Garden Ministries

Janet Smith – 9-29-19 ©gardenministries.org

Psalm 34:4-5 I sought the LORD, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. 5 They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces will never be ashamed.

God’s love promises to drive out all my fear, grace me with a humbled dependence on Him, and topple all my mountains of self-serving pride. If loving my friends and family is challenging, how will I ever love my enemies? I need a different love. One that doesn’t fail. I need God’s big love as it is revealed in the unshakeable love of Christ.

1 John 4 tells us that the big price behind knowing God’s love is worked out in how well we love others. Verses 10 and 19 hint at a distinction between human love and divine love. The invisible God becomes visible as we manifest His Truth in Love within our circles of fellowship. But who’s love are we manifesting? Our own human affection or His divine love? There’s a difference.

1 John 4:7, 9-12, 15-21 NASB: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God…9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation [i.e., appeasing sacrifice and soothing balm] for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us…

15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

God’s love manifests in us when we live through Jesus Christ (1 John 4:9). What does it mean to “live through Him?” The key word is “through.” In Greek, the word for “through” is, “dia.” Dia means: across (to the other side), back-and-forth, to go all the way through; successfully across. To go back-and-forth and across to the other side describes the process we undertake as we seek to know God and believe He loves us perfectly.

David sought the Lord and He answered David and delivered him from all his fears. The more we seek God, the more His divine love and truth confronts our fear and pride and whittles away the walls of rejection fortified by lies. Day by day, brick by brick, the wall of fear and pride crumbles under the weight of His love as He tenderly draws us into His sword of Truth and cuts away the blinder veils cast between soul and spirit (see Hebrews 4:12).

The circumcision of the heart is painful and sweet. Every time I let His Word draw me to face and acknowledge my fearful, guarded places of unbelief, I can expect my pride bubble to get pierced and the oozing infection of pain formed around it to drain. If I keep my eyes on Jesus and trust Him as He cleanses and covers my wounds, I’ll continue on toward healing (see Isaiah 19:22).

1 John 4:17-18 describes how fallen human love lacks confidence because of the fear of punishment. When we make people’s love our source for feeling loved and put their love above God’s, we will punish these people when they don’t love us well enough and reward them when they do. Why do we do this? Depending on people’s love is easier to control and manipulate than depending on God’s love. That’s why we do it. We want control of our lives—and others.

To the degree we seek control of our lives and others is to the degree we will punish and reward for falling short or succeeding in what we falsely perceive as love. The problem is: we don’t see in Truth. We’re in charge and Jesus isn’t. We are not rooted and grounded in His divine love, we are established in our own tainted perceptions and conclusions about love. We go back-and-forth within these shame and performance-based cycles that have nothing to do with God’s love. It’s a broken system.

We have no hope of ever being loved well enough by any human love because it’s impossible for humans to love us like God loves us. Since the fall of mankind in the garden, human love was separated from God and became entirely self-centered. No one can love perfectly except those who live through Jesus Christ and manifest His perfect love. What a relief. I can stop trying to love or be loved according to my carnally-minded human nature.

In order to access the deep wells of God’s love, we will have to risk surrendering our preconceived ways of being loved and showing love. It’s time to throw the scorecard away once and for all. We don’t get to lead the charge on this process—nor can we. It’s God’s call on how He will show us His love and He doesn’t play by our corrupt, self-centered rule book. We have to throw it out and depend on His insightful leadership.

The Spirit of God loves us uniquely and His ways of showing His love confront and comfort us. God’s love will always resist our attempts to hide behind pride and fear. His Truth hits hard when it finds stony, unbelieving pride and His Truth acts like a sponge when it dries up mushy, reluctant fear-ridden shame.

I cannot perceive God’s love without surrendering to the Spirit of Truth who alone reveals God’s love to me and through me. The love of God is completely outside of my unsanctified human capacity to understand. I am not able to relate through the lens of my self-centered human affections. The love of God is a power I cannot know unless and until He reveals it to me. As long as I stay in control of how I’m loved based on my own self-serving leadership and humanistic perception of love, I am limiting how much I will know and experience of the true and lasting, eternal love of God.

When I try to make love fit into my limited, fearful, controlling human box, I am not open to know the full extent of God’s true love. When I try to control how I’m loved by others, I subject my heart to them and give them power to define love to me in ways they cannot deliver. People are not in charge of my emotions and my heart. God is. When we separate divine love from human love, we see Ephesians 3:14-21 make more sense. It describes the completely other-than nature of the love of God and that we can only gain access to it through faith in Christ, not in people.

Ephesians 3:14-21 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Paul prayed that we be strengthened by the Spirit in our inner man so that we “may be able to comprehend” love. This means we cannot comprehend it without God’s strengthening and enabling. There is an individual enabling and a corporate enabling “with all the saints.”

With this in mind, I am free to view my human relationships as a mirror on how well I am comprehending, responding to, believing in, and walking in the transformative BIG LOVE of God. If I view God’s love through my own set of controls, I will measure love within my self-centered perceptions and experiences of love. When I define love through my corrupt lens of fear and pride and call it “God’s love,” I am trying to make Him fit in my box and He will not—because He cannot.

The revelation of God’s love will transcend my human perceptions and controls. His love blows my grids. It takes humility to even want these preconceptions blown. I must want my selfish ways of relating to God crucified with Christ to gain access to His ways of relating to me. Jesus knew the human heart could not be trusted (see John 2:24). He only entrusted Himself to the Father Who judged every situation and relationship righteously (see 1 Peter 2:23). Just as Jesus modeled for us, our eyes must stay fixed on the prize of knowing Jesus and seeking the revelation of His love. If we seek Him, He will answer our prayers. He will tear down the walls of pride and lift the valleys of shame entrenched with lies. He will do this for us. Will we let Him?

The BIG LOVE of God cannot be experienced except that we first accept the BIG PRICE Jesus paid to redeem us from our broken and sinful estate. From there, further revelations of His love come from our back-and-forth crossing over through daily seeking and believing in His word. As we ask, seek, and knock, the Spirit of God faithfully confronts our fearfully proud and hostile mindsets. God is big enough to deliver us from all our fears. Fear and pride are intricately connected. Will we let Him confront and tear down any mountains of pride standing in our way? Or will we hang on to the controls, justify our excuses, and let shame’s mushy mire keep us looking at ourselves or others for answers?

Matthew 10:37-39 NASB He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.

In Matthew 10:37-39, Jesus boldly declares that it is divine love that carries the day and all human love pales in comparison. He followed His declaration by telling us to take our cross and follow Him. What cross is He asking us to take? We have to stop putting human love above or on par with divine love. They are not compatible because they are not born from the same source. Human love is sourced in the uncrucified, self-centered soul whereas God’s love is sourced in God and expressed in the unshakeable love of Christ. It is in the putting down of our fickle, soulish love and its self-centered control of others that we are transformed into Christ’s likeness and made worthy of Him.

Unshakeable confidence born from God’s love will not grow apart from developing complete dependence on His ways of dealing with our fear and pride. Our faith and confidence in God’s love can only grow as we abide in Him. We abide in God by believing the love He has for us and by letting Him transmit it to us and to others through Christ’s indwelling presence (see 1 John 4:16). Our confidence, born from God’s love for us, will manifest in authentic love for others—even our enemies. Without this confidence, we are only pretending to love. The fruit of fake love will tell on us sooner or later.

In the days ahead, we will need the perfect love of God to hold us when nothing else will. Love is not a thing. Love is a Triune-natured Person we can call with affection: Father God, Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us His compelling story and we must respond. Do we believe He is love and His Word is true?

Janet Smith ©gardenministries.org April 7, 2019

The sanctification process of the Holy Spirit is a long, arduous road. Perhaps that explains why so few find this road, and stay on it. To sanctify, means to set apart. It is a lonely time for those who would give God their all. The process feels lonely because our self-centered ways of relating to others are getting pruned and our roots of rejection pulled out. If we better understand what the process is achieving, we will better trust the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying fires.

Matthew 7:13-14 Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 13 For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Why are believers set apart? The Holy Spirit’s sanctification process prepares us to see God. When we see God as He is, we are changed; we are healed.

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Hebrew 12:14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

1 John 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Malachi 4:2 But for you who [revere] My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.

The Greek term for sanctification is hagiasmos (https://biblehub.com/greek/38.htm). Hagiasmos involves a process of being made holy and set apart. For those who revere God’s Name, it’s a time of consecration and purification. If we are serious about getting prepared, we will respond to the Spirit-led opportunities to put down old ways of thinking and acting. We will walk out our consecration by daily presenting ourselves as living sacrifices to God, ready to obey what He says today.

Romans 6:19 …For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification [Greek: hagiasmos].

As we sink down into patience, our faith-filled choice to follow God’s Truth will lead us away from indulging empty cravings. This faith-and-patience zone can feel flat and empty, but if we stay with it in faith, and keep sinking down into patience, the fruit of God’s love within us will bud and bloom.

Endurance and consistency mark the disciplined life. Those who let God love them with correction will hold fast to the Word of Life. When we purpose to believe God’s love for us is real, His Truth enters our hearts and prunes away old fears and doubt. This uprooting and pruning process separates us out from our old selfish mindset and replaces it with heavenly-minded thinking.

How do we know if we’re making progress? If we see the fruits of the Holy Spirit increasing in our life, we know we are making progress in the sanctification process. Can we see the fruit? Can others see an increase of the Spirit’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in us? If not, we’re stuck and need help getting unstuck.

Many believers want the benefits of sanctification but refuse to undergo the process toward attaining it. That’s because the process means surrender, the cross, and death-to-Self. This process feels lonely. The false comfort of old familiar ways—broken and empty as they are—tempt us to stay unchanged. Our old patterns and rituals feel oddly comforting, albeit fleeting. Surrender to the often grueling process of being set apart is key to our preparation. Can we trust Jesus is our Good Shepherd and knows how and when to wield His rod and staff to comfort us?

Psalm 23 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. 3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

You are not alone. The Word promises to set the lonely in families. Our process can make us feel alone, but we are not. We are being set apart. Not only do believers in Jesus Christ have intimate access to our heavenly Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God has a human-born spiritual family for everyone of His children. Have we found them yet? If we have, are we afraid to serve and commit to them?

Psalm 68:6 God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

The Holy Comforter’s sanctifying work produces servant-hearted lovers of Christ. If we look for opportunities to tangibly serve our God-given family, we will hasten the process of sanctification. Whether people appreciate what we do for them or not, if we serve them as unto the Lord, we are changed by His love that flows through us. We love them not because they love us, but because He first loved us.

When we serve others at cost to ourselves—especially our God-given family—we are loving like He loves. Friendship with God is born out of a sacrificially loving heart. Greatness in God is always servant-hearted. If we will not sacrificially serve those whom Jesus has given us as family, how can the King of kings and Lord of lords include us in His close circle of friends?

John 15:12-14 This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do what I command you.

The sanctification process leads to an end-game. This is the final stage where the few left in the race finish and receive what God has promised His overcomers—that is, His glory [1 Peter 5:1-4]. Will we stay with Him in the sanctification process and finish the race set before us?

1 Thessalonians 4 reveals a generation that will finish their race without physically dying. Will we be that generation eagerly awaiting Christ’s appearing? The rapid changes in Israel certainly validate an urgent need to, “Get ready.”

2 Timothy 4:7-8 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Janet Smith ©gardenministries.org January 6, 2019

The prophesied Global economic shift seems fast approaching. At least, my January 6, 2019 dream seems to point toward this.

On January 6, 2019, the name, “Brian Sullivan” was spoken to me in a dream. I was then brought to various levels of a tall building. I believe the tall building represents this coming global economic shift and its effects on Americans.

I was taken to the upper levels of this tall building and shown toilet bowls overflowing with human fecal waste and beyond flushing. Unlike Genesis 15:16 which says that ‘the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure’ for judgment to begin, I understood that these “bowls” on the upper levels of this tall building were full and overflowing and unable to be flushed. Judgments were needed to deal with this mess.

While on the top level observing these terrible conditions, a small, spontaneous fire broke out that I quickly snuffed out. A maintenance man appeared out of nowhere and confirmed what I was thinking about the lower levels of this building. If a fire is breaking out on this level, I wondered what was happening downstairs? The maintenance man confirmed that there was a full-fledge fire happening on the mid-levels of this building and that even if the small fire at the top was put out, the fires below would still reach the top. There was no way to save the building. People were either going to die in the fire or get out of the building.

I was then taken to the mid-level of the building. I was shown what life looked like on this level before the fire started. The mid-level of this tall building housed the people who were living on their retirement savings from years of hard work in mostly blue-collar jobs. I went to a party for a woman who lived on this mid-level called the “Goodbye Party.” I believe this woman represented the comfortable lifestyle that many retired Americans now enjoy who reap the benefits of their retirement savings. It seems that this mid-level lifestyle and its funding is one of the main things burned up in this global economic shift.

What these retiree’s can look forward to on the other side of this global economic shift is the true wealth of forming real relationships before the economic shift happens. These relationships would help them survive and recover from the changes. Luke 16:9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

The people at the top thought they were safer than people on the streets but as it turned out, they were not. I saw a teenage girl from the streets was in the building for a time. She received shoes and instructions on how to take better care of herself and how to care for others. At first she had a hard time listening but eventually she was re-trained. When the fire was about to break out at the top, her street-smart survival instincts kicked in. Without a second thought, she fearlessly stepped outside the tall building onto the fire escape and slid down a shoot, landing safely at the bottom.

Then I was on the ground floor level and it was time for me to leave this building. I left a tightly secured area and entered a less secured public access lobby of the building. I was headed toward the exit when security personnel stopped me and asked for my ID before I exited. It’s strange that I would need an ID to get out. A person usually needs an ID to get in.

I didn’t have my purse or my ID with me so I had to go back inside the tightly secured area to look for my purse. I wondered if it had been stolen while it was out of my hands and was surprised to find it sitting there unattended. I looked through my purse and noticed that most of the contents were gone but the cash was untouched. The cash seemed to have no value.

I believe this part of my dream means that there is no way to physically anticipate and prepare for what is lost, left behind, or even stolen in this economic shift. We will be left with what is left and will have to go with what is there once everything falls and starts to sort itself out. This is the end of the dream. Only the major highlights and interpretations of the dream are included.

Beside the obvious need to keep our eyes on Jesus through the big changes ahead; prayer, and cultivating heart-knit relationships are the priceless treasures we will be the most grateful for after this globally impacting economic shift sorts out what is real and what is unshakeable.

——-
I wonder if there is any connection to this dream? Warning Dream about America

Janet W. Smith, 12-27-18

“God is gracious and lavishly generous but that never means that I deserve what He so graciously and generously gives me—namely and best of all—Himself. It only and ever means that He is gracious and generous. It never means that I deserve what He gives me. I must humble myself every time and gratefully receive from Him, knowing that I never did anything to deserve or warrant His kindness.

All I can ever give God is my willingness to draw upon the Holy Spirit’s empowering grace and choose to yield in obedience to Jesus Christ and His Holy Word being formed within me. That’s it. That’s all I have to give to God, who gives me the grace to give Him even that!

All that I have and who I am is always from God, for God, and because of Jesus.”

1 Corinthians 4:7 For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

”John 15:5 I [Jesus] am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Janet Smith ©gardenministries.org, November 1, 2018 Updated 8-9-19

Cultivating our First Love upward relationship with Jesus Christ will naturally extend outward and forge deeply bonded relationships, especially with our spiritual family. These relationships are meant to create vibrant, heart-knit, meaningful, and long-lasting friendships. So how do we process the pain of severed relationships with our brothers or sisters in Christ?

Our goals in processing the pain of severed church body relationships should be four-fold:

• To define as best we can, what exactly hurt(s) so that we know what we are specifically dealing with and seeking to forgive. We may need the help of others to find this out.
• To learn what God is after in our own hearts through the experience.
• To keep trusting God, reject fear, and purpose not to get stuck in unresolved anger.
• To remain open to reconciliation through forgiveness and repentance.

The pain of the wound that caused the severed relationship should not be ignored or swept under the rug. The wound needs personal and corporate acknowledgment. Here are some steps to help the healing process:

• Grieve: if you feel hurt, embrace and acknowledge the pain, both personally before God, and with those who you feel can help your healing process. Processing your pain about someone else with those you trust for the purpose of healing is not gossip. Talking it through to peace with the people who hurt us may not be possible if they have closed their doors of communication. Gossip simply means that we are saying slanderous and vindictive things about another person that we are unwilling to speak honestly and openly with that directly, it if was possible. It is NOT gossip when we feel the need to process our pain with others, as long as our motive is not to slander and reject the one who hurt us but seeks the truth that leads toward healing forgiveness.

• Healing process: it may take time to process through all the cycles of hurt that present as we grieve. There will be ups and downs to this process and an ebb and flow to the pain.

• Forgive: seek to forgive. If we need to say, “I’m sorry for wronging you” to someone, be sure that we do this in an honest and meaningful way. We will know there’s progress when our thoughts or possible interactions with the person who hurt us feel less painful and intimidating.

• Reconcile (if possible): consider what steps, if any, may be taken toward reconciliation.

There are two kinds of reconciliation:

1.) mutual reconciliation: both parties find common ground and understanding and can peacefully resolve their differences, restore their friendship, and feel harmonious again. Most, if not all,relationships between those who truly seek an Ephesians 4 relationship with Jesus Christ and His body should find enough common ground in their spiritual pursuit of knowing God to put aside their differences and fellowship around what they do agree on.

2.) non-mutual reconciliation: the relationship cannot find common ground to mutually resolve. We reconcile by accepting that for the time being, nothing more can be done to save the relationship. In non-mutual cases, we need to beware of trying to repair the relationship from our side, when no good reason to move back toward relationship has yet presented from the other side. Continuing to overly exert ourselves in an already lop-sided relationship excuses the other person from contributing to the relationship. We will feel used and wounded.

• Restore (based mutual reconciliation): if a former body member wants to reconnect and restore relationship on a personal and/or corporate level, it is important to revisit the reason the relationship was severed and see what, if anything, has changed to reenter into relationship building. Trust is a fragile thread. When lost, it can take twice as long to regain and may never be at the same level it was at before we left. We may not feel the same level of friendship or closeness we enjoyed before the relationship break. Then again, we may.

• Focus: stay focused on those who are still with your spiritual family and don’t project on them the fear and hurt the others who leave or break relationship may cause. After someone leaves an existing body, no one can or should ever try to legislate to the other church body members, “who can talk to who,” or “who can be a friend to who.” That is everyone’s right to determine as they see fit and is a matter of conscience between them and God. It is important however, to be sensitive to people on both sides of outstanding issues and consider that our interactions with former body members could be painful for others in our body among those who are still trying to recover from the pain of the severed relationship.

Whether people stay in or leave their church body, if we are pursuing First Love fullness with Jesus Christ, then hopefully we are learning how to process all the way through our relationship differences until we find mutual peace. Hopefully then, we won’t unnecessarily sever relationships we once held precious and show the same respect we would like shown to us. The cause-and-affect dynamic of relational fallout doesn’t always have a starting point. Who’s to blame isn’t always clear and usually involves both sides. We can simply start with “what’s my part in resolving this?” If we approach relationships with the presumption that we are right and the other person is all wrong, we won’t think to look at our own doorstep and consider our part in the healing process.

It is hypocrisy to treat others in ways we ourselves would not like to be treated. Hypocrisy is the fruit of a religious spirit and wounds incurred by a religious spirit are some of the deepest, most painful wounds a person in the body of Christ will experience or inflict. If you have experienced or inflicted a severed church body relationship and are feeling deep pain from it, ask God to show you where the hypocrisy of your words and actions and their words and actions have cut into your heart. This will help to clearly define what happened and why it hurts so much. Ask God to show you through scriptural truth’s, where the lines were crossed so you have a clear understanding of where things went wrong and what needs to happen to make them right.

Romans 12:9-21 describes the process we are to follow: 9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; 11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, 13 contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16 Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. 17 Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. 19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord. 20 “BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Janet Smith ©gardenministries.org, October 30, 2018

We are all in one process or another but if these processes are not producing in us a more God-centered, God-hungry lifestyle, then our processes are just cycling us around in a circle and taking us nowhere. If we are truly after God’s own heart, then our learning-and-growing processes must produce greater hunger and thirst for 1.) Jesus Christ and more 2.) joyful fellowship with Him in His Word—or they are not working. If we are no different in these two areas than we were 1 or 2 years ago, then we are stuck on spiritual low-ground and our heart is not being transformed.

Where we get stuck in our processes is when we hang on to old ideas that seemed to have worked in past seasons but are not working in this season. We have not realized that things changed around us and we didn’t find the entry point to move forward with the changes. For example, in a past season, someone may set their heart on doing or getting something that in all honesty, they just didn’t want to hear God say “No” to that thing or that relationship.

We have to get to the point where we can humble ourselves and admit that when we didn’t want God to say “No.” If we don’t, we’ll find a religious reason why God should have said “Yes” and hide behind it. Hanging on to things out of religious pride is one of the dumbest things we’ll ever do. Humbling ourselves and admitting that we didn’t want to hear God say, “No” is a good starting point for change. Refusing to admit this keeps us stuck.

Without admission, confession, and true repentance from what isn’t working, we will just keep repeating the same life patterns that get us nowhere.If we are still thinking that this time, maybe it will work, our pattern of processing is stuck. We have to stop and look at where we are at and be willing to admit when it’s not working. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are not manifesting. We have to stop defending what we once thought was the right thing to do, but realize now that we didn’t hear God’s clear “Yes” about it.

When we defend broken ways that haven’t worked, we are closing the doors to our new season with God. Now that we have “our thing” or “our person” that we willfully wanted but we are no closer to God than before, we are struck with either admitting or denying what is right in front of us. If we feel disconnected from God and can’t figure out why there’s a distance, it’s time to admit that we missed it and get on with what God is saying now.

The Lord graciously waits for us to come to Him and be still before Him. We can start the change toward breakthrough simply by asking the Holy Spirit to help us hunger and thirst after Him again. First-Love for Jesus is a fire that needs constant kindling and refueling. It’s not a one-time deal. It’s an everyday choice, an everyday discipline. Jesus waits for our Yes to put His finger on that sacred cow that we religiously defend. He asks us, “Will you Me take this out of our way?”

Until we are willing to listen and learn from the past and become convicted in the areas where we forged ahead without His blessing, we will not draw nearer to God and we will just keep using Him for His unending grace to get what we want while we remain dreadfully unchanged. Stuck in perpetual self-centered processes, we are just using our gracious God to stay the same. Now that’s what we can truly call, “a vicious cycle.” How do I know I am stuck in a vicious cycle? I do not feel close to God. I feel stuck and unchanged.

If we really want change, do we dare ask God to put His finger on our every heart’s desire and reveal our “sacred cows?” Will we put them on the altar and relinquish them for His sake? Is He truly Lord of all that we have and who we are? Or are we still, just using Him to get what we want? Will we let God say “No” so that He can give us His bigger “Yes” elsewhere? Will we wait for Him to speak and be still before Him until He does?

Feeling loved and wanted is an innate human need. Creating a human Life, who is raised by a loving family, is our great responsibility. Pregnancy is a gift of human life that, from its conception, is to be treated by its parents and their surrounding community as the precious human being that it is.

The power to create Life means that controlling birth starts with controlling our bodies potential ability to produce Life. Responsible human beings, who are not ready to lovingly parent another human life, should assertively practice effective forms of birth control before they start making sexually-active choices.

The deep respect for Life begins early. We must treat our own children with respect for their life as we teach them, by our own examples, of the beauty and the power of the human body’s potential ability to reproduce and create another Life.

Are we, and our growing children, really learning what the scope and power of being sexually active means to all of us long-term?

Are we instilling respect for this capability and taking humble responsibility for the power of it by teaching our growing children and other uninformed adults how to use their body’s capabilities more responsibly?

Is teaching our growing children how to wait to become sexually active until they are emotionally and physically ready to handle its many long-term effects being taught as a wise and viable, first-choice option? If not, why not?

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Luke 18:8 When the Son of Man comes, INDEED, will He find FAITH on the earth?

In the Greek version of Luke 18:8, there is a word included that isn’t included in many of English translations. It is the word, “indeed.” biblehub.com/text/luke/18-8.htm

This missing word adds an important insight into Christ’s coming. The word alludes to Christ’s Luke 18:8 coming as being somewhat of a “surprise entrance” and, as such, requires a unique readiness of faith to properly respond to His arrival.

The Greek word for INDEED is ára. According to biblehub.com, “this difficult-to-translate interrogative particle (adverb) injects the element of surprise and the pressing need to respond. Depending on the context, ‘ára’ will emphasize the aspect of hesitation, bewilderment, etc. (J. B. Lightfoot).”

One thing is clear from Luke 18:8. If we have the uniquely prepared, full-persuaded Christ-formed faith that Jesus is looking for when He arrives, we will be enabled by the Holy Spirit to readily perceive and recognize Him, and properly respond to Him—even though His arrival may come in a surprisedly unique way.

We must want the Person of Christ more than we want His blessings, or His things. It is only Christ formed within us that will be able to stand before Him unashamed when He arrives. If we are looking for His things or what He can do for us, not only will we wobble at His appearing, we may run away from Him, or worse, not even recognize His Personal arrival. If we have presumptuously defined how He must come to us and what things must look like when He does, we are relating to Him from a Self-centered perspective of what’s in it for us and we will miss His coming.

This distinction between pursuing the Person as opposed to His things, requires a unique level of faithful watching that involves a vigorous process of preparation. The preparation especially embraces the Galatians 2:20 process of dying to our self-centered, aggravated ego cycles. The fiery trials sent our way test and prove our faith. If we have stayed faithful to Him in this dying-to-self, sacrificed-ego process, we will also be ready to receive Him as our new and abundant Life.

Even though Christ’s arrival may come with a significant surprise, the delightfully surprised person will rejoice, eagerly respond, and “come out to meet Him!” Because they met the condition of Luke 18:8 faith that Jesus was looking for when He came. The surprise didn’t take them out, it brought them into Him! Jesus wants to marry His Beloved Bride. He Himself is our Great Reward!

The Matthew 25 parable of the 10 virgins also describes this surprise element within the wedding narrative.

“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ 7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ 9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ 10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. 11 Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’ Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ 13 Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

Janet Smith – 5-10-18 ©gardenministries.org

The humility of developing complete dependence upon God means that I give Jesus my First-Love affection and attention every day. Jesus wants me to seek Him out and to intimately know what is on His heart every day. The Holy Spirit wants to give me spiritual Bread from heaven and Jesus taught us to pray and ask for this bread every day (Matthew 6:11). God knows what we need even before we ask for it so this spiritual bread anticipates and is specific to fit the unique demands for the coming day. I need this daily bread to mature so that when God comes to inspect my maturing process, He will see the cumulative maturing effect that my every day choices to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness have produced. Spiritual maturity empowers and enables the Divine Nature growing within me to perceive and recognize God when He comes to inspect His harvest fields.

There is no neutral in the kingdom of heaven. Every day, the kingdom of heaven is forcefully advancing all around us and hopefully within us. We are either choosing to prioritize our kingdom life in God by giving Jesus, the Word, our First-Love affection and attention every day, or we are not.

• First-Love for Jesus means that every day I show deep respect for Jesus as my Savior and Lord by eagerly responding to His desire to spend time with me (Revelation 2:1-5).

• If I’m too busy or too bored and indifferent to give Jesus my time and heart-felt attention every day, then my heart is growing cold and I am in danger of becoming lukewarm toward God instead of becoming more tender and fiery toward Him.

• A kingdom of “Priests unto our God” means that we were created and called to minister to the Lord! It is a great honor to be invited to minister to the Lord (Revelation 5:10, 1 Peter 2:9).

God searches and finds. The Eyes of God search for those who passionately want Him. If we are not searching for God, who searches for us, we will miss Him. This translates into significant opportunities with God that are either realized or missed. 2 Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. Hebrews 4:13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

God farms. Throughout scripture, farming is used as a kingdom metaphor with humanity as the intended harvest. God regularly comes to His human harvest fields and inspects them. Sometimes we are aware that He is looking and other times, we are quite unaware. But what is God looking for? He is looking for fiery faith and spiritual maturity. He is looking for His Son Jesus to be fully formed in us. The Father’s harvest only comes when the crops are ripe and ready.

God’s inspects: God is looking to see at what stage His kingdom and His righteousness have grown up within us. What level of maturity in Christ have we reached? Is it time for harvest yet? Luke 19:41-44 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he [Jesus] wept over it 42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s visitation.”

The word “recognize” in Greek is ginóskó and means to intimately know, to ascertain, to learn; enabled to perceive and recognize something or someone.

The word “visitation” in Greek is episkopé and means an overseeing, investigation, and inspection.

Luke 18:6-8 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge said; 7 now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? 8 “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly [swiftly]. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?

The word “faith” in Greek is “pistis” and means to be inwardly fully persuaded, faithful, and trusting.

God grows. As the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Jesus washes us with the water of His word which matures us in our ability to fully depend upon Him, trust Him, and recognize His voice when He speaks to us. This maturing happens as we daily choose to seek Him and believe that what He has said is true. Our everyday actions will back up our inward persuasions. Spiritual maturity reflects the collective nature of our daily choices to wholeheartedly seek, love, and obey Jesus.

God weeds out religious fakers and spits out the lukewarm. The Last Days will experience strong, spiritual winds blowing across humanity (Matthew 13:15, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12, 2 Timothy 4:1-5). When God works His harvest fields, the Bible says that His angels gather up His wheat and have the tares extracted from the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30). The tares represent those who reject Jesus as the Living Word and Son of God and refuse to seek for and love God’s Truth. The tares will be gathered into bundles and collectively receive what they have asked for. In their spiritually blind and deaf states, they will experience spiritual famine and strong delusion and, darkened in their understanding because of their hardened hearts, they will no longer hear or perceive Truth (2 Peter 1:9). As for the indecisive and lukewarm who chose to remain complacent and indifferent toward the Truth, they will be spit out of God’s mouth [Rev. 3:16]. It should not surprise us when the rhetoric and lifestyles of those given over to empty religions manifest the dark fruits of that empty religion’s strong delusions.

God harvests. When the Son of Man comes, He is coming for a faithful, inwardly-persuaded, fully trusting bride who is daily walking in devotion to Him. 2 Peter 1:1-11 and Matthew 13 describe God’s measures and processes for growth. When He comes to inspect His Harvest, God is looking for an ever-increasing amount of His Divine Nature being expressed in our faith, excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and unselfish love.

2 Peter 1:1-11 Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped [in the sense of fleeing from] the corruption [rottenness] that is in the world by lust [focused and obsessive urges]. 5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his [cleansing] purification from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain [fully applying oneself, not half-hearted.] about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you [or in other translations it reads, “you will receive a lavish reception, a grand entrance, and a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”.]

God transforms and inhabits. If we are eagerly seeking God’s heart every day, our eyes and ears will be more open to perceiving His Truth. The Presence of the Spirit of Truth within us empowers and enables us to perceive and recognize the Morningstar, Jesus Christ, as He rises within us (2 Peter 1:19). The more of His Presence within us, the more the 2 Peter 1:5-7* qualities of maturity will be evidenced in our daily walk with others.

The ability to perceive and recognize God when He comes is because His glorious Presence bears witness to Christ within us. Because we are readily “tuned-in” to His Presence, we have the ability to perceive and recognize Him when He comes. And by this ability, we pass His maturity inspections. He is searching for and finding those who wholeheartedly love Him with First-Love affection and have daily made their relationship with Him their First-Love priority. This is the fiery faith that the Son of Man is looking for when He comes! Check out Psalm 139. David literally asked God to come and inspect him!

Janet Smith – 2-28-18 ©gardenministries.org

Big change is at hand and resistance to change is surfacing.

On Wednesday morning, February 28, 2018, I dreamt that an intense water-storm was breaking all around me, unleashing supernatural fury in lightning strokes of power that were humanly unimaginable. It was not a good storm. It was a death storm. As it began to break, I saw a daughter standing nearby, holding the hand of a little girl. We looked at each other knowingly, and without words, we decided to simply stand and hold on to each other and say “I love you” until our final breath was taken, and we died together in this terrible storm.

Revelation 12:15 And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood.

But this daughter, the young girl, and I didn’t die [Revelation 12:14]. Somehow, we survived and were now on the other side of this furious storm. I looked around the building and began to assess the aftermath of where we had stood holding on to each other in love through the storm. I found broken down walls and open windows where the water got in and should have killed us but didn’t. I mentioned all of these areas to someone that I presumed could repair them, but they seemed uninterested with my suggestions.

Then I encountered another daughter and an older woman. Both women could see firsthand, all of the changes that this water storm had brought which provoked areas within them that were still resistant to change. I worked with the women to help them embrace the changes by becoming Christ-like bridal overcomers.

Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.

A new sound is coming.

My dream ended with me working with a sound engineer who was teaching me how to make changes and adjustments on a mixing board to accommodate for the changes that had come in the area of sound.

In summary:

When a pregnant woman’s water breaks, birth must happen. Breaking water-storms are soon coming as the deep of the spirit realm is opened and big change, or birthing is at hand. The only successful spiritual way through what is coming is Christ’s way through it. We may have gotten away with doing things our way before, but this time, our way will not work. Though death is a real threat, those who stand faithfully firm in their bridal Love for Jesus and His body will make it through this breaking water storm. A new sound is on the other side of this storm. We will be taught how to change the way we capture, process, and emit this new sound.

There is a letting-go to the crossing-over and the entering-in. We may or may not live to see the other side of all the changes that are now breaking forth upon the land and in our lives, but faith in Christ, believing that He loves us, and actively engaging in our love for each other, will carry the Day.

Satan’s end-time strategy is the same one he had at the beginning: seduce and kill. He tries to seduce us away from loving and obeying God’s word through enticements that temporarily stimulate the fallen, insatiable appetites of our body and soul described in Philippians 3:18-19. To the degree that I allow these insatiable appetites to undergo the Galatians 2:20 process of becoming “crucified with Christ” and I am hidden in Him, is to the degree that Satan will find nothing left in me to seduce, rob, and kill.

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

John 10:10 the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I [Jesus] came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Once the first birth happens, more will come.

Revelation 12:17 So the dragon was enraged with the woman and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

Romans 8:19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.

Wave after wave of transformed harvesters-of-harvesters are beginning to be birthed. Those who are the Romans 8:19 “revealed sons of God” will bear the evidence of the Ephesian 4:13 fullness of Christ. These revealed sons are the transformed harvesters who will seek to encourage the next wave of harvesters about to be birthed. The first wave of transformed bridal overcomers will lovingly encourage the next wave of bridal overcomers to stand fast and hold true to the Word of God as they undergo the life-and-death breaking of the waters and the cataclysmic process of change and birth.

A new sound will break out and dramatic presentations of hope-filled Love will mark the Day.

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Revelation 12:7-17 And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, 8 and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. 11 And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.

12 For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time. 13 And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. 14 But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.