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as a guide and protection. Trust your divinity, trust your brain,
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Timothy Leary (The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (1964))
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I believed he had no human weaknesses or faults, and that, therefore, he could make no mistakes and that he could do no wrong. There on a Holy World hilltop, I realized how very dangerous it is for people to hold any human being in such esteem, especially to consider anyone some sort of "divinely guided" and "protected" person.
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Alex Haley (The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley (MAXNotes Literature Guides))
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They torture us but could not kill our spirit. We have greater divine power, guiding and protecting us.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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The divine self guides you always, and the luminous light of the soul protects you. Have no fear.
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Anthon St. Maarten
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Our Constitution is not good. It is a document designed to create a society of enduring white male dominance, hastily edited in the margins to allow for what basic political rights white men could be convinced to share. The Constitution is an imperfect work that urgently and consistently needs to be modified and reimagined to make good on its unrealized promises of justice and equality for all. And yet you rarely see liberals make the point that the Constitution is actually trash. Conservatives are out here acting like the Constitution was etched by divine flame upon stone tablets, when in reality it was scrawled out over a sweaty summer by people making deals with actual monsters who were trying to protect their rights to rape the humans they held in bondage.
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Elie Mystal (Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution)
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Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark.
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Ralph Waldo Emerson (We Are the Builders of Our Fortunes: Success through Self-Reliance)
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Children are the purest manifestation of love and divinity in the world; they care, they are considerate and they know more about humanity than the smartest adult. We must protect, guide and allow the children of our world to flourish because they are the key to heal this broken planet.
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Sam Fuentes
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Our Constitution is not good. It is a document designed to create a society of enduring white male dominance, hastily edited in the margins to allow for what basic political rights white men could be convinced to share. The Constitution is an imperfect work that urgently and consistently needs to be modified and reimagined to make good on its unrealized promises of justice and equality for all. And yet you rarely see liberals make the point that the Constitution is actually trash. Conservatives are out here acting like the Constitution was etched by divine flame upon stone tablets, when in reality it was scrawled out over a sweaty summer by people making deals with actual monsters who were trying to protect their rights to rape the humans they held in bondage. Why would I give a fuck about the original public meaning of the words written by these men? Conservatives will tell you that the text of laws explicitly passed in response to growing political, social, or economic power of nonwhite minorities should be followed to their highest grammatical accuracy, and I’m supposed to agree the text of this bullshit is the valid starting point of the debate? Nah. As Rory Breaker says in the movie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels: “If the milk turns out to be sour, I ain’t the kind of pussy to drink it.” The Constitution was so flawed upon its release in 1787 that it came with immediate updates. The first ten amendments, the “Bill of Rights,” were demanded by some to ensure ratification of the rest of the document. All of them were written by James Madison, who didn’t think they were actually necessary but did it to placate political interests.
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Elie Mystal (Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution)
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Being a vessel of God Almighty, I am divinely guided and protected wherever I am and whatever I am doing, the glory of the Lord God Almighty is always with me. Everything that I write, all that I say and do, is in the holy directive of God Almighty who writes in me and moves and speaks in me for his people, for his everlasting glory and honour…
Go for all the Stellah Mupanduki healing books breathed by the Holy Spirit for you because there is a hope and a future for your life in today’s era…If you seek to live a blissful, peaceful, long and healthy life, seek these God-given books…they are above mortality…they overcome all dark spirits of the heavenly realm that causes troubles, illnesses and struggles and death in this land of the living. Seek Jesus Christ and live. Thank you Holy Spirit, you are God and you are good all the the time, may your name be blessed and lifted high above all the time...For Sacred Readers...Sacred Writing...Sacred Healing
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Stellah Mupanduki (The Moulding Of The Holy Spirit of God: Leap My Child)
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The rule of law does not guarantee economic security, social status, or even minimal happiness to anyone. Thus it should not be confused either with the utopian scheme of the worldly philosophers or the divine outline of the City of God. Recognizing the human impossibility of the former and the present lack of the latter, the authors of our Constitution wisely selected as their guiding principle the rule of law which guarantees us nothing more than the absence of arbitrary coercion. Of course, the rule of law does not imply any general prohibition against affirmative government action in the protection of individuals or in pursuit of the general welfare. Rather it simply marks out certain limits to the use of any governmental coercion.
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Noel B. Reynolds
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The book of Job, based on an ancient folktale, may have been written during the exile. One day, Yahweh made an interesting wager in the divine assembly with Satan, who was not yet a figure of towering evil but simply one of the “sons of God,” the legal “adversary” of the council.19 Satan pointed out that Job, Yahweh’s favorite human being, had never been truly tested but was good only because Yahweh had protected him and allowed him to prosper. If he lost all his possessions, he would soon curse Yahweh to his face. “Very well,” Yahweh replied, “all that he has is in your power.”20 Satan promptly destroyed Job’s oxen, sheep, camels, servants, and children, and Job was struck down by a series of foul diseases. He did indeed turn against God, and Satan won his bet. At this point, however, in a series of long poems and discourses, the author tried to square the suffering of humanity with the notion of a just, benevolent, and omnipotent god. Four of Job’s friends attempted to console him, using all the traditional arguments: Yahweh only ever punished the wicked; we could not fathom his plans; he was utterly righteous, and Job must therefore be guilty of some misdemeanor. These glib, facile platitudes simply enraged Job, who accused his comforters of behaving like God and persecuting him cruelly. As for Yahweh, it was impossible to have a sensible dialogue with a deity who was invisible, omnipotent, arbitrary, and unjust—at one and the same time prosecutor, judge, and executioner. When Yahweh finally deigned to respond to Job, he showed no compassion for the man he had treated so cruelly, but simply uttered a long speech about his own splendid accomplishments. Where had Job been while he laid the earth’s foundations, and pent up the sea behind closed doors? Could Job catch Leviathan with a fishhook, make a horse leap like a grasshopper, or guide the constellations on their course? The poetry was magnificent, but irrelevant. This long, boastful tirade did not even touch upon the real issue: Why did innocent people suffer at the hands of a supposedly loving God? And unlike Job, the reader knows that Job’s pain had nothing to do with the transcendent wisdom of Yahweh, but was simply the result of a frivolous bet. At the end of the poem, when Job—utterly defeated by Yahweh’s bombastic display of power—retracted all his complaints and repented in dust and ashes, God restored Job’s health and fortune. But he did not bring to life the children and servants who had been killed in the first chapter. There was no justice or recompense for them.
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Karen Armstrong (The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions)
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It is not wisdom that contrives arms, or walls, or instruments useful in war; nay, her voice is for peace, and she summons all mankind to concord. It is not she, I maintain, who is the artisan of our indispensable implements of daily use. Why do you assign to her such petty things? You see in her the skilled artisan of life. The other arts, it is true, wisdom has under her control; for he whom life serves is also served by the things which equip life. But wisdom's course is toward the state of happiness; thither she guides us, thither she opens the way for us. She shows us what things are evil and what things are seemingly evil; she strips our minds of vain illusion. She bestows upon us a greatness which is substantial, but she represses the greatness which is inflated, and showy but filled with emptiness; and she does not permit us to be ignorant of the difference between what is great and what is but swollen; nay, she delivers to us the knowledge of the whole of nature and of her own nature. She discloses to us what the gods are and of what sort they are; what are the nether gods, the household deities, and the protecting spirits; what are the souls which have been endowed with lasting life and have been admitted to the second class of divinities, where is their abode and what their activities, powers, and will.
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Epictetus (Stoic Six Pack (Illustrated): Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Golden Sayings, Fragments and Discourses of Epictetus, Letters from a Stoic and The Enchiridion: ... Letters from a Stoic and The Enchiridion)
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When I get back, I decide to listen to a talk Ram Dass once gave about what happens after death. When you die, where your consciousness is at the moment of death is a reflection of your level of evolution. If you are ready for the transformation that occurs at the moment of death, when there is a dissolving of the control mechanism and an intensification of all the energies, and you are not identified with all that so that you have equanimity through it, you can witness from a place of presence. You can witness the entire process of dying, and your consciousness doesn’t flicker. Most people, however, are attached to some way of looking at the world, and when that starts to dissolve at the moment of death, they go unconscious. They go through the process unconsciously and pick up the thread later on, because it happens too fast and requires letting go too fast. So the art is to let go before you die, so that when you die, there is no letting go required. That’s the most evolved state. They say in the literature that one who sees the way in the morning can gladly die in the evening. Die before you die, so that when you die you need not die. There is a great quote from Kabir: ‘If you don’t break your ropes while you are alive’—that is, if you don’t break the identification with your body and your personality while you’re alive—‘do you think that ghosts will do it after?’ The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic just because the body is rotten, that is all fantasy. What is found now is found then. If you find nothing now, you’ll simply end up with an apartment in the city of death. But if you make love with the Divine now, then in the next life, you will have the face of satisfied desire. So plunge into the truth. Find out who your teacher is. Believe in the great sound. In other words, do your sadhana so that you can break the identification now. Then, at the moment of transformation, you can just go. If you have fear, you will be met and guided and protected. There will be beings that are there, who are on other planes, available to give meaning to this transformation for you. So the least conscious beings go unconscious and get reprogrammed. The next more conscious beings meet other beings who guide them and help them. The most conscious beings just let go completely at the moment of death, and they don’t go through more incarnations. The meaning of the wheel of birth and death is that as you get more and more evolved, there is less likelihood that you will keep taking rebirth. From the soul’s point of view, you take rebirth only to work your way out of the illusion of your own separateness.
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Ram Dass (Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying)
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Now connect your own spirit with that of a spiritual guide. Ask the Divine to help you separate the wheat from the chaff, your own emotions from those of others. Ask it to show you how your emotional field looks right now. Where are the stretch marks, folds, and holes? Where are the areas that are armored, nailed shut, unwieldy? You might see distorted shapes or blotchy areas, or energetic cords that look like garden hoses; the latter connote links between you and others through which energy is bled, dumped, or exchanged. On the opposite end of these cords, you might discover people you know, images of the deceased, or the gray shadows of unfamiliar spirits.
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Cyndi Dale (Energetic Boundaries: How to Stay Protected and Connected in Work, Love, and Life)
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In The Archangel Raphael Leaving Tobias' Family, Rembrandt leaves dirt on the shadowed soles of Raphael's feet as he flies off, illuminated in glory. Passing by the painting, one sees the dramatic action, the melodramatic emotions, and the re-created narrative events of the Bible. Slowed down a bit, the viewer sees light across a large muscular calf, a strong and sharply shaped ankle, and then dirty feet. The angel who tells us he only pretended to eat - this to explain away all traces of his apparent earthliness as a fallen creaturely being - is here on the canvas with dirty feet, carrying soil, the created, to the creator. Van Gogh had rightly said there are mysteries in these paintings. They are mysteries of device and design, not of messianic significance. They require a docent and not a priest, a creative critic to guide the view of specific images, not a guardian of mysteries and master of their enigmatic authority. Dirty feet on the soles of an archangel famous for his annunciations give the viewer a point of view on the inescapably human nature of the narrated God. Raphael may no eat. He may believe he creates an illusion to satisfy the religious desire for mythological consistency, but even archangels deceive themselves as well as others. Humans sometimes do the same in inventing the transcendence they need or think they want - creating a regime from which the priestly classes rule, even theorizing the alienation of the divine. Deceit is an essential device of cultural adaptation. It constructs needed beliefs that at high and low levels of thought or action complement their existence with modes of self-defense, which protect them from not only needed analysis but also the importance of failure.
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Paul A. Bové (Love's Shadow)
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Let them stone you with their words, thoughts and misperceptions that are based on false doctrines. Allow them to continue to believe that they have the answers for you. Gift them your back as they use their tongue as a double-edged sword against you. God consciousness is a shield upon your always, internally and externally, guided path. Trust in God and trust in your very own heart and Soul. For, judgement of another is the trapdoor of the misguided Soul.
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Ulonda Faye
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Isaiah 54:17 – “Any weapon formed to harm me will fail, and any tongue raised against me, in judgment, shall be condemned. This is my heritage in Christ. My vindication comes from the Almighty Himself. By the blood of Jesus, I am walking in divine protection and victory.
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Daniel C. Okpara (Applying the Blood: 100 Powerful Declarations to Activate the Mystery and Miracles of the Blood of Jesus (Prayer and Study Guide Book 4))
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Despite our sins, Allah bestows all we need,
Veiling our flaws with His merciful deed.
Though we provoke Him, He still provides,
His generosity endless, in His grace we abide.
No one in this world but Allah stands by,
Oh Allah, we seek You, to You we cry.
Forgive us, oh Allah, for we are deeply ashamed,
Our hearts are heavy, our souls inflamed.
We beg for Your mercy, on our knees we implore,
Pardon our misdeeds, as we open each door.
Oh Lord, we falter, we stumble, we sin,
But Your mercy is boundless, let it begin.
In our darkest hours, You light our way,
Despite our transgressions, You never sway.
Oh Allah, we ask for Your forgiveness divine,
Cleanse our hearts, let Your mercy shine.
For in this vast world, none can we claim,
But You, oh Allah,we call by name.
Forgive us, for the errors we've made,
Guide us, protect us, let Your love cascade.
Despite our sins, Your blessings abound,
In Your compassion, our solace is found.
Oh Lord, we seek You, with hearts contrite,
Forgive us, in Your infinite light.
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Bilkis Noorani
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Ego is the aspect of your human self that supports the story. If you had no story [of who you are], you would have no ego.
You need ego to operate in your role as an individual. Its task is to differentiate your story from other people's stories. [...]
If you sense defensiveness or fear [in response to certain ideas about yourself or "how life works"]... that's [often] ego protecting itself.
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Suzanne Giesemann (The Awakened Way: Making the Shift to a Divinely Guided Life)
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It is a curious mystery [...] that the exact same notions of the Seven Sages as the bringers of civilization in the remotest antiquity, and of the preservation and repromulgation of “writings on stones from before the flood,” turn up in the supposedly completely distinct and unrelated culture of Ancient Egypt.
Of the greatest interest, at any rate, is the [Temple of Horus]’s idea of itself expressed in the acres of enigmatic inscriptions that cover its walls. These inscriptions, the so-called Edfu Building Texts, take us back to a very remote period called the “Early Primeval Age of the Gods”--and these gods, it transpired, were not originally Egyptian, but lived on a sacred island, the “Homeland of the Primeval Ones,” in the midst of a great ocean. Then, at some unspecified time in the past, a terrible disaster--a true cataclysm of flood and fire [...]-- overtook this island, where “the earliest mansions of the gods” had been founded, destroying it utterly, inundating all its holy places and killing most of its divine inhabitants. Some survived, however, and we are told that this remnant set sail in their ships (for the texts leave us in no doubt that these gods of the early primeval age were navigators) to “wander” the world.
[...] Of particular interest is a passage at Edfu in which we read of a circular, water-filled “channel” surrounding the original sacred domain that lay at the heart of the island of the Primeval Ones--a ring of water that was intended to fortify and protect that domain. In this there is, of course, a direct parallel to Atlantis, where the sacred domain on which stood the temple and palace of the god, whom Plato names as “Poseidon,” was likewise surrounded by a ring of water, itself placed in the midst of further such concentric rings separated by rings of land, again with the purpose of fortification and protection.
Intriguingly, Plato also hints at the immediate cause of the earthquakes and floods that destroyed Atlantis. In the Timaeus, as a prelude to his account of the lost civilization and its demise, he reports that the Egyptian priests from whom Solon received the story began by speaking of a celestial cataclysm: “There have been and will be many different calamities to destroy mankind, the greatest of them being by fire and water, lesser ones by countless other means. Your own [i.e. the Greeks’] story of how Phaeton, child of the sun, harnessed his father’s chariot, but was unable to guide it along his father’s course and so burned up things on earth and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt, is a mythical version of the truth that there is at long intervals a variation in the course of the heavenly bodies and a consequent widespread destruction by fire of things on earth.
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Graham Hancock (Magicians of the Gods: The Forgotten Wisdom of Earth's Lost Civilization)
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Brief experiences of sublime absorption, as ordinary as being struck by the brilliant blue of a cloudless sky, may contribute to your sense of being religious. The mystical moments multiply and over time you extend the borders of yourself, you are less prone to protecting yourself, and you have more empathy with the people and the world around you. If you define religion as a strong sense of the divine, your daily mysticism contributes to that sense by drawing you out of yourself into nature and then beyond.
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Thomas Moore (A Religion of One's Own: A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World)
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My Daily Mirror Confession
1. I am fearfully and wonderfully made
2. I am unique
3. I am on this planet for a purpose
4. My mind is renewed
5. Positivity is the source of my strength
6. I am walking in the blessings of God
7. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me
8. I am loved by God, I am the apple of His eye
9. The favour of God is upon me
10. I am divinely guided and protected 24/7
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Euginia Herlihy
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To automatic write, you start by sitting quietly, relaxing with a few deep breaths, and lighting a candle if it helps you to focus. State aloud or in your head that you only intend to work with your highest angels and guides to call in the most positive energy, and then say a short prayer asking them to protect you and allow only high-level energy to assist and guide your writing. If your writings sound negative or pushy, stop immediately and picture yourself in a bubble of God’s white light. Ask your angels and guides to clear the room and start again.
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MaryAnn DiMarco (Believe, Ask, Act: Divine Steps to Raise Your Intuition, Create Change, and Discover Happiness)
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Every man has his own way of life (mos) and his own religious practices (ritus). Similarly, the divine mind has given to different cities different religious rites (cultus) that protect them. As souls are apportioned to men at birth, so, too, does each nation receive a Genius, which guides its destiny. In addition there is also the bestowal of favors (utilitas) which, more than anything else, proves to man the existence of the gods. Since all human reasoning is obscure on this matter, from where else does knowledge of the gods more correctly come than from the recollection and evidence of success? If the long passage of time gives authority to religious rites, we must keep faith with so many centuries and follow our fathers, who followed their fathers and consequently prospered. Let us imagine that Rome herself is standing here now and addressing these words to you: “Best of emperors, fathers of the fatherland, respect the number of years that the dutiful (pius) performance of religious rites has brought to me. Let me enjoy the ancient ceremonies, for I do not regret them. Let me live according to my own custom (mos), for I am free. This is the worship (cultus) which made the whole world obedient to my laws. These are the rituals (sacra) which drove back Hannibal from my walls and the Senones [a Gallic tribe] from my Capitol. Have I been preserved only to be criticized in my old age? I will consider the changes that people think must be instituted, but correction in old age is insulting and too late.” And so we are asking for amnesty (pax) for the gods of our fathers, our native gods. It is reasonable to assume that whatever each of us worships is one and the same. We look up at the same stars, the same sky is common to us all, the same universe encompasses us. What difference does it make which system each of us uses to seek the truth? It is not by just one route that man can arrive at so great a mystery. (Symmachus, Dispatches to the Emperor 3.8
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Valerie M. Warrior (Roman Religion (Cambridge Introduction to Roman Civilization))
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The divine meaning of the Scriptures has to be gleaned from the letter of it and beyond the letter, through contemplation guided by the Spirit. In the Fathers we do not find any fundamentalism, but Scripture opened by the Spirit to its very heart, namely the mystery of the Trinity, the source of love, and Christ's victory over death and hell, the triumph of love.
If you try to reduce the divine meaning to the purely external signification of the words, the Word will have no reason to come down to you. It will return to its secret dwelling, which is contemplation that is worthy of it. For it has wings, this divine meaning, given to it by the Holy Spirit who is its guide ... But to be unwilling ever to rise above the letter, never to give up feeding on the literal sense, is the mark of a life of falsehood.
Origen Commentary on Proverbs, 2.3 (PG 17, 2.2.1-4)
Origen, whose Brilliant thought fertilized all Christian spirituality, especially, but not only, in the East, compares Scripture to an almond. He himself is an inspired interpreter of Scripture, and if his thought has had to be corrected on other points, it remains fully and directly nourishing in this field.
The bitter rind is the letter that kills and that has to be rejected.
The protecting shell is the ethical teaching, that, as a necessary part of the process of going into greater depth, requires a course of careful purification.
Then the spiritual kernel is reached, which is all that matters, which feeds the soul on the mysteries of divine wisdom.
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Olivier Clément (Roots of Christian Mysticism: Texts from Patristic Era with Commentary)
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If the gospel lacks correspondence to reality, why is it that the majority of believers never comes to terms with this? As I expressed in my opening chapter, I am convinced it is not due to a lack of intelligence. Nor is it due to a lack of goodness or noble intentions on the part of most believers. Rather, from the perspective of one who has escaped the finely tuned clutches of the Christian machinery designed to keep me in the fold, I see it primarily as a lack of courage, at least for those who have encountered good reasons for doubting. I, like most believers, experienced serious doubts as a young Christian, but I lacked the courage to pit my reservations against the authority of the church and against its fallible, humanly authored scriptures, finding it safer to submit to the supremely well-crafted, guilt-inducing tactics of apologists who assured me that all the fault lay with me and not with the divinely inspired Bible. I capitulated and managed to hold my doubts at bay for over a decade longer while serving God on the mission field. Many if not most of you have faced similar questions and misgivings about the Bible and the Christian faith, even if not to the same extent. You might be like me during my initial short-lived crises of faith: I could not bring myself to face with courage the possibility that life might not have any cosmic Meaning; that there might be no higher power to guide, protect, and provide for me; that justice might not prevail in the long run; that I might no longer be able to hold sinners accountable with the words, "Thus says the Lord"; that life ends at the grave; or that I might have followed and lead others to follow a grand mistake. I lacked the courage to face my church, family, and friends whom I feared would look upon me as a reprobate. I lacked the courage to think for myself—to accept that the virtues of humility and meekness must not be used as an excuse for failing to challenge entrenched ideas that lack sufficient evidence. In short, I preferred to squelch the seed of doubt and label it as sin rather than as healthy, critical thinking, lest it flower and make life unbearable. That I viewed my incipient doubt and disbelief as sin was no accident: the church has a powerful vested interest in keeping believers in the fold, and it will not let them go without a fight. My courage-squelching guilt or angst was the result of a concerted effort developed over the centuries to make me feel like a depraved worm, a proud and willful rebel, a traitor, a God-hater, and an enemy of all that is good. I was programmed to consider that I would be better off if I were to commit adultery or murder than if I were to abandon the one who created me and redeemed me. Without Christ I would be worse than a good-for-nothing, and, like the traitor Judas, it would have been better for me had I never been born. No wonder most believers never muster the courage to break free from this cage!
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Kenneth W. Daniels (Why I Believed: Reflections of a Former Missionary)
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In the infinity of life where I am, all is perfect, whole, and complete. I am always Divinely protected and guided. It is safe for me to look within myself. It is safe for me to look into the past. It is safe for me to enlarge my viewpoint of life. I am far more than my personalitypast, present, or future. I now choose to rise above my personality problems to recognize the magnificence of my being. I am totally willing to learn to love myself. All is well in my world.
”
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Louise L. Hay (You Can Heal Your Life)
“
In the infinity of life where I am,
all is perfect, whole, and complete. I recognize my body as a good friend. Each cell in my body has Divine Intelligence. I listen to what it tells me, and know that its advice is valid. I am always safe, and Divinely protected and guided. I choose to be healthy and free. All is well in my world. ABOUT THE LIST The last major revision of this list was in 1988.
”
”
Louise L. Hay (You Can Heal Your Life)
“
Traditionally, the best protection is considered to be a rowan tree planted at the front door and an elder tree at the back door.
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Mari Silva (Druidry: The Ultimate Guide to the Way of the Druids and What You Should Know About Herbs, Ogham, Rituals, Divination, Druid Tarot Reading, and Runes (Learning Tarot))
“
Shiva raised both his arms in an elegant circular movement to the sides to bring them in line with his shoulder. His right hand was holding an imaginary dumru, a small, handheld percussion instrument. His left hand was open with its palm facing upward, almost like it was receiving some divine energy. He held this pose for some time; his glowing face indicated that Shiva was withdrawing into his inner world. His right hand then moved effortlessly forward, almost as if it had a mind of its own. Its palm was now open and facing the audience. Somehow, the posture seemed to convey a feeling of protectiveness to a very surprised Sati. Almost languidly, his left arm glided at shoulder height and came to rest with the palm facing downwards and pointing at the left foot. Shiva held this pose for some time. And then began the dance. Sati stared in wonder at Shiva. He was performing the same steps as her. Yet it looked like a completely different dance. His lyrical hand movements graced the mystical motion of his body. How could a body this muscular also be so flexible? The Guruji tried helplessly to get his dhol to give Shiva the beats. But clearly that wasn’t necessary. As it was Shiva’s feet which were leading the beat for the dhol! The dance conveyed the various emotions of a woman. In the beginning it conveyed her feelings of joy and lust as she cavorted with her husband. The next emotion was anger and pain at the treacherous killing of her mate. Despite his rough masculine body, Shiva managed to convey the tender yet strong emotions of a grieving woman. Shiva’s eyes were open. But the audience realised that he was oblivious to them. Shiva was in his own world. He did not dance for the audience. He did not dance for appreciation. He did not dance for the music. He danced only for himself. In fact, it almost seemed like his dance was guided by a celestial force. Sati realised that Shiva was right. He had opened himself and the dance had come to him. After what seemed like an eternity the dance came to an end, with Shiva’s eyes firmly shut. He held the final pose for a long time as the glow slowly left him. It was almost as if he was returning to this world. Shiva gradually opened his eyes to find Sati, Krittika and the Guruji gaping at him wonder-struck.
”
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Amish Tripathi (The Immortals of Meluha (Shiva Trilogy, #1))
“
Once you get a sense that you are indeed holding onto your fear or worry, and you feel the emotional and energetic weight of it, you let it go. But you don’t just drop it anywhere. You hand it over to a divine helper or group of helpers whom you trust, knowing that they will know just where to take it and how to deal with it in order to support you in the best and most auspicious possible way.
”
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Tess Whitehurst (Little Guide to Protection Magic: Everything You Need to Know, Including Protection Spells (Tess Whitehurst's Practical Magic Book 2))
“
My cards are not protected, wrapped in black silk or kept in a fancy box. They are exposed to the world. In other words, my cards are seasoned.
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Vincent Pitisci (Genius of the Tarot: A Guide to Divination with the Tarot)
“
All of these strategies support the real purpose of emotions and beliefs: to guide us into joy. Once you hit upon a strong feeling, isolate it. Ask the Divine to help you figure out the message behind the feeling. Ask also what you should do, think, or believe to transform it into joy. Do the same for your thoughts. Especially when you’re stuck, ask the Divine to pinpoint the belief that is undoing your happiness. Now transform it into a more sustaining belief, a real truth. A thought like “I don’t deserve to be well” could become “I open to the healing that the Divine holds for me.
”
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Cyndi Dale (Energetic Boundaries: How to Stay Protected and Connected in Work, Love, and Life)
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Christianity promised that it had some special divine guidance and protection that would lift it above these human problems to some degree at least, but it’s becoming apparent that this promise was on par with those made by Christian leaders claiming to “pray away the gay” or pray in the fast cash.
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Brian D. McLaren (Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned)
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Hera, our mighty queen. You rule on high over us all. May our unions always reflect your undying loyalty and may you bless us to be with who is meant for us. May you guide and protect the women that recognize you and keep them safe under your divine hands.
”
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Timothy Theyson (Amongst the Gods: A Polytheist Prayer Book)
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Many philosophers came up with various reasons why it would not fall down on us all, coming up with creative cosmologies that explained its distance from Earth. Explanations ranged from a circular, flat terra firma surrounded by a river, like a moat keeping the Moon from getting too close, to a flat Earth protected by a heavenly top layer, like a cake with frosting. Some believed that the celestial bodies were harmonic perfect spheres that could never come into contact, lest they pollute one another. From the holy patron of Mesopotamia to Aristotle, scholars had also imagined the Moon as a haven for the divine and a harbor for souls. Plato’s dialogues suggested that the Moon and Sun were places we might visit once departed, if we had lived a good life.
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Rebecca Boyle (Our Moon: How Earth's Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are)
“
the institution of the church exists to protect and guard the divine, to be the
custodian of what is most valuable. The lines of church dogma and practice are
thus not important in themselves. Their ultimate purpose is not to provide a struc-
ture for the institution. On the contrary, their ultimate purpose is to protect and
guard and serve the divine. To see the relation between the lines of the church
steeple and the moon is to understand metaphorically the proper relation between
institutional structure and religious value.
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George Lakoff (More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor)
“
Thus, an instruction to see the moon as irregular, as asymmetrical, is an instruc-
tion to see, metaphorically, that the essence of the divine, which the church is to
serve and protect, is not the abstract, perfect, lifeless doctrine of the institution,
but rather real, imperfect, vital beings.
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George Lakoff (More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor)
“
What the disciple is to notice principally are relationships between the church
and the divine: he is to notice that the moon is above the steeple, and tilted; he is to
notice that the lines of the steeple rise up and embrace the moon, that they flank it,
contain it, and guard it; he is to notice that the moon lies in the protecting lines.
He is to notice that while the weight of the edifice presses downward, the jasmine
lightness of the moon remains above. All of this concerns relationships. He is to
notice only to a lesser degree the colors of the scene: the shell-pink of the moon,
the turquoise color of the sky, the way the brown-stone and slate become orange
and dark blue. But the poet points out that, though less important, the colors are
still there to be noticed: “It is true: / in the light colors / of morning / brownstone
and slate / shine orange and dark blue.” What sort of colors is the disciple to no-
tice, if he is to notice them at all? He is to notice the pink of a shell, the blue of a
turquoise, the orange of the sun, and the dark blue of the sky, that is, colors of
things naturally occuring in the real, imperfect world. He is to notice that the colors
of manufactured things—the cut brown-stone and slate building materials—are
transformed in the scene into natural colors.
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George Lakoff (More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor)
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In the infinity of life where I am,
all is perfect, whole, and complete. I am always Divinely protected and guided. It is safe for me to look within myself. It is safe for me to look into the past. It is safe for me to enlarge my viewpoint of life. I am far more than my personality — past, present, or future. I now choose to rise above my personality problems
to recognize the magnificence of my being. I am totally willing to learn to love myself. All is well in my world.
”
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Louise L. Hay (You Can Heal Your Life)
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When an angel comes to an individual to make an announcement, there’s both the assurance of divine protection and, usually, a catch.
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Amy-Jill Levine (Light of the World: A Beginner's Guide to Advent)
“
Being a vessel of God Almighty, I am divinely guided and protected wherever I am and whatever I am doing, the glory of the Lord God Almighty is always with me.
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Stellah Mupanduki (The Moulding Of The Holy Spirit Of God)
“
Get divine protection for you and your family…Buy the Stellah Mupanduki books breathed by the Holy Spirit of a Sovereign God for your healing, cleansing and protection. When you have these anointed books written by the finger of God using a mortal vessel, no disaster will come into your life for God Almighty will be with you all the time, guiding you and protecting you and your whole family….Sent the spirit of death, curses and all evil away from you and your home and family…When you see multiple family members being wiped out at the same time in road accidents, water accidents, mass shootings, fire disasters, generational diseases, bloodline diseases and all unforeseeable disasters, you have to think Jesus Christ, you have to seek his face, you have to be at the throne of God Almighty to be covered by the blood of Christ that brought redemption for all people in this world….The Stellah Mupanduki books have everything you need for your protection and healing because these books were given by God himself to you…Fear no evil.
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Stellah Mupanduki (For The Sound Mind: Heal Me Lord For I Am Weak)
“
Religions formulated laws and were formed for some reasons. In Islam the "Sharia" is law to maintain or reach the "Maqasid" or the "Purpose". Same goes for Christian canon law, Jewish halakha, Hindu law and others.
These laws were to establish ethics and moral code of conducts among humans. The reason for LAW was not to be followed as a ritual but make a safe environment for the people governed by it. Learning without a goal can only enable the pursuit of pleasure. Having a goal can conform economic behaviour to the economic natural law and hence the decree of economics. Ethics should also have a goal. For example, the power of knowledge can have a positive or negative effect; its use must be guided by general ethics to pursue virtuousness. Moreover, a totally free market cannot be effectively managed by individual morality. This is because one person rarely has the ability and motivation to know whether he or she has over-consumed resources and reduced environmental sustainability
Unfortunately now the people governed believe that they have to protect the law instead of law protecting them. No one is being educated about why the by laws but the emphasis is only on must follow. The religious guides, preachers or leaders don't have logical or social answers and the means of getting the laws enforced are EMOTIONAL or threatening by Wrath of GOD. They seIl the religions as hot cakes and there is a price tag for their figs of imaginations. They create the stories according to audience likes and dislikes.
Once I asked one of these preachers about bribes given out to get some tender is justified. He responded if one is equally competitive it’s OK to take favors. So these are the leaders and in this run we have lost the "LAKSHYA" or "MAQASID" of formulation of the laws. Religious leaders have stopped talking about PURPOSE but have converted it to mare rituals.
During these rituals people get carried away by mass hysteria of large gatherings. They don't understand anything about why they are doing these things but have certain trigger points or words by orator where they raise in praises similar to a people shouting at points scored in Foot Ball match. But there this Adrenalin blast is connected to divinity. It is definitely not divine if the gathering has a tinge of negative nurturing against any other community or person because God created the nature and Nature's laws don't discriminate while providing for life for every being and that is what DIVINITY is.
The nature doesn't take any benefit from us but yes someone definitely takes mileage out of the emotions of these lesser mortals. It might be political or financial or whatever.
Lets go back to the reason and find out WHY the Law and not the RITUALs. DON't KILL THE LOGIC
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Talees Rizvi (21 Day Target and Achievement Planner [Use Only Printed Work Book: LIFE IS SIMPLE HENCE SIMPLE WORKBOOK (Life Changing Workbooks 1))
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I guess it would be impossible for anyone ever to realize fully how complete was my belief in Elijah Muhammad. I believed in him not only as a leader in the ordinary human sense, but also I believed in him as a divine leader, I believed he had no human weaknesses or faults, and that, therefore, he could make no mistakes and that he could do no wrong. There on a Holy World hilltop, I realized how very dangerous it is for people to hold any human being in such esteem, especially to consider anyone some sort of “divinely guided” and “protected” person.
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Malcolm X (The Autobiography of Malcolm X)
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The Qur’an does not just lead us, it liberates us from the grips of the ego. It does not just guide us; it helps us grow past the shells of our limiting beliefs. It does not just confront us; it consoles us with God’s infinite mercy. It reminds us of our holy purpose, of how incredibly valuable we are in the eyes of God, and inspires us to live a life not simply based on our present limited capacity, but to trust that when we depend on God all things are possible by virtue of His infinite and all-encompassing power. The Qur’an is not meant to only be recited, it is meant to be taken in like the fragrance of a rose, deep within our essence, allowing it to permeate in the deepest recesses of our being. The Qur’an was sent as a pathway of return to God. As the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said, “This Qur’an is the rope of Allah, and it is the clear light and healing. It is a protection for the one who clings to it and a rescue for the one who follows it. It is not crooked and so it puts things straight.
”
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A. Helwa (Secrets of Divine Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of Islam)
“
May God bless you, and your angels protect you. May your runners connect you, your helpers assist you, your healers support you, your teachers enlighten you, your joy guides delight you, the nature spirits balance you, your animals guides recall your soul, and your Higher Self lead you to live a life of peace, grace, creativity, and contribution filled with love and laughter on your personal earthly journey. With all my love and support,
Sonia
”
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Sonia Choquette (Ask Your Guides: Calling in Your Divine Support System for Help with Everything in Life)
“
The main character, a musician named Nicholas Brady, experiences being visited at night by a figure standing next to his bed and gazing down benevolently. “He had the impression that the figure, himself, had come back from the future, perhaps from a point vastly far ahead, to make certain that he, his prior self, was doing okay at a critical time in his life. The impression was distinct and strong and he could not rid himself of it.”4 In his classic 1954 book about a profound experience using mescaline, The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley speculated that the brain served as a kind of filter or reducing valve for a more expanded, potentially omniscient consciousness he called Mind at Large.5 Increased understanding of the brain, altered states, and sleep states since that time has made it possible to push the kinds of questions Huxley asked about that reducing valve, and the special situations that may open or widen it, as well as the precognitive nature of some perceptual distortions and hallucinations, such as those that Dick chronicled and drew upon for his fiction. Expanding on Huxley’s insights, the writer Anthony Peake speculates that so-called REM intrusions in semi-awake states on the edge of sleep—as well as waking hallucinations experienced most commonly by people with neurological disorders and mental illness—reflect openings to our vaster consciousness, an inner guide he calls the Daemon.6 The Daemon, he notes, is often precognitive (among other things). What I am calling the Long Self is analogous to Peake’s Daemon, but I am placing greater emphasis on the biographical dimensions of this expanded sense of who we are. What precognitive dreams and dream-like phenomena suggest to me is the possibility that what Huxley called Mind at Large, and what mystics and shamans have often described as other realities and spirit worlds, may (at least partly) be our own transfigured lives, our biographies as they still lay untraversed and unlived ahead of us, including all the people and situations and emotions we have yet to encounter and experience. The reducing valve, in other words, might be a temporal thing, reducing our Long Self to something manageable by the mind in the moment, reflecting and refracting our entire biography through the present moment of conscious awareness. People who experience visitations by guardian protectors in dreams or waking visions may be unlikely to interpret these experiences as encounters with their future selves. It’s not an intuitive idea. They may interpret them instead in spiritual terms, as divine messengers. The Jungian tradition in psychotherapy, on the other hand, interprets them as split-off parts of the self. The Jungian analyst and writer Donald Kalsched describes an inner self-care system through which patients traumatized in childhood cordon off and protect a portion of the self from harm.7 That sequestered “regressed self”8 may reappear in dreams throughout life
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Eric Wargo (Precognitive Dreamwork and the Long Self: Interpreting Messages from Your Future (A Sacred Planet Book))
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Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, I pray for Your divine intervention and protection. Fight against those who are fighting against me, and let any false allegations assigned against my life go back to the sender.
Disgrace and disappoint those who are pressing me down in my place of work. Vouch for me, O God, and vindicate me from these false accusations. Scatter the wicked who gang up against my position unto desolation.
No matter how far they have gone with this case, arise, O God, and let their efforts work against them. Dismiss the charges against me in court, and let this case be cancelled and erased from the mind of the person in charge.
Help me throughout this trying period, and prove my innocence. Disappoint all my enemies, and protect me by sending Your Holy Spirit to guide my lawyers.
Let Your will be done concerning this case, and intervene on my behalf to bring justice. Let the judge be merciful to me, and arise to defend me from those who spit terrible lies against me.
Nullify every plan of the enemy to disgrace me, and let all those who accuse me wrongly become victims of their evil accusations. In Jesus' mighty name, I pray. Amen.
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Shaila Touchton
“
When rejection comes, don't be dismayed, for it may be God's protection from what's not meant for you. Rejection can be a divine redirection, leading you to something greater. Trust that God's plan is better than yours. Though it hurts, rejection can shield you from harm. Let go and let God guide you to your destined path. In His timing, you'll find your perfect fit.
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Shaila Touchton
“
Heavenly Father, I come before You with faith and boldness, asking for the release of Your fire in my life and circumstances. Let Your flames consume every work of darkness, every witchcraft, occult practice, and evil plot against me, my children, my pets, my finances, my career, and my well-being. Baptize me with the Holy Spirit and fire, empowering me to walk in divine authority, healing the sick, casting out demons, and preaching Your Word with passion and power.
Let Your fire burn within me, guiding and empowering every aspect of my life – my hands, eyes, heart, mouth, and feet. Release tongues of fire upon me, making me a minister of Your glory, delivering and protecting me with Your flames. I decree the destruction of idols, witchcraft, and occultism in my life and the lives of those around me. Let Your fire purify and cleanse me, exposing and casting out wicked spirits.
I call forth Your hot thunderbolts against the enemy, casting forth lightning and scattering the forces of darkness that seek to harm me, my children, my family, and my destiny. Let Your fire be released in Zion, and let all flesh see Your glory. Create upon me a flaming fire by night, and let Your presence expose and cast out demons.
In the mighty name of Jesus, I release Your fire against all witchcraft, occult practices, and evil people who seek to harm me. I reject every slander, lie, hatred, anger, and jealousy directed towards me and my family. I declare Your protection and covering over my name, family, children, and finances. Let Your fire protect me from every evil plot and wicked scheme.
I am a daughter of God, and I claim Your promises of protection, provision, and prosperity. Let Your fire ignite within me a passion for Your Word and a boldness to declare Your truth. I trust in Your power and authority, and I look forward to seeing Your glory manifested in my life. Amen.
”
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Shaila Touchton