Blame

P 3003 False expectations.

/ DVH

I unintentionally, and without any prior warning, walked into a wall of nasty attitudes in someone else yesterday. They were angry with me for no other reason than they could not have their own way. This is someone I care about, and sadly I’ve had many bad experiences with them before, but I thought that kind of trouble between us was gone… It’s just goes to show we cannot afford to let our guard down –  we need each other. My own discernment was severely lacking! Hubby was far more discerning than I was – he emphasised caution.

So what do you do in those moments, when you feel utterly betrayed by someone you think you can trust? I start with the realisation that I can’t deal with anything else but my emotions in that moment, because they’re all over the place like jam on a baby’s face. After that I need to go straight into my will and reinforce my decision to live my life His way. This step is important, otherwise I can get tangled up in what I want, and leave what He wants behind me! 

The next thing that happens is I pray and choose to forgive myself — despite my awareness of many multiple feelings of ineptitude and lack of wisdom — I know that I need saving from my own reactions like everyone else does! So I deliberately put blame, guilt, recrimination and shame down — and at the same time I pray and ask for the Lord’s healing, help, forgiveness and guidance.

Then I deliberately forgive the other person as an act of my will. It is so much easier to forgive someone else when you’ve just dealt with the log in your own eye first. Just saying is all … At the bottom of our instant pain, are often even more memories of previous pain – and that definitely needs sorting out, but first things first.  Any sort of betrayal is painful, and Jesus Himself knows personally all about that.

Judas betrayed Him for 30 pieces of silver, and Peter ran away under pressure. When someone we care about suddenly reverts to previous behaviour, it can be easy to be taken by surprise and feel like we’ve been ambushed. But we can’t afford to sit there, we must choose to move past our feelings into a place where we can pray full of His Love for that other person. Jesus prayed for Peter, remember? He prayed for Peter’s faith to not fail. 

Loving people who are often erratic in their way of speaking and living, means we need to pray before we spend time with them. I actually remembered to pray this time, but because I thought things had changed for the better, I relaxed. I forgot that scripture in 1 Corinthians 16, verses 13&14. “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.” I was distracted and forgot to stay on my guard. I wanted something from this person, that they can’t give me, and I let my emotional need blind me to where they are actually coming from. Jesus Himself, does not meet their needs… yet. 

At the same time I forgot to ‘stand firm in the faith.’ The bible says:’My God shall supply ALL MY NEEDS according to His riches in glory.’ Philippians 4:19. Part of our surrender to Christ entails our willingness to lift our expectations off other people, and put them firmly with Him. That takes practice! It appears I missed out on a practice session this time, but I’ve put the Lord and my hubby on alert to remind me! Otherwise I could easily fall down the same hole again. Instead of “being courageous” under fire, I crumbled like a stale biscuit. So I repented of that too and asked the Holy Spirit to help me to go back into “doing everything in love.”  

Sometimes, in personal relationships our expectations of other people are so great, the other person will probably fail in meeting them.That’s life. We must realise that we cannot meet each other’s needs – our job is to point people to the One Who can do all things.  Sometimes when I think that Hollywood has totally messed with our brains and we see someone else and think they will totally understand me. In a pig’s eye! That’s narcissistic. I don’t care who it is, people aren’t here to serve our needs, we are here to serve Him..

We can easily be blinded by our own need for immediate love and gratification. I think this is why many marriages fail. The couples have false expectations. Only Jesus can meet all our needs. There is no point in expecting human beings to meet them, simply because we like instant answers. In case you haven’t noticed …Jesus doesn’t often DO things immediately! My advice is to remind yourself that God always has a better, bigger plan. Bless you! 👋

P 2982 Dig and insist.

/ DVH

“Stop dwelling on the past. Don’t even remember these former things. I am doing something brand new, something unheard of. Even now it sprouts and grows and matures. Don’t you perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and open up flowing streams in the desert.”Isaiah 43:18-19 TPT.

Sometimes when we hear verses like those two above, we can hear it as a prophecy for the whole church. I’ve heard it quoted that way many times. But we also need to remember that God has always His eyes on each and every sparrow, so when we read verses like these we need to ask Him: “Lord, how does this apply to me, please?” We always need to personalise what is said … and then action it. 

Today, I want to concentrate on the fact that these two verses are for YOU, right here, right now. Our glorious Father, God, takes the messes we make in our lives and transforms them so wonderfully, that we don’t recognise them any more. He is so brilliant at it, I have had to pray: “And dear Lord please put a big sign over what You have done because I’m a bit thick and I will probably miss Your answer otherwise.” Sad but true. 

It is a fact of life that we can easily prejudge how our answers to prayer are supposed to look. I know I am stating the blooming obvious, but the Lord can do more than one thing at a time! Because Jesus paid our debt for us, it is His prerogative to answer however He likes. After all His answers are always for our good and far better than anything we can think up! They just don’t always look the way we think they should.

That’s why we need eyes to see Him at work. They really matter in instances like these – I ask for ‘His eyes’ all the time. The thing is, if what He does is ‘brand new,’ then our chances of knowing what it is in advance are most likely zero! However, the way we tell that it is His work is that it GROWS, and it produces life, and more life. Plus when that life flows out, away from us, it does other people good.

In this brief passage we also learn that dwelling on the things of the past is d.u.m.b. stupid. But we do it. It seems we have this inherent desire to find someone else to blame for our behaviour and reactions – read Genesis.  Adam and Eve passed blame about like we would pass the salt!  We blame our parents, our schools, our jobs, our friends, society etc. Nobody talks about personal choices any more. Death to self has always been difficult.  Even when it seems like there is no choice … taking a default position is still a choice. 

This is why we desperately need to renew our minds, so we can think and see things from His point of view. Otherwise we self-protect! Our own personal point of view can often be clouded by the past, and a hidden dominant sense of self. In another version, the above verse is written like this: “SEE,I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” This verse is the utter joy of our faith and life. The old is gone, the new is here. God says ‘SEE” … because most of the time we miss it!

If we want more insight into His Ways and thoughts, we need to make what He has already said, our priority. When we read His word in faith believing that He will speak to us, today— even if we are reading somewhere that seems more boring than somewhere else—He will speak to us. It is our expectancy/faith … that is the key to opening the door to fresh revelation.

And if I don’t get anything from what I am reading the first time, then I read it again. Then I read it out loud. Then I read it in another version. I have been known to read five or six versions to fully understand what He is saying to me. Insisting is the best kept secret. And sometimes we will have to break through a wall of unbelief we have constructed, to release our faith! 

Yeah, yeah I can hear someone up the back saying: “That’s alright with you lady, but I have to go to work most days and look after my family, etc. I don’t have all day!”  And that’s the problem, Jesus is not your first priority, dealing with any immediate needs is. That happens to me too! In other words the Lord is an add-on. Whatever bashes on your life and says: ‘Fix me now’ is a distraction. He must be our first thought even if someone is bleeding out! (Help!) We can’t afford to fit God in around our routine – we will deal with whatever happens far better after we look to Jesus—otherwise everything goes Kaput! 

If you follow the “I’m very busy” thread of logic back to its source, you will find that Jesus is not our first priority. This kind of attitude is not intentional, sadly what we have failed to realise is that Christianity is not a part-time commitment. Many people make excuses for their lack of engagement with the Lord. (Matthew 22:1-14.) Our failure is not the issue —our priorities are. We cannot afford have a part-time faith in a full-time hell-bent world! Try having a part-time faith the next time your ceiling falls in on you, it doesn’t work. “For me to LIVE is Christ …!!!” 

We need Him like we need air, and in order to get ‘our daily bread’ we need to dig and insist.The Lord spoke to me  today from that one word…“SEE!” Because I didn’t ‘see’ right away…but now I do.  Bye. 👋

P 2957 Be fruitful not just productive.

/ DVH

After all, Jesus Christ Himself answered to SomeOne else – His Father! John 9:1-4: “While He was passing by, He noticed a man [who had been] blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi (Teacher), who   sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” 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. We must work the works of Him Who sent Me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.”

Sin is common to man, the bible tells us that, but isn’t it astonishing how quickly human beings go into blame, even right in front of Jesus? They say things like: ‘Whose fault is this, Jesus – him or his parents?’ Religion always wants a reason to blame, and sometimes it wants to excuse itself. ‘It’s not my fault my parents beat me, neglected me, spoiled me as a child I can’t help it.’ Right. So it seems to me that you are having trouble putting childish things away?? Read I Corinthians 13:11. How about you study the power of CHOICE?

I love 💕the way that Jesus sorts these things out… because this stuff really IS a waste of time! His disciples noticed that blind man and they wanted a religious reason for his ailment, but …  but… Jesus just healed him!  I mean I’m on the Lord’s team about that … just do something about whatever is wrong!  Love on the guy, restore his life, and throw blame out of the window. Don’t analyse it. Deal with it. Pray over it. After all we’ve been given His authority!

Not only that, then the Lord says something here we don’t even dare to discuss ……this incredible Being, Almighty God, Who ‘wraps Himself in unapproachable light and has no darkness in Him at all’ ALLOWED that blind man to be born blind so He could illustrate His glory! Ya might want to think about that for 3 months or so, ‘cos it kind of stomps all over all kinds of theology … like right … there. Our God is not the ‘when you wish upon a star, pretty blue fairy.’  When He came down upon the mountain in front of the Israelites they shoved Moses up the front and said “We are too scared of Him, YOU GO!” Let’s always remember that He’s the Mighty God Who rules heaven and earth, and — you’d better believe it buddy!

When Jesus took off His earthly human form, and He was revealed as God’s Son before 3 of His disciples – nobody had anything to say except Peter  — and that poor guy made an ass of himself… again. I always feel sorry for Peter, he says dumb stuff right out loud. Those things we might kind of whisper in corners to each other but we wouldn’t dare say any of it out loud at church. People might stop thinking we are holy if we did that. 

John 9:39: “Then Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment [to separate those who believe in Me from those who reject Me—to declare judgment on those who choose to be separated from God], so that the sightless would see, and those who see would become blind.”That sounds pretty clear and ‘user friendly’ to me. When the Lord was confronted with a blind man — He healed him. He didn’t form a committee to discuss what they should do next  didn’t care about the guy’s theology – or anyone else’s theology for that matter! He was simply fulfilling His God-given mandate. Is this a good time to mention that we have that mandate too?? Too soon??? Not ready??? Hmmm… I seem to recall the Lord said: “Live ready.” Matthew 24:42-51.

Moving on … Jesus knew that there was going to be a time when He couldn’t work anymore, so He did not waste a minute of the time He had at His disposal. That needs to be our blueprint for this life too. It is also worth noting that praying for the sick is a work that God has told all of us to do. Whether we feel spiritual or not, it’s our job now. I’ve prayed for the sick and they got worse and died, and I’ve prayed for the sick and they got better. And I can’t tell you why either one turned out either way! I simply know He said pray for the sick, so I did.

Whatever Jesus did, praying for the sick, deliverance, personal instruction – He totally did everything He did for the glory of God. He never justified big meetings by saying He had a ministry or some special gift … and yet He had ALL the gifts … better than we ever could. Instead He preached whatever He heard His Father saying to those who came. Whether it was two people or five thousand. He left everything to God and did what His Father told Him, and whatever He saw His Father doing. John 5:19. 

That verse in John 5 has always fascinated me. Jesus was not proud, He was humble, submitted to His Father.  The words “I do nothing by Myself” are pure gold to me. The Lord Jesus had no other agenda. I pray God will remove every one of my agendas and give me HIS! Amen. Now there’s a heart worth asking for! I wanna be with the people who only do what He’s doing and only say what He’s saying. The church has done enough advertising, talking and big mouthing, we need to learn to listen to the Holy Spirit and do what He says. It seems to me that sometimes we talk to cover up our lack. Did I say that out loud? Yikes… yes I did!! 

My current theory, (yeah, I freely admit it is a theory,) is that we need the Word of God to work on us, within us. Transformation will follow as we admit our lack and go after the Answer. Then we will freely flow in love, compassion and kindness. Jesus Himself never lacked those qualities, and we need to go after them, not just the gifts. We are meant to be fruit bearing vines, not libraries, or fun fairs. We desperately need the love and devotion that never fails. Sadly, in my personal experience, my human love can fail all over the place! I am especially convicted when I read I Corinthians 13:7. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 

We will gain compassion and kindness by simply walking with the Lord, and seeing others through His eyes. Plus steadfastly walking through difficulties, sorrow and suffering, without losing any of our LOVE for Him, and others. I pray for everyone reading this blog today that they too would aim at Love over everything else because Love is the best glue known to mankind. As we too work the works of Him Who sent US, we must remember that unless we have Love, HIS love, we can end up clanging away like a fire bell.

We need to get our minds renewed to think like His, and “get our head in the game!” Fruitfulness is life-changing, not just productive. Bye 👋

P 2944 Storms come and go …… just be willing to let Jesus into your boat!

/ DVH

John 6:16-21 states:“When evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, and they got into a boat and started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It was already dark, and Jesus had still not come [back] to them. The sea was getting rough and rising high because a strong wind was blowing. Then, when they had rowed three or four miles [and were near the centre of the sea], they saw Jesus walking on the sea and approaching the boat; and they were [terribly] frightened. But Jesus said to them, “It is I (I Am); do not be afraid.” Then they were willing to take Him on board the boat, and immediately the boat reached the [shore of the] land to which they were going.”

The Lord’s disciples were terribly frightened, initially – but as soon as they knew it was the Lord …they asked Him into the boat. This teaches me that all we need to do is to recognise Him in any and every scary situation. I don’t know about you, but our personal tiny little boat has been going up and down on the huge financial waves in this latest world-wide storm. However, asking Him into that violently rocking boat means our eyes are now on Him. When HE gets in the boat the storm disappears – and you can’t see anything but Him.

Meanwhile, I’ve found that becomes very easy to get mad at the person we think caused the latest problem, and we inwardly hold them responsible for our own fear and bad feelings. That’s actually a lack of faith searching for a way out – we want someone to blame. Our response to any situation is our still our own personal reaction, and it is our responsibility to deal with it. Glory to God, we are so blessed – we don’t have to deal with this difficult stuff alone! Just don’t try to organise the Lord into fixing your problem, your way, and instead – yield. Those poor schmucks who don’t know the Lord, are trapped by their feelings – but we AREN”T!  Because of what Jesus has done for us, we don’t have to go there. We have been given the power to choose to use our faith.

Christians are not powerless! When we make a choice to use our faith, heaven backs us up! You know I can almost hear a chorus of ‘buts’ from where I am! … “But I don’t feel like I have a choice.” I hear ya! However,  living in our feelings is a fatal mistake. Whatever we repeatedly practice, dominates us. The more we practice using our faith, yielding and leaning on Him, and His understanding — the more it becomes a way of life. Like I said previously, if you want to see the power of God at work – start with your own life. 

When things don’t go the way you hoped they would, just remember that the other guy will be right by your elbow reminding you of all the other times you may have been disappointed. The temptation to yield to unbelief will be huge. he won’t remind you about how things actually turned out better than you expected in the long run — or how the Lord turned stuff around, or how you experienced great growth when your faith in Jesus’ character and His Word held you up.

It is normal to pray for healing etc. when you need it … but I’m guessing most people need patience, faithfulness and self-control, equally as much as healing. We have all turned our sights and hopes toward seeing the big miracles, and ignored the miracle of one totally transformed life… OURS. The Pharisees said this to Jesus: “The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus, wanting to trick Him. So they asked Him to show them a miracle from God.”  Miracles aren’t necessarily the answer, but faith in His goodness is! Meanwhile if our hearts remain unchanged, we will continually expect God to come walking on the water to bail us out. Think about this … on another similar stormy night Jesus said this to His disciples: “Where’s YOUR FAITH??”

It takes spiritual insight and courage to see the Lord in the middle of a force 4 gale! Daily in this life it seems that there is a new wave smashing against the side of our seemingly frail little boats. We need to look through the driving rain of adverse circumstances to see Jesus coming toward us in the middle of that storm. Don’t look at the wind, waves, lightning or pay attention to the thunder. Look in His book! He has promised to be with us in trouble. 

The guys in that scripture from John were in trouble … and Jesus came walking on the water to be with them. He keeps His promises! Not only that but they ended up where they were going —miraculously! I can’t tell you how many times we’ve seen God turn up miraculously. But God was not entertaining us – HE WAS PROVIDING for us in our need. Storms come and go. I exhort you, don’t get complacent when the sea is quiet. Live ready to face any storm because Jesus Himself is already in your little boat. Bye.👋

John 6:26:“Jesus answered, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, you have been searching for Me, not because you saw the signs (attesting miracles), but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures [and leads] to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you; for God the Father has authorised Him and put His seal on Him.” Then they asked Him, “What are we to do, so that we may HABITUALLY be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered, “This is the work of God: that you believe [adhere to, trust in, rely on, and have faith] in the One Whom He has sent.”

P 2939 What His kingdom looks like.

/ DVH

Good morning! Imagine my surprise today, when I discovered that there are 92 references to the Kingdom of God found in the Gospels! That’s a lot. Hubby and I had a long conversation about this today. We came to the conclusion that the Kingdom of God is more than just an actual place — it is a way to live. And by living in it ourselves, we are constantly exhibiting His kingdom to others.

I decided I want to write about one of those 92 references, every now and then. It seems to me that in order to live in a particular place you need to know what it looks like, and how to get there! Here’s my first verse: Matthew 4:17 … “From that time on Jesus began to preach,“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”Actually the kingdom of heaven was standing right there when the Lord said what He said! That made me wonder how many times in my life the kingdom of God has been right in front of me and I didn’t see it. Not a happy thought. 

When I read this verse today, it reminded me that in God’s kingdom, repentance is part of His processes, and it is the first sign His kingdom is at hand. Human beings sometimes want to skip this bit, and go straight to the benefits! But when we acknowledge our sin, we have immediately put Almighty God in His rightful place and put on heavenly glasses to boot! My best advice is don’t play on the freeway with stuff that will kill you dead!

This is not a place we should avoid, or skip over. Nor should we be ashamed, because the aim of repentance in God’s eyes, is restoration – not condemnation. It seems to me that whenever His kingdom comes near to us, conviction should not be far away. In the presence of His holiness we need to come with a humble attitude. So how do you do that and keep it real? I think we focus on Who He is, and not on ourselves. Self focus, or even introspection is deadly to this process. Our spiritual wheels start spinning in the mud of self-absorption.

However, Father God’s desire is to see each one of us reach our full potential in Christ. The happiest place mankind ever occupied was in that garden walking with Almighty God in the cool of the evening. Sadly pride, false humility and blame can get in the way of that aim. Honesty is the only key. If we are honest about who we really are – we will immediately step into repentance. In the Presence of Holiness nothing else is possible!

Repentance is a place that opens the door into the Kingdom of God for us. It is where we acknowledge our weaknesses and sins, and we receive His forgiveness and strength in return. By the way, I don’t believe it is just an outward action – I think it is also a heart transaction. Jesus told us that we can’t repent unless His kingdom comes near, so we start by praying for the kingdom to be close to us. Then we are enabled by His Spirit to be honest and transparent. “Thy kingdom come …”We need to make room in our lives for His kingdom, by repenting and throwing out the things that don’t honour Him.

Somebody way smarter and more spiritual than I am, once said: “Thy kingdom come, means MY kingdom go!” I think that is a key to true repentance. It makes reparation for what was done against someone else, without any caveats on it! It sees sin for what it is … captivity.Plus part of repentance is vulnerability before the Lord. I’ve found that the more I don’t want to do it, the more I need to do it! I need His power helping me to overcome my previous ways of thinking and living.

We have a wonderful Helper, and we can always take advantage of His wisdom and insight, because He knows what will please our Heavenly Father. Because of what Christ did for every single man, woman and child, none of us have to be ashamed or afraid to repent. But we need sincerity, not just some sort of cursory acknowledgment. 

The thing is, when repentance, which is a GIFT —is given to us, we need to respond because it means His kingdom is right there with us. Sadly, in those moments, we are often far happier to be singing worship songs, or laughing, crying, dancing and falling on the floor … indulging our feelings … than we are to fall on our faces and acknowledge our deliberate sins against Him and others!  After all repentance is not just godly sorrow. It is changing your mind, walking away from the very thing that has held you captive.

Repentance IS costly. It is like the perfume the woman poured over Jesus head when she washed His feet. You are literally pouring out your heart before the Lord. He loves that smell! God is so faithful – He will fill us yet again with His love and passion. However, just like this incredible lady, it will probably cost us our dignified appearance. I guarantee you won’t have a hanky or a tissue on you, when you respond to His kingdom coming near! 

However all of it will be wasted, … unless we are prepared to make reparation and change the behaviour that caused us to to need to repent in the first place. If we want His kingdom to come near and stay with us… then we need to follow up the water-works, with actions. Deliberate, life-changing, humbling actions. That’s what His kingdom looks like. Bye.👋

P 2931 Sometimes life is awful …

/ DVH

…and there ain’t nuthin’ I can do about it, except pray that everything that is going badly will be redeemed by the One Who redeemed me! 

I had a tooth filled yesterday. The whole thing was an unexpected miracle. The tooth broke once, so we had to quickly make an appointment … then it, like … really broke and the appointment was already in place. 🙌 Let me tell you that poor tooth was basically non-existent. I shan’t bore you with details except to say that my marvellous dentist from Venezuela, totally fixed it. He has mega skills! All I knew was my gnasher was in a terrible way and when he took out the old filling, what was left was ridiculous… What tooth!? Meanwhile, I’m immune-suppressed and I thought I heard the Holy Spirit whisper: “ …take antibiotics.” So I did.

Well, goodie! Now I have oesophageal spasms, because the antibiotics can bring them on. Ho-hum. My inner PH goes wild and gets cranky, and basically I don’t cope much. Plus I get candidiasis in a whole lot of places nobody wants it. Sigh. And now here’s the clincher … the electricity at my house, has been turned off for 8 hours. No feet up in my reclining chair when I feel awful, no power for computers, no lights, no kettle, … and suddenly I can feel myself slip-sliding away down the down-a-later of …“poor me.” 

You know it sure is good to sing songs of victory when everything is great, but I gotta say, it definitely improves my prayer life when they are not! Sadly, I had an actual plan for today — I was going to see my mum after our trip. Well, that’s off. People groaning in pain are a bit off-putting. So what am I on about by writing all this dismal stuff? Well, I’m just trying to keep it real. The bible says clearly that we will all have these days, however, nobody in their right mind seeks them out! They just land on us and then we can be stuck under a mountain of disappointment and have to pray our way out.

Of course, when circumstances get bad, it is also easy to blame everyone else around us for what has happened, and make them miserable too – OR – we can draw near to God because He has promised He will draw near to us. At that point I just have to wrangle my feelings and tell them they are not the boss of me! The marvellous thing about loving and knowing Jesus is that the Lord totally understands how human beings feel — I just love Him even more for that!  Let’s look in Hebrews 4:15

“Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers.We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to Him and get what He is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.”Yes please!! 

Isn’t that verse just incredible? Maybe you didn’t get it … it often takes me a while … it said mercy, God’s mercy and help is always available to us. Never undervalue the privilege of mercy! How amazing that God Himself would choose to come here, into this world that is plagued by our own greed, torment and anger, plus satan’s nasty little surprises, and He deliberately chose to identify with us, personally. This day is already looking up! ‘Dear Lord please keep the guys up working on the light poles safe, thank You,’ Amen… and God bless my super-skilled dentist too!  

Now to some more good things to think on. Did you know that my hubby is not just an excellent seed-sower, he also looks after me? He cooks, he cleans, he makes beds, he helps me shower, dresses me, keeps track of all my medicines, and he is emotionally supportive on hard days. Yeah I know, how DID I get that blessed, right?

On our last trip, a two and half feet long sofa jumped up and attacked him, right on the top of the middle finger and he broke it, very badly. I shan’t go into how the whole “sofa fell on his finger” thing happened, but he soldiered-on still taking care of all this day-to-day stuff. He also doesn’t complain much. And for the past two days he has been helping our single-mother daughter and her son move house. Our son has been there helping her pack for weeks – thank you God for such a thoughtful, helpful son too.  

So what on earth am I doing? As I am sitting in my dark house with spasms that fold me up like a deck chair… but … I’m counting my blessings. When I’m not coping I need to look at the precious things God has given me in my life. Depending on the level of discouragement that came and sat on me, I might need to press in while I am doing it! Otherwise those things start to set-up camp in my brain and I can end up going over and over all the stuff I can’t cope with! And before I know it, I’ve forgotten that I am redeemed and I’ve started acting like the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet!

Our greatest strength is not in us, no matter how resilient we are — it lies in what Jesus has already done for us before we were ever born. Because of Him we have a chance to experience the supernatural. As we ask Him to help us to cope;  and He takes the pain away;  or He reveals more of Himself;  or He brings His peace with Him;  we will enter even more deeply into our own personal relationship with Him. Now it is based upon our own private revelation of how much He loves us … and that’s priceless. 

Sometimes life is awful. ← That’s a full stop right there. Bye. 👋

P 2904 New way of life.

/ DVH

“Keep turning your back on every sin, and make “peace” your life motto. Practice being at peace with everyone.”Psalms 34:14 TPT. This psalmist says that we need to practice maintaining peace, because that will be always needed, so in every interaction with the Lord, or someone else, we will need to use our faith. I ask for His help a lot! You can tell I am very literal about what the bible says – I use it diagnostically. I find that this helps me focus on Him and not get overwhelmed by the ‘stuff’ that keeps coming at me.

Isaiah 26:3 says: “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in YOU.” This new life we have been given, is about continually, steadily, believing we are who the Lord says we are. We need to fix our minds and hearts on His goodness. The fruit of the Spirit will come alive in us when we believe the work has already been done, and act accordingly, using our faith. “We cast our cares on the Lord, and He will sustain us, He will never let the righteous be shaken.” Psalm 55:22.

I think we often look at many verses in an unhelpful way – we look at them as a rule to be kept, and when we fail, we blame ourselves. That’s a vicious circle produced by our enemy to keep our hearts and minds off how good God is! The bible has within its pages a description, as well as God’s MODEL, (Jesus!), of our vibrant ongoing faith. I don’t have to listen to what I feel, I am guided by what He said.

In the above verses the writers are teaching us about who we are now – they are telling us how to bring God’s peace into our daily lives. We do that by refusing to invest our time, energy, angst –  in anything that is not God’s will, and focussing on what He says about everything. Peace thrives when we live according to His purposes, remembering that God saved us to faithfully serve Him.

This is not wish thinking, or even … ‘I-will-obey-God-about-that-someday’ thinking! Instead, this is now what we need to invest our God-given time in. We choose to step into our new life in Him by standing on what He has done for us. He saved us, delivered us, empowered us to overcome this world, sin and the devil, and our emotions are secondary. Jesus did more than die for us, so we can go to heaven one day, He died, to get heaven into us, here and now. He died to give us the power to have a different relationship with Father God — as His precious child. Now we live a life that begins to resemble the way Jesus lived. 

Peace is a Person. So we need to learn to protect our peace, and keep our eyes on the bigger prize which is walking with Christ, because He’s the Prince of Peace! We daily read the bible to become familiar with what He thought was important. You know whatever we focus on will become bigger – so it is best to aim at focussing on Him, and then after that, other people. Our prize, right here and right now, is that we will get to know Him better. Particularly as we practice keeping our eyes on Him, and His Ways. 

Following ‘do this, don’t do that rules’ can lead to failure, disappointment with ourselves and others, and discouragement. However, when we trust that God knows what we need and when we need it, we are investing in our faith life. Following Jesus by being obedient, taking that step by step, leads to His new life flourishing in us. As we live like this, what He wants becomes more important than any superficial gratification here and now. 

Instead of getting mad and distracted with ourselves or others because we’ve missed the mark, now our focus is is to be about – who or what He says we are. What He has already said about us in the bible, already has the power of transformation in it, as we use our faith and act on it. So we leave behind what we were before. Mark 9:23 says:“IF you can?” said Jesus.Everything is possible for the one who believes.”How can we believe Him for miracles if we cannot believe He can transform us, minute by minute?

Turn your faith eyes toward following Him, looking at what He would do. I’ve noticed that there are times when we try to use prayer as a way out of the very thing God wants us to learn from! Here’s a good question: “What’s Your will in this Father God?” The power to overcome is in doggedly, unemotionally, choosing to follow Him, by obeying Him, loving Him, enjoying Him, and preferring Him. At all times we must keep our eyes on the prize — His Presence is our Prize.

In a nutshell, when we read the bible, we obey what it says, believing that the power to obey comes from the fact that Jesus Himself said it – not from how we feel about it! From now on we ignore those parts of us that are clamouring for pity or relief because it all seems too hard. Of course it is hard, we are dying to our own will, by choosing to believe and honour the exchange we made when we said yes to Him! 

Faith has a ‘way’ to approach this life. Jesus began our faith, and He has already finished the job – 2,000+ years ago! In this life, we simply use our faith to access what has already been done for us. Sin has no longer power over us, because we died when He died. We simply choose to be obedient to what He has already told us in the book. The more we do that, the easier it becomes to hear His voice. My advice? Tackle the hard stuff first!  Let’s live in freedom in spite of the devil’s harassment and enjoy this new way of faith. Bye. 👋

P 2868 One choice at a time.

/ DVH

You know, if we are not careful we can say yes at an altar, when our passion for Jesus is high, and choose no the very next week, because somebody else is driving us crazy. What do I mean by that? It is much easier to make the choice to serve Him when His peace, love, hope and joy are upon us, and much harder when we are out there in the ups and downs of every day life! The Lord is still there, but our awareness of Him can dim. The Israelites sinned in the absence of Moses’ presence, and Moses was the duly appointed “God” spokesperson!

Let’s remember that choices like these need to be made over and over again. It is a hard choice to say yes to His Ways and no to how I feel at that moment of impact … when someone else is driving me bananas! When we choose to die at that crucial moment, our journey toward transformation flourishes. Actually the meaner the other person is;  and the more wrong they are about your motivation and attitudes;  the bigger the opportunity to die to self!

Being misjudged is probably one of the hardest spiritual tests to face. When you live inside your own skin and you know that another person in that particular moment has no idea who you are and where you are coming from – that’s when the temptation to escalate the angst and confusion grows. Nobody likes to be misunderstood.

Let’s just think about that idea for a minute. Have we ever seen anyone more misunderstood than the Lord Himself? The contrast between what He actually came here to do, and what other people thought and said about Him, as well what they did to Him is utterly terrifying. Pilate said it best in Matthew 27:22,23 “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked. They all answered, “Crucify Him!” “Why? What crime has He committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify Him!” And Jesus said nothing.

Tunnel vision took over. Crowd think. They went so far down the wrong road, they had no thought about going back. Their bad decisions had blinded them to their own faults and prejudices. Anyone can see that in those moments a wicked spiritual force was put in charge. The Jews were so in the passion of judgment, that they ended up cursing themselves. But even though Pilate knew everything about this situation was wrong, he wriggled out of his responsibility to set an innocent man free … by handing Jesus back over to them. 

Choosing God’s way isn’t a once off. In Pilate’s case his wife had already warned him about Jesus, and told the man to leave Him alone – but fear of man, or uprising, or whatever – meant he abrogated his responsibility and snuck out the back way. And before we waggle our fingers in disdain at that man, do try to remember the time when you snuck out the back door and left the boss, or teacher with the blame, or your spouse, or your sibling … The bible tells us sin is mankind’s common defect. 

“No temptation [regardless of its source] has overtaken or enticed you that is not common to human experience [nor is any temptation unusual or beyond human resistance]; but God is faithful [to His word—He is compassionate and trustworthy], and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability [to resist], but along with the temptation He [has in the past and is now and] will [always] provide the way out as well, so that you will be able to endure it [without yielding, and will overcome temptation with joy].” 1 Corinthians 10:13.

So there went all those excuses! The thing is, I know personally what that is like. I’ve done it, I stopped looking for the way out and I’ve given in to temptation instead. I missed God’s opportunity for change. There’s no point in blaming Him for not fishing us out of something we got ourselves into. However!! …I know, personally, that there are times that He rescues us anyway, just because He’s so good and He loves us – He chooses US. The application of the above verse is one of the ways we get endurance – by enduring, by suffering long, by believing for the best in others, when their worst is on display.  Which is not a popular thought really.  

It means we need to pay attention to what we choose all the time. Even in unguarded moments.  Blanket statements about choosing God’s Ways aren’t worth a hill of beans, in the day-to-day muddle of life. What matters is what we choose when we are being misunderstood or provoked. Those choices mean we are valuing our relationship with Him and He is our priority. Things keep getting added unto us when we make Him our priority – stuff like real love, and long-suffering. Bye 👋

P 2865 Changing our thinking is deliberate.

/ DVH

I wanted to write about one of the ways I’ve learnt I can keep continually walking with the Holy Spirit…“Keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honourable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising Him always.”  Philippians 4:8. 

The question we need to ask ourselves today is this — what actually occupies our thoughts? Often we are fixated on our day, focussing on what comes next … but if we choose to, we can turn that way of thinking into … “What are You going to do with all this stuff today Lord?”  It’s about focus. Giving the Holy Spirit our day, reminding ourselves of why we are here, means letting Him into our thoughts, and when or if we forget, and worry or leave Him out, we take the time to repent. Wonder of wonders, He always does it!! He is so amazing!! Thank you Jesus.

Father God sometimes whispers this to me: “Are you sure you want to keep that attitude?” I’ve had to pull up, and grab my thoughts back, many MANY times. Honesty with God and yourself, is really important. Dismissing any niggly thoughts, or giving yourself permission to say stuff that is best not said – is a slippery slide. Sometimes the Lord puts His finger on something very gently, and says something like: “Are you sure you want to go down that road?” Now it becomes my choice. It can’t be an accident that I went the wrong way – because He’s just warned me about that road! 

If I get cranky about my difficulties and circumstances, then sometimes my answer might be: “Can I just be here for five minutes?” Of course we both know that I won’t be there for five minutes … I’ll get stuck in my cranky or fear for three days and then wonder where the Holy Spirit went!! It has taken me a long time to see that at that moment if I ask Him to help me to choose the right way, He will. That’s because His strength is made perfect at that exact moment of my weakness!

If something disastrous or unforeseen happens, sometimes I panic, and  I will probably blame myself or someone else … even if I don’t do it out loud, I’ll do it in my head. Bad move – one thought leads to another!! That’s when the Holy Spirit reminds me that I don’t have to go through ANY valley alone – my choice in those moments is essential. I need His Ways not mine.

The secret to getting through the hard times is to continually handover the situation to the Him and leave it with Him, by letting go of worry and problem-solving. Why not put the One Who knows everything, in charge? I turn away from problem solving and anxiety and deliberately turn my focus to Him. And every time those thoughts come up again, I compare them to the Bible and check that stuff out with what it says. If it doesn’t line up, then I throw it away. That’s what taking thoughts captive means.

After that I always ask Jesus what He thinks. That answer can take a while, because I’ve learnt the Lord is constantly stretching our faith in His goodness. It is a huge mistake to pay attention to the dreadful pictures that the other guy paints in your mind of what the eventual outcome will be. This is when fear raises its nasty head. It is good to name the fear, because it helps to know what you are fighting. Tell the Lord you know it is fear and ask Him how to deal with it – He guides me through things one step at a time. 

Here’s an interesting thought — the Person who needs to know the answers to our difficulties is the Lord – and He already knows. Look through the Bible and find one time when He said: ”I don’t know what to do about that!” … It didn’t happen! After doing everything I’ve mentioned above, I do whatever He tells me to do, then like Ephesians 6:13 says — I STAND. I commit to standing until I see what He wants me to see. I might learn something about me or about Him. Like I said, changing our thinking is deliberate – it’s about focus. Bye. 👋

P 2840 We must remember, we sin against GOD, first.

/ DVH

“Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.” 2 Samuel 12:13. 

“And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’”Luke 15:21.

“Against You, and You alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in Your sight. You will be proved right in what You say, and Your judgment against me is just.”Psalm 51:4.

We often talk a great deal about sinning against each other, but today I want to talk about the fact that first of all, any sin is against Him. When we dismiss or disobey His word, our sin is dismissive of God’s holiness. Yes, we need to fix things with others, but we need to start at the top … with Father God Himself. Everyone of our sins had a consequence. And Jesus bore the penalty of those consequences on His body – so we need to treat these things with humility, honestly, reverence and respect. 

Let me be as clear as I can be … Our sins are absolutely, positively, completely G.O.N.E. – gone forever! Thrown into the sea of forgetfulness, with a NO FISHING sign clearly displayed. That sign needs to be read over and over again because guilt and shame no longer belong to us. “Jesus said, “I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave. A slave can’t come and go at will. The Son, though, has an established position, the run of the house. So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through.”John 8:34-36.

This means that before we repent and repair things with others, first of all, we need to thank God and His precious Son again, for all Jesus suffered and chose to do for us. Thankfulness, not guilt is now our response – however presumption is not a right response either. We need to treasure our relationship with our Loving generous Father above all else. There is no longer any fear in sin and God’s love has now taken over our way of thinking, doing and being. We live a life of love now, standing by our choices- we are now free to choose His Will, His Way.

We’ve been set free from the demands and focus of sin, to focus upon HIM.  Freedom means we can still sin – however, now, we’ve been empowered not to!! Instead of blame and shame motivating us, we can be confident that we can restore things – simply because Christ’s death on our behalf has empowered us. Now we praise Him for all He has willingly done for us and we go back into happily submit to His will, His way. The point of the ‘get out of jail free card‘ is not carelessness – it is redemption. So we must acknowledge our sin against His freely-given goodness.

Here is another scripture for all of us to think on today:“My little children (believers, dear ones), I am writing you these things so that you will not sin and violate God’s law. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate [who will intercede for us] with the Father: Jesus Christ the righteous [the upright, the just One, Who conforms to the Father’s will in every way—purpose, thought, and action].”  1 John 2:1. The best news ever is this, JESUS is in the throne room praying for us, every single second of the day. IMAGINE THAT! Because of what He willingly did, sin is not the “norm” for us. Our new normal life is in Him. THAT’S WHERE THE POWER TO OVERCOME COMES FROM!

Almighty God does not wink at our sin … it says so in the book!  An exchange took place 2,000 years ago and Jesus Christ became the Lamb Who was slain, forever. It’s part of His title, just like Prince of peace, wonderful wise Counsellor, and Saviour of the World. So when we sin and disobey God, we take ourselves out of fellowship with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, Who is the One Who helps us – and the Son. The One Person Who perfectly understands how hard it is to be human! Dumb move … He knows the way through temptation!

Let’s be clear. God made sure all this stuff was written down, we have a book! Now we do not have to be dragged about by our weaknesses, and weird ideas. Because of what Jesus did, we have a live-in Helper. The Holy Spirit was our midwife! He birthed us and now He is raising us, day by day as we learn to live a life of obedience. God did not just trust our discipleship to ordinary men … Jesus Christ, Who followed the Holy Spirit’s instructions to the letter – is still making disciples! 

We have the bible to show us where we are out of order with His ways and we need to respond to conviction with real repentance. Because when sin happens we stop walking with Him and start hiding from Him. And people don’t just hide by leaving the church, they hide in busyness, and by elevating things that are distractions, or supposed  recreational activities. Dead people don’t need that stuff – they don’t have an opinion or a need. That’s why we rely upon God to meet them!

If we sin, we need to go to our Heavenly Father, first, and confess our faults, errors, lapses, nasty attitudes and selfish ways and He will empower us to overcome. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. Bye. 🕊️