounter with His love becomes the essence of your existence. Embodying His love, you are free to be charitable.

“For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6 NASB95)

When you trust Jehovah’s saving power, you rely on His name. The Son of God proved the greatness of His Father’s name. Those who find refuge in God’s love are at peace with His name. Those who reject His Personified love do not rely on His name. Instead, they experience their wrath toward Him, thinking it is His wrath toward them. However, for those who trust Him, our wrath was poured on the Son of God at Calvary. 

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2 NKJV)

Yes! You have two options - either standing and watching God’s deliverance or trying to do it with your own strength, which is not what God intends. Only those who lack trust try to become righteous before God, yet He has already accomplished everything for us to become wise, redeemed, and sanctified, and we are filled with joy because we are included in His Son. As His children, we are worthy to trust Him. The act of trusting Him proves our worth. Trusting Him, His Person, His purposes, and His presence is a sacrifice. That is why we live from one trust moment to the next.

“For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’” (Romans 1:17, NKJV)

What’s in a name? Previously, your name would determine your destiny, and what society expected from you would depend on your family’s background. The name of Jesus means ‘Jehovah Saves,’ which implies that you don’t. Receiving Jesus as Christ is receiving Jehovah in action, which means you give up trying to qualify for His life as yours. Which life dies? Your having to think you are your flesh, thoughts, and thoughts about your thoughts. Which life lives? Your soul is attached to Jesus, who has become the life-giving Spirit.

“My defense is of God, Who saves the upright in heart.” (Psalm 7:10, NKJV)

There is a path that leads to eternal life with God. We understand that this path requires transformation. Words such as wrath, anger, and trust describe our experience of consciously separating our worthiness to be with God by examining our thoughts and actions. However, those who hold onto the Lord experience His love, which forms an unbreakable bond between our soul and His Spirit. It is much more fulfilling to embrace the Son.

“The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I will praise Him.” (Psalm 28:7, NKJV)

This little word, trust, has a universe of meaning. In the scriptures, we are commanded to trust the Lord. Society wants you to distrust others and trust yourself. Again, it can be read that we are to take refuge in God and not men, but society wants you to take refuge in yourself. 

God’s way is complete, and His living Word is trustworthy. You can take refuge in Him. This says it all.

The Perfect Way

“As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him. For who is God, except the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God?” (2 Samuel 22:31–32 NKJV)

During the Exodus, Christ is referred to as the rock people followed in the wilderness, implying that Christ is God.

“Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.” (1 Corinthians 10:1–4 NKJV)

Please do not mistake tolerance for love. Love is patient but firm. Remember Cain? I did not raise you to be like Cain, to take the lives of those who trust God.

Why did God accept Abel's sacrifice and not Cain's? Able smothered his sacrifice with trust in God. That was enough. It is always enough.

I never actually sat down and taught you how to do evil. You learned those lessons by catering to the lusts of your own eyes and flesh and your desire to be more than you were in the eyes of each other.

Dear children. Do not be fooled. If you are attached to your flesh, you will go the way of the flesh. If you are attached to the One who first loved you, you are attached to life.

Let us recap:

The name Jesus is a declaration: Jehovah saves! We can’t save anyone, especially ourselves. We trust Jesus, the Person and author of salvation. We trust His work is finished. We believe that trusting Him is enough. That very trust is the promised eternal life declared by His name. That life is Jesus trusting Father for us and through us.

Trust is Life! Live Trust.

Yes, Father, You have gifted me Eternal Life, evidenced in my trust in Your Son, which is being birthed in my heart each moment. Your way is ever so simple yet challenged by doubt. Trusting is eternal living.

Dig, poke, and prod for the truth, you doubters. In the end, you must doubt yourself. Then, you can reach out and touch the unseen and be touched by the Real. Transform to a truster. Move into trust and remain. It is your new home. Satan and many angels left their assigned quarters. Adam and Eve left their assigned limits. Jesus left heaven to gather up trusting souls. We can disown lack, fear, shame, guilt, incrimination, and the belief we must sin. We are freed from having to doubt God.

Move on to your new digs.

My new home is in You, Lord Jesus. You are the room prepared for me. There I come. There I remain.

You have to love Thomas. Without his stubborn doubt, we would not have an eye witness to the wounds still visible in Jesus’s body. This was the Jesus that had been dead but now lives and even walks through stone and wood. What a privilege for those who have not seen and yet trust Him. Why? Because their head isn’t getting in the way.

What makes God tangible? A trusting heart.

Father, I lived without trust in You until I called, and You showed up. I had cried out to be better many times. When I asked You to take control of my life, You showed up and remained.

This was the defining moment for the Apostle John. John chose to trust Jesus had risen from the dead. Another report says that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave after the Sabbath. Right then, an earthquake occurred because an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. The guards saw this, shook for fear of the angel, and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; …He is not here, for He has risen. Come, see the place where He was lying.”

Before the stone was moved, Jesus had escaped the tomb.

I, like John, have looked for Your body. I can see those who trust You wearing it. We are your body.

How can the average person trust an unseen person? Well, it is easy. It is like sitting in a chair. Sit! It is not worth your trust if it does not support you. I once sat in what looked like a perfect chair. It lied. Ouch! But I would not have known the value of that chair without taking a leap of faith and resting in it. So it is with Christ. Give Him your life and see what happens. I did not say to give Him a chance to complete your desires but to trust His desires to be completed in and through you.

He desires to love you so that you love others.

I rest in Your love. Whether I feel love or not, I accept Your heart is loving the unlovable through me.

Jesus as good as said, “He who trusts in Me trusts in the One who sent Me. I have come into the world so that everyone who trusts Me will escape the darkness of hate. If anyone hears My saying, ‘I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.’ He is the one who accepts me.”

He who rejects Jesus and does not receive His sayings has one who judges him; the very word Jesus spoke, ‘Live!’ This word will judge him on the last day.

He told His disciples to repeat these sayings.

I repeat Your message, Jesus. Live. Everyone. Live!

No one has to be a Christian any more than a door has to be opened. But if you choose to open the door to God, the door to open is Jesus Christ. No one has to trust Him. But if you do, you will find life better for it. You may doubt in the hereafter, yet living as a Christian is more beneficial than living any insanity based on self or self-improvement, failing, and trying harder. Of course, no one can learn to swim if they do not jump into the pool and risk drowning.

We who submit to Jesus Christ will drown.

Jesus, here I am, I’m jumping. Hello?

Only you can answer this question. Do you trust Jesus to live His life through you? Either you remain a self, trying to be a better self, or one with His Self trusting the Father. In every moment, our flesh loves to bait us into trying to be like God. It sees needs but grumbles for not seeing the supply. We who trust see the supply. It has always been so bright and vast that disbelievers will see it as some great void. On the other hand, we see it as the Total living in us.

The Total One is It. We have It.

Okay! It is time to say, “Yes. I trust You, Lord Jesus, right now, and now, and now, and now, and now…”

Life boils down to a leap of faith. Either we trust Christ or don’t. Not trusting Christ is natural. Trusting Him is supernatural. It takes Christ’s trusting Father living in you to express that trust. The very faculty of trust is so free it feels innate. Since childhood, we have trusted light switches, chairs, and some of the food we eat. We know our preferences and act on those preferences. We choose one thing over another. Instead of praising God for that innate ability, we often take ownership of it by trying to improve it.

We even try to control the preferences of others.

I enjoy Your ability to be with me, Lord, in choosing Your best for me.

Jesus is saying that the Father desires to be your friend because you have befriended Jesus and trusted The Father sent him. Much of Jesus’s teaching was around equating one thing to another. We see this in His renaming people to their tasks or positions. So, it is the Father’s will to trust His Son. He equates trusting His Son with being His friend. Go ahead, be His friend.

Wow! When that hits home, cry for a few days.

As Your friend, Lord, I come willing to do all Your desires for me to be and do. I Surender all I think I am for all I am in You.

Jesus redefined sin. It had been breaking the Law of Mosses. Now, it was simply not trusting Jesus. Every time a person looks to flesh or its mechanisms to complete them, it is the sin of idolatry. Only Christ is the redeemer of each event we encounter. It is not I with a little help from Jesus, nor a whole lot of Jesus with a bit of help from me. It sees Jesus as the Total and trusts in the Total He is.

Doubt is distrusting Jesus.

Self-improvement is a useless exercise. Christ has come to destroy the self that needs to improve. My soul attached to His Spirit is the Spirit of Christ Himself. He needs no improvement.

Believe what? Believe that Christ had to suffer and die. This was the plan. With His blood, He could carry Sin to its new home, leave it there, and pick up the souls that had been slaves to Sin. Every soul ever conceived had been, through genetics, attached to Sin (trusting self over God). Now, every soul has been freed from Sin by being bound to Christ’s heart and Person of Love, Jesus the Christ. Once everyone is reconciled to Christ as Lord, He will hand everything over to Father for a specific reason…

That God may be all and in all.

Father, You are my home in Christ. As He abides with you, I, too, abide in His abiding. As He humbles Himself to Your will, so am I humbled.

Don’t get confused. Jesus just said He would work through you the works that you think you do. You will do the very works He is doing as you trust this is true. Jesus went to the Father and can now, through you, do greater works.

He can do greater now through you than what He did then.

Father, I will not speculate what You are doing that is considered greater but lay myself before You to do the greater You do through me.

The very heart of Christ and how he worked the works of God is revealed in this verse. The one little word ‘in’ says it all. A fish in the sea can live in the sea—a fish out of the sea stinks. When we trust we are in Christ, who is in Father God, we have fulfilled the will of God at work in our hearts. Our desire to get has been transformed into a heart that gives.

Share what you have, and you share Christ gifting others.

Compared to many lives, I give little, but what I give is enormous. I share You, Lord.

Above, Jesus made a shocking statement. If this message is true, it is profound and a deal breaker. Let me explain. Jesus, the perfect one and only Son of God, could NOT initiate anything. His words and works were a slave to His Father’s will being worked out from within. He was an instrument in God’s hands. That position is called sanctified. We, too, in Christ, cannot initiate any God thing, but we can submit to the Father’s every desire.

Be original.

Let God be King.

Father, I am nothing without Your authoring and finishing my trust in Your abilities.

You don’t have to tolerate a troubled heart. I had a friend whose testimony included a fellow inmate in a Federal Prison handing him a tiny Bible. He said, “You can live here in fear, bondage, and misery or have peace.” My friend read the Bible and found peace. He even began praying for the judge who had sentenced him to 25 years without parole. Shortly afterward, the judge freed him. Years later, I was sad to discover this man was again suffering from a troubled heart but now in a prison without walls. He was forgetting to trust Christ for everything. He had forgotten his freedom.

The heart does not need to be troubled.

Hallelujah! In the throws of life, I can rejoice with a free and happy heart.

Who is this He in whom you may trust? Let’s get His exact address. Jesus the Christ, the Son of God of 2000 years ago, existed, died, rose, ascended, and returned His Holy Spirit to reside in and live through those who trust Jesus as the Christ. He will return with every eye seeing Him. There’s no other Christ nor the office of little Christ. We are all subservient to the Spirit of Christ in us. Though forms of Christ’s body are individual, we are never separate from Him. We are never equal to Him or in any way replacing Him. Some have and will come claiming to be Christ Himself. Don’t check it out!

We claim our individual forms of His life uniquely living us.

I am nothing without You, Lord, and nothing except Your will in action as I live from Spirit, ignoring the flesh trying to define me. Your Spirit defines me.

In 1 John, the Holy Spirit defines darkness as hate. Hate, defined by Jesus, was as simple as pushing someone away. In contrast, light is equated with love. Light is seen as God and experienced as His loving us. Darkness is seen as killing. Make no mistake. The one with the smoking gun walks in darkness. Right now, you can repent and let love so embrace you that you turn your guns into plows producing food for life.

Be transformed from fear and hate to love.

Father, You have loved, do love, and will love me. I trust this. To abide in Your love, I submit to Your love, loving all as my brother.

Jesus declares He is but an agent authorized to pass on headquarters’ promises. Or, like an Ambassador, what they say is what the Government they represent is saying. The same is valid for declaring God’s love for every soul conceived. We are God’s Ambassadors. When you are accepted, Christ is accepted. When Christ is accepted, Father is accepted. Hear this! God loves you so much that He has done everything needed to reconcile you to Himself. God is Love.

Be reconciled to Love!

I am reconciled. Thank You, Father, for doing Your will through me.

Letting public opinion sway our decision to receive the trust found in Christ will always nullify the benefits of that trust. I remember a Muslim youth who stayed with us one Christmas and had become very interested in embracing Jesus as the Christ. He stated that if he did so, it would mean he would lose everything. He would have to return home, lose his education and potential position, be rejected by his family, and possibly suffer death. That simple yes to a yet unseen promise would cost him everything. He decided to keep what he had.

Keeping what you have is rejecting the LIFE.

Let me keep the Promise no matter the cost.

When we see Jesus’ arms stretched out, His rod and scepter become the spikes holding Him on the cross. Without them, He would be free to do His will. With them, He was stuck to Father’s will. We are told to take up our cross every day. We are glued to Father’s will and cannot escape. No effort can get us on our cross nor loose us from the bonds binding us to Father’s will. Father getting His way is the direct outcome of your having called upon the Lord.

Get stuck!

Father, here I am; take me, glue me to Your living will. No matter what I see or feel, I trust it is done.

What does it take for you to trust? Nothing. If someone found you today and declared they were returning next Tuesday with a new car for you, with taxes paid, licensed, insured, maintenance, and gas for ten years, then turned and walked away, what would your response be? How about saying, “See you then!” That is trusting in his person according to his word. It will be settled next Tuesday. Many people claim Jesus is a liar without having trusted Him. For instance, the word to us claims, “All who call upon the Lord will be saved.” Have you trusted that word? When will you know if that word is trustworthy? When you call upon the Lord Jesus.

Submit to the message.

I die to my wants and submit to Your wants. You want all of humanity to call upon You and be saved. Here is one voice calling out to You, mine.

We all trust earthly light. In the instant the light goes on, we relate to things differently. So it is with people who turn to Christ Jesus and trust Him. Trust the Light. Go to the Light! The light of the Father shines through Him doing His works through you. He gave you an opportunity to embrace the Light, that is, Himself. It is well to define light again, LOVE.

Trust the Light. Trust Love. Let Love live you.

I have the authority to become a son of Light by trusting the Light. I trust I am a son of Light. I am a son of Love.

Right after Jesus had called Lazarus from his grave, the Pharisees decided both had to die. Why? Because, without hindering Jesus’s living, He would, in time, gain the trust of everyone. The Jewish world would have come to their Messiah and followed their God-appointed King. People like these Pharisees even today slander Jesus to keep the Jewish Nation from bowing to their King. Well, they did kill Jesus. We all have been blessed beyond measure for their fearful acts. Thank you for shedding the blood that cleanses us all. We all bow to His will.

Nothing can undo God’s work through the trust of His Son.

Father, I accept all You have sent as a Life worth trusting.

Years ago, I witnessed a resurrection of sorts. I shared it with a friend. He denied what I had seen. He, as good as, called me a liar. He exhibited anger over my insisting on what I had seen. He had been born in the Middle East. I thought his trust in me as a friend would have been sufficient to credential the story. There was something he could not accept. I later learned that for him to trust what I had said would make someone more powerful than his god. He reported that, as a Muslim, Allah did not have the power to raise the dead. Interestingly enough, Isha (Jesus) has the power to do miracles for them.

Every soul trusting Jesus has been raised from the dead.

Thank You, Lord, that You have power over my death and living.

Jesus did not say to His Father, “I know You always hear me,” but “I knew…”. This difference can make us think He had already been chatting with Father quietly and was concerned with having to request out loud what Father had already promised. Jesus wanted the crowd to know it was the Father Who had sent the Son to raise the dead, so He, out loud, repeated the promise Father had made. Today, we are commanded to announce what has been promised by our Father God. We may have specific requests and petitions. But for His promises, we receive them with praise and thanksgiving.

Everything Father has promised is yes and amen.

Yes, Jesus, You are the resurrection. Amen.

Have you ever wondered what the glory of God was? Jesus defines it as seeing God’s ability to triumph over death. Adam and Eve’s DNA was altered and corrupted by decay. Jesus’s blood removed the death and decay. We joined to Love, are bound to live without decay. From before the moment Adam and Eve died, Father had a cure set aside. His Son would do the job. As the second Adam, He created a new gene pool of eternal, incorruptible people bound to His will through love and respect for His Son.

We have died in Christ to be bound to Christ’s living.

I am in union with You, Lord. Thank You that I am already sanctified, set apart, for Your use. My qualifications are simple: I trust You.

Mary’s confession is enormous. She trusted Jesus, the man before her, to be the Messiah. She proclaimed His equality with God by calling Him the Son of God. Up to that time in Jewish history, only Adam had had the right to such a title. She also knew the very heart of this man was generated from another dimension, unlike the rest of us. Her beliefs were correct. It was her lack of trust that Jesus was working to encourage. We, too, can see Jesus clearly, experience Him with joy, and even walk with Him as our most profound friend, but.

Who is in control?

Lord Jesus, You are my home, country, citizenship, reward, crown, and joy. You are all I desire, and I experience all of You having all of me.

You have to have a life to give it. Once you have the Total, Christ has you, and You cannot die. The One Who is Life is living Himself by sharing that selfness with you. The natural death is the life you don’t have to live right now. You don’t have to mind the flesh. What is that? You’re being carnally minded. What is that? Simple—you think your thinking, body, emotions, or feelings are you.

NAGI!

Thinking you are the flesh clouds His Life.

Jesus, You were eager to go through death to gain ‘Us.’ Now, I am eager to go through life to express ‘Us.’ The commotion of life can so easily distract me from the ‘Us.’

The fear of death no longer has sway over our lives. Walking with Jesus can be somewhat obscured by the trials of life, yet our union is an overwhelming comfort right in the middle of the fears, confusion, dread, and pain. That means that though we experience the slings and arrows of life, we do not have to be subject to them. We deliver them to Christ and let Him prove His mastery in, through, and over them. I have overcome the fear of death, though I might fear the event itself. Like I have said a thousand times.

I don’t mind death, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.

Lord, I can live in you because I can die to my will to be independent. Your external living has transformed me through Your dying. Lord, I have already joined You in your living.

Lazarus would not have died if Jesus had been with Lazarus in his sickness. Christ’s love for His friend was incredible. For us to discover precisely Who Jesus was, it took a soul needing resurrection. Lazarus was that soul. Jesus was glad for us who would learn that He is the resurrection. By this act, it may look like He has the power to resurrect, but it was He Who IS the resurrection. Jesus’ calling to Lazarus to exit the tomb after four days should prove that Jesus is the resurrection. Jesus was so glad-sad that He wept. Sad for a dead world. Glad for its coming resurrection.

Remember, Jesus is your resurrection.

You, Lord, are what I seek in the resurrection. Nothing else will do. I am what You are doing.

Right then and there, they chose to trust Jesus as the Christ. Many today declare their faith in Christ. Many say they experience His power. Many declare His name and continue to see themselves as sinners, trying to get more. To live a Christlike life takes more than knowing He is the Christ of history or the One with the power to raise the dead. It takes trust exercised each moment of each day and an attitude, a spirit, a bent toward Christ’s trust in Father. We who trust are captured by the Trusting One. We live free from trying to become to give what we have. We rest in the land full of supply and meet every challenge as the victor.

Trust is letting Christ live you.

Your ways are experienced, not foreknown by my puny brain. As I live, I know Your will for me. Live me, Lord.

If you do not trust the historical Jesus, trust the work of the Father in your heart. Love, joy, peace, easygoing, mercy, submissiveness, tolerance, and hopeful confidence. These are not natural to humanity. These are natural to Holy Spirit. The flesh is eager to get, while the Spirit is eager to give. The one giving is God. Give and be like God. You cannot initiate the need, time, place, or reason to give

.

Yield to the Best and give the Best.

Father, I submit to Your will for me to trust You as Your Son continues to trust You through me. I trust You.

In Jesus’s day, the works were evident and easily measured. Today, the works of the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ are birthed in the heart and confessed with the mouth. The message is that the cross forgives sins and removes the need to sin. It does not put you on the road toward union with God. It accomplishes that union in one stroke. The only measurement is our ability to buy into the declarations of Christ before we have experienced the outward evidence. The man Jesus did not KNOW He would be raised, yet He was.

Now, that is trust.

Hope has ‘Christmas’ written all over it. Before me is a gift with wrapping, a bow, weighty with odd sounds when shaken, and a mystery to the senses.

Jesus was down to earth. He knew a shepherd’s voice would be heard by His sheep. Those not hearing Jesus’s call were not His sheep. It did not mean they could not hear His voice but that they had chosen not to obey Him. His voice was brushed aside like a seed falling on hard ground and consumed by birds. The people were listening for one message, while Jesus’s message was ignored. They wanted victory over their enemies, while Jesus said they were to love them.

Jesus defined our greatest enemy.

Father, it is easy to love the unlovable until they are in my face. That takes a miracle. It takes You doing me.

Jesus declared He was the Messiah, but that did not help the people trust Him. The trust Jesus demanded of them was that they give Him power over their lives and living. He had demonstrated healing and deliverance, even raising people from the dead. But that was not enough. Why? They wanted to author the works of God. They wanted the ability to do their will. They did not want God to work with them but with them. Jesus defined the work of God as Father, causing hearts to trust His Messiah (Christ). God can gift the trust of His Son to our hearts.

Rest in Christ’s abilities.

What can You do, Father? Everything I thought I could do, and I expect much, much more.

Today, society bows to itself. Arrogance is expected, while humility is considered a character flaw. This attitude is led into the Churches as if it were some King. Equality has become everyone’s right to subject others to their will. This is idolatry. Worship is submitting to another’s will. To worship Christ is to bow your knee to the name of Jesus. To put aside your will and submit to His will, which is eternal life. That Life has an address. Jesus Christ, not with Him but IN Him.

Trust Christ. Bow to His will.

Father, thank You for the visible object of Your will that my inner eye sees and heart embraces. To submit to Jesus’s will is pure worship. His will is my will manifested.

Now, that is a good question. Who is He? Who is the One who has healed me? There was a time when I was left with the abilities I had gained from reading, experience, and advice. I did the best I could with what I had. I was a non-reader and had what is now called dyslexia. Even today, without computers with grammar and spell checkers, you would not have this book to enjoy. It takes the ability of electronics for me to join you. I found that with Jesus as the master of my life, I have been joined to God’s will. His will is the adventure I am on. I have been joined to His body of trust.

My mind has been transformed, and I do what I can not do.

Your will, Father, is that I not be conformed to this world but transformed by my mind submitting to Your desire that I gaze upon Jesus and trust Him.

Jesus had already healed the blind man before He asked him if he trusted Him. So it is with us. Jesus has already healed our stony hearts, dissolved sin’s hold on our souls, joined us to His Spirit of Love and Truth, infused us with His trust in Father God, united us one with the other, and urged us to specific tasks that He can do through our fleshly bodies. He has placed us in Himself always to be where He is, doing what He is doing, and that for eternity. After He has accomplished all this, He faces off with you and asks, “Do you trust Me?”

We are slaves to the one we trust, death or Life.

Father, You have given me Your life to live as You live it with the added extra that I can think is my doing.

Why is it so hard to trust Jesus? Because we want to do our flesh’s desires. Listening to them is as good as listening to the devil. He was a murderer from the beginning and did not trust Christ to save him. Why? Because there is no place for trust in the evil one. When we lie, we speak out of our flesh’s sense of lack and fear. That distrusting flesh quickly listens to the father of lies. Proof? You readily accept Father’s love and forgiveness for you and then, for fear, arm yourself against your neighbor, ready to salve your fear of their death.

I have spoken the truth. Trust Me. The Lord fights your battles.

Thank You, Father. I’ll live until You no longer need this temple.

What is a disciple? Yes, a student, but not in some sit-down-in-front-of-a-teacher-type student. It is a get close enough to hear, as we walk overhill and dale with the teacher. It is getting ahead, walking backward, reading his body and lips hanging on every word. Pondering every thought, and going back with questions to clarify expectations. Perform the teacher’s tasks. Relate the results. Humble your will to the teacher’s will. In essence, Jesus said, “Trust me! Go no further. For now, this is all you need to do. Together, we undo Adam and Eve’s disobedience. They wanted more while having it all.

We can rest in the ALL we have.

I see through the process to the end. I see You, Lord, as the beginning and the end. Seeing the goal is the end!

Well, guess what? I found this life hack called Jesus. He's like the ultimate laundry sorter who brings order to the chaos. Have you heard about this person?

Seriously, Jesus offers us a liberating secret – no fine print, just genuine love, and eternal good. It's about having a direct hotline to the Universe's best party planner.

I've upgraded my life with this cosmic RSVP and got comfort, purpose, and joy in bulk. How about we all join the party? Trust me; it's the VIP experience you didn't know you needed!

Reason, logic, or any other cognitive faculties within the human mind are, at best, resources to draw upon. But the pristine sacrifice goes beyond relinquishing possessions and internal emanations; it encompasses surrendering the entirety of one's being to God. This means you relinquish everything within your grasp as far as the grace permits. This is abandonment.

And what characterizes total and perfect abandonment? It is our recognition of our absolute destitution willingly placed in the hands of God. We say to Him, "Lord, exercise your will in me entirely; let your purpose unfold within me." The emphasis here is on internal transformation: God working within to nurture one to full spiritual stature, a process unfolding over time and extending even into eternity.

While external signs may be absent, God remains faithful, ever mindful, and committed to delivering those ensnared, oppressed, or navigating a spiritual wilderness—individuals anchored in trust in God, sacrifice, and complete abandonment discover the pathway to liberation.

No magic is needed. At the moment we trust, we are alive in Christ for eternity. He is working out what He has worked in. Life is living from trust to trust. Our ability to let Him do what He does is from rest to rest. Our desire to become is extinguished by His having done. His ability to command us to perform is incomparable to His ability to perform through us what He has commanded. He has commanded us to love Father with all we are, to love ourselves as joined to His Spirit of Love, and then love everyone else as we love ourselves.

Can it get easier than this?

Lord, Your Love has no end to up nor down, right or left, front nor back, nor any other dimension. When we get this, we have all there is to have, ALL of You!

This is not rocket science.

You will die in distrust unless you trust.

What comes of that trust is up to the one you trust. Jesus said we can trust Him just as we trust the Father who sent Him. Now, that talk is scary. We should trust a report of someone we do not see. What do we get if we jump that hurdle and trust Jesus is Life itself? Nothing new because you already have Him. But, we can receive and rest in this truth. He is Life, and trusting Him makes for a bountiful life.

In Christ are all the riches. No! Instead, Christ is the riches.

I receive our dwelling, Lord, as a one-room hut with one door and window. It contains eternity itself.

If we wait for the rulers to trust Jesus before we trust Him…well, we are in for a long wait. Rulers trust in armies, lies, secrets, deception, chaos, and platitudes, not to mention taxes. Money solves every problem the last solution causes. More money always brings about the promise that the last promise failed to bring. Since childhood, I have been told that higher teacher salaries equate to better learning. Really? I have also been told that more money for policing prevents crime. Really? Prevents crime? Trust in self or some organized bunch of people and their resources will never deliver one heart from the fear of death.

Trusting Christ is better than raising taxes.

Father, my heart knew at six years of age You made everything good. Now, at 75, I know You are the Good everything is being made into.

It takes the death and resurrection of Christ to gain His right, authority, and ability to flood the world with His Spirit of love. Like in Noah’s day, everyone outside the ark of Jesus will unwillingly drown in His love. Those in the ark are those who have already, by choice, drowned in Jesus’ love. The ability to bring life out of death comes through Holy Spirit. What Holy Spirit has done to Christ, He is doing to the world.

Like it or not!

Your Spirit is baptizing me with the fire of Your love, removing all distrust in You.

Christ is declaring that our thirst for Him will produce life. What will come out will come from the center of the centers. The riches of God are ready to gush out like the rock in the wilderness, turning our desert into life, quenching all thirst for life and godliness. Our part is to trust each moment to Christ. Jesus can take that trust and transform it into a life-giving life, moment by moment. Standing in the sea of trust, we watch the world fall to its knees, proclaiming Jesus is the Christ and submitting to Him as the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Watch what happens!

When all things are subjected to You, Lord Jesus, then You will also be subjected to the One who has subjected all things to You, that God may be all in all. (See 1 Cor 15:25-28)

One of the most notable elements of this perspective is the famous saying, "Love your enemy." The quickest way to disprove Jesus's teaching is to practice it. But of course, most will not humble themselves to God's mighty hand and repent of their self-ruling arrogance.

The essence of Jesus's resident Spirit is His modeled transformative power of love and forgiveness. By advocating nonviolence, he invites followers to embody a counter-cultural ethic that seeks to reconcile, heal, and restore. This perspective aligns with the theme of God's love and mercy, emphasizing the possibility of redemption and transformation for all.

In the realm of life, where shadows play,

Justice beckons in the light of day.

Fairness and equity, its guiding hand,

A beacon leading through the shifting sand.

Mercy, a stream of gentle grace,

Love's reflection in every face.

Forgiveness whispers, a soothing balm,

In its embrace, hearts find a calm.

Humility's path, a sacred art,

Walking with God, never apart.

In every step, a lesson,

Justice, mercy, humility, the blessing.

What does it take to trust that Jesus can accomplish what He is doing? Nothing. But when you trust Him, you will realize He is worth everything you have and gain more than you can imagine.

I knew a man who stumbled upon a rich black marble deposit. That discovery cost him nothing. He calculated its worth in the billions, went home, sold everything, and made a down payment on the property. He claimed the mineral rights and mined the stone. You got it. He is worth billions, but it cost him everything to gain it all.

To find Jesus is free. To own Jesus costs everything.

Lord, now that I own You as You own me let me mine all Your riches and present them freely to the world.

If Jesus had come to transmit a set of teachings that enabled people to function with immunity toward God, we would have to conclude He failed. It takes words to illuminate the mind as to what the heart can act upon; the goal is a changed heart. At this point in Jesus’s story, His brothers did not trust He was the Christ or savior of the world. Later, James would be known as an apostle, though he did not follow or proclaim Jesus as the Christ during Jesus’s pre-resurrected life. Afterward, he proclaims Jesus as the Christ and lets us in on what we can assume were many of Jesus’s dinner table teachings.

Trust without the energy to act on that trust is nonsense.

Jesus, when I found You ruling my heart, I let the heart rule. Thank You for liberating me from the heart of stone to Your heart of flesh.

What does holy mean? Essentially, something or someone is set aside for Father God’s use. You fit in His hand for His purposes, and no other hand has a right to hold you, much less use you. Jesus was God’s instrument to separate us from sin and death. Not death because of sin but the death that sin is. What, then, is sin? Jesus claimed it was not trusting Him and trusting Him for what? Everything. He is the total of Holy. His submissions to Father’s will placed His hands in the hands of Roman soldiers, nailing them to a cross.

We are set aside for Your glory, Lord.

At best, I start with hardened clay. Soak me in Your divine water of life, kneed me into a smooth, consistent texture, and turn me on Your wheel of love. Fire! Fire! Fire!

I believe that Judas had all but given up on Jesus as the Messiah. His deal to hand Jesus over was, in his mind, the last-ditch effort to get Jesus to step up to the plate and hit a home run. Well, Jesus did, but not in the way anyone was expecting. It is the same today. We all, until converted, expect Him to look and do differently. If He were really God, He’d…the list is endless. At least those who trust Him would look really different. We all, like Judas, deny Christ until our hearts are born of the Spirit.

In Christ, we are totally different expressions of God’s Son and totally human.

My desire, Lord, is simple. Let me rest in being what You are doing in and through me: flat tires and all.

The proof of eternal life is in trust. Many times, I have seen the trust of Christ transform a soul. After watching me for two weeks, Linda decided she wanted what I had received when receiving Christ as my life. Looking at me, she declared she wanted to have what I had. Midway through her request, she turned to look to my side as if seeing Jesus standing there. Before she had finished her request, I watched her person and personality change. She had something that would last past this life, and nothing could stop it. I call this the birthing room of Christ. In an instant, what was dead was alive.

Come to life…see Jesus and live!

Father, be gracious and give me eyes to see Your gift, Your Grace, and a heart to receive Jesus as my very life.

The will of Jesus’s Father is a right now event with two aspects that Jesus offers.

See Him AND Trust Him!

The scripture declares every eye will see Him. This must also mean that every heart can trust Him. Has your heart submitted and obeyed this one injunction? How do you see Jesus? It could not be easier. Trust Him! Once?

No, every moment.

Lord Jesus, I obey by knowing You know me.

What the regular folk wanted was not being offered by Jesus. Everyone believed they had to obey God, rally around a leader, and fight Caesar. With words like these, Jesus seemed so heavenly-minded that He was no earthly good. The Jews wanted an economic system honoring the Law of Moses, with God blessing their efforts. This upstart was saying, “Look to Me and trust Me. I have it all under control.” That sounded possible until He declared what His first strike and victory blow would look like over the Romans. He was letting them crucify Him.

They asked, “Is there another Messiah out there?”

Lord, Your victory continues in hearts ready to trust Your plans, ways, timing, and outcomes for them individually. I bow to You and submit to Your will.

Jesus is as good as said, “I am the whole menu. There is no more. If you sense need, you are consuming something other than Me.” We can so easily get distracted by the flesh’s desires raining on us 24/7 that we put God on some back burner, looking to other things to satisfy. Many believers ask God to “open the Heavens” and expand their menu today. Jesus is the full meal deal. Trust He is the menu, front to back.

Jesus is the ultimate comfort food.

Dean: May I see the dessert menu? I would like joy topped with peace. Lord, can I start with some chocolate ice cream?

God: NO!

Several times, Jesus declared He could do nothing but what He saw Father doing. Twice, He said He could not initiate one thing. Yet the people wanted Him to initiate and do according to their desires. He would be their King if He did their bidding. The people wanted to graduate from servants of a king to a democracy electing a servant king. God forgives your trespasses once you get off His turf and stop using His property for your gain.

Using God for your ends is trespassing.

How can I do what Your Spirit excites me to do, what only You can do? I can pray, praise You, Father, wait, rest, receive, and give thanks to Your Name “Jehovah Saves.”

Men asked what they could do that looked like God was doing it. Jesus answered their question. He declared God was at work in them to trust in the One He had sent. It is Father’s good pleasure to raise up to Himself many sons. Father had sent many judges, kings, and prophets. He also sent His One and Only Son to raise up to Father, many of whom would trust Him to accomplish His promises.

Every moment is a moment to lean on Jesus.

Father, thank You for Jesus in whose lap I may rest. There, I abide in His love, care, joy, and good pleasure. There is no other God. He is the righteous One. There is none except Him.



If you have the Not things, you have what we call Hell. Hell is the permanent place for the not-God stuff. It is a place where you can try and do what your heart desires without the earth and a body with which to satiate the desire. Let's say you really feel fulfilled eating fine food. Death removes the food but not the desire. If your soul is attached to the desire, you get to have the desire but with no way to satisfy it. Now, that is hell. It is hell on earth and hell without the earth. So then, heaven is being both attached and addicted to what goes on forever; hell is both being attached to and addicted to the flesh, which ends, but your soul goes on wanting.

Thus, our simple conclusion is, "Hell is anything other than God, and He going on forever."

Many envision Heaven as the ultimate abode, where love abounds, desires are fulfilled sans government interference or taxes, and even the neighbor's dog refrains from incessant barking. Smiles are ubiquitous, and accolades flow freely, creating a euphoric earthly paradise. However, this perception is a far cry from the truth.

Heaven is the very essence of God, unchanging across eternity. God, synonymous with selfless love, is revealed in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, in whom we place our trust. Heaven is where God is, and aligning with His will becomes our joy. Our actions mirror His in heaven, even if it means sacrificing personal desires for His greater purpose. It's a realm where selflessness prevails.

Excitement in heaven isn't derived from accumulating for oneself but from giving selflessly, mirroring God's love. The prospect of abandoning personal desires for His divine will defines heaven's bliss. If we have that attitude now, we share in His bliss.

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The Jews of Jesus’s day said they trusted Moses’s words. Jesus reminds them that Moses told them of the coming Christ and that they should listen to Him. On the Mt. of Transfiguration, Peter thought they should build three temples—one for the Law people, one for the children of prophecy, and one for Jesus. Just then, there had to be an intervention. While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”

There is only one voice to which to listen.

Give me ears, Lord, that hear Your voice and feet to follow in Your steps.

It takes hard work to distrust God. I met a man who declared he once trusted Christ. Now, for him to continue to do so is foolishness. He has all sorts of reasons why he cannot trust there is a god. Yet his life is swimming in conspiracies. He traded in God’s love for a few dozen conspiracies. Down deep, he knows someone else is in control. He cannot figure out exactly who.

God’s conspiracy is that He has joined you to His heart of Love.

Lord, I am already joined to Your heart of love by Your gifting Christ. It is Your Light, the light with which I shine on all I meet.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

See Jesus. Trust Jesus. Live His life living you. Why? Why not? Those who have put their trust in Christ Jesus proclaim they know they have passed from death to life. Their proof? They fear no judgment. Their living never ends. Their schoolroom is in the heart of God. Their occupation is the trust of Christ in God. I have gained Christ. I am found in Christ. I am Father’s righteousness in Christ’s trust in Father. This righteousness comes from God riding on the wings of faith and belief guided by trust.

Ride the wings of the trust of Jesus Christ.

Like some Avatar, I can explore the heights and depths of life on the wings of another. I might have a few lessons, but I fly riding on the wings of Trust.

To be a child of God is to embrace profound equality, not in a power struggle with the Almighty, but in alignment with His divine design. This concept may startle many, prompting them to disengage, but pressing forward reveals a beautiful truth. Our mindset, mirroring Jesus', begins with acknowledging our equality with God, yet as Jesus, existing in God's form, chose humility over asserting His equality. He emptied Himself as a bondservant in human form, retaining His divine position yet accepting the cross for all. This sacrificial act extended to include us, making us children of God through His resurrection.

Attempting to rival God stems from deception. Our essence, Jesus, doesn't require transformation; we participate in His true nature. This process is rooted in trusting another to express Himself through us while allowing our individuality within the grand design to be seen. The journey is not about becoming God but letting God manifest through us, embracing the equality revealed by Christ's selfless example.

"But when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own but only what He hears, and He will show you things to come. The Spirit will glorify Me because He will take from what is Mine and disclose it to you. Everything that the Father has belongs to Me. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is Mine and disclose it to you."

Dear friends, let's delve into the beautiful words of Jesus from the Gospel of John (16:13-15). Jesus promises the Holy Spirit, our guide into all truth. Picture this: instead of just believing, we're invited to trust—the kind of trust that comes from a deep relationship. Trust in the Holy Spirit's guidance, allowing it to be your compass.

Jesus highlights a crucial point: the Holy Spirit isn't a lone agent. Instead, think of a harmonious trio—Father, Son (Christ), and Holy Spirit, all interconnected. As we explore these verses, replace 'faith' with 'trust' and 'light' with 'love.' The Spirit's mission is to glorify Christ, unveiling the treasures of His wisdom and love.

In our journey together, let's embrace trust, recognizing that the Holy Spirit's whispers disclose the profound truths that belong to Christ. Through this lens, we witness the unity of the Trinity, a divine dance of love. Trust, love, and divine revelation—a trio guiding us into a deeper understanding of God's Person.

For an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.

God said His light will shine out of darkness. That light is the One who is shining in our hearts the Light of our knowledge of the glory of God as seen in the face of Christ. What do we see when we look into the face of Christ? Acceptance. He is the proof we find room in the arms of Father God. Holy Spirit carries our spirit safely to His arms of love and encourages us to bring our family and friends as well. It is effortless to remain in His presence, which is a never-ending awareness of His love.

You already have the Person of Christ. Enjoy!

Father, I do not reduce You to a feeling or a right thought. I simply reduce myself to Your will.

So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, ‘Your son lives’; and he himself believed and his whole household.

I am of the age where more of my friends are in the spirit than the flesh. I don’t mind the thought of dying. I just don’t want to be there when it happens. I expect if, for some reason, all those friends showed up in their flesh, I’d have to trust people can spontaneously regenerate from dust and ashes, OR some force greater than chance exists. As the nobleman’s son returned, God’s Son has returned and lives in our hearts as Trust Himself. Our hearts have been raised up in His having been raised.

Try it. Prove it. Join the resurrection and live.

The trust in Christ indeed changed my life. You are Life itself. Father, thank You for Life!

Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son lives.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off.”

As Andy, in the movie Shawshank Redemption, would say, “Get busy living or get busy dying!” I would say, “Get busy trusting or get busy dying!” Either way, “get busy”. Jesus said the same thing a little differently, “I wish that you were cold or hot.” In short, we are to be passionate. This means that we can own a thing to the point that we can contend for it.

We are passionate about gaining and keeping Christ.

I have no passion but Yours, Lord. Your desire is mine. I embrace the vigor of Your program and process. I embrace You embracing me. I nurture those You have purchased and keep for Your glory. You do all these things.

So Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.’

Jesus told us, “You should not have needed signs and wonders to trust Him.” In another place, Jesus said to the people He was talking that they were “an evil and adulterous generation craving for a sign; but no sign would be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet.” Those who have been born of the Spirit through the trust of Christ have the sign of Jonah in their hearts. Christ was dead to us but now lives to do God’s will. Yes, even like Jonah, some do God’s will begrudgingly, but not He.

Then you can love Your enemies!

Father, life is filled with enemies against my soul, then You ask me to tell them that they can change their minds and trust You? Okay,

And they were saying to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.’

What could these people have heard that could convince them that this person, Jesus, was out to save them as much as the Jews? We don’t know. But, somehow, Father used Jesus’ words to touch individuals. By doing so, God embraces many nations. Each nation that trusts Jesus as the promised Christ receives the promised seed.

Be an Abraham or a Mary, and receive the seed of God.

I have received, I receive, and I will receive Your promised Son. Thank you, Father, for making it so simple.

The same is true today. Many trust Jesus through the testimony of others. Some get to know Him personally and then trust Him. Either way works. Jesus was thrilled that Thomas wanted to see for himself the proof that this person before him was Jesus. After some inspection, he knew the crucified and resurrected One. Jesus also explained that many would not see Him, or His scars would joyfully find Him resident in their hearts. I am one of those who have not seen the scars and know His heart beating in mine.

Why not trust Him?

I have called on Your name, and my heart has changed. I trust Your name. The flesh is as loud as ever but has become a church mouse compared to Your whispers.

Jesus is saying to us that the worship center has moved. It has no permanent mailing address on earth. Worshiping God has been relocated from a building with rules to worshiping the Father, who dwells in the human heart. The directive has changed from 613 rules to one—love. In God’s Person of Love, we are bound to love. He has accomplished loving everyone, including us. We reflect on what He is doing. He is loving each soul into union with Himself. That’s big.

Love is the inescapable You.

I am bound to love. I cannot break that bond. Knowing and declaring this truth does not make it true. I humble my heart to receive the Truth.

We are told to trust Jesus forever. Everyone who chooses not to trust Him declares they cannot see Him as their eternal living. Down deep, they think God is out to get them. They cannot shake the feeling something has gone really wrong, and it is up to them to fix it. Instead of trusting God has fixed it, they go about trying to get what they don’t think they have. But they have it. That is Jesus’s very life. Yet they throw it away by worshiping their ability to choose something other than what God has chosen for them.

Trusting the Son as your eternal living is enough.

Okay, I believe this is true. I have You because You have me. I choose to live forever.

In Christ, everyone’s flesh-self has been judged. Likewise, Jesus’s life after death gives everyone eternal living. If we remain attached to the flesh, we remain the living dead. Jesus Himself is the life-giving Spirit of God. If we trust He has saved us, we are joined to His life-giving Spirit. We are told that we who trust Him become one spirit with Him. We cannot escape being either joined to His death or His living. In His living, there is no judgment.

Choose this day:

Life or death,

Christ or flesh.

With a wink of the eye, I remember it is Your life I enjoy. Like You, I enjoy giving life to those I meet.

We have heard it said that we have eternal life in God’s Son. So then, what stops us from trusting that simple message? Pride! Pride works in so many creative ways. Many, thinking they are being humble, can conclude that they are not yet worthy of God’s Life. That is in fact, pride. Others are so proud of not having to think about this issue they don’t. Some exercise anger toward God for not saving them by their methods. The list goes on.

Humanity stumbles over pride.

Father, I am humbled and convinced You don’t need my pride. Okay then, here it is. I am humbled that You love me.

In Him, we can trust there is eternal life. His empty tomb proves this. By trusting Jesus, we are joined to the One who already trusts Father. We are joined to His Trust. Receiving the only begotten Son of the Father is likewise receiving his sons. Father loved us way before we existed or sinned one sin. When we trust that we have! the life of God living us, we have eternal living. We have His Son having “Us.” We skip doubting His ability to live our living.

Let Holy Spirit take control of your living.

Jesus, all I can do is match my will to Yours. You want me. I want you. We have what we want. I do, too.

Jesus could present the truth to the people of His day. Humanity was bereft of the ability to receive the truth. That is as true today as in Jesus’ day. What is this truth? God has saved humanity, or Jesus is the Truth. Jehovah has saved us in Christ Jesus. That is the truth! This truth most people ignore or reject. Why? Because they think they have to do things to get saved or stay saved. Your ability to trust Jesus’s work is enough.

Jesus is the Truth.

Jesus has saved you.

This Truth has set you free.

Father, this is Your will, that I trust the One You have sent, Jesus the Christ of history. I am free to receive Him.

The name Jesus means “Jehovah saves.” To trust the name of Jesus is to trust He can do what His name implies. In the verse above, we learn that the people were matching up Jesus’s words and behavior. Because of this, they put their trust in His very person.

Christ has set you free from distrusting God.

Father, I watch, listen, chat with You, plead for many things, and rest in Your abilities to accomplish Your ends. I always praise You for the answer ahead of time. Your answers seem so natural.

Think of it! Turning tap water into wine. The best wine. The most abundant and familiar thing transformed into a specific and unique experience. The only thing in common is that each could be drunk. So it is with us and the Christ. We are common, but when God’s angels gather us up to the King, we are transformed into Sons of God in every way. We have begun our eternal submission to Father’s will. We may miss a beat now and again in this life, but in the one to come, we will never be but obedient to His will.

Exchange your will with God’s will.

Let Your desires detach me from any thought or desire to serve anyone but You, Father. Have Your will. Have Your Way.

What was Nathaniel doing under the fig tree? Years ago, I surmised Nathaniel was praying to see the Christ. No sooner had he prayed than he was introduced to the one who heard his prayer under the fig tree. For me, nothing else explained why Nathaniel instantly declared Jesus was the long-awaited Christ. Yet, as fantastic as that was, Jesus found the prospect of angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man far more amazing. Why? Because He knew He would have had to die and be resurrected for this to happen.

Love transports our hearts into His resurrection.

Letting me trust Your ability to keep me outshines, Your having saved me!

In this teaching, Jesus gives us permission to recognize people's true selves by the fruits they produce. Just as grapes do not come from thorn bushes and figs do not emerge from thistles, every healthy tree yields good fruit, while a corrupt tree produces bad fruit. It is a fundamental truth that a good tree cannot produce harmful fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. The fruit reflects the core essence or root of the tree. This principle applies to people as well. If someone is on a self-improvement program, their root is a root of lack, and the fruit they produce will poison every soul with the idea of becoming excellent, smart, lovable, self-directed, and so on. In other words, their sense of lack is the root, and they try to gain strength through self-help methods like gaining, growing, gathering, and maturing. Such people have souls that feel lacking and try to prove their love for God by obeying a trillion commandments, most of which are not found in the Bible.

On the other hand, the root of trust proves that you know who has it all and desires to reproduce His fruit of trust, rest, and love through you. This root of trust produces fruit by resting from one's trying. You are not the magical element needed to produce love, joy, peace, patience, and other fruits of the Spirit. Your showing up to life empty of effort lets Him show up with having and sharing all that you need for life and godliness. The good fruit of love comes from the root of trust.

What, then, is a lousy root? We know it by its fruit. What is the fruit that exemplifies a lousy root? It is a person trying to be like God. Trying to be better depends on the root suffering lack.

The tree of trying produces all types of effort. Adam and Eve had all Father God wanted them to have, but they wanted more. They ate of the fruit of the root of getting to gain and produced a mind that was dead to the Spirit of other love and became alive to a flesh full of fear, guilt, and shame.

Trying to gain, they lost what they had. They exchanged total for lack.

Jesus said, "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

The soul attached to the flesh is death. Death is a mind captured by the flesh. This is the downside of roots and fruits. Tomorrow, we will look at the good root and its fruit.

Have you received Jesus as your Lord, God, and Savior? Then, you have the authority to proclaim your membership in the family of God. How can you receive the Gift of God? By trusting in His name. What is so special about the name Jesus? Jesus is a statement, a life-giving statement. “Je” stands for the name Jehovah, and “sus” stands for saves. Je-sus means “Jehovah saves.” This excludes your ability to save anyone, especially yourself.

Jesus, to trust in Your name is to trust. You save.

Thank You, Jesus, for saving me.

John’s whole reason for living was to declare the light that lights every human soul ever conceived. That light was the Person of persons, the Son of God, Jesus the Christ. Without His story, we have nothing to trust except our puny efforts to stave off fear, guilt, and shame. Why do we suffer these things? Because we were made for better things, such as trust, hope, and love. With these qualities of God in Christ in us, we begin to burn with a fire that is never quenched and never destroys us.

We are the light of the world.

Jesus, shine, burn, radiate through me, bringing purity, light, and love to all.

It is foolish to trust a distrusting heart. Jesus was chiding people for not trusting Him. Now, that was a foolish thing to do. Why? Because everything the human heart desires is in our union with Christ Jesus. He has been gifted, and we can receive the Gift of Grace. Like a magnet drawn close to another magnet, they correct themselves and attach themselves. Jesus said no one could disengage them from that union.

I am caught with no escape.

You, Lord, inspire my heart to collapse at Your feet. With but a touch of the hem of Your blood-stained garment, I find the Prince of Peace united to my soul.

Many have asked me, “Who am I, and what am I here for?” I gave them the answer only to realize they did not want to know it. Why? Because to know the answer means you could not justify looking and failing to find it. Same with those asking Jesus for a direct answer. Their hearts were set on looking for Christ but had no intentions of submitting to Christ when found.

Distrusting Christ takes a lot of work.

Father, I’m exhausted trying to fashion my own Christ. I receive Your Christ.

Many have asked me, “Who am I, and what am I here for?” I gave them the answer only to realize they did not want to know it. Why? Because to know the answer means you could not justify looking and failing to find it. Same with those asking Jesus for a direct answer. Their hearts were set on looking for Christ but had no intentions of submitting to Christ when found.

Distrusting Christ takes a lot of work.

Father, I’m exhausted trying to fashion my own Christ. I receive Your Christ.

Our fresh hope is anchored in the trust that Father God can replicate His character in those who rest in this trust. Indeed, He has the power to guide a peaceful soul. When we stop trying to take control and trust, His Love naturally shines through us in every situation.

Gone is our old hope of trying to emulate God; it's replaced by the new hope that God can express His likeness through us.

Jesus says Peter’s trust in Christ would not fail Him in the long run. It did fail for a time, as seen in Peter denying Jesus three times. It was restored when the object of trust, Jesus, asked him three times if he loved Him and then said, ‘Feed my sheep.’ Jesus gave three chances for Peter to declare his trust in Him publicly. Jesus trusted Peter.

Christ’s trust in you will never fail.

Father, thank You for the embodiment of trust in You. Christ is the end of trusting for those who trust Him. Thank You for a life of trust. Thank You that trust is the very substance of the thing I hope for.

Was this a rhetorical question? The answer is yes and no. He was asking if He would find people trusting Him when He came. He had come. He was standing right in front of them. Many trusted Him for things for a season and greatly benefited from it. But humanity generally rejected the need to trust Him for life itself. Even today, most believers in Christ think He is a way for them to get what they want. They don’t want Christ ruling them but want what He can offer.

If Christ isn’t ruling your life, who is?

Father, with one glance toward You, I am whole, complete, even perfect. I am trusting Your will to rule over my will. I serve Your will.

At least five times, Jesus declared to His disciples that they had little faith. In these verses, He says the little they have is enough. They wanted more. Why? They wanted power to do the things Jesus did. Their trust was not in Jesus. What they wanted was enough faith not to depend on Jesus. They wanted to do God’s things without God doing them. Our Lord turned it back on them and said you have enough.

Jesus said, “Trust Me! That is enough.”

Can you imagine me bossing You around, Father? Oops. Unfortunately, I can. I repent.

I must admit that I cringe when I hear people speak as if they need more faith than they already have to get what God wants in their life experience. Jesus just said, “What little you have is enough.” Faith is not some commodity that produces more of the same commodity. Jesus produces anything we desire within the Father’s will. Jesus said it, and I trust Father’s declaration. Father’s will is good enough for me.

We get to do God’s will.

Jesus, in Gethsemane, You wrestled with receiving Father’s will; death on a Roman cross. Yet You could not escape Your life’s purpose. Father, I thank You for not letting me escape my life’s purpose.

Jesus told this man to replace his fear with trust in Jesus, declaring his daughter would be made well. This sets up a dynamic many want to ignore. Jesus did not and does not heal every person suffering some physical illness. God does not let everyone escape the hands of evil people. Yes, by His stripes, we are healed of being slaves to sin, and we trust we have become slaves of righteousness. Christ’s ability to reconcile the whole world to Himself works through us regardless of physical limitations.

Receive what He has given you, Himself.

Father, when You specifically say I am healed, I am healed. I know You have said I have been transformed and live under Your rule. I want You to know that I submit to your rule.

To forgive us, to be like God, we've all endured suffering, carrying fear, guilt, and shame. The memories of universal wrongs can trigger thoughts of revenge. But at Calvary, Christ forgave us, calling us ignorant of our actions, even pleading for our forgiveness.

I have a dear friend who was brutally attacked by a coworker for an unknown reason. Thankfully, the colleagues intervened, rescuing him physically. But as emotional wounds still fester, the person who attacked him is now deceased, buried nearby.

I asked if he had forgiven his attacker. His response was an emphatic no. His words revealed a well of fear, hate, and distrust towards the deceased assailant. He felt unable to forgive, seeing it as the only way to win. I even suggested he visit the man's grave, perhaps as a cathartic release, but the answer remained a no. He couldn't find closure, still haunted by the past, losing more than moments in pain; he lost years of feeling insecure.

This struggle is universal. We often claim to hate to shield our guilt, fear, and shame. I've heard countless stories of people holding on to traumatic events, some suffering from sexual or verbal abuse or, even worse, violence if you dare to open the dark door and find the light of forgiveness, a path to freedom and abundance, marked with a sign in blood.

Decades ago, I met a man who had many reasons to harbor fear and hate but declared, "Hate and become like the one you hate. Love and be like God." I have observed this; he was right, perhaps not 100%, but the odds favor his wisdom. Movies often reinforce this idea, showing that hating someone can turn you into an image of that person. I'm convinced that if I cling to hate, I perpetuate it. If I hold on to fear, I nurture that fear. But if I choose love and forgiveness, that erases guilt, fear, and shame.

Jesus believed in the power of forgiveness, teaching it to his disciples in the Lord's Prayer: "Forgive, and you will be forgiven." Forgiveness isn't easy. To truly forgive, you must reconcile with God for creating you and with yourself for harboring hatred. Throughout it all, remember you are living in forgiveness. In matters of the heart, transformation begins with forgiveness.

In Christ, fear, guilt, shame, He did erase.

My passion, too, is to share God's love,

Revealing His grace from Heaven above.

Like this woman, we don’t have to acquire more trust to believe someone. Trust is so intrinsically one with us that we do it. The ability to trust is the ability to choose a thing and not move from the choice. Once we settle on taking the consequences of our choice, we won’t waver. Many choose to trust Christ for eternal life but distrust him concerning things of this life.

God has chosen us in His Son.

Father, thank You for giving me everything for living this life. I also receive moment by moment, Your love ready to meet everyone else’s needs. Thank You for gifting me Jesus so that I might join You in gifting Jesus to others.

Trust is so simple yet challenged by every waking moment. The seed, Christ, has been planted by God in our hearts. But life has another agenda, saying,

“Believe in yourself.”

If that self is your body, choices, thoughts, thoughts about your thoughts, wants, time, and things, trust in Christ is an extra item on your to-do list and easily ignored. Your heart may receive the Seed but not be grounded and rooted in love.

Love has been perfected by Christ taking residence in us.

Father, I receive Your Seed; don’t let my fears abort You.

Mary, blessed God incarnate. Jesus, at a Pharisee’s table, knew the difference between being a guest compared to being accepted and treated as Lord. Mary invested her savings in some costly perfume. By washing Jesus’s feet with all she had, the perfume, she said she wanted nothing but Christ to satisfy her life needs. The Pharisee, Jesus’s host, gave his attention to Jesus. Mary gave Him every hope.

Trust Him with all your distrust.

Father, I am betrothed to Christ, Mr. Trust Himself. In our union, we produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are our offspring. They transform the world.

Sin is not having the Father’s trust in the blood of His Christ as all-sufficient. There is a difference between having trust in God and having the trust of God. The imperative, “Have the trust of God,” is a decree, a declaration. We can trust we have been united in Christ’s death. We can trust we have been united in His resurrection. We receive God’s trust in His Son to accomplish His task, redeem us with His blood, and bind us to His love.

Thank God for Jesus’s trust working through You.

Father, thank You for Your trust in Your Son being expressed through my heart, mind, soul, and strength.

The serpent has asked, “Has God really said, ‘Look on my Son, trust Him, and you shall live?’” Reply, “Yes, I please God by looking to Jesus and trusting Him.”The serpent continues, “It is written in the Law it is up to you to choose Christ, exercise your will to please God, and be good enough to win His favor. In the day you do these things, you will live.”The wise say, “Let me get back to you after chatting with Mr. Love.”

It is time to eat of the Trusting Tree.

Lord, let my eyes see Jesus. Let me see Him seeing me. I live in Your seeing. Your eyes heal my soul. You have released my heart to praise You and set me free to do Your will.

What a shock! The disciple’s dead best friend appears to them in His bodily form and reproaches their distrust. Picture this. They’re kicking back and having dinner. Then, He shows up to feed them a good dose of reality. The illusion was over. If Jesus is a teaching or a new set of rules, you will miss Him standing right before you, right smack dab before your disbelief.

Trust He is the greatest!

Keep me, Lord. You are the greatest One of all!

It’s a choice. You can trust the message that Christ has risen or not. Even those prepared by Jesus to receive Him after His death could not trust the report He was alive. First dead, three days later, and now alive! Like incredulous! But what does it cost to trust this story? Nothing. What is the benefit? His eternal living through your living. Doubt this, and you have refused to believe it. This is not rocket science. Your distrust or trust does not alter the fact that Jesus lives. He is life itself. Have Him, and you have the most natural way of living. No Him, no living.

It costs nothing to trust except doubt.

I trust Your message, Lord, now I will get down to living.

They refused to trust the news of Christ having been resurrected. Okay, the idea of a resurrected person is incredible. Such things don’t fit into our everyday life experiences. Three days dead and no one standing over Him praying, He gets up, walks through stone, and plays in His revitalized garden. Where Eve gave off talking to the voice of God in the Garden, Jesus, the voice of God, was now talking to Mary in His new garden, the redeemed universe. Mary reported that Jesus had been chatting with her. Today, we who trust Christ boldly report that we are constantly in contact with His Spirit. Many refuse to trust.

There is no rule that you have to distrust God’s love for you.

I accept the report that You, Lord Jesus, are not only alive but are tabernacling in me. You and I have become a new ‘Us.’

There’s nothing like kicking someone who is down. How about feeling tall just because you are standing on someone else’s toes? That works, too. Right? Even those who had ripped Jesus’s beard out beat Him, and then drove nails into His hands and feet were mocking Him. Even today, people dismiss Jesus as the Christ because He proved human and died in disgrace. But don’t miss this: Christ was born to die on the cross. I genuinely thank you, stubborn, disbelieving Jews of His day. His blood was the solvent used to release us from distrusting God. Without Christ, we would be guessing if there was a god and if that god were safe.

Some cry, “My God, My God, why have You saved me?”

It is Your excellent pleasure, O Lord; You have saved me. Have fun!

There is no new Christ on the horizon. To choose another Christ is to be an anti-Christ. Receiving the Christ of history is as hard for us today as it was for the people of His day to receive Him as the One prophesied. God has promised we will all see Him. We are not to go here or there to see Him. When He returns, every eye will see Him. We will all declare, at His feet, He is the Christ. Not some new person or AI.

Hug this thought instead; “God loves ME!”

Thank You, Lord; 49 years ago, I cried out with my doubts, saying, “Jesus, if You are there, You can have me. But here is the deal: if You want to change me, go for it. I quit trying to change myself.” You went to work, and it has worked. I have changed. You haven’t.

We have been gifted the ability to trust or distrust, exercise faith in a person or not, and even believe or disbelieve some declaration. Those testing Jesus’s authority had already actively distrusted John the Baptist’s message concerning Jesus. Now, they were trying to have reason to distrust Jesus himself. In effect, Jesus said, “I trust I am from God. John’s proclamation concerning Me is My authority for you to trust Me.” Wow! John was Jesus’s earthly credentials apart from the miracles themselves.

Jesus is the Christ, look no further.

Thank You, Lord Jesus; I have my eye singled on You as Father’s precious Gift of Grace given to me and the whole world.

Here is the key: understanding what the will of God is. This is the will of God; we are to love everyone with His love indiscriminately. What we pray for are the specific expressions of that love. We can trust that before we ask, we have the answer. The answer is always Jesus’s loving others through us in some tangible way. We care for orphans and widows, feed the hungry, proclaim the good news, and many other such things. But which one and when? That is our prayer. If, after prayer, we are anxious, demanding, or shaming, we take a seat and rest until we can act out of love, acceptance, and respect.Act out of peace, and you birth peace.Lord,

You always did what Father was doing.

Thank You that I am a slave to that same doing.

Can it get simpler than this? We either trust or distrust what Jesus just said. In an instant, we can trust His accomplished work of perfecting us and being the perfect One living out His Spirit through us. Many wrestle with the idea God loves them. Go deeper yet, the yah-hoo is that He reproduces His life by living it through you. Simple, but talk about a leap of faith.

He is alive!

Father, thank You for Your life embodied in Christ and my sharing in the same. Not some universal force but the Person of persons. Thank You that everything I face, He faces, and has already been glorified in and through it. I am free to trust and live the life You give me.

Trust in God makes us well on all levels. Trust in self makes us ill on all levels. Trust builds up. Distrust tears down. We are meant to tear down every act perpetrated by the flesh and build up every act performed by the Holy Spirit. Wholeness comes from realizing our life in Christ Jesus is not tainted with an ‘i’ attached to flesh experiences, feelings, or thoughts. We, united with Christ, discover we are souls expressing God’s life-giving Spirit. We have been released from having to be complete to give what little we may feel we have.

The one thing I trust is enough, You, Lord.

I share that ‘one thing’.

Jesus is saying that if you have been gifted with the trust of God, you know everything is possible to God. You move from having to be the author of your trust to being the recipient and expression of His trust. You get to speak and act on that gift. In 1994, we hosted an intercessory group. Two couples received a ‘gift of faith’ and trusted God for new homes in different cities. They received what they were gifted. Soon, there was no group; their intercession was complete.

Yes, He can.

My gifted new eternal home is You, Lord. I move in through the door of trust and kick back in my easy chair, Your lap. I join in Your victory. I have overcome in sharing that victory. Hallelujah!

Jesus trusted his Father. If his Father said, “We are having a picnic.” Jesus would tell his disciples, “We are having a picnic with Father.” The wise disciples salivated. Their circumstances did not dictate the outcome of the promise. We who trust Christ’s Spirit alive in us submit to the end at the beginning. We see through the process to the end by keeping our eyes and hearts fixed on Jesus.

Father, what You propose is as good as done.

LORD, I enjoy our process and watch Your word coming to pass. I am Your witness. I proclaim what I see You doing. I rejoice in knowing I have as little to do with the promised end as John the Baptist, making Jesus the Christ. None!

We all wonder at the abundance of distrust people exhibit. This did not stop Jesus from sharing the good news of Father’s love. His purification process would separate everyone from having to fear or distrust God again. People would tell me of their love for me for much of my life. Those comments rolled off me like water off a duck’s back. Finally, I trusted one such declaration, Jesus’s. It sunk in and, over time, took over. Today, I am, for the most part, able to embrace others embracing me. Some people prove false, but at least I can show enough respect to let them prove it first.

Lord, I embrace You embracing me.

Lord, You are genuine and trustworthy. You prove this every day. Soak me to the bone with the very love Father has for You!

Jesus came to set free those who, through fear of death, have been subject to that fear all their lives. When we trust Jesus rose from death, we escape death. How? We have died with and in Him. It is a done deal. We, now in Him, live His living. We skipped the experience of death in exchange for experiencing His living. We experience His life right now, living through this flesh. Those who do not trust Him cannot experience His life because they have chosen to think this life is their independent, free-willed living.

Christ has erased the need to fear living.

Lord, thank You for erasing fear and replacing it with Your eternal qualities of trust, hope, and love, especially LOVE.

His love, grace, and healing touch are always there, waiting for us to embrace. As I've delved into Father God's healing love, I've found an unwavering source of strength and peace. Know that the Spirit within you is a beacon of hope regardless of your age, background, or circumstances. Embrace it and let His Love guide you through the ups and downs of life. In the end, it's the Spirit that truly matters.

Yes, we can trust. It is the gift of God. Not one person can claim they are the author of their faith. We are exercisers of the trust gifted. We act with trust all the time. Like flipping a light switch or sitting in a chair and quickly forgetting your body is at its mercy. When flying, we trust the pilot, mechanics, FAA employees, and the company that owns and operates the plane. I know people who so distrust the airlines that they will drive clear across the country, trusting a million other folk with their lives. The point of trust is that we always act on it, and once we trust the thing, we kick back and just be. When we rest in Jesus, we trust Him with our beginning and end.

Climb up into Jesus’s lap and take a nap.


Jesus, I go in peace trusting You.



Fear births distrust, while love births trust. They are opposites: trust awakens love, and distrust awakens fear. When fear captures your attention, your little ‘i’ is transformed into a self-serving self. When love is recognized as your new self, you trust the only resource needed, the Spirit of God. Love leads us to rest in what God does in, by, and through us.

Your choice: trust God or fear.

Father, the greatest fear is to leave this life without You owning me. Each moment of embracing self-effort distrusts Your abilities to accomplish Your ends on this earth. Father trusted You, Jesus, by placing His will into Your hands. In His death, the root of doubt was severed. Trust is the foundation of our union—the composite of living as one now and forever more.

Even those greatly encumbered can look to and appreciate Jesus’s abilities. Jesus let this person know He was no longer bound by the need to sin. The real healing was deep and everlasting. This healed flesh and taught it to trust God. He had been freed to be enslaved to God’s will. (Romans 6:18) Jesus instructed him, saying, “Don’t sin anymore.” Jesus also defined the Father’s will for us as seeing Jesus and trusting Him. Jesus went on to say that the sin of the world was not trusting Him. He loved us and is now ready to love through us. Who do we love? Those walking in doubt that Father God loves them. We suffer their doubt. When they, undeservedly, are loved by you, they know God’s love.

We have more love than we can spend. Spend it all!


I am so happy, Father, that love is not a feeling but feels good when loving. Most smile back when loved.

John the Baptist’s and Jesus’s message were the same, “the kingdom of God is within reach. Take hold!” John came baptizing in water to prepare us to be baptized by Jesus in the Holy Spirit and fire. John prepared people by letting them know the Kingdom of God was near. Jesus wanted us to know it had arrived and would soon be within us. Think of it this way: if something is within reach, you can take hold of it. So it is with this good news. Jesus said, “Just as Father has loved me, I love you. Don’t move from My love.”

Changing your mind and trusting this good news is a good idea.

Father, I change my mind and accept Your kingdom of love right here and now and now and now…

What keeps us from trusting Christ? He came down from the tree, was carried to a tomb, laid to rest, and left for dead. Then, in front of some disciples and Roman guards, an angel rolled away the stone blocking the tomb and invited people to peek and see that Jesus’s body had already escaped both death and the tomb. Jesus was alive and walked out of the tomb through the stone. Our flesh hearts are born as stones trying to block the life of Christ. But with one peek, we see He has escaped and liberated us by escaping doubt.

Escape with Christ from a heart of stone and death!

In Christ, all is finished. I need not gain life but live the life I have gained. Thank You, Lord, for Your Life.



In 1 John 1, we're reminded of our ability to walk in the light of God’s love, His Person. Just like a flashlight pierces through darkness, God's love illuminates our lives and those around us. Let me share a quick story to illustrate this. Imagine being in a dark room filled with tangible doubt and fear.

But when you turn on the light of God's love, suddenly, you see and feel hope, forgiveness, and purpose. That's the transformative message of love. God's love heals, guides, and inspires us. We discover practical ways to let love invade our daily lives and share a touch of God's healing love.

If your motivation is driven by the constant need to do, you might find yourself trapped in a cycle of never-ending tasks. It's like living in a world of "do-do," where no task ever truly satisfies.

This mindset has crept into many Christian gatherings, where phrases like "more" and "greater" are often heard, echoing from behind the pews, reminiscent of Adam and Eve's desire for more.

People sometimes feel that God has left them lacking, and with a little help from their own desires and fleshly ambitions, they believe they can accomplish what God has supposedly left undone. It's a pursuit of knowing good things and avoiding bad behavior.

But let's reflect on 1 Corinthians 3:20, which reminds us that the Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, and it's considered useless. Useless for what, you may ask? Useless for producing a godly life. No amount of trying can manufacture God's presence in our lives. Instead, we can trust that God has already completed us.

In other words, our constant striving and efforts to do more are not the path to true fulfillment in our spiritual journey. It's about recognizing that God's work in us is already finished, and we can find contentment in His completing us.

We have a brand-new home! It's not built with stones, gold, or silver. Instead, it's made of the pure Love of Christ, which keeps us hidden from sin and disobedience to our Father's will. Our new home embodies God's Life in Christ Jesus and His eternal Love. We follow Him wherever He goes, doing His work joyfully in our hearts, knowing that our life is part of the Father's plan.

My actions are proof that Father is actively at work.

I approach You, dear Father so that my deeds can be seen as Your handiwork. As I come to You, I am prepared to love as I've been loved. I stay in Your Love and rejoice in the love that flows through me.

As trusting employees of the Holy Spirit, we learn, in little or much, that the tasks before us are form-fitted to God’s abilities, and He is ready to perform them through willing souls. The lesson of life is to trust God’s skill sets. We put no confidence in the flesh. Father wanted to remove that cumbersome burden and replace it with the Holy Spirit at work through the flesh. (See Romans 6.) Our response to His love invading souls is our trust that God is doing just that. We act on trust, leading to trust.

We can do no better than trust God.

Lord, I am wholly available to You, for You to be the only excuse for my being who and what I am and what I say and do.

As trustworthy employees of the Holy Spirit, we do the work of love set before us. Who do we love? Everyone indiscriminately. Specifically, those Father sends us who don’t like us. In Psalm 23, we are told a table is set for me before my enemies. Why? For me to feed them. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. We trust His ability to meet their actual need. The table has been set before us all. The bread and wine are before us. Share Jesus with everyone; there is more than enough.

Sit, relax, and consume.

Thank You, Father, for giving me the bread and wine of life. Thank You for being complete in me. I joyfully feed all I find hungry.

Look no further. Do not trust people who say there is more of Jesus to gain, a new Christ on the scene, or that Jesus has returned and lives on 777 Main Street. You have it all once you submit and trust the Christ of history birthed in your heart. No one has experienced it all, but we have it all.

Submit to the transforming will of God.

Father, I repent of trying to make You look like I want You to look in my life or dress You up in socially acceptable words or actions. You are Love, and You have judged sin and set me free from the old way of trying to fix my flesh or anyone else’s. You override the desires of the flesh without my help.

The consequence of not getting into the only life raft in sight is death. Jesus of old is that life raft. It is one thing to suffer a life without the ability to be satisfied. It is another to reject the satisfying life. Jesus said, “Like the serpent in the wilderness was lifted up for anyone who looked to it to be healed from their poisoned life, I too shall be lifted up. Anyone who looks to Me and trusts Me for life will have it.” He was lifted up, and you can now look to Him. You will be healed of the poison of distrust.

There is only one life that satisfies.

I see You, Lord Jesus. I am perfect and complete in our union. I look to You and am healed.

fitting comfortably within our hearts. After all, God is love, Mr. Love Himself. His love for us is like an endless ocean stretching far beyond the horizon. He is so vast that our finite minds cannot fully comprehend His depths except through our hearts. It is like trying to measure the universe with a ruler.

That is how limitless God is. His ability to love is infinite and pure, bringing peace, rest, and joy to a life we may have never known. It's as if every aspect of our existence is enveloped in the warm embrace of this perfect and boundless love. I recommend you let Mr Love love you.

John came baptizing for one reason: to proclaim Jesus as the Christ. He was told what to do and what to look for. John had even advised the Jewish leaders of Jesus. He scolded them because he knew their hearts were not willing to trust Jesus as the Christ. God’s plan for Jesus was accomplished. They rejected and crucified Jesus. Think of this: without a dead Jesus, we would not have a resurrected Jesus nor His Holy Spirit resident in us. He is the Christ, the one we trust. The only way not to trust Christ is by stealing your heart from his gaze. Not one bit of fear, guilt, or shame can keep you from humbling your will to Christ’s.

Pride alone damns you.

Jesus, nothing I feel, think, say, or do make You real or unreal.

Your salvation is like a powerful pivot, turning you from a misguided path away from God to a purposeful journey through Him. Envision Jesus, the Creator, stepping into the narrative of your life, taking up the very role you were destined for. It's not a mere acknowledgment; it's a continuous surrender of every moment, all 24 hours of each day, in every sphere of life. Whether in business, at home, in school, or during recreation, it's an ongoing yielding to Jesus Christ as the God of your existence. The Christian life is a wholehearted commitment, devoting every aspect of life to Christ's sovereign rule.

Salvation triggers a radical reoccupation by God. Consequently, Jesus holds the indisputable right to shape the terms of your life, such as where you reside, your career path, and even your vacation plans. These all fall under His authority. Anything less dilutes the profound purpose of Christ's redemption.

The Christian life is not a concept but the continual manifestation of Jesus Christ's life breaking out. It's not mimicry but God Himself actively shaping every facet of our lives.

Believing we are separate from God causes us to feel incomplete.

Like oil to a lamp, God is vital for genuine human functioning. Without God burning through your soul, you have a human without acting like one.

Spiritual rebirth is about God empowering us to function as He designed. His life fuels the flame, producing the light of love that shines on all we encounter. The cross isn't a "get out of hell" card; it's God stepping into our lives.

Salvation is God taking charge, guiding our desires, thoughts, words, and actions. It's a profound transformation where old traits yield to a new creation—a testament to God's abilities radiating through our lives activated by trust in Mr. Love Himself.

Promise Received

I WILL BOW DOWN TOWARD YOUR HOLY TEMPLE

AND GIVE THANKS TO YOUR NAME,

FOR YOUR LOVING KINDNESS AND YOUR TRUTH;

FOR YOU HAVE MAGNIFIED YOUR WORD

ACCORDING TO ALL YOUR NAME.

DAVID EXPRESSES HIS GRATITUDE TOWARDS JEHOVAH,

ACKNOWLEDGING THAT HE HAS NOT BEEN LEFT WITHOUT DIRECTION.

IN MODERN LANGUAGE, HIS WORDS CAN BE UNDERSTOOD AS SUCH:

"I WILL BOW DOWN TO YOUR HOLY TEMPLE

AND PRAISE YOUR NAME, FOR YOU HAVE SHOWN ME MERCY AND TRUTH

BY FULFILLING EVERYTHING YOU HAVE PROMISED ME."

AS BELIEVERS WITH THE INDWELLING VICTORIOUS SPIRIT OVER

SIN AND DEATH, WE ARE MUCH MORE THAN MERE MORTALS.

WE ARE GOD'S TEMPLE, AND HIS NAME IS JEHOVAH SAVES!

GOD VALUED MY SOUL EVEN BEFORE I VALUED MYSELF,

AND I OWE MY LIFE TO HIM.

THE TRUTH DEFINED IN SCRIPTURE IS THE SPIRIT HIMSELF,

SPEAKING THROUGH HIS PERFECT TEMPLE, JESUS THE CHRIST.

GOD NOT ONLY PROMISES BUT ALSO FULFILLS HIS PROMISES.

THERE ARE UNIVERSAL (BIBLICAL) PROMISES THAT APPLY TO THE CHURCH AND

EVERY MEMBER

AND THOSE UNIQUE PROMISES THAT HE DECLARES TO EACH INDIVIDUAL.

Despite this, I cannot help but praise You, for my love for You is as innate as my need to breathe. You are the source of my salvation, and today, I call You my Jehovah, my Jesus. You alone have the power to transform hearts into perfect instruments of praise. Praise be to Your Holy Name! Even in my deepest slumber, my heart cries out Your Victory, Yahoo-ah, saves!