I had the unique opportunity of attending your seminar at Heartland Church in Ft Wayne. I thought I knew how to listen to God’s voice! After the seminar I started journaling daily and now I can’t stop! I’ve been filling up two Composition booklets every two weeks. It’s astounding how much the love of the Father has to give us as well as our Savior and Lord and the Holy Spirit. I’ve experienced a number of healings emotionally and psychologically. 

What activities do you recognize as spiritual practices? Prayer and Bible study? Do you ever attend to the first reactions you form to people you pass, notice, or encounter? Try paying attention. Do you see how easy it is to fill in the blanks when you have so little to go on, seeing only their age, weight, gender, ethnicity, dress, and general mannerisms? How often are your first impressions judgmental rather than expressions of redemptive grace? You can turn these first impressions into a spiritual practice by noticing the ones that are judgmental and making it a deliberate act to release them.

Have you ever had anyone tell you, don’t take it personally? This is easier said than done. The default human response is to take everything personally, to see everything from your own perspective and how it relates to you. But this leaves you too much at the center of your own world, and distorts your ability to see things the way they really are. It also gives others undue influence over you and makes you unstable if your personal worth is attached to everything. I told my followers to build their house (life) upon the rock (me) rather than shifting sand to make them immune to flattery or scorn.

Is it easier to see your own faults in others than it is to see them in yourself?  If you see someone who likes to be in control and you didn’t have control issues, you may say to yourself that someone has to steer the ship. If you do have control issues you may resent the fact that it isn’t you. I told a story about removing the log from your own eye before you volunteered to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. When you react strongly to someone else’s offense, is it possible that your reaction says as much about you as it does about them? If you can’t avoid judging others, at least judge yourself first.