Confidence

P 2273 Look for fruit.

/ DVH

“But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions: joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness in action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit. Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless.” Galatians 5:22-23 TPT. 

One of the biggest problems with knowing about something, or someone, is familiarity. We often gloss or rush through familiar words without true comprehension. We simply don’t take it in. It is just too easy to mentally say ‘yeah yeah – I get that bit’  and miss the point! What is in Galatians above is HOW we identify the Holy Spirit. In other words, in order to know the Holy Spirit as a Person, we need to be able to identify what He does, and what His Presence produces, so that we are living aware of Him. 

The Holy Spirit is not just goosebumps, laughter or tears or any other feeling. Sometimes He is present with us but we feel nothing. His presence can produce feelings, but those feelings are not Who He is – because He is so much more than feelings! He made everything we see around us.  He needs to be our very very best friend. Having the Holy Spirit for ‘the Friend Who sticks closer than a brother’ is a fantastic aim. 

Jesus would not have sent Him back to all of us, if we did not desperately need Him. I believe Christ would never have gone away and left His disciples if He didn’t have absolute confidence in the Holy Spirit’s ability to grow them up and to lead them in the ways of righteousness. The Holy Spirit’s Presence immediately eclipsed their fears. It would be a tragedy to sing ‘Blessed Assurance’ and not have any assurance that He loves us and wants to be with us!

I think this is why His qualities are listed in the passage above. That description shows us the fruit of His presence in our lives. The reason I am writing about this today, is, we often do not recognise Him when He is present. Instead of looking for feelings, we need to start recognising His fruit. There are some people that I know and love, and whenever I’m around them I immediately see His fruit in their lives.

If we are to walk with Him day by day, minute by minute, it seems to me we totally need to know what He looks like, plus what He sounds like, when He is around. The Holy Spirit is the very epitome of modesty and gentleness, He is literally invisible. So finding Him can be difficult. His continual presence is our constant quest. We need to do whatever is necessary to protect our relationship with Him. If we need to repent, then we repent and stop doing whatever it is by making Godly choices.  

Whenever He’s around this world looks very different. The things we think we can’t do at all, suddenly seem utterly possible because His presence evokes confidence in God in us. If we reduce the Holy Spirit to feelings then we will miss Him, because He chooses to be about the Father’s business the same way Jesus was. Like the scripture in Galatians says, He is constantly producing fruit – in our lives and in the lives of others around us. Jesus told us we would know what kind of tree it is by its fruit.

It isn’t enough to sing worship songs Sunday by Sunday, and feel peaceful inside. That’s just the beginning, not the whole thing, what we need to be looking for is a change in ourselves and the people around us. We need to be able to identify in ourselves, those times when we feel upheld by His grace. Without His fruit, we will have limited evidence of His presence. His fruit is not about being nice or polite. HE changes and renews our hearts as we obey and embrace His words. Instead of losing our temper etc., we suddenly find, because we cherish having Him active in our lives, that we have extra grace to endure. This is how spiritual fruit grows, it grows through the process of obedience to His word and His particular instructions for us individually.

The Holy Spirit’s fruit cannot be imitated, it has to be carefully tended and nurtured within our own lives. We need to value Him above everything and everyone else. We must respect what God is doing in us, and take every opportunity to feed and protect His fruit by choosing to remaining obedient, and willingly. Fruit matures as we obey, then rest and wait. Our part is to stay attached to the (vine) tree. Staying attached to Him will mature His fruit. Bye. 👋🏻 

“And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Savior, the Holy Spirit of Truth, Who will be to you a friend just like me—and We will never leave you. The world won’t receive Him because they can’t see Him or know Him. But you know Him intimately because He remains with you and will live inside you. Jesus replied, “Loving Me empowers you to obey My word. And My Father will love you so deeply that We will come to you and make you our dwelling place.” John 14:16-17, 23 TPT

P 2271 Our God does not say ‘WHOOPS.’

/ DVH

He doesn’t even think it. Let’s look in the book shall we? “He offers a resting place for me in His luxurious love. His tracks take me to an oasis of peace near the quiet brook of bliss. That’s where He restores and revives my life. He opens before me the right path and leads me along in His footsteps of righteousness so that I can bring honour to His name. 

Even when Your path takes me through the valley of deepest darkness, fear will never conquer me, for You already have! Your authority is my strength and my peace. The comfort of Your love takes away my fear. I’ll never be lonely, for You are near. You become my delicious feast even when my enemies dare to fight.

You anoint me with the fragrance of Your Holy Spirit; You give me all I can drink of You until my cup overflows. So why would I fear the future? Only goodness and tender love pursue me all the days of my life. Then afterward, when my life is through, I’ll return to Your glorious Presence to be forever with You!” Psalms 23:2-6 TPT 

I suggest that we put aside whether the Passion Translation is a proper translation or not… and just jump into these words, and sit in them like it’s a nice hot bath tub full of bubbles. 🛁 We dare not look at the Bible just for instructions or correction – there are times when we need to soak in the meaning of His words.  So here’s what I think, jump on in today and enjoy. 

Our Heavenly Father’s words toward mankind are thoughts and plans to give us hope and a future. The most important thing we can do is to remember, God has a purpose in everything. However every time we see a negative purpose in what the Lord is doing, we are taking a club and battering our faith all around the edges. Our Heavenly Father is where all goodness comes from, He doesn’t do bad. Right now, this particular plump chicken is in a meadow of His choosing, sitting down. He led me here via my recent staircase accident. Sometimes I get so busy trying to make my life have meaning, I forgot my life already has meaning … I AM HIS! 

It is important that some facts about our Heavenly Father’s personage and character are clearly established in our minds. God is good and He is for us. There is no ‘but’ in that sentence! Jesus Christ came and died to give us a place in His Father’s heart, His love is toward mankind – there is no race, colour, creed, or age, or state of health that will exempt us from the blessing of enjoying His love – only our own choices nullify that.            

“He offers a resting place for me in His luxurious love…. That’s where He restores and revives my life…” When we forget how kind the Lord, we end up doing the next thing, one foot after the other, and we can easily lose our focus on His everlasting goodness. If our enemy cannot get us to sin, and focus on that, creating distance from God – then he will do his best to distract us with circumstances. The thing to do is to hold fast to His goodness – it is almost like a central pole in a giant marquee that holds everything up.

The Lord does not ever say, “Whoops”, because unlike you or I, He doesn’t make mistakes. People are God’s crowning achievement … you are not a mistake. Every single aspect of our lives is under His gaze. If we sin, He knows the way out. If we get lost we just have to yell ‘help’ and He will come and find us. Remember that story about the lost sheep? He only means us good. So we can say with confidence, no matter how it ‘looks’ – His love, His patience and all those other wonderful things described in 1 Corinthians 13 are always coming toward us like waves on a seashore. 

Sometimes the very best thing we can do is to rest in those words. Nothing in our lives is meaningless. If we continually keep ourselves too busy, then we will miss out on the little wells of silence and comfort that are given to us so we can face the next barrage that comes at us. He does not say ‘Whoops’ because everything about us is under His jurisdiction, protection and gaze. Bye 👋🏻.

P 2255 A true intercessor.

/ DVH

In Genesis 18:23-25. Almighty God and Abraham are dialoguing about Sodom and Gomorrah. “Then Abraham approached Him and said: “Will You sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

This is, by far, one of my very favourite verses in all the bible. This mighty man, Abraham, the Father of our Faith, has such incredible confidence in the Character of God! We all need this kind of confidence in Who our God is, and know His Ways, intimately. I pray the people of these current generations know the Lord so well, that they cannot comprehend Him doing anything evil! We all need that kind of confidence and knowledge about Him, desperately. Abraham is extremely respectful, but he insists.

This passage in Genesis is what I think that an intercessor looks like. I know many people think intercessors spend hours on their faces praying and interceding for the lost – and I praise God for that kind of gift! However I’d be overjoyed to have 5 minutes of someone praying for me, for my life and future, with this sort of confidence in God Himself. 

Abraham was interceding for the people in Sodom and Gomorrah, and they didn’t even know their fate. However God knew their hearts, and He had purposed to deal with the evil in this city. But one man stood in the breach and had a conversation with God about their destruction. Abraham’s point of intercession was not about the people, or their wickedness, or deeds … it was all about HIS CONFIDENCE IN THE CHARACTER OF GOD – He challenged God to do right.

If you read Chapter 18 you will see he gets pretty overwhelmed somewhere in the middle of this conversation. It is almost like he’s kind of got his big toe almost outside the door, ready to run, 😐 but he still talking and still bargaining for these lives. We need this kind of intercessor, today, people who hold God to His word. We can see that this man learnt the Father’s Ways as he journeyed with Him from Haran to Canaan.

However, the basis of Abraham’s prayers are about Who God is! The Father’s reputation. I have heard it taught before that perhaps Abraham did not bargain hard enough for these people to be saved. I don’t know about that – but I love this man who stood toe to toe with Almighty God and pleaded for the lives of these people, whether they deserved it or not. Please do not tell me that God doesn’t love or care about everybody – I don’t believe you. This is what He is like, right here in these few verses – He doesn’t just love good people – He loves all of mankind. Jesus died for all. The penalty that was paid indicates Almighty God’s estimation of worth!

Jesus Christ Himself prays and intercedes for us with even more fervency than Abraham shows here – we are so blessed to be alive NOW! I think you can see Father God’s righteous loving Character so clearly through Abraham’s confidence in Him, when this man speaks and negotiates with God. If the Lord had disagreed with him, He would have told Abraham not to bother praying for them. In my heart this is what real prayer looks like! It looks like this kind of confidence in God’s goodness. The Body of Christ must go far, far beyond the places we’ve already been before – right into His heart, and gain further understanding of His love for everyone. 

Meanwhile, just prior to the above verses God says this, in Genesis 18:17 “Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” I think that this is what true intimacy between God and man looks like. Father God regards Abraham with respect. This shows us over and over again, that the Lord loves to dialogue with mankind. What you and I can hear throughout the the pages of the bible, is His disappointment that the man He made doesn’t love Him back!

The wonderful old Patriarchs, Abraham and Moses, knew God in ways we can only imagine. However, we are so blessed to be alive today in this world we live in. Praise God we have the joy of knowing the Answer – Jesus! We can know the Father through Christ, even better than these men did. Jesus Christ is now our perfect intercessor. Let’s not live in the shallows, let’s dive deeper into the Bible, together with prayer, so we can know and understand Who He is, and what He wants, and fight for it. 

We need to learn how to pray with understanding for His heart, and His desires and passions. Let’s AIM bigger. We’ve been aiming at too little for too long. We need men and women who intercede like Abraham! 👋🏻

P 2187 Let God be God.

/ DVH

“Everyone look! Come and see the breathtaking wonders of our God. For He brings both ruin and revival. He’s the one who makes conflicts end throughout the earth, breaking and burning every weapon of war. Surrender your anxiety. Be still and realize that I am God. I am God above all the nations, and I am exalted throughout the whole earth. Here He stands! The Commander! The mighty Lord of Angel armies is on our side! The God of Jacob fights for us! Pause in His Presence.” Psalms 46:8-11 TPT.

With everything that is going on in this world today, we just have to give all that stuff over to Him and let God be God. Mainly because we have no clue how to negotiate such a mess. Human beings can use up an awful lot of energy trying to control things in this life. As I’ve said before, other people do not have your script. And even if you carefully explain your plans – that doesn’t mean others are going to like them! Plus what other people want probably won’t fit in with our seemingly fantastic thoughts and desires. and so they can and will object. Sometimes very loudly! It can be extremely difficult to let go of things when we think we know the way stuff should go.

I just want to say today, that for many years the Lord had to practically arm wrestle me, to get me to let go of things I really had no control over in the first place – but I wanted to control them anyway! In my current physical circumstances I have had to learn to let everything go, because nowadays I can barely control my body, let alone other people! But back then I would pray pretty, nice-sounding prayers to try to convince the Lord to see things my way, because I was quite sure I knew what was the best outcome.

And before you look at me sideways, I’m guessing that we all do that? “I want what YOU want Lord,” is such a hard prayer to pray. It kind of gets stuck somewhere in our throats. I have some theories about why it is that is true. I don’t think we know our Heavenly Father’s Ways well enough and sometimes … we just plain don’t trust Him. Even though the bible is chock full of descriptions of how trustworthy He is! Go figure. Plus, we have Jesus Himself as a living, documented example of His Father’s attitudes toward human beings. And yet, sometimes, depending on how important the matter is – we still don’t trust Him. It seems to me that our finite minds cannot grasp God’s goodness on a grand scale. 

What to do? Admit your fault! That’s what I do, I tell Him I really don’t trust Him enough to take care of my kids, my life, my health, my family, my church, my future. Meanwhile, you can see that problem immediately can’t you? 🙄  It’s that sneaky little word ‘my.’ When I find myself grasping at things, trying to make them work somehow, it means that I’ve taken over again. However, I have learnt to stop, and assess where my confidence in His goodness went.

And most of the time it will be an area where things did not go the way I thought they should. Maybe they even got worse. That unpleasant land of worse …or even some unanswered prayers … these things have taught me something over the years. I got desperate enough to find out why I was reacting like that.  Brother James helped me out. “You ask [God for something] and do not receive it, because you ask with wrong motives [out of selfishness or with an unrighteous agenda], so that [when you get what you want] you may spend it on your [hedonistic] desires.” James 4:3. Oh! How I’ve hated that verse!

Meanwhile, I could easily explain why my motivations were pure and kind … just ask me. 😶 Yet somehow, even at my age!… I still hate the word – “No!” So I’ve come to the conclusion I don’t like hard stuff much. I want my life to be easy and I want it to suit me. And changing that thought process has taken me down some very difficult roads. Like I’ve said before, I came from a time where ‘you are the Lord’s favourite kid’ was preached from the pulpit. I really liked that kind of sermon BTW. But because of that kind of teaching I had a wrong concept about Who was God and who wasn’t. Sigh … and it wasn’t me. Everybody out there should breathe a sigh of relief about that fact, believe me! I’d be appalling at it. I’d probably smite people first and say “whoops” afterwards. Fortunately, I’ve learnt some stuff since back there, but I still catch myself doing it!

I’ve written about this today because it occurred to me that this self-elevation may not only be my problem. If your prayers are going unanswered, check to see if He wants you to persevere … and if He doesn’t … then give up! Quickly! God obviously has much bigger, better plans than we do – and we need to use these kinds of opportunities to repent and be transformed. Perhaps we also need to learn to pray to endure, rather than be fished out of difficult circumstances. And … let God be God. He’s good at it. 👋🏻