Category: Visions of Celestial Love

Posted on

Let My Beauty Heal You

Jesus, You are the Light of my life. Your irresistible and undeniable love pulls on me like a current. Your rafters of love wash over my heart. Pouring over in gentle ripples, Your love cleanses every aching wound in my heart and dismounts every erected wall that keeps You out. I am lost in Your stream, in Your river of love, and tears glide down my cheeks like rain drops from the Heavens. They are my own…and then they become Yours.

Such intimacy I’ve never known. Such tender love I can taste on my tongue. My entire soul absorbs your balmy, fragrant love. Inside, I taste You everywhere. You are my only strength.

I look up at the stars—they look like millions of glitter flakes tossed in the sky. Entranced, I gaze up at them from the bioluminescent river of Your love that glows blue, and I melt in Your love. You’ve shown me where I am. I am under the stars of Your beauty in a radiant moving pool of healing.

Your sky is breathtaking, Lord.Dust and translucent gas from the cosmos create a light work of brilliant beauty. Your stream is calm, yet these waters are living. They float me along and there are flecks of silver, gold, blue and lavender gems in them—moving, living light. I am cradled by living light in living water. Trees, shrubs, and blossoming vegetation bend over me in the river.

Everything is so calm here and You say, “Let My beauty heal you. Let the facet of My love that you are seeing ravish your heart. Be still, and let Me love you. I want to love you to tears.I want your heart to cry those tears you so need to get out…not in light of your pain but in light of My love that is so much stronger than your pain, and overcomes and heals your pain.”

My eyes well at Your words and the healing beauty of what my eyes are beholding. Aromatic wafts of the spices of Your love lift from the pool that laps at my body and soul. You ravish me with the way You love me. You love me so tenderly, so slowly, so completely. Your love is more patient with healing my inflicted wounds than my own heart is.

~This sample poem was taken from my recently published book Visions of Celestial Love. You can purchase a copy by clicking here. 

Posted on

By Pumpkin Spice Candlelight

I like sitting close by your side next to pumpkin spice candlelight.

I long and crave for my life to be an emblem of internal intimacy with You.

I love worshipping You in the quiet, still, cold morning air…where all the world sleeps and I am awakened by your love.

You brush past me like a cool breeze, like a gentle sweet scent.

How I desire to worship You in a cottage-shaped temple in Heaven, where beds of spices are laid around like a garden outside,. Where incense arises from your presence like vaporous apple and pear butter tickled with cinnamon.

How I wish time could be frozen!

So I could worship You for hours and the sun would stay young in the sky.

I see frankincense arise like fluid water, forming oceans of scents around my face.

I am loved-on gently by You, and in the quiet wonder of your presence I rest.

I rest in your love. I only wish moments with You could last for eternity.

I wish there were no other demands in my life.

Help me to live in a daily atmosphere of worship where I am aware of your presence close to me wherever I go.

~This sample poem was taken from my book Visions of Celestial Love. To purchase a copy click here

“Visions of Celestial Love is a book of inspiring quotes and beautiful prose about God’s unconditional love for mankind. The insights of this book help us to understand that it was the Father’s great love for us that made a way for us to have life together with His Son, Jesus Christ. Through it we get a glimpse into the true meaning of Christ’s sacrifice of love expressed through His death, burial and resurrection as God’s magnificent gift of grace to us. His blood made it possible for all those who put their faith in Him to have fellowship with His Father again. 

I am confident that at the completion of this book, you will also seek after God with your whole heart and want to be in His presence forever.” —Alice Paige,

Posted on

Imagery

There are tabernacles and pillars. Ivory polished white with no walls, open to the air where water from Heaven flows through like crystal glass. These waters are air and water all in one. They reflect light like diamonds. They radiate crystal. Transcendent beauty.

Daddy, You transform me with Your beauty. Thank You for sharing the goodness of Your heart with me.

I see these pillars from ballroom floors, all white like pearls of melting snow in the sun. These tabernacles stand atop one large waterfall with many rifts. The air is spicy with the fragrance of something heavenly, like all my favorite aromas mixed in at once, yet distinct. It tickles my nose and awakens my senses softly, like the taste of whipped cream lingering after a cool glass of water.

There is such peace here, such celestial bliss, such tender tickling, such laughter and mirth of soul. These waters glide like skies of opal blue, as they touch the glassy floors they turn into air but still have the fluid body of water. Then as they leave the ballroom they become water again before pouring down the waterfall caressing rock and air. Cascading down and then crashing, the vapor of clouds arises forming poufy mountains in the skies.

Here You have taken me within my soul to show me Your great goodness and beauty. Here You have shown me…to bless me with sweet love.

~This sample poem was taken from my book Visions of Celestial Love.

“Visions of Celestial Love is a book of inspiring quotes and beautiful prose about God’s unconditional love for mankind. The insights of this book help us to understand that it was the Father’s great love for us that made a way for us to have life together with His Son, Jesus Christ. Through it we get a glimpse into the true meaning of Christ’s sacrifice of love expressed through His death, burial and resurrection as God’s magnificent gift of grace to us. His blood made it possible for all those who put their faith in Him to have fellowship with His Father again. 

I am confident that at the completion of this book, you will also seek after God with your whole heart and want to be in His presence forever.” —Alice Paige, Ministry Volunteer, True-Heart friend of author

You can watch a video promo of this book by clicking here

Posted on

Uniquely You

Dearest Reader and Friend,

I want to speak to you personally about being uniquely you; about loving and savoring yourself. That may sound conceited to some ears, but there’s nothing wrong with loving and enjoying yourself.

In fact, it is holy. Jesus loves and savors you. You are pleasing to Him. You are so very precious in His sight…inside and outside. He loves you. He created you. He fashioned and formed you uniquely in your mother’s womb, and He carefully and skillfully (probably with a huge smile on His face and excitement in His heart) wove a life for you full of grace and hope using the golden thread of Heaven, and the very pleasure of His heart.

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV says: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

You are so priceless and precious to Him. There are things—gifts and talents that He’s put in you that nobody else has. Yes, if you’re a painter you will meet other painters, but the version of the talent of painting that you have is unique to you, and it is God-breathed.

I’ve had the bittersweet pleasure of meeting a lot of people in life who are insecure in some way, shape, or form. There’s an “epidemic of insecurity in our society” as Joyce Meyer likes to say. It’s insecurity with a root of fear that sprouts all kinds of ugly branches, like comparison, which leads to jealousy and hatred. This fear comes from not knowing yourself in Abba Father. It comes from a lack of receiving His healing love, for perfect love casts out all fear.

We need to understand and value ourselves, to take the time to connect with our souls and truly see with all our heart the beauty of our spirit and outward design.

There’s a beauty, a radiance within you that is entirely unique to you. This radiance, beauty, and strength is the way God portrays Himself through your soul. You are a one-time masterpiece, and your reaction to His love cannot be copied by anyone else. You are unique, and He wants to love you uniquely. He wants to hold you uniquely. He wants to encourage you uniquely. He wants to have a relationship with you uniquely.

In the same way that no two fingerprints are the same, nobody is like you in all the earth. Listen to the wise words of John Mason in his book title: You Were Born an Original, Don’t Die a Copy. You are the “lily among thorns,” and the “apple tree among the trees of the wood.” God sees you as the “chief among ten thousand!” Indeed, in His eyes you are entirely perfect for Him.

May you see yourself through His washing, through His cleansing eyes of love, through His ecstatic delight. He calls you mighty, He calls you strong, He calls you tender, He calls you lovely. You are called loved. Please friend, whatever you do, don’t wrongfully compare yourself with others, or even with yourself, for the Bible calls this foolish.

Go to Abba, and ask Him what He thinks of you, and then open the Word and let Him minister to your deepest needs.

~This sample devotional was taken from my book Visions of Celestial Love. You can purchase a physical or ebook copy by clicking here.

Posted on

Sweep Over Me

To listen to this poem, click below:

Here You find me again.

Oh, when did I become so hardened from You?

So swept away in the insecurities of life?

So surrounded by the doubts of tomorrow that arise from my lack of faith?

So numbed by the mirror?

Sweet Jesus, You see my heart and You claim it as your own; yet You never force me to rest in Your arms, or hear You sing to my heart a song that brightens my face and lightens my soul like a feather in the gentle strength of Your summer wind.

Here You are.

I feel You tell me,

“It’s okay to cry. Let go of your pride, for your humble tears are beautiful. Now then, I can wash your garments clean.”

I’ll never understand how You can delight in me.

Yet may Your obvious love for me melt away the enemies and the world’s ice of lies that grip my parched heart.

Oh God, I desire to be raised by You!

See, I want to be swept away in the torrent breeze of Your Holy Spirit to a righteous land where I can live with You.

Please visit me again like You used to, for I am shaken with fear in this body.

Oh, please take control of me and sweep over me like a wave of warm water spiced with lavender oil that I might be overwhelmed by the aroma of Your holy love for me.

I desire to be wrapped in Your arms and soaked in Your soul.

May the current of Your love loosen and, alas, open my grip on my dreams and desires until I am so close to You that the very breath I breathe has been mixed with Your exhales.

Bind me to Yourself in holy matrimony and claim all of my heart, for it is Yours alone to own now and forevermore.

~This sample poem was taken from my book Visions of Celestial Love:

“Come, all you are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.” – Isaiah 55:1-2 NIV

Are you ready to taste of the sweet delicacies of God in a deeply reviving and personal way? For those who want to drink, for those who want to eat and be refreshed and renewed, Visions of Celestial Love is a feast between you and the King of Heaven, who loves you more than anyone else. He invites you to dine on wholesome, good, savory food and delicious, zesty, fruitful drink. He awaits you with a sparkle in His eye. He is ready for your company. He delights to have you as a guest.

“Eat, friends, and drink; drink your fill of love.” – Song of Songs 5:1 NIV

“Ashley presents us with a true cornucopia of modern psalms, personal testimonies, and short stories. She has set out to reveal and unravel some of the most complex heart issues mankind faces in our quest of understanding what true intimacy with God really looks like. Prepare to have your soul massaged and worked on as you read Visions of Celestial Love.” — Jeremy Minard, Servant King Apparel

Posted on

Let My Soul Expand in Worship

Let my soul expand in worship to the One who is more beautiful than a thousand waterfalls, each flowing with liquid clearer than crystal and more bright than opal blue.

They form mountains in the clouds and their rivers of spirit-water create the vastness of the skies.

Let the aromatic rains of worship fall and cover the earth! Let my heart drink in His lovely image.

He is more powerful than the gravitational pull of a thousand planets.

He is more majestic than the mightiest mountain, more breathtaking than all of the canopies of trees in the amazon forest.

He is grander than the vastness of outer space.

Nothing can be compared to His beauty.

Infinity cannot describe His wonder.

To find Him is to find life.

To seek Him is the highest joy.

To love Him is to have tasted His love.

To be filled with His love is to be in a union higher than Heaven.

He created you to be filled with His goodness, with His life.

This is who you are; this is who He made you to be.

There is no fight for it, no struggle; He longs to fill empty places; it is His duty, His high delight, His supreme pleasure…to heal…to fill…to love.

And His love is like a magnet that cannot be pulled away from you, for you were created for it and you cannot uncreate yourself.

His love created you, therefore you were designed to be one with His love.

~Let My Soul Expand in Worship is a small poetic sample from my book Visions of Celestial Love. To purchase a physical or ebook copy of Visions of Celestial Love, click here.

The heading photo of my daughter and i was taken by Ruthy Esquivel Photography