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You are who you think you are.
You are as worthy of receiving good love as you think you are.
You are as capable of creating, developing and actualizing your visions as you think you are.
So, who have you been thinking you are?
Ms. Hopeful?
Ms. Capable?
Ms. Pitiful?
Ms. Sad?
Ms. Fearful?
Ms. Doubtful?
Ms. Faithful?
Ms. Courage?
And, what is it that you want?
New health?
New strength?
New love?
New peace?
New faith?
A new home?
A new job?
A new life?
You’ve probably been thinking that the Trouble in your life was caused by the choices you've made or the family you have. Or maybe you think you're in Trouble because of a certain relationship, or your weight, your looks, your money situation, your responsibilities, your job, or some past experience. But the truth is, what keeps you bound to your address in Trouble is whatever thoughts you've been having about these issues. Whenever you find yourself residing in Trouble, you can believe that your low beliefs about yourself are what’s to blame. Changing those beliefs will unlock the doors you’ve been pounding on. When we believe High we seek differently. When we be-lieve High we ask differently, and we find ourselves listening more to the mysteries of Spirit than to the din of daily life—we are divinely enabled to see obscure and improbable possibilities. When we believe High, our minds go off seeking hidden things and, astonishingly, discover treasures lurking in the oddest of places . . . and in the most unlikely people.
Love & Light
Each of our life-experiences has given us a platform to stand on . . . and a gift to give. Each one of us could say “I have been here . . . and I have been there . . . and . . . LOOK At ME! I have come through to a better side of things. This is what I’ve learn-ed . . . and this is what I can share with you.”
And it’s only this attitude that will set you on your path to your High Places.
Self-pity will not.
Fear of moving forward . . . will not.
Fear of being hurt . . . again . . . will not.
Your responses to your life experiences will determine your direction. The hard work of real-life will either inspire you to reach for your High Places . . . or scare you into hiding out in Trouble until your life is over. You get to choose.
If you choose to leave Trouble, you will need some new way of being to walk toward, because your first step away from Trouble will be your first step toward your High Places. So, today, ask yourself these questions:
“What am I choosing to walk away from?”
And even more importantly—“What am I choosing to walk toward?”
Love & Light
Trouble separates us from the Joy we could experience as our High Places Self. Chances are, if you've never ventured a step toward your High Places, you've never known real Joy. You may have known some fleeting moments of happiness. You may, also, have experienced a few hiccups of exhilaration . . . and maybe even a sneak preview of hopes to come. But if you've never stepped out in faith toward the desire of your heart, marching confidently forward with every expectation of arriving someplace Good, you haven't known Joy.
Joy comes when we begin to realize that our little piece of spirit can plug perfectly into God's all-encompassing Spirit.
When we choose to fill ourselves with faith, and to inhale and exhale nothing less than faith, we place ourselves in a dimension of Joy. Joy has nothing to do with things accomplished or works performed. Joy waits in our surrender to belief in God's awesome power at work in our lives.
Love & Light
As you go about trying to straighten out your life, you might be surprised to find that the culprit responsible for blocking your goals, upsetting your apple-carts and, generally, sabotaging all your efforts is . . . You. Wielding a plethora of low-belief thoughts, swinging them around recklessly like double-edged swords, we effectively slash through all of our best hopes and rip our dreams to shreds. High Places lives aren't born of low-belief thinking. And the best thing that could happen is for us to actually catch ourselves in the act . . .
Today, examine your self-talk. What do you say to yourself all day? What kinds of thoughts run through your mind like a river of living waters, feeding your perceptions and determining your actions? Have you formulated a laundry-list of reasons why you’re stuck in Trouble? And another corresponding list of reasons why you need to stay in Trouble? Reasons like—“I’m too old to make changes in my life . . . I’m in too much debt to go back to school . . . I’ve invested too much in this bad situation to jump ship now . . . I'm needed here, so I can't move forward . . . or . . . God won't do this for me”—will continue to hold us hostage until we start making conscious decisions to believe higher for ourselves. Today, see how many times you can catch yourself thinking negative thoughts about yourself. CHOOSE to believe higher about yourself and your possibilities. DECIDE that you will leave your Trouble . . . for your High Places . . . and you will miraculously be shown a way to go.
There is this thing that happens. This thing that happens in the psyche and moves all through the psycho-emotional centers of a woman. It is the transient movement of all that we believe coursing through us, throughout all of our physical, spiritual and emotional paths of Self. Throughout the very blood and cells of us. Coloring us and defining us and telling us who we are and what we will do in any given situation. Journeying toward your High Places requires you to begin to inhabit your Highest Self.
Once you have identified yourself as living in Trouble, you will have to choose to meet God on the path toward your High Places. You will have to begin choosing to adopt the mindsets you will need to live more as your Higher Self than as your lower, troubled, Self. You will have to choose to defy the gravity of Troubled-life, as you have known it. You will have to choose to allow faith, not fear, to rule your steps. You will have to choose to allow your forgiving spirit to rule your mind and your relationships. You will have to choose to believe that your Creator-God is mindful of you, will be your strength, and will empower you to walk upon your High Places.
How often have you been brought to the edge of an opportunity . . . only to back away when it was time to leap forward?
How many times have you swallowed your truth because you feared that the consequences of being that honest . . . that telling—about how you really felt or what you really wanted to do—would be less than bearable for someone, or for yourself?
How often have you accepted defeat, before you even entered the race, because you doubted your own ability to succeed and doubted God’s ability to be a sufficiently powerful partner?
Have you ever found yourself living out what someone else thought your life should be about . . . and not what you suspected/knew it should be about?
Have you had a certain dream simmering on the back burner of your life for so long that all the flavor and passion seems to have simmered out of it?
Have you secretly forbidden yourself to dream new dreams?
When we don't believe that we are entitled to a better life . . . we don't believe High. When we don't believe High for ourselves we wind up crafting all kinds of self-sabotaging behaviors that create barriers and, logically, keep us in Trouble.
My references to our having “High Places” comes from Habakkuk 3:19: “God will give us hinds' feet and set us upon our High Places.” (The hind being a deer-like animal that can conquer even the most treacherous mountain terrain.) And there are two things to note here: The first is that God will give us hinds' feet—meaning that this state of power and wisdom, grace and well-being, is a gift, not something earned. It has to come from God . . . through the spirit-woman inside us. This state of spiritual empowerment is not something we can manufacture or create for ourselves, it is something we have to ask God for, and then expect to receive.
The second thing we need to note: this scripture says that after God has given us (through the tests and trials of our life-experiences?) this bounding and rebounding power of a hind, we will be set upon our High Places. Therefore, it seems that it's the use of our hinds' feet that will transport us to this new land of mountain-top experiences. From struggling through our days . . . to striding like Queens, blazing new pathways by faith and high-belief . . . From Trouble . . . to High Places.
Perhaps, only a woman who has been excruciatingly low could ever yearn enough to reach that High. Do you think God doesn’t know that
?
Love & Light,
Esther
