Darkness

P 3086 Followers.

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“IF you want to be My disciple, follow Me and you will go where I am going. And if you truly follow Me as My disciple, the Father will shower His favour upon your life.”John 12:26 TPT. As the nice man said: we are followers of Christ, so where HE GOES — WE GO.  As we follow Him we get to be a part of whatever He does. The Lord loves to go into dark places, and talk to scary people. Light works best in the darkness. He likes to go to places that most Christians would probably like to stay out of – where the people who know they are sinners hang out.

Simon Peter once asked the Lord this question: “Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” And Peter did. After a few disasters, hiccups and missteps, the powerful Presence of the Holy Spirit fell on Peter and He preached one of the greatest sermons Jerusalem had ever heard. 3,000 people got saved, when this ordinary fisherman preached. He followed the Holy Spirit out of his hiding place and into the heart of the city.

Jesus took care of all our sins, but that doesn’t give us a free pass to do whatever we like with our lives. It was an exchange – His life for ours. Just in case we haven’t done the Math yet —that means our lives don’t belong to us anymore. We are so blessed, the Holy Spirit has given us the ability to follow Him, just like Peter and all the other disciples did!  Asking the Lord what we are here to do, is one of the most important questions we can ever ask. But Jesus didn’t concern Himself with their gifts or ministries, following Him was the first step into their new life.

Many sincere Christians pray: “Lord please show me what You want me to do for Your kingdom.” And when no answer comes, they figure that He doesn’t want them to go anywhere or do anything and they put down their personal calling, and sometimes … they settle for religion. Our personal calling is this: “FOLLOW ME!” Gifts and ministries follow that.

Here’s a huge revelation for today – obeying and following Jesus will lead each one of us into our calling… because part of that calling is to be transformed. Sadly many of us still aren’t ready for ‘the calling bit’ —we are too steeped in this world’s ways. Forget about the past, or the fact that you prayed and prayed for Aunt Minnie and she died anyway! I’m so sorry you suffered the loss of someone dear to you. But many sincere people have sadly gone under simply because they tried to lead – not follow Him. 

Be like Jesus, just LOVE PEOPLE and see where that leads you. Loving people opens so many doors! Christians are out there searching, wandering about, looking for miracles … if you wanna see a miracle … take a risk and be obedient! ”God  will not let you fall. Your guardian will not fall asleep.” Our guardian doesn’t sleep, because the Holy Spirit is always on.

The Word of God is a sword! Swords belong to warriors – not couch potatoes. It works the other way around – we take a risk, and speak or share, and God will back us up, and if He doesn’t, we get humbled! Bonus buy! You know, it is very windy at my house today, tomorrow it may not be windy at all – the WIND goes wherever He wants to – He’s always blowing somewhere. Find the wind and follow Him. Go into your prayer closet and stay there until you find Him.

Jesus did not die to make our lives easier…. read the book. Then ask the Holy Spirit questions while you are reading and do something about what it says.  Ask the Holy Spirit to show you where you are out of step with Him, and what He wants you to do about it.  It continues to totally astonish me when I realise what I have been tolerating in my life, because one day follows another and I am walking around half asleep, or telling myself it is normal to be mad at someone else. Try asking Him ‘Am I mad at anyone? “ Take a pen, you could be there a while!

Peter and Andrew moved away from what they knew how to do – which was toiling on the family fishing boat – and they immediately followed Him. Then Jesus set about showing them that what they had always done before with fish, they could now do with men and women. Here is the best question ever to ask the Holy Spirit … “Lord, where are YOU going?”  It is an oxymoron to call ourselves ‘followers of Jesus’ when we are not going anywhere. Jesus did what His Father told Him to do every single day. He got exhausted following the Father’s will. He had nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat. Yet He treasured His relationship with His Heavenly Father above everything else, and obedience to the Father’s Will was His sole purpose. 

The Holy Spirit stayed WITH Him, IN Him, and UPON Him, because the Lord Jesus understood the word devotion, He knew that ministry means movement, engagement, interaction with others. Be a follower of Christ – He’s always doing something! Bye 👋

“As for us, we have all of these great witnesses who encircle us like clouds. So we must let go of every wound that has pierced us and the sin we so easily fall into. Then we will be able to run life’s marathon race with passion and determination, for the path has been already marked out before us.” Hebrews 12:1 TPT.

P 3051 The meaning of Commitment.

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The word commitment appears 127 times in the bible.“Overall, the Bible teaches that commitment to God is an all-encompassing devotion that requires both action and faith. It means dedicating our efforts, enduring through challenges, and holding steadfast to the promises of God, ultimately leading to a fulfilling and purposeful life aligned with His will.” (Would you believe it – that came from Google!)

When we talk about being committed to Christ what do we mean? Is it merely about the idea of SomeOne saving us from hell? That’s not a bad thing – but that’s not all commitment means, as you can see in 1 Kings 8:61 above.  Aren’t we blessed to live in a time where we don’t have to remember 600+ laws like others do? Galatians 5:22,23 states:“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” There’s no law against living this life like Jesus did, everything He did fulfilled the law perfectly.  

Icky question time. Ask yourself… are you kind and forbearing, can you put up with anything? Do you love others, in thought, and deeds? Are you filled with joy, and peace? That’s good, there are no laws broken there. Are you gentle with others? Can you control yourself ?… No law against that either. Do you like absolutes? Then 1 Corinthians 13:8 is just for you …“Love never fails”– everything else will one day fade away, but love will remain. Living a life of love positions us to be obedient. Now we have just one commandment! Loving Him and loving others.

More not-so-random questions. Psalm 37:5 says:“Commit your way to the Lord;  trust in Him and He will do this:…” Here’s a thought – do we remember to give our burdens to Jesus? That’s part of committing our way. Do we pray for the sick? Are we witnesses showing His love in the way we speak and act? Part of commitment is to acknowledge Him in ALL our ways. A divided aim means a double-minded life. The real problem is always our decision to commit to Him and obey His Word. This is how God showed His commitment to us – He gave us His Son while we were still sinners!

Colossians 1:29 says this: “For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in Whom we have redemption.”  Did you notice that scripture from Colossians 1:—is in the past tense? It’s all done! Jesus Himself said:“It is finished.” Now we are to live using our faith to activate what we’ve been already given. If we are not doing that, then we are believing a lie and our faith is not active on our behalf.

Maybe someone has convinced you that you are not eligible. Perhaps you feel you cannot control the things you do and you live an out-of-control existence, and so you feel condemned all the time. But:“there is no condemnation for those who are IN Christ Jesus.” That means we need to stay connected to what Jesus already did for us. Self-control was deposited into our lives when we said “yes” to Jesus. Just like all the other fruits .. we don’t have to find them, or make them up — we simply need to live like what He said is true … BECAUSE IT IS. Trees produce fruit because it is in their DNA. Our spiritual DNA has changed. Don’t let the enemy trick you out of your legitimate inheritance.

‘Abiding in the Vine’ means living this life convinced and convicted that what Jesus said is the utter and absolute truth. It means I know, from experience that what He said is truer than how I feel, or what you do, or whatever is going on around me. The Vine does not have to pray the sap will keep it alive …the sap is already part of the Vine. He came in when we said “yes.”

Right here, right now, He’s IN you and me. We need to live this life using our faith that He WILL NOT break His Word – or that connection, EVER.. As we live a life of faith we are transformed. The Holy Spirit promises to direct, guide and help us with His Eye upon us and our circumstances.So when we fall over, we get up asap, and repent to Him and others. We repair whatever we did to hurt someone else and re-establish our connection with the Lord and … then … we go on again. 

In Galatians 6:9-10 it says: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” Don’t get tired in the hard bits … press IN. The secret to overcoming is to keep on keeping on. Persevere. This world may tell you that you must get this and that right, but God says:“Just keep trusting Me and treating others the way you want to be treated – let love be your aim.” LOVE IS THE SAP! Let it flow.

Commitment is about choosing to have our obedience to Him first in our lives, thoughts and actions. We refuse to do anything without Him because loving Him, has become our entire life. Bye. 👋

P 2979 Saturated.

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To be saturated means that when life squeezes the daylights out of you — all that comes out is love! The Holy Spirit’s Presence in us, transforms us, and touches everyone around us. He attracts people, and He knows exactly what every heart we meet needs to hear. We are not called to pat down or pacify other people’s sin – we are called to shine HIS light into sin, without destroying the person captured by it. Love shines into the darkness with such a brilliance that even grumpy people are surprised.

We don’t seem to understand that He is now in all of us, and it is our joy to co-operate with Him. We make our hearts, His home, with the Holy Spirit’s help, otherwise we will get progressively deaf. That’s what disobedience, and carelessness does. Because He is now our dearest, most trusted Friend, the Holy Spirit can put His finger on anything He sees that is clogging up our flow of His love, in us and for others. As He flows through us that is the normal Christian life. 

Peter told the lame man in the book of Acts: “I don’t have money but what I do have I will give you.” He knew the Holy Spirit was in him and with him. Peter’s focus was on walking with God not ministry, or avoiding sin. The secret to flowing with the Holy Spirit is to allow Him to lead you. He is not some kind of emergency spare Friend sent to bail us out of trouble or make us look good! Life is so much easier, when He is in charge. Meanwhile, I can guarantee you that whatever He wants us to do, we will need to use our faith to do it. 

I find it incredibly interesting that Jesus Himself did not teach the disciples about what we call “the anointing.” He did not speak about God’s Presence with these men as a method—because the Holy Spirit is a PERSON, not a method! He simply taught these men God’s ways, then He demonstrated them, and then He told them to go and do it! 

The Lord’s importance and proximity in their lives had an overflowing effect – they were able to do what He did because they were living in His Presence. Ya might want to stop and think about that one! 🤔 Yet these men, who walked with Jesus, weren’t perfected in their personal faith – until their spiritual debt had been paid, and the Holy Spirit came to each one of them at Pentecost. After the Spirit’s arrival, they would’ve gladly died for what they believed instead of running away, as they had previously done.

The bible tells us that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. We already have it, so we must stop checking out our feelings and instead follow His prompts. God loves it when we do what we do prompted by faith – every single day. Including TODAY! … “Today when you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.” Hebrews 3:15. When you hear Him—obey Him. If He says you should apologise and fix things, then that other person’s response has nothing whatsoever to do with the outcome… even if they snarl at you! We are here to please Him, other people may be touched by Him as we obey, but that is not our priority. Our obedience releases our faith.

The source of His life in us is never US—it is His Presence IN us. “Christ in you the hope of glory..”  As we daily choose to use our faith to allow God to redeem our lives from fleshly habits—like holding apathy, offences,  bitterness, bad attitudes, wrong relationships and carelessness, we will become increasingly more free. Even seemingly unimportant things, that can trip us up — things like lying to save someone else’s feelings must go.

The love of God needs to fill us daily with the purposes and things of God. We can’t just pray: “Fill me now please Lord” and then walk out of the door and get grumpy because somebody parked across the driveway. And we don’t just go to work to do a job – now we work for Him! As we walk with Him we will move away from those things that are distracting us from our true calling and purpose. 

At the same time, the love of God captures our hearts. We begin to see Him do things through us that we cannot do ourselves. And I’m not just talking about walking on water! I’m talking about a bad tempered person finding that as they yield to the Holy Spirit’s promptings, and obey Him in faith, they are transformed. They experience the growth of the  fruit of self-control. Because of their obedience, they are choosing to remain in the vine.This love lifestyle doesn’t just work on things like a bad temper, it works on anything that keeps you and I from being distracted by this life. We remember how much God loves us! 

Our proximity to Jesus minute by minute, grows exponentially as we live aware of Him. The Holy Spirit is with us to remind us we are not guided by our flesh anymore.“Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell Him every detail of your life, then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ.” Philippians 4:6-7 TPT.

As you can see, God’s peace is the final umpire. Our task is follow His peace. We have to protect our peace and be guided by it.  Living this life saturated with His love is not a pipe dream – it is our new way to live.

Bye. 👋

P 2952 The heart of God is restoration … not condemnation.

/ DVH

John 8 …“But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning He came back into the temple [court], and all the people were coming to Him. He sat down and began teaching them. Now the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery. They made her stand in the centre of the court, and they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the very act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women [to death]. So what do You say [to do with her—what is Your sentence]?” They said this to test Him, hoping that they would have grounds for accusing Him. 

But Jesus stooped down and began writing on the ground with His finger. However, when they persisted in questioning Him, He straightened up and said, “He who is without [any] sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then He stooped down again and started writing on the ground. They listened [to His reply], and they began to go out one by one, starting with the oldest ones, until He was left alone, with the woman [standing there before Him] in the centre of the court. Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She answered, “No one, Lord!” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you either. Go. From now on sin no more.”]”

The Lord Jesus Himself disposed of this woman’s accusers. Praise God, this shows us we can trust Him to dispose of ours, too. She was a nobody – yet God saw somebody! The Lord did not condemn her for her sin, He FORGAVE HER. Our job after acknowledging His Grace gift to us, is to release to other captives what we were freely given – because we are filled with the knowledge that we don’t deserve His GRACE either. 

In this passage there is Love, Grace, Wisdom, Faith and Freedom, all over the Lord’s actions! Jesus knew they did not bring that woman to Him just to humiliate her – these scribes and Pharisees brought her to Him to accuse HIM! This incident was about Jesus, not just about that woman. It was a set-up, a sting!  But all Jesus had for her was compassion and forgiveness, plus the freely given opportunity to start a new life and live right before God. The greater sin was in the hearts of her accusers. Sometimes we ignore our sin because we choose not to see ourselves. We think of our actions as ‘good’ and condemn someone else because their actions are ‘bad.’

“However, when they persisted in questioning Him, He straightened up and said, “He who is without [any] sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” When absolute truth is in front of us, we dare not refute it, nor should we try to – the best response is to own what we’ve done. Lies, bitterness, resentment, hatred, all these things produce shame and guilt and they thrive in darkness. That’s why we cannot tolerate them, and confession brings us into the light. We are His —  so now we are officially living in the Light, HIS light. 

I often wonder if these religious men had stayed longer to press the issue, what might have come out about their lives? Some versions of this passage indicate the Lord wrote stuff about the woman’s accusers in the dirt at their feet. They were so quick to try and catch the Lord breaking the law, but then they slunk off when confronted with the power and love of God for forgiveness, present in the Person of Christ.

Right after the paragraph about this woman in John 8, Jesus proclaims that “He …is the light of the world”“”…He who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” We cannot tell ourselves that we are following Jesus if we choose to tolerate darkness in ourselves. I’m not talking about what we watch on TV or even how we talk … I’m talking about our hearts – the attitude of our hearts toward others matters. Our hearts need to continually be filled with His light. His Presence loves the light. (James 1:17)

There are two points in this story, it is not just a story about Jesus forgiving an adulterous woman! In the church we can push the truth of what He said here away from us, and not take it in, by making this story about something we think we would never do!  Adultery. Jesus wasn’t trying to hurt these deeply religious men – He was exposing the darkness inside them that kept them captive. He came to save them too! Maybe they left because they didn’t want to confront the reality of who they had become. 

Religion counts outward actions more important than the state of our hearts, but Jesus clearly said elsewhere, it is what comes out of our hearts that shows us what is inside! God does not expose our sin to shame us. He wants to set us free, and we need to be able to see our sin in order to come out of harmony with it. The attitude in the Pharisees that accosted this woman, and then tried to trap Jesus with what she was doing, is the same one that will drag us all under if we let it. We can easily see someone else’s sin as worse than ours!! 

Religion imprisons us, it does not set us free. It excuses our behaviour and accuses someone else. That’s called deflection. Jesus did not approve of this woman’s lifestyle, instead He lovingly gave her an opportunity to change, that’s what He does! He gave the religious leaders that opportunity as well. They turned Him down. Walking away may not seem like a big deal, but postponement hardens our hearts. The heart of God is restoration not condemnation – HE loves to forgive…. He did not come here to condemn sinners – He came to SAVE them. Bye.🩸

May God bless you today, as you choose to take the time to remember what was freely done for you.

P 2924 The future is HERE ……NOW!

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“But you need to be aware that in the final days the culture of society will become extremely fierce. People will be self-centred lovers of themselves and obsessed with money. They will boast of great things as they strut around in their arrogant pride and mock all that is right. They will ignore their own families. They will be ungrateful and ungodly. They will become addicted to hateful and malicious slander. 

Slaves to their desires, they will be ferocious, belligerent haters of what is good and right. With brutal treachery, they will act without restraint, bigoted and wrapped in clouds of their conceit. They will find their delight in the pleasures of this world more than the pleasures of the loving God. They may pretend to have a respect for God, but in reality they want nothing to do with God’s power. Stay away from people like these!”2 Timothy 3:1-5 TPT.

Yeah, I dunno about you, but at this moment, I’m thinking about heading for the hills, because this scripture sounds just like last week’s new’s headlines to me. Isn’t it scary when you can read something like this — which was written in 40-60 AD and yet you still think — boy does this sound so familiar! 

You know, God has never said that other people would like what we say – He just said: “TELL THEM.” And He also said, live like this – “make love your great aim” and the bible shows us how love lives. The news of today is filled to the top with death, anger, sorrow, murder, rage etc.and those things can subtly influence us to think people are not worth the sacrifice of laying down our lives. Sadly all we need if we want to be an influencer,  is to have a sad story, or  give away money, or stuff. Today you can buy people’s interest. And if you call it a competition, they will jump right in! 

But the bible says we are here to to tell them that they will go to hell if they keep going in the wrong direction. Yeah! That kind of changes the colour of anyone’s day. At the same time as we are actively loving them, we need to tell them what they are doing is eternally costly. 

However, we do not have to market God! There is a school of thought that says if we can be as slick and appealing as the things of this world, people will listen to us. This is what Paul was talking about in the above verse: “…having a form of godliness but denying its power …”True godliness is about fruit, it produces substance, not just appearances. There is no power in exhibiting the appearance of godliness, practising that will produce religion. When what we are looking for is inward transformation. 

Now, let’s look at that first line in Paul’s discourse. “The culture of society will become exceedingly fierce.”Hmmm. Does today’s world look like a loving, supportive culture? There’s a lot of talk about empowering people but not much talk about living a life of love. It seems to me that many people in the Western world have learnt to speak badly about others – so they can make money on TV shows by deriding the way people walk, dress, and live — we even pick on what other people EAT! We indulge in gossip simply for conversation’s sake. Gossip has become a way of life – a method of communication – a way to relate!

We need to assure the people around us that there is something much bigger, more important and infinitely more lasting, than working hard to look good. Mankind’s greatest challenge is to continue to be loving in the face of evil, and that will take the supernatural power of God! Meanwhile, the church can’t keep on doing what they have been doing because it isn’t working! Often our worst enemies are exactly who Jesus told us they would be – the people we dearly love.“… a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ Matthew 10:36. We are going to need the power of God to cope, and still love them!

We have let our children down. Someone (??) decided the little darlings are basically good. Obviously these people haven’t read “Lord of the flies!” or “Grimm’s fairy tales” or the newspaper lately! Sadly we raised our children to be entertained, not instructed. But despite how cute they are, children are not born good. “All have sinned,” it says so in His book. Did you know that the first word most babies learn is “NO?!” 

We wonder why our kids are careless about the real things in this life that actually matter, and why haven’t they learnt integrity, obedience, and kindness etc? Wisdom and spiritual knowledge come from investing time and energy in people – not just chasing dollars. Our kids need to learn to contribute, not consume, and it is our job to teach them. Inanimate objects don’t cause delinquent behaviour, lack of supervision does.

I think Paul was looking through God’s Time Machine into a telescope of our future, when he wrote this letter of warning to Timothy. Let’s remember, Timothy was his disciple, he was teaching this young man the way he should go. He was also instructing Timothy about the times that were to come …  And now… happy, happy joy, joy, here they are! The future is here. Now! Always remember, the darkness cannot put the light out – HIS light in us will conquer the darkness around us. Love is the vehicle. Bye 👋

P 2918 Know your place.

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It is a very valuable thing to know your place in God’s plans. Who you are, and who you are not. Listen to the genuine humility in what John the Baptist says in John 1:19-23. “Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?”

He answered, “No.” Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

John had absolutely no problem with his role in God’s kingdom, and yet he had a lot to brag about! To start with, He was born under extraordinary circumstances. His parents were childless and too old to have children when God announced his arrival. This young man looked and lived differently, he was totally devoted to God’s purposes. He practically vibrated with passion for God’s ways. John was the youngest witness ever-recorded in the bible. He jumped up and down for joy, inside his mum, when his mother met Mary, who was carrying Jesus Christ inside her at the time.

This young man knew his place – he simply did whatever God told him to do when the Lord told him to do it. His entire life was devoted to preaching repentance. It still blows my mind that he had a huge personal claim to fame, after all – he baptised Jesus!!  Imagine – he could have founded the “I baptised Jesus movement!” Yet he never once traded on what he did, he simply was obedient to his own calling. Sadly this poor guy got his head cut off because he called sin SIN! Something we all seem loathe to do nowadays.

Today everyone seems to want a big glorious ministry – to be seen and known. While others have given up on any ministry because they don’t seem to be spiritually extraordinary enough. Where are the John the Baptists amongst us? The men and women who know their place and faithfully and humbly stand in what they were given to do. We live in a culture that says that we should become famous, so we can make the Lord’s Name famous. Like HE needs our help!! I love the scripture below, because it smacks ambition right on the head – hard!

“For who do you know that really knows you, knows your heart? And even if they did, is there anything they would discover in you that you could take credit for? Isn’t everything you have and everything you are sheer gifts from God? So what’s the point of all this comparing and competing? You already have all you need. You already have more access to God than you can handle…”1 Corinthians 4:7 MSG.

Another version says: “What do you have that was not given to you?”  Our answer to that should always be … nothing. Not one blooming thing. I’ve had 3 children, and I know each one was a gift from God. I also live in a safe place – the Lord gave me that too. Some other Christians live in anti-Christ cultures and they live with great fear. Because they know Jesus, and they love Him, but the Lord is not welcome in their country.They are living like His salt in a deadly stew, fearing a knock on their door.  

Looking at this world all around us and realising what we have been given, introduces gratitude and a sense of place and purpose. The pressure is off, we don’t all have to be big time evangelists … some of us live ordinary lives faithfully serving an extraordinary God! Yesterday hubby explained the gospel to a lady who had never ever heard it before. She asked what the gospel of John was about, and he left her reading the bible for the first time. Our faith has been designed to be active and vibrant — as well as love-filled and dripping in compassion. That’s the only criteria. Fame brings its own pitfalls.

Some of us get to practice love on people who have absolutely no idea or understanding of what they have been freely given. Many saints weep into their pillows in fervent prayer, because they know the fate of others around them. You and I might pass these people on the street and we wouldn’t even know that we are passing one of Christ’s passionate unknown soldiers.

Ambition is a deadly trap. The person imprisoned by it can never do enough, there always has to be more – preferably bigger and brighter. For these poor souls trapped-by-extraordinary-visible-results, the joy of salvation can be lost in the anguish of not-being-effective-enough. Or the need to have recognition. We must find our own place, and start being active and obedient to our heavenly calling — where He put us. Here’s a very old hymn, many may have sung in their childhood that reminds us of that calling:

“Jesus bids us shine with a pure clean light, like a little candle burning in the night. In this world of darkness, so we must shine – you in your small corner and I in mine!”   Bye … 👋.

P 2900 We pray from a kingdom perspective.

/ DVH

“Yes, feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts with heavenly realities, and not with the distractions of the natural realm.” Colossians 3:2 TPT. There are so many instructional verses in the bible, just like this one, that we could apply one of them every single day and still not get through the book even once in this lifetime! So how do we feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm while we are still on earth? We live like heaven is our home, not this world.

It’s all about focus. Most people today are focussed on me, myself, and I. My family, and my relatives, and my goods and possessions, my country, and my job or lack of one! In order to have a heavenly point of view we need to focus on what God wants – and fortunately He has told us what He wants – in writing! 

Jesus came here and He actively taught us what a heavenly perspective looks like. Our Father always has a greater plan than we can imagine — praise Him! Jesus was a walking, talking, teaching, healing illustration of God’s plan and His love for each one of us. Then He died to seal the deal, to give us our opportunity to live the way He did. Sacrificially. He didn’t just die to get us into heaven – He died to get heaven into, and flowing out of, US!

Jesus Christ is Father God’s faith in action be-ca-u-se … ‘faith without works is dead!’ Faith has substance – Jesus Christ is the substance of His Father’s faith. This is why without faith we cannot please God – our God is faith-filled! He has invested His Son’s life in each one of us. His kingdom is not just a place, somewhere ‘up there’ — it is a new way to live. The miracles Jesus did were secondary to the carrying out of His Father’s plan.

People could say: “Well being a Christian doesn’t sound like much fun, if God gave me a life  I want to live it, my own way.” And so the Lord steps back and says: “Have at it!” This means right here, right now, surprise, surprise, we are living in a world filled with people who want their own way. Even if what they actually want is a peaceful life, that is still what that person chooses for themselves! We should never be surprised at the mess this world is in, because human beings are in charge. And human beings, without Christ, are susceptible to demonic influences!

I think we all do our best to pray for good things, Godly things, things inspired by the Holy Spirit … but many times we pray for change or healing of things on this earth. Please Lord, heal this. Please Lord, change that. Please Lord, help those people etc. We are praying for the things that will one day pass away. Jesus Himself told us what to pray for: “Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; THY KINGDOM COME; THY WILL BE DONE; on EARTH as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.”

In this new reality, we pray for His kingdom, His will to be done, first.. In this prayer that Jesus gave us as an example – God is the centre. Yes we can pray to be delivered from sickness, sin and evil, let’s do it! We sure need it!! But the point of being born again is to live in His new kingdom with His oversight. He tells us how to do that in the book. He even tells us what the fruit of that kingdom looks like … in the book! No fruit – no kingdom!  

Our new life means we have chosen to live in His kingdom, and we are to manifest that kingdom in this life down here …in the middle of wars, trouble, strife, evil, compromise, hatred, murder, lust, lies. That’s why Jesus said “don’t be surprised when bad things happen.” Those things are the fruit of this world!  We are to walk within this world’s worst nightmares, shining with the light of Jesus’ love for every single human being, always praying people will be saved by the truth of what we believe, as it is acted out right in front of them! 

“God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.” 1 John 4:17.

Now we pray from our new heavenly position within Christ. ‘Lord I want what You want.” I’ve learnt, from experience, that what HE wants is so much better than anything I can think of or dream about! We have given our lives to Him so He can live through us – we are blessed to be able to release His point of view, His healing, His love, peace, joy, into the darkness. That is not a part-time job, it is a kingdom lifestyle.  We need to learn to pray from a kingdom perspective.Bye. 👋 

P 2895 God’s Love is inexhaustible.

/ DVH

We all need to leave behind the lies we have inadvertently swallowed regarding God’s Love. Our enemy goes out of his way to tell us we can’t have the Lord’s love and grace anymore because we did so and so, and God cannot forgive so and so – it says it in the book. That is a horrible lie sent to torment us. The bible is a balanced book, one thing leads into another – leading us back to HIM.

Today, I am hoping to pass on some reassurance to those of you who have become bogged down in legalism – because I know from experience that our adversary never misses an opportunity to nag at someone – day and night. Many Christians have walked away from what they believe, because what they believed became untenable in the face of their desperate pain-driven reactions to this life. Say this with me: …”there is NOTHING our God cannot do!’

We need to focus on His faithfulness. Here are a few swords for you. 2 Thessalonians 3:3:“But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.“ Lamentations 3:22–23: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” Exodus 34:6-7a.“The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD,a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin …” Fortunately we are this side of the cross, and Jesus took any curses we might pass on to other people with Him to that cross. Read the book.

Confession is often the best solution to accusation. Think of sin as mould, it needs treatment, light and air. Darkness and lack of air will make it grow. We can always have a new beginning. Here’s a verse we all know: “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. What Jesus did was complete and comprehensive. Deliverance from the enemy’s lies starts with us making a quality decision to stop believing those lies, and instead we deliberately choose to put a verses of scripture in its place. The Holy Spirit will help us find them.

Accusatory thoughts can overwhelm and dismiss the power of God’s Love, together with the grace Christ released by what He did. Many times we do not have a sin problem per se, we have simply allowed God to become too small in our eyes, and Jesus stops being the Saviour Who saved everyone. When He said “…it is finished.”It was a universal statement for all time. However, if you are currently doing something or other and you clearly know in your heart that it is sin, and it is slowly dragging you away from everything you believe then you need to repent!  

Almighty God provides us with a tool to access His inexhaustible love. It’s called repentance. That is the quickest route to restoration. Almighty God is incredibly kind. He will lead us out of temptation, AND He will also deliver us from fast approaching evil. Because we need to withstand further and future attacks from our enemy, our faithful God will sometimes allow him to ‘gnat’ at us, so we have opportunities to develop spiritual strength. We fight back with “God says: …”  This is not about how we feel, it is about what HE has already said. Our job is to believe He is a merciful Father Who has done everything necessary to bring about our redemption.

Jesus made reaching God’s standard impossible without His help.I dunno about you – I’ve wished people dead, told thumping great lies, and worse things – and I’ve fallen down the hole of desperate despair. I think it is necessary to point out that God judges hearts, and none of us fully know what’s in there! Sometimes we can be too lenient, and at other times w-a-y too permissive. We need the Holy Spirit’s ever-present, always current, on-the-spot wisdom.

God lets us learn! That’s not an excuse it is a blessing. Think of repentance like this, as regaining our strength after we have allowed it to lapse. Every action we deliberately take against sin, strengthens us spiritually. It strengthens our faith when we step away from something purely because God says: “Don’t do it.” The Lord advises us in this manner because He knows what comes next. It isn’t always about sin – many many times it is about the kindness of God. He leads us into repentance because He doesn’t want us to end up in the land of WORSE – fighting shadows from the past.

We can also choose the road of humility and tell someone else so they can pray for us. Other people can lift us up when we feel lower than the ground we are standing on. Always remember, God’s Love is inexhaustible. Bye.👋

P 2878 Unconditionally forgive everyone.

/ DVH

““Your ancestors have also been taught ‘Love your neighbours and hate the one who hates you.’ However, I say to you, love your enemy, bless the one who curses you, do something wonderful for the one who hates you, and respond to the very ones who persecute you by praying for them.”Matthew 5:43-44 TPT. Many people don’t like this scripture because it hits something inside them that they don’t care to acknowledge. Personally, I think things like gossip have their roots in these attitudes. We try to bring people down by badmouthing them to others, especially if they threaten us or we can’t forget what they did! 

Hatred can be generational. It can be taught to us by the people we dearly love, who raised us. After that sort of family indoctrination, it can become quite easy for gossip, slander, lies, and hatred to be passed down from one generation to another. When generational things are cherished and repeated endlessly, eventually they break out against other people Jesus died for! Meanwhile, how sensible is it to hate some people ‘cos your folks, or your friends, or people we esteem hate them too? You know that voice that you can hear in your heart that keeps saying: “Wrong way, go back.” Listen to it.  We have the power of God in us — we can usher in generational change by our choices.

Any unloving focus can drag us away from our main objective – loving others. Gossip and judgment build themselves, through repetition about what some perceived enemy did or said.  And when the bad incident that started with anger, or judgment happens to our people, our house, our group of friends – then it becomes personal!  That personal experience adds weight to everything else that has gone before it. It’s a distraction from our main purpose – let’s not allow ourselves to be distracted away from our purpose.. 

Between all the hating, cursing, lies and the repetition of the terrible stories — hatred is now flourishing in this world. Now this ghastly attitude is set firmly inside a demonic stronghold. I think the press/media etc. lies to us regularly in order to provide sensational stories to get our money and attention. Advertisers love that idea! The press blows up information and twists things to make what we read, see, or listen to, sensational. 

Meanwhile, our thirst to be in the know, and our efforts to find out about something that garners a lot of attention, have created a monster. We have made ‘knowing things;’  or ‘having the skinny on this or that,’  into some kind of a competition, and in the process we have devalued the people Jesus died for. Those people who are supposedly informing us – prefer making money, or gaining information — to caring about their fellow man. Real lives are affected and sometimes destroyed, by falsely reported things. 

This happens when the story becomes more important than the participants. Things like that help to create hard, and sometimes deceitful hearts. Meanwhile the media is about money and making some people rich. It seems to me, that the press take their little texta pens, and colour-in what really happened, by bringing up the bad shades and diminishing the good ones, so that we will read/watch/listen to their version of what is actually going on. We can easily get sucked into this filthy whirlpool and end up angry with somebody we’ve never met!

I believe this practice is a device of satan, because he loves to capitalise on greed, plus our own perceived desire to know stuff. Gossip etc. has become a new form of addiction. But the truth is, we don’t actually need to know! We can pray for the people involved in terrible things, but we often can’t do anything about whatever is going on. All we can do is to STOP and deliberately let His light in through prayer. Unfortunately our idea of light, and the Lord’s idea of light can be very different things. How do I know that …? Because our light can often be hidden under a basket – that’s how! Hidden light is not useful. Darkness still remains in the corners. We dare not bring our own agendas into our prayers. 

Even some churches have been deceived, they have become more concerned about being politically correct than loving others. Our priority is always LOVE. There are times that we too borrow the press’s textas and do some colouring-in of our own – villainising people! We are here to shine His light into the dark places – not to spread the darkness around. To me, that means I need to be like Him no matter what is going on around me. A light illuminates, it doesn’t have an opinion, it simply shines by its nature. 

So what can we do about these things? Well, I think investing emotionally in something we have no control over, is the enemy’s way of wasting our time. We may even feel better initially, more in control of things, but unless we pray for both sides of whatever is going on, we are missing the point. We don’t get to judge who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. My advice is – don’t believe everything you hear, and remember to unconditionally forgive everyone. Let’s not get so tied to the things of this earth, that we can’t hear when heaven comes calling. Bye. 👋

P 2844 Into these times!

/ DVH

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. …”2 Timothy 3:1-17.

“If we are faithless, He remains faithful— for He cannot deny Himself.”2 Timothy 2:13. WE SERVE A FAITHFUL GOD. That fact never changes. He is looking for people who will believe in His faithfulness. Sadly, the verse above in Chapter 3, reads like today’s news! How scary is that? And then Paul says to Timothy “… avoid such people!” I mean really? HOW? Join a nunnery?? That’s the thing about the bible, it has contradictions in it, and we desperately need our Helper to sit with us and explain His book. He’s the Author and He knows what He wants to tell US as individuals. Don’t just read what others think … ask Him yourself … then insist.

Our bible is a unique book – it’s not just full of instructions, it is chock full of God’s words, there on the page for you and I, every single day. What I hear Paul saying is this: “don’t pick up this world’s ways of thinking, doing and being.” And my thought bubble goes like this: “I will definitely need to hang around with the Holy Spirit, more than I hang around with this world’s ideas of what life is meant to be like.” Speaking for myself, that’s a tall order! I am stuck inside all day – and I’ve exhausted all the Big Bird meets Bambi movies. Sigh. One thing is for sure, I can’t do anything He wants without His help.

I permanently need His assistance for my mind to dwell on things that are good right and profitable. However, at the same time I have also discovered that a lot of supposed ‘Christian stuff’ makes me cringe. It’s like eating a terribly sweet icy pole … total brain freeze! Sadly, I have come to the conclusion that Christians can’t make Spirit-friendly movies unless they are being led, step by step by Him. And I don’t just mean that He inspired the movie maker – I’m talking about Him inhabiting what is said and done right throughout the movie! Otherwise our clever ideas make the church look weird, and a le-etle bit soft, and wimpy …! We need His power present, everywhere. In every industry, place of employment, schools, hospitals, trains, planes and automobiles! And love is the vehicle we travel in. 

At the same time, when Jesus shows up people are instantly affected by His Presence. I’ve seen that happen with my own eyes. Our job is to invite Him to come with us. Then we listen, then we obey!  People start crying their eyes out. They say: “I don’t know why I am crying.” And we tell them: “That’s Jesus, He’s here, He wants to talk to you because He loves you.” Neither of us are clever, or insightful enough to touch and reach the lives of the people we meet everyday. That’s the very thing Paul is talking to Timothy about – we must see, for ourselves, that this world is in a desperate way, but not condemn it. We must reach out. We need His guidance, direction and help – because our God cares about everyone.

I think Jesus is saying to all of us today: “Don’t go anywhere without ME.” The Holy Spirit is our filtering system, so we need to learn to run everything by Him. I believe that through these verses the Lord has given us a glimpse into this world’s future, to help us understand the times we are in. These times have not taken Him by surprise, Paul wrote about them nearly 2000 years ago! Are we in the end times? I dunno! I’m not that smart. I just know that my life will end one day, and I want it to count for His kingdom. 

I may never meet some of you guys this side of heaven, but I write this stuff in the hope that you can hear His voice through mine, and that will make you thirsty and hungry for more of Him. Living this life from day to day, going nowhere – except for making money – is the total pits. I exhort everyone I meet to yield to Him because that’s the way forward. In my heart I know that the coming generations are going to go so much farther than my generation will ever go, and do things I have never even dreamed about. Remember, the darker the darkness, the more HIS light shines. 

Just don’t be afraid to share what you know about Him with someone else. Who knows what that person will remember if their ceiling falls in and this life betrays them? Our trembling little faith-steps give the Holy Spirit something to work with! Maybe they will remember someone telling them that God loves them so much, in moments of quiet desperation. We’ve been born here, into these times, to be blood-bought containers of His love, visible illustrations, of His love in action. We show other people, what Love looks like, what Love sounds like, what Love acts like.

These are the days we can give glory to Him… wherever we are, whatever we are doing. Christ was GRACE under pressure – He died for us so we can be grace to others, no matter what is going on around us.

Bye …👋