Faith

P 3181 A new kind of knowledge.

/ DVH

“In this new creation life, your nationality makes no difference, nor your ethnicity, education, nor economic status—they matter nothing. For it is Christ that means everything as He lives in every one of us!” Colossians 3:11 TPT. Light years ago now, when I was doing my shopping in the supermarket, carefully picking out apples for my family. I looked up and there was a young woman about my age on the other side of the pile of apples doing the same thing. We smiled and then we both spoke at exactly the same time – “You’re a Christian too,” we said simultaneously. 

It was truly awesome and …pretty weird … all-at-the-same-time! We chatted about Jesus, and eventually she went off back into her world, and I went off into mine. Jesus in me, recognised Jesus in her. That’s because He is the same, yesterday, today and forever! The bible tells us other people will know we are Christians by our love— but in this instance, it seems to me the Lord went a little step further. I saw, for a brief moment, that there are no strangers in the realm of the Spirit.

The bible itself exhorts us to know one another after the Spirit:“So from now on we regard no one from a human point of view [according to worldly standards and values]. Though we have known Christ from a human point of view, now we no longer know Him in this way.”  2 Corinthians 5:16. Which brings me to my point today …

I have a question. Do we only know Jesus as the Man, the One Who walked upon the earth like we do now? Or do we also know Him as the risen resurrected Christ? Is He now the mighty One Who appeared to John in the book of Revelation? People make a great deal out of creating movies that bring an image of Jesus into this world. They retell His story with a human being playing Christ. Praise God for those who have come to know the Lord because of those films! But why must we reduce everything to movie land? What’s wrong with talking to people?

When is the last time somebody was healed because your shadow fell on them? Me neither! We sing ‘He is Lord’ and then go out of the meeting and do precisely whatever we want to do. Where did ”Live for Jesus” go? Are we excusing ourselves over and over again by saying, God understands? Does He? Or is that comforting voice that reassures us that we’ll be OK, not Him? Paul describes our society to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:2-5: It’s a warning!

“People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” Having nothing to do with people like that, could be a bit hard to carry out when the person you are looking at is in the mirror! Maybe that soothing voice is not the Holy Spirit after all, but someone else lulling us all back to sleep. 

During Jesus time on this earth, there were mixed reactions to the Man He was. Some of the people back then walked away from Him, and some actively opposed everything He said. These people were in the Presence of God Himself, and didn’t know it. Why not? I think their idea of religion blocked their spiritual sight. They saw Jesus as SomeOne Who was like everyone else but He had nice impossible ideals. Have we made religious decisions about the Lord, instead of being guided by the precious Holy Spirit?

Disobeying SomeOne we see as a man like us, probably won’t matter much, but disobeying our Almighty Ever-lasting Father, God will! Perception is a valuable thing.  We can let this world down when we do not make it clear that we will all one day stand before God Himself. Instead, it seems to me that we are hiding in holes, hoping this nasty, vicious, slimy world around us will wake up to itself. It won’t – not like that it won’t! What works in places like Africa with poor underprivileged people, may not work at all here in we have-pretty-much-everything-we-want-land.

Jesus is not merely a carpenter with dirty dusty feet, and good stories to tell. We dare not lose sight of the One we know as our Lord, because otherwise holy things can become common. Back in Israel in Jesus’ time some people immediately fell at His feet in worship. Those people saw more than just a man! We need to move on past our personal view of Jesus as a human being, and also see Him as God incarnate. Heaven and earth’s Darling, Who calls us brothers and sisters. What an honour!

What truly matters is Christ in us… and then our mandate is to release His love to anybody we meet, wherever we go. We can’t just live in our happy little Sunday clubs anymore – we need to take Him with us, out into the places of suffering and sorrow. And yes, we just might get our nice new blue skirt, or jeans dirty. A new kind of knowledge requires a new kind of response. Bye. 👋

“And so the Living Expression became a man and lived among us! We gazed upon His glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the Father overflowing with tender mercy and truth!” John 1:14 TPT.

P 3180 There is no other way.

/ DVH

Mark 10:48-52 talks about Bartimaeus, a blind beggar from Jericho, who insistently called out to Jesus and was healed, and then he followed Jesus down the road. This man didn’t give up on what he wanted, easily. We shouldn’t either! It appears to me that unlike Bartimaeus – we don’t know that we too are blind and deaf.

Many Christians have stopped seeing, spiritually speaking, and we aren’t always great at hearing the Lord for ourselves either! Hearing and seeing spiritually are a part of God’s kingdom. They are a part of our birthright, and a key into intimacy with the Holy Spirit. There are times when we’ve all walked into a  place of unforgiveness because we listened to the enemy’s ‘poor you’ sympathy line. We all have a sad story – this is a fallen world.

Let’s listen to Matthew 13:13-15. Jesus Himself is speaking to His disciples: “This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’

Spiritual eyes and ears are incredibly important to our walking with the Holy Spirit. Even as our everyday human sight and hearing are part of our interaction with the world around us – if we cannot see or hear with our normal eyes and ears, we will be shut out of God’s Ways. What is true in the natural, is also true spiritually. We will be shut off from seeing and hearing the glories and knowledge of His kingdom if we refuse to obey what He said.

Meanwhile the Lord Jesus is never silent, read the book – it’s chock full of what He said! Please stop worrying about discerning ‘voices’ and read the bible instead. A thorough knowledge of the Word of God is the best discerner on the planet! Jesus spent hours teaching His disciples. He was teaching them to see and hear what  was going on inside themselves, and all around them. Things aren’t always the way they look! 

At one stage of their walk with Jesus, two of the disciples – James and John in Luke 9:54 – want to burn down a tower in a Samaritan town that rejected the Lord. How could this awful attitude happen, when they were daily walking with Jesus? These two men had no spiritual sight. They obviously did not understand what Jesus was teaching them! Maybe they thought He was making suggestions, or perhaps what the Lord said was in opposition to what this world had taught them and they tried to marry the two things together. We cannot successfully live in two worlds. That’s like trying to stand still in the middle of a roaring flooded stream. The stream will carry you away. 

Now, let’s look at what blocks our spiritual sight and hearing. The bible says it is a calloused heart. That malady is fostered by sin, and it is definitely not helped when we stop sincerely forgiving others, from our hearts. If we harden our hearts against other people, and stop paying attention to the conviction of the Holy Spirit as He speaks to us,our problem is no longer that other person! We will end up grieving Him because He loves them too! 

The same thing goes for any other sin, we have a free will and our choices matter. We are only fooling ourselves if we excuse ourselves for one reason or another. The Holy Spirit wants us to walk with Him, and forgive others despite their sins against us. It is not about the other person — it is about what will happen to us in our relationship with Him. Meanwhile, He is not just our answer – He is their answer too! Grace flows out when we allow forgiveness in.

Jesus is always ‘other centred’- and therefore a calloused heart is a terrible state to cultivate. A calloused heart can be made unfeeling and numb by repeated actions. We will end up with an inner war, as the Spirit fights to free us as we fight to hold onto our anger and thoughts and feelings of revenge against the other person. Eventually such thoughts become habitual and we have a stronghold to deal with. We cannot fix the past by holding onto it—the way forward is to make the future different. The Holy Spirit is in our lives to help us with those things. 

The longer we allow ourselves to remain in that frozen hardened state, the more it becomes harder to escape. Hatred, revenge and murder begin to infiltrate our thoughts. “When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?  But He turned and rebuked them [and He said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”  Luke 9:54-56. The Holy Spirit will help us with what we need to do, but we need to obey Him and disobedience hardens our hearts. If you have been praying about your sight and hearing and you aren’t doing very well, then perhaps you need to start by searching your heart, with His help. It is astonishing what we hide – even from ourselves.

We can close our spiritual ears and eyes because of our own choices. To be in Christ Jesus – we need to be doing what He would do. And He forgave us all as He was hanging from that tree. There is no other way. Bye. 👋

P 3179 What does love look like?

/ DVH

If you have been reading this blog on and off for a while you will already know my answer to that question. Real love looks like an innocent man hanging from a cross – suffering willingly and terribly, for every rotten, evil thought and deed humanity has accidentally and purposefully perpetrated against themselves and others.

At the same time love looks like 1 Corinthians 13, 1 John 4:18, 1 Peter 4:8, 1 Corinthians 16:14, Colossians 3:14 just to name after few verses. Every single time I read that chapter in Corinthians, I know I do not have it in me to be that person – I’m going to need truckloads of supernatural help! But God Himself wants to transform my own personal experience into His kingdom experiences, as I learn to walk in His Love. However, I will need to remember that His love is not permission to do whatever I want. It has aims for my life. But the Holy Spirit will always help me.

God’s kind of love does not in any way resemble our modern world, which shouts and jumps up and down at everyone else and says:‘ If you love me you will give me what I want!’ God’s love is founded on, and maintained, through sacrifice. His love is so real, deep and comprehensive it will not rest until it brings out the very best in His beloved. Read the book. Start with the Old Testament and watch our Heavenly Father work with a rebellious, cantankerous, wilful people. The Israelites wanted a god who would smite their enemies, and leave them alone to do absolutely anything they wanted to do, and who cares about the consequences?

Now listen to what the Lord God Almighty says about Himself: “I am the LORD, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed.” Malachi 3:6. Did you get that bit? He does not change – you and I might have wanted to do some smiting and biting because of the Israelites horrible attitudes, but our God does not change – His Holiness is fixed. Self-centredness has nothing in common with God’s pure and holy love. Amazingly, Father God does not want to destroy the man He made, that’s why Jesus came. “But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8.

If God had not sent His Son to die for us then the devil would have destroyed all of us. We were sitting ducks! Jesus thwarted our enemy’s attempt to subvert the ways of God so we can walk with Him ourselves. Jesus not only saved us all from hell – He saved us from our own choices. Then He took us out of satan’s kingdom, paid our debt, so we can live in His Father’s kingdom – LOVE’S KINGDOM. Love’s kingdom has parameters.

“But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light.”  1 Peter 2:9. It is way too easy to skip over some bits of verses, and just kind of go for the sweet bits we like, that are often in the middle.”The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by EVERY word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4. Let’s go back to the words we often don’t see …1 Peter 2:9 …”As a result you can show others the goodness of God… OR “…you are not like that …” 

If we are not careful we can easily skip right by those few words, to the ones that tell us what we want to hear.… You are ‘a royal priesthood, a chosen people, God’s very own possession’…those bits. But if we are to live this life as the Father’s royal priests. We are not meant to be the Levites or Pharisees – there is a new order of priests – we are priests who live like Jesus did! We cannot afford to live like everyone else around us. Jesus is ultimate royalty and His life and teaching are our example. God’s Love corrects us and disciplines us, to transform us into royalty.

Human beings don’t think of love as correction, however, correction and discipline are definitely a part of His love! God Himself allowed US to punish HIS SON for OUR own ultimate good. That’s how much He loves us and that’s what love looks like to Him! The devil will quibble, question and defer to our so-called right to be indulged, on the basis of “poor me’ until we are DEAD! However, our Father guides and corrects us because He utterly and unreservedly loves us. Our Father does not discipline us because He wants to spoil our fun… He does so because the stuff we wander into is like treacle or quick-sand – we wander in and we can’t get out!

Trapped in sin is a very bad look for human beings! We were made to worship the Lord, and enjoy Him all the days of our lives… and beyond! But sin, when it is embraced, colours everything around it. Colour goes out of this world when we leave God out. However, living for Jesus and others, as He leads us, is the most delightful thing anyone can aim at. It brings out God’s purpose in our lives, and we learn to live aware of Him. Living a life of faith means we know who we are, and why we are here. That changes the way we see everything else around us.

Let’s briefly go back to the Israelites. They could not see LOVE leading them, and so they felt deprived when they couldn’t do what they wanted to do. Love Himself was talking to them and they couldn’t hear a word He said, because all their complaining and whining blocked His words out! But living this life as a totally surrendered lover of Jesus will transform us to look like Him. It isn’t always FUN, but ‘afterward we reap the peaceable fruits of righteousness.’ Hebrews 12:11. Love looks like Jesus. Bye. 👋

P 3178 Our thoughts.

/ DVH

Most despairing attitudes start in our thought-life. However when we take the time to pay attention to what we are thinking, we can exchange those thoughts for Who He is and how much He loves us! His love is the only constant thing this world has! It is a matter of choice, not a matter of proof. Do we believe what He says or how we feel. The more we know what the truth is — the bigger our opportunity is to be blessed, because we have come to know personally, intimately, a greater reality. 

These two seemingly opposite things, like hardship and blessings can co-exist. Pain, heartache, and sorrow, can be present at the same time as our knowledge of Who He is and how much we are loved by Him. Open the bible and find a scripture that helps, and then hold fast to it.  His love is always greater than the circumstances. When these things fall upon us, we need to learn to insist, purely for our own good. The Lord Jesus outweighs the things that come against us to try to drown us in our problems. He is bigger than anything we might face. Yelling ‘help,’ helps me! And no, I don’t always do that out loud!!

When we are under any sort of duress, we need to deliberately read the bible to remind ourselves of His kind of love. At the moment when you feel you can’t – you must! His love is so good, so faithful, so steadfast, that as we read, we will come to a place where we feel the darkness recede … don’t stop there, keep going. The enemy is pushing you, push back! If we fall into something testing or tormenting we know that He will help us. He says so! The Holy Spirit, the One Who comes alongside us, will kiss us back to life again. This is when our faith in God’s goodness has an opportunity to grow. Jesus died to give us that choice!

Faith needs to be tested otherwise it will not have depth. There is a stronger kind of faith that has been tried and tested and come through all kinds of difficulties with even more gratitude and worship. I know people who have this kind of faith. All kinds of hardship are actually fertile ground, fertilised by our surrender and our active faith that He is bigger than anything else. Being tested, and pushing on, can only deepen what we already know about Him! We cannot trust the Lord completely until what we believe has had our beliefs tested and shaken, so that all the unbelief falls off. Then we’ll discover that He is more than able to keep us.

If we choose to continue to follow and submit to Him even when we feel we cannot find our way—we will get through whatever is shaking our world, and come out of the other side – whether the situation changes or not.. Let’s make the immediate choice to look up and see that dear face of His so close to us. He knows all about pain and suffering and sorrow – personally. He understands it is hard – personally! At the same time the Holy Spirit will comfort us, and teach us that we can rely upon the very real fact that He will never leave us or forsake us. 

The Lord is closest to us whenever we feel devastated and alone. We have His promises. The question is, do we believe what He says, over and above what we can see with our own eyes or hear with our own ears? Hebrews 13:5b,6. “Never will I leave you;  never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my Helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” Did you see what that verse says? ‘So we SAY with confidence …’  At this point I start speaking to my soul, like the Psalmist told us: I tell my soul to ”… hope in God!” (Psalm 42:11.)

Now let’s look at James 1:2-4 – “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colours. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” James says that the thing we often desperately want to wriggle out of, is a GIFT. Because under pressure we are forced to face what we lack! When you know what you don’t have, you can target it with repentance and scriptures. Start by identifying what you are feeling: ‘I’m angry;  I’m afraid;  I’m jealous;  I am in despair.’  We no longer need to be afraid to diagnose the places in our hearts that lack — Jesus died for that lack. All we are doing is working with the One Who was sent to help us through!

Finally, we begin to realise that there is even something greater at stake than our immediate sense of comfort or peace of mind. That is God’s Kingdom blooming and blossoming in us. Hebrews 10:35-36 “Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.”  Don’t choke in the hard bits – press through – grab hold of Jesus and hang on!

His kingdom will begin to be revealed through your life, simply because it is our destiny to bring the kingdom with us. The gospels are not some sort of fairy story with a happily ever-after ending. They end in the death of the HERO. But – His resurrection ushered us into a whole new kind of world. His world has love in its centre and it is filled with hope and faith. OUR world has things in it that can be stolen or broken, but His kingdom is an incredible storage unit, we can deposit our precious families etc. with the Lord, where this world can’t get at them.

Our thoughts are so important, they can turn the ship of our lives into the wind, to be moved by our beloved Holy Spirit – HE knows where we are going and what we will need to get there!  Bye. 👋

P 3177 God loves to play ‘peek-a-boo!”

/ DVH

In our daily lives we get glimpses of the Lord acting for us, and doing things around us. A glimpse by definition is a fleeting view, a passing glance, or a quick look into something briefly. This means that there are days that we pray for someone, like I did for my neighbour the other day, and she successfully dodged huge hailstones and part of someone else’s roof while she was driving. Whenever we hear a good report we know it is the Lord answering our prayers. Let’s acknowledge those moments, not just take them for granted.

We are, day by day, blessed and humbled by His loving care. So the idea of using Him for our own ends, is abhorrent. And it is definitely not the same as knowing Him! Using Him is about getting what I want, far more than it is about gaining knowledge of Who He is. We don’t need some snappy “twist God’s arm to get what I want” system – He loves us! These ‘peek-a-boo’ moments are meant to move us on into a lifestyle of gratitude. 

There are times when we’ve prayed for ourselves after a particularly difficult day and we find the rest of that day sort of, smooths itself out. And we know it is the Holy Spirit, doing what He does best, making our pathways straight and unhindered – He is helping us. Praise Him! On other not-so-fantastic days we pray and the same sort of junk plops on us, but it is a different day – and we are suddenly plunged into the land of worse. 

What changed? Why did He answer one prayer of escape and not the next one? I’m going to give you my little theory, but I want to stress that you should ask Him that question for yourself. When we pray for this and that, and the Lord graciously answers our prayers we are relegating Him into what I call the specialist category. When human beings have a need, and we can’t solve it, we go to a specialist. Whether it is about health, our car, or our house! 

It might seem very flattering to see the Lord as the kind of specialist we can consult with whenever we need help – but doing that will not form the kind of permanent on-going relationship that the bible talks about. Jesus wants to be our everything! If we are not grateful for we have been given, then I think we can end up relegating our Heavenly Father into a consultant category. SomeOne we call on because something or other isn’t working!

We need a much wider view – that is less about me and far more about seeing Him as Almighty God, Who rules heaven and earth! He loves us so much He has His eye on us! The bible tells us we are His people, so we do not ever have to suffer from an identity crisis. Jesus Himself knew He would always be heard. He died to give us the same privilege He had. However, the inner workings of our heart matters. Using God to make my life better is not “… the same mind that was in Christ Jesus.”(!!!) In spite of the terrible things He faced, Jesus knew His Father’s Way was the best way. So He actively chose to honour Father God’s will despite the pain it caused Him. 

When Christ became our sin, He was separated for the first time from His Father. I think that’s what killed Him – that relationship was so glorious the break in it was fatal to Him. It broke His heart. Oh, I pray that the people of God would be heartbroken over sin the way Jesus was! I believe He is our God-given illustration of how to be human, and walk with God Himself, in the Person of the Holy Spirit! 

The Lord Jesus’ teachings and parables are illustrations of what this life can look like when we follow Him wholeheartedly. We can see in the bible, for ourselves, that Jesus always chose His Father’s Way. So this is what we need to do … we need to understand that Father God is not merely our consultant – He is our GOD, first and foremost! He is in charge and we are not. We cannot afford to postpone obedience or ignore Him — because of the consequences. Ignoring Him means we miss out on knowing Him, as well as living our lives His way! The Way of the Cross.

Jesus said in Matthew 16:25,26 – “For whoever wishes to save his life [in this world] will [eventually] lose it [through death], but whoever loses his life [in this world] for My sake will find it [that is, life with Me for all eternity]. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world [wealth, fame, success], but forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” 

Our Heavenly Father is not a despot. In the Old Testament we can hear Him pleading with Israel — the way a parent would plead with a beloved child who is on the wrong path. He wants us to come to Him purely because we have a deep faith in His goodness. HE will not ever do us harm! Jesus Christ chose to come willingly under His Father’s Leadership and supervision at all times, and He taught us that we need to do the same. There is no such thing as part-time Christianity in God’s eyes. He bought and paid for us with the most precious thing this world has seen – His own Son’s blood.

Now He wants us to choose to live our lives, HIS WAY, and we will see Him everywhere. When we deliberately  make that choice and stick to it.  In other words He won’t just play peek-a-boo, He will manifest Himself among us and we will become His people, not just in name but in deeds! Bye. 👋 

P 3176 Sounds like a laser to me!

/ DVH

“For we have the living Word of God, which is full of energy, like a two-mouthed sword. It will even penetrate to the very core of our being where soul and spirit, bone and marrow meet! It interprets and reveals the true thoughts and secret motives of our hearts.”  Hebrews 4:12 TPT.

Yeah, that last bit is a bit of a doozie! The writer is talking about those inside, hidden-in-our-heart bits we sort of kind of know about, but we do our best to hide them from ourselves, and others! You know what I mean, the things that we suddenly glimpse, and we try really hard to instantly forget them because they look like the Great Wall of China and it’s all too hard! We all know a Godly life is a priority. We must remember that stuff like this is a distraction. The thing is, those hidden things I’ve mentioned, flavour our lives and our points of view …to the extent that we end up seeing bad motivation where there is none. Then we end up trying to escape or debate over the issues of the very things that can transform us.

We know that God’s Word will go straight to the heart of any matter and, at the same time it lays our phoney, self-serving excuses bare. So there we are … uncovered and exposed, feeling lower than a snake’s belly in a wheel rut. Guess what? In those self-discovery moments we must remember that Jesus died for every stinky evasive attitude we have as well. We will lose our way when we stop listening to the cues that the Holy Spirit gives us. He wants to lead us back into true fellowship with Jesus and our Heavenly Father. That’s the only safe place for us. Our God is always for us.

When we choose to allow His Word to work on our hearts, it will do the kind of surgery that will affect our minds emotions and bodies. It can expose errors between what the Lord says, and what we think. It often shows us the way we think is shooting us in the foot spiritually, especially when we choose to take it seriously! His Word takes the doubt out of what we believe because it reveals to us the Way the Lord thinks, and what He wants from us. Plus it separates our way of thinking away from the world’s way of thinking. All that happens because this morning we decided to prioritise His Word – reading it until something strikes us in the heart. Then we choose to go out and act on what we read. 

The acting on it bit is incredibly important. James 1:19-27 exhorts us to not just hear what the Lord says but go out and do it. “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 

For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

Looking into God’s word and persisting with it, until we identify how to act on it, means we are moving away from being a hearer, into being a doer. We will begin to walk with the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God never theorises – He acts! It is in His nature to be active for us and others. The people who choose to follow Him, act like Him. They know they need His help, because they know themselves clearly enough to realise that they can be deceived so easily.

These people are not driven by emotion, instead they manifest what righteousness before the Lord, looks like. The Word working in them and on them changes the way they react! They truly love the Lord, because they have discovered His love is a love that is like no other. ‘Listening and doing’ people deliberately set aside anything that remotely looks like it might hold them captive. They know that Godly actions bless them and others, as they participate by working with Him. His kids understand Who the Lord is, who they are, and they are realistic about this life. They constantly remind themselves that Jesus died for their inadequacies.

These people James is talking about are never self-deceived because they don’t trust their own opinions – instead they use the bible as their permanent reference book. They are well-aware that life and death is expressed through what they say, so they pray and watch over the way they use their words. Their desire is to bless others and if what is said won’t bless anyone, then they refuse to say it. His kids love to honour the Lord in everything they do, simply because He has revealed His heart to them and they’ve fallen in love with Jesus and the Way He does things. They can never forget that the poor, hungry, homeless among us are our responsibility. 

The Holy Spirit’s leading and freely given understanding are just like a laser, cutting through our wishes and wants, to expose who we really are, but without any fear or shame. Bye. 👋

P 3175 Piece of cake!

/ DVH

“Christ is our message! We preach to awaken hearts and bring every person into the full understanding of truth. It has become my inspiration and passion in ministry to labor with a tireless intensity, with His power flowing through me, to present to every believer the revelation of being His perfect one in Jesus Christ.” Colossians 1:28-29 TPT. 

“Christ’s resurrection is your resurrection too. This is why we are to yearn for all that is above, for that’s where Christ sits enthroned at the place of all power, honor, and authority! Yes, feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts with heavenly realities, and not with the distractions of the natural realm.” Colossians 3:1-2 TPT.

We can waste a lot of our God-given time reflecting on where we’ve missed it, and end up living in the land of regret. It is good to be aware of where you’ve fallen short of the mark, but not to the point where you can’t even see the mark anymore! That mark is this – Jesus’ sacrifice and His wonderful love for mankind. We have all been given a priceless gift …total reconciliation with God. Yes, He knows what we are like;  yes He knows we fail;  but our wonderful Father, God, is far greater than we can ever imagine. Right here. Right now. He sees us complete in Christ. That’s because of Who He is, His nature – not our spirituality.   

The best news ever, is this… Jesus did not fail. He was tempted in every aspect of this life, just like we are, He got tired, just like we do, He had responsibilities, just like we do. Listen to this particular responsibility!  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18&19. Howzat for hard? 

Yet Jesus quite naturally walked and lived with SomeOne that we need to learn to walk with, minute by minute, day by day — the precious Holy Spirit.The good news is this – I don’t have to be all that – Jesus already did it for me. Our hearts need to be awakened all the time, to the reality of His truth – by reading and acting on the stuff that is written down in His book.

For instance, the bible says: ‘agree with your adversary quickly.’  Matthew 5:25. We’ve been lied to by our enemy who told us: ‘There is no way you can ever be like Jesus. After all, you did this and that. And something much worse, yesterday!!’ So I agree with the enemy when he accuses me, but then I refer him to the bible, because that is what Jesus did when He was tempted.  I point to the cross because I know I have nothing else but His Grace to commend me.

Sometimes I think we’d rather hide in the wine press, like Gideon did, than be seen! The bible says the people recorded in the Old Testament are there ‘…as an example to us.’ 1 Corinthians 10:11. Let’s not hide like that young man did. Instead let’s remember God has a plan and we are already in it! Our problem is we need to maintain our faith in His goodness, His promises … not just focus on our sins. We have weak wobbly faith in a tiger-pouncing world! It’s time to get up off the mat and get back into doing what we’ve been destined to do …telling and showing everyone around us how much Jesus loves them! 

A lady came here yesterday and in the course of our conversation she mentioned that she didn’t go to church but she did talk to God. She said this like she thought it was a bad thing. Like somehow she was sneaking into a rock concert without a ticket! We assured her she didn’t need a ticket, because God heard every word she said. Then we went on to reassure her that Christianity is not a club you join, it’s a Person you meet, so we don’t have to shout out our number as we go through the door! She laughed, and said: “You should tell people that more often!”  We need to remember …’it is the kindness of God that leads people into repentance.’  Romans 2:4. The-people-who-haven’t-met-Him-yet are often more happy to hear the truth than we are to give it to them!

However, we all know that sometimes witnesses can be quite reluctant. Cop shows on TV taught me that!! There is no such thing as getting it right, there is only obeying Him, or not. He’s a Redeemer! He can take the mess we’ve made of our lives, and turn it into something more wonderful than we can imagine. At the same time the Holy Spirit knows our frame. He also knows our weaknesses …but when we give them to Him, He will give us His strength in exchange. We don’t have to give someone else a 20 course dinner about what the bible says, in our testimony – we just give them the fresh bread He gave us this morning when we read the bible! 

There is the saddest parable told by Jesus Himself, about a rich man and a beggar. Luke 16:19-31. As the beggar talks to the rich man he says: “And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” Let’s choose to take the time to tell others that–SomeOne, God Himself!–came here and made Himself that bridge between what people think they know about Him and Who He really is. Tell them Jesus is everyone’s bridge back to God.  Our testimonies are powerful, because the Holy Spirit handpicks the people He sends us to.

Revelation 12:11 –“And they overcame him (satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”  You and I don’t have to be the whole band – but … you can be the banjo Jesus plays on… OK!… Let’s not be picky … you can be the flute instead! Piece of cake. Bye.👋

P 3174 Let’s get rid of abstract concepts …

/ DVH

… and go for REALITY instead! For years we’ve gone about repeating bible verses over and over, in the hope that saying them all the time, meant we would become them. Has anybody out there noticed that that idea doesn’t work? Even sincerity can be dodgy, we need to activate our faith by living it! There’s nothing wrong with knowing, and prayerfully linking bible verses to our circumstances, but we need to remind ourselves that we are not ordering something from a catalogue – we are conversing with Almighty God, the God of all the Ages, the High and Holy One! Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us. HE knows how to pray!!

In every kind of trouble, it’s not all about what I need, it’s about what He wants. Under pressure, we are more than capable of praying those catalogue-type repetitive prayers, given the right circumstances. However, the best kind of prayer is this: “what do You want right here, right now, Father God?” Then we need to stop and listen for His whisper. Love Himself is knocking on our door, just let Him in, because He will not desert us. 

The day before yesterday, hail stones the size of tennis balls were hitting the side of our house and a medium sized waterfall began to merrily cascade down from our bedroom ceiling onto our bed and the floor. It was scary, a-n-d … I forgot my own advice! Eventually, because the Lord is always gracious, when I stopped praying prayers AT Him, and talked TO Him, He whispered to me: “It’s all OK, just wait, you’ll see, it will be OK.”  I’ve learnt that He does not always answer us immediately. That’s because He’s the King and we are not. Every time I went back into anxiety, I handed the situation over to Him again… and went off to sleep. 

Then at 1.00am this morning we had to physically move out of our bedroom, because the waterfall started up again with a vengeance, so I focussed on what He had said to me, and I started to do a lot better… This is how faith grows, it gets stretched by something bigger than we are!

In the middle of the first storm, our neighbour was on her way to pick up her child from school, and she too encountered very large hailstones and a bit of someone else’s roof- while she was driving her car!  She’s OK praise God. But, even though I didn’t know it, I was praying for her at the time.

Actually, I didn’t have a scripture settle in my heart until after the hailstones stopped crashing into our house! Then I suddenly remembered: “…before you call I will answer you…” Isaiah 65:24. I kept on asking Him to help us, and the Holy Spirit totally helped me find my peace in the middle of this physical and emotional storm. Until I get another scripture, I will simply hold onto what He said, as we wait to find out what happens to our roof today.  

Right now I want to talk about conversational prayer – the kind that isn’t formal, but it is based on relationship. It often seems so natural that you aren’t sure if you are doing it right! It means we don’t talk AT Him, we talk TO Him. Remember, He’s the best Dad ever!  Our Heavenly Father is always watching, always listening to every single cry and prayer. That means He isn’t like earthly Dads, preoccupied by other things. 

He lovingly pays attention to each and every single one of us. Right now the Holy Spirit is roaming all over the earth … 2 Chronicles 16:9a – “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth so that He may support those whose heart is completely His…”  It is good to remember that the Holy Spirit is our support team and He hovers over each and every one of our hearts. He has such a deep love for human beings – whether they know-Jesus-yet-or-not.The very essence of leaning on Him means, without His stability we will probably fall over!

Matthew 21:22 says: “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Here’s another slant on that —  I believe He is good. This means I can receive His totally focussed personal attention at any time. I can always talk to Him. Remember, He doesn’t hold grudges – Jesus already paid for our access! Just talk to your Father about what is happening, and ask Him to help you deal with it.  Ask for His wisdom, and comfort. Whether you have been formally introduced to the Lord or not. He knows you. 

When we look at Jesus’ life on earth we can see that He did not demand this or that from the people He prayed for, He simply prayed for them. He saw their need and met it. We have complicated the Way our Heavenly Father works to the point that people think they must meet certain conditions to hear from Him. Back then, not one person who asked for help was turned away, they all received acceptance and love. At calvary, His compassion overflowed toward mankind. IT STILL DOES – it’s bigger than the waterfall in our bedroom!

Psalm 145:8: “The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.” Psalm 103:8 – “The LORD is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.”  Matthew 14:14-21- “And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.” Matthew 9:36 says- “But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” 

It isn’t about whatever is happening to us, it is about our faith in His goodness holding us up in spite of the situation. Our abstract concepts need to go into the bin. Now we are deliberately choosing to learn to live using our faith in His Kingdom reality. Bless you! 👋

P 3173 Dumb things I have done.

/ DVH

Years ago we used to sing this song: “I’m comin’ back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about You. It’s all about You, Jesus. I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it. When it’s all about You. It’s all about You, Jesus.” (Matt Redmond.) That song is so sweet. There are moments when I think we don’t need any more new songs – we just need to pay better attention to the ones we are already singing!

On that very subject, many years ago we used to sing a song that I privately called the ‘Mahatma’ song. I called it that because two of the lines in the song consisted of three words that were easily run together in the rhythm of the melody. It went something like this: “that my heart might cling to you.’  It’s a fantastic thing to say to Him— but, unfortunately, around about the second time we sang it as a group, we began to rush the words together – because there are quite a lot of them! And as a consequence we all enthusiastically sang ‘mahatma’  instead of ‘my heart might.’ Mahatma, for those who have no idea, was a brand of rice in those days.

After a while, I couldn’t sing that song without falling over laughing. In my squirrelled up brain, it has been called ‘the mahatma song’ ever since. My brain is now officially under revision OK? The Holy Spirit is renewing it as we speak! Around the same time, there was also another song where people’s diction wasn’t always what it could be so some loving words became something else entirely! 

It also became a diagnostic tool for me! It too, used to make me fall over laughing. That is, until the Lord had words with me about it! A dear friend of mine years ago advised me: “don’t get taken to the wood shed about things you can fix.” It would have been nice if I had listened, but I giggled on. Sigh, my bad.

Trust me, you don’t want to go there. Especially when you know you are wrong, and the Lord is right. You can argue all you want, the only response is to get on your face!  The Holy Spirit lovingly explained to me that worship leaders pray over the songs that they sing, and my job was to follow the worship leader into worship.This process is not about what I like…it’s about what the Lord likes. Worship is not there to make me feel good. “It’s called submission” He said. ‘Remember the verse that which says submit to one another? Well this is one place where that verse applies.’ 

After I scraped myself up off the floor, I realised I had a superior attitude. I used to sing in a Madrigal group back in the ark – the donkeys were very good at harmony – and it transpired that I had a prideful attitude toward the way music was meant to go. Oh my! Pride hides in the darndest places. Meanwhile, Almighty God has angels who can sing better than any of us — so He isn’t all that bothered about the words or singing. Even if it is off-key, flat, sharp, or it has words that don’t make any sense … that doesn’t matter to Him. 

He listens to our hearts ‘singing and making melody to Him.’ I confess I still smile, a teeny bit, if I ever hear ‘the Mahatma song’ – but now I pull myself together and sing along with everyone else. My actual point is this —sometimes, in my own thinking, the scriptures that correct people often belong to someone else, and the ones that are sweet and faith building are mine! Not selfish or anything! 

‘Submit to one another’ doesn’t just mean people are supposed to submit to ME. It also means I need to submit to THEM. Now there’s a revelation nobody wants. Sadly, back then, I was merrily creating discord with my judgmental attitude. It really doesn’t say you only have to submit to the people you admire, respect or honour– it says each other because it means… each other! A-n-d it also doesn’t say … just tolerate or put up with each other either. Paul puts this great advice into a bigger context. “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Ephesians 5:21. Even when we are singing!

Yeah that last step is a doozie. We can so easily excuse ourselves and accuse others! And then these things pile up like leaves outside our door, distracting and preventing us from freely entering into His Presence. At this point, we can try to feel better about ourselves by shoving our bad attitude onto the worship leader and blame them for supposedly, doing a bad job, BUT … the reality is, we can’t blame others! Well, we can, but it’s a really, really bad idea!  The problem lies within our own hearts. Meanwhile, I am sure you’ve never fallen down that particular hole like I did – you probably have your own holes instead! Now that I know about this one I am praying to stay away from those dumb things.

‘Search me O God and try me and see if there is any wicked way within me.’ Psalm 139:23&24. Half the time, we don’t know what we don’t know, and even though ignorance is bliss, it ain’t an excuse either.  Bye.👋

P 3172 The humanity of this man!

/ DVH

Paul is speaking in 1 Corinthians 1:11-17: “My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptised in the name of Paul? I thank God that I did not baptise any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptised in my name….(I love this bit!!) …(Yes, I also baptised the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptised anyone else.) For Christ did not send Me to baptise, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”

Look at that! The Apostle Paul used the ‘I can’t remember reason!’ Love it! Love it! Love it!! Because I’m older, that’s my all-time favourite excuse nowadays. Now that my hubby’s is using it as well, we bumble along hoping the other one will remember the important stuff. Fat chance!! Thank the Lord when it comes to appointments, people often send you reminder texts. 

I know I am about to lose half or more of my fellow travellers today, but I’m OK with that. Paul mentioned the word ‘following,’ and I gotta say I hate the whole “followers” thing that currently inhabits this world. Paul had the best idea –  he followed Jesus and, as far as I know, Jesus doesn’t have a Facebook page! Or any one of the rest of the alphabet soup pages people like to frequent. I know deep in everyone’s heart there is a need to be seen and understood… but the God of all the Universe and beyond, not only sees each one us, He knows how many hairs are on our heads … or not!! WOW!!

He knows what we need even before we know we need it, and He promises to supply it from His incredible riches. He bought us these fantastic blessings, like access to  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, perseverance etc. and He loves to give them away for free, to those people who ask Him. Our God always sees when our hearts turn toward Him, even if it is ever-so-slightly, and He comes to our rescue. Almighty God willingly gave up His only Son to be killed for us so we can be truly loved. Forever! That’s the kind of generosity and knowledge that is unforgettable.

Meanwhile, those Facebook enthusiasts often give anybody a bad rep, or the flick … in a heartbeat! I don’t want to support any of those vehicles, and line the pockets of already obscenely wealthy guys! I care about the poor – the poor are too busy being  hungry and thirsty and trying to find shelter, to worry about Facebook etc. Sometimes I get so sad, we are using up the time God gave us on things that will not remain. 

What remains is faith, hope and love – who gives a toss about Facebook? There are people who can’t wait to read their social media, and they skip the bible because it seems too hard. Isn’t that a terrible sentence? They take the words of strangers to heart — and ignore the King of glory. He took the time He was given to say all this fantastic stuff to each of us, personally! One of the reasons I can’t support social media is this:  our precious babies kill themselves because of cruelty in this arena. OK that was my little rant … I’d say I’m sorry but I’m not. The truth won’t kill us, actually it should shock us into action.

I love that Paul takes the time to explain himself to the naysayers and the permanently bewildered – his honesty is fantastic. What he said is so real and human: ‘I baptised, you, you and you … um … I can’t remember if I baptised you. Oh and there was that Stephanas guy and his family – I baptised them too. But what does it matter?? All that matters is the King of glory needs us to speak to others. That’s what we are here for!’ Amen! People chase unicorns and rainbows trying to find a purpose in this life, when Almighty God already gave each of us one.

Joshua found his purpose, He served God! –  In Joshua 24:14-15, he has always impacted me with these words: “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  I urge any parent reading this today to say to the Lord daily, “ …as for me and my house we will serve the Lord!”  Whether everyone in your family agrees with you or not – say it anyway! Speak purpose over those you love. People need a purpose! Why do you think kids drink, drive like lunatics, and take drugs? They have no purpose. Hopelessness leads to despair or sin. 

Paul is reminding us that there are some things more important than others in the kingdom of God. We don’t follow a preacher, we follow them, as they follow Jesus. God has something much better for each one of us to do, and some things are definitely more important than others! Who cares about who baptised who or whether I posted on social media today? Serving HIM, now, TODAY, is so much more important. We cannot afford to rest on past accomplishments when tomorrow is rushing at us. Praise God for Paul’s honest humanity! Amen. Bye. 👋