On September 8, 2023, a message was continuously coming to me. It started out as a reminder that when we have children, we want them to take the path of doing good things in good ways. It’s for their protection. We don’t want them to take the wrong path in life. What kind of life is that?

Our Father is the same. People say to me sometimes that we are saved by grace and we don’t have to do anything for it. Of course we don’t work for it or earn it. We do need to compare ourselves to how the Father expects and hopes for His children as opposed to how we expect and hope for our children.

Later in the day it came to me as – when we continuously ignore our Father’s expectations or instructions, what happens? How do we react when our children do that? Think about how we’ve reacted in those times for their good. Our choices can cause us a lot of problems, heartache, and loss.

No, we don’t work for our salvation, but being set apart is an expectation of a different stance in and about life, our Father, and our walk with Him on this earth. If we give our child a car and hand over the keys, but that child throws those keys to the ground and walks away, how can he drive it? The car is for the child’s protection while traveling in this life. The keys are what gets that started and keeps it going.

Then one day when the child is walking and things are so bad it is difficult to keep going, and yells from a distance, ‘why have you left me like this’? In actuality, you haven’t gone anywhere. The keys are still on the ground and the car is still in the same place. Our Father didn’t take the keys away. He didn’t go anywhere. Yet we’re so far away going it alone that we can’t see or hear.

Most of what the Lord tells us is how to get through this life. I’ve told people before, sometimes we need to see His instructions as how to get through life. Not everything is telling us how to get to heaven. Sometimes we keep the two so intertwined that when we open our mouth about a revelation, they automatically think we’re putting stipulations on the gate to heaven opening. We have to get through this life before we can get to the gate. We can walk it out in our own way in the storms of life or we can pick up the keys.

I’ve posted a dream a few times on here that is so helpful to me to remember. As I slipped and slid and sometimes sunk down in the mud and the muck, animals were coming at me and snarling. The way was so hard and the fear was so great. I looked on a rock in the distance and saw a huge Lion resting and watching. As I kept my eyes on Him, the way began to be a little easier. He slowly, in His amazing strength and power, stood from the rock and stepped down. He began to walk toward me, then He turned to walk beside me on the path that was now smooth and straight. I knew if I kept my hand on Him, I was okay.

My prayer is that no one goes it alone or confuses our Father’s instructions for our life on earth as working for a place in heaven. There is so much scripture about His instructions. In God’s word are the keys and the truth.

Psalm 23 was written by David, a shepherd. He also knew our Father to be the Shepherd. He understood the dependency for the protection and provision of the sheep.

In John 10, Jesus says that He is the good Shepherd. He tells us that a hireling, who is not a shepherd, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees. There are so many verses that tell us our Shepherd will never leave us nor forsake us. He goes ahead of us, and we follow Him because we know His voice.