Encourage

P 2527 It can be hard to change …

/ DVH

“And never let ugly or hateful words come from your mouth, but instead let your words become beautiful gifts that encourage others; do this by speaking words of grace to help them.”Ephesians 4:29 TPT.

I think I was almost born talking – a born communicator. Evidently I could sing every song on the radio at 12 months old, and I said the usual stuff long before that!. But after I started talking, it was apparently quite difficult to shut me up.  I was labelled a chatterbox, and it seems to me, that I also arrived here somewhat opinionated! 

An-y-way … words are very important to me. I’ve always loved to read and I enjoy writing as well, so my vocabulary is regularly stretched. However, when words are used badly – it irritates the living daylights out of me!  In my generation, good handwriting, spelling and grammar were … everything. I am sure you can imagine how well I have taken to this age of texting and abbreviations! 😳 I have had to make myself to adapt, but there are still days that I don’t like it much…

This penchant for accuracy has been a thorn in my side for years. Back in the ark I can remember saying to my kids: “You can do such and such …but you may not!” It seems that I may have been a bit of a pestilential mother. But the world kept turning, and then everything I knew, or I thought I knew, turned upside down. We entered the Year 2000 and some things that used to matter in our society didn’t matter any more. Colour me somewhat unimpressed!

Some days I think the Lord might be falling off His chair laughing at me, because now words are the very things I can easily forget from day to day! I can forget what I was going to say right in the middle of a sentence. Boy is that humbling for the grammar queen!  Have you ever noticed how the Lord loves to take the things we think we know, and use His Word to puncture that fat little balloon we have inflated inside us — permanently?  Well, some of us probably deserve that shiny little pin-popping exercise, because we were being snobbish fatheads in the first place. 

One of the biggest problems was that I could, most of the time, out-talk my enemies. Now that sounds good … but it is totally unscriptural!  Unfortunately, in those days I kind of knew how to go for the jugular too. Then the Lord began dealing with me on how I was avoiding facing my own mess, but blabbing away about other people’s sins. Matthew 5:29: “Let’s not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here’s what you have to do: You have to blind your right eye the moment you catch it in a lustful leer. You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile. And you have to chop off your right hand the moment you notice it raised threateningly…”  I have learnt one thing through this life-time adventure – there IS no out-talking Almighty God! He is the Living Word and He has the last word, and there is no doubt He is always right. 

It has been a huge challenge for me to only let beautiful words come out of my mouth. BUT … here’s the kicker folks … Father God sometimes very graciously lets His power come through my words when I am talking to others. All those years of tormenting myself because I knew I talked too much, and I was way too sharp with other people in some situations … and the Holy Spirit took the very thing I thought I could never change and … CHANGED IT… and now He is using it. 🙌 Please do not misunderstand me, I really did try to keep my mouth shut, because I knew I could do a lot of mischief with it … but most of the time, until He helped me — I failed miserably. 

Eventually I chose to surrender, and I learnt to yield. At the same time, I confessed my faults, even to my enemies, and I went to the altar, where I cried buckets …But the solution was dead simple. I just had to learn to stick my hand over my mouth, repent, and at the same time cry out to the Holy Spirit to help me. I also had to learn to say the words “I was wrong to say that, I am so sorry…” … repeatedly! Of course, I choked on that lot as it was coming out. It was  humbling! You know how it says in the bible that “God gives Grace to the humble and He resists the proud?”  Hmmm. Almighty God knows exactly HOW to humble each of us! He’s great at it!  My advice is take your faults seriously –early!

So today, I want to encourage others to pray over the very thing that they have anguished over, and spent their life feeling like it can’t possibly change … and, instead, give it to God and ask for a practical solution. It can be hard to do, but it could be as easy as taking the your hand and putting it over your mouth. It was for me! 👋🏻

P 2489 Allow His beauty to inspire us.

/ DVH

“Discover creative ways to encourage others and to motivate them toward acts of compassion, doing beautiful works as expressions of love. This is not the time to pull away and neglect meeting together, as some have formed the habit of doing. In fact, we should come together even more frequently, eager to encourage and urge each other onward as we anticipate that day dawning.’Hebrews 10:24-25 TPT

We can concentrate on relating to others, by nagging away at someone else, and doing our best to get the other person to understand our POV. The objective of that idea is that the other person will change. OR, we can help motivate the people around us further in God, by encouraging them to be bigger!  One way leads to war, and the other leads to expansion. Personally I think that winning in any conflict is hollow. We simply must decide to learn to speak life, not criticism. But maybe we got our feelings hurt by somebody else? Boo-hoo! Move along please … you and I aren’t meant to be living in our feelings in the first place! We.Walk.By.Faith.

Will we grow our faith, or will we invest in our flesh, our feelings, or our supposed needs, and allow those needs etc. to grow stronger and even more demanding? Let’s not be the generation the Lord has to pass over to get to the next one coming after us! Right now, it is our turn, our time … on the stage of life to shine forth His light and motivate this dull cranky and crabby old world into better things! Having come so far, we cannot afford to quit on this faith life now!! At the same time, we can always inspire each another. Because of Jesus, we are the broken who can be made beautiful.

There are people who are leaving churches because they are not happy in their current church – their focus has gone off others onto themselves. They have stopped contributing beautiful things, encouraging things, and started to focus on “how hard MY life is.” Join the club, nothing is easy for anyone nowadays!  Spreading around His love and kindness is a high AIM, that sort of thing can be harder to do when we don’t practice it. However, deciding to do positive things and making them into a lifestyle… changes us. Always remember, we have a Helper!  Plus what we focus on grows bigger in our minds. If I focus on your faults and mistakes those things will eclipse any good stuff you might do… Just saying is all …

Going to church has become difficult for many people, for all sorts of reasons, but that is not a reason to stop going. We need to meet with others in order to receive the kind of understanding and encouragement that comes from talking to other people who want to live a life of faith like we do. It isn’t about bragging on this spiritual exploit or that – it’s about our kindness and mercy helping others to press on, and prevail, against those pesky difficult things that stop growth. Other people’s stories, their testimonies … even their struggles can be used to reassure us that even though our lives may be topsy-turvy at that moment, the Lord is still busy on the Body’s behalf.

“You know God has bigger plans for us than we have for ourselves.” (The director of the movie “Journey to Bethlehem” said that.) It seems to me that we all need to stretch and decide that internal growth is not a great theory, it’s a lifestyle. When we focus outwards, on others, on blessing and encouraging them … the things that bug us daily shrink back to normal size. Self-focus is self-limiting.

In our everyday world, art, nature, literature and such things can inspire people to appreciate beauty. In the world of His kingdom, the things He does, sometimes silently – almost unnoticed, those things need to become our inspiration. If we don’t talk to each other, the little things that He does, will come and go and we will all have missed the opportunity to be grateful for those blessings. What are we here for if not to appreciate the One Who saved us, and the One Who is continually helping us transform our lives?

As I read this scripture today, I wondered, what “beautiful works as expressions of love,” look like! Thankfully, I have dear friends who love to let me know how God has blessed them, even in a small way, so I can give thanks with them. I have a pastor who produces the loveliest tracts with reminders of the things He preached about recently. I know those things that he makes take time, and effort and research, so I think that qualifies as a beautiful expression of love. 

But then I began to wonder what do I do, that would qualify me. And that led me to write about this subject today. Sometimes in this life, one day follows another with almost alarming similarity. There is a lot of same old, same old in our days! I think that is why I like to make bookmarks etc. I feel like I am investing in someone else’s future, in their opinion of Who God is, and helping them to see Him in a unique way that is unchurch-ified. 

Today, I want to leave us all with a challenge for this coming year — are we going to let the darkness hide everything God has done and what He is continuing to do, all over this globe? I think we need to let the beauty of Who He is inspire us to grow and encourage others even when things are tough. Bye 👋🏻

P 2460 Never underestimate the power of choice.

/ DVH

Yeah, I know I rabbit on about choice all the time. However, I have a good reason to do that. Our minute by minute choices determine the intimacy of our walk with the Lord as well as others. I want to highlight the power of choice today, because many people are under the impression that if they just pray about something – that is all they need to do. I disagree. First we choose, then we carry whatever it is out.

I totally believe that Father God always hears our prayers. I think that He hears the prayers we never even say out loud.  His love is so incredible, He cares about the unspoken things that tear at our hearts, but they are unseen by other people’s eyes. In that place human heartache has no words – the bible calls that ‘sighs and groans too deep for words…’

It seems to me that this is why He says:“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you …” Seeking His will above everything and everyone else in our lives, positions us to be under His Government. And boy, is HE a fantastic governor! His government is far more than just provision – there is shelter from the storms of this life when we choose His will, His way. He sent us the Holy Spirit to help us carry out Godly choices. The Holy Spirit is poised, ready and waiting and longing to help us … because He loves each one of us dearly and He wants us to win! Jesus relied upon the Holy Spirit, and so should we, if we want to follow Him. 

The Holy Spirit IS Jesus Christ Himself, with us – He is literally standing right at our elbows, waiting for us to ask Him to help us out of our learnt patterns of disobedience, and fear, as well as the stupid messes we make. And all that takes is the humility to choose to ASK. Jesus told us that He left this world so the Spirit could come to be with us, and convict us of sin. We know that He will help, guide, comfort, counsel, instruct, and support us. However, the Holy Spirit in us, is also the Lord’s deposit upon us for our eternal future – His Presence in our lives assures us we belong to Jesus now. We need to treasure Him, and obey Him, plus walk with HIM – that is also a choice. 

Because we long to be His obedient people, we cannot afford to rely upon our own choices, no matter how small they seem. We daily need the Holy Spirit’s help to make kingdom choices. Yesterday our kitchen sink tap started leaking into the cupboard under the sink. What a mess! We could have thrown up our hands and cried: ‘Oh no, more bills!” But we chose to ask the Lord what He wanted us to do about it. Because of that choice hubby was able to witness to a young plumber. Our choices can hinder our growth or encourage it. They invite us into our destiny or close the door.

Right at the beginning of mankind’s interactions with God, and the wondrous world He made … the one Adam and Eve lived in… Everything was lost by that one bad choice. Genesis 2:16–17: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Death came into that garden. God gave Adam a reason not to eat from that particular tree, but they both went ahead and made the wrong choice. They were tempted to doubt God’s truthfulness and they fell into sin! They thought what they could see was all there was, because that fruit looked and smelt good!

The devil wants us all to think that our choices do not count. he whispers: ‘You are no-one, what you do doesn’t matter.’ Or he says: ’Who will know? After all this or that need is so great, God will understand.’ I know about that particular rabbit-hole, I’ve fallen down it myself … sadly, many times. I ended up in Alice’s wonderland, where nothing made sense – until I chose to acknowledge my sin and repented. 

We cannot afford to put aside the kind of faith-filled obedience that demonstrates that God knows better than we do. In reality without faith, nothing can actually make sense. Let’s face it, it made no sense humanly speaking, that Adam and Eve could eat from any tree but that particular one! But immediate gain overtook caution … and they fell in. In our own lives that is also true.

Here is some advice: ‘choose God’s way from His Word, quickly, and stick with it despite any opposition.’ And there will be opposition, from our flesh as well as our enemy! I think we can easily blame the devil when the real point is, we either don’t want to, OR our flesh is weak and it is crying out for whatever it wants. That means our flesh has become used to being indulged.

When we are not walking with the Holy Spirit we can make really bad choices that affect tomorrow… and tomorrow … and … tomorrow. That’s how our eyes are blinded by our needs, and the overwhelming desire to sort out our own lives. We start to focus on the immediate, instead of the eternal. The power of choice is huge, and we cannot miss God if we are guided by His Word, as well as the good advice of mature saints … plus the desire to obey … above everything else. Never underestimate the power of choice!  Choose life.👋🏻

P 2455 Give up cherry-picking!

/ DVH

There is no point in faithfully reading the Bible every day if we are only going to cherry-pick the verses we like, and just obey them… and leave out the ones we don’t particularly like or understand … AND not even TRY to obey them! Prayer is the answer, not avoidance. The whole point about the verses we don’t understand is we need to take the time to find out what they mean – which means we will spend time with the Holy Spirit asking questions. 

I’ve been nagging the Lord, for years about some stuff I still don’t get. However, the Bible is best understood when you read it bearing in mind all the other things that are written in it! Otherwise it is far too easy to take stuff out of context. Misreading this particular book can lead to all kinds of nasty errors. One verse needs to be read in the light of others. Look for themes and principles not just verses: “I really like.” Maybe we ought to throw out all those comforting ‘gimme’ verses, and look for challenging ones instead! And my point was (?) – cherry-picking verses that benefit me is one way to stumble off into error! 

When we read inspirational books that explain this or that verse, or some big thought we’ve never seen before, we are eating someone else’s stale bread. It’s food, but there is nothing like the smell and the taste of fresh bread … especially if you are hungry. Stale bread is only good for puddings or toast! Our God is so gracious, He can take anything we read and make it into bread, even someone else’s leftovers. But that is not the optimum way to get bread from God. We really need the word from His mouth that was sent to help US get through THIS day!! 

On the other hand, our pastors produce fresh bread every single week, that’s why we need to be prayerful when we are listening to someone’s sermon. We pray that God will give us eyes to see and ears to hear to what He is saying to us. It is not about sermons being interesting or fun! … Tickling our ears is not what we are there for .. we go to church, because  “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Our pastors bring us that mouth-of-God-word every single week. That’s their job. 

In the light of our pastor’s effort and our own daily bible study, obedience has never ever been an optional response. Dying to self still means what I want is now dead …  And that includes my own comfort and sometimes even my safety. PS… I’m definitely SAFE when I’m dead! However, when we treat the Bible like any other book we are opening ourselves up to double-mindedness, and a double-minded man can’t get anything from God because that person is too busy trying to find the right angle to benefit HIM! It is far better to assume that there will be something in there that we need to take the time to find out about. Something that will help us grow to be like Jesus.

We don’t have to read reams of the Bible in order to be fed anymore than we need to sit down to an eight course dinner every meal, every single day! We simply need to trust the Holy Spirit when we sit down to read that He will give us what He has for us. Then when we get to the daily bread bit, suddenly something we couldn’t understand — even if we stood on our head and read it fifty times — becomes clear. The next step is that the word that jumped out at you – is actionable. That’s the Holy Spirit speaking – we cannot afford to ignore Him. So we apply what we’ve read to our hearts and minds etc., we pray over it, and then we go and do it. Well, you might want to skip being whale food … but you get my meaning!

When I share what the Lord gave me today, with you, it may not be pertinent to you. After all it is MY daily bread but it may not be yours. Perhaps this is why sometimes your friends and family do not cheer and get excited when you share something the Lord told you. Maybe that bread was not for them. While it is okay to share with others, it is far better to encourage other people, including your kids (!), to go after their own bread. To start with, if everyone became bread-seekers and gathered their own, we would have so much more of the “many-sided wisdom of God” to enjoy! (Does that sound like gathering ‘manna’ or what?)

There is no point in taking on board the value system of this world and fitting it in around what the Holy Spirit says in the Bible. The Bible needs to be our yardstick – our plumb-line – not this world or its customs. The hard chewy bits of this book are the best bits. If you don’t understand stuff, then start cheering. “Ask, and you shall receive, SEEK and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.”  Please, give up cherry-picking and go looking for your own bread! 👋🏻

P 2434 Different food for thought!

/ DVH

“A parable is a tale about a simple, common subject to illustrate a more profound, valuable moral lesson. The source definition of the word “parable” means a placement side by side for the purpose of comparison.” (Dictionary)

Jesus’ teaching is fascinating. He told everyday stories to those listening, to help them understand God’s Ways. And at the same time, every single thing He said was profound. He gave us fantastic life-lessons. Up until this morning, I had never really thought about the kind of teaching He did, when He taught people, using parables. There are over 30 parables in the Gospels …some of them are repeated.

Today, the Lord Jesus spoke into me and said this: “How many of My parables are about the miraculous? In which one do I teach people how to heal the sick and raise the dead?” You know, when I looked, I discovered that Jesus’ parables are about ordinary things and ordinary people and their behaviour toward God and others. They are simply ‘life lessons.’ They are not about ‘how to excel in the miraculous’ – but instead they are about ‘how to live this life we have in a Godly fashion.’ How to love each other, and how to love, revere and respect God first. However, if we don’t live IN the kingdom, how can we expect to bring it with us?? Maybe that’s why Paul told us to seek it first!

We have become greatly enamoured with the miraculous – or the lack of it, in the church today. I think we are in danger of exalting those things above His Kingdom coming in our everyday lives. Yet we will always need a heart that says – God can do anything … nothing is too difficult for Him!  But I think we have put more of the accent on revving up our ability to believe, instead of putting it in HIM – Who He is. Miracles will follow US as we love others the way He loves us …we don’t have to chase them.  Miracles and the ever-present power of God are an expected part of walking with Him in our daily lives. 

In the Epistles, a large amount of emphasis is also put upon growing and transforming our character, plus, how to walk with the Holy Spirit. The Apostles simply repeated what they have seen, heard and learnt as they performed great signs and wonders. They didn’t elevate people who walked in their God-given gifts, or even ask them to come and minister in the miraculous for the purpose of gaining attention to spread the gospel! Instead the main thrust of their individual messages are to encourage and emphasise loving God, loving others well, plus growth, connection and correction.

Jesus Himself took ordinary things that His listeners could easily understand to illustrate Kingdom purposes. As we read the gospels we can see that anyone can walk in demonstrating the power of God, even sometimes those devoid of character. Judas did! But the parables and epistles indicate that our character needs our personal application. The Holy Spirit wants our motivation to be pure Love – and we all need help with that! Jesus made the miraculous an ordinary part of being His disciple.  He sent His disciples out and they simply used His name.

However, Christ Himself gave us the most brilliant synopsis of God’s requirements when He was talking to a lawyer in Matthew 22:35-40 “One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” I am gobsmacked every single time I read that. It so perfectly illustrates what life with the Holy Spirit looks like.

So here is my thought for today’s blog  – I am personally aware that we all need the miraculous! … But instead of chasing after the miraculous etc. to validate any ministry, I believe the Holy Spirit wants us to foster a relationship with Him – first. Then we simply do whatever He says, and we will see miracles as we go along. Sometimes there will be a miracle, and sometimes someone else gets a revelation of the goodness of God .. a glimpse into His bigger world. Our job is to love God and love others, and out of that wonderful things will happen.

Please do not misunderstand me, I totally believe in all the active gifts of God. And I believe we need to pray believing that they are present at any time! We need them. I am simply saying that these things should not be the preoccupation of the Church. We are to be pre-occupied with Him! These other things will get added unto us as we seek Him first! Like one of the parables says: “We are the light of the world” – let’s just BE THAT and see what happens! Bye.👋🏻

P 2419 Deception can come from careless choices.

/ DVH

There is an interesting verse in Joshua, Chapter 9, V14, and in it we can see that as soon as we revert to type and start making our own decisions, without consulting the Lord, we are more easily deceived by our enemy.  At the same time we have effectively blocked out the Lord’s wisdom. Let’s look at this OT story.

Joshua 9:3-6 “However, when the people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they resorted to a ruse: They went as a delegation whose donkeys were loaded with worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended.They put worn and patched sandals on their feet and wore old clothes. All the bread of their food supply was dry and mouldy. Then they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the Israelites, “We have come from a distant country; make a treaty with us.”

The Gibeonites wanted to trick the Israelites into thinking that they had come from far away. They had heard how powerful the Jews were so they wanted to make peace with them using deception. And the Israelites fell for it – they used their eyes, plus their taste buds and decided what they could see was true. “The Israelites sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the Lord.” Joshua 9:14. Bad move!

Our beloved Father is not bothered by us if we ask Him into situations, at any time. He dearly wants to be an integral part of our lives. That is why He gave us the Holy Spirit to be our potential constant Companion. Here’s a heads-up. the Holy Spirit is way smarter than we could ever be, and the best Advisor ever!  We need to learn from the things He has chosen to be included in the Old Testament.   

The bible tells us that: “… whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope and overflow with confidence in His promises.” (Romans 15:4.) In other words the Old Testament is not just background info for our ‘real’ learning in the New! The Old is an important part of what God wants to teach us. In it the Holy Spirit gives insight into Who Father God is, What He likes, What He will do if we obey, and …what can happen if we don’t! 

As you can see from the above story, we can easily expose ourselves to deception when we lean on our own understanding. The Holy Spirit is ever-present and constantly standing by us to enriching our lives. It is not like we have to walk 19 kms to a phone to make a long distance phone call at 3.00am in the morning to talk to Him! He is always with us!! Friendship with Him is to be cherished, sought after and valued, because He enriches our lives and our thinking. He protects us from our own stupidity, as He walks with us. This truth is the most essential part of living the Christian life. We are not alone!

Previously to this incident with the Gibeonites, in Deuteronomy, we see that God’s man Joshua made knowing God His priority. Let’s be honest here. Most of us make a job, our family, our favourite hobby … our priority. We pray in the morning, and maybe again in the evening, and perhaps even during the day as we need His help, but He is not our constant Companion. We need to value the Holy Spirit’s company more than we value anything else. Joshua went into the tent of meeting with Moses, and yet Moses came out before He did! Think about it, it shows us Joshua’s commitment.

I think that this man teaches us that our desire toward the Lord, plus our obedience, matters. Careless choices, or an independent spirit, or unthinking attitudes, can rob us of victory. Father God can trust someone who wants His will more than their own, and our friend Joshua was such a man, despite his humanity. Our biggest choice is not whether we want to be saved or not – our biggest choice is whether we want to follow Jesus all the way to the end – living this life His way. 

Giving up the only life you have is no small thing. That’s why people struggle with it. But being independently-minded or even double-minded, robs us of the blessing of His Presence. Our biggest choice is simply “…choosing this day Who we will serve …” (Joshua said that – and he knew how to make great choices.)  We are more susceptible to being deceived when we make up our own minds, and then hope God will bless THAT!  As Christians we are subject to a Theocracy which means – He’s in charge and we ain’t! 👋🏻

P 2411 We are all seed sowers.

/ DVH

Today I just want to share one small story from our current trip – and I have a point for sharing it. We’ve been to a whole lot of places in the last 17 days and we’ve been travelling about like this for 18 years. We’ve literally been almost everywhere! Some places twice or three times. We regularly give away one of the more modern versions of the Gospels. Last night we stayed in a little seaside town. Now, on with my story… 

We’ve previously stayed here before, and on a past trip we went to a much smaller caravan park. Back then it was run by an older man. About 10 years ago, hubby went into this park clutching a bundle of bibles. The older man in reception was delighted to take bibles and they chatted about the Lord for a while. Hubby promised we would come back, in the future, when we could with more bibles. People pinch them – ya-ay! Yay Jesus – You get them anyway!

In the middle of the night, yesterday, the Lord spoke to hubby and told him that he was going to meet someone that day who needed one of his paintings. He gave him a message for that person. We ended up at that same caravan park we’d visited so many years before, again. This time there were only 5 caravans, but hubby faithfully went off with bibles under his arm. There was a different older man behind the reception desk. He told this man that we had been there before, and that, at that time there was another much older man in reception. 

The man behind the desk indicated that the older man was his father, and sadly he had died 5 years ago. He pointed to a photo of his Dad and hubby indicated he was the man he had met years ago. The current caravan park guy said his father had owned and run this little park, all of his life, and he inherited it after his father’s death. At that point, hubby brought out his painting, and said he felt it was for the owner. The older man teared up immediately when he saw it and hubby explained that it is called: “Take the plunge.”  Then he delivered the message God gave him the night before.

It transpired that the current owner badly wanted to retire, but he was hesitant because of filial obligation. The sad thing was, running this park was not something that he wanted to do. He was simply trying to honour his father and his inheritance. He felt trapped there. However after receiving the painting and the word from God hubby gave him, he strongly felt he could sell the business and retire. Father God wanted to set him free to live his own life. This man doesn’t go to church, and has no Christian affiliations. The Lord’s timing is amazing… I don’t want to comment any further on this story, because I wrote about it for another purpose, entirely. 

This is what hubby and I do. We take what God says, and what He tells us to do, out there to ordinary everyday people who have no idea God speaks to ANYONE personally. Most of them have never even been in a church. We say what He says to say, and give things away freely. We don’t push church at anyone. Sometimes we pray for them, then we walk away and leave the results up to the Holy Spirit. These gifts that the Holy Spirit has given you and I are for everyone’s benefit, to encourage, to heal, to guide, to bless. It seems to me things like this are the Lord waving at people saying: “Yoo-hoo I’m real!”  He touches them in ways that have nothing whatsoever to do with us. Our spiritual gifts are not just available to the people who go to church … after all … Jesus healed everyone! He didn’t check out their church credentials. 

Anybody can do this – you just take the gift He has given you and use it wherever He says to do it. We bless these strangers however the Holy Spirit tells us to bless them, and then we are done. We have faith that the Lord will send people after us. They have their job and we have ours. However, we are all, collectively, seed sowers, or witnesses. To have a harvest, the Body of Christ needs to sow seeds in obedience to the Lord’s leading. Actually to even have a testimony, we will all have to face our fears and move way outside our comfort zones!! Jesus moved wa-ay outside His comfort zone for us – it is the least we can do for Him. Bye. 👋🏻

P 2392 Words can build and heal.

/ DVH

“And never let ugly or hateful words come from your mouth, but instead let your words become beautiful gifts that encourage others; do this by speaking words of grace to help them. The Holy Spirit of God has sealed you in Jesus Christ until you experience your full salvation. So never grieve the Spirit of God or take for granted His holy influence in your life. Lay aside bitter words, temper tantrums, revenge, profanity, and insults. But instead be kind and affectionate toward one another. Has God graciously forgiven you? Then graciously forgive one another in the depths of Christ’s love.” Ephesians 4:29-32 TPT.

Man this is a scripture that can change lives. I love the way the bible gives us such clear instructions. That word ‘let’ is huge. It is surrounded by a whole lot of other words, but I think everything in this passage hinges on ‘let’ – ‘allow.’ It is much too easy to allow things that do not help us in our Christian life. It is that sort of self-permission, often carelessly or thoughtlessly given, that steers our main focus away from the One we love best. And suddenly we are in the middle of a virtual freeway with cars and trucks coming at us, (other people’s angry words), wondering how we got there.

Often one small decision to let someone have it … opens doors to a flood of disobedience that changes not just our day but our lives. ‘Permission to speak sir,’ is often used in the Armed forces – in my mind’s eye I need to ask the Lord that all the time! You know, I can’t count the times when one word has sent me down a plug hole! Sadly a word out of place can do immeasurable damage. To both parties. Words can seem harmless but James 3:5 (NIV) says: “Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.”  That’s proof that James understood what he was on about eh?

Here are some interesting verses that further diagnose the problem. “But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” James 3:8 NKJV ”Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Ephesians 4:29 from the ESV this time. What we allow out of our mouths governs our ability to bless others with our words. Our speech is intended to spread Grace, to build one another up, not to hobble each another, or throw thunking great rocks, either! Words are powerful, and because we know and follow Him, there is great power in our words!

For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit;” 1 Peter 3:10 ESV“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” Colossians 4:6 ESV. That little word let, is easily passed over, but there is such a wealth of power in it! Well-flavoured speech needs both guidance and obedience. The best way to season what we say is to know the bible well enough to quote it, to yourself and someone else and then we bear in mind what it says when we open our mouth.

Speaking personally, it is my ever-present opinions that often shoot me in the foot.  At the time I know it is unwise to say something, but I let the circumstances;  or feeling provoked, or hurt;  or even pain;  take that guard off my lips and then I let fly. “I’m sorry” afterwards seems so shallow. Still, “I am so sorry, please forgive me” are the best words of reconciliation we have. Words can heal. Especially if they are followed up by appropriate actions! ‘I’m sorry please forgive me’ is hot air without follow up. Repentance produces fruit. Fruit may take some time, but you can see it growing and developing!!

I have also found that words give me opportunities to humble myself.  Actually it is usually somebody else’s words that give me that opportunity! The ability to say nothing unless you are speaking blessing, is vastly underrated. But opportunities come with every new day and I am still learning how to ‘lay aside’ stuff that won’t profit anyone. I have learnt to value the power to speak LIFE, and healing, that Christ died to give me. 👋🏻

P 2378 Forget about winning lotto …!

/ DVH

… most Christians have incredible riches they have never even accessed. We have a Saviour. 🙌  He is the perfect substitute for our sins, He gave us His righteousness, so now we have His kind of access to our Heavenly Father’s attention. Now we give Him back our lives for His purposes. Our Heavenly Father has given us so many incredible things, including spiritual gifts to bless others. We have a book filled to the brim with stories about other people who dared to walk with God, despite their fears … so we can see for ourselves what God did in them and through them. Our God is not far away, but near to those who seek Him … and Jesus made seeking Him possible.

Our Saviour, died to give us healing, wisdom, strength, patience, kindness, goodness, etc. every single day. We are a blessed people! He provides for our needs, He comforts us with His comfort which knows no boundaries – including race, creed, and theology. He doesn’t judge us, but looks at us with understanding, kindness, mercy and grace through human eyes. Almost everything ever recorded about Christ is about Him gladly interacting with people! Because of Jesus – we are the people who are blessed to know what Father God, His Love and His kingdom are like. That’s what makes us rich. We don’t have to guess, or hope, or imagine – we have a BOOK full of His thoughts!

The next time someone says to you, what does Almighty God look like? You can tell them – HE LOOKS LIKE JESUS CHRIST.  Point the people who don’t-know-Him-yet to the gospels in the bible. Tell them to look at how Christ treats human beings – that’s what the Father is like. This is why hubby and I give away the four Gospels. The bible is a large daunting book to someone who doesn’t-know-Him-yet, and a lot of the language used is old-fashioned and unclear. Plus it’s a really BIG book! We want others to experience the Lord’s heart toward mankind. Then they can see Jesus in the gospels, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, teaching them God’s ways, talking to people, answering questions.

In those gospels we see Christ is single-minded – everything He says is to explain His Heavenly Father and how His Kingdom works – in terms that ordinary people can understand. He shows people how to relate to God. He talks to farmers, fishermen, religious people, homemakers, and children. He talked to everyone with the same purpose, He wanted to reveal and clarify His Father’s love. The Father’s love is the greatest treasure this world has ever seen – and Christ came here to illustrate it, in and through His flesh. People do not know about this treasure, they think the bible is all about rules that they can’t keep … BUT the bible is a fantastic spiritual gift for everyone.     

However before ordinary people can understand the death and resurrection of Christ, they need to know that ‘love looks like something’; so we believe in helping others, praying with them and for them, as well as telling them in person how much God loves them. We don’t care what they believe, our desire is for them to experience the love of God first-hand, through us!  Now, as Christians WE have also become His treasure. It is our job to feed the hungry, heal the sin-sick souls to follow Him. We encourage the down-hearted, show the lost the way home and tell people this life can have incredible meaning. 

Righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Spirit – all these things are intangible, but totally heaven-sent riches. We are blessed to be a blessing and that blessing is not about earthly gain – it is about giving away heart happiness and contentment in spite of difficult circumstances. As well as His love which is like a spring of never-ending water. Human beings must stop thinking that blessings from God are about God being in a heavenly service industry. Prayer is not a way to place your order! It is privileged communication with the God of the universe. He provides for us, just like He provided for Adam and Eve in the garden, but our relationship with Him is about FAR more than provision.

Lastly, everywhere Christians go, we get to wear HIS ROBE. That robe is about humility. We lay our lives down for others because He laid His life down for us. You don’t get any richer in this life than that, no matter what a lotto jackpot is worth. Some of the richest, most blessed people I know, hardly have two beans to rub together. And if you happen to be hungry they will throw the only beans they have into a pot to feed you! Now that’s really rich! Bye. 😊

P 2366 Opportunity knocks …

/ DVH

… at the strangest times! It banged on our door all last week. We’ve had people coming and going and doing stuff at our house practically every day. More on that in a bit.

The last 3+ months have been filled up with opportunities, hospital visits, countless occupational therapy appointments, plus physio ones. Also doctor’s appointments, various specialists, endless xrays, workmen installing stuff, plus all my normal yearly check ups. It’s all been rather a painful blur, and now poor hubby has pulled a muscle in his chest wall. Between the two of us we make about 3/4 of a person. But in Christ – well, watch out! The weaker we get – the stronger He gets …  Man I live/love that verse!

Here’s another appropriate verse for the melee happening at our house.“…because we don’t focus our attention on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but the unseen realm is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18 TPT. Our focus is on His will, not our everyday lives. As I have said before  – OUR FOCUS MATTERS. Many days recently I’ve found I’ve needed the Lord’s supernatural energy just to drag my focus away from the day to day stuff that sometimes crowds in on me, so I can focus on the person in front of me. 

Have you noticed that one difficulty hardly ever happens by itself? Sometimes forty things kind of rush at you, like a herd of stampeding buffalo. That’s when I just want to sit down on the floor and cover my head until it’s over! I guess it’s called life, but it gets pretty intense for all of us sometimes. But with that intensity comes opportunities.

Now to explain those opportunities that fell on us this week. We’ve been changing our gas to electricity to save money. We put solar panels on our roof ages ago. Last week the gas guys came to take away our old gas hot water tank. We were expecting them at about 8.00am. Well, at 7.00am a young man turned up at our door to turn off the gas. Hubby greeted him and then kindly pointed out to this young man, who looked about 18, that he had planted some tiny plants between the gate and the HW service and could he be careful where he was walking please? I watched this young fellow as he carefully tip-toed through our garden, many, many times back and forth from his truck to the work site, and the Lord impressed on my heart how diligent he was, willing to take the slightest instruction. Do me like that Lord!

We have a small supply of compasses that we give away with a pass-it-on card, pictured above, and the Holy Spirit asked me to tell this young man how impressed with his work ethic I was, then He asked me to give him a compass to indicate God had plans and a direction for his future. To say he was blown away would be an under-exaggeration. He loved it all, and we had a wonderful conversation. I told him that God was so pleased with his attitude to his work. And I praised him for his diligence.

He kinda teared up then, especially when I said that I thought he was a such great example of what a responsible young man looks like. Apparently he had previously been running around with a very bad crowd, and until he found this job things had not been good for him. We told him that God has a great plan for his life and he went back to work smiling all the way. Some time later, a second, slightly older guy turned up to complete the job, and low and behold, there was the younger man out in our garden pointing out the little plants the new guy should avoid! 😊

We decided to give this second man a pen, with a dove on it and … his face also lit up. Apparently he had just come back from Herron Island. And he was walking on the beach, when he looked up, there was a dove in the sky hovering over his head. He felt our pen was a fantastic reminder of an event he could not explain. He kept telling us that you really wouldn’t expect to see a solitary dove on Herron Island! Hubby talked to him for a while about the Lord and then both workmen went on about their work. But they still carefully tiptoed around those plants every time they went back and forth! 

Then a third person, an electrician, came along, and our precious 18 year old, (I wanted to adopt him by this time!), went out and patiently explained to the electrician about the plants he should avoid stepping on. 😂  When they had all finished working, and packed up, the 18 year old deliberately came back to our door and told us that our talk was extremely significant to him, and he was greatly encouraged the conversation. He’d been having a hard time lately. He was beaming all over his face. BTW we gave the electrician something too, and hubby prayed with him and his wife, for their business to prosper. 

How cool was all that?! God brought those people here to our house. The only times I’ve been out since the accident have been to see professionals to help with my arm. (We gave stuff to them too.) And this is what has become apparent to us, when you make yourself available to the Lord, things will happen. We keep cans of lemonade in our fridge to give away to anyone who comes to our door. Maybe 2 in 10 people say ‘no thanks’ – but it definitely opens the door for a conversation with the ones who say “yes, please.”

So my final comment today, about reaching out to talk to others is this, be prepared to have your happy little routines interrupted. I figure my time is now His time, and I’ve watched Him give me back the time so often it isn’t even an issue anymore! Make preparation to bless other people in a way that seems appropriate to you. A cold drink, a pass-it-on card, a bible. We also give away small boxes of chocolates to say thank you to the staff, when we go into a hospitals or clinics. It opens people’s hearts and then you can encourage them with His love… and, if you are fortunate, you can talk to them about Jesus. Opportunity is knocking !!! 🤗