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Do you understand that your walk of faith takes a lifetime? After you are saved you still have a lifetime of study, growth, and maturity ahead of you. Do not expect to ‘arrive’ in this world. Do you also understand that spiritual growth is urgent? There is a tendency to think that urgent tasks should be completed quickly, and those that take a lifetime can be completed at a leisurely pace. So one criteria would seem to be in opposition to the other, but both are valid aspects of your faith. Patience as a spiritual fruit is not just a willingness to wait for results. It allows you to remain engaged and active while the long term results come about. 

Nuclear physicists talk about binding energy. The same concept applies to human relations. Friends and organizations must have some organizing principle that holds them together, otherwise they will drift apart. This applies to churches as well. This energy must be present to hold a group together, but it can be positive or negative. The easiest way to gain unity is to unify against a common enemy. Yet knowing what you are against is not life giving in the same way as knowing what you are for. Beware of groups that use opposition to hold them together. This can be toxic to everyone in the group. 

Do you ever wonder who is going to heaven and who isn’t? My word tells you not to say, who shall ascend into heaven, and who shall descend into hell. Not even in your heart! This is a decision that is made above your pay grade. Even so, if you search your heart, do you have a tendency to prefer one destination or the other for particular individuals? I do too, and it is the same in every case. I am not willing that any should perish, and you shouldn’t be either.

Do you know what the word ‘Bible’ means? It means ‘book’. You treat this as a sacred word for a sacred book, but that is the meaning of the term. One of the books in the Bible is called the book of Revelation. Perhaps that is a term that should be applied to the entire Bible. You understand that you are not under the law. Do you look at the Bible as a book of the law? It is easy to do in your culture of intellect. If you are willing to see the Bible as a book of revelation, that is a departure from the line upon line and precept upon precept approach. Search the scriptures and see that they testify of me, and come to me to have life. 

Do you know the importance of being teachable? Do you understand what this means? You can be curious and inquisitive and seek out information to acquire knowledge, but this is not the complete process. For you know educated people who have plenty of facts and information whose behavior and character do not seem to be influenced by what they have learned. The Bible refers to those who are ever learning and never coming to a knowledge of the truth. If you would really be teachable then embrace all the implications for your own behavior of what you learn and change accordingly. 

Question I received in an email from one of our readers: My young daughter went home to be with Jesus three months ago. When receiving counseling prayer about this, God showed me a vision of her in heaven with Jesus. They were playing and laughing together and she told me she was happy and not sick anymore. This encounter has brought my husband and me tremendous peace and comfort, but someone told me that it wasn’t “safe”. I’m just wondering… is it okay? 

Answer: During inner healing prayer times, we have been blessed to see Jesus give people glimpses of their loved ones in heaven and allow them to interact with them. This has provided powerful healing to the wounds in their hearts and changed their lives. The transformation is instantaneous and you can see their countenance change right before your eyes.

You are right that some folks may caution about this, because they may think it is "calling up the dead."  It isn't. There is a distinction. Let us share several examples of godly heavenly encounters and then we will follow these stories with a chart showing the distinctions between conversing with the dead and Jesus-initiated heavenly encounters. 

Do you see my body as a single entity? It is ironic that this view may be more prevalent among those outside of it than the members of the body. For those belonging to one denomination are aware of the distinctions between them and others, but those outside see more similarities. So when problems within any branch of the church occur, the view of the church as a whole is diminished by those outside. Take the broadest view possible when considering who is your brother and sister and neighbor, especially of those who believe. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples when you love one another. 

The horizon is the visible line where the terrain meets the sky. It is the most distant thing you can see on the earth’s surface. Pilots use it as a reference for their attitude. The stars are further away, but they also serve as a position and directional reference for those who can read them. For those who are prepared to accept the idea there is a transcendent horizon. This is may not be visible, but it is a real source of directional reference for those who walk by faith. My word commends those who lived and died in faith, saying that they could see afar off, and sought a city with foundations in the heavens, whose builder and maker was God. How far can you see? 

Do you like instant gratification? Who doesn’t? Your whole commercial culture is built around it and electronic communication devices make it easy to get instant results. Yet you are still tied to a long term gratification cycle that you can’t escape because you need to eat. Anyone who has grown a garden knows that food grows in a gradual process. You can’t see it happen as you watch, but over time it does. This is more essential to your life than communications that happen immediately. Let me teach you a lesson here through nature that applies in other areas too. Be patient. Some things take time. 

I have taught you to love your enemies. Does this sound like an impossible task? Don’t pretend that you don’t have any. Do you ever have a smug sense of satisfaction when you hear about a scandal in a church much different from your own? Are you eager to spread the news? This is not a gracious attitude or act. Are you willing to see my body as a single entity? This is the image I give for my church. I point out how absurd it would be for one part of the body to say that it has no need of another part. How much more absurd would it be for the right hand to gloat because the left hand is injured?