God’s Guidance Fulfilled — Lawrence

On August 27th, 2010, I wrote a blog on this site called, Acknowledging God’s Guidance. It was about specific guidance that I had received from God, regarding my new manuscript, Highway of Holiness: Soul Journey.

Regarding God’s guidance, I quoted Carolyn Myss from her book, Entering the Castle, in which she says:

“Once you acknowledge guidance, you will always be shown pathways through whatever difficulties arise…You will gradually develop the stamina to act on the guidance you receive, confronting whatever fears surface along the way…you know what it is to hear God. That doesn’t settle the challenge of whether you will follow this voice.”

The guidance I needed was whether or not to self-publish this book, as I had done with three of my other books, or whether to continue to send the manuscript to more publishers and see if it would be accepted by one of them. I felt that I did receive God’s guidance in the following words, “Wait a little while longer; there is a place for you.”

However, I was finding it difficult to wait and began to hedge my bets by beginning to format my manuscript so that I would be ready to self-publish while, at the same time, continuing to send out my manuscript to publishers.

When God wants to prove a point (in this case, I believe God wanted to prove that my doubts of God’s guidance to provide a publisher for my manuscript were unfounded), then miracles happen.

This is the miracle I was given:

I sent in my book proposal one day over the internet as instructed by the publisher, Wipf and Stock. The next morning, I received a reply that they wanted my manuscript. How amazing is that? Eight months later, my book is published and available for purchase. It would have been earlier than that but I became very sick in October 2010 and my manuscript deadline had to be postponed for three months until my health and strength improved.

I give thanks and praise to God for his faithful guidance and miracle of my newly published book, Highway of Holiness: Soul Journey.

Highway of Holiness:Soul Journey By Judith Lawrence

Book Description
You were born on earth in holiness but as you walk along life's road and become buffeted with life's trials you lose the knowledge of the holiness with which you were born. Join Judith Lawrence along her soul journey as she considers God's grace, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the abundance of Christ's love, and many other blessings received along life's road. Discover your soul's qualities, discern your soul's voice, and follow your soul's leading along your spiritual pilgrimage. Become a contemplative without a cloister, keep God at the center of your life, and find God's open doors along your pilgrim way. This book will take you through paths of prayer and assist you to become aware of your soul's presence within; it will guide you towards a unique relationship with God, take you along your path to spiritual maturity, and give you a realization of your holiness and oneness with God. The spiritual journey is one of awakening to your soul's presence, rediscovering the holiness with which you were born, and being transformed into spiritual beings.

Retail Price: $16.00
Web Price: $12.80
ISBN 10:
ISBN 13: 978-1-61097-159-1
Pages: 132
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: 05/11/2011
Street Date: 05/11/2011
Division: Resource

Does God Love Me? - Meyer

Recently, a popular radio host (http://www.thedrewmarshallshow.ca/) challenged his audience with the questions: “Why do you believe in God?” and “Have you ever had a legitimate personal encounter with Him?”

Last time when I posted on this blog, I attempted to answer the question: “Is there a God?” http://twgauthors.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html
Now, it gets personal.

Have I had a legitimate personal encounter with God?
Yes.
Do I know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that God loves me?
Yes.
Can I prove it?
No.
And… I hesitate to try… because I open myself up to possible ridicule.
And… I desperately do want to try… on the off chance that someone who has never tasted of this sweet, precious love might be drawn a step closer to this dear wonderful friend of mine.
So here goes.

It hasn’t been one personal encounter. It has been many. Many little moments, small breathes of God’s love, that have slowly melted away the ice of doubt in my mind and in my heart.
And the best way that I can explain this love relationship with God is by comparing it to our human relationships. God himself does this in the Bible. In Galatians 4:6, we read: “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’”
There are also many references to us as being God’s bride. In Isaiah 62:5, it says that “…as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”

I can’t prove to you – or even begin to explain – my husband’s love.
I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he loves me.
Why am I so convinced?
Nothing I could explain in a few minutes… or a few years.
It’s been a thousand – perhaps a million – little things that have gradually melted away any doubt in my mind and in my heart.
When my husband asked me to marry him, I was very fearful because of my parents’ bad marriage. John said to me: “I can’t prove my love to you. You’ll just have to trust me.” Years later, walking out under the stars, I heard an echo of his words in my heart, God saying, “I can’t prove my love to you, Dorene. You’ll just have to trust me.”

And by its very definition, this is a personal encounter that we are talking about. What is meaningful to me will very likely not be meaningful to you. If I were to tell you that I feel loved and special because my husband shot an elastic band at me while I was deep in thought composing this post, you’d say I was crazy!! If I told you that he bought me a dozen roses, you might feel slightly more convinced. But some would still remain skeptical.

If I told you that God showed his love to me by splashing a rainbow across the sky, you might have all sorts of protests and legitimate questions. If I told that He quietly spoke into my heart – and that I answered back! – you might wish to declare me certifiably insane. Hearing voices, no less!

But it’s the only way I can begin to give you a glimpse of why I know that God loves me. Please just remember it’s only a glimpse and it’s God speaking to me. He won’t speak to you in the same voice, the same tone and quite possibly, not even the same language. See, this is the truly marvelous and miraculous part – God, through His Holy Spirit, doesn’t have to use a telephone or an email or write our names in the sand. He can speak to us even if we are in the dark, without Internet access, or out in the middle of the bush. He knows our language, our culture and all of those one-liners and inside jokes that only special friends know. He can speak directly into the innermost part of our being in a voice that doesn’t even need words. Yes, He doesn't even need words! Sometimes, when I’m trying to relate an experience I’ve had with God, I’ve struggled to put in words the message that I’ve received from Him. Without getting too sci-fi on you, I think the best way I could describe it is more of a thought transfer. It's his spirit speaking to my spirit and sometimes words are unnecessary.

Okay, here’s my example. It’s not my biggest or “bestest” – it’s just one little example – that meant the world to me.
I was really stressed out about my family this past summer. I don’t want to go into all the details. Suffice it to say, I was worried.
I saw a rainbow.
Uh-huh. Okay. Thank you, Lord; that’s a beautiful rainbow.
I know it is a sign of God’s promise. And to me personally, it is a reminder that God has everything under control, that He loves me. I believe in the words of Romans 8:28 that “…in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
I don’t remember the exact sequence of events but I do remember that we were traveling in different areas between provinces and in all types of weather from cloudy to clear blue skies. And it seemed, everywhere we went… oh, there’s another rainbow… oh, look, another rainbow! And not just those little half faded ones but full color bows touching down on the horizon and stretching across the whole sky.
And my response…
Okay, I get it (big sigh).
Yeah. Okay, I got it. I got it! (exasperation).
Alright already! (just a bit ticked off).
Okay, (smile). I really got it this time (let’s take a picture, kids).

Thank you, Lord. I know you love me. I know you love my kids and grandkids.
I know I can trust you.
I love you, too.

Dorene Meyer
http://www.dorenemeyer.com/

Author of The Little Ones and Jasmine
Now in book stores across Canada
Distributed by Word Alive Press http://www.wordalivepress.ca/.
Available online and as ebook on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/ (key in title of book and publisher: Word Alive Press).

Is There a God? - Meyer

Recently, a popular Christian radio host (http://www.thedrewmarshallshow.com/) posed the question: “How do you know there is a God?”
It was suggested that if God is real, then he would personally contact us in such a way that we would know unmistakably that it was God speaking to us. It was further suggested that He would converse with us in a voice that our ears could hear or in written words that our eyes could see – but again, with a personal message just for us.

Well, actually, it has happened before in human history but not very often.
And what has been our reaction as human beings?
1. Disbelief – in the Bible in the book of John, chapter 12 and verses 28 and 29, there is an account of some people who heard a voice from heaven speaking. Their reaction – they said it was thunder.
2. Worshipping the messenger instead of the God who sent the message – when Paul the Apostle healed a man at Lystra who had been crippled all his life, the people began to worship Paul saying: “The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.”
3. Making the place the message was received into a place of worship – When Peter was up on the mountain and Elijah and Moses appeared and began talking with Jesus, Peter right away wanted to build three tabernacles (places of worship) on that site.
When we look down through history and around the world at special things (miracles) God has done, going against the laws of nature that he has put in place, our human reaction has invariably been one of these three.

So, what would happen if God, wanting to convince a person named Sarah that He loved her, wrote a big message in the clouds: “Dear Sarah, I love you very much. From God.”
What would be the human reaction?
1. Disbelief – most people (including Sarah perhaps) would believe it was some kind of hoax.
2. Worshipping the messenger or person to whom the message was given. Can you imagine the books that would be written about Sarah and her wonderful experience? And the talk shows? Can you imagine Sarah’s inbox or her Facebook account?
3. Making the place the message was received into a place of worship. The area over which the clouds had appeared would be considered a sacred and most blessed land – a destination for pilgrimages for many years to come.

Well, maybe something quieter then. How about a hand coming out of nowhere and carving a message on a tabletop in Sarah’s house, right before her very eyes?
What would be the result of this?
1. Disbelief – Sarah would quite likely question her sanity. Others would question her sanity if she told them what had happened.
2. Worshipping the message, messenger or person who received the message. If people did become convinced that God had actually written a message on the table, that table would be put under glass and put in a church somewhere. People would come from around the world to touch the table (or the glass surrounding it), hoping to have their prayers answered, hoping for miracles, etc.
3. Making the place the message was received into a place of worship. Sarah’s home and her family and perhaps even her city and her country would be deemed sacred. Again, the pilgrimages would begin.

So, maybe if God wrote to all of us everyday on rocks or tables or clouds, then it wouldn’t be so special and we would just get used to getting our daily messages from Him. Yeah, I think we can all see the problem with that. The skies would be so full of cloud messages, we’d never see the sun and all of our tabletops would be ruined. And if God wrote to us in more traditional ways (like email), what would happen if we accidently deleted a message from Him – would that be like the unforgiveable sin? What if our computers crashed? Would he call us on the phone instead?

So, before this blog post gets too crazy, let’s just back up a bit. God is God. If He wants to communicate with us, He can devise a way that is not dependant on cloud cover, Bell Telephone, your local Internet provider (which is very unreliable where I live) or… tabletops. God could, and has, devised a way to speak to us that works even if we are in the dark or in the middle of an ocean and even if we are deaf or blind or incapacitated in some other way. God can use this to speak to us in any language, dialect and accent (yep, it’s true!). God speaks in such a personal way that often we are at a loss to explain the “conversation” to others.

What is this “device”? Well, actually, there isn’t a device. It is a direct communication with God himself, one that bypasses our ears, eyes and other senses, and goes directly to our spirits. As it says in the Bible in the eighth chapter of Romans and the sixteenth verse: “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”
There are many other verses about the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38, Romans 8:16, Luke 12:12, John 14:17, 26, 1 John 2:27, John 16:13, etc.) but don’t expect to understand everything all at once. For starters, it will be difficult to wrap your mind around the fact that God exists in three Persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit. That’s why the Holy Spirit could descend on top of Jesus in the form of a dove while a voice from Heaven said, “This is my beloved Son.”
The reason we can’t wrap our minds around God and who He is and how He speaks to us is, quite simply, weren’t not God. We’re just itty bitty humans. I don’t know how God, the Holy Spirit, can be speaking into my heart while at the very same time, He is watching over the universe, keeping track of sparrows (Matthew 10:29) and the number of hairs on my head! (Matthew 10:30) AND speaking into the hearts of thousands or perhaps millions of others all over the world. But there’s a whole bunch of other things I can’t understand either. Did you ever try to think what is beyond infinity or what comes after eternity?
At least, I have the assurance that someday, I will understand everything. The Bible says (in 1 Corinthians 13:12) that “now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
Beautiful words and reassuring words. Someday we will understand everything… All the pieces will fall into place. All our questions will be answered.
But for now, today, in this very moment, we have the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who speaks to our hearts, reassuring us that there is a God and that He loves us so much that we are privileged to call Him, Abba (Daddy), Father. (Galatians 4:6)

Dorene Meyer
http://www.dorenemeyer.com/

Author of The Little Ones and Jasmine
Now in book stores across Canada
Distributed by Word Alive Press http://www.wordalivepress.ca/.
Available online and as ebook on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/ (key in title of book and publisher: Word Alive Press).