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Modern technology makes it possible for you to talk to your friends anywhere you go. Do you see this as having only advantages? For it also makes it easier for you to ignore the people around you. In many cases these are also your friends and family members, but you also encounter strangers and casual acquaintances in the course of your day. Not all of these are random, for some are appointments that I made for you. Will you have the awareness to know which ones these are, and to be present in your immediate surroundings to minister life in my name? Beware lest a technology meant to connect you serve to isolate you and diminish your abundant life. 

Have you discovered that you don’t have to go to very many church services before you hear a message about giving? What line of reasoning do you typically hear? That giving is a principle that unlocks blessings for you? That giving is the key to getting greater blessings? This is true at a certain level, but have you seen people respond to this in a way that is calculating and self-serving? What if there was a higher level of mystery to sowing and reaping? What if the blessing you received from giving was the development of Christlike character in your life? Can you see how this is a greater blessing than money coming back in greater measure? Would this make you more or less likely to give? 

Do you assume that you are ready for anything? It is not a part of the human condition to be able to make immediate dramatic changes in your thinking and behavior at will. It is helpful for you to understand this. I have a plan for your life. Do you think of this only as salvation? As important as that is, it is not the beginning of my work in you for I laid the groundwork for you to come to me. In my ongoing work in your life I continue to prepare you in advance for what I will do next. Even now can’t you look back and see how I prepared your heart for changes that seemed to occur suddenly? Trust me to continue and complete the good work I have begun in you. 

So you know when you’re just casually reading the bible and suddenly a section of words jump off the page as if they were highlighted in flashing neon lights?  Yeah that happened to me the other day.

God I’m waking up in the cabin down by the river. Last night’s fire is still there, the sun’s just coming up over the hill and into the valley. Birds gossiping, dog stretching. The day’s turned up and it seems like you’ve turned up with it.

And you’ve got something to say haven’t you?

I have.

You just said it before as I was waking up didn’t you?

I did. Tell me what you think I said.

God has appointed … miracles, then gifts of healings (I Cor. 12:28)

Question: I have been told that if I pray more than once for a miracle, then I have a lack of faith and I will not receive anything. Is this true? I have also heard that you must thank God for your miracle even before you see it as an expression of your faith. But what am I supposed to do if the miracle doesn't happen even when I thank God for my healing? If I am not healed when I ask or when someone else lays hands on me, does that mean God isn’t going to heal me for some reason? If I don’t believe that sickness is God’s will for me, and I am not miraculously, instantaneously healed, what can I do?

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I said that I came to give life and life abundantly. Does abundance immediately make you think of money? I give you money, but the promise didn't refer to money in abundance, but life in abundance. Who wouldn’t want to have both? But which is greater? You have met people who were well-off, but were shallow, self-indulgent, and materialistic. You have also met people of modest means with generosity of spirit whose lives were rich and full. Which do you think describes me? Recall that the Son of Man had no place to lay his head. I want you to understand that the promise of abundant life is greater than the promise of money. 

Do you realize that you received the benefit of my sacrifice for you as something you could never repay? I’m not asking you to repay it, but does your gratitude toward me make you want to offer a sacrifice in return? What would be the greatest thing you could give? Are you prepared to die for me? To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Yet I ask something much more difficult of you. It is easy to depart and hard to remain, but you are called to be a living sacrifice, a living testimony in this world to the beauty and wonder of the Kingdom of God. That is your true home, but I want you to occupy here till I come. 

My word teaches you not to be judgmental. Do you think that this is an easy commandment to keep, so that if you don’t purpose in your heart to be judgmental it won’t happen? What is your default condition on this matter? Your mind is wired to think, to generalize, to complete the picture and fill in the blanks. Have you ever found yourself making connections you didn’t intend to make; stereotyping when it was not called for? Then you realize that you have to overcome a natural tendency in yourself to keep my commandment. Yet if you follow me and call on me, I will keep you from unrighteous judgment.