Renewal Part 4

A Peek Into the Future
91. Jesus has promised great things for our future--some of which I'm going to share with you now. He has promised that after the renewal and the restructuring of the Family‚ our "ship" will be the sleekest, fastest sailing vessel around. But all His promises are contingent on our obedience. We have to do our part, then He will do His. It's clearly an "if/then" situation. If we do what He has asked, then He will bring about what He has promised.
92. So when you read the following message‚ let it motivate, inspire and encourage your heart. But also remember that the fulfillment of these promises is dependent on the Family's choices--and to bring it home to you and make it personal, it depends on your choices. These rewards and benefits aren't free; they come with the price tag of obedience.
93. Here's a little peek at what our future will look like as we obey, as we change, as we yield and grow. Here's a listing of some of the things that will change for the better, some of the benefits of the renewal period and the restructuring of the Family--not just way far in the future benefits, but ones that we can expect to experience soon, by God's grace.

94. (Jesus:) During this period of renewal, I will reactivate many of the gifts of My Spirit that have lain dormant in your lives and hearts and Homes. I will blow upon your fading fires with the breath of My Spirit, and the fires of dedication to Me will begin to grow stronger. As you put aside the things of this world, as you forsake the distractions of this earth, as you give your all to helping your children and JETTs and teens to discover the true meaning of service to Me and happiness in My Spirit, you will find renewal and newness in many areas of your life that have been left to ruin.
95. You will experience new joy in serving Me, because your perspectives will begin to change. What holds priority and importance in your heart and life today will no longer be the same. Old goals and desires will be replaced with new goals and desires. The sense of duty to do My will will begin to be replaced with joy to do My will. The fires of witnessing will be ignited in the hearts of My children everywhere, and a greater love for the lost will compel you to reach out to the wayward and destitute like never before.
96. Obedience will come easier. This is one of the greatest fruits of this period of renewal, but a vital key to the future effectiveness of the Family. Submitting to this period of renewal is a step of humility and obedience on your part--submitting to what I know is best for you spiritually. It is an act of yieldedness on the part of My brides--forgoing what is unnecessary and even harmful in order to gain the best and that which is incorruptible. But from this step of yieldedness and submission I will cause a great desire toward obedience to be kindled in the hearts of My children, and great aid from the spiritual realm will be released to My brides to strengthen and help them in the important realm of obedience.
97. Battles will no longer "flatten," incapacitate, or derail you so easily. Your spiritual eyes and ears will be more aware of the Enemy's avenues of attack, and you'll find yourself more on guard in spirit, and better equipped spiritually to fight in times of battle. From this time My brides will gain the spiritual momentum to continue the tougher uphill climb that will be required of all My true disciples in the coming days. This period will again put My Family back on the cutting edge, and back on the frontlines ready to do battle with the Enemy!
98. Bonds of unity will become stronger in Family Homes and areas, because more time will be invested in loving others, in taking time for others, in interacting with others. The interaction with the world, or worldly pastimes and pleasures, will be replaced with interactions and communications and times of fellowship with your loved ones in the Family, thus joining hearts and Homes together in unity as never before.
99. You'll find a renewed appreciation for your brothers and sisters, and a greater desire for fellowship with each other. You will gain a renewed appreciation for the great support, spiritual strength and inspiration found in the fellowship of the saints. This change will bring satisfaction and fulfillment to many. Those who suffer loneliness will be less lonely and will feel My love more strongly. Those who are shy will learn to reach out more, to give more. Those who are proud will exercise their gifts of humility and love and thus become more like Me.
100. The lives of your children, JETTs and teens will radically change. They will receive better care and training, their love cups will be full, and they will be receiving the quality time that they need and deserve. Many of those who didn't have time for the children before will find a renewed interest in pouring into them, in teaching them, and taking an interest in their lives. They will become witnesses alongside you, an integral part of your Home and focus, indispensable partners in your ministries, the true blessings that I have ordained them to be in your lives and Homes.
101. There will be more time for meditation, reflection and prayer on a regular basis. There will be more time to love, to reach out to others, to build friendships and bonds--children with children, adults with children, husbands with wives, boyfriends with girlfriends, friends with friends, those of the older generation with those of the younger generation. There will be more time to reach out and love those within your midst as well as those in the world through witnessing and follow-up, and this will in turn bring more joy, happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction to the hearts of My children everywhere.
102. New gifts and talents will be honed and developed as you turn those "spare moments" into times of teaching and helping your young ones find their calling. Those who have let cobwebs grow on their guitars or other musical instruments will have the time to pull them out and exercise their gifts and talents. Old desires and interests will be rekindled, and much more variety in hobbies and talents and know–how will be seen--which can be used for witnessing, or teaching the young people or children, or for the edification of "the body." By removing the things of the world from your lives for a season I have created a whole new pool of time that can be invested in your future--your children and young people-–as well as whatever other good ways I show you to.
103. The One Wife vision will begin to become a reality once again. The Law of Love will be lived more fully. The uniting of the generations will come into play more than it has in the last few years. Loving Jesus times will become more of a regular occurrence. The integration of the new weapons into everyday life will become more the norm, and the Word will begin flowing in interactions and communications like never before. You will fall in love with Me and the Word all over again. You'll build up more reserves of Me and My Word within your heart and spirit, and you'll gain more of a positive and praiseful spirit and attitude. You'll discover what a treasure you have in the children and JETTs and teens in your Home, as you get to know them and fall in love with them, and help them realize their full potential.
104. Your spiritual senses will be enhanced‚ your sense of priorities refocused, and your spiritual eyes and ears revitalized. You'll find yourselves more spiritually attuned in every way, more aware and sensitive to the spirit world. Your spiritual senses won't be dulled or desensitized from regular carnal and worldly input. Because your extracurricular activities and recreation will be more Christ- and Word-centered, as well as more giving and unselfish, during the period of renewal‚ you'll have more of Me shining through you. You'll have more of My love for others, because there will be more of Me within you.
105. Focuses and goals will change. The things in life that really count will come to the fore, and the things that are trivial or inconsequential will fade into the background. Each one's personal goals for their life and how they use their time will become more meaningful and challenging, because some of the prior goals will then seem unimportant. There will be a greater striving for progress and a greater desire to reach goals in every sphere of Family life, which means that more goals will be reached. The days of coasting and gliding will be over, and the days of forward progress and action will begin.
106. This period of renewal is the beginning of a new life. You must step out of the old way of doing things and walk into the new‚ and as you do, the benefits will follow. The blessings will start out small and barely noticeable, but with time they will snowball and grow. At the end of this period of renewal, you won't want to go back to your old life. Things will change so much for the better that you will never want to lose what you have gained.

107. (Mama:) Wow! Talk about some hefty promises! Peter and I sure want to be a part of this exciting future, this "new life," and the "days of forward progress and action." Don't you?
108. These promises aren't just for the FD Family, either. The Lord is going to bless each of you in proportion to your obedience, no matter what your status. If you're obeying Him, if you're in His highest will, if you're doing your best for Him according to your level of membership, if you're living the Word to the best of your ability, then you will feel His personalized benefits in your life too. Give Jesus as much of your life, heart, and spirit as you can--in whatever membership category is His will for you--and He will pour out His blessings upon you in equal measure.

The Gift of Greater Unity
109. In the preceding message, one of the renewal benefits the Lord mentioned was increased unity. This is a very important part of the strengthening of the Family, because we can't build successful winning team Homes without strong camaraderie and bonds of love and unity.
110. I know you're all busy people, and as much as you want to be in unity with others, most of you don't dedicate the time and attention you need to in order for it to truly flourish. But during the renewal the Lord is giving you this gift of time. Some of you have the idea that having unity is just not being in disunity. That's good, and that's a start. If at least you're not fighting, arguing, and being divisive within your Home or area, you'll have a lot more blessings than if you were, that's for sure. But that's by no means "reaching for the stars" when it comes to unity and discipleship! The Lord doesn't want us to settle for just not being in disunity; He wants us to actively build unity and fight for it.
111. For our Homes to become the winning teams we need to become, we have to work together. And in order to work together, we need love and unity in much greater proportions than at present. Unity is not just a nice thing to have when possible; it's part of the power of God that we desperately need, and we need it now.

112. (Jesus:) Unity is so key, so crucial, so vital to your success as the Family of the future! The Family of the future will not be possible without great, tight, all-encompassing unity between Family members. Unity is the key to so many of the major needs‚ plans, and blessings for the Family of the future.
113. In giving you this time free from the things of the world and other distractions, I am giving you the key of time to work on your unity and strengthen your brotherhood. It is very important to Me that each Family member makes an effort during this time to get closer to others, to pour into the children, JETTs and teens in your Home and area, and to spend more time with others in prayer, fellowship, and togetherness. This includes togetherness that is focused on meaningful things, including the Word and prayer, and also enjoyable personal fellowship and simply getting to know one another, relaxing together and enjoying each other.
114. So often in your daily lives‚ your "default" forms of entertainment are those that are relaxing but not unifying. You watch a movie‚ you play a computer game, or you bury your nose in reading something interesting--and these things, in the everyday realm of normal life, have their time and place--but they have closed many of you off to the fellowship and unity that I want you to have. To some degree you might feel a little "lost" at first and not able to even relate to filling your nonwork times with activities centered around the children, around fellowship, and not around worldly entertainment. But you will learn, you will adjust, and you will derive many wonderful blessings from it if you will follow what I ask.
115. I ask that you focus on unity during this time. Spending quality time interacting with your brothers and sisters, with the children and JETTs and teens in your Home, and getting to know and love one another more, is just as much of a goal during this time of renewal as is your spending quality time with Me--which goes without saying is one of the purposes of this time. The simple act of taking a little more time with Me, above the minimum, will in itself cause great spiritual strides of progress, and will shine the light of My Word into your heart and soul and help you to see‚ evaluate, and grow in those areas of your faith and discipleship that are weak and need strengthening.
116. In most cases, if you will use the time that you would normally spend in taking in entertainment or input from the world, and devote part of that to taking extra time with Me, and an equal part to spending time with others, including the children and JETTs and teens, you'll hit the mark and accomplish that which I desire during this time.

How to Divide the Extra Time
117. (Mama:) Spending time with the Lord should of course always come first. As He says in the preceding message, it should go without saying that one of the purposes of the renewal is to spend extra, quality time with our Husband--in intercessory prayer, time loving Him intimately, hearing from Him in prophecy, praising Him, further solidifying our Word revolution habits, etc. Because of the things we're going to be forsaking, we're going to have a whole new reservoir of time, and the Lord has given us instructions regarding how He wants us to use that time. A very important emphasis during the renewal period is going to be on our children and JETTs and teens--helping them to feel the Lord's love through our time and attention and care. Besides giving more time to the Lord, and focusing on the children and JETTs and teens, He also wants us to spend more time with our co-workers and loved ones and build bonds of love a nd trust and unity.
118. I thought it was interesting and helpful that the Lord gave these guidelines of using part of our extra newfound time to devote to Him and part to devote to the children‚ and part to others. When I asked Him for more information about why this was so important, He said:

119. (Jesus:) There needs to be a just balance, and that is why I have given this counsel. The time you spend with others plays a very important role. Aside from building unity, another benefit is that it's going to safeguard you from getting self-righteous and holier-than-thou. If I asked you to spend all of your extra newfound time in prayer, reading My Word, and prophecy, then you would become self-righteous and proud and too high and mighty. So I want you to have a good balance–-not neglecting to spend more time with Me, but also focusing your time and attention on the children and JETTs and teens, as well as being humble and loving enough to spend time with others.
120. There are those of you who are independent and who have tendencies toward self-righteousness, who would prefer to spend all of your free time by yourself and with Me. So that's why I'm stressing that it should be just as much of a goal for you to spend time pouring into the children and relaxing with others as it is to spend time with Me. Time with the children and others is how you learn to implement the Word and be a doer of the Word--and that's an extremely important aspect of your discipleship training.

Another Worthwhile Investment of Time
121. (Mama:) As you'll read in GN 1077, the Lord wants all our JETTs and teens to have a goal for the renewal period, something that they can work on learning during their free time. Many of you have skills that you could help to teach them, and passing on those skills would be a very worthwhile investment of your time as well.
122. If you have extra time yourself--maybe you don't have many children in your Home, or the way things work out, you have some extra free time--you could also work on learning a new skill that would help you in your service for the Lord or your relationship with Him. Maybe you want to learn to play guitar better, or learn a musical instrument, or hone your art skills. Of course, you'd first want to look around and see if any of the children or JETTs or teens would want to join you in your learning, so that you could learn it together and encourage each other. But if that's not possible, and you have extra time, please pray about investing some of it in learning something that will make you a better witness or disciple.
123. The point is that during this time of renewal, we will be giving this time to the Lord in one way or the other. In order to fill the time that you would usually spend relaxing with System entertainment, you will instead be giving part of the time to fuller study of His Word and your intimate love relationship with Him, a good part of the time to pouring into the children and JETTs and teens, and also time to more fellowship and bonding with your teammates, which will give a foundation of unity to your lives as disciples. All of these are needed, and are important parts of the renewal period.
124. (Note: We understand that some of you very busy parents probably haven't been so involved in various forms of worldly entertainment that we are forgoing during the renewal period, so you probably won't have tons of extra time all of a sudden. But some people will, and the Lord has given this counsel for them.)

Praise Offensives
125. Since we've been learning more about the weapon of praise this year, I didn't think this GN would be complete without employing some praise power. Since it's a weapon that defeats the Enemy in every battle--and certainly the Enemy is going to fight us during our period of renewal and cleansing, and perhaps even before we get started--the Lord inspired me with the idea that we'd better set him back with some praise offensives. No matter what the Enemy may attack with, we can defeat him with the weapon of praise!
126. We all need a positive attitude and a praiseful spirit as we embark on these next six months; it's so vital. And since we all want to praise, but sometimes need ideas to know how to praise‚ our Idea Man gave us a few suggestions to get started, which specifically relate to looking positively on the renewal period. You can try these after you've read this GN, or at the next available opportunity. They could spice up your united devotions, be the basis for a united Home praise meeting with songs and more, or be used on June 15 when your Home kicks off the renewal period (a GN with more ideas and activities for the first day of the renewal will be reaching you soon, Lord willing). The sky's the limit!

127. Praise idea #1: Praise the Lord for a specific benefit of the renewal period mentioned in paragraphs 94-106 of this GN.

128. Praise idea #2: Focus on the positive by thanking the Lord for something that will be a forsake-all during the renewal period, and thanking Him for not asking you to forsake something bigger. For example, "I thank You, dearest Love, that You're only asking me to forsake System music and not forsake music completely," or, "Thank You, sweet Husband, that You're only asking me to forgo movies, and I don't have to abstain from sex."

129. Praise idea #3: Praise the Lord for something specific that you know is going to help you make it through the renewal, such as the Word‚ loving Jesus intimately, being positive and using the weapon of praise, etc.

130. Praise idea #4: Take the letters from the word RENEWAL and praise the Lord for something regarding these six months that starts with each letter. For example: R--Revolution; E–-Extra time to pour into the children; N--New goals and visions; E–-Earthly things falling into perspective; W--Witnessing explosions; A--All things new; L-–Love and unity.

131. Praise idea #5: Praise our wonderful Husband for the innumerable blessings He has given you‚ and then tell Him how it makes every sacrifice or forsake-all He's asking of you seem so small and insignificant by comparison.

132. Praise idea #6: Thank the Lord, by faith, for a specific way in which you personally want to grow and change during the renewal period.

133. Praise idea #7: Think about the advantages of being a Christian, of knowing Jesus and accepting Him into your life. Focus on the blessings you have in your life that everyday Systemites don't, and then praise the Lord for the benefits.

134. Praise idea #8: Praise the Lord for the benefits of being in the Family, things that even Christians in the world aren't blessed with. You can either do this from memory, or you can refer to "The Benefits of the Family" (ML #3172, GN 777), and use that as a springboard.

135. Praise idea #9: Use the praises Natalia has given us over the years, many of which expound on the benefits of being revolutionary children of David, the wealth of truth we are privileged to receive, etc. (Note: A compiled file of all of the Natalia praises will be posted on the MO site soon, for your benefit.)

136. Praise idea #10: Go around the room and praise the Lord for each other. Thank the Lord specifically for the good choices each person has made to yield to Him‚ to make it through past revolutions and changes and come out the better for it.

Basic Plan for the Renewal
137. We don't want to bog you down with to–dos during the renewal period, as we know you're all going to be very busy‚ but the Lord said it was a good idea to have some structure to the next six months. He said that it wouldn't work so effectively to require that everyone focus on strengthening the same areas of their lives, or read about the same things in the Word, or do exactly the same things, because every individual, Home‚ and field is different. However, He gave a simple plan that I think you'll agree is doable.