Is This What You Were Expecting?

The blind see, the lame walk, Lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised; the wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side. “Is this what you were expecting?” Matthew 11:4-6

Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. Tell them that the kingdom is here. This is not what the twelve expected! Jesus had become a religious celebrity and as members of his entourage they were looking for fringe benefits. They misunderstood their purpose. They misrepresented their power. They misread His prayer. The pilgrimage with Jesus was their opportunity to change their thinking and to transform themselves into the person God wanted them to become. And because the pilgrimage was a process for spiritual change it represented the highest level of prayer — the prayer for nothing — the prayer for everything! This was their opportunity for deep and profound silence. This was their encounter with their miracle. But this is not what they were expecting.

Jesus had left the physician in the village yet time after time blind eyes were open. The lepers’ philosophy and the prostitutes’ rationale had also been left there. He was freely teaching the simple and poor about the beauty and blissfulness of moments. He was bringing them closer to their own divine power. His compassion was so great that it did not argue with their logic. Instead, he simply reminded the blind — Light exists! Instead, he whispered in the ear of the prostitute — Love exists! Instead, he picked up the lame by washing their feet. Instead, he danced with the demon-possessed until all shadows surrendered to grace. But still this was not what they were expecting.

They were expecting fame and fortune and the power to sequester a kingdom. If only they could have been still long enough to see that all these things, that all the deep desires of their hearts depended solely on them; that they possessed the divine power to become what they believed. They had participated in a thousand miracles. They had listened to storms obey. They had collected grave clothes from the once dead. They had been privileged to touch the Master’s robe. Yet even in the most blessed of lives, there are times when our emotions descend on us and impose feelings of confusion, emptiness, meaninglessness, anxiety, anguish, darkness, and misery. The disciples were no different except the choice they made was to follow love to its completion.

You have a treasure within you but first you must leave your expectations in the village. You must accept your pilgrimage! You must accept loves Impressionistic painting! You are so blessed but you don’t know — Light exists! You are so highly favored yet you don’t realize all your shadows have surrendered to grace. When you look at your life what do you see? Do you see the same portrait as before? Do you ever touch the unseen particles of cheerfulness, kindness, gratitude and forgiveness? Do you enter the higher level of the sanctuary filled with the love and bliss of His presence? Or is your relationship contaminated by the invisible energy of conflict and problems? God is waiting for you to come closer and closer. He is waiting to give you the desires of your heart but first you must impact the negative energy field of your immediate surroundings: The blind see, The lame walk, Lepers are cleansed, The deaf hear, The dead are raised, The wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side.

Is this what you were expecting?

It Happened.They Saw!

He touched their eyes and said, “Become what you believe.” It happened. They saw. Matthew 9:29

It didn’t take long! He spoke. They believed. It happened. They saw.

It is impossible to conceive. It is nearly impossible to believe. A single chance . . . any distraction . . . and they would have missed. And who knew when their miracle would ever be so present again? They had felt beauty in blindness but here was their opportunity to witness it. Before this moment, they had pondered on what authority was the sunrise called beautiful? To them, it was impossible to imagine possessing that authority. They could feel roses were beautiful, that flowers were beautiful, that the starry night was beautiful, that a full moon was beautiful, that silent seeing eyes were beautiful, that the face of Jesus was beautiful, but they could not go into the deep rivers, into the lonely silence of the forest without that authority. So Jesus opened all windows, all doors, and then he joined them in painting over the intimate enmity with worship. Then He joined them in touching the feet of Love. For they had done this! They had done this miracle! Then! Now! This was the mystery school where love was being taught. This was the place where a single soul could witness that love which transformed the world. This was the first thing they had hoped for before rising. This was their shower of blessings owed to them from their repository of prayer.

The awareness that is coming to you is so deep and so great, that in its flood all your worries and fears and sleepless nights will be painted over with worship; and your pendulum of peace will no longer swing between sadness and frustration. Silence will be your reward. Even hate and unforgiveness will be included, because it makes no difference what the object of hate or unforgiveness is; it is the same potential energy, which becomes love and prayer and worship and healing. Thus awareness must precede all blessings because it is the true miracle! For even prayer will create wounds in you without you first owning your authority. This is what happened to the two blind men; they became what they believed. Jesus was just a conduit, a mid-wife.

Before becoming what they believed, they were blind men. Before becoming what they believed, they were discontented and thirsty. Before becoming what they believed, they were in search of the eternal. Before becoming what they believed, they had reached their natural limitations. Before becoming what they believed, they had been running after shadows. But now, their belief moved them into a different dimension. Now it was nearly impossible to conceive that at one time they too sought after things: money, power, and prestige. There was a time they too believed that things would get them one step closer to love and happiness and peace and their miracle; that if they just had enough affluence, or the right connections, or whole eyes, their lives would be so different. But God doesn’t want to simply restore your sight; He wants to give you the whole sky and all the stars within them. He wants the sun to rise beyond your biology. He wants you to overflow with the energy of passion. So when it approaches the heart it creates a tremendous power of love. And when it nears the throat it creates a great power of song and poetry. After that, it presents itself to the soul and creates your authority to become what you believe. It won’t take long! God will speak it! You will believe it. It will happen! You’ll see!

Become What You Believe!

As Jesus left the house, he was followed by two blind men crying out, “Mercy, Son of David! Mercy on us!” When Jesus got home, the blind men went in with him. Jesus said to them, “Do you really believe I can do this?” They said, “Why, yes, Master!” He touched their eyes and said, “Become what you believe.” Matthew 9:27-31

He was exhausted! The demand on God’s power had been particularly great this day. Just hours before a woman with a twelve-year issue summoned healing through the gift of touch. Shortly thereafter, a daughter was promoted from her position in death and returned to the living. Now two blind men were following him; crying out for mercy because the very stones were silent.

“Mercy, Son of David! Mercy on us!”

Jesus had concluded his curriculum on miracles for the day. He just wanted to go home and rest. But the two blind men were relentless. They were amazed and pleased that God had authorized Jesus to work amongst mankind this way so what about them? They understood that you can be happy for others receiving their miracles for only so long before your heart begins to ask the question and your soul begins to cry out to heaven, “What about me?”

They had reached the end of their “people skills”. They had moved beyond prayer and meditation. They craved the mystical power of the miraculous. They sought the shout of Amen . . . in their inner shrine! Yet even in the silence of their optical impairment they embraced the noesis of the inner eye. And so they followed him. Not with a compass or GPS but out of their abject destitution, out of the silent rhythm of faith. They had no physical evidence to prove Jesus ever performed a miracle. They didn’t have access to any of the latest scientific data. This is because the eye requires no proof other than that which the soul provides.

Two blind men sought to fly beyond the darkness of this world. Two blind men cried out to Jesus to be freed from the tear in their holy fabric.

Jesus said to them, “Do you really believe I can do this?” They said, “Why, yes, Master!” He touched their eyes and said, “Become what you believe.”

When they entered the house they were crying, when they left the house they were rejoicing. This was the true miracle! The true miracle happened when they separated from past failures. The true miracle happened when their thoughts were transformed and the power of the Living God rearranged their map towards the road of love deeply. Alleluia! The true miracle happened when they no longer spoke in the language of the blind and reached for the spirit man in Braille. And then Jesus went beyond mercy and home schooled them in lessons of grace and taught them how to fish . . .  “Become what you believe!”

We all feel at times as though we are deficient in ways that other people are not. We must keep in mind that there is nothing so wrong with us that God cannot fix. It is so important to surrender wholly to love, to recognize our fears in order to be healed of them. Cry out to God! Eradicate the illusion that there ever was a gap. Protect your own life force by creating healthy boundaries. Embrace the possibility that you may not be tomorrow what you were today. Accept the miracle! Study the alpha and omega curriculum. And become what you believe!

Come and See!

“Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathaniel. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” “Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied. John 1:46

It was a small agricultural town settled by a few dozen families. A rural community not mentioned once in the Old Testament, an insignificant village, where the infant mortality rate was exceedingly high. Nazareth is not included in the 45 cities of Galilee that was mentioned by Josephus the historian and its name is missing from the 63 towns of Galilee mentioned in the Talmud. It was not expected that a prophet, king, or priest could ever come out of Nazareth. It was isolated in ancient times because no trade routes ran through the town therefore it had no economic value. Nazareth was a ghetto and because of this its small number of inhabitants were ostracized. This is what prompted the cynical response of Nathaniel, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Jesus didn’t come from Beverly Hills or Bel Air. He didn’t attend Harvard or Princeton. His last name wasn’t Rockefeller, Hilton, or Gates. He was the child of a peasant. He grew up in a ghetto of Galilee. He worked in a carpenter’s shop. He never held a public office. He never authored a best seller. He had no credentials other than his claim to be the Son of Man. And this is where God has found you. He has found you waiting in the ghetto. He has found you working in the shop. And this is why no one believes anything good can come out of your Nazareth. This is why no one believes that God is preparing you for something greater. They know the reputation your parents have handed you. They know the older brothers and sisters usually set the pace of the younger sibling. They know you have come from a lower middle class background. They know you barely finished high school. They know you chose to be a teenage mother because you needed to feel loved. They know you married early to escape your former life. They all know you are from Nazareth!

And they don’t care if you get out of Nazareth as long as you can’t afford to live next door to them in Galilee. And they don’t care if you get a new house as long as theirs is twice as big. And they don’t care if you drive around in a new Honda as long as they have a Mercedes. But they will care and they will Come and See what God has done in your life the moment it looks like you are walking in victory. They will Come and See the very second it appears God has answered your prayers. They will Come and See when the signs and wonders begin to follow you. They will Come and See Nazareth because you dared to become universal and heal and bless the throngs of the suffering hovering outside its gates. They will Come and See your ascendancy. And millions will attend the university of your wisdom. And millions more will Come and See the goodness of the Lord that has come out of Nazareth!

All Things Are Possible!

“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” Mark 9: 23

فَقَالَ لَهُ يَسُوعُ: «بَلْ إِنْ كُنْتَ أَنْتَ تَقْدِرُ أَنْ تُؤْمِنَ، فَكُلُّ شَيْءٍ مُسْتَطَاعٌ لَدَى الْمُؤْمِنِ

Jesús le dijo: “¿Cómo si tú puedes?” Todas las cosas son posibles para el que cree.

Wenn ich kann?, fragte Jesus zurück. Alles ist möglich, wenn du mir vertraust.

耶 稣 对 他 说 ： 你 若 能 信 ， 在 信 的 人 ， 凡 事 都 能 。

He brought his only son to Jesus because his disciples were not able to cast out the demon that had possessed him from childhood. He was angry, frustrated and hurt. The disciples had raised his hopes only to have them come crashing down to the ground once again. So by the time he pushed through the crowd to bring his son to Jesus all hope was lost and fear had reclaimed its voice.

He replied, “Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.”

“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”

Worries come, anger comes, sadness comes, disappointments come . . . And you may think that tomorrow will never get brighter. But this is a mistake, for “all things are possible to the one who believes!”

Read the high sweet fellowship of the hearts sonnet. Live and see the sun rise in the summit of your temple, because “all things are possible to him who believes.” Your ears hear of miracles that have been done in the name of Jesus yet there is nothing these men and women have achieved that you cannot achieve if you believe. There is no elevation of grace, no attainment of spirituality, no depth of wisdom, no post of duty or position that is not open to you, if you believe. So take your lamp into the room and see how long it takes the darkness to disappear. Take your love and kindness into the storehouse of the suffering and see how long it takes hatred and prejudice to disappear. Take your intelligence and spiritual gifts into the whole world and see how long it takes benediction to practice light there.

The throne of assurance is waiting! Put aside your doubts and fears and rise to the dignity of your true position. Ascend! For doubts and fears are only shadows moving across the landscape of the soul, thus never allow them to linger there. At this moment, you are little in the eyes of the world but only because this is what you have settled for. Though it is not proper for a child of God to grovel in the dust of insignificance and weakness. Let your story be one of the greatest stories of human transformation — how Adam reclaimed Eden, how the ordinary became extraordinary, how the worldly became the otherworldly, how simple brain matter was transmuted into God-consciousness, if only you believe!

God Favors Flavor!

“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness?” Matthew 5:13

Somebody had been a leper. Somebody had been a fisherman. Somebody had been a harlot. Somebody had been demon-possessed. They were not kings, great emperors, lords or the wealthy. Forty-two generations had passed since Abraham. Then the genealogy of the Gospel record stops abruptly at the doorstep of Jesus. Suddenly the beyond is attainable and the time-space continuum is fulfilled. Suddenly there is no other door. Suddenly there is no other road. Suddenly the Gospel was silent! Suddenly the Tree of Life had fruit again.

So once again, the death of the seed gave birth to the trees and there was foliage and flowering and birds who made nests in the trees; and there were children who sat and played under the shade of the trees; and there were trees that held conversations with the clouds and the stars in the night sky; and there were stars that played with the night sky; and there was the sky that danced with the winds; and there was the whole of creation that remembered rejoicing.

And then the miracle! Somebody had been blind from birth then sipped the wine of God’s favor and the whole history of mankind came home. And the fisherman became a father of men. And the prostitute became a professor of good news. And the demon-possessed became a spiritual photographer. Alleluia! In a single moment . . . all was lost . . . all was found. And there was no longer a desire to achieve something, to attain something — not even the desire for heaven.

Jesus had performed many miracles thus he knew this miracle was a different thing for they would have to open the windows of their being for the breeze and sunlight to enter. What’s more, they would have to receive and embrace wholeheartedly the new dimension. Indeed. They would have to become their own miracle!

“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt . . .”

His words were simple and unsophisticated. There was no self, no ego, no claim, and no word to convict or words of conversion, no scripture — just emptiness, saltiness, and pure sky. For many years he had been working for his father Joseph. For many years he had been a student in the Temple. He knew these were simple people. As he looked around into the eyes of his disciples and into the eyes of the people, he could see they could not understand his teachings. His spiritual vocabulary was still too high. So he approached them a little lower . . .

“You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.”

There was no time element in his words. There was no room for procrastination. There was no gap to be crossed. There was only the “here and now” — a single step to saltiness.

You are here to bring out the God-flavors on this earth. This is your higher purpose. This is your higher calling. You may be somebody’s accountant. You may be somebody’s executive. You may be somebody’s lawyer. You may be somebody’s doctor. But first and foremost, you are here to sprinkle God’s flavor throughout the earth. Will you ever accept your culmination? For how else will the people of this world taste Godliness? You may think you are highly favored because you possess things. But God doesn’t favor things. God favors flavor!

Heartbreak Valley

“And now, here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to start all over again. I’m taking her back out into the wilderness where we had our first date, and I’ll court her. I’ll give her bouquets of roses. I’ll turn Heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope. She’ll respond like she did as a young girl, those days when she was fresh out of Egypt”. Hosea 2:14-15

Her heart disobeyed her mind every time she saw him. Whether in the hallway, classroom, at the job, or halfway around the world — his physical proximity to her was irrelevant because he had already stamped her soul with his gentle kiss. And because he had already become an inseparable part of her sunset and her dawn, there were no questions . . . simply love, simply laughter, simply dance! Here was her first love scene played back through the cinematography of memory. Here was her first love story written in the prose of innocence. The miracle of unconscious caring! The miracle of the complete circle! The moment her circle was complete, she was no longer an ordinary human being. She had become a part of his godliness that surrounded her entire existence.

There was a message in every moment she spent with him. Her poetry and parables! Their fragrance, the freshness, the wonderful aliveness. She was convinced that even after one hundred years people would still not perfectly understand her garden of rejoicing; nor would they understand why she trained her breaths to leave all behind for him — why she traded it all for the perfectly good thing.

If the body is going to die one day anyway then it is far more enjoyable that it dies for something beautiful. This was her answer to love. This was her opus to death: that she would die in such a creative way it would bring something into the world that would let the world know perfectly well that her truth was (is) (will forever be) she lived an extraordinary life! Love found no obstacle; it found no object, yet one day it threw her out of the boundaries of its country into heartbreak valley. Within an hour (then) that house in which love burned something died. Something persecuted her first love and now she searched from one country to another country, from one land to another land, from one crowd to another crowd, for the taste of beginning again. Throughout her journey God watched the whole drama — how the joyful and playful girl had died inside, how the most beautiful movie had become a painful documentary.

“And now, here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to start all over again. I’m taking her back out into the wilderness where we had our first date, and I’ll court her. I’ll give her bouquets of roses. I’ll turn Heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope. She’ll respond like she did as a young girl, those days when she was fresh out of Egypt”.

When in the middle of the night you have finished your last sentence for the day, and still you cannot sleep (question nothing), for God is airing a special program about rain clouds and laughter and smiles and ancient kisses and first love’s.

On Such a Day As This!

They read from the Teachings of Moses and clearly explained the meaning of what was being read, helping the people understand each passage. Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were interpreting for the people said to them, “Don’t mourn or weep on such a day as this! For today is a sacred day before the Lord your God.” For the people had all been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. Nehemiah 8:8-9

All the people assembled together as one person. These included all the men and women and all the children old enough to understand. Someone in the crowd raised their hand and made a request of the man of God. They didn’t ask for healing. They didn’t ask for a new job. They didn’t ask for a new house. They didn’t ask God to move any mountains. They didn’t ask for anything for themselves. The only thing they desired was for Ezra the priest to read to them the Book of Teachings. So on the first day of the seventh month, Ezra brought out the Scroll before the assembly and opened the book in full view, and from early morning until noon he read the Teachings aloud to everyone who could listen and understand. All the people sat quietly and listened carefully to the Book of the Teachings. Then without provocation, the entire assembly began to cry as they listened to the words of the Teachings.

They had heard the Teachings of God many times before but this time was different. This time even in a world where people are deaf as far as truth is concerned, where people are blind as far as beauty is concerned, where people don’t have hearts as far as feeling and sensitivity is concerned, they declared through their incorporated tears that they were ready to enter the door of humility and silence. For every living thing had passed through the door except mankind. Humanity was the last of creation to accept the Teachings and embrace the spiritual realm. These were the children of immense intelligence without a merging soul. These were the bodies that carried the wombs of hateful tradition. After centuries of prayer all they had was the promise of a Messiah.

So God called Ezra to gather all the people . . . everyone who could listen and understand in order to save them from a life of crowd psychology, an undisciplined life of groping through darkness. And when they heard the Teachings for the first time without their traditions and high courts of religion they wept!

“Be silent,” because this is a holy day. This is a sacred day! Today there is no losing only gaining. Today there are no tears only celebrations. On such a day as this Live intensely, live totally, here and now! And there is no need to postpone anything beautiful for tomorrow. On such a day as this Paradise is not some place, somewhere. It is a space within you.

I Will Give Him Back to You

Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord. And she made this vow: “O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, if you will look upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you.”  I Samuel 1:10-11

The Hebrew name Hannah had many meanings including “beauty” and “passion” but to her it might as well-meant second. She had always been second. Eyes may have looked upon her beauty first but hearts always chose her second. She was married yet still the other wife. And worse, she was the wife who could not bear children.

Hannah may have been adored more than the first wife but still she was second. She may have been loved more than the first wife but still she had to share her husband’s love. She may have been given a special portion but still she did not feel special. She had prayed so many prayers. She had shed so many tears. When was she ever going to be loved like she knew in her heart she deserved to be loved? When was she ever going to look into the eyes of another and see her love returned? When was her soul ever going to feel special? When was her (own) body ever going to taste the fruit of intense passion? Her barren womb became her declaration of self-worth. Her barren heart became her personal constitution. Standing, sitting, sleeping, in any posture of the body, she could not feel the gratefulness or the weightlessness or the silence or the immense sweetness of her own being.

Hannah’s life was a deep anguish. Hannah’s life was bitter tears. Hannah’s entire life was a prayer! And then one day she made a new discovery —she stopped praying and instead made a vow . . .

“O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, if you will look upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you.”

And at that moment her whole focus changed. The moment she discovered her own gratefulness she no longer had to bow down in all directions. There was only one direction: only one bridge, only one breath. Now her very life — sitting, walking, doing a thousand and one things, could celebrate the gratefulness, which remained inside.

“Thank you, Lord” she shouted in the empty temple. “Thank you, Lord” she decried to her empty womb. “Thank you, Lord,” she declared in her sleeping, sitting, standing and walking. “Thank you, Lord” reverberated in every fiber of her being. Then suddenly she felt weightless; all the burdens, worries, tensions and insecurities had disappeared. And she felt a kindred connection to the floating clouds overhead. Slowly, slowly, she became aware of every precious moment. And then she stumbled into her own immense sweetness!

Until You Bless Me!

This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket. Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!”

But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Genesis 32:24-26

Sup planter! Schemer! Trickster! Swindler! What kind of thoughts must have run through his mind when he first understood the meaning of his name? For this was the literal translation of the name Jacob. He was born a twin. He was an answered prayer to a barren womb. He was the son of Isaac, the grandson of Abraham, and an identity thief. Jacob was insecure. He felt he needed a greater guarantee in life so he tricked his brother out of both his birthright and blessing. And though God continued to honor his covenant with Abraham through his descendants Jacob never bothered to know the God of his father Isaac or the God of his grandfather Abraham.

Jacob “the trickster” left home with nothing but a walking stick now he had thousands of cattle, sheep, oxen, donkeys, goats, and many servants, both men and women. He was divinely protected by a covenant. He was highly favored amongst men because of a stolen birth certificate. Yet Jacob had no peace. He was forever haunted by his unresolved guilt and an incessant fear of losing everything. Thankfully God needed Jacob! He needed to give birth to twelve tribes through Jacob’s seed. He needed to establish a new covenant with Jacob in order to advance his kingdom. He needed Jacob to become the nation Israel. So one night when Jacob was all alone a mysterious man invaded his camp and began to wrestle with him. Throughout the night they fought. And after the dawn came, even after dislocating his hip during the struggle, something inside Jacob awakened and he realized that this was his moment. This was the moment he had been waiting his entire life for! And he refused to let go until he received his blessing; not his brother’s blessing, not his father Isaac’s blessing, not his grandfather Abraham’s blessing, but his blessing from God.

“Your name will no longer be Jacob “trickster,” the man told him. “It is now Yisrael, because you have struggled with both God and men and have won. Then he blessed Jacob.”

Right now, here-now, this very moment! You can either lose or possess. You can either flower or wither away. You can either sanctify or sacrifice. You can either inherit or interfere. You have come so far. But why have you waited so long? How many more times is it going to be your season?

Know this!

What God placed in your spirit is your birthright. What God nestled in your heart is His covenant. This is why you were supposed to be creating jobs for others by now. This is why you were supposed to be walking and talking with world leaders by now. This is why you were supposed to have made millions by now. You are the pearl God purchased over the pasture. You are the legacy God purchased over the lake. It may appear that you have claimed someone else’ birthright but it was your inheritance all along. You may have thought your name was Jacob but God has known you as Israel from the beginning of time!

Hear this!

The sun is hovering over your horizon; it is no longer spring. Someone has stolen the entire summer. And now you are in the early autumn of your Life. Mercifully there is still time! But winter will soon be here. Now you have to fight! Now you are going to have to wrestle through the entire night with your Angel! You can’t afford to let go until you’re blessed!