Faith

P 2253 One step at a time.

/ DVH

Our God is overwhelmingly limitless … so we must never limit what He is able to do with one person who is prepared to live their life for Jesus’ sake!  I love the Old Testament, there are huge glimpses of Almighty God’s Personhood for those who take the time to look.

Take the book of Job – he was a happy man. Then God and satan had a word war over what was the source of Job’s happiness. Job lost everything he owned, plus his wife, kids and friends! Then God did an amazing thing – He showed Job the difference between man’s wisdom and HIS. Almighty God shifted Job’s reliance over to Himself, and He made Job’s faith even deeper by revealing Himself. One step at a time.

Moses was a murderer. He ran away from his destiny as Pharaoh’s adopted son. Instead he was living a happy, quiet life, looking after his father-in-law’s sheep … when God confronted him. Through Moses we see how God handles perceived problems, situations and people. We get insight into His Ways. Our God moved that man from shepherding sheep, to boldly confronting Pharaoh and demanding that he let his Israelite slaves go. Moses followed the Lord’s instructions … one step at a time.

Gideon was another ordinary man, living an ordinary little life. He was hiding grain from the multitude known as the Midianites. The conversations that Gideon had with an angel the Lord sent, show us the way Almighty God takes into account our character, our weaknesses. The Midianites stomped all over the Jewish people, they stole everything that wasn’t nailed down, but God used an ordinary fellow to defeat the very people who oppressed them. One step at a time – that’s how the Lord taught Gideon. 

Peter, Andrew, James, and John were simple fishermen. But their Heavenly Father had other plans. One day an itinerant Teacher turned up and told them to follow Him, so they did. They saw more in their lifetimes than they ever imagined they could. God gave them a commission they couldn’t turn down, and they followed it – one step at a time.

Stephen in Acts, was Greek. He waited on tables, looking after widows and orphans, then God made him a deacon. He taught others about Christ, by what he did and said. Then he was arrested, and ended up preaching the gospel, going from Moses to Jesus in front of all the religious leaders of that day. A brilliant sermon. They promptly hated every word he said – and even as he lay dying, surrounded by their rocks, he pointed to their Messiah. He did all this … one step at a time.

Paul was killing Christians when God knocked him to the ground and made him blind. Truth be told, that man was already blind, spiritually! And Almighty God just let his outsides match his insides for a few days. However Paul was irrevocably changed by that encounter. He went into God’s private bible school – the accelerated course – for three years, and then he trundled all over the known world. He also spent time in jail on and off, and he wrote letters that are still changing our world. One step at a time.

I could go on and on – Mary was simply a devoted peasant girl. She had ordinary plans for her life, and Almighty God interrupted them with His own plans to bring His Son into this world. Esther was the town pretty girl, and God had plans to make her a queen so she could save her nation. Ruth was a widow, and so was her mother-in-law – yet God made her one of Jesus direct fore-bearers. Ordinary people living ordinary lives until an extraordinary limitless God transformed them all into sign-posts, keys, and examples of what His Grace can do with an ordinary life – one step at a time.

My point today is this: … what does He want to do with your life?? We will never know our real purpose for being here in this world, outside of His plans. Our lives may be ordinary and hidden – but when we read the Old and the New Testament, these people who went before us, are a blazing flashing neon sign in the sky that our God can do anything …if we will just follow Him … one step at a time. When we follow Jesus we don’t arrive, we begin a journey … one step at a time.

Will you let Him use you? It is highly unlikely that most of us will have a book written about our God-given exploits – but I believe, in heaven, there are books and books and books. Why? Because the things we do down here, are the things of faith, and they point to Jesus, just as surely as Job, Moses, Gideon, Paul, Peter, Andrew, James, John, Stephen, Mary, Esther and Ruth’s faith steps did… one step at a time. 👋🏻 

P 2252 Trust is more than a word!

/ DVH

Genesis 15:6 “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” I think this is one of the most important verses in the Old Testament.  Paul says this about Abraham in Galatians 3:6-9 TPT:“Abraham, our father of faith, believed God, and the substance of his faith released God’s righteousness to him. So the true children of Abraham have the same faith as their father! And the Scripture prophesied that on the basis of faith God would declare Gentiles to be righteous. God announced the good news ahead of time to Abraham: ““Through your example of faith, all the nations will be blessed!” And so the blessing of Abraham’s faith is now our blessing too!”

Abraham’s example of faith and trust is an illustration of our new place of freedom in Christ. We accept that what Christ did for us, was complete. Being subject or powerless to avoid any kind of sin is living in slavery!  Christ set us free to choose to follow Him and the Holy Spirit leads us into a new way to live. Just like Abraham chose to follow God to a new land – we choose to follow Christ into our eternal destination – living in His kingdom right here, right now. We use our faith to live this life differently, as the Holy Spirit leads us.

Abraham’s decision to follow God’s instructions, implicitly, even to the point of sacrificing his only son, Isaac, shows us the focus of this man’s heart. He utterly trusted God. In conversation with Isaac about where they would find a lamb for the sacrifice – Abraham said this: “…“God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”And the two of them went on together.” That was a faith statement and it also pointed toward Christ, 4,000 years later! Jesus is our Lamb of provision – He is our way out of serving sin… His Spirit leads us into serving God.

We need to actively learn, day by day, to trust our God … and that means we will do some dying to self along the way! To live in Christ’s freedom means we leave our old life behind, and we use our faith to live the life that God has prepared for us. Sin is not our main focus – what He wants for our lives is. We know that God Himself has provided the sacrifice for our sin, just like He did, on Mount Moriah, with Abraham and Isaac. So we press on, following in the footsteps of Christ, denying ourselves the things we want, in favour of the things HE wants. We’ve decided, once and for all, that what He said He did, He did. It’s finished. It’s done. 

Now it is our responsibility to live our lives, every single day, for love’s sake. Because of our devotion and allegiance to Jesus we accept that the things that happen to us, around us, and in us, are opportunities for change. That change consists of finding out what Jesus wants us to do in any kind of situation, for His kingdom to come. That’s the way we live now – we choose Him. He chose us, and now we choose Him right back. 

Sometimes that may mean that our days pass uneventfully, but those are the days that we need to stay focussed. Because we’ve learnt, that when we least expect it, we are going to need our faith … in the heat of sudden battle. We’ve learnt that our faith is developed by the everyday choices we make. It is strengthened every time we use it. Our faith will be tested, just like it was for Abraham! And he is called the father of our faith – he did it first. This is why we need to practice letting go of what we want, and learn to trust God instead. True freedom comes when we live in that trust because we are not driven about by our own sinful desires.

However, there is no real working faith if we simply let life happen to us. Instead we need to purpose in our hearts to rely upon God’s Grace to only do those things we need to do – and some of those things will involve sacrifices. That is part of our new life, our commitment to Christ. We cannot serve our God part-time or half-heartedly. We will end up disappointed and we will miss out on the freedom Christ died to give us. As Christians we need to pay attention to developing our trust in His ways. 👋🏻

Titus 2:11-12,14.“God’s marvellous grace has manifested in person, bringing salvation for everyone. This same grace teaches us how to live each day as we turn our backs on ungodliness and indulgent lifestyles, and it equips us to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in this present age.”…  … “He sacrificed Himself for us that He might purchase our freedom from every lawless deed and to purify for Himself a people who are His very own, passionate to do what is beautiful in His eyes.”

P 2251 About sin.

/ DVH

Yes, I know I talked about this subject yesterday, but I am not done yet … apparently! 😶 Sin is not a whoopsie, a boo-boo;  a mistake;  or something that happened when I wasn’t looking;  or even a momentary suspension in my concentration! It is not an accident;  or something I just kind of sort of fell into;  or even something someone else made me do; and it is definitely not my snappy response to someone else’s sin against me, either! 

Sin is governed by my own choices. We can blame our mother, father, cousin, auntie, sister, friend or brother but if we read the bible carefully, we will find that… that kind of thinking don’t cut no mustard with God. Neither does … the devil made me do it. Sin is an attitude that has been embedded inside human hearts as normal – something everyone does. That is how it negates what God has said, in favour of what we want, or what is expedient to us.

Most people don’t tell the truth, and I am not just talking about the guys in jail, or terrorists! We all sin all the time, and we are so used to it, we don’t notice – or maybe we have convinced ourselves that after all we aren’t perfect. 😳 Then, because we are too busy excusing ourselves, we miss the opportunity to repent. The truth is – sin has no power over us anymore, it only has perceived power. That comes from a lack of understanding that we don’t have to sin now! We settle for less. Jesus said that like this: “I will not talk with you much more, for the prince (evil genius, ruler of the world is coming. And He has no claim on Me. (He has nothing in common with Me: there is nothing in Me that belongs to him, and He has no power over Me.” John 14:30. 

Jesus died to give us the same power He used to overcome our common enemy. His righteousness with God exchanged for our sin. The reason sin trips us up is we don’t actually understand what Christ gave us. Unfortunately, we are incapable of deciding for ourselves whether this or that is actually sin. We need the bible! Personally, I’ve found if anything is not motivated by LOVE, it is sin. 🧐 However, often people think if it looks or seems OK, it is OK. Just because we’ve always lived this way, that doesn’t make the things we do spiritually sound.

Now let’s get to the good bit. Because you and I have given our lives to Christ, we don’t have to worry about sin anymore. Jesus became like US, so we could become like HIM. “This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment:… because as He is, so are we in this world.” 1 John 4:17. Jesus died to give us the Holy Spirit’s power to live this life like He did. This thought needs to be uppermost in our minds. It was an exchange. Jesus paid for all our sins, past, present and future, and He gave us His position with Almighty God instead. It was given, we didn’t earn it or deserve it. However, tolerating sin renders us spiritually deaf, a little bit at a time. 

When God looks at you and I, now He sees us IN Christ. We will stay in that new position, covered by Jesus’ shed blood, when we live our lives the way Jesus Christ would live them. Living like that, gives us total freedom – but any rebellion against how Christ told us to live, makes us vulnerable to deception. Deception will make sin look OK. Understanding now we have a choice, helps us rise above this kind of rebellion. Instead, we step out of the boat of our old behaviour, (our old self), onto the water of Christ’s loving provision, and begin to use our God-given faith. We now have heavenly help at any given moment.

The bible says: “IF(!!) we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1John 1:9. Freedom from sin comes from confession and repentance – not just pretending things didn’t happen, or blaming someone else. Blame is a dangerous thing, it can destroy people’s faith. Instead, we give up our right to excuse ourselves. So if someone accuses us, we repent. Then we go on to humbly apologise, and acknowledge what we did. After that we need to revise our behaviour when the next opportunity turns up – using our faith.  

Christians need to learn to repent, not debate whether it is sin or not. What we think does not matter – we must let the Holy Spirit vindicate us. This is because we have died and we want Jesus to live in us more than we want anything else. We cannot afford to let pride give sin permission to hold us captive – because that will limit our ability to live in His kingdom. I’ve found regularly renewing my mind, together with prayer, and fellowshipping with the Lord and others, keeps me on track.👋🏻

P 2247 Our generosity needs to abound.

/ DVH

In the Lord’s family, as His kids we need to be hallmarked by our generosity to others. Both those who deserve it and, yes … even to those who don’t! Judgment is not part of our new creation in Christ make-up – we left that on the cross. We need to be givers in the way we think, and what we give is not as important as our attitude toward giving. Our first response needs to be: “How can I pray? How can I help? What do they need?”

If we want to be like our Heavenly Father, our elder Brother Jesus, and the Precious Holy Spirit we must be sincere, generous givers. “God so loved HE GAVE …” Giving is Love’s expression! And if you don’t find it easy to give sincerely, then please don’t just give up and excuse yourself by saying … “God didn’t make me that way (!)…” And please don’t say that’s your personality type! “Ask and keep on asking …”  for it. Pray to give with an open hand and an open heart. I think we can so-oo misuse that asking prayer Jesus gave us. 

You know that particular verse is not just about asking for things … it’s also for the Godly traits we can see we lack! Ya might wanna selah that for a minute or two!  🤔 Jesus Himself gave humanity every minute of His spare time. When He was not talking to His Heavenly Father. He gave Himself to US.  Others – that’s our theme. The Holy Spirit has been given to us to help us with the practicalities. Like I said, this stuff is worth thinking about and acting on. 

Givers don’t have to think … how much? They ask the Holy Spirit … ‘how can I help, what do these people need?’ They are not worried about their own supply, because walking with the Lord has taught them that everything they need will come from Him. This life we live as Christians is about faith. Giving generously to others teaches us about faith in ways we cannot imagine. We will never live in lack when we realise that God really does supply all our needs.

And if we don’t have it, then we don’t need it!  I am not BTW talking about giving away everything you own and sitting on the curb! Although Heidi and Rolland Baker did that and found out firsthand that God has an endless supply. Now they live in His house not theirs – rice and beans may not seem like a meal fit for a king but it is nutritionally sound and they feed thousands daily. God Himself supplies that need – miraculously. 

Many Christians want to see miracles, and here’s what I’ve learnt personally – start out by being a giver. God loves givers because giving is a reflection of His nature. Be someone who actively looks for ways to bless other people. It doesn’t have to be always about money, it can be time, or service, or words of encouragement. Just actively find ways to be a blessing. Meanwhile, a free bit of advice, take the time to choose your words carefully – we can all give people the benefit of the doubt when they do something dumb. 

Last weekend our immediate family came around to our house to help hubby with the garden because at the moment, he only has one active hand – the other one is still in recovery mode. They worked like busy little bunnies making sure some very hard jobs were done. This is how you show other people that they matter, to God and you. Most people can say ‘I love you’ fairly easily – it’s doing ‘I love you’ that’s hard!

Everywhere we go, when we are on the road, people say to us: ‘We didn’t know God cared this much about us.’  Giving is His way to live this life we’ve been given. Unfortunately, dismissing other people’s needs, and their hopeless situations will harden our hearts. When that happens it get’s easy to think: ‘Someone else better equipped than I am will get that ‘- then you think: ‘I don’t have enough for my own needs’ … and then you think: … ‘well it’s really not my business anyway – those people should live more carefully.’ Aren’t there agencies to help them or something? Then finally you think: “I have my own family to look after.” Tada! One hard heart coming up. 

None of those excuses are illegitimate by themselves, but they are what I called them …excuses. Ask yourself, why do I have to make excuses about stuff like that?  Who do I really trust when it comes to money?  God, or my own ability to earn or save. Jesus reminded us that our Heavenly Father feeds the birds. Here is my final thought: the poor do not want our mangey old cast-offs anymore than we do! Please be a generous giver. Bless people. I promise you, it’s all over the bible. 👋🏻  

P 2242 I belong to Jesus – satan you have no place in me anymore.

/ DVH

A lot of the time, we can be tricked into thinking we are failures at living this faith life. It is a huge mistake to underestimate the fact that we have an enemy, and he’s outrageously sneaky! he will hand you some awful thoughts and then blame you for thinking them. Treat satan’s lies like a tennis match – bat the lies back over the net to his side! Our biggest and best defence against his offence is to know what the bible says.

Jesus knew how to play this kind of tennis! Take a look at Luke 4:1-13 and watch Christ win. His enemy spoke and, if you look carefully, you will see that Jesus did not bat back the same ball that was served to Him. He picked up a scriptural bomb instead! Sometimes our best weapon is not our flesh! Even though He’s starving and tempted about food, the Lord speaks out the reality of God’s sovereignty. We need to do ourselves the favour of realising that a general knowledge of what it says in the book is not enough. We need to know this book the same way we know what colour our eyes are. These words are our weapons …and those weapons pull down strongholds, in our lives and the lives of others.

The next temptation is that the Lord Jesus is tempted to get everything He was sent to do, by taking a short-cut. My advice? Avoid short-cuts! Jesus refuses to enter into that conversation – He bats another bomb back about God’s sovereignty. It is as if He can see through the enemy’s temptation and He understands what is really being said. We all need that kind of wisdom – we need to know what we are really being tempted about! You know: every promise in His book is mine but some verses are more weighty than others. Ask the Lord for an ACE to bat back at the devil.

The last time, Christ is tempted to see if God really will protect Him, and He goes back, yet again – to Father God’s sovereignty. He refuses to be baited into a discussion with the devil about the superficial things in this life. And the Lord Jesus makes it perfectly clear that He knows why He is here … His times are in God’s hands. When we are tempted like this, we need to let go of what we think should happen and hand stuff over to the Lord. satan could not find one place inside Jesus that elicited a response. The Lord protected the ground His Father had given Him to stand on. And basically told the enemy: ‘I’m here for the Eternal Mighty God, not for My own personal wishes, comfort or notoriety.’

This is the secret to living in the righteousness of Christ. We must know the ground we are standing on. We are now here for HIM – our ambitions, no matter how Godly they seem to be, our agendas, even our needs are all secondary to our calling! Because of what Christ did we are now standing on higher ground with a higher purpose – we must live this new life according to those purposes.

Christ gave us His place in this world as an exchange – His life for ours. Now we voluntarily give up our lives for His … to the death! At this moment we are seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus because of what He did for us. It was an exchange – His precious life for ours. We aren’t seated with Him to make this life here on earth comfy cosy – we are seated there, in a place of authority over the enemy and his lies, to get free ourselves, and to set others free.

satan could not tempt Christ away from His purpose on earth and we must not let the devil distract us away from our purpose either. We are not just here to have kids, a job, a house and raise a family … this is our time to stand on the Lord’s side! We are here to fight for the people who are not aware that they don’t have to play in that snake’s putrid, filthy arena anymore. Christ died to give us all another way – another place to stand. Beside Him. The disciples stood beside Jesus, and now we do that too – using our faith. It isn’t something we say or sing – it’s the WAY we live. 

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8.“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12. “So that we would not be outwitted by satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.” 2 Corinthians 2:11. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7.

The battles we face every single day are not just about peace, or a happy life – they are about winning a war that started in heaven. Every single time we say NO! to satan, we enter that arena with Christ as our example and guide. He’s standing with us. We do not have to fight alone, we live in the knowledge that as His ambassadors, God will fight with us and for us. We need to stop playing this game the devil’s way… and start living Christ’s new way, day by day, by day. If we fall down we get up again – because we know, like Jesus did, OUR SIDE WON and we have a job to do. 👋🏻

P 2235 Activate your faith with your obedience.

/ DVH

We will never walk on the water of our faith, until we decide to get out of the boat of perceived safety, and walk on the water that might drown us. Activated faith produces substance. Let’s quickly look at Peter. He could only walk on that water, that day, because he was walking on his faith in Christ’s word. Jesus said: “Come” and Peter came!  When he took his eyes off the Lord and faltered, Jesus said: “Where did your faith go?”  When Peter took his eyes off Jesus, and looked down at the sea around him – he lost the substance he was standing on. This is a good place to mention that the Lord did not let him drown. He won’t let US drown either. 

Faith in Jesus exists in a much higher reality than the things we can see around us. Now we have been born again, to ‘walk by faith, not by sight.’ Here’s something to read and think about in Matthew 25:14-30 (edited) “For it will be like a man …who called his servants and entrusted to them his property….He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.”Hiding from trouble won’t produce anything but fear, because that action has its roots in fear.

“Now after a long time the master of those servants … settled accounts with them. And he who had …five talents came forward,… ’Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents …saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’…  … Enter into the joy of your master.’ 

He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant!  …you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has, will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

Our faith is always IN something. Ourselves, others, circumstances, failure, or Christ. For us as Christians, our faith needs to be in Jesus;  what He did for us is all the proof we need. We must to stop looking at ourselves, and the sea of trouble around us or in us, to see whether we feel like we have enough faith. Then ask the Lord to show us how to invest the faith we’ve already been given – because we have all been given a measure of faith.

The amount of faith does not matter, BUT … who or what we put our faith in does! Think on this … this parable is a faith parable. Each one of those servants had various levels of faith – they wanted to obey and please their master. Their obedience activated their faith and the one who had five talents got more. USING our faith will help it grow! Not using it leads to FEAR. How we look at Jesus matters. Personally, I always feel afraid when the Lord asks me to do something – however – when I obey, fear takes a backseat. Suddenly I am investing in my faith’s future.

This parable is not just about managing money, or what we do with our various talents and gifts, it is also about how these men regarded their master. The guy who doubted His master’s goodwill let FEAR stop him from doing anything with what he was given. Our faith is not in what WE think we can do – it is in WHO WE THINK JESUS CHRIST IS. And whether we obey Him … or not. 

Sometimes, hubby and I appear to be doing very little with our seed sowing trips, because we don’t always see huge outstanding results. But our faith is IN Jesus. We know the Lord will follow up the people who responded to Him – the results are still pending – eternity will reveal them. 👋🏻

P 2234 Dead, dead, dead, dead, DEAD…BUT…

/ DVH

Over to Paul. “My old identity has been co-crucified with Christ and no longer lives. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives His life through me—we live in union as one! My new life is empoweredby the faith of the Son of God who loves me so much that He gave Himself for me, dispensing His life into mine!” Galatians 2:20 TPT.

Are we looking to our own strength to fix ourselves or “looking to Jesus Who is the Author and Finisher of our faith!?”  So what does that phrase mean? It means Jesus Christ did not just die to get us a free ticket through the pearly gates. He died for our total transformation into His spiritual likeness as well as our restoration into real fellowship with our Heavenly Father. Now, in this life.

Here’s a question for you:  if we expect heaven when we die …. then shouldn’t we live now, today, expecting He will use our everyday circumstances to constantly renew and transform us, through our relationship with Him?  Otherwise, how do we think that transformation will happen?? By osmosis?? Somebody is going to have to die and Jesus already did …now it is over to US.

Our time away this time has been fun-filled with all kinds of medical difficulties. However, hubby and I both know personally, from experience! … That … ’we can do ALL THINGS because He will and HAS strengthened us.’ And He’ll do it again tomorrow too! We are about to go out and talk to people again, and we know we can’t, not without Him helping us. Knowing or thinking you can’t do something doesn’t negate God’s will in your life – it ACTIVATES it. 

Humanity’s destiny has always been to be restored into the image of God, like we were in Genesis …”let us make man in Our image …” In that garden of His provision, Christ Himself is our living breathing example of what God’s provision looks like. It doesn’t look like a Lear jet, or a posh house, or a fancy car, or expensive meal, it looks like the ability and the desire to love others the way Jesus did when He was on this earth. He gave His life for us, so now we can have His power to give our lives for others. And we get the power to overcome through obedience. 

Adam and Eve did not have to plant that garden … it was planted for them … their job was to look after it, to manage it. It was already established for them. I said all that to say this: GOD ALWAYS DOES THE WORK for us, but… we still have work to do. We must look after what He has given us. We need to be protective of it, by listening to the Holy Spirit, reading His word, and following His instructions.

When sin overcame mankind Jesus came to take our punishment. He came to restore our relationship with Almighty God back to the one Adam and Eve had in the garden. And we get that inheritance, which is rightfully ours, by sheer obedience. We need to manage what we have been given. This life, right here, right now, is our garden, how we manage it, matters. We may not feel anything – we simply need to live this life the way He wants us to live it – knowing He promised to help us win.

Genesis shows us that God wanted to be with humanity, but we were tricked into wanting our own way to get there. satan virtually said to Adam and Eve: ‘You will become like gods, if you eat that fruit. God is keeping something from you.’ Sin is appealing for a season … and then the consequences turn up! Unfortunately, we didn’t just want fellowship with God – we were tempted to be like God. When God told that couple they would die – it was more than a literal death – mankind’s relationship with Him died too.

Long ago, satan wanted to be like God and that’s why he got chucked out of heaven in the first place. Now he is busy trying to make people into his own image! he wants to hurt our Father, by taking away His Beloved Son’s BRIDE. The Holy Spirit is not leading us to die to self because He’s mean, or a party-pooper!  He’s teaching us these things so we can escape from satan’s lies …  “Jesus said: “I AM the Resurrection and the Life, the one who believes in Me will live even though they die.” Dying to self is the only way to escape from satan’s lies and truly LIVE. 👋🏻

P 2232 How to witness.

/ DVH

When we go out to give away bibles etc. hubby often finds that people weep – even grown men and women. Then they get embarrassed about crying and say things like: “I don’t know why I’m crying.”  Here’s how we explain that to them: “Oh that’s Jesus. He’s just crazy in love with all of us. He came here 2000 years ago, and personally fell in love with mankind. Then people killed Him… but He didn’t stay dead. Now He lives inside me. He sent me here to show you His love and bless you, and the thing is, I just can’t stop Him – He loves us all so much, He can’t help Himself. He is always reaching out to people.”

I am not trying to give you some sort of a formula, instead I want to encourage you to put something that resembles this into your own words – as He leads you. Just allow the Holy Spirit to give you a way to talk about things like this, that is natural to you. I’ve only written the above words today, because so many Christians only speak Christian-ese. 

That’s the language in the church that we all understand, and use. It has words like faith, joy, grace, saved, redemption, salvation, sanctification, propitiation … in it. However, those words have complex meanings and they sound old-fashioned and out of touch with this world we live in. For most people the way we think in church is like a foreign language, filled with unmanageable incomprehensible concepts. Faith doesn’t make sense to people who don’t have any. 

And Jesus Christ sometimes isn’t an actual person to them, He’s an historical figure. So when He reaches out and touches someone through you, it is good to explain to them that it is not you – it’s Him. We understand a lot of what we’ve been taught as normal, but it is not normal to the people we meet in the street. Our aim is to make the Lord visible and accessible, and the more we mystify Him, the more we are making Jesus inaccessible. I am not speaking about being sacrilegious, far from it, we definitely need to be reverent and honour Him. But it is more about presenting Christ as a God-Man.  A Man Who came and died for all of us – on purpose.

This is why I really recommend that we need to know the four gospels really well – everything we will need to talk about the Lord is in there. The more well-rounded our thoughts and ideas are about Jesus Himself, the easier it will be to talk about Him to others.  In my opinion, talking about the Lord should be so natural, it flows out of us. That takes practice, it doesn’t just happen and we all have to start somewhere. It should flow the same way as it would if you were talking about your friend, mother, father, brother, cousin. Christianity needs to be much more accessible in this world, less intense, and more natural. Also talk about what Jesus has done, recently in your life – that’s your witness.

Hubby told the people we’ve spoken to on this trip, about the Lord helping him to paint with his non-dominant hand. He explained that he is right-handed and he rarely if ever uses his left hand, except in conjunction with His right one! People were astonished simply because it’s a miracle. And if I were talking to someone about what God has done in my life recently, I’d tell them about losing my earrings, as well as looking hard for them, and then finding them on the floor in plain sight! Our experiences with the Lord and His great Grace, need to be repeated and we should brag on Him! Tell them that when He touches them personally, that Jesus sent you there to pray for them and/or help them. So it’s not you – it’s Him … making Himself known.

Our greatest strength lies in the fact that we know that we ARE the same as the people we are talking to. The difference between us and the-people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet is what Jesus did for all of us. We know about what He did… and they don’t! This fact is Christianity’s best kept secret and it shouldn’t be. Jesus died to open the doors for everyone. At some time somebody told us that truth, and now we are telling others. Christians and non-Christians are not on opposing teams – we have our humanity in common. 

Some of us grew into understanding what we believe and some of us encountered Him in a remarkable way but we all live our lives for Him now. It isn’t the experience or lack of it that matters – it is the real live Person that we know personally. 👋🏻

“But in your hearts set Christ apart [as holy—acknowledging Him, giving Him first place in your lives] as Lord. Always be ready to give a [logical] defence to anyone who asks you to account for the hope and confident assurance [elicited by faith] that is within you, yet [do it] with gentleness and respect.”  1 Peter 3:15

P 2230 Our shield is our protection.

/ DVH

“But You, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.” Psalms 3:3 NIV. “But in the depths of my heart I truly know that you, Yahweh, have become my Shield; You take me and surround me with Yourself. Your glory covers me continually. You lift high my head.” Psalms 3:3 TPT.“Above all, carry the shield of faith so that you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. ..” Ephesians 5:16-18.

Using our faith is using our shield – whether it is for protection from attacks, or we are attacking our enemy, the shield of faith is an essential piece of spiritual equipment. I was taught to put on the whole armour of God as a younger Christian. So I faithfully prayed that I would somehow, by osmosis, have all that equipment, if I just said those verses in Ephesians 5 out loud every day. 😳 In the past my problem was that I wasn’t actually using my faith – I was using the scripture like an incantation.

That had a positive side, it meant I actually memorised all that scripture!  I had the theory, but not the practical. For this armour to work in our lives we desperately need the practical. We all have w-a-y too much theory.  God’s word is practical.  In order to use this shield, we need to keep it next to us on our arm, and live aware of it. I shouldn’t have to hunt about for my shield – it belongs on my left arm. The sword of the Spirit is in my right hand. When something bad comes toward me that shield is the first thing that needs to go up, followed by the Word of God out of my mouth. 

Everything else in that list of weapons in Ephesians depends on my shield. It REMAINS on my arm.  It is a metaphoric shield, but a very REAL STANCE. I stand in the position before God that Jesus died to give me!  And I use self-talk to remind myself of what He did for me – I bring that up from the well of scripture I’ve hidden inside me. Personally, I paraphrase those scriptures all the time!  Like I said it is not an incantation but a relationship with SomeOne Who helps me. I am also using my shield whenever I pray, ‘help, help,’ because I’m looking to Him to come to my aid and help me. This shield is always about USING my faith that He will look after me and help me.

It is an offensive weapon not just a defensive one. Faith is about the way we regard our relationship with Almighty God – it’s about sonship, who He says WE ARE to Him. The shield of faith is also the defensive weapon we use to repel the enemy’s darts of accusation, bitterness, confusion, resentment, sorrow, slander etc. This means we’ve made a quality decision to rely upon His Word and not our feelings or man-made solutions to any situation that attack us. 

Misunderstanding of the way to use God’s word has been the downfall of many God-fearing Christians. They don’t understand how to USE the Bible as a shield.  Reading and agreeing with it is the BEGINNING, but we have to go past the beginning into the practical – by applying what it says to the way we think and act. That’s called renewing your mind. So a verse comes into my mind and that becomes my faith sword to use against the stuff that is swirling about inside and outside. I use it until the attack stops, but I don’t put it down. My faith shield stays on my ARM ready to use.

Every other piece of armour in Ephesians relies upon using our shield – our faith. EG: I get an opportunity to talk about how much I love Jesus and so I tell the other person what I know about Him. That’s the shoes of the Gospel of peace. Those shoes bring peace, because His Gospel is all about peace with God. They help us walk through our days. Maybe I let some bad situation bubble away, instead of going to the other person to fix it. Now I have let my sin go from my mouth or thoughts, into my heart. That means I don’t have my breastplate of righteousness on, anymore – because it covers my heart. Repent and fix it. Nothing is worth losing that breastplate. People have lost their salvation because they didn’t look after their breastplate. 

Our faith is the overall spiritual protection we use to shield us from all the enemy’s fiery darts. We don’t just say this stuff or agree with it  – we live this way. And if we forget, then we repent, fix it  and go back to living that way again. It takes practice. A soldier has to practice how to learn to accurately shoot a rifle. The shield of faith is a learned process that we refuse to give up because our faith is the protection God has given us against the stuff that happens in this life – it helps us MOVE FORWARD.  👋🏻

P 2227 Off we go…..again!!

/ DVH

Well, our travelling gypsy show is off again on our next trip – we are hoping to make 3 trips this year by God’s grace. We will be giving out blankets, bibles, bookmarks, groceries, grocery cards …telling stories ...all that PLUS giving away His enormous LOVE for the people-who-don’t-know-Him yet. Every time we go, I like to read about the sower in the parable that Jesus told, especially when I think of us trundling about from town to town in our car. 

Luke 8:4-10a MSG “As they went from town to town, a lot of people joined in and traveled along. He addressed them, using this story: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. Some of it fell on the road; it was tramped down and the birds ate it. Other seed fell in the gravel; it sprouted, but withered because it didn’t have good roots. Other seed fell in the weeds; the weeds grew with it and strangled it. Other seed fell in rich earth and produced a bumper crop.“Are you listening to this? Really listening?” His disciples asked, “Why did you tell this story?” He said, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom—you know how it works. There are others who need stories. But even with stories some of them aren’t going to get it: …”

That’s us, BTW, God’s people are to be seed sowers – Father God invested in us, and now He wants us to invest His seed in others. The Lord told us years ago: “You can’t have a harvest if you don’t sow seeds!” So, we chuck out seed in every direction just like that farmer. What if they don’t keep what we give them? That bit is not our problem – our bit is to sow seeds. Meanwhile it’s great fun to be a seed sower, you should try it, you meet a lot of lovely people – and you get a bigger view of this world.  We also pray for the churches we pass as we drive along. Plus we pray those people the Lord will send along behind us, one day soon, to harvest the crop we’ve sowed everywhere we’ve been. We want a bumper harvest for Jesus! 

Hubby and I have given away a whole lot of stuff in faith, over the past 17 years. We’ve driven more than 200,000 kms – not including the plane flights! This time we’ve had to leave a bit early because the journey on the first day was too long for some people – namely me!  So, we found somewhere to break the journey and now we get to meet some more people we’ve never ever met before. 

The sad thing we have found out over the years is that many Christians don’t sow any seeds. However this next bit of that parable has a great point: V13,14: “The seeds in the gravel are those who hear with enthusiasm, but the enthusiasm doesn’t go very deep. It’s only another fad, and the moment there’s trouble it’s gone. “And the seed that fell in the weeds—well, these are the ones who hear, but then the seed is crowded out and nothing comes of it as they go about their lives worrying about tomorrow, making money, and having fun.”(Yeah I know, bring THAT up! – God sows seeds into our lives too!)

HOW we HEAR and respond to WHAT GOD SAYS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT – as you can see for yourself. This life is very crowd-y and so many things take over our time. Suddenly we are busy about the things that make this life work for us and we forget we are not here for us anymore – our time is HIS TIME. Tick tock! ⏰ Despite the fact that from day to day, time often appears to pass slowly – that’s an illusion. Just ask any parents whose grown up child is finally leaving home – talk about an express train! Suddenly it seems like ten minutes ago you were wiping noses and now you are getting the church ready for a wedding or someone is calling you Grandma or Grandpa! 

I write about what happens to us on our journeys to encourage  …our faith, your faith, anybody’s faith! Please sow seeds. The more New Testaments you buy the cheaper they are. And the people in this world love free stuff. You know: “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” (Benjamin Franklin) Jesus is counting on our obedience. 😳Ya might want to think on that one. Catch you in the next town … 👋🏻