Spirituality Tips Guides

Don’t let your hearts be troubled Trust in God, and trust also in me. John 14:1 NLT

If they listen and obey God; they will be blessed with prosperity throughout their lives. All their years will be pleasant. Job 36:11 NLT

Thoughts race across the frontier of my mind like wild horses, running ahead of a prairie fire. I feel fear and doubts rising within me like black specters from some deep, dark abyss. My soul mate, my husband is dying. I am facing an uncertain future. I am too young
to collect social security, and I know deep within me that I cannot return to my former profession, counseling. I haven’t enough emotional energy to cope with my own grief and loss, and to simultaneously hold someone else’s emotions. Maybe I will be able to sometime in the future after I have navigated the slippery slopes of widowhood. Yet I will need a
source of income. The bills are piling up and I haven’t paid our tithe. I pray. I hear a still quiet voice say trust and obey. “Okay, okay, Lord. I’ll pay the tithe”. After saying this I wander into the kitchen where my husband is reading the Bible. “Grab your Bible and
turn to Malachi 3:8.”

1 did as he requested and read the passage aloud: Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me! But you ask, What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you? You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me.

It was as if God was confirming for me that I had heard him correctly. I Wrote the tithe check, but the words trust and obey lingered in my head for several days.

At first it was baffling, God, I did obey. I wrote the tithe check. Why are you still saying “Trust and obey?” As I meditated on these words, God revealed to me that He wants more than just a monetary tithe. He wants me! He has a plan and a purpose for my life.

For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11 NLT

He wants to birth a new life for me. My old life is ending. A new life must be birthed, and God is doing it even now. God is teaching me how to be a writer, an author who writes for His Glory. He is challenging me to face the greatest fear of my life, the fear of success. Fear of success, you say? Don’t you mean fear of failure? No, no, a thousand times NO. I know failure. I understand failure. God knows how many times I have failed. I may not like failure, but I am comfortable with its boundaries. I know what to say, how to act and how to be a failure.

What I don’t know and therefore fear is success. But God is success. He knows what to say, how to act, and how to be a success. I can be His willing pupil or I can try to run and hide. I say try because I have never yet been able to run and hide from the Lord.

In that moment I made a decision, a decision that I would believe God and write for Him. It is a life changing decision. Questions flood my mind like a huge tsunami and are answered before I even utter them. It is amazing how God puts the right people in the right place at the right time to assist me along my journey.

God arms me with strength, and he makes my way perfect. He makes me as surefooted as a deer, enabling me to stand on mountain heights. Psalm 18: 32,33 NLT

The Greeks speak of time in two ways: chronos and kairos. Chronos is chronological time. What my husband is experiencing as he winds down to the final day of his earthly life. Kairos is a season of time or the right time for something to occur. I am living in kairos, a new season of my life. I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God is leading me forward. God is birthing a new life in me.

The Lord says, I will guide you along the best pathway for your life I will advise you and watch over you. Psalm 32:8 NLT

Ann E. Van Dyke holds a Masters degree in psychology and is a licensed addictions

counselor.
Mourning Glory, A Devotional for Grieving is a book for those struggling through a loss and

looking for support and comfort. http://www.amourningdevotional.com

Think back to when you were a child and you watched a friend or an older sibling ride a bicycle. You felt a desire start to build in you to be able to do that too. The more you saw them having fun riding their bicycle, the more desire you had to have one also. Finally you were able to persuade your parents to get you a bicycle.

With the help of a parent or older sibling, you learned to ride it. As your proficiency at riding a bicycle grew, your belief in your ability to do so became stronger. When your belief became very strong, you developed faith that you could do it any time you wanted to.

Once you had faith that you could ride a bicycle, you did so without much conscious thought. The same thing happens with everything that you believe you can do. When your belief in your abilities to do it becomes strong, you develop faith that you can do it whenever you want to.

The power of faith is greater than the power of knowledge, just as the CEO of an organization has more power than a junior manager. The power of faith is so superior to any technology that we presently have, that it is an injustice to equate faith with technology. When the power of faith is placed into action, the amount of work that we can accomplish becomes greater and greater, and whatever our purpose may be, we will positively scale the heights.

The power of our faith changes how we perceive the value of our abilities. If our belief in our capabilities is strong, we know that our ability will allow us to accomplish whatever we decide to undertake.

The power of faith is like the mystery of love. You know it is there, but you cannot see it. You feel it working and guiding you, but like the air that you breathe to sustain your life, it is not visible. Only the results of its presence prove its existence.

We think of faith as having the ability to move mountains (which it can), but the power of faith is as subtle as it is dynamic. The power of faith is relative to how much one truly believes something is possible. If you truly believe with every fiber of your being that you can do something, your mind will find a way to accomplish it.

A good example of this was Terry Fox, the one legged Canadian Hero who ran a marathon a day to raise money for the Cancer Society. Even professional marathon runners cannot run a marathon a day. However, this young man had faith that he could do it, and in all kinds of weather he ran a marathon a day for weeks, running from the east coast of Canada nearly to Thunder Bay where cancer over took him.

The power of faith is what miracles are made of. The power of faith is not seen in spectacular healing miracles or in getting people to laugh or make animal noises. It is seen in the everyday accomplishments of people who do things that no one expects them to be able to accomplish. However, they have so much faith in their capabilities that they confound their critics and accomplish something that seems to be impossible, like the blind man who climbed Mount Everest and the young university lad who was allowed to play the last few minutes of a basketball game and scored 27 points.

You too can do anything that you want to do if you develop faith in yourself. Do not let anyone tell you that you cannot and do not doubt yourself for a minute.

Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of my-personal-growth.com, a site that provides information and articles for self improvement and personal growth and development.

Prosperity Christianity has gotten a bad rap. A lot of people seem to think it means that for Christians to be rich, they have to have a lot of money or else God hasn’t fully blessed them.

After watching the recent events play out in the press, for stars like Mel Gibson, Britney Spears, and Jessica Simpson, I want to challenge this belief. Although these people claim to be Christians, what they’re really doing is living in a way that Wallace Wattles, in “The Science of Getting Rich”, called swinishly.

Now, we can argue over whether or not these people really are Christians. That’s not the point. The truth is, only God really knows the answer to that one, and it’s between Him and these individuals.

My point is this: is true prosperity for Christians really all about money?

For these three, I would say no.

Does this mean Christians shouldn’t have money? Again, no.

Christians should have money, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with getting financially prosperous and having a lot of money.

Joel Osteen certainly has a financially prosperous church and marketing experts and Christians like Lisa Diane and Jimmy D. Brown have certainly demonstrated that you can have a lot of money and be happy. And none of these three shy away from living their faith.

Money has its place. As T. Harv Eker says, “You can’t pay your bills with love”.

There are several keys to prosperity that Christians need to put first:

1. Make God number one in your life. Put Him first. “Do what you do for the glory of God.” As Christians, there’s a lot of things we can do with money to spread the gospel. We can be a blessing to others.

In the words of Wallace Wattles, “You owe it to God, to yourself, and to humanity to make the most of yourself.”

Understand that God has a purpose for blessing you with a lot of money. It’s not just about being able to ride around in limos, eat in fancy restaurants, and buy whatever you want. There’s a purpose.

2. Prosperity is about balance. In order to achieve true prosperity, you need to do a lot more than just make a lot of money.

The three areas Wallace Wattles says to concentrate on are mind, body, and spirit.

This means we need a strong focus on God. We need to build strong relationships with those we love. We need to achieve health, and we need to strengthen ourselves mentally and spiritually.

Get rid of your baggage, grudges, hatreds, and anything that’s holding you back. There’s tremendous power in forgiveness because you’re releasing something you shouldn’t hold onto anyway.

I truly believe that many people have died well before their time because they held onto painful events.

Let go of this garbage and replace it with positive belief.

God thinks you’re someone special, extraordinary, and unique. He deeply loves you so much that He made you in His image, and He sent his son, Jesus, to die for you on the cross so you could have a relationship with Him forever.

Talk about an offer you can’t refuse!

3. God put those desires in your heart. Remember, God is a creator, and He created us to have a relationship with Him. He also created each of us for a purpose.

Unless those desires in your heart are sinful, God put them there. So it’s time to go for it!

True prosperity isn’t just about money. True prosperity is about becoming everything you are meant to be, to do all you are meant to do, and to have all you are meant to have.

God has big plans and big dreams for you.

We were never meant to aspire to be God, we are to aspire to be like God. That makes us creators, and we can choose to create something great, or something that’s junk.

Stop living small. Stop dreaming small, and ask God to reign down His blessings on you. Ask for everything He wants you to have. If He didn’t believe you deserved it, He wouldn’t want to give it to you. He just can’t give you what you won’t accept.

Now dream big, live big, and open yourself up to having everything God wants you to have. When you do, what you will get will be far larger, far richer, and far better than just a big bank account.

Jinger Jarrett wants to show you how to live the life you’ve always dreamed of. You can read her blog, The Science of Getting Rich for Christians. Get her best free resources on changing your life at Squidoo.

Many people cannot see God in the world they live in. They feel He is in some far off place, not paying any attention to what goes on in their daily lives. The problems of the world weigh them down, and they cannot see the miracles going on all around them every day.

Evangelist, Lorene Hall says, “When I was younger, I never thought about miracles. I never entertained the word miracle. I didn’t hear about miracles when I was growing up in those difficult times. I would tell anybody today that God is a miracle giver. When you talk about God, you cannot talk about Him without connecting Him to miracles.”

As a young, unwed mother, living during a time of segregation and poverty, Lorene brought herself out of the depths of depression with a rebirth of faith. When her infant son was diagnosed with Hydrocephalus, her faith became even stronger. She prayed to God for a miracle, and got one. The doctor’s gave her son less than five days to live, now after 38 years, he is still alive and living a normal life.

Lorene believes that miracles can happen, even when we don’t deserve them. As parents we all want our children to grow up to be strong and healthy, praying for a miracle of our own when our children are ill. Learn how this mother raised a miracle child through a life threatening illness, and how you can deepen the faith in your life.

In order to have miracle causing belief:
- Put God first.
- Acknowledge there is a God.
- Accept Christ as our Lord and Savior.
- Believe that when adversity looms, there is a way out.
- Find God to be truth.
- Regardless of what we did in the past, God forgives us.
- Do not feel guilty any more.

Following these steps will lead you to joy and peace. It will be a comfort, bringing solace in times of trouble. You will see your faith lead to healing and second chances. Even when tragedy falls upon you, and everything seems impossibly bleak, faith will see you through.

Whether you have a child with a life threatening condition, or some other type of personal tragedy, having faith is an important thing. Maintain your faith through these trying times:

- Study the Bible.
- Become a believer.
- Believe the word of God because you can stand on the word of God. The word is how you know who God is, and know the promises He made to us. The word teaches faith.
- Know God for yourself. See what God is saying to you about personal salvation and a personal life with Him.

Use prayer as a proactive tool to learn how to grow your faith so that important miracles can happen. Prayer is powerful, connecting you to God. It allows you to tell God how you feel and hear what He has to say. Ask God to help you even when you have doubts from a crisis of faith. You can ask God anything, and He will tell you anything. God will understand you when no one else can.

If you are raising a child with a life threatening illness, or know someone who is, implement some of these powerful techniques to ease the pain for both of you:

- Be gentle and compassionate.
- Give a lot of care.
- Do it all with love.
- Remember that even if you are tired and frustrated, he or she is the one suffering. Take all the time you need, even if it means staying up all night.
- Stand by the bed, talk, encourage, and say everything will be alright.
- Just be there.

Focus on making God the center of your life. When you do that, there is nothing you can’t ask God to do. He is concerned about your struggles, and what you are going through. Your faith will make you feel special, give you self esteem, and bring you to a place of peace and contentment.

The most important thing is to show love. Your strength will come from God. There are amazing things that happen over and over again in this world. Miracles do happen.

Dr. Proactive, Randy Gilbert enjoys producing the “Inside Success Show”. He presents his insightful interview with Lorene Hall based upon the revelations from her book. You can hear the entire inspirational interview for free by going to: http://www.insidesuccessradio.com/Guests/Lorene-Hall

To grow spiritually in a world defined by power, money, and influence is a Herculean task. Modern conveniences such as electronic equipments, gadgets, and tools as well as entertainment through television, magazines, and the web have predisposed us to confine our attention mostly to physical needs and wants.

As a result, our concepts of self-worth and self-meaning are muddled. How can we strike a balance between the material and spiritual aspects of our lives?

To grow spiritually is to look inward.

Introspection goes beyond recalling the things that happened in a day, week, or month. You need to look closely and reflect on your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and motivations.

Periodically examining your experiences, the decisions you make, the relationships you have, and the things you engage in provide useful insights on your life goals, on the good traits you must sustain and the bad traits you have to discard. Moreover, it gives you clues on how to act, react, and conduct yourself in the midst of any situation.

Like any skill, introspection can be learned; all it takes is the courage and willingness to seek the truths that lie within you. Here are some pointers when you introspect: be objective, be forgiving of yourself, and focus on your areas for improvement.

To grow spiritually is to develop your potentials.

Religion and science have differing views on matters of the human spirit. Religion views people as spiritual beings temporarily living on Earth, while science views the spirit as just one dimension of an individual.

Mastery of the self is a recurring theme in both Christian (Western) and Islamic (Eastern) teachings. The needs of the body are recognized but placed under the needs of the spirit. Beliefs, values, morality, rules, experiences, and good works provide the blueprint to ensure the growth of the spiritual being.

In Psychology, realizing one’s full potential is to self-actualize. Maslow identified several human needs: physiological, security, belongingness, esteem, cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization, and self-transcendence. James earlier categorized these needs into three: material, emotional, and spiritual. When you have satisfied the basic physiological and emotional needs, spiritual or existential needs come next.

Achieving each need leads to the total development of the individual. Perhaps the difference between these two religions and psychology is the end of self-development: Christianity and Islam see that self-development is a means toward serving God, while psychology view that self-development is an end by itself.

To grow spiritually is to search for meaning.

Religions that believe in the existence of God such as Christianism, Judaism, and Islam suppose that the purpose of the human life is to serve the Creator of all things.

Several theories in psychology propose that we ultimately give meaning to our lives. Whether we believe that life’s meaning is pre-determined or self-directed, to grow in spirit is to realize that we do not merely exist.

We do not know the meaning of our lives at birth; but we gain knowledge and wisdom from our interactions with people and from our actions and reactions to the situations we are in. As we discover this meaning, there are certain beliefs and values that we reject and affirm.

Our lives have purpose. This purpose puts all our physical, emotional, and intellectual potentials into use; sustains us during trying times; and gives us something to look forward to-a goal to achieve, a destination to reach. A person without purpose or meaning is like a drifting ship at sea.

To grow spiritually is to recognize interconnections.

Religions stress the concept of our relatedness to all creation, live and inanimate. Thus we call other people ‘brothers and sisters’ even if there are no direct blood relations.

Moreover, deity-centered religions such as Christianity and Islam speak of the relationship between humans and a higher being. On the other hand, science expounds on our link to other living things through the evolution theory.

This relatedness is clearly seen in the concept of ecology, the interaction between living and non-living things. In psychology, connectedness is a characteristic of self-transcendence, the highest human need according to Maslow.

Recognizing your connection to all things makes you more humble and respectful of people, animals, plants, and things in nature. It makes you appreciate everything around you. It moves you to go beyond your comfort zone and reach out to other people, and become stewards of all other things around you.

Growth is a process thus to grow in spirit is a day-to-day encounter. We win some, we lose some, but the important thing is that we learn, and from this knowledge, further spiritual growth is made possible.

James Yee is the webmaster of
http://www.yeearticles.com.His tips on internet marketing
is available at
http://yeearticles.com/self-improve/Spiritual_Growth_the_Spiritual_Challenge_of_Modern_Times.php

I stumbled into a Christian Station on the radio and something struck me: that in most organized religions the emphasis is on having faith in God but I hear very little about having faith in the tools or gifts God gives us! First, let me say something about my use of the word “God”. This is just how I refer to my higher power, that and the word, “Grandfather” which comes from my work with the Holy Men. So please substitute whatever definition you are comfortable with.

God has given us some incredible gifts to walk this earth with. Let’s start making use of them! Number one on the list is the “gift of choice”; a theme that comes up in many retreats here in Sedona. This last two years, I have come to see in a deeper way how truly awesome this gift of choice is. It totally controls our reality.

Many clients want to know how to control their thinking; their life is dominated by too much thinking. I don’t want to try and teach any client how to control their thinking but encourage them to see they can “choose” which thoughts to give life too! Big difference!

Take a moment and consider that. God or whoever your Creator is gave you the enormous gift of being able to choose which thoughts to give energy too. If you have a negative thought you can just ignore it! The divine trinity is: thought, feeling, behavior. So if you choose not to give life to bad thoughts, you won’t have bad feelings and thus not behave in negative ways. And then the fourth piece comes into play:vibration. If you don’t think, feel and behave negatively, you lower the attraction of negative circumstances.

Many religions encourage us to pray to God for help, “Oh please, God, help me, I am lost.” There is nothing wrong with that. But what I suggest is first try and use the gift God gave you:choice. Try and see that you can choose not to pay attention to “thoughts of feeling so lost”. Make sense, brothers and sisters? Those thoughts are coming out of low moods and are truly are not real. Neal Donald Walsh in his final book of the series, Home with God, talks a great deal about “choice”. I encourage you to read it.

God gave you the “gift of wisdom”. It’s your birthright. Wisdom can be called many different things: common sense, instinct, spiritual intelligence, gut feeling, etc. We have all experienced these feelings at one time in our life. But how many of us make use of this gift? I talk to many clients about the idea of “experimenting equals validation”. I encourage them to turn decisions-making moments into opportunities to experiment with their wisdom. Instead of processing that decision through their personal mind, give their wisdom a chance to offer an insight about it. And when that insight comes, and it will, you will have validation.

Faith in a Higher Power is powerful as long as it doesn’t turn us away from the gifts that Higher Power gave us. I have sense I am going to write more about this idea. I will just let my wisdom guide me!

Gregory Drambour is the author of THE WOODSTOCK BRIDGE, the well-acclaimed book about Native American Spirituality. He is the owner of Sedona Sacred Journeys; a spiritual retreat business in Sedona, Arizona. For more inspirational stories
go to: http://sedona-spiritual-vacations.com