Covenant

P 3126 Get rid of unrealistic expectations.

/ DVH

I lived the major part of my Christian life full of unrealistic expectations. This went on for a very long time. I thought I needed a  transforming touch from the Holy Spirit, but no matter where I went, nothing changed permanently. I always enjoyed the experience, but nothing changed for me until I took His Word seriously. It has taken me years to learn that a default approach to my relationship with the Lord was not part of God’s plan. 

I discovered that most Christians were like me – not like my favourite teachers, preachers and authors! The majority of the brethren were struggling too. That didn’t mean we were getting it wrong – it meant that our Precious Father wanted to be closer to US, personally. Getting a touch was wonderful, but in any relationship – the best solution to distance – is time and deliberate devotion. Finally, I realised that my future lay in whatever He wanted to personally say to me, day by day. 

Almighty God wants us to seek Him – that’s all over the book! And this will involve each one of us making an effort to prioritise Him, and contributing more than just a cursory nod to Who He is. When you have a busy life, it is so much easier to let someone else who has made all that effort, speak to you. However, it is so wonderful when we realise God really does know MY name, and He wants to personally interact with me, and speak to me, every day through His Word.

Inspiring podcasts are great, watch them. Christian books can encourage us, read them. However, we already have the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’s guidance and Their promise to help us personally. Not to mention the bible itself! To be honest, I think that many authors only seem to write about the good bits in their lives. They write about successes and their own personal victories. The hard bits often only come up when they can show us how it brought them to victory! YOU are not a failure in God’s eyes – and His eyes are the only ones that count.

Let’s participate in, and praise Him for our very own personal victories. Those victories will be hard-fought but worth every second of our time! Someone else’s successes are no help at all when stuff is flying at us, and we feel like we are drowning. We need to see God at work in our own lives like David did. “But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.”1 Samuel 17: 34-36. David made a scary decision based on his own previous experiences – he had a personal victory to draw upon.

Our daily focus belongs to the Lord Himself. Who He is. What He has done. What He is still doing. What He will do. Other people’s testimonies can help to lift us up when we feel flatter than a cane toad hit by a lorry — but we too can get squashed in many ways, especially when other people appear to cope with their spiritual lives better than we do! Don’t lose heart, your faith is SO precious to Him. The Holy Spirit Himself has already provided us, in the bible, with all kinds of people whose stories and insights, have survived mankind’s whimsy and fashion’s dictates.  

Let’s look at Daniel 11:32. It is an interesting discourse about what happens to God’s people who like their ears tickled by foreign Kings with an agenda.“With smooth words [of flattery and praise] he will turn to godlessness those who [are willing to] disregard the [Mosaic] covenant, but the people who [are spiritually mature and] know their God will display strength and take action [to resist].” 

The way for us to be able to resist our enemy is to KNOW OUR GOD, for ourselves – like Daniel and David did. We must become single-minded. An archangel came to Daniel after an elongated period of prayer, in chapter 10, verse12. “Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.”This shows us that GOD HEARS OUR PRAYERS … but … we are all in a war! An archangel had come to encourage Daniel, and prophesy about the future. He tells Daniel that God has got the situation, the trouble will come to an end.

This mighty angel concludes by saying this 12:3-5: “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.”  My last point today is this: troubles, trials and difficulties are part of following Jesus. (John 16:33) But we dare not allow other people to steal away our own personal hiding place. JESUS is that hiding place! We need to know and trust Him, so we can run to Him, in any disaster, pain or suffering that seems to want to drown us. 

These two men of God didn’t just have to deal with their situations, they had to learn to deal with themselves, then their responses led them into a deeper relationship with God Himself. To live like that we will have to prioritise what God says. The Lord does not always want to take us out of trouble, instead He wants us to learn how to go through it and come out the other side, unscathed! Bye. 👋

P 2611 The way forward.

/ DVH

The first thing I want to say today, is this: without the Holy Spirit’s help – and He is available to each and every one of us – we cannot overcome sin and inadequacy by ourselves. Self-talk is not the answer, that’s this world’s answer! Confession, repentance, and humbling ourselves is the only way to thrive and survive in the Christian life. 

Jesus Christ LET Himself be humbled in the most extraordinary ways. Purity, blamelessness, grace and love hung dying on Calvary and He did nothing to deserve the appalling treatment He faced. We all know He only ever did humanity good. So if we meet ugliness from other people, we should not be surprised or offended. Jesus said that in John 13:15-17: ”I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

So let us not be arrogant and imagine ourselves as somehow superior to the world around us, just because we happen to know something they don’t.“What do we have that was not given to us?”1 Corinthians 4:7. Here’s a useful thing I’ve learnt … When I stopped trying to outtalk others, or even organise people into suiting me, and I accepted that only God Himself can change people … I began to see other people in a totally different light.

Before that, my judgmental attitude blocked my view of them, even though I had God-given spiritual eyes, my own judgment clouded them. At the same time, I became more and more blind to my own sins. Plus I couldn’t see other people’s needs or understand them. Instead I saw myself as far more needy and unable to change than they were, because of my difficult background. That’s called pride … … think about it!  

I felt entitled to be angry with the other people because they were not helping me. It was their fault I kept falling over, their meanness made me stumble. Yeah, I know wunnerful attitude eh?  I’m not writing this stuff because I am proud of it! Spoiler alert!… I still fall over. Especially when I am tired, sick, or out of sorts!  Like Paul, I’m not there yet, but I continue to aim at transformation. Sadly, if you poke me hard enough, I probably will snarl at you. Sigh.

What that means, is this, in those moments I have totally forgotten that MY debt has been paid in full.  I’m living like an unsaved person instead of a redeemed one! If I am wrangling with guilt and shame over the way I spoke to someone, I need to remember that Jesus paid for my sin. (He paid for yours too!)  Now, my problem is no longer about my sin, it is … what am I going to do about it? Will I shrug my shoulders, and walk on and hope my awful attitude will disappear— or humble myself, repent and let the Lord discipline me?

When I fight for myself to prove myself ‘not guilty,’ or to justify any other nasty thing, or attitude, I am voluntarily walking out of the new covenant. That covenant is my agreement with God that the blood of Jesus will save, cleanse and change me. Unfortunately, at the same time, I am also choosing to put myself into harm’s way, into enemy territory, because I am stepping out from under the umbrella of Christ’s atonement, and now I am trying to shelter from the enemy’s onslaught with my own reasons, anger, excuses and inadequacies! 

The bible tells me to follow my Saviour down the same road He took. I suffer wrong because I am following Jesus. He suffered wrong and said nothing! Even if I truly think I am right, and I can prove it, I must make a choice to let go, and let God vindicate me! Reconciliation is my priority, not vindication. Vindication is the Lord’s work. My advice in a conflict is this —let LOVE be your default button. Not the kind of love that is portrayed on TV, but the kind that is in 1 Corinthians 13, and Colossians 3!

Jesus died to reconcile us to Almighty God, however, we still have choices. We can choose to step away from His Ways when we make our feelings, our needs, more important than His following Him! This means we can avoid being changed, and we will lose the ever-present ongoing war toward total transformation! Eventually guilt will drag us down and away from the light of God’s transforming love. And then shame makes us hide from the only One Who can help us – the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the Person Who helped Christ through His life on earth and the crucifixion, He is totally well equipped to help us through our bad days.

The way forward is described in Micah 6:8“But He’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbour, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don’t take yourself too seriously—take God seriously.”  Bye👋

P 2347 It’s His work in us and for us.

/ DVH

“God will continually revitalise you, implanting within you the passion to do what pleases Him.” Philippians 2:13 TPT. 

OR “…for it is God Who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil His good purpose.” NIV. 

OR “ For it is [not your strength, but it is] God Who is effectively at work in you, both to will and to work [that is, strengthening, energising, and creating in you the longing and the ability to fulfil your purpose] for His good pleasure.” AMP.

I’ve put three different versions of the same scripture, above. Sometimes doing that helps give dimension to what the Lord has said. I chose this particular scripture because it is so clear what our Father’s heart is like toward us all. He has a destiny for each of us to fulfil and we are going to love it. His Grace is currently loose in our lives in ways we can’t even imagine, He will not take His plans for us back, because His WORD is utterly dependable.

This whole process is something He has invested in – with His own dear Son’s life. So much so that those people already living with Him in heaven, are cheering all of us down here, on! There is no concern about us failing up there, because they are alive in the Presence of the Almighty One Who never has, and never will – fail!  We need to be constantly reminded that our missteps and deliberate dumb choices can’t take us away from the Lord’s Eternal plans. The way through our trials, difficulties, hardships and troubles is to keep choosing what He wants.

Sometimes we can misread God’s favour toward us, and start to run ahead, announcing this and declaring that. But the Lord’s work is not confined to our ideas about Who He is and how He should do things. He is sovereign. However our generous Father makes room for our willing enthusiastic input, with mistakes or not, and we can totally rely upon, and look forward to being guided by Him. Our part is to enter into freely working with HIM and keep His purposes uppermost in our hearts. Even if there are times when we do not or cannot join in, our God will take every single circumstance, every instance of failure, every highlight, and work all of them together for our ultimate good. And … THAT’S WHAT LOVE LOOKS LIKE!

It is also clear that when Jesus comes into our lives, He refreshes, restores and energises us into faith, so that we end up wanting to do whatever it is Father God designed us us to do. He has an overall plan. As we walk in His Grace, embracing what grace does for us, in us, and how it changes us, we are transformed. He does all this work for each one of us. We may not always immediately understand what He is doing, but our first choice after choosing Christ as our Lord and Saviour, is to let go of our own plans! His plan will give us a hope and a future, plus His design is absolutely perfect for every single person… This is how His will becomes as close to us as our heartbeat. 

We don’t even have to drum up enthusiasm or energy, His very Presence in our lives will do that for us. Once we get a glimpse of what He will do with our obedience, disobedience or disregard for what He wants from us fades away. This is how we learn to willingly follow Him anywhere. Our demonstrated, visible new life in Christ, begins as we decide to be obedient to what He says, in every circumstance. I want to focus on the thought that SomeOne so much greater than we can ever be, is so interested in our free-will and joyful participation and co-operation. I think He deserves our eternal loyalty. Being with us, walking with us daily, gives Him so much pleasure! 

Imagine this with me. You have a child and you watch over them lovingly from babyhood. Children grow, and as they become an adult, they make their own choices. The thing is, you love this child so dearly you cannot imagine your life without them in it. So you want them to choose to come and work, and live with you, but you do not want to force them. You want them to want to do these things themselves. Because being with you, and living and working alongside you, has become their only pleasure. You hope your adult offspring will want to enjoy this new life you have provided simply because they are in love with Who you are.

As you can see, in my made-up scenario, control and manipulation are taken right out of the picture. This kind of parenting ushers in freedom for the kid! Our God is this kind of Father. We are free to be wrong, misled, and/or disobedient, yet His love will not be withdrawn … because His Love is no longer reliant on our behaviour. Our Heavenly Father took care of that too — He fulfilled both sides of a heaven-sent agreement/covenant between Himself and man by willingly taking both sides and fulfilling each side perfectly. 

His SON’S death released so much Grace there is no need for any human being to go to hell. We are now, as recipients of this Grace destined to live in that Grace, and give it away — freely — the same way we received it. Sin is not our problem anymore – His Grace surrounds us, and empowers us to choose to live differently. His aim is for us to understand that a God Who is prepared to go to these lengths …  C A N  B E  T R U S T E D.

It is His work IN us, and through us that gives Him glory. 👋🏻

P 2341 His Word needs to become flesh IN US.

/ DVH

’“But the hope of God’s kingdom kept spreading and multiplying everywhere!” Acts 12:24 TPT. That hope kept spreading everywhere back then, after the Holy Spirit came… because God’s people wouldn’t shut up! We need to look deeply at the effect the Holy Spirit had on ordinary human beings …  They were so confident in WHO they had met, that they were not afraid of death.  

In other words, they were suddenly fearless. We can analyse these words up one hill and down the other, but the truth IS, these people met SomeOne so extraordinary He utterly changed them, not by His doctrine, but by Who He was! What Christ had taught them came alive in their hearts. In those moments everything Jesus said to them was instantly digested and made part of them. It became flesh.

Being born again takes what God said in His book and makes it into a living word, in our lives. It stops being what we have to DO and becomes who we ARE! We simply must not settle for how many hands are raised when there is a call to come and meet Jesus! He is beyond extraordinary, and if meeting Him does not utterly change our POV on this life and the next … then we didn’t meet Him yet, we just heard about Him. 

That is not a bad beginning place BTW, we simply need to understand that the Holy Spirit did more than change mindsets – He totally changed people’s hearts, their inner lives. I exhort you strongly, don’t settle for the smaller portion! Meeting the risen Christ is meant to have an irreversible impact – He is to be sought because meeting Him changes our view of the world around us and Who He is.

The kind of wishy-washy half-hearted faith many of us settle for, is a pale shadow of really knowing Him. With Jesus there is always more – more to love, more to learn about, more to worship. Christianity is not a passive  belief. It demands everything. But He gave us His all too – without hesitation – that’s what keeps us going!

I think that many people are not living a life worthy of what He did for us, because they have not met the Man Who is God in human form. If this is how you feel, then I strongly urge you to study the gospels over and over again. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see beyond the words and doctrines of this world, and pray for an ever increasing revelation of Who HE IS. (Read the bits in red!) That means read what Jesus Christ Himself SAID. 

Sometimes we get way too clever and so we stop listening with the heart of a child, and listen with our heads instead. One word of heart revelation is worth a billion words of clever ploys and well-written words. WE MUST SEE HIM FOR WHO HE IS, FOR OURSELVES! His Word needs to BECOME ‘flesh’ for all of us. Our brains cannot possibly comprehend just Who we are dealing with. We need that place inside us that has been dead in sin all our lives to come alive. The Holy Spirit will do that for us. First He captures our attention then He captures our hearts. He came to lead us into greater things.

I love His book because it reveals Him to me. That kind of mind-blowing view of Who He is, is my daily bread! If what I believe elevates me and what I think I know, if it elevates knowledge over truth … then I’ve missed His whole message. Jesus Christ did not come here so we could be clever or famous – HE CAME TO EARTH TO REVEAL GOD’S HEART OF LOVE TO MANKIND. He did not come just to teach us the new covenant – He WAS that covenant in human flesh. If you want to know about how much God loves you, look at Christ.

Sadly we cannot spread abroad a HOPE we do not have! We’ve been doing that for 2,000 + years and we have gotten nowhere. Let the Holy Spirit take your hand and let Him lead you into a deeper, wider, more intimate place where all you can see is how beautiful Jesus is. How generous He is, how precious He is, how much we need Him. We need to comprehend what mankind has been given before we try to give it away. We are to be His living illustrations.

However, don’t stop reaching out to others with what you know already, and don’t stop going after knowing the One Who loved YOU more than life itself.  I bless us all with fresh revelation of Who He truly is, and what He did for all of us. AMEN. 🙏