Dependable

P 3039 You gotta dig to find gold.

/ DVH

“How enriched are they who find their strength in the Lord; within their hearts are the highways of holiness! Even when their paths wind through the dark valley of tears, they dig deep to find a pleasant pool where others find only pain. He gives to them a brook of blessing filled from the rain of an outpouring. They grow stronger and stronger with every step forward, and the God of all gods will appear before them in Zion.” Psalms 84:5-7 TPT.

I find the Psalms are such an enormous comfort in this life! There are times that I simply cannot cope with some stuff. I need Jesus, and the precious Holy Spirit. And if you think that sounds pious or something …you would be wrong! The Holy Spirit’s Presence comforts me, and whispers things I need to hear into my heart, when I am angry. Like:“Why not suffer wrong?….” Jesus can say that to me because He lived His life that way long before I was ever born! 

When things get difficult, or I’m tired, or I have had a series of unlovely events that were not my fault — that is when I can get tetchy. Suddenly I can’t hear Him clearly. And yes, there are also times when I can hear Him fine — but I still get cranky anyway. That’s the time I know I made a choice … it was the wrong one …but I know I definitely made a choice! 

This life to me, is a battlefield, and there are seasons when we end up in the firing line. The thing is, it is not good to beat yourself up when you fall off the wagon, and you end up needing to deal with your own temper – as well as whatever caused it to flare up! Sadly, that response can add to an already difficult situation. Rules don’t help me then, they are too easily discarded. Instead I pray:  “Please help me Holy Spirit!” I have found He is so utterly dependable –  He always answers that prayer. Take a pause and a deep breath, so you can let Him help you through whatever is happening. 

The bible says this in Proverbs 25:28: “A man (a person) without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” It is way too easy to put self-control right down the bottom of the list of things that we know we are going to need. Other spiritual graces sound so much sweeter …but self control is an important key to everything else. This is the digging part of Psalm 84:5-7. We have to dig down into what we already know about Him, to help us withstand what is going on externally. 

After a while, like the Psalmist says, we also need to cultivate and develop a habit of going to Him first. Even when all you have is a desperate cry for help! That choice is ours. We have to choose to believe He will answer us. But whether we feel His Presence in those moments or not, He is always with us – that is where He promised to be!  It’s in the book. Sooner or later we all hit the very difficult wall that says — “do we believe our experiences, or lack of them — or do we believe in Him because of Who He is, and what He said?’

That’s what Lordship is. It is the place where the rubber hits the road and we choose to go His way instead of ours. That’s also the place where we will need to start digging deeper. Eventually our tears and heartache will create a pool that can comfort others. Finding our strength in Him takes perseverance. And when that Grace is cultivated within us, it will produce His fruit, in its season. Holiness isn’t what we eat or drink or do – holiness is in Him.The more we trust in Him and put our faith on the line, the more we will end up walking like a child of the King. The Spirit of God within us, rises up to help us.

Some people think of Grace as something that comes upon them. That is not true. We stir it up from within us, we don’t pray it down. Listen to this:  “Asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He replied to them by saying, The kingdom of God does not come with signs to be observed or with visible display, Nor will people say, Look! Here [it is]! or, See, [it is] there! For behold, the kingdom of God is within you [in your hearts] and among you [surrounding you].” Luke 17:20-21.

You and I, together with entire Body of Christ, are the display case of the kingdom of God for the rest of this world. Yeah, that’s kind of a bit daunting isn’t it? We will allow this kingdom to grow within us as we choose His ways over ours. And let me tell you, in  my experiences, those opportunities will always come at the most inopportune times!  

Maybe somebody just jumped all over your feelings, or a pet theory and then …watch out … what you can potentially display is either His kingdom, or your own bad temper! Yes, you have a reason to be angry, yes you may want to strangle the offender, but if … at that moment … you ask for His help, and pause, and pray, and then you will be empowered to give a kingdom response.

That’s what grows that fruit we are always on about. Growing fruit is vastly underrated. However to grow a fruit tree, like a lemon tree, or a cherry tree – you will have to dig deep. You have to make enough room for the roots to expand and grow. We have to dig to produce His fruit! It  is eternal, it’s golden, it’s forever. So we gotta dig out the weeds of our old life and let the tree He plants in us grow!  Bye. 👋.

P 2144 The Faithful One.

/ DVH

“We all experience times of testing, which is normal for every human being. But God will be faithful to you. He will screen and filter the severity, nature, and timing of every test or trial you face so that you can bear it. And each test is an opportunity to trust Him more, for along with every trial God has provided for you a way of escape that will bring you out of it victoriously.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 TPT

Our God is so faithful, HE LOVES US … whatever happens to us is not proof of His love or even a sign that He is angry with us. He put all His anger on Christ. He loves mankind because He says so – in the book! Here is one of my favourite verses: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful [true to His word and His righteous character], for He cannot deny Himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13. 🥰 Unfortunately we can be faithless, often … and we are!  What makes you and I the same as everyone else in this world, is the blood we all have coursing through our veins. Colour, size, age, sex, race and religion none of that matters because we are all human. Human beings assess things by performance, but we dare not assess the Lord that way. We must learn to take Him at His word! 

The above verse tells us the Lord God Almighty IS always faithful – let us pray that we will begin to understand just how faithful He is! Just like our blood is a part of humanity we have in common, His faithfulness is a part of Who He is!  He is faithful through and through. Those qualities we sometimes think of as passing human characteristics, are permanently, FOREVER, HIS! Love, joy, peace, etc – these things are not whimsical, or seasonal, or subject to change with Him – our God is always the same. Hebrews 13:8: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” And Malachi 3:6: “For I am the Lord, I do not change; …” 

We need to do more than nod our heads or even say Amen to verses like that. They are not just there to cheer us up when we feel down. They are there to reveal His heart. We must start living our lives treating whatever He says, in the book, as the truth, because it is. HE CANNOT CHANGE. When we try to elevate humanity up to His level, we are running the very real risk of lowering His status down to human standards. Jesus is God, and He is like us – but Almighty God is like no-one else.

And I’m just going to let that statement sit there by itself because we must do more than simply agree with it. We need to start living our lives depending on how permanently dependable He is. Our lives have become more and more unstable because the things we’ve stood on – or gave our attention to – started to wobble. Misunderstanding the Lord God’s motivation means we are in danger of attributing Him with our human characteristics. Even though Christ came as one of us – He did something human beings cannot do – He was purity Personified. After that He chose to become sin. In these matters we cannot trust our own understanding. The mysteries of our God are beyond our understanding … and that’s a good thing!  

We need SomeOne wiser, kinder, more loving, and more committed to us, than we can ever be to each other – otherwise we are sunk. We will all be stuck in a rut of trying to be better people and failing. Whether I like you or not, or you like me or not, we need to start to know and see each other after the Spirit. “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.” 2 Corinthians 5:16. In other words I begin to see the Holy Spirit active in you, and you see Him active and working in and ON me. That will not happen when we spend our time trying to impress one another with our spirituality. Rather it happens as a byproduct of working together for a common cause as we submit to His ways. 

When we actively look for and take particular notice of the signs of His faithfulness in our lives, and store all those things in our hearts –  like a squirrel stores up nuts for the winter – we will begin to know one another after the Spirit! The power of God is not a reward for good behaviour, or super spirituality. As we let the Holy Spirit develop who we are, we will be transformed to look like Jesus. Jesus didn’t have to try to do this or that – HE JUST DID IT. It is time to deliberately transfer our trust, from what we think, see and know, into simply trusting in WHO He is. 

We must put aside the prayers of “please fix this and that thing, or everything that matters to me Lord” and start to pray: “Why am I here Lord, what is Your purpose for my life?” Whether you or I are the head pastor or the janitor – all those things are up to Him. The things that are weighing heavily on each of our hearts will be: “…ADDED UNTO US … as we seek His kingdom FIRST.” He cannot be anything else but faithful to us, and He is looking for us to be faithful to Him in the midst of a faithless generation. 👋🏻