Dreams

P 3343 It’s always a choice.

/ DVH

Philippians 1:27-30: “Meanwhile, live in such a way that you are a credit to the Message of Christ. Let nothing in your conduct hang on whether I come or not. Your conduct must be the same whether I show up to see things for myself or hear of it from a distance. Stand united, singular in vision, contending for people’s trust in the Message, the good news, not flinching or dodging in the slightest before the opposition. Your courage and unity will show them what they’re up against: defeat for them, victory for you—and both because of God. There’s far more to this life than trusting in Christ. There’s also suffering for Him. And the suffering is as much a gift as the trusting. You’re involved in the same kind of struggle you saw me go through, on which you are now getting an updated report in this letter.”

I want to emphasise that we need to make sure that if we are suffering, it is not because we are unaware that we are being tormented by satan in a fake hat. If the Lord is allowing something for a greater purpose, then that is different, but a lot of what Christians put up with is sheer satanic attack — and the tragedy is they think they are suffering because it is about His kingdom, or their transformation, or they are just bad Christians and God is allowing this stuff to teach them something. 

Jesus suffered and died for our sins, but torment can quite often knock on our door especially if we’ve done something that we think can’t be forgiven. But the truth is our view of what Christ did, and what He allowed others to do to Him, is too small. We’ve made our sin bigger than Calvary. Our faith in God’s bigness, His love and His generosity toward mankind needs to grow by reading what the Lord Himself has said over and over. This will help to expand our faith levels and it goes from our heads to our hearts. It is literally, “life and health to our bones…”

Here are some scriptures to stew on: “For Christ [the Messiah Himself] died for sins once for all, the Righteous for the unrighteous (the Just for the unjust, the Innocent for the guilty), that He might bring us to God. In His human body He was put to death, but He was made alive in the spirit,…” 1 Peter 3:18. AND … Romans 6:9-10: “For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him. The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.” Hebrews 2:9: “But we do see Jesus, Who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.”

Jesus suffered for us, so now we need to make sure that we are not deceived. That part is clear. But His suffering had a purpose and it was humanity’s total redemption. Sin separates us from our relationship with God Himself – He’s the Life giver! Sin renders us a pale shadow of who we can be. Because of it, we can become deaf, dumb and unable to see, receive, or accept His goodness. Meanwhile we can’t kill ourselves, we have to let others do it for us – our part is to yield. We resist the devil and yield to God. We fight what satan says, and take what the Lord says to heart and stand on it.

Sin puts us squarely into satan’s territory, a place where he rules, and please remember, he hates people! Human beings can easily be deceived and dragged away from our primary purpose, which is to present Christ to the rest of this world, by who we choose to be now, today. The power of choice is enormous! And thinking that living a neutral, quiet life will hide us from satan’s games is unrealistic. Now we all have the potential to be like Jesus, and so we need our Resident Helper’s help – He is Jesus’ gift to us in this new life!   

It was not just the Lord’s death that impacted our faith – it was also the way He lived while He was on earth! Those two things go together. Jesus has given us the same power to overcome that He had when He walked the earth with the Person of the Holy Spirit. However, you can’t have a new life without dying — you can only get a resurrected life if you are dead in the first place!  Sadly, most of the time we aren’t prepared to die to self to get it. Both things are needed — death to self and a brand new life in Christ. The power to walk in our new life comes from the choice to die. Not just a little bit dead, but all dead. Dead dead. That old life cannot walk with Jesus, it will fail so it has to go. 

Now we surrender our hopes and dreams to His purposes. After we have chosen to lay down the life that we have now, then we choose to live a life of love. We put aside what we need, and let go of all those daily things that can act as abrasions in this life. Our responses to other people, help us to diagnose the places we are still clinging to the old life. That minute by minute struggle against voluntarily choosing His way over our Way, can show us where we are not yielded to Him. Father God will not do this for us – because that would rob us of our freedom. It has to be our choice. 

Jesus Christ chose the cross – He prayed, and then He followed it through by His actions. This is the pattern WE follow. We pray and then we deliberately choose to submit to Him. At Calvary the Lord submitted to every dastardly plot of the enemy – the stuff that was sent to destroy Him. But He chose to stay in Grace toward others. He is our example. It’s always a choice.  However, let’s remember: “God (Himself) is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Our Helper lives to help us. Psalm 46:1 Bye. 👋

P 3263 God’s Will is challenging.

/ DVH

Jeremiah 1:7-10 “God told me, “Don’t say, ‘I’m only a boy.’ I’ll tell you where to go and you’ll go there. I’ll tell you what to say and you’ll say it. Don’t be afraid of a soul. I’ll be right there, looking after you.” God’s Decree. God reached out, touched my mouth, and said, “Look! I’ve just put My words in your mouth—hand-delivered! See what I’ve done? I’ve given you a job to do among nations and governments—a red-letter day! Your job is to pull up and tear down, take apart and demolish, And then start over, building and planting.”

Did you notice that right after the Lord tells Jeremiah, He will be with Him, the Lord tells the man what He wants him to do? Guidance from the Lord is our birthright, but it won’t always be a picnic in the park. It is almost certain to be guaranteed to look bigger than we are!  In Psalms 37:23&24 it says. “The steps of good men are directed by the Lord. He delights in each step they take. If they fall, it isn’t fatal, for the Lord holds them with His hand.” Don’t you just love that? We can’t even fall over when we are His, because He promised to lift us up with His own hands!

Let’s look at a New Testament truth, one of the last things Jesus said to His disciples: “He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Mark 16:15&16.This task was far bigger than they were! Until the Holy Spirit came, they men hid away from this world, because they had lost their Teacher. But if the Lord always asked us to do things we can do, where would faith come in? We wouldn’t need it. Sometimes the first thing the Holy Spirit teaches us is that we can’t do anything without Him! No matter how clever we are – we don’t always know how to get out of our own way. 

Our daily struggle isn’t about whether we should rob a bank or shoot someone, it is about an individual’s right to have a ‘say’ over their own lives. But the mutinous thoughts tip our hearts away from God. For example, most people I speak to, haven’t got a clue how their behaviour affects other people — they are too self-involved. That’s not smart, BTW, it’s DUMB. Sadly, because of this, there are times it appears as if these people don’t care. We need to remember that other people don’t have our comprehension or our yardsticks. They have their own. If we remain humble maybe we can learn from them. Submitting to God has such a positive side to it. 

Jesus has faith for us to be bigger than our unknown limitations. He said in Matthew 5:14: “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.” A Christian’s life is built on a hill! Our lives have been built by God on Calvary’s HILL!  We cannot be hidden unless we choose to be hidden. The first active step into God’s guidance in our lives is this: “…choose this day Who you will serve.” There is no point in going anywhere or doing anything, until we’ve made that choice. Otherwise we can be taken out by the enemy because we are still standing on his ground. We must choose — are we all in — or not? That’s what dying to self looks like.

The bible encourages us to follow Jesus step-by-step into a daily process, a series of moment by moment choices. Our part is to continually choose life. His life in us. So we pick up all those other things, ambitions, dreams, hopes etc. and go to the cross and leave everything there. What stays uppermost in our minds, heart, and spirit is this; now I live for Jesus’ sake, and for Him to live in me, I have to be dead! See Galatians 2:20:

“What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with Him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.”

My point today is this, because of what Jesus did for us, we are ALL sent ones. Whether we have an official title or not. Jeremiah, God’s handpicked prophet, struggled with it, and it has often made me think. We can try so hard to get out of what the Lord wanted us to do, and not like where He wants to send us. We ask ourselves, is that fair? No! Not by this world’s standards! But God doesn’t operate by this world’s standards – He has His own. And they are good, righteous, and give glory to the only One Who can bear it. We are called to be a light, and He trusts us to get on with it. He has so much faith in His kids!

These holy things that form His Character in us will not to be obtained by searching or pleading.  Because Jesus took care of everything. Father God isn’t begging people to follow His Ways — He’s a good, good Father, Who knows the Way we should go. And that’s where our trust needs to rest. Let’s choose to remember that, when we live a life dead to self, we are entering into living by His Grace. We will never be alone in our quest to follow Jesus, because we have the Holy Spirit, our Helper Who also has our good in His heart. Plus we have His book to refer to. Every time we say ‘yes’ to His way instead of our own, we are letting the Spirit of God loose in other people’s lives.

God’s will is meant to challenge us. It’s supposed too! It’s the reason we take our little lives, and invest them in His Kingdom, so we can beam His light into the darkness. Bye. 

P 3252 Letting Go – lets Him IN!

/ DVH

“As for us, we have all of these great witnesses who encircle us like clouds. So we must let go of every wound that has pierced us and the sin we so easily fall into. Then we will be able to run life’s marathon race with passion and determination, for the path has been already marked out before us.” Hebrews 12:1 TPT.

We have a path God has prepared for us to run on. We are not running along aimlessly, bumping into things, we have been chosen to run in the same race our Saviour ran in. Imagine that! A race that will glorify our Heavenly Father! We simply can’t afford to hold onto old wounds, or other people’s sins against us. Instead, let’s ask the Lord for healing, extend forgiveness, and then make a quality decision not to go over these things again … and move on. When you get angry with someone, put the energy produced into something else! I don’t recommend punching out their lights BTW.

Our enemy tries to trick us that if we let go of stuff, we will not get any resolution – those people who hurt us will get away with it. That’s a lie from the pit.  Jesus Himself brings resolution and redemption everywhere He goes! Let Him in, He is a Redeemer, Healer, Comforter, Trusted Advisor. This type of thinking simply brings death with it – it is sent to torment us. It is like running around with one foot nailed to the floor. We go nowhere. These things tie us into the here and now – and we forget our purpose! 

We can’t afford to live like that –  holding onto grudges, or perceived slights from others, or continually probing old wounds to see if they have healed or not. Those things prevent us from running the race God has set before us. Our enemy uses other people’s actions to throw dirt and dust into the air, clouding our God-given ability to see spiritually. These things tie us into somebody else’s agenda. Forgiveness is mandatory, not an optional extra, no matter who did what to whom. My advice is to keep on asking for Grace, Grace and more Grace, daily. 

“Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God has forgiven you because you belong to Christ.”  Ephesians 4:32. What does that mean? It means that every time somebody hurts us the first thing we need to remember is the fact that we’ve already been forgiven for our own sins. Letting go of grudges —  the past, other people’s unwillingness or inability to change — frees us for better God-inspired things! We simply can’t afford to give our eternal blessings away. It’s too dear!! What we lose is clarity of heart and mind.

The way to be fearless in the face of other people’s sins, is to ask for His help and then act in faith. “Do good to those who despitefully use you…” Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27&28. Praying for these people is essential. And our  obedience is the key that opens up the kingdom, it will usher in the change we want to see.. “If you are willing AND obedient …” it says this in Isaiah 1:19a. It is not enough to just be willing, willingness needs to be followed through with action – obedience. 

Let’s stop merely agreeing with what the bible says, and go out and live this way, every single day. We can’t “afford” to stay angry with other people. We don’t have to go and live at their house! Pray and do what God says to do. Forgiveness ushers in real peace. If we haven’t got some personal instructions from the Holy Spirit — a directive on how to manage things. Then we need to read the book, and find something in it to do, that we are not already doing, and do that. Those biblical things are the principles of His kingdom. We always have plenty of those.

It is incredibly important to let go of the weights that have been holding us down. We sing these things … we say them, we read them and we even memorise them — but we need to do more than that. It is time to remember that the life we had before we met Jesus is over. Our previous dreams are over. There are better things than that ahead! He gave His life to us, and now we choose to give our lives to Him. We can’t tell Him how to operate His kingdom – He is the King! The more we let go of our own agendas, timetables, lifestyles, the more His kingdom will manifest itself among us. 

Our God is incredibly gracious to us, He lets us learn. But for some of us, even learning has become a side eddy. A place we’ve been caught up in. It stops us from going out and doing what He asked us to do. The best kind of learning finishes with practical application. Personal life changing experiences. By all means study the bible, every single day, but study it to find things you can do. The things that stir your heart are likely to be the things that stir His. 

We can read stuff like, ‘forgive one another’ but then we forget to do our “safety checks.” That’s like a sound check for believers … Let’s not put a big tick on any scripture thinking that we already know this stuff, and He died for it, so we’ve already passed. He paid for us, so we have already passed. However, now we need to ask the Holy Spirit: ‘do I have any little foxes in my life spoiling the vine?’  That verse above in Hebrews 12:1 sees sin and wounds as weights. Are we trying to run a marathon with a whole lot of weights all over us? 

We have to let go of our wounds, even though they are deep, and they still hurt. We are not releasing things because these things don’t matter – those wounds, those sins, cost Jesus His life. They matter! Let the Lord take care of them. Forgiveness is not giving in – IT’S A BATTLE-PLAN! Think about it. Let’s release everything that distracts us and let Him help us win. Bye. 👋

P 3222 Consider …

/ DVH

Over the years God has taught me that focussing on what I don’t have —or what I can’t do, or even who I am not— isn’t helpful. We can be tricked into thinking that we have good reasons for believing bad things, including the times when life came and sat on us and we were too tired to get up. In those moments it is imperative that we keep our eyes fixed on Him. Not just because He can change our situations, but because as we choose to focus on Him, we are lifting our eyes out of the immediate, into the eternal. 

Maybe one of your kids seems to have gone off the rails;  or your marriage isn’t all you would like it to be;  or you live your life alone. Or perhaps your job makes you dread getting out of bed every single morning. If we concentrate on our problems, that can make them seem bigger than everything else, and the difficulties can quickly become the centre of our focus. Particularly if whatever it is, is not resolved right away. The Lord told us to ‘Come to Him’ …because He wants us to live in His rest, and peace is part of our birthright.

When life turns into a dystopian fair ground ride, and it whirls and lurches from one bad thing to another – my personal answer goes like this. Go outside and look around you, or go and watch the ocean. Just SIT. Leave your worry beads behind, and let this world and its beauty minister to your heart. All that other junk will probably still be there, after you give yourself a time out, but doing that will help you see things differently. After a while I begin to notice everything else is still going on. The world is still turning, the bees are doing their thing, the ants theirs. This world hasn’t stopped just because something has stopped me in my tracks. Acceptance is a gift available to anyone – it just takes practice.

Father God and the Lord Jesus Himself said this many times in different ways: ‘consider the lilies…consider the great things the Lord has done for you … consider what He says … consider how short this life is … consider the generations that have gone before you.’ Father God spoke to Abraham and asked this man to consider the stars, because Abraham’s view was too small. Almighty God needed a man who would look beyond his own lifetime and believe in His goodness even in the future. Abraham became that man … God taught him, experientially, that His plans are perfect.

This kind of expanded viewpoint is our birthright. At Pentecost this kind of vision was planted in the heart of the disciples by the Holy Spirit Himself. Their expanded view of God’s plans drove those men out into the streets … and beyond. Yet, here and now, we seem to be living our lives looking down all the time, concentrating on our own little patch of this life. We must stop, and consider the world around us. Particularly in times of trouble. And then we need to look up. You and I are part of a greater thing than any religion – we are part of His heart and He is ALL of ours. 

The kingdom of God is the main thing. And if we allow ourselves to be distracted and dejected by the stuff that comes at us daily, we will lose our vision. We are not here to build our own little kingdoms, complete with house, car, happy kids and extended families. That’s called advertising. It’s a dream manufacturers sell us so we will spend our money… so they can have even bigger houses, fabulous holidays, cars and boats and fulfil their own dreams! They are selling us empty, useless dreams prompted by greed. I urge everyone reading this to step out of that filthy hedonistic self-absorbed stream, and head straight for the river of God and jump in.

There is peace, joy, love, and … yes …answers, solutions, resolution in His purposes. Consider what Jesus said in John 10:10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Our God loves us, He does not want us to live unhappy lives, or miserable existences, He knows that true joy in this life is IN JESUS … not people, situations or things. Somewhere, somehow, somebody(!?) looked at verses like this one and saw what the Lord said as gaining “ things“. It is not about things, it is about a new way to live. There is a different kind of life to be lived where Jesus is everything and this world is just the scenery.

Our abundant life begins when we stop considering this world from our POV, and start looking at it from HIS. Jesus had no material possessions, they divided up the few clothes He had at the foot of the cross. But Paul said this about our faith, and how it is designed to function: “Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2. 

Jesus looked through His cross and saw you and I, and billions like us, perishing in our sin. We were all going to hell because of the way we were living. But He said: ‘Not on My watch you aren’t,’ and headed straight for the cross. Stop. Think about it. You and I are that JOY that was before Him. Imagine that! The Co-Creator of this world has that much love for us. This life is a blink, it’s nothing. It comes and goes in the daily drudgery of making it work. But we can live in His Kingdom, right here, right now. Consider that. Bye. 👋

P 3217 This book is alive!

/ DVH

“God has transmitted His very substance into every Scripture, for it is God-breathed. It will empower you by its instruction and correction, giving you the strength to take the right direction and lead you deeper into the path of godliness. Then you will be God’s servant, fully mature and perfectly prepared to fulfil any assignment God gives you.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit  and life.” John 6:63. ‘For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12.

Today’s blog is about the sort of expectation we can fall into, because we mistakenly believe God has to fit in with our agendas. Over the years my hubby has found that he can often interpret the meaning in other people’s dreams etc., it goes with his name. He explained to me yesterday, that people can sometimes have an attitude that the Lord is obligated to answer them. 

So here’s a slightly exaggerated illustration: “God has talked to me about this problem 10 times, in my dreams. And a stranger gave me some confirming verses. What do you think I should do?” Hubby cracked me up with this answer: “Ten times?!!! Go right now, this very minute, and do what He said! What do you want, an angel with a trumpet?!”  How many signposts do we need??

How many times does the Lord have to speak to us before we obey Him? I know that there is a kind of paralysing fear about stepping out into faith – it’s normal. We are scared of being wrong, and so the enemy attacks us. We think things like: ’But what if I do what the Lord says, and nothing happens, or, even worse … something BAD happens.’ That’s easily fixed! You say: ‘I’m so sorry Lord. Please forgive me for messing up. Would You help me with it? I got it wrong. Please will You redeem it?’ 

Then you repent to anyone else involved, and repair any relationships wherever it is necessary. Humility never killed anyone – it’s good for us! When you are done repenting to Him and others, and repairing relationships, then you give Him whatever it is, and leave the rest to Him. Go home, lie down, have a big cry and then blow your nose… then get up and get on with your life. 

People say: “If only I could just get a word from the Lord for my situation …” Let’s think about this, the New International Version contains approximately 728,000 words, the Amplified has 820,980 words. Choose any bible you like and go for it. Our God is so incredible His life inhabits every single word. It is not like reading Charles Dickens! Father God doesn’t do background, or character depictions, or scene descriptions – every single solitary word in His book has power in it.

And those words don’t have to be big incomprehensible words either. The Holy Spirit has taught me so much through just one little word “let.” Three letters that changed my life. “Let this mind be in you …” “Let us make every attempt to enter that rest …” “Let us love one another…” “Let us throw off everything that hinders us …” ‘Let us not become weary in doing good …”  You get it… … Trust me ‘let’ is a very BIG little word.

I’ve learnt many times that the Lord wasn’t doing some things, because I wasn’t giving Him permission to do it in whatever way suited Him! He had something for me to learn, and sometimes He had an even greater blessing if I just followed Him in faith. Here’s another made-up illustration: Let’s say I wanted a new car, but I found out through prayer and reading the word, that He wanted me to give my old car away first. So my prayer asking for help with a new car could remain unanswered, because I have an agenda. I am not yielding to Him, and praying for His Will His Way. 

We can’t be in charge of what we think we need, like we can give a chemist a prescription. But, spiritually speaking, we must choose to put God in charge of our needs – that way He gets all the glory! We live on His timetable, not our own. If you didn’t decide to die to self when you were baptised, or nobody told you that was what baptism is all about — then make a quality decision to do it now!  And ask for His help to live this way. You know, some of the Apostles made a living to support themselves, but they did not have two careers – they simply served God first, whatever they did. Putting the Lord first is a sensible response to His generosity toward us. And if things remain unclear, then ask for wisdom, and keep right on reading the bible. 

Please, don’t get stuck on ‘what hasn’t happened,’  move on to ‘what do you want me to do now, Lord?’ Some things happen as we are going along in the way the Lord leads us. “He(Abraham’s servant) said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not denied His lovingkindness and His truth to my master. As for me, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brothers.” Genesis 24:27. This servant had no idea how to go about what His master Abraham told him to do. But God met him as he stepped out and tried to do what he was told. He was simply obedient.

“In the beginning the Living Expression was already there. And the Living Expression was with God, yet fully God. They were together—face-to-face, in the very beginning.” John 1:1. Jesus is God’s living expression of His Word, that’s how powerful God’s Word is. His book is alive. Bye. 👋

I have discovered this sweet little series by REAVO. This one seemed appropriate for today. (Two minutes 39 seconds)

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 2804 Thoughts from a Grannie.

/ DVH

Jesus is speaking to His disciples in John 14:15-17:“If you love Me, you will obey My commandments Then I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth, Whom the world cannot accept,because it does not see Him or know Him. But you know Him, because He resides with you and will be IN you.”

Christians all have a live-in … Counsellor; Comforter; Baptiser; Advocate; Strengthener; Sanctifier; Spirit of Christ; Spirit of Truth; Spirit of Grace; Spirit of Mercy; Spirit of God; Spirit of Holiness; Spirit of Life. And just because we cannot always hear or see Him at work, that does not mean He is not with us! He is FAR bigger than our measuring sticks, but unfortunately, He sometimes falls off our radar because … HE IS NOT LOUD.

This world we live in today likes to loudly feature what we can see, feel, touch, taste, and experience – it quite gladly shows us demons … … but refuses to acknowledge Almighty God! When SomeBody or something does not line up with our instantly focussed, darkly-imagined world, those people fall under suspicion and doubt – they are accused of trying to steal someone else’s fun away. They are restricting someone else’s freedom to express themselves. I think that’s when and why, we end up labelling things … without consulting the Creator’s greater knowledge. 

The reason Christians choose to get to know the Lord every single day, is because the Holy Spirit reveals the truth of the Word of God to us as we read it. He reminds us, over and over again, that Father God loves us dearly – He teaches us, step by step, that we are part of something far greater. At the same time, He is also praying for each and every human being, every second of every minute of our lives. I have learnt that the kingdom He comes from is so much bigger than the world I inhabit – so I have learnt to refuse to be limited by the things I don’t yet understand! I will be prayerfully careful with those things, but I refuse to be limited, because I have a limitless Father!

When I only look at my own limitations, or the limitations of the people around me, and I choose to be guided by them, I cease to grow. That’s when I have put ‘fitting into the status quo’ above ‘growth.’ Loads of people do that. Life kicked them in the teeth when they have tried to stretch, or extend the edges of their thoughts and now they are looking for safety more than adventure. Here’s what I have observed … safety becomes a BOX that limits my God-given possibilities. 

Jesus told us to be like little children, and healthy little children are curious. They start out in this life asking: “Why? Wat dat? How?” But instead of fostering that curiosity, human beings made a great big container and they named it school and instruction – and now we plonk these precious bundles of natural curiosity into it, hoping against hope that “school” will teach them… something – anything .. that means they can make a living some day. We are not trying to make decent human beings – just societally functioning ones.

Unfortunately, school rarely teaches most children how to think, instead they teach them how to learn. That channels most people’s thinking processes into established streams. It takes a very brave inquisitive child to push against these established schools of thought. Many children who refuse, for one reason or another, to be ‘streamed’ are labelled today with man-made diagnoses, that limit their ability even further to become who they are to God. If we want to go higher than the status quo – our aim should to be lift them higher than we’ve already come.

Sadly with these non-conformist kids we say: “something is wrong with that kid, so we will give it a great big name that means this kid is a dud who won’t do what it is told, or is too dumb to learn.” We limit them with our fear and labels. Oh, we do it nicely, because we’ve learnt to practice our PC, so we pat the kid on the head and say: “Poor baby, this one was born broken.” And then we use them as a statistic to prove our ideas are right.

Maybe in our societies today, the dollar has become more important than our kids, So instead of teaching them how to explore our world safely, we stick a lid on them and tell them this is all there is, that only a few people can grow up to be special. You can make great clones that way. However … God made us all individuals for a purpose. We each have a role to play in His plans for this world – and it won’t necessarily just be on the sporting field, stage or TV! 

What we call education, steals away His purpose, under the guise of things we must know to survive. It has stolen away faith from many, and labelled it ‘a minor need in some individuals who are already weak.’ It does not see faith as something that opens doors, it sees it as an enemy. It is our job, as parents, and grandparents, aunties, and uncles etc. to foster our children’s interest in this bigger world of faith. That bigger world is HIS world. And you can give your children a far better start in this life if you teach them how to really SEE – spiritually. Don’t expect our schools to do it, it’s our job to teach them about that bigger world, which is far realer than this one. 

Instead of just teaching them to digest facts and information that can be proved or disproved – let’s teach them about His kingdom. Let’s tell them what that looks like. Help your kids to see that words on a page in His book, can expand into dreams, visions, and a greater reality that will bless everyone, not just themselves. And that’s this Grannie signing off for today! Bye. 👋

P 2800 Cultivate walking with the Holy Spirit.

/ DVH

Matthew 17:1-3: “After six days Jesus took with Him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.”

I was reading these verses this morning and it occurred to me that these verses about the Lord’s transfiguration show, without a doubt — that absolute purity, honour, truthfulness and glory CAN LIVE in this world and NOT SIN.  I think Christ always looked like that, but His glory was hidden from everyone around Him. Those 3 men saw Him that day, as He really was! Meanwhile all that purity, honour, truthfulness and glory etc. was nailed unjustly to a cross! If Christ hadn’t yielded to them, those Roman soldiers could not have touched Him!  “…He gave His back to the smiters …” Absolute purity became sin on that cross. Ya might like to think on that lot for a while. I did! 

For me this scene reinforces, the importance of us walking with the Holy Spirit!  It also made me think, we could easily be walking around with angels, unaware of who they are … because they’ve left their hat, glowing clothes and halos at home, and now they look just like us! We don’t know what we can’t see! These three disciples were exposed to a huge revelation in those moments, and they didn’t quite know what to do with it!  There is a fascinating reaction to the visual revelation in front of them. One of them, who shall remain nameless, but his name begins with P … starts making dumb remarks. Then they all fall on their faces when Almighty God literally says from heaven: “Just listen to My Son, please!”

I mean, after that event nobody even dares to talk about it  or ask questions – yet they had had holy huddles before speculating on what stuff meant! However, Jesus instructed them not to talk about what they’ve just seen with other people, and they didn’t. Imagine not saying anything about something like that! These men were in ushered into the Presence of God in all His glory! They saw Christ’s purity on this earth, unveiled. WOW!! 

My first question when I read this is, why were the disciples even present? What was the Lord Jesus looking to teach them? What did it mean? Isaiah the prophet once ended up in the throne room and his first response was that he had a revelation of his own sin. Why didn’t these three men react like Isaiah? They only fell on their faces when God Himself spoke from heaven! Ya might want to think on that!! Meanwhile, it is practically a hallmark of their relationship with the Lord, that His disciples asked questions all the time. But instead of talking about how their Master looked, they start talking about Elijah.

At the bottom of that mountain these three men are back doing what they’ve done before, casting out demons etc. — or trying to! And … they failed. Even after what they had just seen — they failed. It seems that Jesus was a bit ticked off with their faith failure. I think that this incredible, spectacular revelation of Who Christ really IS, didn’t actually help their faith. The Living breathing Word of God was standing there right in front of them, but they didn’t understand what they saw!

Does that ring any bells with anyone? Do you ever read His book and not get it?  Moo-ving on … those same disciples thought after the Jesus’ crucifixion, that that was it, game over! Whatever they had seen and experienced, thus far, did not give them enough faith, or power, to continue. Jesus eventually scared the daylights out of these grown men by walking through a wall, but they still didn’t get the magnitude of the story they were in. They had heard what He had said previously, but it was not digested. I think, they did all the things they did, in those 3 years together, in the power of HIS Name. There’s power in HIS Name! But their faith was extremely challenged by those events that happened when He died. 

Jesus knew this would happen and I think that’s why He told them … when He finally left them to go back to His Father … to WAIT for the Comforter, the Helper, the Advocate, the One Who comes alongside. Every single person present in that room needed the Holy Spirit  — and SO DO WE!  Seeing miracles is not enough to grow the kind of faith that changes the world. We all need to learn to walk with the Holy Spirit. We need to encounter Him. Not presumptuously marching ahead of Him, telling Him what to do, but in step and in tune with His Ways – we need to let Him guide us, teach us, correct us, comfort us and lead us into new places in God.

BTW, if any of you out there in blog land have ever wondered why those 3 disciples ended up on that mountain with Jesus, Moses and Elijah …I believe this is why … Jesus told them they would. Matthew.16:28: “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”They were privileged to see Jesus the way we will all see Him one day. And on that day …we will be changed by His glory, forever.

These men walked for 3 1/2 years with Jesus and participated in all sorts of miracles, yet they still needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit and POWER after He died, and was resurrected. God knows we can’t do this life on our own, so cultivating our walk with the Holy Spirit needs to be our first priority. This is not about feelings, dreams or visions, or weeping at the altar  … meanwhile we all need to cry our eyes out for our hard-hearts, sins and disobedience.

What will help us grow, and step into our inheritance, is our daily obedience to His Word, enlivened and kissed by His Grace – going IN and OUT like the tide. As we live like this, Holy Spirit will show us the way we should go! Amen. Bye👋

P 2586 Stars and grains.

/ DVH

Genesis 15:4-6 “Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.”

Genesis 22:17: ”I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,…”

If I were to give this blog an alternative title I would call it — “Dust off your prayers, hopes and dreams … and start thanking Me.” 

We have all been through some incredibly hard times spiritually speaking, and not just recently — some of us have been stuck in hardship for a prolonged period of time. The Lord spoke the above word to me last Sunday, and I’m sitting here at 2.30 AM today, typing this because He told me to do it. You may be on the other side of the world to where I live, it makes no difference. The above verses from Genesis show us that God always has plans bigger than we can imagine. We all know, from experience, that His ways are past finding out – but we will see Him working with our own eyes – start looking.

When we pray, we often think about a truckload of blessings, but in these passages from Genesis the Lord shows us a SKY full of them. Abraham had his mind blown twice, and I sincerely believe we are about to see the Lord do what seems to be the impossible, again. Our part is to watch and give thanks, knowing only HE can do these things – we can’t.

There are relationships and the enmities between people that seem hopeless and broken, and I believe that they will start to turn and mend. Thank Him for every single one you hear about, whether it is at your house or somewhere else. The financial situations that seem doomed to worsen will see a trickle of help turn into a stream … People are going to listen and be touched by Him when you share His love and tell them about the Jesus you know, personally and intimately.

I want to be clear, I am not talking about some huge explosive revival, I am talking about a groundswell that starts small and builds over time. Breakthroughs are upon us, and our job is to thank Him for every single little tiny change and keep on thanking Him. Our God loves a grateful people so we need to be alert and thank Him, for everything no matter how small it seems. We need to thank Him for Who He is and what He is doing.  We need to stay alert and pray we will be awake and aware to see every little detail coming to pass.He’s looking for a groundswell of thanksgiving … even for the tiniest things, that seem almost insignificant.

Now, more than ever, we are to be grateful to be one of those tiny little grains of sand – one of those billions of unnamed stars. These are the days of the nobodies and God has been waiting for you and I to step up to the plate. We don’t have to be perfect, or gifted, JUST WILLING. The big rock stars of baseball or cricket have come and gone, and it’s just us now, the tail end … the guys who are lucky if they can see the ball, let alone hit it! 

We may well be a people with not a lot of talent, but we know that Jesus is so big, He can break 5 loaves and 2 fishes and feed thousands. He can multiply anything. He has been breaking our lives and our hearts so He can begin this multiplication process. Give the mess that is in your little life to Him and start thanking Him for every detail that changes, no matter how small.

God spoke to Abraham and He told him that WE, you and I, are the answer to his prayers for a child. And no I have not lost my tiny mind! He told that man that His descendants would be like the stars in the sky …and Abraham did something amazing, he believed God. Something spiritually is turning that will not turn back again and we need to be alert and thank Him for everything He is doing. Every bit of hopeful news, every smile from someone who has forgotten how to smile. Every teeny tiny prayer that seemed to fall to the ground dead, is going to be resurrected. Watch and see what He will do with your little life.

Jesus broke bread the night before He was betrayed and gave thanks. We are that bread and He has been breaking us. As a result now we know that we cannot do anything without Him, and we’ve learnt, from experience, that we don’t want to, either. Now we can watch as He takes the broken crumbs of our lives and feeds the people around us. Just keep thanking Him for every single detail you see that changes. No matter how small –  we are going to start looking for the good. Stars that are without number … fill the sky. Grains of sand that cannot be counted make up the seashore. 

We are the nameless, faceless ones, who only care that people remember HIS NAME, not ours. Bless you. 🙌 👋

P 2568 The day between.

/ DVH

At 4.30am this morning the Lord woke me up with these words. THE TOMB. And then He said this: There is a space between the cross and the resurrection – it is called the tomb. That tomb is the place between something that has happened to you, that will test your faith … and the ANSWER. The tomb is a place of HEAVENLY SILENCE.” Saturday is the day of helplessness, hopelessness, and all seems lost!

There is no hope in that place. Hope has died. There is no faith there either. Inside the tomb, there is nothing alive at all. Decay happens in the tomb. To get out we must be resurrected!! It is the place where the pain of betrayal washes over us. Can it be the King of all Glory has betrayed our faith? At the same time, all seems lost for everybody on the outside too, while the person inside it is locked in – gone. Hopelessly grieved over. The worst bit is you are not actually dead – you just wish you were! Life is standing still for you – you are held hostage to something you cannot control.

Remember Mary and Martha? Lazarus was three days dead. They told Jesus when He finally came – ‘you can’t get him out of there, he will smell!’  Everybody knows that dead is dead. But not to Jesus – dead is not dead to Him. Dead is merely a possibility for God, His heavenly Father to be glorified. Dead is the place where we will learn to let everything go, and rest. Nothing else is important when we enter the tomb of waiting, and that huge stone closes the gap behind us. Arguments, money, pettiness, dreams, visions, prophecies, all disappear. The question becomes – is there going to be a resurrection? It is a place where new things will open to you – if you will stay dead until He comes to you.

Lastly, there is no light in the tomb. It is not like the pretty pictures streaming with light we see on Easter Sunday. It is deathly dark and quiet. Nobody can babysit you in there – they can’t reach you anymore! You pray and your prayers seem to disappear in front of your eyes. You’ve asked others to pray and … nothing happened. Easter SATURDAY is a reality in a real faith test. It is a place where the things we thought mattered, are gone. New homes, new cars, new jobs, vanish in the reality of the tomb – the place where there is no time, because time squashes the life out of you.

That tomb is the place of ultimate surrender! Job knew it. “Even though He slay me yet will I trust Him.” Lazarus even died waiting for Jesus to come! Paul learnt it as he walked with the Lord. There is no life without Christ. Everything else we grasp at is just an illusion. A child’s story told to calm and soothe us. The tomb is the ultimate NO! The place where prayers and passion seem wasted. Let me tell you this: FOR HIS LIFE TO COME, THERE HAS TO BE A REAL TOMB – A REAL DEATH. Not a ‘nearly dead’ but all dead. Like it was for Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

This is the place where we will learn to let go… even though we are secretly hoping He’s going to do something! And even if it seems like Jesus lied … we decide to trust Him with our last ounce of strength. It is a place where HE MATTERS MORE THAN THE ANSWER. That place is where whether prayers are answered or not, it no longer matters. What we think matters is just so much dust on the floor in comparison to losing Him.

It is a yielded, surrendered and still place. Jesus Himself found that place in the garden of Gethsemane after praying in agony three times. He found peace in the place of acceptance. “Then He *came to the disciples and *said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let’s go; behold, the one who is betraying Me is near!”Matthew 26:45-46. Please note, everyone else in His support team fell asleep – people will let you down when you are stuck in the tomb.

That tomb becomes the place where you no longer care if your answer is yes or no … all that matters is finding Him. And you die to self waiting for Him to come. That place between Friday and Sunday is temporary – whether the answer is yes or no – He will come. Even though the tomb is fastened tightly shut … …Jesus will always come for you.  No stone can hold you in! He died to prove it. 👋