Faith

P 2199 We give too much importance to agreement.

/ DVH

But we do not give enough importance to our faith-filled actions! In this life it is what we DO that counts. Here’s an example: Parable of The Two Sons – Matthew21:28-32. 

“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’“‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.“Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.“Which of the two did what his father wanted?”“The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.”

Let’s look at the disciples. They personally walked around with the Lord for three years, and still managed to come up with loads of stupid remarks and mistakes. Christianity is not about learning so we can quote things and be right, it is about our hearts. Sometimes, so-called enlightened people can be so pompous and big headed. 🙄 A big following does not make anyone right. I don’t care how many ‘likes’ you have … that can also mean you are simply tickling people’s ears. Saying what they want to hear.

BUT “The Lord looks at our hearts.” Whose opinion do we value? HIS or theirs?? And that scripture ought to put the fear of God into us!  Jesus Himself said: “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:14. The above scripture is an example of what that small gate looks like … popularity is not always a sign of the Presence of God. People love to feel stuff, but changing their ways … not so much! Obedience matters to God not just agreement! The above parable highlights that.

Christianity is not about being right, it is about learning to obey simply because we love Him. Jesus taught people about the Father and His Ways using parables. It is way too simplistic to think that a parable is just an interesting story with a nice point and fourteen sub-points. Ask yourself, what is this parable teaching me about the WAY God thinks? A parable is a revelation of the heart of God. It is the Holy Spirit jumping up and down. He’s whistling at us – “I’m over here!! Wrong way – go back!” God is explaining Himself to us and we’d better take the time to listen to more than just the stories. What are we? 3??? 😳

The Lord does not care how we feel about it, He is saying that the one who does whatever He asked in spite of how they feel is the one who is OBEDIENT – loves ME –  in some versions. That is not a line we want to miss. Our faith must be active. He said that tax collectors and prostitutes got it right! Why? They were humble, teachable … they knew they were sinners. When John preached “repent,” they were cut to the heart. They stopped sinning and turned to God for His forgiveness. 

Seriously, it is time we stopped making excuses for attitudes that we absolutely know the Lord does not support at all … and started working on our hearts with His help. Here’s a verse that will change your life: Psalm 139:23-24 KJV “Search me, O God, and know my heart: Try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.” 

Otherwise God could do what He has already done before – He might go right around US, and go on to a new generation. He is looking for obedience, not spiritual highs and theories. It is indicative of this age that we literally throw away the thing we do not like – in favour of a theology that supports the “give me give me” theme. How terrifying. It is well past time to be serious about our faith. The bible clearly tells us what that kind of faith will look like – and if we try to pretend we have it, we are doomed to fail. Because when the pressure comes on, we will have nothing but hot air to stand on.

The biblical standard is always too high. That’s why Jesus came. To meet it for us. Only the ones living by the kind of faith that says, “He can transform even ME” –  will survive those things that are yet to impact our lives. Please don’t just say yes, and do no! Tell Him you can’t, and follow the Holy Spirit – read the book. 👋🏻

P 2198 Let’s talk about what faith isn’t.

/ DVH

Faith is not just praying about something and leaving it with the Lord … and doing nothing about it yourself. Faith is an arrow that turns into an action. True faith is doing what Peter did, he had to swing his own legs over the edge of that boat. Then he had to get his balance, stand up, and start walking. Jesus didn’t come to the boat and take the man’s hand and lead him out onto the water! Peter had to make those moves for himself. Faith isn’t a theory, or an unproved thought – it has fruit – you can see it. “Faith is the substance …“

So don’t just think or pray about seeking forgiveness from that person you don’t like, or the one you keep hurting … go and do it. Keep on doing it until YOU change. We can ask the Holy Spirit for mercy and grace and ask Him to prepare our way – but then deliberately – on purpose – GO! After that, keep asking for grace to see and interact with that person differently – don’t just avoid them. And if you mess up again, then ask for forgiveness again. Forgiveness has nothing to do with shame, it is an acknowledgement of my own sin. It is a positive move, despite our feelings, because we are getting something we’ve lost back. Peace! Faith has feet it is not motivated by shame.

We make the biggest mistake ever if we think that when we pray about something, that is all we have to do. It is useless to pray that the old lady down the road can manage her money well so she can eat! Pray, then go and do whatever the Holy Spirit tells you to do, like take her a box of groceries, regularly. God’s ways are practical. But there is always a step of faith to be taken – it’s hard because it is not our nature – yet. Faith leans on His understanding (the stuff in the book). Faith won’t stop.. . until it sees a change in me. Faith is not self-deception, it doesn’t have to hide because it freely admits its own faults.

We probably won’t feel like we’re doing anything at first. We may even feel stupid. However, walking and stepping out of the boat requires our participation and the Lord does not do that for us. Our faith steps activate God’s kingdom, because His kingdom thrives in an atmosphere of faith. Remember, if we don’t ‘like’ someone it may take time for the Lord to open our eyes to see them the way He sees them. Faith is not afraid to get things wrong, it thrives on the Saviour’s loving acceptance. So it does not avoid people just because something is awkward.

When we are angry with someone, the Bible is clear. We go to them. And if they are angry with us, we go to them. Either way there is an action required to step into what God wants us to do. We will not see the kingdom of God in operation while we pass all the responsibility for our transformation, over to Him and do nothing. Faith never thinks the kingdom of God is someone else’s responsibility. If I can see it then it is my job.

Gideon had a set of difficult tasks to complete before he saw an incredible miracle. God coached this man’s faith. His story makes us aware that faith often requires us to do the very thing we would rather not do – like going into the enemy’s camp to win! Our pride and theories have to go down, and Christ’s servant humility has to come up. It takes a humble person to disregard what they think, in favour of doing what the Lord says. Faith will not hesitate to do the hard thing because it lives to see Jesus glorified.

When the Lord comes back for us, He will be looking for faith – that means faith is something that can be seen. It is not airy-fairy – it has concrete actions. Prayer is just the beginning of activating our faith. It is a conversation with the Holy Spirit about the thing we probably don’t want to do! We simply ask for help to do things His way. Like Gideon we would rather round up thousands of troops – but God spent that time eliminating the human answer. Faith doesn’t hesitate to step up into the fight because it knows our side already won.

This is real life, bad things happen. Faith needs to be constantly stretched, otherwise it may not be big enough when we really need it. We need our faith working right now, today. Faith is about being obedient when we just plain don’t want to, and doing it simply because He said so. Faith is not telling the Lord what He should do for us, it is asking Him what He wants US to do for Him! 👋🏻

P 2197 Sometimes my biggest enemy is ME!

/ DVH

It’s really easy to blame satan for this and that thing that happened to us, he makes a great scapegoat when I’m too lazy to do stuff for myself or I want to make excuses. I’m not talking about feeling sorry for the devil – forget that! What a waste of time. So what do I mean by what I said? There is an old saying; ‘the devil made me do it’ – well that excuse is wearing a bit thin when it comes to Christianity. 

The reality is that human beings make poor choices – read the book. What the bible teaches us is the reality! You and I are who we are in our worst moments … so let’s thank God for Calvary. The devil can’t MAKE US DO anything anymore – now we have a choice. SomeOne died to give us the victorious power to make those choices. Because of Jesus Christ and what He did, we have another option, we can live in another kingdom now. So, LET’S LIVE THERE.

The problem seems to me to be that we wanna live in that kingdom AFTER we die – but for here and now, we just wanna paddle about in the mud and play in the stuff that the enemy has spread around here on earth. Pigs play in mud, not people – especially not our King’s Kids! And compromise is a deadly enemy of the truth. Compromise takes our eyes away from what we can do here and now – and renders us useless in this world spiritually speaking. satan is overjoyed to distract us from our real purpose until we are dead. And getting DEAD is something human beings have very little control over.

It is also incredibly useful to remember that participating in sin makes us deaf, and it takes our God-given sight away. So-o-o-o … when we can’t hear or see … then our personal obedience guidance system is broken, and we did it to ourselves. It means we need a spiritual check-up. My advice is to pick up the bible and start reading – God Himself will speak to us as we read – we need our faith-bank in Him built up to full. Personally I think if we do not esteem and decide to participate in what we have been given by Him, we will end up living in the shadows of this life. Always striving for something we can’t find, and never being satisfied and content with what we actually have. We’ll eventually become pale replicas of the person-we-could-have-been. Imagine how much bigger we can be, when we simply walk with Him, minute by minute, day by day. 

Let’s look at something that I think illustrates my point. There are over 2.13 million species on this planet. Now how do you think they got their names? They didn’t come with name tags! The bible says Adam did it … ‘so God created all the animals and the birds and He brought them to Adam to see what he will call them and “whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.”’(Gen. 2.19) I’ll bet that was a long, day, week, month, year! Maybe Adam actually had the use of 100% of his brain … instead of our mingy little 11%. We’ve been restored to a place higher than Adam’s place. We live in total fellowship with the God of the universe. He doesn’t have to visit us, anymore. We are now His temple!

However, that happened to Adam before he and Eve chose control and a snack, over God’s will. Humanity lost more than living in a fabulous garden! We lost the beginnings of a relationship that was normal, natural and part of Adam’s daily life. However, mankind’s total restoration from sin was incredibly expensive. Because of Christ and what He did for us, now, we have the privilege of spreading love, life and joy around everywhere we go instead of doing the everyday humdrum stuff that drives us all crazy. Hey! Your shadow just might heal the sick!! 

Human beings can contribute to this world in ways we have never even thought about. Forget going into space. We know the Maker of heaven and earth – the One Who made those stars.  And we’ve been chosen to carry His Presence into a world that has no purpose … except for a self-aggrandising one. We can introduce others to the meaning of life. What an honour. Count me in Lord!

My bones creak some days, and my ankles swell up from time to time, plus I lack energy, and I don’t always sleep well at night … BUT – I know that I carry Jesus’ Presence with me everywhere I go! So do you. It’s a choice. Unlike the old Testament, we don’t have to ‘blow smoke’ to hide ourselves so we can talk to God, and hopefully He will talk to us. Those days are gone! He wants to be in every part of our daily lives.

Sin is no longer a problem because now, we have an Advocate … a King’s Counsel, for the plaintiff, standing right beside the throne. Jesus Christ speaks PEOPLE. All He has to do is to point to His scars and we are completely restored. Ask yourself today, are you your own worst enemy? Nothing can keep us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus … nothing but our own choices. 👋🏻

P 2195 No time for a Nanna-nap!

/ DVH

“But you, beloved brothers and sisters, are not living in the dark, allowing that day to creep up on you like a thief coming to steal.For you are all children of the light and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night nor to darkness. This is why we must not fall asleep, as the rest do, but keep wide awake and clearheaded.But since we belong to the day, we must stay alert and clearheaded by placing the breastplate of faith and love over our hearts, and a helmet of the hope of salvation over our thoughts. He gave His life for us so that we may share in resurrection life in union with Him—whether we’re awake or asleep.” 1 Thessalonians 5:4-6, 8, 10 TPT.

The bible says His word is ‘a lamp to our feet and a light unto our path.’ And the Message bible says this: “By your words I can see where I’m going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path.” Christians do not lack light – we actually can’t! Jesus is the light of this world and we are in Christ – it’s not EVER dark where He is. You will always have plenty of light when you hang around with Jesus.

Sadly, sometimes what we do lack is the will to go and sit in the light and learn from Him! We need the Holy Spirit’s help to stay awake and alert in these overwhelming times. Ignoring why we are here is sleeping. Unfortunately human beings are not inherently good, despite popular opinion  – they are often uncaring, self-centred, independent creatures who want what they want when they want it. And if you don’t believe me read a newspaper or look at social media. Those things will quickly convince you that without Christ we are all helpless and at the mercy of our own appetites!

But because we live in the light – living there means His light will convince us that darkness cannot oppose us. Turn a light switch on when it is pitch black – darkness doesn’t leave grumbling and complaining – it is simply gone. Part of the way we shine His light out there into the darkness is to actively engage in learning His ways from the Holy Spirit. How to love others – our family, the people at work or school, our neighbours, so it is incredibly important that we see other people through His eyes. We get our Father’s eyes through living in obedience. His eyes are full of compassion. Otherwise our eyes are full of our own needs and our problems. Living in the light means we are learning to unconditionally accept the person in front of us. We can’t ever do that without the Lord’s help.

As we go about in this world, it is easy to see that many people have become so used to the darkness – that the light in us, and coming from us, hurts their eyes or they are afraid of it so they hide from it. But there are others who are drawn toward the light because it resonates deep within them. In today’s careless self-centred world, we cannot afford to be asleep on the job because who we are is always on display. People watch us  simply because we are standing in His light. 

Alert people keep their faith going even when it is opposed on all sides. If they have to hang on by their fingernails, they hang on! They tell themselves, “God has got this. These circumstances did not surprise Him. He has a plan, His plans are for my good and my future. I cannot afford to see my circumstances through the white noise this world produces, even though it is all around me – I must look at this life through the Lord’s eyes not my own.” These people stop holding onto what they think they must have or need, and let everything go – other people’s sin, the absence of real love everywhere etc. simply because walking with Him is more important than anything else.

Our personal faith is far more incredibly valuable than we realise, and we access and use our faith when we choose to love others, no matter what is going on in us and around us. Faith is a belief that our God can and will only do all of us good whether we know it or not – because He is good. We need the kind of strong faith that protects our hearts. The kind of faith that covers our heart with the belief that He loves and cares for every single person individually – no matter how things look, or how we feel.

Our faith hides in, and depends upon His goodness. It hides us from the deadly attacks of the enemy. It creates an atmosphere that is alert and notices whatever the Lord is doing. Our faith looks for good even within the bad. Our faith believes in Him, His Character, His never-ending kindness, goodness and love. And it shields our hearts by reminding us of everything He said in the bible. Our faith is not in circumstances or people, it understands other people fall victim to their own lack of faith in His reliability.

Lastly, His hope comes directly from our belief system –  it understands that HOPE is a Person. Christ. Our hope relies upon what He did. We cannot afford to gain hope from works, or even experiences – our hope is in Him. Sleeping in the light is wasting the time God gave us all. Just because things have become darker outside, that does not mean we can afford Nanna naps! The light shines brighter in the darkness. 👋🏻

P 2193 Stand with Him. The view is different where the Lord is.

/ DVH

In today’s politically adverse climates, we dare not think that God is on my side, or, maybe He is on that other person’s side. I just want to state here and now, that the Lord God, Maker of Heaven and Earth is on HIS OWN SIDE (Joshua 5:14) … And the best thing we can do when things get difficult, is to take the time to step away from what’s happening to us, or even what we think we need, and ask Him to help us to stand with Him … ON.HIS.SIDE! Almighty God’s view of this world is different from ours – there is another reality – His. This is a key to coping when things are tough.

Some of you reading this blog today are suffering. It can be extremely hard to maintain your faith when everything around you seems to be so anti-God, or even anti-you and your personal POV! But these turbulent times are precisely the moments that we need to remember that we believe in God because of WHO HE IS – not just for what He might or might not do for us. “But without faith it is impossible to [walk with God and] please Him, for whoever comes [near] to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He rewards those who [earnestly and diligently] seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6. 

Christians have sometimes interpreted this verse from Hebrews from our own needs. We think that the word ‘reward’ means that we will get what we want, and when that doesn’t happen then we get extremely disappointed instead! I don’t believe that this is the only way to interpret this verse.  I think our Father’s idea of a reward is His increased Presence in our lives. He wants us to ask Him, when things are tough, for His POV.

Sadly we have strayed so far away from looking at this life through His eyes … His plans for us – which are “to give us a hope and a future” – that we can’t quite remember what being in His Presence does for us! His Presence clarifies things. More of HIM and His kingdom in our lives, is the reward we need more than anything else. He doesn’t see this life the way we do. Human beings often want pain to go away, but maybe that pain is doing something somewhere that we simply can’t see.

Here is a verse that impacted me in Psalm 46. “Surrender your anxiety. Be still and realize that I am God.” TPT Psalm 46:9. Here is the Message version:“Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at Me, your High God, above politics, above everything.” 

That line ‘step out of the traffic’ is brilliant!  I love it. When we are stuck in traffic we can’t think about anything else except how to escape from the stress and noise!  The Holy Spirit is saying here that we need to step away from those things that are putting pressure on us. In the Passion translation it tells us to “be still.” Stand still, breathe, and wait for whatever He will say or do next. Don’t be tempted to rush on to solve the problem by yourself. God is in charge of our time here on earth, let Him order your life.

At first glance, it can seem that if the Lord would only make the problem go away, then that’s the best answer! However, when this life overwhelms us, finding the Lord in the middle of our problems reassures us that we can make it through. Simply because there can be no worry in His Presence!  We need to see our lives through His eyes, that’s the key to standing on His side. When we let go of our agendas and let the Holy Spirit open our eyes to what is really going on, that’s when we are standing with Him. The right key in the right place can reveal His will. 

In the bible, Elisha prayed for his servant when they were totally surrounded by their enemies in 2 Kings 6. He prayed for this man to see the kingdom reality around them, because the other man’s fear had blinded him. Then Elisha did an amazing thing – he also prayed for their enemies to be BLIND – so the only people who could see that huge angel army were Elisha and His servant! Ya might want to think on that for a month or two – I know I will! 🧐 We have the power to see what is going on from the Lord’s view – He doesn’t hide Himself from us.

There is another reality around us that is often hidden from our sight. But the more we live in His Presence, the more this world has no hold over us and our eyes become attuned to what is actually going on in the Kingdom of God – instead of simply staring helplessly at the works of satan.  When we live like this, we see this life through faith’s eyes. Our job is to pray His Kingdom down here into this earth. Not for revenge, or justification, but for His will to be done. Step out of the noisy traffic of this life and be still. There is another reality. Bless you. 🤗

P 2192 Activating my own faith.

/ DVH

The amazing thing about this new life of ours is that God Himself, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, does all the work in our hearts as we yield to His will, His way. We must deliberately choose to learn to live co-operatively with Him. Disobedience drove mankind away from the Garden in the first place, but our obedience – our “yes” … our own personal choices – takes us into the kind of relationship Jesus Himself had with His Heavenly Father. And our loving Father heals us over and over again, through the choices we make. Our faith, expressed by our personal works/actions done in faith, opens heaven’s doors toward us. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James 5:16.

When I choose to deny myself for His sake, I am putting to death my old way of thinking, in favour of something God Himself said in the bible. At the same time this means I am deliberately yielding to the Holy Spirit, believing that He knows what is best for me, better than I know it for myself. I’ve learnt that my first response may not always be my best response… BUT I can trust what the Lord has said in the book – because He wrote it down. It’s in black and white, with some red thrown in!

I used to read a lot of other books to help me understand what the bible said, but I discovered that eventually other people’s interpretations actually coloured my POV. It meant I kept seeing verses, passages, themes through that particular teacher’s eyes. In the end, I stopped reading other books – because I wanted to know what He wanted to say to ME – right here, right now! What He says to someone else may not be what He wants to say to me. It is good to read testimonies about other people’s faith etc. and the revelations that the Lord has given them, but it is not good to substitute reading about their faith, to digging in and finding your own.

Meanwhile, I totally think we’ve beaten that verse in Acts: “God is no respecter of persons.” (10:28) almost to death! We’ve developed a tendency to major on, and quote from a few verses that support our own POV. In doing this we’ve reduced 66 books in the bible, to the size of a brochure! That verse in Acts is talking about humanity’s salvation – not God dividing up His love fairly! That is not something we should even begin to think about. 

I love to pray that the Lord will bless our pastors, because I know that they devote themselves to listening to God, for us. But nobody expects to eat just one meal a week! It will take me using my own personal faith learning to listen for myself – to grow. And at the same time I am strengthening my inner spirit man. The Body of Christ worldwide is struggling over the issue of faith – our faith is being tested everywhere we look. We all need to know that the God we love and serve wants to talk to each one of us, daily. He knows our names and He knows what we are going through and He deeply cares about each and everyone of our trials and tribulations.

However, unfortunately, most of the time we are not digesting what we read. Reading is not digestion. We must “taste and see that the Lord is good,” for ourselves, personally. When God Himself helps us change our stinky attitudes, our faith grows – we activate our own faith. If I am to … continually forgive others …  I can’t just say: “That doesn’t apply to me, I’m not mad at anyone.”  Instead I have to go to the King and ask Him – “Holy Spirit, who am I mad at?” Reading this way is a proactive process. We will have to put down passive agreementto pick up the shield of faith. We desperately need to look for ways to act on our faith in our ordinary everyday lives and consider how what we’ve read today, applies to us! 

It is way too easy to hinge our relationship with Him on perceived answers to our prayers – or even how we feel. Our God is incredibly gracious and generous to His kids. However, answers to our prayers are not signs of His favour. His favour was demonstrated, once and for all, at Calvary! When you or I say ‘I can’t change’ or even:  ‘they won’t ever change’ – you may as well say the sky is green! When we think like that we are scrunching up our faith and throwing it in the rubbish bin. Our God can do anything. That is an established fact. Just because He hasn’t done anything so far, that doesn’t mean He won’t. Timing is everything to Him.

It works like this: we ask for His Grace and help, then we purpose in our hearts to change our behaviour, and then we go ahead and step out in faith changing our behaviour. Activate your own faith – listen, apply, and DO.👋🏻

P 2188 Living by faith, hope and love.

/ DVH

1 Thessalonians 1:3: “We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” In many of our minds those things mentioned in this verse in 1 Thessalonians, are merely concepts. However they don’t easily translate into real life. These concepts need to be part of how we live otherwise we will nod our heads in agreement and then forget all about living from this new place.

This verse is an extremely valuable diagnostic tool, when we are doing whatever it is, without stretching and engaging our faith. If it doesn’t stretch us then it isn’t FAITH! Sometimes we do stuff out of obligation or pressure, or to give a good impression. Repent. Even making dinner, going to work, or making a cup of tea can be faith. We do whatever we do, for the Lord Jesus. If we aren’t living that way, then we need to go back and ask for His help and have another go! BTW, this verse is not some sort of escape clause or an excuse – we can’t just go to the pastor and tell him that the Lord didn’t tell us to do whatever it is – so we ain’t doing it!  We are now subject to His instructions, in the bible.

We need to be inspired by the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God is gentle, lowly in heart, He is obedient and kind. He has a heart of service toward mankind. As we walk with Him that will be the way we think too. He inspires us into these greater works because He loves us all. Any reservations we have about these things provides personal insight into whatever is motivating us. They diagnose our inner human resistance. 

Faith has works, James made that clear.  But those works aren’t simply done to produce or facilitate some sort of end result. Rather, we use our faith to serve Him and others, and that faith is meant to promote His kingdom mentality in us. We use our faith to obey the bible, and Holy Spirit’s inspired leading. When we do things because we’ve been asked to do them by the Lord, the faith we use to carry out the task produces MORE faith. The difficulty is, most of the time, we can actually do whatever it is and not use any faith at all, and that kind of response is more out of convenience, appearances, or duty, or habit. But our faith will produce works that have been prompted by obedience to the word, or the Holy Spirit. 

Perhaps our pastor asks us to go and see and help Sister Mary who is ill. So we carry out this seemingly ordinary task using our faith that the pastor is the leader, and we are serving him, as well as serving our sister, by doing whatever it is. We do what we do as though we were doing it for the Lord Jesus. This is what using our faith to obey, prompted by love for the Lord and others, looks like.

What if we can’t stand Sister Mary and we don’t want to do what the pastor asked us to do? Now we have an opportunity to grow. That’s when we need to go to the Lord and tell Him that we have a wrong attitude, could He please help us? I can’t tell you the result of that scenario, because I don’t know – I just know if my aim is to grow my faith using love – I will have to choose to be transformed in this area. It is no sin to acknowledge that we lack the right motivation, we are all spiritually poor without Christ. We need His riches. It is not a sin to be poor, we just need to admit that we need help. Maybe the pastor can pray for us? 

In my personal experience if I refuse to do something or make excuses, I am probably going to bump into Sister Mary every single time I turn around. Why? God is giving me an opportunity to change my POV. However, please don’t tell Sister Mary you don’t like her … she’s got enough going on already! Go to the Lord and talk to Him about how you feel. Let Him minister His love to you … we can only give away what we have. Now go and do whatever it is anyway and put your feelings aside. This is what living by faith looks like. Avoidance simply postpones the lesson, and trust me, next time it will be harder – because we just hardened our heart!

In order to use our faith we need to line up with the bible – not our feelings. Feelings deceive us – they can be affected by the weather, pizza, or our own personal preferences. They tell us we can’t, when we clearly can, but we just don’t want to! Feelings come and go – the word of our God stands forever. We need to choose to participate in the eternal. Christians do whatever they do, using their faith and hope in His love and power to motivate us through the difficult bits. The Holy Spirit will always help us to persevere despite any personal difficulties. 👋🏻

P 2183 His word has power in it.

/ DVH

1 Thessalonians 1:4,5. “Brothers and sisters beloved by God, we know that He has chosen you; for our good news [regarding salvation] came to you not only in word, but also in [its inherent] power and in the Holy Spirit and with great conviction [on our part].” V6-9 “You became imitators of us and [through us] of the Lord, after you welcomed our message in [a time of] great trouble with the joy supplied by the Holy Spirit; so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 

For the word of the Lord has resounded from you and has echoed [like thunder], not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place [the news of] your [great] faith in God has spread, so that we never need to say anything about it. For they themselves report about us, telling what kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,..” 

V13 “And we also thank God continually for this, that when you received the word of God [concerning salvation] which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of [mere] men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is effectually at work in you who believe [exercising its inherent, supernatural power in those of faith].”

God’s word has power in it. I’m talking about His power ACTIVE in our lives to genuinely change each one of US from the inside out. Paul talks about that kind of transformation, here in Thessalonians.

The biggest transformation in my life came from doing what the bible says – even when I didn’t want to. I simply asked Him to help me obey – and then I did what He said, anyway, in faith. He began to change the things that looked impossible in me – things like changing life-long attitudes etc. I needed His Word to change my mind, and I went on to think about spiritual things His way. That’s what renewing our minds means – we start to think about this life the way Jesus did. He totally relied upon His heavenly Father to keep His Word. Disobedience to God’s ways distances us from the Holy Spirit’s loving ministry in our lives. Repentance puts us into a position to receive again. Repentance means changing our ways, not just agreeing that we are wrong.

When I first met Jesus, in order to fit in, I modified my outer behaviour. The church frustrated me because I strongly felt unaccepted, I was not able to be myself. The reality was, I did not know my true self, I only knew the person this life had bashed about – and I thought my responses to those hard things was who I was. But now I had been born again. I was no longer the same person I was before, I was now brand new! I couldn’t just put on a religious jacket – I needed to start to live out that new life inside me by using my faith.

The Holy Spirit taught me to obey Him by obeying the bible, and He helped me to co-operate with Him. I no longer felt controlled, I felt grateful, helped and free instead: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it, labour in vain.” I had to let the Holy Spirit rebuild my ‘house.’ I knew I could not change myself, because some bad attitudes were entrenched in my old self. It was all I could do some days to simply be ‘nice’ to others!  We can’t do His work in us for Him – we must learn to accept our circumstances and yield to Him.

The book of Romans points out that Paul had this struggle too, but he had a revelation about what happened at the cross. He knew he was delivered from this struggle from his former ways, by what Jesus did. He was now a new person. You and I weren’t just saved on the cross, the potential to be totally transformed happened there too. The power to change who we were happened back there at Calvary. We really are brand new, but it’s like click and collect – you just gotta go and get your parcel! Bit by precious bit.

We are not acquainted with this new person until Christ starts to be revealed in us. And, eventually, through us. We are no longer the sum total of our sinful reactions to other people, now we have been taken out of that world and brought into the world of the Spirit that Jesus Christ lived in. Cherish His company. It is a world of loving service to others and the Holy Spirit will help us live there.

It is as if God put our new life into a bank account and gave us His faith to access it – now we rely upon His reliability – His word  – not our own efforts. When we give away the Grace we have already been given to other people who don’t deserve it – we begin to live in the same spiritual place Christ did. Now we regard other people’s needs as more important than our own.

Paul preached this good news to the church at Thessaloniki and the result was other people far away, heard about the change in the Thessalonians’ behaviour and actions. And Paul said that change happened because of the power in God’s word. Test it out for yourself. Believe you’ve already been changed and start to live that way. Start building your new life on the foundation of salvation not on who you were before. We haven’t just been remodelled, we’ve been reborn!  👋🏻

P 2182 On the matter of active faith.

/ DVH

Over the years I’ve learnt that if I want to love others the way Jesus loved them – then I’m going to need a whole lot more faith than I currently have! 😶 “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God…” Romans 10:17. If I don’t actually live my life listening to, and acting on what He says – it is no wonder when my faith is wobbly and weak. Our faith is extremely valuable to the Lord, everything Jesus talked about required us to use our faith. Galatians 5:6b “… all that matters now is living in the faith that works and expresses itself through love.”

It seems to me that we need to stop thinking that – talking about faith, writing about faith, and singing about faith is the same as living by faith. We must start living out our faith every day, so we can do those great exploits Jesus talked about. I agree with James: “faith without works is dead.” If we say we have faith and we have nothing more to show for it than the fact that we read the bible today, and we prayed, or we fasted, plus we went to church last Sunday – our faith is mostly inactive. Yeah I know, that’s not a great thought eh?

For years I thought doing the above stuff every day was enough. I literally had two lives. One was for Jesus – and I did my duty to Him as best I could, but I felt guilty if I forgot … Then I did what I wanted to and hoped He would bless it. In effect I expected God to join in with my life –  I had no clue that I was supposed to join in WITH HIS! Of course I prayed every day and told the Lord I was happy to do what He wanted me to do … but when I had no leading to do much of anything – I had to remain satisfied with doing whatever came up. 

After all, I had kids and a home that kept me busy. Friendships to maintain, family to care for. You know things like reading the bible, praying etc. are great, but truly using our faith is an active thing – not just a good habit! It is supposed to change our daily lives. This new life we lead is meant to touch other people, as well as reveal our hearts to us. And we will need to use our faith to do both. So we will have to face our fears. Using my faith is the very best way I know to find out what I’m afraid of and I learn about who I really am – inside. And it all comes from doing that thing I don’t really want to do! 

Of course we need faith to even read the bible, but we can come away from that reading as empty as we went into it! Jesus said: “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” To get that kind of feed-your-spirit-bread/word every single morning takes faith … as well as commitment. But ‘hearing without doing’ means a few minutes later we can forget what we just read! Reading the bible is an active thing – we read looking to change our behaviour with His help and use our faith to do things differently.

Look at these two verses as an example: “wives respect, revere, honour your husbands …” or … “husbands, live with your wife the way you know is right. Respect her because she is a woman…In this way, you will not stop God from doing what you ask Him to do. “ 1 Peter 3:7. Unless each married person applies this scripture personally, spouses can end up fighting. BTW did you see that fighting with your spouse hinders your prayers??

There are times when I do not agree with my hubby and he does not agree with me – but I listen to the Holy Spirit, and do whatever I can to end the disagreement. “Whatever you do work at it with all your heart as though you are doing it for the Lord.” Colossians 3:23. I surrender for Jesus’ sake and I let the Lord fight for me. The bible is meant to be the substance of who we are, not just knowledge we agree with. This means I sincerely make up with my husband because I love Jesus – not because I particularly like the process of humbling myself. Especially if I happen to know hubby is wrong. 😂 I definitely will die daily because I won’t want to do it! And it gives me the pip that hubby is often the first one to apologise!!

Our God reveals His word fresh every single day to release His hope into our hearts, even if we already know what it says. His mercy is new every morning because HE is faithful. Me? Not so much!  If we don’t eat food regularly, we will fall down. If we don’t EAT in the spirit we will have no power. No power or faith to fight the enemy when he sends a neighbour to complain at us, or the school rings and says little Johnnie is failing at maths. We need His power daily to overcome the ordinary irritating things that niggle at our lives. This life in Him, is not a little dab will do ya thing. It is a way of life. 

There is a list of people in Hebrews 11 who used their faith: Verse 13 “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.” Did you get that? They didn’t ever SEE the answers to the things they prayed for in this life? Those things that God promised them! Now that’s what faith really looks like.

This the way Christ lived. He died knowing that only the Holy Spirit could bring Him out of that grave. Jesus had to leave this life so the promised Holy Spirit would come to all of us. That would have been so hard for the Lord. Faith shapes us into His likeness. Without it ‘we cannot please God.’ (Hebrews 11) “We must wear faith and love as a breastplate, and our hope of salvation as a helmet.” 1 Thessalonians 5:8b. Because faith protects our hearts. 👋🏻

P 2180 Time for some reality.

/ DVH

Good morning. It is 4.00am at my house and the one great thing about this time, is that it is incredibly quiet. Unfortunately I am awake at this hour because of my concern for my family. Worry and despair jumped all over me at 3.00am and I’ve spent the last hour working on practicing what I preach!  Plus I also prayed for you guys. I don’t know your name and you don’t know mine, but I know that things in your part of the world aren’t always great. Some of you are facing incredibly hard times and my prayer for you today is that ‘the Lord would be with you in trouble … because you know His Name.’ Psalm 91:14-15

One of the things I am still learning about the Lord is that He is much too kind to leave us in the kind of misery that can grab us by the throat and cause us untold pain. However, at this dumb hour, I can also tell you that it gets much harder to roll your cares off onto Him! 🙄 I had to insist, then insist some more! So I climbed out of bed, trying not to disturb my lovely hubby – who has just had nasty surgery on his hand, and he needs his sleep – and I came upstairs to talk to you about the things in our lives that don’t seem to prayerfully resolve themselves easily. And some of those things include other people’s choices.

There are countless books that tell us how to pray, where to pray, how to cope, or how to overcome, but the truth is – when you look at everything carefully – WE will have to use our own faith. No-one else can roll my cares off my heart except ME. And I will probably have to kill off my flesh, yet again, to do it. This means that some days I can try to sit in the dirt and pout, and complain, and hope that Almighty God will be impressed by my sadness enough to change my circumstances!

And praise Him and His generosity, He does – many times. But the Lord doesn’t always help me by instantly changing things – most of the time He helps me by changing my attitude! 😶 Which means that somewhere in my thinking I will have to stop feeling entitled to a better, happier life and thank Him for the life I already have! However, I always need to start with the fact that He died for me, otherwise I can get stuck in the whole entitlement thing.

Years ago, my generation was taught that the answers to prayer relied upon US. If we had enough faith, and a right attitude, bingo bongo all would be well. But prayer is by nature, the acknowledgement that I cannot fix something. Instead I am reaching out to SomeOne bigger, wiser and more loving than I am. Which means I will have to take a risk – and a step of faith … and trust that this incredible Person hopefully wants the same answer I do! I’ve been a Christian for a long time. So I have learnt that Jesus doesn’t always want the same answer we do – HE WANTS MORE than I ever hoped or dreamed and that can take a whole lifetime and more to fulfil. But sometimes those answers won’t look like the answer to my passionate emotion- filled prayers. I will need His eyes to understand what He is doing. Read the book.

In many of our churches we have tried so hard to present a positive image. We want to look happy, fulfilled and successful in our marriages, fellowships, friendships, homes, work places, and schools. We want to show the world that Jesus is the Answer to everything. So much so, we have forgotten that we are are fallible human beings who can still make mistakes. Awful ones. I’ve made my share – and some!  Many of us have worn plastic fake smiles for so long we are almost fully automated. That fake is killing us. Christianity is not a fairy tale, and following Jesus does not always mean we will have a happy ending in this life. Just look at the apostles and what happened to them. 

So today I am writing this to say to you that if your prayer life, or bible study, or Christian faith is NOT ALL THAT – be of good cheer. Our God is bigger than our failures. Jesus is the One Who is real, and sadly you and I are sometimes very poor reflections of His reality. But thank God, He does not rely upon our efforts. Our God did all the work for us – He knows we are not capable of fixing ourselves. We will always need a Saviour, and a Redeemer in this life. And if Jesus is not Who He says He is, then we are all sunk, and we should be pitied. 

Paul said something like that once in I Corinthians 15:19 & 20a.  “If our hope in Christ is good for this life only and no more, then we deserve more pity than anyone else in all the world. But the truth is that Christ has been raised from death,…”  Bye. 👋🏻