Dry bones

P 3122 God sees.

/ DVH

In some places in the bible (Ezekiel and Revelation) all sorts of creatures are mentioned. They have eyes everywhere, in places we don’t even like to think about. To me this is a picture of the incredible depth of sight our Heavenly Father has – He sees ALL! Those creatures’ eyes mentioned in those books reflect Hebrews 4:13: “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” Our Heavenly Father knows what is happening in your life right now, how hard it is for you.

Nothing is ever hidden from Him. And as we walk through this life toward complete wholeness and holiness in Christ – that thought should not make us afraid – it should turn our hearts to the Saviour. We need to remember what Colossians 3:3 says:“For [as far as this world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God.” We don’t have to hide anything from Him when we choose to live our lives for Him. Let’s continually allow the Holy Spirit, to guide, correct and teach us His Ways, and continue to remain hidden by what Christ did for us. Because of what He has already done, we know that we can trust Him and His Word. 

This is why an intimate relationship with our Father is important. If we only give God importance in our lives according to our immediate needs, then we could eventually fall away. Because sooner or later our prayers will appear to be unanswered! Instead, let’s bow to the superior knowledge and sight, of the Great I AM. That knowledge is revealed in the bible. Our God sees everything, and He is a mighty JUST God – WHO LOVES US. If we sin, He already has an Advocate praying and pleading for us at His right hand. His own dear Son. Jesus is utterly trustworthy. He never held anything back from His Father in His entire earthly life, and He poured His life out for each one of us!

God’s measuring tools are not the same as ours. We cannot afford to use our own measuring stick, because we can end up deceiving ourselves with excuses … and blame. That’s why Christ came – to provide us with a Saviour Who has personal experience of His Father’s love. He showed us what obedience and humility looks like …and He had perfect confidence in His Father’s Word. On top of all that, He also had understanding about the pressures of this world! The Holy Spirit will reveal what is in our hearts to us, if we let Him. He knows everything. He gave us these scriptures and then lived them out in front of our eyes.

This why our bible reading needs to become more than just a cursory reading. We already know that it can become a diagnostic tool, and reveal to us our own hidden attitudes and actions. It also shows us the works He prepared for us to do, before we ever arrived here. Human beings like to fool themselves. We hide things, even from ourselves, because we don’t like to be wrong …instead we can end up blaming others.

Exhibit A … Genesis 3:12. Adam blamed GOD HIMSELF. “… the woman YOU gave me … ” Hiding ourselves from Him is foolish, and we are only fooling ourselves. We are like little children, who love to play hide and seek, they have no comprehension that the person who is seeking — is not really gone! God knows and sees exactly where we are and what is really going on.

In Ezekiel there is another example of what God knows and what man doesn’t. Most of us know this story so I will just give a brief overview today. The Holy Spirit whisked Ezekiel away in the spirit, to a valley filled with skeletons – dry bones. And then He talks to Ezekiel about them. These people are totally DEAD. The scene is a powerful picture of what life without Almighty God, and Jesus Himself looks like. Important people come and go in this life – famous ones, clever ones, but, in the end – we will all end up dry bones. But, because God sees and knows all, it doesn’t have to stop there!

The Spirit reveals to Ezekiel that valley of utter, permanent destruction, seemingly permanent oblivion. But God can see potential even in dry bones. He can raise up an army from a valley that has only known death for years!  Ezekiel 37:9.“Then Yahweh said to me, Prophesy to the breath. Yes, prophesy, son of man. Say to the breath, ‘Lord Yahweh says: Divine breath, come now from the four winds. Breathe on these lifeless bodies, so that they can live again.’The Holy Spirit asks Ezekiel a hard question in this chapter: “Can these bones live?” Verse 3. Ezekiel is no dummy — He gives a GREAT answer, filled with humility and hope! “…only YOU know Lord…” Then the Mighty Spirit of God commands the prophet to prophesy and command life to come back to those bones again!

I want to encourage everyone who has loved ones who-don’t-know-Jesus-yet — or loved ones who have wandered away — to be like Ezekiel — speak His life to the dry bones. God has given us the power to shift things that appear to be fixed. Sometimes situations like these, loom over us like huge mountains in our lives. But Jesus once said: ‘Speak to the mountain and tell it to move.’  The Lord once told the sea to be still! Prophesy to the Divine breath – the Holy Spirit. Let’s start praying for our friends and families: “Holy Spirit come. Breathe on these empty, lifeless bodies so that they know true life as His children, and become part of His army.”

God sees and knows what is happening around you. Sometimes instead of lying down under circumstances, we need to stand up and prophesy what God says: “And consider the example that Jesus, the Anointed One, has set before us. Let His mindset become your motivation.” Philippians 2:5 TPT. Amen. Bye 😘💨💨💨

P 3077 God has a different value system

/ DVH

Life is a funny thing — day after day we can try so hard to appear to be so together – spiritually, physically, and emotionally. We can unwittingly perpetuate deception, when we tell ourselves that we must continue to try harder — because we don’t want to let the Lord, or my family, or the church, or my job, down. Maybe the real truth is that we don’t want to be vulnerable in front of other people, because we don’t actually trust them! Or perhaps we think we will be judged if our humanity shows. 

Have we accidentally believed the lie or the hype that says God’s people are meant to be already perfected, getting everything right all the time? After all we want to be a good witness for Jesus! However, He’s the burden bearer – He is NOT the one who overloads us!! Day by day we are on a road. We are sojourners… travellers, learning as we go – like Abraham did. That learning does not stop while we are here. Religion likes the appearance of doing good, but that stuff will create frustration with yourself and others. 

In contrast, the bible account of Abraham’s life reveals His humanity. This man followed the Lord step by step from an old life into a new one. That new life was God’s own design, not his!  Abraham’s mistakes became stepping off points into what God actually wanted in the first place. The man’s faith in God’s ability to bring him through the difficulties he faced, increased as he simply kept putting one foot in front of another and obeying what the Lord told him to do.

When, if EVER, did our salvation rest on us? Our God only made the world, without our prayers, and without us to advise Him! He is and He always will be, His own incredibly wise counsel! What on earth makes us think we can fix ourselves? We desperately try to find the right person to pray for us, or the right prayer to pray, or the right scripture to quote over and over again. The Lord knows we are dust! Thinking point:  dust is just everything around us, broken down, worn down by time, into teeny tiny particles. Only God Himself can take dust … or dry bones … and make it live again! 

I think our worst problem is that we have made Almighty God too small. We have our gimme doctrines of wanting this and wanting that, and expecting Him to cough stuff up, as we accidentally call presumption, FAITH. We are settling for the appearance of looking good, or being nice people, instead of pressing in for complete restoration healing and transformation. I can’t fix anyone … not even me!  We are all broken one way or another!

Our loving Father God is always seeking US. He has our good in His heart because HE IS GOOD. Jesus didn’t set up a tent, and say: “…if you want to be healed come to My tent meetings!” He went out amongst the people and ministered to them wherever He found them, and most of the time, they found Him! That’s what our God is like! Always seeking us, always wanting everything to work together for our good – that’s His purpose! Our holy, sometimes self-serving, clusters are keeping real seekers out. What we are basically saying is to be saved means you will look like US! Doesn’t that line scare you…just a little bit?

The bible reveals God’s thoughts: ”Jesus says, “If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit,… ”John 15:5. Our problem we need to learn how to remain in Him, especially when stuff happens! Grapes don’t go wandering about looking for better nutrition or a stronger place in the vine – grapes are stationary. They are totally dependant upon the POWER OF THE SAP TO KEEP THEM. That place is the place where we live.

Remaining in Him means I trust Him no matter how things look. It is hardly ever about whatever is actually going on, most of the time this life is about Who is in charge here? Even bad things come to an end, one way or another. The reality of Jesus in our lives, is in the presence of His peace. He stood up in a storm and told it to shut up and it did. Boy do I pick Him to be my best friend! I wanna be like Jonathan – he knew how to pick best friends! Meanwhile we must remember, we are all in transit. Think on this as an aim for your life: “But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 MSG

The sooner we realise that we are not capable of figuring things out so that they work perfectly, every single time — the sooner we can get about the business of simply following Him, step by step, like Abraham. Jesus Christ is God’s first-born of many sons and daughters, but even Jesus didn’t PRESUME on His unique position. His faith was in His Father’s ability to carry out whatever Almighty God wanted, whenever He wanted it.

If we want to live in peace with people around us, then we must learn to trust God no matter what else is going on. Jesus didn’t take sides in conflicts –  all He cared about was His Father receiving His due glory, and His will being done. The people who love their God and do great exploits look like this: “For God makes all the decisions here. God is our King. God runs this place and He’ll keep us safe.” Isaiah 33:22.

Trust the Lord. His ways are not our ways, and His value system is not like ours. And if you know you are broken, don’t be ashamed – we ALL are. Some of us just hide it better than others do. Bye. 👋

P 2117 Don’t judge a book by it’s cover – because bibles have boring covers!

/ DVH

Not everything that the Lord Jesus is doing LOOKS good to us immediately. However, as we wait for Him to bring beauty out of ashes, and believe in His goodness – no matter how things look in this world – WE will be changed. And at the same time we will begin to comprehend His ways. Why does He do things like that? I think it is because the bible says: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”  Tasting involves engagement and action, not just mental assent to some so-called expert. This life is about progressively becoming more and more acquainted with Him, how He thinks, the Way He does things – Who He is.

There are times when we don’t want to take risks and steps of faith into our new life in Christ – because we are trying to prevent disappointment. Maybe we have experienced that feeling a number of times before … we prayed for something to change…and so far … it hasn’t. Perhaps we prayed for a loved one to be healed … and they are still sick… or they died. Me too! I am definitely not smart enough to have an answer to that!  It would be a mistake to think that just because we serve Him – we know all the answers! He’s still God and breathtakingly incomprehensible at times. 🙌 That’s why we need the bible… even though it looks boring … it isn’t. This book comes to us with a way better “help desk” than any internet site. THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Unfortunately our personal historical circumstances and memories can easily lead to us to metaphorically hold our breath, watching the Lord to see if this time will be different from the other times that we were disappointed! That’s when we know that we are praying prayers that are loaded with agendas! Perhaps we are disappointed because we have already formed an idea of how things will look, or how they should go. Our Heavenly Father is not a fast food joint … a place where you put in your order and wait impatiently for the result. The way to be blessed by learning about Him, as well as prosper our faith, is to find out what He IS doing and join in with that and hold tight when it seems He has gone ‘off script.’ Faith is like a rubber band it needs to be stretched.

I am pretty sure that we could go to a hundred of His preachers, and ask them what He is doing in these days, and each one of them will tell us that He wants to mature His bride. BTW that isn’t just because Jesus only wants a mature bride! It’s because Jesus is the perfect Bridegroom! His desire is toward us, and He is protecting us from what comes next. Hard things are going to happen no matter what we believe, but it is in the nature of maturity to stick close to His purposes. These mature followers will survive – scarred and sometimes battle-weary. I know a whole lotta people who dun fell off our twig already because they were misinformed about Who He is, and they were told He would give them whatever they want.. Even Jesus met someone like that! (Matthew 19:21 and Luke 18:22. BTW this incident is so important to the Lord – it is in the book twice.) We must remember the parable of the sower – stuff happens and it will choke the life out of those seeds of faith in Christ.

It is far better to ask Him into everything, than to live a reactionary life – bouncing about from one bad thing to another. Ask Him: “How would You like me to pray about this?” He knows how to pray better than we do. Right now, here on earth, the Holy Spirit is praying for us, perfectly. And up in heaven, in the throne room, Jesus is praying for us perfectly too. We simply need to know what He thinks. The safest place is a positional one – we get that by maintaining unity with others, prayer, and reading the very ordinary looking  book. Then doing what it says! (Well, you knew I’d say that didn’t you? 😆) We can cry, pout, and stamp our feet to try to get what we want, but He absolutely has a far better plan for all of us. You and I know that those plans He has are: “…plans to give us a hope and a future.”  However, He won’t rubber stamp His signature on what we think is a good idea or what suits us. Human logic and rationality is flawed by selfishness. We can make anything sound OK – but our God works for the good of ALL MANKIND. 

Ezekiel gave the perfect response to God once when He was asked a question by the Lord in Ezekiel 37:1-10 “He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, You alone know.” Then He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life…“ The really cool bit about this scripture is Ezekiel got to see this whole thing happen through his spiritual eyes. HE SAW US – and millions like us. WE are those dry bones. Laying around dusty, dry, separately. No life in us! But in my heart I can hear a rattling and a shaking …

Ezekiel prophesied back then, that we would live. That those dry dead bones would come together, and muscles and sinews would cover the bones, and organs and flesh would appear in and on them – and God’s OWN life would come into His army. Father God is going to honour that man’s prayer.  I may be gone by then, but I believe with all my heart we are at this stage in history … when maturity, reverence, and holiness have become more important than getting what we want. And the boring book becomes our road map, and mission statement.Bye. 👋🏻