Christianity

P 3043 Learning lessons.

/ DVH

It is always good to share the places where your faith fell over and bumped its head. I know people love positive testimonies, especially in times like these, where we don’t hear a lot of ordinary Christians standing up to testify about something the Lord sovereignly and graciously did in their lives. But today I want to share a bump in my road that loomed up at me unexpectedly.

Do you ever have those moments when your faith appears to be broken and you pray and … no answer. So you wait on the Lord, and  … still… no answer? I had one of those this week. My faith didn’t just wobble, it fell in a ditch and I couldn’t find my way out of it. I asked people to pray, I read the bible, I talked things through with my husband, yet disappointment continued to prevail. You would think that something cataclysmic happened. Nope. When you hear what it was, you might easily say: ‘well that’s a dumb thing to get upset about.’ You’d be right – it was. 

I lost my wedding ring. To make matters a lot worse for both of us — it was our wedding anniversary! We’ve just celebrated 38 years of marriage – so my timing was pretty off. But it was just a ring. Except it wasn’t … And I had no idea that such a small thing could cause such enormous grief. After all my exhortations about giving stuff to God, I sat down in the dirt, figuratively, and wept my heart out. I felt like a cardboard box in a violent rainstorm. Soggy, wet and broken. Often lost little things like that eventually turn up, but it hasn’t …

I blamed myself of course – which was completely ironic after writing a couple of days ago about blame and shame!! Hullo!! Un-awareness and over-simplification anyone??? The thing is, I am always taking off rings etc. and leaving them in obscure places, because they irritate my fingers. We looked in all those dumb places immediately, then hubby did the hard yards and looked in truly out-of-the-way places … like the vacuum cleaner bag. The rubbish bin. Behind cupboards etc. The whole house – twice!! No ring. I cried until I couldn’t cry anymore and I still didn’t know why I was crying. 

Yes, this sad little tale has a happy ending, and no! I did not find the ring! But we’ve kept pressing on anyway – who knows what the Lord will do with the things that happen in our lives? So I kept praying and listening. I sat down with the Holy Spirit and asked Him what on earth was going on. Mainly because my reaction was so out of proportion to what had happened. It is only a ring right? Like my hubby said: “You still have ME, I’m still here. The ring is a symbol that’s all.” It turned out the ring was a symbol alright – a whole lot of pent-up grief found an exit.

You would think I could easily get a handle on losing something relatively minor, but I couldn’t. It turns out the ring was one loss too many. I shan’t bore you with my turbulent  background but it is filled to the brim with a whole lot of loss. Some of those things were my own sins, and some of them were other people’s choices.

And of course recently, we found out my dear Mum, who is 97 and was aiming at reaching 100 – has cancer all throughout her body. Praise God she is not in pain, but she is a shell of the person who used to fill any room every single time she entered it. It is hard to watch. She is my mother, and mothers are special people. 

That’s when Father God said to me, in His great mercy: “You have come this far, with those burdens you’ve been carrying, but you must go no further with them.” Amazingly a lost wedding ring uncovered a whole lot of suppressed grief. Who knew?? God did! And He used it for His glory to heal many broken places in my heart. 

That’s when He reminded me of a parable Jesus told once in Luke 15:8-10:“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” This dear woman tore her house apart trying to find one coin because it was so valuable to her.

Eventually the Lord’s full point finally dawned on me. I was distressed about a ring, but that ring is a lesson. It helped to give me insight – a glimpse into Who He is. It actually shows me how deeply He feels about PEOPLE. The following two parables talk about people. Those thoughts blew me away – that lost ring is merely an illustration of how the Lord feels about human beings – and Jesus explained His passion this way. The lengths He will go to find one lost soul!

If a woman could not stop looking until she found a coin, and my husband and I spent three days looking for my ring –  can we even begin to imagine what it is like for our Heavenly Father to lose just one soul? And He is losing millions of them! I was totally awestruck that He would reveal His heart to me through something so simple. He so sweetly spoke my language to explain His Heart to me. I will probably always remember losing this ring, mainly because it has become a vehicle that taught me more about Him. Bye. 👑🙏

P 3042 The real and the unreal.

/ DVH

As Christians we dare not live our lives in religion. We have been reborn to live permanently in the reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection – together with all He died to give us. This attitude needs to be present, daily. The Holy Spirit will correct us with His eye on us, then we pray and then we yield. Living with a metaphor – a concept, a mere picture of the truth – means that we will find our metaphorical faith is tested a whole lot, because it does not have its roots in the reality of what Jesus already did!

At the same time, we cannot afford to have untested faith. Otherwise, how will we know whether what we believe is real or a theory? When tests come, and they will!…The first thing to do is check with Him that He is giving us an opportunity to practise what we preach. Then we prayerfully accept the Holy Spirit’s guidance and help, and go forward into doing or saying whatever it is from His point of view. If I haven’t got a clue – I make use of His reference book – the bible.

Cultivating a quiet spirit within, is essential. It can be difficult, but it is not impossible. I know the world around us is like a brass band at full volume, but living in the awareness of the stillness of His Presence will help us triumph over everything else that comes our way. Jesus lived this way – He was peaceful inside despite the outside circumstances. The difference between the real and the unreal, is easily diagnosed by its fruit – agitation or acceptance.

Likewise, giving up on people just because they are not responding to us the way we want them to, is self-centred. You and I don’t have the only way – Jesus Himself is the Way! What we need in awkward moments, is a word of knowledge, or a word of wisdom, or a revelation from our King about how we interact with that person. Here’s a helpful hint:  spiritual things don’t always come with a huge angel and a trumpet! His Voice inside us is so discreet, so gentle, we can miss it.  But there is a way to check out your own hearing— love knows how to be quiet and let the other person speak. Many times we are actually dealing with our own fears and insecurities and projecting them onto someone else. 

God loves them.Ask yourself: ‘why would I annoy or hurt someone GOD loves and expect it will be alright?’  He loves the world, remember? Personally, I would not like to have to explain to the Lord, why I thought brow-beating somebody else was a good plan. Jesus didn’t do it, and neither should we. Our aim is to respond with Grace, Love, Kindness and Peace, and those precious things are enough to keep us busy! Positive things can create teachable moments.

In John 20:11-18, it says:“Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put Him.” At this,she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking He was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him. Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward Him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!”

Human beings can be so distracted and disturbed by our current circumstances, that we miss Him when He speaks to us  As you can see, from this scripture, Mary was absolutely overwhelmed by grief, and consequently she was unable to see the Lord when He was right in front of her! It is good to ask the Holy Spirit to keep us alert to whatever the Lord Jesus wants to say to us.  

The thing about Mary in this scripture, is that her faith was at an all-time low, and she didn’t expect to see Jesus again. He was dead and gone in her mind. And if He wasn’t in the tomb, then where could He possibly be? The unreality of the situation channelled her thoughts in a specific direction — to a human answer. Somebody must have done the unthinkable and stolen His body!

If I get bewildered or I am full of despair, then I stop and I refuse to move. After that I go back to the beginning and start to pray all over again. But if my thoughts are still as clear as mud, then I put everything down at His feet, and ask the Holy Spirit to take care of it – until I am led, by Him, back into clarity again. Hearing from God is our birthright, it is not a test. It takes faith, but every single one of us has been given the ability to hear our Shepherd. After all, we are His sheep, the people of His pasture!  

Let’s not underestimate the value of PAUSING. Pausing gives me a chance to catch up with what He is doing. It steadies my personal human reaction, and takes me into His space – where there is no panic, no timetables … only Him. Our faith has been carefully designed, by the Holy Spirit, to be active and real, every single day. If we find we are mistaken, then we need to prayerfully replace the unreal with the real. Bye. 🙏

P 3041 Blame and shame …

/ DVH

… the destructive twins. Those thieves take our peace and joy away and leave us with angst and worry. They make poor governors of our behaviour. They can be aimed at ourselves, as well as others. When we are caught up in this way of thinking, we move right out of operating in Grace, because blame and shame thrive on guilt. And guilt distracts us from the reality of our salvation. 

If our enemy cannot get us to sin, he wants to keep our minds so focussed on our shortcomings, or someone else’s quirks, that we can barely spiritually breathe. The more we allow these thought patterns to rule the less we will love ourselves or others. I have come to the conclusion that who I really am is the person who comes out when I am squeezed by circumstances. That thought has helped me enormously to be realistic about my actions and attitudes, without being obsessive. Instead I confess my faults and He heals me! I don’t have to be afraid to admit my shortcomings, because the Lord has taken care of them. Now I can happily give thanks because of the Grace He releases to me, and through me. 

Sadly, everything we say and do can be disguised to look good to others, by using our own good manners. However, those things do not come from the fruit of the Spirit, but from our own will and our own personal sense of how this life is meant to work. I often spiritually fall over someone else’s lack of manners, because mine were dinged into me from birth! Those things immediately send me spiralling off into judgment. Good manners are great, but spiritual fruit is permanent. It can be eaten. That fruit slowly ushers in spiritual growth, health and transformation, and when you take a bite out of it, it won’t bite you back!

We have His help, always. But we can become so used to acting, or even reacting, without any thought, we can miss those crucial moments to yield. The Holy Spirit is our 24/7, on the spot, Helper. He wants to help us transform our inner attitudes so what comes out is really IN there! Sadly, in many congregations it is almost easier to give a performance of good, than it is to face our short-comings realistically.

If you have lived most of your Christian life on a steady diet of religion, trying to manufacture in your own strength what our kingdom lives need to look like — that can be an enormous weight. We can feel such a failure all the time, because all we can see is fault. Blame and shame love to jump on that bandwagon. So if I feel down, you must have done something wrong, so it’s your fault!! I have discovered that the more I oppress my true self, the more likely I am to hide my faults, and focus on yours.  It is like a being on a merry-go-round I cannot get off! Now I have an image to keep up! 

Letting God into our intimate thoughts and inner self can be incredibly daunting. Some of us don’t let anybody in there! Instead we have constructed ‘devices’ to distract ourselves from paying attention to what is going on inside. Maybe we are afraid of blame or shame. That’s often when our awareness of what Jesus did for us has become dim, and remote— then we try to hide from the One Who already loves and knows us. Jonah is a brilliant example of that kind of thinking in action! He hid in the bottom of a ship because the Lord’s idea did not appeal to Him, he blamed God Himself for wanting to save Nineveh. Yet Paul has several instances where he openly admits they had one idea, and the Holy Spirit had another! It’s OK to be wrong, just be honest about it.

For most of us God’s Love is a strong concept, yet to be deeply experienced. It is not a deep seated reality. We can devotedly read the bible with this awful feeling that we will always fall short, and sadly that can lead to blaming and shaming ourselves, or even to putting others down, because they seem to be successful, and we’re not. At the same time, some of us have learnt to be really great actors! That’s why I love reading the gospels, because the disciples foibles and dumb attitudes give me room to be myself – real, inadequate and normal. I know I need a Saviour!

Religion blames and shames people, and that produces fear, rejection, and pain for everyone involved. The Pharisees and their mates didn’t understand where the Lord Jesus was coming from, and yet they knew the bible, backwards, and inside out. They were the leaders, so they made a visible practice of knowing everything  from every direction. Just like they did back then, a religious bent can colour the way we look at His Word, and affect how we live our lives and regard other people. Blaming parents seems to be a national past-time! ‘They smacked me too much, or they used shame to govern me.” Blame is blame no matter why or where we aim it. I comfort myself that I had a childish mind back then – but I don’t have to have one now!

The fullness that belongs to every single one of the Lord’s kids will always seem out of reach if we continue to wrestle with religious stuff. God loves real people who make real mistakes!  I have noticed a couple of things about blame and shame … if you have lived with it in the past, those terrible twins seem to nag at you in subtle ways in the present, and you are more likely to fall into that pattern of thinking again, as well as reflecting it to others, especially under pressure. Let the oppressed go free – them and me!! Praise God for His Grace.

Bye. 👋

In Romans 1:16 Paul declares,“I am not ashamed of the gospel,”and Isaiah 54:4, which promises, “Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame.”And 2 Timothy 1:12: “But I am not ashamed, for I know Whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.”

P 3040 No job is too small!

/ DVH

Acts 6:1-6,8.”Now about this time, when the number of the disciples was greatly increasing, complaint was made by the Hellenists (the Greek-speaking Jews) against the [native] Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked and neglected in the daily ministration (distribution of relief). So the Twelve [apostles] convened the multitude of the disciples and said, It is not seemly or desirable or right that we should have to give up or neglect [preaching] the Word of God in order to attend to serving at tables and superintending the distribution of food.

Therefore select out from among yourselves, brethren, seven men of good and attested character and repute, full of the [Holy] Spirit and wisdom, whom we may assign to look after this business and duty. But we will continue to devote ourselves steadfastly to prayer and the ministry of the Word.

And the suggestion pleased the whole assembly, and they selected Stephen, a man full of faith (a strong and welcome belief that Jesus is the Messiah) and full of and controlled by the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte (convert) from Antioch. These they presented to the apostles, who after prayer laid their hands on them… … Now Stephen, full of grace (divine blessing and favour) and power (strength and ability) worked great wonders and signs (miracles) among the people.”

We limit God and His people, when we think that only the so-called important people among us can do miracles and wonders. Here is Stephen, who was selected by prayer and the Lord’s favour, to wait on the Greek-speaking Jewish  tables. This whole scenario was set off by one group of people complaining about another group. But the Apostles valued the Body’s corporate harmony more than anything else. Those Greek guys were really miffed, because the complainers were distressed by the way their families were being treated. The situation held within it the seeds of discontent. So the apostles set out, with the Holy Spirit’s help, to fix the situation. 

Nobody appears to have given the complainers a talk on how being left out could actually benefit them, because it would give them an opportunity to practise humility! Instead the Apostles fixed the problem prayerfully. They discounted their own personal participation in the solution, but they were more than happy to elevate someone else to take care of it. However, they didn’t just pick two guys randomly, they picked men whose inner and outer lives reflected their faith. That tells us something about God’s mindset regarding small tasks. 

Stephen and Phillip were chosen to be Deacons, and they were provided for the people whose noses were pushed sideways. The depth of that story just blows my mind! Mainly because it is so far away from the way we think today. There are some things in the bible that we really do need to meditate on. They are not just background material to this or that important story. Those seemingly lesser things are worthy of our attention. Now here comes the truly incredible bit of this story … 

“However, some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (freed Jewish slaves), as it was called, and [of the synagogues] of the Cyrenians and of the Alexandrians and of those from Cilicia and [the province of] Asia, arose [and undertook] to debate and dispute with Stephen..“Now Stephen, full of grace (divine blessing and favour) and power (strength and ability) worked great wonders and signs (miracles) among the people. But they (the grumpy guys) were not able to resist the intelligence and the wisdom and [the inspiration of] the Spirit with which and by Whom he spoke. So they [secretly] instigated and instructed men to say, We have heard this man speak, using slanderous and abusive and blasphemous language against Moses and God.” Acts 6:8-13.

Other men who were watching what went on, then turned around and attacked God’s duly elected gift. Jealousy and deception got hold of that group and they betrayed Stephen. The discontent within the Body, opened a door to worse things. It seems to me that their attitude toward Stephen’s gifts was caused by jealousy. And God’s hand on this spiritual man’s life also offended them. We need to be so careful when it comes to offence. That sneaky, slimy little weasel attitude slowly worms its way into congregations and creates schisms, hatred, jealousy and discontent.

In this case it caused Stephen’s death. We don’t know if the men who accused him and wanted to punish him, actually threw rocks at him – but they definitely lied and falsely accused him. And they started the landslide of hate toward this godly man. Stephen became the church’s first martyr.  All because God kissed what this man did, with His Presence, as Stephen chose to serve others. The bible talks about jealousy in Song of Solomon 8:6: “Set me like a seal upon your heart, like a seal upon your arm; for love is as strong as death, jealousy is as hard and cruel as Sheol (the place of the dead). Its flashes are flashes of fire, a most vehement flame [the very flame of the Lord]!”

Serving others seems very insignificant, until you look at everything Jesus did with His time, and deliberately go past the miracles and carefully look into the Lord’s day-to-day actions. All of the spiritually designated gifts are given to the body to help us grow and thrive, and that includes serving each other. We need to pay attention to the things the Lord values, and no job is ever too small. Bye. 👋

P 3039 You gotta dig to find gold.

/ DVH

“How enriched are they who find their strength in the Lord; within their hearts are the highways of holiness! Even when their paths wind through the dark valley of tears, they dig deep to find a pleasant pool where others find only pain. He gives to them a brook of blessing filled from the rain of an outpouring. They grow stronger and stronger with every step forward, and the God of all gods will appear before them in Zion.” Psalms 84:5-7 TPT.

I find the Psalms are such an enormous comfort in this life! There are times that I simply cannot cope with some stuff. I need Jesus, and the precious Holy Spirit. And if you think that sounds pious or something …you would be wrong! The Holy Spirit’s Presence comforts me, and whispers things I need to hear into my heart, when I am angry. Like:“Why not suffer wrong?….” Jesus can say that to me because He lived His life that way long before I was ever born! 

When things get difficult, or I’m tired, or I have had a series of unlovely events that were not my fault — that is when I can get tetchy. Suddenly I can’t hear Him clearly. And yes, there are also times when I can hear Him fine — but I still get cranky anyway. That’s the time I know I made a choice … it was the wrong one …but I know I definitely made a choice! 

This life to me, is a battlefield, and there are seasons when we end up in the firing line. The thing is, it is not good to beat yourself up when you fall off the wagon, and you end up needing to deal with your own temper – as well as whatever caused it to flare up! Sadly, that response can add to an already difficult situation. Rules don’t help me then, they are too easily discarded. Instead I pray:  “Please help me Holy Spirit!” I have found He is so utterly dependable –  He always answers that prayer. Take a pause and a deep breath, so you can let Him help you through whatever is happening. 

The bible says this in Proverbs 25:28: “A man (a person) without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” It is way too easy to put self-control right down the bottom of the list of things that we know we are going to need. Other spiritual graces sound so much sweeter …but self control is an important key to everything else. This is the digging part of Psalm 84:5-7. We have to dig down into what we already know about Him, to help us withstand what is going on externally. 

After a while, like the Psalmist says, we also need to cultivate and develop a habit of going to Him first. Even when all you have is a desperate cry for help! That choice is ours. We have to choose to believe He will answer us. But whether we feel His Presence in those moments or not, He is always with us – that is where He promised to be!  It’s in the book. Sooner or later we all hit the very difficult wall that says — “do we believe our experiences, or lack of them — or do we believe in Him because of Who He is, and what He said?’

That’s what Lordship is. It is the place where the rubber hits the road and we choose to go His way instead of ours. That’s also the place where we will need to start digging deeper. Eventually our tears and heartache will create a pool that can comfort others. Finding our strength in Him takes perseverance. And when that Grace is cultivated within us, it will produce His fruit, in its season. Holiness isn’t what we eat or drink or do – holiness is in Him.The more we trust in Him and put our faith on the line, the more we will end up walking like a child of the King. The Spirit of God within us, rises up to help us.

Some people think of Grace as something that comes upon them. That is not true. We stir it up from within us, we don’t pray it down. Listen to this:  “Asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He replied to them by saying, The kingdom of God does not come with signs to be observed or with visible display, Nor will people say, Look! Here [it is]! or, See, [it is] there! For behold, the kingdom of God is within you [in your hearts] and among you [surrounding you].” Luke 17:20-21.

You and I, together with entire Body of Christ, are the display case of the kingdom of God for the rest of this world. Yeah, that’s kind of a bit daunting isn’t it? We will allow this kingdom to grow within us as we choose His ways over ours. And let me tell you, in  my experiences, those opportunities will always come at the most inopportune times!  

Maybe somebody just jumped all over your feelings, or a pet theory and then …watch out … what you can potentially display is either His kingdom, or your own bad temper! Yes, you have a reason to be angry, yes you may want to strangle the offender, but if … at that moment … you ask for His help, and pause, and pray, and then you will be empowered to give a kingdom response.

That’s what grows that fruit we are always on about. Growing fruit is vastly underrated. However to grow a fruit tree, like a lemon tree, or a cherry tree – you will have to dig deep. You have to make enough room for the roots to expand and grow. We have to dig to produce His fruit! It  is eternal, it’s golden, it’s forever. So we gotta dig out the weeds of our old life and let the tree He plants in us grow!  Bye. 👋.

P 3036 Upside down thinking.

/ DVH

Christians can have some upside-down thinking when it comes to the Lord. We inadvertently blame God for the bad things that happen to us. Or at other times we take the higher path and accept that we are being disciplined —without understanding what it really means. Our God will never leave us. Because He is holy, He wants us to share in His holiness. He tells us in Hebrews to look at Jesus, Who never doubted His Father for a second.

Hebrews 12:3-10: “Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart…… In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son?  My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as His son.”

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in His holiness.”

We know that God loves us, because He disciplines us, and His discipline will always be for our good. He is encouraging us into His Way of Holiness. In other words – if we want to be holy like HE is, this is how you get it! We need to trust Him and learn to endure in the hard bits. That is not the same as gritting your teeth and waiting for the hard time to be over. Trusting Him and learning endurance happens, when we hold fast to His goodness, and His astonishing ability to work even terrible things together for our good. He is not mad with us, just because our little bit of this world has gone upside down. The reality is, we are birthing something of His kingdom into our lives that we cannot get any other way. When we respond in faith to difficulties and trials. Christians often gravitate far more toward things that inspire us, instead of things that challenge us.

We listen and observe through ears that filter things by whether it affects my life or not! Those things are anchored into the world of ME! My comfort, life, and my salvation. It all gets filtered through my perception of how spiritual things are meant to work. If I happen to like a certain biblical teacher, then that teacher also provides me with a part of that filter. When writers and speakers say things we like, we assimilate them into our theology. I absorb their revelations often without praying about it or searching out the matter for myself! It’s kind of a short-cut approach to growth. But we must also learn from the Holy Spirit, who speaks “ME” intimately.

Almighty God has an Eternal Language called Love. When He disciplines us, the bible says: He disciplines us because He loves us! That can seem like upside-down thinking!  In our way of thinking, when people love us, it means they are for us, and they wouldn’t dream of hurting us. It seems that our ideas of discipline today mean punishment, and they must not to be tolerated. That’s not true in the bible. Sometimes we don’t get the depth behind the Lord’s words. “God disciplines those HE LOVES.” In other words — His discipline in our lives, is one of the ways we know we are loved by Him! 

Now if you are like me that thought automatically leads to: “I wish you wouldn’t discipline me quite so much, thank you, Lord!”…B-u-t … I probably wouldn’t say that out loud. That’s because I am misreading the word discipline. The Lord wants to correct us with His eye on us. Our wonderful Father God is not just randomly walloping us when things get difficult or we do something we know we shouldn’t – He is showing us He loves us. We simply don’t understand His language. We need to move into maturity. Our Father’s aim is holiness, not just our comfort. His Love values intimacy with us above our idea of a happy life.

Father God has promised He will never leave us, even when things are terrible. He loves us so much He is leading us on into deeper things – so the next time something bad happens, we will have something concrete to stand on —  assurance of HIS LOVE!  God does not send the trouble but He will use it for our good. Jesus took all of our punishment on Himself, but we still need transformation. Embracing His holiness in our lives will totally change our perspective. Jesus was absolutely holy – but He didn’t float about with shiny gear on and a halo!  He showed us His holiness by only doing good from a pure heart – then He took the punishment that belongs to us. Yielding to God’s ways under fire, means we will not be burned, we will be spectators.

We must make it our aim to accept, and be blessed by God’s discipline, He is saying to each one of us:“You are Mine. I love you. Come up higher.” By all means, ask for trouble to be taken away! But if it remains, then God is doing something else. He is saying to you — “come closer, let’s talk.” That is not upside-down thinking, it’s thinking that has turned the right way up. Bye 👋

P 3035 What eternal love looks like.

/ DVH

“The mature children of God are those who are moved by the impulses of the Holy Spirit. And you did not receive the “spirit of religious duty,” leading you back into the fear of never being good enough. But you have received the “Spirit of full acceptance,” enfolding you into the family of God. And you will never feel orphaned, for as He rises up within us, our spirits join Him in saying the words of tender affection, “Beloved Father!” For the Holy Spirit makes God’s Fatherhood real to us as He whispers into our innermost being, “You are God’s beloved child!” And since we are His true children, we qualify to share all His treasures, for indeed, we are heirs of God Himself. And since we are joined to Christ, we also inherit all that He is and all that He has. We will experience being co-glorified with Him provided that we accept His sufferings as our own.” Romans 8:14-17 TPT.

These verses in Romans clearly show us the depth of God’s passion for humanity … we are His. Jesus died to remove every single barrier between us and Father God. It’s like Song of Solomon 2:16 says:“My beloved is mine and I am His…”  That fact is irrefutable and repeated over and over again, throughout the bible. When we give our hearts, minds and lives to Jesus, He accepts what we give Him – what a privilege that is! We can only do this because He made us worthy. Don’t be like Esau and let someone, or anything else steal your birthright.

We belong to our Heavenly Father – because of Christ’s death and the choices He made – not by our own feelings or circumstances. Often our circumstances are far from ideal! What Jesus did for us, the price Father God paid, is where our faith needs to be anchored – not in what goes on around us. He paid a high price to call you His! This earthly life, good or bad, does not change what He said — “You belong to Me and you are Mine.”

We were made ‘good enough’ because of what God Himself did, Jesus paid a debt we could never pay. “But when this priest (Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time He waits for His enemies to be made His footstool. For by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy, the bible says.” Hebrews 10:12-14. I like that last sentence, verse 14, very much. I am “…being made holy…” That means I ain’t there yet, and …neither are you. However, our imperfections are not the feature film here … His great love is! It would be such a shame to miss out on the main feature because we are distracted by the local news’ highlights!

Jesus did more than simply save us from our sins — it was an exchange. He gave us His holiness – His righteousness, His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. We simply need to take Him at His Word and act on that Word, daily. We’ve been reborn into His family. The fatherless now have a Father. The orphan has been adopted. In the meantime, we need to be about our Father’s business, too. 

There is a short-cut that will help us find out why we are here, and what we have been chosen to contribute for the Father’s kingdom. People want to find out what their “gifts” are – and the best way to do that is to choose to walk the Way of LOVE.  We deliberately choose to be guided by how Jesus defined love. His  Love lasts. It quite simply can’t run out, because now we have entered into the eternal! It doesn’t care if nobody sees it in action, it hopes for the best in every situation – no matter how negative the situation is. The good news is His Love can’t fail. Our gifts will be manifested when we walk in love.

Sometimes I get stuck in my thoughts about the Body of Christ. I look at Jesus’ Bride and I get puzzled about the way we are going. We do not look like a Bride Who is getting ready for a wedding. Instead we seem to be focussing on the here and now, and not on eternity – eternity is the marriage! We are now eternal beings. Let’s look forward to seeing our Bridegroom — even in the middle of all this stuff down here – the stuff is temporary, heaven is not!

When human beings love someone, our thoughts about them are all positive. However, our flesh cannot define God’s Love nor can we define our worth by our standards. The God of all the universe, Who loves His Son … and loves us –– let Jesus be mistreated, badly spoken about and slaughtered! That’s what eternal love looks like! Now we need to live in that greater reality. Right here, right now. These present light infirmities are nothing in the light of what He died to give us. It seems to me that sometimes we really don’t understand the magnitude of what we’ve been given.

We should never even entertain the thought of not-being-good-enough, even for a second … look at the price He paid to buy us all back! Jesus took our never-will-be-good-enough to the cross with Him …“…having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved…” Ephesians 1:5-7. We are dearly loved, and made good enough by SomeOne Else’s voluntary sacrifice – now we live this life receiving, rejoicing, and giving thanks for God’s lavish love. Bye 👋.

P 3033 Love’s Way.

/ DVH

God’s Love manifests itself in a different way to our love. Human beings often hand out love to others like it is a prize for pleasing us. Or we think it needs to be bestowed upon people we really really like. That is not God’s Way. God’s Love exists far, far above our human behaviour, that is why our love will not do!  His love seeks to bring out the best in us. It does not hold grudges, or remember the past, it does not self-protect. Think about it. Jesus hung on that cross for all the world to see, yet He was totally innocent of any crime. They had to make something up to even capture Him. At the same time, He chose to suffer injustice to provide us with Mercy.. 

Every single thing that was said about Him by His enemies was not true. He IS God and what He said was not blasphemy. Our lack of understanding of what God would look like, and what He would do – caused people to misjudge the Lord. And yet He still stood there, accused and silent. He suffered through a terrible, unwarranted death, and He went through all of it unprotected by His Father, or thousands of angels, or even the men that followed HIm. He allowed Himself to be murdered and made a mockery of, for humanity’s sake. 

Peter actually tried to protect the Lord by chopping off someone’s ear, and the Lord immediately spoke to him about it. Jesus’ response amazes me, because even when He was under so much threat and pressure —He still responded with LOVE. He repaired that man’s ear, and taught Peter a lesson, right in the middle of the worst time of His life. He was suffering from terrible betrayal, by those He loved best. Jesus virtually said to Peter: “That is not the way I want you to live! You will die if you live like that!” Meanwhile God does not need our protection. A useful thing to remember. 

Love is far more powerful than revenge or hatred or even self-defence. To me, this makes learning to love the way God loves incredibly important. Otherwise my motivation can become pretty suspect because it comes from an ungodly self-centred motivation. I can convince myself that I am doing something or other for you, and at the same time, I can ignore the way I am doing it and how it hurts you. The point is —I can’t trust my own judgement! I need a Helper to help me to transform my thinking to be like His. Even though I am actively renewing my mind, my judgment can still be impaired by the way my thoughts and feelings have framed everything else that has happened to me. I need an outside reference – Jesus Himself is that reference.

Here’s a tiny bit of ?useful? info. It is not always true — however I have observed many times in my life that people do not do bad things TO you … they do those things FOR themselves. In other words it ain’t personal! Those hurtful things may not be aimed AT you … those people are protecting themselves, or ambitious for themselves etc. They could use you as an excuse for their own behaviour,  but that can mean that you have somehow threatened them. 

Let’s look at what happened to Jesus. The ruling religious people could not find fault with the Lord’s behaviour, but they were scared witless that what He taught and did, would take away their own little world, where they felt important … They were scared and jealous. They recognised that Jesus was SomeOne with more authority than they had, and He was able to do the kind of things that grabbed the attention of the people. Meanwhile fear only produces chaos and we can’t afford to give in to it. We must voluntarily choose to learn to be perfected in Love.

In difficult situations  when we can’t easily sort things out, look for the fruit produced by what has happened. Don’t look at what someone else said or has done – review your own behaviour. Look for the log in your own eye. What is, or what has been the result of the situation? Do people love each other more? Do they trust each other more? Instead of excusing your own behaviour, and accusing others — look for opportunities to give Grace room to show up! All sorts of nasty little minions hide under the heading of FEAR. The good news is His perfect Love throws fear out and He replaces it with Himself.

The cross released a flow of Grace and Love that is still flowing today, 2000+ years later. But we need to choose to jump into that river and let love win. We need to stop standing on the banks of all that living water, telling each other “isn’t that lovely, doesn’t that look pretty?” Christianity is a participatory lifestyle not just a collection of pretty, sometimes useful thoughts. It is a WAY to live — and that Way is called the WAY OF LOVE.  

The Lord Jesus showed all of us how to live that lifestyle. You never turn it off! And the Holy Spirit will walk with us and remind us of how love thinks and behaves. Every circumstance is an opportunity. As we move on through this life we cannot afford to have a thought in our heads that Jesus would not have had in His. That means, especially for me – I’m going back to school, even at my age, because I simply must learn how to live by LOVE’s Way. Bye. 👋.

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 3031 The Holy Spirit loves to remain.

/ DVH

Acts 3:11-12: “And as the lame man who had been healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch, which is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering. And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, “Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man walk?”

Peter himself says: ‘don’t look at me! I don’t have that power, and I’m not special.’ Listen to what he says to the beggar in verse 6: “Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” I think this illustrates clearly something that might lead us astray when it comes to healing and the power of God. Remember, these guys were fresh from the day of Pentecost, full of the Holy Spirit and His purposes. This is just a throw-away line toward the bystanders to sort out their wrong theology. However, Peter’s point is very clear – WE don’t heal people, GOD does.

My secondary point is that this healing is about the Holy Spirit’s character, not our ability to be holy! We will live our lives holy when we choose to remain in Him, and we let Him remain in us. It is about our heart attitude. Don’t go after holiness, you can end up in legalism that way. Seek His Presence whenever you spend time with Him, and then just follow His instructions from the book. EG: If you are angry – fix it. Attention to repentance is a necessary attribute.

At this time, Peter was absolutely overflowing with the Holy Spirit’s Presence, and ministered to the beggar’s need out of the overflow. THAT IS A GREAT PLACE TO TO AIM AT. Living in the overflow of His love. Peter doesn’t just give God glory — He SEES His glory everywhere! That’s what we need to see, God with us, everywhere. We can end up doing all sorts of things, claiming this, and praying that, because human beings need healing etc. — but the truth is that we only have what He gives us … and He gave us Himself!

What did Peter have if he didn’t have power or holiness? He had the ongoing greatly cherished Presence of the Holy Spirit within him. That’s why he could give away what He had! He imparted God’s presence to this beggar and the Presence of God made the man well. This is the reason, BTW, that I don’t much like the terminology “anointing” — the word “anointing” implies that the power of God is a thing, something incredible that some people have or do. Unfortunately we can use that as an excuse so we don’t have to be obedient. EG: “I don’t have the anointing, but that guy does.” Anybody can walk with the Holy Spirit if their aim is to make Him welcome in their lives.

The Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost and He has never left. Peter had a Person living within Him, teaching Him, guiding Him, the Holy Spirit not a thing or tool we can use! This man deeply loved and cared for the Holy Spirit so the Holy Spirit remained with Him. Peter probably gave up many things, simply because he loved the Holy Spirit’s Presence more. Walking with the Holy Spirit is a matter of Who we cherish, not some special thing that we can’t do that someone else can. 

Here’s a small illustration: When we go to a restaurant, someone comes to our table to ask us what we would like from the menu … we tell the waiter and he tells the cook. The cook makes the dish, but the waiter is just the delivery person. In God’s marvellous ways, we are the vehicle, the waiter God uses to bring whatever He wants to those who are needy. 

Why is that so important? Because if we feel we must somehow have the power, or be holy …  or supposedly have the anointing before we pray for others— we can easily feel too intimidated to even try! Instead we end up  wandering about looking for feelings and signs and wonders to prove to us that we can do the very thing Jesus Himself told us to do! The bible says we can do this. Sadly, sometimes if we still don’t see anything we can also think –‘I can’t pray for the sick.’ Yes you can, because the RESULTS aren’t up to you. Jesus said “YOU lay hands on them and THEY will recover.” 

Like most Christians, you talked to Jesus this morning, about your life and the universe etc. You know His voice – through the bible, or in the depths of your heart when He speaks to you. We simply take that attitude with us wherever we go. We choose to be protective regarding our Beloved Friend the Holy Spirit, this means that we don’t do this or that, because He doesn’t like it.

You and I don’t have to have some kind of wonderful power to pray for others … (yes I know Jesus said ‘you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you’) but that POWER is a PERSON. We intentionally live this life – the only one we have – walking with His Spirit, and we follow His instructions. If the person gets well, He did it and if they don’t, all that happened was we tried to obey. 

We minister out of our own ongoing personal relationship with Him and that is an ever-increasing  developing thing. It grows like all relationships grow, by nurturing it, protecting and cherishing it.. The Holy Spirit’s language is LOVE.  We will see He is with us when we speak LOVE … and love is patient, kind, full of faith and hope etc. plus it is sacrificial. Love doesn’t resent sacrifice, because we don’t do this stuff for people or performance – we do it purely because we love Him.

We may need to sacrifice many things, actions, speech, attitudes – in order to maintain our relationship with the Holy Spirit – because this world we live in promotes the things He hates. But He wants to remain with us, that’s why we cherish and chase LOVE. At the same time, we cannot afford to define love, HE DOES. He’s the only One Who can be trusted to do it accurately. Don’t live chasing the symbol of His Presence – chase HIM.  Bye for today, 🥰.