I LOVE YOU! -- JUST YOU!         Maria #266       DFO 2985         1/95

(Illustrations by Zeb and Jacques Elan)

(From Mama:)
         1. Dear Precious Family (And I'm talking to each one of you personally!), I love you very specially and I have been deeply saddened upon hearing that you have sometimes felt that the Lord is distant from you--that He is just a big God way up there somewhere who once upon a time expressed His love through a great sacrifice of His Son for you, but doesn't really care too much about you personally in all the things that bother you and that make you sad and that concern you.
         2. You feel that He loves you in a general way and He supplies your needs, and He protects you and He loves you because you are doing His will and you are a member of His Family. However, some of you just don't see how Jesus can really love you in a very warm, intimate, personal way like a very best friend, or even better, a wonderful lover who is in love with you and who wants to be personally involved with every detail of your life--knowing all your thoughts and your deepest desires, wanting to be with you every moment, wanting to do all the things that make you happy, always thinking about you and what He can do to make things easier for you, looking on you as the most wonderful thing He has ever seen, not letting any of your faults bother Him, but instead overlooking them.
         3. You don't see how Jesus could really want to tune in to every single aspect of your life, all the details that are particular to only you, wanting to make sure every little need of your heart is fulfilled, always being right there every moment to take you in His arms and comfort you when you're sad, share your joy when you're happy, calm your fears when you're frightened, and explain things that confuse you.
         4. Some of you have said, "I don't see how Jesus could really love me that much or be happy with me because I'm too bad. I've made so many mistakes. I can't get victories over my NWOs. I don't have any talents. I'm not able to do much for the Lord. I just feel like a nothing. I'm doing more damage to God's work than I am helping it. I'm just taking up people's time with my problems. I might as well leave the Family and then I won't be in the way. It won't matter to the Lord because there are so many other better people than me to do His work and whom He loves a lot more."
         5. It's broken my heart to hear you say these things or even to know that you were thinking them, because I know how very much Jesus loves you personally in a very special, deep way. That you don't understand this and that you don't know how much He loves you is one of the saddest things I can think of. When I know what a special love He has for you but you are unable to see it, it really makes me cry.
         6. I wanted so badly to show you how Jesus loves you, and I couldn't think of any better way than to ask Him to speak to you in His Own words directly to your heart; I knew He would if we'd ask Him. So I asked some of our very dear WS family, who also love you greatly, if they would pray and ask Jesus to speak to you and tell you Himself how much He loves you.
         7. There are many manifestations of the Lord's great love for each of us personally. First of all, He died for us. Second, Dad lived his life loving us, and then went Home to Heaven that he might help us and love us in an even greater way. The Lord also gave each of us a place in the Family, when He had five billion others to choose from. The wonderful Word that the Lord has given us so abundantly is another very great manifestation of His daily love for us. Furthermore, every day we see the Lord's loving hand in our lives in all the personal details that concern us individually.
         8. However, perhaps the way we can best understand God's love is when it is expressed in human form; that is the way we can most clearly understand and feel it most intensely. In this way, we realize that He doesn't just love us "collectively," but individually. When He gives us someone who can tune into our problems and needs and questions--giving us care and love--we know that we are very special to Jesus and that He loves us in a special way that He loves no one else in the whole world.
         9. Like that saying goes, "God loves all of us as though there were only one of us." It is a time-consuming process to love people in that way--individually--but that is the way God does it!--And that's the most effective way that we can do it, and that people can see God's love reflected in us.
         10. You may have been in Homes where there was someone who was a reflection of God's love for you in a very individual way. When you are a recipient of someone's time and care and attention in the form of their personal prayers for you, their walkie-talkies, their very personal loving notes on your OHRs, their friendly encounters with you during the day, their happiness at your joys and their tears at your disappointments--when you receive things like this from them, you know it is the Lord's love just for you--not for anyone else. It's tailored to meet your needs, and not somebody else's. It makes you know that you are unique and special to the Lord, and He cares in a very intimate way for all the little details of your life, which are different from those of anyone else.
         11. My prayer is that we could have the Lord show His wonderful, special love to each of you through a loving adult who would take you under his or her wing and care for you as Jesus wants you to be cared for, and love you as Jesus loves you.--Or through someone special that He gives you that you can share with in a loving, intimate way as a precious friend or lover, as the case may be.
         12. I wish we could ask the Lord to speak very personal words of comfort and encouragement to each of you that would show you how much He cares for you individually. But since we couldn't do that, I asked the Lord to speak to each of you all at once. I knew that at least He could let you know that this is the way He loves you--each one of you.
         13. I knew that the Lord would know how to say it so that it could be a great comfort and encouragement to each of you, even though given for all of you at the same time. Even though I knew that it couldn't be quite as specific, the Lord has a way of saying things that makes it hit home very personally, just like He does in His Word. His Word is for all of us, but He gave it in such a way that it speaks to each of us in a personal way, right to each individual heart.
         14. And as you can see in the beautiful and bountiful things the Lord said below, He more than fulfilled our prayer and desires and gave us more than we could even ask or hope for in expressing how much He loves you in a very intimate, personal love relationship. After you have received and absorbed the things the Lord is saying to you in the words below, you will know beyond a shadow of a doubt just how much Jesus loves you!--Just you! And when you believe and receive His precious Words, you will experience Jesus' precious love and will never have to doubt or wonder again what you mean to Him.

Prophecies
         15. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Though only a few touched My Son in His life, millions of My children throughout the ages have been touched by this expression of My love, in that I gave My Son for each one.
         16. So have I given My Son for each of you as the ultimate proof of My love for you. The Evil One would seek to belittle this love and cause thee not to receive it in faith, thinking that thy sins have separated thee from Me, but this is a lie!
         17. Lying vanities, lying vanities, lying vanities! For both the young and the old say, "I have sinned and come short of the mark and am not worthy of the Lord's love." The old one says, "I have nothing to give, and I am undesirable to the young and have no way to give encouragement, for I am spent." And the young likewise is caught in a snare of lies, feeling that none can understand him, knowing not that those that have gone before him experienced the same.
         18. I have given you wherewith ye shall comfort one another if ye will forsake these lying vanities! As iron sharpeneth iron, and as stick rubbed against stick will cause a spark, so if thou dost rub against another in thy communion, and in thy tears and in thy sweet breakings and humbling of thyself, and in thy innermost fears, and bare thy soul to another, so will I cause that love to spark as never before.
         19. Reach out by faith, and heed not the Wicked One who would say unto thee, "There is no love for thee, for thou art unlovely, for thou canst not love." For how I would bestow My love upon you through one another! How it doth break My heart to see you as beggars, when ye could be rich. Therefore doubt not, but reach forth in faith receiving.
* * *
         20. Behold, I stand at the door of your heart, and I long to come in and love you, even as a lover standeth before the door of her groom and longeth for him to open it. It is the hand of faith--your faith in My love--that must open that door, for because of your unbelief the door openeth not. Therefore be not faithless, but believe, so that I may enter, so that I may fill you with My love.
         21. For I would that ye partake of My love in greater measure. My love is like a river that floweth abundantly: It never runs dry, and each of you may receive to your capacity. Each one may receive individually, according to your need.
         22. Fear not that it will be used up, for My love is never used up. Fear not that you will lose it, for My love is never lost. Fear not that you will be unworthy, for My love is not earned, it is received. Behold, how I love you!--You, just you, just the way you are. Yes, I know your faults. Yes, I know your weaknesses. I see when you stumble and fall, but that does not alter My love for you.
         23. Does the love of the parent for his child lessen when the child doth fall? It is but increased, for he doth take that child into his arms and love it more than ever, and care for it more tenderly. Even so is My love for you, for you are the apple of Mine eye. I have many eyes, and each of you is the apple of one of Mine eyes. Therefore believe in My love! Believe and receive! Stretch out the hand of faith! Refuse Me not!
         24. Be ye channels of My love, one unto another. For I long to manifest Myself through you, one to another. Be empty vessels that I may fill, that may overflow upon each other, that you may feel My love shining through, one toward another, bountifully. Fear not to give love, for in giving you shall receive. Fear not the opinions of man, but be channels of My love, recipients of My love, that the Scripture may be fulfilled that saith, "Let all your things be done in love"--My love.
         25. Then shall ye know how much I love you, and how I have ordained each of your steps, and that every movement that you make is known of Me. Be not faithless, but believing. Be ye samples of My love one to another and ye shall overflow, for My love is without end and is forever.
* * *
         26. Thou art precious, thou art beautiful, thou art wonderful, each one. I have created each one of you for a special purpose! I speak to thee as an individual, I speak to thee as My beloved, that I would draw after Me, that I would take into the bed of My love, that I would shower with My love and kisses and embraces, that I would surround with My warmth, that I would clothe with the security and the protection of My love, that I would fill to overflowing. I speak to thee as the special creation that I have made, each with a special individual unique calling and purpose, each one that I have crafted, that I have formed.
         27. For Mine eye hath been upon thee since before thou wast formed in the womb. I have been with thee every step of the way. I have watched thee, I have loved thee, I have cared for thee. Thou hast never been out of My sight.
         28. How I long to pour My love upon thee! How I long to draw thee to My bosom! If thou wouldst take this time with Me in prayer, and listen to My voice in thy heart, and through My Word, I would show thee of My great, great love for thee--love which is greater than the ocean, which stretches further than the horizon, which the whole universe with all its stars and galaxies cannot contain, which reaches out of understanding into infinity and eternity. This love thou wouldst know if thou wouldst draw close to Me.
         29. And as thou dost know and experience My love for thee, thou wilt have strength that thou knowest not of. Because nothing will break the tie of love that I have for thee. Nothing can come between us. Nothing can separate Me from thee, for My love is stronger than anything! No floods can quench it, no doubts can remove it, no lies can tarnish it, for it stands stronger than any of these.
* * *
         30. Behold, I am the good gardener, the faithful gardener, and I have planted a beautiful, wide, glorious garden--one of special flowers. In My garden, each flower is different and unique, beautiful to Mine eyes and special. Each flower is a unique color, and a unique size, and serves its own purpose and has its own place in the garden, and its own place in the heart of the Gardener. And I take each flower in My hand and I look upon it with great love and mercy. I water these flowers with the tears of My sympathy. I shine upon each flower the warmth of My love. I protect each flower with Mine Own hands. I look upon it with great tenderness and I know each flower personally.
         31. So do I know you--each of you is unique to Me. Each of you is a special flower in Mine eyes. Each has its own place, and its own purpose and calling. And I know all about your gifts, and your talents, and your battles, and your NWOs, and all the things that bother you about yourself. The nagging problems that you can't seem to get a victory over, and your spiritual strengths, and your spiritual weaknesses, and your idiosyncrasies, and all the funny things about you that make you an individual--I know these things.
         32. I know all about your heart's desires and your secret longings. I know about your desires for adventure and excitement and change. I know about your desire to be close to someone and to be loved. I know about your desire to find a mate, to find that special person that you feel is your other half. I know about your desire to be trained and to find a ministry and to be fulfilled in your service for Me. I know about your desire to have fun and to have time off from your work. I know about your desire to have your talents expanded and to be used in the greatest capacity possible.
         33. I know about the times that you compare. I know about the times that you think negatively about yourself and you feel bad and you feel that you are not good enough, when your weaknesses bother you and embarrass you and get you down and discourage you. You feel like there is no hope and like, "What's the use? How can anybody love me, anyway?" I know about all these things and I love you anyway!
         34. There is nothing hid from Me; I know every thought and I know every desire, and every secret prayer. Every time you look up to Me and you cry out to Me, I am near, and I hear your prayers and My heart is moved with compassion. I never harden My heart. I never get tired of listening to you. I never turn away. I never sleep. I never have a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door. I am never distant. I am never too tired or too busy for you. I always hear and answer your prayer--sometimes in the way that you would desire and sometimes in ways that you know not, or in ways that you cannot yet see, but I do hear and I do answer.
         35. My love is manifested to you in many different ways. In every joy and pleasure that you feel in life, in every supply of your need, this is My love for you. Every time one of your brothers or sisters or lovers or your mother or father or uncle or aunt takes you in their arms and gives you love and encouragement and affection, this is My love for you.
         36. Every time you feel the need and you go to My Word and you find strength and inspiration to go on, this is My love for you. When you lie down at night and you are so tired and weary from your many labors and you find sweet sleep and refreshment to your body and your spirit, this is My love to you. In your times of relaxation, when you find recreation and enjoyment and laughter, this is My love for you. In the times when you go out witnessing and you pour out your heart to a hungry soul and you are able to give them the answers that they are looking for and lead them to Me, and you experience that thrill of sharing the truth with another human being, another lost person, this is My love for you.
         37. In every new thing that you learn, and every new experience that you have, in every way that you find satisfaction and joy and challenge and contentment of heart and rest of spirit and comfort to your body--all this is My love to you. Even the littlest things--the fact that you like to swim and I supply the swimming pool for you. Or the fact that you like to take hot showers and I supply the abundant hot water for you. Or the fact that you love the smell of perfume and I have supplied perfume for you. Or the fact that you love to play basketball and I have supplied that for you--all of these tiny things are an example of My personal love for you.
         38. I know your every need and your littlest desire, and I will go to any length to supply these needs and desires and manifest Myself to you. And the more that you recognize Me in these everyday affairs of your life, and the more you learn to appreciate these little things that I give you and these little ways that I manifest Myself to you, so shall ye grow to know My love and appreciate My love and feel it.
         39. But the greatest way that I can show My love to you is through another person, another human being. For have not I said that I have no heart but your heart, I have no hands but yours, no lips but yours, and no feet but yours to manifest My love to another? I want to use your hands to reach out to each other, to touch one another and hold one another. I want to use your lips to kiss away the heartaches and the tears of another. I want to use your voice to express words of encouragement and love to lift one another up, and words of forgiveness. I want to use your eyes to look upon one another with comfort and compassion, and to shed tears for one another as you let yourselves be touched and moved by each other's needs.
         40. I say again, and again, and again, that each one is unique and each one is special. I do not look upon you as "the masses," or "the group," or "the young people," or "the teens," or "the YAs," but I look upon you as a special, unique individual, My son or My daughter. And I loved each one of you so much that I gave My Son, Jesus, for you, just you!
         41. To paint a picture of this love, imagine that there is a scale before you. It is a balance, and I took My Own Son, the One who is dearest to Me, My one and only Son, and I laid him on one side of the scale. It tipped so far to that side! Then I took you, with all your weaknesses and your shortcomings and your NWOs and your idiosyncrasies, and all the things about yourself that bother you so much and that you think make you of so little value and that make you so hard to love and not worthy of My love. I put you, just you, on the other side of the scale. And the scale was perfectly balanced.
         42. I saw that it was a good trade, that I put My Son on one side and I put you, just you, on the other side. I saw that it was worth it to trade the life of My Son for you, that I might have you forever! It was worth it to give My Son just for you! This is how great My love is for you! If it had been only for you, I would have given Him, because I know that it is a good trade to give My Son, that I might gain you for eternity.
         43. So is My love for you, as an individual, as a person, as this unique flower in My beautiful, glorious garden. And I long to take this flower up into My hands and kiss it and blow upon it and water it with My tears of compassion. I long to hold it close to My heart and warm it and shoo away any predators or evil things that may try to hurt or harm it in any way. This is My desire, this is how I care for My little flowers, and this is how I care for you.
         44. Nothing shall ever separate us, nothing shall ever divide us or cut this love that is between us. Even when you feel it not, it is there. If you will just reach out and look to Me and open your eyes to the many ways that I show My love to you, it shall become clearer to you.
* * *
         45. I will give thee in thy hour of need that which thy soul desirest. For in the very trying of thy faith thou art learning patience. In the very difficulties in which thou findest thyself, I will be more to thee than a father and a mother. For I am thy Creator, thy lover, the author and finisher of thy faith, and I do seek to put joy before thee. As others endured, even as My Son endured, and for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, so do I lay before thee a goodly heritage, that thou mightest endure affliction and trial and tempest.
         46. Therefore let thine eyes look upon Me, whom to know is life eternal, and consider this: that love is not always easy. For have I not spoken unto thee through My servant Paul that love is longsuffering?--That love beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things? And thou must endure unto the end, but daily I will give unto thee great love without measure.
         47. I will carry thee in those days when thou feelest no strength to carry on. I will lift thee if thou wilt listen unto Me and suck from My paps and long for Me. For have I not said, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness"? Yea, if thou hungerest after My love, I will give thee love without measure. I will answer thy cry, for I know thy desires and it is My pleasure to give thee that which thy heart desirest and longeth for.
         48. Is it in the form of a person? I will give it unto thee. Is it in the form of an experience, or a challenge? I will give it unto thee. But thou needest faith to believe. Believe Me, that I will do this when I say unto thee I will carry thee all the days of thy life, if thou wilt depend on Me. I will live My life in thee and make My love manifest in thee. Believe Me, that I will give thee that which thy heart desirest, and I will be with thee unto the end.
* * *
         49. My love for thee is a personal love, for I love thee as Mine Own, as Mine only Own. Think not that thou art but one of many, and because there are so many, My love cannot reach to so many and yet even unto thee. Have I not said unto thee how I am not one, but omniscient and omnipresent? I am one to thee and only thee, and thou art one to Me. I am thine, all thine, and thou art Mine, all Mine.
         50. As a father loveth his own son and his own daughter, and knoweth him or her in a very special, individual way, so in My omniscience do I know thee very personally. I love thee very individually and specially as Mine Own.
         51. When thou goest to sleep, ponder on the love that I bestowed upon thee. Count thy many blessings and thou wilt see in so many little ways and in so many little things and through so many people I have extended a kiss, a touch, a word, a blessing, a meal, the weather, a house--so many ways that I have loved thee personally.
         52. But I ask thee also to ponder how much thou hast given love. What hast thou done to show love unto another that they may also be touched with My love? For have I not said unto you that there is greater joy in giving than in receiving? There is so much more love in giving love than in receiving love.
         53. Therefore if thou wouldst want to know that I love thee or how much I love thee--how much dost thou love others? How much dost thou give to those who I also love? Give and it shall be given unto thee. For have I not said, "For inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto Me"? Therefore be touched by My love in touching others with My love, with thy love.
         54. But thou knowest not always how much I love thee because thou dost go too fast. Thou art in such a hurry; thou dost not stop for love. There are so many cares and worries encumbering thee. Thou hast put importance on many things--thy accomplishments, thy work, thy aspirations, thy career. But more important than those are the people about thee, those that need thee, those that have a pain.
         55. Wilt thou ponder this when thou dost go to bed at night? Wilt thou look around thee to all those that I have put on thy path that day and see what they need? Then maybe thou wilt comfort them, and encourage them, and love them, and give to them. Stop, and look, and listen to the whispers that I will whisper in thine ear to show thee who needs love. Take time to love; make time to love. For love is the most important thing.
* * *
         56. My dearest, My beloved one, My precious one, I hear thy thoughts; I know thy innermost longings and thy innermost fears and insecurities. I see thee go about thy life, through thy day, and thou thinkest that I have no love for thee. Thou thinkest that thou must prove thyself. Thou thinkest that because of thy sins I am far away. Thou thinkest that I wish to punish thee, that thou art too bad, and that I could not possibly love thee.
         57. Thou dost try to do the right thing, thou dost try to be good, thou dost try to show My love to others. And yet thou dost feel that I am so far away that I do not listen to thee, that I do not talk to thee, that I do not really care. For that, My heart grieves for thee. Nothing could be further from what I really feel for thee!
         58. For now I say it; I say it to thee, I say it to the whole world, I proclaim it--ye are My beloved ones in whom I am well pleased! Ye must forsake these doubts! Ye must cast them out! Ye must forsake these lying vanities, these lies, these doubts that ye believe! Ye must be filled with My Holy Spirit, My Spirit of love, for I can fill you. Ye are very precious unto Me and I love you very much, and ye must refuse these lies. Ye must cast them out! Ye must take that step of faith to believe that I do love you. And ye must resist these lying vanities, for in heeding them ye forsake your own mercy!
         59. For I love you, though I know your faults. I know your sins, yet I am not far away. I am right there beside you and I care for you. And yet it grieves Me very much that ye do not believe it, ye do not receive it, ye do not let Me come in. Ye blame it on Me. Ye think that it is My fault, but it is not. I love you! Ye must believe I am not far away. I do not seek to punish you. Ye do not have to be good enough for Me or try so hard to feel worthy of My love. Ye are unworthy, but that does not matter: I love you anyway.
         60. So cease from these works, from these efforts of the flesh to try to be good enough for Me. For you will never be good enough, ye can never do enough, but that is not the point, do ye not see? I love you just the way you are. You do not have to worry about it. Just come over here and we will sit together and we will talk together and we will have fellowship together. For I shall be more to thee than a light and better than a known way.

Verses and Visions
         61. At the very beginning I had a vision of a group of our Family young people standing in a line, like a line of people waiting for a celebrity to come and greet them, and the person coming was Jesus. It seemed the young people were expecting to shake Jesus' hand and greet Him. But Jesus came up to the first person, embraced him, and instead of just shaking his hand and then going to the next person, He took that one person and led him away to spend the day with Him. And it kept happening to each one of them. Jesus would go up to each one and embrace him or her and take them off alone.
         62. As time went by, when they were spending the time with Him they began to get brighter and glow with a shining light, so that they were simply shining by the end of the day. I got the sentence, "You shall be as shining lights in the world."
         63. Then as Jesus left them, He turned into a Family member, which showed how Jesus uses us to love each other. I got the phrase, "Love one another as I have loved you" (Jn.13:34; 15:12). As Jesus has loved us, we should try to love each other with the same love.
* * *
         64. I got these verses from John 15:10-12: "If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is My commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you."
         65. And I also got this verse from John 14:21: "He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him." I thought this part, "manifest Myself to him," was a promise that we don't just have to know the Lord's love by faith, or just know it because someone has told us about it, but we can experience it. It can be something that happens to us personally.
* * *
         66. I had the impression that the Lord was a bit disappointed in us for not showing enough love toward one another, because the Lord does want to love us. I saw a picture of the contrast between Hell and Heaven, where the people in Hell are sitting at a big table with long spoons trying to feed themselves, but the handles are too long. But in Heaven the people were feeding each other, and everybody was happy and having a good time.
* * *
         67. I thought of the Letter "Hold On" and that the Lord also allows these tests and feelings. But if you just hold on a little longer, things work out. Sometimes it is a test on your part, to want to feel the Lord's love, just to see if you are going to really hang on. Many times things don't get delivered to you on a silver platter, but you have to fight the good fight of faith and hang on.
* * *
         68. I saw a dramatic picture before the first prophecy. It was a picture of Jesus on the cross, and one teen boy standing before Him. It was a large picture and I could see the edge of the world all around, and there was no one else in the whole world except Jesus and this boy. It was a picture of the individual personal love that the Lord has for each of us. As the boy looked up to Jesus, He said to him, "You are the reason that I died, and I would have died even if there had only been you, just you."


Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family