Second Entry

I woke up at 6:30, got some coffee and went outside to sit on my patio.  It was barely light enough to see but the weather was beautiful with a slight wind in the leaves above me.  I took my pen and journal with me to "Sit with the Lord" and if He gave me anything, I would write it down.  I closed my eyes and just thought about God.  I instantly saw a vision with me at the bottom of a page and above there were layers of things and above all the layers was God.  I started looking at the layers and felt a pressing sensation - pressing through that layer (family things, trip out of town, learning to blog, working on my photography, church, friends, etc)  Layers with those names on them, basically, things going on in my life at the time.  None of them were bad in themselves but somehow I had not incorporated my time with the Lord into them at the degree necessary to keep that Oneness that He desires with me and that I want also.  It was as though I had to flex my spiritual muscles to push through the layers and all of the sudden, there was an almost physical sensation of freedom that flowed out of me - like a volcano exploded and shot upward and outward.  It surprised me.

The Lord started giving me a story of a mountain climber whose goal had been to climb Mt. Everest.  He had spend many hours in training for this goal, much money for equipment, traveling, etc. but He now was within a days climb to the top.  As he lay in his tent the night before his ascent, he began thinking how tired he was, felt half frozen, was mentally exhausted and really missing his family.  All those thoughts became his main focus during that night. When he awoke the next morning, he dressed, made a fire, drank his coffee and looked toward the summit and then he looked down the mountain where all his thoughts and emotions had been directed the night before.  He packed up his gear, ready to go, paused, and chose to go back down the mountain.  Little did he know that five men had been observing his ascent by satellite and had made an agreement that when he made it to the top, they were all going to put one million dollars in an account for him.  He missed the reward.

I'm not saying that God is going to give you one million dollars, but I believe what the Lord is showing me is that there is so much more awaiting us in the spirit realm if and when we press forward into His Kingdom.  It takes an effort amid daily life to keep pressed into Him at the same time, but He can and will show us how to accomplish this feat.  We do it to be close to Him and He, because of His love and kindness toward us, will reward us in ways we could not image.

One specific thing He is showing me is that I can have a peace in me in the midst of all that is going on in the world, in the news, in my family, in my own personal situations - I can have peace.  I have never realized how divine a feeling that is.  He will give us tastes of things available to us but we should not  be seeking the "taste" but Him.  That taste is Him.  We are getting to taste Him.  We will sense His peace, we will sense His joy, we will get to taste His love. It's not even our own peace but it's parts of who He is.  Press on and press into Him.  He will show you how.  Don't go back down the mountain.  We are so close to the summit.  Don't give up.