Apathy

P 2980 How to be really blessed!

/ DVH

“Let me emphasise this: As you yield to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self-life. When your self-life craves the things that offend the Holy Spirit you hinder Him from living free within you! And the Holy Spirit’s intense cravings hinder your self-life from dominating you! So then, the two incompatible and conflicting forces within you are your self-life of the flesh and the new creation life of the Spirit. But when you yield to the life of the Spirit, you will no longer be living under the law, but soaring above it!”Galatians 5:16-18 TPT. 

The verses above are probably one of the best explanations of how our life in the Spirit works. What I see when I read the above scripture is that we are in a war, right here, right now. Every morning we wake up to war, and war even disturbs our sleep at night. We are not warring against flesh and blood … His book tells us that. No! We are in the battle of our lives to fight apathy, disinterest and disengagement. All those things that are thriving all around us. The ugly stuff that has now become humanity’s way of life. In order to escape it, we must break away from the somnambulism that surrounds us, and take God’s ways seriously.

This world has taught us, day by day, that those things we don’t like are either too hard, not fair, too energetic or just plain boring. We have become incredibly used to being pacified and entertained. If we do not take the bible to heart, we can end up conforming to some advertisers’ fantastic image of who we could be and forget what we already ARE! Human beings are brilliant creatures, created in His image. Yet we sit passively inside our our little boxes, made of ticky-tacky and we’ve all come out the same! (Malvina Reynolds 1962) Let’s not waste this life we have been given simply learning about how to die to self — let’s be brave and jump in! Almighty God will catch us.

Do you know what is incredibly sad? Unredeemed people are currently setting the pace for the church and they are making a huge profit doing it. It seems like we’ve decided there are things that we simply cannot live without!! The unsaved living around us have chosen the cadence, plus the speed of this march toward death we are all on,  and off we go … following the greedy Pied Piper down funny little predesigned rabbit holes into oblivion. We simply must begin to contribute more into the society around us. Lost people need a guide, and God picked you and I. And I am just as inadequate as you feel!

Sadly, our children have become so used to being pacified and entertained that they simply must have the latest … whatever it is! Some of the most potentially brilliant minds in this world have been lulled off to sleep with ghastly music, false gamer finishing lines, bright flashing lights and lots of …loud. Many people are scared of silence, and they are seeking peace in all the wrong places. This is exactly what Paul is talking about in Galatians. Our flesh is wasting away the most important war of our lifetime—the time we have been given by God to be fruitful for His Kingdom. 

That time is being frittered and whittled away by all the useless stuff that has now become part of our everyday lives. The future of everyone around us is at stake, yet we are widely inactive — watching fictional human beings get swished down the drains in movies about death and destruction. We’ve become totally desensitised to the idea of human life as precious and important, because hedonism is being portrayed as great fun, a harmless goal. We seem to have forgotten how much we are loved, how much it cost Him to save every one of us. 

I still maintain that we can’t afford to sit about and wait for the ‘right’ feelings to fall on us. Actually, I think it is going to hurt for each one of us to abandon the cravings of these superficial life-styles we have all embraced. We’ve told ourselves we were “just fitting in.” But the real truth is we were scared of our God-given mandate—and fear won! All the other human beings all around us don’t know any better, mainly because we’ve been so inactive waiting for the pastor or the evangelist to do all the work. Maybe we decided that Christianity’s not all that palatable in this world — after all people could get offended with us. Who wants to hear about – denying yourself, every single day, and dying to self?

Hmmm … … Do I hear the sound of a drain gurgling away somewhere in the background, and millions of voices crying out: “please, somebody save me,” as they circle that awful drain one last time? Don’t worry …  it’s OK. Just turn the TV up a little, and tell little Andy to “please take that dreadful noisy game up to your room, I’m trying to relax here.” … Well, thank goodness that desperate sound is fading even now …because so many people are giving up waiting for help to come …  Bye. 👋 

“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on His law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season…” Psalm 1:1-3a. 

P 2979 Saturated.

/ DVH

To be saturated means that when life squeezes the daylights out of you — all that comes out is love! The Holy Spirit’s Presence in us, transforms us, and touches everyone around us. He attracts people, and He knows exactly what every heart we meet needs to hear. We are not called to pat down or pacify other people’s sin – we are called to shine HIS light into sin, without destroying the person captured by it. Love shines into the darkness with such a brilliance that even grumpy people are surprised.

We don’t seem to understand that He is now in all of us, and it is our joy to co-operate with Him. We make our hearts, His home, with the Holy Spirit’s help, otherwise we will get progressively deaf. That’s what disobedience, and carelessness does. Because He is now our dearest, most trusted Friend, the Holy Spirit can put His finger on anything He sees that is clogging up our flow of His love, in us and for others. As He flows through us that is the normal Christian life. 

Peter told the lame man in the book of Acts: “I don’t have money but what I do have I will give you.” He knew the Holy Spirit was in him and with him. Peter’s focus was on walking with God not ministry, or avoiding sin. The secret to flowing with the Holy Spirit is to allow Him to lead you. He is not some kind of emergency spare Friend sent to bail us out of trouble or make us look good! Life is so much easier, when He is in charge. Meanwhile, I can guarantee you that whatever He wants us to do, we will need to use our faith to do it. 

I find it incredibly interesting that Jesus Himself did not teach the disciples about what we call “the anointing.” He did not speak about God’s Presence with these men as a method—because the Holy Spirit is a PERSON, not a method! He simply taught these men God’s ways, then He demonstrated them, and then He told them to go and do it! 

The Lord’s importance and proximity in their lives had an overflowing effect – they were able to do what He did because they were living in His Presence. Ya might want to stop and think about that one! 🤔 Yet these men, who walked with Jesus, weren’t perfected in their personal faith – until their spiritual debt had been paid, and the Holy Spirit came to each one of them at Pentecost. After the Spirit’s arrival, they would’ve gladly died for what they believed instead of running away, as they had previously done.

The bible tells us that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. We already have it, so we must stop checking out our feelings and instead follow His prompts. God loves it when we do what we do prompted by faith – every single day. Including TODAY! … “Today when you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.” Hebrews 3:15. When you hear Him—obey Him. If He says you should apologise and fix things, then that other person’s response has nothing whatsoever to do with the outcome… even if they snarl at you! We are here to please Him, other people may be touched by Him as we obey, but that is not our priority. Our obedience releases our faith.

The source of His life in us is never US—it is His Presence IN us. “Christ in you the hope of glory..”  As we daily choose to use our faith to allow God to redeem our lives from fleshly habits—like holding apathy, offences,  bitterness, bad attitudes, wrong relationships and carelessness, we will become increasingly more free. Even seemingly unimportant things, that can trip us up — things like lying to save someone else’s feelings must go.

The love of God needs to fill us daily with the purposes and things of God. We can’t just pray: “Fill me now please Lord” and then walk out of the door and get grumpy because somebody parked across the driveway. And we don’t just go to work to do a job – now we work for Him! As we walk with Him we will move away from those things that are distracting us from our true calling and purpose. 

At the same time, the love of God captures our hearts. We begin to see Him do things through us that we cannot do ourselves. And I’m not just talking about walking on water! I’m talking about a bad tempered person finding that as they yield to the Holy Spirit’s promptings, and obey Him in faith, they are transformed. They experience the growth of the  fruit of self-control. Because of their obedience, they are choosing to remain in the vine.This love lifestyle doesn’t just work on things like a bad temper, it works on anything that keeps you and I from being distracted by this life. We remember how much God loves us! 

Our proximity to Jesus minute by minute, grows exponentially as we live aware of Him. The Holy Spirit is with us to remind us we are not guided by our flesh anymore.“Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell Him every detail of your life, then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ.” Philippians 4:6-7 TPT.

As you can see, God’s peace is the final umpire. Our task is follow His peace. We have to protect our peace and be guided by it.  Living this life saturated with His love is not a pipe dream – it is our new way to live.

Bye. 👋

P 2879 Avoidance is not enough …

/ DVH

... action is required! “So now we draw near freely and boldly to where grace is enthroned, to receive mercy’s kiss and discover the grace we urgently need to strengthen us in our time of weakness.”Hebrews 4:16 TPT

“And God has made all things new, and reconciled us to Himself, and given us the ministry of reconciling others to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:18 TPT

There is nothing like the bible for good advice. It is the best instruction manual ever, particularly if we refuse to explain away what it says. When we think we can’t do this or that, we need to draw near to Him, and let His mercy kiss us, all over again. Mercy received will change anyone’s mind.

We must always remember Jesus Christ died to give us the power to say ‘yes,’ to His will, His Way. Nothing can take that choice away from us. We have the precious Holy Spirit, Who is with us, in us, and He walks WITH us to guide us. Our faith cannot be in our ability — if we have a brain in our head, we already know we have limited ability! Our faith is in what Christ did. We stand firmly on the Rock Who is Christ Jesus. Because He rose from the dead- we can rise up from our beds of apathy, excuses and indifference into action.

We can spend our whole lives as Christians, avoiding sin, and … that’s not a bad thing, but…!  Yes, we can go through this life avoiding gossip, hatred, etc. etc .but at the same time, we actually have a job to do. The way to conquer those things that can so easily drag us down and under, is to aim at what Christ aimed at. “Loving God with all our heart, soul and mind, and our neighbours as ourselves.”  My advice is that we should be so busy doing stuff for His kingdom, that we don’t even sit down to think about the negatives. 

We know we fall over and fail! It’s because we are human, that we will fail, BUT! … …We have a Saviour Who is more faithful than any of us can ever imagine! We have been empowered by what He did, to choose differently. Just because living for His sake looks impossible, that does not mean we can quit and simply use avoidance to get through all the pitfalls of this life. What Christ did for us demands a positive response! And not just an Amen either.

Let’s just pause, and imagine this with me: one day you and I will stand in the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ’s Presence. Hallelujah! What a day that will be!! 🙌 When He asks us what we did with this new life He gave us, do we really want to say:“I know You died for me. So I avoided that sin, and this and that pitfall, and I didn’t join in with the evil things other men do.”  It’s not a bad testimony… However, daring to take action for the sake of Christ’s Name, is another thing altogether. Dare to believe He really is so powerful that He can empower YOU … 

So, what are we doing with the faith He died to give us? Christ’s faith released incredible forgiveness into this planet. It was so extraordinary, so above and beyond anything that would ever be needed by any one soul at any one time.  And we are here because Jesus has given us the benefits of all that forgiveness and faith! He stood in silence as wicked, jealous, fearful men accused Him of things He did not do. Then they punished Him mercilessly. His last action on this earth was to forgive US all, and He released His Spirit back to His Father. Now, the Spirit of the living God is here, He came here at Pentecost, He wants to walk with YOU and I.

In Ecclesiastes 3:7b it clearly says there is:”… a time to be silent and a time to speak …”  Brothers and sisters, I put it to you that we are living in the time to speak … There may be times when we will say nothing in the face of false accusations, like Jesus did. But where are our faith works? (James talked about them.) Where is “… the reward of His suffering?” Our lives need to be laid down willingly, through our participation in Christ’s mission. Lives laid down in faith, like His life was for us. Don’t be fooled by the devil, your contribution matters.

We have not been given a free ticket to do whatever we like! Almighty God is NOT an indulgent Father Who wants to give us everything we think we need in this life, and then we will go on to inherit the next! Father God wants a family, that means every tribe, every tongue. Are we serving our Father in a worthy way that glorifies everything Christ suffered and died to give us? Have we tried and sometimes failed, only to try again — to make sure that His family includes every single member, and that ALL have had an opportunity to belong? If not – WHY NOT? ‘I’m scared’ just doesn’t cut it. Neither will – “that was someone else’s job.”

We’ve learnt on previous occasions that fear must not be a deterrent – fear is to be conquered through our faith-filled actions. Today I have included a quote that I loved, it’s from a Malaysian church: “FAITH IS NOT THE ABSENCE OF FEAR, BUT KNOWING WHO YOUR GOD IS!” And knowing Who He is, needs to be accessible to everyone … that’s why avoiding sin is not enough – action is required. Bye. 👋

“I refuse to be ashamed of the wonderful message of God’s liberating power unleashed in us through Christ! For I am thrilled to preach that everyone who believes is saved—the Jew first, and then people everywhere!” Romans 1:16 TPT

P 2507 The time has come to pay attention.

/ DVH

You know, sometimes I wonder if we have been so busy building, or maybe even re-building, our own little kingdoms … not to mention trying hard to look like good Christians … that maybe we have run out of OIL and we didn’t notice. Now satan has boxed us into inactivity. Lemme tell you a thing or nine … that box we think we can see, is a fake. Nothing can hold any of one of us captive without our permission.

Yes, I know it’s been hard at your house, it’s been hard at mine. But the reason it has become so hard is because we’ve kind of let ourselves get soft and flabby spiritually speaking. There have been difficulties flying at us like snow in a snow storm and they have been coming so thick and fast, perhaps we have not been able to stay in overcoming mode. Life got hard when Covid smacked us in the head, praise God – and now we need to wake up, or go under.

BTW, I said ‘praise God’ because we have been in a time of shaking. Christianity is not designed to be an established routine:  with Church on Sunday, bible study on Monday, prayer group on Thursday etc. Christianity is about an Army. An army can accomplish very little half-asleep on its feet! Our job is to defeat the enemy and our side already won – because the King of glory is in us.

I am greatly cheered by the story of Gideon. It starts with a guy whose faith is about a quarter of an inch high, yet he became the God-delegated leader of 32,000 men. Then the Lord Himself whittled those men down to 300. 😱 Almighty God carefully walked that man into such an incredible place. He did that to show Himself strong to His children. Meanwhile, if anyone had told Gideon that’s where he was going, I think he might have freaked out!! However this man draggled along, willingly and sometimes unwillingly, following God’s instructions, step by step – despite his own fears and misgivings.  

In my heart I know that right now, we are in a time like it was back then for Gideon. Almighty God has a way through our apathy and inactivity – He hasn’t caused it, but He will definitely use it! However, we will always need the Holy Spirit’s leadership. Father God has given us the Holy Spirit to help us with difficult times, as well as our own weakness. “And in a similar way, the Holy Spirit takes hold of us in our human frailty to empower us in our weakness. For example, at times we don’t even know how to pray, or know the best things to ask for. But the Holy Spirit rises up within us to super-intercede on our behalf, pleading to God with emotional sighs too deep for words.” Romans 8:26 TPT. 

Praise God, right at this moment, the Holy Spirit is praying for all of us, and boy does HE know how to pray! Hallelujah! The bible tells us that when we are weak, then He is strong. Nevertheless, our obedience is essential. Gideon had to obey God and send men home, some of them for the most ridiculous reasons. Father God also called Gideon a mighty warrior, and that was something he would never call himself. Our God sees us differently than we see ourselves. He has no problem with faith! He knew what Gideon could do when he was empowered by the Holy Spirit.

You and I may feel that we have little to offer the Lord … we can’t preach, or teach, or prophesy, or heal the sick, or raise the dead… or so we think! But Gideon shows us that an obedient, weak person in God’s hands has far more power than they can imagine, because God is on their side. You and I are never alone. We walk with the One Who made the moon, stars and universe. We know His Name and He knows ours. 

Our problem also has never been about power, He gave us power. Our problem is about per-cep-tion. Just like Gideon. He had no idea Who he was dealing with, but as he was led along by the Holy Spirit, that man saw miracle after miracle. The God of miracles is waiting for you and I to rise and be strong in the Lord, and in the power of HIS MIGHT.  If Christians started to live their lives the Way Jesus lived His, purely for our Father’s will … we’d see what Jesus saw …transformation, souls saved, and miracles. 

It isn’t who we are – it is WHO WE KNOW. The time has come to pay attention and begin to practice taking faith steps. His power is let loose through our obedience to Him. Bye 👋

““Ask, and the gift is yours. Seek, and you’ll discover. Knock, and the door will be opened for you.” Matthew 7:7 TPT

P 2129 Tick tock.

/ DVH

Ephesians 3:14-21 TPT “So I kneel humbly in awe before the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the perfect Father of every father and child in heaven and on the earth. And I pray that He would unveil within YOU the unlimited riches of His glory and favour until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with His divine might and explosive power.” 

I think these verses are a fantastic prayer to pray for yourself and all the people around you. This is how we need to live – when things are good, as well as bad. We all live on the other side of the cross. Even if we don’t know Him yet, we can ask the Lord Jesus to reveal Himself to us. He has already given this world everything – total forgiveness, plus He poured out eternal His love, and He gave us the power to learn about Him and walk with Him. Our God hasn’t left mankind alone. The Holy Spirit is God and He is here. He came and He never left! And our task is to cherish His Presence and follow Him – the same way Jesus’ disciples followed Him. Using our faith.

You know, the disciples didn’t go on holidays, or have a slouching-about-the-house-day, in those three and a half years of intense ministry? They simply walked and talked with Jesus, each other, and anyone else who needed something. It takes faith to do that when the immediate stuff of this world presses in on us. These men woke up with Him, they ate with Him, they walked dusty roads following Him. I don’t think we can begin to understand the blessing of living, walking and talking with Jesus Christ, every single day. Christianity does not work part-time. We need to constantly use our faith for something else other than excusing our bad behaviour.

Back to Ephesians: “Then, by CONSTANTLY using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of His love will become the very source and root of your life. THEN you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences—the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is His love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding—this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!”  WOW!

There is one thing we need to know above everything else – our Heavenly Father is looking for a resting place – a habitation – and He wants US to be that place. God is holy and we are not.  But Jesus Christ made this utterly impossible thing – walking and talking with God Himself –  possible for us, in our lives, before we were ever born. I cannot give anyone some formulaic system on how to walk with Jesus minute by minute. My only solution is to make Him the centre of everything you know, and then go out and live for others while we are doing that. This means simple things like – in a conversation with someone else – what they have to say is more important than what we have to say! We need to intentionally reverse the selfish polarity that is dominating this world – and that has to be done prayerfully, and on purpose, through our own choices.

Here is the last bit today: “Never doubt God’s mighty power TO WORK IN YOU and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for His miraculous power constantly energises you. Now we offer up to God all the glorious praise that rises from every church in every generation through Jesus Christ—and all that will yet be manifest through time and eternity. Amen!”  

We cannot know what we have been given, unless we make an effort for ourselves to find out and seek Him. Somebody else can’t give this to us – even the most anointed man or woman has to choose to pray when they have other matters pressing in on them. We need to ask for a revelation of the importance of our lives for His kingdom’s sake. Otherwise spiritual things just stay as words on a page, and eventually they become interesting information.  

But the reality is, we are all destined to be citizens of heaven, our names are written in His book, the book of life, forever. How sad it would be if we won some super prize in a lottery and we didn’t go to pick up the prize! JESUS IS OUR PRIZE – His nearness from day to day is our greatest blessing, whether we feel like it or not. And most days, at my house, I live with ‘OR NOT.’ We must pray for His power to overcome the seemingly unimportant every day things that hold us back from living our Christian lives in victory!

Everything depends on how you look at this life you have been given and what you cherish most. Whatever we make our priority, will fill our vision. I love that old hymn, “Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart…” If living this life from day to day, is all about finding the rent, going to work, or paying the mortgage, and raising our kids then that will be the main priority of our lives. Ask the Lord to help you to focus on Him above everything else. satan does not have to corrupt us in order to render us useless, and stop us daily living in God’s kingdom. he just needs to lull us off to sleep with our everyday humdrum lives, lurching from one financial or moral temptation to another.  

The Lord has some people in this world, who dearly love Him yet they live under a constant barrage of fear and danger, as well as a huge need for food and shelter. They don’t have a problem focussing on God! He fills their thoughts. Our biggest danger in the Western world is apathy and human busy-ness.  It takes focus to walk with Him and live our lives acknowledging His ways, because this life we live from day to day, crowds our thoughts of Christ and what He did for us … OUT. If not now, then when? Tick tock. ⏰ 👋🏻