Exalt

P 3367 The Bride Jesus deserves.

/ DVH

One day, we are going to the greatest wedding of all eternity.. We will marry Jesus and be His Beloved Bride forever. This time here on earth is our preparation time for that wedding. Everything has already been prepared in heaven, on the Groom’s side. The Groom is waiting. However, it is up to His Bride to accept all the provisions and alterations that have been provided for her. The Holy Spirit is the One Who is in charge of Jesus’ Bride’s preparations. 

Just recently I’ve noticed that there is an ongoing trend everywhere in our world. There is an attitude that minimises people’s obligations to carry out what they say they will do. We’ve stopped being a people of our word. Excuses are made. When we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we entered into a relationship, an engagement with the Lord our King, and Bridegroom. It is part of the marriage covenant to allow ourselves to be made ready for this incredible honour.

In today’s current climate I have been puzzled about what seems to be someone’s intentions, and what they— in real time, in real life —actually carried out. There seems to be no difference between INTENTIONS and ACTIONS in some people’s minds. In my opinion, those kinds of attitudes lead to confusion and sometimes even self-deceit. Self-deception occurs when we think saying something sincerely, and doing it, are the same thing. Because we owe Jesus everything – everything is what He should get!

Actions are about someone following through on the choices they’ve made, until the things that have been accepted by both parties are finished, and concluded. But intentions are  based on a person’s communicated desires and thoughts – however they don’t necessarily have to be translated into actions.The general feeling about this concept today, is that intending to do something is the same as carrying it out. IT’S NOT!

Almighty God has always held mankind to our word. He gave us His word and He carried it out. His gracious treatment of humanity is our example of promises given and fulfilled. Jesus’ Bride has a responsibility to be the kind of people who follow through on their promises. What we say at the altar needs to be followed up!  When we don’t, then we need to take the time to confess those things as sin, repent, (which means turn around and go the other way), and allow the Holy Spirit to help us keep our word. 

Father God understands, first hand, (His Son came here!) that because we are human, we can have oppressing circumstances. But the best response if we truly want to be transformed, is to go back to Him and talk to Him about it, not just excuse ourselves. Looking for permission to avoid responsibility, or to cover up things and pretend that they don’t exist, will compromise the very essence of our privileged relationship with the Trinity. 

Jesus paid for our sins, it was a gift, freely given. That means any presumption is offensive in the face of that gift. Gratitude and obedience are the right responses. Jesus won’t hold our sins against us, He has already provided a way for us to deal with our sins and missteps. But that way is not avoidance. Many people have indicated to me about obedience: “I can’t do that.” I cannot agree with that premise. The Lord Himself has provided a way to help us obey, at great personal cost to Himself. The Holy Spirit is here! Obviously we can change – we are simply using our feelings and habits to hide from reality.

The bible is the only way we can actively learn about what our Bridegroom expects from us. Yet we cannot do HIS WILL, His way… without HIS help. We need to learn how to behave like a royal, loyal Bride would. We must determine in our hearts to be steadfast toward our Husband-to-be and grateful for His goodness toward us, above our own negative feelings or fears. I am aware that living like that cuts across our desire for self preservation, and the appearance of looking good to others. Our Groom knows about that! He was innocent and He allowed mankind to punish Him …  yet He said not a word.

My scripture today is not one that is spoken about a lot, so I will leave you to draw your own conclusions about your  responses – just as I need to assess my own. As I have intimated before: I believe the Bride needs to stop cherry-picking scriptures that suit her and read the bible seriously, reflectively, with humility, and then go on to discontinue any course that says””I intend to… one day, when I’m ready.” Instead she must be committed to carry out anything and everything that will facilitate her new role as His Beloved Bride. Humility is our bridal shawl, now we wrap ourselves in everything He did for us.

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Luke 18:10-14.

After all Jesus has done for us, don’t you think He deserves a Bride Who will humbly submit to the Holy Spirit’s ministry and preparations with great joy? Let’s be a Bride Who embraces everything the Lord Jesus Himself deserves from us. Bye. 👋

P 2861 Live humbly and obey.

/ DVH

“We cross the threshold of true knowledge when we live in obedient devotion to God. Stubborn know-it-alls will never stop to do this, for they scorn true wisdom and knowledge.”Proverbs 1:7 TPT. 

True wisdom begins as we recognise Who HE is and who we are, now. Plus we need to stop thinking we can boss the Lord around, and instead start thinking Jesus thoughts, like:  ‘How can I serve you Lord?’ You and I don’t belong to ourselves anymore.Entitlement is the name of the spirit of this age!! I am no longer entitled. What’s in His book is my guide through this maze this world calls life. I am not entitled to anything, comfort, ease, job, security, money in the bank, good relationships with my kids. I have transferred my power of attorney over to Christ, now He speaks for me. I live this life for Him.

James 4:10 tells us to: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.”  1 Peter 5:6 says this: “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God [set aside self-righteous pride], so that He may exalt you [to a place of honour in His service] at the appropriate time ,..” So here’s one of those questions I like to ask, that nobody wants to answer — why do we work so hard to give the appearance of being altogether, knowing everything? Think about it. We say: “Fine thank you,” when someone asks how we are. But often we are not. Humility is also about admitting what’s really going on, not just about pretending for appearance’s sake. That’s called hiding. Sadly, the church has gotten rather good at hiding! 

There are times I think we accidentally tie a bundle of stuff onto someone’s back even before they know the Lord properly. We start introducing church rules, customs, attitudes, in place of real relationship! Relationship is the result of getting to know each other thoroughly, good and bad, and we have a book we can read that is already rich in it’s knowledge of Almighty God. We read His book and His book reads us. We don’t have to hide anymore, because we are longing to get rid of the junk that separates us from intimacy with Him!

Christianity is not about daily passing or failing – it is about getting know the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, with nothing between Them and us stopping us! Honesty is essential. You know, there was a test, long long ago, and SomeBody Else voluntarily took it for you and I … and He passed it with flying colours. Now we have been given a free pass. Here’s a great news flash  …WE are already IN. There is no contest, there is no competition. We can fail, repent and get up again and move on. You and I now have our names written in His book of life.🙌

Father God is not like Lucy in Charlie Brown – see the pic above – He will not pull that football away just to watch us land on our butts and look foolish! He isn’t into trickery. We may not understand everything He does and says, but He’s a good, good Father – Who dearly loves every single one of His kids. And yes, I have no idea what kind of dastardly stuff you may have been into, in the past or whatever … I’ve got stuff of my own. And I know that my sin is gone, because it’s says so in the book! Jesus took it from me – He finished the job, and now you and I have inherited more than we could ever ask or imagine. Forget money, popularity or fame – God accepts us with open arms – there’s no greater riches than His acceptance!

My bad choices and sinfulness are like that rock I spoke about yesterday, they can be a stumbling block to my faith. If I focus on those things they will fill my vision — instead I need to fill my vision by focussing on Jesus, Who is God’s ROCK of Safety – Jesus Christ the Perfectly Righteous Beautiful One. Sooner or later we need to decide that what Jesus did was far greater than anything we will ever need. 

That one act not only restored me to God, it restored me TO YOU! You might want to pause and think about that and what it will look like in your life …!!  Faith is simple obedience, not a feeling-fest. You need to know that there are soooo many times that I have made such an enormous mess that I couldn’t possibly fix it on my own. So the Lord Jesus deliberately came here and did it for me. He daily helps me to be the ‘me’ He made me to be. He can easily disentangle the knotted messes we make of our lives.

In Galatians we are exhorted not to start out in the Spirit and end up in the flesh. Works are out, BUT, having a grateful humble heart is IN. Using our faith to believe we don’t have to stay in a stinky mess of our own doing, is humbling ourselves. Confessing our faults to one another is humbling ourselves. Realising that without Him we are sunk – is humbling ourselves! Father God has provided a way through the things we are too scared to confront and change – we simply live in obedience and humility by following Jesus. He knows the Way, because He IS the Way.

2 Peter 1:3.“For His divine power has bestowed on us [absolutely] EVERYTHING NECESSARY for [a dynamic spiritual] life and godliness, through true and personal knowledge of Him Who called us by His own glory and excellence.” Hallelujah! 👋

P 2436 Be humble, the Lord loves a humble heart.

/ DVH

“If you readily receive correction, you are walking on the path to life. But if you reject rebuke, you’re guaranteed to go astray.” Proverbs 10:17 TPT. The Lord gave me a key when I was a very young Christian and I’m still learning how to use it. He said this: “If you will hear Me for correction, you will hear Me for direction.” I can personally testify that that word is true. Allowing Him to correct us at any given time, opens eyes that are often blind to the owner’s faults … as well as new possibilities. Being ready to be wrong at any given time is not only a great source of humility … it is a source of amazing God-given strength.

It comes from understanding that we do not know everything. The bible has this great piece of advice in it: “Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; When he closes his lips, he is considered prudent.” Proverbs 17:28. Personally, I like my son’s translation of that, which is: “Even an idiot looks wise with his mouth shut!” 😂 James 3:13 says this: “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.”  

Humility is rare in today’s world, and, as a result, the people of this age aren’t always wise – you simply have to read the papers to see that! When is the last time you saw a world leader say: “I was wrong, I’m sorry.” When is the last time YOU said it?  Meanwhile nobody enjoys being wrong…including me! But in this wonderful new world of God’s kingdom coming in our lives — we are rarely right— that’s because we are on a journey. Only God is good – remember? Humility always begins by putting Him first.

Many Christians bumble along, hiding from who they actually are, because they don’t want to change … they don’t think it is necessary. They discount their nasty attitudes behind closed doors, and think public politeness will fool God and others. Sadly I fall down that hole all the time. I was raised to have good manners, and they shoot me in the foot a lot. But true humility owns its faults and then seeks the Holy Spirit’s help to correct them. It loves reparation.

False humility criticises others where the perpetrator can’t be heard. You know good manners is about me looking good to you, humility is about caring how I look to God! Good manners can be hypocritical. We cannot be cleansed from known sin we will not own. Utter honesty and sincerity can be difficult to live by, but owning our faults, humbles us. Sadly we can successfully hide nasty traits from others by calling those traits nice names like — caring, constructive criticism, good manners, and sometimes we even misuse the prophetic…

Paul has that whole idea smashed… “Why not suffer wrong?” He says that in 1 Corinthians 6:7. He’s talking about Christians suing each other, but it is all the same difference! What He means is humbling yourself, and living honestly and truthfully is spiritually beneficial.  Peter says: “Humble yourself, under God’s mighty hand, that in due time He may exalt you.” 1 Peter 5:6. We need to come to the place where what God thinks and what He wants, is far more important to me than my pride, or what you think of me.

When we choose human wisdom we are moving away from the wisdom from above. James 3:17 tells us what this wisdom looks like: “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” It isn’t about who is right, and can prove it. Or who is wrong and hasn’t got a leg to stand on! What would GOD Himself have to say about our petty spiteful arguments? What are those things doing to our spiritual lives? 

My 96 year old mother has taught me these things by example. She forgives everyone, and speaks well of people, plus she absolutely respects Almighty God. She has always had the kind of attitude that says: “There is no point in holding a grudge, life is too short for grudges.” I have never heard her criticise anyone. My husband’s mother’s response to gossip or criticism is to stop speaking … full stop! She withdraws and won’t be drawn into the conversation. She respects Jesus more than people. It seems to me that senior generation of women has a lot to teach us!

I think humility starts in our hearts. We get it automatically as we understand we cannot possibly live this life the way Jesus did, without asking for His help… because there is too much of ME in the way. A repentant person is one who repairs things quickly, because their relationship with the Lord is far more important than outward appearances. Living this life dead to self is the very best way to follow Jesus – you get to humble yourself in front of others – all over the place! 👋🏻