Breath Of Life And The Eternal Conversations Of Heaven, Part II

Walk With Me In The Garden Of My Heart

Beloved, can you hear me calling you aside to sit with me…to walk with Me? I have come knocking on the door of your garden. Will you hesitate to answer? Will you be convinced to wait as the burdens of the world try and settle on you with weariness of heart? Have you already given your best to something else? No matter. Come anyway. Come and let Me come to give you rest, for you are Mine.

Close your eyes a moment and listen. Can you feel me drawing you into the garden that I am? Put all aside all misconceptions…all distractions and believe I will meet you right where you are. I am an oasis in the midst of busyness. I am the calm in every storm. I am what I am for you every moment of your life. Not one moment goes by without the potential of being saturated by Me.

Beloved, you can be with Me while you are walking…while you are going about daily chores and administrations. Learn of Me in the quiet place then busy places, though sometimes hectic, will be like pools of deep silence because we will walk in them together. This very thing is something the world longs for and something you have at your immediate disposal. In fact, as you are experiencing your oasis in the midst of chaos others will be drawn into its realms of refreshment just by being next to you. They may not always realize what is happening; but, they will know peace when they experience it.

Block out all other distractions and relax in the comfortable quietness of My Presence. Speak my name. Softly call on me saying, “My Father.” Allow repetition of My name to create a place of warmth in the depth of your heart. As you do this, know I am aware of your every need and desire…know I have forgiven your every sin. I am here with you right now as deep calls to deep, connecting our hearts in a place of communion too deep for words.

No matter what you have done…no matter what you feel, do not hide from Me in the cool or in the heat of the day. Jesus made the way for you to be with Me and shame has no power here because of His precious blood. I forgive you. I receive you in My garden. I love walking with you.

Come, for I am walking with you this moment in the coolness of My garden…you are walking with Me in the gardens of My heart. As I told you, there are many eternal conversations I long to have with you. They have the ability to affect your entire lifetime and the lifetimes of those you encountered and love.

It is time to take a siesta for a time and join Me without hesitation or excuse in the quietness of the day…to rest and listen. Beloved it is time to rest and receive. It is time to seize the day for I have drawn near. Will you let this ordained moment pass you by? Selah.

I Mindful Of Dust And Bruised Reeds

Beloved, I am mindful that you are dust and at the same time mindful of your Sonship (Psalms103:11-14; 1 John2:2 KJV). I can embrace the two with great delight. I love the process of your life and am never dismayed or discouraged. I love the transformation process of seeing dust turn to glory. You are no exception. I am not one who breaks the bruised reeds of your life. I do not blow out or quench smoldering wicks just because they have not become a flaming fire. I heal bruised reeds and breathe life into smoldering fires till justice and victory comes (Matthew 12:20)

With this in mind, now is the time to rest in the comfort of My love for you. Now is the time to experience My Presence as never before. As you practice, and yes I said practice, receiving My promises in My Word, I will show up in creative and incredible ways.

Put away all the distractions and frustrations of life far away from our time together. Spend many wordless moments with Me focused on the ability of who I am and not on your own abilities to make things happen or not happen. Make for open heavens by resting in My promises all the while giving adoration and love voice by lying down in the green pastures of My ever abiding Presence. (good)

I am drawing you into the place of repentance, compelling the release of all failure to forgive others, wrong attitudes and wrong beliefs about Me. Be forgiven, receive the words of wisdom, and adoration I liberate you with in this place of rest. When you have rested, rise up and rejoice in all I have promised you. Rise up and write down all I speak to you. Take the thoughts I have impressed on your heart and write them down! Write them down for they contain keys of understanding. They will give a sense of great peace for your life. I am and will declare My intentions and you must believe and receive them. They are life to your bones and refreshment to your soul. They are a storehouse of treasures needed for coming days.

Eternal Tools Of Promise

Beloved, just as I told Habakkuk to write the vision upon the tablets so everyone who passed by could read what I told him and have hope, I am so instructing you. I am reinforcing My Word to you. When I do this it means it is of great importance. How many times have you forgotten to write your grocery list or the directions to a place you need to go? Do you remember the frustration or the lack of direction it caused? Do you remember all the things you forgot at the store and had to make another trip for or had to do without? If these natural things when not written down can cause frustration and loss of precious time, how much more will the failure to write down My specific instructions and words of promise cost in the long run. Remember, our conversations are eternal with eternal consequences and benefits. This is where the rubber meets the road so to speak. So, once again I say, “Write them down!”

There will be days when the enemy of your soul shall try and convince you to believe other than what I spoke to you in the garden. Having it written down will save mush frustration and give you eternal tools of promise to fight off lies that have not changed since the days Adam and Eve believed wrong things about Me.

The enemy always tries to defame My character and twist My Word. If it is written down you can speak it just as it was given with great results. This is called resisting the devil and submitting to Me. And what did I say would happen as you resisted and submitted (James 4:6-8). I said he would flee. Now, it may take more than once…in fact, it takes as long as it takes him for him flee. When do you stop? When he flees.

However, Beloved, you must keep yourself in Me in order to be aware when he tries to take advantage of a more opportune time. If you do so, when he comes, it will be much quicker and much easier to disarm him as you walk in the victory of a faith that has overcome.

Review and speak what I have said. You will need to stand up, declare to the mountain the words I have spoken in secret. The defeat of the enemy will be rewarded in the open for I was manifest to destroy the works of the evil one (1 John 3:8) My Word and I are one and when used according to what I have told you create the ability to walk in true garden lifestyle as you evict the lies of the enemy before they have a chance to be fruitful.

Remember, spending time with Me makes your confidence and faith grow. Speaking the Word I give you makes the crooked path straight (Isaiah 45:2 Amplified). It makes the rough way smooth because I am the Word and when you speak it I go before you to accomplish the purpose for which I sent it in the first place (Isaiah 55:11).

Pearls Of Great Price Are Worth Everything To Me

Beloved, I do not need to be convinced how wonderful you are by the deeds or works of your hands. I was already convinced of your worth and great value before you were ever a twinkle in your daddy’s eye so nothing you do or don’t do for Me has weight on My evaluation of your great worth.

Remember the man who searched for the pearl of great price and sold all He had to get it. Think about it in reverse. I gave the very best I had to find you for you are indeed a pearl of great price to Me. A pearl is a pearl regardless. Once formed and created it is a pearl sweet and simple. It is the same for you My Beloved. Whether you are buried in a field or adorning the crown of a king makes no difference in value. You are still a pearl…still My pearl.

Works and deeds or you could say “blooms in the garden” are the results of resting in the finished work of the Cross and not the labor of your hands. All labor…all work should be a byproduct of relationship…a byproduct of walking in the garden with Me. When seen in this light, the work you do for Me can no longer be seen in the truest definition of work. Why? It has become a beautiful by-product of love. In essence work has become a garden formed from the outward working of your own heart being entwined with Mine in a place of rest and obedience. All you do and all you ever will do should come from the overflow of love poured out of My heart into yours. No three ring circuses allowed in the Kingdom.

Remember, the deeds you do for Me should never be just something you do because something needs to be done. Now there is a time for this when you must turn your hand to a need but I am speaking of doing things because you feel the need to validate yourself or to please another person. You must do what I give you to do and the result will be pleasing to Me. I was never pleasing to all men which is obvious when seen in light of the Cross. Yet, I pleased My father and made a way for you to be joint heirs with Me through the acceptance of the Gospel (Ephesians 3:6). Obedience which flows from love causes no sorrow in the long run but reaps great benefits to all involved.

Beloved, your obedience to walk in the garden with Me will create gardens for others to feast from until they are able to walk in the same manner as you and create their own gardens. This is Kingdom pollination and multiplication. All it takes is one person who agrees with Me to make a garden. Will it be you, My pearl of great price, for you mean everything to Me?

 You Are My Rose Of Sharon, My Lily Of The Valley

Beloved, once again as I end this letter of love and instruction to you, I want you to remember I know your every need. Like the Rose of Sharon needs pruning and well drained soil so do you. They require full sun and the older they get the more they need the fullness of the sun least they fall prey to fungal damage.

Therefore, I trim and prune your life into the desired shape making you into the fullness of all I have called your garden to be. Sometimes the longer you know Me can make you think you need less of the Son in your everyday life. The contrary is true. You need more of Me in order to not become so familiar that you forget how subtle the enemy can and will be. Every garden of My heart needs the fresh manna of My Presence to grow and stay healthy. Maintain your garden…your roses and your lilies by staying close to Me.

In the natural some Roses of Sharon are trained to grow in what is called an “espalier” style which means it grows on a single plane along a wall or a fence. In doing this, the Rose of Sharon is not allowed to deviate from the given path set for it by the master gardener so that a trellis of great beauty is formed. They are prized because of their ability to withstand heat and bloom when nothing else is in bloom all the while being quite drought-tolerant. The gardener is told not to give up on a Rose of Sharon thinking it might be dead just because it hasn’t leafed out in early summer because it often leafs out and blooms late.

As You listen with obedience to Me during our walks in the cool or heat of the day, you avoid many unpleasant encounters in life. You are able to grow on a parallel plane with Me or bush out in great glory. When we work together to make your garden grow, you, like the Rose of Sharon, can grow in such a manner that you do not deviate from a lifestyle defined by My Word.

There may be promises you have given up on…people you have given up on and I want you to know just because they seem dead or unresponsive does not mean they will not bloom. Be like a good gardener and don’t give up. I haven’t given up on you or those you love.

I haven’t given up on the promises I have made to you .Like the Lily of the Valley many will bloom in some of the most unlikely places. Some will bloom in some of the most seemingly hostile places when you least expect them to do so. So you will know how much I love you…so you will know how much I love the garden of your heart and life, I am breathing the fresh breath of spring into some dead places. I am calling them to leaf out and bloom when nothing else is blooming. You are My Rose of Sharon. You are My Lily of the Valley. Therefore, it is My pleasure to do so for you, for I love you with an everlasting love yesterday, today and forever.

Prayer Of Supplication And Declaration

Lord, I can hear you calling me to walk with You. I will no longer hesitate or ask for You to wait because I am busy taking care of the burdens of the world. I give those burdens to You and follow after You with my whole heart. I follow You into the secret place away from all the distractions in order to become sensitive to the slightest movement as You walk through the garden of my heart.

Thank You for helping me to recognize all misconceptions and distractions which have the power to take me away from the awareness of Your Presence. So many things compete for my time with You. Teach me the secret of being in You no matter what I am doing. Help me to make my time be subject to You and not the other way around. I long to realize there is no limit to Your Presence when it comes to experiencing You. I can have all of You in ever spectrum of my life from the busiest moment to the most restful sleep and all in between. The only limits to experiencing You are the ones I set.

Yes, You are my oasis in the midst of busyness. You are the calm in the midst of all my storms. I learn of You in the quiet and the busy places of my life, for truly You are my sanctuary in the midst of chaos. Thank You for calling me as deep calls to deep…for connecting my heart with Yours in a place of communication too deep for words. I will never hide from You again. I join You to rest and listen, to rest and receive for now and eternity. I hear you knocking and I say, “Come in.”

Father, You are ever mindful that I am made of dust and love me unconditionally. You created Adam and You created me. Just as You declared “It is good” when You created Adam, You declared the same when You formed me in the depths of my mother’s womb. Though I am made of dust, I am a son of God through the shed blood of Christ on the Cross. Christ’s blood took me from dust to glory…from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of light and now I am growing in glory, line upon line and precept upon precept.

Thank You for loving me and bestowing sonship upon me through Christ. You know the process of my life, and though I may get discouraged, You never do, for you know the ultimate outcome. I rest in the comfort of Your love for me.

I will practice receiving Your promises, forever believing all that You said is true…believe it is true for me personally and not just for other people. I will practice spending wordless moments with You focusing on Your Word and allowing Your perfect work to take place in me. I look to Your abilities and not my own to accomplish Your will in my life as I rest in Your promises Father. I rest in You.

Lord, I will write the vision that I might not be discouraged in troublesome days. I will listen and obey. Truly, You have instructed me to write the words You have spoken to me, and they are of great importance…they are life to my very bones.

Let the reality of how our conversations are eternal penetrate my belief system until it aligns with You, for the consequences and benefits are eternal. Though I am forgiven, what I do can have a positive or negative effect in the lives of others. I desire only the positive. Much time is wasted trying to undo wrong things when it could be used to build others up the way You do so for me.

Help me Lord to follow through, and to not allow any distractions to keep me from obeying You. I hear Your call to write or even sing the words of Your heart. Doing so will save me frustration and heart ache later when the battle rages…when fear, doubt and unbelief try to take my thoughts captive. I will review and speak what has been written in order to stand.

Yes Lord, I will stand up and speak. I will stand up and declare the Word of the Lord and the enemy will be defeated. As I declare the Word, You go before me and accomplish the purpose for which it was sent. I will declare all You have said and the crooked way will be made straight before me and the rough way will be made smooth. Today I stand in a large place of safety in You.

Lord, I bless you for the illustration of the pearl of great price. Help me to understand the deeper meaning of this and the willingness to sell all to purchase the “one.” There is no greater love than for a man to lay down his life for another…than for a man to give all he has for another. This You have done for me even with the possibility I would not value Your sacrifice. The Kingdom of Heaven is like the pearl of great price. It is worth everything and I am worth everything to You.

Help me to see my own value with according to Your truth…according to how I look in Your eyes. A pearl is a pearl and a child is a child. I am your child no matter where I am or what I look like. Simply stated, I am yours.

Words cannot convey the joy I experience because I know and experience Your great and enduring love. It is hard to understand how Your love for me isn’t given to me based on performance. Performance is the way of the fickle world and can disappear in an instant. It is not so with You. Once a pearl…always a pearl.

Today I bless You with the obedience of My heart and life in the confidence of who I am in You as I help others to see the beauty of Your garden…as I help others to see themselves as pearls of beauty and great price nestled in the fields of Your heart. May the garden I am and the pearl I represent shine with beauty and emanate the fragrance of Your beauty, drawing many fields of Your heart.

Lord God, I praise You for You are the Master Gardener of all time. The first garden was created by you for the habitation of man. All attention and care was given to the formation of the earth and creation demonstrated the beauty of Your heart for the universe to see.

Your heart overflows and pours out fountains of glory and fragrance…pours out verdant shades and hues of color…pours out sounds and shapes representing every aspect of Your multi-faceted being until the whole earth blooms in diverse arrays of color, sound and light. All of time is infused with Your glorious essence.

Though You created all these things it was not enough…though roses and lilies were arraigned in beauty greater than that of all the kings of the earth it was not enough…you wanted me…desired to be with me and prepared a way for me. Out of the muck and mire of a world given to sin, you plucked me…you plucked me out of its midst to prune me, train me and arrange me like a bouquet of many colors, sounds and smells. You called me your pearl of great price before there was a day in my mother’s womb. You loved me before I ever was and chose to make me a portion of Your heart.

You created me and You know how to prune me in order to make me to grow into the most fruitful and beautiful creation You designed me to become a reflection of your image and glory when you first breathed the breath of life into Adam…when you first spread out the starry host.

Good and trustworthy One, please trim and prune me into whatever shape you desire. Make me a bush where others come to rest or make me one who trails along tight and parallel ways. The choice is Yours and I submit to it. I am listening and I am willing to work together with You to make my garden grow in the ways of Your heart and Your desire. I will not give up when my fruit is not visible or when all things look dead to the eye. I will continue on to take care of all You have given me as I co-labor with You. I am your garden. I am your pearl of great price and You are mine.

I am listening to You Lord. I desire to work together with You to make my garden grow in the way You desire it to be. I will not give up on that which seems to have no fruit; I will continue to take care of that which you have given me charge over in the garden. I love You Lord. Amen

Reflect and Journal

I HAVE come into my garden, my sister, my [promised] bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my balsam and spice [from your sweet words I have gathered the richest perfumes and spices]. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends [feast on, O revelers of the palace; you can never make my lover disloyal to me]! Drink, yes, drink abundantly of love, O precious one [for now I know you are mine, irrevocably mine! With his confident words still thrilling her heart, through the lattice she saw her shepherd turn away and disappear into the night].

I went to sleep, but my heart stayed awake. [I dreamed that I heard] the voice of my beloved as he knocked [at the door of my mother’s cottage]. Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my spotless one [he said], for I am wet with the [heavy] night dew; my hair is covered with it3[But weary from a day in the vineyards, I had already sought my rest] I had put off my garment–how could I [again] put it on? I had washed my feet–how could I [again] soil them? (Song of Solomon 5:-3 Amplified)

1. What areas are you hesitant to let go of and cling to which have the power to keep you from entering into the rest of God?
2. Are there areas in your busy life that are so important You would put them above the call of the Lord to set aside time to join Him in rest?
3. Ask the Lord to show you how to block out all other distractions in order to be able to enter into His Presence in quietness or in busyness.
4. Are there areas you are aware of that you secretly desire to hide from the Lord? Are you willing to give them up so that you are able to walk with Him in peace and confidence? If so, what fig leaves do you usually run to…use as excuses…or what attitudes of unbelief do you express when the going gets tough? Write down your response.
5. How can you practice receiving God’s promises for your life in a practical way? Find something you have a hard time believing…something small will do. Find the related promise in the Word and write it down in first person. Take time to mediate on it and speak it and it will rise up inside of you and evict the lies of the enemy.
6. Are you willing to put away all the distractions and frustrations of life to have time with the Lord? What practical thing can you do on a daily basis…remember, don’t start with such lofty goals that are hard to keep, but do start somewhere.
7. Can you enter into the place of repentance, releasing all your failures as well as forgiving others?
8. Are you willing to write down all that God has spoken to you using them as keys of the Kingdom in your life? Take time to do so for they surely will be a storehouse of treasures you will need in the future.
9. Have you sensed the Lord calling you to write down the vision…the promises…or any other instruction He has given you? Has He given you some for your family you find hard to believe? Write them down and come into agreement. Remember this, you are always agreeing with someone. It is just a question of who it is.
10. Take time to seek the Lord and ask Him exactly what He desires you to write, and then do it.
11. After you have written the inspired words you receive and as you spend time with the Lord, take time to review them and speak them out loud declaring the words of the Lord. Offer them back in thanksgiving for the great things He HAS done. This is not a time to grovel. It is time to agree.
12. As you submit yourself to the leading of the Lord, resist the devil and he will flee. Are you fully submitted to the Lord? What trap do you keep falling into time after time? Sometimes when you resist is seems you get nowhere. However, once done over and over strength increases and progress is made. Muscles resist training when they experience pain. If their master pushes through the pain knowing he will reap a positive outcome the muscle will grow in strength and power. Once muscles grow in strength they resist less until more pressure is applied. In the beginning they look weak and do not show the subtle changes taking place but with time and effort they show the evidence of perseverance. This strength enables them to take more and more pressure until they are champion contenders for the person they belong to. Resistance becomes the key to strength when the one experiencing the struggle to overcome realizes subtle changes are taking place…progress is taking place and does not give up in doubt and unbelief…does not give up when the pain of failure tries and convince them otherwise. Keep resisting and you will enter into that place of peace with God.
13. Do you find that you are doing things to get mans approval or God’s approval?
14. Seeing you are His Pearl of Great Price is there anything you can do to be loved more than you already are?
15. Do you find the need to have others validate you by trying to accomplish things they desire? How can resting in the love of God for you purchased by the giving of His Pearl of Great Price set you free from pleasing men?
16. Are you willing to be a co-laborer with the Lord by following His lead and let Him create all He desires for you as His garden with a heart of love and pure motives?
17. Write a description of what the Garden of the Lord looks like to you based on what you know about His Word and according to what He spoke in the above devotion.
18. Are you willing to work in the garden (area of service, family, job, ministry…and so on) God has set you in and co-labor with Him to bring His essence into all you do?
19. Are you willing to let the Master Gardener prune all unprofitable things which come like little foxes to destroy your garden? That will enable you to bear more fruit.
20. What promises are you believing for that have not come to bear fruit yet? Write down that which you are waiting to see blossom.
21. Spend some intimate time giving God thanks for the pruning process, knowing that the end result will bring forth the most magnificent garden of beauty and life within you.
22. Meditate on ways you are like a rose of Sharon and ways you are like a lily. What attributes mentioned in reference to these flowers do you most need in your life?
23. Write a prayer to the Lord from the abundance of your own heart. It does not have to be like mine…does not have to be flowery and poetic…it just has to be a reflection of the garden He made your heart to be. Some gardens have cactus (strong and resilient in the toughest of environments), some roses (some ever blooming and some not), some orchids (best suited to tropical places), some regular garden varieties (adaptable to many different places and the list goes one. It is not wrong to be one and not another. It is only wrong to compare yourself with others and not value who you are because of said comparison.
24. Do you compare each snowflake that fall? No! But when they fall together side by side the blanket the earth in beauty. It is true that all things should be practiced when we express ourselves to God according to how He made us. The same goes for your prayer to the Lord. Take this advice in all aspects of your relationship with Him…not just in writing this prayer. He loves who you are (Psalm 139).

Breath Of Life And The Eternal Conversations Of Heaven, Part I