Discern

P 3331 In but not of …

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“Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes.” Romans 12:2 TPT.  That’s pretty plain isn’t it? Not much to explain there. And here’s another one, where Jesus Himself is praying for us… “My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.” John 17:15-16. 

The thing is, without inward transformation, we are wasting our time and effort trying to capture the-people-who-don’t-know-Him’s attention with our own clever ideas and plans. We need to have the Lord’s guidance, His way to reach out to people. We serve the One Who took people out onto a hillside and they were so captured by what Jesus said, they didn’t even think about eating.

The point made in this scripture is that the Lord knows how to go straight to the heart of the matter, and we don’t. Let’s ask for His help! The bonus is we get to know God’s will for our lives. We no longer live by this world’s standards. The ‘latest thing’ is the ‘last thing’ on our minds! Unless the Holy Spirit kisses what we are doing and tears off the roof, our plans are limited, His are not.

Jesus isn’t praying for us to live detached from this world, like somehow what’s out there can stop what’s inside us from flourishing!  Our choices do that for us, they are what influence us. We don’t need to separate ourselves from the lives we are here to touch when we’ve decide to make Him our priority. Instead Jesus is praying that we will be protected from the devices of our enemy – who is all around us. Here’s my litmus test for in not of …  Ask yourself what occupies most of your thoughts? 

I have been to churches in many places, that are pale imitations of what this world can produce all by itself. In the end, the productions become more important than the God we worship or the people we are here to reach. Let’s realise that when it comes to production – this world is waa-aa-aa-ay better at it than we are! They’ve got great gizmos to help them make fake things look real.

I think that’s because whatever IS represented by this world is fake. In our churches we want to produce the real thing — but you can’t produce the real thing, from fake roots. Entertainment is by its very nature, anti-what-Jesus-stands-for. He wants to glorify His Father, by what He says and does. He can use entertainment, but He doesn’t need it. We can say we want to glorify God, but I’ve been involved in the production of a number of things in the past and this world does not easily let go of the idea that being bigger, better, brighter, more clever is the way to go! 

Human beings think that doing something well, is going to impress the world and help them to believe in what they are selling. They don’t need to be impressed with us, these people need the King, not our clever, glamorous well-produced rhetoric. Our message doesn’t need any help! It’s in the book and God Himself wrote it. Our God is the God of the Universe, He doesn’t want or need our advertising, He  wants to reach the people around us, with healing, deliverance, salvation and the Good News.

We have been asked to make disciples, followers of Jesus Christ – not groupies. Changing someone’s heart is His job. Ours is to co-operate with the Holy Spirit and make a permanent place for the Lord in our hearts and our churches – then we follow the Holy Spirit’s instructions regarding how we approach others. Our churches are where we meet to glorify Him and give Him the praise He so richly deserves. And all our gifts are to be surrendered and used to glorify Him — our fellowship is sweeter because of Him. 

Our meetings cannot be about “the atmosphere’ either – an atmosphere is easily created and easily broken. What we do is about Him, done for His sake, for His pleasure. We can’t substitute special effects for the anointing – it is far better to get on our faces and find out where we’ve missed Him, than to plough on competing with this world’s idea of a good time.  

To be in not of  means we are totally aware of our surroundings, and we can see and hear the people around us. Their needs, their hopes, their squashed broken lives. It is so easy to segregate ourselves away from the very people the Lord saved us to reach — simply because they do this and that, and that stuff might corrupt us. The hard times that have fallen upon everyone has disproved that theory. People are dying inside – they have no hope.  And guess what we have – HOPE! 

We have the incorruptible One living inside us!1 Peter 1:23 says: “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” 1 John 4:4: “Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” In but not of is about singular focus, not just distraction. I would rather spend 5 minutes with a Spirit-filled person than 5 seconds with someone else’s clever ideas. Bye for now, 👋

P 3302 Sin.

/ DVH

Today is the day, we remember that our sin has been conquered and permanently defeated by the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us. Praise Him! I pray this Good Friday that we will be enabled by the precious Holy Spirit to understand, how wide, how high, how deep His love is for each one of us. However, we dare not take sin lightly. Any kind of sin when it is tolerated, produces fruit. Bad fruit. Sin separates us from God and others.

Let’s be clear, our devotion toward the Lord, must extend to being open and honest, acknowledging the true state of our own hearts. Poverty of Spirit brings its own blessing. (Matthew 5) Despite our best intentions, other people have been affected by our actions – or lack of them – and we can cause them to stumble. Sin affects everyone around it. The bible tells us this: “Or do you have no regard for the wealth of His kindness and tolerance and patience [in withholding His wrath]? Are you [actually] unaware or ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness leads you to repentance [that is, to change your inner self, your old way of thinking—seek His purpose for your life]?” Romans 2:4. We cannot afford to esteem what Jesus has done for us, lightly.

The purpose of repentance is change. Not evasion, or punishment, or explanations, excuses, or tears … or even self-flagellation! Repentance means acknowledging or confessing our sin, and active participation in reparation. Then we experience transformation facilitated by the Holy Spirit’s guidance. God is so kind! His Grace lifts us up, into a brand new life. Now, because of what Jesus did for us, we can look at who we really are, without any shame or fear. But the crux of the matter is this — our engagement and co-operation in these matters is essential. Prayer without repentance and appropriate actions, is just hot air. Let’s learn daily to rely on His redeeming Grace, and never abuse that grace or replace it with casual carelessness. Repentance is a serious business. 

Here is a truth about a scripture in Hebrews 4:12. Our intentions matter. But we cannot discern those intentions without the Holy Spirit’s help – He’s the One with the sword! This means our intention is not an escape clause either. Let’s choose to examine our hearts and deliberately repair things, so we can openly and honestly participate in our relationship with the Holy Spirit and others. God’s Word is our scalpel, and the Holy Spirit is the one and only extraordinarily proficient and accurate Surgeon. His Word cuts between our soulish, sinful and sometimes childish attitudes and responses, plus any desire for revenge or self-defence, to the heart of the matter. The bible indicates a clear path between our intention to harm, and our ever-present desire to avoid the truth about our motivations.

“For the word of God is living and active and full of power [making it operative, energising, and effective]. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as the division of the soul and spirit [the completeness of a person], and of both joints and marrow [the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and judging the very thoughts and intentions of the heart.”  Hebrews 4:12.

We need His wisdom to show us what our intentions really are! Is our attitude spite, or hurt? Regret or Godly sorrow? This work the Holy Spirit does is so fine, so careful, so intricate—He can lovingly expose the very things we do not want to face about ourselves. I believe we need the deepest parts of our nature exposed, because we often settle for less than God’s glorious ideal as our standard. His standard is His Son, Jesus. I’ve found it useful to prayerfully look at the things I have done, or the things I am still doing! … and then I ask the Holy Spirit for His help. He also helps me to repair things.

Let’s remember that the Lord does not divide our thoughts from our intentions, to make us feel guilty, or stumble, or fall away. His incredible kindness wants us to be free to become more acquainted with Who He is – because in that knowledge lies our total transformation. Sometimes, we may need to know why we did what we did, so that His Spirit can transform our hearts at the cellular level. That’s when we begin to want and long for what He wants. After that we can quite easily identify within ourselves, any malicious judgment and intent to harm, and separate it from just plain carelessness and a lack of awareness of others and their lives. 

King Herod finagled a way to kill the infant Jesus – He killed all the baby boys in Bethlehem! “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.” Matthew 2:16. This is an example of a wrong heart attitude. Another one appears in Acts, with Ananias and Sapphira, who were strategising about cheating the Lord, and their brothers and sisters. This matter was dealt with swiftly and thoroughly because it happened in front of the entire fledgling church. This couple’s plan abused God’s Grace! It was not about money – it was about the intention of their hearts. 

Sin occurs when we dismiss the intention of our heart to harm, callously calling it — “only natural under the circumstances.”  Let’s call sin, ‘sin’ and repent from it. Our focus in this matter is coveting a closer relationship with the Lord Himself. No amount of pretty words can cover up sin. It is poisonous to all of us. Bye. 👋

P 3215 Eternity starts now.

/ DVH

“Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes.” Romans 12:2 TPT.

What we think about affects how we handle our days, and so this transformation process is a progressive thing. The more we act on what we believe, the more our thoughts become tied into what the bible says. Eventually this process produces an automatic response in us, and in the end, transformation is seamless, and we don’t even notice it is happening – now we are too busy falling even more in love with Jesus. 

I hate to rain on anyone’s parade, but the biggest problem many people have is that when they read what the bible says, they agree with it, maybe even smile because it is so accurate …but THEN –– they don’t take the time to find out how to apply what they’ve read, into their everyday life. Application is the key that opens the door so we can participate in His kingdom. Let me put it this way, the language of the Lord’s kingdom is faith – we don’t need faith to do what we can already do! We need it so we can participate in the impossible!! And change can seem impossible.

OK, let’s look at some verses. The bible says: “Blessed are the poor in spirit …” Matthew 5:3. In order to ask for help you need to know that you need help! We must recognise that knowing we are poor in spirit is not a bad thing! Doing nothing about it, however, is not good. God says we are blessed when we live aware of this reality. Poverty of spirit looks like this: you can see what is required is beyond your own ability to change yourself. We need His help – this is a good time to remember that we already have it! Just don’t wait to feel like you have it. Step out in faith.

Now, I want to look at another scripture and it’s about holiness. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8. This means we make a quality decision to choose to become aware of where we have not lived in purity of heart, and talk to the Lord about it. Then we repent and repair things. At the same time, we need to be real and aware of the kind of pressures we live under in today’s society — ghastly thoughts tormenting us don’t make us a bad Christian, it’s what we DO about the torment that matters. 

Part of transformation is the realisation that just because something exists in my life now, that does not mean God is not dealing with it. It also does not mean He likes it or wants it!  Timing is a key factor in God’s Ways. Let’s remember that Jesus never let what was going on around Him sway Him from His God-appointed ministry. I picked purity today to look at, because in today’s atmosphere it is impossible to remain pure without His help! 

Jesus’ devotion to what His Father wanted was His priority – so we also need to continue to assess our priorities. Because we follow Him, purity needs to be our priority too. Jesus answered His enemy’s remarks with God’s Word, because He already knew what the bible said. The Lord has the right word to give us when we are attacked too. However, we can quote scripture up one side of the hill and down the other. Remember, we will always need His help! We need a specific word from Him, for us, at that moment … ‘an apple of gold in a setting of silver. ‘

When our aim is to hear from God about whatever He wants from us, sometimes we will have to wait. He is not at our beck and call, we are here for Him. Our Father knows what stretching does for our faith. He will never postpone His answer to hurt us, but He does want to see growth in our character and hearts. Often all we want is a short cut that shows us the way through these learning processes quickly. Most of us are ‘allergic” to difficulties – not hardened to them. (See Isaiah 42:10) 

Let’s look at another scripture that I think ties in well with the one above: Psalm 24:24:4-5: “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.”  So what do we ACT on? We need to watch what we say, and be careful to be truthful. 

Here’s another one: “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.”  Philippians 1:9. Loving others has to be a tangible, seeable, thing – not just a theory. And our knowledge of what is excellent also requires our participation but the bible has lots of suggestions! So we need to step away from things that will contaminate a pure life. 

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8. Discipline in our thinking helps, and that part is up to us. Our Wonderful Father does not just say, ‘don’t do this,’ —instead He says: “DO, DO THIS.” 

He is always preparing us, helping us to live in His Presence. He is not just interested in us living with Him in eternity, down the road when we are dead. ETERNITY STARTS NOW.  We will all be pure of heart in heaven because we will be changed to be like Him. It’s what we do TODAY that’s important.. Bye.👋

P 3201 Judgment belongs to God … only HE can be trusted with it.

/ DVH

I Corinthians 4:3-5: “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.”

To begin with I want to make the point that no matter how sweet anyone appears to be, none of us are perfect. When that statement becomes a reality in our lives, it goes a long way to stopping judgment. Especially if you manage to figure out that you can’t actually see, because you have this blooming great log in your own eye!

Judgment belongs to the Lord, because only He has the wisdom and love, together with the spirit of reconciliation, to see through the lies we even tell ourselves. Jesus loves the truth, and the Holy Spirit is in charge of conviction, not us. What He shares with us will bring clarity into hidden things about ourselves so we can deal with them, together. But we need to be so very careful about even the appearance of judging others, as we can easily misinterpret what we think we can see. The best thing to do when you discern something in somebody else is to pray for them.

Paul’s writings show us that he totally understood something that is essential for our own personal knowledge of God’s kingdom. I believe he understood the way our Father does things. Our Father doesn’t uncover our sins in front of others, instead He wants His generosity and kindness to fill us, and draw us to a place of sincere repentance, without any fear of reprisal or shame. When Paul received all those heavenly revelations, he didn’t take dictation. He was given Grace, from God, to understand and comprehend the Lords intentions toward man. 

This kind of revelation is so helpful – I urge you to ask for it. Once we truly comprehend that only God is good, and the devil is the bad guy – then clarification brings revelation. Being filled and remaining filled with the Holy Spirit means we can’t afford to hide anything from Him. However, the light of God in and on our lives holds no dangers for us. Jesus faced our Heavenly Judge for us and was punished in our place. No crime = no time!Let’s put aside collecting mental lists of do’s and don’ts. Then hopefully we will stop slinging them at each other!

This passage in 1 Corinthians presents us with a good reason to stop that kind of thinking and allow our minds to be changed by His Word. When it comes to judgment, only Jesus knows what is in that other person’s heart. If I am angry or afraid of someone, I can so easily be deceived by my own heart, and run on at the mouth. At the same time I can end up filling up my thoughts with junk … simply because I am convinced I know why someone did, what they did! … But I don’t know and I can’t. The Person Who truly knows what someone else thought or did, pardoned them, by doing what HE did.

I lived in an atmosphere in my childhood, that threatened me with physical and emotional violence when it came to my performance. So I learnt to be deceitful to protect myself. I am now old enough and I know I have been empowered by Him, so I can choose a different response! “I know Whom I believe, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him until that day.” 2 Timothy 1:12.

I could hold a grudge and harden my heart, but I will stop moving forward in God if I choose to do that. But He won’t reject me, because we have a covenant – an agreement signed in His own Son’s blood. Sometimes we can shoot ourselves in the foot, because we can’t possibly know what God is going to do next, so we pick up judgment to defend ourselves. The Lord is not like us! Hallelujah! Now, there’s a good thing to remember. Some responses to circumstances have become so ingrained in our psyche, we do things automatically. We need to deliberately retrain our responses, by allowing His Word to become a part of who we are now.

Judgment in the Christian world can be a fatal flaw. It means that we can no longer get to “know each other after the Spirit “  … because we are too busy trying to duck blows that may or may not come. We can quite easily forget our ministry of reconciliation, and use God’s Word to brutalise others. That sword is for our enemy so we can cut people free – it is not to slice up your neighbour!!  We can’t know what is in someone else’s heart, so acting in wisdom means we need to suspend judgment and extend GRACE. 

We can have confidence that we are already accepted, we simply need to be prepared to become vulnerable. That is a rude word to some people. They avoid vulnerability like the plague. Repentance isn’t a sign of weakness, it is a sign of strength. It’s an honour system. Jesus honoured and pardoned us, so we honour what He did for us, by honouring and pardoning others and suspending any judgment. Sadly, our hearts can be deceitful. They can excuse me — and accuse you —- all-at-the-same-time! 

That’s why paying attention to what comes out of our mouths is the biggest clue to what is going on inside! Our speech, actions and attitudes need to be given our attention – especially the unguarded ones. The body of Christ can be a little like a slow leaky tyre, you want to fix it but you just can’t find the leak. This is a place where we lose touch with the Holy Spirit and HE is the ever-present Wind beneath our wings, let’s plug up them holes! Judgment belongs to the Lord — only HE can be trusted with it. Bye.👋

P 3106 This will blow your mind.

/ DVH

“Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes.” Romans 12:2 TPT. As carefully as I can, bearing in mind I’m not a theologian, I want to give you my thoughts about this verse. I have taken note of any other verses like it – Joshua 24:14-15;  2 Corinthians 10:5;  Philippians 4:8;  Ephesians 4:23. 

’We have now chosen to live our lives passing on our Father’s beauty to others, together with His power flowing through our hearts, and minds as well as our lives. This means we daily choose to reject the ideals and opinions of our current society. Now we live by a different standard, the one illustrated by our Saviour. He also lived His life under extreme pressure to conform. But His death and resurrection bought us the freedom to choose.

Now, we value and act on those things He taught us and what was illustrated in His own life. Jesus Himself taught us that we could live in this world but not be influenced by it. Our desire is to learn a new way to think—scrubbed clean of self-centredness, self-protection, guilt, shame and blame. Using our faith, we recognise that we have been released by God’s power to be the most loving version of ourselves. Purely for His sake. Our daily responses to the Holy Spirit help us move forward. We need, and will always have, His help.’

There is no ambition in Romans 12:2, rather it simply explains the way to achieve the kind of ‘oneness’ with the Holy Spirit that Jesus Himself enjoyed. All the work has already been done. This kind of transformation will require our deepest trust in Jesus’ truthfulness. It goes way beyond agreeing with Him. Instead it falls happily headlong into our knowledge that He cannot or will not fail us. We have learnt that retraining the way we think, by meditating on His Word and daily living that Word in actions – ushers in heavenly thinking. Unfortunately, we will always end up half-hearted in our endeavours if we excuse our own wilfulness as being normal.  

This complete turn around cannot be attempted in our own strength, because humanity’s lack of altruism means we have to look outside ourselves, including our own inner and outer resources, or our valiant self-efforts—to SomeOne Who is pure Love, and totally devoted to our good. Jesus is our God-given, perfect, practical, and ONLY trustworthy example of our new way to live. His disciples reflected His Way to live until they died.

The Lord was motivated by love and guided by love, plus He utterly and totally cast Himself headlong into God’s love, grace and mercy;  these things guided and motivated Him. Because of the Lord’s example, following Him will take the deepest kind of faith – the kind that cannot be manufactured by human beings. To walk in this kind of faith, we must move beyond trusting Jesus to save us—into trusting Jesus to save us from ourselves, and our past, while we are still ALIVE. That’s called living faith.

If we trust Him to save us after we’ve left this world, we actually still have something to gain! He promises we will live forever, in eternity with Almighty God Himself – this is faith that needs to be developed. However, trusting the Lord Jesus to save us while we are alive in this world has no side benefit. We simply have His promise that He will help us!  It will involve sacrifice and it will cost us but the gain is always greater than the cost. Just like Jesus lived a life of sacrifice that cost Him everything while He was on earth. He did what He did for our sake.

Now, we choose to daily put aside our hopes of being understood (security and peace);  and our dreams of making a valid contribution to the world (ambition);  our desire for human love and approval, in favour of His will. We refuse to panic about whatever comes at us, because we know that our God is always in charge.

However, we are eligible for the blessing that Jesus explained to Thomas: “But he (Thomas) said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” A week later His disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed;  blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”John 20:25-29. Thomas had to see to believe – God has given us His grace to see by using our faith – and then faith opens the door to see further.

This verse shows me how much our God values our FAITH, He says believing without seeing is the better way. The very best place to start renewing our minds is to take our immediate needs: heartaches, suffering, fears, etc. and lay them down at the cross. These things are deadly to faith, and, sadly, if they are allowed to flourish, they will come back over and over again to torment and deceive us. The bible clearly tells us God will supply our needs, and we can ask Him for whatever we need – but then we leave those things with Him and go about our Master’s business. We must never stop asking. God is good He loves us dearly, and hears every prayer – His timing is not like ours.

Living like this, will literally blow, (and change!) … our minds. It produces a beauty in us that this world cannot manufacture. Bye, bless you! 🥰

P 3091 Define the word ‘gift!’

/ DVH

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, Who does not change like shifting shadows.”James 1:17.“Ask, and the gift is yours. Seek, and you’ll discover. Knock, and the door will be opened for you.”Matthew 7:7 TPT.

If I were to ask you to define what you think a good gift looks like, what would you say? A happy life, travel, health, a nice house, great kids, plenty of money …a happy wife? Here’s a side note … the bible talks about finding a wife. “He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favour from the LORD.” God has a whole other take on what He thinks good gifts look like! That cranky wife is His gift to you  – you prayed for transformation!

It seems to me that we have translated the above scriptures in James and Matthew to mean that ‘I’ get to define what a good gift looks like! Good luck with that one. Why? Because only God is good … so He is the only One we can trust to define what good looks like! You might like to put your false teeth back in and chew on that one. God’s idea of good, and ours aren’t always the same. The bible tells us in Isaiah 53:10 that: ‘…it pleased the Lord to bruise Jesus’ – His Son.

Father God looks through the difficulties and pain to the overall end result. Jesus’ death meant salvation for all of us! He will use every bit of our journey through hard things – to grow, and diagnose and transform us. I believe human beings cannot discern good, because our minds are saturated with bitterness, resentment, troubles, worries and strife … as well as the so-called pleasures of this world! Somehow all that stuff skews our thinking, and we end up focusing only on the things that we think are advantageous to US, and not on the overall benefit to everyone. 

While our minds are in defensive or offended mode – we cannot easily see whatever is going on in that other person. We’ve been emotionally and mentally distracted, and we will be clouded by our own self-interest. Maybe a nasty attitude in another person is a demonic influence. Maybe it’s a habit, or maybe they are in nine kinds of pain!! But because we are prepared for pickiness, or fight, or flight, that means we are not in a prayerful position to receive heaven’s download about the situation.

The Holy Spirit always has a contribution to make … a gift.  A word of knowledge, some insight, a word of wisdom for every scenario. If we concentrate on how we feel – our anger, loss or pain, we probably won’t see or hear His answer, or we will reject it! And that means the broader deeper blessing is missed. We sometimes trot off feeling relieved when we manage to avoid a grumpy person. But, in truth, we have only postponed change – for me, for them, for the situation. Part of being transformed means we will need to yield to His wishes, His way, even though at the time it feels like the last thing we want to do.

He says this in His word: “No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; He’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; He’ll always be there to help you come through it.” I Corinthians 10:13. Did you see the gift in that sentence?  Yeah yeah, I know you think you’ve had times when you’ve been pushed too far, but the punch line is this — Almighty God thinks you can do it! He believes in you! Here’s another gift to think on:“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” Psalm 27:14. You know, the bible says that waiting on God renews our strength. (Isaiah 40:31) 

When we start out prayerfully trying to resist any kind of temptation, we may feel weak and not capable of what we know we need to do. But waiting for Him, pulls our focus out of the normal mixmaster mindset that rattles our brain. Waiting allows us to breathe – to find our peace. This is also a gift! Suddenly all the mind-cloudiness etc. lifts and we can begin to see spiritually. When we stop rattling our brains about “this or that or some other solution” and just sit in silence, and wait for Him! The same way we might wait for a friend in a coffee shop. We will quickly find that silence is another gift.

“My soul, wait in silence for God alone, For my hope is from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, My refuge; I will not be shaken. My salvation and my glory rest on God;  The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.” Psalm 62:5-7.

This answer is a gift to us. In reality the Lord is saying to us:“this is the way walk ye in it!”He is showing us another way to get through difficulties – and that’s another gift! God daily gives us good gifts and if all we choose to see is this whizz-bang spiritual gift, or that special ability, we will miss seeing Him in our day to day ordinary life.

We need His definition of the word GIFT not ours. Prayerfully ask Him to help you to see and recognise Him, as He is active in your life. He showers us with blessings every single day! If you want to settle for a car park when you need one, then … have at it! But there is more! If what you receive is just perfect, then it is Him. Bye. 👋

P 2994 Love = great grow food!

/ DVH

“I continue to pray for your love to grow and increase beyond measure, bringing you into the rich revelation of spiritual insight in all things. This will enable you to choose the most excellent way of all —becoming pure and without offense until the unveiling of Christ.”Philippians 1:9-10 TPT.

Choosing to love the unlovely, ushers in growth.However, this will not be a happy little ‘walk in the park’ — it will cost us to learn to love the people who have hurt us, ignored us, and despitefully used us. Especially those people who did it on purpose! That’s the dying to self bit. In the flesh I may want to tell the whole world about the mean things that person did to me. I also want to vindicate myself, as well as give myself valid reasons to live this life as an emotional cripple! That’s called a side benefit BTW.  If I blame ‘you,’ or ‘them,’ then I have no responsibility to change. I can point to other people and say it is their fault I am like this. My sins, errors and missteps become sad, a result of someone else’s unkindness, not my own choices.

Adulthood will not fall on us. Hopefully sooner rather than later, we must choose to grow up and face this life from a mature point of view. Maturity is not about voting, or being able to drink alcohol, or get married. True maturity is taking responsibility for my own actions and responses to whatever has happened to me. Otherwise I am still allowing the person who hurt me to control my life. My own personal choices can take me out of that place of weakness, and place me firmly into God’s place of strength. 

This is why Paul is praying for the Thessalonians to “grow and increase beyond measure.”  Greater offences need even greater measures of love. Instead of sloughing off my responses in my situation onto whoever hurt me … now I stand up, make a choice and let Him take control of my destiny. Because now my aim is no longer just to survive—now I want to learn how to thrive within His unconditional, eternal love.

Living in love, which is the way the Jesus Himself lived, expands my capacity to take more and more of His life, and His ways, IN. If I want to be an overcomer, I must first of all learn to overcome the unnecessary things that tie my life into this world with cords of distrust, anger, bitterness and hatred. Choosing not to excuse my behaviour goes a long way toward changing it. We all know 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 well, but here’s a very different reverse, self-centred view of what Paul said: … 

“Love is not patient because you need to love me! I’m broken, and you can’t expect me to fix my own broken places. My love doesn’t have to be kind because I need people to be kind to me, and my needs are more important than yours. My kind of love is jealous, because I can’t stand for you to get more of anything than I do. At the same time, I’m needier than you! My love totally needs to boast because it makes me feel important and I need to be important, because I have good things inside me that will amaze you, if you would only co-operate with me and treat me kindly. 

Why shouldn’t I talk about you? You don’t appreciate me! When I am seen and appreciated I will be a much better person. Of course I get angry with you, you are constantly showing up my bad side, and I hate you for it. I have lists and lists of things you have done to hurt me. I need to keep those lists! They are my protection against letting you get near me in case you hurt me again. I love it when someone else is mean to you the way you have been mean to me – maybe it will teach you a lesson! 

The truth is what I think and say it is. Because I’ve been hurt, now I have lots of insight into other people’s faults. Why should I protect someone else? I don’t trust other people, they are just out for themselves. My kind of love doesn’t dare hope, it is always scared disappointment is heading my way – again. And my kind of love is too tired to persevere with anything or anyone. Nobody does that for me, why should I do that for them?”

Let’s all pray that this person never ends up in charge of anything!! … Sh-a-ll we? Amen! You know what was really scary, I wrote the above perverted version of 1 Corinthians 13 … so easily. Yikes! None of us can afford to go down that road, we’ll fall into a ditch. Here’s a huge tip to help us on our way — stop waiting for other people to love you and start actively loving them.

Real Love, the God-kind of love, helps us choose His very best way through all kinds of situations. It gives us insight into our own faults and the things that will make us stumble and fall. We simply have to ask ourselves regularly, “Is this love?” And if it is not, then we repent, go back and fix it. That’s not hard to remember! God has a way for things to be done. As we live in His love and give it away to others, we will find we know what He wants us to do. And when we are challenged by love, remember, the result of that challenge is growth. Bye 👋

P 2905 What will you leave behind for His sake?

/ DVH

Luke 18:22-30: “When Jesus heard this, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”Peter said to Him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”“Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”A kingdom life is not always meant to be easy!

We all need to take the time to carefully consider and discern what is keeping us from total surrender. Sometimes it can be people, or things, or even places. I try not to say: “I’ll never go to that place again” because IF I believed in gambling … and I don’t! — then the next trip is definitely going to be about going back to the place I just disavowed! Ages ago, I told hubby that we could not go on a plane anymore. Hah! I think I might have control issues – I’m still checking that out with the King. A-ny-wa-ay… next week we are flying off interstate, 2 hours each way. Never say never.

Father God loves to knock down man-made sandcastles. Why not? He’s God, He’s in charge of our lives. To my total astonishment – every single time, no matter what He does, it is always good! It hardly ever turns out the way I thought it would, because what He does is always better than I can think or imagine. I think this is why God allows us to be tested, He wants us to know that we know – from our own personal experience with Him – that He will always be there, helping us, guiding us, loving us. When you decide to trust Him, no matter how it looks – things may go more slowly – but in my experience, what God does, cannot be undone.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you.”  That’s from Isaiah 43, verse 2. Our faith needs to learn to watch for, and expect His input – always remembering that Almighty God doesn’t do things the way we would do them!  By the way I like that word WHEN. Trouble is not optional, actually it seems to be quite normal as you follow Jesus and want to serve Him!

Just recently our daughter and her son were told that they would have to move. I actually spent sooooo much time thinking about how we could build something for them to live in our backyard, as well as repeatedly going on line to look up cheaper rentals … and then she came to me about a month ago with this huge testimony that had nothing whatsoever to do with all my efforts.

Father God had found the two of them somewhere marvellous, and she can afford the rent. It is so close to work she could walk there if she wanted to. Guess what? I wasted all that time trying to solve a problem, that was not mine. Our daughter gave it all to the Lord the minute she heard that their old house was going to be sold, and she left the whole thing with Him for Him to solve. Someone came to her about this other house… imagine that! I am learning that we need to leave the people we dearly love in His hands. Meanwhile, when you put whatever is disturbing your peace down you have to walk away at the same time.

The body of Christ has often been fascinated with the idea that brilliant preaching, miracles, supernatural happenings and healings somehow prove that whatever they are doing must be ‘right.’ It seems we think it means we definitely have God’s approval and, bonus buy, we are proving to other people that He exists. Well I believe, first of all, that we already have God’s favour because His Son died in our place! He chose us.  Miracles are a sign and a wonder, but they are not the point – Jesus is the point! 

A life laid down for His sake, makes itself available for whatever God Himself wants, whenever He says. If He says we are to love our enemies – that means we can do it! It is easy to feel like we can’t, but maybe we are bumping into fear or pride or ‘I don’t want to!’  However, bravely stepping out into the path of whatever Goliath is challenging us, while we are trusting in God’s guidance, means we’ve put the Lord in charge of whatever we are facing. Our faith is far away from any problems, because instead we believe in His goodness and we cling to our faith in HIM like a limpet to a rock. We literally shall not be moved.  

We need to give the Lord everything – our lives, our livelihoods, our kids, our health, our self-worth, our family and stuff etc to Him, and leave it all there – because  “… I (we) know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that Day.”2 Timothy 1:12. Maybe today is a good day to ask ourselves, what will we leave behind – for His sake? May God bless you, 👋.

P 2676 Judgment makes us blind and deaf –

/ DVH

… to God and to each other! In the beginning Adam and Eve chose to do what seemed right in their own eyes. What entered into them when they ate from that tree, was the knowledge of good and evil. That meant that they left the wisdom of God behind. Sadly, this was also when humanity lost the privilege of His Presence and suspicion arrived on the scene. After that, influenced by satan, we opted for our own thinking and rationale. The miracle was Almighty God did not utterly reject all of us, because He is never caught unaware – He always had a bigger plan. Over time, human beings walked further and further away from Him. And the further away we walked, the more we left HIS wisdom, His dear Presence, behind. In that garden, living in the Spirit came naturally. Our disobedience changed that.

I think the ongoing result of this action is that we have all lost the ability to see Him, clearly. We’ve become deaf and blind toward His Ways, and we can’t see each other, either! However the clearer we can see Him, the clearer and closer we will get to each other. In our current world we have chosen to live by our own judgment and this means most of us have rejected Him. This attitude is devastating in its overall consequences. Look at it like this – broken people come to their own conclusions. Often because of our own battered sinful past, we unconsciously analyse others, then we reject, avoid or persecute them. Eventually we make those conclusions into life actions and give those actions some sort of great sounding purpose that makes sense to us!

If someone in my life was cruel to me, inside my heart I may have carefully laid some early warning signals that mean if anybody even remotely sounds or looks like that person who hurt me — I will avoid or punish them. In effect, I am passing judgment on that other person without even thinking about it. It is as if I see others through a screening system that filters out the people I consider to be my enemies. I do not look for GOOD in others, instead now I am looking for DANGER. We can end up judging our brother by a standard that came from fear and the ever-present need for revenge.

Because I am human, and my human wisdom is faulty, in order to protect myself, I can easily learn to apply judgment to oversee whatever I think. Sadly when I do that, I am allowing the people who hurt me, or caused me to be afraid, or misled me, to continue have power over me – whether they are present or not! At the same time I have been blinded to my own sinful attitudes by fear and judgment. I can no longer see others the way God sees them, because my own judgment is exalting itself over His wisdom. Over time I will use my logic, and incidental observations to prove to myself that my judgments are right, and that those other people really are dangerous to my own well-being and they should be avoided. 

Hebrews 4:12 says: “For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Only God Himself knows our intentions –only He can rightly divide them using His Word.  I think the answer to this particular interpersonal difficulty is to ask the Lord to help us see other people the way HE sees them. Otherwise we are in constant danger of living in judgment, and that judgment will cloud our view over everything else. And at the same time it neutralises our understanding of His wisdom. That other person may have no clue that the way they behave is ‘pushing your buttons.’ Their own brokenness and faulty judgment causes them to act this way without them being aware of it.

Sometimes we can attribute motivation to other people’s behaviour, but it isn’t true discernment or a clear view of their actions, it’s a fear response. And at other times people may even employ demonic strategies because they feel a lack of personal control in their lives will be catastrophic. It goes without saying that demonic strategies are not only unnecessary, they are definitely likely to lead us into all sorts of temptations! Like …  Adam and Eve … or Cain and Abel. After all the Lord warned Cain he was in danger of crossing a line. Instead, we need to remember that we have a Redeemer, Who runs to our aid. He cherishes us all and He will always impart the wisdom from above. In order to see and hear His Ways – now we must put away personal judgment, and let the word of God change us. 

1 Corinthians 2:6-9: “Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit.”  👋

P 2664 On seeking God’s will.

/ DVH

Romans 12:1-2: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

So did ya get that? Changing our minds to think like the Lord does, by reading and obeying what He says — opens the door to discern what He wants. Meanwhile it is not just about thinking differently, it is about letting that different thinking affect our actions and reactions. Presenting our bodies to Him means WE are no longer in charge of what happens. We can always pray and ask Him for a different outcome, but the way to truly worship God is to give Him our bodies … and let HIM decide! Um, do you need a cuppa tea and a biscuit to cheer you up yet? There are a whole lotta people who won’t like that previous thought.

When we live this way, at the same time, the Lord will use our circumstances to reveal our own hearts to us. We test His will out, daily by the way we are choosing to live now. If what we are doing falls on it’s head — then it wasn’t God! BUT! … If bears good fruit it was! Meanwhile if we keep getting the same bad result over and over again, then there is no doubt about it … not. dead. yet! It’s no good blaming other people, or whatever – a transformed mind doesn’t look for things to its own advantage – it looks for God to get all the glory, and it continually chases love.

James, one of my favourite authors, helps us in Chapter 1:5-8: “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, Who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.  Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”  All we need to to do, is to ask for His wisdom and believe He wants to help us through whatever is going on.

There can be times when we will mess up our ability to receive from the Lord – through our own disobedience, cemented attitudes, or insistence that we are not at fault, somebody else is!  Remember, James is talking about receiving Almighty God’s wisdom. You and I can easily short circuit receiving the very thing God wants us to have by the way we respond to it. We are no longer like the rest of the world … independently minded. We are not meant to be a people whose made-up god puts a big tick on all our ideas. We serve the ever-living, always present Almighty God – He runs this show! 

Human beings love systems. BUT, when we look at the Ways of God, He’s not like that! In the bible we can clearly see that every single situation needs a fresh revelation. For example, King David did not fight every one of his battles the same way, because God sent him out with different instructions each time. This man knew how to seek God to find out what came next. He was not interested in strategies that he could repeat at will whenever he went into battle. Sometimes the Lord gave him a strategy before the battle, and sometimes God said: ‘Go! I will be with you!” In other words although a rock killed Goliath, the next time David needed a different plan, he sought the Lord to get it.

This is why I have spent so much time writing about how to receive, hear and obey the Lord. Because there is no system that we can use to make our lives more comfortable… and still serve Him! The mandate is upon us to get to know God and His ways for ourselves. Our pastors can preach until they turn blue. If we do not follow up what the man of God says with our own prayers, and then look for ways to be obedient – all we will get is double-mindedness. That looks like a bit this: “Oh, I think what pastor said here was good but I don’t agree with this and that … I think this instead …”  

Good on you! Yay for you! But you just lined yourself up to be double-minded. Ask the Lord what He wants you to know and do, personally, from what was said. Here’s a good clue —-if whatever was said annoyed you then it’s a certainty that there is something there you need to learn, about yourself, others, and the Lord Himself!  Our personal responses are our personal diagnostic tools.  Anything less than learning more about loving Him, or how to love others – plus how to die daily, is pure advertising. Those are the sort of trimmings that make our lives look good from the outside. 

There is one attitude that will help us along our way … and that is this … we daily lay down our own right to choose our destiny and, simply follow Jesus. That’s what the disciples did, when they sought His will.. When He left them, they sat about and waited like He told them to ,,, because there was no alternative plan B! Bye 👋