12 Foundation Stones - Study Notes Conclusion --------------------------- Onward and Upward, with Jesus at Your Side! --------------------------- Messages from Heaven to give you strength, faith and joy in your journey (Some of these messages come from Jesus; others were delivered by David, the founder of our movement, after his departure.) On Life's Highway Choices (Jesus:) Who you are and who you'll become is in many ways up to you. There are a lot of possibilities, but the realization of these possibilities is in your hands, according to the choices you make each day, day in and day out. Your happiness and fulfillment and the gifts and talents you were given are like seeds, hidden deep below the surface. They come to life and become little green shoots, and then grow into strong young trees - according to your choices. If you make the right choices, they can grow into great, stately, tall, towering redwood trees that reach hundreds of feet in height. Redwood trees are so tall, so strong and beautiful. They live for thousands of years, while civilizations rise and fall. Thus are the products of your choices. They stretch far beyond today and this world, and into the life to come. The great redwood trees - so big and massive - started out from tiny, tiny little seeds, just like the seeds of your life. All you have to do is ask Me about everything and stay close to Me, and you'll have good success; your life will be prosperous and fruitful and happy. When you make good choices, the right choices, the choices you know I would want you to make, you're choosing life and happiness. -------------- Above the norm (Jesus:) What kind of person do you want to be? Just a run-of-the-mill, ordinary Joe Blow? It takes someone very special to decide that they're not going to let themselves be pushed around by the whims of others, much less by the temptations and dictates of the Wicked One who's controlling much of today's world. Most people, deep down inside, long to be able to rise above the norm and make their lives count for something. I know you do, too. But do you want it badly enough that you're willing to buck the tide of negative peer pressure and make your own decisions in life? Allowing yourself to be pulled away from My Spirit by others, and toward the ways of the world, is like letting yourself be carried away by a river of raw sewage. It's spiritual, so you don't necessarily see it or smell it or recognize it for what it really is, but try to picture it in your mind. It's not funny! Living in today's world - with all its evil attractions and pull - and trying to live a life that's unique and special, is very difficult. It's like trying to swim against the flow of a big, violent, stinky river of muck! It's a nasty, malicious river, and the worst thing about it is that it wants to carry you along with it and pull you away from your destiny and the purpose for which you were created. It would like nothing more than to swallow you up and drown you in all its filthy, stinking dung. Many helpless souls are trapped, and being swept along by that awful torrent, but you don't have to be. I'm reaching out to you right now, asking you to grab My hand. If you just say yes to Me and reach out, I'll keep you out of that miry mess and set your feet on higher ground. I promise that it won't be that difficult; I'll do the hard part for you. All you have to do is recognize the pull of the world and negative peer pressure for what it is, and decide you want more out of life than that. Don't let yourself get carried away with the flow. Ask Me to make your life special, and I will. --------------------------------- For Those You Meet Along the Road The boldness of Peter and John (Jesus:) It doesn't matter whether you feel like you're a good witnesser or not. I know that you often feel like you don't know what to say, and that you don't have the answers to everyone's questions. Sometimes you're a little shy when it comes to talking to new people, and you wish you could be as bold as a lion, and that you could have more charisma, spunk, and knowledge, so that you could be a top witnesser. It's okay. - Really! All you have to be is a vessel in My hands. Remember the story of Peter and John? They were ignorant and uneducated - just poor fishermen - and everyone knew it. But that didn't matter. When they got up to witness and preach, everyone marveled at their boldness. Everyone knew that they were My disciples and that they had known Me, even though they were uneducated in the eyes of the world. I can give you that boldness, too. I can give you the power to speak My Word and to be a witness for Me. Sometimes I'll call you to speak to big crowds, and other times I'll ask you to witness to one lonely lost sheep. But either way, I'll always be with you to give you the words to speak and the answers to their questions. I just need you to be willing to go out and share My truth and My love with the world, and I'll do the rest. People will marvel and think it's awesome; they'll know that you've been with Me. --------------------------------- Let Jesus love others through you (David:) You're usually a pretty loving person, but you seem to have a hard time with some people. To be able to overlook people's quirks and the things about them that you don't like takes a lot of love. It's even harder when they actually do something that rubs you the wrong way or even hurts you, and you can't seem to get over it. As you've often discovered, with certain people and situations, it takes a whole lot more love than you can muster up on your own. Well, you're not alone, because the only one who always has enough love is God. But Jesus can help you, and He will if you ask Him to. The Lord knew that human love wasn't going to be enough, and that everyone would run into trouble at times. That's one of the main reasons that He's given you His Spirit - to give you the love you need - because being full of Jesus' Spirit means being full of love! Put Jesus to the test. Ask Him for more of His love. Ask Him to fill you up to overflowing with a supernatural anointing of love. But don't wait around for your feelings to change, because even when you have more of the Lord's Spirit, that doesn't mean you'll always feel love for someone. Maybe your first reactions will still be negative ones. But God can do anything, and if you're open to His help, He can turn those negative feelings into positive, loving reactions. The beautiful part about it is that once you get over the hump of showing love to others, then you'll be a lot happier and others will be happier around you. It's so much better to be loving! You'll be blessed, and you'll have peace of mind, knowing that you're obeying and letting Jesus love others through you. --------------------------- The Rough Parts of the Road Lock it up and throw away the key (Jesus:) People sometimes do unkind and unloving things. But I can completely wipe away the pain and the hurt that you feel. I can take sadness, bitterness, and anger, and all those bad feelings away. I can lock them up in a closet and help you throw away the key. You might think that's not fair - that someone did something bad to you, and now you're just supposed to forget it? Well, I know you can't exactly forget it, but you can lock it up where it won't spill over into your heart and your mind, making you so miserable. I want to make it all better; I want to lock it up. But you'll have to be the one to throw away the key. You'll have to be the one to decide that you want to move on, and that you want to get happy again. You'll have to trust Me to take care of anyone that blew it; you'll have to trust Me to work in their lives and teach them what they need to know. Can you do that? Okay, then, let's move on. Let's go forward! Things will change for you, and life will get better. ------------ Face the Son (David:) The world is full of beauty. It's full of beautiful people and beautiful things - and you're part of it! The Enemy is always on a bummer, and he tries to get you to be on a bummer with him. But don't do it! No matter how hard he tries to persuade you to look at the dark side of things, just keep looking to the Light. Be like the sunflower that keeps its face to the sun. It follows the sun across the sky and turns its face from one side all the way around to the other side, always following the sun. Sunflowers with their huge yellow petals are so big and beautiful! It's a miracle the way they grow. Some kinds of sunflowers can grow to be up to twelve feet tall - huge! They just keep facing the sunlight and soaking up all those heavenly rays and energy. If you do the same and look to Jesus all day long, and not let the Enemy's shadow darken your world, you'll grow strong and beautiful in spirit and make others happy. Just keep your face turned to Jesus and soak up all of His love and Spirit, and you'll be as bright and beautiful as the sunflower. --------------- The Upward Look "You don't have to be perfect" (Jesus:) It'll be much easier for you to go through life if you can accept the fact that you're not going to be perfect, and you learn how to handle the times when you don't measure up to your own expectations. I know you want to do your best, and to be a better person. So when you make mistakes, you get discouraged and under condemnation. But remember, I don't condemn you. When you feel condemnation and discouragement, that isn't Me - it's the Enemy. I'm not the One Who is expecting you to be perfect. I just expect you to do the best you can. You don't have to be perfect to be greatly used of Me. As a matter of fact, the great men and women that I use the most are weak and imperfect vessels who depend completely on Me. You might feel like you have such a long way to go that you're afraid to even start. But those who are willing to step out on the water are the ones who make it. Be like Peter. Step out and prove Me, and see if I won't hold your hand and help you to do the impossible. I won't let you sink beneath the waves; I'll bless your faith to keep going and to keep fighting. ------------------ "Beyond comparison" (Jesus:) How do you measure people? Do you take a ruler or a tape measure and measure their size and compare them with each other? Who's taller? Who's shorter? Fatter? Skinnier? Or do you look for other differences? Who has brown eyes? Who has blue? Who's faster? Who's stronger? There are so many ways that people are different, and so many things about them that you could measure and compare. Sometimes you try to measure yourself by comparing yourself with others. "Are they smarter than me?" "Are they better looking than I am?" "Do people like them better than they like me?" Comparing isn't a very good idea. It can really be a bummer and lead to all kinds of things - envy and feeling bad about yourself and the way I made you; or it can lead to a critical and self-righteous spirit. I don't want you to measure yourself against others. I want you to measure yourself against what I can help you to become. That takes faith and trust in Me. I want to take you beyond yourself, beyond comparing and beyond the measurements of man. I want you to be like Me, impossible to measure. I want you to be so full of Me that it will be impossible for anyone to measure you - your love, your spiritual depth, your understanding. I want you to be so full of Me that you become immeasurable - just like Me - totally free and beyond comparison! ----------------------- Your Constant Companion Getting started (Jesus:) Hearing from Me is very simple. It's just like making a phone call. Do you remember way back to some of the first times you did that? You were a little nervous, and you weren't exactly sure how to go about making the call or what you should say to the person on the other end. But now you've done it plenty of times, and it's much easier. Sometimes, every now and then, you can still get a little nervous, wondering if you've said the right thing. But overall, you're more comfortable with it than you were at first, right? It's the same with hearing from Me. At first, you might be nervous, wondering if you can really hear from Me or not, or if your channel is clear enough. I understand that sometimes it's hard for you. But it's not because you don't have a clear enough channel. It's the Devil trying to stop you and hinder you and make you feel nervous. When that happens, pray and ask Me to help you. Resist the Devil and he'll flee. Rebuke him, and call on Me to help you. Then just get quiet and don't let anything else distract you. Some things may look too big to ask Me about, and if you really don't have the faith for it, then ask someone else to hear from Me for you. But if you ask Me to give you the faith, I will. Please don't worry. You may just be getting started, but that's okay. Everyone has to start sometime. ---------------- "I'll be waiting" (Jesus:) I love being around you and with you and in you and by you. I look forward to our times together, when you stop everything and put all other thoughts aside to think about Me. I know it takes a bit of effort to push other thoughts out of your mind and to spend time with Me - to hear My voice or just to talk with Me. But it makes Me so happy when you do, and it gives you a special boost for the day too. If your day seems dreary, or things just aren't going the right way no matter what you do, it's probably because you forgot to spend time with Me. You don't have to feel bad if you forget once in a while; you're still building a habit of coming to Me. But when you forget and you feel the difference, that should encourage you to try to forget less and less, and remember more and more. Though at first it may seem like a sacrifice or a big effort, the things that I have to tell you will make any inconvenience on your part worth it all. Thank you for loving Me and for taking the time to hear from Me. More precious than gold, silver, diamonds, jewels, gems and pearls are the Words that I give to you! I give My riches to anyone who comes to Me in faith. I'm not stingy; I give and give and give. Will you keep coming back for more? I'll be waiting! ------------------------------------- "When it seems like I'm not answering..." (Jesus:) Not one prayer ever goes unanswered; they're all heard and answered the moment they're spoken. But sometimes you have to wait awhile to see the answer; and sometimes the answer isn't what you were expecting. I answer right away, but if you're not quite ready, or if it's not the right time in your life, then the answer will wait until you are ready. But I have answered! For example, say you've prayed for Me to give you a friend, someone that you can be close to, and I set things in motion for just the right person to come your way. I might know that there are certain lessons in getting along with others that would be good for you to learn before you even meet that person. So in order for your friendship to be a blessing to you, and for you to be a blessing to that person, I bring different lessons along the way, so you can grow in your relations with others first. Then, by the time your friend arrives, your friendship can be built on these lessons, so that you can have a sweet and lasting relationship. You may think that I didn't answer your prayer, but actually I have more than answered, because I'm even preparing you for that friendship by helping you to learn lessons regarding friendship - sacrifice, communication, unselfishness and understanding - which are all important lessons to learn. So next time you're wondering why I haven't answered you right away on something that you've asked Me for, please know that it's because I am working on it and even preparing you for the answer. Even when it seems like I don't answer, it's still an answer, because I know that not giving you what you've asked for is what's best for you. So that's an answer in itself. If you're not sure what the answer is - yes, no, or wait - ask Me about it and I'll tell you. ------------------------- "You can tell Me about it" (Jesus:) Do you need someone to understand you, someone who really knows what you're going through? Well, I know more about what you're going through than you do - honest! I know every bit of your heart and every thought that has ever come to your mind. But even though I know your every thought, you still need to get it out. It'll help you feel better, and help you to see things more clearly. Go ahead and tell Me what's on your mind. I promise to understand you and give you counsel and loving words that'll really help. I love to spend time with you. I enjoy it so much! I love to just sit next to you, with My arm around your shoulder, listening to what you have to say. You can tell Me anything you want. - Our conversation doesn't have to just be about your trials and tribulations. Why not tell Me about your hopes and dreams for the future? I'm your Friend, so let's spend some time together - talking, laughing, crying, or just being together. You're so special to Me. I promise I'll love you and be by your side forever. END