The best spiritual seeds are sown when we respond positively and affirmatively to the Gospel invitation. Those who are forced to accept the truth in the days of their spiritual poverty because they see no alternative are never as productive or happy as those who have a genuine choice in the days of their prosperity [Cranleigh, Surrey, England].

1. Beloved ones, ye that are seeking a life of repentance in order to do My will, hearken unto My precepts and commandments and learn of Me.

2. I have told you many times that if ye would follow Me, ye must deny yourselves and take up your cross (Lk.14:27).

3. Blessed are ye when ye seek to do this even though ye have not fully understood, for in truth ye yet strive after your own wills.

4. Beloved, do not wait until the day of spiritual poverty in order to seek out and do My will, but seek and do it in the days of your spiritual prosperity, that your hearts may always be clean and your motives pure.

5. Blessed are those who are humble and contrite in the day of victory and prosperity, for in the day of their defeat and poverty they will not be compelled to be humble and contrite.

6. Give thanks in victory as well as in defeat (Col.1:3), for this is ever the will of the Father toward you. 7. He who praiseth Me not in victory will never be able to praise Me in defeat;

8. And he who cannot praise Me in defeat can never win the victory.

9. And if ye win not the victory, then ye have not overcome, and it shall be as though no redemption were made for you.

10. Therefore be wise, sowing the strong and vital seeds while ye are yet young in spirit, that ye become not hard- ened and impotent in adversity, having neither the power nor the desire to call upon Me for salvation.

11. Choose ye the way of living, which abideth the good and the bad and is renewed and strengthened by both.

12. For the dead all things are in the future or in the past, but for the living all things are in the present.

13. I am the ever-present One, the reality of Heaven in the world if ye would but receive Me.

14. Obey Me now, and weep not over that which is done.

15. Repent ye every one by changing the direction of your lives, and ye will find Me ready to refresh and renew you.

16. This is the will of the Lord toward you continually, and blessed are ye if ye understand and do it. Amen.