Blind

P 3132 Don’t let money blind you!

/ DVH

“Instead, stockpile heavenly treasures for yourselves that cannot be stolen and will never rust, decay, or lose their value. For your heart will always pursue what you esteem as your treasure. “The eyes of your spirit allow revelation-light to enter into your being. If your heart is unclouded, the light floods in! But if your eyes are focused on money, the light cannot penetrate and darkness takes its place. How profound will be the darkness within you if the light of truth cannot enter!“ Matthew 6:22-23 TPT. 

Well, that all sounds pretty serious to me. Nobody wants to be that blind! Yet money is an issue for all of us – except the billionaires! Just in case someone might think that this scripture’s severe response is just the Passion Translation – here’s another one from NIV …“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

This is my take on all of that:  we can put our money under our mattress, in a bank, or even in stocks and shares — nothing wrong with that – those things will give you interest. But they can also go belly-up and you could lose your investment. These words from Jesus are so appropriate. Investing in His kingdom produces eternal results. I love that word ‘stockpile.’When we give to the Lord, we are storing up blessings that can’t be pinched or eaten up by inflation.

And if you have ever lost your money because of adverse circumstances, then I think the word ‘thief’ is the first one that comes to mind! But when we put that money into the Lord’s work, we are putting it outside the reach of this world, into His kingdom, and at the same time we are releasing His kingdom to bless others. I like that. God’s bank contains multiple points or avenues for blessing, that this world can’t touch.

Meanwhile, who knew moths and rats and rust like to eat money? Not me! I do know rats and squirrels like to gnaw on wiring, now there’s another strange but true – and totally irrelevant fact! But the important bit is this …what we do with our money can have big ramifications on our spiritual lives. It can lock us in, and prevent us from letting in the very light that will transform us. But holding back is not good, you might even say it is like trying to see with your own hands over your eyes.

Revelation sometimes needs the right circumstances to flourish, and generosity is one of them. It takes faith to let God manage your money, and that faith opens our spiritual eyes to even more revelation about His loving kindness, goodness and mercy toward us, in other areas and arenas of our lives. It helps us focus on His kingdom, not this world.

This thought directly points to something Jesus said:“I have given them Your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.  My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.” John 17:14-17. It is part of Jesus’ directive to be in this world not OF it, so what we do with our money matters.

As you can see Christianity is not meant to win popularity contests – instead it is a totally different lifestyle. A new way of thinking. Things like giving to the Lord’s servants, His pastors, missionaries, teachers, evangelists;  plus helping and caring for the poor – including widows and orphans. God counts all that as giving to Him. He has taken up the cause for the poor, and He wants us to take it up too.

When we do that with our hard-earned money we won’t lose it. The Lord promises to return it to us in many, many other ways. In our household we’ve found that money comes back toward us to help us in a time of need. It also ushers in revelation from His Word when we read it or need it. Giving in faith releases a deeper understanding of what Jesus wants from us and for us. It’s a kingdom activity.

Giving away money that we rely upon, means we are making a choice to focus on His kingdom, His priorities, and His Way of thinking. It is another way to learn how to walk by faith. I have a fun thing to share that we do  about this subject. Before hubby and I go to the shops, even just to walk about, we always pray: “Dear Lord, help us to walk away from anything we do not need, and to find the things we came here for, and not to waste any of YOUR money.” Amen.

Every single time we come home we find that either we have spent no money at all – or we only bought what we went there for! It’s hilarious. At the same time we end up having God-encounters with people. Talk about spending money being a distraction! Whether we have lots or none, money can take up way too much of our thoughts.

I want to urge everyone reading this today to take the Lord seriously when He talks about money. It doesn’t have to be a lot of money. I realise many people have very little available finances, but I cannot recommend sacrificial giving more highly, as a way to learn to walk by faith. Don’t let money blind you! Bye. 👋

P 3127 God good – devil bad.

/ DVH

Today I want to briefly go back to Daniel 10:12-14.This fight was so furious, Michael, another archangel, came to help Gabriel. The two of them, if you read on, have to fight their way back through that same demonic stronghold. They fight against a principality and power over this world: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12. We are not fighting theories, we fight actual satanic beings sent to destroy us and our relationship and trust in God Himself. Our fight is real!

I want to go down on record saying I have limited knowledge  about this stuff, my focus is always on Jesus and what He did for us — our inheritance from Him. However, the consequence of “not knowing,” means the other guy can sometimes rob me blind, while I am unaware, as well as unnecessarily torment me. I need His discernment firmly in place – it is part of His protection for us all. Our Heavenly Father wants us to win our battles not just drag ourselves along bleeding, and crawling through broken glass getting beat up along the way. Deliverance has had a bad rep! Yet all of us have to fight our enemies just to crawl out of bed some days. 

The Holy Spirit is our biggest Supporter and Personal Trainer and He is here to help us with satan. I included the above scripture to highlight that many times we must break through the things that have been sent to hold us in bondage. Those things that will postpone, and interfere with whatever it is that God has planned. When you love Jesus and choose to serve Him you become a target. So if we wake up – or can’t sleep(!) with a list of someone else’s sins against us rumbling about in our brain, I’m pretty sure resentment, anger and revenge, are on the premises targeting us. It’s time to ask for His help and get forgiveness rolling! BTW, implication is not guilt, our enemy likes to join dots where there is no connection.

Now let’s look at Jesus because: “He is the Author and finisher of our faith”… that makes Him our finest example of what to do. Jesus defeated satan with God’s Word. Knowing the bible is one of our greatest weapons. If an archangel has trouble defeating our enemy and needs help — then I vote we know God’s Word well enough to use it to fight! It needs to be in our minds and hearts and mouths. And, BTW, I mean fight, not just kind of wave it about randomly stabbing anywhere. Let’s learn to pick the Word up like a real sword and stab all those untruths and lies that satan floods into our minds, daily. Instead of looking for proof that a person is targeting you – ask for help so you can see any error and to find your way through it;  ask the Holy Spirit for bible verses to use as a sword to set you free and send that other guy packing!

When Jesus was tempted he was hungry, so the enemy tempted the Lord with free bread. I find that wanting/needing/coveting stuff can easily lead me into a trap. Hungering after things like a better house/car/life/friends/spouse etc. makes you into a target. You can be rolling along, sincerely wanting to do good and hear from God, then bam! The enemy throws lack at you! Fight that supposed lack with a verse of scripture. One of my favourites is this: ‘If I really need it He will give it to me.’  If the answer doesn’t come right away, then the journey Jesus and I are on is going to profit me, and the waiting will be worth it. We often gain patience and perseverance on these journeys! 

Maybe the enemy tries to sidetrack us with status and pious-sounding results. ‘Just imagine what will happen if you do so and so, everybody will see Jesus better.’ satan points out some quick advantage in an activity, and skips right over obedience, consultation or reverence for what God says. It’s time to remember that the bible says: ‘humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, in due time He will exalt you.’ That means we take the lowest seat, or we choose to do something unseen, and nobody notices it. We gain humility and self-control when we do what God says. satan won’t tell you that!

Fame and gain was thrown at Jesus. The possibility of getting what He was sent here for by another method — a shortcut, if you will. Notoriety or importance when it is not God-ordained, can puff us up. I think the real key to this temptation is this, we must understand that we don’t know what is hidden away in our hearts. We think we do, but we don’t! The bible says: ‘there’s a way that seems to be right to us but at the end of that way is death.’ God’s way is for us to do whatever He says, and make sure people end up praising Him not us! However, satan can tempt us to believe he has a way to get to where God wants us to be, that is easier. My fav rebuke is ‘God’s in charge here!’ Obviously I have real scriptures for all these rebukes – you should find your own.

Lastly, our enemy throws fear on the wall of our minds. And then he points out what we will lose if we are obedient. I hate that! My strategy is this, God is calling us all higher – so that means some things will get left behind because we can’t carry them any further.  All of us can get afraid of what we might have to leave behind. We can easily forget that – God good, devil bad. Remember, if we accept the devil’s evil devices – at the bottom of his rotten ideas, is a plan for us to end up serving him. Bye 👋

P 3111 The fixed point.

/ DVH

Isaiah 43:4-11. “Since you are precious and honoured in My sight, and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you, nations in exchange for your life. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth—everyone who is called by My Name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.” 

Lead out those who have eyes but are blind, who have ears but are deaf. All the nations gather together and the peoples assemble. Which of their gods foretold this and proclaimed to us the former things? Let them bring in their witnesses to prove they were right, so that others may hear and say, “It is true.” “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me no god was formed, nor will there be one after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from Me there is no Saviour.”

Almighty God is giving us incredible reassurances in this scripture. It hits the spot for me. One of my kids and her daughter live way down South from where I live, so I have had to learn to hold fast to what the Lord  promises in His Word. When I read this passage, I feel such concern, compassion, and love from Him for myself, and the family I miss so much. Hubby’s family is way down South too!  Jesus wants us to know today, that it is part of His overall plan to bring all the lost, wandering, and far away sheep back together again. Praise Him!

Life today, seems very ‘stretched, intense, and stressful’ to me. People go on enormous holidays, and they think nothing of travelling great distances by plane. When I was a child, a big trip for us was travelling in an old car to go to Bendigo to visit my Great Grandmother. Yes, I was fortunate enough to know my Great Grandmother! It was not an easy journey to see her, but it was worth it! She’s with Jesus now – so our story together will one day continue.

Great Grandmother was my favourite person as a child – despite the distance between us. She and my Great Grandpop had chickens, grapevines, fruit trees and veggies. Her house was always spotlessly clean. Plus … boy could she cook! OK … I think I just momentarily  went way off track, thinking about her cooking. We used to drive up to Eaglehawk, which is just outside of Bendigo, a few times a year, and it seemed quite a distance in our ancient Rockne car. See pic above – that’s not our car BTW – that’s just the model. 

From Pretty Sally, the tallest hill around, to Bendigo is 140 kms and the distance from our home in Kew to that spot was 60kms. Yet in our long journey north we had to stop twice to put more water in the radiator. It took all day to get there, nowadays it only takes 2 hours in our modern cars! Our old car would always conk out at Pretty Sally Hill, and we’d have to wait for the radiator to cool down to put water in again. If you didn’t do that, you could crack the head, and then …bye bye, Rockne! The car would belch steam to let us know the water had boiled and we should stop. 

I loved all the little towns between Melbourne and Bendigo – today you bypass most of them. But on our journey, we’d stop, have an ice cream or a cup of tea – and then we’d start off again. Back then cars didn’t have any air conditioning except for opening the windows! And going to Bendigo seemed like the ends of the earth to a fidgety kid ten year old! I think I fell in love with the country at an early age. But distance is nothing to God. Wherever your family might be, wherever your memories are – nothing can stop God from reuniting people.

Today, lots of people visit the South Pole to see penguins in their natural habitat, for their holidays! And I can get from where I live to where my daughter lives by travelling in 2 hours on a plane. My point is a small one. Whatever the distance between you and your loved ones, Father God is promising, in this passage, to reunite all of us with Himself, and the ones we love and miss, simply because He is good and He has claimed us for His own. When you are His kid He looks after you! Even death cannot separate us from Him. The story of Lazarus proves that!

The Lord is establishing His authority and sovereignty, in this passage in Isaiah, and He reminds us that anything else that wants to push its way to the centre of our thoughts cannot legally come between us and Him. Even before Jesus died for us all, God always took care of His kids. His sovereignty is superb and supreme. Anything else that exalts itself against His will, has to fall away, and any other gods aren’t worth even talking about, in the light of Who He is. Today He wants to reassure us that He will keep His promises. Nobody else can do what He has done. Or what He is doing right now for you, and what He will continue to do to keep His promise to you and His plans for your future. 

That means His promises are totally secure – backed  up by something so incredible we can hardly conceive of it. WHO HE IS. You know – that’s what always comes under question when bad things happen to us. IS HE WHO HE SAYS HE IS? Our enemy uses doubt like a politician uses too many words. Father God tells us to hide His Word in our hearts, so we won’t sin against Him, for those times when doubt batters at us. But at the same time we are also learning that His Word is stronger than anything else in this world. 

Think about this: we are standing on what Father God said, and what the Holy Spirit DID about His proclamations. The Lord Himself is our fixed point in our endlessly wound up, merry-go-round world! Fractured families and friendships happen – but our God is mighty and consistently loving. He truly loves reconciliation, and He will always be faithful to His Word. Bye. 👋 

P 3097 How to live.

/ DVH

“But He’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbour, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don’t take yourself too seriously— take God seriously.” Micah 6:8 MSG. 

I just love that this verse says don’t take yourself too seriously. In my life as I follow His instructions and learn to live by them, I’ve discovered accidental times of sheer bliss. It is as if heaven comes down in a little bubble of joy and hubby and I and the Lord are right in the middle of it. He’s laughing and we’re laughing – and we have no clue why we are laughing … we just are! And it feels so good! Eventually you end up wondering why you were worried, harassed or upset in the first place. That’s the place to stop wondering why, and just enjoy the moment! You and I ain’t getting out of this life alive!

Here’s an interesting thought that might help with that. We cannot spend the life we now have, trying to punish any previous generations for the mistakes they made. This life is not meant to be lived retrospectively – it’s too short. I’ve also learnt that deliberately avoiding someone else’s mistakes means I’m just going to make different ones! And I did! Groan!! Judgment always leads to a worse place than we started at.

Hubby and I have just returned home after a little time away in a peaceful place. I’m always glad to get home again, but boy I will miss the view. (See above.) We met a new group of tiny friends here. A small flock of sparrows appeared on our balcony. The bible says that the Lord feeds birds! I distinctly remember that God once fed His little birds my homegrown, much anticipated raspberries. I was pretty ticked off about it too! I didn’t even get ONE! Yes, I repented!

Back to our sparrow visitors. These dear little birds kept arriving early in the morning, and peering hopefully through the big glass window. I’m a sucker for any bird that sits on the back of a chair and sings its heart out! Meanwhile, those little birds really know how to eat, they sure can sock it away. The way they ate you would think they were emus!

OK – it seems it is time to be spiritual! Did you get that instruction in the above scripture? Right at the end, it says: ‘don’t take yourself too seriously, take God seriously instead!’ That’s the whole point of course. That’s why we are all still here, we are here to learn to take the things of the Spirit, seriously. Here’s a question I don’t much like to ask myself, but it has been helpful because it diagnoses my own attitudes rather quickly. What if you were the only person left in circle of family and friends who knows Jesus? Is your life a witness? Yeah, I know. Bring that up!

Meanwhile, we don’t just witness by what we say – we also witness by WHO we are – especially when people are looking, and …even when they aren’t. However, somebody, it seems, is always looking – I’ve learnt that the hard way. Living this life, the only one we have, for His sake, is part of taking Almighty God seriously. The same God Who heals the sick and raises the dead, makes the deaf hear and the blind see – is living inside you. Our job is to let Him out for the world to see. That’s what Paul did.

Paul often ended up in nine kinds of trouble because nobody could shut him up! Everywhere he went he found a public place and started telling people about Jesus. He told governors, kings, religious people, important people, business people, ordinary people, and some listened and some didn’t. Some hauled him off to jail, and he took that in his stride and witnessed to the guards instead!  Paul didn’t wait for revivals – he started them!

The thing that Paul’s life clearly shows me is that half-hearted won’t do. Whatever the Lord has in His plans for each one of us  – we need to make sure we listen, stay humble, and simply go and do it.  Paul was so brilliant, he could do more than one thing at a time. He witnessed, preached, founded churches, and wrote a huge chunk of the New Testament. But all of the Lord’s disciples, with the exception of Judas, gave up the rest of their lives serving God. 

It seems to me that we can sit about waiting for the Holy Spirit to do what He has already done, many many times before in the church’s history – or we can take God Himself seriously and get on with His kingdom’s business. We still have the book and that’s plenty to go on with! I would hate to think that we will spend our whole lives knowing we are saved, yet ignoring the many who are not. What Micah is talking about here is our attitudes – our attitudes are meant to lead to actions. 

We were saved to serve Him. Look! I’m truly sorry if nobody told you that you were actually giving your life away when you first said ‘yes’ to Jesus — but I just did that, right here, right now. So what are you going to do about it? That’s the real issue. How to live this life now, is all over His book. Bye. 🤪 !

P 2970 Religion can kill our faith.

/ DVH

“Beloved ones, God has called us to live a life of freedom. But don’t view this wonderful freedom as an excuse to set up a base of operations in the natural realm. Constantly love each other and be committed to serve one another.”Galatians 5:13. We’ve been set free to love one another and to serve God, of our own volition.  

When we read the Gospels, if we look at the hawk-eyed big brother attitude of the Sadducees, Pharisees, Teachers etc. we can see they pounced on anyone who broke even the smallest of the man-made rules. This included some poor schmuck who was born blind. These religious leaders picked on the guy because he was healed on the Sabbath! Like the man chose that day!? He was offered healing and he said yes … wouldn’t you??

Then there was another man who spent 35 years of his life lying by a pool, and he got into trouble for carrying the bed he had been pop-riveted to for years!  All because he was also healed on the Sabbath. There were others and Jesus healed them all on the Sabbath too. But as soon as these healed people were out in public, some enthusiastic religious enforcer immediately demanded to know why they were breaking this law or that one! Sadly these legalistic men skipped right past the joy of those amazing healings and went straight to the so-called infringement.

The Pharisees etc. lived to point out other people’s sinful actions and attitudes. Their laws consisted of hundreds of add-ons to the Ten Commandments that God gave Moses. Father God paid an incredible price when He gave us the freedom to choose! His aim was REAL reconciliation not lip-service or more laws. Today we are free to choose LOVE. You simply cannot legislate against sin. 

After all, the bible says that sin itself, can give our misdeeds a greater appeal! The religious laws of Jesus’ time, alienated and distanced the people from their God. You simply couldn’t afford to even appear to make any kind of mistake, you would get caught and punished. They even had sacrifices for the things people might have forgotten they did! 

Mercy flew right out of the window, rapidly followed by grace. Healing etc. had to be legislated into a suitable time and place delegated by the religious rulers’ discretion. People had no choice, they either obeyed the law to the letter, or they were punished. Sometimes they had rocks thrown at their heads! Or they were beaten within an inch of their lives. Or they had to fork out money they didn’t have to pay for grain offerings, doves, sheep and cattle. The religious rules had been around for so long, they had slowly been perverted away from loving God and each other, into legalism.

I think the very worst part of all this is that God Himself became even more estranged from His very precious children – why wouldn’t you avoid a god who appeared to require punishment for every single misstep? We know that sin starts with an inward attitude, which can result in an outward action against what God has said, but I think the complete truth is when we sin, we sin against LOVE, not rules. When what we do is not from love we’ve sinned. Which makes categorising sin a waste of time. Instead of focussing on outward actions, our hearts need to be changed. They need to have an attitude transplant and God has given us the perfect opportunity to have one!

Jesus did it for us – He is God’s love in action. He is the perfect example for us — unfettered by profit, agendas, prejudices, judgment, appetites and selfishness,. Meanwhile those snarky I’ve-got-a-right-to-do-what-I-want attitudes we cherish so much in this modern age, can go from choice to entitlement in a heart-beat. Sin is a heart condition. We were born with it but Jesus took the huge burden of personal responsibility for mankind’s sin, past, present and future, upon Himself and He met every legal single requirement. He overpaid!

Almighty God sent Jesus to save everyone, even the guys who killed Him. God chose to sacrifice His own Son willingly—to give US back our freedom, and give US the opportunity to walk with Him. Religion takes our choices away, it sets our minds on an impossible task … remaining sin free. And it totally ignores what Jesus already did for us. It also removes Love from our midst. Loving one another is our only hope of thriving instead of just surviving. “Beyond all these things put on and wrap yourselves in [unselfish] love, which is the perfect bond of unity [for everything is bound together in agreement when each one seeks the best for others].’Colossians 3:14. (AMP)

Unless we choose to live in Love, like Jesus did, the law will continue to haunt the church.  We need to do what the bible says, and put aside gossip, resentment, criticism etc. etc. and pay far more attention to our own hearts, than we do toward other people’s sin. Religion chokes the life out of faith. 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 2949 Only follow Jesus.

/ DVH

Feel free to show me one place in the bible where God ever blessed a theory. Yet in today’s Christianity – we follow people’s theories all over the place! That is the sin of the Israelites … they wanted a god they could understand and describe, and so they made a statue. At one time Almighty God allowed Himself to be resident within a box … but no box can contain Him.

The Universe cannot contain OUR GOD …  it is still expanding!! Almighty God is so generous to so many ordinary human beings. He gives one of His choice servants a revelation and we immediately embrace it, because brother or sister everybody-knows-their-name said so … and we know that they hear from God … so they must be right! Now we start following a teeny tiny little sliver of all the possible knowledge about Him, instead of the Great and Mighty God we serve. Could we please try to remember that Gideon ended up serving up an ephod and the Israelites worshipped that? We must stop making pronouncements about Him, and go back to wonder and amazement. 

People get so excited, we have bookstores full of things that our generous God has taught the authors. That’s why there are like 195 books on forgiveness, and most of what is in each one of them is different. When we catch a glimpse of Who He is, now we think we know how to describe Him! We are like blind men trying to describe an elephant, each of them from a different vantage point. Good luck with agreeing on that! The thing that we don’t seem to understand is that each of these precious revelations are just a splinter of Who He actually is. That splinter may be truth, but it is NOT all of WHO HE IS. 

Our God is eternal! It will take eternity to even just begin to understand Him. His character, His beauty, His glory…. sigh…When I think about Him I run out of words, really quickly. Language cannot contain Him. Maybe that’s why He gave us tongues in the first place! Because of His Grace, He has chosen to contain Who He is within a book. The bible. The bible is like a compendium, every word in it leads to even more revelation. It  is not just a book, instead it opens our eyes to Who He is – over and over again. The Holy Spirit once changed my life by highlighting the word “let.” 

We were reading the Word together one day and the Holy Spirit asked me:  “Why do you skip over the little words? The bible is not about speed reading. I’ve told you clearly in Matthew 4:4: “…Jesus replied, “It is written and forever remains written,‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by EVERY word that comes out of the mouth of God.” “Do you think everything God has ever said is recorded in His book? What about His conversations with Moses or Abraham or what He said to His dear Son Jesus, when They spent time together?”  

You know, that was the day I finally found some wisdom, and I shut my mouth and listened instead! I learnt that the bible is a trillion, billion, gazillion books, in just one paragraph! The Holy Spirit isn’t just wise – He IS Wisdom, Personified. Forget all the terribly clever men and women you’ve ever seen in writing or heard speaking — they can only tell you what they’ve seen… the things that He told them. I’d like to say that I saw Him as He looked at me when our conversation came to an end — but I didn’t see a Person – I saw nothing. But something inside me expanded, as He whispered: “BIGGER STILL…”

Trying to decipher God’s ways by reading all the books in a bookshop is like trying to empty all the oceans, a teaspoon at a time! Good luck with that! I’ve read the bible so many times I know some bits off by heart, yet I didn’t memorise them. They became part of me as I learnt to act on what it said. You can’t tell me God is not generous … I KNOW He is. However, I’m pretty much a dud at believing for healing, my worldly experiences have outweighed my faith so much that disappointment grabbed me by the throat and tried to drag me under. I don’t expect to stay there – my faith is in Him and I know He is a healer.

Our God is so good … “A broken reed He will not break [off] And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish [He will not harm those who are weak and suffering]; He will faithfully bring forth justice.” Isaiah 42:3. My faith is right there, with Isaiah, in His Character. I know He’s good.

This is why I encourage people to not only read, or listen to what Jesus has said, in the bible, but to DO it. Even after the Lord Jesus left us, He kept on talking through Peter, John, Luke, Matthew, and Paul – so when I’m reading the Epistles I hear Him. Jesus’ advice to each one of us is this … and His own mother, Mary, said it: “Whatever He says to you, DO IT.” The subject or size of the miracle does not matter. This was the miracle of water into wine, something utterly irrelevant. That shows us that He will bend the rules for the ones He loves. It was not His time — but He did it anyway. 💕 

Studying the bible is not like studying science. First of all, we have our own Personal Tutor, and in the Gospels, we have God’s only Son as our human, physical example of how to walk with God Himself. Follow Jesus — most of the New Testament was written by the few men who did. Bye. 👋

P 2893 People need to see HIM in us.

/ DVH

Luke 13:10-17 “On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all.When Jesus saw her, He called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then He put His hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?” When He said this, all His opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things He was doing.”

Why were these people so delighted? Here’s my theory … instead of rules and regulations, theories and hypotheses about this or that … God’s Love for ordinary people, those who daily lived in pain and suffering, was being acted out in front of their eyes! Suddenly His Love was no longer a theory — it was on display! Something they could see and experience for themselves. People saw His love in action, through everything Christ did. Sometimes I feel that we have failed the Lord, by talking, talking, talking about this idea or that one, but we haven’t actually moved from theory into practice.

Romans 5:8:“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  Jesus is God’s love demonstrated. Let’s just think about that. He was kind to sinners and saints alike and He healed and delivered people who were trapped in terrible situations. He taught everyone around Him what God is like by the way He treated them. You and I meet people who need these demonstrations of His love every single day. They need His touch, whether it is an encouraging word, or a prayer for healing, or even food or shelter.

Our God chose to come here as a vulnerable infant, He lived among us, and … “Jesus Christ set a perfect example of kindness and love. Throughout His earthly ministry, He showed His love for others by blessing and serving the poor, the sick, and the distressed.” (Thank you Google!) Here’s my question for today – how do WE as in … you and I …choose to demonstrate our love for God to others? If we are not distracted, or weighted down by the cares of this life, and we are living vastly unaware of our personal contribution – we can think that simply avoiding sin meets His requirements. Sadly that kind of stuff will turn anyone into a legalist in a heart beat. Instead of peace flowing like a river … judgment will drown anyone who comes near it!

Here’s a revelation — trying to avoid sin is not the answer. Jesus already dealt with sin at Calvary and He expects us to use the power He bequeathed to us to deal with our own sin in our own lives using our OWN faith! There’s no point in sweeping junk under the carpet … that lump in the middle of the carpet is a dead-giveaway. Other people are bound to stumble over it. Luke 8:17: “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.” Sooner or later who we really are jumps out under pressure. What we do after that happens, hits everyone around us with a learning curve. Then we can’t continue to pretend that we are AOK, because it eventually becomes obvious we are not.

The people who live around us need God’s love demonstrated toward them – that’s why He has given all of us Grace gifts, now we can deal with this world without hating it, or avoiding it. These Grace gifts change other people’s lives – and awaken faith in His goodness in us. It is consistency that matters – so day by day – we need to choose to  live our lives for His sake. This is how we usher in His kingdom – we follow Him, and we see people through His eyes. Tolerated and/or hidden sin can make us deaf and blind to other people’s needs. However, His love causes our faces to shine the way Jesus’ face shone with the love of the Father. 

Father God knows how to go around other people’s fierce, disinterested faces and attitudes, and bless them with His Love – despite their postures of indifference. We just follow the Holy Spirit and obey His prompts.The glorious thing about God’s loving, fruitful kingdom is that even a little tiny bit of it released into someone else’s life grows. That’s because His kingdom is not of this world – or subject to the junk we tolerate.

Always remember, people need to see Him in us. Every single day we need to use our faith to move beyond this world’s thinking, and start thinking and acting like HE does. My last thought is this, make friends with the Holy Spirit, He knows how to reach people. Bless you. 👋

P 2854 Set your heart.

/ DVH

Colossians 3:1-12: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

Praise God, living for Christ is now our new life! Our ONLY life. The thing to remember is this, when we surrendered our lives to Him we didn’t just give up sin – we gave up whatever we want in this life! Now we daily live for His purposes. Hello! That means goodbye to our own personal agendas. You and I were ransomed by what Christ did. SomeBody paid the most expensive price ever paid, so I can belong to Him and partake of His kingdom. This means I voluntarily gave my plans for my life away. Now let’s move along before everybody’s hair falls out, and find out what comes next.

“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”

Paul is explaining to us the things that we no longer have to indulge in. Meanwhile, I think it is fascinating that he calls greed – idolatry. This part of the above larger scripture today, makes it clear that these are the things we must no longer tolerate in ourselves. You know, sometimes people are so busy thinking about other people’s sins, against them, or life in general, they don’t pay attention to the stuff they are doing. Ignorance is not an excuse – we have His book! Instead people excuse themselves, and accuse others.

After this happy little list, Paul goes on from actions into attitudes – the kind of things we need to watch out for. Warning signs that show us we have wandered off our chosen pathway. Personally, I’ve found Colossians 3 has enough to keep me busy for plenty of lifetimes!  But here’s more …“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

We don’t just take off the stuff that will spoil our faith – we put on Godly things so that there is no room for ungodly things. Paul doesn’t just feature what not to do, he is telling us what we are to choose now, plus how to do it. He is talking about that word that we all know and love … CHOOSE. God chose us, now we choose HIM! The Lord will not do this work for us, however, He will help us overcome our reactions and attitudes. But without forgiveness, none of this stuff works!  

Why is it necessary to continue to persevere with people? The roots of the tree of unforgiveness go down very deep in all our lives. Continuing in love will expose the very roots of our own personal hurt. As we persevere and bear with each other, especially when we choose to love someone who jumps all over our stinky attitudes, we will learn more about how and why we have so much unforgiveness in the first place! Win, win!!

While we are still in this world we will have to deal with our own faults and fatal flaws etc., as well as other people’s sins against us. How we do that matters. I like to remember one of the last things Jesus said from the cross, while He was dying an agonising death: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34. Many people have no clue what effect their seemingly innocent defensive remarks have on others. What our Lord did at the very end of His earthly life is a good principle to follow – forgive and do it quickly. 

Releasing forgiveness seems to allow the other person to continue to do whatever they like, but the reality is – it puts that other person into His hands. When God deals with people, they cannot wriggle out of whatever they have done. Read the book! The bible teaches us that …”The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9. We must remember God’s AIM! Plus, changed people are about their Father’s business and sin has to go because it renders us blind and deaf.

Finally, here’s something I have learnt by living, I probably have no idea how abrasive I sound to someone else – only I know the turmoil in my heart – that other person is too busy dealing with their feelings to care about mine. Our God is thorough. Both parties benefit when forgiveness is allowed to reign.  We are in the voluntary process of learning to set our hearts. Bye for today 👋.

P 2705 On being tested.

/ DVH

Jesus Christ, God’s precious Son, became a man. He respected and obeyed what His Father wanted above His own personal needs and ideas. He lived, and then He chose to die, in accordance with His Father’s will. He is our example of how to deal with temptations. Right at the very beginning of His ministry, the Lord Jesus was thoroughly tested, under extreme circumstances. FYI, that is recorded in Matthew 4:1-11, and Luke 4:1-13. Jesus came through it all, despite the incredible hardship He faced. But He met with the Holy Spirit and POWER on the other side of that test. This is a great place to stop, and think about what that means to ME. 🤔

The Lord personally demonstrated and proclaimed during this testing time, that the way for human beings to live – is primarily by the Word of God. He did this, under dire circumstances, live and in person, in front of His enemy. That is when He put a stamp on the scriptures as our primary source of spiritual food and defensive weapons..

After that, in the second temptation, His enemy offered Him physical well being, protection and personal safety – for the exorbitant fee of worshippinghim. Jesus refused to have anything to do with getting where He needed to go using His enemy’s help. He responded to this temptation with another scripture. Making it clear that He was not going to trust in anything but God’s Word to care for Him. The truth set Him free. Another good spot to stop and think about what that shows me! 🤔

The last and final temptation was that His enemy would give Him everything He came to do, without making the ultimate sacrifice. Our enemy tried to blind the Lord with success, which included the price tag of saving the world … without Him having to die. It looked like an easy answer, but it involved putting this world into satan’s hands permanently. 

I believe we all face temptations, often we face them daily. We are tempted to lose heart, and put our faith and hope down. Sometimes we are tempted to live by what Brother so and so says, and when we do that means we have put the Word of God second. We are taking another man’s interpretation of the scripture over what God wants to say to US, personally. The most valuable thing we have is our bible… obedience to what is commanded in that book is incredibly personally powerful. When we choose to live by His words — instead of our circumstances, or experiences, or what someone else thinks — we elevate Almighty God in our lives to His rightful place as GOD!

Secondly, there are times when we too are tempted and tested regarding our participation in whatever needs to be done in His kingdom, by methods other than FAITH. Things like clever marketing, slick presentations, and popularity without us having to make sacrifices. The Word of God is powerful all by itself, it does not need to be marketed! In the hands of someone who is obedient to the Holy Spirit, His Word will cut between human thoughts and intentions and go right into the heart of any matter. On that day in Christ’s life – it cut the enemy to pieces! When we rely upon our own skills and energies we are succumbing to the temptation to help God out, and so the accolades may go to a person, instead of the One Who made us and deserves our worship.

I think Father God is very particular about where our worship goes, because: a/ He is a jealous God. And: b/ our frame is not strong enough to be able to manage the kind of praise and worship that belongs to Him – alone. However, His power will flow quite naturally through our lives as we learn to resist temptation and live in obedience. There is always a way through whatever is going on, we just ask Him for His help! Christ was led into the wilderness, by the Holy Spirit — but He came out IN THE POWER of the Holy Spirit. Facing temptation and overcoming it, is part of our growth process – it is meant to test and stretch our faith and resolve to rely upon God and His Word. That means it will hurt!

The bible says this about being tested:“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed.”1 Peter 4:12&13. And in James 1:2&3: “My fellow believers, when it seems as though you are facing nothing but difficulties, see it as a valuable opportunity to experience the greatest joy you can! For you know that when your faith is tested, it stirs in you the power of endurance.”

Let’s reflect for a minute – in Jesus, Father God finally had a man He could talk to and trust. Just imagine the depth and breadth of the Lord Jesus’ faith!! God’s will was His only aim! In this world we will face trials and tests, but we do not face them alone. Praise God, our knowledge of His Word is our personal shield of faith. Jesus Himself overcame our enemy, and because of what He did on the cross, we can too. Now we can walk forward like Sons and Daughters of the Most High God. Bye. 👋

“Let me emphasize this: As you yield to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self-life.”Galatians 5:16 TPT.