Character

P 2770 God has a plan.

/ DVH

If you have been a Christian for a while you may have bumped into Jeremiah. Jeremiah is, in my mind, one of our great faith pioneers. He kept his faith strong even when his life was awful. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11. But when you look at Jeremiah’s life, it was a far cry from being filled with great plans and fab future! I want to comment on this particular verse today, because I believe it has been misused on occasion, to imply that our God is more like a genie, than our omnipotent, omnipresent, always wise, sovereign God and glorious Father – Who made heaven and earth!

Let’s just look carefully at what this verse says: God totally declares that He has plans for each one of us. We have not been left here, in our often difficult circumstances, all alone. Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to help us with every second, of every minute of every day. We can now walk with Him like Christ did, that’s the plan! In order to walk with the Holy Spirit – emphasis on the word ‘holy’  … our lives need to change. Our focus has to come off our own comfort, and be firmly planted into whatever the Lord wants for us.

This verse says that His plans are about giving us hope. The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus Christ is our ever-present hope, and this scripture is a prophetic statement about Christ! It is not a promise that this life will never ever be bad again. The hope in our future is Christ Himself. Jeremiah did not live an easy life. His whole nation went into captivity. However, our God has incredible plans and if we ask Him, He may even let us in on them! He has promised He will listen when we pray, and answer us. But we may not understand His answer right away!

We need to consistently remember that Father God will never ever mislead us, quite often we simply can’t see beyond the end of our noses and our need to control everything and make it peachy! However, our future always lies with the Lord. It is very important that we understand that – the scripture above is about security IN God. You and I have eternity ahead of us, so we have an ever expanding future!  Heaven is real and we will go there. I think our God is incredible – He’s planning to spend eternity with all of us! Imagine that!

Our Heavenly Father, has already provided everything we will ever need IN Christ. Sadly we can spend our short lives looking for monetary or physical gain, and we do live this life celebrating the reality that eternity is ours, now and forever … and LIVE that way. Unfortunately we often want ease, now. It matters where our hope is, because ours is always in Christ. …Our hope is not in some scripture that I picked up, or one I decided suited my problem, my hope is in Christ. Christ is God’s demonstrated goodness.

In my opinion, Jeremiah, makes a very interesting example of God’s input into one man’s life. He remained courageous and loyal to his calling despite his difficulties. He faithfully told the Israelites the bad news about their future, over and over again. Sometimes … lucky him!…. he also got to physically demonstrate it too! He was beaten and ridiculed simply because he spoke out God’s truth. The people who follow Jesus Christ do not always have easy carefree lives. However, He will ALWAYS help us, so our faith is in His Character. These things flow out of intimacy. And intimacy is about God always being with us, so we live by faith – because that is the reality.

We must stop thinking that serving God means we will remain trouble free! Our wonderful Father is doing more than one thing at a time. He is answering our prayers for transformation, preparing us for eternity, and restoring and healing relationships, here and now. Jeremiah was carted off from his homeland along with everyone else, despite the fact that he was busy being obedient … doing and saying what God said!  He continually prophesied bad things were coming, not good ones, and sadly the Jews didn’t like it, or him. And he also pointed out that there is a great difference between saying something – even sincerely believing it, and… doing it. Belief must turn into action.

Personally, I think the Old Testament brings a much needed balance into the church-at-large’s current theory of: “let’s all have a jolly old party down here, because SomeBody else paid the bill!”  We cannot choose hedonism and indulgence and expect everything to be AOK with the Lord. What part of ‘take up your cross and follow Me,’ don’t we get? We serve Him – He doesn’t serve us. He proved His love for all mankind when He gave us His Only Son. Our choices from day to day matter, because Father God does not wink at our sins, they were far too costly for His Son. The very least we can do is acknowledge them, and live this life, here and now, differently.

He has a plan to give us a hope and a future. Our future is with Him, today, tomorrow, and forever, and His plan has already given us hope in Christ and all He did. Let’s stick with HIS PLAN and leave behind the idea of some sort of a trouble-free cushy life. Bye. 👋

P 2668 Shame, the disqualifier.

/ DVH

Over the years in my Christian life I have observed that if I let shame in, then the result is I stop trying to hear God and avoid Him instead! Plus I leave off reading the bible and skip church. None of that stuff is good! I’ve disqualified myself because I am feeling bad about something I have done, or I am contemplating doing. Shame creates a need to hide. Adam and Eve did! It is a fact of life that every single person on this planet has down times. Times when our attitudes are not at their optimum, when life is not one glorious victory following another.

Shame is a tool of our enemy to send us spinning off in the wrong direction. We end up looking at ourselves, as well as how we feel about what we have done etc. – instead of looking at the Lord – Who is the Author and Finisher of our faith. The saddest thing is this – sometimes shame has its roots in real sin – sin that needs to be confessed and repented about. Confession clears away any reason the enemy has to accuse us and cause even more shame.

There are many people in our churches who go regularly week by week, and they are in all kinds of pain, because they are carrying shame, for things done in the present or the past. Perhaps they don’t want to do something that they keep on doing, but they just cannot find a way to stop. Or they are ashamed because they are not doing what they think they should be doing. Feelings demand a whole lot of work and energy. We can end up in an emotional washing machine, getting more and more agitated, drowning in our own despair.

Shame is a cloak. A substitute for conviction, which leads to repentance. Some times shame has been thrown over a person in the past, by someone they regard as an authority, and this other person gave the one who is ashamed, strong logical reasons why that cloak should be worn. That, BTW is a sign of control. Anybody who tries to control us is not on the Lord’s side, whether that person seems to have good motivations or not. Shame has its roots in fear. It can’t grow good fruit, its roots have not gone down deep into LOVE and acceptance.  

The bible tells us to ‘agree with our adversaries quickly’ –  that way we can also quickly repent, and instantly dismiss shame. When we come to Jesus we are given freedom, there is no control. However, shame may also do it’s best to separate us away from the very One Who came to redeem us. It will cause us to hide from Him. We can even end up living a life that is a lie, pretending we are fine when we are not, and hiding our true selves from everyone around us.The sad thing is;  we have no reason to be ashamed because we have His promises in writing!In 1 John 1:8-10 and 1 John 2:1-2 it says:

“If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—simply come clean about them—He won’t let us down; He’ll be true to Himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. ..”1 John 2:1-2 says this: “My little children, I am writing these things to you, so that you do not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”

The most important thing about these few verses is the fact that forgiveness always rests on the Lord’s Character and His Character is perfect! It is in Christ’s Character to tell the truth – and the truth is, we have already been forgiven. The second most important thing in my opinion, is this: honesty and confession are the only way to go. It’s not the most comfortable approach, but it is the only one! When we let light pour into the darkness we no longer have to be ashamed, we simply need to be honest and confess our faults to Him, and to others. Because the Lord Jesus Christ is our God-sent, God-given Lawyer! He is our Defence Attorney before the throne of God. He won’t give us a character reference – instead, HE SIMPLY POINTS TO THE CROSS. You might want to sit and stew on that for a while. 

Our part in this process is to be honest with Him, and ourselves, and use our faith to believe that He does not lie and we are not some kind of mad-exception to His poured out love. Shame must never be our cloak – Christ’s BLOOD IS ALWAYS OUR CLOAK.  If we accidentally crawl out from underneath the Lord’s provision of forgiveness, then we need to repent quickly, make reparation where necessary and move on. Let’s not let shame disqualify us from living a brand new life, free from the past, and our own sinful stupid decisions. Bye. 👋

P 2667 The wrapping comes before the gift.

/ DVH

In this scripture, Paul is praying for the church.“I am contending for you, that your hearts will be wrapped in the comfort of heaven and woven together into love’s fabric. That will give you access to all the riches of God as you experience the revelation of God’s great mystery – Christ!” Colossians 2:2. Most of us have experienced receiving a well-wrapped gift, maybe even with pretty bows on the top. But if we simply put the gift aside, after we have admired how good it looks, without unwrapping it – we’ve missed the point! However, let’s not just discard the wrapping paper either – it too has a purpose in God’s Ways.

This is what I’ve learnt over the years … many people want God’s riches and revelations, but they don’t particularly want to be woven into Love’s fabric. I’ve met some truly heinous people with fantastic gifts from God, who treat everybody around them like they are minions, or less than special  … because the person with the fantastic gift sees him or herself as a star. And we don’t help them when we reinforce the gift above their character. Hmmm. There’s a rookie mistake – those people think their gift is them. I’ve been on the pointy end of that error.

Gifts are GIVEN … they are a sign of the generosity of the GIVER, not necessarily the worth of the recipient! Check it out in the book! Start by reading Jonah, who was God’s prophet/evangelist – however his attitude showed up a whole heap of character flaws. The Lord explained to Jonah, very kindly, that he was a fathead who actually knew nothing about God’s ways. Now let’s look at Simon the sorcerer. His last name was kind of a big clue! He wanted to buy the Holy Spirit, and he skated right by that large thin ice warning  sign …!! The people in the bible aren’t there for decoration or to add interest. They show us about the holes in someone’s else’s character that anyone of us can have.

I believe the truth is we cannot afford to elevate individual people no matter what their gift is, but at the same time we need to respect the gift God gave them. Sadly, sometimes elevation can do weird things to a person’s head! There have been times when I’ve seen lovely gifts from the Lord, become a reason for a dictatorship. Yes, I really did say that out loud and in print! 😶 Lets’ be clear, this person I am speaking about may make modest noises. After all, we are supposed to be humble … and they read the rules. But somehow all that didn’t get translated into their innards. So what comes out can seem smarmy and a bit plastic. Sometimes unchecked ambition in an individual uses other people to build its own little kingdom, instead of building His. That’s a short term aim. If we all reach our potential in Christ – we will be strong, standing side by side against the real enemy – satan.  

Moving on from people-who-know-God-better-than-anyone-else-does … to people like you and me, who have bumped elbows, and calloused knees from falling over and getting it wrong a lot… !! 😂 Let’s just finish this bit of cringy stuff with this last thought:  faith is confidence in GOD not men. Our God is so loving that He gives gifts …  He is incredibly generous … as well as kind, and tender-hearted toward all our needs. Gifts are about Him not us. Ephesians 6:11:“Christ gave gifts to men…”

We can become so enamoured about finding out what gift we have been given, we dive right in and forget to pay attention to the wrapping paper. So let’s just look at that bit shall we?  “.. that your hearts will be wrapped in the comfort of heaven and woven together into love’s fabric.” His love for us, and our unity together, is the wrapping paper for a happy healthy gift. Please don’t throw away the bit that wraps us all together! Our gifts don’t work well without each other, and getting woven together is a whole lot of work!

So how do you and I get wrapped in the comfort of heaven? I believe that happens when we keep going back to the cross, and remembering who we were and where we were when He found us. That’ll humble you!! The cross keeps our focus in the right place. We are not all that – HE IS ALL THAT! When we learn to take risks and become obedient we will see what He can do with our teeny tiny efforts. At the same time, we need to continue to love others who don’t want to be part of the wrapping paper. Instead they want to be the source of delight inside that paper! That’s God’s bit, not ours. Any one of us can easily fall into the trap of wanting man’s praise to fill our empty hearts, when the comfort of heaven has been given to us, to do it for us. That’s Jesus Himself, BTW.

Because we all want access to the riches of God, we need to pray for the comfort of heaven to wrap around each and every one us. Then we do everything we can with His help, to be woven into something that will reveal His riches, and more of Christ. The wrapping comes before the gift, but it is still a part of the gift. So let’s cherish drawing truthfully closer to each other, while we build one another up! Bye 👋

P 2653 Insight gives us clarity.

/ DVH

Hebrews 1:1-3a.“Throughout our history God has spoken to our ancestors by His prophets in many different ways. The revelation He gave them was only a fragment at a time, building on truth upon another. But to us living in these last days, God now speaks to us openly in the language of a Son, the appointed Heir of everything, for through Him God created the panorama of all things and time. The Son is the dazzling radiance of God’s splendour, the exact  expression of God’s true nature—His mirror image.” TPT. Boy, those verses are a WOW moment! Jesus Christ is God talking to us now … today, through His book.

God has not stopped speaking, but I believe that we have stopped really listening! We are too used to being spoon-fed. Every single thing Christ SAID and DID was to speak to us, now – today. Even His actions were WORDS. They contain a huge revelation of His Character, Personhood and power. Let’s just start with the fact that He was born as a baby, and He had to grow up the same way we have. At twelve, we find out that Jesus chose to value the Scriptures, and He took the time to do more than study them, HE LISTENED TO THEM, and He drew a deeper meaning out of them. A twelve year old boy confounded the experts of His day.

Anybody have a twelve year old at their house? It is quite likely that you won’t find their nose in a bible – you may not even find their nose in a book! They can tell you the last thing that happened in the game they’re playing but they probably only know a few scriptures. There was nothing about the Lord Jesus life that would make Him exceptional. But He was!  He was attracted to His Heavenly Father even as a child. Remember, He’s our Father too!  Read lt like your DAD wrote you a precious letter…because He did!

In the scripture above it tells us:“The Son is the dazzling radiance of God’s splendour, the exact expression of God’s true nature—His mirror image.”  Yet Isaiah 53:2 says the precise opposite. “He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.”  I love that! I love the conflict and contradiction of the Word, it provokes me into asking questions. Those two verses are talking about two different things. Isaiah is talking about Jesus’ appearance. Paul is talking about His heart!

This is the conundrum that has haunted mankind. Some people see the Lord Jesus one way, and some see Him another. Why is there a difference? I believe the eyes of faith see what is hidden. To truly see Christ, we need insight. Otherwise the bible is just words on a page of a book written in weird English. We are far more than the skin we live in – we are far bigger than that, the bible shows us how big. Anybody can ask for insight, it belongs to us all!

Isaiah is talking about the way the Jews saw Christ. The Lord Jesus looked like nobody to them. However, we can see Him today, if we open our eyes of faith and take note of the way He treated people … that helps us to really see Him. He is not an ancient figure in a dusty book. Here we have God’s Son, He is the image of His Father!. Let’s say that like this: Almighty God looks just like Jesus Christ! Ya might want to sit and Selah that a while.

There is more to mankind than just our outer shell!  What we say, and how we say it, what and who we admire, and what we give our time to – helps us to truly SEE each other. Don’t live in the superficialities of this life – we are made for bigger things! We have been exhorted not to just know each other after the flesh – but to know each other after the Spirit. What’s INSIDE that person you are speaking to?  At the same time our inside ears need to be attuned to Him speaking to us. I am not talking about a disembodied voice out of the air, I am speaking about an attitude that looks beyond the words, to the heart that spoke them.

INSIGHT is undervalued in our society. It cannot be studied out, it must be prayed over, chased, and pursued. We need to seek it. Otherwise the bible ends up being like a well-written collection of words written by 40 old guys. The bible says in Proverbs 4:7. ESV“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight. “ Why would King Solomon say that?  Because the desire to truly understand is everything. That guy had hundreds of wives and even more kids, boy did he need insight … even to remember all their names!! Insight is the ability to look deeper, to go beyond the words and expose the heart and sight of the writer and whatever he is writing about.

Jesus Christ is God’s LOVE language to us. The bible does not describe the Lord Jesus physically, it simply said He was ordinary. Instead it describes His heart toward mankind. That’s how it is to be read. Not as a series of instructions, or exhortations, but as the Father’s heart written on every page. I have just been slogging away through the book of Chronicles. Man that will test your patience – name after name after name!! So I asked the Lord, “Why all these names?” He said: “Every single person is important to Me. Their names are there to show that they are valuable, whether they lived for Me or not.”

Insight takes the ordinary and looks beyond the superficial words, because it wants to know the One Who wrote it. I exhort everyone reading this blog, don’t just read the bible … look for the Lord’s heart. If you don’t see it right away, then ask the Holy Spirit to help you to go deeper. Insight adds clarity. And don’t forget to do what it says! 🤣 

P 2642 Aim at the Long Game.

/ DVH

Lately, I have noticed that the Holy Spirit says to me: ‘do this.’ So I do it. Or He says: ‘don’t do that,’ so, hopefully, I don’t do it! However, after following His instructions, there have been times when I’ve seen nothing whatsoever after my obedience. No visible results. I can often walk around wondering what all that was about? Did it have a heavenly purpose? Did I make it up? It’s good to remember that faith is about not necessarily knowing the outcome until later … sometimes … much later. At those times I believe we are cultivating obedience. Abraham believed and obeyed the Lord and he acted on what he was told, and the Lord counted it as righteousness. Remember to ask the Lord’s input about anything, by reading the scriptures and waiting on Him.

Our Heavenly Father is not tied to our ideas and methodology.  He interacts with us way beyond those things – most of the time, He is doing something else. And at least some of the time we probably have no clue what that is. Sadly our current society likes instant results and immediate gratification – we like to know about everything! So — I put in my five dollars and out pops a candy bar. Or if I don’t like what is on TV, then I change the channel. However, our God has everyone’s good in His heart, as well as a distinct purpose for us to be alive at this time in history. I believe our greatest task in this world is to learn to love the unlovely.

Whenever we deliberately choose transformation, we enter into our own personal inheritance. The Lord has gifts for us that are appropriate to our ministry. They are personal, but they are given to us to do other people good. My deliberate obedience to His ways, means that Almighty God can take my no or yes and change or turn my life away from some things – toward others. It means I’ve chosen to die to self. Because of that surrender, and purposeful obedience, my bad habits, or inadequacies, drop off somewhere along the way. 

I have learnt, from personal experience, to cheerfully say no to my way of thinking and yes to His. There are times I understand … but there are also times that I don’t understand immediately. Loving grumpy selfish people who are mean to me makes no sense! That is why it seems to me that God’s system (?) is far more about following Jesus and looking for higher aims and accomplishments than this world can offer. We need to have eternal AIMS. That thought relies upon hearing, listening, and seeing the Lord, plus … obeying His word. Following Him is part of the transformation process.

The Old Testament gives us a number of examples of people who didn’t do that. Here’s one. Moses and the Israelites wandered about for 40 years accomplishing nothing – but a circuitous journey. They were not transformed into TRUSTING GOD despite their experiences. Their rebellion cost them more than a long walk – it cost them character growth. That was the very thing they were going to need when they got into the Promised land. They were slaves, they had a submissive mindset. Fighting their own petulant ways to obey God would have given them the power to fight their enemies. Although we never know what is coming next, God is incredibly good to us, following Him, step by step, provides the transformation, character and strength we are going to need, for what comes next.

However, our current society encourages us to hold onto our personal sense of self. We say: “God loves us the way we are.” Yes He does. But there is far more to this life than that. We cannot afford to entertain a false finishing line. Our personal happiness and contentment outside of God Himself —is a false finishing line! The Apostle Paul tells us his aim was to ‘finish HIS RACE well’ … walking with Jesus all the way, doing what the Lord wanted. He further indicates that he knows that living like that will take effort, and ‘he does not want to waste his energy boxing like a man punching into the air.’ Whatever Paul does, or decides not to do, to him, everything has a purpose. It’s to help him know the Lord and walk in His ways.

I said all that to ask a question – how are you and I going with aiming at transformation? Are we still inclined to be self-centred, or smart mouthed, or argumentative, or fudging on our income tax and tithes, walking our own way and getting petulant if God does not do things to suit us etc.? Have we yielded to the Lord so that humility and repentance are a way of life? We ALL need to know how to repent! We need to know the difference between saying sorry and deliberately turning away from that sin. That means we are actively entering into the process of transformation.  

Human beings can have many aims: to buy a house, or a car, or raise a family, or a great job, or have a ministry. The very best aim we can have is to let the Holy Spirit transform us so we look, act, speak and LOVE others like the Lord Jesus does. Lives around us will change if we choose to be a person that will accept His premises. Let’s not stop at instant noodles and an instant life! Let’s learn to aim at the long game = ongoing transformation. Bye. 👋

“Everyone who hears My teaching and applies it to his life can be compared to a wise man who built his house on an unshakable foundation.” Matthew 7:24 TPT.

P 2533 Hold fast to what is good and right.

/ DVH

1 Samuel 22:6-8 “Now Saul heard that David and his men had been discovered. And Saul was seated, spear in hand, under the tamarisk tree on the hill at Gibeah, with all his officials standing at his side. He said to them, “Listen, men of Benjamin! Will the son of Jesse give all of you fields and vineyards? Will he make all of you commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds? Is that why you have all conspired against me? No one tells me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. None of you is concerned about me or tells me that my son has incited my servant to lie in wait for me, as he does today.”

It is a good thing to listen to the way that these guys in the Old Testament, talk. Did you notice that King Saul has gone right around God Himself being in charge, and is acting like this is a competition between him and David? The Lord is left right out of this picture. Saul is exhibiting one of satan’s nastiest prods: ‘Troops, you’ve let me down! Remember, I have all the power to make or break your lives and David doesn’t!.’  Guilt is a terrible evil motivator  — a poor freedom fighter – it isn’t from GOD.

Do you know the saying… there is nothing new under the sun? Right there in 1st Samuel, satan is using his power to persuade Saul that power, results and might are right. In other words it’s OK to manipulate men for a good cause. But the actual good cause is really Saul’s cause!  That’s a great clue to help us figure out just who is talking to us when we are desperate for answers... who will ultimately benefit? What this king is saying is a twisted highly manipulative truth – Saul’s power was limited by God’s WILL.  Almighty God was WITH David, He WAS NOT with Saul!

Manipulation, judgment or the ‘end justifies the means’ – those thoughts should not exist in the Lord’s church. Have you ever heard someone say this – ‘that church has 4,000 people and this one only has 30?’ The implication is the second church is doing something wrong! Like numbers or popularity are a sign of success in the Lord! God’s ways are not our ways. He used 300 men to defeat without number when He chose Gideon as a leader. And the Lord’s fruit does not always show up with numbers! Jesus Christ was everlastingly fruitful with 11 men!

At the same time, any kind of spiritual gift manifesting itself does not mean we have immediately toddle off and start using it. This is why an anointing or a gift need to be submitted to the pastor. Proverbs 4:5-7 teaches us – “Get wisdom, get understanding: Forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: Love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: And with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee:” There is a good way, and a right way of doing things. Let other people you trust supervise you. 

The bible is a WHOLE BOOK – we dare not cherry-pick our motivation or our answers. We should not even think about prophesying all over people’s lives without wisdom. Recognising a gift is not activating it. No matter how well intentioned we are, quite often we do not even know the state of our own hearts and that will affect what we say and do towards others.The body of Christ needs spiritually gifted people, but we need WISDOM just as much. The Holy Spirit is the source of our wisdom.

He likes to lead us through difficult circumstances to the other side, because as we follow Him we gain wisdom along the way! So many people have stumbled over the temptation to rush rush, hurry hurry ahead of God. He lives in eternity – He doesn’t have to hurry! He doesn’t care about popularity either!! Gifted people can go into ministry because it has been recognised that they have a wonderful gift from God, and that gift blesses others and has great results! But only God Himself knows what’s inside us that can shoot us in the foot down the road. Ask yourself regularly in any form of ministry – where is the fruit? What does the fruit of this tree look like?

Also, having a gift does not mean you are ready to use it, or the world around you is ready to receive it! Our God is way more interested in our character than we’ve understood so far. He wants to repair and inhabit our lives. Just because other people have responded to His gift in your life don’t be fooled… always, always remember that gift you have is still His! It is a GIFT— not a REWARD FOR GOOD BEHAVIOUR! He gave it to you to build up His church, not just build your own ministry. 

God’s power can be so awe-inspiring, when others see it operating through a person they start to elevate the person. Plus spiritually gifted people sometimes do the right things for the wrong reasons! They are deceived by satan into believing acting like this is for the greater good… “People are getting saved Lord!” Hallelujah! – but we always want Jesus to shine like the SUN — not just some here again, gone again shooting star! King Saul had no love for God or his men – he was too busy trying to get David out of the picture. Our  Lord is a master-craftsman – He forms His swords … His servants — in the fire of adversity or the heat of His personal gaze. As His servants we need to learn to be resilient and tough.

A really good blacksmith can take three strands of metal and twist, weave, beat and forge those three strands into ONE SWORD. This kind of sword can take knocks, and rebound without shattering. Our precious Heavenly Father doesn’t want any of us to break in the battles of this life, He wants us to defeat our foe. Father God wants us to have and live under, the three-fold, tightly woven cord of Himself, His Son and the Holy Spirit. Otherwise like King Saul, we could easily mistake having POWER, for BEING RIGHT and the Lord’s badge of approval.

The Trinity long to become so woven into our thinking, doing and being, that people like King Saul will taste bad to us. However, in order to resist temptation, we must first be able to identify it. Only by God’s Grace and wisdom, we’ll be able to avoid deception, because what the Trinity wants is everything  we want!  The Lord’s army won’t have any ambition, good or bad. Their only aim will be to please Him, and hold fast to what is good and right. Fame and power can spoil people. It goes to their head. Look what it did to Saul, it made him into a megalomaniac and liar – among other things!  Gaining wisdom is incredibly important – it means we have learnt to walk with the Spirit of God. 🙌

P 2517 The Lord does not think the way WE DO.

/ DVH

1 Samuel Chapter 16 shows us some very interesting things about the way our God, Maker of heaven and earth – thinks. I really enjoy this story, it gives us great insight into the way the Lord deals with human beings. 

But first, please note! … The story goes like this, God did not want His people to have a king – HE wanted to be their King. Meanwhile,Saul is a dud as a king … He’s a king in the natural. following his own understanding.  Well, he kind of would be really because the people chose Saul – based on his height and his good looks. He was pop-star material. Yet he started out his reign out by hiding! Previously, Almighty God had said ‘yes’ to this man and now he’s hiding in the luggage!! We’ve just learnt something about Saul’s character and whether he respected God or not …!!

Moving into verses 2&3 of Chapter 16: But Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.” The Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’  Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for Me the one I indicate.”

People knew enough about Saul to know what he would do if he was crossed. Samuel is the Lord’s prophet and even he’s scared of what this king will do! So the Lord gives him a sneaky Pete way to go around Saul’s murderous ways, and sends Samuel off to Jesse. Meanwhile, Jesse has 7 sons and one of them is going to be king.

Verses 6&7.“When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord. But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

See, the Israelites already picked a king last time based on the way he looked — but God had someone else on his mind — David.  And even the prophet got it wrong!  God picked a shepherd boy, the least in his earthly father’s household. In the meanwhile the Lord has removed his hand from Saul and he is being tormented all the time. The king is a difficult man already, you don’t want to be around him when he is tormented!! Yet God sends David in. Draw your own conclusion on that point.

Verses 15-18:”Saul’s attendants said to him, “See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you.  Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play the lyre. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes on you, and you will feel better.” So Saul said to his attendants, “Find someone who plays well and bring him to me.” One of the servants answered, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the Lord is with him.”  Did you notice that even the servants knew what was going on? They were on the pointy end of that stick!

Verse 21-23: “David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul liked him very much, and David became one of his armour-bearers. Then Saul sent word to Jesse, saying, “Allow David to remain in my service, for I am pleased with him.” Whenever the spirit from God came on Saul, David would take up his lyre and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.”That’s because God liked David’s anointed worship!

Now, here’s the interesting part… the guy with the anointing and a good heart could soothe the guy everybody else picked. King Saul went nutso regularly. Everything that happened in the kingdom depended on Who or what was in charge of that man!! Hang on I’m nearly there …

We can learn so much about how the Lord thinks from reading this chapter. He allowed all that stuff to happen. David is snagged into the court every time Saul’s tormentor comes upon him. Later on we find that that demonic spirit tries to kill David over and over and over again! This goes on for 20 years, and God does not rescue David! He leaves the man there in that ugly spot, running away from a demonic force. And David has the anointing – so he can deal with it!  I bet that shook someone’s theology! “There’s a time for every purpose under heaven!” (It says that in Ecclesiastes 3) And in the meantime … Almighty God is growing a KING. He took that young man from a teenager, into being an adult under pressure! He took a shepherd boy who loved to worship and made him a WARRIOR.

Sometimes we try to pray ourselves OUT of the very situations God puts us in to shape our character. He doesn’t think like we do. All those years in between tending sheep and eventually becoming a king, are nothing to the Lord. He is growing integrity in that man!! We need to purpose in our hearts to remember that God’s ways are not our ways. There must have been many many times David doubted every single thing that had happened to him when Samuel anointed him – but he kept his integrity in tact and served God’s purposes well.

Almighty God does not think like we do, that’s why we need to follow the Holy Spirit. God is looking for Davids not Sauls He doesn’t believe in popularity contests – He’s looking for the people who will serve Him no matter what! Bye ⚔️ 👋🏻. 

P 2515 Exhortation and encouragement.

/ DVH

Hebrews 10:24-25 “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

In the above scripture Paul is talking about meeting together for the purpose of helping each other to move on, and grow, and expand our faith. And in 1 Corinthians 15:58: he is encouraging believers not to waiver in what they believe. In 1 Thessalonians 5:14: he exhorts the family of God to be active in helping others with weaker faith. In Ephesians 4:29: Paul also talks about being careful how we speak to one another to benefit each other. These are just a few of many ways that all the writers of the Epistles exhort the reader. And they are also an example of how to exhort others to continue on in faith toward our ultimate goal – to wholeheartedly love Jesus … and keep pressing on … 

The gift of encouragement is supernatural, it instills courage into someone else’s life. That encouragement can include things that need to be put aside because they are a hindrance — as well as telling others what they do that blesses people. This gift can give our leaders courage. Leaders face a great deal of discouragement – very few will talk about the ‘stuff’ that comes at them – sometimes almost hour by hour, daily. We can be a blessing to everyone we know in many ways – such as giving, helping, as well as using words. Prophecy is for the wider church, but encouragement is for individuals. One of the disciples had his name changed because he encouraged others so much. His name was Joseph but it was changed to Barnabas. That name Barnabas means ‘son of encouragement.’ 

Encouragement is a spiritual gift, just like mercy, helps or healing…this gift gets behind others when their spirits are flagging, and it lifts up their arms so they can praise Jesus freely again. It comes directly from the Holy Spirit andit is part of His Character! Two of the Holy Spirit’s 10 Names, are ‘comforter and strengthener.” When we operate in the gift of exhortation and encouragement, we are choosing to flow with Him, moving in His Grace and goodness to build up someone else’s hope and faith. This gift is about things that touch someone’s spirit and go right around their mind into their hearts. The person immediately becomes aware of the Holy Spirit working. He is SomeOne Who is outside our own understanding – BUT whatever HE SAYS rings true. It feels like home! Spirit-given words have eternal consequences as well as earthly ones. They can encourage others to take risks, and grow their faith.

I think the Body of Christ lacks a lot of encouragement and my advice is this — don’t just wait for the Holy Spirit to speak to you, regularly and faithfully go to Him and ask Him to give you words etc. and make you an encourager of others. This world is very negative toward anything that has absolutes, and Christianity is all about absolutes! I exhort us all to practise listening to the Lord, and then share whatever He gives us with others – gently, and with great humility. Let Him do the work. We don’t have to push or strain – He’s Almighty God. He knows which words will touch the downtrodden, needy, or even a flagging spirit in that other person.

“I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts.” Colossians 4:8. The ‘him’ in this scripture is a man Paul trusted. This unknown man, Tychicus, was someone Paul commissioned to carry his letter to encourage a church. If you look at Paul’s Epistles as letters, you will find they are full of encouragement and exhortation – as well as information about what is happening in his life. Including the things Paul is and has already learnt, about his own faith. We need to remember, we are reading this Apostle’s personal mail – Paul had no idea they would end up in the book we read every single day!  

I urge anyone reading this blog to read Romans 12. Clear precursors to beginning to operating in any of the gifts of the Spirit, lie in that Chapter. Meanwhile I present my body to Him as a living sacrifice every single day, because the bible says in verse 1 “this is your true and proper worship!” One of the best ways to grow, is to step out in faith and use our spiritual gift/s. If we are wrong, then …oh well … not perfected yet!! That’s the humility bit. If it blesses others then … Glory to God!! It is such a privilege to have the Holy Spirit flow through us. His life in us is like a pure river of gold flowing through our kitchen taps! Some of that gold always clings to the pipes and then we are blessed too, because His goodness clings to us.

The more we yield to Him, the more the desire to exhort and encourage others will grow! Whether they are Christians yet, or not! Bless you. 👋

P 2467 A walking, talking, breathing TEMPLE.

/ DVH

“This means that God is transforming each one of you into the Holy of Holies, His dwelling place, through the power of the Holy Spirit living in you!”Ephesians 2:22 TPT. That’s you… and I.. whether we feel like it or not, we are becoming His temple! Christianity has nothing to do with feelings, and absolutely everything to do with FAITH. So, where is your temple off to, today? Mine is sitting here praying for you, at the same time I am writing this blog. Today, whether you are rich or poor, safe or in danger – I know that the Lord will take care of you, His precious temple – “May He keep you sheltered and safe in His arms.” Amen. 

Here is something the Holy Spirit pointed out to me about the building of the first temple in the wilderness. Exodus chapters 25-38. The amount of detail the Lord God Almighty put into this temple is staggering. “God chose Bezalel of Judah to be the chief artisan. He was filled with the Spirit of God, a designer, engraver,  and carver of metals, stone and wood, with ability and intelligence,  knowledge and craftsmanship, skilful in embroidering and weaving, inspired to teach.” Well that’s a pretty cool resume!! This man, Bezalel, represents what the Spirit of the living God did inside your mum and mine when He made us. Look at this …

“For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful I know that full well.” Psalm 139:13-14  and Job 31:15: “Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?” Plus Ephesians 2:10: “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus…” Lastly: Genesis 1:27: “…wherein “God created man in His own image. . .” 

I don’t care where this world says you came from – we know you came from Him! You are a gift, a present, to this world and the people around you. A present that is hopefully stuffed to the top full of HIS love and acceptance, joy and hope! Before you freak out and remember your flat feet, or bad temper, or other odd family genetic traits … remember this … you aren’t done yet.  It says: ‘God IS transforming each one of us into His temple.’ Please note we have a part to play in cleansing ourselves, as we co-operate with the Holy Spirit’s loving help!

For those of us that use English as our primary language that’s called a present ongoing tense … in other words, you and I are in a process. A process is not the finished article. It is simply the means to get to the finished article. So let yourself off the hook, like I said, you are not done yet! However, at the same time we can’t let ourselves off the hook to the extent that we can just do whatever we like and live however we like! We need to continually remember our purpose is to be His temple – His walking, talking, breathing temple – a place where people can encounter the Living God! And that started the minute we were born again. 

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9. As God’s special possession, we have responsibilities. That is what this blog is all about, those responsibilities and the way you and I discern them and work on them with His help.

Many times in the past the church has tried to diminish the individuality of people who are part of His body and it seems that we are all supposed to think the same and believe the same theology. I think that is a mistake. I only have to put the two oppositional halves of my face together to see that even the left side of my face is not the same as the right side of it – very very few people have perfectly symmetrical faces! We are all incredibly unique. People in the same family, coming from the same parents are entirely different from each other, in personality and looks. Each human being, I firmly believe, brings a unique aspect of God’s glorious character and Presence as they are transformed into Christ’s likeness. 

Remember it’s His power working in us … not our effort … that power is activated by obedience to His word. And this transformation will benefit everyone else around us. As we renew our minds to think like He does, we facilitate what the Lord Himself is doing. Our obedience to what He says in the bible, and to us personally, ushers in a particular aspect of His kingdom visibly. We’ve been re-designed to be His temple or containers, of the Holy Spirit. He is so precious, He does not despise our weaknesses, or growing points. Instead, in love, He transforms each of us with a light loving caring touch.

And we don’t have to look like each other either – instead He wants us to look like Jesus and obey like Christ would if He were still visibly here! The Holy Spirit is transforming us into Father God’s walking, talking, breathing temple. He wants us to undergo this transformation so we can express a unique part of Father God’s Ways and His nature to others. 👋🏻

P 2448 I’m a fan of James.

/ DVH

“Every gift God freely gives us is good and perfect, streaming down from the Father of lights, who shines from the heavens with no hidden shadow or darkness and is never subject to change.” James 1:17 TPT. ” Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of lights [the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens], in whom there is no variation [no rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [for He is perfect and never changes].” James 1:17 AMP

I really like James. His subject is always related to Who God is, and what He expects from us. When you write a blog like the one I write every day, you should really only have one point each time. I sneak a couple of others in every now and then – but James jumps about like a grasshopper in a grass fire! This means that sometimes even the smallest part of each paragraph or chapter has an individual point worth meditating on. You simply can’t rush reading James! The deeper you dig, the more you will find.

He’s full of prayer points. He makes reading, simply for the sake of general reading, harder. James is a book to be studied, not just casually read. I find I have to stop and think and pray a lot! We need to savour what he says as we go along, then decide to take the time to chew on each of his points, because James has not made it easy for us. Instead we simply have to stop and pray and ask for help. Today I want to look at the above scripture. I put it in two different versions to help give it breadth. I often read the same thing in other versions when I read from the book of James!

As he carefully tells us, our God has given wonderful gifts to mankind — salvation is definitely the greatest one. However, wisdom is also a great gift. Further on in this book James tells us to ask for wisdom, and use our faith to receive it. Wisdom will not simply fall on us, we have to go after it. Every single thing Father God gives us is great. – no matter how it looks at the time. And these gifts are not meant just for you and I, they are meant to be shared with everyone else around us.  Someone once told me that the best gift from God, is the one you need at that moment! That sounds good to me.

At the same time the verse above contains revelation about Father God’s character. Who He is, how He relates to us. Our precious Father is not deceitful, or whimsical. He doesn’t change His mind according to His moods … because He doesn’t have them! Our Heavenly Father is not subject to moods like human beings are … His love is always ON! He doesn’t like us one minute, and not the next, simply because we did some awful or dumb thing or other. Jesus Christ took care of that.

When you read the Old Testament, God’s incredible patience, and endurance with man’s poisonous self-serving manoeuvring, plus controlling manipulative ways, becomes apparent. Mankind constantly questions the Lord’s purity of purpose all over the place in the Old Testament. That is still a huge danger for us today. We can end up negating our own faith by questioning His goodness and His loyalty to us. In this scripture, James highlights Father God’s goodness. It needs to be firmly established within our hearts, without question. However, we must continue to look for signs of His loving goodness, when we read – otherwise His goodness becomes an add-on to our own needs.

The Holy Spirit will help each one of us uncover how loving and kind He is. Just simply ask for eyes to see Him as you read it. Otherwise we can end up looking for something to benefit ME, help ME in my hour of trial, and miss the very best part. HIM. God is always the best portion. The more revelation we have about His Love and Character the more our faith will grow. I have personally discovered that the more I intentionally look for the best in other people, even when it seems elusive, I will see something good I haven’t seen before. Living like this changes my attitude towards others.

This scripture in James tells us that Almighty God never changes. That word never is powerful. Never means … not ever! So when our circumstances are not favourable or even incredibly difficult, GOD HAS NOT CHANGED TOWARD US.  Our circumstances must never dictate our faith. We need to practice relying upon His goodness and faithfulness to get us through life’s hard bits, and continually look for evidence of His involvement in our lives, despite our personal situations. Acknowledging that I don’t know everything, diminishes pride and it humbles me … all at the same time.

All of this may seem obvious, but under extreme pressure we can easily question “why?”  ‘Why has this thing happened, why are things so difficult?’In those times I believe that it is almost impossible for us as human beings, to understand the kind of love, wisdom, forbearance, faithfulness, and gentleness Father God gives us AS A GIFT. I love that James reminds us that if it is good, then it is God, and even when it looks bad, it can still be Him …working in ways we do not understand. We can count on that fact because God’s loving consistency is without question.  Bye. 👋🏻