Clones

P 3416 Do you — everyone else is taken.

/ DVH

The Lord has given us a brilliant tool – the bible – to help us to tighten up this screw of doctrine that may be loose, and that bolt of our creed that rusted out or needs replacing. That’s what the bible is for — transformation. It’s been given to us to encourage us day by day, and to correct our course when we wander off chasing random butterflies. The Lord “.. knows the plans He has for YOU, plans to give you a hope and a future …”

Jesus Christ, the Living Word, came to earth and died for each one of us. At the same time I know that Jesus is still continuing to speak, through ordinary vessels in His body. What HE says is important, not the vessel. We must stop putting pressure on our leaders by expecting perfection from them when we haven’t even achieved it for ourselves! Remember, what you and I know about Jesus, personally, is our testimony, and I don’t have your testimony! Neither of us need to be eloquent, we just need to be truthful. His Word is indestructible and more stable than the earth we stand on. My words won’t last one nano-second, but His Word stands forever. 

Personally, I believe that we will still be reading the bible in heaven. Why? Because it tells real stories of His love for us, and lovers love to hear things about each other. My faith is not in me, it is not in you — it is not in some famous brother or sister in the Lord who, praise God, reaches thousands of people. My faith is in the living written Word of God, the Living Word Himself, Jesus Christ! The Holy One. The Righteous One. Whatever He says is true.

The Lord Jesus saw the people around Him clearly, and He went right to the heart of the matter in their lives. He didn’t even have to try.  Love just flowed out of Christ like water. … Until one terrible wonderful day they pierced His side and then water flowed out onto, and into, this earth. God’s Word can teach us, you and I, how to see Him through our own renewed grateful, worshipful eyes. Here’s what Paul saw in Ephesians 3:9-11.

“Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose that He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Paul knew that Jesus had so much life in Him that one man was never going to be able to describe the Lord completely. So we have Luke, Mark, Matthew, John, Peter, James, John and Jude to help us. They are inspired by the Holy Spirit Who knows Jesus and our Heavenly Father personally. We can excuse our lack of sharing what we personally know about the Lord with others, by saying things like: “I’m not as eloquent as Paul ..” Who is??

The thing is, unless we choose to be someone who walks with Him, we will miss the blessing of holding the Holy Spirit’s hand and walking into brand new, and sometimes scary territory, but we will be taking that territory back for Christ. We are not just witnesses to what happened to Jesus, we are witnesses to what happened after He left this world! What He has done in your life and mine. 

We can’t beat any kind of fear by avoiding the things we are afraid of … we beat fear by facing it and doing whatever it is anyway.  And the glory of this whole administration of gifts is the Holy Spirit knows exactly how you should minister your gift. Someone else can point you in the right direction, but because the Lord knows you, inside and out, He knows how to walk you through truthfully witnessing and sharing His love with others.

God’s Word has millions of applications, and sadly, most of them are still hidden because the church just keeps right on copying the people we greatly admire. But everybody has something to contribute! Hubby recently kicked his toe on a skirting board at our house and he limped for ages. It hurt! He has nine other toes that didn’t hurt but when that one little toe met the skirting board it jumped up and down and made every other cell in his body aware that it was ‘not happy Jan!”

This is why I say: ‘don’t follow me, you’ll end up in a ditch.’ We can follow someone else the way they follow the Lord, but that is meant to lead to us into a bigger place, where we learn to be ourselves-in-Christ. This world doesn’t need clones, it needs real, truthful, testifying people. The Apostle Peter was very outspoken, yet you don’t hear a peep out of James, son of Alphaeus, who was also a faithful disciple – and one of the twelve. Yeah I didn’t know him either until I looked him up!

We have this incredible kaleidoscope of colour available to us and yet we keep painting Christ in monochromatic ways as we seek to influence this world around us. Let’s stop narrowing other people’s view of Him. Be the ‘you’ Christ meant you to be, sincerely walk with Him, and stay open to being transformed by being near Him. Do YOU! Someone else needs to hear you talk about HIM. Bye.👋.

P 3112 Bob the Builder just won’t do.

/ DVH

“If God’s grace doesn’t help the builders, they will labor in vain to build a house. If God’s mercy doesn’t protect the city, all the sentries will circle it in vain. It really is senseless to work so hard from early morning till late at night, toiling to make a living for fear of not having enough. God can provide for His devoted lovers even while they sleep!” Psalms 127:1-2 TPT

Psalm 127 has impacted me, because in the past, I was one of the wrong kind of builders, labouring in vain to make sure my ‘house’ looked good, ran fairly smoothly, and everyone in it was kept happy! I wanted to be a good witness for Jesus – and I failed.That’s too much weight for any human being — that’s why Jesus told us to give HIM our burdens! I had no idea that labouring in the flesh, together with maintaining positive talk – without any real substance to it— meant God was not building what He wanted, because I was in His way!

The real blessing of Jesus’ redemption is that it takes the mess we’ve made and utterly renews it, through asking for, and receiving the Grace of God into our lives! DAILY. Truthfulness with ourselves matters, and real intimacy with Him will bring us face to face with our own humanity. Back then, I prayed and waited, for my new life in Christ to fall on me …and … everything stayed the same. Actually, I think I got worse! At the same time I constantly felt that my life should be easier now, because Jesus was in it! That was what I was taught. But change doesn’t come from osmosis – it comes from obedience. 

I have always been rotten at being fake, but now it seemed like God Himself expected me to do it, so I gave it my all!! It was kind of a ‘fake it ’til you make it ’attitude. However, my poor behaviour was my own responsibility and I was lousy at changing me. It was years before I realised that there was far more power and grace released when Jesus died and rose again, than I had ever dreamed about! I’ve learnt that transformation comes when I obey what I am reading, whether I like it or not!  He died to give me that power too! Prior to that I thought if God loved you enough —.He would do it for you. You can just imagine the kind of conclusions I came to, when He didn’t!! Building a house involves work. We are going to have to build it brick by brick with His help and oversight, one step at a time.

I want to strenuously make the point that none of any of my fakey-fake attitude was the Lord’s fault! The teaching I had at that time made it sound like transformation was easy, you prayed, you woke up and you were different. You went to church regularly, prayed, read the bible, and … you were different. I did all those things and then… I learnt to hide my faults!  Transformation happens when we give a different response. The bible teaches us what kind of responses God is looking for, and the Holy Spirit has been sent to help us.

Father God is longing to get our attention. He isn’t going to use a trumpet or a donkey – He wants us to believe He really is that good and what Jesus did is complete. This means He points something out, and He shows us a way to overcome it, using HIS power – not our own strength. It is better, if we can’t be honest with ourselves or Him, to make that the subject of our prayers. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to be real with Him and honest with yourself. We can spend our Christian lives aiming our prayers at the leaves on the tree of our life, instead of going straight to the root of what is causing us to slowly die, spiritually, and lose hope.

In the end, I decided to only read the bible, instead of the hundreds of books in the Christian bookshop that made big promises, and delivered nothing but even more information! That stuff didn’t work for me. Reading other people’s books was like watching someone else make a sandwich, eating it, and expecting that I would get the same benefit they did! What I was aiming at was their revelation and Father God wanted to give me my own!! 

The things I write here have been written on my own heart through my own interactions with the Lord. I know that He wants to talk with you too. But please don’t follow ME, follow JESUS. There’s been way too much piggy-backing going on in our faith. If I follow someone else’s ideas and thoughts, instead of Jesus, I will end up with their limitations! There is no quick fix to transformation, because we have unfortunately cultivated weeds in our lives. We will always need Him to identify them and help us to pull them out.

Our journey with Jesus is personal. I can share with you, you can share with me, but until both of us admit that ‘without Him we can do nothing!’ …  then we are building a house that cannot stand. Jesus doesn’t want CLONES – He wants you to be you, and me to be me. The Holy Spirit was very particular when He made us both. He put things inside you that no-one else has. Now the Lord wants to express Himself through you to others, simply because you know Him and you know you are dearly loved by Him.

We don’t need Bob the Builder – we have the Master Builder, the Standby, the Precious Holy Spirit Who knows the way He wants you and I to go. Yes, we will repent of sin – often. Yes, there are truths we cannot, and must not avoid, because we all need transformation. It comes as we realise how much He loves us. Meanwhile we owe each other compassion for our frailties and disobedience, not judgment. We need to read His book and then act on what we read. And we continually ask for His help. That’s how you build the house. Read Matthew 7:24-27. Bye 👋.

P 2804 Thoughts from a Grannie.

/ DVH

Jesus is speaking to His disciples in John 14:15-17:“If you love Me, you will obey My commandments Then I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth, Whom the world cannot accept,because it does not see Him or know Him. But you know Him, because He resides with you and will be IN you.”

Christians all have a live-in … Counsellor; Comforter; Baptiser; Advocate; Strengthener; Sanctifier; Spirit of Christ; Spirit of Truth; Spirit of Grace; Spirit of Mercy; Spirit of God; Spirit of Holiness; Spirit of Life. And just because we cannot always hear or see Him at work, that does not mean He is not with us! He is FAR bigger than our measuring sticks, but unfortunately, He sometimes falls off our radar because … HE IS NOT LOUD.

This world we live in today likes to loudly feature what we can see, feel, touch, taste, and experience – it quite gladly shows us demons … … but refuses to acknowledge Almighty God! When SomeBody or something does not line up with our instantly focussed, darkly-imagined world, those people fall under suspicion and doubt – they are accused of trying to steal someone else’s fun away. They are restricting someone else’s freedom to express themselves. I think that’s when and why, we end up labelling things … without consulting the Creator’s greater knowledge. 

The reason Christians choose to get to know the Lord every single day, is because the Holy Spirit reveals the truth of the Word of God to us as we read it. He reminds us, over and over again, that Father God loves us dearly – He teaches us, step by step, that we are part of something far greater. At the same time, He is also praying for each and every human being, every second of every minute of our lives. I have learnt that the kingdom He comes from is so much bigger than the world I inhabit – so I have learnt to refuse to be limited by the things I don’t yet understand! I will be prayerfully careful with those things, but I refuse to be limited, because I have a limitless Father!

When I only look at my own limitations, or the limitations of the people around me, and I choose to be guided by them, I cease to grow. That’s when I have put ‘fitting into the status quo’ above ‘growth.’ Loads of people do that. Life kicked them in the teeth when they have tried to stretch, or extend the edges of their thoughts and now they are looking for safety more than adventure. Here’s what I have observed … safety becomes a BOX that limits my God-given possibilities. 

Jesus told us to be like little children, and healthy little children are curious. They start out in this life asking: “Why? Wat dat? How?” But instead of fostering that curiosity, human beings made a great big container and they named it school and instruction – and now we plonk these precious bundles of natural curiosity into it, hoping against hope that “school” will teach them… something – anything .. that means they can make a living some day. We are not trying to make decent human beings – just societally functioning ones.

Unfortunately, school rarely teaches most children how to think, instead they teach them how to learn. That channels most people’s thinking processes into established streams. It takes a very brave inquisitive child to push against these established schools of thought. Many children who refuse, for one reason or another, to be ‘streamed’ are labelled today with man-made diagnoses, that limit their ability even further to become who they are to God. If we want to go higher than the status quo – our aim should to be lift them higher than we’ve already come.

Sadly with these non-conformist kids we say: “something is wrong with that kid, so we will give it a great big name that means this kid is a dud who won’t do what it is told, or is too dumb to learn.” We limit them with our fear and labels. Oh, we do it nicely, because we’ve learnt to practice our PC, so we pat the kid on the head and say: “Poor baby, this one was born broken.” And then we use them as a statistic to prove our ideas are right.

Maybe in our societies today, the dollar has become more important than our kids, So instead of teaching them how to explore our world safely, we stick a lid on them and tell them this is all there is, that only a few people can grow up to be special. You can make great clones that way. However … God made us all individuals for a purpose. We each have a role to play in His plans for this world – and it won’t necessarily just be on the sporting field, stage or TV! 

What we call education, steals away His purpose, under the guise of things we must know to survive. It has stolen away faith from many, and labelled it ‘a minor need in some individuals who are already weak.’ It does not see faith as something that opens doors, it sees it as an enemy. It is our job, as parents, and grandparents, aunties, and uncles etc. to foster our children’s interest in this bigger world of faith. That bigger world is HIS world. And you can give your children a far better start in this life if you teach them how to really SEE – spiritually. Don’t expect our schools to do it, it’s our job to teach them about that bigger world, which is far realer than this one. 

Instead of just teaching them to digest facts and information that can be proved or disproved – let’s teach them about His kingdom. Let’s tell them what that looks like. Help your kids to see that words on a page in His book, can expand into dreams, visions, and a greater reality that will bless everyone, not just themselves. And that’s this Grannie signing off for today! Bye. 👋

P 2553 Ssssshhhhhh!

/ DVH

I John 3:9 “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.” This is an extremely comforting verse in all its aspects. To start with, if this world didn’t know the King of all glory, then I am not a failure if the world thinks I’m peculiar because I believe what I believe, and I act on it, seen or unseen.

Despite the fact that Christianity has been stuck in super-star mode for many years – the truth is, ordinary unknown people with 9-5 jobs, doing whatever the Lord tells them to do, day by day – are actually our greatest strength! They are the real army. Here’s why … ordinary people aren’t doing loving stuff to make a living, they are doing whatever they do because they love Jesus, as well as other people. Ask yourself, how do I show His grace and love to others? And please don’t try to be someone else – we need YOU to be YOU!  By all means, go for transformation, but we don’t need clones, we need the people God designed us to be, each one of us. He had a plan when He made you – don’t stuff it up by trying to be someone else!

Meanwhile my point is this:  we can’t and won’t all win some quiz show or talent contest or start some super church to give us fame and a platform, so then we can publicly testify to His loving kindness. If we aren’t already witnessing now, we will not witness then! Witnessing is a life choice. That whole fame thing is just a disaster waiting to happen. Lovely people can end up on the rocks simply because they’ve entered a much larger playing field, vastly unaware that the bigger the audience and responsibility we have, the greater the dangers, we will face! 

Human beings can easily fail, fall over and do dumb stuff, because it utterly messes with most people’s heads when they become important. They start to think that they are the only person on the planet that knows the truth. And, sadly, sometimes that idea works with churches too. Many churches nowadays affiliate themselves with others, to form some sort of sub-denomination, But the fact is, they have affiliated themselves with other people that they basically agree with, whose theology isn’t different from their own. There is not much reconciliation in there! We all need to be challenged beyond what we can manage in order to grow.

The truth is we can have a whole lotta theories, some of them are vastly untested – because to test stuff you have to live like it! I am aware that some of these theories have been tested by Brother or Sister ‘I’ve-written-ten-books-and-it-works-for-me-what’s-wrong-with-you? Hmmm. That scripture about our road being narrow and hard suddenly popped into my head, right now! The anointing of God is not a stamp of approval, it is freely given to us to empower us to love, bless and reach out to others! Many Christians slog along, trying hard, standing on their tiptoes. They are killing themselves trying to reach someone else’s mark! Jesus gave us the mark – LOVE GOD AND LOVE OTHERS!

In my life I have known a number of people over the years who were called by God to be evangelists. I would not call them ordinary, not by any stretch of anyone’s imagination! As a matter of fact, it seems to me, they can’t say: ‘hello how are you’ without getting right in your face and leading you to Jesus! I’m being serious!! Their calling is so intrinsically woven into His new creation in them … that they can’t help themselves! They simply don’t have an “off” button. They see this world through their gift. Whenever we meet, I had the strangest feeling that if George the evangelist went to the fish and chip shop to buy fish and chips for dinner, he’d end up evangelising everybody who came in the store, as well as all the people who stood behind the counter … and then he would step into the busy street! 

George has a gift – he didn’t earn it or deserve it – God Himself chose it and gave it to him. We need to be like George regarding the gifts God has given US. Things you spontaneously do to bless and help others. We have all been called to do what He chose for us to do. And over time, we will start to be flavoured by the gifts He has given us. Just find your gift and use it to benefit others. It ain’t rocket science!  At the same time we dare not use the Lord’s calling on our lives to make ourselves important. Jesus chose us and He saved us. He’s the One Who is important! Our greatest blessing in this life is to testify to that. Be glad to be ordinary — being extraordinary is not what it’s cracked up to be. Ask Moses!

This world does not know us, because we’ve been chosen to remain mostly unseen. We don’t have to be seen to do good to others. Anonymity is useful. I believe our greatest strength lies in our ordinariness. The time is coming when secret agents will do what all the evangelists in this world have not been able to do by themselves. Every single person on this planet will hear about Jesus and that won’t necessarily be from some huge evangelical campaign – instead it will come from people like you and I who testify that Jesus is entirely wonderful, because we know Him, personally. ”And as you go, preach this message: ‘Heaven’s kingdom realm is accessible, close enough to touch.’“ Matthew 10:7 TPT.  👋

P 2160 Avoid religion.

/ DVH

2 Timothy 1:12 “…for I know Him [and I am personally acquainted with Him] whom I have believed [with absolute trust and confidence in Him and in the truth of His deity], and I am persuaded [beyond any doubt] that He is able to guard that which I have entrusted to Him until that day [when I stand before Him].”  We need a God Who is wiser, more loving, and more incredible than we can imagine or think. Not a God Who obeys us!  I’m talking about THE God Who made heaven and earth!

Sadly, religion demands rules. We feel we must keep the rules, and steadfastly teach others to keep them, either actively or through disapproval. Religion has to have programs, agendas and numbers to prove its validity. Religion often uses fear and control. However, the Holy Spirit loves to start with just one person and Himself and call that a majority. Religion is not a fit container for the God of the Universe – He chose US, human beings, to be His PIPELINES OF LOVE into this world. The equalising and revelatory question in any given situation is – IS THIS LOVE? If it is not love, then it is not God.

You and I can always experience His love as it is spoken to us, from His word. The secret is to let His word minister to you. Don’t just agree with it … deliberately take it in. Act on it. Particularly those verses the Holy Spirit highlights to you, personally. Treat them like He is there, beside you, speaking them to you. Sadly, today in the body of Christ we feel we must shove our experiences onto someone else. Our God is so generous, He treats people as individuals. Experiences aren’t merit badges – they are for His purposes. 

Humanity has been given the opportunity to leave methods and systems behind, when Christ came and instituted a new commandment. ‘Love God … love each other.’  Over time, I’ve sometimes found that like-minded people like to club together, so they can agree. Then agreement becomes the priority not worship.That’s a great shame – when we always agree, we remain unchallenged in our beliefs, and stretching our faith is good for us. Romans 14:4: “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand…”  

Religion likes clones. One size fits all! But a living faith seeks to actively love each other in ways that build one another up so we all grow. BTW that does not exclude correction. Today’s world hates that word. Instead, we all must be politically correct, so everybody has to be seen as right – believers, non-believers… Respecting someone else’s right to be wrong is almost law. Meanwhile God could care less about being politically correct. His standards are already perfect – He’s too busy laughing at our silly ideas to care what we think we know! Psalm 2:4: “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.”

Religion is man’s way of trying to manage God. James tells us that true religion is looking after widows and orphans. What a difference that would make! Humanity does not want to have a God Who colours outside their specific lines. Especially not a God Who would send His Son as an infant, to die for everyone! Instead, they want to put animals on the same level as human beings. You often hear people say: “Oh I could never follow a God Who does … this and that … “ These people want a god they can understand, someone they can judge for his actions. They think by critiquing His work they can change Who He is. Lately I’ve even heard people who were so deluded they gave their god a female pronoun! Rhubarb. Religion wants a god who has to answer to us so we can just obey the rules and then walk away, and live this life however we want.

Walking with the Holy Spirit is our calling. In order to get along with each other, we ALL need HIM. HE is not a series of symptoms or signs that we use to diagnose who is in and who is out. They will know we are Christians by our love not by speaking in tongues or prophesying. Sadly I think we may have wa-ay too many people who know everything, and too few that actually, reverently, live that way instead. 👋🏻