abundantly

P 3093 Think bigger.

/ DVH

“This is love: He loved us long before we loved Him. It was His love, not ours. He proved it by sending His Son to be the pleasing sacrificial offering to take away our sins. Delightfully loved ones, if He loved us with such tremendous love, then “loving one another” should be our way of life!” 1 John 4:10-11 TPT.

Does anyone remember that old joke? Which came first, the chicken or the egg? I think I know that answer! The chicken! God would never leave a little helpless baby chick to raise itself! So what has that got to do with anything? God’s love and His loving provision came first, that’s what. We don’t have to prove ourselves worthy, because, quite simply, we ain’t worthy and without the blood of Jesus over our lives, we never will be! Our Almighty, Omniscient, Ever-present Father loved us first. 

Here is a verse in Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew  you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Our God isn’t just talking to Jeremiah — He is talking to each one of us. He’s saying to us all: “You were in My heart before you were in this world. I always had a plan for your life.”  None of us are an accident. Every single human being is precious to God and we all have a destiny – a place in His kingdom. There are no ‘big’ guys or ‘little’ guys – there’s only Jesus!! He not only knows our names, where we live, what He has for us, He is thinking about us daily, all of the time. Every single one of us was born into this world with a loving Father watching over us – whether we had an earthly father or not … Father God was there.

He is the Author and Finisher of our intimate development inside our mothers. Let’s look at Psalm 139:13-18 for a minute, it says: “For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are Your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with You.”

Only Father God Himself loved humanity enough to take a record of every single child ever born – He knows each baby’s name. This was my conclusion – you were a great idea God had! He was there when each of us struggled to take our first breath. See Ezekiel 16:6: “And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood ‘LIVE!…”

We started this life with God pronouncing life into us, and Jesus Himself told us in John 10:10: “…I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”‘Life, life and MORE LIFE.’ Please don’t ever use your life experiences, the good or the bad or the mediocre ones, as a yardstick for how the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit feel about you. They are incredibly passionate about you. The bible itself clearly tells us we are destined to be filled with LIFE. His life. That kind of life is called Zoe. ‘Zoe’ life refers to the uncreated, eternal life of God, the divine life uniquely possessed by God Himself, and He shares that life with us.

We were designed to live our lives, here and now, filled with that life. This is blessing, this gift, is part of the Holy Spirit’s ministry to each one of us. We don’t just yield our lives to Him so we can be guided by His Will, His Way. When we actively live His Will, His Way we are partaking of Father God’s ‘Zoe’ life. Jesus lived on this earth like that. He was so full of life it was almost like sparks flew off Him everywhere He went. 

One time God lifted the curtain between Jesus and His disciples and 3 of them saw what that life in Him looked like – it made them almost speechless. Matthew 17:1-2:“After six days Jesus took with Him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.” It is time to think bigger than just the same old same old life that we plod through day after day. Life is so much more than the mundanities we’ve accepted. Jesus took ordinary fishermen and made them disciples, and those guys turned the known world upside down!

Our Father has so much more in His heart when He made each one of us. I have had this phrase running around in my Spirit for months now. “BIGGER STILL!!” I think it is important to refuse to put a lid on what you think the Lord can do with your life. He’s God! He made a man from dirt, and a woman from a rib, then He breathed His Zoe life into both of them. Everything we can see around us, was once a creative idea that came from within Who He is… But there’s MORE!!…

Here is another way to think about the troubles you face daily:  “Father God is bigger than this thing that keeps coming at me. He can show me the way through everything that is going on around me, as well as the stuff going on inside my head and heart. I’m just going to lay back and let Him be God, and I’ll be a wholly yielded lover of Jesus, on this ride called, life.” Bye. 🕊️

P 3081 Priorities.

/ DVH

My title today seems to be the catch cry of this world we live in, people are practically lining up to take over our priorities: “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think He’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do His best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way He works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how He works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.”Matthew 6:33 MSG.

Isn’t this a lovely version of this scripture? Here’s another version of the same scripture, from the Good News bible: “Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what He requires of you, and He will provide you with all these other things.” This verse reminds us that priorities are important. It is my belief that we have accidentally let our own personal human priorities take precedent over God’s Kingdom business. Now here is my third version of the same verse from Matthew: “So above all, constantly seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness, then all these less important things will be given to you abundantly.”

The secret to this verse is highlighted for me with the words “less important.” Which leads me into assessing how important God Himself is in my life. Is He more important than whether the sun is shining or not? Is He more important than what’s for breakfast? Is He more important than my job? Giving God first priority means we will discover a whole other way to look at everything around us. I think Jesus picked flowers etc. as an illustration because that stuff is beautiful, but fleeting.   

God is a giver, He gives us … Himself, His Son and …time. Time to worship the Lord. Time to say that thing you always meant to tell your spouse. Time to say I love you, you are my friend. Time to be glad to have somewhere to sleep and something to eat. Did you wake up today? Me too! 🤣 That means that God has given us another day. Some people didn’t wake up this morning, but we did! What are we going to do with this day? I truly believe the focus we choose is the thing that steers us from day to day. Our God is not thundering from Mount Sinai — He is whispering inside our hearts. When He is our focus He tells us clearly that we don’t have to worry about anything else. Well, there’s a blessing! “This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

I am learning not to project my time into tomorrow, otherwise I start to worry what I will do about this and that, and usually those worries are fears, not real things. My point is this:  I don’t have tomorrow … I may leave here and wake up there overnight! I think that’s why the Lord told us: “so do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34. Lately some of my days appear to have a fair share of difficulties, so that means that I will deliberately have to choose to put all those worrisome things down, simply because He told me to do it.

God made flowers, plants, trees etc and we know that He looks after them, but the book says —He loves US MORE!! Let that sink in a bit. He called you, by your name, you are not a minor member of the faceless crowd to Him. You are special to Him simply because you are you. His heart is sooo big it is more than big enough to take ALL of us IN. When we worry about tomorrow or what might happen, it means we’ve forgotten that His thoughts are always toward us. It’s kind of insulting really. We often lose our time to something that is not worthy of our attention. He made everything around us, and He will not forget us. We need to actively remember WHO HE IS and how much He cares for us.

Our earthly father may have been absent, busy, or just absent minded. He may have been switched on most of the time – or off. Those sad facts cannot override the fact that God is always ON and He is always interested in every single detail of our lives. When He mentions flowers which are transitory things, He is saying that nothing is too small for Him to care about. If it happens to YOU — He cares about it. I’ve found it is healthy to live each day I am given with eternity in mind. I think that’s what Matthew 6:33 is about.

However, God is not our head housekeeper, or a concierge, He isn’t with us to facilitate our lives and run them like clockwork! Emmanuel means God with us, so we are never alone. Maybe nobody else knows that we spend our days weeping over our heartaches. Or maybe soldiering on regardless – numbing our senses to cope with the pain that this life continually produces — but He knows. He does not want His precious people starved of love and meaning in their lives. That’s why He came here. 

Taking care of our day to day priorities can squeeze out the very life of God within us. Before we know it we are treating Him like an obligation, or, even worse … SomeBody Who is too hard to relate to. If that happens, go back to reading the Gospels and watch the way Jesus treats people, how He interacts with them. He is our priority because God made us His priority. Bye.👋

P 3066 Position yourself to catch the Wind.

/ DVH

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If you truly want to follow Me, you should at once completely reject and disown your own life. And you must be willing to share My cross and experience it as your own, as you continually surrender to My ways.” Matthew 16:24 TPT. I believe the secret to this verse is in the words: ”if you TRULY want to follow Me.” 

This thought is repeated in Luke 9:23-24 TPT: “Jesus said to all of His followers, “If you TRULY desire to be My disciple, you must disown your life completely, embrace My ‘cross’ as your own, and surrender to My ways. For if you choose self-sacrifice, giving up your lives for My glory, you will discover true life. But if you choose to keep your lives for yourselves, you will lose what you try to keep.”

We often look at our actions, we don’t often look at our aims, desires or wants. So we can quickly feel broken-hearted when we know we’ve failed the Lord. Especially if we revise the things that miss the mark. Those self-accusations won’t help us to follow Him. If you and I think we have messed up too much, we will start to AVOID Him, not follow Him! 

Meanwhile, that is not what He is saying here. Our wants and desires matter to Him. But it is LOVE that is meant to lead us into the place of obedience. Forcing ourselves, creates resistance. I think this means we need to change our primary focus – don’t look to other people for that kind of love, look to Jesus. Then BE the person you need others to be to you!  Read His book like a love letter. Go to the Lord and tell Him that you want to be close to Him, that you long to make Him your heart’s primary desire, but your flesh is weak. Tell Him you need His help. Then let the Holy Spirit be your Personal Coach and follow His instructions – they are in the book.

There are things that make us feel guilty – whether the guilt is real or not. But until they are confessed and dealt with and put aside …we can easily rationalise away the real issues and start fighting the Wind…literally! A kite doesn’t try to fly – it simply positions itself to catch the wind! The Holy Spirit is the wind beneath our wings.  I may not need what you need right now. I may need His loving discipline, but you could need a hug! Christianity is not ‘one size fits all!’ 

We have a Saviour Who personalised everything He did and said as He ministered to individuals. He didn’t go digging around in the coal cellar of people’s hearts, He accurately touched the sore spot in there, and then put His love and truth in its place. When a dumb thing came out of someone’s mouth – He addressed it. The secret to living a day-by-day Godly life, is check out internally what we are aiming at. If I choose to follow Jesus, then I will put down anything else that stands in my way.

Jesus is telling us here, that we cannot follow Him and still live a selfish, greedy, angry life. Those things do not work together. Walking in Love is the Answer. He lived His life showing us the way to follow Him. But the Lord will not beat anyone up because we are not dead to ourselves. And if we analyse our every thought and move that will just take up our precious time. Instead we need to be thanking Him, for all He has done and Who He is. It’s about our focus and our focus must be His love FOR US.

He has done all of the work, all the heavy lifting. In these scriptures He is saying… to achieve what we want, death to self is the only way. He’s pointing to the direction we simply must take. We can’t step into what He has given us through guilt, reprisal or condemnation. He loved us, walking right into death and then He went through that into a new life. That action has given us unfettered access to His heart. The Holy Spirit will lead us, and help us for free, we simply need to let Him have His Way. It takes faith. Jesus has told us what the results will be if we choose to live this life not following Him. 

Because of what the Lord did, we cannot afford to let condemnation strangle us anymore. Kick it off. Tell those thoughts you want to follow the Lord — that filthy snake can’t lead you anywhere but down the drain! Love is our Leader now. Jesus knows we are weak. OH!… but He is so strong! He can get us through anything, including our own weaknesses. He’s with us, as one of us. He is our Friend that is closer than a brother. And He has sent us His most cherished Helper – the Holy Spirit. He created each one of us. He knows what needs to be changed and when it needs changing. 

Whenever love prevails, our responses will be different. When we feel empowered, and safe;  His acceptance and Love gives us room to grow, without pressure. The decision to follow Him is difficult because it means we don’t call the shots anymore. But we are giving that power over to SomeOne Who put up His hand and said: “I see those sins My brother or sister committed, It’s all real. It hurt and destroyed other people. But kill Me instead of them. LET THEM LIVE!!” 

The Holy Spirit wants to guide us through any potholes, pits, and mudslides of this life, into a new way to live. Catch the precious Wind of Love and start your adventure with God Himself. Bye.👋

P 2943 Signs of spiritual death

/ DVH

1. Lack of breathing –

We can easily ‘run out of breath’ as we walk with the Lord, especially when we do things in our own strength. Genesis 2:7:“And the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.” Without the Holy Spirit’s breath on and in us – we will die. He is the breath of life and He is our new best Friend. John 15:5 says:“We can do NOTHING without Him.”

2.Pupils fixed and dilated –

I don’t know about you but nothing ‘fixes my pupils’ like watching TV or playing a video game! You can stare at it for hours and lose half your life doing absolutely nothing! Matthew 13:13:“This is the reason I speak to the crowds in parables: because while [having the power of] seeing they do not see, and while [having the power of] hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand and grasp [spiritual things].” We need new eyes to see and new ears to hear. Ephesians 1:18 says: “… the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, …”

3. No heart beat –

Hearts grow cold and stop functioning when we hold onto grudges, or bitterness toward others, we short-circuit the new life blossoming within. Ezekiel 36:26-27: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” When we are born again we are given a brand new heart – we need to watch over our hearts. Proverbs 23:26 states: “My child, give Me your heart and let your eyes delight in My ways,…”

4. Rigor mortis – stiff and cold –

Boy this one is far too easy, we can become so accustomed to other people’s hardships we don’t see them anymore. The passion of God thrives in a ‘red hot heart.’ Jesus said in John 10:10b:” I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”We cease to really live this new life when we stop following Him. Matthew 24:12 says: “And the love of the great body of people will grow cold because of the multiplied lawlessness and iniquity, …”

5. No response when shouted at and shaken – 

Some people once heard God Himself speak, but they only heard His voice as thunder because their hearts were far from Him. Romans 13:11 states:“And this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for NOW is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”The repeated, every day rhythms mean we are often lulled off to sleep. We need to be awake at all times, because temptation can sneak up on us. Ephesians 5:14-16: “This is why it is said:“Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”

6. Cells and organs start to die –

Our relationships with other Christians get weaker and weaker. Church becomes a chore to be performed, instead of a meeting place of refreshment. Psalm 118:17 says: “I will not die, but live, And declare the works and recount the illustrious acts of the LORD.” Our destiny is not to live ‘dead’ lives, but to be living testaments to the goodness of our God. John 15:1&2. “I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser. Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit [that stops bearing] He cuts away (trims off, takes away); and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit.”

7. The blood has ceased to flow –

We stop even thinking about the state of our spirit and just keep right on doing the same old same old, every day —one thing following another. Hebrews 9:14 explains, the blood of Christ, shed for our sake, cleanses  “… our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”1 John 1:7 states: “but if we [really] walk in the Light [that is, live each and every day in conformity with the precepts of God], as He Himself is in the Light, we have [true, unbroken] fellowship with one another [He with us, and we with Him], and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin [by erasing the stain of sin, keeping us cleansed from sin in all its forms and manifestations].” 

I urge us all to live this life, the only one we have, in the cleansing flow of His blood, filled with His Spirit.  Our new life in Christ transforms everything that would make us into ‘zombie’ Christians, as we leave our old dead life behind us. Wherever we go – His glory follows us instead. Don’t be caught DEAD with these spiritual ‘signs.’ 🤣 Bye for today. 

P 2710 ‘Have good day, make good choices!’

/ DVH

“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:6-8.”Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”Luke 6:38.

Did you get that? If you want MORE of God – then give MORE to God! Our generosity or lack thereof, can limit the blessings God has flowing toward us like a river. They will float on by us and we won’t notice them. Meanwhile, He says we will have everything we need – not necessarily everything we WANT! But we can always ask – He’s a very generous Father.  At first glance these scriptures appear to be about monetary giving – but I also associate these verses with the way we live. Let me explain:  our LIVES are also our tithes and offerings. This means that we choose to serve others, 24/7. All day every day. Are you cheered up yet? 

If you are a parent you will know that there is no such thing as a part-time carer for your brand new infant. New parents walk about looking like zombies for months and months, and sometimes years! They accept that no sleep etc is part of the deal. Now if you are a nurse, bus driver, IT specialist, accountant, father, sales assistant, then your employment – the way you use your days – are not bigger than your primary calling as His child. EG You are not a nurse and a Christian … you are a nurse who IS a Christian.

Belonging to HIM is our first priority. Not our families, not our friends, not work-mates, not even our own relaxation. We have chosen Him, so we have chosen to serve Him! Yay! And we do that by serving Him and others, every single day. We give our love, our time, our efforts, our insights, our kindness, our patience AWAY, all the time. There is no such thing as a part-time Christian because there is no off button. We live this life sowing blessings and being one!

Meanwhile, burn-out is a symptom of not yet knowing all we can about how to REST in Him. I am not condemning anyone for it, I am just saying that this condition is a diagnostic tool of how much self-effort we are putting into doing what the Lord wants. We need to continually remember that ‘His yoke is EASY … His burden is …LIGHT.’ That’s not just a pretty word picture — it is a way to live! We simply must progressively let Him inhabit every single area of our lives or we will not be living this life, our only life, in His Presence. That’s where the power of God resides, IN HIS PRESENCE. That’s how Jesus lived!! Yes, it is costly, just like giving away money you need is costly, but the results have results in other people’s lives.

The verse from 2 Corinthians above, shows us we cannot live this way by force. We must choose and we choose over and over again. Otherwise we will either become incredibly angry and extremely rebellious — or we will quit Christianity and wander off into the wilderness, complaining our heads off and eating quails until they make us sick to our stomach. The Lord knows we are all weak – that’s why He promised to be our strength! Because we are HIS we have access to His perfection, which is what that verse in 2 Corinthians 12:9 says:“His strength is made perfect in our weakness…” or we can settle for little, instead of much. My premise today is this we cannot lose when we give! “God is no man’s debtor…”

We all love Jesus. But it’s probably pretty clear to everyone around us one way or another that we are not perfected yet, However we’ve chosen to follow Him and now we are straining to reach the goal. Are we always cheerful about it? Not always. But that lack of cheerfulness is a sign that we are in a process.  We don’t have to get it right, we just have to stay on the path – using our choices! (Repent and repair, remember?) And then we ask for His help to take every single opportunity He sends our way to choose Him all over again. When we choose Him and His ways – we are doing everything for HIM! ‘Whatsoever you do, do it with all your heart as though you were doing it for the Lord.’

We totally give Him our lives because He totally gave us HIS, first. He will guide, help, comfort, lead and teach us. If we sow sparingly into His kingdom and Jesus is not the centre of everything we do, then we will miss the blessing of provision He has for His kids. Only eyes of faith can see some blessings, because wrong attitudes block our eyes and ears. I once heard a mother say to her child: “Have a good day, make good choices.’ Amen! Bye. 👋