Almighty God

P 2602 The learning curve increases!

/ DVH

One of the things I have been learning during this time on the road, is that things can get uncomfortable – even when you are doing what God has asked you to do! It’s a funny thing – it is easy to think that when the Lord asks you to do something it will all just flow along sweetly, kind of like a river. But the reality is that all rivers have snags and dry spots, they sometimes race along and other times they seem like they are hardly moving at all! 

We have a number of criteria for travel etc. that we need to meet, so that hubby is free to do what he does. He’s brilliant with people, and he doesn’t need to be concerned about my well-being while I am alone. This time I managed to do some dumb thing to one of my knees … old age and I are never gunna be friends! … so I have had to sit about a lot more than usual. The joy in this situation is that I have had the privilege of looking at some things that are very different than my own four walls at home. What a blessing it is to change my view! I’ll skip the not-so–nice parts OK?

So here’s my own personal lesson for today, it may or may not apply to you. I have found that allowing a grumpy, picky, intolerant attitude to remain in me, stops the flow of the Holy Spirit’s river in my own life. When we go on the road, there are just so many more things to get grumpy about. At home at my house, in my own comfort zone, I don’t get irritable much because … everything suits me. Believe me, it would be so easy, and soooooo nice to think that that content happy person is who I am now! It would be great to start kidding myself that I’ve been really changed… thank you Jesus! Whoop-de-doo! (Sigh!)

Hmmm. Here’s a verse I’m not thrilled about, but Jesus said it so I’d better listen.“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13-14. What these verses mean to me is that if I find myself getting all comfy, cosy, spiritually speaking … I’m on the wrong road! The right road will start to narrow as I grow up in Christ. And I’m pretty sure that if I feel I have loads of room and I can do whatever I like … that means I’ve wandered off that narrow way again! Not the most user-friendly verses are they? Meanwhile, I don’t think the Lord cares about that.

Here’s how this grand revelation came about for me.  Hubby and I decided to change direction on the home-ward bound journey. This is a stretch for both of us, my dear hubby likes things nailed down and settled, and I like physical comfort. The more I focussed on getting what I want, what I think I need, the deafer I got, spiritually speaking. I was like those guys standing by while Almighty God spoke to Jesus, some heard Him speak something, some heard rumblings, and others heard nothing. There’s a whole blog in there!!

Moving on …  tuning into what the Holy Spirit wants, takes time and honesty with yourself, even more than others!! We need to cultivate the desire to want what HE wants, more than staying comfortable. God wants us all out of our comfort zones, because doing what He wants is not supposed to be comfortable. It will test us. Unfortunately, trouble brings the junk to the surface. It is a mistake to think everybody we meet is just going to fall into the kingdom, some of those people have to be rounded up and turned toward home and they won’t be NICE about it!

My spiritual hearing is dependent upon my willingness to change …  to be changed by His love, as well as my circumstances. I don’t need to adapt – I need to be transformed by His Grace. There is no spirit of adaptation in spiritual fruit! But there is self-control, patience, goodness … I have said this before but it bears repeating, we need to learn to trust the Person Who died for our sake. So if we do get stuck, then we go back to Jesus, and watch and ask Him how to move forward. Jesus treated God’s will as His food!  John 4:34.

As a part of His ministry, the Lord Jesus slept by a road. He talked to people who didn’t want to hear Him. He walked so far He got tired and thirsty. His feet were dirty. Some days He had nothing to eat but raw wheat. And His companions on the journey were not always spiritually tuned in and at optimum performance levels. His accommodation and provisions were definitely way under par most days. If I think like that, then my learning curve begins to increase, and so, hopefully, does my hearing! 👋

P 2600 Let’s be realistic.

/ DVH

“Everything we could ever need for life and godliness has already been deposited IN US by His divine power. For all this was lavished upon us through the rich experience of knowing Him who has called us by name and invited us to come to Him through a glorious manifestation of His goodness.”2 Peter 1:3 TPT.

Knowing Jesus intimately, introduces us to a new way to think and live. It is a waste of time to try to fit Jesus into our lives the way they existed before we met Him. Let’s be logical, why wouldn’t we need to change?  After all, we needed to be saved! However, Almighty God is not in the panel-beating business! He doesn’t look at us like we would look at a smashed up car and go: ‘Oh dear, that one has a big ding here in the boot’ OR ‘that one took a heck of a whack in the side door.’  Our proximity to Him changes everything. People got healed when Jesus was around – He didn’t have to touch them.

We all need this brand new life. A life devoted to His service, His ways, and His book! We haven’t just accidentally collected boo-boos as we’ve gone along … the truth is we’ve made bad choices. Choices that led us away from His purpose for our lives. We do not need ‘make-overs’ — we need to be transformed. At the same time we need to CO-operate with the Holy Spirit. And everything we will need for that transformation has been given to us, when we admitted our need for a Saviour. We participate in this new life by using our faith.  It works like this – “The bible tells me I have been given Your patience, so thank you for that Grace Lord, now I am going to exercise that patience by acting on it.” 

I need a Saviour every second of every hour of every day of my life. Today, I’m still wrangling with what James said in Chapter 3 Verses 10-12! “Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.” However, I’m not going to go on about taming the tongue today, because I am extremely busy trying to tame my own!

However, this scripture is a diagnostic tool, it shows us how very deeply ingrained sin is in our lives. None of us are not perfected yet! What comes OUT shows us what is still IN there. My advice is don’t excuse yourself – repent! We can make excuses until the cows come home, but that doesn’t do anything. What matters is turning our hearts back to Him and taking those faith steps. It is too easy to swan about telling ourselves ‘I’m not that bad,’ but the truth is – what we do, or don’t do, actually affects other people, and we are going to be held accountable when we don’t walk in love – because THAT is available to us now too. God is not looking for perfection He wants our interaction and participation. 

Salvation has always been an ongoing process. It is a verb not a noun. Nouns name things, verbs describe actions. Sadly, we’ve settled for the name Christian, instead of becoming living illustrations of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We’ve settled for the appearance of good without actually producing it. Meanwhile if someone is mean to us, watch out! 2 Timothy 3:5 “Having a form of godliness,but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”

The power of God has not just been given to us to set captives – other people free! It has been given to us to set US free!! The sword of the Spirit is powerful. We need to know personally how powerful it is by using it on ourselves first. People sometimes waggle that sword around like they are King Arthur, but they have no idea how much damage it can do. If we continue to live this new life unaware, then it is very easy to use a full sized sword on others, and a butter knife on ourselves!

Lastly, here’s a big thought, don’t aim at having a ministry – instead aim at transformation! Your ministry will find you when you go after your true destiny. Our destiny is this: “In this [union and fellowship with Him], love is completed and perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him]; because as He is, so are we in this world.” 1 John 4:17. Let’s be realistic, let’s aim at the things that last. 👋

P 2598 No fake smiles please!

/ DVH

My dear hubby loves the Emoji movie, especially that over-the-top female smiley face that blinds people with its toothy grin. He thinks she is hilarious. You know, that face is actually pasted on – it’s stuck. In other words that emoji has been carefully drawn to pretend to be something it isn’t.  So when bad things happen, that smiley emoji isn’t being REAL — which is just like a whole lot of Christians. Bad things happen and they paste on a smile but inside they feel God, and everyone else, has let them down. 

Most people in this world know FAKE attitudes a mile off. It is so much better to be your real self and repent for stinky attitudes, than it is to hide who you are. Now if you happen to be a grump … then the answer is to be transformed. 😂 The bible covers that! Please note: transformation is not instant. It’s repetitive… it’s re-pet-it- ive … it’s actually quite repetitive! So now we spend our days learning to lean. Getting stuff right is no longer our goal, leaning on Him is! 

If we are not careful we can make living for Jesus … into a future goal. We can live this life hoping that if we fake it we will eventually make it. Yielding, surrender, dying to self – these are all key words.  Otherwise transformation becomes something we work hard towards achieving, but we never seem to arrive!  The bible says we need to be living for Him every single day. 

Almighty God wants us to draw on His strength all the time, using our faith. Faith grows when you use it! So we exchange His beauty for our ashes. His joy for our mourning etc. We are human and we run out quite quickly — but Jesus is rich in these things ! He will give us what we need as we live a life of total dependence. The Lord is not fooled by our positive, Sunday morning smiley faces.

We could see miracles every single day if we stop trying to be what God already made us and learn to yield to and trust in Him! Listening to yourself being kind to someone, when you wanted to smite them mightily a minute ago is a miracle! Success is no longer our goal – because we know can’t do anything without Him and we don’t want to be without Him.“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6.

We need to be changed inside, and honesty matters.  We can’t! … But He already did it for us. Some of our nice attitudes are barely skin deep — so when they are provoked they end up coming out. The Lord is not looking for perfection … Jesus already nailed that, and then He generously gave it to us – for free. Ask yourself this: why would Almighty God – Who loves us – want us to live our lives pretending to be something we are not? But oh! How He LOVES a truly transformed heart and life. Then when someone else hurts us, we feel worse for them than we do for ourselves.

I know some transformed people. They know they can’t do anything without Him, but they yield in obedience to what the bible says daily, so they can change the way that they live. They are not perfected. Not at all! But they enjoy being close to Him, and they don’t want to give that up for living a shallow life that has no substance. Things stay shallow when we stop living by our faith.  We must learn that we are not called to exhaust our OWN patience/love/joy/peace,  first — only to find that we have run out! Here’s a hot tip, let go of your pride and GIVE UP RIGHT AWAY and fall into His everlasting arms. He will supply that need.

My point is, learn to pray “Help help” early! We cannot afford to wait until we are overwrought and exhausted because we’ve been wrangling a problem in the natural. I pray a surrender prayer all the time now. I remind the Lord that I won’t be able to  manage anything at all without Him. I do that at the beginning of the day and I repeat it when I find myself pasting on a fake smile. I could care less about looking incompetent, or inefficient. I cannot tell you how much I enjoy seeing Him active in my life. I feel Him help me to go further than I ever could in my own strength. I know I can’t meet Christ’s standard, what He did was perfect. So I start with surrender and I don’t move from there. 

We have all developed coping mechanisms over the course of our lives and when we get saved, we carry those coping mechanisms over into our faith. Then when we read in the bible and see what we are supposed to look like, who we are meant to be, we increase the pressure on ourselves to be like that. Unfortunately, when we fail in our own efforts – we feel we are letting Jesus down. And if we do happen to succeed, then WE GET PROUD.

All that leads to a level of inadvertent deception, and a lack of transparency that prevents intimacy. It stops Christians from becoming all we can be in Christ. It also leads to a form of religion with no power in it. We need to learn to live our lives dependent upon Him, using our God-given faith instead of striving to reach an unattainable goal. We cannot make ourselves perfect. He has already accepted us.  No more fakey fake smiles. Learn to lean on Him. 👋

P 2594 Guess Who’s coming to dinner?

/ DVH

“God, who gets invited to dinner at Your place? How do we get on Your guest list?“Walk straight;  act right, tell the truth. “Don’t hurt your friend, don’t blame your neighbour; despise the despicable. “Keep your word even when it costs you, make an honest living, never take a bribe. “You’ll never get blacklisted if you live like this.” Psalm 15.(MSG) The psalmist is longing to be so close to Almighty God he wants to have dinner at His place. He wants to be invited. 

Let’s move on — in the Old Testament in Exodus, there is a lovely story about 70 elders who were literally invited to dinner at Almighty God’s place. “Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. But God did not raise His hand against these leaders of the Israelites;they saw God, and they ate and drank.”Exodus 24:9-11. (NIV) Imagine that! They saw God and they ate and drank in His Presence. They got onto His guest list and were invited.

OK. One more … “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”  For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. (NIV) Here we are again. God, in the Person of Jesus Christ was sitting down again with twelve carefully chosen men eating and drinking, and remembering that first Passover together. Christ Jesus gave this invitation.

The Lord brought these three separate moments from very different places in the Word into my mind when I was preparing this blog. For the first time I saw how these three different stories reveal the our Heavenly Father’s heart toward mankind. The psalmist wants to go to dinner with Almighty God, but he knows that there is a series of very strong criteria to qualify him to be a guest. We actually don’t know if he ever qualified or not!

However, in the second story, Moses and the elders go up and not only see God – but they go there at His invitation. They were invited to His house and they ate and drank with Him. This is a covenant meal. I personally think that God’s grace asked them up into that heavenly place. At that time the Old Covenant had been given to Moses, and that day it was sealed with blood of hundreds of animals. These men all ate and drank in His Presence.

Lastly we have God Himself, in the Person of Jesus Christ, providing food for here and now and this time the participants do not go up to heaven … this time heaven came down to them!! Because of that final and fulfilling covenant meal instigated by Christ, we can eat with God at any time, in any place – and we no longer have to qualify for it by our behaviour. SomeBody Else paid for us to eat and drink with God Himself and NOW, Jesus Christ is our meal. We are now on God’s guest list, like … forever.

We no longer have to be ashamed anymore of not qualifying, because now we know for sure that none of us ever qualified!  But then the Lord Jesus came and fulfilled all of the criteria the psalmist mentioned AND MORE. Much much more. God’s intention from the beginning of the bible has always been to be with us, to have fellowship with us, to share a meal with us. So the next time you take communion together with other members of the Body of Christ, let’s remember the privilege we have been given. God Himself sits down with us as we remember what we have been given.

Almighty God and man sat down together and drank, and ate a meal at the bottom of Mount Sinai, and then Christ and twelve disciples sat down together in an upper room on Mount Zion and they shared a meal that is still being shared today. We call this meal they all shared communion .. God and man communing together.  🙌  Guess Who came to dinner? 🙌

P 2589 Don’t get caught up in the machinery …

/ DVH

… because the Lord is still talking to people! Just talk to Him. We have 4,998,214 books that have been written, by lovely people who want to help us learn how to pray … so it is extremely easy to get caught up in methods, not conversation, and hope that will do. Methods require remembering, but conversation allows you and I to be spontaneously ourselves, as well as honest with Him. It opens the door to further revelation about Who He is, as well as … who I am not!

Look, if you belong to a prayer group and you feel better praying ‘proper’ prayers there, then do it. But in your alone time with the Lord, just talk to Him. Jesus Himself talked to His Father like this … look at how personal He is!“Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that You sent Me.” John 11:41b-42. That’s what personal looks like. It shows the breadth of Their relationship. 

Our God is not a slot machine where you put in your $5 — (well, the price of everything has gone up nowadays) — and … out comes the answer. He is a Person. With feelings and passion. He loves, He hates, He is disappointed, He watches over us, etc. Does any of that sound impersonal to you?  We dare not reduce Almighty God to our way of thinking, or even some sort of a system. He wants us to love Him from a sincere heart, not just placating Him with trite sayings. What I mean is this, there are plenty of systems in place that indicate we HOW we should pray … if you want this, then you need to pray that. Jesus Himself gave us clues on how to pray, but don’t be so rigid about prayer that it becomes utterly formal and has no life in it. He’s our Father. Be real with Him.

If it appeals to you, you could take some time to study the kind of prayers Moses, Gideon, Jonah, Job, Ezekiel, Jeremiah etc. prayed. Pick a bible person for yourself and look at how they talked to God in the book. Jonah got cranky at Him and said so – but God did not smite that man mightily! Instead He conversed with Jonah, and reasoned with him. When you are reading the bible, take the time to look at the WAY these men of God related to Him. I want you to see, for yourself, that Almighty God wants you to be you, with Him.

Why? Why should I be myself? Here’s my little theory … there has never been, nor will there ever be someone else like you. Who you are, is a unique expression of our God’s creativity. He enjoys you, your company — the way any parent enjoys a beloved child’s presence. Following someone else’s prayer methods may feel safer, but in the long run, it is limiting … mainly because you are not them! Our God is bigger than our fears. Mightier than our mistakes, and more loving than we can ever imagine! Don’t worry about stumbling over words, or getting it wrong. The reality is prayer is about your heart talking to His heart. 

Our human relationships are often limited by a lack of communication. We don’t want to tell people that they are hurting us, because we want to be seen to be ‘nice,’ and ‘a good Christian.’  But when we act like that, eventually one of three things will happen — we will distance ourselves from the person who is hurting us and that means a severed relationship… Or we will tell the person exactly how we feel in no uncertain terms, because we’ve allowed a head of steam and anger to build up inside! That’s when we introduce the possibility of a worse, severed, irreparable relationship. OR we decide to talk honestly and openly about what is wrong and introduce the possibility of real restoration. 

Almighty God deliberately became a man, Jesus Christ – and that gives Him incredible insight into how people feel and act. Anybody who has read the Old Testament can tell you that real people wrangle with God. They don’t put on religious faces, or trot out religious rituals to take care of their relationship with Him. These people understand that they are dealing with Almighty God and being human is not a sin. Getting angry is not a sin. Being grief stricken and or even disappointed is not a sin – but we can’t fix something we won’t acknowledge.  He wants to become THE SAFE PLACE we take our burdens to. 

Please don’t let the machinery of prayer take the place of real relationship. Many times, I ask Him questions … then I open my bible and the answer to those questions is staring at me right where I am about to read!  Don’t pray AT Him, TALK to Him. Bye. 👋

P 2582 More on a heart like David.

/ DVH

The Lord said of His servant David, that “this is a man after My own heart”. (1 Samuel 13:14) It seems to me it is comparatively easy to pray:“Oh Lord please give me a heart like David had!”…in a moment of love and passion toward God Himself … with no understanding of what that means!  Will we blame God for not answering that prayer – when we ignore the opportunities He sends our way?

Think on this: if you and I really want a heart like David had, then God Himself will need to send us the kind of opportunities DAVID had! Hearts are formed, they do not fall on us. Here’s quick revision of David’s life — this young man was overlooked in his family. His earthly father forgot he had him and obviously thought the boy was not as promising as his six brothers were!  Did David moan about that? No! Instead he learnt about God in the middle of a pasture doing a job that was beneath his stature. This was where he learnt about soaking in God’s ways. That’s where he learnt to make the Lord his priority. He wrote beautiful Psalms… instead of complaining about his lowly position and the weather.

David chose God’s ways over his own human desires, many times. We all know about his failure and the subsequent consequences, but there were so many other times that David chose to honour the Lord despite his circumstances. His responses to his life were way above most men’s natural tendencies. He did not do that to curry favour with God, BTW, he did it because that was who he was! Soaking in God’s beauty had shaped his heart, and his responses came from that heart of love toward the Father. 

So if WE want a heart like David, then maybe we will have to fight our own Goliath and WIN. We all have Goliaths in our lives, and we often feel ill-equipped to fight them. But David took what he had – which was belief in Who Almighty God is – and defeated his enemy. There may also be a possibility that we will have to honour somebody in our lives just like King Saul, David’s persecutor of 20 years. Simply because that person is God’s choice to shape US… by handing out constant oppression! Maybe our tormentor has been tormenting us for years too!!

Let’s look at David’s response when his little baby boy died… “After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground. On the seventh day the child died …” 2 Samuel 12:15-18. 

After his baby’s death, David’s servants were reluctant to tell him the little one was gone, but he figured it out. Then he does an extraordinary thing — it seems almost totally incomprehensible. He gets up, washes himself, and asks for food. Why on earth would he do that? You know when I think about his response it blows me away. This man is so concerned about doing God’s will, God’s way, once the Lord’s plan is revealed – He leaves the whole thing alone and goes back into ordinary life, immediately. Boy is that living this life surrendered!  

Much later, David actively sets out to find someone left in Saul’s house … even after Saul and Jonathan had died. He wants to do his enemy’s family good. (Now there’s a grand illustration of doing good to your enemies!) Despite his warrior life, this man of God had such integrity before the Lord. It all sprang from his deep love for God, not obligation, or religious duty. Those Psalms he wrote came right out of his own experiences! Instead of cultivating despair, anger and jealousy – David cultivated a sweet heart.

It may be that we too have lost else someone so dear to us, like David did, when his older son Absalom died. But David was not able to mourn Absalom … imagine that! He’s a leader, his sheep come first! He puts his grief aside, in order to be a good leader and king to his subjects. Funny how God picks ordinary people like that quite often. Think about it.

These are just some ?highlights? After all David’s life was filled with war and betrayal! If we truly want a heart like he had, maybe we are going to need some panel-beating first! That, and a sweet, spontaneous heart-response under pressure. God Himself forges men and women in the furnaces of trouble, pestilence, war, sorrow and strife. We must simply choose to learn His ways, they won’t fall on us.

Here’s my last thought – right after the Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost, persecution for the gospel’s sake broke out. But Father God had a purpose, He wanted the disciples to disperse to spread the gospel further. So, instead of becoming a jolly, happy, worshipping group, who enjoyed their new life together teaching the same things over and over again … persecution and bad experiences are now their teacher.

 We will have troubles and strife in this life, and this means God is working on our hearts. To have a heart like David we will need to be changed. 👋 “Create in me a clean heart O, Lord, and renew a right spirit within me.” Amen!

P 2567 He did it for LOVE!

/ DVH

Almighty God was never ever going to be content with lip-service and form – His love is way too relentless and all-encompassing for that! His desire is to have a real relationship with each one of us. To our astonishment, now we have discovered what He did to make that happen… And we stand by in awe and wonder about the God Who came to earth by His own choice, to pay for our sins, misunderstandings and lack of comprehension! And He did what He did personally … Jesus Christ died for LOVE’s sake.

Every single human being ever conceived and/or born, has been and will be known, cherished and loved by our God. Try standing in front of a mirror and telling yourself that regularly – it will do you good!  Today is about how far the great and Almighty God of our Universe and beyond, was prepared to go – in order to set us free from the sinful things we’ve chosen. We have all made ourselves captive to our enemy in one way or another. But our Father did what He did, so we would be free to comprehend and partake of what He has given us – at great personal cost to Him.

In order to understand God’s Love for us, we need to comprehend the lengths that His love went to – to rescue even the vilest sinner. Love is not a sentiment, it is an action. It looks like something we can see, read, feel, hear, touch and experience.  Love sacrifices even itself, in its relentless quest to restore the recipient of that love. It is utterly selfless. It is not kissy kissy love hearts, chocolates and lots of flowers! It looks like a bloodied and badly beaten, deeply maligned, and unrecognisable Human Being, Who allowed mankind to take out our murderous spite, hatred, rage and anger on Him. Those men who whipped and tormented the Lord were demonically inspired — yet they were still part of God’s plan, and His love was available to them too. 

Personally, I’ve learnt first-hand how shallow my love for God can be, I’ve had my theories tested and I found out I was definitely capable of loving me, more than HIM! Those Roman soldiers were exactly like US – even though we weren’t there in person. Nobody knows what they will do until they are tested. Christ was tempted, tested and yet He completed what He came to do. You know, you and I were in that crowd yelling abuse at the Lord, or turning our heads away, as surely as we were born back then. We’ve all sinned. We are not even remotely like our dear Saviour, Who gave up everything for us. We need help. And Help … came! 

In our minds and thoughts, what happened at Calvary does not seem like it is love – that’s because we do not define love rightly! We cannot afford to define LOVE for ourselves – when we do that we will end up indulging or even excusing ourselves. God’s idea of love does not look like our idea of it. He tells us about Himself in Isaiah 55:8-9. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

In our own personal lives, we want to be, and sometimes even choose to be – the heroes in our own little stories. But, in the new life that HE gave us, we are daily, minute by minute, challenged to change our minds, by renewing them — so that GOD Himself becomes the Hero in ALL our stories. The Father God, the Son, the Holy Spirit and everything They did together for each one of us on that cross, is our uniting force. Their love for us – unites us. No matter who we are or what we’ve done… WE.ARE.LOVED.

I know I have said this about a kajillion times, but our task now is to observe, learn, and absorb the way our God thinks, into our own personal lives until it becomes the way WE think. And we have a bible with 66 books in it, to help us. It details the way that God Himself interacts with other people in their own lives. It teaches us clearly what love actually looks like. It looks like sacrifice.

The bible showcases our Father’s thoughts toward mankind. His thoughts are always for us, reaching toward us. Here’s a little bit of what I have observed. He doesn’t treat any two people the same way. Our uniqueness is not a liability. To Almighty God each human being is the pearl He sacrificed everything precious to Him, so we can be His. The Bible is a LOVE STORY!  And we need to be transformed into a Worthy Bride for His dear Son – Who gave up everything for us. Our Bridegroom is oh! – so worthy of all our love and gratitude.  

OUR HEAVENLY FATHER WANTS US TO BE JOINED WITH CHRIST AND SHARE HIS LEGACY. We have a family inheritance – it is not gold, silver or precious gems  … our inheritance is the ability to love others the way Christ loved us. Loving others so deeply our self involvement fades away. Bless you today, as you press on toward that mark. 🕊️ 🙌

P 2561 Anonymity can be a great blessing.

/ DVH

When you were a kid did you ever wish you had a cloak of invisibility? I did! Especially when an adult was coming at me with something in hand to punish me. Whether I was wrong or not …I truly felt I needed that cloak!. Unfortunately my mouth let me down a lot and I usually managed to say some dumb thing, or argue with my parent, and that resulted in even more discipline! I just kept digging holes with my mouth instead of remaining shtum. Kids have limited wisdom! 

However, that is not my reason for talking about anonymity today. In my opinion, fame is fleeting. The people who pat you on the back on the way up, will kick you in the tush on the way down! Fame is not always what it is cracked up to be, you only have to read the news to see that. Famous people are subject to a great deal more criticism and critique – the word jealousy springs to mind.

These words from Galatians 5:15 in the bible leap out at me: “It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?”

Fame is not only overrated, it is most definitely NOT OUR aim.“For even the Son of Man did not come expecting to be served but to serve and give His life in exchange for the salvation of many.”” Matthew 20:28 TPT. So let’s get this sorted … the One Who saved the world, did not aim at fame, or power, or notoriety … Jesus Christ aimed at elevating Almighty GOD when He saved US – not Himself.  Which may well be the reason that most kids today know way more about Star Wars, Harry Potter and Pokemon than they do about the Lord Jesus!

Over the years I have come to notice that we kind of look down a bit on our faithful Sunday School teachers, or Religious Educators in schools, as being a bit old fashioned. But these people know all about anonymity. Most of us won’t have a clue about what they do, week by week, so the children of these times can find out that the Lord’s Name is the name of a wonderful Person … not just a swear word. Today I want to take the time to remember those who faithfully serve. It seems to me that most of the time nobody notices what they do. 

You know who I mean. Brother So-and-so, who faithfully puts out the chairs week by week and is always up for a letter box drop to let people know where your church is. Or Sister-I-forgot-her-name who calls up younger Christians regularly to make sure that they haven’t wandered off the path. She also goes to the hospital to visit people as well calling into homes. She prays for the saints that are sick, and sincerely asks them if she can help in any way. She’ll probably hand you a cup of tea or coffee next Sunday!

I find it fascinating in a world that is obsessed by fame that these quietly achieving servants of God go virtually unnoticed. Because these people are the ones who actually understand they are not here to be served, they are here to serve. Oops! I think I said a bad word. That would be the word … SERVE. In this blab it and grab it, everything belongs to me lifestyle, where my service has to be noticed or I won’t do it — we are incredibly fortunate to have any people who still think that following Jesus means serving others. Because I strongly suspect the idea of serving the Lord and others nowadays, means other-people-are-supposed-to-serve-me and make my ministry famous. 

Many people want to be like the characters in the “Cheer’s Bar” on TV,  we want to be where everybody knows our name! Well I want to point out that if we are following Jesus, then those steps always go down. Not up. They will lead us on an excruciating journey like the one HE had — carrying something that weighed 165lbs (75kgs) on bloodied torn open shoulders and back. Not to mention a horrendously painful headache! Let’s think about carrying that lot up and down through a large city to a hill outside it, where the people we pass by yell abuse at us. 

Even when we arrive at our destination, we will be flanked by known thieves. Our reputation is in the bin. People jeer as they see us, because human beings have an incredibly perverted sense of winning when someone else appears to be losing! Humility is lost on most people. Yet while Christ was suffering excruciating pain He still breathed out forgiveness. That’s real service. We are called to be laid-down lovers of Jesus – that means, my kingdom go – His kingdom come.

Today, more than ever, we need to follow Christ into serving mankind by demonstrating His love to people who will never deserve it. And anonymity can be a blessing. 👋

P 2555 Boldness/ confidence.

/ DVH

Boldness and confidence are both initiated and fostered by our personal relationship with the Lord. Let’s look at Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” The place to foster confidence in our relationship with the Lord, is in the throne room – in our intimate one on one, time with Him. This is the place where God freely gives us mercy and grace and the will to live new lives. Our desire to walk wholeheartedly with the Holy Spirit will lead us into His new life. 

Yielding our will to His, means we have chosen to learn to love Him through participating in His processes. Selfishness falls off when we love for what we can give, not just for what we can get! Some people believe we approach the Lord only to worship Him. YES! Please always do that! However, our primary reason to be with Him, is simply because we enjoy His company, His POV. We have fallen in love with the wonderful God we are coming to know, day by day.

Boldness and confidence are fostered by intimacy. There is no presumption, instead this precious intimacy becomes so important to us, we start to loathe the idea of any separation. That POV motivates us over and over again. I don’t believe that pretending to live in His love and grace can do that. satan knows each of us well enough to fling something at us and our self-effort will collapse. I know very little in this area, but I can say this, the more you seek the Lord for Himself, the more He will reveal Himself to you. Sometimes there are some questionable things that people have told me God said or did, and my heart jumps up, unbidden, and says: “No! He would never act like that!”  I think that’s a little part of what confident intimacy looks like.

Almighty God always wants us to be confident in Him, especially in His goodness and goodwill toward mankind. His book the bible becomes powerful for us individually, when we take His instructions personally and act on them. Our precious Father doesn’t want us to live in any fear, at all. He sent His perfect love in the form of a Man, Jesus Christ, to show us, in Person, that He loves us. Christ is our source of spiritual life.  Everything in this New covenant is voluntary and our participation and obedience are the result of our passion toward the Lord.

Let’s clarify that. The size of any disobedience is not the issue, the attitude of our heart toward whatever it is – will be the thing that comes between Him and us. Openness needs to prevail, and, in turn that leads to true openness with each other. Confidence in Who He is and how much He loves me will actually release incredible freedom. However, that freedom is never carte blanche to be nasty and use His agonisingly hard-won Grace against Him or others. 

Our Heavenly Father, God, is not a legalist. He took care of every single legal indictment against humanity at Calvary. We didn’t just escape punishment, because of what Jesus did, at the same time we inherited Christ’s status before the Father. We were given Christ’s FAVOUR. That includes the ability/power to resist the devil and overcome the stuff he throws at us, con-fid-ent-ly!

The Lord is not looking for us to tick boxes and get everything right, He’s looking for us to genuinely rely upon Him to help us to do the things He asks us to do. Leaning on Him and His power and wisdom is our birthright – that birthright makes us rich in incredible things this world simply cannot buy. As we live that way we will see Him work on our behalf and gain more and more confidence in the One we love, because what we believe is based on personal knowledge of HIM. We don’t have to live bewildered powerless lives, because we have been given the power to walk away from temptation and to live lives that bless, help, and bestow Grace everywhere. That’s our inheritance.

Boldness and confidence are also not about shouting or being forceful. Sometimes it means we simply stand our ground, quietly. Firmly insisting. We need to learn to recognise and resist the devil’s wiles, and horrid suggestions of hatred and bitterness. At the same time, we simply cannot afford to let our enemy con us out of what is now our birthright, by bringing up stuff that we’ve done wrong or things we omitted to do at all! Our enemy keeps lists of wrongs  – WE DON’T – neither does our Father. We fix the things we can, with repentance and humility, and own our own bad attitudes. Then we go on to pray confidently for the grace to continue our walk totally reconciled with Him and others. 

Personally I just keep telling myself: I need mercy so I’m going to give it away! I keep on sowing grace because I know I am going to need it every day, all day! Our boldness and confidence comes from our knowledge of Who He is, what He is like, and real-life, personal, intimate revelation of His goodness as we walk with Him. 👋

P 2551 Run after Him and He will catch you!

/ DVH

When I am typing this blog the Lord will often drop a phrase or a few words from a scripture into my spirit, to start me off and help me. Sometimes it is a phrase for a title, and it floats through my mind unexpectedly. At that moment I know that this is what I call, a loose thread. If I pull on that thread and/or follow it as far as it goes, it will lead me into knowing Him better. 

So I take those few words I have, and type them into Google. Or I look the phrase up on Bible Gateway. It is always amazing to me how well Google knows the bible – especially as I am pretty sure they don’t believe in it!! 🤪 This stuff often happens outside of my normal bible time with Him – but He also inspires me in the same way, as I am reading the bible privately, for myself. 

I am sharing this because when I was first born again, I was given the traditional method of bible reading  — pray, read, take notes, then pray again. In the main, that did not work for me. I took copious notes, that I never ever referred to again (!) but taking notes did not result in building a relationship between the Lord and I. As time passed and I continued the routine I was taught, my faith eventually grew stale, because my appetite to know Him, decreased.

There is nothing like meeting Almighty God over the pages of the book He wrote! The bible is full of HIS stories, His interactions with mankind – they may feature Moses, Noah, Elisha, Amos and Habukkuk etc. but those stories are actually about the Lord, and what He did … and is still doing! Almighty God has not stopped doing stuff just because we regard the bible as a complete work! 

I cannot remember how many times I have read all the way through this book. Although, to be fair, the systems that people recommend to read it in a year have always let me down. I find myself caught up in the system, and ticking the box in my mind that says I did my duty.  Meanwhile I am pretty sure I was totally missing out on what He wanted to say to me! I don’t think dotting “i’s and crossing “t”s works for me. In years gone by, I was lousy at playing games like chasey or tag at school – I can’t run for toffee. But I love to chase the Holy Spirit … plus … I strongly suspect He loves to be chased!

Nowadays, I spend as long as it takes to research what I want to know. Sometimes that can take me quite a while. It seems to me a little like the Holy Spirit and I are playing “catch Me if you can!” … as I go all around the place, picking up stuff here and there. There are still times when I misremember a scripture, which means I’ve managed to get my theory wrong. But then I repent and ask Him to help me fix it and He never lets me down. I know this random method will not suit some people, but just for today, I wanted to offer an alternative way to get to know Him.

I’ve often thought about the fact that the disciples followed Jesus around for three and a half years – so this “follow the Leader” game isn’t completely weird! Today when I was prayerfully thinking about this subject, I was reminded of Moses and his personal encounter with the Lord. Moses was walking along minding his sheep, making sure none had fallen down a hole, or gotten stuck somewhere, when something unusual captured his attention. He saw a bush that was on fire but it did not burn up. 

“There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.So Moses said, “I must turn away [from the flock] and see this great sight—why the bush is not burned up.” Exodus 3:2,3. Moses’ innate curiosity drew him away from his work to something totally new, and that’s when God changed his life. He went from chasing sheep to standing up to Pharaoh … and we all know that outcome!

I believe that formality can have a place in our lives, but if it overwhelms spontaneity and true affection, then we are in danger of becoming religious. I want to be clear — there are days when I do not want to read the bible at all … but I read it anyway for my spiritual health. Sometimes I will read whole books … other days I only read three lines and His inspiration falls on me and I follow that instead. The bible is the only reference tool I use every single day.

What I have learnt is this: The Holy Spirit wants to be known. But He is not frivolous, or capricious, even though He is fun, He will always have a purpose for what He brings up in our lives.  It seems to me that He is more interested in our lives changing, than He is in us ticking the “I read the bible today” box. And that includes our prayer time as well. Christians desperately need His divine intervention into our bible reading times. I think if what we read is simply confirming what we already believe … we’ve missed Him. We cannot possibly know all there is to know about our God!

We can’t grow, if we are not challenged to think differently, behave differently, and do things differently. I say that mainly because whatever we are doing now IS NOT WORKING. The Body of Christ at large is vastly idle — it would rather go to a prayer meeting, or a bible study than witness! The Lord is not static – He has a plan. It is important that we join in with His plan, instead of fitting Him in around ours. Running after Him keeps us spiritually fit. Bye. 👋