“I am God of all the nations on Earth. They do not yet perceive this, but it is the truth. What is the meaning of all this? That every tongue, every nation must yield to me and my prefects, for they are just and true. They are meant for my children’s protection from the evil that is coming.

I do not want slaves; slaves are not free to love their masters–they must obey them, for they are slaves and that is their purpose.

I Want Relationships

I want children. I want relationships. I want love, a love that lasts in all places and in all times. I want peace and tranquility among all the nations of the world. You do not yet fully perceive what this means, but I will tell you in the end days. Do not think this is a long time coming; it will happen in the blink of an eye. Therefore, be brave; fortify yourselves with my word and my strength and my love for you.

My Burdens Are Light

“My burdens are light, yet you make them difficult. Why is that? Simply yield to me in each moment and your paths will be made straight. This is not difficult. You are my sheep; the sheep of my kingdom and I am your ultimate shepherd.

Thus, the sheep of my pasture know my voice and trust my voice. It is the voice of love and compassion, forgiveness and mercy, sacrifice and humility, joy and sorrow over the things of this life.

Seek Me Out

Why do you forsake me with your evil ways? I do not forsake you–I love you more than you will ever know. The days are numbered for how long I will be patient with this world, so seek me out while I can be found. Do not wait–come to me. Come to me now; seek me out while I can still be found.

The days are numbered for my return. Do you not see it?

“You are forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ, my only begotten Son. So, why do you hesitate to share his love with the world? I have your back–I will not disappoint you, for you are my beloved child. The world needs you, your cleansing touch, your acclamation of my love for you. That is the way to change the world for good, the good I put into the world long ago.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life for I am with you. Be not afraid of this world; it cannot harm you until I say it can. You are protected by my love, sealed by my blood, my child.

I will not let you falter; I will not let you fail, for I am the Lord God of Heaven and Earth. Be glorified for my name’s sake–yes, glorified. The Lord is with you, also those who call upon my name when trouble strikes.

“I am the Lord, your God, and I see what you don’t think I see. I see your pain, your hopelessness, your despair, your destitute state. I am not the creator of these things, but they can still be used for unbelievable and irrevocable and indestructible good.

Do you yet perceive how much I love you? I would search the galaxies for you. Yes, you. Do you not see how beautiful you are? You bring such goodness and light to those around you–it is a great delight to me.

I will do anything to be with you. Yes, you. Do you not yet see that I have already done all conceivable things just to be with you? I have great mysteries to share with you. But, you must seek me with your whole heart and then you shall find me. I shall show you how to yield to me and I will yield to you. You are beloved far more than rubies, or diamonds, or sapphires.

The Lord your God calls you. Yes, you. Will you answer? Will you yield? I wait for you.”

“I am the Lord, your God, and yet, you do not acknowledge me as you should. You think I do not see your depraved state, your endless pursuit of reckless meaninglessness, but I do. I see all. And yet, somehow, I still love you. I still want to redeem you for my kingdom.

My kingdom is not of this world. It is not a country or a sovereignity. It knows no boundaries or rulers. It doesn’t recognize governments as good or bad. My kingdom sees people; it sees hearts. It sees purity in the impure. It sees triumph in the midst of despair. It loves without reason. It embraces all who embrace me, and I embrace them back.

I am the chosen, the one true leader. I am the elected of all the realms of Heaven. Yet, you cheapen my love and care for you by pursuing that which drags you farther away from me. I have invited you to such riches! Why would you deny me the pleasure of your company? Why would you censor me from your life? I would never do that to you.

The day is coming when you will see my kingdom as easily as you see bread and water and life. You will also see just how much I love you and want you to be there with me.

The table is set–it has been set for a long time–it is set for you! Come and join the feast on that table, the feast and celebration in your honor. All the world will rejoice to see you there. Do not be late for the party. Do not wait for the invitation. The invitation was already sent a long time ago.”

“I am the Lord, your God, maker of Heaven and Earth. You do not seek me, yet I seek you relentlessly. Do not pursue the things of this world; no–seek me instead. For I will be with you to the end of this age and I will not desert you. You can rely upon me all the days of your life.

I will seek you without ceasing, for you are worth far more than any treasure found here on Earth. I created you to be the salt of this Earth, to spread light to all the kingdoms of Earth. They are in desperate need of the light I give you, a light that can quench all darkness.

The world does not see as I see; it casts out darkness to spread venom to all the nations. The weak shall inherit this Earth, the redeemed Earth, and all shall be well in those days. Do not seek evil; seek me. I, too, am worth far more than the riches of this Earth and am worthy of your praise. The meek shall inherit this Earth and all that is in it, for they understand the unwillingness of men to value what is truly valuable.”

“I am the Lord, your God, maker of Heaven and Earth and all that is in it, including you. Thus, you are my creation, my handiwork.”

I write this with great, great hesitation and fear. Why?

God is asking me to do something I fear will lose me everyone and everything I value. He is asking me to do it here.

I have long struggled with how to conduct myself on this blog. My favorite kind of writing is writing that entertains, encourages, and perhaps causes you to consider a different angle of this life…and the life after this one.

But, in 2014, God asked me to do a different kind of writing here. At first, I thought He wanted me to simply tell about the extraordinary experiences I have had with Him–experiences my M.S. in psychology can’t explain adequately.

Where’s Your Book, MaryAnn?

At that point, I began sensing that God wanted to use this blog for another purpose. Or at least my writing for some other purpose of His. I have tried writing two books, and for one reason or another, they always stall. And I think I know at least a little reason or two why.

I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaackkk! My sincerest apologies for not posting for many months. My spiritual direction program asks us to do a “retreat year” as part of their 3-year program. During that time we are to say no to any new commitments and to reduce, as much as possible, our existing commitments.

This was the worst (and best) year for me to extract myself from such commitments. Why?

# 1: My eldest son is marrying his sweetheart several hours away from us.

# 2: He is renovating a 58 year old home with his fiancee…himself.

# 3: Our daughter and the DSL announced in July that they were expecting their first child and our first grandchild.

# 4: The hubby had some significant health issues. But he seems to be doing well now.

# 5: We are still slowly working on that cabin in the woods. And we are doing the inside ourselves.

If that were not enough, I could not forsake my beloved church and chose to facilitate a prayer technique course based on the book 50 Ways to Pray. I did pray first about it and told God that if certain individuals came forward and volunteered for the course, I would facilitate. They all came forward. God can be soooo inconvenient sometimes! I think that was his warped sense of humor just making sure I got the message.

And I can’t turn my back on my beloved Compassion Counseling Center, even though I only now serve on its board. I chose, at the end of 2016, to work on a fundraising effort because we were in rather dire straits for funding at that time. Honestly, I’m still not sure that was the wisest idea for me, but it did seem to bless a few people who could use some blessing.

Something in the current schedule had to go. While writing is my therapy, it is one thing I can, without disrupting other peoples’ lives, say no to when necessary. I had hoped to warn all of you about my sabbatical, but it just didn’t happen. What can I say? God isn’t finished with me yet.

I am not going to fully resume my writing schedule just yet. You will only see an occasional post from me here and there until at least May, if not June. My Log Rhythms fans want to know about the cabin progress and Maizie is shedding and drooling all over my keyboard waiting to discuss the important things in her life. But there is one subject I do want to discuss right now:

My practicum year and an opportunity (for you or someone you know) to ponder!

I will begin, in July, my spiritual direction practicum year. I have to work with at least 4 people who are willing to meet with me once a month for an hour at a time. I will be happy to work with more if God thinks that’s a smart idea for both of us. It costs these folks nothing. Yes, it’s free!

During our meetings I will be listening for where God is at work in your life and assisting in helping you to deepen your relationship with God. I don’t really like the term spiritual director because it makes it sound like I’m in charge of your spiritual life and of course, only God is in charge of that. Plus, how God directs my life may be totally different from how He directs yours. So, my training has been to just notice (preferably internally) when I think God is trying to communicate with you in the way that works for both of you (or could work for you) and let you know about that, so that you can pursue that possibility with God when we’re apart.

I cannot meet with family members and best friends. Why? Because there may be times when what God has to say about your relationship with Him will have to come out of my mouth and if He’s asking you to change something, you may not like that! And, of course, that could destroy our friendship or family relationship and I don’t want that to happen to either of us.

If you like this idea, but you are uncertain about whether or not we could meet based on the above, then I encourage you to ask God about that and wait for some indication from Him about whether that is wise for you and me. I will do the same, if you ask me to do that.

If I consider you my best friend, you already know that and of course, my family members know they’re related to me. However, you may consider me your best friend and I just haven’t figured that out yet! I leave it to you and God to decide if you want to risk our relationship. I trust Him about that. I have lost more friends than I care to mention for some really awful reasons, and God has guided me through that and given me grace. Yes, for a while, I did have a rather large pity party for myself about it, but this is just a part of life and I think God allowed it to happen so that I could now do spiritual direction and know how to seek out my true best Friend if it ouches to lose a friendship.

If we barely know each other or are strangers, you’re probably a great candidate. I do believe in safety first, so for the guys, we will meet somewhere where people can see us meeting, such as a room with a glass door, etc. Also, if I suspect that your intention is less than honorable and honest, I may suggest you seek someone else for spiritual direction. If you intend to maliciously, dishonestly take advantage of me, I will be calling the authorities.

Yes, it is preferable for us to meet in person. If you strongly think that you’re still supposed to meet with me, I will be the first to say I’m not a video chat kind of girl. But, I will consider it if you tell me why you believe it’s important. I will pray that God guides us both in such situations.

I have already been blessed by several saying they are willing to meet with me. So, if you want to be a “directee,” then you probably need to speak up soon by emailing me via MIP’s Contact Me page.

Blessings on you all and may God direct your steps in a grace-filled way until I post again.

When I joined the Heartpaths program, it was a little unsettling learning that I was expected to pray for 20 minutes at a time. Up until last September I would have been happy if I could sustain 10 minutes without looking at my watch.

Now, I am actually wondering if I can schedule 30 or 40 minute prayer sessions. And 20 minutes seems to go by faster and faster the longer I permit myself such a time period with God.

So, what changed my mindset? An awesome God. God, on a pretty frequent basis, is blowing my mind when I dedicate such time to Him. And blowing my mind in the best possible ways.

Unfortunately, getting to “mind-blowing” usually takes considerable quiet time. Why?

Good question. I’m still figuring it out. But I think a good portion of the reason is it takes about 10 minutes for me to get all the “noise” out of my head so I can hear, feel, or see what God is trying to communicate. (And yes, I used those 3 verbs for a reason. More about that another time.)