"My Grace—Your First Love"

"My beloved! My beloved!
My heart aches for you, My beloved!
Let Me remove you from your prostitution!
Let Me bring you rest in My favor—
for the favors you are striving to earn
are destroying your soul, My beloved!

"I have not called you to surpass the world
in its prosperity, its independence or its achievements.
I have not given you My word and My Spirit
to empower you to pursue the lusts of the flesh!
I did not give you My love so that you would seek
to set up a kingdom on earth in My name!

"My beloved, you cannot have Me and have your own domain;
you cannot have 'the best of both worlds'—
you cannot have both My kingdom and the kingdoms of the earth.
My kingdom does not have room for the world's graceless ways,
and the grace of My kingdom cannot be made into an earthly kingdom,
for My ways are not the ways of the kingdoms of the earth.

"Come, let Me bring you back to who you really are—
who you knew you were when you first heard of My love.
Let Me restore to you the peace you once had
before you were led into confusion by pursuing both worlds.
Let Me teach you again the difference between
the world's conditional love and My unconditional love.

"Let Me bring you out of Babylon—out of confusion—
and back into the joy of your first love."

*****

Art: "Dying to Be With"