Fahter

P 3272 Let’s learn to speak SPIRIT.

/ DVH

The body of Christ needs to know the Holy Spirit’s ways intimately, and live in and listen for His languages of love – kindness, encouragement, faithfulness etc.  When we read the Old Testament we can watch Him when He is speaking to people – we observe how He acts. The Spirit’s language stops conflicts, and we can learn His language by living like Jesus did. The Holy Spirit is not some spiritual club that only speaks in tongues! He knows more human and angelic languages than we have hairs on our heads and He speaks the language of our hearts.

The Body of Christ spends too much of our time knowing other members in the natural – we look for people like ourselves, people who think like we do! We need to know one another because of Him, not our carnal thoughts or competitiveness. He alone can and will unite us. Some people in the natural might drive you or I up a wall, but what will unite us comes through the Spirit’s desire and focus on Jesus.That makes us one, with Him and each other.  The Trinity, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit know all about being One – if we follow Their instructions, the Holy Spirit will teach us what is important and what is not! Unity is important.

When things get hard, there can be times when we try to believe what someone else told us, because of the weight of oppression coming at us. We get tired from fighting our way through the junk that flies at us. But when we start with, and hold onto what the bible says, as the Holy Spirit kisses it, then we will learn about Him as well as ourselves. Some attitudes we’ve held onto are not just annoying they are weights that are keeping us from running freely with the Lord! The Spirit Himself will keep what Jesus says uppermost in our thoughts and hearts and He will change our mind. That’s when the truth can set us free – free from the pettiness and hatred mankind embraces.

The routine that will quickly clear our hearts from non-Kingdom stuff goes like this: repent, confess, restore. If we truly knew the power of agreement we wouldn’t fight with anyone! None of us can afford to ignore the things that are important to Him. When we walk with the Spirit, we have the wisdom of heaven available whenever we need it. Each time we come up against something, there is an opportunity for us to become more adept at ‘rightly dividing the word of truth.’ This also happens when we decide to meditate on the bible, and pause and wait for what the Holy Spirit says we need to do about what we just read. 

And yes … I know most people don’t have all the time in the world. But if you go without breakfast when you need it, at around 10 o’clock in the morning your stomach will tell you what a bad idea that was! We need HIS food. Remember, our aim is to learn ‘to seek His kingdom FIRST.’ One word from His mouth changes everything. Jesus once said “peace” and a storm ceased. God said “let there be light” and the sun came into being. At the same time, you and I cannot live a spiritual life on yesterday’s stale bread, either. 

So as we read, we are looking for what He wants to tell us today – stale bread is only good for toast! God’s Word cuts through our own ideas, leading us into His plans. “So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11. One word from the Lord is worth more than the entire contents of every other book ever written. Make it your daily aim to read His book and watchfully look for what He wants to say to you.

We cannot afford to discard the things of the Spirit, just because they don’t fit in with our society, or our church’s way of doing things. Let’s choose to go after the truth – His truth. His truth does not leave other people out! We dare not pick and choose which truth we will follow, and which one we will put to one side because it seems to be too hard. Let’s choose to go after every single word that comes out of His mouth for us, for that day. Learning to be led by what the Holy Spirit says reprograms our brain. We will learn to measure our lives by what He has said, not by what we feel. That’s kingdom living.

At the same time, we must have each others’ backs! It is a huge mistake to tell some poor sod the enemy has just jumped all over, to FIGHT. That’s like what James said – you don’t tell the guy who is cold and hungry: ‘be fed and warm’ and then walk away. What we do for each other in those moments, is crucial. We say to the guy bleeding on the ground: ”It’s OK brother or sister, we’ve got this. The Holy Spirit has put a sword in my hand and we, He and I, will fight for you!!”  I personally yell: “I need a sword for my friend, Lord,” as I am running at the other guy who is harassing them. (God gave David a stone, as he was running toward Goliath.)

When life knocks me down, there are times that I can’t think or breathe. My mind goes blank so I text people and ask them to please pray. WHY? Because I need a Word from Him. Once I know what the Lord has said, I can stand up again. I literally, cannot manage this life without Him, and I know other people who live the same way. The Lord Himself is the only One Who can guide us through these terrible times and help us to love others and still walk with Him. Let’s learn to speak Spirit, and deliberately choose to learn His language – which is LOVE. Not the mushy kind that fades as life goes on – the kind that REMAINS. Bye 👋 

P 3045 This includes YOU.

/ DVH

Acts 5:32 “And we are witnesses of these things, and the Holy Spirit is also, Whom God has bestowed on those who obey Him.”Ask yourself this question — if you are passionate and you want to walk with the Holy Spirit … then, when was the last time you obeyed Him? We need to press through our feelings, and be guided by His Spirit and obey – Jesus did it and so now, we can too!

Yes, of course the Lord forgives us when we act like Peter, and betray Him by denying our knowledge of Who He is! Even when we are putting our own safety, or our public persona ahead of our desire to own our Saviour. But just because it is common, that does not make it the norm. Total honesty is the best way through difficult  situations. Honesty with yourself and the Lord. Don’t settle for pretending, that just muddies the water. Be real. Tell Him you don’t want to do whatever it is, take a deep breath and ask for His help … then do it anyway – using your faith that He will catch you if you fall.

Sometimes, it seems much easier to crawl along … instead of making the effort it takes to get back up again! However, in spite of the ungodly attitudes that I know I sometimes tolerate, all that falling down and getting up again, IS doing something. Even physically speaking, when I get up and down, I am strengthening my muscles. Meanwhile, that thought is a laugh-riot! I have trouble getting out of my chair, let alone getting up off the floor! Moving on … do squats for a bit. Your muscles will quite quickly explain to you that they don’t like being stretched like that. Our emotions and our own way of thinking won’t like being stretched either.

So let’s look at the bible, where the answers are. In the story below the apostles are under scrutiny by the usual suspects … the spiritual leaders! The council are talking amongst themselves, discussing what they can do about these men talking about Jesus all over the place. Shock, horror … now people are starting to follow the disciples!!  One of the leaders speaks up, his name is Gamaliel – he is very wise. 

Acts 5: 40-41: “So, convinced by him, (Gamaliel) they took his advice; and summoning the apostles, they flogged them and sternly forbade them to speak in or about the name of Jesus, and allowed them to go…V41…”So they went out from the presence of the council (Sanhedrin), rejoicing that they were being counted worthy [dignified by the indignity] to suffer shame and be exposed to disgrace for [the sake of] His Name.”

Did you get that? These men rejoiced that someone beat the daylights out of them because that meant they were worthy to bear the Name of Jesus. You might need a few minutes on that one! That flogging showed the world around them, that they belonged to Him, and what they were doing was working, so well people tried to beat that obedience out of them..I’m pretty sure flogging and maintaining a great attitude don’t always go together! (Hebrews 12:4) But the Holy Spirit gave them Grace for that situation. 

Our God is FOR US. He’s not upstairs somewhere sharpening His pencil writing down our misdeeds – He is so-oo-oo not like that! He loves us and He has made sure that every impediment that prevents our faith from growing –  is now gone. Now we repent and repair things, for our own sake, and because that other person needs His GRACE too! I do loads of stuff for Jesus that I probably wouldn’t do for anybody else. 

This scripture from Acts revealed to me the way I thought about trouble. In the past I saw trouble as punishment. However, at the bottom of it all, when I really prayerfully looked really hard – I discovered that I actually didn’t trust God enough to get me through hard things. The reason I took difficult things into my own hands and fiddled with them, trying to make them go away, was that I didn’t believe He always has my best interests in His heart! His love for us is described in Ephesians 3:18-19: “..that you may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

It takes His power to help me understand that He loves me! That was a brand new thought for me, and it started me down the road I’ve been travelling on for years. We’ve applied the bible as a rule book slavishly, but most of us were too scared to get to know Him and understand how, and why He does what He does. We cannot try to understand Him with our brains or emotions  – we need to use our hearts! The Holy Spirit was given to us to lead us into the promised land of fellowship with the Father, Son and Himself. He knows the Way – He brought the Way into this world through Mary! 

The power of God is not just about someone walking on water, or food being multiplied, or when someone receives a miracle. We need His power every single day to obey and understand HIM. How do you get it? Ask for it. I don’t just read the word – I ask Him to use His word to read me – my actions, attitudes, thoughts and feelings. That’s when the Holy Spirit showed me something amazing. Because Jesus chose to be human, God Himself understands how human beings operate, in a Way He didn’t before! He has chosen to experience humanity. He learnt about His creation, firsthand, by being here among us. NOW HIS SON IS HIS PERFECT EXPRESSION OF FORGIVENESS.

Our God He can never be less than Who He is, Almighty, invincible, omnipresent and omnipotent God … But because He IS Who He is – He chose to go the extra mile and experience humanity in all it’s ugliness and stinky attitudes. Jesus Christ is our perfect illustration that men and women don’t have to sink down into the lowest common denominator. That thought comes from the other guy. Look at what Jesus did, as a mere human being! He had perfect obedience to His Father’s will. 

The Lord Jesus totally relied upon the power of the Holy Spirit, and He made that power available, through His death and resurrection, to each one of us today. We don’t have to flounder along feeling guilty and hoping God won’t notice we aren’t perfect yet. SomeBody else took the exam for us AND HE PASSED … With flying colours. Now the Holy Spirit can come to live in us, because God established a precedent with Jesus. He made a Way to make the impossible, possible, and He gave that way to all of us. That includes YOU. Bye. ❤️🥰