Bible

P 3032 Live this life mindfully.

/ DVH

How do we walk with the Holy Spirit? Mindfully. We pay attention to our responses in this life and live aware of Him. And if the world around you descends into chaos, and you still feel peace, then we choose to realise Who is helping us and we start thanking Him! We need to recognise when He has clearly inhabited our difficult situations because the Holy Spirit isn’t a brass band, big fuss kind of a Person – He will come and go and we can miss Him.

It is such a joy to know that the Holy Spirit understands our humanity. Romans 8:11 MSG explains this.“But if God Himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of Him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome Him, in whom He dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God Who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, He’ll do the same thing in you that He did in Jesus, bringing you alive to Himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and He does, as surely as He did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With His Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!”

Sin was dealt with, 2000+years ago, literally when Jesus died, we died. Dead people don’t worry about sin – they are dead. Dead people don’t have opinions… they are dead. You can’t hurt a dead person’s feelings be-ca-u-se … they don’t have any they are dead! All that stuff we accumulated throughout our lifetime is now dead. Dead, dead, dead, dead …ALL DEAD. We live a new, different life now, and the Holy Spirit will guide us daily into the Father’s Ways.

The Holy Spirit is the One Who made us alive in Christ – we call that being born again. It’s a biblical term for a spiritual reality and it focusses on our new life in Christ. Step by step, as we choose to follow His Ways, He will lead us away from everything that imprisoned us before, and those things will no longer have the same appeal. There are times the old self is so deeply imbedded within sinful ways, that we will need to walk closely with the Holy Spirit to walk away from that stuff. The bonus buy when we do that is that we get to know Him better! 

“Do two walk together except they make an appointment and have agreed?” Amos 3:3. That’s the secret … to walk with the Holy Spirit, we must learn to agree with Him. Sometimes we may even have to let go of things that we think we know about right and wrong, because the human being who taught us was teaching from their own experience. But God’s Ways are higher than ours. The Holy Spirit knows what the Father likes, and He is delighted to share those things with us now. 

This is how it works for me. I read the bible, it might just be one verse, it could be many chapters, but I am waiting for Him to highlight something for me. This morning He said to me: “Tell My people if they want to walk with Me they will need to choose to be mindful of my Presence in their lives.” We don’t have a series of rules we must follow and remember. We have a new Way to live. He has already prepared it for each one us, and because of that new way, we will grow closer and more in love with Jesus each day. It’s called the Way of Love.

When I read the bible, I try not to skip any bits that tell me things I don’t think I want to hear! Including the things I might need to change. This happens because I want the Holy Spirit and I  to walk together, in agreement. I ask Him questions and I remember to thank Him. His ways are now my focal point.  Even if I find something He does not like — I ask Him: “Do I do that?” Most of the time I get a very quick answer to that kind of prayer!

If you want to be humble, that will humble you! Especially if in your mind you have dismissed whatever it is as not being all that bad. I’ve found it is far too easy to think, “God won’t mind that,” – without even asking Him first. Bad plan. Let Him correct you with His eye on you. The bible is just great at pointing out stuff we would rather just gloss over. He knows how to stop something before it starts!

The glorious point of mindfulness, is that is not about digging around looking for SIN. There are simply times we can’t see through His eyes and He reveals to us what He can see. The sins are gone. It doesn’t mean we didn’t do whatever it was, it means Somebody Else paid the penalty for it! That sin was nailed to a cross all those years ago – when Jesus became our sin. What we need to watch out for is our own response to having the problem diagnosed by the bible. This response will show us where we have been hobbled by the enemy – then we do something about it. 

We can confess our sin to someone else, and He will help us change the way we think about it. The entire bible is a diagnostic heaven-sent tool. It doesn’t just teach us about the Trinity and sin, redemption and the past – it shows us how to bring that redemption into our own personal situations! So what we do now is bring His new life in us, into the darkness of this world. Starting with our own lives. We live now, today …mindfully! Be transformed – let Him change your mind about how to live each and every single day – living out the way of Love. Bye 👋.

P 3031 The Holy Spirit loves to remain.

/ DVH

Acts 3:11-12: “And as the lame man who had been healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch, which is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering. And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, “Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man walk?”

Peter himself says: ‘don’t look at me! I don’t have that power, and I’m not special.’ Listen to what he says to the beggar in verse 6: “Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” I think this illustrates clearly something that might lead us astray when it comes to healing and the power of God. Remember, these guys were fresh from the day of Pentecost, full of the Holy Spirit and His purposes. This is just a throw-away line toward the bystanders to sort out their wrong theology. However, Peter’s point is very clear – WE don’t heal people, GOD does.

My secondary point is that this healing is about the Holy Spirit’s character, not our ability to be holy! We will live our lives holy when we choose to remain in Him, and we let Him remain in us. It is about our heart attitude. Don’t go after holiness, you can end up in legalism that way. Seek His Presence whenever you spend time with Him, and then just follow His instructions from the book. EG: If you are angry – fix it. Attention to repentance is a necessary attribute.

At this time, Peter was absolutely overflowing with the Holy Spirit’s Presence, and ministered to the beggar’s need out of the overflow. THAT IS A GREAT PLACE TO TO AIM AT. Living in the overflow of His love. Peter doesn’t just give God glory — He SEES His glory everywhere! That’s what we need to see, God with us, everywhere. We can end up doing all sorts of things, claiming this, and praying that, because human beings need healing etc. — but the truth is that we only have what He gives us … and He gave us Himself!

What did Peter have if he didn’t have power or holiness? He had the ongoing greatly cherished Presence of the Holy Spirit within him. That’s why he could give away what He had! He imparted God’s presence to this beggar and the Presence of God made the man well. This is the reason, BTW, that I don’t much like the terminology “anointing” — the word “anointing” implies that the power of God is a thing, something incredible that some people have or do. Unfortunately we can use that as an excuse so we don’t have to be obedient. EG: “I don’t have the anointing, but that guy does.” Anybody can walk with the Holy Spirit if their aim is to make Him welcome in their lives.

The Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost and He has never left. Peter had a Person living within Him, teaching Him, guiding Him, the Holy Spirit not a thing or tool we can use! This man deeply loved and cared for the Holy Spirit so the Holy Spirit remained with Him. Peter probably gave up many things, simply because he loved the Holy Spirit’s Presence more. Walking with the Holy Spirit is a matter of Who we cherish, not some special thing that we can’t do that someone else can. 

Here’s a small illustration: When we go to a restaurant, someone comes to our table to ask us what we would like from the menu … we tell the waiter and he tells the cook. The cook makes the dish, but the waiter is just the delivery person. In God’s marvellous ways, we are the vehicle, the waiter God uses to bring whatever He wants to those who are needy. 

Why is that so important? Because if we feel we must somehow have the power, or be holy …  or supposedly have the anointing before we pray for others— we can easily feel too intimidated to even try! Instead we end up  wandering about looking for feelings and signs and wonders to prove to us that we can do the very thing Jesus Himself told us to do! The bible says we can do this. Sadly, sometimes if we still don’t see anything we can also think –‘I can’t pray for the sick.’ Yes you can, because the RESULTS aren’t up to you. Jesus said “YOU lay hands on them and THEY will recover.” 

Like most Christians, you talked to Jesus this morning, about your life and the universe etc. You know His voice – through the bible, or in the depths of your heart when He speaks to you. We simply take that attitude with us wherever we go. We choose to be protective regarding our Beloved Friend the Holy Spirit, this means that we don’t do this or that, because He doesn’t like it.

You and I don’t have to have some kind of wonderful power to pray for others … (yes I know Jesus said ‘you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you’) but that POWER is a PERSON. We intentionally live this life – the only one we have – walking with His Spirit, and we follow His instructions. If the person gets well, He did it and if they don’t, all that happened was we tried to obey. 

We minister out of our own ongoing personal relationship with Him and that is an ever-increasing  developing thing. It grows like all relationships grow, by nurturing it, protecting and cherishing it.. The Holy Spirit’s language is LOVE.  We will see He is with us when we speak LOVE … and love is patient, kind, full of faith and hope etc. plus it is sacrificial. Love doesn’t resent sacrifice, because we don’t do this stuff for people or performance – we do it purely because we love Him.

We may need to sacrifice many things, actions, speech, attitudes – in order to maintain our relationship with the Holy Spirit – because this world we live in promotes the things He hates. But He wants to remain with us, that’s why we cherish and chase LOVE. At the same time, we cannot afford to define love, HE DOES. He’s the only One Who can be trusted to do it accurately. Don’t live chasing the symbol of His Presence – chase HIM.  Bye for today, 🥰.

P 3030 Put Him in charge.

/ DVH

Father God’s primary interest is our good, and we need to continually develop our faith in His goodness by exercising our faith in Him. He wrote down everything we need in His book. There are people who don’t want to try out what the bible says, because they are scared of going the wrong way. And there are others who don’t want to live with uncertainty, because living by faith is hard … and their question often is: “isn’t this meant to be easy?”  

Show me a scripture for that! I know that the bible says:“His yoke is easy and His burden is light.” What that means is this – when you walk with Jesus the total weight is supposed to fall on Him – He’s the Leader. I have checked out an ox-yoke in a museum, they don’t look too light to me!  Meanwhile it’s a yoke not a scarf! You might like to sit and chew on that for a minute or two, and try not to choke. I pray on the spot a lot!

The media tells us that this life is so terrific, it is meant to be fun fun fun fun fun! “You can win this, be this, go here, go there, do this and that. Just believe in yourself. And beautiful looking people are just going to love you and want to join in with you as you have fun. Even old people can have loads of fun in old people homes.’ 🙄 If you want that kind of reality go to Disneyland, it has a whole kingdom devoted to it. It’s called Fantasyland.

Here’s something I’ve learnt as the Lord and I’ve walked together…His kind of fun, His kind of Joy, His kind of laughter is way more fun than anything this world can provide. And it won’t cost you a fortune to go places with Him either!  Just make sure where you want to go is where HE wants to go and then you are off, having some sort of adventure.

We once had morning tea at a coffee shop, and a young lady who served us had so many tattoos she looked like she had been painted with black paint. Jesus said: “Ask her to tell you about those tattoos.” 20 minutes later, the kitchen staff came out to see ‘those nice people who have been talking to me’ and the waitress paid our bill. THAT was fun… trust me! The Lord is the best kind of fun!

The Holy Spirit has done an ACE job of describing what our Heavenly Father loves in the book. You can start with the Beatitudes and go on from there. Don’t just read it. Remember reading without doing, can make us confused, or it could give us a fat head. Instead ask Him what you can do about what you’ve read. That’s how relationships work, BTW, conversations go both ways.  

An well-known author who wrote great books many years ago was one of my favourites. He has since gone on to glory but he sure knew how to have fun! I found out much later that he had an incredibly grouchy wife who didn’t understand his Christianity or his attitude. Yet this man found joy in everything. I used to get so happy reading his books before bed, that I couldn’t sleep! He’s out of print now, but Amazon has some books of his. 

Here’s my version of something brother Harold Hill once said – “At first, when I started my walk with Jesus I decided it would be OK if He sat in the back seat of my car. Then He could talk to me and advise me if I needed it. The thing was, sometimes I couldn’t hear Him very well. So then I decided it might be better if He sat in the front seat with me whilst I drove. But that didn’t work out so well either, I kept having to take my eyes off the road to talk to Him, and well … I couldn’t concentrate or drive properly. I stopped the car and asked Him what I could do about it. Jesus smiled, one of those lovely big smiles, and He said: ‘Come with Me.” He opened the boot and said: “Get in. You’ll be much safer in here. I’ll drive.” 

The only safe driver of our individual ‘cars’ is the Lord. There are times that He will park us under a tree and wait with us while we rest. At other times He will give us a huge hug, a-n-d then we will probably need a very large box of tissues! The secret is to let Him do what He wants.

Just don’t get stuck anywhere, keep moving along as He leads you. We follow Him because He knows the road ahead much better than we do. Jesus walked many roads while He was here, the kind of things we walk through. He faced bad things happening and being misunderstood. He knows every single detail of where we are going and how to get there. We can trust Him to take us where we need to go and look after us.

“What if I mess up?” Well … what if you don’t? Both scenarios are an option. But if you end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, then that’s the time to remember our wonderful Saviour is also our very great Redeemer. He can take the worst sinner and transform them into a glorious saint and worshipper of God. He can redirect you in the middle of life’s turbulent traffic!

Always remember that: “God doesn’t break bruised reeds” Isaiah 42:3 & Matthew 12:20. When we get stuck in the mud of our own messes, Jesus will always come and get us out. Many dumb sheep wander off the pathway, but He’s the Good Shepherd. He knows how to rescue dumb sheep. Don’t ever be fooled into thinking that what you’ve done is so bad He won’t love you anymore. That’s a lie from the pit.  Let Him be in charge and He will amaze you. Bye 👋

P 3029 A people of faith.

/ DVH

“And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God. So if while we were still enemies, God fully reconciled us to Himself through the death of his Son, then something greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, and because we share in His resurrection life, how much more we will be rescued from sin’s dominion! And even more than that, we overflow with triumphant joy in our new relationship of living reconciled to God—all because of Jesus Christ!” Romans 5:9-11 TPT.

I have to admit I find some people’s reactions to scripture almost hilarious. I’ve known people who pick through the bible like they are trying to avoid veggies they don’t like! Good luck with that!  Life has become so difficult there’s no chance of avoiding those brussel sprouts any more. There they are, lying on your plate staring at you, and everyone else is watching to see what you are going to do about it!

Here’s an astonishing fact:  Almighty God gave Abraham righteousness because that man chose to believe what God had told him. “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” That fact is written down in a whole lot of places in the bible.  Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:1-22, Galatians 3:6-9, Hebrews11:8-10, Hebrews 11:17-19. Abraham believed what God said, and acted on it. This ordinary man took his family of origin from the land of his birth, and led them to a new place, Haran. Then he and his immediate family followed God on a merry dance to somewhere he never even heard of! And he did all that purely because God asked him to do it. 

Now that’s real obedience!! The Lord and Abraham had a discussion, and the man didn’t really understand what he had been given at first, because his mind was stuck in his own human circumstances. He had no children, yet God told him he would have a son of his own flesh. You wanna bet Abe thought to himself: “Who is this really?” SEE! You are not the only person to wonder if what you heard was God or not!! But because of his obedience he would have millions of spiritual sons and daughters. Abraham took what Almighty God said seriously, and then one day the Lord showed him his ongoing legacy. US!!  That is, everybody who lives trusting in what God said in the book. 

Our description now as Christians is this: “…the people who walk by faith not by sight.” We are called that because we walk with God the way Abraham did. We follow Jesus. We can’t see Jesus any more than Abraham could see having a child could be possible at 100 years of age! Instead, as his spiritual descendants, we use our faith to live and walk with the Lord in every single situation. Abraham showed us what faith looks like. It moves, it obeys, it walks with God Himself. 

Father God has called us righteous in His sight, just like He gave righteousness to Abraham. The Lord Jesus bought it for us. But it was a gift. We became righteous because Jesus took our punishment for us and now our destiny has changed. We are destined to live a new life of faith. The Lord Jesus has given us the power to live our daily life in a new way. Abraham did not deserve a son, anymore than we deserve to be saved. Meanwhile, Abraham and Sarah tried to help God along, by introducing works … but God clearly shows us through this man’s life, and his mistakes, that works cannot inherit His promises. The life lived in faith is the only life that pleases God.

Ephesians 2:7-9.”… in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Almighty God is incredibly rich in so many things we need to learn to esteem. Unfortunately we often go after monetary or situational gain. We are chasing the wind if we chase money or security, because God has another bigger plan for our lives. He showed us that we too can live relying on and counting on what Christ did for us, to totally transform our lives. Grace is not just a lovely attribute of God’s nature. It is a powerful force that utterly changed the outcome of this world. 

Everything Jesus Christ did for us was done in His great Love for us. Now our Christ-given inheritance means we will not have to come up against the wrath of God. That thought just boggles my tiny mind. In my lifetime I have come up against the wrath of many human beings …and their nasty was pretty awful. However, I do not even want to begin to imagine what the wrath of an angry God looks like, thank you very much!

“Give God the right to direct your life, and as you trust Him along the way, you’ll find He pulled it off perfectly! He will appear as your righteousness, as sure as the dawning of a new day. He will manifest as your justice, as sure and strong as the noonday sun. Quiet your heart in His presence and wait patiently for Yahweh. And don’t think for a moment that the wicked, in their prosperity, are better off than you.” Psalms 37:5-7 TPT. We are His people, a people of faith. Bye 👋

P 3028 Yield.

/ 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.

Father God has a better way to live, instead of being driven around by what I think I need or want. When I follow Him, He takes care of all that stuff along the way. If He doesn’t, then I didn’t need whatever it was in the first place. Meanwhile, that statement comes under the heading of “easier said than done!” My flesh yells at me, “too hard – enough already!!” Being extremely spiritually sharp, that’s when I finally figured out: “Oh! He’s doing something else!” 🙄

The Encyclopaedia Britannica says this:‘Yield’ can mean “to stop trying to resist something” or “to stop trying to fight someone or something.”

Yielding to the Holy Spirit means denying myself – will I have that last word or not? When I yield to the Lord’s processes, that will definitely teach me how much flesh I still have. People have asked me how do you know when you’ve prayed enough and you need to let go of things, or even people? … My answer is this – let go the minute you realise you are holding on! Put the Lord in charge of everything in your life. That’s what Jesus’ blood bought and paid for. He paid to give us access to all His wisdom, His ability to love, be joyful, be patient etc. But we will need to let GO of what we want, or what we think is best, for us. 

“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” 1 Corinthians 1:27. I’ve found that I simply need to listen, pay attention to the book and obey the One Who knows everything … and then you can look wa-ay smarter than you really are! “For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” 1 Corinthians 1:19. Clever people need to watch out, you may need a big dose of humility any minute. However, that is not an excuse to hide in ignorance either.

I am not talking about rejecting education, by the way. Get some – be that person, go for it! What I am talking about is that you cannot just ‘study out’ or manufacture a relationship with people, or the Lord! It has to be ‘lived out’ minute by minute, both the good bits and bad bits. Learning to trust that other person by being open and honest about who you are. Knowing any subject does not mean you know the writer!

The secret to dying to self is to love Jesus more than you love you! Then any sacrifices become part of the process. However having faith and dying to self does not mean you sell your house and possessions, and go and plonk yourself on the curb somewhere because a voice told you to do it. Check with more mature people and get them praying too, first.

Our flesh does not like to go without what it wants. In the West, we are quite addicted to comfort, safety and the opportunity to do what we want, whenever we want to. In other places in this world those things do not even enter someone’s agenda for a minute. Those dear people are too busy avoiding death, prison, disease, starvation, and active opposition, while they are trying to find somewhere to sleep! 

The most important word in the whole scripture I’ve chosen today is YIELD. We can hinder the Lord from doing what He wants simply by indulging ourselves. It is so easy to let the flesh tell us:“It’s too hard, God wouldn’t want me to do something hard, He loves me. Life has been terrible lately, surely He doesn’t want me to continue to suffer!” BTW, knowledge, or acknowledgement of our faults is not enough, action is always required.

Father God loves us so much that He willingly gave His only Son to die in our place … did you get that? Jesus died, and the Precious Trinity agreed that it was the only way to save YOU and ME!  Ya might want to stop and think about that. God has a much different value system than we do! 

Fear can be a huge hindrance, so can pride. But yielding to God is a great way to get rid of those things. Face the fear head on and do it anyway. Some of the time pride is just a ‘front’ we put on to hide fear of failure. 

But the most important thing we need to remember is in those above verses — whatever we yield to will dominate us! Remember, we have been reborn to live above earthly things, Now we have a brand new life waiting for us to claim it, using our faith, and we aim to walk with Jesus day by day. We simply need to practice doing things His Way and remember to yield. Bye👋.

P 3027 Run your race on purpose!

/ DVH

“For in the Son all our sins are canceled and we have the release of redemption through His very blood. He is the divine portrait, the true likeness of the invisible God, and the firstborn heir of all creation. For in Him was created the universe of things, both in the heavenly realm and on the earth, all that is seen and all that is unseen. Every seat of power, realm of government, principality, and authority—it all exists through Him and for HIS purpose!” Colossians 1:14-16 TPT.

The verse above is about establishing Who the Lord is! If we want to live this life in an extraordinary fashion, then forget about becoming a successful famous person … Hang around with Jesus instead! That’s what the disciples did. Did you ever notice that when the Lord called those fishermen – they went after Him straight away? … They left everything behind them, instantly. They even walked away, from their employment! The Lord loves to be with people who are seeking Him. These people don’t want to manipulate Him, most of them are just happy to find out He knows their name and where they live!

You will always find the Holy Spirit in some obscure, secret, tiny room with someone on their face, praying for their leaders and their fellow citizens. You will also always find Him with people who are spiritually hungry. The people who aren’t looking for a book of rules — mainly because they already understand they’ve broken a whole lot of them, and they don’t know how to get out from under the weight of what they’ve already done! You will find Him with the people who think “God can’t possibly care about me.”  Our Heavenly Father wants to comfort these people, change their lives, give them a reason to live AND take away the sin that is holding them back.

We have done this world a great injustice as Christians, when we have used prosperity of body, mind, and soul to portray Christianity. We’ve misled so many people into thinking: “If God is pleased with me, then there will always be definite signs of financial, physical, and spiritual blessings in my life.” I think we need to repent. We have misrepresented God Himself. He’s God and we are not.and the idea that He MUST bless us is not scriptural. He simply WANTS to bless us – it’s Who He is!  His blessings are free, they are not coerced or finagled by us. We don’t have to jump through hoops. Tell Him what you need and leave it with Him. Remember, the biggest blessing we will ever have in this world is His Presence in our lives. 

The road we have chosen follows Jesus. It goes down, not up! Disciples do not care about material benefits. His Presence is all they need! The Lord could care less about our success and appearances. Right now, He’s looking for obedience – even in our ordinary everyday lives.  He wants us to go into the dark places, where nobody ever wants to go, knowing He will go with us!! “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”  Psalm 23:4.

Jesus’ death and resurrection, dealt with our sin. He took it away, forever. He asks just one thing of us – follow Me! The biggest clue to the scripture from Colossians 1 at the top of the page, is in the final three words…for His purpose … Not for my purpose, or my comfort. Not for my convenience. Not so I will feel like I belong…but …For.HIS.Purpose! Jesus did everything He did because His Father had a purpose in mind. Here’s a thought – when God’s purpose and my purpose don’t match  … guess who might have to change?

I’ve experienced many disappointments, and unanswered prayers, in my Christian life. Sometimes It took me a while to go back to God and ask Him what happened. I didn’t always get an immediate answer, so I turned myself inside out trying to figure out just what I had done that had separated me from Him. Especially at some crucial point when I felt I desperately needed His help. Eventually, after persevering in prayer, as well as prayerfully reading His word, I realised that My problem was not separation because “nothing can separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus.“ It had to be something else…

… I looked at my life carefully and I realised that I wanted all my problems to be taken away … and HE wanted to use them to prune out stuff in my life that was not going to produce fruit. We were not on the same page! I stopped whining and feeling sorry for myself and asked Him to go with me, and help me walk through everything that was happening. I changed MY purpose. I gave up getting what I thought I needed, instead it became … following Him.

The power of God has been given to us to set us free from the things that will stop us from running the race God has put in front of us. All of our sin went to the cross. There is no reason to believe the other guy’s lies that we can’t help sinning, so we cannot afford to let satan tie us up with the past. We have our God-ordained future to run toward. Throw off any sin, and start running the race…on purpose.  . Bye 🏃‍♂️‍➡️.

P 3026 Take a bible bath!

/ DVH

Here’s an example of a good long soak from Colossians: “Holy Spirit, please Help me to: 

‘…receive the perfect knowledge of God’s pleasure over my life, make me a reservoir of every kind of wisdom and spiritual understanding. I pray that I’d walk in the ways of true righteousness, pleasing my Father God in every good thing I do. Then I will become a fruit-bearing branch, yielding to His life in me, as I mature in the rich experience of knowing Almighty God in His fullness!

 …I pray that I’d be energised with all Your explosive power from the realm of Your magnificent glory, please fill me with great hope. My heart soars with joyful gratitude when I think of how God made me worthy to receive the glorious inheritance freely given to me by living in the light. God Himself has rescued me completely from the tyrannical rule of darkness and has translated me into the kingdom realm of His beloved Son. 

… How blessed I am when I demonstrate tender mercy! For tender mercy will be demonstrated to me. The Lord Jesus is the divine portrait, the true likeness of the invisible God, and the firstborn heir of all creation. In Him was created the universe of things, both in the heavenly realm and on the earth, all that is seen and all that is unseen. Every seat of power, realm of government, principality, and authority—it all exists through Him and for His purpose!”

That prayer was gleaned from Colossians 1:9-16 TPT and personalised by me. I have found this is a great way to pray for yourself — especially if you have no words of your own. Sometimes I end up praying things I would never ever think of praying – but they are in the book! For instance, for years now I’ve prayed that God would “enlighten the eyes of my heart” according to Ephesians 1:18. I’ve found the scripture comes alive and it is active. And it will also comfort and heal us, as we literally apply it like a healing balm over our hearts.

My spiritual eyes have been enlightened, made brighter, and  they see better, as I focus on what He has said about me. These are the things He has said about all of us — about His love, about our lives, and what’s happening in them. The saddest place we can live in is to know what His Word says – but never ever act like it is true. It is our faith that brings the Word Himself off the page, and now He stands with us, whispering to us what to do next. He speaks to me through the scriptures all the time, it has become my inner reference point.

In the passage above from Colossians, one verse stood out to me: ‘…God Himself has rescued me completely from the tyrannical rule of darkness and has translated me into the kingdom realm of His beloved Son.” One way or another we have all been subjected to tyranny! Some of us from birth, and/or our own sin! Instead of focussing on the human tyrant who perpetrated ugliness against us, now we have been given the power to focus upon the One Who set us free. He didn’t just take us out of tyranny – GOD PUT US FIRMLY INTO THE KINGDOM REALM OF HIS BELOVED SON. 

So when tyranny tries to knock on the door of your heart you can truthfully tell it: “Knock all you want – I don’t live there anymore! My home is with Jesus now, I don’t have to live under your rule.” Almighty God wants us to live under His rule, His wisdom, not the so-called wisdom of this world. The wisdom of God is unchanging, and never ending. Did you get that? His wisdom won’t ever change or end, and God is for us. He won’t take sides, because now we have stepped onto HIS SIDE! On His side we do things the way He tells us, always believing He has everyone’s good in His incredible loving heart. 

It still amazes me that I can suddenly think of a scripture I can barely remember reading. If you asked me where it was, I might say…”I think it’s in there … in the bible… somewhere???” However, my faulty memory does not change His word. “But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: …”Romans 10:8. That verse is also in Deuteronomy 30:14. It’s in the New Testament and the Old Testament… that’s a double whammy!!

His word is in us, whether we know it or not—whether we have memorised it or not. Simply reading it regularly, and thinking about it — is just like soaking in the precious oils that Esther spent six months drenching herself in before she went in to see Ahasuerus, the King. You could smell Esther before she ever walked into a room!

Now, you and I are the sweet fragrance of Christ being shed abroad wherever we go. That means that the people who pass us in the street, going about their business will turn their heads and say, “WHAT was THAT?!?” Hubby and I have seen this in real life. A grumpy, business-like frozen person turns into a puddle simply because Jesus entered the room – He came with us. Thank you Lord!!

If you want the Holy Spirit to go places with you, then GO WHERE HE WANTS TO GO! Consult Him. Ask Him questions.“Where do You want me to go? How do I do that? What do you want me to say? Help!?” We can joyfully spread His fragrance around when we soak-in, take-in, act-on and enjoy His Presence. Pray the scriptures over your life. You will come out much cleaner than you went in! Bye. 🛁

P 3025 The three “C’s.”

/ DVH

“So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together for good, for we are His lovers who have been called to fulfil His designed purpose.” Romans 8:28 TPT. 

Paul was convinced about what he says here. He looked at his life – including the floggings, beating with sticks,  shipwrecks, and physical violence. The imprisonment, as well as the persecution by various groups of people – some of them supposedly Christian. Plus the people who ignored his good advice because they had a better idea…  and he came to a conclusion. His conclusion was that “everything works together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.”

God wants to transform the difficulties we experience into something meaningful and good, for His kingdom’s sake. We simply need to hang on in there believing in His goodness.‘The trying of our faith produces patience but we have to LET patience have her perfect work in us.’James 1:3-4. There’s that little word that gives everyone the pip! LET. Allow. Permit…Yield! Allow patience to do a number on you. Permit it to stretch you, let it teach you, and allow it to transform the way you think and act. That is what yielding looks like. WE are the boss of our thoughts  … and just like we won’t permit pornographic thoughts to occupy our minds – we refuse to LET impatience take over. We ask for the Holy Spirit’s help and hang on.. to Him.!!!

The Apostle Paul was not only convinced, he was convinced continually! That is actually the only way we can be changed. We choose to hold onto the fact that God will work our present circumstances out for our good. Continually! This spiritual stand happens over and over and over again! Christianity is a progressive pushing forward into more of what we already have been given. And sometimes there is no ‘exit’ to be seen — there is only the minute by minute pushing through how we feel, to grab hold of what God has said. This creates trust in Who He is. We lean on Him, persevering with the situation, waiting for His patience, and seeking after the love that never alters.

Stuff happened to Paul over and over again. There was a whole lot of ugly stuff in 40+ years of ministry. That’s an average of 6 rotten testing events a year! He paid a high price to evangelise, as well as minister what God told him to write … Paul once wrote that he “despaired of life itself.” Well you would, wouldn’t you? His life was no picnic, but I bet he has never given it another thought since he arrived in heaven!!

“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On Him we have set our hope that He will continue to deliver us,..” 2 Corinthians 1:8-10.

Paul knew how to suffer, but he did not do it lying down. He grabbed hold of the hope that God had what He needed and wanted to give it to Him. He believed in the goodness of God Himself. If we take the time to consult our feelings about this scripture in Romans, it might seem inaccurate, utterly impossible. Nobody feels like pushing against a seemingly immovable object. But what if I told you that if you press in just one more time that object will move? I think you’d convince yourself to take a big breath and push one more time! It’s just like birthing babies, but, with His help, we are birthing and raising good fruit!

That’s what continually convincing yourself of God’s supreme power and goodness does – it draws you into a conclusion! Almighty God can’t fail us, His goodness always wins! There are some unresolved things in my life that I may not see this month, or this year, but I know that He will do them – whether I am still here or not. I do not believe those things simply because I prayed —I believe it because HE SAID SO in the book. I’m always convinced of His goodness as I continually read His book. We ain’t seen nothing yet! The best place to be in a battle is on the front line. WHY? You get to be the first to see the enemy turn tail and run… that’s why!

 Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:12: “This is why I suffer as I do. Still, I am not ashamed; for I know Him [and I am personally acquainted with Him] whom I have believed [with absolute trust and confidence in Him and in the truth of His deity], and I am persuaded [beyond any doubt] that He is able to guard that which I have entrusted to Him until that day [when I stand before Him].”

I am learning to be convinced continually, and that exercise led me to this conclusion – the Lord is worth it all. “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:17-18. In order to be convinced, I need to continually revise my belief in His goodness every single time something unexpected occurs, and then I keep reinforcing my belief that God cannot fail me. That’s the best conclusion! Life surely does happen but God has a plan!! Bye. 👋

P 3024 The sky is the limit.

/ DVH

How many people today have been boxed in by this world’s interpretation of their ability to learn, or their mental condition, or emotional or physical skills? Today’s so-called experts analyse people and put them into categories, with more labels on the outside than a misdirected parcel! This one has ADHD .. that one has Autism …  the kid is three and someone has boxed it up and classified it for life!  Our kids are actively being “categorised” before they have left High School. We need every member of our Father’s huge family and some people are just plain late bloomers.

It is a very bad idea to put this world’s ceilings on what we think someone else can do – no matter how many letters they have after their name. We must appreciate what each of us has been given for the benefit of others  “… preferring one another in love…”  There are times we try to use someone else’s differences against them – that’s ungodly. Almost half of the recorded disciples were fishermen and Jesus chose them! Today, in order to manage humanity, our societies’ categorise people, so we don’t have to deal with each person, one at a time. 

Thank GOD! He is not even remotely like that! He sees every single one of us and loves each one of us as His very own individual children. He doesn’t look down and think; “This one is broken” OR –“That one is no use to Me.” We are all incredibly dear to His heart – no matter how this world sees us. And we are all incredibly important to His Body too. We are going to need every single member of the Body of Christ standing in their place, because the enemy of our souls is at the gates and he is trying to pinch our kids by writing “not acceptable,” “don’t expect much” and “broken at birth” all over them. Don’t you believe it.

Our Heavenly Father is a redemptive Father, Who longs to reveal Himself to all of us. Every single one of us has a place in His plan! Yes, even the so-called broken ones!! We are all broken one way or another— some of us are simply badly broken inside where nobody else can see. Occasionally some of that ugly stuff leaks out every  where and that person gets put in jail. We must not disqualify people on the grounds of what this world thinks about them. Jesus clarified sin: “…but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” Matthew 5:22.

Sinfulness is our common denominator, not so called beauty, athletic prowess or intelligence! Right now we are reaping what we have sown into this world through our own ambition, and greed for more. Sadly we have sown into the whirlwind. Our children are growing up believing that to be pretty, handsome, athletic, gifted and/or highly intelligent is something to be greatly desired. Who says that? 

Manufacturers, fashion gurus, universities, teachers, people in political arenas — the people who will make money from what we do … THAT’S who is saying it! Give me one reason why we should trust their judgment? Unless making money is your god, these attitudes are poisonous vapours. They come, they go. Even the best athletes get hurt, highly intelligent people go wandering off into abstract land, and supposedly beautiful people are constantly criticised. What are we doing to our kids? Why are we not teaching them to be who God made them to be? We are a gift to each other. 

Even in the church we fail. We can easily make too much of one gift over another …“But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn’t be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, “Get lost; I don’t need you”? Or, Head telling Foot, “You’re fired; your job has been phased out”?

As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the “lower” the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it’s a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honour just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?” 1 Corinthians 12:21-27 MSG.

I think the bible tells us very clearly how we need to treat each other – we need to encourage other people’s potential to serve the Lord. Let’s look for Jesus in others, watching for the Grace of the Holy Spirit on each life. I’m not talking about positive speaking either. I’m talking about having a genuine prayerful appreciation for someone else’s POV. You never know, if we all do that we all might learn something!

We need every single member of the Body of Christ, even those gentle, timid souls who hide up the back and hope nobody asks them a question. We are limiting a limitless God if we limit His kids based on our own opinions and experiences. Instead we need to proclaim – the sky is the limit and the heavens beyond it! Bye.👋

P 3023 The testing times.

/ DVH

John 19:11: ”When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free You or to crucify You?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over Me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

The fear of God is real! Here is an illustration of that reality from the Gospels. Pilate did what we all do from time to time — we question God, and then we chase about looking for a loop-hole because we don’t really want to know His answer.. We are not sure we will like it, and we definitely don’t like the cost! This man was looking for a way to let Jesus go free that wouldn’t throw blame on him … be-cau-se … his wife had told him to be careful….

Pilate’s wife told him to ‘have nothing to do with this good Man’. Pilate was not a complete numb-knuckle, he was  trying to negotiate a way to do both things at once. After all he was the procurator/prefect of Judea – this man had power! He really wanted to release Jesus, listen to his wife, plus try to please the Jews. Fat chance of that! Sadly the Jews had already made up their collective mind. But God had a bigger plan!

This portion of John shows us a wonderful truth about Father God’s dealings with His precious Son — and us. Jesus clearly tells us that nobody can have power over any one of us unless we give it away, or God allows it. Now before you get alienated by that statement, we need to look at Job. Job is greatly underestimated!

“And the LORD said to satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.”So satan went out from the presence of the LORD.” Job 1:7-12. Job loved God, but he feared for his family. and those fears put him squarely within satan’s reach. God did not hurt this man satan did. 

However, it is clear that Father God believed in this man’s ability to endure, or He would not have allowed him to be tested in the first place..so satan went all snarky about God’s blessings on this man’s life. Because our Father is a good, good God and Father, He knew that testing would bring out things in Job that were not there before. He and Job would grow closer – and one of the things that Job grew into was a greater intimacy with Him. Job himself says: “I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen You with my own eyes.” Chapter 42, verse 5.

Once we have given our lives and hearts to Jesus, Almighty God is constantly transforming our circumstances, our joys and sorrows, our likes and dislikes to shape us into the image of His Son. He’s God! He can do lots of things at once!! Remember, our destiny is to be Jesus’ bride … it’s far bigger than just going to heaven. The Lord Jesus deserves a bride worthy of His sacrifice for her. That is why our character – our heart toward Him – day by day by day, becomes more and more important. 

This is also why the bible says:  “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28. My translation of this verse is this:  nothing can happen to me in my situation – or to you in your situation – that is beyond our Father’s redemptive loving care and transformation. All He requires from His Son’s bride-to-be is that she would yield to His greater wisdom as it is revealed in the bible, plus we have the precious Holy Spirit’s guidance always with us.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” 2 Peter 1:3. We can count on the fact that God knows the end from the beginning, and there is nothing that can prevent Him from taking all things—every single thing, and weaving and working them together for our good. This is the way the Apostles lived and worked and spread the Gospel. They believed In their Heavenly Father’s power to redeem bad situations into good. 

Doubt is our enemy. So is carelessness and a lack of love for others, and we dare not doubt His goodness and His faithfulness.  We are transformed from day to day by believing what He has said about WHO we are now, because of Christ’s sacrifice. Let’s not miss the mark and get picky and choosy about being obedient. Meanwhile, the Lord is all wisdom, so we would have to be mighty dumb, or pretty disobedient not to pay attention to the things that are written in His book. If He has allowed a testing time, then He knows you can get through this – the Holy Spirit will walk you through it – ask Him to help you..

We will get stuck if we believe the enemy’s lies that we can’t do, or endure whatever God told us to do. We quite simply cannot afford to believe our feelings over Christ’s life and His testimony. If we mess up and go the wrong way then we repent, turn around and go back and do whatever He asked you to do, the way the Holy Spirit said to do it. 

We are His, and He is ours, and nothing can separate us from His incredible love. Jesus Christ Himself died to release all of us from satan’s power and JESUS LOVES HIS BRIDE!  Keep believing God is good, and turn your eyes away from any and all of the circumstances that drag you under. Ask others to pray for you. When God stretches our faith, our faith will be even bigger on the other side of those testing times. Bye. 👋