The Narrow Gate
AUTHOR: Roger Fields
There are many who want to experience the power of doing great exploits for God. But the true power comes in knowing who the Lord is and what this person is willing to do to have a continual audience with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is done only when a person is willing to leave everything behind, by having it cut away. Then they be grafted in to the tree of life and cleave to that which has the greater importance. One must be determined to strive to enter into the narrow place that leads them into the Holy of Holies, where the trinity are seated waiting to see who shows up.
The Narrow Gate.
The Lord shares this message as a part of the sermon on the mount. “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who (choose) enter through it are many. How narrow is the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.
What is a true Disciple.
Just so, every good tree (planting of the Lord) bears good fruit, and a rotten tree (planting of the enemy) bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. So by their fruits you will know them.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’
Matthew 7:12-23 NABRE
Summary; in order to live a royal life one must enter in through the narrow gate, to become a planting of the Lord that allows them to bear good fruit. A tree that bears good fruit has to be pruned (every year), if they are to have abundant fruit that last. A royal life is about sharing our life with God and allowing him to remove the things that aren’t important to him. It isn’t about the power to do the stuff. It’s about knowing what it feels like when the Father touches you and him knowing us and what is the true focus of our heart. This is what places your name in his book.
Selah!
Fun with Mindsets
Today’s topic: Rejection
It’s All About The Garden
Hey, my loves! How are you doing today?
At first, Let me invite you to this song:
IT’S ALL ABOUT The GARDEN
Some time ago in a dream Jesus brought me to a garden full of wild flowers. He lead the way on a path to the center of it and invited me to sit with him on a bench under two trees. Puzzled by the garden that was beautiful but not cultivated I asked him about it. His answer surprised me, as he said that it was the garden of my heart. Beautiful, with a place for him and me to sit, but producing no fruit… Wait a minute Jesus, no fruit? And there I heard Holy Spirit getting all excited saying; Come and I will show you how to take care of the garden of your heart. I will show you how the heart produces fruit.
Being the hands on type of a learner Holy Spirit nudged me to start a garden in my yard. Sounds glorious, but I got so overwhelmed by the task. Having been a city dweller for the most of my life I had been confronted by lack of knowledge and skills. So much to learn! He kept reminding me about patience and small steps and drew my attention to the utmost importance of SOIL. The Soil! Pay attention to the soil!!! I got it I thought! I live in the Garden State after all! You would think that New Jersey carrying that “last name” would have soil that requires digging a hole putting a plant in and Ou-la-la! You will just watch in amazement how everything grows! Wrong! So wrong!
If you take a trip to a countryside you will encounter piles and piles of stones on the side of fields that somebody long time ago had to pick up from any land that he wanted to cultivate. And picking the stones would be just the first step.
Then you needed to plow and plow and plow and fertilize until you would get soil that would be useful for planting.
The whole idea of the hard work was just too exhausting. My yard was surrounded by trees and the soil was pure clay. There were moments of frustration where I wished I would have decided to open a ceramic workshop instead. I went for a shortcut. With help of my husband we put together a few raised beds and added the correct mixture of manure and soil and planted.
It looked great, but my yard was looking lonely and the calling of a real garden was being constantly stirred in my mind. So I asked;” Why is my heart still so unsatisfied? The garden looks lovely, the plants are growing, why is my heart still full of longing for a real garden? What is that longing about?
And then I heard a quiet whisper of a question:, “Do you love me?,” he asked. “Do you love me?,” he asked again.
I thought I did, I answered…
“Well, well, let me show you what love looks like,” he said. And he took a tiny seed and planted it in my garden.
About two months ago a movie on Prime called “Back to Eden” generated more excitement and passion about this new form of gardening . They called it gardening the Lord’s way. Encouraged by the dream and longing I got excited and followed the instructions. We got the free mulch from a tree service and set on a journey.
Remember the soil issue! What a shocker! Instead of hard work and plowing and fertilizing in gardening the Lord’s way you can just put on top of your difficult soil a 6 inch layer of tree mulch and let it sit for a year and then you can plant straight to it and will never have to water your garden again! That is a true shortcut! This is how our Father meant it in the beginning! To come to a place where we let His blanket cover the soil of our heart no matter how hard or damaged and let His mulching presence change it into a fertile land; into the heart that is able to receive love in and also produce it. Jesus is a true master gardener, teaching us to take care first of our gardens so out of the abundance in it we can share with others of the fruit he planted in our hearts.
No shortcut when it comes to those rocks! They still need to be removed!
Our Father has been calling us to a place of intimacy for a long long time. Back to the place in Genesis 3:8, where He can walk in the cool of a day in our garden and we will not hide from Him anymore.
I would like to encourage you to watch the movie, regardless of your gardening or no gardening desires. It is full of revelation.
The Master Gardener
AUTHOR: Frances Zambardino
That He Is!
During this time of Quarantine, I’ve begun a new journey of learning how to garden. Boy, this is work! I looked at the large yard I have and thought to myself, “Something has got to grow here.”
I began to research stuff starting at Genesis to Google. 😄
Genesis 1:11 God said ” Let The Earth Put Forth Vegetation: plants yielding seed & Fruit Trees Yielding Fruit Who Seed Is In Itself, Each According To Its Kind, Upon The Earth.”
AND IT WAS SO.
So, I went Outside and spoke these same words over the land. I just added, “My Daddy said …”
Thru the days & Weeks that followed, I continued asking “What are we planting? How do I work this land?” etc.
Then the plants came rolling in after that! All from moms who had too many of this & that and I accepted all that was coming with open arms!
Do I know what I’m doing? Not at all. But The Master Gardener Will Teach Me.
How does this relate to The Royal Life We Are Choosing To Live?
King eats the very best so should his kids.
I’m sure there’s so much more to explore so stay tuned for more!
Hearing the Father’s Heart for Others
AUTHOR: Evelin Acosta
I love the prophetic. I remember when I first began exploring this gift and I just fell in love with it. I’m always amazed at the fact that God talks to us and wants to share things with us. I especially love it when it’s for someone else and it blesses their socks off.
Today I want to share a game I play with a few of my friends. I think you’ll find it fun and it will certainly strengthen your prophetic muscles if you do it a lot. The Royal Life means I hear my Father’s voice.
Love you all! ❤️
John 10:27
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
AMA (Ask Me Anything)
Jesus Prayed for Us
AUTHOR: Robin Fields
John 17:21-23
Jesus prayed for us.
He prayed that we would be joined together as one, just as He and The Father are one.
He prayed for us to become one with Him; with Them.
He prayed that the very glory that God had given Him, be given to us so that as we are joined together as one, we would and will experience the same joy the He enjoys with Father God.
He now lives fully in us so that we experience perfect unity!
In seeing our love for Him and for one another, the world will be convinced that He was sent by God.
In the Passion Translation footnotes on verses 23, it is stated that the Aramaic is “shrink into one.” When we see Jesus in one another, our vaulted opinions of ourselves will shrink. We begin to value others more highly.
In this, His Glory is revealed and shared among us, I believe.
I’m sharing pictures of a beautiful Gardenia bush that is planted by my back door. I’m always fascinated by the beauty and fragrance of these delicate flowers.
I think this plant is more precious to me because we once thought that it was dying. It appeared to be withering and brown. But we pruned it all the way back and slowly it began to live again.
I’m always excited when this plant begins to flower. It’s such a sign of redemption to me. I was thinking how glorious to see the different stages of this beautiful flowering plant. Some flowers are spent already, with their browning petals. Others are wide open, releasing such a gorgeous aroma. And still others are just budding, awaiting their time to bloom.
And so it is with us as Believers, as One. We are all one, in different stages, but of the same plant; joined together in this Glorious Relationship with the Holy Trinity and with each other.
Currently, we’re not able to gather together to enjoy each other as fully as before, but we can know that we are still One in Christ and that we can still experience the fullness of Joy that he prayed for us to enjoy. As we continue to connect in limited ways in the natural, we still release a fragrance that is unique to Christ. It’s a fragrance that draws others to want to discover the Source.
Your Long Term Goals
AUTHOR: Michael-Janelle
I recently started reading a book written by Commander Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut who commanded the International Space Station for a period of time. His story is really a fascinating one, but the thing that was most interesting to me is that he determined that he wanted to be an astronaut at 9 years old after seeing Americans land on the moon. Even more amazing was at the time there was no such thing as a Canadian astronaut—they didn’t exist!
His philosophy of setting and pursuing goals is a great, practical approach to how we can achieve something bigger than we could ever imagine and enjoy the journey along the way! Better than me explaining it to you, why not hear it from him directly…
– Michael
The ABC’s of God
AUTHOR: Michael-Janelle
“I know the truth about You, God, because You have made it obvious to me. For ever since I was born, I have seen Your creation. Through everything You made, I can clearly see Your invisible qualities – Your eternal power and divine nature. So I have no excuse for not knowing You.” (Romans 1:19-20)
Today I am challenging you all to a fun task. The concept is to say a character trait/attribute of God for each letter of the alphabet. You can start off your paper or digital note with “I thank You and I praise You, God, for You are…” and starting listing one word each from A to Z. If You want to take this challenge a step further, search for Scriptures that go with each word.
If you need a little boost, think about what You already know about God or think about the things You need Him to be for you right now. Adding Scripture will enhance your time together with Him.
There are many ways you can continue with this after today: you can highlight only one letter a day and write down as many words for that letter as you can think of. You can keep one collaborative paper and add to the list one extra word each day. Or you can start over fresh everyday purposefully choosing new words each time.
Please feel free to share with us in the comments below your ABC’s of God.
– Janelle
