My Father's Voice

By Janice Elizabeth Duval

When I became a Christian, at age 19, I was like many people who did not really know God as he is - a loving and gracious father. I accepted the Lord that Sunday in a small Baptist Church in a little town in Pennsylvania and continued to just go to church and listen to the

• Language: English
• Publisher: Authors' Tranquility Press
• Release date: May 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9781957546377

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The Lawn

One day as I stood at my kitchen sink, I looked out the window in front of me admiring the freshly mowed lawn. It was a bright June day; before the heat of the summer sun had scorched the grass. The clouds, billowing across the sky, accented the beauty before me.

As I admired the scene, I began to hear my Father's voice flowing into my mind. He seemed to say," Beautiful, isn't it?' I then realized that I could only admire the beauty of this scene but not partake or experience it. This realization took me on a life experience analogy.

As long as I just stood there and observed the lawn, I was only a spectator. To experience it I would have to physically stand, walk, run or lie in it. Then Father said, Life is like the lawn. You can stand at a distance and observe it and never experience it. He continued to teach me a principle about the 'lawn of life'. He said the beauty you see is not the actuality of the experience. It is an illusion. From your window it looks perfect, but there are flaws. The ground is uneven, there are holes dug by snakes, moles, and other little animals. As you walk you must watch your step to keep from falling or injuring yourself. There are droppings from the pets, often hidden until you happen to step in, or just miss stepping into it. All these things are a part of experiencing the lawn.

He said when you come to a pile of dung; you can step over it, or step in it. If you step over it, you can continue and enjoy your experience; if you step in it, even if you are unaware of your misstep, others know immediately. So, now you must deal with the dung. The best thing to do is wash it off as soon as possible. Rubbing it in the grass does not get it off, it amplifies the dung with the smell of grass and dung.

As I compare life to the picture of the lawn, I acknowledged that in life you can be a spectator. You can sit on the sidelines and admire other people's lives, possessions, or their accomplishments, etc. You can imagine a perfection that does not exist. To experience life you must get out and live it. There are some things out there that can trip you up, things that can cause you pain, but some things you need to just step over and keep walking. To be sure, there will be times when you step in it. It smells bad, but it is not the end of the world. Get cleaned up and go at it again.

Father has always made it clear that no matter what I find myself in, He has all the answers to get me out if I just ask for His help. So, take Him at His word, if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men liberally, without grudging. James 1:5

Promises

It is so easy to get our eyes off of what God has said and to put them on our circumstances. Father God does not allow me to throw the old pity parties I used to. Whenever I would start down that trail, the word of God would begin to rise on the inside of me, and this is one such occasion.

As I began to write the invitations to this ‘pity party’, inviting me, myself and I, my spirit seemed to shout, "All of God's promises are yes in Christ Jesus and in Christ Jesus, Amen!"

Holy Spirit took me to this passage of scripture:

This is the way God put it: Jeremiah 31:2-6 (The Message)

"They found grace in the desert,

these people who survived the killing.

Israel, out looking for a place to rest,

met God out looking for them!"

God told them, "I’ve never quit loving you and never will.

Expect love, love, and more love!

And so now I'll start over with you and build you up again,

dear virgin Israel. (Insert your name)

You'll resume your singing,

grabbing tambourines and joining the dance.

You'll go back to your old work of planting vineyards

on the Samaritan hillsides,

And sit back and enjoy the fruit --

Oh, how you'll enjoy those harvests!

The time is coming when watchmen will call out

form the hilltops of Ephraim: 'On your feet! Let's go to Zion;

go to meet our God!"

Whose Bumper Car Are You In?

When I was young, I was very timid. I used to imagine doing things I was too timid to attempt. I could hardly see myself even riding a bike. I was never confrontational, and frankly, I would run rather than fight.

Being the only child in a military family, I escaped many of the normal childhood rites of passage. I usually moved before too many kids knew I existed. That was both good and bad... bad because I escaped many of the hard lessons we learn as kids, and good because I escaped some of the hard lessons we learn as kids.

I remember one time when I was about nineteen, some friends and I went to an amusement park. Everyone wanted to ride the Bumper Cars, everyone but me. I was afraid of getting into a bumper car alone. I remember my friends, each scrambling to get into a car, and I was standing on the floor looking terrified and desperate. Every time I tried to jump into one of their cars, I was rejected. I finally forced myself into my date's car. He was obviously displeased and let me know in no uncertain terms. I did not seem to mind his reproof; I was safely tucked into the bumper car with him.

Father usually uses life experience analogies to teach me spiritual and life lessons. One particular time, many years later, I was disappointed because my husband did not want to attend an event with me. He kept encouraging me to go alone. But I don't want to go alone! I've been doing things alone all of my life! I sulked and decided to have a pity party, inviting only me, myself and I. We had planned to take 'martyr pills ' and have 'why me' martinis when this familiar voice began to ask me questions. The Voice asked, 'why don't you want to go to the event alone?' And then a parade of past events, and situations began to flood my memory. Time and time again, I had tried to hijack someone to drive the bumper car while I hitched a ride.

What was I afraid of? I hadn't realized that fear was lurking there, obscure, in the shadows of my sense of self. Slowly, I began to see that I was truly insecure within myself. I could come up with a laundry list of reasons why I couldn't do things on my own. Maybe it was my gender, or my ethnicity, my education... on and on.

Father began to comfort me, but not with a poor baby comfort, He told me who I am based on what He created me to be. He assured me that His was the only standard with which I should measure my value. He basically said, I have made you and you are accepted in the Beloved and I set my seal of approval on you.

Romans 8:31 says it best: So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing Himself to the worst by sending His own Son, is there anything else He wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? (The Message)

So, my question for you is: Are you trying to hitch a ride through life in someone else's bumper car? Take the wheel yourself and invite Father to teach you~

How Could a Good Man Go Bad?

(PART I)

I was sort of musing about the Lord and the enabling power of His presence. Thinking about how Jesus has given us a mandate to go in His name and authority to establish the Kingdom of God. Yet, how impotent many of us are to perform the signs and wonders that God says we can, to show the world who God is. Often, we command, in the name of Jesus, things to happen and they do not. Some of us have grown weary of unanswered prayers or un-manifested demonstrations of God's promised power, so we don't even attempt any more to be aggressive in things of the kingdom. We settle for what is comfortable and generally have a 'live and let live' attitude.

But were we not commissioned to go into all the world and make disciples, with signs following? Did not our Savior say that He would be with us, confirming those signs? We are not to co-exist with the forces of the kingdom of darkness, we are to kick the devil out, take dominion to establish the Kingdom of God in the earth.

While I was meditating on the Lord and His anointing of power, Father began to show me the lives of two Old Testament men, Samuel, and Saul, who became the first king of Israel. Each man has a remarkable story; each was special, both were called by God, both anointed, but one lost the presence of God and knew it not. That one lost his inheritance, while the other fulfilled his call and slept in peace with his fathers. I decided to learn what Father wanted to teach me through the lives of these great men.

Father directed me to start my quest by reading about Samuel's mother, Hannah, who prayed for a man child. She promised God that if He would grant her desire, she would give the child back to God forever. God answered Hannah's prayer and she bore Samuel. After he was weaned, at about three to four years of age, his mother brought him to Shiloh and presented him to the Lord, leaving him in the care of Eli, the high priest. For her gift to God, He gave her a revelation of the coming Messiah (I Sam 2:10) and five more children!

As I embarked upon this journey, right away I saw something interesting about Eli, that enlightened me, although initially my study was not about him. The bible is literal and prophetic; there are secret messages, allegories, and codes, making it the most interesting, exciting, and powerful document in the world. Oftentimes when I read, the text says one thing about a natural situation, but the spirit of the Word reveals the mysteries behind the obvious words.

I Sam 3:1-3 (Amplified)

Now the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli. The word of the Lord was rare and precious in those days; there was no frequent or widely spread vision.

At that time Eli, whose eyesight had dimmed so that he could not see, was lying down in his place.

The lamp of the Lord had not yet gone out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was lying down

When the Lord called, Samuel! And he answered Here I am.

I was studying the scripture online through http://www.e-sword.net/ and one of its features is Strong's Concordance embedded in the text of the King Janes version. As my mouse traveled the verses, the Hebrew words were being translated, giving me a revelation concerning Eli. Here is what I saw revealed in the verses:

In verse two, Eli, the high priest, whose eyes were dim (Sin had begun to dull his sensitivity to God and he was losing his discernment, although his lamp had not quite gone out; verse three: But he had lain down in his place (he began to fail his responsibilities to God.)

Eli was allowing his sons Phinehas and Hophni to desecrate the temple through immorality and corruption. Eli had enough wisdom left to know that the voice Samuel kept hearing, thinking it Eli, was God calling. He was prudent enough to tell the boy Samuel to respond to the voice, with, Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.

1. This was the beginning of Samuel's ministry to the Lord and ultimately, his time of service to Israel as a prophet and judge. Samuel's metron was so powerful that none of the words he spoke fell to the ground because God upheld the words Samuel spoke. (I Sam 3:19-20) "Grace, favor, and everything we need to be successful in ministry are given to us to accomplish our task when we are within our own metron. ([by extension] 2.sphere of influence)" (Wiktionary)

You Have Been Like a Boat on Dry Ground

From my kitchen I could hear this sound like the garage door opener engaging and disengaging repeatedly. I looked out the door to the garage to see my husband trying to get the weed eater to start. The sound I heard was his frustrated efforts, intense in vainly pulling the starter cord repeatedly, and he was expending so much energy in his futile attempt. I went to console him a bit and suggested he ask the Holy Spirit to help him with the task.

I breathed a short prayer on his behalf as I went back into the house. I returned to my project of cleaning out one of the file cabinets in the lower level and found a note Father gave me some time ago:

'As you have sought me, as you have desired me, as you have cried out for me, I will come to you. I will sweep you up into my presence. I have come for you. I have come to take you unto myself. I will sweep you into a new place in me.

You have been like a boat on dry ground,