Anointing

P 3331 In but not of …

/ DVH

“Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes.” Romans 12:2 TPT.  That’s pretty plain isn’t it? Not much to explain there. And here’s another one, where Jesus Himself is praying for us… “My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.” John 17:15-16. 

The thing is, without inward transformation, we are wasting our time and effort trying to capture the-people-who-don’t-know-Him’s attention with our own clever ideas and plans. We need to have the Lord’s guidance, His way to reach out to people. We serve the One Who took people out onto a hillside and they were so captured by what Jesus said, they didn’t even think about eating.

The point made in this scripture is that the Lord knows how to go straight to the heart of the matter, and we don’t. Let’s ask for His help! The bonus is we get to know God’s will for our lives. We no longer live by this world’s standards. The ‘latest thing’ is the ‘last thing’ on our minds! Unless the Holy Spirit kisses what we are doing and tears off the roof, our plans are limited, His are not.

Jesus isn’t praying for us to live detached from this world, like somehow what’s out there can stop what’s inside us from flourishing!  Our choices do that for us, they are what influence us. We don’t need to separate ourselves from the lives we are here to touch when we’ve decide to make Him our priority. Instead Jesus is praying that we will be protected from the devices of our enemy – who is all around us. Here’s my litmus test for in not of …  Ask yourself what occupies most of your thoughts? 

I have been to churches in many places, that are pale imitations of what this world can produce all by itself. In the end, the productions become more important than the God we worship or the people we are here to reach. Let’s realise that when it comes to production – this world is waa-aa-aa-ay better at it than we are! They’ve got great gizmos to help them make fake things look real.

I think that’s because whatever IS represented by this world is fake. In our churches we want to produce the real thing — but you can’t produce the real thing, from fake roots. Entertainment is by its very nature, anti-what-Jesus-stands-for. He wants to glorify His Father, by what He says and does. He can use entertainment, but He doesn’t need it. We can say we want to glorify God, but I’ve been involved in the production of a number of things in the past and this world does not easily let go of the idea that being bigger, better, brighter, more clever is the way to go! 

Human beings think that doing something well, is going to impress the world and help them to believe in what they are selling. They don’t need to be impressed with us, these people need the King, not our clever, glamorous well-produced rhetoric. Our message doesn’t need any help! It’s in the book and God Himself wrote it. Our God is the God of the Universe, He doesn’t want or need our advertising, He  wants to reach the people around us, with healing, deliverance, salvation and the Good News.

We have been asked to make disciples, followers of Jesus Christ – not groupies. Changing someone’s heart is His job. Ours is to co-operate with the Holy Spirit and make a permanent place for the Lord in our hearts and our churches – then we follow the Holy Spirit’s instructions regarding how we approach others. Our churches are where we meet to glorify Him and give Him the praise He so richly deserves. And all our gifts are to be surrendered and used to glorify Him — our fellowship is sweeter because of Him. 

Our meetings cannot be about “the atmosphere’ either – an atmosphere is easily created and easily broken. What we do is about Him, done for His sake, for His pleasure. We can’t substitute special effects for the anointing – it is far better to get on our faces and find out where we’ve missed Him, than to plough on competing with this world’s idea of a good time.  

To be in not of  means we are totally aware of our surroundings, and we can see and hear the people around us. Their needs, their hopes, their squashed broken lives. It is so easy to segregate ourselves away from the very people the Lord saved us to reach — simply because they do this and that, and that stuff might corrupt us. The hard times that have fallen upon everyone has disproved that theory. People are dying inside – they have no hope.  And guess what we have – HOPE! 

We have the incorruptible One living inside us!1 Peter 1:23 says: “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” 1 John 4:4: “Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” In but not of is about singular focus, not just distraction. I would rather spend 5 minutes with a Spirit-filled person than 5 seconds with someone else’s clever ideas. Bye for now, 👋

P 3218 I may fail – but God WILL not.

/ DVH

Those of you who read this blog regularly will already know that Cyclone Alfred (Feb2025) caused a flood in one of our lower rooms. It quite literally washed away some of the floor. Our house is like ‘The House that Jack built,”and I’m sad to say that in my opinion – Jack was a lousy builder! God bless Jack if he is still among us, but very little in our downstairs area has been built up to spec. Parts of it are not legal, including the height of the roof, but the council doesn’t care, because it was like that when we bought it. Which means it was not our fault. Thank the Lord for that!

While the many builders we hired were analysing what needed to be done — they kind of smiled — then they looked at us with dollar signs in their eyes! I assume that’s because we are their idea of a windfall, and their magical dream of an all expenses paid trip to the Bahamas seemed much closer than it did before they met us! And then they announced that all our building problems are insurmountable and we should pull the entire downstairs area down and start again. I guess we will have to live in our mango tree while that happens.

Around about the same time, the insurers agreed with the builders, and announced that we were not covered by insurance, despite our copious, regular expensive payments, because of paragraph 390 subset 4,251. Yay!  We don’t have a money tree or bush in our yard, so we both got on our faces, and asked the Lord, what’s next? Ya have to seize the adventure before you, that’s what I say… I have also been known to say ‘well that sucks,’ but talking about ‘seizing the adventure’ sounds wa-ay more spiritual. 

So, after much prayer, with God leading us — we met Ali, a person of another faith, and a brand new unemployed immigrant who had just arrived from another state. His English was limited, but he assured us in sign language and broken English, that he knew all about tiling floors and fixing the concrete underneath. He originally came from Iraq so we figured he wasn’t exaggerating about that! 

Ali, it transpired, truly was God’s choice! BTW, we found him through a reputable agent. He worked like a beaver, kept us up to date with what was going on, and we had many opportunities to encourage him, and talk about our faith, as well as put it into action in his life. When we said goodbye to him, we hugged all round. Our floor in the meantime looks like a palace! 

Moving on to December, 2025. This time the roof in our downstairs bedroom turned into a waterfall, and we had numerous tennis ball sized hail-strikes all over that part of the roof. It was leaking because the rain was so heavy and the hail broke the tin roof sheeting. So back we went to our insurers — however, we weren’t very surprised this time when we discovered that somehow paragraph 390 subset 4,251 also applied to leaking roofs! The insurers were polite … but because the downstairs does not conform to council standards they were not obligated to … blah blah blah blah. 

I tuned out. I had heard it all before. Naturally I responded with great Grace to the insurers. After HOURS of prayer and a whole lot of “gee I hope some tennis ball hail gets YOUR roof next time!” I eventually moved on. Yes, I repented! And right now I am laughing, but smiles were a bit thin on the ground back then! 

We had to move out of our bedroom, which was working on becoming an indoor lake, and jam ourselves back into a much smaller space upstairs. Not the best option given the daily disabilities we both face. Our family came to our rescue again, to help us move. In just a few months they had helped us move out of, and back into. our bedroom twice! That, BTW, includes the bed, wardrobes, etc. etc. More blah blah blah.

So we returned to our trusty agent again because Ali had been so brilliant last time, and this time we found a family of roofers. They too, were honest men who gave us a fair price, and they not only fixed the roof, they made it so it would not leak again. And then they gave us a written guarantee for 15 years!  As the Lord led us we were able to minister into their lives too. We paid for that privilege! Ministry will always cost you – it’s free to them.

I’ve written this today to assure others that they are not the only people whose lives sometimes are shaken by trouble and strife. Let’s look at Paul’s life. In the past Christians have tried to minimise trouble in our lives as if trouble is somehow a sign that we are not spiritual enough. However, Paul was somewhat of an expert about trouble. He shared some of it in: 2 Corinthians 6:4a-5:

“…in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; …” 2 Corinthians 11:25-26: “Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers …”

Our experiences at our house obviously do not compare with the Apostle Paul’s hardships! However, I’m not giving up on my own transformation – He’s doing something. Sometimes I may fail, but God will not! Hallelujah. Have a good one. Bye. 👋

P 3211 Procrastination.

/ DVH

“Procrastination is the thief of time.” I was taught that saying in my teens, years ago. Here’s the meaning: procrastination is the act of unnecessarily delaying tasks, even when you know it will lead to negative consequences, by choosing less important activities instead. It’s a common behaviour, not just laziness, often stemming from poor emotion regulation, perfectionism, fear of failure, or executive function challenges. While occasional procrastination is normal, chronic procrastination can cause significant stress, guilt, anxiety, and harm productivity and well-being. 

If you are a Christian, this particular attitude can cause doubt, fear, unbelief, and eventually inactivity to grab us. These traits often show up in our thought patterns: “Did God say that?’ “He wouldn’t really want me to do that would He?’ ‘I need to wait to be ready to do what He said.’ ‘He knows I can’t do that!’ ‘There are other people who can do things like that better than me.” ‘I don’t have an anointing to do that!’

That last thought is just plain dumb. We have the Lord’s instructions written down in the bible, signed in Jesus’ blood. It almost goes without saying that none of us are ever ready! I urge everyone to stop looking at famous Christians and let go of the kind of thinking that says, they are our example. Maybe you and I don’t have their anointing but we can still be obedient to our own personal heavenly calling. Besides —Jesus is OUR example, and motivation – not other people.  

Sometimes all I can do in a ‘talking to people’ situation, is to get my feet moving. When that happens it is not because I am disabled, it’s because I’m scared! Scared of someone else’s response, scared of somebody being mean to me, scared of the consequences in my life and in theirs. Maybe I will mess witnessing etc. up! This is a good time to remind ourselves of the things the Lord has done in the past. God fought without-number Midianites with Gideon and 300 men, and He also got Jonah to Nineveh via a whale taxi. Of course He can help us! Here’s something from His book to sort out our excuses. PS … when the Lord says ‘ME” He means YOU too!

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on ME, because the Lord has anointed ME, to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent ME to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendour.” Isaiah 61:1-3.

If we both sit about waiting to feel super spiritual, or hoping to have some wild experience with Him, to signify we have been sent by Him – we will miss the boat. Famous Christians are the exceptions, not the norm. Procrastination can easily steal the time that God has generously given to us, and we will end up at the end of our lives in the land of regret.  

The bible says this in 1 Corinthians 3:15 In the Message bible: “Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely.”  Um… found out? We won’t get BY?! Torn out and started over?!! Barely survive?? None of that sounds good! 

There is a kind of evasive thinking that can dominate our hearts and minds, spiralling us into fear, as well as hiding from our calling. We can never afford to forget that we are now dead! We died with Him. We’ve been saved for His purposes now – plus we’ve been given gifts to use for His glory, and to benefit other people. None of that has anything to do with our comfort, lives, families, or our careers. When we live our lives for His glory our focus actually changes.

Someone once told me that their boss was so demanding they couldn’t find a minute to talk to anyone about anything, so Jesus was relegated to the back seat…. plus it didn’t seem fair to do the Lord’s work on the boss’s payroll! That kind of sounds OK eh? Except the bible tells us we can ask for anything and it will be given to us, and if we have a need He will supply it. Ask the Lord to make a way, where there seems to be no way! He’s really really good at it. 

I’ve had to face facts, one of them being there is nothing extraordinary about me. I’m everybody and nobody rolled into one older lady! But it’s a New Year and Father God has left us on this earth for a purpose. We need to find out why, and start doing it. Postponing God’s will, together with doing things His way, means we are postponing the very thing that will set us free from fear, anxiety and the spirit of stupid that seems to be extremely prevalent everywhere.

We are called to pray so we can find out what we are here to do. We do not pray to get Father God’s rubber stamp on what we think we should be doing! If HE is not in charge, then whatever we do, it will fall on its head! And produce no fruit! Procrastination is the thief of time, I urge you to watch out for it. Otherwise it will steal your birthright away. Bye. 👋

P 2778 Anybody got any oil?

/ DVH

“When my coming draws near, heaven’s kingdom realm can be compared to ten maidens who took their oil lamps and went outside to meet the bridegroom and his bride. But the foolish ones were running out of oil, so they said to the five wise ones, ‘Share your oil with us, because our lamps are going out!’ “ ‘We can’t,’ they replied. ‘We don’t have enough for all of us. You’ll have to go and buy some for yourselves!’ “But he called back, ‘Go away! Do I know you? I can assure you, I don’t even know you!’“That is the reason you should always stay awake and be alert, because you don’t know the day or the hour when the Bridegroom will appear.”Matthew 25:1, 8-9, 12-13 TPT.

I have heard this scripture preached about nineteen ways to the dozen … So much so, I can talk about the bridegroom, or the ten maidens, or the oil, or the lamps/containers, or living ready. You know it seems to me … and I could be oversimplifying a tad – that if we make sure we have a good oil supply, everything else will fall into place! At this point, I need to say that I see the Oil of the Spirit as God’s Love, released freely, to bless other people.

That thought kind of reminds me of something that happened to us ages ago when we were on one of our road trips delivering bibles. My story is not about oil, however, it is about petrol, but it was God’s Love that helped us! When you travel vast distances in a car, petrol stations become very important. Anyway, we were stuck in the back of Burke, literally! And the only petrol available was not the type of petrol our car needed. We eventually did the sensible thing, after freaking out(!) We asked the Lord what He wanted us to do about it. After all, they are His bible trips!  Yet, our love for Him, was greater than our fear. 

On the inward journey to Burke, the town with the wrong petrol, I had developed a nasty ulcer on my side. It kept getting bigger and bigger. As it got bigger, so did my rotten lousy attitude. I got grumpier and nastier toward my poor hubby as we travelled through miles of grain fields, with no hope of  help. No doctors or chemists. We had nothing on us to treat this wound, so arriving at our next destination was really important on a number of levels. God’s woman of paste and flour (me), kept explaining to her hubby, in a tearful angry voice, how he had no right to bring her out to the middle of nowhere when he knows how sick she is: blah blah blah, whinge whine whinge.  Between the petrol lack and the lack of a cheerful, supportive spouse, my hubby’s prayer life improved mightily! I eventually calmed down and joined in with him … after thoroughly repenting, of course.

When we set out, the territory ahead of us was just plain heavily-treed bush, filled with wild pigs and goats wandering about, and quite a number dead on the road. A road train and a beast aren’t really a fair competition. (See picture above.) We knew when we began the journey, that we definitely did not have enough petrol to get us safely to the next town. The needle was in the red.  So for 200kms we both tried extremely hard not to look at the petrol gauge! That’s the whole point of walking by faith, you don’t know what comes next…and it’s often scary! For all we knew we could end up camped by the side of the road waiting for someone to realise we were missing. As we travelled along, deliberately-not-looking-at-the-petrol-gauge, we noticed how very few cars were going in the other direction! That was not a comforting thought. 

Eventually, hubby said in an astonished whisper: “I think that there is more petrol in the tank now, than there was when we started out.” Boy that popped my eyes open! I leaned over and looked. He was right. The petrol gauge needle was up higher than when we started. We knew how much we needed, and we didn’t have it, and … now there was more. To make a long story much shorter, by the time we got to our destination – we had more petrol in the tank than we did when we started out!  BTW, the Lord healed the ulcer – which was still bad – a couple of hours after we arrived, it disappeared.  

I think that the church’s largest problem today is that She quite often runs out of oil. And our biggest enemy is indifference. The pastor or priest, or leaders might have oil, but most of the people in our congregations don’t! These women in Jesus’ story in Matthew are not leaders or religious folk. They are simply attendants waiting for the Bride and Groom to appear … and so are we! What this story Jesus told teaches me, is that WE – that is YOU and I – have a responsibility to make sure we have a living, lively, life-giving relationship with Holy Spirit! He’s our motivation and our source. We look to Him to supply our needs.

He is always ready to be our supplier. Human beings can run out of LOVE –  because they don’t know they will need it until they need it!  However, Almighty God Himself stands ready to supply our every need. We need to ask for fresh supply of His love, His oil, daily!  Then walk with Him. Stop expecting the leaders to be your only supplier and get your own relationship with Him. The Spirit of God will help us survive the next crisis at our house! The Body of Christ cannot afford to run out of oil. So, we need to ask … and keep on asking. Then we step out in faith and do what He says! The Holy Spirit never shuts down His supply of Love and that is exactly what we need. He is with us 24/7. Bye. 👋

P 2643 We all have the power to touch many.

/ DVH

John 6:5-13: “When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for He already had in mind what He was going to do. Philip answered Him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” Another of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up,“Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, He said to His disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.”

This is a story that we all know well. Especially if we went to Sunday School, or Children’s Church! It was probably one of the stories that we heard because those concepts were suitable for kids. Back in the ark I told it with flannel graph. (OK, you never heard of flannel graph, it’s a thing, look it up!) There are many things that stand out about this particular story — I love the fact that this little boy was not intimidated by how many people there were, instead he was prepared to share the little he had with everyone. He was generous. Ya might want to think on that for a couple of years.🤔

I believe that this scripture illustrates that nobody’s life is too small, or too insignificant for the Lord to use. The only secret to living a godly kingdom life, is in giving that life to HIM! That child surrendered his lunch. Which BTW, also meant that he no longer had it!  His lunch wasn’t much by this world’s standards. However, we are kingdom people so we do not have to live by this world’s idea of faith! Christ came, lived and died to show us that fame, money, expertise, and influence mean nothing. After all, Jesus Christ, His life and ministry could have been just a tiny blip on the radar screen of this life. But the Lord changed everything, because He surrendered all He had to His Father … to the death.

Your life is not ordinary. The minute you gave your life to Christ, your potential increased exponentially like that little boy’s lunch. That child’s lunch fed 5,000 people … and … let’s not forget the leftovers … because they matter. One basket left over for each disciple. One basket of proof that God Himself was there with them! Meanwhile, I note that there was no left-over fish, and a good thing that was too! Imagine the smell!! … Moo-ving on …

I dunno why, but in the church in recent years there has been this big push on producing, teaching, training and using people who have been given incredible powerful gifts from God. We advertise these people like rock stars. Sadly often the fame and pressure can lead to them acting like normal human beings and falling on their heads and doing some ugly thing or other. A gift, is no more a sign of perfection than that little boy’s volunteered lunch was a sign of a miracle. The power fell when Jesus Christ accepted the gift and broke it, gave it to His disciples and they distributed it to everyone else.

There is a weird reaction to the phenomenon of the famous Christian — the rest of us trot up to church to sit in a pew or a seat and watch that person do their spiritual thing. Well, that’s just dumb! Why waste the potential of the people who are sitting down? There are also times when we ask other ‘gifted’ people to pray for people in the prayer line etc. That’s even more dumb! Now we are telling everyone else it is OK to be a needy passenger, not a pro-active participant! Thinkaboudit. 

Just stop for a minute. Imagine what this world might look like if everyone who names the Name of Jesus as Lord and Saviour lived this life the way Paul describes in the Epistles. Wouldn’t that blow your mind? 🤯  We can get so busy growing big churches we forget about developing the unseen potential of the person warming a seat in the middle of the congregation. Instead we go about looking for the bright shiny ones, the ones who have an anointing. 

PS The bible says we are all anointed ones!! 1 John 2:20 “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.” Sadly those super stars can get knocked over by our enemy because they stand up there in the spotlight ALONE. Or even worse, they stand up there with people who tell them what they want to hear, because ‘you mustn’t touch the anointing.’ 🙄 So instead people just go away and bad-mouth them and complain about them behind their backs. Now there’s a smart move …!!  😱

Here’s my advice to you dear reader, take your little lunch, your only lunch … your only life — and give it to Jesus. Then start behaving like He did, loving people everywhere you go. I’m talking about living your ordinary life, the only life you have, free of the encumbrances of day after day after day of the same old same old! Because your life has a purpose. Trust Him to help you to touch many for His sake. Bye 👋 

P 2553 Ssssshhhhhh!

/ DVH

I John 3:9 “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.” This is an extremely comforting verse in all its aspects. To start with, if this world didn’t know the King of all glory, then I am not a failure if the world thinks I’m peculiar because I believe what I believe, and I act on it, seen or unseen.

Despite the fact that Christianity has been stuck in super-star mode for many years – the truth is, ordinary unknown people with 9-5 jobs, doing whatever the Lord tells them to do, day by day – are actually our greatest strength! They are the real army. Here’s why … ordinary people aren’t doing loving stuff to make a living, they are doing whatever they do because they love Jesus, as well as other people. Ask yourself, how do I show His grace and love to others? And please don’t try to be someone else – we need YOU to be YOU!  By all means, go for transformation, but we don’t need clones, we need the people God designed us to be, each one of us. He had a plan when He made you – don’t stuff it up by trying to be someone else!

Meanwhile my point is this:  we can’t and won’t all win some quiz show or talent contest or start some super church to give us fame and a platform, so then we can publicly testify to His loving kindness. If we aren’t already witnessing now, we will not witness then! Witnessing is a life choice. That whole fame thing is just a disaster waiting to happen. Lovely people can end up on the rocks simply because they’ve entered a much larger playing field, vastly unaware that the bigger the audience and responsibility we have, the greater the dangers, we will face! 

Human beings can easily fail, fall over and do dumb stuff, because it utterly messes with most people’s heads when they become important. They start to think that they are the only person on the planet that knows the truth. And, sadly, sometimes that idea works with churches too. Many churches nowadays affiliate themselves with others, to form some sort of sub-denomination, But the fact is, they have affiliated themselves with other people that they basically agree with, whose theology isn’t different from their own. There is not much reconciliation in there! We all need to be challenged beyond what we can manage in order to grow.

The truth is we can have a whole lotta theories, some of them are vastly untested – because to test stuff you have to live like it! I am aware that some of these theories have been tested by Brother or Sister ‘I’ve-written-ten-books-and-it-works-for-me-what’s-wrong-with-you? Hmmm. That scripture about our road being narrow and hard suddenly popped into my head, right now! The anointing of God is not a stamp of approval, it is freely given to us to empower us to love, bless and reach out to others! Many Christians slog along, trying hard, standing on their tiptoes. They are killing themselves trying to reach someone else’s mark! Jesus gave us the mark – LOVE GOD AND LOVE OTHERS!

In my life I have known a number of people over the years who were called by God to be evangelists. I would not call them ordinary, not by any stretch of anyone’s imagination! As a matter of fact, it seems to me, they can’t say: ‘hello how are you’ without getting right in your face and leading you to Jesus! I’m being serious!! Their calling is so intrinsically woven into His new creation in them … that they can’t help themselves! They simply don’t have an “off” button. They see this world through their gift. Whenever we meet, I had the strangest feeling that if George the evangelist went to the fish and chip shop to buy fish and chips for dinner, he’d end up evangelising everybody who came in the store, as well as all the people who stood behind the counter … and then he would step into the busy street! 

George has a gift – he didn’t earn it or deserve it – God Himself chose it and gave it to him. We need to be like George regarding the gifts God has given US. Things you spontaneously do to bless and help others. We have all been called to do what He chose for us to do. And over time, we will start to be flavoured by the gifts He has given us. Just find your gift and use it to benefit others. It ain’t rocket science!  At the same time we dare not use the Lord’s calling on our lives to make ourselves important. Jesus chose us and He saved us. He’s the One Who is important! Our greatest blessing in this life is to testify to that. Be glad to be ordinary — being extraordinary is not what it’s cracked up to be. Ask Moses!

This world does not know us, because we’ve been chosen to remain mostly unseen. We don’t have to be seen to do good to others. Anonymity is useful. I believe our greatest strength lies in our ordinariness. The time is coming when secret agents will do what all the evangelists in this world have not been able to do by themselves. Every single person on this planet will hear about Jesus and that won’t necessarily be from some huge evangelical campaign – instead it will come from people like you and I who testify that Jesus is entirely wonderful, because we know Him, personally. ”And as you go, preach this message: ‘Heaven’s kingdom realm is accessible, close enough to touch.’“ Matthew 10:7 TPT.  👋

P 2521 The cross needs to be at the centre of everything.

/ DVH

One day, everything in this universe will bend its knees to what Christ did!1 Corinthians 1:17 says:“And I declare this message stripped of all philosophical arguments that empty the cross of its true power. For I trust in the all-sufficient cross of Christ alone.”Our God tells us He is a jealous God, and the Apostle Paul recognised, understood and respected and honoured that fact, in all of his ways. That man lived his life gratefully.

Paul has a huge discourse in 1 Corinthians 1 because some of the members of the Corinthian church were polarising about who baptised them, and they had divided themselves into factions, under a man’s name. These people were trying to make themselves look important by association. However, Paul could not give two hoots about any of that nonsense … he is not spreading the gospel for popularity. He is constrained by the Holy Spirit to make Christ famous. Our single-mindedness is important.

Paul speaks to these factional people very strongly. His point is that we are all baptised into Christ … not Joe Blogs or Tom Smith … In other words some guys who happen to be prophetic or have a healing ministry. These men and others like them, are just His vehicles, Christ Himself is our whole salvation and destination. Christ living in us is our hope of glory!  It is good to realise that we can be distracted, and we can end up following somebody else whose doctrine appeals to us. But salvation comes from Christ alone, and it’s all in THE BOOK. We have been promised so many things in that wonderful book, but think on this; “would you give care of your car keys to a four year old?” Salvation is the beginning, we need to let Him mature us.

Christ is the centre of our faith. But when we treat the Lord and His death like a commodity, and disrespect what Father God has done for us, we are walking on thin ice. When Jesus died for us, He exchanged His life, His favour with God, His obedience, His humility, His purity of heart and focus, and devotion … for our sins. We can easily be dragged away by our own wilful carelessness, ignorance, and blatant disregard for other people, plus our disobedience, and distinct lack of true reverence for Who Almighty God is!  What is important is not just being saved at an altar — but letting the Holy Spirit transform our hearts INTO an altar for God Himself. We live this life we have now for His sake.

If Christ Himself was not willing to grasp at His Heavenly Father’s glory, then it follows that as His followers, we too need to follow His example.“And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine Own Self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.”John 17:5. Jesus Christ’s sacrifice started before He was born here. It started when He chose to give up every right and privilege He had as God’s only begotten Son to leave heaven and be born here! That is the reason I exhort us all to daily linger at the foot of the cross. 

We cannot afford to be seduced away from our destiny by any one person who has a mighty anointing. That’s what the members of the church at Corinth were doing. They started following and giving their allegiance to the MEN who baptised them, and what they said. We need to thank Almighty God that He gave His gifts to men – but remain steadfast to the One Who gave them. It is in our own best interests to pay attention to what Almighty God likes, and what He doesn’t like and it’s all in the book! That’s the real reason that we ‘hide His word in our hearts’ … ‘so we may not sin against Him.’ .

Salvation isn’t just something we do once, and then we have a free ticket to heaven so we are safe. Salvation is a process, one we participate in. It is a life that choses to be laid down deliberately for Christ’s sake. We were saved and now we are daily in the process of being saved. It is a lifetime filled with moment by moment decisions to follow the way of the cross. It means we live for Him now. Every time we choose His will, His way, we die to the old way we lived before, and we are choosing to live our lives glorifying the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. He breathes His life into us, minute by minute, so we can continually walk with Christ. Our job now is to co-operate with what the bible says, and follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit!

The Holy Spirit of the Living God is going to confront areas in our lives that need change. The fight we fight daily to be transformed is about learning to yield plus learning to overcome. It is not easy, nor does it come naturally. This fight means we are taking God at His Word, and we are responding with obedience. It is the fight to prevail that matters. Remember, Jesus Himself did not want to go to the cross. He has personally shown us it can be hard to do the will of God. That is why we have the Helper Who is always available. There is no greater destiny for any one of us than to live and die for God’s glory. That’s what our Lord Jesus did. His cross needs to be at the centre of our lives.  🙌

P 2517 The Lord does not think the way WE DO.

/ DVH

1 Samuel Chapter 16 shows us some very interesting things about the way our God, Maker of heaven and earth – thinks. I really enjoy this story, it gives us great insight into the way the Lord deals with human beings. 

But first, please note! … The story goes like this, God did not want His people to have a king – HE wanted to be their King. Meanwhile,Saul is a dud as a king … He’s a king in the natural. following his own understanding.  Well, he kind of would be really because the people chose Saul – based on his height and his good looks. He was pop-star material. Yet he started out his reign out by hiding! Previously, Almighty God had said ‘yes’ to this man and now he’s hiding in the luggage!! We’ve just learnt something about Saul’s character and whether he respected God or not …!!

Moving into verses 2&3 of Chapter 16: But Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.” The Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’  Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for Me the one I indicate.”

People knew enough about Saul to know what he would do if he was crossed. Samuel is the Lord’s prophet and even he’s scared of what this king will do! So the Lord gives him a sneaky Pete way to go around Saul’s murderous ways, and sends Samuel off to Jesse. Meanwhile, Jesse has 7 sons and one of them is going to be king.

Verses 6&7.“When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord. But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

See, the Israelites already picked a king last time based on the way he looked — but God had someone else on his mind — David.  And even the prophet got it wrong!  God picked a shepherd boy, the least in his earthly father’s household. In the meanwhile the Lord has removed his hand from Saul and he is being tormented all the time. The king is a difficult man already, you don’t want to be around him when he is tormented!! Yet God sends David in. Draw your own conclusion on that point.

Verses 15-18:”Saul’s attendants said to him, “See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you.  Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play the lyre. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes on you, and you will feel better.” So Saul said to his attendants, “Find someone who plays well and bring him to me.” One of the servants answered, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the Lord is with him.”  Did you notice that even the servants knew what was going on? They were on the pointy end of that stick!

Verse 21-23: “David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul liked him very much, and David became one of his armour-bearers. Then Saul sent word to Jesse, saying, “Allow David to remain in my service, for I am pleased with him.” Whenever the spirit from God came on Saul, David would take up his lyre and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.”That’s because God liked David’s anointed worship!

Now, here’s the interesting part… the guy with the anointing and a good heart could soothe the guy everybody else picked. King Saul went nutso regularly. Everything that happened in the kingdom depended on Who or what was in charge of that man!! Hang on I’m nearly there …

We can learn so much about how the Lord thinks from reading this chapter. He allowed all that stuff to happen. David is snagged into the court every time Saul’s tormentor comes upon him. Later on we find that that demonic spirit tries to kill David over and over and over again! This goes on for 20 years, and God does not rescue David! He leaves the man there in that ugly spot, running away from a demonic force. And David has the anointing – so he can deal with it!  I bet that shook someone’s theology! “There’s a time for every purpose under heaven!” (It says that in Ecclesiastes 3) And in the meantime … Almighty God is growing a KING. He took that young man from a teenager, into being an adult under pressure! He took a shepherd boy who loved to worship and made him a WARRIOR.

Sometimes we try to pray ourselves OUT of the very situations God puts us in to shape our character. He doesn’t think like we do. All those years in between tending sheep and eventually becoming a king, are nothing to the Lord. He is growing integrity in that man!! We need to purpose in our hearts to remember that God’s ways are not our ways. There must have been many many times David doubted every single thing that had happened to him when Samuel anointed him – but he kept his integrity in tact and served God’s purposes well.

Almighty God does not think like we do, that’s why we need to follow the Holy Spirit. God is looking for Davids not Sauls He doesn’t believe in popularity contests – He’s looking for the people who will serve Him no matter what! Bye ⚔️ 👋🏻.