Connection

P 2706 My thoughts about prayer.

/ DVH

Matthew 6:5-15 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, Who is unseen. Then your Father, Who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

Many people think of the Lord’s prayer as a model for prayer. I think prayer is simply talking to the Lord about the things that are bothering us, asking Him to help us. Rightly or wrongly I personally pray about temptation etc. when it comes up! Our Heavenly Father loves the kind of prayers prayed quietly, away from other people’s eyes, and approval. He doesn’t want long endless prayers, as a matter of fact, Jesus refers to that kind of prayer as the sort of prayer that is meant to impress God and others. Whatever someone’s reason is, praying quietly by yourself is a wonderful way to sit with Him. Jesus’ own prayers were personal and often private.  Moses talked to the Lord face to face, and sometimes Moses was ON his face, but it was personal!

The Lord’s prayer shows us our priorities in prayer. Our heavenly Father, and His role in our lives, then what He wants us to do in this life to bring about His kingdom. Our Father is not a just a title, it is a reality. If you think about that the next time you pray it will change everything! We are reminding ourselves of Who He is, and who we are not! After that we go on to pray for the people who sin against us. The thing is, we are praying because we see HIM as our Answer. We don’t need a list, we need connection. We are not going shopping, we are meeting with SomeOne Who loves us and is our great priority. We have been told that we can ask for the things we need. 

We all know that forgiveness is an ongoing need, it is an always optional decision to obey Him. What we do about someone else’s sin is carried out to honour Him. I have found that feelings come, and go, but prayer is like air – necessary. As I’ve said recently, I’ve been learning that we must simply let go of some people, as well as our expectations that they will change to meet our needs and make us more comfortable. Talking to Jesus, Who was a Master of letting go – is a fantastic idea. Praying for things means we have lost the importance of Who He is in our lives. He’s the priority – not just the answer!.

But what about when someone maliciously hurts you over and over again? Then we are suddenly at the pointy end of their jabbing stick. Forgiveness negates the pain of being prodded by memories over and over again. I’ve learnt to accept people from my past, as well those in the present, by letting go of their mean spiritedness, their attitude is not my business. We can easily have an unrealistic aim for others to be perfect. However, I know I’m not – so I can forgive you! Sometimes I have to let go of things and forgive, minute by minute, as well as daily. I make that decision FOR HIS sake, not the other people. I owe those people Love and I will receive that love by sitting in the Presence of the One Who did everything to restore me.

“…do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others” — it is not the size of our prayers or our ability to outtalk, or even outshine others, or present a good case— what counts is our relationship with the Lord – it’s Him we are talking to! He’s told us that unforgiveness cements us into a bad place. This whole thing comes down to what we care about the most. Our embarrassment, pride, or the desire to simply let go of the past – so we can all get on with our future. We injure ourselves when we hold onto things.

When we pray in secret this means we have become eligible for unseen blessings. Those things are only recognised by the person who prayed, unseen!  I don’t know if you have noticed this or not, but our wonderful Heavenly Father loves to do things in secret. When He asks us to pray that way, He is inviting us into a place where He often works, and at the same time we will get to know and understand Him in a new way.

If God knows what we need before we need it, it stands to reason in my peanut brain that if we do need it He will supply it! I have learnt to say to Him: “Surprise me!” and He does! Prayer is a privilege we all share because we love Him and we want to acknowledge Him first. Bye. 👋

P 2697 Half-heartedness. (Matthew 6:24)

/ DVH

“Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and with ALL your mind and with ALL your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31.

“Put your heart and soul into every activity you do, as though you are doing it for the Lord Himself and not merely for others. For we know that we will receive a reward, an inheritance from the Lord, as we serve the Lord Yahweh, the Anointed One!” Colossians 3:23-24 TPT.

It is easy to see why we might want to avoid confronting ourselves with verses like these, because they cut us to the core. Some verses are clearly directional, challenging and costly. Here’s free advice from me — don’t ask yourself IF these verses apply to you. ASK THE HOLY SPIRIT – He’s our personal Resident Expert. In my experience we can excuse ourselves from the hard bits in the bible much too quickly. That is when we will totally miss the greater blessing that is contained in HIS ANSWER. Obedience brings its own reward.

On a good day I can kind of wrangle up loving support for my neighbour, but loving God with all of me often defeats me. When I’m worshipping God in church maybe I have feelings like that, but living this out, all day, every day —  I know, for sure, in my own strength I can’t do that. I believe with all my heart that half-heartedness flourishes simply because we do not know the Lord intimately. We need to know His Ways. Time after time the Lord accused the Israelites of not knowing His ways. That happened when they stopped obeying Him and did what was right in their own eyes.

We know that what Christ said in Mark 12 above, was in the context of some sort of open forum. Jesus was engaging with the leaders who were the religious experts of His day. In a previous verse, V24, the Lord says this: “Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?“  These Jewish leaders had lost the power of God because they kept choosing to define Who He is to suit themselves. The result was that they had a spiritual veil over their eyes. They kept the letter of the law but missed His Spiritual direction behind it. Meanwhile the scriptures and the power of God are meant to go together. They are an arrow pointing us to a new way to live — IN CHRIST. He is God’s Answer to salvation, transformation and our sin.

You and I cannot raise this kind of passion for God, all by ourselves. But we were given it! … Christ died to give me His passion for His Father, as well as a love for His Father’s Ways. This was clearly demonstrated by Jesus’ hard fought victory on the cross. Christ not only loved this world, HE LOVED HIS FATHER so much that He died to bring about His Father’s dearest desire – mankind’s restitution and reconciliation with Him. This means I can see Almighty God through new eyes – His! Christ died to give this to me. I use those new eyes when I read the bible, I hear it like it is God Himself speaking to me.

So I let go of my old life, including who I think I am, as well as any religious formulas, and I choose to lean on and follow the Holy Spirit instead. I allow the bible to renew/change my mind/thinking by co-operating with what it says. To live in the new I simply have to let go of the old. We cannot love God with all our hearts when our hearts have a divided loyalty. Christ gave us all of Him, so now we live this life giving Him ALL of us! Our whole heart needs to commit to this new way to live. Because of what Jesus did for me, now I am free to do it. To love God with all I am, and serve Him in everything I do. I show God this, by being obedient. 

“I have been crucified with Christ. it’s no longer I that lives, but Christ Who lives in me. And the life I now lead, I lead by faith in the Son of God Who died for me.” Galatians 2:20. This verse means I leave my old manipulative, self-seeking way of life behind and I minute by minute, choosing to follow Jesus. Christ died to save me and give me the same power He had to overcome when He walked the earth. Now I choose to live my life the way He lived His.

If I temporarily lose focus, then I need to repent, repair and move on. Father God has good plans for my life. Things I could never imagine or dream about. However, my new choices may sometimes seem costly, simply because I am not a zombie! Instead I am a wilful human being, who is voluntarily laying down my own plans. But I have been given His power to obey and follow Jesus, and I use my FAITH in His goodness, His faithfulness to do it. I read what it says and I do it. Living like Jesus did is not a mystery! I simply read, listen to the Holy Spirit, and obey however He tells me to do it. Jesus died to give us His connection with the Holy Spirit. John 16:7.

When I daily see and discover our heavenly Father – and His loving help and concern for me – through the Holy Spirit’s eyes — my desire to love God with all of me, becomes a process of ongoing surrender. However, I don’t have to carry the weight of getting things right any more. I simply follow the Holy Spirit’s prompts and OBEY Him. I leave half-heartedness behind me and now I’m learning obedience – God’s love language.👋

Ref: Matthew 6:24; Revelation 3:16&17;  Deuteronomy 28:1-14;  1 John 2:3-6; and Romans 8:1-39.

P 2588 Can you tell me how I can hear God?

/ DVH

It’s like the telephone or the internet. First you need a connection! Jesus talked about that in John chapter 3 – He told Nicodemus …“you must be born again.”  This is not necessarily a feeling – it isa spiritual transaction. To hear God all the time, you need to give your life to Him. BTW, this is not a try now and buy later system. When you jump in, and surrender to Jesus Christ, you are all in – you can’t just dangle your feet in and hope that will do! This place is a place of decision and complete surrender. That means I have given away my life, my hopes, my dreams to Him.

It is a serious place. This decision is not just about whether you will spend your life in heaven one day or not. It is about here and NOW, because when we’ve made this decision, we want to become God’s kids. Now, we bring heaven with us wherever we go.  This process is described in Galatians 2:20. NIV. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” 

The minute I gave my life to Christ, for Him to use for His purposes, I died. However, I am not a zombie, nor am I subject to mind-control! Instead, I have been given power to control my own mind because of what Jesus Christ did for me. Sadly I can still choose to do and say dumb things, but now I live my life knowing Christ has already forgiven me – He will not give up on me.

Because of my decision to follow Him, His life has flooded my heart, soul, mind, and body, and I found the real reason I am here… Which is to serve Him, and you!  An eternal seed was planted within me when I made that decision. It is up to me to water, fertilise and care for that seed, otherwise I am just going to stay a teeny tiny fragile little plant who expects everyone else to look after them. However, I was born into God’s kingdom to grow and mature. I can’t blame my pastor if I don’t talk to Jesus, or read the bible or obey what God has told me to do in His book. Like the mustard seed Jesus talked about in Matthew 13:31-32. I’ve been designed to grow into a spiritual tree, that gives other people spiritual food, shade and shelter, in this life. 

From the moment I was born again, I was given spiritual ears to hear Him and spiritual eyes to see Him at work in my life, and in the lives of others. However, He does not necessarily talk to me through a booming voice, or angel visitation, He talks to me in the place where I have always talked to myself. Some people call that my conscience, or my thoughts – others might say: “He speaks into my heart.” Because this new kingdom we have entered is spiritual, we can be deceived if we don’t read the bible. The bible is the manufacturer’s handbook, so it tells us what spiritual people are, and what they do. Jesus’ life and death is our visual aid. He shows us what living a life of love toward Him and others looks like.

Because … the devil has been talking to you and I from the moment we first understood language– we know that satan also talks to us in the place where we think. he’s been lying to us and telling us God does not want us or care about us, because we are not special enough!  It is up to me to read the bible so I know for myself, what God says — then I can hear when satan tells me a lie. satan is pushy, loud, and mean. he twists things and tries to make us feel stupid, small and inadequate, because he uses the place where we self-talk, to play on our feelings and bring up old circumstances. satan will even use our rational thought processes against us.

We have been absorbing knowledge one way or another all of our lives, However, what we’ve absorbed from that knowledge does not have to be accurate. It can be influenced by who taught us, or our past experiences., and by the dumb things we’ve chosen to do or read, or the people we’ve hung around with. Not every thought that pops into my head is God speaking, and sometimes those thoughts that sound like me are my enemy. satan sounds like me because I am used to his whispering. Nevertheless, I must always take whatever I hear/think, and hold it up against what God says in His book.

The best thing anyone can do to prevent deception is to know, for themselves, what the Holy Spirit has said in the bible. We need to keep reminding ourselves that we are now God’s house:“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, Who is in you, Whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. 

We are meant to digest His book by reading it, and then we must obey — do what it says. That’s how the bible becomes part of us. It will change our minds and thinking. It will help us diagnose our own wrong thinking, as well revealing as satan’s whispers.We are in a war … we live in enemy territory.  Some of the worst wars often happen INSIDE our own heads! But sometimes we blame satan for stuff that is really us. Maybe we chose it, or we continued to participate in things that the bible says are not good for us. Everything we do in this life is about choices. As we start to mature, we will make better more informed choices. 

When you and I hear, whispered quietly inside our own thoughts, “I love you” ….that’s God speaking! satan doesn’t love anything. I urge you to pray for eyes to see the Lord at work in your own life, plus ears to hear Him, then check out what you hear with what it says in the bible. The bible is one of God’s ways of manifesting His steadfastness. 👋

P 2443 Stand on His love for you.

/ DVH

“And I pray that He (the Holy Spirit) would unveil within you the unlimited riches of His glory and favour until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with His divine might and explosive power. Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of His love will become the very source and root of your life. Then you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences—the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is His love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding—this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!” Ephesians 3:16-19 TPT

This scripture has so much in it, it just blows my mind whenever I read it. Today I want to think about the word continually, as in on purpose (!) … reminding ourselves of the ever-present presence of God’s loving favour in and on our lives. Oh how He loves us! And His love is an utterly committed love. The price He paid to buy us back from hell and damnation is beyond our understanding, far more than we could ever ask or think.  You know, my opinion of my performance and who I think I am, does not matter to Him. Neither does yours. His opinion is the one that matters.

You may like me, you might not. The main thing I have to wrap my heart around is that Father God utterly loves me. In order to walk with the Holy Spirit, Who is the revealer of these great truths, I will need a firm foundation to stand on. Jesus died for my sins, once and forever, to make all this possible, is that foundation. Now we have to let that love sink down into our hearts so we become so completely saturated by it and there is no room for insecurity. Otherwise if my life does not go well, I might end up blaming Him, or other people … like you, or my family, my circumstances etc. And then the ground I am standing on becomes shaky. Our houses (lives) are only as good as their foundations!

We cannot start out with anyone else’s performance but HIS. What Jesus did was perfect. Anything else is this world’s measuring stick. Christ is now the perfect illustration of what mankind can look like. We can’t afford skip, or dismiss lightly this truth about how much God loves us. As soon as we dismiss it, or water it down with provisos, we miss the  magnitude of how wide, how deep, how all encompassing and powerful God’s love is! We dare not build on the wrong foundation, because His demonstrated Love is the only foundation that is eternally stable.

Many human beings don’t value love, except as a feeling —because this world’s idea of love is fickle, selfish and unpredictable. Humanity can be so unfaithful that our Father’s eternal faithfulness hardly registers in our hearts and lives. But it must. Otherwise we are moved around by circumstances and the winds of change too easily. We cannot use OUR measuring sticks to put a value on God’s love. It is far too easy, in these times we live in, to think that real love means permissiveness. 

Self-sacrificing, altruistic love wants only the very best for the one it loves. Father God’s incredible vibrant love has provided all of us with the means to be transformed. And all we need to do is to live for Him the way Christ lived for us. We have all the needed illustration and demonstration of that, in the book! Comprehending that sort of ongoing loving grace gives us a firm footing, as we walk through a weak wobbly world with no stable footholds.

I have learnt, from experience, that WE WILL GIVE OUT TO OTHERS WHAT WE STORE UP! If we store up our own mistakes, our wrong attitudes, our own idea of what love looks like … OR … spend our lives concentrating on someone else’s sins, their mistakes, and their wrong attitudes, we are no longer standing firmly on LOVE. The Holy Spirit was sent here to teach us to how to walk, talk, sit, and stand totally saturated with God’s love. He’s an expert. Re-read today’s scripture it entertains no doubts. 

We must mature enough to understand that real LOVE corrects, it shapes, it guides, it teaches, and … it helps us. Love always fosters connection. Father God’s love is with us in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not leave us alone to muddle along without Him – He sent back the Holy Spirit to help, teach, guide, correct, counsel, and comfort us into His Way of Love. We must let the love of God live in us, and make us so rich in love we can easily give it away!  We need to learn to stand on these things, gratefully. 🕊❤️‍🔥 

P 2434 Different food for thought!

/ DVH

“A parable is a tale about a simple, common subject to illustrate a more profound, valuable moral lesson. The source definition of the word “parable” means a placement side by side for the purpose of comparison.” (Dictionary)

Jesus’ teaching is fascinating. He told everyday stories to those listening, to help them understand God’s Ways. And at the same time, every single thing He said was profound. He gave us fantastic life-lessons. Up until this morning, I had never really thought about the kind of teaching He did, when He taught people, using parables. There are over 30 parables in the Gospels …some of them are repeated.

Today, the Lord Jesus spoke into me and said this: “How many of My parables are about the miraculous? In which one do I teach people how to heal the sick and raise the dead?” You know, when I looked, I discovered that Jesus’ parables are about ordinary things and ordinary people and their behaviour toward God and others. They are simply ‘life lessons.’ They are not about ‘how to excel in the miraculous’ – but instead they are about ‘how to live this life we have in a Godly fashion.’ How to love each other, and how to love, revere and respect God first. However, if we don’t live IN the kingdom, how can we expect to bring it with us?? Maybe that’s why Paul told us to seek it first!

We have become greatly enamoured with the miraculous – or the lack of it, in the church today. I think we are in danger of exalting those things above His Kingdom coming in our everyday lives. Yet we will always need a heart that says – God can do anything … nothing is too difficult for Him!  But I think we have put more of the accent on revving up our ability to believe, instead of putting it in HIM – Who He is. Miracles will follow US as we love others the way He loves us …we don’t have to chase them.  Miracles and the ever-present power of God are an expected part of walking with Him in our daily lives. 

In the Epistles, a large amount of emphasis is also put upon growing and transforming our character, plus, how to walk with the Holy Spirit. The Apostles simply repeated what they have seen, heard and learnt as they performed great signs and wonders. They didn’t elevate people who walked in their God-given gifts, or even ask them to come and minister in the miraculous for the purpose of gaining attention to spread the gospel! Instead the main thrust of their individual messages are to encourage and emphasise loving God, loving others well, plus growth, connection and correction.

Jesus Himself took ordinary things that His listeners could easily understand to illustrate Kingdom purposes. As we read the gospels we can see that anyone can walk in demonstrating the power of God, even sometimes those devoid of character. Judas did! But the parables and epistles indicate that our character needs our personal application. The Holy Spirit wants our motivation to be pure Love – and we all need help with that! Jesus made the miraculous an ordinary part of being His disciple.  He sent His disciples out and they simply used His name.

However, Christ Himself gave us the most brilliant synopsis of God’s requirements when He was talking to a lawyer in Matthew 22:35-40 “One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” I am gobsmacked every single time I read that. It so perfectly illustrates what life with the Holy Spirit looks like.

So here is my thought for today’s blog  – I am personally aware that we all need the miraculous! … But instead of chasing after the miraculous etc. to validate any ministry, I believe the Holy Spirit wants us to foster a relationship with Him – first. Then we simply do whatever He says, and we will see miracles as we go along. Sometimes there will be a miracle, and sometimes someone else gets a revelation of the goodness of God .. a glimpse into His bigger world. Our job is to love God and love others, and out of that wonderful things will happen.

Please do not misunderstand me, I totally believe in all the active gifts of God. And I believe we need to pray believing that they are present at any time! We need them. I am simply saying that these things should not be the preoccupation of the Church. We are to be pre-occupied with Him! These other things will get added unto us as we seek Him first! Like one of the parables says: “We are the light of the world” – let’s just BE THAT and see what happens! Bye.👋🏻

P 2318 Keep His sap flowing!

/ DVH

… We are the love of His!

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness etc. Another way to say that  is this — the visible fruit of OUR connection with the Holy Spirit is patience, kindness, goodness etc. IF you don’t got the fruit then guess what? YOU’VE LOST YOUR CONNECTION! 

Jesus taught about abiding in and staying in the vine;  which means that the sap of the vine is constantly available to grow fruit. Love joy peace etc. all these things come from that connection.  The connection produces the fruit – it is not who we are, but Who He is! Staying connected to Him, means I will die daily. It’s automatic. Disconnection means I’ve chosen my own comfort, my way, my control … over what Jesus wants!

How do we stay connected to the vine? At the very moment that we want to give in to suffering or despair or anger or retaliation, we ask for His help and choose Jesus and connection with Him, over self expression. Then we shut-up and wait to see what He will do. When we choose His ways we are choosing to let the sap of the Holy Spirit keep flowing into us and through us in an ongoing fashion. His sap does us good. Fruit comes as a result of that connection to the vine. Self-control is one of His fruit – this means we choose to do things His way, asking for His help — which means we are controlling ourselves.

Ordinary FRUIT like apples, need work. It needs tending, Every time you give in to your feelings, your anger, your need to be vindicated, you’re short-circuiting the fruit cycle, you are stopping the fruit from ‘setting.’ Good fruit needs that constant supply of sap. This is why sometimes the fruit in the supermarket can be bad in the middle or taste terrible, — it hasn’t been connected to the tree for a VERY long time and it is starting to rot from the inside out. No sap = no fresh fruit.

We also know this from our own experience if we’ve ever tried to grow tomatoes and we have compared them to the ones in the supermarket, the ones in the supermarket have little to no flavour. This by the way, is why they are now selling tomatoes there for more money as ‘on the vine,’ so any residue of sap in the stalk will help to keep the tomato fresh. 

Sap needs to flow. Any obstruction to the passage of sap simply needs to be cleared away. Spiritually speaking, here’s what I do: I acknowledge my fault to the Lord, and whoever else is involved, then I repent, and because I have no confidence than I’m not going to do the same the dumb thing again 10 minutes later, I ask for help. 

Asking for help does not mean that God will take over. We are not glove puppets with someone else’s hand controlling us. We are real life, wilful, opinionated human beings, who like control more than submission and yielding. Humility is needed.Tell the other person/s that you are having a hard time holding your tongue and ask the other person to pray for you. That’ll fix it immediately! 

We ask for His help and then step out in the right direction. The right direction = what Jesus said, what the bible says. And then act USING YOUR FAITH. It is way too easy to ask for help and then go on to blame God when you are still the same nasty grump 10 minutes later. Intentions matter, but they are not everything. Our intentions need to be turned into actions.  Keep looking at Jesus, keep on walking – keep doing what He would do.

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Expecting the other person to make the difference is just plain stupid. It is way better to ask the Lord, “What do I do now?” I can’t tell you how many times He’s told me, “Shut up and listen.” By the way, listen doesn’t just mean understanding the words, it means hearing the other person’s heart, and their anguish. 

Please note you will hardly EVER feel like letting go of your comments and opinions – especially if the other person is still going on at you … OR even WORSE, GLOATING over you.  Other people’s actions and reactions are on them. That single fact has taught me heaps about CHOICE. We are the Lord’s great love … everything else fades away when we look at that …our fruit makes His heart glad 👋🏻

“May my Beloved come into His garden And eat its choice fruits!” Song of Songs 4:16b

P 2263 Always remember, Love is the umpire.

/ DVH

I have spoken before about hubby and I and the blessing we have regarding spiritual connection. We think perhaps together, we are one of those supporting ligaments described in Ephesians. Let’s look in Chapter 4:16 “From Him the whole body, fitted and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love through the work of each individual part.” God has graciously given hubby and I that kind of connection. Praise Him. 🙌 Now, we can both be as stubborn and determined to get our own way as the next guy, but we know that the Lord put us together for a purpose. 

However, if your marriage is bumpy or shaky, maybe you could start to pray that God will create between you and your spouse the perfect joint, so that each side can function well, fully supported by the other one. Jesus is the greatest cartilage we could ever ask for to keep us from rubbing our end of the other joint raw. Put Him between you and your spouse, or prayer partner – it is not wise to tolerate friction, that is destructive. However, Love will not put all the work on the other person either. Remember, we are meant to support each other, this is not a one way deal – with one partner drowning in the other one’s ministry.

If you happen to be single, then find someone you trust to pray with, and support them. Paul had Timothy, and Silas – he supported them and they supported him. Today is the time to fix any dislocated joints we know about so we can begin to move cohesively together. As we are Christians this means repairing things to the Holy Spirit’s satisfaction, as well as both of the parties. Otherwise, we will push that joining together out of alignment by ourselves. We need to deal with any dislocation immediately. Serving one another and supplying each other’s needs, helps the body to function smoothly.

This has, recently, become so apparent to Hubby and I because of my accident on Saturday.  In difficult times, one part of that joint may need to serve as a ‘splint’ for the other one so the repairing process can take place. Many times I have noticed the reason for marriages struggling is because one partner is forced into trying to maintain the joint but without the other partner’s contribution.

Think about it like this:  even in our fingers, health for our digit relies on the blood supply being able to get through.  In spiritual matters, we can hold up the growth process for both people by restricting the blood supply – the Holy Spirit’s input.  The bible tells us one half of the joint supplies the other under His guidance, and hubby and I have seen that work many, many times. I cannot do what I do without him.  And he cannot do what he does without me.  Ministry of any sort, is not supposed to divide.

Hubby is typing this blog for me, he is taking dictation, because I need both hands to type. When we are on the road, giving away bibles etc, God might give me a word of knowledge that sets hubby off on the Lord’s pathway when he meets the stranger. It is astonishing to me that I can give him a word of knowledge, and he can act on it, and it all turns out wonderfully – but not at all the way I think it will.

This is where trust comes in, I trust my husband and he  trusts me. This kind of supply for the other person is based totally on trust.  Sometimes he says, “I’m going to do thus and thus..”, and in my mind, I’m thinking, “That will never work” – but it always does.  We need to learn to have faith in each other, to have faith in Jesus IN the other person.  It appears that trust and ‘submitting to one another’ go hand-in-hand, and that creates a spiritual flow just like the veins in our hands – blood goes up, it comes back down.  The important part is the Blood.  We must not restrict the flow of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 

He is the star on this stage.  The two people involved have laid aside their own egos and attitudes … even the things they have learnt from their family of origin, when they do not align with the bible. The Holy Spirit loves to flow, but He needs yielded vessels that want to submit to Him and to each other, for the greater good.  Always remember LOVE IS THE UMPIRE. 👋🏻 Bye.

P 2176 David teaches us about connection.

/ DVH

Written by David, the servant of the Lord. “…but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me.” Psalm 18:18b &19. Knowing how much the Lord delights in every single one of us, helps to keep us focussed when things don’t go the way we hoped. He is our support system. He’s there when other people are too busy, or when they think our problems are trivial. We can talk to Him about our disappointments and sadnesses, when some things don’t change, depending on what the difficulty is … or even when those things get worse. In my experience sometimes things appear to get worse before they get better!

Our God is a long-term God. He’s in this relationship with us … forever.  We need to go to the Lord with all our difficult things, big and small, at any moment, and ask Him to help and comfort us. He’s not just an emergency God – He is our reason to live! The hardest bit is to teach ourselves the kind of focus we need to make Him the centre of everything we do. But when we do that, we are often highly amazed that He cares enough to participate in the sort of stuff we might think of as little things.Jesus died to give us a permanent connection – we can talk to God any time we need to … no telecommunications experts required!

When we read the Psalms we can see that David constantly reminded himself about his past. He remembered those times when God delivered him, and he memorialised those things by writing them down. Personally, I think that things overtake us when we are simply living out our Christian life day by day. This life is full of mundanities – the whole, same-old, same-old everyday events. You get up in the morning, send your kids off to school, go off to work, etc. etc. When life is that humdrum that’s when our faith is really tested. It is also one of the greatest times for faith to grow – when nothing whatsoever is happening except the kind of stuff you know you can do, all by yourself!

In a really big crisis our first thought is often “Help, Lord!” But everyday mundanities reduces our faith to lip-service, very quickly. We can all cheer and shout and set off fireworks when He delivers us from some terrible event or another … but our day-to-day obligations lull us off to sleep and we can end up going just through the motions. This happens in ordinary human relationships too. We can get easily lost in who does what chore, and forget that the other person is someone we love and care about.

And those seemingly ordinary places are where the relationship we have with Him can stabilise us. God rarely announces His purposes over a loud-hailer! There are times where we suddenly notice someone standing off to the side of busy activities looking lost or sad or afraid. But we need His eyes to see them. We can walk past someone He wants to talk to because of our own busy lives. Remember we daily meet with a PERSON – the life that is in Christ is in us! 

I urge you to read the bible until it speaks to you. Jacob prayed this prayer in Genesis 32:26b. “… But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Today, I want to encourage everyone, to wait for the blessing whenever you engage with the Lord. Whether praying, reading or just daily living. Our God knows how much time you need to get to the ‘next thing’ on your agenda – pause, show Him that you want to hear what He has to say to you personally.

The blessing is the connection. David valued his connection. Ask the Holy Spirit to sit with you. Reading the bible isn’t about information or feelings, it is about acknowledging your need for His input. That takes faith. It is our intention to eat that counts, so ask Him for today’s daily BREAD. If reading the bible is difficult, and it does get that way sometimes, then say what Jacob said. It doesn’t have to take hours – it just means that you purpose in your heart to connect with Him. Meanwhile you can do this at anytime, as often as you want to do it during the day. 

Faith has substance because we give it substance, by giving it priority. Sometimes I have to remind myself that just because this day seems like the ‘same-old same-old’ that does not mean He isn’t there with me, listening. I have His WORD and the Holy Spirit wants to help me to overcome things like impatience, irritation, momentary selfishness, disinterest in someone else’s problems … the  everyday nitty-gritty stuff that can seem endless. Jesus is always here. He promised to be with us, and He keeps His promises. Be like David, go about your day mindful of Him. Remind yourself of all He has done and enjoy His company.   👋🏻