Clean conscience

P 3205 A Clear Focus.

/ DVH

“We look away from the natural realm and we focus our attention and expectation onto Jesus Who birthed faith within us and Who leads us forward into faith’s perfection. His example is this: Because His heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be His, He endured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation, and now sits exalted at the right hand of the throne of God!” Hebrews 12:2 TPT.

If that scripture doesn’t move our hearts toward total surrender then I don’t know what will! The idea and actuality of  “…knowing you would be His …” is something none of us have earned or deserved. Even our desire to follow Jesus, wholeheartedly, or not … comes from the One Who birthed our faith on a cross, as He hung there dying. The thing is, I’ve noticed many Christians act like dying to self is an optional extra. It isn’t. 

Because we have been born again. and made the choice to participate in the obedient act of baptism — all that is a declaration of our intent to die to self. Now, day by day we live out that intention by monitoring and adapting our own choices, with His help. It may be a choice, but if we choose not to die, we won’t produce fruit. “Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies …”  Many Christians live in this nether world. They feel like failures because they can’t produce the stuff, and yet they long to please their Lord with all their hearts. Because they don’t know what comes AFTER baptism.

It is only when we choose to focus on dying to self daily, that we will find the new life Jesus talked about all the time. Every time we say ‘no’ to self and ‘yes’ to Him, we are choosing to die, and His spiritual fruit of self-control begins to build and grow inside us. It takes a while for a nub on an apple tree to grow a fully mature apple. But the thing is – that apple doesn’t leap on and off the tree during the process! It clings to the tree because the apple tree provides the nutrients for it to grow. Jesus said in John 15:4: “Remain in Me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me.”  Let’s choose to know what Jesus said, thought, and did — because that is now the source of His life in us. We live as He lived, through our own freely-made choices, because we trust Him.

Clinging to Jesus is the only way we can grow. What He did at Calvary and in His death, has out-of-this-world  power to overcome, in it. “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” Matthew 28:16. In this particular scripture, the Lord had already conquered death, defeated the devil and his minions, and now He is returning to hand over the reins to His disciples. We don’t participate in the power of God by simply claiming it, we operate in the power of God by believing what He said and acting on it. Our decisive death to self opens the door to living differently. We will not misuse Christ’s power when we learn about the cost, personally! 

His power has been given to us, and is available to us, to appropriate. So now we can leave being selfish, self-centred, and our uncaring self, behind – and grow into lovers of Jesus, who would gladly die for Him and others! Now we choose to daily walk as He walked, in humility, with His love for His Father guiding His every step. Jesus treasured His fellowship with His Heavenly Father. So He made hard decisions, against Himself, and His preferences, in order to walk with His Father, and bring heaven down here to earth.

Every step of faith we take, under the Holy Spirit’s guidance frees us from the chains, distractions and tyrannies of this world. Don’t let the words, death, dying, unselfish etc. put you off. We don’t do any of this in our own  strength, our obedience flows as we choose His ways. We grow there, one choice at a time. I read the bible, and I can see what God wants for me, so I just do what He says! This process may be progressive, but it was never designed to be static. Progressive, forward movement is part of the deal. We participate in growing fruit by clinging to the vine, that is Christ, and through that we learn how to live a life of Love.

“For we reach the goal of fulfilling all the commandments when we love others deeply with a pure heart, a clean conscience, and sincere faith.” 1 Timothy 1:5. It’s the way we love, that affects our hearts. The pure heart, clean conscience and sincere faith comes AS we learn to walk with the Holy Spirit. In the beginning, it seems like trial and error, but as we keep choosing Him and keep walking with Him, we discover that loving others starts to flow. Whenever we say or do something dumb, now we will want to immediately repent. WHY? Because we are walking with LOVE Himself and He is a joy to walk with.

The more you walk with Him, the more you want to walk with Him. Our focus changes from ‘me and what I want’to seeking ‘His kingdom and what He wants.’  I no longer have to make myself witness it begins to leak out of me. The other day I grabbed a lady’s hand and just started praying for her – and I didn’t even ask her permission! I was half-way through praying when I realised, I may have committed some sort of human faux pas! In those moments He’s just as real to other people as He is to you. Let us steadfastly, devotedly, and clearly focus our attention on the things that last.  Bye. 👋

P 2727 This is our way forward.

/ DVH

Hubby sent me this lovely bit of writing the other day and it was so sweet I wanted to put it here, today. It’s from: “I hear His Whisper”:.. and it’s called – “Kindness reveals My nature.”

“When you act toward others with a heart overflowing with compassion, you are living out the very heartbeat of My mercy. When you line your life with kindness, you cannot miss the blessings of My kingdom. Your return will be great when you live a life of generous love.

I tell you the truth: acting in love toward others may sometimes feel like the greatest sacrifice. However, when you train your heart in generosity, you purify your motives. I delight when you reflect My magnanimous love by choosing to extend mercy to others. Self-defense won’t get a person very far in life, but look at the rich lives of My beloved ones who live to benefit others. 

Rather than seeking only to fill their own bellies, they freely give to others in need. Model your life after the generous rather than the stingy, and you will live in the beautiful blessing of a clean conscience. Look to Me whenever you need grace to empower your choices. I will always help you!” written by Brian Simmons

Hebrews 13:16 TPT:“We will show mercy to the poor and not miss an opportunity to do acts of kindness for others, for these are the true sacrifices that delight God’s heart.”

I love it when I read something that exhorts me to live this life to the full and it shows me how to walk with Him. Bonus buy … isn’t it wonderful that things like this delight His heart! To be honest, I’m sick to death of long winded theories on how to be a better Christian, and things that have never seem to work out for me. I can’t seem to stay the prescribed course, and then I fall on my head and get disheartened. Sigh. I’m always glad for the person who wrote the book etc. it just doesn’t seem to be my thing. My memory ain’t what it used to be, so I forget what I’m supposed to be doing almost immediately. Cultivating kindness and generosity suits me better, because it isn’t hard to remember and it has a powerful effect!

I have noticed that different sorts of lives have different handicaps. For instance, I can no longer do the sort of things that other people take for granted. But I also know that others are handicapped by busyness and their essential activities as they try to press forward into their high calling in the Lord. Some people are handicapped by their home circumstances — they have parents or children, or spouses or friends that don’t support their Christian POV. Some are trapped financially. I think that we all have difficult lives in this modern world. Today’s special thought from Brian Simmons is a great example of how anyone can live this life for His sake, even when there are other things making their lives difficult … simply by living generously.

We can also choose kindness – and when we do so we are revealing the Lord’s own nature. And the bonus bit is that we don’t necessarily have to have a speaking gift! Generosity speaks its own language. I love this kind of over and above giving because the Holy Spirit has taught us personally about the power that lies in unexpected kindness through giving. I find it opens doors that we can’t see, in other people’s hearts. We’ve both seen people who are very restrained and quite formal, suddenly divulge all sorts of info about themselves in response to something or other we did. 

Today I want to talk about the ways I’ve noticed kindness can transform things that seem to be rock solid. Being kind as well as generous is an incredible way to bless others and open up hearts – ours, and someone else’s too. First of all, we can actively choose to be kind, loving and forgiving, when we know that the other person is expecting a totally justified rebuke. This sort of kindness is incredibly powerful. It can be tempting to take advantage of a situation where one person has done something damaging, and we are on the wrong end of it. But when we are generous with our love, forgiveness and kindness, we can be used by the Lord to usher in change into their lives. Kindness opens doors.

It can give energy and hope to the weak. Whether the person is weak in spirit, or mind or body, it energises others when we treat them with respect and love. At one time we saw a severely disabled man on the street. He was unable to control many of his bodily functions. His carer was a charming kind man, mopping up for him with a loving touch. The carer was so happy to chat to us, but I must confess that we wanted to talk to the person in the chair! The disabled young man’s whole bodily demeanour indicated that there was nobody home, but as we spoke to him – his face came alive. He couldn’t speak, but his eyes shone. It was almost as though he responded to the love and said: “You can see me!” We told him we could see how brave and courageous he was, and we prayed for help and healing from the Lord. We kind of floated away from that interaction much more blessed than the young disabled man was! 

Kindness like Mr Simmons mentioned above also shows up in generosity. God will always repay us when we give to unselfishly to others. That’s because HE is where kindness comes from – so we are mirroring Jesus’ example. The truth is, we’ve noticed you can get blessed by paying attention to the way the Lord repays you! I know someone who used to make up boxes of food for people in their congregation who were doing it tough. They’d fill a basket or a box with the kind of things that these folks could not afford, plop the box on their doorstep, ring the bell — and run away … like naughty children ringing a doorbell and escaping before being caught! 😂 Someone hid around the corner to watch the response. They said doing that was so much fun, and they highly recommended it for unexpected excitement and joy. 

The bible clearly says: “it is more blessed to give than to receive:”(Acts 20:35) and our task is to personally prove that scripture is active and effective! I know it cuts away possessiveness and the desire for more stuff we don’t need! Human beings can get so caught up in their own terrible circumstances, or this or that bit of dreadful news, we can forget God has a plan and He has given His kids the power to change things. We may not be able to change the course of a war, but we can pray and intercede for those trapped inside one. 

Kindness and generosity are powerful weapons in our spiritual arsenal of God’s ever-increasing love and mercy. I believe this is our way forward into reaching the world. Bye. 👋