David

P 3272 Let’s learn to speak SPIRIT.

/ DVH

The body of Christ needs to know the Holy Spirit’s ways intimately, and live in and listen for His languages of love – kindness, encouragement, faithfulness etc.  When we read the Old Testament we can watch Him when He is speaking to people – we observe how He acts. The Spirit’s language stops conflicts, and we can learn His language by living like Jesus did. The Holy Spirit is not some spiritual club that only speaks in tongues! He knows more human and angelic languages than we have hairs on our heads and He speaks the language of our hearts.

The Body of Christ spends too much of our time knowing other members in the natural – we look for people like ourselves, people who think like we do! We need to know one another because of Him, not our carnal thoughts or competitiveness. He alone can and will unite us. Some people in the natural might drive you or I up a wall, but what will unite us comes through the Spirit’s desire and focus on Jesus.That makes us one, with Him and each other.  The Trinity, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit know all about being One – if we follow Their instructions, the Holy Spirit will teach us what is important and what is not! Unity is important.

When things get hard, there can be times when we try to believe what someone else told us, because of the weight of oppression coming at us. We get tired from fighting our way through the junk that flies at us. But when we start with, and hold onto what the bible says, as the Holy Spirit kisses it, then we will learn about Him as well as ourselves. Some attitudes we’ve held onto are not just annoying they are weights that are keeping us from running freely with the Lord! The Spirit Himself will keep what Jesus says uppermost in our thoughts and hearts and He will change our mind. That’s when the truth can set us free – free from the pettiness and hatred mankind embraces.

The routine that will quickly clear our hearts from non-Kingdom stuff goes like this: repent, confess, restore. If we truly knew the power of agreement we wouldn’t fight with anyone! None of us can afford to ignore the things that are important to Him. When we walk with the Spirit, we have the wisdom of heaven available whenever we need it. Each time we come up against something, there is an opportunity for us to become more adept at ‘rightly dividing the word of truth.’ This also happens when we decide to meditate on the bible, and pause and wait for what the Holy Spirit says we need to do about what we just read. 

And yes … I know most people don’t have all the time in the world. But if you go without breakfast when you need it, at around 10 o’clock in the morning your stomach will tell you what a bad idea that was! We need HIS food. Remember, our aim is to learn ‘to seek His kingdom FIRST.’ One word from His mouth changes everything. Jesus once said “peace” and a storm ceased. God said “let there be light” and the sun came into being. At the same time, you and I cannot live a spiritual life on yesterday’s stale bread, either. 

So as we read, we are looking for what He wants to tell us today – stale bread is only good for toast! God’s Word cuts through our own ideas, leading us into His plans. “So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11. One word from the Lord is worth more than the entire contents of every other book ever written. Make it your daily aim to read His book and watchfully look for what He wants to say to you.

We cannot afford to discard the things of the Spirit, just because they don’t fit in with our society, or our church’s way of doing things. Let’s choose to go after the truth – His truth. His truth does not leave other people out! We dare not pick and choose which truth we will follow, and which one we will put to one side because it seems to be too hard. Let’s choose to go after every single word that comes out of His mouth for us, for that day. Learning to be led by what the Holy Spirit says reprograms our brain. We will learn to measure our lives by what He has said, not by what we feel. That’s kingdom living.

At the same time, we must have each others’ backs! It is a huge mistake to tell some poor sod the enemy has just jumped all over, to FIGHT. That’s like what James said – you don’t tell the guy who is cold and hungry: ‘be fed and warm’ and then walk away. What we do for each other in those moments, is crucial. We say to the guy bleeding on the ground: ”It’s OK brother or sister, we’ve got this. The Holy Spirit has put a sword in my hand and we, He and I, will fight for you!!”  I personally yell: “I need a sword for my friend, Lord,” as I am running at the other guy who is harassing them. (God gave David a stone, as he was running toward Goliath.)

When life knocks me down, there are times that I can’t think or breathe. My mind goes blank so I text people and ask them to please pray. WHY? Because I need a Word from Him. Once I know what the Lord has said, I can stand up again. I literally, cannot manage this life without Him, and I know other people who live the same way. The Lord Himself is the only One Who can guide us through these terrible times and help us to love others and still walk with Him. Let’s learn to speak Spirit, and deliberately choose to learn His language – which is LOVE. Not the mushy kind that fades as life goes on – the kind that REMAINS. Bye 👋 

P 3193 Chosen to do His will.

/ DVH

In the Holy Spirit’s processes, there needs to be room allowed for those who have weaker faith than we do. They too have so many valuable things to contribute. Actually their weaknesses often expose to us the reality of our own inner value systems – pomposity anyone? This brother or sister can give us an opportunity to identify faulty thoughts within us. They are helping us. Now there’s a reality rush!! Those things that have remained hidden, and untested in our lives, sometimes come out when we bump into someone else who is not on the same page we are. And if we are not aware of what God Himself says, we can end up in judgment. 

Romans 14:1-4 has a bit to say about these attitudes: “Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.”

The point Paul is making is that we need to be careful not to judge other people who have weaker faith than ours. Otherwise we are questioning His judgment. It is so easy for us to say: “This person doesn’t do this, and the pastor blah blah blah…” God Himself chooses leaders. The bible says so. Here’s something to think about — sometimes leaders are chosen because they expose what’s wrong in US. King Saul is a great example of that. He was not a good leader, he exposed and personally illustrated cowardice and fear to his armies. But his people liked the way he looked so they chose him for the job. 

On the other hand, David, the King the Lord chose, was a great leader. Two men were given the role, for many different reasons. One of them showed the Israelites their weaknesses, and the other brought out their strengths. Both of those things are relevant when you are marching into battle. And both things were God’s doing. The Lord is not like us! He doesn’t see things the way we do, because we have limited sight and He sees everything. When He says it is not good for us to do such and such … believe Him!

Back to the point. So one man feels OK about eating meat, he does not feel condemned, but the next guy can’t. The point isn’t who is right …the point is, what are WE going to do about the difference? And the answer is we must not to leap into judgment! Bits of Romans 13:1-5 say this:“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. … … Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.”

It’s not about whoever gleefully eats up all their veggies and who doesn’t – these two scriptures are about an attitude that we can easily allow to flourish within our hearts. And yes, I too have had people in charge of my life who seemed to be complete numpties. The amazing thing was they actually taught me more about myself and who I really am, than the nice guys who loved my ideas and supported them. Ya might want to think on that one!

Some people have weaker faith than others – they can’t do the kind of things someone else thinks is easy. This is not an opportunity to lord it over the person who can’t, and be superior. They are the Lord’s servants — He gets to choose who does what – and He chooses His heroes differently than we do. Who else would choose to make His only Son, the Darling of heaven …into a carpenter? And give His precious Only child into the inept hands of ordinary people? God would that’s Who! Telling the Lord what I think you should do or be, is an impertinence. I’m His servant. If He wants my life for His glory that’s enough for me. And what He chooses to do in your life is none of my business.

We have been given a singular task, and that is to love each other. This has nothing to do with judgment. Our assignment is to love the person whose lack of faith seems to be holding me back from where I think we should go. Here’s a red hot tip:  we can’t do that without the Holy Spirit’s help, most of us are not wired that way! I need rewiring!! Everything in this life is a set-up, heavenly-crafted to convince us that we need Him! If we put our faith alongside the faith that Jesus demonstrated, we are all duds.

So when someone — your spouse, your boss, or your pastor does some knuckle-headed thing, and you knew it wouldn’t work before they did it, but they just plain wouldn’t listen to you – that’s when we have a giant opportunity to learn to bear with those who have lesser faith than we do. And at the same time we need to support them, not criticise them, so that their faith has a chance to develop. So let them eat mushrooms, broccoli and tomatoes, while you knock off a juicy steak! Why would what someone else wants to eat have anything to do with you and I?

To finish – here’s what I’ve learned: One day you are the smart guy and the next day you are the numptie, and what matters has nothing to do with either one. The joy we share is that we have all been chosen by God to do His will. End of story. Bye. 👋

P 3142 It’s the Lord’s nature.

/ DVH

“The Lord is close to all whose hearts are crushed by pain, and He is always ready to restore the repentant one.” Psalms 34:18 TPT.  I love the word always in this Psalm. When human beings say always, we often mean – most of the time. But when God says always that’s exactly what He means! He is not into hyperbole or exaggeration. What He says, He means. Whatever He says, you can stand on. Doubt has nothing to give us, but angst. Holding fast is hard, but when we do it, we will reap a great reward.

Oh I pray that everyone grasps this truth and holds on to it tightly. It will comfort you in times when the roof has fallen in. The Holy Spirit will take His Words and unfold them before your eyes, and suddenly the thing you can’t understand, is clear. Let Him expound God’s word to you. There is nothing like God Himself, explaining what He means when you study His scriptures!

It is His truth. Almighty God put His full stop on His truth when He sent us the Living Word, Jesus, so we could see His Word in action. Ask yourself, how did Jesus treat sinners? — With grace, mercy and revelation that leads to repentance. How did He interact with the sick? With compassion, kindness, and healing. How did He minister to the spiritually hungry? With fresh bread directly from heaven. When God says He is close, He means He is close!  PAIN should not be our reference point – He is! 

Choose to believe Him, and remember to thank Him. You can thank Him for being with you, and not leaving, you even if the difficult circumstances haven’t instantly resolved. Focus on how close He says He is. When bad stuff happens, He won’t ever leave us. He takes His Word seriously and He keeps it. When we gave our lives to Jesus we stepped away from the feeling/thought-based world attitude, into His light and that light won’t lie to us. It can’t! Goodness, mercy, love, kindness, gentleness and truthfulness are part of God’s very nature. He does not lie. 

Years ago, I read books about countries on the other side of the world. I heard about them on the radio, and then I saw blurry pictures of them in black and white on the TV! And then one day I got on a plane and went and stood in those places. That one action took many countries out of the realm of my imagination, and brought them into reality for me. 

If you mention places like Germany, or Greece or France, I have memories of golden sun on my face – and some pretty yummy food too! If you say Singapore, I remember the brilliant architecture, sounds and smells. The thing that transports what we know into our personal experience — is FAITH! I ran about like a headless chicken and got a pass-port, and visas, packed my bags, then I got on a plane, and those countries came out of my imagination into reality.. I acted on what I saw! Faith acts on what it has read in the bible.

Our Spirit-prompted, Word-based belief in whatever He says, can take His Word and bring it to life. For those who are interested, I am not talking about believing for a Lear jet or a house with a bowling alley in the basement! I’m talking about God’s true riches. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness etc. But if we choose to treat His book like an information source, we will miss out on tasting the substance of His love, which transforms human beings. Ask for His help, and deliberately practice being loving – leave your feelings out of it.

Faith comes first. That’s when we decide to take a risk regarding Jesus’ truthfulness and Personhood and you and I will begin to have our own personal history with God Himself. The bible says faith comes by hearing and hearing comes from exposing ourselves to His Word— when we feel like it and when we don’t. And if you are sick, sad, or lonely then you probably won’t feel like it. I listen to the bible read if I can’t read it. We need to daily let His Word wash over us and cleanse us from the unbelief and heartache of this world.

Personally, I have yet to say: “oh goodie” when a testing time comes upon me. Nevertheless, I am learning that in those faith-testing times it means that God is taking me deeper still. The deeper the foundation, the greater the stability of the building. Our gracious Father is making sure we won’t ‘shake’ and ‘quake’ like we used to … because what we are standing on now, is firm and secure, and we know it.It’s like David said to Goliath: ‘First I killed a lion, then a bear, so YOU are going down!” Each faith-prompted action and subsequent experience led David into a deeper understanding of God Himself, and more confidence in Him.

Some things have now gone from my head to my heart. That’s because He has written it there! Our hearts are the safest place for that knowledge to be. When things are dark and horrible, that’s when we need to exercise our faith in His never-ending goodness the most. I tell the Lord: “You said You are here, so You are here! You are truthful, and I believe You. Thank You for being here close to me.” Amen.

When we stop trying to use the Lord for our own ends, and we decide that all we want is HIM – then we can tell Him we want to stay close to Him no matter what. That’s when we will see Him in ways we cannot imagine. Sometimes we need to do what David did and remind ourselves of the times when His goodness has upheld us and He helped us push through to victory. No matter how things look — and for many many people today, I know things look terrible, but I exhort you to hold fast.

God has not left you, and HE WILL NOT! Jesus our Shepherd will walk with you in that deep dark valley and use His staff to protect you from everything that wants to harm you. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. If help doesn’t come immediately He’s telling you He knows you can do it! Remember that His loving kindness is the Lord’s nature — and this too, shall pass… 😢 Bye.

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 3107 We bring Him joy.

/ DVH

Our faith in God’s goodness is His joy – especially when we simply enjoy Who He is, no matter what is going on around us! He is looking for all His people to live by faith, believing He is always good. All through the Old Testament, our Heavenly Father repeatedly gave Israel opportunities to leave all their known and established routines behind them, and trust in Him to care for them. The majority of them refused, because they thought they could run their lives without Him. They only wanted rescuing when they thought it was appropriate … they did not want transformation. What are you looking for? “How can two walk together unless they be in agreement?” Amos 3:3.

In the bible we have real life examples of what God’s goodness looks like in other people’s lives. There are men like Abraham, who left everything behind because God told the man: ‘Come and walk with Me to a new place I have for you.’ And Moses, who saved his nation for a far better life than the one they had. And David, a king without a throne, fighting for his life almost daily, being led every step of the way by God Himself.

Plus there were women like Ruth, who left her own family and became a part of history. She adopted and was obedient to Naomi’s family, and their faith. Noah’s wife — the woman who watched her husband build an ark, when it had never rained! Then she went in to a contained space filled with wild animals … plus she actually took her kids! Then there’s Esther who risked death to save her nation. There are countless others I could name here. These people all illustrate what faith in God’s goodness looks like. It looks like action – it looks like being stretched – it looks like being in danger – it looks like being uncomfortable.

I believe the Lord is still looking for people who will voluntarily live out their knowledge of Who He is to them – day by day. These people will live their lives like they believe to the depths of their souls, that He is a good, good Father Who cares deeply about each and every life. Almighty God’s loyalty, and investment into mankind’s relationship with Him, cost Him everything. Almighty God showed His faith in us when He sent His Son here — and then we turned around and clearly showed our faithlessness – by killing His Son! But the obvious love of His never-ending loving-kindness can still be followed right through-out the bible. It stretches way before our beginning in this world and goes on marching into eternity. 

Let’s look at Genesis 1:26-27… It was not enough for Him to make just another species, God wanted the MAN He made to look like HIM! “Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

And Revelation 11:5 illustrates what His ultimate goal is:“Then the seventh angel sounded [his trumpet]; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom (dominion, rule) of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” Jesus came to this earth to restore an overabundance of the very essence of what Adam and Eve had given away through their disobedience. I think that God Himself wants that garden we carelessly gave away, back. He misses us, because each one of us is special to Him. The intimacy, the fellowship, the shared love, the fun! Meanwhile, AnyOne who can make the variety of species we enjoy on this earth has to have a sense of FUN. 

I believe our God wants us to usher in His kingdom for Him, right here and right now, wherever we are. We don’t have to be “ready” – we just follow our Leader and do what He says. So much time has been wasted with us trying to get ourselves ready to obey Him! As we walk through our lives we are to be His announcers, heralds, the proclaimers — and Jesus Himself gave us the power to do it! Because of what He did for us, now we have become the aroma of Christ in this world. We go from place to place releasing the sight, smell, sound, love, joy, peace, reconciliation of His kingdom everywhere we go. We bring this tired, angry, broken world glimpses of what is to come.

We can use our gift of sight, to see the lack in our lives – most of us have some kind of lack or other — OR we can choose to live in His kingdom now, in our little corner of the world. It is our greatest joy to be given the privilege of fellowship with God Himself, daily, as well as enjoying everything He made. We need to remember that He made all those people around us too – even the grumpy, disappointed, fearful, greedy ones! I can stick my hand up for all those responses – how about you?

Many Christians want to live in the book of Acts, but those men and women were set on fire by the power of the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t just a tiny little match that caught fire, it was like a huge forest fire that spread everywhere. It consumed those who were ambitious for themselves, but empowered those who were willing to die for what they believed. God loves our faith. Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is God Who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” WE CAN  BRING HIM JOY! Bye. 👋

P 3090 Trust.

/ DVH

“May the Lord answer you when you are in distress;  may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May He send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. May He remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings. May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. May we shout for joy over your victory and lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests. Now this I know: The Lord gives victory to His anointed. He answers him from His heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of His right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” Psalm 20:1-7. “Before you do anything, put your trust totally in God and not in yourself. Then every plan you make will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3 TPT

Most of people barely trust each other nowadays, so I often wonder how Christians are doing with regard to trusting in the Lord? The bible tells us to trust in Him with all our heart and forget about what we think we know. I’ve commended David many times on this blog, he sets a wonderful example of someone who knew how to trust God. This man remembered what God had done for him in the past and it gave him momentum to push forward into the next challenge.

So where does that leave us today — when we want to learn how to trust in the Lord, but our society oozes mistrust and bitterness? Every single day we will simply have to choose to use our faith! Our only option is to follow Him, and believe His Word, over the rubbish our eyes and ears take in. We can be influenced for good by God’s Good News, or we can soak in the filth and stench of sin that saturates this world. In my opinion, our enemy has infiltrated our thinking so deeply, sometimes our first thought is not: “What would Jesus want me to do in this situation?” It’s often: “How does this affect me?”

Let’s make the Lord our first priority, because that’s a fixed mindset not an optional extra! I think the lack of faith we end up exhibiting daily has affected the temperature of the world around us. I am not trying to be negative here, I have had to face my own fears, and I didn’t do so well every single time. But I try to remember this: we learn to trust the Lord in the trenches and the ditches and dirt of this life – when we know full well if we poke our head up, some clown is going to shoot at us or we can wind up in jail for some misplaced remark! Trusting the Lord does not always mean we are in a peachy-keen rainbow situation, with milk and honey constantly flowing down the mountain …the Israelites are proof of that!

It’s called having the courage of our convictions. Sadly, for those amongst us that do try to stand up and speak out, a great deal of negative comments can sometimes come from… wait for it … other Christians. We are quite good at shooting our own wounded! I have known great men and women of God that have been constantly smashed against the side of someone else’s convictions, and left battered and bleeding because of it. I know this might shatter somebody else’s theology, but Almighty God is capable of contrasting opinions! WE are the limited ones – we need clarification, not competition. 

Trusting God with internal opposition going on can seem almost impossible – He promises to help us! But if His people have no grace at all, even for their brothers and sisters, then it seems highly improbable that the world is going to do all that well either. However, with God ALL things are possible. That’s in the book! We must not forget the power of the Holy Spirit to help, guide, lead, comfort, and transform our ways of thinking, doing and being – daily!  Sometimes we can be so busy being reformers, we forget we are merely grace carriers. Just because we don’t always understand what others are saying, that doesn’t make them wrong. As a matter of fact, that kind of attitude can make us look intolerant, and that is not a good look!

Over the years, I’ve learnt that I can’t trust myself under pressure, I will probably try to look after myself. I’ll make excuses for me, and blame you. Without His GRACE we are sunk. Thank God an incredible endless amount of His grace was released at Calvary — now nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. That means the only thing that can pull us this way and that, is our perception of the truth of His Word. However, at the same time, we dare not forget Jesus Himself is called – the Living Word! That’s how important it is to take note of the way Jesus lived.

God’s Grace is always available, when we let go of our opinions and bad attitudes and step into the place Jesus bought for us. “Before you do anything, put your trust totally in God and not in yourself. Then every plan you make will succeed.”  He is not with us so we can ‘win’ some ridiculous theological point! We all have a part of the many-sided wisdom of God available to us. However, He is with us, because HE IS GOOD not because we are smarter than someone else. Daily we have to make a quality decision. Do we want to be right, or walk with Him?

Walking with Him means we can change our minds – press the refresh button! That’s part of walking and learning to trust and walking by faith means trusting Him. We trust Him every single day, to get us out of whatever fool thing we just fell into. And at the same time, we choose to hold fast to the fact that He will bless everyone else as well! He’s God He can do anything. Bye👋

P 3012 Here’s a good aim.

/ DVH

And a great scripture for today: “Don’t stop! Keep on singing! Make His Name famous! Tell everyone every day how wonderful He is. Give them the good news of our great Saviour. Take the message of His glory and miracles to every nation. Tell them about all the amazing things He has done.” Psalms 96:2-3 TPT. 

So here is our friend David again, prophetically declaring the praise and person of Christ and His divine message of salvation. That man blows my mind! I love the way David operates, he comes from a place of active devotion.  Wherever we go, hubby and I want to tell the people we meet that God Himself sent us, and then we tell them how much Jesus loves them!

However, in today’s crazy society talking about our precious Saviour can be difficult to do. Always remember when the truth turns up, and the truth is IN YOU so the darkness wants to flee! Praise is more than singing on Sunday – it is a way of life. That’s why we need to come from the place of living in His love – nobody ran away from Jesus – not even once! He didn’t have to chase anyone, they ran after Him!

Today more than ever, with the Holy Spirit’s help and prompting, it is up to us as believers to make His Name great. To me that means He is as much a part of my thoughts and conversations as my husband, kids, grandkids. friends and church family! The bible clearly says: “Taste and see that the Lord is good…” — I’ve always thought that means if someone takes a bite out of me, all they should get is a mouthful of Jesus! Not that I have achieved that goal yet … but I press ON! Why? Because we all have a high calling and that calling is more than just words, it is a way to live. We live to illustrate the life that is in us, daily.

We may look like everyone else, but now we are executors reading out Christ’s will. That’s why the bible is called the NEW and the OLD testament.  A testament is a will, a legal document. Now here’s a good time to give thanks that we were born on this side of Calvary!! Jesus’ Will includes healing, restoration to God, restoration of human relationships, grace, mercy, goodness, kindness …etc. That means we get to tell every human being we meet that God is not mad at them, Jesus Christ died in their place and God can’t wait to meet them, in person!! 

The thing we have found is that this life continually presses in on everyone – misdirecting and distracting us with sorrow, suffering, misunderstandings and adverse events and grumpy other people. We can waste our time waiting for someone else to apologise to us, or to understand us — but the reality is – if YOU AND I can simply introduce His Grace into any conflict. His grace will transform everyone and everything. Like the clouds in the sky which can seem to hide the ever-present, ongoing presence of the sun. It is part of our new life to show and tell others, that the Son of all righteousness died in their place too. He’s not gone from this world, now He is inside His kids.

I think the awful things we daily face can be covered by “Love suffers long …”  The reality is, I stop focussing on what you said, or I said, or whatever happened, or even defending myself. If you misunderstand me, and I deliberately focus on talking to the Holy Spirit and ask Him what to do next. He knows the way through everything. But that does not always mean He will vindicate me. It simply means He knows the way through whatever unhappy incident I have been trapped in. In any situation, the Lord Himself needs to win—NOT us!

We can fight so hard to be understood, instead of fighting the huge amount of temptations we are assaulted by that bring out human selfishness. So as we go, we live listening for our next instruction from Him. Here’s something that works for me – I stop assuming that other grumpy guy wants to destroy me and throw myself upon Jesus and His Grace. When I do that I am letting Him fight for me. Who wants to make a guess about that outcome? Everybody wins. Even if the other guy continues to be mean, they are fighting Jesus now, not me. I’m safe, hidden in Him, spectating!

I just keep handing everything back to the Lord, then having done all … I stand. I wait to see the goodness of God take over and when it does, I let Him keep building it through me and my words. Here is a tip that helps me to make His Name famous in my little corner of this world …start speaking kindly about, and toward, other people – no matter how they act toward you. Find something good about them and say that. Make it the way you think about them. Live your life so other people will end up praising Him!

In Psalm 96 David’s exuberance toward God Himself is almost explosive. This man had honed his focus so his whole POV came from a place of praising God and continually focussing on what the Lord had done and was going to do. Like us, David had not met Jesus in the flesh. He simply lived the life he had to make God famous. Praising God is how we live, not just what we sing on Sunday. Now there’s a good aim. Bye. 👋 

P 3011 He is a Merciful Father.

/ DVH

“Lord, You’re so kind and tenderhearted and so patient with people who fail You! Your love is like a flooding river overflowing its banks with kindness. You don’t look at us only to find our faults, just so that You can hold a grudge against us.” Psalms 103:8-9 TPT. This Psalm was written 1100 years before Jesus was born. Imagine that! Just spend a minute drinking in the knowledge of Grace that exists in David’s words. He had such a clear, wonderful picture of Who God is. Almighty God was this man’s singular focus. Not sin. Not what he did, or what I did, or even what some Philistine did! His focus was on God Himself. David knew God and His mercy so clearly.

It would be an utter tragedy if we became so obsessed with our failures, that we cannot see, or imagine the Niagara Falls of our Father’s Grace falling, falling, falling into our lives, day after day after day. Let’s always remember to thank Him for it! He’s such a good good merciful Father! We must continually chase after Him, longing to know more about His goodness and mercy toward us, until it fills our thoughts and eyes. If we look at our failures, we will end up obsessing over them and letting those things rule us. That is that kind of stuff that makes people hide from God.

What we need is balance. The ability to see His mercy-in-action in our own lives and yet not presume on it.  To do that we rely upon what the bible says and the Holy Spirit’s help and guidance. His singularity and purity of mind and heart is like our compass, pointing us to true north. So we press on hoping to be more like David, he treasured our God with so much passion. Let’s leave our sinful attitudes and actions at the foot of the cross and praise God He didn’t given up on us!

The letters in the Epistles were written so we can understand the comprehensive everydayness of God’s divine intervention into our lives. Like the people who followed Him then, we lay aside the weights that try to attach themselves, and keep thanking Him for His goodness. Always remembering we are never ever going to deserve anything He has done for us. The pressure to perform is a weight. These saints knew, firsthand, that they could not have done what was done without our Father’s Divine Love, plus His incredible intervention. They marvelled at what they were allowed to see and take part in – their joy, suffering, miracles and troubles. 

That’s the starting point for each one of us, giving thanks that He loves us. We cannot move past that. Then we will begin to understand our role in His plan and receive power from Him to do the works He has prepared for us to do before we ever arrived into this world. I like to cultivate, fertilise and weed the seed beds of my life with His totally engaged oversight. When God puts His finger on something, then it is important and it needs to become a priority … not a postponement. He does this with loving mercy, not accusation.

I often think about all those other people-today-who-don’t-know-Him-yet. The people who worship so-called gods that have no power to help their followers to change the very things that have driven them to find someone, or something, greater than themselves in the first place! And, how I love the Lord Jesus so much for coming here and illustrating what LOVE looks like in a Person. 

Mercy is a greatly underrated virtue, today. Many people think it means we go soft on someone who has terrible attitudes and actions. Actually, mercy means we don’t kill them for what they’ve done, we forgive them instead. But mercy is not about standing against a wall for someone else’s target practice – that’s giving that person the opportunity to abuse Grace. It is not just bad for you – it is bad for them! Grace was expensive. We need the Holy Spirit’s guidance to help us live in it and administer it. Jesus persevered with those who persecuted Him, but He did not excuse their behaviour. Mercy is no-one’s free ticket to punish someone else.

Our God is full of mercy:  “… that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people’s sins against them [but canceling them]. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation [that is, restoration to favour with God].”2 Corinthians 5:19. If you want to know more about what His mercy looks like in action – read the book. Bye for today, 👋.

ps For those who have asked about our trip: on this trip we gave away— nearly a hundred blankets. Plus donated tinned food, toothpaste, deodorants, baby clothes, baby bottles, nappies, toys, handmade bags, children’s books, bookmarks, pens, paintings, thank you cards, blocks of chocolate for the maids, prophetic words, plus nearly 300 bibles. That’s approx. 678 things in 8 days. We could have given away so much more, but our car was stuffed full, and we tied more to the roof! We had countless conversations talking about what we believe – many of the people we spoke to, wept. 

There are governmental agencies doing their best, but the funds are incredibly low for the sheer volume of misplaced, abused and over-looked people out here in the country. We met a worker in Nanango who had been a police officer for years. She had to give it up because of post-traumatic stress disorder. She looked at us with eyes filled with tears and said:“I couldn’t take the dead and abused children anymore. It nearly finished me. I couldn’t even talk to my husband about it for a year.”  Please pray for her, now she helps the homeless – you cannot stop a mercy gift and she has one!

The church needs the kind of mercy that stops seeing broken people as just someone we are meant to harvest for God’s kingdom and purposes, and simply see suffering human beings instead. 🙏

P 2978 Our God writes poetry!

/ DVH

“We have become His poetry, a re-created people that will fulfil the destiny He has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfil it!” Ephesians 2:10 TPT.

David and some other guys, wrote lots of poetry for us, about the Lord … but we are also His poems, written for all time. Because we are joined to Jesus – the kingdom things we do, are part of His poem. The fact that you love helping people —-that’s part of His poem. The way you sing your heart out in worship times—is part of that poem. You might not always be great at witnessing, but our God-given uniqueness in Christ, makes us His treasure. God doesn’t care about diamonds, gold, pearls, emeralds or rubies … He uses them as building materials … but He cares so-oo-oo deeply about people.

Have you ever met someone and you just clicked, you seemed to have so much in common? Think about this … you and Almighty God just click together. Jesus is the ‘permanent joint’ that binds us into God’s heart. And whenever He looks at His precious Son, He feels delight. Each one of us has been made as a reflection of Who Jesus is. And each one of us is a tiny mirror sliver of all the majesty and glory and honour and wisdom of Who Christ is. We’ve been given the honour and pleasure of reflecting what we find in Him, into this world. 

God has written poetry and we are part of His poem. That’s a bit more easy to believe when you see a new baby, and a little bit harder when you look at someone quite old! Nevertheless, you and I are a love poem to the rest of this lost, sad world. Greed, and the lust for more and more, blinds all the occupants of our world to the glory of God … but then there is YOU…

Shining away, daily reflecting whatever light He has given you. Some of that light is practical, and some of it is spoken out loud or in prayer, but because the Lord is our all in all – we just can’t help sparkling, like a bright gem on dusty ground! Goodness has its own light because goodness has its source in Him. We are daily being recreated so we can shine even more brightly with His light. Being a witness is about shining where other people can see you… like the old song says… don’t hide your light under a bushel.

“Yahweh says, “You are My witnesses, My chosen servants. I chose you in order that you would know Me intimately, believe Me always, and fully understand that I am the only God. There was no god before Me, and there will be no other god after Me.” Isaiah 43:10 TPT.

Sometimes a witness does not have to say anything.  All you and I need to do is to reflect His goodness to the people around us, and knowing Him makes us shiny. His love in us gives us a glow that cannot be ignored. The things of this world fade when He is around, they seem trivial and unimportant, and people start to realise the depth of love and acceptance, they have been given just because of His love and Presence in His people.

Becoming God’s love slave is a choice and we have given ourselves to Him simply because He willingly gave Himself to us. That’s what marriage is – we reflect our Heavenly Bridegroom into this world. Father God did that for each one us when Jesus came here to serve mankind. Our lives are poetry, written day by day – often speaking to this world without words. Love brought the Lord here and love kept Him here, until His work was done.    

You already know hubby and I go on the road and perfect strangers start telling my dear husband their secrets. He doesn’t have a system, or a clever repartee — sometimes all he says is “hello!”  But because each one of us was made by God, and destined to be a reflection of His precious Son, God goes with us and it is His Presence that draws people to us. These people don’t even know they are being drawn toward Him. But because we are part of His love poem, people hear and see Him through our little lives.

Our fatal flaw as human beings is that we see our mistakes, sins, and stinky attitudes as some sort of cancellation to our blood-bought destiny. Our destiny can’t be cancelled – our job is to rise above this stuff around us, and let Him shine! He’s IN you! Sometimes our windows might be a bit dusty with the cares of this world, plus dirt and unbelief, but the King of glory can’t ever be kept under wraps. That’s like trying to put the sun out – it can’t happen! Here’s a huge useful secret for you to think about – whatever God OWNS, He kisses.

Knowing Almighty God intimately means we have been granted access to His deepest heart secrets. What a privilege! Is anything else in this world, that is worth the price of forgetting about that privilege. It cost Him everything. If we are not careful we can end up defining ourselves by our sin … BUT …He defines us by His Son. Wouldn’t it be a pity if we let the junk from today — newspapers, hobbies, fashions, the way we earn our living, parenthood, or even circumstances etc. define us? We are His poetry… HAND-written to bless the rest of this world as we glorify His Name. Bye.👋

P 2967 God knows how to choose a leader.

/ DVH

The Lord chooses someone who is honest, loves Jesus and knows that they truly need redemption!! Someone who will acknowledge their own mistakes readily and repent. God does not choose perfect people. Almighty God loves the person who has learnt to rely upon the Holy Spirit. Human beings, on the other hand, often look for the charismatic, the shiny people, the one who we think has His ear. Hmmm…

Think about this: John was supposedly the Lord Jesus’ favourite disciple. Why didn’t Jesus pick John to be their leader? The Apostle John is recorded as being “the one Jesus loved…” … so why didn’t the Lord put John in charge?? That man had plenty of faith, he did not mess up like Peter. Why did God pick Peter?? Peter was a man of action – he dared to believe – he knew how to take a rebuke!

The reality was, the person Jesus chose to be the leader was the guy who messed up publicly, the most! Peter fell over his big mouth all the time. He constantly, and consistently said inappropriate things – even in deeply spiritual situations. There were other times when he tried to save face, as well as his neck. After all, he nearly drowned himself with his own ambition!

By the way it was Peter who objected to having his feet washed, but later agreed. (John 13:6-10). It was Peter who cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest. (John 18:10). Peter noticed the withered fig tree. (Mark 11:21). And Peter was one of the three who witnessed the transfiguration of Christ. (Mark 9:2-6). Plus it was Peter who denied Christ under pressure, despite his sincere vows to the contrary.

Maybe Peter is an object lesson to show us that our mistakes aren’t forever and the Holy Spirit’s help and transformation in a life makes all the difference. However, Peter’s mistakes highlight the kindness, forgiveness, compassion, and the ongoing willingness of our God to understand our humanity.  Perhaps the Lord has a different criteria when HE looks for a leader. 

Here is another interesting thing to note about Peter – he didn’t defend himself, or make excuses. Not once. Instead he was the willing beneficiary of the Lord’s undeserved Grace. He was prepared to learn. However, when it seems Jesus gave this man a chance to repent, he responded with hurt feelings.  

John 21:15-17.“When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love Me more than these?”“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”Jesus said, “Feed My lambs.” Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love Me? He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of My sheep.” The third time He said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love Me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Peter’s response to the Lord’s questions here are surprising. He seems blissfully unaware of what he has previously done. It seems he did not feel that he had to re-affirm his loyalty. The thing is he had already repented for what he did… ON THE SPOT! (Matthew 26:69-75.) His faith is in their established relationship.

I think that’s why he climbed out of a perfectly good boat in a storm! Fear only hit that man when he saw the wind and the waves. It seems that he had already comprehended the Lord’s faithfulness to forgive, because he had experienced it. I think he understood that God allows us to learn and he clearly shows us the difference the Holy Spirit makes in one man’s life! The Lord showed us all of that, through Peter.

The scriptures show us that leaders are best chosen by God, not by people. Saul is a perfect example of this thought, he was a bad choice by the people based on looks, not character. However God hand picked David, yet he sinned with Bathsheba and murdered, Uriah;  Moses was a murderer too;  Abraham left his parents behind, and put his wife in moral danger twice; Gideon and Elijah were both found to be cowards on occasion;  and Jonah was just plain wilful and petulant! 

The person who knows and will admit they are wrong, and learn from their error, has a distinct advantage over the person who covers up, or ignores it. I don’t actually think that people fall into sin all that easily – I think they step into it one bad decision at a time. God knows how to choose a leader, and it isn’t always who we think it should be. Bye.👋