Walk Boldly With Jesus

Evidence of True Repentance

Matthew 3:8 “ Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”

Repentance is the theme for mentoring this month. This week, we are focusing on Evidence of true repentance. When researching this, I came across this verse. I dismissed it as a very short verse, and I didn’t think it said too much. However, it kept coming up, so I sat with it and asked the Lord what He wanted to share with you about this verse. Repentance is not about just saying sorry. It is about truly being sorry, returning to the Lord, and changing our ways. If we go to confession one day and then return to living our lives the same way we had before, then is that really repentance?

I know there are some sins we struggle with, sins we might confess week after week or month after month. We can be genuinely sorry for something and yet struggle to change it. However, we do need to be trying to change it. God is very patient, and He knows our hearts. He will help change our hearts, habits, or whatever we need to change, as long as we invite him into that struggle.

The verse above says to produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Matthew 17:15-20 says, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them.” It says twice in these verses, you will know them by their fruit. What does your fruit look like?

Is everything going wrong in your life right now? Is it one bad day after another? Do you feel a lot of anger, unforgiveness, and anxiety? Have you repented lately? Have you turned away from sin and back to God? God does not cause bad things to happen in our lives. I am not saying that God is causing these bad things because you have not repented. What I am saying is that our choices can definitely cause bad things to happen in our lives. Our choices can make us miserable, and sometimes we can end up blaming God for the bad results of our choices instead of taking responsibility for them and examining our lives to see where we might need to repent and turn back to the Lord.

We ask the Lord why we are so unhappy, and then we decide to drink all night because we are so sad. Then we wake up the next day feeling like crap and so we are unhappy that day too. This cycle repeats over and over again until we stop, repent, and turn back to the Lord. We ask the Lord why our family is falling apart, yet we choose to watch TV and numb our feelings instead of hitting our knees and praying about the situation. We are turning everywhere for answers except for God, who has all the answers.

One of the people in mentoring gave an example last week of a sin she had been struggling with. She repeatedly confessed this sin each week during confession. She desperately wanted to get rid of this sin in her life, and yet she continued to struggle with it. She felt so embarrassed and so ashamed every time she had to go and confess this same sin, week after week. However, she continued to bring it to the Lord and confess it. Because she continued to repent of this sin and tried to change it, and invited God in to help her change it, she no longer suffers from this sin. He has healed her of it. God changed her heart and her mind. He is so good. He can do this for you, too! But first, you have to bring it to Him. First, you need to repent and invite Him into it.

If things are particularly hard in your life right now, take some time, sit with the Lord, and ask Him if there is any unrepented sin in your life. Ask God to show you where you might need repentance. This can be hard to do, as we might be afraid God might tell us to change something we don’t want to change. God has our best interests at heart. He knows what is best for us, even when we can’t see it. He knows the whole picture, even the things we can’t see.

Think about all you did when you were a kid. Did you always know what was best for you? Did you always do what was best for you? I am sure in the moment you thought you were doing what was best, but really, you were doing what felt best. What feels good in the moment isn’t always what is best for you. I am struggling with this with my boys. They think some of the things they are doing are not that bad. Everyone does them, and it’s no big deal. What they can’t see is the long-term effects or the long-term damage. Yes, smoking probably feels really good in the moment, yet how good do you think lung cancer will feel when you are older? They can’t see the future, but God can.

The same is true for us. We can’t see the results of everything we are doing now. Just because something feels good in the moment doesn’t mean that it is good for us in the long run. This is why it is important to take time to examine our life, our actions, and ask the Lord to show us anywhere that we might need to repent. God knows more than we do. God sees more than we do. God knows our hearts, and He doesn’t want to lose a single one of his children. He can’t help us if we don’t let Him. He can’t help us if we don’t ask for help. If we don’t search our own hearts, lives, and actions and see where we might be sinning. Where we might need to repent.

I read something this morning that said real repentance shows up in your lifestyle: humility, growth, peace, love, and ongoing transformation. Look at these things in your life. Are you growing in humility, or are you very prideful? Are you growing in your relationships, life, job, etc, or are you stuck where you have always been? Are you growing in peace, or are you anxious, worried, angry, fearful, always? Are you growing in love, or are you closed off, refusing to trust, or let others in? Is there an ongoing transformation where you are constantly evolving and trying to be more holy, trying to live more and more like God is calling you to live?

Can people look at us and tell by our lifestyle that we have real repentance? The verse from Matthew 17 said, “You will know them by their fruits.” What do the fruits of our lives say about us?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening today. Lord, help us to repent of our sins. Please help us to know how to repent. Help us see our sins, not so we can feel shame or regret, but so that we can bring them to you and help us repent and turn back to you. Please show us the ways we have turned away from you. Please show us the ways we need to repent. Lord, help us to look at the fruit of our lives and see where we need to make changes. Help us to see where we can grow more in humility, growth, peace, love, and ongoing transformation. Please help us to invite you into all of it, Lord! Help us to invite you into the mess because that is the only way things will change. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I am looking forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in November / December 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I am your strength of every day. I am your hope. I am all that you will ever need. The more you trust, the more you will grow in my ways, for I am the Lord your God who loves you till the very end. Take my hand and never let it go. Come to me, for I love you so.”

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Submit Yourselves to God (Replay)

James 4:7-8 “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

This is another one of those things that sounds much easier to do than it actually is.  Submit ourselves to God.  That doesn’t sound too hard, right?  It doesn’t sound hard, but have you tried it?  It is not easy to submit to God.  What does it even mean to submit ourselves to God?  Google's dictionary defines submission as "the action or fact of accepting or yielding to a superior force or to the will or authority of another person.”  I think there are two parts to this.  First, the action of accepting or yielding to a superior force.  This means that we would accept that God is in control.  We would do as He tells us to do because He is our superior force.  He created all things, and He gives us a set of rules to live by, so we must live by them.  

The second part of this definition is accepting or yielding to the will or authority of another person.  Submitting to God would be accepting His will as our will.  It would mean that we accept His will for our lives.  There are times when this is very easy.  When we get the job we really want, it is easy to accept it as God’s will.  When we meet the love of our life, we can accept that it is God’s will for us to be with this person.  However, what about when things aren’t going our way?  What about when God’s will differs from our will?  What about if we don’t get a job because He has something better in mind for us?  Can you think of a time when you really wanted something to happen and it didn’t?  What about when you didn’t want something to happen and it did?  How easy was it for you to submit to the Lord’s will?  

This verse tells us to submit ourselves to God.  If we want to do this, we need to figure out where we are struggling and then ask God for help.  We can ask Him to help us submit.  He will always help when we ask.  If we are struggling to see how God wants us to submit to Him, then we can always just ask Him.  My spiritual director told me one time to model St. Teresa of Lisieux and explain to God that I am just a little child and I need Him to show me the way.  I need Him to show me or tell me what He wants me to do.  I want to follow His will, I just need directions, just as a child would. This really spoke to me.  I sometimes, oftentimes, if I am being honest, I think I need to know what God wants from me.  I think I am just supposed to know.  It seems like everyone else knows, but why don’t I know?  So, I try to guess, I try to listen, and I try to do all the things just in case that is what He was wanting.  

However, what I try to do now is to ask the Lord to help me understand.  I ask Him to explain it to me as though I were a child.  I ask Him to make it clear to me and to give me the courage and strength for whatever He wants me to do.  We are all just little children in the eyes of the Lord.  In Matthew 18:3, Jesus said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” God wants us to become like children.  I think he wants us to be like children because there is something so pure about a child’s faith.  Children don’t get caught up in understanding every little detail.  They don’t ask all the questions.  Miracles are miracles because there is no explanation.  If there were an explanation as to exactly how it happened, it wouldn’t be a miracle.  Adults don’t really like to believe in things that they can’t see.  Children, on the other hand, love to play make-believe.  They have no problem believing in things they can’t see.  If you are struggling to submit to God, ask Him to show you how.  He has assured us that if we ask, He will answer, so let’s ask.  

The next part of this verse says to resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Again, something that sounds so easy and yet is so difficult.  I would love to say I resist the devil.  The problem is, the devil is always disguised as something else.  For instance, he will be disguised as temptation.  You know that you should spend time in prayer or in silence, and suddenly your favorite TV show is having a marathon and showing episodes all day.  You decide to give up sweets for Lent, and someone drops cookies off at your house.  You decide you are going to start running, and it rains for a week straight.  Do you see how it is hard to resist the devil in these circumstances because you don’t know it is the enemy attacking you?  

Another way the enemy might show up is through distractions.  You decide you want to spend more time with your children, and suddenly everyone in the family has something else to do, or your work suddenly gets really busy.  You may want to spend more time with your parents, but something comes up to prevent you from spending more time with them.  We find it hard to resist the other things that are getting in our way, and so family time gets put off or pushed aside.  The enemy might also show up as anger.  We want to be peaceful and to not get upset over little things.  Then the enemy comes along and presents one little thing after another until you can’t take it anymore and get angry and you lose it.  

The enemy doesn’t want us to grow in holiness.  He will do whatever it takes to prevent this from happening.  He certainly does not want to flee.  If we want the devil to flee, we have to figure out a way to resist him, all his temptations and lies.  How do we resist something that we don’t know is there?  One way we can resist the devil is to keep turning our eyes to the Lord.  We can keep asking Him what He wants us to do and asking Him to help us do it.  We can ask the Lord to open our eyes to see the devil and all his tricks.  We can try to be on the lookout for different ways the enemy may be interfering in our lives.  If things are not going well and you are not acting like you want to, the devil is probably involved.  If you feel you are growing further from the Lord, the devil is probably involved.

Another way to resist the devil is to do what the verse above says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”  In my prayer group every week, the Lord calls us closer to Him.  He is calling all of us closer to Him.  If we come closer to God, He will come closer to you.  Then the verse says, Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  I wasn’t sure what double-minded in this verse meant.  When I looked it up, it meant that our heart is split between God and the things of this world.  This is the devil’s way in.  This is his back door.  If we love the things of this world as much or even more than we love God, then that is all the devil needs to attack us.  The more we release our attachment to the things of this world, the less of a hold the devil has over us.  If we want to resist the devil, we can ask God to help us, we can turn to Him and grow closer to Him, and we can try to release our attachment to the things of this world.  

Releasing our attachment to things of this world is not easy.  We all have our favorite TV shows or our favorite foods we like to eat, and that is ok.  I am not saying that you can’t like anything that is of this world.  I am saying that our priorities should be God first and then everything else.  If anything is getting in the way of us doing the things we know we need to do, then that is the devil at work, and we need to resist.  I have been attacked by the spirit of distraction lately.  I will have time to write this book I am writing, or work on my podcast, and the spirit of distraction will come and show me all these other more fun things to do.  I must resist.  

Did you know, in a weird way, when the devil attacks you, it is sort of a compliment.  It is confirmation that you are walking on the right path.  The reason I say this is because the devil doesn’t mess around with the lukewarm; he doesn’t mess around with those who are already headed to see him.  He only concerns himself with those who are headed to see the Lord, those who are favored and are trying to walk the right path.  If you are feeling like the devil is attacking you, take comfort in the fact that you are doing something right, or he wouldn’t bother with you.  Then turn to the Lord and keep trying to do the next right thing.  God is on your side, and He will be your refuge and your shield if you ask Him to.  Come in close to the Lord, and He will come in close to you.  He will put his arm around you and protect you from all harm.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to resist the devil, and we want him to flee. Please help us.  Please protect us, Lord, and shield us from all harm.  Help open our eyes to see the devil and all of his tricks in our lives.  Lord, we want to put you first, help us to see what is getting in our way.  Open our eyes to anything that is preventing us from growing closer to you.  Help us to know what you want us to do and help us to become like children.  Lord, you are amazing, and we love you so very much.  We are grateful that you are our God and that you take such good care of us.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

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The Holy Spirit Lives In You

Acts 2:38 “Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.  And you will receive the Holy Spirit.”

I think when most of us read this, we focus on the repent and be baptized part of this verse.  Repentance is so important, and it is something that we can read about all throughout the Bible.  God is always calling His people to repentance, and sometimes they repented and other times they did not.  In the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, they were a wicked people and they refused to repent.  God sent fire down to destroy the towns.  However, when God sent Jonah to Ninevah to tell them they needed to repent, they did, and God saved them.  

Did you know that Jonah was angry at God for saving Nineveh?  We read in Jonah 4:1-2, “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.  And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is it not this what I have said when I was yet in my country?  That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”  Jonah ran from the Lord when the Lord asked him to go to Ninevah.  I had always thought he ran from the Lord because he was afraid of the people in Ninevah.  However, this verse says that he ran because he knew God would have mercy on them, and he didn’t want them to be saved.

This is a somewhat common thing for us to do.  Maybe not running from the Lord, but definitely wishing people get what they deserve.  Have you ever wished that someone got what they deserved?  Have you ever seen a car speed by you, or weave in and out of traffic, and think to yourself, “I hope there is a cop ahead.” Or do you see someone cut in line and hope that someone notices and that they get kicked out of the line?  Why do we do this?  Why do we wish ill on other people?  Maybe you are thinking that you are justified in thinking that you want the driver to get pulled over because you want them to learn their lesson and drive better.  But, what if they did get pulled over and they just got a warning, would you be ok with that?

Sometimes we can do this with our kids as well.  Jonah felt that these people needed to be punished, and he knew that God would have mercy on them.  Sometimes we can default to the thinking that when our children do something wrong, they need to be punished, and maybe that is true sometimes.  But do we take the time to think about the situation first?  Do we even consider giving them mercy?  Sometimes our children need our mercy.  Sometimes they messed up, did something they weren’t supposed to do, and they know it was wrong.  They are truly sorry, and they learned a lesson from it.  Times like these are times when we should consider mercy.  Sometimes we think our kids will only learn if we punish them; however, I think they can learn a lot from mercy as well.

As I said earlier, we tend to focus on the first part of this verse, Repent and be baptized.  However, I wonder how many of you also think of the ending of the verse?  How many of you truly know what it means?  The verse ends with “and you will receive the Holy Spirit.”  I am not sure that everyone, or even most people, knows how powerful a statement that is.  Did you know that the power of the Holy Spirit is what raised Jesus from the dead?  Did you know that the same power resides in you?  Romans 8:11 "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

When you are baptized, you are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. This means that when you are baptized, you receive the Holy Spirit.  If you are Catholic, then you receive the Holy Spirit again when you are confirmed.  This is all amazing to me.  The power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in me.  I just can’t get over that.  I think if we all knew the power that we had through the Holy Spirit, and then used that power for good, the world wouldn’t know what was going on.  Jesus said in John 14:12-14, “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”

Did you catch that?  Jesus said we will do greater works than He if we believe.  This is only possible because of the Holy Spirit.  We have the Holy Spirit inside of us; we just need to call on Him.   We need to believe in Jesus and believe when He tells us that He sent us the Holy Spirit to guide us.  The Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead.  That same spirit lives in you.  What are you going to do with it?  Are you going to just sit around and let all that power pass you by, or are you going to use your newfound power for good?  Who do you know that could use some extra blessings?  I am sure that I have talked before about how important repentance is, and yet this will likely not be the last time you hear me talk about it.  Repentance is so important for so many reasons.  This verse just mentions one of the many: if you repent and are baptized, you will receive the Holy Spirit.  Now, after talking for a bit about how awesome the Holy Spirit is, wouldn’t you do anything to be close to Him?

Most, if not all, of you listening already have the Holy Spirit inside of you.  Call upon Him and you will see how powerful He is.  Don’t be afraid to talk with Him and ask Him for things.  That is why God sent Him to us, to help us.  Anything that happens as a result of the Holy Spirit glorifies God.  Jesus is with the Father, so when we ask God for things in Jesus’ name, the Holy Spirit comes through for us, and the results glorify the Lord.  It is a win-win for everyone.  One of the easiest prayers to remember, and yet one of the most powerful, is, “Come, Holy Spirit, come.”  When you ask, God answers.  Anytime you are in need of a little assistance, or even a lot of assistance, pray, “Come, Holy Spirit, come.”  I truly feel you will be surprised at all the ways He comes through for you.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, I ask that you send the Holy Spirit to everyone listening to this podcast. Lord, we ask that you open our eyes to how the Holy Spirit is working in our lives. Lord, we ask that you remind us to call on the Holy Spirit when we forget. Lord, we are so very thankful that you sent down the Holy Spirit to guide us in your ways.  Lord, help us to see the places in our lives where we need to repent, and then give us the courage to do so. We want to receive the Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus, we are open to it. Lord God, you are amazing. We are so very thankful for all you do for us.  We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will, and in Jesus’ holy name, amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I want to let you know that there may be more replays in the upcoming weeks. A few things are going on in our family that are requiring more of my time. However, I don’t want to not post something for you, and many of you were not listening at the very beginning. So, hopefully it will still be new to you! I will still post a new one when I can, and a replay when I don’t have the time. I appreciate your patience and your support during these next few weeks. I also appreciate your support in listening to this podcast. I am honored you listened. I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday! Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in November / December 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Today is a new day, my people. Today is the day I renew all my mercies and my graces, and I pour them out freely on each one of you, on your families and your friends and your co-workers and your churches and all the world. Today is a day in which you need to praise and worship me from your heart for the many gifts that I have given you so that I can continue to pour out on you grace upon grace upon gift upon gift, that you may be my ambassadors, that you may be the signs to the world that I am alive, that resurrection is real, that it is a grace that I give to each one of you. All you need to do is call upon my name. Call upon the name of Jesus, the Lamb of God who gave his very life, that you might have life forever and ever. My greatest desire is to love you forever. Listen to me, my people. Listen to me and share that good news with those you meet. I love you. My heart is always yours, and you are always mine.”

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You Are Loved By Jesus

John 13:23 “One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved,* was reclining at Jesus’ side.”

This scripture verse was given at my prayer group, and the following words of prophecy were given:  “You are also the one whom Jesus loves.  So, your place is to be listening to his heartbeat when you pray. So, put your head on his chest and listen to his heartbeat.  Say I love you and be at peace.”  Is there anything more calming than putting your head on someone’s chest and listening to their heartbeat?  I pictured when I was little and if I was scared and I went to lie with my parents.  Just putting my head on their chest and listening to their heartbeat would make me feel better. It seemed so rhythmic and soothing.

“You are also the one whom Jesus loves.”  How many of you believe this?  Like truly in the depths of your heart believe this?  You are also the one whom Jesus loves.  Sometimes, it is easy to say that Jesus is love.  It is easy to say that Jesus loves everyone.  And yet, even as we are saying it, we are discounting ourselves from that love.  We know He loves everyone and yet we don’t believe that he loves us?  We don’t feel that love or even understand why He would love us.  Who are we to be loved by Jesus?

You are the son or daughter of the one true king. That is who you are.  You were made in the likeness and image of God.  You are deeply loved by Him.  Why do you discount yourself from that love?  Or maybe you put a lot of pressure on yourself to be worthy enough of God’s love.  Maybe you think if you just do things perfectly, then God will love you.  If you attend weekly mass and volunteer for every fundraiser, you will be worthy of God’s love.  Are you constantly feeling like you are not good enough for God’s love?

Guess what? None of us are.  None of us are worthy of God’s love, yet he lavishes it freely anyway.  You do not have to do anything to earn God’s love.  Well, as I wrote that, what came to mind was we do have to accept it.  God can tell us all day long that he loves us, but if we don’t accept it, then it doesn’t matter.  Yesterday, I talked about abiding in God’s love and how abiding means acceptance.  Can you accept God’s love?  Can you accept that he loves you just as you are, with no strings attached?

This is a new kind of love for so many.  Some people have never had someone in their lives who loved them completely, with no strings attached.  Unconditional love is not a thing they even new.  If you are struggling to believe that Jesus loves you, just as you are, think about your childhood and your past relationships.  What do you think of when you think about love?  Did you have to earn love growing up?  What did you feel you had to do to be loved?  For instance, did you have to get good grades,  be a certain weight, be quieter, etc?  Did you feel like your parents' love was conditional on your behavior?  If so, don’t worry. You are not alone.  

We live in a broken world and don’t know how to love each other unconditionally like our heavenly father does.  I think everyone is doing the best they can.  We can only love others to the extent that we are loved.  If your parents do not know unconditional love, they can’t pass it on to you.  The good news is, that you can learn to let Jesus’s love in.  The good news is that Jesus does love us unconditionally.  If we can learn to accept Jesus’s love, then we can learn to pass this love on to others, even if that is not the love we were raised with.

If you struggle with accepting God’s love, I would love to give you some practical tips for how to begin to accept God’s love.  I went online to see if others had already written about his subject.  I found an article written by Kara J. Lovett called “5 Keys to Accepting God’s Love.”  I would highly suggest you read this article.  I will put a link for it in the description of this episode, but you can easily find it by googling 5 Keys to Accepting God’s Love.  https://karajlovett.com/5-keys-to-accepting-gods-love/  In the article she goes into what God says about love and then a section on understanding God’s love.  

Her article mentions five was you can accept God’s love.  They are as follows: Accepting God’s love with scripture, prayer, grace, and quietness & in unexpected places. Kara says in her article that “by digging deep into Scripture and spending time with God in prayer, I realized that I need to stop striving for love and instead strive to accept God’s love, which He has already graciously bestowed on me.”  As I mentioned yesterday, reading the bible is a great way to get to know God’s love. You can see all sorts of examples of God’s love in the bible.  1 John 4:7-10 is a great example of love.  It says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

The second way she mentions is prayer.  When we turn to God and ask for His help, he wants to help us and is just waiting for us to ask.  God knows what we are going through and what are struggles are, and yet he loves it when we talk to Him about them.  Just sit down with a cup of coffee or tea and talk to God like you are talking to your best friend at the kitchen table.  You will be surprised how much closer you get to God when you start having chats with Him regularly.  They can be informal chats about your day, your struggles, and your successes.  God wants to share in all of that with you.

The third way she mentions is Grace.  Learning about grace over these last few years has been huge for me.  Learning to be graceful with yourself is so important.  Kara says that grace is the free, unearned gift of salvation that God has bestowed upon us.  When I looked up the definition online, it said 1a: unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification. b: a virtue coming from God. c: a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine assistance.  We are saved and redeemed through God’s grace.  It is unmerited, meaning we don’t deserve it; we can’t do anything to earn it; it is just bestowed upon us.  How amazing is that?  The third definition is a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine assistance.  We can’t forget this.  We are made holy through divine assistance.  God is always there to help us.  We can’t do any of this on our own.  It is always a partnership.  God has so much grace and mercy for us.  He doesn’t expect us to be perfect, so cut yourself some slack.

The fourth way to accept God’s love is through quietness.  Spend some quiet time with God.  There are so many ways that you can do this.  Maybe you are someone who likes to meditate every morning.  That is wonderful! Maybe you are like me, and every time you try to quiet your mind, all it wants to do is talk to you.  That’s fine, too.  Maybe your quiet time is spent in nature, going for a walk, or sitting outside listening to the sounds of nature.  Maybe your quiet time with God is spent journaling all your thoughts.  There is no right way to spend quiet time with God.  Your relationship with God is like any other relationship; the more time you spend together, the closer you will be.  

The fifth key to accepting God’s love for Kara was letting go of control.  Even though we know at some level that we don’t have to earn God’s love, we still try to prove to Him that we love Him.  We put all these rules and regulations on ourselves about how we have to do this, and we have to do that.  We tend to put a lot of pressure on ourselves.  Once Kara was able to let go of control and remember that Jesus already secured our freedom on the cross, she decided to let go of all the pressure she put on herself and just tried to abide in Jesus’s love.  

God loves you!  He truly does.  I hope that if you are not currently able to accept God’s love, you will spend some time working on learning how to.  I can’t tell you how amazing it is to know that I am always loved.  To know that there is nothing I can do that would make my heavenly father stop loving me.  It gives me so much more confidence in life.  It brings me so much joy.  It breaks my heart when I talk with people who don’t know how much God loves them.  I know it is hard to let love in sometimes.  I have been there before.  It can be hard,  it can take a lot of work, and it is so worth it.  There is so much more waiting for you once you accept and really come to know God’s love for you.  It is there for the taking, free, with no strings attached.  All you have to do is say yes and accept it!

Dear Heavenly Father, I am so thankful that you love us unconditionally.  You love us so completely.  Lord, some of us are struggling to feel this love.  We ask you right now to come into our hearts and fill them with your love, perfect love.  We ask that you begin to break down any walls that we have put up to keep love out.  Lord, we want all the love that you have for us.  Lord, I ask that you bless everyone listening to this with a supernatural feeling of love today.  That the Holy Spirit descends on all of them and that they can physically feel you giving them a hug today.  Lord, you are so amazing.  We are in awe of all that you do each and every day.  We pray that you help our loved ones to open up and feel your love.  Lord, we pray that you shower your love on all the teenagers.  Being a teen is so difficult, and many do not feel any love.  Please show them how amazing your love is, Lord.  We ask all of this in accordance with your holy will and in Jesus’s name, Amen.  

Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  If you are enjoying this podcast, please share it with a friend. If you would like to subscribe or leave a review, that would be great also. I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

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Today’s witness is from my friend Bruce. Bruce reached out to me randomly back in November. He found my podcast and wanted to send in his testimony for witness wednesday. His testimony was about how he went to a healing service and regained his sight and then lost it again when he woke up. I offered to pray with Him, and he agreed. We have prayed together three times now. Bruce has not regained his sight, but something amazing happened each time we prayed together. You can find the testimony from the last two times we prayed together on the Witness Wednesday playlist on YouTube. You can also find them on whatever podcast app you are listening to right now. Today’s witness is about when Bruce and his lovely wife Alice came from Canada to visit Gloucester, MA, and my friend and I got to pray with them in person instead of over the phone. It was a great time, and I am so grateful the Lord brought Bruce, Alice, and me together. I know you will enjoy this witness as much as I enjoyed it. God is working in such miraculous ways!

Dear Catherine,

It is two months from today that we met with you and Nancy in Rockport. In the meantime, you have been to Scotland and back and I have had a new experience which I will tell you about. You may use it in your Witness Wednesday if you would like to. On July 23rd, my wife Alice and I had the pleasure of meeting with Catherine and her friend Nancy for lunch. This vacation had been planned well in advance before we met Catherine. It turned out that Nancy's home was just down the road from where we were staying. Sitting outside by the ocean, the four of us chatted and also prayed together for healing. There was no major change in my eyesight at that time, but I realized that the floaters and shifting debris that I normally saw, were gone. It felt like I had more life in my eyes - just a feeling. This visit was a real blessing and encouragement for us before heading for home a couple of days later.

For some time I had been without any sight in my left eye and was able to see light and shadows in my right eye. After this recent change my right eye went completely dark but the movement of floaters was gone. I couldn't tell the difference between day or night. I couldn't see if there were any lights on in the house. Things were the same whether my eyes were open or shut. I had to make an adjustment to this. I found the darkness heavy and depressing. I also felt spiritually let down and more isolated. I heard someone talking about God's light of the world and I thought, we often ask the Lord to shine His face upon us in the Benediction. It was a Monday in August and I told the Lord how I felt. I wanted to somehow have more communication with Him. I didn't want to be in the dark anymore, and would He please shine His light upon me. The next day, Tuesday, I listened to Catherine's podcast which was about Jesus the Light of the world. This felt like my prayer was going somewhere and I became vigilant. That night I went to bed about 1:00 a.m. I was laying on my back in the dark. A small white light appeared in my head space. It seemed to sparkle and it began moving. It became brighter and larger and closer, shining with the brightness of lightning. I felt the light overtake me and I put my face in the pillow. The light was still there and I realized it was within me. It was beautiful and exciting. I began thanking and praising the Lord for this joyful experience. This light would move and pulse brighter then lower going on for an hour and a half until I fell asleep. I wanted to wake Alice but I didn't want to interrupt her sleep or the light. When I awoke in the morning, the light was gone. I figured this was a one time experience. Later that morning, I began telling Alice about it. I stopped and said, It's happening again right now. There was an arch of brilliant white light before me. Beautiful as ever. It stayed with me for a couple of hours, coming and going into the night. This continued daily much to my joy. I noticed whenever I sat at the table it would appear. Whenever I listen to my audio Bible or even thought about the Lord or spiritual matters, it would appear. I found myself talking with the Lord in this light. If I was praying it would appear. It was always with me when I went to sleep. I soon realized I could call on it by asking it to appear. I was quite amazed by the way this all happened, by the communication which took place , and the overwhelming feeling of God's love. There was nothing to do but simply enjoy the moment with the Lord and His light. As I write this, the Lord still shines his light upon me, every day and every night. This has been an unexpected and thrilling blessing for me, far better than I hoped for. I can't help but feel this is leading me somewhere good. My hope and faith has never been more confident than it is now. It is so easy for me to trust the Lord to love me and walk me where He wants to take me. He really is my guiding light. I have in the past had close encounters with Jesus which have been marvelous. But this encounter in His light seems to never end. How wonderful is this. It lifts my heart to look back and see how God works in our lives. Alice and I had planned our trip to Glouchester long before we knew Catherine. Her podcast came out of the blue one night on my google home and caught my attention. Her faithfulness and prayer support is so appreciated. Through Catherine and the prayer group she attends, I have also met Nancy and talked with Robert and learned that they have also prayed for me. These friends in prayer and support have inspired me and I am privileged to know them. My visit in July was meant to be some sort of breakthrough. That's what I had prayed for. As often is the case, I felt things didn't go as I had hoped. As it turned out, I received a blessing I never expected along with new found faith and hope. A few years ago I heard a story told by an Anglican minister in England. He was known for his healing ministry. He told the story of a women who had lost her sight in both eyes. The women related how she started seeing a white light. This light would come and go from time to time and would vary in intensity. She said this went on for some time. One day she heard about a special healing ministry near her. The light continued to be with her. She made her way to the healing service in Blackpool. After preaching the gospel of Jesus, the minister invited people to come forward for healing prayer. Many people went forward and she waited in her seat where she was healed.

I thank the Lord every time I see his light. I thank the Lord for my friends in Massachusetts.

May the Lord bless you Catherine and your ministry.

Bruce and Alice

Thank you so much for sharing your testimony with us and for allowing me to share it on my Witness Wednesday. I know your story will give hope to so many others out there who are also waiting for some pretty big answers to some pretty big prayers. Your faithfulness will help them trust in the Lord more. Thank you again for sharing and we can’t wait to hear your testimony when your sight is fully restored for good this time!

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God Provides In Mysterious Ways

Psalm 145:14-18 “The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.  The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.  The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does.  The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.”

There are so many good things in this passage.  “The Lord lifts up all who are bowed down.”  How often is it that we need the Lord to lift us up, especially over this last year?  It is so great to know that the Lord lifts us up when we pray to Him and ask Him too.  When we are bowed down to the Lord is when we are praying and worshipping Him.  When we spend this time with Him He is able to lift us up.

“The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time.”  This one is hard one for many of us.  We do not want to wait for the proper time.  We want things to happen on our time line, or maybe we think our time line is the proper time.  Then we struggle when God does not agree.  My dad told me a story one time that demonstrates how God will give those that look to him food at the proper time.  My mom & dad have 11 children.  They also had a friend that had several children, I think at least 7.  This friend called up and asked my parents if they could watch their kids as something important had come up.  My parents said yes because they were always there for those in need.  However, my parents had just been talking about how they had no idea how they were even going to feed their own children dinner that night, and now they had 7 more mouths to feed.  So, they did what they always did in these situations, they turned their eyes to God and asked for Him to provide.

Shortly after their prayer, they received a knock at the door.  It was a neighbor holding bags of groceries.  It turns out that the neighbors father had to move in with him unexpectedly and they needed to combine his father’s household with his.  They had just gone grocery shopping and so they did not have room in their cabinets for all the food from his Dad’s place.  So, they asked my folks if they could use any of the food.  My parents graciously accepted.  When looking through the bags they notice that there was plenty of pasta.  My parents prayed, “Lord, if we only had some meat, then we could serve spaghetti to all these kids.”

Guess what?  There was another knock at the door.  It was a different neighbor.  He had a cooler full of meat.  He said that him and his friend had been hunting and they had too much meat.  He explained that he and his friend had already stuffed their fridge and freeze and still they had no room for this left over meet.  Again my parents graciously accepted.  Then when they looked in the cooler, there was ground meat for spaghetti.  They were so thankful.  This was not a one time thing for my parents.  My parents were faithful in their prayers, not just when they were in need, but even when things were going well.  God was faithful in answering them.

“You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.”  This is another great verse.  I believe that God puts our desires in our heart.  I am talking about our deep desires, not the desire to eat ice cream at midnight. The desires I am talking about are the desires to have a certain job, the desire to be married and have children, the desire to sing, or act, or whatever it is you feel you are called to do.  As stated in this verse, God wants to satisfy the desire of every living thing.  I know this can be hard to believe if you have a desire that you have been waiting for God to satisfy.  Maybe you have been waiting for the right man/woman to come along so that you can be married and have children.  I know it is hard when we want something and we have to wait a very long time.  Isaiah 55:9 says, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  

God has a plan for our lives and His plan is better than our plan.  I know this can be frustrating because God does not always let us in on His plan for our lives.  Sometimes we can be left wondering what is His plan and when am I going to understand it?  If you have been thinking these things I want you to know that you are not alone.  Many of us do not understand God’s plan, and do not understand why the things we have been praying for have not happened yet.

It can be easy to lose hope when are prayers aren’t answered immediately.  It can be frustrating when we are praying for something, and we don’t seem to get any answers.  I found this definition of hope online and I really like it.  In the Bible hope is the confident expectation of what God has promised and its strength is in His faithfulness.  We know God is faithful to His children.  We know He keeps His promises.  Therefore we can confidently expect that He will answer our prayers.  

It says in Hebrews 13:8 it says, ”Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever." Jesus has kept all of his promises in the bible.  If He did it then, He will do it now.  If you are getting frustrated waiting for your desires to be fulfilled I ask that you turn to the scriptures and either use the ones in this episode or find other ones that show you how faithful your Heavenly Father is.  He will come through, please don’t give up asking for what you want.  Saying that makes me think of the story in Luke 18:1-8 of the persistent widow.  “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.  He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.  And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.  And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?  I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Jesus told this parable to show his disciples that they should pray and not give up.  If He was worried his disciples would stop praying and give up and they lived with Him day and night for 3 years, then I think He will cut us some slack for wanting to give up.  I am sure He gets how frustrating it is to wait for the Lord’s timing.  If you are tempted to give up and stop praying for something that you truly desire I ask you to pause and remember this woman in the parable.  What if she had stopped bothering the judge?  What if she had not kept going back?  Would she have her justice?  We never know when the answer is right around the corner.  What if you pray for 3 years and then stop and God wanted to give it to you on the next day?  Don’t stop praying for your deepest desires, He gave you those desires and he will bring them into being if you let Him.  

Dear heavenly father I ask that you bless all of those listening to this podcast today. I ask that you fill us with hope for those desires that we've been praying for. Lord we pray that you give us perseverance to keep praying even when there's no end in sight. Lord Jesus we ask that you give us strength to keep praying when we don't have any answers. Give us strength when we're weak and we don't think we can go on. Lord we know that you are the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We know that you've kept your promises in the past and you will continue to do so. Lord we ask that you fortify our hope and faith in you. We ask that you increase our faith. Lord if there is a desire that we have given up on that you want to give to us we ask that you renew that desire in our heart Lord Jesus. We ask that you keep whispering it louder and louder until we can ignore it anymore. Lord, we thank you for fulfilling these desires as we know you keep your promises and so these desires will be fulfilled. We thank you for helping us stay persistent and for giving us the strength to keep asking. Lord we thank you for listening to all of our prayers every time we ask. Lord, we love you so very much, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus ' holy name.  Amen

 Today’s Word from the Lord was received in November / December 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Call on me. Spirit to spirit needs to be strong. It will not be strong until you use it. I'm calling you to a deeper, more fruitful walk with me. But your spirit must grow, too.”

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God’s Mercy & Forgiveness

Psalm 51:10-12 “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”

These verses come within a series of verses addressing God.  The person talking to God in this psalm is David.  This psalm takes place after David had been visited by the prophet Nathan.  Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.  This psalm includes a lot of David asking God to forgive him for his sins.  One thing I love about David is that he is so good at realizing he did something wrong and then turning back to the Lord.  He messed up pretty badly sometimes.  It was not as if he was anointed, and so he always followed the Lord and never strayed.  He broke some pretty big commandments.  Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, thou shalt not commit adultery, and thou shalt not kill, being a few of them.

No matter how big the sin was, David never seemed to feel too ashamed to turn back to the Lord.  This is so great.  This shows such a deep level of understanding or trust, or both.  I think he was never afraid to turn back because he knew how much he was loved by God.  I wish we all knew and could trust God’s love like David did.  How great would it be to know with every fiber of our body that no matter what we did, God would still love us and welcome us back?

Have you ever done something and then not turned back to the Lord because you didn’t think you deserved forgiveness?  Have you ever thought that you did something so bad that there was no way that God would forgive you?  

I think that most people have probably thought this at one time or another.  I wonder if we would still think it if we remembered in that moment all the things that God has forgiven over the years?  David saw a woman bathing on the roof of another house in his town and called for her to be brought to him.  Then he had relations with her.  I doubt she had much to say about it, as that was not really the culture back then.  After he did this, she was pregnant, and he was worried her husband would find out what he had done.  He tried to trick her husband, and when that didn’t work, he sent him to the front lines to be killed in the war.  Then he took Bathsheba for his wife.

Take a moment and think of the thing that you have been trying to hide from God because you think there is no way he will forgive it.  Is it worse than what David did?  If God could forgive David, He will forgive you.  What if it is worse than what David did?  What do you do then?  Is it worse than what Saul did when he was going around stoning to death those who believed in Jesus?  Was it worse than what the soldiers did when they whipped Jesus and hung Him on a cross?  Because if Jesus can forgive them, He will forgive you.

Why is it that we worry so much about God forgiving us?  We know He loves us, and yet we don’t want to turn to Him when we mess up because… why?  Maybe we are ashamed and we don’t want Him to see that we messed up?  Guess what, he has already seen your mess-ups and already loved you through them.  Maybe we don’t want to bother Him with our mess-ups because we feel we should have known better in the first place.  Guess what?  He loves it when we turn to Him and ask Him for help to clean up our messes.  Maybe we don’t feel like we are good enough to turn back to the Lord.  Guess what?  He is your Heavenly Father, and He made you in His likeness and image.  You are better than good enough; you are perfect just as you are.

In the verse, David asks the Lord to create a pure heart in him.  He knows what he did was wrong, and he wants to do what is right. I think we all want to do what is right.  I don’t think that any of us walk around all day wondering how we can sin against God.  I don’t believe it is our intent to damage our relationship with God in any way.  If we want to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord, we can all pray for the Lord to create a pure heart in us.  God knows what is in our hearts.  As much as we may try to purify our own hearts, God is the one who can help us with this.

It goes on to say, “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.”  I think this statement can be an example of David’s humility.  It shows us that even though David was brave enough and trusted God enough to turn back to the Lord, even after David did some pretty awful things, David was humble enough not to assume God would forgive him.  In this verse, David is asking the Lord to please not cast him away or take the Holy Spirit from him.  God loves humility.  It says in James 4:10, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”  This is what David was doing.  He was humbling himself and asking the Lord not to depart from him.

After David asks the Lord not to abandon him, he goes on to say, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”  David knows that he is doing the things he does not want to do and not doing the things that God wants him to do.  This is why he is asking the Lord for a willing spirit to sustain him.  He knows that following the Lord’s word is the way to go, and he also knows that he can get off track sometimes.  David did a lot of good things, and he spent a lot of his time following the Lord; however, when he veered off course, he did it in a big way.  If you feel like this is you, I hope that David’s story can bring you a little bit of comfort.  I hope that if you are feeling like you did something wrong and that it was so bad you can’t turn back to the Lord, that you will remember David and how he was able to turn back to the Lord even after he did some truly terrible things.  And you know what, God always forgave him and kept loving Him.  He does this for you, too.  God will always love you, no matter what it is you do.  He will always be hoping, no matter how much you think that you messed up, that you will turn back to him. He is your Heavenly Father, and you mean the world to Him!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we ask that you help us to remember to turn back to you every time we mess up.  No matter how bad a thing we think we did, help us to know that you still love us and forgive us.  Help us to know that you are always there for us.  Lord, create a clean heart in us and grant us a willing spirit.  Lord, we want to follow you, and we don’t know why we get off course sometimes.  If you create a willing spirit in us, we hope to use that spirit to follow you more closely.  Lord Jesus, you are amazing, and we are so thankful that you always forgive us and that you continue to love us, even with all of our faults.  We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Tomorrow night will be week #2 of mentoring. This week we are address this very topic, God’s Mercy & Forgiveness. I hope you will join us! I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in November / December 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Come to me. I have given you a gift, spirit to spirit. You use it less and less. I want you to be strong in my love. Use your gifts.”

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A Conversation With The Lord About Mercy (replay)

Isaiah 55:6-7 “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

Today I have something a little different for you. Yesterday at prayer group, my good friend Louise did a teaching on God’s mercy and Justice. She talked about something she had heard in a sermon years ago. The priest said something his spiritual director told him, “God’s Justice is God’s mercy.” After the Lord brought the sermon back to her mind, they had a little back-and-forth conversation, and I am going to share that conversation with you as I feel God was giving us a glimpse into how He thinks and who He is. God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. So, when He gives us a glimpse into his ways, I feel we should all pay attention. Here is what she shared with us.

“I am merciful. I pour out mercy and forgiveness in torrents upon all of you, my children. I rain down mercy on every one of my children with no exceptions.” At that point, I found myself getting an image and looking at torrential rain. We've all seen torrential rain, and when it comes down, it comes down in buckets. It is heavy, and the Earth doesn't really have time to soak it all in. What can happen if it's a lasting rain is that things will accumulate, and it can create a little river and start really moving with a swift current. That is what I was picturing when the Lord said to me, “My children who love and praise me, honor me by their lives of holiness, know how to flow with the swift current. By the power of the Holy Spirit, they abandon their attempts to fight this current. And flow freely with it. Its power and speed may seem frightening, but they remain afloat by practicing the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Isaiah gifts can be found in Isaiah 11:2-4a. “The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.” and the charismatic gifts can be found in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;  and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord;  and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,  to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.  All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.”

Those who don't know me or refuse to accept my existence. Those who no longer have faith in me, those who believe worldly philosophies are the way to live, and those deeply embedded in sinfulness struggle in this river. They fear they will drown. They fight the current of mercy and forgiveness, trying by their own strength and power to stay afloat. I need you to help them, my children. So I asked the Lord how do we do this? What are you asking of us? And he gave me two things. First, he said, "be an example of them of how to float in this current. Show them lives abandoned to God and his love and power, especially in your interactions with them." Then second thing he said to me was, and this I found way more challenging was, "Reach out your hand to them as they pass by you in this current. Help them to stop struggling in this current of mercy and forgiveness. Help to steady them by companioning to them as you float together to the large lake of my calming love that is the river's end.

Wasn't that powerful? There is more I want to say about listening to the Lord’s voice, but I don’t want to detract from His message on Mercy, so I will talk about hearing the Lord’s voice on Monday. Today and this weekend, I hope you re-listen or re-read the Lord’s word and really let it sink in. There is a transcript of the message in the show notes, so you can read through it slowly and really absorb what God is telling us about His mercy.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless each and every person listening to this episode today. Lord, I thank you so much for the blessing Louise is to me personally, to our prayer community, and to all who know her. I thank you for her faithfulness, not only in listening to your word and writing it down but also in sharing it with others. Lord, help us all to hear your message today. Help us to take this message to our hearts and to apply it in our lives. Lord, help us to reach out our hand to those drowning in your mercy. Help us to steady them. Lord, show us how to be an example to them. Help us to be an example of your calming love. We love you, Lord, and we are so grateful you don’t give up on a single one of us. We are grateful for your mercy for each and every one of us. Lord, we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to Walk Boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend!

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Confess & Be Forgiven (Yes, it is that simple!)

1 John 1:9 " If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

This week, we have been talking about repentance. On Monday, we talked about how God is calling us to repent and turn back to him. The verse said, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out.” The verse tells us that if we repent and turn back to the Lord, our sins will be wiped out. God literally forgets about your sins when you repent of them. I feel as though if everyone knew this, we would be more likely to repent of our sins.

Today’s verse tells us that God will forgive and purify us if we confess our sins. I think these are two very important things, so I will address them individually. First, the verse says if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins. That is something to pause and really take in. If you confess, you will be forgiven. Can you hear that? Can you believe that? I mean, really believe that? If you confess, you will be forgiven.

This goes against what we tend to believe. This definitely goes against what the enemy tells us. We are accustomed to thinking that our sins are too bad to be forgiven. The enemy tells us that although it is true that God does forgive sins, He won’t forgive our sins because they are too bad, or they are too many in number.  This we can believe. The world is always telling us how bad we are and how perfect God wants us to be. There are impossible standards set, and so we fail them time and time again. All this so-called failure makes us give up on trying to be good. We figure we will never make it, so what is the point?

We know we have messed up. We know that even if we confess our sins, we will just mess up again, so why bother even trying? This is all the enemy talking. He is trying to convince us that God wants us to be perfect, and if we stray from that, then we might as well give up because God won’t forgive us. We are not worthy of forgiveness. We keep messing up, and we aren’t changing. We will always be the same person who did that bad thing. We will keep doing the same things forever. Does any of this sound familiar? Do you find these thoughts going through your head? Yeah, me too.

The good news is that we don’t have to listen to them. We know that God does forgive us because it says it right here in this verse, and we can believe all we read in the Bible because it is the Truth. It is not even complicated. It doesn’t say that if we jump through three hoops, stand on one foot, hop up and down, and then run around the building twice, we will be forgiven. It doesn’t say if we promise God we will never do it again, and then we are perfect from now on, we will be forgiven. It doesn’t say that you will be forgiven as long as you are a first-time offender. The only condition put on our forgiveness is that we confess our sins.

I know it can be hard to confess our sins. The enemy makes us feel so much shame about things we have done. Then there is also our pride, which tries to convince us that we don’t have to admit what we have done, God saw it, He already knows, and if He wants to forgive us, He doesn’t need us to do anything. The enemy is good at using half-truths to confuse us and to take our focus off God. Yes, it is true that God already knows what we have done. However, that doesn’t mean we don’t have to ask for forgiveness. If we ask, God forgives us. It is that simple. However, we do need to ask. We do need to be sorry for what we have done. But that is it. That is the extent of the conditions put on our forgiveness. If you ask me, that is a small price to pay for my sins to be forgiven. I just have to tell God, that’s it? That seems pretty simple.

However, depending on what we did, it could be hard for us to confess. God is patient with us, and He will wait until we are ready. If we need His help, He will help us. We can ask the Lord to come in and help us confess our sins. We can ask Him to help us know and see our sins, as we might not even know all the ways we have offended Him or others. This is a big one. Sometimes we might do or say something to someone, and we have no idea the effect it has on them. We have no idea what is going on in their own life that may cause them to take offense at something you did, even though you didn’t mean it. It is good to check in with the Lord sometimes and ask Him if there is anything you need to confess.

The verse next says that God will purify us from all unrighteousness. How great would it be to be purified? Imagine if all your sinful or wicked ways were purified. I would love to be free of my wicked and sinful ways. Those ways that get me stuck in sin. Those ways that get me stuck in choosing the wrong thing. Being purified sounds pretty nice to me. Again, this verse says God will do this if we confess our sins. Even though it may be hard, it seems like the good far outweighs the bad. So, what are we waiting for? Let’s confess our sins today and be forgiven and purified!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening. Lord, we want to confess our sins. Please help us to have the courage to do so. Please help us ignore the enemy's voice. Please help us to believe that if we confess our sins, you will not only forgive us but also purify us. We want to be forgiven, Lord! We need to be purified, Lord! We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in October 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Know this, my children. As your praises rise up to meet me, my blessings are poured out upon you to protect you, to help you to grow closer to me.”

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Today’s witnesses are from the Encounter Ministries Healing page on their website. Encounter Ministries has healing services that are different than all the other healing services that I have been to. I love them, and I am so honored that I was able to attend the Boston Campus for two years to become equipped and activated in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I invite you to go to the Encounter Ministries website and check out some of the testimonies. They will often have people try to do something they couldn’t do before. It is incredible. Today, I have several of their healing testimonies for you. However, they have so many more! The testimonies below are from several different videos they have on their site.

There was a man who went to the Encounter Conference in a wheelchair and then, after being prayed over, could walk out of the conference without his wheelchair. They asked him who Jesus was, and he said, “Jesus is the Saviour!”

Next are testimonies from a healing service in Akron City. There was a woman who was in an accident 25 years ago. She had her back that had been hurting this whole time and was progressively getting worse. She had been going to the chiropractor but did not get relief. She went to the healing service with a knot in her neck. She said the condition is 80% healed after prayer, and the knot is gone! The next woman, Rose, fractured her humerus and cracked the ball of her shoulder. It didn’t ever heal right, and she couldn’t raise her arm high, and she couldn’t put it behind her back. But after prayer, she could do both. Also, the tendons and ligaments were always sore, but after prayer, she couldn’t feel them at all. Next is Matt, and he had a pinched nerve in his hand a few months ago. The doctor said it would get better, but it hasn’t. The team prayed over him several times, and it improved. Then Father Mathias came over and asked what was wrong, and prayed over him again, and it was completely healed. Next is a woman named Janice who walked up to the microphone holding her right hearing aid. She said she could hear without it, and she couldn’t believe it because she had been wearing it for a long time. Then Patrick prayed over her left ear and asked her to take her left hearing aide out and he whispered into her ear and she could hear him and she could hear the crowd cheering for her.

Victoria was in a car that spun for half a mile going 80 miles per hour. She was then flying through the air. She prayed to God, and he appeared in her car next to her. She landed and hit a pine tree. Her body aches with pain, but I don’t want to take medicine all the time. My pain level is always about an eight, and I am pain-free after the prayer. Ellen has had a stiff neck for 4 years. Sometimes it is really bad, and sometimes it is better. I have right hip and back pain. I have been praying that she could see him work and heal. She has relief from all the aches, and the pain is almost all gone. Michael has been having pain in his heel for weeks. Right now, the pain is gone, and he can not make it work. Victoria, Ellen & Michael were all healed before they even did individual prayer. They hadn’t even touched anyone yet, they were healed just through worship & the Gospel teaching.

Lyme disease causes constant pain from head to toe. It comes and it goes. I was sitting here thinking I wouldn’t make it through the rest of the healing service because I had so much joint pain. While I was sitting there, it felt like every joint was filled with the Lord. He filled me from head to toe. Then all the joint pain was gone. Another woman had something wrong with her shoulder. When she would move her arm, she would hear a bunch of cracks and noises. However, now she only has one little tiny click. She also has had a headache for as long as she can remember, and now she no longer has a headache. She couldn’t bend down and touch her toes before without doing it really slowly and being in pain. However, she demonstrated reaching down and touching her toes without any issue. She was in zero pain. Another woman lost my sense of smell 6 months ago. One time, the gas on the stove was on, and she didn’t know it because she couldn’t smell it. Luckily, her son came in and let her know. After prayer, now she can smell!

Next was a man who had a problem with his lungs; every time he breathed, it hurt. He also had trouble with his knees. He had bad pains, and when he sat down, they were stiff. The pain is all gone. There is no pain in my knees. I can walk straight with no pain and no issue. I can breathe again with no pain. Then a woman talked about how her arm was so painful she couldn’t even move it, and then she raised her hand above her head with no pain!

Thank you so much for sharing your testimonies. Your stories will help build the faith of others. Thank you to Encounter Ministries for continuing to hold these healing services and for helping people discover the love of Jesus!

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