Category: encounters

  • Acceptance!

    Acceptance!

    Lord trees have been uprooted from my garden. We also have taken up many weeds and here we are in the center of the garden where the tree we just removed has left behind unseen mess. How I know this is, this morning you sent me a love note with insight, beauty, and truth in it. And doubts and unbelief began to creep in right after. Was it from you? Was it a moth and not a butterfly? Was it not you telling me I have become that butterfly, etc. But it was a butterfly- I checked! Thank you Lord. I receive your truth about me! Forgive me, I turn away from doubt and unbelief. I guess that tree left roots and weeds underneath. Will you help me pull them up today? Let’s start to plant new trees and plants to fill up this garden with You and Your life! The master gardener replied: Yes!!!

    It is what God says about you and I that matters. That is the truth! And when he needs to show us something in our lives that is unpleasant we can swiftly deal with it by turning to him in surrender and he will help us! Song of Solomon 6:3 I am my beloved’s, And my beloved is mine. He feeds his flock among the lilies.

  • A Step Out of Victimhood!

    A Step Out of Victimhood!

    My day began a little worn feeling. I had a question or two for the Master Gardener. As we worked the water from a pond in the Center of my garden caught my eye. A glint of light danced in one corner. The Master Gardener told me I could go take a look, so I set down my tools and went to the edge. He stirred the water and let me see, if I dared, my own reflection. I began to look and then see. He told me I would need to face what I saw there, if I really want to be free. For you see footholds remained in me, that had to be shunned and turned from. Things in me had to be faced in order to be free. So I looked, I faced myself, then Him- The Truth. I let go, I repented. Things in me were wrong. Not just things done to me. He helped me forgive myself and others and now I must go for He is beckoning me into the water to baptize me a fresh in his love and I must go!

  • Pausing

    Pausing

    I have headed into the Center place of my garden today, to just sit and be with the Lord, the Master Gardener. The weather has grown hotter and today is a cooler day. It is a perfect time to remember what this garden is all about and get back to the core. It is Him and me and two hearts entwined. The outer parts of the garden can have some attention, but today, I remember to come here daily and just be. For I have nothing apart from this love Jesus gives and His life. The heat has caused the blossoms to be beautifully full and fragrant! I think I will ask Him to help build me a canopy for refuge to shelter me from the heat this summer will bring. I have been dealing with the heat and those trying to get into the inner part of my garden, but the Master gardener knows how to teach me to catch the little foxes and so I shall!

  • For Purpose!

    For Purpose!

    There is a lot to do in my garden this week. I want to sit and enjoy, but first the work must begin. Sowing seeds for a fall harvest today, this means i need to work the ground and ready my soil and I am seeking the help of the Master gardener to help me in this stage. I sometimes mistake weeds for plants and plants for weeds. There may be a few plants to keep and place in another part of the garden. I also have a lot of learning to do today. It is wonderful to be alive and to begin to be more intentional in my garden. Even the pain takes on new meaning and at the end of even today, I will be able to sit and reflect and enjoy some of the fruits of my labour! I am not labouring alone, I found this doesn’t work, Jesus is hear guiding and providing for me. I am in a season where maybe one or two others step into this garden, but I have areas now only for me and Him. It is becoming a larger part of my garden too, but I see now that this is by design and not to punish me or others, it is for purpose! I pray you ask and yield to the guiding and help of Jesus in your own life! He loves you and so do I!!!

  • Center Garden

    Center Garden

    Today I am beginning with watering the new apple trees in the previously neglected space. They have new tender shoots! Things are now in order and established and I can tend to the surrounding areas of my whole garden. It has been a very needed time to put into this center garden, this is what I will call it going forward. Even yesterday I was unsure if things were sorted in it. As time has progressed today and I am back and reflecting, I see that the work is done and I now only need to tend to it regularly, like the whole garden. I guess it was just the perfect time in my life to venture into the inner part of my garden, find it in much disrepair and then sort it out. I had forgotten about it, and to be honest, there was some of it I was not even aware of being in existence! However shocking this may be, it was cruelty, pain and control that shrouded it from my sight. Now I can learn, discover and grow in all areas of my life. I pray your joy is full today friend. I hope you invite the Master gardener into your plot…He has such a way with our lives and causing them to bloom!!! I am currently looking back at him and we are sharing a knowing smile. For it is Him and I alone that know what a miracle my garden has become!!!

  • Garden in Disrepair

    Garden in Disrepair

    I wasn’t aware of a patch of my garden that I was brought to today. It was painful to see the state it was in. It looked over grown with weeds and a bit pillaged and plundered, if I am honest! I guess at some point I had put up a chain linked fence surrounding the chaos and walked away. I think I did the best I knew to do, but today I had to start clearing the ground! I began to pull the weeds up and now I am tilling the ground, next tonight, is that fence, it is coming down. I believe tomorrow I will put a little picket fence and a row of hedges running parallel to that with some large trees behind as an extra level of protection and beauty to the boundaries. I pray you tend to the garden of your life today too friend! Jesus is an excellent gardener!

  • Pivot

    Pivot

    I hear the call to pivot today, and so soon after my last! It is so much wiser and peace filled to answer the call from Jesus to make a quick change. I am thinking differently about this now. I used to look at myself and wonder what I did wrong. Now I think “You know best Lord”, and I immediately pivot! It is instruction and he sees everything, it’s wisdom to follow. Honestly I am celebrating now after the pivot because it means he is leading me and I am hearing him! If you find yourself being instructed to pivot in an area of your life, I want to encourage you to make the adjustments. You are in good company! I think the more I hear, listen, and move as he directs I am becoming even more undignified and I like it!

  • Take Courage!

    Take Courage!

    In my time with the Lord today, I found myself saying, “I will take courage!” This was after a morning greeting, and thanksgiving for the directions, answers and help I asked for yesterday that he helped me receive and act on. He is so good! I am glad I decided to take courage. It maybe that as I was declaring this, he was bringing it up in me. The Holy Spirit is good like that! I need that courage right now, how about you? It is important to keep our eyes on Jesus and what he says and is doing. If the fire gets hotter, we need only remember there is a fourth man in the fire with us, if he is Lord of your life, he is of mine! I am remembering to bathe in his love, and increase my joy through trust in him and peace. May he show you what you need from him to come out the other side of this time stronger and above it all! I am setting my eyes above the swirl and though I deal with the circumstances, I will not dwell in them. May the Lord impart to you, what you need today friend. He is good and he is working!!!

  • Angry Birds!

    Angry Birds!

    These birds are angry! Instead of just fending them off or shooing them away, a new tactic is what I have decided to implement. It is what we do naturally to shoo away the thoughts and little nuisances,(they can get quite disruptive). Today I realized that doing the same thing has not worked. It is not that I wouldn’t have done something different, it just wasn’t the right time, or I wasn’t ready.

    Today I am going to swim in the river, get saturated in the love of God, and sit and be still with him, and as we are enjoying the food and fishing, I am going to use the built up Word I have in me and the revelations from spoken words and encounters with him to deal with these angry birds!

    After a while they began to try to disrupt our feasting and enjoying of our time together. They began to try and dive bomb me and get me off the path, or to run away for cover. But Jesus is here with me and a great covering. It is just time to mature and allow the work to be deployed. Don’t run, don’t try to just swat them, but let the exousia power of God bring the armor on, then me and mine will not look like a target and the constant circling and dive bombing will not be tempting to these angry birds! Oh, sure one or two may try to dive in from time to time, but will quickly learn their lesson when they hit that armour!!! It is a new way of resisting the enemy that he would flee! I pray an impartation and revelation for you as you read this today! I am receiving it now too!

  • Sitting to Fish!

    Sitting to Fish!

    I thought I would share a bit of my time with Jesus today, I pray it blesses you!

    Sitting beside Jesus in a boat today and I said: “Lord let’s fish in this lake today, where the rivers of love converge. I want to sit still, and just be. I also want to fish and chat with you. I want to set before you a picnic I have made to feast on with you! Would you lead me in this endeavor today? “Let’s go!”, he said with enthusiasm. I like your fishing hat Lord, mine has butterflies! I have to say your inviting smile is even better! I want to catch butterflies today too!”

    Sitting in the boat, I turned and asked: “Lord what is on your mind today?” “Increasing Joy,” is what he said. “Lord increase my joy! Give me a deeper revelation of the joy of you being my strength!!!

    “Is there anything I need or you need to address in order for me to have more or increased joy?” “Strength, longevity, perseverance, hope? Impart to me what I need today. Show or tell me what I need to change.” He said: “Trust.” “What about trust?” “That I have a good plan for you no matter what happens or things look like.” “Lord, I will trust you, but will you help me?” “Yes“, he replied! “I need past trauma healed, removed. Things like abandonment and fear, doubt, and unbelief, and I do not partner with these things or lack anymore. Forgive me Lord!” “I do!” “Oh, just help me Lord! I say yes and help me to!!! I trust you Lord, and I let go of it all today. In fact let us go to the shore and I am going to through these stones into the waters to sink and be carried away.”

    Sitting on the bank ,”Lord I brought food to share…cabbages, carrots, pie, and cake, honey, and pomegranate and apples too! What else do you want to say to me today, anymore on joy?” “Peace.” I asked: “What about peace Lord?” “Peace is essential to grow more joy. It keeps the foxes from stealing the fruit and taking your hope. In hardship and celebration, you can have peace.” “Lord, where does peace come from?” “Me, knowing me and remembering who I am for you! Peace isn’t moved by storms.” “Lord, increase, give me a deeper level of peace!”, I exclaimed. “Ok, Here, receive it from me! Rehearse what I have done for you and others. This will help you to hold onto it.” “I trust you Lord, I lean into your joy and strength!

    “Now Lord, let us go for a swim in the rivers of Love and soak a while!”