Adoration

P 2853 Be real.

/ DVH

Hi! You know, there are times that we like to quote the verse “with God all things are possible …” especially when we need the Lord to do something impossible on our behalf! Being real means we see Him change impossible things in our lives, every single day. Yet, most of the time, we merrily roll along ignoring change, hoping the guy who annoys us will change instead! We only drag out our faith first thing in the morning and last thing at night, as well as on Sundays, and maybe for prayer meetings. OR we crank it up for those desperate times when the emergency bell is clanging away in our lives, and something has happened that we can’t fix!

Ticking off spiritual boxes is a way to appear to be spiritual. Many Christians seem to be totally unaware that we are knee-deep in practising living with the appearance of goodness – without embracing the substance of the kind of change that will transform us. And consequently, we affect the lives of every one else around us. Unfortunately living like that is like a great looking apple that’s been in the cool store too long. On the outside it looks fine but inside it is all brown and inedible. Real fruit is startling in its sweetness with every bite.

We can get by with hiding our faults from other people by going to church regularly, giving to the poor, never swearing, always being seen to do the right thing … but the truth is …if what we are doing is not coming from our hearts, then we actually need the kind of repentance that is followed up by change — not play-acting. Here’s an astonishing and amazing thought: GOD LOVED US WHEN WE WERE YET SINNERS! Pretending, or keeping up appearances, is a waste of whatever precious time we actually have on this earth. His love will never withdraw from us – actually most of the time, we withdraw from Him. Humbly admitting our faults to each other clears up the idea that we are somehow perfect. It is a much safer place to stand.

My point for today is that we always need to be real. Let’s not live our lives pretending to be something we aren’t just so we can fit in. Be yourself, warts and all. Let the One Who has changed men and women’s hearts since the dawn of time operate on your heart. One of the most valuable graces we can embrace – besides repentance, and obedience – is honesty with ourselves. The truth is, we don’t have to be afraid of sin anymore, because Jesus paid it all! So now there is no reason to hide. Hiding from His love is counterproductive – the power for us to change comes through receiving His unconditional love and forgiveness, and then giving it away to others. If we hide we short-circuit this process.

Today I want to briefly look at a woman who threw herself down on the floor at Jesus’ feet, at a dinner party. To start with – she wasn’t invited! And for her efforts the rest of the crowd judged her, plus they judged the Lord as well! But like I said before – HE looks at hearts! “She has been forgiven of all her many sins. This is why she has shown me such extravagant love. But those who assume they have very little to be forgiven will love me very little.”” Luke 7:47 TPT. The result of diminishing our sin is this: we miss out on understanding how much love HE gives us and how much worship He deserves!


Dismissing sin’s very real consequences produces ongoing bad results. To start with, we lose gratefulness. This dear woman did not care what others thought, she knew she needed to be right with God more than she needed their approval! She poured out all she had on His feet in repentance, and total adoration. And the Lord saw her and received her. Her honesty gained her an audience with the King and a chance to worship Him. Who doesn’t want that?

Here’s something I have learnt, over the years … Instead of spewing out my anger or withdrawing from people who hurt me …kindness, mercy and forgiveness opens amazing unseen new doors. Those doors lead to refreshing changes, and deeper relationships. Instead of minimising our faults, and accenting someone else’s sins against us – releasing loving forgiveness takes us out of any hot-headed drama and puts us squarely back into His kingdom.

It will cost us, of course. Worthwhile things are costly – just like that alabaster box. But our transformed attitudes in those moments become like that perfume that was released to the Lord. Jesus is not concerned with sin anymore – now He wants us all to move on into the freedom that flourishes in His Father’s kingdom. When I set you free, I get freedom too, whether you pick up your share or not! Learning to be real about who we are, plus who we are not —removes the weights and burdens we’ve tied on ourselves.

“Those whom the Son has set free, shall be free indeed.” These people will be free to enjoy who God made them to be. We can pick up a lot of dumb stuff in this life, and some of it comes from when we are too tiny to block it out. Let God Himself heal you and reveal how He sees you. Learn to be real. Nobody else can do YOU like YOU can! Bye. 👋

P 2534 Not just saved from, we are saved … FOR!

/ DVH

“But you are God’s chosen treasure —priests who are kings, a spiritual “nation” set apart as God’s devoted ones. He called you out of darkness to experience His marvellous light, and now He claims you as His very own. He did this so that you would broadcast His glorious wonders throughout the world. For at one time you were not God’s people, but now you are. At one time you knew nothing of God’s mercy, because you hadn’t received it yet, but now you are drenched with it!” 1 Peter 2:9-10 TPT.

Drenched! What a word that is. It means – ‘wet thoroughly; soaked.’ I think that this word illustrates that we have been totally saturated in His Love … forever. When I think about what Jesus did for us, in spite of all of our wilful ways, it still blows my mind. I’ve done some stuff I’m not proud of in my life, and now it is under His blood, thank you Lord!  Thank God He is so much wiser than I will ever be, He saw our sins and dealt with them over 2000 years ago.  🙌

However He did not simply save us from all our sinful appetites and proclivities, He saved you and I for His purposes. There is a world of difference right there — between from and for. It is one thing to be rescued, but it is entirely another thing to be rescued … for a purpose, and in this case, you and I were rescued for His higher purpose!  We’ve been given a calling, identity and purpose. Feel free to cheer!!

I cannot begin to imagine how God would want to take ordinary people and call us kings and priests. However, I think that someone like King David is a great illustration of that fact. It worked in his life like this. David was no-one. In the pecking order of society in those days – he was way down the bottom. Yet he was chosen, by God, to be king. We need to remember that this young man had no birthright to that throne. But he was still chosen to lead Israel. 

Now, if we take my illustration over into life in the 21st century … sometimes our hearts aren’t in the best order, maybe not always on the up and up? … So Almighty God sent His Son to change our hearts forever. The power for us to change the way we think and act toward Him, and others, was released on that cross. And the proof that Jesus Christ Himself had the power to do that for us – is seen in the resurrection and the arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The best thing we can do, is to let Him do what He wants with our lives. After all, now we know that the bible lays that change out like a map! 

The thing is, we must actively choose to come out of the darkness all around us and stand there in His marvellous light – daily. That clear holy light can be very daunting – nothing can hide there, trust me! But because Jesus gave mankind HIS standing as a free gift, we have been given His power to overcome and His purity. His exchange changed everything. Now, Almighty God’s calls us His very own. And that’s worthy of praise! 

So it is easy to think we are sort of, kind of, OK – but that is because in this life, we are not standing next to absolute purity and total dedication to God’s ways and will. If Jesus Christ walked into our space and time in all His glory and splendour – we’d be on our faces in a split second! In our world today, there are people I know that are incredibly genuine in their love for Christ, but they don’t particularly see themselves in a good light. As a matter of fact, they hardly see themselves at all! They are way too busy gazing at Him and enjoying the view! It seems to me that gazing at Him is the best place to be. 

Our God honours mankind because of Christ. He now calls us His treasure. How could any of us be worthy of that? In order to appreciate what God did for us, we must lift our eyes up — from the one who is being blessed — us … to the One Who is doing the blessing… the Lord! Grace bent down and lifted you and I up into a place we will never deserve. In order to stand in that place we need to focus on HIM, not just our little lives. Focussing on ourselves just sets us up for a fall. Focussing on Jesus sets us up for adoration.

We must stop giving any room to our sins. And instead look at the One Who delivered us. Because of Jesus we’ve been saved FROM that person we used to be. Not because of what we do, or who we are – but because of His incredible generosity. Love Himself looked down on mankind from that cross. Today, we need to remember that we’ve been saved FOR a higher purpose – we’ve been given the privilege of reflecting His love into our world. Let’s not be a muddy MIRROR. 👋

P 2440 How do we smell to others?

/ DVH

“Be imitators of God in everything you do, for then you will represent your Father as His beloved sons and daughters. And continue to walk surrendered to the extravagant love of Christ, for He surrendered His life as a sacrifice for us. His great love for us was pleasing to God, like an aroma of adoration—a sweet healing fragrance.” Ephesians 5:1-2 TPT

Jesus Christ is the perfect role model – He is what active Love smells like! We can have this strange man-made idea of what love should smell, or even look like …depending on our personal needs, or favourite perfume, flower or plant. Christ’s love smells like obedient sacrificial death. It was His unconditional devotion to His Father’s will on our behalf, that was a beautiful fragrance to Father God. Jesus Christ conquered death, by what He voluntarily did, and that heavenly aroma is pleasing to God. Not the smell of death, BTW .. but the smell of sacrifice.

The Lord accomplished everything He did for us by that total obedience, plus He treasured every word that came out of His Father’s mouth. He acted on every single one of those words — even when it killed Him. Christ’s faith in our heavenly Father’s goodness, and His ability to bring life out of death was not only complete, it went into places we cannot begin to imagine. Right into the depths of man’s depravity, despair, indifference and disobedience. Jesus conquered it all – with a vibrant living faith founded on God’s truth. The smell in heaven must have been incredible on Resurrection Sunday!

And Jesus Christ passed that incredibly perfumed blazing torch onto US. “For WE are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 2:15-17. We smell like LIFE to those who are perishing in their sins!

We are definitely not perfume salesmen. Instead, I think that we are His perfume bottles. Some of us are short ordinary looking bottles and some of us are amazing feats of glass. That bit does not matter – it is what is inside those bottles that matters! It is the sweet fragrance of Christ that matters. The more we use our faith to obey His word, the more His perfume inside us is released, and then it becomes an appealing and sweet fragrance to God, and also toward others. 

Our living sacrifice of Love for Him, is precious incense toward Him. If you want to really worship God – present your body as a living sacrifice and follow that through! He trusts us to carry His sweet fragrance out into the world, where that glorious fragrance changes us and impacts others. Christ’s death was terrible to see, but it brought forth a fragrance that is still present all over this world today, in the hearts and lives of His laid-down lovers.

On another note, I want to take a brief moment to look at Esther. FYI, this young woman was already beautiful — that’s why she was chosen! For six months this lovely young woman was treated with oil and myrrh and for a further six months with perfumes and cosmetics. That was some beauty spa she went to!! After all that she was deemed ready to go to meet the king. (Esther 2:12) 

First of all, we can start cheering that we can go to our King Jesus with or without beauty(?) treatments, because His love toward all mankind is unconditional! We can come into His Presence whenever we like. After meeting Him, we can get spiritual beauty treatments from the Holy Spirit. They are optional, but effective.  Unlike Esther who had to get slathered and gussied up to even get into the room with King Xerxes!

At that time SomeOne just like the Holy Spirit came into her life, in the form of a eunuch named Hegai. That person knew exactly what Xerxes liked!Here are a couple of  brief sentences that I think have great significance in this true story. Esther 2:8&9: “Esther also was taken to the king’s palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem. She pleased him and won his favour. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food.”

I believe that Hegai is a quiet reflection of the nature of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Likewise the Holy Spirit knows exactly what our King likes. He knows what attitudes and actions etc. will please the Lord Jesus, and He is so happy to share those things with us. Everything is free, all we need to do is to obey whatever He says! Like Esther, all we must do is be prepared to take His advice. Spending time soaking in the precious things the Holy Spirit has provided for us, will bring the smell of heaven into our lives and distribute it out into the world around us. 🥰 👋🏻