NEVER GO BACK

by Ken G. Cooper

Where’ve you been? 

New Jerusalem

What was it like?



Incredible!
I was struck by the splendor of all that I saw, Like a bride newly adorned, so radiant, pure. And a great voice warm-welcomed all those that came in, 
Saying God was our guide, let your tour now begin.
And wherever we went we had God by our side, Before we had need, somehow, He did provide. That Love seemed so natural, all loving and glad. There was plainly never room for anything bad! For the simple truth was, God had sovereign control.
And what we all felt was the full glory of Soul!

Omnipotent wisdom took perfect care of us all.
From that state of perfection one never could fall.
Oh could you but see the cosmic difference it made!
And the wonderful thing is that feeling has stayed.
For I recognise now that God’s kingdom IS come;
And the comfort of Love has been here all along!
This is something that you may well find very odd:
I will never go back to the kingdom of God!

How do you mean you will never go back?

I never left!
God cannot be All and not be in this place,
Wherever I turn we still meet face to face,
The kingdom of God is within you and me,
You never go back once the Truth makes you free.

"And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."    Revelation 21:2-4

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. "   John 8:32 

©Ken G Cooper 2017

ELIJAH AND THE STILL SMALL VOICE

by Ken G. Cooper

What doest thou here, Elijah?  And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.  And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.   
                                                                                                               1 Kings  19:9-12 What 

My life in danger, to this cave I have fled
My God has provided and given me bread;
For foes seek my life to take it away,
So, scared to go out, and affrightened, I stay.

“What doest thou here, Elijah?” rings in thought 
“Is this hiding what service to God has now brought?”
But the enemy’s strong, too strong for just me:
“Go forth and stand forward: My message you’ll see!”


A great and strong wind gusts with power and might; 
It blows down huge rocks from their mountainous height.
They crash to the ground, and their impact is clear,
But deep down I know that  the Lord is not there.


An earthquake shatters  the  rocks all around
And chasms appear in the trembling ground. 
The power is awesome as I stand and stare,
But the message remains: the Lord is not there.


A fire bursts forth, and with flame the land lit:  
The landscape burns bright,  and rocks blister and split.
There seems no escape  from this heat everywhere, 
But once more this knowledge: the Lord is not there.

A strange calm replaces the forces that raged:
An infinite stillness that time never aged.
My fears fall away, for a voice sure yet small
Says clearly within me. “Fear not.  I am All”.

Let quietness and stillness be my assured choice
For in gentle listening I clear-hear God’s voice:
No matter what challenge attacks and alarms
I know now this pure truth that simply affirms:

“I am infinite Love, omnipotent All,
I hold you secure: and you never can fall.
The tender touch of My infinite power
Is always besides you. I'm with you each hour.”

There’s no need to struggle against fearful odds,
My God has the power, not  these so-called gods:
I have new conviction of what I now see:
In quiet dominion,  this Truth sets us  free.

©Ken G Cooper 2013/17

TruthBits - Unafraid

by Carolyn St. Charles CS
Visit the archive on PrayerfulLiving.com for more "TruthBits"

 

Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts.  SH 261:4

The God who created the world and everything in it…
…is He who gives to all [people] life and breath and all things.

Acts 17:24, 25 (from: The Amplified Bible AMP)  

 

Eternal Mind the Potter is,
And thought th' eternal clay:
The hand that fashions is divine,
His works pass not away.    Hymn 51

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DAVID AND GOLIATH (1 Samuel 17)

by Ken G. Cooper

I’d heard the rumour.
Felt the fear with which the stories sped their line.
The Philistines had a giant.
And I could see him now.
Huge.
He must be well over six cubits!
His armour alone would be sufficient to crush a normal man.
Goliath of Gath.
A death-dispensing monster.
The very name engendered terror.
Forty times, each of forty days, he’d challenged, confident none dare reply:

“Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.”

The persistent mocking, his knowledge of invincibility, dragged all down.
I looked round.
Our army, our very king, sore dismayed and greatly afraid.
They didn’t know what to do.
No one could fight on his terms and win.
It seemed like certain death.
Israel destined to slavery.

The enemy had to be faced, not run away from. Fleeing only built up hidden fears, constant checking, looking for signs of the enemy, - where was he, how close, where close? The defeatist question: How long have we got till we are his?

I knew there was no mortal answer; nothing we had could match him. His brazen arrogance had within it his expectation of victory and ours of defeat. I shook myself free of the fearful mesmerism, this so-called unstoppable threat. And remembered.. I had beaten a bear and a lion, not from any power of my own, but with the hand of the Lord! Why should this Goliath be any different?

I heard my voice speaking to Saul!
“Let no man's heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”
I began to dress with armour not mine.
Something was wrong. I had not proved the armour, but I had proved my God.

My forbears had spent forty barren years in the wilderness before they came to trust sufficiently in the Lord. Our army had now shown forty days of barren doubt. Now lest we have forty years of slavery, we must place our reliance totally on God. Immediately.

I drop all material defence and reasoning and feel the onrush of spiritual inspiration.

God cannot run from anything! His all-power is comprised in His ever-presence. How can he run from anything when He is everywhere? How can I ever be outside His Existence? How can I fear when the Almighty is ever with me?
 
I take my staff, (for I will lean on God),
I choose me five stones from a babbling brook, (rounded by the constant flow of inspiration, God its only source)
I have my sling, (God is my deliverer).

Goliath scoffs when he sees me coming. He was only looking at what he saw, not at what I had with me. He stretches out to his full height and reach:
“Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field”.
Threats that once seemed real will now prove empty in their vacuous boasting.

It’s my turn to set out the true battlefield:
 
“Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand”

I run towards this mountain of a man, adorned in his armour and ferocity, snarling and stamping his rhythm of war. I reach into my bag, draw out a stone, and place it in the sling.

The victory is already mine even before I sling the stone. I feel the presence of my God, the might of His power, myself as his instrument of deliverance, unstoppable, more invincible than any army. His All-power is the nothing-power of His foes. I see Goliath as though I see an empty dream. There is no fear because there is nothing to fear. I run with the confidence and knowledge of victory guaranteed.

I feel at one with my sling and its snug stone. No longer David, but God’s emissary, I focus on the forehead of Goliath and let loose the whirling slung stone with the inevitable accuracy of utter dominion.

The stone sinks deep into his forehead. Strikes at the very source of his empire, the belief of life in matter, which kills itself. He thumps to the ground, to move no more.

A single stone the master over a terror a hundred times its size. It could have been a thousand times, the result the same. I stand victorious, knowing it was the hand of God.
 
I take Goliath’s sword from its sheath, - he hadn’t even drawn it before he was killed. Unprepared for my battlefield, he’d had no chance! I use it to cut off his head, its lifelessness the ultimate symbol of defeat and victory. There was no coming back.

I look up: the enemy has seen its mascot humiliated and defeated, and they flee. They cannot fight on the same ground; they have seen that God the Lord is with us.

And who then can be against us?

The omnipotence and omnipresence of God fills my consciousness once more.
I stand in awe at His sovereignty, and am at peace.

* * * * * *
Goliath: The false belief of life separate from God. Terrorism; anything that causes fear; belief in the five physical senses, (taste, smell, hearing, sight, touch), being more important than God. Idolatry.
David: The knowledge of life inseparable from God, Spirit; spiritual sense recognising and proving God supreme; the “do it now” demonstration of faith; humility (the Lord will deliver thee) demonstrating dominion.

©Ken G Cooper 2017

Truth Bits - Healing September 11th

by Carolyn St. Charles CS
Visit the archive on PrayerfulLiving.com for more "TruthBits"

Conflating naturally happens when one entertains more than one angel inspiration. In this case, praying about the world's remembrance of 9/11 a few days ago, invited another thought -- hugging our tatters. Someone had noted that we need to heal more than re-live the events of that day. Their thought resonated with me and now, maybe it will with you, too.

With that expanded view, came the thought of God's glory that is undimmed and is a balm to the soul of Everyman in times of dismay. That thought brought with it an example that touched my own life.

Once, while driving to the home of someone who had asked for the healing support of human footsteps, I was overcome with awe at a flock of starlings or a murmuration. (Rather than describe, watch this video by Dylan Winter.) Watching Dylan's recorded murmuration accompanied by Pachebel's Canon in D brought my own experience to life again in my memory.

Learning about the starlings' amazing behavior was instructive. When a predator enters the scene, starlings dance in the sky in defense. We, too, can dance to protect one another by performing God's choreography, acknowledging His absolute governance and experiencing the power of His beauty called Love.

More effective than hugging tatters, recognizing and welcoming evidence of God's love for us will speed our restoration in beauty and JOY.  So, have only Love-filled Septembers from now on.

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TruthBits - Happily, Substance is God supplied!

by Carolyn St. Charles CS
Visit the archive on PrayerfulLiving.com for more "TruthBits"

NO Harvey, Irma, quake, wildfire, flood, drought, slide, wind

or other destructive image, fear or mortal belief
is
stronger, bigger, or more powerful, substantial or protecting
than infinite
GOD who is LOVE, LIFE, TRUTH.
Therefore,
WE are safe and secure and HAPPY.

Watch and pray daily

 that evil suggestions, in whatever guise,

take no root in your thought or bear fruit…

'hold fast that which is good.'  ~Mary Baker Eddy

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