Christianity

P 3153 Hope is a process.

/ DVH

Romans 5:3-5: “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, HOPE. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, Who has been given to us.” Learning to walk in HIS hope is a process which is girded and birthed by character, perseverance, and suffering. I want to break it down further today so we can all begin to understand a little bit about the process. 

First of all, here comes everyone’s fav subject …Suffering: ‘the state of undergoing pain, distress, or hardship‘. This stuff happens to everyone. For most of us the trial begins when we are still tiny, while we are being born. Giving birth is no fun for the mother, but it certainly isn’t too much fun for the infant either! Just imagine, if you will, what it would be like if your nice comfy house starts to shrink, and the goal of that shrinkage is to squ-ee-ze you out! Just like toothpaste out of a toothpaste tube. Eventually, you arrive at the exit only to find you barely fit through it, head first. No fun there!

Actually, suffering is not a fun word – at all. It brings up images we want to quickly forget. People daily suffer in many ways – mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. But right now, I want to be clear …this is also the God-kissed place where our journey into hope begins! Jesus started there! If you are suffering at this very moment, I want you to know that I am deeply sorry terrible things are happening to you. But please, do your best to remember you are on a personal journey into HOPE. Suffering is part of a process, it is not the end result of your journey. 

It is important that we understand that we are going to need character development to get through this process, otherwise we will soon get to disappointment and despair! Just like our mythical infant, that exit seems to get smaller. Good time to stop and remind ourselves that the Lord knows what we can, or can’t do. It’s a trust issue. It has taken me a while to learn that you can suffer and still live a joyful life!

This next step is part of moving on through this process — it’s a time of squeezing called perseverance. We get perseverance when we believe God is good, no matter what is going on around us and IN us and we choose to keep right on going with Him. Whether things change immediately or not. Perseverance means:  persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.

Let’s look at prayer as an example …“Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” Luke 18:1. Why must we persist? Because God is not a vending machine, that’s why. Our interaction with Him IS part of this process. We need His help, to cope with birthing His hope into our lives. That whole process changes us. It means we choose to stop to pray, and we will learn humility as we do it. Bonus buy. Perhaps you are starting to catch on to the fact that this particular assembly line includes some pretty harsh realities. YES. But having Jesus’ hope IN us will not disappoint us!

The word character means — the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. After we’ve decided to follow Jesus, we will learn to pray that our character will become like His character.  Perseverance produces character, which is the ability to “hold please,” in the middle of chaos. Cultivating hope in God’s goodness leads us into taking bigger faith steps.

This life is not meant be easy, and by now we have caught on that we are going somewhere, and that somewhere is going to be so much better than the place we started — or even the place we are squished into right now. We will begin to understand that HOPE is worth having! The light at the end of the tunnel is no longer an oncoming train, instead it is the end of a production line that brings us closer to Jesus and our God-chosen purpose in this life. 

“During the days of Jesus’ earthly life, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him…” Hebrews 5:7-9. Did you get that? I bet you missed it! Jesus was heard by His heavenly Father – but the answer was NO! This is an important factor in our journey toward hope, when we learn that we don’t know the BEST answer, we only want the immediate one. 

God has a different end-game from what is! His end-game benefits everyone, not just ME. Christ’s life and death shows us God’s ways clearly, and we need to remember that the cross seemed to make no earthly sense, it only made sense on the other side of it. To the disciples the cross was the end of the world but in God’s way, it was the beginning of a glorious new way to live.  Our plans are not even remotely like His plans, because our ways of thinking, doing and being, are not yet His ways. However, the point is — this journey into hope helps us to cultivate His ways. In God’s plan —suffering leads us into HOPE. In our world, suffering leads to despair. 

We cannot arrive at hope when we only have an earthly investment – gaining hope is a transformational process. Today, we are being birthed, by the Holy Spirit, into a whole other reality … Heaven’s reality. It can be painful sometimes, but this pain has a purpose–our transformation! Because we know JESUS we can always get to HOPE, and it will not disappoint us — because JESUS IS our hope! Bye. 👋

P 3152 God cares deeply about the nations.

/ DVH

“Listen to Me, My people, listen to what I say: I give My teaching to the nations; My laws will bring them light. I will come quickly and save them; the time of My victory is near. I myself will rule over the nations. Distant lands wait for Me to come: they wait with hope for Me to save them… .…“Listen to Me, you that know what is right, Who have My teaching fixed in your hearts. Do not be afraid when people taunt and insult you; they will vanish like moth-eaten clothing! But the deliverance I bring will last forever; My victory will endure for all time.” Isaiah 51:4-5, 7-8.

This is His promise to everyone, no matter where they live in this world. The ‘nations’ consist of individual people, So whenever we see a person on TV, or our phone, in the street —wherever we are, we know we are looking at someone Jesus loves. How can we say we love Him when we don’t love what He loves?

This earth was made for people, God decorated it to delight us, but people have always been His focus. Recently I noticed we sing a lot of songs about helping ‘me’ and what I think need from Him. It’s great. I am so grateful for how much God loves me, how He wants to do this and that for me. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if we decided to get over our own insecurities and needs and focus on ‘them’ — those other guys who live in other places who have bigger needs than we do. Covid did one good thing, it showed the world that we are together here, whether we like it or not!

We can use our emotions or logic to discount people — like the guy who grabs the only seat left on the bus when you are exhausted and you know need it. And then he looks up and gives you a smirk. Jesus loves him. The neighbour who could cares less about their dog barking away day and night, Or someone else’s cat that always wants to poop on your nice clean, newly mowed lawn. Jesus loves them.

Maybe there is a kid in kindy who keeps picking on your little Mary and your hand gets ‘itchy’ even when you look at her. Jesus loves that kid. Those people who operate the drones that bombed and killed someone’s  family, Jesus loves them too. 😢 Let’s be clear, He doesn’t love what they do!! He loves them. and all their potential to do good and help others, and He lives to intercede for all of us because we ALL need it.

The Holy Spirit wants to show each one of us how we can care about the nations. Here’s a thought: we can do this when we live like loving the nations is yet another way to know God, then we will share His passion. If we choose to share His passion for people – we will see Him! “But the love of God will be perfected within the one who obeys God’s Word. We can be sure that we’ve truly come to live in intimacy with God, not just by saying, “I am intimate with God,” but by walking in the footsteps of Jesus.” 1 John 2:5-6 TPT.

I’m sad. Our churches don’t send out many missionaries anymore. Why not? Maybe we are so comfortable in our lives  — plus we all work very hard to make sure our lives stay comfortable — and today the rest of the world has become a ‘grab,’ a newsflash, that makes us momentarily sad and we move back on to what we need, again. Isaiah 6:8 says:“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” I wonder what answer Jesus would get if He asked that question of the church today. …could it be…???  “Here I am, but I’m busy Lord … send that guy.”  It kind of reminds me of the Wedding Banquet eh? 

God has a different kind of banquet for each one of us. It is ready right now. This banquet doesn’t consist of food, or wine, or happy chatter about the bride and groom. It slowly emerges from the lives of other people that we choose to care about. People who have never heard that Jesus loves them. His banquet is not meant to be pie in the sky when we die – it’s here. Now. In the transformation of the lives and hearts of the people all around us. God cares deeply about the nations. Bye and bless you.👋

This young person blessed me and I wanted to share it. It’s a little over 10 minutes long. It does my heart so much good to think that there are young people out there in the world, living out what they believe. PS: This is what someone else wrote about the clip below: “This video drove down my street, parked in my front yard, walked in the front door, sat down at the table and looked me directly in the eye…!!”   … Amen!

P 3150 Living by faith.

/ DVH

Like I said, yesterday, this means that we will put down our desire to hone in our focus on a problem, and choose to look at Jesus instead. He perfectly mirrors the things we are looking for in ourselves, and others. Let me put that this way – if all you are focussing on is what the other person did wrong, then you can’t focus on the One Who IS perfect in all of His Ways. Unless you are cross-eyed!

A single focus is needed and the bible calls that being single-minded. “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Matthew 6:24. When difficulties occur, our part is to realise that although we are weak in many areas – Jesus isn’t! So we choose to ask the Holy Spirit to help us to focus on the Lord, because He is good at it!

Practically speaking, if we just yelled at someone else, then it is a no-brainer that we need to repent and repair things – even when we feel provoked. Extending forgiveness is the quickest way to go back to focussing on Him. It will lead us back into single-mindedness. We can’t look at two vastly different things at once. Our choices matter, and most of the time we make them almost without thinking. But when we review what Jesus said, that means our focus switches from what went wrong, to what He did. We choose to look just one way – at Him. Forgiveness is much easier to access in His Presence.

When you are annoyed or angry with someone else, take a breath, and say “Jesus please help me” I’ve read the bible for years but I have never once read about Jesus saying: “That person is wa-ay beyond redemption. It’s OK, you can’t help being mad at them.” We both know that He simply won’t do that. Why not? Because He bought redemption for everyone when He died! He knows it is a done deal. It cost Him His life-blood and His time on earth to do it! 

Unfortunately, we can easily become used to making room for our scratchy, nasty, irritated attitudes. This means our focus can be sidetracked. But if we choose what the scripture says, we will look at Who Jesus is and what He has given us, and those facts change everything! In the face of such incredible generosity, anger has no place to stand. Loving generosity takes the ground out from under our enemies – not to mention our stinky attitudes.

Because we are still in process, perhaps there are times when we don’t want to look at the Lord, because we think we want to punish that other person. After all they upset us, so they deserve to be in trouble. That whole POV is deceit. It’s like locking yourself up, throwing away the key and saying: “That’ll fix them!” Free means free – even for the guy you don’t like! In moments like that, I’m not sure we understand the whole concept of freedom clearly enough. We need to practice.

When we hold onto anger, resentment, and bitterness, we are locking ourselves away from the Answer. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1. A bad attitude is extremely costly – not to mention heavy! You don’t have to sell your house and give the money away to live by faith.  We just need to live our lives like Jesus would.

This reminds me of an old cartoon, with the Road Runner and the Wile E. Coyote. That dumb Coyote was never ever going to win. It wasn’t in the script! His job was to end up blown to bits, flattened under a rock, or smashed by a train etc. The Road Runner was always going to beat him. Defeat is inevitable when we play in satan’s backyard. It is not in God’s heavenly script for us to punish the people who despitefully use us. Read the book! Living by faith is not some big deal ‘raising the dead’ occasion – it consists of the daily choice to obey the Lord, forgive others, and live like He did. One hurt at a time.

Every time we give away undeserved Grace to someone, we are releasing God’s Grace into their lives. That Grace is powerful. It saved us!! But when we hold onto someone else’s sin, we are keeping them from the kind of Grace that can deliver them from the very attitudes that caused the problem in the first place! Many people are easily imprisoned by how they feel. Hanging onto things like a list of all the wrongs that other person did – and keeping it in our heads, together with the accompanying emotions is a deep pit with no way out. 

When that stuff hits your heart – boy are you in trouble.That’s when a tree of bitterness can take root and grow. Let’s kill that tree, and stop going over what they did repeatedly – even if they just did it again ten seconds ago. Don’t throw anyone’s past sins into their face in an argument, and don’t talk about what happened to you, with other people to soothe yourself. Their opinion actually doesn’t matter. Building a case against someone else is dumb. Sin belongs under the blood of Jesus.

Lastly, talk to the Lord. He understands betrayal, heartache, disappointment, anger, and provocation etc. The Holy Spirit will help us negotiate our way through the crumbling cliffs of excuses, the explosive reactions, the endless litany of disappointment and the utter despair we face when we feel betrayed. Living by faith is only hard for us because we have not cultivated it. Bye.👋

P 3149 Fight the good fight, your faith is worth it.

/ DVH

“Keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honourable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising Him always.” Philippians 4:8 TPT. When I read that scripture, I can look at the magnitude of the task of keeping my thoughts fixed on Him, and fixing them to everything wonderful that He does … a-n-d… I could easily feel like Don Quixote … in Man of La Mancha. Tilting at windmills, and dreaming the impossible dream! 

We often ruminate over the wrong task. It is easy to think that verses like this one only apply to the bad thoughts that flit through our brains like greedy moths. But the real thought I need to deal with here isn’t those incidental distractions. The actual real thought that demands my attention is … wait for it .. “I can’t possibly do that! I can’t meet that standard. No matter how hard I try – I know I will fail.” When I sink into that state I am sinking into a lake of despair, and I begin to slowly relinquish my faith, bit by bit. Right now, I need to remember I have a Lifeguard and He’s already right there, with me, ready to help me, and He wants me to win!

Let’s be clear – I cannot possibly meet that standard in Philippians in my own strength, I never could! However, that thought means I can get discouraged and give up too quickly. I continually need to remind myself that I have SomeOne else’s strength that is made perfect in weak people like me! It’s time to talk to Jesus, Who promised to be always with me. Meanwhile that standard in my mind that I am missing, is not actually the point. The real point is I’ve stopped looking at Him. Now I am looking at my failure, my performance. But IF I stop to  consult Him, then I am fixing my mind on Him!

This means I will begin to think about good things – like what Jesus means to me! Otherwise, day by day, I get busy in normal life-land, having a shower, eating my breakfast, making the bed etc. and I am totally unaware that a negative attitude toward my own faith is running along like a silent script in the background. We are not performers, we are followers.

The verse needs to be digested, and that means I need another scripture! (This BTW is why people memorise scriptures … to help them out when they are under attack!) “…[Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One),…” 2 Corinthians 10:5. The true knowledge of God is that He unequivocally, without reserve, LOVES ME, and that has nothing to do with His feelings – it’s His choice! And at the same time He wants to help me out of that hole of despair and dumb theories I’ve fallen into.

I’m going to need to make a decision to capture those dratted moths, that keep trying to eat away at my faith in His goodness and everything He has done for me. The above verse in Corinthians is a good one. It contains instructions. So, first of all, I humble myself and ask for the Holy Spirit’s help. Now it’s no longer me, all by myself wrangling those thoughts of “what a failure I am.” Because I have THE penultimate Helper. Whether I feel like it or not. Obedience is never about feelings. 

This negative argument I’ve come up against is a ‘works’ argument  … the argument goes like this…I must try harder to rid of my negative faith thoughts. But what if — instead of trying harder — I give up? And then I follow and trust by obeying His instructions. I fix whatever needs fixing in my heart, and follow through by doing whatever He tells me to do about it. ‘Works’ wants me to believe I have to be all that, because I gave my life to Jesus. But Jesus already DID ALL THAT WORK FOR ME, 2,000 years go.

It works like this:  I remind myself that that work is already done, there is no longer any need for me to try to achieve it. Instead, my task is to repent and release my fear of failure, grab hold of the Lord, and humble myself. After doing whatever He says I should do, then I jump straight into REST. If I mess this up while I am learning, then I tell the Lord, and anybody else I may have accidentally trodden on, that I’m sorry — and, I go right back into expecting Him to help me with the situation. That’s what faith is. It’s not IN my performance but IN a Person.

It’s in Him. I don’t have it but He already gave it to me.  I will keep failing Him in my own mind while my focus is on MY failure. But when I begin to rejoice, and give thanks for Who He is and What He did for me – that means I am fastening my mind to: “…all that is authentic and real, honourable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind.”And He IS those things. I am practising what the verse says I should do. I have taken my thoughts captive and fixed them, using my faith, on the One Person Who is all that and more.

“Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses].” Hebrews 11:1. Our faith in His ability to save us is ongoing. Jesus cannot and will not fail us – we give up and give in too quickly! We simply need to do our part, because He has already done His. And our enemy has already lost, because we have chosen to focus on the Lord. This is how we fight the good fight and boy is it worth it! Bye. 👋

P 3147 Walking with the Holy Spirit.

/ DVH

Romans 8:5-9b “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you..”V5(NIV) “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.”

The battle over whether we daily live and walk with the Holy Spirit is first fought in our minds. Quite simply, the secret to walking with Him means we can’t even think about continuing to walk accomodating our flesh. When you and I gave our life to Jesus – He took it. It’s a done deal. Now, by our choices, we daily step out of this world’s way of thinking, into His Way of thinking.

The Holy Spirit loves to glorify the Father and the Son. That’s more than church or preaching or singing! It’s the way we live now. Walking in the flesh sadly comes naturally to us, after all, we’ve been doing that all our lives! But walking with the Holy Spirit requires hard choices. Cheer up! He knows you better than you know yourself. He knows what you can and can’t do – He will “let you learn at your own rate.”

There are some people who think that they have to be super-spiritual to walk with Him, or have some kind of supernatural encounter, or they need some special spiritual gifting! None of that is true. When we welcome Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit – we can’t be born into God’s Kingdom without HIM. Now we need to value Him, more than we value what we or others want, or think or feel. If we go about our days only doing the things we feel, or want, or we think we need —we are ignoring His input. He has a WAY for us to do those things that will give Him a channel to impact the people around us. The more we ignore Him, the less we will hear His voice saying:“…this is the way, walk in it whenever you turn to the right or to the left.” Isaiah 30:21b.

The Holy Spirit wants us to personally know Him, His voice. He came to be with us, to stay. This is how I think that works – when we choose to live this life mindful of Jesus and His Word and we take His word seriously, and obey what He tells us – we are walking with the Holy Spirit. The word mindful means your mind is full of Him and His Ways. Our ability to perform does not come into this – His ability to keep us, as we lean on Him, does. It is another way to look at our lives – which are now HIS. This is how we die to self.

It’s all about priorities. When we look at Jesus, our Heavenly Father, and the Precious Holy Spirit as add-ons to everything else in our lives, that is all They will ever be. But when we take our commitment to Christ seriously, and live each day with our spiritual antenna up, watching and waiting for anything that He might ask us to do — we will see His kingdom come …all around us, as well as in us. Honestly speaking, we cannot afford to hang onto our nasty attitudes, bad temper, lack of generosity toward others, cold-heartedness etc. and expect to walk with HIM! He loves people more than we can possibly imagine. Jesus has invested Himself in mankind!

Sadly, we’ve accidentally made a club mentality out of something that was intended for everyone. The Holy Spirit’s Way is living like Jesus did. He lived for the Father’s will. He “only did the things He saw His Father doing… He only said the things He heard the Father saying …”Now we too need to allow the Holy Spirit to flow through us, by yielding to God’s Ways.“How can two walk together unless they are in agreement?”That’s when we become a channel for His love to flow through.

Let’s think of other people, no matter what they believe, as people Jesus loves. He loves them so much He died for them. Now He has appointed and anointed us to be His witnesses and representatives, alert to what He wants, as well as the needs of others. We can’t afford to only love the people we like.

The bible is our guide and governor, under the Holy Spirit’s tutelage. This book daily shows us what God wants from us. We are alive in this world to demonstrate His word, His kingdom, and we’ve been given the honour of revealing His love to others. Let’s choose to see things through His eyes. Ephesians 4:17-18:“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.”

Every single time we say no to something the Holy Spirit brings up with us, we are hardening our heart against HIm. The Holy Spirit is gentle, mild, and unobtrusive, so He will quietly step down, and we will not even know that He is gone. I don’t care if you are the best preacher in the country – how’s your heart doing? The state of our hearts is our business, and we need soft hearts. We have been destined to live this life alive to the Spirit, walking with Him and yielding to His wishes, just like Jesus did. Bye. 👋

P 3149 Strongholds.

/ DVH

My first thought is this … never ever forget the prince of the power of the air … that guy is still around!  On to my subject for today… It is not comprehensive … this is about awareness.

It seems to me that we all have habitual attitudes that we have cultivated over the years. They profit us, as well as help us get our own way.  So when you keep coming up against the same ungodly attitude in yourself, it shows that there is a stronghold in your life. In my opinion, strongholds are sins that have dug in – something has dug itself into our roots in childhood, OR this captivity has taken advantage of our willing participation. We can, and must walk away from anything that drags us along.

Here’s my next point – people who have a stronghold don’t necessarily yell – they can also become pathetic on cue. Neither of these attitudes agree with what God says. Sadly rotten attitudes are often profitable – people get tired of the same fight over and over and give up! An immature personality often makes decisions about life and how to get what they want. They dig a familiar rut into the essence of who they think they are, and they march up and down in it, guns drawn, knives out – hankies and tissues by the score and … off they go! A stronghold is a collection of self-supporting thoughts that always have an answer, but it’s not what JESUS said in the book.

This is a diagnostic verse about strongholds: 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 “For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons. For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds, [Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) …” In other words, watch your thought life!

Many things roll about in our heads in thought patterns, or unsolicited emotional reactions, or even lies and deceptions we have believed about ourselves, and/or other people. We may have picked up judgmental attitudes from parental oversight, and now we are trapped inside those things – thinking: this is who I am – I can’t help it! When God’s Word plainly says we can! These deceptions can hold us captive. This stuff denies the power of God to transform us. It makes God less powerful in our eyes, because we are virtually saying – ‘He can’t fix me.’ I call this stronghold ‘internal deception.’

Some of us have been taught that the attitudes we have are the right ones, and anything else is wrong. Those things are roadblocks to change, because they get us stuck in man’s own version of reality. Often people’s decisions are based on the thought that their actions or reactions, are a human response or normal attitude. It stinks of pride. I call this one ‘the alternate reality’ stronghold. It’s not real.

However, the hardest mind-pattern to overcome is the one that says: ‘This is just who I am and you are rejecting who I am!’  These people use their stronghold to attack you for the very thing they are doing themselves. Many people don’t like anyone disagreeing with them and their ideas. When we hit that kind of wall, we are hitting a stronghold. We can’t argue others out of strongholds, that stuff needs repentance, and the person’s agreement that what they are doing is not profitable. They need to choose to believe this life can be better. I call it the unwilling to learn and change stronghold. To combat that, I throw His unconditional love at it. It is ‘the kindness of God that leads us into repentance.’

Strongholds are way beyond our ability of persuasion. Start releasing God’s Grace, Love, Joy, Peace etc. You can’t sin when you aim at these God-given Graces and give them away. The bible tells us ‘there is no law against those things.’ We are to live our lives so that others can be built up to embrace their godly purpose. Judgment has to go out of the window, it just muddies the water. Even if you have doubts about any stuff that you might be doing without even thinking about it – run your attitudes by your pastor, and the Holy Spirit, prayerfully. Ask the Lord to correct you with His eye on you, then deliberately take the time to listen. God’s power inhabits His Grace.

Here’s a couple of tips if you discover a stronghold in your life … Joshua and Co. walked around Jericho for 7 days – the Lord used obedience and praise to pull that stronghold down. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, and Almighty God used that time to deal with their religious, idolatrous, gimme gimme attitudes. Sadly they all died off!  Lastly, I think that if we are provoked by what someone else is doing, then we are staring at a stronghold of our own. At the bottom of our annoyance is the reality that we don’t want to be inconvenienced by someone else’s learning curve!

And BTW, I’m not talking about this today so you can figure out what’s wrong with your spouse … we all need to be transformed. You’ll never know what else will change, when YOU change and start dealing with your own strongholds. You could end up being His catalyst. Bye 👋.

P 3145 Who Am I now?

/ DVH

Our identity is IN CHRIST. So if I want to find the real me, I can’t look in the mirror, or even at what our society says about who we are, or what we think we are. We will need to look into the mirror of His Word. Unfortunately, that’s also the place where we will discover the places where we are unlike Him as well! And our destiny lies in what we choose to do about those things. When we brush His Word aside, we can end up going round and round chasing the things of this world.. 

Romans 6:6-14 (bits of it) “For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, [that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin… …In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”

What Paul is saying here, is that the way we regard ourselves now we are alive in Christ, matters. We have not been set free to please ourselves, we have been set free specifically so we can choose to obey Him. At the same time we no longer have to sin – those desires and their accompanying actions went to the cross with Jesus so we don’t have to live with them anymore. When we choose to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Him, every day, we are choosing God’s way over our own. 

Then we have put away the immediate gratification of indulging our feelings, or what we think we want, in favour of giving God what He wants.That’s when we act like His kids and begin to become more than conquerors. The biggest enemy in our lives for us to conquer, is the enemy of SELF, not somebody else. We must put away our old attitudes, hurts, actions, and the past, and begin to renew our minds by reading and obeying the Word.

The Lord Jesus was motivated and activated by what His Father wanted. Did He feel like it? We certainly know of one occasion when He didn’t!  But we are clearly told that Jesus was mirroring our Father’s attitude toward us and sin, and that helps us to see Father God more clearly. When our desire to please our Heavenly Father overcomes what we imagine that we want, we will begin to walk like Christ did. His Grace, and the power of God is there with us to undergird us, as we step forward into a brand new way of thinking about this life. This process is not a happy walk in the park! Each one of us still has some sort of wilfulness and a desire to get our own way, inside us. 

The Lord wants us to choose to do what He has said in His book, simply because we love Him and want to be with Him. Personally I am learning that I want the Holy Spirit’s guidance in my life – more than I want my own way. But it still can end up in a real wrestling match, especially in these dark times when everything we see around us is about self-gratification! Also we can each have a poor perception of what we can really accomplish –  mainly because we’ve been acting a certain way all our lives, and it seems insurmountable to us to act differently.

The point is what Joshua said: “Choose this day Who you will serve … as for me and my household we will serve the Lord!” Our obedience comes down to our choices. And when we choose His way, we will die a little. Personally, I have found that being dead looks much better than having my own way! Yes really!! Father God can do a great deal with even one ordinary person who is happy to stop living for themselves and start living for Jesus’ sake.

We simply don’t have to be slaves to sin anymore. Jesus Himself personally showed us the way through that trap – obedience to God’s Word works! Romans 6:17-18 “But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” When we see something in the book that the Lord told us to do, that’s when we pray, ask for His help and go out and co-operate with Him.

It is good to ask the Holy Spirit if we are a slave to anything other than Jesus’ righteousness. There is no shame in discovering places inside your life where we’ve been trapped by our own dumb choices. But because we can see it, that means we need to pray over whatever it is, repent, and ask Him to show us the way through it. Then we go out and live differently. So, instead of saying something inflammatory, now we deliberately choose to go with love, kindness and patience etc …

Here’s a tiny clue that helps me: Pray first. Secondly, don’t expect happy feelings to overcome you, this is about stretching your faith. It hurts – just like stretching out a calf muscle will hurt! Find out what the Lord thinks in the bible, and do that. Things can seem to be very entrenched into our personalities – so repetition also helps! That’s how I learn who I am. I am His child, learning His Ways, because He chose to love me first. Bye. 👋

P 3143 Value of being found!

/ DVH

That thought needs rereading – please don’t give up on God’s redemptive power! The Bible teaches us that ‘we ought always pray and not give up.’ This BTW, is my personal experience of the parable of the lost coin! Way back in June this year, I lost my wedding ring. Obviously it is very special to me, we’ve been married for 38 years. I cried and cried. Until that loss happened, I didn’t even know such a small thing could upset me like that. 

Afterwards, hubby and I could immediately relate to what happened in a story that Jesus’ once told. The lady who lost a coin and she tore her house apart trying to find it. The loss of my ring brought that story to life in a new way! Because of the story before that one, it also reminded me, yet again, of how passionate the Lord is about His sheep! Take some time to pause today, and think about how much He loves you! He’s the God of little seemingly insignificant things, that matter to us.

At the time we lost the ring, we tore our house apart and then dear hubby went outside and did the same thing to the car, and searched under every leaf in the garden. But there was absolutely no sign of that ring. Usually when something is not resolved, or it has gone missing, no matter what the outcome is – I have peace. But this time, I really struggled to find His peace. Finally, I managed to put it all down and leave it with Him. Boy was I reluctant to do that! Then if the lost ring came up again, I gave it back to Him, and told Him the results were His business.

I have mentioned before on this blog, that I make crystal, beaded bookmarks, to give away when we go on our trips. In the last couple of weeks I’ve made 52. This meant I needed to replenish my beads. I love making people feel special, so I want the very best crystals for my bookmarks. I use real crystal beads, especially the AB2 ones, but they are now hard to find, Swarovski stopped making them. As the supply dwindled worldwide, they have become very scarce, so I bought some more while I still can! The arrival of these crystals  makes my day. We don’t get out much! 🤣 It seems pretty easy to entertain us! 

Unfortunately, when the crystals arrived, the packaging was faulty and my precious expensive crystals, spilled out everywhere! Actually, they are now so expensive that I take the time to count them when they arrive! And I could see that I had several missing from one packet. I even watched one of them slide down the side of the chair I sit on. That was not good news for me. This particular chair doesn’t leave room for hands to wiggle in and retrieve things. The result was:  the chair ate my crystals and I was not amused.

I jammed my hand down the side of it, repeatedly wiggling this way and that, trying to get the precious crystals back … and bruising my hand in the process. The short story is I managed to retrieve 3 out of 4 of them. One of them is still lost somewhere in the basement of the chair! But it was painful, wood and delicate lady hands, don’t mix!  My hubby volunteered to join in my quest. In the end he went under the chair to dig around and see if it had fallen through. That’s when I discovered a previously unknown fact about my kind of chair.

MY recliner chair is like a block of apartments. It’s in layers. And even though something can fall from one layer to the next – that does not mean it will eventually fall out on the floor. Hubby wiggled his hand in, and felt his way underneath while I’m bruising my hand upstairs. Hubby even took the skin off his knuckles. And lo and behold, quite unexpectedly, his fingers closed around something quite unanticipated. It seems the chair had also eaten my wedding ring – apparently my chair’s basic food group is jewellery in one form or another!

I rejoiced so loudly — you may have heard me! Then I cried. Then I rejoiced some more because that which was lost had been found. And I now had a very personal example of the story with the lady with the coin. And a very small, real life experience of what the verse in Luke 15:10 means to Father God. “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” 

BTW, I don’t feel bad using my ring as an example, because once Jesus used a fig tree, wheat, sheep and a coin to make His point. FYI I lost this ring because I took it off to clean it and I’m not doing that any more – it can go green instead!! This whole situation made me think about all the prayers that we pray, that appear to be unanswered, and how we cope when an answer doesn’t come right away. So here’s my very own ‘lost sheep’ testimony on today’s subject that is about stuff ... but far more about people. 

I mentioned briefly at the time when my mother died a few months ago, that I have been a Christian for 50 years. My mum’s terminal illness was a scary time, because she objected to my faith. We could not engage her on the subject at all. Once a long time ago, she threatened to disinherit me because of my faith. Poor dear, she didn’t have 10c  to leave a flea, at the time, but the emotional ramifications were … rah rah rah. You get it! 

About a month before she died, she suddenly started to listen carefully to us. And I learnt something. Some people have to exhaust all their own resources, before they can even begin to hear you! My dear mother was stuck in an invalid’s chair unable to turn herself over, go to the loo etc. All she had left physically, was her speech, and even her mind had begun to wander. She knew it, so meaningful words became more precious to her. Seeing us was all she wanted.

I also realised that sometimes in our enthusiasm and compassion for a person who does not know the Lord – we will need to pray for deliverance, as well as for salvation! Nobody likes to watch anyone suffer, and it is even worse when the person suffering is a precious family member. But when they are racing down the hill into eternity, it is extremely scary. That’s when our faith in His faithfulness needs to prevail. He loves those people so much more than we do. 

I wanted to write on this subject today because I know many many people, reading here, have prayed and prayed and prayed, for far more important things than my ring. Like unsaved family members—parents, siblings, spouses, or desperately ill family members. Maybe also fervent prayer for health, or finding work or somewhere to sleep at night. My mother was 97 when she finally understood that Jesus loves her. She went home peacefully. I had been witnessing to her, loving on her, wrangling with her upside-down ideas about faith, for 50 years and before she died, she finally heard me. 

My message is about this –  no matter what it is you feel you have lost don’t give up! Almighty God doesn’t give up on LOST SHEEP. One of the best things we can learn to do is to trust Him when nothing makes any sense any more. Right now I want to add my faith to yours, and believe for that miracle you desperately need.. Big troubles or seemingly insignificant ones – He’s got you. Never forget the value of being found. Bye. 👋

P 3142 It’s the Lord’s nature.

/ DVH

“The Lord is close to all whose hearts are crushed by pain, and He is always ready to restore the repentant one.” Psalms 34:18 TPT.  I love the word always in this Psalm. When human beings say always, we often mean – most of the time. But when God says always that’s exactly what He means! He is not into hyperbole or exaggeration. What He says, He means. Whatever He says, you can stand on. Doubt has nothing to give us, but angst. Holding fast is hard, but when we do it, we will reap a great reward.

Oh I pray that everyone grasps this truth and holds on to it tightly. It will comfort you in times when the roof has fallen in. The Holy Spirit will take His Words and unfold them before your eyes, and suddenly the thing you can’t understand, is clear. Let Him expound God’s word to you. There is nothing like God Himself, explaining what He means when you study His scriptures!

It is His truth. Almighty God put His full stop on His truth when He sent us the Living Word, Jesus, so we could see His Word in action. Ask yourself, how did Jesus treat sinners? — With grace, mercy and revelation that leads to repentance. How did He interact with the sick? With compassion, kindness, and healing. How did He minister to the spiritually hungry? With fresh bread directly from heaven. When God says He is close, He means He is close!  PAIN should not be our reference point – He is! 

Choose to believe Him, and remember to thank Him. You can thank Him for being with you, and not leaving, you even if the difficult circumstances haven’t instantly resolved. Focus on how close He says He is. When bad stuff happens, He won’t ever leave us. He takes His Word seriously and He keeps it. When we gave our lives to Jesus we stepped away from the feeling/thought-based world attitude, into His light and that light won’t lie to us. It can’t! Goodness, mercy, love, kindness, gentleness and truthfulness are part of God’s very nature. He does not lie. 

Years ago, I read books about countries on the other side of the world. I heard about them on the radio, and then I saw blurry pictures of them in black and white on the TV! And then one day I got on a plane and went and stood in those places. That one action took many countries out of the realm of my imagination, and brought them into reality for me. 

If you mention places like Germany, or Greece or France, I have memories of golden sun on my face – and some pretty yummy food too! If you say Singapore, I remember the brilliant architecture, sounds and smells. The thing that transports what we know into our personal experience — is FAITH! I ran about like a headless chicken and got a pass-port, and visas, packed my bags, then I got on a plane, and those countries came out of my imagination into reality.. I acted on what I saw! Faith acts on what it has read in the bible.

Our Spirit-prompted, Word-based belief in whatever He says, can take His Word and bring it to life. For those who are interested, I am not talking about believing for a Lear jet or a house with a bowling alley in the basement! I’m talking about God’s true riches. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness etc. But if we choose to treat His book like an information source, we will miss out on tasting the substance of His love, which transforms human beings. Ask for His help, and deliberately practice being loving – leave your feelings out of it.

Faith comes first. That’s when we decide to take a risk regarding Jesus’ truthfulness and Personhood and you and I will begin to have our own personal history with God Himself. The bible says faith comes by hearing and hearing comes from exposing ourselves to His Word— when we feel like it and when we don’t. And if you are sick, sad, or lonely then you probably won’t feel like it. I listen to the bible read if I can’t read it. We need to daily let His Word wash over us and cleanse us from the unbelief and heartache of this world.

Personally, I have yet to say: “oh goodie” when a testing time comes upon me. Nevertheless, I am learning that in those faith-testing times it means that God is taking me deeper still. The deeper the foundation, the greater the stability of the building. Our gracious Father is making sure we won’t ‘shake’ and ‘quake’ like we used to … because what we are standing on now, is firm and secure, and we know it.It’s like David said to Goliath: ‘First I killed a lion, then a bear, so YOU are going down!” Each faith-prompted action and subsequent experience led David into a deeper understanding of God Himself, and more confidence in Him.

Some things have now gone from my head to my heart. That’s because He has written it there! Our hearts are the safest place for that knowledge to be. When things are dark and horrible, that’s when we need to exercise our faith in His never-ending goodness the most. I tell the Lord: “You said You are here, so You are here! You are truthful, and I believe You. Thank You for being here close to me.” Amen.

When we stop trying to use the Lord for our own ends, and we decide that all we want is HIM – then we can tell Him we want to stay close to Him no matter what. That’s when we will see Him in ways we cannot imagine. Sometimes we need to do what David did and remind ourselves of the times when His goodness has upheld us and He helped us push through to victory. No matter how things look — and for many many people today, I know things look terrible, but I exhort you to hold fast.

God has not left you, and HE WILL NOT! Jesus our Shepherd will walk with you in that deep dark valley and use His staff to protect you from everything that wants to harm you. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. If help doesn’t come immediately He’s telling you He knows you can do it! Remember that His loving kindness is the Lord’s nature — and this too, shall pass… 😢 Bye.

P 3141 The power of Choice.

/ DVH

These pictures directly above the blog, all look so pretty — the golden poison frog, the aconite flower, mercury, and the last one is deadly nightshade. All those things look harmless, but they can kill you in a heartbeat. So does sin. And most human beings are very poor judges of what will harm us. Plus we can be adept at finding thousands of great reasons why what we are doing won’t hurt anyone! The thing is —sin in our lives affects our spiritual hearing, our spiritual sight and we can’t recognise what the Lord is doing. The truth is we are dead to this world, and we no longer have to do anything. 

You know, dead people no longer have anything to do with the law, simply because laws don’t apply to the dead. They apply to the living. We are dead to sin exercising its power over us, when He died. When we chose to follow Him we died. Maturing faith continually chooses to enforce this new reality, day by day. We can’t afford to let the world tell us who we are, instead we let Jesus define us. Independence is overrated! It is a small-minded story thrown up upon the screen of our minds by a deadly enemy — who points out someone else’s sin, and says ‘poor you,’ whenever life is hard. We can end up living under the influence of a lie!

In this modern world people covet getting their own way, because they think they know what makes them happy, and they know best!  True happiness can only be found in Jesus. That’s not just a pretty saying – it’s the truth. in reality, there is no happiness, peace, joy, love, faithfulness, kindness etc. outside of Him..“For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” Romans 7:5-6.

One of the most wonderful things Father God gave Adam and Eve when He created them, was the freedom to choose. As we mature, we need to grow into making Godly decisions, through our daily choices. Our decisions can have huge ramifications, as we decide to die to self, we will need to walk away from the things that came naturally to us in our past. Now we have chosen to live a different way, and we want to cultivate the reality of the cross in our lives. It hurts to say ‘no’ when everything inside you screams ‘yes.’ Just ask a drug addict or an alcoholic – they grapple daily with choices. 

Human beings have become obsessed with sacrificing the long range benefits of this life, at the cost of immediate gratification. We want what we want now. And we will work day and night to get a holiday that only lasts 3 weeks, or slave to pay for a house we may never own.“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” Mark 8:36. As Christians, we need to live our lives focussing on the things that will LAST! The thing that is wrong with leaning on our own understanding is that our own understanding is faulty!

When Jesus went to the cross, He took our sin WITH HIM. Now we no longer have to be held captive by the things that have haunted us our whole lives … “no longer to be subject to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1. Our enemy daily tries to trick us into giving our power to him, so he can set up his nasty little strongholds in our lives.  But the answer is in the book – our obedience to God’s word. Choosing to die to self is the way to kill off our rampant self-centredness. It is foolish to indulge ourselves. It’s death in a prettily wrapped, greatly appealing, immediately gratifying box!

HOWEVER – right, here, right now – we have a Helper, a guide, a counsellor, a comforter Who wants to help us win! Babies cry and crank over lost things, mature people move on. Sin has no power to make us do anything – it’s all down to our choices. We need to practice asking the Holy Spirit to help us!  The power for us to be transformed was released over 2,000+ years ago. The Holy Spirit exploded all over Pentecost and demonstrated to those believers what God’s power looks like in action. Lives were irrevocably changed. That power is still here to transform us — we get it by using our faith as we follow Him.

The power of God looks like preaching when you are scared to death of it. It looks like praying for the sick when you don’t feel so flash yourself. It looks like owning up to the things in your past that you have tried to keep hidden, and then deliberately taking the time to fix them. Mature people don’t leave sin lying about – they take responsibility, and prayerfully and obediently, deal with it. Babies expect someone else to do that for them. We are suppliers of God’s love and grace, not consumers like the rest of this world.

Most Christians have faithfully memorised heaps of scriptures. Now we need to take those scriptures from theory into practice, and INTO our lifestyle. Agreeing with what God says, won’t change a thing unless we act on it. Obedience is the key to His kingdom, but it’s the one key we like to leave dangling on its hook! We can all have genuine reasons why we should hate this person or that circumstance. We’ve chosen to forget that we don’t have to live under any circumstances anymore, because Jesus has let us out of that prison. His love set us free and that love is so powerful, it will continually do it. Our daily choices are powerful. Bye. 👋