Death to self

P 3066 Position yourself to catch the Wind.

/ DVH

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If you truly want to follow Me, you should at once completely reject and disown your own life. And you must be willing to share My cross and experience it as your own, as you continually surrender to My ways.” Matthew 16:24 TPT. I believe the secret to this verse is in the words: ”if you TRULY want to follow Me.” 

This thought is repeated in Luke 9:23-24 TPT: “Jesus said to all of His followers, “If you TRULY desire to be My disciple, you must disown your life completely, embrace My ‘cross’ as your own, and surrender to My ways. For if you choose self-sacrifice, giving up your lives for My glory, you will discover true life. But if you choose to keep your lives for yourselves, you will lose what you try to keep.”

We often look at our actions, we don’t often look at our aims, desires or wants. So we can quickly feel broken-hearted when we know we’ve failed the Lord. Especially if we revise the things that miss the mark. Those self-accusations won’t help us to follow Him. If you and I think we have messed up too much, we will start to AVOID Him, not follow Him! 

Meanwhile, that is not what He is saying here. Our wants and desires matter to Him. But it is LOVE that is meant to lead us into the place of obedience. Forcing ourselves, creates resistance. I think this means we need to change our primary focus – don’t look to other people for that kind of love, look to Jesus. Then BE the person you need others to be to you!  Read His book like a love letter. Go to the Lord and tell Him that you want to be close to Him, that you long to make Him your heart’s primary desire, but your flesh is weak. Tell Him you need His help. Then let the Holy Spirit be your Personal Coach and follow His instructions – they are in the book.

There are things that make us feel guilty – whether the guilt is real or not. But until they are confessed and dealt with and put aside …we can easily rationalise away the real issues and start fighting the Wind…literally! A kite doesn’t try to fly – it simply positions itself to catch the wind! The Holy Spirit is the wind beneath our wings.  I may not need what you need right now. I may need His loving discipline, but you could need a hug! Christianity is not ‘one size fits all!’ 

We have a Saviour Who personalised everything He did and said as He ministered to individuals. He didn’t go digging around in the coal cellar of people’s hearts, He accurately touched the sore spot in there, and then put His love and truth in its place. When a dumb thing came out of someone’s mouth – He addressed it. The secret to living a day-by-day Godly life, is check out internally what we are aiming at. If I choose to follow Jesus, then I will put down anything else that stands in my way.

Jesus is telling us here, that we cannot follow Him and still live a selfish, greedy, angry life. Those things do not work together. Walking in Love is the Answer. He lived His life showing us the way to follow Him. But the Lord will not beat anyone up because we are not dead to ourselves. And if we analyse our every thought and move that will just take up our precious time. Instead we need to be thanking Him, for all He has done and Who He is. It’s about our focus and our focus must be His love FOR US.

He has done all of the work, all the heavy lifting. In these scriptures He is saying… to achieve what we want, death to self is the only way. He’s pointing to the direction we simply must take. We can’t step into what He has given us through guilt, reprisal or condemnation. He loved us, walking right into death and then He went through that into a new life. That action has given us unfettered access to His heart. The Holy Spirit will lead us, and help us for free, we simply need to let Him have His Way. It takes faith. Jesus has told us what the results will be if we choose to live this life not following Him. 

Because of what the Lord did, we cannot afford to let condemnation strangle us anymore. Kick it off. Tell those thoughts you want to follow the Lord — that filthy snake can’t lead you anywhere but down the drain! Love is our Leader now. Jesus knows we are weak. OH!… but He is so strong! He can get us through anything, including our own weaknesses. He’s with us, as one of us. He is our Friend that is closer than a brother. And He has sent us His most cherished Helper – the Holy Spirit. He created each one of us. He knows what needs to be changed and when it needs changing. 

Whenever love prevails, our responses will be different. When we feel empowered, and safe;  His acceptance and Love gives us room to grow, without pressure. The decision to follow Him is difficult because it means we don’t call the shots anymore. But we are giving that power over to SomeOne Who put up His hand and said: “I see those sins My brother or sister committed, It’s all real. It hurt and destroyed other people. But kill Me instead of them. LET THEM LIVE!!” 

The Holy Spirit wants to guide us through any potholes, pits, and mudslides of this life, into a new way to live. Catch the precious Wind of Love and start your adventure with God Himself. Bye.👋

P 3053 Look after your joints.

/ DVH

Connection is vital in this new life we have embraced. We dare not try to function in our gifts or personal relationships without the Holy Spirit putting us together, so we can support one another. Hubby was talking to me yesterday about how painful his physical joints have been lately. He has osteoarthritis in a number of joints in his body, and those joints that are now not connecting properly, plus they cause him severe pain. 

The medical profession seems to have two answers for this malady – they either remove the offending joints and replace them with titanium, or throw years and years of pain killers at it. I pray they find a better solution soon, because neither of those ideas work!

The point hubby made yesterday was so pertinent spiritually, that I thought I would write about it here. At the beginning of any arthritic problem it can be easier to ignore the pain and keep on going – but that is extremely damaging to the joint! 

I think this is true when it comes to what the bible says too. Let’s look at it: “For because of Him the whole body (the church, in all its various parts), closely joined and firmly knit together by the joints and ligaments with which it is supplied, when each part [with power adapted to its need] is working properly [in all its functions], grows to full maturity, building itself up in love.” Ephesians 4:16.

Because we are joined to Jesus and what He did, you and I are also joined together. What is true in the natural is also relevant and illustrative for the spiritual. So when Sister Susie and Auntie Maud decide to play “no speakies” then the whole body will feel it! Or if Brother John and Deacon Bob aren’t getting along, everybody knows about that. The Body of Christ is quickly reduced to a puppet state, with others trying to pull the strings to make that puppet look normal and appealing to the outside world. We can have all the best motivation in the world, but until everybody owns up to their own sin and asks for forgiveness – Pinocchio will never be a real boy!

Hubby can tell you how painful his disabilities are, on bad days it almost stops him in his tracks. It shows me that’s how important connectedness is!  It is not a pretty idea, or a nice way to live – it is essential to the health of the rest of the Body. Pain takes over your brain!  And it quickly becomes all you can think about. Unless our spiritual joints start connecting and acting in a relationally sound fashion, we will lack co-ordination.

The bible tells us how much Jesus values His Body – He totally identifies with US to the point that persecution of Christians is persecution of HIM. Acts 9:4-5 “And he (Saul) fell to the ground. Then he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me [harassing, troubling, and molesting Me]? And Saul said, Who are You, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting.”  A body out of joint is no minor thing!

When we make Jesus our main topic of conversation, and remove judgment and criticism, we can create a safe space for everyone to grow. We need intimacy with Him and each other. We cannot afford to live our spiritual lives constantly being distracted by those joints which are out of place. Removing the offending joint is not the answer – all that happens is that the problem goes somewhere else and causes chaos there!  Even in my hubby’s physical body, removing the offending joint did not completely solve the pain problem. Metal rubbing against bone also has an abrasive effect. 

Our stated aim, as the Body of Christ, is to live in love — and that is costly. It cost Jesus everything He had. He paid that price so that His Body can live in a continuous FLOW OF LOVE to each other, and the rest of the world. When I stand in my place and you stand in yours, and we live a joined together life of love, we are witnessing to other people without saying a word. I think that the-people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet are looking for something real. However, if this course was easy everyone would already be doing it!

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”John 13:34. This way of life is not easy, it means death to self! We are to love one another the same WAY He loved us — deliberately, obediently, sacrificially, and completely, without any thought about the cost. We demonstrate we are His disciples when we grow up into going beyond good manners, or outwardly caring … into His idea of love. We need bodily joints that are healthy, so that each one of them helps the other one move without pain! And we must provide a shelter for those who are in pain, not lay them aside until they get better. 

Jesus is speaking here: “This is My command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are My friends when you do the things I command you.” John 15:13,14. I believe the way to live like this, is to live in love – no matter what or who has caused the problem. We need to value each other purely because He has first valued us. 

First of all, let’s pray for our brothers and sisters, wherever they are. “We pray for their well-being and their faith to be strong and obedient in the face of death and danger.” Amen. Let’s look after each other, by caring for each joint, because those joints hold the Body of Christ together, so it can function. Bye. 👋 

P 2985 Learning to soar.

/ DVH

Anything that talks about soaring above the difficult things in this life will grab my attention. So today I want to read Paul’s idea of soaring above the cares of this world —- from Galatians 5:16-18 TPT. “Let me emphasise this: As you yield to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self-life. When your self-life craves the things that offend the Holy Spirit you hinder Him from living free within you! And the Holy Spirit’s intense cravings hinder your self-life from dominating you! So then, the two incompatible and conflicting forces within you are your self-life of the flesh and the new creation life of the Spirit. But when you yield to the life of the Spirit, you will no longer be living under the law, but soaring above it!”

Eagles soar. Have you ever noticed that chickens are always looking down, kicking up dust, looking for worms, scratching and pecking …  But eagles!! They fly higher and higher above this world’s activities, enjoying the warmer air that helps them fly. They see this world from a different vantage point.

I think this is part of Paul’s point today. We can face this life one of two ways. After the dust of trouble and strife has settled, we can choose to mount up on eagle’s wings. Thank you Isaiah 40! Or we can go on scratching about in this world’s ideas and clever trends, and miss seeing the vastness and incredible plans of God Himself. But we will need to choose to rise up and see what’s going on from His point of view. 

Sometimes, I end up being a chicken! Life can seem like one ghastly event is followed rapidly by another and then another — and I end up thinking “If I could only just get a moment to catch my breath!’  But the waves of life’s difficulties keep coming … and coming … and coming! Suddenly you have the horrid thought that you may be stuck in an endless sea of trouble, and it seems like you’ve been there for months! In the end I asked the Lord “Jesus, what is going on?”

Yeah! Have you ever had one of those moments when you wish you hadn’t even thought to ask a question…because you were pretty sure the answer was not going to be all that great?? I hear ya! This is what the Lord said to me, and I have to be honest – because I promised I would be honest on this blog …I was not over-the-moon thrilled with His answer. He talked to me about pruning. You know that stuff you have to do when you have a garden and the rose bush is heading for another state and your trees are hanging over into your neighbour’s yard? “I’m pruning you,” He said.

That’s when I realised I’d asked a question that I didn’t really want an answer to because I had already decided what kind of answer I would like! Which is an incredibly dumb idea. What I really wanted to say was: “Lemme outta here, I’m drowning. I need a happier times fix!” Eventually I sat and read the book. So far I’ve read John 15 about six times because it talks about pruning. Spiritual pruning didn’t sound all that much fun. The first thing I noticed is that if a branch in my life is fruitless … then a-pruning He will go! That pretty much emphasised the fact that being fruitful is extremely important to the Lord, even though I believe being fruitless can happen to all of us..

The secret to being fruitful is to stay in Him and His ways. This is what came up for me, as I was meditating on it. Remaining in Him, means I live this life aware of what I have been given by Him, but it is not just a happy thought I visit every now and then. Everything I am now, comes from that place of grateful recollection of Him saving me, plus everything He died to give me. I need to live my life, my very ordinary life, aware of the incredible exchange Jesus Himself provided for me. His eternal life for my death to self. His righteousness for my sinfulness. His perfect love for my own natural human affection …His peace for my irritability etc.

At the same time, I will have to actively cultivate and deliberately let what He says in His book remain in me – in my life and my thoughts. So now His Word becomes my reference point for everyone I relate to, everything that happens to me, and everything I do. It becomes my new conscious-thought pattern. Which sounds remarkably like “renew your mind” to me! The Lord cannot be an add-on —. He, and His life in me, are to be my focus. Living like this will lift me up above life’s difficulties and give me an eagle’s view instead!

We all want to be productive for His kingdom. We may be daily growing in knowledge, but if we are not bearing fruit, then we will eventually need to be pruned. Not because He is mad at us, but because pruning produces … fruit! Maybe we have all lived in the natural for so long, we’ve turned into chickens and the things of His kingdom seem hard to scratch out and find. We will have everything we need for whatever comes our way, if we let Him teach us how to soar, and cutting off the old dead wood is a good start. Bye. 👋

P 2982 Dig and insist.

/ DVH

“Stop dwelling on the past. Don’t even remember these former things. I am doing something brand new, something unheard of. Even now it sprouts and grows and matures. Don’t you perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and open up flowing streams in the desert.”Isaiah 43:18-19 TPT.

Sometimes when we hear verses like those two above, we can hear it as a prophecy for the whole church. I’ve heard it quoted that way many times. But we also need to remember that God has always His eyes on each and every sparrow, so when we read verses like these we need to ask Him: “Lord, how does this apply to me, please?” We always need to personalise what is said … and then action it. 

Today, I want to concentrate on the fact that these two verses are for YOU, right here, right now. Our glorious Father, God, takes the messes we make in our lives and transforms them so wonderfully, that we don’t recognise them any more. He is so brilliant at it, I have had to pray: “And dear Lord please put a big sign over what You have done because I’m a bit thick and I will probably miss Your answer otherwise.” Sad but true. 

It is a fact of life that we can easily prejudge how our answers to prayer are supposed to look. I know I am stating the blooming obvious, but the Lord can do more than one thing at a time! Because Jesus paid our debt for us, it is His prerogative to answer however He likes. After all His answers are always for our good and far better than anything we can think up! They just don’t always look the way we think they should.

That’s why we need eyes to see Him at work. They really matter in instances like these – I ask for ‘His eyes’ all the time. The thing is, if what He does is ‘brand new,’ then our chances of knowing what it is in advance are most likely zero! However, the way we tell that it is His work is that it GROWS, and it produces life, and more life. Plus when that life flows out, away from us, it does other people good.

In this brief passage we also learn that dwelling on the things of the past is d.u.m.b. stupid. But we do it. It seems we have this inherent desire to find someone else to blame for our behaviour and reactions – read Genesis.  Adam and Eve passed blame about like we would pass the salt!  We blame our parents, our schools, our jobs, our friends, society etc. Nobody talks about personal choices any more. Death to self has always been difficult.  Even when it seems like there is no choice … taking a default position is still a choice. 

This is why we desperately need to renew our minds, so we can think and see things from His point of view. Otherwise we self-protect! Our own personal point of view can often be clouded by the past, and a hidden dominant sense of self. In another version, the above verse is written like this: “SEE,I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” This verse is the utter joy of our faith and life. The old is gone, the new is here. God says ‘SEE” … because most of the time we miss it!

If we want more insight into His Ways and thoughts, we need to make what He has already said, our priority. When we read His word in faith believing that He will speak to us, today— even if we are reading somewhere that seems more boring than somewhere else—He will speak to us. It is our expectancy/faith … that is the key to opening the door to fresh revelation.

And if I don’t get anything from what I am reading the first time, then I read it again. Then I read it out loud. Then I read it in another version. I have been known to read five or six versions to fully understand what He is saying to me. Insisting is the best kept secret. And sometimes we will have to break through a wall of unbelief we have constructed, to release our faith! 

Yeah, yeah I can hear someone up the back saying: “That’s alright with you lady, but I have to go to work most days and look after my family, etc. I don’t have all day!”  And that’s the problem, Jesus is not your first priority, dealing with any immediate needs is. That happens to me too! In other words the Lord is an add-on. Whatever bashes on your life and says: ‘Fix me now’ is a distraction. He must be our first thought even if someone is bleeding out! (Help!) We can’t afford to fit God in around our routine – we will deal with whatever happens far better after we look to Jesus—otherwise everything goes Kaput! 

If you follow the “I’m very busy” thread of logic back to its source, you will find that Jesus is not our first priority. This kind of attitude is not intentional, sadly what we have failed to realise is that Christianity is not a part-time commitment. Many people make excuses for their lack of engagement with the Lord. (Matthew 22:1-14.) Our failure is not the issue —our priorities are. We cannot afford have a part-time faith in a full-time hell-bent world! Try having a part-time faith the next time your ceiling falls in on you, it doesn’t work. “For me to LIVE is Christ …!!!” 

We need Him like we need air, and in order to get ‘our daily bread’ we need to dig and insist.The Lord spoke to me  today from that one word…“SEE!” Because I didn’t ‘see’ right away…but now I do.  Bye. 👋

P 2525 Go after more!

/ DVH

Be self-motivated. Jesus Christ surrendered His will and His life for us, and now we voluntarily surrender our life —- the only life we have been given, to Him. We cannot afford to compartmentalise the Lord of all glory, into a designated time, place and space! The bible says: He is our all in all. We have the power to make that word, that God Himself spoke —- flesh… By doing it. Devotion to Christ is not an over-the-top concept – it is the reason we were saved!

“Be imitators of God in everything you do, for then you will represent your Father as His beloved sons and daughters. And continue to walk surrendered to the extravagant love of Christ, for He surrendered His life as a sacrifice for us. His great love for us was pleasing to God, like an aroma of adoration—a sweet healing fragrance.” Ephesians 5:1-2 TPT. 

This verse is telling us how we can please God, and smell good to Him. Forget Chanel, or Yves St. Laurent … death-to-self smells good to God. His only Son sacrificed His life, to give US life, and that pleased the Father. ‘Our lives are no longer our own, we’ve been bought with a price – paid for with a preciousness that is out of this world.’ Our own personal response to that incredible gift and invitation, matters.

After that we step through the door of deliberate obedience, into the world of the Holy Spirit. Those of us who may have been StarWars fans will know that famous line Yoda spoke. “Do or don’t do. There is no try.” Isn’t it amazing how the rocks cry out sometimes? There is no “try” in dying to self. We choose, we don’t try.  “We (deliberately) set our minds on the things above …” Colossians 3:2. In Christianity, there is no try. The thing is, it is way too easy to bail out of ‘trying’ when it gets too hard. We need to trust God with everything we have, because He gave us everything He had.

In the Old Testament smelling good to God included slaughtering and burning dead sheep, or a bull, a goat, or a turtledove. In my opinion, blood smells terrible. It has an ugly tinny metallic smell – ugh! Death smells even worse! Imagine the flies!! This was not a quiet gentle scene, with angel singing, and a holy hush! And yet our God loved it. “It is a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.” Ephesians 5:17.

His own precious Son, hanging, dying a terrible, painful death was pleasing to Him – Almighty God looks through pain to the holy results. We simply must stop making a God after our own image by deciding that of course He will like what I like! He is not there to please US – we are here to choose to please HIM. 

And the real truth is, we still sometimes don’t know what He likes, because we are still learning. His book, the bible, keeps unfolding itself before our very eyes day after day after day!  That’s why Jesus said “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.” Matthew 5:6. We all need to go to church hungry and thirsty for more of God. 

Many people in our churches are now sitting back in their seats, arms folded, double-daring the poor pastor to say something they haven’t already heard! It is almost like they think God is lucky that they came there at all! Hebrews 2:1 says: “For this reason [that is, because of God’s final revelation in His Son Jesus and because of Jesus’ superiority to the angels] we must pay much closer attention than ever to the things that we have heard, so that we do not [in any way] drift away from truth.” My advice is to pray that we will always listen with our hearts open, even if we have heard some things before … maybe the pastor is not preaching new stuff because we are not doing what he has already taught us! Let’s selah that thought…

These pastors preach to inspire us to greater things. Their desire is to see us grow up into Christ Jesus’ likeness. Otherwise they are simply running a spiritual day-care centre. Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. With spiritual babies yelling play with me, feed me, make me feel important! No wonder these wonderful people, who are gifts from God Himself, can get fed up and quit the ministry! Yet Sunday after Sunday it can be so easy to thank this person for their sermon:  and still go home and kick the cat, yell at our spouse, and chastise our kids. And we kid ourselves that Jesus understands how hard it is to be us! 

We all need to mature. And maturation takes more than attending church meetings, bible studies, prayer meetings. It takes SELF-WATERING, plus the cultivated curiosity to get to know all three of the Trinity better. They are not just our ‘Suppliers’ of answers to prayer, or even wise life information. We have been saved to interact with the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. 

The Christian life is more than going to church Sunday by Sunday – it is a way to live. If we only ATE once a week we would rapidly starve. Most Christians are malnourished with some of the most brilliant meals in the world, right at their finger tips. We must grow up into the fullness of Christ. We will never realise our dreams for more, sitting about hoping it is going to fall on us! …  It is time to go after MORE.  👋🏻 Jeremiah 15:16.