Attack

P 3300 We rely upon Him.

/ DVH

Lately I have been thinking about the kind of things that that can keep us from walking in everything Jesus died to give us. Unfortunately, discouragement can send God’s kids into despair. Some of us are physically, mentally, or spiritually ill. I want to point out that the lack of an overcoming, miraculous testimony, is not a sin. 

I know some brave, persevering souls who soldier on in the faith, even when everything is not quite so hunky-dory at their house! Sometimes we relegate those people who don’t have an amazing testimony of a miraculous cure, or life-turn around – onto the back burner. Do that at your own peril. These people have been smacked about by circumstances, yet they have learnt to cling to Christ like a limpet. In a storm, they know how to stand on their faith.

It is sad to assume that because these people are physically, or mentally impaired, obviously they have nothing they can contribute. Or perhaps we think we shouldn’t bother them because they are already burdened. In my heart of hearts, I have such a passion for these brave souls, who turn up Sunday by Sunday, simply because they love Him, they love His Presence, and they love the joy of fellowship. When it comes to testimony time, their simple contributions breathe out trust and faith in His goodness.

Maybe they’ve persevered for another day, week, or month, in a marriage that clearly is not working for them. God loves it when we do things in obedience, despite our feelings to the contrary. We might think that a real testimony is about a joyful reconciliation and restoration, but a true soldier of the Lord continues to fight and love the other person even when wounded and under fire. Maybe some other person has their precious child missing, and they don’t know if that son or daughter is alive or dead. So they stand at their door daily, not just actively waiting for the return of their child, but steadfast in their belief of God’s goodness.

We are encouraged in the bible, to weep with those who weep! Our God is a Father, He longs to comfort His children. The thing that becomes incredibly important when you are sidelined by illness, or adverse circumstances is looking after our faith. Faith takes a battering when we don’t get well immediately … or the problems continue over a long period of time. Pray for, and with these people, they need your support.

The Lord was incredibly compassionate toward those who were suffering, no matter what the cause was, even if it was the person’s own sin. Jesus is always truly kind and gentle with the sick. Compassion is a sorely needed heart-action toward those who are living their Christian lives suffering. These dear people live holding their breath, wondering when that next attack, or relapse might happen. But they go on to rebuke those thoughts, and focus on Jesus instead. They already know that focussing on the suffering makes it bigger. 

These people are not second-class Christians! The perfectly well, the happily married, the parents with kids who are model children, can never be the criteria. Jesus is! And He loves mankind. He paid for every bit of sickness, disease, unfaithfulness, sinfulness, and suffering in the whole world, and so that love for this world must become the motivation for everything we do toward others. 

In John 8:11 He says something so beautiful when He asks where a woman’s accusers have gone. “She answered, No one, Lord! And Jesus said, I do not condemn you either. Go on your way and from now on sin no more.” And John 9:3 says this about a blind man: “Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed and illustrated in him.” The Lord’s answer could easily jump all over a lot of people’s theology, yet at the same time it highlights our God’s sovereignty and utter faithfulness. God is not interested in our formulaic approach to faith, He treats each person individually, so we dare not treat any one of them as a member of a herd. 

When we make healing into some sort of proof that we are saved and going on with Jesus – we are in error. Our efforts to simplify our faith, can result in over-simplifying it, by attributing blame when there is no blame. And even if we can see blame, who are we to judge? Most of the time these things are just part of this sinful world.. However, we can’t ever afford to stop praying and believing for miracles, healing and we need to do so with compassion. That’s why Christ came here in the first place. 

Jesus never tolerated illness or the demonic, so that’s the position we need to occupy too.  But at the same time,  let’s actively support the person who is suffering. We are oversimplifying the Lord’s work when we claim that nobody should ever be sick, and there must be some hidden sin in the life of the sick person.

Sometimes, because that person is so desperate for their blooming awful lives to change, we can actually harm them with our unbounded enthusiasm for the wonderful things God does. I’ve seen this scenario happen many times. Someone prays, announces that the person is healed, and walks away leaving the sick person feeling condemned. The person prayed for now feels that they are letting God down if they aren’t healed. People lose their faith in these circumstances. People should feel loved after any kind of prayer.

Always pray as the Lord leads you to pray, but please … don’t leave the person in need, worse off than they were before! That is devastating. Let’s remember we rely upon Almighty God, Who is always good!  Bye. 👋

P 3202 No Room.

/ DVH

I don’t think we can begin to imagine what it was like for Mary and Joseph long, long ago. They travelled nearly 200 kilometres, basically on foot, to obey the law and be counted, so they could pay taxes to an occupying army. And when they arrived at their destination, they learnt that there was nowhere for them to to stay. To top all that off … Mary was about to give birth. The very last possibility they had for a room told them: “No room!” But then the innkeeper takes pity on them, and tells them about something they can use. It’s a place for animals to shelter. 

2,000+ years ago, there were no camp grounds, caravan parks, AirBnb, hotels, motels, or resorts. No phoning ahead to make a booking. And even if there had been, this young couple were poor, they couldn’t afford to pay much. So they end up in a shed out the back. It’s freezing cold in Bethlehem at that time of the year – I looked it up (!) and animals probably used that shed to get out of the cold weather. This young couple were in the lowest place possible … yet God chose it for them. He had a bigger plan! 

Mary’s labour started ramping up, and there’s no help coming. Imagine that! This is her first baby. Mary doesn’t know what to expect, and her female family members are 200 kms back the way they came. This means they are utterly on their own for the birth of their child. Mary already knew all about this precious infant, and how and why she is pregnant, and so does Joseph. It might have seemed a tiny bit odd to them that the light of the whole world is going to be born under these dreadful circumstances, but they have no time for reflection, opinions, or alternatives … because it was happening to them, now. And so, God’s precious Son is born in a shed with animals for company. Praise God. The Lord Jesus brought such incredible joy with Him – because you might have a party in a barn, but it is not a place to have a baby! 

Many times we can translate the word joy into happiness, but the truth is JOY is a spiritual gift. Happiness seems to depend upon our circumstances and our reactions to them. This life screams at each one of us – there is no room for you! Your life is awful… God doesn’t love YOU! You are a waste of space. This is the point of my blog today. Those words NO ROOM seem final. But nothing is final to the Lord! He tells us in Psalm 23, that we can walk with Him through the valley of the shadow of death! But even that is only a theory … until it is tested. Boy. Mary and Joseph had it tested, alrighty and they held onto His promise.

There are times when it seems like there is no rest for us from walking around in the middle of some fire or other that has exploded into our lives. We can easily forget we are walking around in the middle of a miracle, despite the circumstances … we will live to tell the tale. Like the three guys thrown into the fiery furnace, things happen to all of us, and those things are not punishment, they are part of an imperfect world. They don’t always make sense!

The specific problems this young couple had, may not have happened to you, but this kind of intense and suffocating opposition and oppression has become very common in our lives today. One difficult thing happens, then another, then just when it seems like it will all be OK …something else pops up that sends us spinning. Someone over-spends on the credit card, or hacks our account, and now the mortgage or the rent is past due. Other people attack us and we have no idea why. Some people seem to have brought their mess or incompetence with them into our lives. 

It’s a bit like that old kid’s game: “stacks on the mill, more on still.” Everything starts to pile on top of you. Bin there, dun that. I couldn’t afford a T-shirt and I couldn’t escape either – I had to go through. Beloved of God we must learn how to go through! What we focus on in these tests reveals our weaknesses, but that’s also where we can freely take advantage of the Lord’s strength! Or we can try to make the best of a bad bargain and slog on. But the very best response is to yell for HELP and hold on. Let’s learn to hold fast to Him, steadfastly believing that nothing can separate us from the love of Jesus. He knows what He is doing! We are not always given room to grow. Like a baby being born, we have to push through, despite how we feel. Birth is painful.

I have had my share of miserable tales from living this life, and it sees to me that most of the bad things that happen to us, are normal. (Meanwhile if you are looking for a blog that talks about sunshine and happiness all the time you are reading the wrong blog!) BUT, if you want to learn how to be an overcomer, you will have to have something to overcome! “He who overcomes (is victorious), I will grant him to sit beside Me on My throne, as I Myself overcame (was victorious) and sat down beside My Father on His throne.” Revelation 3:21. Jesus’ seating arrangements are directly correlated to our ability to conquer self, the devil, and dastardly situations, and still keep on maintaining the Love of Jesus toward others, as we push through.

That’s what happened to Mary, Joseph and the newborn infant Jesus. This life can squish us flatter than a pancake, and hit us harder than a Mac truck. The secret is to put our eyes on Him, and let the problem fade into the background. We are carriers of His goodness –  remember, goodness makes its own room. Bye. 👋

P 3149 Strongholds.

/ DVH

My first thought is this … never ever forget the prince of the power of the air … that guy is still around!  On to my subject for today… It is not comprehensive … this is about awareness.

It seems to me that we all have habitual attitudes that we have cultivated over the years. They profit us, as well as help us get our own way.  So when you keep coming up against the same ungodly attitude in yourself, it shows that there is a stronghold in your life. In my opinion, strongholds are sins that have dug in – something has dug itself into our roots in childhood, OR this captivity has taken advantage of our willing participation. We can, and must walk away from anything that drags us along.

Here’s my next point – people who have a stronghold don’t necessarily yell – they can also become pathetic on cue. Neither of these attitudes agree with what God says. Sadly rotten attitudes are often profitable – people get tired of the same fight over and over and give up! An immature personality often makes decisions about life and how to get what they want. They dig a familiar rut into the essence of who they think they are, and they march up and down in it, guns drawn, knives out – hankies and tissues by the score and … off they go! A stronghold is a collection of self-supporting thoughts that always have an answer, but it’s not what JESUS said in the book.

This is a diagnostic verse about strongholds: 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 “For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons. For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds, [Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) …” In other words, watch your thought life!

Many things roll about in our heads in thought patterns, or unsolicited emotional reactions, or even lies and deceptions we have believed about ourselves, and/or other people. We may have picked up judgmental attitudes from parental oversight, and now we are trapped inside those things – thinking: this is who I am – I can’t help it! When God’s Word plainly says we can! These deceptions can hold us captive. This stuff denies the power of God to transform us. It makes God less powerful in our eyes, because we are virtually saying – ‘He can’t fix me.’ I call this stronghold ‘internal deception.’

Some of us have been taught that the attitudes we have are the right ones, and anything else is wrong. Those things are roadblocks to change, because they get us stuck in man’s own version of reality. Often people’s decisions are based on the thought that their actions or reactions, are a human response or normal attitude. It stinks of pride. I call this one ‘the alternate reality’ stronghold. It’s not real.

However, the hardest mind-pattern to overcome is the one that says: ‘This is just who I am and you are rejecting who I am!’  These people use their stronghold to attack you for the very thing they are doing themselves. Many people don’t like anyone disagreeing with them and their ideas. When we hit that kind of wall, we are hitting a stronghold. We can’t argue others out of strongholds, that stuff needs repentance, and the person’s agreement that what they are doing is not profitable. They need to choose to believe this life can be better. I call it the unwilling to learn and change stronghold. To combat that, I throw His unconditional love at it. It is ‘the kindness of God that leads us into repentance.’

Strongholds are way beyond our ability of persuasion. Start releasing God’s Grace, Love, Joy, Peace etc. You can’t sin when you aim at these God-given Graces and give them away. The bible tells us ‘there is no law against those things.’ We are to live our lives so that others can be built up to embrace their godly purpose. Judgment has to go out of the window, it just muddies the water. Even if you have doubts about any stuff that you might be doing without even thinking about it – run your attitudes by your pastor, and the Holy Spirit, prayerfully. Ask the Lord to correct you with His eye on you, then deliberately take the time to listen. God’s power inhabits His Grace.

Here’s a couple of tips if you discover a stronghold in your life … Joshua and Co. walked around Jericho for 7 days – the Lord used obedience and praise to pull that stronghold down. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, and Almighty God used that time to deal with their religious, idolatrous, gimme gimme attitudes. Sadly they all died off!  Lastly, I think that if we are provoked by what someone else is doing, then we are staring at a stronghold of our own. At the bottom of our annoyance is the reality that we don’t want to be inconvenienced by someone else’s learning curve!

And BTW, I’m not talking about this today so you can figure out what’s wrong with your spouse … we all need to be transformed. You’ll never know what else will change, when YOU change and start dealing with your own strongholds. You could end up being His catalyst. Bye 👋.

P 2954 Jesus conquered death!

/ DVH

John 8:20: “Jesus said these things in the treasury, as He taught in the temple [courtyard]; and no one seized Him, because His time had not yet come.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1,2a:“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die…”

Romans 14:8:“If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. So then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”

Luke 24:5b,6:“…but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen!”

There is a time to be born and a time to die, and because of what Jesus did for us, death is a door. Mankind has always had an eternal destiny. So when we die we simply change locations! Heaven belongs to us here and now, today – because Jesus loves us that much. 

So, just for today, I want talk to anyone who wants to leave this life prematurely. My heart goes out to the person who feels they can’t go on — I can hear your desperate cry for mercy, right here, in my funny old chair. I am praying for you as I am typing this blog. I don’t care what you’ve done, or with whom, we need every single member of this Body that is currently so badly broken. There is no despair so deep as the despair a human being suffers when they can no longer see Him or have any hope that will change.

Christianity has blown itself out of all proportion, and in the process we’ve left behind compassion and mercy. We’ve allowed rules to become doctrines. Only God Himself knows the terrible pain and suffering in someone’s heart. Physical, emotional and mental anguish have to be personally experienced to be understood. If that happens to be you, then please remember – Jesus Christ suffered all kinds of agony and anguish on that cross, He alone totally understands where you are right now.

That’s why He came to earth in the first place – to experience humanity first-hand and save us from ourselves. He asked me to write to you today. He wants you to do the bravest thing you have ever done and ask for help. Remember, despite how it looks to you — we need you. “The weaker members are more important…” 1 Corinthians 12:22.

I’ve found that terrible, unthinkable things in this life can suddenly turn around and situations can change in a heartbeat … because God is always on His Throne. He’s on your side, no matter what you have done. Grab His hand and hold on! I’ve also learnt that satan loves to find and add fuel to the fire of despair, depression and pessimism. You aren’t useless – you are under attack!

We can always tell our enemy’s voice — it accuses and condemns us. It remembers things we desperately want to forget, and it comes up with thousands of dreadful reasons why you are a waste of space and how everyone else would be better off without you! Treat him like the TV – turn him off.

Even if what he is saying is, or was true – he’s not trying to help you —he wants you dead. Start singing to yourself, with Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Spiritual songs are the songs we sing that we make up as we go along. I sometimes sing the Psalms, after all God does not care if we are tone deaf or totally tuneless. Doing this puts a spark to our rapidly fading faith. satan’s a liar and if he is coming up with these ghastly scenarios then you can bet God has something that only you can do … The bigger the brambles and booby traps, the bigger the prize on the other side of any test. 

Grace is the vehicle we need to automatically climb into every single day, in order to keep running this race. We cannot do this life in our own strength, because our strength runs out! It also gets incredibly battered by the stuff that comes at us. What Jesus did for us, once and for all, triumphs over everything else that is to come, and everything else that has gone before us. It is in our heavenly account, credited to us by the blood of Jesus. Hallelujah! 🙌  He whispers to us: “I have forgiven you.” Dare to believe Him.

Our mind cannot always rationalise its way around the deepest pain. Let His Word soothe your thoughts, and suffering – “He will not break a broken reed …!!”  When we cherish what the Lord has said and put it above our own thoughts and experiences, that’s when we begin to build a bank within our heart of testimonies about His power. We start to remember that He has helped us to overcome the very stuff that tried to drown us. He stops being the God I read about in His book, and becomes the God Who knows and loves ME. And because His Word is powerful, it works whether I think I believe it or not. 

Jesus went through all He suffered … so we would not have to suffer alone from this life’s torments. HE CAME OUT OF THAT GRAVE and proved that He conquered death and destruction once and for all! That means YOU … He conquered death and potential destruction – for you. Hold fast beloved of God – as we celebrate His victory over the very things that seek to destroy us all. 🕊️

P 2881 This is the battle.

/ DVH

“So fight with faith for the winner’s prize! Lay your hands upon eternal life, to which you were called and about which you made the good confession before the multitude of witnesses!” 1 Timothy 6:12 TPT

Entering into eternal life here and now, is not just a one time event. It is an ongoing process that is designed to saturate every single part of our lives, so that we progressively become like Christ, while we are still in this world! It is very important that this thought becomes the way we see everything. Some not good things we choose to do are one off actions, but other things are entrenched in us as part of the way we think and conduct ourselves. The more we become saturated by His life in us, and through us, the easier it is to identify the stuff that is the wrong way to think. God Himself has the best Way to think no matter what we are going through!

He is so incredibly good to us while we are learning to yield every area of our lives to Him, His patience with us is far beyond our imagination. It is far greater than any of our experiences have been with other people! Sometimes people’s attitudes and responses may be harsh, so it is extremely important that we know what the bible says. I can’t stress that enough! This is why we let Him and His Word have the last say on our lives, over our personal responses to hardship and trouble. However, to do that we have to be honest with ourselves, and with others.

We have Christ’s example from the bible that show us what His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control look like! Read the Gospels, follow the Lord Jesus around, you will see that fruit all over His life! God’s kindness etc. is not indulgent or self-serving, it is something steadfast that we can stand on. This means we can identify the things that come to attack us, simply by knowing what real Love looks like. At the same time, we must remember that we are not in a popularity context, and that means that there are times we can end up at odds with someone else – because their learning curves and ours may not match. Grace needs to prevail.

Things like this, are not just tests, or trials. They are opportunities to learn God’s ways. We learn how to hide from the storm, in Him, when there is an actual storm in our lives blasting away. His transformatory ways are often learnt right in the middle of situations we would much rather avoid! As we understand and remember this, it becomes part of our way of looking at this world. Difficult circumstances are not sent by Him, but they are used by the Lord to teach us His Ways of thinking, doing and being. They teach us our limitations. Plus our often unknown weaknesses, and they present us with situations where we can practice relinquishment, by leaving stuff with Him. 

It takes humility to let go of our own solutions, defence mechanisms etc. and trust the Lord to take care of us and the people, or the things that we love. And humility is often learnt, firsthand, when we submit to others – especially people we don’t like! That’s what not leaning on your own understanding means. Experience with His Ways will grow us up in the things that last! We learn trust by trusting Him when everything around us screams “Panic!”

Jesus Christ was man-handled roughly even before those Roman Soldiers beat Him mercilessly. He was verbally abused and He did nothing. He knows what silence in the face of lies looks like and what it costs us when we do it. This was a grown man in His prime – He could easily have fought back! Instead, He humbly submitted to those evil circumstances that battered and beat Him, when He paid for our sins. And now He can identify perfectly with US!

When people come at us with untruths against our character, we have SomeOne who knows how hard these things are and He knows how to get through them without defending ourselves. Jesus was not stoic about what happened to Him — He was GRACE personified. He fought the battle before He ever got into that courtyard, where evil people questioned and beat Him. He knows how to get through things.

This voluntary submission to Him is our daily battle. We choose it. Because of what Jesus has already done for us, we will always have the power to enter into His rest, and lean on His understanding. Bye. 👋

P 2615 Fighting fear at 3.00am or thereabouts.

/ DVH

We all know this one in some form or another. As we start to get a handle on wrangling fear, fighting with the Lord’s strength during the day, the wretched thing pops up at 3.00am when you can’t sleep. I call it the ‘what ifs.’  

What if this bad thing happens. What if that even worse one does? … What if I can’t cope? … What if I let my family down? First of all – let’s remind ourselves that at 3.00am very few sleepless people cope! These thoughts and many others like them, are a direct attack on our faith. Cheer up! The other guy wouldn’t be attacking our faith if we weren’t actually going somewhere with it. It is time to remind ourselves that …

“… God will NEVER give us the spirit of fear, but the Holy Spirit Who gives us mighty power, love, and self-control.”

2 Timothy 1:7 TPT. Did ya get the word NEVER??! So that clears up any possible suggestion of just who is behind those worries that are nagging at us, no matter what time it is, because it will NEVER be the Lord Jesus. 

Yeah, I know that seems to go without saying … except in those moments when a lack of sleep robs you of your ability to think clearly. But we can learn to fight for our peace. However, this verse is more about Who we have to help us, than about what we are fighting. We have the Holy Spirit Who wants to give us His mighty power, His love for the Lord and others, plus a spiritual gift called self-control. Ya might want to think on that for a minute or ten. 🤔 But not at 3.00am, or there’s a chance that we will get even more awake!

At that hour I personally need all the mighty power I can get, thank you Jesus! My brain turns into a washing machine. Strangely, that reminds me of something … old person’s ramble alert … many years ago, there was this ad on TV with a cute kid in it who is probably now in his 60s … if not dead. This kid says: “Guess whose mum’s got a Whirlpool?” I dunno about a fancy washing machine, but sometimes it sure feels like a whirlpool in my head! How about you? PS they don’t make Whirlpools any more – they cost a fortune even back then. Let’s mo-ve right along from useless trivia that no-one cares about … 

… And just look again at that terrific verse. At all times, in all places, sometimes even despite our lack of obvious spirituality… God GIVES US the Holy Spirit. I’m going to say that again because maybe it didn’t quite sink in  … our GOD GIVES US THE HOLY SPIRIT!! Now here’s the Gift Who keeps on giving! And He is totally unearned or deserved. At 3.00am very few people feel spiritual, but we know that our God will always help us. Ask for help! ← I’m just going to let that sit there so we can both think about it.🤔 🧐 

Here’s another weapon suitable for the 3.00am screaming meemies …“because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. ”So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my Helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”Hebrews 13:5b-6. Whatever is trying to pinch your sleep is between you and our precious Helper, the Holy Spirit, He’s the Person God has given us to be our Friend forever. He is always there. Other people. and the spirit of stupid they are currently swimming in, don’t belong splashing about inside our heads! Remember, distraction from the real point is the enemy’s biggest tool. he tried that on Jesus … and it didn’t work on Him, either. 

Psalm 34:15-18: “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.”← Did ya get that word all? So you and I can’t actually be an exception because all means ALL!“The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” Which is why we repent about anyone we are angry with, even if it IS 3.00am. 

Despite the old fashioned bible version above, I urge you to fight against fear for your right to sleep and be at peace, be-ca-use … “…  to His beloved one He giveth sleep.” Psalm 127:2. You are His beloved one – sleep belongs to you. Hmmm. At 3.00am it seems that I speak King James English. Meanwhile there is no truth whatsoever to the rumour that I am that old!  Bye …👋