You Do Not Practice What You Preach

November 28, 2024

Hello, brothers, sisters, and Heartdwellers family.

This is a sobering message on the heels of the previous message where the Lord is bringing correction to the group, now a strong admonishment for me. We have two wonderful missionaries staying in Ghana to help with the City of God's work. They have left everything to follow Jesus. Being from Kenya, although Africans, they are from the East and Ghana is in the West. So, there are some cultural differences they have to adapt to, especially [with] the food. They have tried to endure but I got a prompting from the Lord that they weren’t being too transparent about everything, [since] I am here in America, and they are there.

We have our weekly check-ins and texts almost every other day. When I spoke to them they finally opened up about how they struggled with some of the dishes.    I told them I would talk to the ladies cooking [the food] to make adjustments. However, I also encouraged them to “eat whatever is set before you”. That is the way of a missionary life, especially a consecrated religious life, imitating the disciples of Christ. Mother Teresa would say it, St. Therese, St Francis and many of the Saints used this as a tool to crucify their flesh, as Jesus also instructed his disciples in the Scriptures.

Luke 10:8

“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you.

We don’t realize how hard it is to do that. Do not offend your guest by rejecting their food or being very quick to turn down a drink, a meal, or a snack when offered to you or given to you to eat when you go out to serve. Our human nature is so easily ruled by the flesh, so this has to be something we are conscious of. So, I sent them a reading from Mother Teresa's “Total Surrender” book to encourage them in this practice to eat whatever is set before them whether tasty or not. As Mother Teresa said,

“It's good for us to walk in the poverty of Christ in that way. Sometimes he went hungry, other times he had to eat the grains in the fields, and many times he kindly accepted food that was offered to him wherever he went, and we are to do the same and not become fussy about what we eat and don’t eat.

So, feeling good about myself, (hence pride, guys) I didn’t know how a test was coming my way... Then I got these readings a few days later in My Lord’s Supper.

The first reading was

Malachi 2:1-9

Additional Warning to the Priests

1 “And now, you priests, this warning is for you.

2 If you do not listen, and if you do not resolve to honor my name,” says the LORD Almighty, “I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me.

3 “Because of you I will rebuke your descendants; I will smear on your faces the dung from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it.

4 And you will know that I have sent you this warning so that my covenant with Levi may continue,” says the LORD Almighty.

5 “My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence, and he revered me and stood in awe of my name.

6 True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness and turned many from sin.

7 “For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth.

8 But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi,” says the LORD Almighty.

9 “So, I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”

So, this would cause anyone to shake in their boots. I thought Lord, this can’t be about me. Maybe this is about the church priests, not me. I went to Bible Promises and I got Holy Spirit, that it was about me. Then the Gospel reading summed it all up.

A Warning Against Hypocrisy

Then Jesus said to the crowds and his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

5 “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.

8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

I thought Lord, me? a Pharisee, noooo. How? As the Holy Spirit confirmed this was all about me.

I pondered for a moment, a bit in shock, then it came to me… Just two days after I gently encouraged/admonished our missionaries to be like Christ and to eat what was set before them, I was called over the walkie-talkie by Mother Margaret in the mountain community and asked if I wanted to eat some Ramen Noodles. She made it for Papa Ezekiel but he didnt eat it. I thought sure why not, free dinner and I love Ramen Noodles, especially in this cold weather. I actually thought about what I had told the missionaries, and I thought, “Okay, I’ll just eat whatever is given to me. So I said Yes, on the walkie, before the whole community, that I would eat the noodles.

When we arrived at the prayer meeting, another sister was in the kitchen and showed me the pot of noodles. When she opened it to my horror, it didnt look anything like how I thought it would, it looked sick. It looked like I would get sick just eating it. I made the most terrible face and the sister [and I] both burst out laughing. I thought, “Oh, I’m not St. Therese.” She was known to eat anything they gave her, even week-old food—all as a sacrifice to Jesus and to crucify her flesh. I thought about it again and looked in the pot—I just couldn't, especially in my condition, I knew I would throw up. So, I said no, and she dumped it and washed the pot out.

Holy Spirit nudged me showing me the hypocrisy in my own heart. To give instructions to these two struggling missionaries, one I couldn't keep myself. I was truly humbled and began to repent. I sent them a message also, apologizing and sharing with them how the Lord admonished me for such an act which he doesn't take lightly.

After my Lord’s Supper reading, I came before Him,

Jesus, the reading made me shake from the inside out. Thank you for exposing my weaknesses and faults. Please Lord, sincerely forgive me. Just on the heels of the previous message, I don’t want to become that.

Jesus began,

“Well, it's good, Beloved, to see yourself in the light of My mirror as you requested. It is very good to humble you, so you continue to walk in meekness and tread very graciously when leading others to practice what you are teaching. And if you are not practicing it, still teach it, but make it very clear that you struggle with it too. And never impose something on any soul that you, yourself are unable to do. That is being a hypocrite.”

Man, Lord, I remember in the world I was the biggest hypocrite. I was so self-righteous, especially with my sisters, speaking out of one side of my mouth and in secret doing or falling for the very same things they struggled with. Please deliver me from this habit, Lord, it's so embarrassing.

“It is good to have you embarrassed, My love, it gives room for the souls following you to be transparent about their weaknesses as well as their imperfections so that they too, will not try to be something they are not. Yes, you are called to be a Saint, but you are not quite there yet, and that is okay. Remember to embrace your littleness, nothingness, your weaknesses, and I will come down to you and pick you up and raise you to Myself.

“So, although I am raising up militant warriors of love (that is it, you are warriors of love) that is where I want you to be most strict and disciplined with yourselves, My brides. In brotherly love. Not so much in fasting, self-denials, and in penances. If I can be honest with you none of you, will be able to reach the heights of penance, body deprivations, and sacrifices My Saints did long ago. This is just a different time and a different generation. I am raising up a different group of saints. You will not be known for how you prayed, or the extreme acts of mortifications you did to your body, but you will be known for how you loved.”

“May I tell you all the saints of this time, will have a greater weight of glory than the saints before them?”

Really, Lord?

“Yes really, so although you can read the books and look up the lives of the saints to inspire you. Do not try to walk in their footsteps or you will definitely trip up. However, try to walk in Mine. Let Me be the focus in your imitation and let their sacrifices inspire you of how much they loved Me and were willing to give up all for Me at whatever cost. That is what I want you to learn most.

“In heaven, they all are looking up to you rather, and cheering you on because you live in a time where it is the hour of darkness—so thick is the demonic activity and atmosphere that surrounds you, more than there has been in any other generation, and it will only increase. So, your battles are ten times harder, than they had when they lived.

“The opposition, resistance, and push back, is so much more for you here on earth at this time. That is why I am so pleased with the littlest of sacrifices. The littlest of things bring Me great pleasure because if you knew the amount of opposition and demonic interference that attacks your mind to do the opposite, yet you choose to give to Me, love Me, and sacrifice for Me, you would be amazed.

“You don’t realize it because you have been living in such a dark oppressive atmosphere all your life. But from heaven's vantage point, we see it and celebrate every little offering given up for Me. So do not be too hard on yourself, beloved little one, and do not be too hard on your children as well.    What I give you grace to do, instruct them also to do because the same grace has been given to them. What you struggle to do, also allow them grace to struggle and reach to offer Me such a sacrifice. But do not impose it upon them, okay?”

Yes, Lord. Thank you for your correction, insight, and Your love.

“You are all My valiant little soldiers of love fighting an uphill battle of holiness and you all are doing beautifully, My brides. Love, love, love is the key. Remember what my servant Paul said,

‘If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 ‘Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 ‘Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 ‘And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

“So, you see the greatest gift, the greatest sacrifice, your greatest offering, My beloved bride, is love. Your vocation is to become love in My Church—instruments, beacons, towers, and monuments of love. May it be said about each of you, not how much you prayed, healed the sick, walked in miracles, prophesied, cast out devils, had wisdom of the angel, but may it be said about you, ‘Wow this soul loved Me and really loved the Lord’. If those around you cannot say that, let that be your focus and mission in this life, to love until there is no self left. Ask Me for the grace and I will give it to you. My valiant warriors of love, go now and spread the fragrance of My love wherever you go.”

That was the end of Jesus’ beautiful message.