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Date: July 28, 2003

This word is submitted by Teresa Seputis (ts@godspeak.org)

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                   Trust is Not an Emotion


Child of Mine, I am asking you to trust Me and I expect you to place
your trust fully and squarely in Me.  Many of My children do not 
understand what trust is.  Trust is not an emotion.  Yes, it is true
that I give you My Spirit of Peace and I desire to impart into you
the peace that passes all understanding -- if you are willing to receive
that from Me.  But I expect you to trust Me whether or not you feel
My peace in a given situation.

Child of Mine, trust is doing what I command you to do no matter what
the circumstances around you may look like.  Trust is not the certainty
that I will, or will not, do a certain thing.  Trust is obeying what you
know I want you to do because you know I want you to do it.  Trust is
not a certainty that things will turn out a certain way, but it is a 
certainty that I am in control and that I will not leave you nor abandon
you.  Trust is not the absence of problems, but it is the certainty 
that I will come into your problems and bring My glory into them, just
as I have promised that I will do.

Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego trusted Me at great personal cost.  They
knew that I have commanded them not to bow the knee to any idol.  So 
they refused, even in the face of the threat of death.  They did not
know what I would do for them, they simply knew that I am the One true
God and they must not bow their knee to a false god.  I say to you, they
were frightened.  They feared the pain of the flames consuming their
flesh as they were to be cast into the burning fiery furnace.  They
had no certainty that I would rescue them from death; but they had a
certainty that if I allowed them to die, I would meet them on the other 
side of death because I am their God.  They trusted Me in the face of 
fear, and out of that trust they obeyed.  And I say to you that they 
had great cause to fear, for death by fire is not a pleasant prospect.  
Yet they were more afraid of disobeying Me than they were afraid of a 
torturous death, because they had a certainty that I am real.  Thus 
they trusted in Me.  And I rewarded their faith by delivering them out 
of the burning fiery furnace and causing them to be placed in positions 
of honor and authority.

There have been others who have trusted Me in the face of death who I
did not deliver, but who I took home to be with Me.  I have many martyrs
who have laid down their lives for me, who loved not their own life unto
the death.  There was Lawrence, a father in the Church, who was slowly 
roasted to death on a giant grill.  He also feared the pain of death, 
but trusted Me despite this fear.  I say to you that My spirit came upon 
him in the time of death, not to spare his life, but to fill him with My 
glory and to spare his pain.  Though the flames licked his body, he felt 
no pain, because I was with him.  I took him home to be with Me in glory 
because he had completed all of the tasks that I had assigned him to do.
But I say to you, his trust in Me was not in vain.  For I am the God of
the living, and I caused him to live again with Me in eternity.

Child of Mine, trust is not an emotion.  Nor is it knowing what I will
do in a given situation.  Trust is an assurance that I am good and I am
faithful and I am all powerful.  Trust is demonstrated by obeying Me
and doing what I have commanded you to do despite the circumstances
that surround you.  Trust is knowing that I am with you despite how
things look.  And trust is knowing that I will come into your situation 
and work My glory in it. 

Child of Mine, I expect you to trust Me, to obey Me -- because you love
Me.  But I will help you in this.  I will work in your situations to give
you experience after experience of My faithfulness, to build and increase
the level of your trust.  I will allow you to experience My presence with 
you in difficult situations.  And I will cause you to be filled with My 
spirit, to grow in My truth and to grow in knowledge of Me.  Child I 
give you of Myself and of My Spirit Who dwells within you to empower you.

I do require you to trust Me and to obey Me.  I count it as trust when 
you are uncertain of what I will do on your behalf and you obey anyhow.
I count it as trust when you are fearful and trembling, yet you obey Me.
I count it as trust when you are not centered in My peace, yet you choose
to do things My way instead of looking for a different solution in your
own strength.  Child of Mine, trust is not an emotion -- it is obedience
in the face of adversity.  

Trust Me, child, for I am faithful.