Why do you insist on carrying life's burdens alone? Why do you place such confidence in your own strength? It is by My mercy and grace each day that you do not fall - that I keep you from calamity.

�?I>Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.�?-Matthew 11:29-30

My beloved, why do you hide your burdens, and keep your secrets from Me? Do you not know that I can see every thought, and I behold all inward parts?

I uphold you every step of your life, yet often you do not think on Me, nor do you give Me the honor. And when I let you walk in your own ways, and you fall, you blame Me for your misfortune. Can you not see that your own pride has led to these pains?

I love you, and I love to love. I want to carry your every burden, and heal your every wound. I want you to be filled with peace and joy in My Holy Spirit, but how can this be when you have turned your back to Me?

I send to you, as it were, bumps in the road, to turn you to Me - that you may consider your ways. Yet you wonder greatly at such things, and your confusion alone is a testimony against you: for you do not walk with Me as you should, and you do not consider the work of My hands. Is it not that I must always direct you with My rod, because you will not respond to My voice? Is it not that I must always use My hand, because you do not know My heart? Come now, My love, and I will have mercy on you. Repent, and turn to Me, and I will show you My wisdom.

Look, and I will uncover the hidden strings of the marionette. I say, �?I>love,�?and you do not. I say �?I>forgive,�?and you hold a grudge. I say �?I>give,�?and you only take. You cannot do the things that you should do, or even the things that you want to do, and you marvel at this, as if My workings in you were imperfect. Do you not see the hidden strings that bind your life?

I have planted a miraculous work in you, yet the lusts of your old life have dried up the outward branches. I have lit a burning light within you, yet the dark veil of your fleshy life shades it into obscurity. For since the day of your salvation, My sun within you has always burned as bright as ever, yet even to this day you have scarcely uncovered it. I have given you a remarkable salvation, and a deliverance from all wickedness, yet the corruption of this world has enticed you, and though you are free, you choose further imprisonment.

Do you not see the hidden foe? Have you not uncovered, as it were, the invisible strings of the marionette, that can be tugged and pulled by the enemy whenever he pleases? You are your own worst enemy. You are all hindrance and stumbling. You are the weak link in the chain. Satan I can most easily overcome, if you will let Me: yet how shall I force Myself against My own child? I will give you all good things, and every victory, and every blessing, but you must first untie your strings. You must first sever yourself from your own sabotageous ways.

I tell you, you must repent: you must die to your old self. You repent of ones and twos, but why not of the sum? You repent of this or that, but why not of everything? You have tried to cut down all of the branches and growths on your tree of sin, yet you leave the inconspicuous stump. And, as dark, budding shoots that continually proceed from an evil tree stump, so too does your sin sprout anew - for a little leaven leavens the whole lump.

Leaven is as a living entity, and will spread, grow, and infest the entire lump of dough. So too will your sin regrow if it is not utterly dug out and uprooted. Can you see each part of yeast? Can you stop the branches from springing up from the old tree stump? How will you ever purge the lump unless you start afresh? How will you ever conquer that dark tree if you never uproot and plant anew?

�?I>For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.�?-Job 14:7

To replace half the lump, or even ninety nine of one hundred parts, is to allow sin to corrupt. To cut down every branch, every visible sin, and yet to retain the stump, is to allow sin to corrupt. Do you not know that the entire lump is defiled? Do you not know that the very roots are sin? Do you not know that it is not of branches, nor of leaven, but of entire trees, and of entire lumps that you must repent? Do you not know that it is not of actions, nor of hands, but of entire hearts, and complete lives that you must repent?

�?I>For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.�?-Luke 14:28-33

My blessings are innumerable, yet My price is steep. But is it? What is it that you cling to in this world? What is it that you hold to in this life of death? Behold, you cling to failure, and you make despair your companion. You befriend loneliness, and make emptiness your habitation. Away with it, for it is vanity.

Release yourself from the strings of the marionette, for they are severed through crucifixion. Have I not said, �?I>If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me�?(Matthew 16:24)? And again I say to you, follow Me. Is the cross merely a weight to carry? Is it not meant for a specific purpose? My beloved, the cross is to crucify. For your very sins I was crucified, and I died. But what glory, I had also the power and glory of resurrection! Friend, so too will you if you follow after Me.

�?I>For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.�?-Romans 6:10-11

You come at your old life, and your sins, with cudgels and bats, seeking to beat down your faults. Yet that persistent beast, evil always arises, the strings are always pulled, and sin rears again its ugly head. You inflict wound and injury upon your old life of sin, yet you hold back a string, a small twitch: just one scratching of sin. You keep leaven from that old lump, and you retain the root from that old tree. You come at your old life with cudgels and bats, when you should come at it rather with a hammer and nails.

Think not that I say these things to destroy your life, but rather, to restore it. Beloved, I care so sincerely for you, and I only seek your welfare. How can you experience the power of resurrection if you have not first died? Do you not afflict your own self by your indecision? You will neither live My new life, nor die to your old. You have neither the short pleasures of sin, nor the power of My resurrection. Will you wait until paradise to have abiding joy? Will you wait until heaven to get victory over the enemies' temptings? Do you not know that every man will receive his reward in heaven according to the deeds done in the body?

Come, for I am the Lord of life. At My right hand are joys forevermore. I died for you: do I not want to see you filled with overflowing joy? Was My sacrifice all in vain? Come, I will bless. Why go it alone? Come, I will bear all your burdens. Come.