Choose

P 3106 This will blow your mind.

/ DVH

“Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes.” Romans 12:2 TPT. As carefully as I can, bearing in mind I’m not a theologian, I want to give you my thoughts about this verse. I have taken note of any other verses like it – Joshua 24:14-15;  2 Corinthians 10:5;  Philippians 4:8;  Ephesians 4:23. 

’We have now chosen to live our lives passing on our Father’s beauty to others, together with His power flowing through our hearts, and minds as well as our lives. This means we daily choose to reject the ideals and opinions of our current society. Now we live by a different standard, the one illustrated by our Saviour. He also lived His life under extreme pressure to conform. But His death and resurrection bought us the freedom to choose.

Now, we value and act on those things He taught us and what was illustrated in His own life. Jesus Himself taught us that we could live in this world but not be influenced by it. Our desire is to learn a new way to think—scrubbed clean of self-centredness, self-protection, guilt, shame and blame. Using our faith, we recognise that we have been released by God’s power to be the most loving version of ourselves. Purely for His sake. Our daily responses to the Holy Spirit help us move forward. We need, and will always have, His help.’

There is no ambition in Romans 12:2, rather it simply explains the way to achieve the kind of ‘oneness’ with the Holy Spirit that Jesus Himself enjoyed. All the work has already been done. This kind of transformation will require our deepest trust in Jesus’ truthfulness. It goes way beyond agreeing with Him. Instead it falls happily headlong into our knowledge that He cannot or will not fail us. We have learnt that retraining the way we think, by meditating on His Word and daily living that Word in actions – ushers in heavenly thinking. Unfortunately, we will always end up half-hearted in our endeavours if we excuse our own wilfulness as being normal.  

This complete turn around cannot be attempted in our own strength, because humanity’s lack of altruism means we have to look outside ourselves, including our own inner and outer resources, or our valiant self-efforts—to SomeOne Who is pure Love, and totally devoted to our good. Jesus is our God-given, perfect, practical, and ONLY trustworthy example of our new way to live. His disciples reflected His Way to live until they died.

The Lord was motivated by love and guided by love, plus He utterly and totally cast Himself headlong into God’s love, grace and mercy;  these things guided and motivated Him. Because of the Lord’s example, following Him will take the deepest kind of faith – the kind that cannot be manufactured by human beings. To walk in this kind of faith, we must move beyond trusting Jesus to save us—into trusting Jesus to save us from ourselves, and our past, while we are still ALIVE. That’s called living faith.

If we trust Him to save us after we’ve left this world, we actually still have something to gain! He promises we will live forever, in eternity with Almighty God Himself – this is faith that needs to be developed. However, trusting the Lord Jesus to save us while we are alive in this world has no side benefit. We simply have His promise that He will help us!  It will involve sacrifice and it will cost us but the gain is always greater than the cost. Just like Jesus lived a life of sacrifice that cost Him everything while He was on earth. He did what He did for our sake.

Now, we choose to daily put aside our hopes of being understood (security and peace);  and our dreams of making a valid contribution to the world (ambition);  our desire for human love and approval, in favour of His will. We refuse to panic about whatever comes at us, because we know that our God is always in charge.

However, we are eligible for the blessing that Jesus explained to Thomas: “But he (Thomas) said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” A week later His disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed;  blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”John 20:25-29. Thomas had to see to believe – God has given us His grace to see by using our faith – and then faith opens the door to see further.

This verse shows me how much our God values our FAITH, He says believing without seeing is the better way. The very best place to start renewing our minds is to take our immediate needs: heartaches, suffering, fears, etc. and lay them down at the cross. These things are deadly to faith, and, sadly, if they are allowed to flourish, they will come back over and over again to torment and deceive us. The bible clearly tells us God will supply our needs, and we can ask Him for whatever we need – but then we leave those things with Him and go about our Master’s business. We must never stop asking. God is good He loves us dearly, and hears every prayer – His timing is not like ours.

Living like this, will literally blow, (and change!) … our minds. It produces a beauty in us that this world cannot manufacture. Bye, bless you! 🥰

P 3099 Make room – clear away the debris!

/ DVH

Today I want to look at a few verses in Isaiah. “Thunder in the desert! “Prepare for God’s arrival! Make the road straight and smooth, a highway fit for our God. Fill in the valleys, level off the hills, Smooth out the ruts, clear out the rocks. Then God’s bright glory will shine and everyone will see it. Yes. Just as God has said.” Isaiah 40:3-5. Does this sound like action to you? It does to me! I truly don’t think that prayer is the only activity required when you are working with Him to build a highway in your heart for Him to walk on. Part of our job description is to clear away any debris, as well as let the Holy Spirit guide us into making the roads in our lives clear for Him – we must personally choose to engage and …participate.

Hubby and I have had the opportunity to learn a little bit about highway repairs etc. It is a careful, clearing away of what has been left that does not belong there, then the old road itself can be removed, or repaired. Like the scripture says highways work better when they are obstacle free and smooth! My hubby loves these unexpected stops — he happily talks to the workers. We’ve even given away lemonade on hot days. It seems that road building is hot, boring, and repetitive but necessary work – like the work we need to do in our own lives so the King can use OUR LIVES as His highway! We are not demolition crews, we are restorers of the breach. We build streets for others to live in!

I think this world is standing, on tippy-toes at the very edge of something that is so important, so necessary to what comes next, we cannot imagine it. Almighty God is about to do something extraordinary … but I believe He is waiting for US to voluntarily engage with Him. He’s a good good Father, He won’t make us participate but He needs us to be battle-ready. Sadly, it seems to me that many of us look more like couch-potatoes, while others are so engaged with their own business, they haven’t got any time for His. The Lord has His own timing, and it is an error to think OUR timing takes priority over His. However, if we happen to be spiritually sleeping it is so much easier for the enemy to take us out. We need to be ever-ready, standing with our armour on, ready to ‘GO’ when He says ‘GO!’ 

How can we personally participate in what comes next, if we rely on other people to hear Him and wait for them to tell us what to do? All our enemy has to do then, is to take the leaders out. We must engage in the road building process — individually and corporately. It is time for the Body of Christ to realise we are not on some jolly little outing Sunday by Sunday — we live in a spiritual war zone. War zones need road repairs, so help can get to those who need it. At this point in time other people are being killed off all over the place, while we merrily just go about our own personal daily business. My bible says — HIS business IS my business.

Bear with me please, I am not actually changing the subject  – I simply want to further illustrate my point. Our dog is a labradoodle. She’s a totally loveable, good-natured, over-excitable, 13 year old air-head who wouldn’t bite a soul. She still thinks she’s a puppy! She doesn’t walk, she bounces. If you wave her favourite toy about she will jump up and down to play. Her tail constantly goes like a helicopter blade.

Our pooch just burst into the room where I am typing and she was doing her usual morning routine … with the brain … without the brain. Galloping about trying to jump up and down to get hubby’s attention. Hubby quietly put his hand on her head and then he said one word: “Heel!” She jumped up in the air nearly did a somersault, switched sides and sat down looking up at him. What happened? HER MASTER SPOKE. 

Right now, I am not sure the Body of Christ could hear the Lord if He thundered at us – we are so distracted by the cares and worries of this life. If we wait for all those things to disappear first, then the next sound we will hear will be a trumpet from heaven! I know what it is like to be incapacitated, and weak – however, I’d rather focus on what Jesus wants from me, today. It’s about our focus, not the tasks. We can still get ordinary things done and get to know and trust Him … all at the same time. We simply need to make everything Jesus’ business! He wants to build highways through the desert and wildernesses in us, and around us.

Don’t worry about qualifying, the Lord doesn’t need expertise, He has heavenly armies that stand ready at any given moment. Instead He needs our willingness to engage. We all need to choose to be activated. If Jesus needed human expertise I could name heaps of people who qualify for that kind of work because they are smarter than me. Nowadays practically everyone I know is smarter than me! We must turn to the Lord automatically, like my pooch. Let.Him.Lead.You.

Father God will always have our back. And even if we have to do a somersault in mid-air to come down on the Lord’s side – we both know that is the right place! With our eyes lifted UP waiting for His next command. Let us choose to obey Him, and let the Holy Spirit build a highway for the King in our hearts. He will clear away any debris. Once before, long ago, there was no room for Jesus – He ended up in an outdoor building. Let’s not do that again! Bye.👋

P 3090 Trust.

/ DVH

“May the Lord answer you when you are in distress;  may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May He send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. May He remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings. May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. May we shout for joy over your victory and lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests. Now this I know: The Lord gives victory to His anointed. He answers him from His heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of His right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” Psalm 20:1-7. “Before you do anything, put your trust totally in God and not in yourself. Then every plan you make will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3 TPT

Most of people barely trust each other nowadays, so I often wonder how Christians are doing with regard to trusting in the Lord? The bible tells us to trust in Him with all our heart and forget about what we think we know. I’ve commended David many times on this blog, he sets a wonderful example of someone who knew how to trust God. This man remembered what God had done for him in the past and it gave him momentum to push forward into the next challenge.

So where does that leave us today — when we want to learn how to trust in the Lord, but our society oozes mistrust and bitterness? Every single day we will simply have to choose to use our faith! Our only option is to follow Him, and believe His Word, over the rubbish our eyes and ears take in. We can be influenced for good by God’s Good News, or we can soak in the filth and stench of sin that saturates this world. In my opinion, our enemy has infiltrated our thinking so deeply, sometimes our first thought is not: “What would Jesus want me to do in this situation?” It’s often: “How does this affect me?”

Let’s make the Lord our first priority, because that’s a fixed mindset not an optional extra! I think the lack of faith we end up exhibiting daily has affected the temperature of the world around us. I am not trying to be negative here, I have had to face my own fears, and I didn’t do so well every single time. But I try to remember this: we learn to trust the Lord in the trenches and the ditches and dirt of this life – when we know full well if we poke our head up, some clown is going to shoot at us or we can wind up in jail for some misplaced remark! Trusting the Lord does not always mean we are in a peachy-keen rainbow situation, with milk and honey constantly flowing down the mountain …the Israelites are proof of that!

It’s called having the courage of our convictions. Sadly, for those amongst us that do try to stand up and speak out, a great deal of negative comments can sometimes come from… wait for it … other Christians. We are quite good at shooting our own wounded! I have known great men and women of God that have been constantly smashed against the side of someone else’s convictions, and left battered and bleeding because of it. I know this might shatter somebody else’s theology, but Almighty God is capable of contrasting opinions! WE are the limited ones – we need clarification, not competition. 

Trusting God with internal opposition going on can seem almost impossible – He promises to help us! But if His people have no grace at all, even for their brothers and sisters, then it seems highly improbable that the world is going to do all that well either. However, with God ALL things are possible. That’s in the book! We must not forget the power of the Holy Spirit to help, guide, lead, comfort, and transform our ways of thinking, doing and being – daily!  Sometimes we can be so busy being reformers, we forget we are merely grace carriers. Just because we don’t always understand what others are saying, that doesn’t make them wrong. As a matter of fact, that kind of attitude can make us look intolerant, and that is not a good look!

Over the years, I’ve learnt that I can’t trust myself under pressure, I will probably try to look after myself. I’ll make excuses for me, and blame you. Without His GRACE we are sunk. Thank God an incredible endless amount of His grace was released at Calvary — now nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. That means the only thing that can pull us this way and that, is our perception of the truth of His Word. However, at the same time, we dare not forget Jesus Himself is called – the Living Word! That’s how important it is to take note of the way Jesus lived.

God’s Grace is always available, when we let go of our opinions and bad attitudes and step into the place Jesus bought for us. “Before you do anything, put your trust totally in God and not in yourself. Then every plan you make will succeed.”  He is not with us so we can ‘win’ some ridiculous theological point! We all have a part of the many-sided wisdom of God available to us. However, He is with us, because HE IS GOOD not because we are smarter than someone else. Daily we have to make a quality decision. Do we want to be right, or walk with Him?

Walking with Him means we can change our minds – press the refresh button! That’s part of walking and learning to trust and walking by faith means trusting Him. We trust Him every single day, to get us out of whatever fool thing we just fell into. And at the same time, we choose to hold fast to the fact that He will bless everyone else as well! He’s God He can do anything. Bye👋

P 3085 Dust? … Anyone?

/ DVH

“The first one, (Adam) made from dust, has a race of people just like him, who are also made from dust. The One sent from heaven has a race of heavenly people who are just like Him. Once we carried the likeness of the man of dust, but now let us carry the likeness of the Man of heaven.” 1 Corinthians 15:48-49 TPT. (Just keep reading I do have a point!)

I have had dust on the brain recently, what with spring cleaning, and finding cobwebs in my own life in unexpected places. Then hubby found this verse in his daily readings and we both had a good laugh. Laughter really is good for all of us, especially if we can laugh at ourselves. So we hit a joy bubble together and laughed way out beyond the reality of whatever was supposedly funny and … felt much better.

Apparently people much smarter than I am, suggest that if you are struggling with depression or anxiety, watching a marathon of movies that you know can make you laugh can help. They suggested the Three Stooges – which made me doubt the accuracy of their prescription … mainly because I don’t find the Three Stooges even remotely funny. I’m not into physical gags. I find people having pianos dropped on their heads hard to watch!

Back to today’s verse, because inheriting and sorting out other people’s old things has been part of my day for weary weeks now. My take on what these verses are saying goes like this: If you want Adam for an ancestor more dust awaits you. Ya might want to think about that! You could definitely need one of those dust-buster gizmos they sell for $59.99 on TV. On a good TV advertising day you can get two for the price of one. My question is — why not sell ONE for thirty bucks and be done with it? ps maybe you need two because the one you start with will kark it and then, the other one will come in handy? Or you can always give the extra one to your mother-in-law. I’m allowed to tell M-I-L jokes – I ARE one. Splendid! Now there’s Christmas sorted. I am so-oo-oo helpful!

Did you read the next line in that scripture? I underlined it so it would stand out! “The One sent from heaven has a race of heavenly people who are just like Him.”  I underlined that bit because it serves my point. I know HEAPS of people who aren’t like Him and sadly, they dusty-up the church in this world all over the place. At the same time they also obscure other people’s view of what Jesus actually looks like! I’ve been in a dust storm – you can’t see a thing! Dust, BTW, in the Lord’s hands can be useful stuff – Jesus once wrote in it and saved a woman’s life. 

Meanwhile our churches need some of those dust-busters because we’ve forgotten where we came from — we are dust-free simply because of what HE did. Before we met Jesus we used to be Pig-pen … see picture above. But now we have been bought back from that dirty dusty scenario to live in the freedom and light that surrounds our Saviour, Jesus. Our job is to carry around His likeness wherever we go. No more cloudy nasty dust for us – it only makes people allergic to us! But that kind of cleanliness and clarity won’t fall on us – we will have to choose it. 

I have included this next testimony purely because it was not me that suffered through it. My hubby was on the phone for an hour and a half yesterday to Centrelink  – listening to truly awful music … who picks that stuff and where do they live? I want to disconnect their CD player right away – I may even jump on it! … An-y-wa-y he rang Centrelink to tell them that they had paid my mother her pension, and as she is no longer with us, he wanted to ask them, how could we give back those extra $$s? 

When hubby finally did get to speak to someone – hours later! The guy at the other end of the phone was gobsmacked by our honesty. Apparently nobody wants to give money back anymore, they usually have to chase after a person if the extra cash wasn’t theirs in the first place.. No wonder the government has no spare money for poor people to buy bread and milk! And now comes the kingdom of God angle…

… this young man then explained the money was actually legally ours. Colour me astonished! I can’t be bothered here explaining why here, because it isn’t worth the space, but no bill collectors will be knock knock knocking on our door. Praise the Lord!

I wanted to use this illustration to show the difference between dusty people and heavenly people — it’s the way they live and act. Dusty people attract dirt, cobwebs, spiders, and other nasty creepy critters… BUT … the people who choose to live in His light, attract other people who are out there looking for the light! Let’s go! Let’s live this life we have been given, carrying the light of heaven wherever we go. 

How do we do that? Easy peasy. Live in His love. I am not good at it, yet …I freely admit that. But when I get done and dusted, (teehee) I get up again – that’s the secret! We will all get it wrong … and then we repent, and repair relationships, and deliberately go back to our precious Saviour and let Him further transform our lives with His redemptive love. We will end up thanking Him all over again for saving us from the never-ending dust piles of this life…as we choose to carry the light of His love and forgiveness out into this world. Bye. 👋

P 3069 Our true purpose.

/ DVH

The more we live our lives focussed on our God-given purpose, the stronger that purpose becomes. Jesus Christ’s purpose is now our purpose. We inherited His calling. So now we are here to destroy the works of the evil one, and present God’s goodness to a world that already has a very bad definition of goodness!! However, if what we believe is an extra, or an add-on, then we will have very little grace to give away to others. Meanwhile whether the other people deserve what I am giving them or not, is Jesus’ territory not mine!

In really difficult circumstances, each one of us can experience a bankruptcy of faith, and end up doing the opposite of what we know to be true. Simply because the external and internal pressure can appear to get bigger than our knowledge of His Grace toward us. So we need to access His Love and Grace daily, because the bank of suck-it-up-buttercup, will fail! Sadly, when I try to deal with stuff in my own strength, that is often when I end up giving someone else an unwanted piece of my mind. Nastiness is such a waste of time, however, knowing our true purpose helps us to hone our spiritual attributes and instincts.

The Lord Jesus wants us to go to Him when we need His Grace, His Love, His Faith, because He has more than we will ever need! At the same time He also longs to lavish His love on us daily. Plus He wants us to grow up into His likeness – that’s our true purpose.

His help also includes whatever we need when we are dealing with other people. Other people can stretch our faith mercilessly, and when our faith is being stretched, it becomes harder to access His Grace and Love. That’s the growing edge. It helps me to remember that no matter what else is going on, Jesus’ love was always “on” so His Grace is essential in everything we do.

Grace helps me realise God doesn’t take sides – He is for all of us. I have no idea how He does that! Instead I go with the thought that He’s God, and so He can do the impossible! Sadly I often need a whole lot of roadwork to get there. However, He is so gracious, He will answer my prayer for help – even if it is half-hearted!

I don’t know what circumstances will present themselves today, unexpectedly… or when I will need His Grace to disarm fear, rejection, resentment etc. in myself. or from someone else. Grace is a great equaliser. However I don’t distribute His Grace like a powerful person would bestow a favour – instead, grace becomes a part of who I am, and giving it away is normal. I have learnt from experience, that if I tell Him I need it, He will always give it to me. I just need to  to ask Him! If I can control ME, by staying in the Grace of God, then I don’t need to control YOU!

My Faith in Who He is, and what He did for us all, is  an important foundation to anything that happens. My faith won’t be built up if I am not using it – because it needs to be stretched, and exercised – bit by bit. Meanwhile, five cents worth of faith probably won’t be all that useful when the sky is falling! I like to start my days by acknowledging that I need Him. He says He will supply everything I need, so that means I go right past my own efforts to look good, or feel justified, and focus on HIS CHARACTER instead.

That’s the only sure thing in the middle of chaos. Who He is. My own needs or irritations can easily cloud any issues, but fortunately, His Character is unchanging! If I choose to only use my faith like I am just renting it, or borrowing it – I will quite quickly find out I’ve sprung a leak! I must take ownership of my own faith! Faith is not faith when it is not owned, or used – instead it is more like wishful thinking. Faith needs to be visible and demonstrated. That demonstration pulls faith from the realm of the unknown, into this known world.

Our loving actions toward others can display our faith better than our words ever could. This also means I will choose to not put my focus on spiritual gifts, but rather I choose to focus on building Grace, Love, and Faith into my life as He leads me. Those other things will get ‘added unto me’ when I choose to concentrate on living a life of love, not self-centred defensiveness and anger. 

The need to change often appears in the form of a difficult problem, a destructive person, an impossible situation, or when things suddenly seem to be going upside down. Finding the Lord’s eternal attributes in those moments means I must deliberately decide to yield to Him. What I mean by that is this — I give up! I stop trying to find a solution, or an exit, or an excuse for my cranky attitude, and instead I wait for Him to lead me through the drama in front of me. Instant solutions are over-rated, sometimes all we learn from them is self-justification and presumption.   

Love is the kingdom we deliberately choose to live in. Grace is Jesus’ coin of that realm, and using our Faith to get those things, is the way to access whatever we need to fulfil His purpose in our lives. Bye. 👋

“Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We are going public with this, as public as a city on a hill…” Matthew 5:14-16.

P 3032 Live this life mindfully.

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

P 3002 Win, win.

/ DVH

There is one kind of work that we cannot avoid. It’s the work we need to do with ourselves, our responses to difficulties. We do not have to do this work alone, we have the Holy Spirit’s guidance and help. Unfortunately, the more we postpone surrendering our faults and foibles to the Lord, the more ingrained they will tend to become in our old nature. So we need to recognise those behaviours, and throw off the old way of thinking, and put on His new way of thinking instead. We must learn to put the deeds of our flesh to death – God won’t do that for us. He already provided a permanent solution!

“For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever.” Romans 8:13.

When we realise that there is something, some attitude that does not fit in with the bible, and we need to change,  we need His help — that’s the best moment of true honest response. There are times we hope that the Lord hasn’t noticed those things, or hope they won’t matter, and so we continually choose to live with whatever it is. Hmmm… good luck with that idea!  The reason I know this is because I have tried to excuse some stuff and failed! If God brings it up, and we see it, that means it is the right time to deal with it.

We are often challenged because familiarity has a great appeal … especially if our attitude is just a bit off. But eventually, if we choose to keep after Jesus, even that useless lie wears off … and then those little things we have hidden away, start to leap out and niggle at us. Then someone says something that seems so pointed we feel like everybody else knows about our dumb attitude and that they are staring at it! Hopefully, that is the time we go on a little quest to find out what the Lord has got to say about these things. 

First of all we need to pray and acknowledge our sin — a lack of patience, long suffering, self-control etc. Then we go to His Word, and voluntarily start reading what He says, looking for answers. We are about to use our faith. Many times I have specifically researched about a subject that I’m concerned about in my own life, just to see what Jesus has to say about it. But there are other times I continue to read wherever I’ve been reading day by day, and I have faith that I’m going to find the answer that I need, as I simply keep on reading! These are the times when what I need will just jump off the page and almost bite me. 

But at other times the Lord says to me: “Did you see that?” And I’m like .. “see what?” and He says: “Read it again.” And I’m like…”huh?” (I told you I’m dumb!) And He says:“You missed it, go back and read it again.” And then, most of the time I understand why He stopped me and told me to reread what I was reading! I get so excited I’d probably bail up the postman and tell him what the Lord just revealed to me.  I think people often can’t receive revelation, because they don’t persevere. Actually, sometimes things happen at the very moment you want to give up and ignore the whole thing.

The next step is obviously repentance, then finally, transformation. Transformation comes when I recognise where I am wrong or sinful and I ask Him to help me. I say things like: “You might have to put a big sign on this new thing you have shown me Lord, because I’m bound to forget, or get distracted, or miss it.”  Most of the time I’ve discovered that what I find can be something that’s been there for ages and I think that kind of behaviour is just ME. It’s often something I do to make other people ‘back off” when I feel threatened.

However, when the Lord puts His finger on something, there is enormous wisdom to be had, if you don’t excuse it or just pass it off as a one-time mistake. Instead pray over it and ask Him to show you how you can apply that scripture into your everyday life. The only other thing I can tell you about that, this is the place that often requires humility. And it can also require loads of personal honesty.

I need to be prepared to put aside my idea of my personality quirks, in favour of who the Bible says I am, and that can create a conflict. It is a very difficult thing to confront yourself and realise that you have been indulging something inside you that God would describe as ‘not good.’ Nobody grows through concept and principle, we grow through humility and application.“How does this apply to me?”

The only other thing I want to mention that may be relevant — is this — in order to change the habits of a lifetime I may have to confront whatever behaviour He has indicated, a number of times, and take the same stand each time. I have become increasingly aware that the most wonderful thing about change, is that Holy Spirit is always with us, helping us, and so we end up with a testimony! Suddenly a new world opens up in front of us, many times on the back of that very transformation, because the Lord has very generously given us fresh revelation. 

If any verse of scripture leaves you questioning whether you need to do something about it  or not, my advice is to err on the side of caution and pray over it anyway. When sin is dealt with there is no shame, except the kind of shame that bumps into our pride. Win, win. 👋 Bye.

P 2994 Love = great grow food!

/ DVH

“I continue to pray for your love to grow and increase beyond measure, bringing you into the rich revelation of spiritual insight in all things. This will enable you to choose the most excellent way of all —becoming pure and without offense until the unveiling of Christ.”Philippians 1:9-10 TPT.

Choosing to love the unlovely, ushers in growth.However, this will not be a happy little ‘walk in the park’ — it will cost us to learn to love the people who have hurt us, ignored us, and despitefully used us. Especially those people who did it on purpose! That’s the dying to self bit. In the flesh I may want to tell the whole world about the mean things that person did to me. I also want to vindicate myself, as well as give myself valid reasons to live this life as an emotional cripple! That’s called a side benefit BTW.  If I blame ‘you,’ or ‘them,’ then I have no responsibility to change. I can point to other people and say it is their fault I am like this. My sins, errors and missteps become sad, a result of someone else’s unkindness, not my own choices.

Adulthood will not fall on us. Hopefully sooner rather than later, we must choose to grow up and face this life from a mature point of view. Maturity is not about voting, or being able to drink alcohol, or get married. True maturity is taking responsibility for my own actions and responses to whatever has happened to me. Otherwise I am still allowing the person who hurt me to control my life. My own personal choices can take me out of that place of weakness, and place me firmly into God’s place of strength. 

This is why Paul is praying for the Thessalonians to “grow and increase beyond measure.”  Greater offences need even greater measures of love. Instead of sloughing off my responses in my situation onto whoever hurt me … now I stand up, make a choice and let Him take control of my destiny. Because now my aim is no longer just to survive—now I want to learn how to thrive within His unconditional, eternal love.

Living in love, which is the way the Jesus Himself lived, expands my capacity to take more and more of His life, and His ways, IN. If I want to be an overcomer, I must first of all learn to overcome the unnecessary things that tie my life into this world with cords of distrust, anger, bitterness and hatred. Choosing not to excuse my behaviour goes a long way toward changing it. We all know 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 well, but here’s a very different reverse, self-centred view of what Paul said: … 

“Love is not patient because you need to love me! I’m broken, and you can’t expect me to fix my own broken places. My love doesn’t have to be kind because I need people to be kind to me, and my needs are more important than yours. My kind of love is jealous, because I can’t stand for you to get more of anything than I do. At the same time, I’m needier than you! My love totally needs to boast because it makes me feel important and I need to be important, because I have good things inside me that will amaze you, if you would only co-operate with me and treat me kindly. 

Why shouldn’t I talk about you? You don’t appreciate me! When I am seen and appreciated I will be a much better person. Of course I get angry with you, you are constantly showing up my bad side, and I hate you for it. I have lists and lists of things you have done to hurt me. I need to keep those lists! They are my protection against letting you get near me in case you hurt me again. I love it when someone else is mean to you the way you have been mean to me – maybe it will teach you a lesson! 

The truth is what I think and say it is. Because I’ve been hurt, now I have lots of insight into other people’s faults. Why should I protect someone else? I don’t trust other people, they are just out for themselves. My kind of love doesn’t dare hope, it is always scared disappointment is heading my way – again. And my kind of love is too tired to persevere with anything or anyone. Nobody does that for me, why should I do that for them?”

Let’s all pray that this person never ends up in charge of anything!! … Sh-a-ll we? Amen! You know what was really scary, I wrote the above perverted version of 1 Corinthians 13 … so easily. Yikes! None of us can afford to go down that road, we’ll fall into a ditch. Here’s a huge tip to help us on our way — stop waiting for other people to love you and start actively loving them.

Real Love, the God-kind of love, helps us choose His very best way through all kinds of situations. It gives us insight into our own faults and the things that will make us stumble and fall. We simply have to ask ourselves regularly, “Is this love?” And if it is not, then we repent, go back and fix it. That’s not hard to remember! God has a way for things to be done. As we live in His love and give it away to others, we will find we know what He wants us to do. And when we are challenged by love, remember, the result of that challenge is growth. Bye 👋

P 2993 Holy Spirit breathing – in and out.

/ DVH

“For athletic training only benefits you for a short season, but righteousness brings lasting benefit in everything; for righteousness contains the promise of life, for time and eternity.”1 Timothy 4:8 TPT.

One of the things that I love about this verse is anyone can do it.  You don’t have to be physically fit or train for 5 hours a day. Being trained by righteousness simply takes faith and dedication. The only thing that will stop any of us from living this way, are the choices we make. However, if we continually make the wrong choices it is like sticking our fingers in our ears and ignoring what the Lord is saying to us.

This option for spiritual fitness is available to all of us, because of what Jesus did for us. Ignoring the Holy Spirit is dangerous – so we need to train ourselves to listen to Him. When I don’t want to do whatever He asks me to do, I ask for His help to do it, then I do it anyway, using my faith. My job is to let God live in me and through me, just like Jesus did and the Lord Jesus gave us His own ability to do whatever God wants from us.

Romans 5:15-17: “Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing sin. If one man’s sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation from God, just think what God’s gift poured through one man, Jesus Christ, will do! There’s no comparison between that death-dealing sin and this generous, life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that followed was this wonderful life sentence. If death got the upper hand through one man’s wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, absolute life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides?” 

We need to grab hold of what the Lord has already given us with both hands and not let go, using our faith. Instead of believing we are ‘not good’ at spiritual things, and keeping a record of our failures – or the disappointments we’ve experienced when we’ve prayed and the answer we wanted did not come. To increase our faith we meditate on Who He is, what He gave us, plus things we’ve seen Him do through us and in us. This is how we train ourselves to walk in faith with Him – we take note to encourage our hearts.

We all know Jesus succeeded in what He set out to do, so that’s where we look – not at our failures… but at His victory! He was perfectly righteous with God and His death and resurrection gave us the power and right to:“act in accord with God’s divine law.”  So any sin is to be owned, repented from and walked away from. The very word repent means ‘turn around and walk in the other direction.’ Our aim is to maintain God Himself living within us – just like Jesus did. Then, by actively choosing to live in His Grace – His way of acting and thinking – our response to this world will be unconditional LOVE.

Training yourself to live in a Godly fashion takes dedication to living aware of Him. However, our continuing response to God’s faithfulness can also deliver us from all kinds of evil. Dying to self, and living for Him means we choose to value Him above everything else. We lean on what He has given us. Jesus died and gave us His ability to live differently, we enter into that gift by using our faith. Just like we expect the bank to have our money when we make a withdrawal, we make faith withdrawals by ignoring our feelings and inclinations and obeying Him instead. We will encourage huge spiritual deposits into our lives by spending time with Him.  

Athletes train for years, to achieve goals, they employ self-discipline, plus a singular focus to achieve what they want. We also need to have just one focus, pleasing Him! If we live our ordinary everyday lives putting to death those things that will only give us temporary relief or pleasure, in favour of making Him Lord, then our joy increases. The more we want what He wants, the more He will give us opportunities to use our faith, and choose His Ways over our own. It seems impossible simply because we are so used to indulging our flesh. 

The Lord loves the secret place. He does not want us to see time spent with Him as a duty, rather it is a privilege and provision that Jesus willingly paid for, to give us an incredible kind of togetherness. An athlete rehearses their skill to improve it, but instead, we practice looking to Him daily to be our ever-present help — all day every day. This hones our focus, our total faith-driven reliance upon Him to be there and help us. 

Knowing what the Lord likes and wants, occurs as we read the book, then we do what it says, and use our faith to obey what we’ve read. As time passes we begin to carry His secret place within us, everywhere we go.  It’s like breathing: valuing Him and spending time with Him is IN… and going out and sharing what He gives us is breathing OUT. Athletes need good breathing as well as fitness … so do Christians! We also need active faith. As we learn to hear His voice and do whatever He asks us to do, we will learn Holy Spirit breathing. Bye 👋

P 2986 Nothing can stop us.

/ DVH

The Lord made a way to love every single one of us:  nice or not nice, loveable or evil, ignorant or wise, and His love is not wishy washy mush. It is triumphant in its power! God’s love goes beyond our comprehension. Love is not what I say or agree with, it is the way I choose to live. It is not a tap, that can be turned on or off, it is a flow of His love through me to you. I’m the conduit not the producer.

Having only known human, limited love as a child, the idea of perfect love can seem glorious, but elusive. So when I hear someone express doubt about God’s love for them or someone else, I begin to understand from my own personal experience, how they got there. They saw love as a feeling, as comfort when they needed it, as provision when they lacked something. So for these people, no good feelings, or experiencing bad feelings = no love. Love is what Paul is talking about in Romans 8:38-39 TPT.

“So now I live with the confidence that there is nothing in the universe with the power to separate us from God’s love. I’m convinced that His love will triumph over death, life’s troubles, fallen angels, or dark rulers in the heavens. There is nothing in our present or future circumstances that can weaken His love. There is no power above us or beneath us—no power that could ever be found in the universe that can distance us from God’s passionate love, which is lavished upon us through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One!”

Paul had total confidence in the Love of God toward him. He went through all kinds of terrible trials and testings, but His assurance of God’s never-ending love did not change — despite the circumstances in his life. I have to remind myself all through the day that love is a choice I need to make over and over again and I cannot get there alone. I desperately need the Holy Spirit’s help and guidance. It is way beyond a human being’s comprehension to understand the magnitude of God’s love toward each one of us because most of us have been raised to believe that love is conditional. 

Jesus came here, on purpose to make that kind of love available to you and I, and the Holy Spirit was sent back to us, after He left to pour and spread God’s love all over us, around us and in us. The baptism in the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts, is not just a baptism of fire —even though the disciples saw fire;  love IS fire, it burns away anything that does not let it in or out. Perfect love came and expelled all their fear. Love ignites a passion in the recipient that lasts a lifetime.

Pentecost was a fiery baptism of LOVE. His love burnt away every trace of fear in them. Those men and women left the place where they been had hidden away in fear from their fellow citizens, and they burst out into the public market place proclaiming Christ and all He had done. God’s love for the people pushed them out of their hiding place. It compelled them.

“For the love of Christ controls and compels us, because we have concluded this, that One died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that all those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised for their sake. So from now on we regard no one from a human point of view [according to worldly standards and values].”2 Corinthians 5:14-16a.

As we begin to discern how much we are loved by Him, we will automatically overflow with His love toward the people all around us who have not earned it, nor do they deserve it. The well of His love inside us bubbles up and overflows, but we have a part to play in this kind of outward looking love. It begins with obedience to our Saviour’s Words, and culminates daily in sacrificial ACTIONS toward other people. Things that can be seen and experienced by others. That kind of Love cannot be stopped, because its focus is on the One it loves, not on the effort that needs to be made to love other people.  

This kind of transformation will only be seen through us when we decide to make love a CHOICE and take deliberate action. From my own point of view, when I decided to make love a choice, I finally found out just how unloving I was!  Most human beings live this life in a series of trade-offs …I’ll be nice to you if you will be nice to me. then one day, all that ‘nice’ begins to wear off and we start keeping score of the bad things people do to us. We forget that every human being that has lived, or is living now, or ever will live — is dearly loved by God Himself. When we choose to misuse love or withhold it – we are fighting against the very nature of God.

His love simply will not wear out – it is holding the entire universe together. Read Colossians 3:14. Right now His love bonds this universe together. It is the perfect glue. And when we read 1 Corinthians 13 we discover its unique characteristics, it is not materialistic or self-serving. Jesus is God’s perfect love personified and personalised. He didn’t only come here as an expression of God’s love. He came to earth to demonstrate to each one of us the extent God was willing to go to, so we can be His children. Nothing can stop us from living a life filled with love, but our ill-informed belief system. Bye 👋.