active faith

P 3244 Father God is for us!

/ DVH

Isaiah 64:4,5a AMP. “For from days of old no one has heard, nor has ear perceived, Nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who works and acts in behalf of the one who [gladly] waits for Him. You meet him who rejoices in doing that which is morally right, Who remembers You in Your ways.”

Our Heavenly Father, clearly wants us to know His will – that’s why He gave us a book! In this book the Lord has put so many incredible testimonies of His activities – plus His interactions with very different people. We have a record of His people’s glorious victories, plus their ignominious defeats. Some people burst across the sky like a shooting star, others fizzled out like dying fireworks. At the same time we have a clear and comprehensive record of what Jesus is like, and what He valued most – His Father’s Presence and His Father’s will.

The part of this scripture I want to accentuate today is the bit that says: …”a God like You Who works for those who wait for Him.”  In every other world religion human beings have to do the work to achieve some sort of spirituality. But our God works for us, as we wait for Him… Let’s pause and reflect about that…the God of the Universe also waits for us to choose Him.. We can now see how important waiting is! Jesus has already done all the work for us – however, that does not mean we can coast along blowing smoke rings, drinking like a fish and doing whatever we like! Faith isn’t presumption, it is a deliberate interaction between a Holy God and His people. He has earned the right to tell us what to do – but He won’t make us. 

The bible tells us that the Jewish people waited several centuries for their Messiah — they were longing for Him to come, because He was the One prophesied Who would set all things right for them. But when Jesus came they didn’t recognise Him! His words and miracles caused a stir, but His only recognisable parade consisted of Him, sitting on a donkey. Perhaps the Israelites expected grandeur and excitement — but the Lord arrived without pomp or ceremony and He left the same way. That thought ought to teach us something about Almighty God. He is not averse to doing things in secret.… a-n-d … ya might want to think about that!

The church today desperately needs eyes to see Him, or we can totally miss whatever He is doing. Our fallibility to distraction is legendary! Only people with active faith, who are looking, waiting, and wanting Him, will notice whatever He does. Here’s a little bit of advice … be very wary of anyone who tells you they know what’s coming next. The bible tells us that no-one knows the time or the hour of things like the Second Coming. The first time around, Jesus came and went and many people did not even identify Him. Like I said, our God is great at keeping things secret! 

Back in His time, ordinary people saw those miracles, they probably even ate the multiplied bread and fish … but what happened did not touch their hearts. We have to leave our hearts open to hear from Him – continually hitting the refresh button, even when it comes to reading the bible. One of Jesus’ twelve disciples did not appear to understand His ministry and purpose, despite the fact that this man walked around with Him for over three years! Our biggest danger as Christians is that we read in the bible about what He wants us to do, but then we go out and continue to live our lives thinking we can postpone our response, without applying these truths to ourselves! That is not how you get to know Him.

Our God loves loyal people, and at the same time, He cherishes each personal relationship with every one of us. It isn’t about praying at Him – it is about enjoying the time we spend with Him. Awareness of His goodness needs to be present with us in the everyday hustle and bustle we face. As we honour His wishes, by living the Way He has asked us to live, we will keep His Presence before our eyes. Everyday life gets bigger when we choose to make Him a part of it! Even the fact that the Lord has given us a choice in these things, is such an incredible privilege. Think about it. He made us, He quite obviously could have used force, yet He didn’t. Instead, He woos us with His loving kindness. Our choices reflect how much we take Him seriously as our Lord and Saviour.

Other so-called gods threaten people or lull them into a false sense of security. They appeal to physicality, or mental gymnastics – concepts and words that seem to have truth in them, manageable stuff!  But God’s truth always leaves me astonished. His way of looking at other people goes right round my brain! Some of the things that are done in the name of other gods are meaningless, even brutal, or vicious, self-serving and demanding. Eventually those things impinge upon the person’s freedom, not to mention scaring people half to death with their reprisal threats!  Father God cherishes our freedom to choose – He respects our choices even when they are not good for us. 

Let’s live like this: “And so, dear brothers and sisters, you are now made holy, and each of you is invited to the feast of your heavenly calling. So fasten your thoughts fully onto Jesus, Whom we embrace as our Apostle and King-Priest.” Hebrews 3:1 TPT. Our God is not like any other – our Heavenly Father is for us. What other god would die in place of His followers so they can have the freedom to choose Him …or not? Bye. 👋

P 3230 Active faith is essential.

/ DVH

The Lord Himself chose the Israelites to be His own people, and He chose Israel as the place for His precious Son to be born. When you read the book, it is incredibly obvious that the Jewish people were not perfect. Ps neither are we!!… The entire bible is a demonstration of how people related to Almighty God and the way He responded to them.  Jesus Christ, God wrapped in human flesh, is our revealed illustration of our Father’s will and love for ALL mankind. 

The story of God Himself and His Ways with men, is a two-part story, lovingly and truthfully disclosed by the Holy Spirit. The New Testament does not replace the Old, it completes it! In the New Testament, at the beginning of the Lord’s ministry, Jesus’ mother told the servants who came to serve fresh wine this: the wine that Jesus miraculously transformed – “WHATEVER HE SAYS TO YOU, DO IT.” That’s our mandate. Obedient actions, made and acted upon in faith, as we follow the Holy Spirit, will transform our minds and soften our hearts. 

“This is why the Holy Spirit says, “If only you would LISTEN to His voice this day! Don’t make Him angry by hardening your hearts, like your ancestors did during the days of their rebellion, when they were tested in the wilderness. There your fathers tested Me and tried My patience even though they saw My miracles for forty years they still doubted Me! This ignited My anger with that generation and I said about them, ‘They wander in their hearts just like they do with their feet, and they refuse to learn My ways.’ My heart grieved over them so I decreed: ‘They will not enter into My rest!’ ”  Hebrews 3:7-11. 

What did the Jewish people do that made God angry? They ignored Him, rejected His Ways, and hardened their hearts with disobedience. They chose to indulge and control their own destiny, and make themselves at home with other more controllable gods. We can’t afford to follow their example. Almighty God has incredible plans for each one of us to make all our lives better in ways we cannot imagine. Why am I saying this? Because the bible says in 1 Corinthians 2:9: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love Him—“

We definitely cannot imagine what kind of life we would have if only every time somebody raised their voice or were spiteful to us, we chose to give away His love instead! If you add to that, the fact that He never responds the same way twice, we cannot live without the Holy Spirit to leading us! Sadly our negative experiences often take over and poison our thinking against change. We need His power to open our eyes to understand exactly what His Love, in us, for us, and through us … will actually DO TO US. And that’s where Jesus becomes the very best illustration we can ever have! His Presence on this earth transformed other people’s lives forever. 

Most of us have experienced the worst of mankind’s attitudes and actions, and that negative stuff has so seared into our brains and emotions, we can’t even begin to imagine God’s kind of goodness. Many times we think we already know the outcome to things that we have not yet experienced, personally. Let’s not follow the Israelites down that dead end road of unbelief in His goodness – let’s simply choose to believe and live and act on what Jesus taught us! 

The Jewish people themselves continually experienced so much goodness – God’s deliverance, His provision, but they couldn’t see the bigger picture – because they hardened their hearts against Him, and willingly applied their own view. They were slaves to their immediate position. Their fear of change negated the possibilities of new revelations. We need to allow the Lord to continually deal with our own hearts, so our receiver works! 

Having said all that, I want to quickly look at something that illustrates the incredible generosity of God and what the possibility of change looked like in the life of Abraham. Abraham gives us a brilliant example of what obedience means to God. He gave this man righteousness, because of Abraham’s active faith – he was an old man, old people like comfort. What did he do? He followed God and took the Lord at His Word! This man’s faith changed his life choices, and he became the father of our faith. You can read it about in Genesis 15. 

In Romans 4, we can also read that God Himself declared Abraham in right standing with Himself not because of perfect deeds, but because of his complete trust in GOD HIMSELF. As Christians we don’t just want the appearance of goodness in our hearts, we want the kind of transformation that has His power in it! Genuine faith leads to obedient actions – and Abraham clearly shows us how powerfully an ordinary life can change. Then Jesus came along and illustrated His own perfect obedience, unto death. Death is also a needed part of obedience.

The bible teaches us that in order to please God we must die to the kind of life we want, in order for Him to progressively enliven us into His purposes. It is not enough to say, “I will die for you Lord,” and then turn around and go away from that moment, and continue to live this life, our only life here, doing whatever WE want. That’s called paying lip service.  We ALL need active faith – like Jesus Himself had and only the Holy Spirit knows what that will mean in our daily lives. Bye. 👋

P 3178 Our thoughts.

/ DVH

Most despairing attitudes start in our thought-life. However when we take the time to pay attention to what we are thinking, we can exchange those thoughts for Who He is and how much He loves us! His love is the only constant thing this world has! It is a matter of choice, not a matter of proof. Do we believe what He says or how we feel. The more we know what the truth is — the bigger our opportunity is to be blessed, because we have come to know personally, intimately, a greater reality. 

These two seemingly opposite things, like hardship and blessings can co-exist. Pain, heartache, and sorrow, can be present at the same time as our knowledge of Who He is and how much we are loved by Him. Open the bible and find a scripture that helps, and then hold fast to it.  His love is always greater than the circumstances. When these things fall upon us, we need to learn to insist, purely for our own good. The Lord Jesus outweighs the things that come against us to try to drown us in our problems. He is bigger than anything we might face. Yelling ‘help,’ helps me! And no, I don’t always do that out loud!!

When we are under any sort of duress, we need to deliberately read the bible to remind ourselves of His kind of love. At the moment when you feel you can’t – you must! His love is so good, so faithful, so steadfast, that as we read, we will come to a place where we feel the darkness recede … don’t stop there, keep going. The enemy is pushing you, push back! If we fall into something testing or tormenting we know that He will help us. He says so! The Holy Spirit, the One Who comes alongside us, will kiss us back to life again. This is when our faith in God’s goodness has an opportunity to grow. Jesus died to give us that choice!

Faith needs to be tested otherwise it will not have depth. There is a stronger kind of faith that has been tried and tested and come through all kinds of difficulties with even more gratitude and worship. I know people who have this kind of faith. All kinds of hardship are actually fertile ground, fertilised by our surrender and our active faith that He is bigger than anything else. Being tested, and pushing on, can only deepen what we already know about Him! We cannot trust the Lord completely until what we believe has had our beliefs tested and shaken, so that all the unbelief falls off. Then we’ll discover that He is more than able to keep us.

If we choose to continue to follow and submit to Him even when we feel we cannot find our way—we will get through whatever is shaking our world, and come out of the other side – whether the situation changes or not.. Let’s make the immediate choice to look up and see that dear face of His so close to us. He knows all about pain and suffering and sorrow – personally. He understands it is hard – personally! At the same time the Holy Spirit will comfort us, and teach us that we can rely upon the very real fact that He will never leave us or forsake us. 

The Lord is closest to us whenever we feel devastated and alone. We have His promises. The question is, do we believe what He says, over and above what we can see with our own eyes or hear with our own ears? Hebrews 13:5b,6. “Never will I leave you;  never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my Helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” Did you see what that verse says? ‘So we SAY with confidence …’  At this point I start speaking to my soul, like the Psalmist told us: I tell my soul to ”… hope in God!” (Psalm 42:11.)

Now let’s look at James 1:2-4 – “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colours. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” James says that the thing we often desperately want to wriggle out of, is a GIFT. Because under pressure we are forced to face what we lack! When you know what you don’t have, you can target it with repentance and scriptures. Start by identifying what you are feeling: ‘I’m angry;  I’m afraid;  I’m jealous;  I am in despair.’  We no longer need to be afraid to diagnose the places in our hearts that lack — Jesus died for that lack. All we are doing is working with the One Who was sent to help us through!

Finally, we begin to realise that there is even something greater at stake than our immediate sense of comfort or peace of mind. That is God’s Kingdom blooming and blossoming in us. Hebrews 10:35-36 “Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.”  Don’t choke in the hard bits – press through – grab hold of Jesus and hang on!

His kingdom will begin to be revealed through your life, simply because it is our destiny to bring the kingdom with us. The gospels are not some sort of fairy story with a happily ever-after ending. They end in the death of the HERO. But – His resurrection ushered us into a whole new kind of world. His world has love in its centre and it is filled with hope and faith. OUR world has things in it that can be stolen or broken, but His kingdom is an incredible storage unit, we can deposit our precious families etc. with the Lord, where this world can’t get at them.

Our thoughts are so important, they can turn the ship of our lives into the wind, to be moved by our beloved Holy Spirit – HE knows where we are going and what we will need to get there!  Bye. 👋

P 3057 This is what obedience looks like.

/ DVH

Acts 9:10-15:“Now there was in Damascus a disciple named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias. And he answered, Here am I, Lord. And the Lord said to him, Get up and go to the street called Straight and ask at the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying [there]. And he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias enter and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight. But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard many people tell about this man, especially how much evil and what great suffering he has brought on Your saints at Jerusalem; Now he is here and has authority from the high priests to put in chains all who call upon Your name. But the Lord said to him, Go, for this man is a chosen instrument of Mine to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the descendants of Israel; …”

My first thought when I read this verse this morning was this: ‘Oy vey… there are times I baulk at the Lord asking me to do something simple!’ Ananias was a brave and extremely honest man. I love that he told the Lord Himself about his objections. I particularly love the bit where he said:“I could get dead Lord! He’s been killing people like me everywhere.” Ya gotta love an honest man. He was scared and he said so … then he did it anyway.

You know in all my years with the Lord I have never ever had one person come to me about an Ananias-type vision? I’ve never even read a book, or heard a sermon preached about what that man did. It was based on sheer obedience. I’ve had loads of saints come to me, telling me that God said to them: ‘I am going to be a big-wig, an important prophet or a blah blah blah.’ One dear lady once said: ‘God has sent me as a missionary to the rich.’ I managed to restrain my hysterical laughter, and I didn’t even say: “How convenient!”  I was polite, until after she left. Then I prayed for her…. but I was still giggling. I’m a bad bad lady! 🤣

I am also a big fan of this ordinary man, Ananias. I call him the guy who didn’t want to…I like him because that happens to me a lot. Father God tells us we should go on another trip to the back of Burke and … I don’t want to! Nasty things sometimes happen to both of us – before, during and after. Plus I don’t like the inconvenience and the effort, and of course, the discomfort. I really like my own bed, a-n-d I also like to know where the toilet is … especially at 2.00am when I really don’t want to wake up yet! Trying to find the toilet and not wake up doing it, can be quite a feat at my age.

Back to my brother Ananias – meanwhile I have never seen a flannel graph about him! But nowadays, I think he is vastly under-rated. Because he is an excellent example for us. He shows us how to having active faith in God. This man had a truly great reason to not-want-to-do what God told him to do. After all, if you think about it, he could have started a petition. Gathering up signatures under two headings …The first heading being:‘I think God really did say that’… and the other one says: ’Don’t be ridiculous why would He say that?’  Now there’s an  interesting little exercise. But Ananias didn’t do that. He had his chat with the Lord and then he went and did what he was told. That’s obedience. Here’s a big revelation – God did not say FEEL LIKE doing it.

We have most of the New Testament, because Ananias obeyed, despite the looming consequences to his own life. The thing is, blind people can’t write so good… they can’t see what they are writing!! Plus there was no Braille! Paul might have remained blind if Ananias hadn’t obeyed. And so that’s the question I put to myself whenever I am faced with making the same decision to go travelling again. Who will we miss if we don’t go? I know the Lord has back-up, because HE is the back-up for all of us …  but it’s lovely to be there when the Holy Spirit does His thing, and you get to watch Him at work.

I think that’s my favourite part of obedience. Watching Jesus at work in someone else’s life and heart. That’s a private and sacred place, and so you kind of want to tippy-toe around, and not spoil what He is doing. However, the personal result of this course of action means that hubby and I will go somewhere where the toilets and sofas are ten centimetres off the floor, and the beds feel like a rock, plus hubby has to haul me up and down, in and out of chairs. We do all that in the hope that we will get to see the Holy Spirit do something incredible in someone else’s heart. It is a privilege… but it isn’t always fun. Then again — fun can be over-rated.

Doing what the Holy Spirit tells you to do, when you don’t want to do it, is hardly ever fun. Particularly at those times when you are wound up tighter than a grandfather clock;  complaining at someone else and suddenly He gently suggests you take a breath and step down. Or He nudges you when you see someone struggling to carry their groceries. Or perhaps He suggest you help the person who is stuck at the check-out scrabbling for coins, to pay for their groceries. But when He says: “Help them” …it can be hard. Especially when you were counting on that saved money to buy yourself those really cool sneakers!

Obedience looks like that. Hard decisions at difficult moments, when you aren’t even feeling spiritual!  Bye. 👋

P 2645 Faith is our way of life.

/ DVH

In many churches today we have grown to think of evangelism as outreach.  That brave, but weird guy who stands on the corner preaching is kind of embarrassing – so we secretly hurry by him. We don’t like to confront people, instead we invite a ‘special’ person with an evangelistic gift come to our church. Now our job is to ask everybody we can think of to those services so the man with that precious gift can present the Lord to others. Hey! That’s great – do it!…  BUT!! … … you just knew there was a ‘but’ coming eh?… What about the guy who sits in the next cubicle at work, or the person you see daily on the bus, or the parent you meet every day by the school’s gate??? 

When we think about reaching out to others perhaps we feel that we have no spare time to prepare ourselves? What with the kids, our spouse, our church, our job, our extended family, our friends, the gym, and our pets! Here’s something I have learnt. Don’t pray for anything unless you are prepared to be a part of the answer! God loves participation, He loves to do things with us. Everybody gets to join in. WE are His part of that answer to our prayers for the guy at work, or the person on the bus, or little Jimmy’s mum at the gate. 

We’ve forgotten that Jesus goes with US, everywhere we go …even to the school gate. Christ won’t ever leave us or forsake us — the bible says so! He is already standing right by the throne, praying for the person in the next cubical to ours, and the cubical next to that one etc.etc. He also knows the NAME of every single individual on that bus, or train. He knows Jimmy’s mum, and everything that happens at her house. He is limitless.He just needs an interested, available conduit to both pray AND speak.

“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect …” 1 Peter 3:15. Our job is to be ready to speak at any given moment. Hubby and I have found a fascinating thing, when we speak to one person, other people often ‘hover’ about eavesdropping around the edges! Jesus Christ is a great fan of ‘as you are going’ … He lived that way. Witnessing is a state of mind, a way of life, not a spiel we have memorised.

It kind of works like this: …you are praying for Jimmy’s mum and you meet her at the gate. She starts to tell you how Jimmy’s been a right pest lately and she is nearly insane trying to deal with his rudeness, and constant obsession with the internet, plus his grumpy moods, etc. etc. She says: ‘How do you get your Johnny to co-operate?’ You shrug your shoulders, roll your eyes, and say: “I have to pray about that all the time. Jesus helps me.” “If you confess Me before men then I will confess you before My Father.”You don’t have to go to that gate all primed up to speak to Jimmy’s mum – you just truthfully answer her questions.

After that I would leave that remark lying out there. Just tell Jimmy’s mum in your own words that you can’t manage Johnny or your life without God! And then leave it alone. It would be good to volunteer to pray for her and Jimmy if she wants you to. BTW the previous remarks are my suggestions to illustrate simplicity  – they are not a script anyone is meant to follow. The REAL secret is, don’t leave the Lord out of anything!  Tell Him you are on deck for what He wants at any given moment. We need to use our faith to be available to love on people, help them and tell them about the SOURCE of our help! 

Our faith is not meant to be a privacy issue … that’s this world’s idea of faith. Active faith is about the way we live. We simply need to be upfront and honest about what we believe. As we go along, other things will be added unto us, which means some stuff happens automatically when our faith is alive, active and central to everything else. That’s what seeking His kingdom first means. A part-time faith leaves room for confusion – you never know whether you should speak or not. That’s why it is good to always be ready to give an account of the faith that is within you.

For years Christians have been taught, and encouraged to think, that they have to be a perfect witness to the society around them. They have to look right, sound right and behave well everywhere under all circumstances. Good luck with doing that, without the Holy Spirit helping us! Sadly when we pretend with others, it actually becomes more difficult to be real with the Lord. Hiding becomes a habit. We stop talking to Him about our failures.

Meanwhile it is highly likely that other people can see through our pretence anyway!. And if they live next door to us, they probably hear us shouting at each other or the kids – on a very rare occasion, of course! 😂 Our whole life’s focus is Christ, what He did for everyone, and that cannot be a part-time pursuit. Faith is not just about salvation, it is the way we live now. “The just shall live by faith.”  Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38.  Bye 👋