Diary: The Practice of Christ-within

By Karen Hower Shwedo

Diary of testimonies of healing and revelation based on a Christian journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781682226995

Book preview

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TESTIMONIES OF REVELATION AND HEALING

The following testimonies are in chronological order and selected from testimonies written over a period of 10 years, therefore, some of the Scriptures are used more than once.

Reminder to the reader: Non-standard use of capital letters indicate words synonymous with God such as Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Most Holy Trinity; and Actions of God, such as Graciously Called By God or God Through man; and relationships with God such as Instruments and Children Of God.

testimony 1.    pain, impatience

EPHESIANS 4:1-6 I [Paul], a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

I was struck with severe stomach pain. I paused for a moment and consciously chose to turn away from fear of the pain and seek Truth through the above Scripture. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the gold piece of paper with our Scripture for the week. I listened for Truth’s Specific Message for me. As I read the words one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all, I felt Love’s Touch. Oh, such peace. You God are Over all of me and Through all of me and in all of me. There was no room left for pain. I felt Life’s All-presence and Truth’s All-power and Love’s All-peace. I was Soul-touched and Truth-healed. The pain was gone. But that was secondary to the joy of feeling safe in Your Presence God-within.

I felt impatient with a family member. I paused for a moment and consciously chose to turn to You God. You Called me to our Scripture. I Spirit-listened for Truth to Speak. A manner worthy of the call popped off the page. It would be un-God-like manners to be impatient. My impatience with another is not a mannerism worthy of Love’s Call. Through me, Love may Rebuke, but this is very different from my personal impatience with another. I chose to surrender my feelings to You God-within and You Transformed my anxious impatience into Love’s Calm Reassurance, which also Touched my family member. Our situation was resolved quickly. Truth Set us Free. Amen.

testimony 2.    judging

2 CORINTHIANS 5:16-17 From now on we regard no one according to the flesh; even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer. So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.

Through this Scripture, You God Called me to stop knowing myself and others in the flesh. I must choose to know and be Known by You God-within. As Your Creation, I can do absolutely nothing of myself, including know. Through Your Son, new things have come. Through you Christ Jesus, Love has Established Christ-within all. Life is no longer about what I think I know, rather what Mind Through Christ-within Knows About all. Proportionately as I surrender my knowing to You God-within, Spirit-within Will Enable me to know and love myself and others as Mind Knows.

A young woman came to help with our lawn. She had over ten piercings on her face. I began to feel very uncomfortable, even sad. Instantly, I chose to turn away from how my flesh was seeing her flesh. Turning to our Scripture, You God Called me to surrender my knowing about the flesh to Mind-within and Truth Called me to Look past her face into her heart. Soul-within Showed me Your Gentle, Precious One who was doing beautiful work on our lawn. I was no longer distracted but attracted to her as Your Child.

Later in the day, You God Orchestrated a joyful heart-to-heart encounter for us and she opened up about her life struggles. You Transformed my distractions into Your Vision of Christ the Divine Nature-within and Through her. Truth-within Touched and Freed me. Love-within Touched us Through each other with Merciful Compassion. She said our conversation was very helpful for her. Amen.

testimony 3.    weakness

2 CORINTHIANS 6:2-8 Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We cause no one to stumble in anything, in order that no fault may be found with our ministry; on the contrary, in everything we commend ourselves as ministers of God, through much endurance, in afflictions, hardships, constraints, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, vigils, fasts; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, in a holy spirit, in unfeigned love, in truthful speech, in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness at the right and at the left; through glory and dishonor, insult and praise.

When I first read this Scripture, You God Called my attention to the phrase cause no one to stumble. You Brought to mind tripping someone, causing them to fall. You Reminded if I bear false witness, seeing evil as the person rather than separating evil from the person, I will trip and fall myself, and if they’re not alert, cause them to stumble. If I’m not seeing others as You, Soul, See them, there is fault in my ministry. Through you Jesus, Truth Teaches we must not bring down the person, rather the father of the lie. Rebuking Peter, you Jesus said, Get behind me, Satan! Matthew 16:23 (emphasis added) not Get behind me, Peter. Love’s Rebuke Through us Silences evil and Establishes Truth-within.

Waking one morning, I began to feel overwhelmed with all that was on the agenda the next five months. As I lay in bed, I began to feel weak, even out of breath – unable to contemplate having the strength needed. You God Prompted me to turn over so I would spot our Scripture on my nightstand. I read it and again You Highlighted: We cause no one to stumble in anything, in order that no fault may be found with our ministry. You Showed me I was tripping myself and Gave me a Comical Vision of clowns in the circus. Making me smile, You Lightened my heart.

Then You Spoke to my heart, I Will Not Give you the strength for the next five or six or seven months. I Will Not Give you the strength for tomorrow. I Never Will. Say what! I said to myself, a bit taken back. You Continued, I Will Give you My Strength for this day, this moment. I Will Give you this day your daily bread. I Will Give you My Grace for today. Your Message humbled me and got my attention. Humility is the posture of Divinity; pride is the posture of ego. You Directed me to read the passage preceding stumbling: Behold, now is the day of salvation. Humbly, with all heart, soul, and mind, I chose to accept Your Message. You Filled me with Your Strength in Your Eternal Here and Now, and I was Spirit-free.

Living in Your Eternal Here and Now is certainly swimming against the currents of this world. Being of this world suffers regrets of the past, lack in the present, and fear of the future. You Reminded me of an analogy about salmon, and the following unfolded:

MOVING SPIRIT-WISE IN THIS WORLD

Salmon swim upstream

and wisely deep.

As with Salmon,

all are Called to move Spirit-wise

in this world,

upstream and deep-within,

where Truth-within Flows Spirit-free,

rather than live dangerously,

with and of this world,

downstream and shallow,

where we collide with deceptive thought-currents

that push and pull against us.

May Spirit Wisdom-within you,

be your Guide

as you Spirit-journey Deep-within.

Dwelling in the Spirit-depth of Love’s Eternal Here and Now is Wise, Safe, Empowering, and Freeing.

Amen.

testimony 4.    self-worth

MATTHEW 7:12 [Then Jesus said,] Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.

So familiar is this Scripture to my heart. Hearing it often as a child, You God Caused it to Take Root within me. I lay in bed asking, What more do You Need me to hear about Your Golden Rule? I drifted off to sleep and it was as though I was dreaming this verse…tossing and turning with it. I would awaken, hear it repeated, and then drift back to sleep. This went on for several hours. Finally, semi-awake, I heard You Ask, Say it as a prayer. Your Message Fully Awakened me. You Gave me the following prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, please Do to others Through me whatever You would Do to me Through them. Stated this way put the familiar Scripture in a new context, based on what You God are Doing Through me and others rather than what I am doing for others and them for me. All doing is About You God. My prayer is to do nothing of myself but what You Holy Spirit-within Enable and Allow, that I may be Your Instrument Through which You Act. For me, this Scripture is now About how You Love Treat Your Children Through Your Children.

Interestingly, this week has been a week of confronting frustrations with myself, feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness. Remembering what You Showed me about how Love Treats Her Children helped me see I was treating myself in a pitiful sort of way. But it’s not about how I am treating myself or how others are treating me, whether good or bad. It is about how You Love-within are Treating me. I consciously Spirit-chose to surrender the self-pity I was feeling and Soul-within Replaced it with feelings of Worth as Love’s Child and feelings of Worth Through me for all Love’s Children. Truth Set me Free. Peace followed.

However I’m feeling about myself or another, I must always surrender these feelings to You God-within for You To Transform into Your Feelings For me and Through me for others. Oh, to be so Holy Spirit-emptied of me, and be more of a Christ-transparency Through which Truth Shines and Frees others. Amen.

testimony 5.    weakness

2 CORINTHIANS 12:7-10 [Brothers and sisters:] That I[, Paul,] might not become too elated, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness. I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

You Most Holy Trinity Called me to confront weaknesses within me. You Identified these weaknesses as thorns. You Asked me to listen about a rose. The rose is a part of so many human celebrations and yet some of the most beautiful roses have a stem of piercing thorns.

As a rose can have its own stem of thorns, so does each life. These thorns demand of us to handle the unfolding of our life and the life of others with Love’s Care.

You Jesus wore a crown of thorns. Although you were being mocked, in Truth’s Strange Way these thorns foreshadowed a promise. The crown of thorns served God Through you. Thorns demand humility. Thorns, to the prickly point, alert and awaken. As the stem of thorns on the rose leads up to the fragrant flower, so, Love Through you Jesus, with your crown of thorns, Humbly Leads us to the Fragrance of Eternal Life.

Eventually, this week became more about choosing to kiss my cross by surrendering the pain of my own weaknesses to Your Care, Most Holy Trinity-within: to Father-Mother Life-care; to Christ Truthcare; to Holy Spirit Love-care. You Most Holy Trinity Transformed this week from being about me and my weaknesses into being about the Eloquent Sufficiency of the Grace of Life-within, Truth-within, and Love-within. Spirit-enabled I felt grateful for and at peace with my weaknesses, for when I am weak, and surrender my ability to You God-within, then I Am-within Spirit-strong. Amen.

testimony 6.    family

PSALM 91:14-15

Because he clings to me, I will deliver him;

I will set him on high because he acknowledges my name.

He shall call upon me, and I will answer him;

I will be with him in distress.

It was a week of traveling out of state for our middle daughter’s baby shower. Other family members came in from out of town and we all camped out in her home. There was my pregnant daughter and her husband, two other daughters, their aunt, myself, and an 18-month-old grandson, all under a small roof. Although we enjoy being together, still evil was at the heels tempting to divide and conquer. I called out in my distress and You God Called me to turn to the Scripture and Through it You Assured Love Will Answer. And You Love Did: Your time together is About what I Am Doing. Oh, so simple. I felt Truth’s peace-within.

But stress crept in again. I felt pulled in different directions. We had a physical problem to deal with, false accusations flying, misunderstanding, personal hurt, and the trip itself was a financial strain for several.

As each situation arose, You God-within Called me to return to Your Word, and simply trust the Your Power and Presence in the midst of it all. Sometimes I just had to excuse myself to the back room, at one point in tears, to humbly surrender to You Most Holy Trinity feelings of anxiousness and sadness. Each time I Called on You in distress, You Answered. I felt Delivered by Your Reassurance, I Will Speak Through you what I Need to have heard. Trust Me. In one instance You Called to be an Instrument of Love’s Rebuke about how one family member was treating another. Your Message was humbly heard and Truth was graciously accepted.

Meeting our Spirit-needs, that evening You Called us to a brief time of prayerful sharing to break the mesmerism of personalities. During this time, You Revealed an unrealized source of income that relieved financial burdens, and attitudes shifted from pride to humility. You, Love, Set us Spirit-free to experience Soul’s harmony the remainder of our time together. Amen.

testimony 7.    self-worth

EXODUS 20:13 You shall not kill.

Wednesday was a day of deep discouragement with myself. I felt so far from where my head thought I should be. Me, me, meism. It was a day of suffering and weeping. I yielded to evil temptations about me, my lack, causing myself anxiousness.

When I awakened Thursday morning, I couldn’t get into my prayer-office fast enough. Humbly, I turned to the Scripture. You God Showed me I was choosing thoughts that were trying to kill Your Spirit-within me. I was crucifying myself. I always have a choice: to accept self-centered thoughts that kill or surrender to Truth-within that Frees. At that moment I consciously chose to Holy Spirit-surrender. Love Filled me with the Courage of Truth – there is One I Am. Peace-within was Love-restored.

The remainder of the week I was conscious many times of choosing to turn away from thoughts that tempt to kill the Spirit-within me or another – thoughts of frustration, discouragement, impatience. Each time I surrendered to You Spirit-within, You Enabled me to choose rightly and I felt more alive. Rather than choosing to feed on self-centered poisoning thoughts I chose to be Spirit-nourished by Soul-within. Truth Exposed the self-lies and Love Enlightened Spirit-poise within. Amen.

testimony 8.    food

JOHN 6:27 [Jesus said to the crowds,] Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.

Hearing You Call me to this Scripture, I thought, Great! Through you Jesus, Truth will Enlighten me about a proper sense of food. I eat more than I think I should (there’s a counterfeit trinity of I’s). All about me. You God Call me to not work for (be employed by) my taste for food for the body rather to work for (serve) the food that endures for eternal life. The food of Christ Spirit-nourishes and is Soul-flavored with a permanent taste of Truth Freedom-within.

Mind Calls me to fight the Good fight – fight working for or serving Truth by listening and obeying Love’s Call. Obedience to Truth is proper Christian discipline/discipleship. Identifying the real battle, You God Call me to turn away from being distracted by my desire to please others or myself through my body and to yield to Your Desire for me to please You God Through Your Body of Christ. This is Love’s Battle for me. It is the Battle worth fighting for. This Battle is not in vain or self-serving; rather it is a Spirit-battle for Truth’s Glory of Christ-within all.

This week You Called me to identify some of the foods of thought I’m tempted to work for that are not of You. They seem valid on the surface but when venturing into the spiritual deep are clearly distractions – such as choosing to work for or with a human relationship rather than surrendering to the Spirit-work of a deeper relationship with You God; or working for a certain kind of body shape through self-willed discipline rather than surrendering to Your Way, God (which may very well lead to a specific discipline). Created by You, Made in Your Image, Love Calls me to Spirit-serve Truth Through all circumstances.

Because of Your Call this week to work for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give, which is the Word of Truth Through Christ Jesus, I was more alert to the temptation to resort to my will through worldly ways. Love’s Way is not about food or relationship; rather, it is about listening and obeying the Will of Truth-within. As I chose You, the relationship with food or people was no longer a distraction, rather a Part of Your Plan to Bring me Closer to Oneness with Christ, Truth-within and Through me. Amen.

testimony 9.    family

DEUTERONOMY 10:14 Think! The heavens, even the highest heavens, belong to the Lord, your God, as well as the earth and everything on it.

Everything belongs to You God. There is One Divine Event Happening Through all scenes and that Belongs to You: Love Bringing all Closer to the freedom of Christ, Truth-within. What a helpful focus for me this past week.

I was looking forward to my two oldest daughters and grandson visiting me in Florida for the week. I had expectations of simple fun, beach time, and a couple of planned events. It turned out to be a wonderful visit, but not in the way I expected. Shortly after they arrived, I received a call from my third daughter, who said she needed to move back to Florida to live with us. She was suffering from a very difficult relationship. I was grateful she took a stand but painfully distressed by her fearful torment.

You God Have Gifted my youngest daughter and me with wonderful opportunities to Spirit-share during regular long-distance phone calls. It’s clear Your Vehicle for our spiritual growth has been her 3-year relationship with a young man she went to highschool with. For her, this relationship has been all consuming. She arrived Monday afternoon, joining her visiting sisters. Thank You God for Providing such a wonderful support group. You Have Been Calling and Enabling her to surrender possessing this relationship to You to Whom everything Belongs. She has been learning how to put You first, giving back what is rightfully Yours. More and more she is trusting You to Define her relationship and Fulfill Your Purpose for them rather than trying in vain to think it all out. Through the above Scripture, Truth clearly Reminded us we are Called to think about everything belonging to You God rather than thinking anything belongs to us. She is learning that the real work, Your Bigger Picture, is about her relationship with You, not about her relationship with him.

Although You Have Enabled me to remain focused on You during many tearful and heartfelt phone conversations with her, when she arrived and I saw her face to face, the anguish and pain she was experiencing began to overwhelm me. The often-tempting fears of a mother penetrated my heart. I began to succumb to my personal, therefore, deceptive view of the situation. The Light of Truth-within was temporarily eclipsed by a darkness of fear for her pain. Within several hours I fell into mental and physical sickness that kept me in bed for 24 hours with barely an ounce of energy.

My daughters, husband, and several friends were diligently praying. Fear for her was aggressive to say the least. I had a long struggle with myself as her mother – I was semi-conscious but aware enough to recognize what You God-within were Asking of me. I held on to You Most Holy Trinity for life through the warfare within, as I battled with feeling possessed by the pain and anguish my daughter was suffering. And yet I heard You God Whisper-within Through the noise of fear, The battle belongs to Me! Surrender to Me. I chose to surrender her life and mine to You, Father-Mother Life of all being; surrender our darkness to You, Christ Light of Truth; and surrender our fear to You, Holy Spirit Power of Love. All Possessed by You Most Holy Trinity brought Sweet Reassurance. To a greater degree, You God Enabled me to surrender my ache for the suffering of all Your Children, back to You.

Shortly after this, mid-evening, the mesmerism of fear mentally, therefore, physically broke. Once again I gave up the ghost of me as mother and savior and experienced the peace of Your All-loving Care, Your Ever-presence and All-power. The simple Truth of You Possessor of all brought strength and peace. The remainder of the week was Transformed into a week about what You God Were Doing Through Your One Divine Event of Love, as You Brought us Closer to You. Mercifully, You Most Holy Trinity Awakened the above Scripture in my heart: Think! The heavens, even the highest heavens, belong to the Lord, your God, as well as the earth and everything on it. Amen.

testimony 10.    time, pain

MATTHEW 22:37 [Jesus] said to him, You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

Holy is Your Call, Most Holy Trinity, to surrender all heart, soul, and mind back to You-within for You to Use-through me for Your Purpose and Glory. You Do a lot better with my heart, soul, and mind than I or anyone else does; that’s for absolute certain!

An incident occurred this week resulting in an unexpected delay. I felt like a victim – treated unfairly in a store – and I feared the situation was going to make me late for a meeting I was to facilitate. Frustration crept in causing me to feel uncomfortable and anxious.

No, I silently but vehemently declared. This is not my choice. A victim, innocent or guilty, still has a choice at any time to turn to or away from Love’s Grace-within. I so chose. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the Scripture. You Assured me that right in the midst of this situation was a Spirit-lesson. You Reminded me possessing fear was not loving You. You Exposed I was worshipping my time rather than surrendering all my heart to You Father and Your Timing; I was worshipping my feelings rather than surrendering all my soul to Truth’s Bigger Picture; I was worshipping the importance of my event rather than surrendering all my mind to Your Holy Spirit-event of Love. Timing, feelings, events surrendered to You God resulted in experiencing Your Peace-within, trusting Your Perfect Will and Way, resulting in Your Perfect Life-coincidence – not accidental, rather a Perfect Spirit-coinciding of the human scene with Your Divine Event.

All of this You Revealed as I stood in line at the grocery store! As I chose to yield to Truth, I began to experience the comfort of surrendering all of the moment back to You. Peace-within returned. I found true comfort giving all my trust and attention to You God rather than giving my mind over to figuring out how this situation could be quickly resolved. I chose to love You more than fear my lack of time. I gave You back my heart, soul, and mind. In what seemed an instant, the manager of the store approached and graciously greeted me, apologizing for the inconvenience and correcting the situation immediately. By that time, it didn’t make any difference what happened when, as I was already comfortable right where I was trusting You God-within and basking in Your Light of Truth-within. I was at my meeting exactly when You Needed me to be there – on time!

Also this week You Revealed more about comfort regarding the body. From birth I have dealt with physical problems resulting in pain. Over the years I’ve been tempted with a desire to simply feel comfortable – I don’t care about size or looks – all I ask is for comfort so I can work more freely and effectively for You Most Holy Trinity. Red flag! You God Called me to surrender this desire to You. And Truth Quickly Knocked it out of my head. Life’s Purpose for me is not about my physical comfort so I can do better – all about me – but rather about listening and obeying Truth-within and being an Instrument of the Spirit-within – all about You God. Your Motive for me is glorifying Love the Comforter-within all.

When physical discomfort distracted me this week, I surrendered to the Scripture. You Called me to turn away from looking for comfort in the body by turning to You, seeking and finding comfort by surrendering to You all my heart, soul, and mind. And You Clarified that Spirit-heart, Spirit-soul, and Spirit-mind are the real substance of body – Spirit-flesh as opposed to matter-flesh. Matter tempts to claim a voice of its own, saying, Now I am comfortable or Now I am uncomfortable. Through Jesus the Word, the Voice of Truth Speaks and Calls me to be Wholly-Holy Spirit’s Beloved.

To a greater degree I surrendered my life to You God by giving up my personal desire for comfort. I don’t care if I’m ever comfortable again. I would rather choose to be Your Instrument Through which You Comfort others than take personal comfort for myself. Being Your Vehicle of Comfort serves You. Being comfortable serves me. It is Spirit-comfort to surrender all to You. I am Love-comforted as I choose to Spirit-surrender to listening for Your Voice Through discomfort. Truth Always Comforts.

You Most Holy Trinity have so much more of me, of my heart, soul, and mind. How I look forward to when we all are no longer fooled by false desires of this world and are fully conscious of Christ, Truth-within, so we may dwell in the Spirit-comfort of Love-within for Truth’s Glory Manifested Through us. Until then, we humbly continue to Spirit-surrender each moment.

Surrendered to Truth is a Comforting Way of Life. Amen.

testimony 11.    travel

MATTHEW 23:25-26 [Jesus said,] Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.

All the details were taken care of. It was mid-evening and we were going to be picked up at 3 am. I was exhausted. I asked You again if it was Your Will, Father-Mother-within, for me to go on this three-week trip to Italy. I felt resistance. One of my concerns was my youngest daughter, who was still suffering mental turmoil about her boyfriend. I was feeling anguish from her and for her, along with the tempting ache to save her from her cross. Fear was closing in on me. Earlier that day, in tears she asked if I really had to go – she felt so afraid. I told her I would continue to pray and that we would both be blessed by Your Will. I surrendered my will and hers and You Made it Clear this was an opportunity for her to learn about You in a new way, from another, a spiritual teacher friend of mine. I told her to call him. He would continue working with her in our familiar prayerful way, and help her remain focused on Love’s Care for her. Through him Truth would Remind her not to make her boyfriend the issue of her joy or sorrow. It was a big step for her to turn to someone other than me for Spirit-prayer.

Having surrendered my will to You God, it came clear what I needed to do. I shared with her Your Will was for me to proceed with our trip. I finally got into bed around 10 pm hoping to get a little sleep before the alarm went off at 2 am. Yet I was still stirred within. As I lay there, pillow wet from tears, You Called me back to the Scripture for this week, specifically, to the phrase, cleaning the inside of the cup. You Told me it wasn’t sleep I needed, what I needed was to clean/clarify what was going on within me by realigning my thought to an even greater degree with You, with the Safety of Your Will and Perfect Plan for all.

I then felt Your Push to get out of bed and go into my prayer-office. You Holy Spirit, Gave me a prayer. It took until 1 am for me to hear it fully, as You Wanted. By the time I was finished, I felt rested, at peace, and full of confidence that my daughter and I would both rise to Your Call to surrender our fears to You. My prayers for her were surrendered to Holy Spirit prayer – from my pleading for You to help, to Holy Spirit Knowing You, Truth and Love Within her, are an Ever-present Help. I climbed back into bed and just lay there feeling Life’s Peace-within, Truth’s Joy-within, and Spirit’s Power-within. I never fell asleep. At 2 am, the alarm went off and I got out of bed feeling totally rested. I never suffered from lack of sleep even when we arrived in Rome, with the dramatic time change.

This was Your Specific Message. Your Call was to refocus on what was really going on – many scenes but One Divine Event, Your Event of Love, Always About You Bringing us Closer to You. You Kept me Focused on the safety of all Your Children who are consciously or unconsciously growing in and of the Spirit:

Nearer You Father,

we faithfully travel

in conscious obedience.

For Your One Divine Event of Love,

You Bringing us Closer to You,

we give thanks and praise.

We humbly ask in Christ’s name

Your Blessing, Guidance, and Protection.

Your Purpose for Your glory,

we acknowledge

with deepest reverence.

With You Ever Present-within,

we journey safely,

Spirit-ward.

As Your Instruments of Truth

we surrender

to Love’s Use.

Amen.

Love’s Message was Clear. You God are Ever-within as we travel Spirit-ward. The trip was not about leaving my daughter, or going to Italy, rather about surrendering to You Most Holy Trinity myself and my feelings, and my daughter and her feelings (rather than possessing them) as we Spirit-journey. By the time I left, we both yielded to and felt the Christ-peace of Your Will.

Amen.

testimony 12.    feelings

I THESSALONIANS 5:5, 6, 9-11 All of you are children of light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober. For God did not destine us for wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live together with him. Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, as indeed you do.

Within the first week of our travels, I had an experience that first surprised me, then hurt my feelings. I wasn’t clear what was going on but I felt strangely, mentally attacked by the actions of a fellow traveler. For what, I had no clue. Tears began to well up within me. Rather than allow myself to drown in these tears, I chose to reach into my pocket, seeking Your Truth that would free me from myself. The Scripture instantly turned me away from what I was feeling to what Love Knew was needed: Encourage one another and build one another up. I asked You How You Needed me to build this person up. You Said You would Do it Through me if I would but surrender the situation to Your Grace Working Through Your Bigger Picture. I chose to surrender and shortly after, sure enough, Through me, You Spoke Kind and Encouraging words to my friend. We were both Saved by Love. You Reminded me of the Foundation You Laid before we left. This trip is all About what You are Doing to Bring us all Closer to You-within. I accepted Christ, Truth-within both of us, therefore, Christ-peace was Restored. Amen.

testimony 13.    division

LUKE 6:27, 28, 31-33 Jesus said to his disciples: "To you who hear I say,