Deliverance

P 2680 Walking free.

/ DVH

“I waited and waited and waited some more, patiently, knowing God would come through for me. Then, at last, He bent down and listened to my cry. He stooped down to lift me out of danger from the desolate pit I was in, out of the muddy mess I had fallen into. Now He’s lifted me up into a firm, secure place and steadied me while I walk along His ascending path.” Psalms 40:1-2 TPT.

I have this theory … the things that we consciously walk into, we often need to walk out of. What do I mean by that? When we are careless and wander off His path for us, it is highly unlikely that the Lord will sovereignly transport us back to wherever we wandered off! Instead we have to turn around and make our way out of the mess we’ve made. He will always help us, but it is our responsibility to repent and repair. An-y-w-ay, this man in the above scripture fell in a hole! I like this guy already, I’ve been down more holes in my lifetime than a gopher! 

Did you get the ‘waiting waiting waiting’ part? Nobody likes that bit. Why do we have to WWW? Patience grows as we stretch our faith by firmly holding on to HIS faithfulness. The secret is to keep looking at Him — it won’t help us to constantly revise how stretched we feel! Our spiritual predecessors knew all about waiting. Some of them died … still waiting!! Hebrews 11 – the great faith testimony chapter. There’s a whole big clump of people – whose names we all know and recognise – on that list, and it says – ‘by faith’ in it 20 times! When God repeats Himself, I pay attention.

The important part of these two verses above in Psalms 40 is this: “knowing God would come through for me.” See… I actually think that most people would think “stooping down” and “lifting me up” etc. are the important bits. In other words …we all want to escape from trouble. But the longer we stand still and wait for Him, and look at how faithful He is, the stronger our faith gets. Human beings focus on deliverance, while Almighty God focusses on growth. I’m not saying it’s wrong to focus on getting out of the trouble we’ve landed in, but there’s not that much growth on that path. In the end, it seems to me that it’s the wait, wait, waiting that grows us. And yeah, I don’t like that thought either!

The Lord wants us to know our own limitations, so we can continually enjoy His limitlessness. Everything good comes to us and meets us on the path of waiting and believing in His faithfulness. Christians are not meant to stay immature. We were born again to grow, and mature people know how to wait! BTW, did you also get that word “danger?“ Yup. Another thought no-one likes. But we will be rescued and grow — all at the same time. And that path leads UP, afterwards. I won’t have wobbly weak faith anymore, because God Himself will steady me. So the path I am on now, HE put me on! He has a purpose for me, for my life  — it isn’t just to continually test me, it is to show Himself strong and mighty on my behalf. Now I will need to live using my faith so I can see what He is doing.

Almighty God should not have to prove His goodness to us day in and day out by making our lives easier. His Personhood should be an established fact in our lives. This is not something debatable – His faithfulness is a pillar in the inner house of our hearts.  We are so blessed. We are living our lives on the other side of that cross. We have the writings of the New Testament, His living active will, to refer to. It is our check-list of who we are and where we are going. Otherwise the winds of change and tribulation will keep blowing us over, like the fierce wind speed of a hurricane. 

Psalm 103:4 says: “Who redeems my life from the pit”… Redeem doesn’t just mean ESCAPE … redemption makes things better than they were. It means transformation. Jesus bought my life back from destruction and healed me, changed, and transformed everything. My old ways to live, things like – being frightened, overwhelmed, nasty, spiteful etc. have gone. All that was killed off when Jesus took my sin onto the cross. Now I don’t have to live like that anymore.

We are blessed. We get to leave behind our grave clothes just as surely as Lazarus got rid of his! Now we have a new way to live – calling us up, higher and higher. Any tests or trials along the way are not our God being whimsical … He is not testing our loyalty – He’s preparing a table before us in the presence of our enemies! Now we can enjoy walking free of that old way of living, where we lived in fear that help wouldn’t come. We have proof in the bible that help has already come. Bye. 👋

P 2650 Rest belongs to us.

/ DVH

Nobody can chuck us out of the place He freely gave us. It’s ours. SomeBody died to pay for it in full, and He gave it to us, LEGALLY. The only way we can lose the benefits of His kingdom is if we undervalue what we’ve been given. Every single day we can rest in our new position, IN CHRIST, safe and assured that we belong to Him and He will have our back. The only thing that can pinch that safety and security from us is what we choose to believe. Resting in what He has done, in a nutshell, means we believe in His goodness no matter what is going on around us. Good or bad, our trust is in Him.

When we carefully read the scriptures we can plainly see that from their beginnings, the Israelite nation did not value what they were given. He gave them Himself –  and they needed to acknowledge Him with their trust and obedience. Sadly the Israelite nation refused to enter into the Lord’s REST. They fussed and fretted, and grizzled, moaned and complained. Obeyed one day only to disobey for the next few hundreds of days! We must learn from them that there can be no rest for anyone, if we continue to cultivate two minds. “A double minded man can’t receive anything from the Lord.” Abraham himself demonstrated what God can do with a man who believes Him and rests in what He says.

Father God proved He was Who He said He was by what He did for that nation … over and over again. We also need to remember, even though their disobedience led to punishment, the Lord has never, and will never ever let go of them, despite THEIR FAITHLESSNESS — He will always remain faithful to His promise. Their history with Him should encourage us as we bumble along, even when we miss the mark! Our God is not only reliable, He is also faithful, and honourable. He keeps His promises. 

“Now the promise of entering into God’s rest is still for us today. So we must be extremely careful to ensure that we all embrace the fullness of that promise and not fail to experience it. For we have heard the good news of deliverance just as they did, yet they didn’t join their faith with the Word. Instead, what they heard didn’t affect them deeply, for they doubted. For those of us who believe, faith activates the promise and we experience the realm of confident rest! For He has said, “I was grieved with them and made a solemn oath, ‘They will not enter into my rest.’ ” God’s works have all been completed from the foundation of the world,” Hebrews 4:1-3, 6-7. TPT  “Those who first heard the good news of deliverance failed to enter into that realm of faith’s rest because of their unbelieving hearts. Yet the fact remains that we still have the opportunity to enter into the faith-rest life and experience the fulfilment of the promise! For God still has ordained a day for us to enter into called “Today.” For it was long afterwards that God repeated it in David’s words, “If only today you would listen to His voice and do not harden your hearts!””

It is extremely important that we choose to learn from their mistakes, and understand that what we’ve been given spiritually belongs to us, but we are still answerable for what we do with it! Nobody, no circumstances – whether uncomfortable, difficult or easy – can take, or trick us out of believing what God has said and done FOR US is true. That’s what faith is.  We don’t believe in the results, or what we can see. WE BELIEVE IN HIM! His goodness, His unchanging faithful character. Our God does not lie. Rest has been given to us. Now instead of fretting we know SomeBody else has our back.

When we believe what He said and did, and respond with obedience, we enter into a place that has already been reserved for us… REST. It takes faith steps to enter into rest. However, we don’t have to worry about how things will turn out, because we have a whole book that explains our relationship with Him. This means we know that ‘He will work ALL things together for our good, because we love Him and we are called according to His purpose.’  That BTW includes not having enough money, nowhere to live, a grumpy spouse or some other person we know. Difficulties aren’t our problem – believing what He says is! We have been blessed to be able to come from a place of rest. Striving to get stuff right is exhausting, as well as fruitless.

We cannot follow Jesus unless we are totally certain that His Way is the only Way. We also cannot follow Him unless we are utterly convinced that He truly is God! That means we seek to know what He wants in and from our lives, then we do whatever He tells us to do. My advice to anyone reading this blog today, is learn to live in REST. It is our God-given right. Bye. 🙌

P 2644 Give up your right to be right.

/ DVH

Definition. ‘Redemption means to secure the release or recovery of persons or things by the payment of a price. It is a covenantal legal term closely associated with ransom, atonement, substitution, and deliverance, thus salvation.’

Here are some great scriptures about redemption:“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”Galatians 3:13.“But when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”Galatians 4:4-5. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” Ephesians 1:7.“He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.” Hebrews 9:12.

OK, let’s move on now we have established a premise. Redemption is part of our new birthright. I totally believe that it was done once and for all by Christ at Calvary – BUT – I now choose to apply it into my life, all day every day.  Today, I want to share the way I see that redemption working personally. I will begin with a hypothetical scenario. 😂 I get cranky and mess up, and I yell at my poor beleaguered hubby. I get good and angry. The first thing I need to do is to remove myself from that scene and toddle off and go sit somewhere else so I can …

1/ Repent. Repenting always come first. It is like clearing out a blocked drain – my spiritual ears work so much better when I start with what I did. When I wander off into what the other person did or said, I will get lost! My own feelings tangle up what is in the past with the present. The real secret to repentance is this, even if I don’t think I am wrong. I still go there first. Why? Because the bible says not to ‘lean on my own understanding’ – that’s why! It also says ‘the Lord gives grace to the humble’ and at that particular moment I badly need GRACE. It is extremely important not to rush through this repentance process, because our enemy is lying at the door waiting to trip us up.

2/ Next I pray until I regain my peace. I need to do that before I even think about talking to the other person. Why? Because I don’t know what you’re like, but once I’ve gotten mad it takes a while to calm down! But when I have His peace, then I know can reconcile. I’ve repented, and God has given me His Grace –  whether I feel like it or not! Now His peace is available to me and I can stand on something firm. Not my feelings, or even my own need. I stand on His peace. It’s in the book. If the other person is still unhappy with me, now I will have grace and peace to help me through their accusations and angst.

These things work because the bible says: ‘a soft word turns away anger.’ Just to make this clear, those are faith steps, I often don’t feel anything. But I choose to refuse to go over and over what happened and who said what and how hurtful it was! Instead I pray and hold fast to those words that renew my mind to think like Jesus does. I take those errant disruptive thoughts captive and I tell the Lord I am prepared to suffer wrong. At this juncture the other person cannot lead the way unless they too decide to go the way of grace and peace – otherwise everybody’s feelings get the better of us!

3/ Then I ask the Lord to please redeem the situation. Why? Because something is going on in me — or that other person that is out of order with Jesus’ ever-present, always available, redemption. I don’t try to diagnose whatever that is, because I’ve know I have fallen down that hole way too many times in the past! I can end up in the land of ‘what you did and said’ in a heartbeat. The Lord has already told me I can easily see the speck in your eye, but the log in mine escapes me! Acknowledging our mutual redemption is necessary to repairing relationships.

Next, I walk away from who is right and who is wrong, and start to pursue LOVE. Love is the perfect bond of unity – and at that point we need unity! Asking for redemption releases God’s power into a fixed or stalemated situation. That prayer is right up there with the prayer of relinquishment. Those two things are like the best prayers ever…!  I pray them all the time. If something seems out of order or difficult, I pray for redemption. I relinquish my right to be right and have things work out the way I want them to, and I yield to God’s greater judgment. 

The bible tells me, that we have authority to do it.  We are charged to participate in restoration and releasing His redemption into the world around us. I have interpersonally seen miracles when I operate under the grace of redemption. Things that could not be fixed were … when I gave up my right to be right, and went God’s way instead. Bye. 👋

P 2605 Faith in action.

/ DVH

I Kings 18:41-46 “And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.”  So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. “Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked. “There is nothing there,” he said. Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.” The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’” Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain started falling and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the Lord came on Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.”

I definitely do not bat in Elijah’s league and I’m not sure I wish I did either – that man of God did some truly spectacularly brave stuff!  He prayed until he knew what God was going to do next! Meanwhile, I love the way the bible does not hide the other bits where human beings act like faithless cowards. Whilst reading about Elijah this time, I learnt that if you want to beat the rain, then you will have to learn to run like the wind! 

I enjoy these stories. The courage in Elijah’s heart that led him to obey God’s instructions step-by-step, eventually flew out of the window when he was threatened by Jezebel and co. He’s so human! Right after that huge miracle of fire from heaven – when he dispatches the opposition’s front men – he turns into a scared, whingey whiner-pot, because he is threatened by Jezebel. She wants to make him into cat food! Sigh. I so identify with his response.. But, eventually, his personal relationship with the Lord takes him where his feet do not want to go.

I fight fear about what comes next all the time … instead of focussing on the wonderful thing the Lord is doing NOW. Sometimes, other people and their responses and actions don’t help either! There have been times when I have caught myself waiting for the other shoe to drop, because bad things are happening all around me and I hope I can somehow avoid the bad stuff… instead of watching for the Lord’s deliverance. There are also times where I mentally run away hoping God won’t notice. Fat chance.

Back to this passage, Elijah prophesied rain when there was no rain, and nobody expected it either. Let’s get this straight – Elijah did not imagine rain … he simply spoke out what he had heard from the Spirit of God out loud. He declared it. He saw the rain coming in his spirit-man before it ever appeared on the horizon. Prophecy is not saying what WE want, or WE think we need, and expecting it to happen, it is tuning in to what GOD Himself is saying and announcing that. And yes, there is a difference.

Meanwhile, does anyone else but me think that Elijah’s servant must have gotten sick of running back and forth, looking for clouds that weren’t there? …  …Until they finally were! Six times that man trudged back and forth with nothing to report. To me this is what true servanthood looks like – it looks like doing what our Lord says, simply because He said it. In our current environment, that servant would have probably quit, and gone and reported Elijah to the union! 😂 At the same time, imagine Elijah’s faith – he kept continually sending that man to check!

You know, today we could carefully analyse, or even try to copy what Elijah said, or what he did, or how he did it, when he saw all those incredible miracles. That giant heavenly mountain-top barbecue is so awe-inspiring, perhaps we secretly hope that we can do stuff like that too? But God isn’t looking for repeat performances. That was then. Analysing how it happened so we can do it again, will not bring us any closer to the God Who made it happen. These stories are not formulas to be followed – they are testimonies of how incredible our God is, and what a man of faith can do! The best aim we can ever have is to know Him, intimately. When you look at Elijah’s conversations with Almighty God, you can see they have a relationship!

This great prophet shows us that imperfect people can serve a perfect God and see and do spectacular things … or not! This is one of the reasons I love the Old Testament. A parade of very different people pass by, serving – or not serving God, ushering in all kinds of outcomes. It is astonishing that in this day and age, the bible appears to end up being about us getting or making God do stuff for us … when the Old Testament clearly says He is looking for people who will do what HE wants!

In my heart, faith = obedience. No more no less. Sometimes there are feelings, sometimes there are not. Feelings are a nice bonus, but my advice is, don’t get used to them… because sometimes our feelings will drag us away from God, leading us into running away and hiding. These stories about Elijah are profound, because we can see with our own eyes, that our God is the God of second, third, fourth and fifth chances. Faith does something. It doesn’t just have opinions – it has actions. We are faltering in our faith because we have head knowledge NOT active faith like Elijah. 👋

P 2604 God’s word is a revelation waiting to happen.

/ DVH

Psalm 19:10-14:“God’s Word is better than a diamond, better than a diamond set between emeralds. You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring, better than red, ripe strawberries.There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger and directs us to hidden treasure. Otherwise how will we find our way? Or know when we play the fool? Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh! Keep me from stupid sins, from thinking I can take over Your work; Then I can start this day sun-washed, scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.These are the words in my mouth; these are what I chew on and pray.”

Have you ever watched someone panning for gemstones or gold? They swish water over the collected river gravel and then they swirl the contents around. The heavy stuff, the gold and the gemstones, fall to the bottom and the other useless gravel ends up on top. It is a process of elimination. I think that’s what the Lord does in our lives daily!

This trip has become one of those swirly, whirly times for me. Just when I think I might know something – round we go again and I’m wondering whether I’m sinking or not —- or whether this time I’m gunna end up at the top and be thrown out! I only know one thing, I want to be found to be gold, not gravel. So I keep on digging into His word, looking for things that speak to my heart, as I press on to face each day. Then I look for ways to apply what I read.

To live like that as a body, we will have to be prepared to be rumbled and tossed about – yet at the same time stay incredibly pliable, always prepared for change spiritually speaking. Our trust is definitely going to be stretched  as we get tossed about! We will need to see what the Holy Spirit sees when He is dealing with us. The glint of gold, the sparkle of a gemstone, hidden under the detritus of every day life. The only way that that can happen is to continually expose ourselves to His Word, taking everything we read seriously, and personally. 

Faith says God’s Word is good, it tastes like honey – even if it is sometimes hard to digest! “How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth! From Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.” Psalm 119:103-105. His word can give us understanding about ourselves, and others … it will expose and illuminate our personal circumstances. It takes us out of self-interest into His interests …plus it makes the impossible, possible. 

It can seem that miracles are spectacular things, like raising the dead, turning water into wine, healing the sick, preaching sermons that convict and convince. Maybe when we read the word ‘miracles’ we are blinded by our own ideas. But when Jesus miraculously fed thousands of people, I wonder if everyone knew where that food even came from! We can miss our own miracles, because they don’t come with trumpets and angel song. Instead we need eyes to see and ears to hear what He says and does daily, quietly, without any fanfare. Every single day I submit to His word, I have found He opens my eyes to new perspectives. He also keeps me aware of danger.  

The Holy Spirit, through the bible, challenges who I think I am. He checks me when I am about to lose my way. Before I became aware of the reality of Christ, I just blundered about saying what I thought … when I thought it. Because I was living that way, I was blissfully unaware of how what I said affected other people. Truth alone can be harsh and unyielding, but truth kissed with LOVE will set people free to see Him, and find themselves.

I like to use the above scripture as a prayer. Especially the ‘keep me from stupid sins’ part! This psalmist understands God’s dealings with mankind. He knows, that we are like the precious, but yet-to-be-revealed gemstones hidden in the accumulated gravel of our lives. We all need shaking up. We need to be sloshed about in the whirlwinds of this world, so we can be separated away from the false comfort we think we need. Unfortunately we won’t cry out for deliverance if we don’t think we need to be delivered. Instead, we could easily blame someone else for our own faults, and make them the fall guy! Here’s a hot tip: try asking Him; “what did I do?”

God’s Word is everything we need for personal revelation. There are things for each of our lives that are poised, waiting to happen, waiting to be discovered. I exhort all of us to search for the gemstones, and be careful what we throw away!  Think about the bible says, chew on it, sink your teeth into it until you get happy honey nourishment from it.  👋

P 2535 We need to learn to lift our shields.

/ DVH

“Look with wonder at the depth of the Father’s marvellous love that He has lavished on us! He has called us and made us His very own beloved children. The reason the world doesn’t recognize who we are is that they didn’t recognize Him.”1 John 3:1 TPT

When I read that scripture today, my first thought was: ‘What if I started to pray for the people around me, to recognise Him?’ Come to think of it, what if I prayed for ME to recognise Him in the things that go on around me? We sing and pray: “I want to know You, I want to see You,” Then waddle about as blind as a bat – well, you may not waddle but I sure do! 🤪 After those thoughts I asked myself yet again: “What is there in my life, right now, that would distract me from my God-given ability to see and reflect His love and His Presence to others?” I don’t want to be a muddy mirror! I want to progressively see Him more clearly and reflect Him better too.

I’m not talking about going on a witch-hunt to look for stuff, I am talking about discovering the things that are easily tolerated to the point that they become like background noise in our lives — instead of the subject of fervent prayer for deliverance. Those things we put up with because that mountain of change seems too high! Instead, like His book says: we simply must “… be (continually) looking at Jesus Who is the Author and Finisher of our faith.” Jesus Christ started up our faith in Him, and the bible clearly says He can finish it! We simply need to hold fast to our faith in His ability to do the job. His track record is already astonishing!!

At the same time we cannot afford to tolerate any rotten attitudes toward other people. Things like: … ‘We can’t help it! Look at how mean they are!’ And start speaking “His life” into their lives instead. Every single human being has potential in Christ. I believe we need to look hard at the people that we have chosen to avoid like the plague, simply because they challenge our nicey nice feelings about ourselves! How about we choose to use every opportunity to show these difficult people His Grace in action — in the fervent hope that we may win some of them!

Like Jesus said to the disciples when they were being tossed about in a huge storm in Luke 8:25 “Where is YOUR FAITH?”…”  From day to day, and minute by minute, what happens to OUR faith that He can and will help us overcome difficult people and circumstances? Speaking for myself, some days my faith in other people’s sins and failure seems to be greater than my faith that He can get me through anything! 

We don’t have to make excuses for other people’s sins either, or debate whether He will help them or not – we simply let them go free on the grounds that HE let us go free. ← That’s a full stop right there! Our faith needs to be used to overcome our sin, their sin against us, as well as the temptation to avoid the painful people. We are all tempted by stuff, but we must learn to hide behind our faith shield that says:“In Christ I can do all things because HE gives me strength.” What we do with temptation is an important key. If we have doubts, then we need to talk to the Lord about them, and trust Him to help us to walk through them, and/or overcome them.

At the same time there is definitely plenty of opportunities to monitor our own personal attitudes to others. My very best advice is, don’t just put up with people – faith demands that we press on until we love them! Prayer doesn’t just change things – it changes ME!  The thing to remember about our faith shield is that it only works because of what Christ did! You and I have the power residing within us to change this world for the better. Let’s not waste it, or our limited energies by hiding behind our weaknesses, or complaining or seeking sympathy from others. Let’s serve our King with all we have, and serve others with the same sort of passion He had for us.

We need to learn to use our shield against the barrage of attacks that come at us, through our own circumstances, personal media, from the news, and from media favourites. The reason we can get crushed and disappointed regarding other people, is because sometimes we expect everything from them … and very little from ourselves.

Dream yourself bigger. Start to think of your faith as so big, it can move any mountain that comes up in front of you. Use your shield to deflect the thoughts, and evil arrows that pierce your mind and heart, trying to lead you into despair. Life will not always be like this – one day we will stand in front of our King. The battle scars we have down here, will be badges of honour to His goodness, glory and grace up there. Amen. 👋🏻

“So, what does all this mean? If God has determined to stand with us, tell me, who then could ever stand against us?”Romans 8:31 TPT 

P 2314 It’s a Redemption story.

/ DVH

In the bible we have the clearest picture of our God and His desires for mankind. I can see redemption spelled out so clearly – over and over again. Destruction can and will overwhelm us, without our constant awareness of His glorious redemption. To women like Ruth and Naomi His redemption looked like Boaz. To the 2nd thief on the cross next to Christ, it looked like paradise was knocking on his door.  

In Exodus 35:4-9 there is another redemption story: “Moses said to the whole Israelite community, “This is what the Lord has commanded:  From what you have, take an offering for the Lord. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the Lord an offering of gold, silver and bronze;  blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair;  ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather; acacia wood;  olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense;  and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breast-piece.”

So what are these verses in Exodus about? Are they about the local desert and wilderness ‘Stitches and Craft Show??’ 😳 These guys were formerly slaves – they were beaten, starved, and owned by somebody. So where did they get such incredibly rich and costly items? They were given to them by their captors the Egyptians, before they left Egypt. God gave the Israelites favour, so they were able to collect all these riches. 

The point is not the riches, it is what the Lord did with them! Let’s just think about this, those precious materials were used to build a temporary house for God and man to meet… now that’s redemption! They were booty. The spoils of their captivity. God took the fruit of their captivity and turned it into a place of worship. 🧐 Think about it. He will do that for you and I. He will take the places of our greatest pain and loss, and make something so incredibly beautiful out of them – we will fall on our faces in worship.

I have two more illustrations. When Abraham went up the mountain to sacrifice Isaac, at that place of potential sacrifice, there was already provision. God provided a ram for Abraham to sacrifice instead of his precious son. On yet another occasion God provided a whale to preserve Jonah’s life – even though it was Jonah’s sin and disobedience that put him in that position in the first place! 

My point today is this – do not let past failures, or circumstances, or even captivities, rob you of TODAY’S DELIVERANCE. Our God ALWAYS has a bigger plan. And don’t be surprised when the Lord takes whatever you give Him, no matter how decadent, destroyed or even wrecked it seems, and makes something glorious out of it! Just like the tent of meeting the Jewish people crafted, under the Holy Spirit’s tutelage and guidance. God had a purpose for it all – a place where He and mankind could meet.

He will take our failures, or exhibits of our captivity and destruction etc. and use those things we are ashamed of … TO BRING GLORY TO HIMSELF. Just follow the Holy Spirit’s prompts. JESUS IS A ‘BEAUTY FOR ASHES’ SAVIOUR! Those seemingly disastrous things become the places where our faith leads us on into further, deeper trust.

“For Yahweh is always good and ready to receive you. He’s so loving that it will amaze you— so kind that it will astound you! And He is famous for His faithfulness toward all. Everyone knows our God can be trusted, for He keeps His promises to every generation!” Psalms 100:5 TPT

Those scars that are still on Jesus’ body are not marks of shame —they are marks of redemption. Our whole bible is a redemption story. The whale in Jonah, and the ram provided for Abraham, show us He will do whatever it takes to bring about His purposes. Naomi and Ruth show us nothing is irredeemable. That tent of meeting shows us He will give us favour, but He has a kingdom purpose for that favour. 

All these things reveal His character to us. Our job in the face of defeat, despair and suffering is to not faint but to use any and all opportunities to learn TRUST. Love the bible – in its pages are incredible redemption stories. 👋🏻

P 2239 The peril of ignoring our faults…

/ DVH

“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 

But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 24:45-51.

‘If Jesus came back today would you repent or worship?’ Someone asked me that question once, and … big spiritual giant that I am … I said: “… um … probably … BOTH!” It may now be obvious to you that I like to cover all my bases. 😶 Time and apathy are forces that can wear away most good intentions. This means we desperately need the Holy Spirit, not just good intentions! I know many people make resolutions every New Year but I gave that up decades ago. I found I couldn’t make it past a week before I fell over and became disappointed in myself.

When there is no active revival around us, our impetus to remain focussed and in love with Jesus – and what He wants – becomes down-right cloudy … with a chance of extreme coldness … bordering on self-centredness. We could easily revert to the same old same old – and hope that will do. It will take the ripe fruits of faithfulness, and self-control … plus we might need to throw in a few boxes of patience … to keep us … keeping on. Otherwise we can easily give up too quickly – like the guy in the parable. 

Pressure, boredom, and a distinct lack of visible supervision is the thing our enemy employs to distract us from where we want to be. I strongly suspect the master in this parable was angry because he trusted that servant to do the right thing. AHA! That means we can’t blame our poor old pastor then doesn’t it? After all we are responsible for our own spiritual well-being and choices.

You know, this little story is so accurate, it hurts to read it. I find myself avoiding parables like this one in the same way I avoid mirrors. Mainly because I don’t like what I see … but … way up in the back of my mind … I kid myself that I would ne-v-er do that! The thing about Jesus is that through these stories, He exposes what is really in our hearts. So instead of dismissing the possibility that I might behave as badly as that servant did – I’ve learnt to ask the Lord to: ‘please show me where I fall into that exact same hole.’ 

That’s the kind of prayer that always gets answered … trust me! Instead of acquitting myself of any possibility of blame, I’ve learnt that I have no idea what I will do when the ‘nice’ wears off, and I am shoved against the wall by adverse circumstances. However, I must admit, I also have no immediate plans to bash up anyone who lives at my house and looks after me. The other person who lives here makes my meals etc! My mother didn’t raise no stupid children!! 

However, the guy in this parable proves my often stated point – none of us know what is INSIDE us – until the passing of time, and life itself, or a lack of visible supervision, puts our lives under pressure and we get distracted from our original goal. Then watch out! All kinds of ugly leaks out around the edges. Nobody plans to live like that guy did, it just kind of crept up on him because time passed and his supervisor was missing.

Our Master lives inside us – our biggest problem is, He’s so gentle, He is easy to ignore. But the rewards for faithfulness and wisdom are much better traits. Living for Jesus means active participation in His processes. Meanwhile, when was the last time you heard someone talk about this particular parable? Yeah, we both know what that means, the pastor doesn’t like it much either. It’s not easy to get a positive message out of this one!

The Lord highlighted two words to me today when I read it – faithful and wise. Meanwhile the opposite of that is pretty much unreliable and stupid – I really don’t want to come into that category. What to do? Well, I believe in honest maintenance. You see, we have a beloved Redeemer, so there is no need to hide from myself anymore. It’s time to own up and repent, and ask for His Grace to change my behaviour. That’s when I decide to make faith-filed, bible inspired, choices. Right at the point when I want to do the opposite, or even pretend … I’m ‘all good” really ...😳 

I think we have to monitor our own spiritual lives day by day, sometimes second by second! It is so easy to judge this guy who behaved so badly, without stopping to look in the mirror – but we will do that at our own peril. Who knows what might creep up on us one day to tempt us to behave the same way? Finally, here’s a great deliverance prayer: “…and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil …” Amen. 👋🏻 “It’s the little foxes that spoil the vines.” Song of songs.

P 2202 The safest place in the world…

/ DVH

…is NOT under the bed or an island all by yourself! So please don’t give up on yourself, or other people … too soon. We all have learning curves. However, there is good news. “In Christ Jesus” is the only incredible place of safety and shelter for those who are learning to live in love! “Love is a safe place of shelter, for it never stops believing the best for others. Love never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up.” 1 Corinthians 13:7 TPT.

But to get to that safe place we will have to give up many things we have become attached to.: like doing what we want when we want, or the power of arbitrarily telling other people what to do. Or always being right and never admitting you are wrong. Or making my world a safe place for me so I don’t have to care about what that does to you! Safety is a strange issue, but the real point is without Jesus a safe world doesn’t actually exist. He is our only safe place, and living in safety in this world is left behind, because the people who live for Him:  “… love(d) not their lives unto death …”  Revelation 12:11

The only way in is the only way out and it’s YOU.

“Came a time in my life I had to be free

From all of the lies that used to be me

And the only way out is the only way in and it’s YOU.

I’ve been waisting my time but not anymore

I’ve been through the maze and it led to Your door

And the only way out is the only way in and it’s YOU.

I spent a lot of time at the crossroads

Getting that lonely feeling inside

Suddenly You stopped the rain, You changed the view

Now every way’s leading to You

Let’s get this thing going, let’s move it along

Let me do all the things I’ve been missing so long

’cause the only way out is the only way in and it’s YOU.”

Ray Martinez.

Jesus is our only hope – He’s the only way out of the trials, sin and suffering of this world, and He is the only way into a new life. We can’t afford to waste our time anymore. It says that verse in Revelation like this, in the Message bible: “They defeated him  (satan) through the blood of the Lamb and the bold word of their witness. They weren’t in love with themselves; they were willing to die for Christ.” I think that we have fallen far far away from that place of being prepared to die for Him. Unless we live somewhere where they love to kill and torture Christians. The people who live under life or death threats have to make incredibly hard choices – every single day. However where I live, we get to choose to die to self – daily, minute by minute.

But nothing in this world we are living in today, is actually truly safe. Talk to the people in countries where war has broken out. One day they were at the supermarket shopping, and now the supermarket is gone and so is their house! Now, it no longer matters if the man of the house keeps putting the tomato sauce bottle, or his dirty socks in the wrong place – there isn’t anywhere to put anything, anymore! 😢 Sigh. When did we become such petty people? This life has serious issues – and safety is an illusion. 

Sadly I feel, humanly speaking, we often make it through the trials in this life, breathing a sigh of relief that whatever was happening to us is now over. And then we go on to waiting and willing our lives to be easy again. I know I do! I hate being stretched. There is a saying from a movie: The Princess Bride – “Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”  Amen! Preach it brother. Expecting this life to be easy is a childish view of this world. “The rain falls on the just and the unjust.” Everybody has hard times. 

I have been prayerfully reading Psalm 73 for days, and it is the best example of self-centred humanity… like ever! The Psalmist has his crank on because bad people are winning everywhere. When I read it I realised that he is grumpy because other people can do what they like, it seems – and get away with it. He’s mad because these people do not have to face the consequences of their actions. Eventually, he realises that even wicked people die in the end, and they face eternity unprepared. It is one thing to trick a human judge and jury, and plead innocent, and totally another to plead innocence in the face of true purity and truth.

The biggest problems we face today, are the seemingly insignificant everyday decisions we make about the way we act and react toward others. The decision to tell somebody where to go and how to get there, drags us away from our main focus. These are the days of deliverance from evil. Giving yourself permission to have a bad day can be deadly. The only safe place is living in Christ, living a life of laid-down love, for His sake … and dying to self.👋🏻