Faithful

P 3191 Find reverse!

/ DVH

The wonderful thing about walking with Jesus is that when I apply His attitudes to my own life, with His help, I can daily learn from the Holy Spirit, how to die to self. I can always chuck my car/my life into reverse and change direction. Why would any of us want to remain in a pig pen, when God Himself has given us access to the Kingdom of His love – through His Grace?

Initially, I learnt that it is much easier to push dying to self aside, than it is to tackle it. In my own strength, I cannot do it. The reality is, I need to use my faith in His goodness, and start doing what He said in the book, using my own power of choice. There are no short-cuts. This life is our battlefield and our enemy is relentless. So if we get knocked down, we pick ourselves up and go again.

Let’s humbly confess our utter poverty of spirit to the Lord — “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3. The bible says being poor in my own ability to conquer the things that pop up in me – is a blessing! Now, I need to ask the Holy Spirit to lead me through the maze of thoughts and feelings that I have constructed internally. I’ve picked up attitudes and ways of thinking that are not from Him. So I need to come out of denial, into the reality that … without Him I’m sunk. Jesus Christ is truth personified. I was saved by Him, for Him. This means those things that drag me about can be conquered —I can change! I can live as His child right here, right now, in this world. God gets all the glory when I trust Him!

However inside my thoughts and emotions, I may have been already set up by my previous circumstances to become a seething mess of anguish, frustration and disappointment in myself and others. So my best choice is to pray fervently for relief and I have put the prayer “Please help me Lord” on repeat, minute by minute day by day! What if things don’t change? Should I assume I am the one exception to the rule? Of course not. I choose  to accept postponement, and allow my faith in Him be stretched.  Accepting NO, not now, is still a faith step.

We were not saved by Him to fail. The Lord Jesus and all He did, made this new life of ours, goof proof. Meanwhile – freedom from sin, is not permission to sin!  We cannot live as over-comers if we try to find the means of overcoming inside ourselves. Our permanent choice is to believe In HIS power within us.  When we discover somewhere in our lives where we are not using our faith, we ask for His help to tackle it. The Holy Spirit has a road-map out of anything. If you are sick you could end up taking pills because He told you to do it.

Sin is not just our actions, it also comes from our own inward cultivated attitudes. Jesus said this:“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.” Matthew 5:30. Sometimes these attitudes and thoughts are so entrenched within our beings it will feel like cutting off a hand! But because of what Jesus did for us, we do not have to sin or make excuses for it. We have been given His power to walk away. He walked away, we can too.

We simply have to relearn how to live. That’s what the bible is for, to teach us how God Himself wants us to live. 1 John 1:9 says: “IF we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Jesus is utterly faithful – He can be relied upon to carry out His Word, because He is the Living Word! And now He is alive, in us! Every interaction with the Lord, is an interaction with His Word – here and now. We are writing our own stories of victories in Christ! Our lives will be transformed when we take whatever God Himself says, as truth and act on it, despite how we feel.

His love toward all of us is well and truly established in the bible. It was established before time began, and it will continue on into eternity.  When I choose to follow Jesus: “…the blood of Jesus continually cleanses me of all unrighteousness” – see 1 John 1:7. Lemme say that another way…AS I confess my sin and choose to follow Him, and not my feelings, I will be continually cleansed of my unrighteousness before God. This is how Jesus lived!

“But IF we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.”  Keep living in the light of His Word, and His blood will cleanse us. Sin has been dealt with. It has no power over us. That stuff that niggles and nags at us, is our old nature. Our feelings can lie to us and tell us some things are too hard and we can’t do it. Don’t you believe them!

Let’s take steps of faith, and put our feelings to one side, and do what He told us to do in the book. The way to get rid of a muddied view of this life is to live humbly, admitting our faults to one another and not excusing them. Let’s choose to forgive, and put aside the fact that so-and-so was bad to me when I was little.  Leave the past in the past. At the same time, I will have to capture those intrusive thoughts that have been sent to remind me of what they did, and conquer the feeling that I can’t help what I am doing.

Our new-life-focus is about staying attached to the Holy Spirit, doing things HIS way, This life is a series of choices, often made on the hop –  IF we stuff up and make the wrong choices, we throw ‘our car…our lives’ into reverse, repent and restore the Lord to the driver’s seat and drive on! 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 3159 He will inhabit our lives.

/ DVH

“My beloved ones, just like you’ve always listened to everything I’ve taught you in the past, I’m asking you now to keep following My instructions as though I were right there with you. Now you must continue to make this new life fully manifested as you live in the holy awe of God—which brings you trembling into His Presence. God will continually revitalise you, implanting within you the passion to do what pleases Him.” Philippians 2:12-13 TPT.

We cannot afford to postpone following His instructions, they are life and health to our bones! (Proverbs 3:7-8.) This is not just about our bones, BTW, it is about us living daily in His standing-up-in-the-middle-of-difficulties strength! It is our responsibility to allow His life to be fully manifested in us. Jesus did not save us so we could hide away in religious activities and tell ourselves: “that will do.” He saved us to be His ambassadors to this world. To start with, we need to redefine what real love looks like, the people around us think love looks like getting my own way!

God Himself knows the best way for any of us to live our lives. We can think we know, but we cannot foresee the future –  it is outside our control. Even Christians rumble along, listening to this instruction the Lord has given us, and ignoring that one because it’s ‘too hard and God won’t mind.’ We cannot afford to cherry-pick the verses we want to obey and the ones we don’t. Jesus died for us, and we died with Him, and this new life we have now is His.

Jesus Himself knew the secret of being ‘in’ the world, but not ‘of’ the world. His FOCUS was always on His Father’s kingdom. He did not treat a KING any differently than a peasant! He simply spent His time ministering to  people, displaying His Father’s love to them, meeting their needs. The Lord Jesus lived to love others, and obey His Father in all things. He didn’t save His life – He spent it!

Jesus’ life and death shows us that living like He did can be done. But it is painfully obvious we will need help — our love is not as hot as it should be. When God is an add-on, or merely SomeOne we run to, to fix things, passion will not be a part of our love for Him. However, the Holy Spirit knows both passion and devotion. That’s why Jesus sent back Him back to us. The Spirit of God helps us see and live in God’s perspective about the things happening in our lives. Jesus does not have to prove He loves us by answering our prayers – His life, death and resurrection are all the proof we need.

And what’s more the Lord’s life shows us that there is a better life than we can ever imagine when we learn to walk with Him in His Ways!  We have been blessed, we can bring heaven here, right here, right now — when we live His Way for His purposes. Whether we can see or hear Him or not – we can live in joy, loving others the way He loved us. Obedience opens doors. Day after day I hear people talking about fulfilment in this life. Maybe they don’t feel fulfilled because they were made for a purpose, and believe it or not that purpose wasn’t just to live in comfort, or annoy the living daylights out of someone else! 

The Lord may be temporarily absent from us, but He is oh so close and present, in the bible. We can always find Him in His book. Jesus Himself is called the LIVING WORD! And I need a living word every single day. I am daily learning to put my feelings to one side. Now the only thing I care about is His peace in me. When I have His peace, I can do anything. Believe it or not I am as scared of other people as you are!  But …the Holy Spirit is so faithful. He can’t help Himself – it’s His nature.

“Let’s not get weary in the well doing…”  Galatians 6:9. Pressing in and on, can seem daunting. As you get older, like I have, you just want to sit down somewhere comfy, with a cup of tea, and watch the world go by. I like life in the slow-lane. But I love to see the faces of the people who have no idea how much they are loved by God Himself so much MORE than my own comfort. This life is a series of choices. It is not so much about making good or bad choices, as it is about making ‘A’ choice, any choice. It is very hard to move a stationary vehicle. 

My advice is to do something… anything. Be generous, share with others, mow someone’s lawn, talk to some elderly shut-in. And watch the Lord turn up and love on people just because you reached out to them. They will be attracted to Jesus-in-you. It’s not us – it’s never us! It’s because HE is altogether lovely!! We don’t have to market Him, advertise Him, or explain Him — we just turn up with Him … with the King in residence here → ❤️ in our hearts. He promised to never leave us or forsake us or give us up – so He’s with us, whether we feel Him or not. Why not just believe Him? 

The way to fill up your heart is in Matthew 7:7-8, and Jeremiah 29:13 – look it up. Choose to believe what He says and not your feelings.“Here’s what Yahweh says to you: “I know all about the marvellous destiny I have in store for you, a future planned out in detail. My intention is not to harm you but to surround you with peace and prosperity and to give you a beautiful future, glistening with hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 TPT. Jesus will inhabit our lives as we step out and use our faith that what He said, He meant. Bye. 👋

PS. Don’t wait for a sign! Do it anyway… faith ACTS.

P 3111 The fixed point.

/ DVH

Isaiah 43:4-11. “Since you are precious and honoured in My sight, and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you, nations in exchange for your life. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth—everyone who is called by My Name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.” 

Lead out those who have eyes but are blind, who have ears but are deaf. All the nations gather together and the peoples assemble. Which of their gods foretold this and proclaimed to us the former things? Let them bring in their witnesses to prove they were right, so that others may hear and say, “It is true.” “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me no god was formed, nor will there be one after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from Me there is no Saviour.”

Almighty God is giving us incredible reassurances in this scripture. It hits the spot for me. One of my kids and her daughter live way down South from where I live, so I have had to learn to hold fast to what the Lord  promises in His Word. When I read this passage, I feel such concern, compassion, and love from Him for myself, and the family I miss so much. Hubby’s family is way down South too!  Jesus wants us to know today, that it is part of His overall plan to bring all the lost, wandering, and far away sheep back together again. Praise Him!

Life today, seems very ‘stretched, intense, and stressful’ to me. People go on enormous holidays, and they think nothing of travelling great distances by plane. When I was a child, a big trip for us was travelling in an old car to go to Bendigo to visit my Great Grandmother. Yes, I was fortunate enough to know my Great Grandmother! It was not an easy journey to see her, but it was worth it! She’s with Jesus now – so our story together will one day continue.

Great Grandmother was my favourite person as a child – despite the distance between us. She and my Great Grandpop had chickens, grapevines, fruit trees and veggies. Her house was always spotlessly clean. Plus … boy could she cook! OK … I think I just momentarily  went way off track, thinking about her cooking. We used to drive up to Eaglehawk, which is just outside of Bendigo, a few times a year, and it seemed quite a distance in our ancient Rockne car. See pic above – that’s not our car BTW – that’s just the model. 

From Pretty Sally, the tallest hill around, to Bendigo is 140 kms and the distance from our home in Kew to that spot was 60kms. Yet in our long journey north we had to stop twice to put more water in the radiator. It took all day to get there, nowadays it only takes 2 hours in our modern cars! Our old car would always conk out at Pretty Sally Hill, and we’d have to wait for the radiator to cool down to put water in again. If you didn’t do that, you could crack the head, and then …bye bye, Rockne! The car would belch steam to let us know the water had boiled and we should stop. 

I loved all the little towns between Melbourne and Bendigo – today you bypass most of them. But on our journey, we’d stop, have an ice cream or a cup of tea – and then we’d start off again. Back then cars didn’t have any air conditioning except for opening the windows! And going to Bendigo seemed like the ends of the earth to a fidgety kid ten year old! I think I fell in love with the country at an early age. But distance is nothing to God. Wherever your family might be, wherever your memories are – nothing can stop God from reuniting people.

Today, lots of people visit the South Pole to see penguins in their natural habitat, for their holidays! And I can get from where I live to where my daughter lives by travelling in 2 hours on a plane. My point is a small one. Whatever the distance between you and your loved ones, Father God is promising, in this passage, to reunite all of us with Himself, and the ones we love and miss, simply because He is good and He has claimed us for His own. When you are His kid He looks after you! Even death cannot separate us from Him. The story of Lazarus proves that!

The Lord is establishing His authority and sovereignty, in this passage in Isaiah, and He reminds us that anything else that wants to push its way to the centre of our thoughts cannot legally come between us and Him. Even before Jesus died for us all, God always took care of His kids. His sovereignty is superb and supreme. Anything else that exalts itself against His will, has to fall away, and any other gods aren’t worth even talking about, in the light of Who He is. Today He wants to reassure us that He will keep His promises. Nobody else can do what He has done. Or what He is doing right now for you, and what He will continue to do to keep His promise to you and His plans for your future. 

That means His promises are totally secure – backed  up by something so incredible we can hardly conceive of it. WHO HE IS. You know – that’s what always comes under question when bad things happen to us. IS HE WHO HE SAYS HE IS? Our enemy uses doubt like a politician uses too many words. Father God tells us to hide His Word in our hearts, so we won’t sin against Him, for those times when doubt batters at us. But at the same time we are also learning that His Word is stronger than anything else in this world. 

Think about this: we are standing on what Father God said, and what the Holy Spirit DID about His proclamations. The Lord Himself is our fixed point in our endlessly wound up, merry-go-round world! Fractured families and friendships happen – but our God is mighty and consistently loving. He truly loves reconciliation, and He will always be faithful to His Word. Bye. 👋 

P 3108 HE is our strength.

/ DVH

“The extraordinary level of the revelations I’ve received is no reason for anyone to exalt me. For this is why a thorn in my flesh was given to me, the Adversary’s messenger sent to harass me, keeping me from becoming arrogant. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to relieve me of this. But He answered me, “My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power finds its full expression through your weakness.” So I will celebrate my weaknesses, for when I’m weak I sense more deeply the mighty power of Christ living in me. So I’m not defeated by my weakness, but delighted! For when I feel my weakness and endure mistreatment—when I’m surrounded with troubles on every side and face persecution because of my love for Christ—I am made yet stronger. For my weakness becomes a portal to God’s power.”

Sooner or later everyone’s faith comes under pressure. But the knowledge is not revealed to us to torment us, as Paul explains here in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. Paul is telling us pain has a purpose! God reveals things to us even through pain, so we can work with Him on the gaps in our knowledge of Him and errors in our faith –  together. He will not leave us even when the ceiling falls in. The Lord allows things to help us to learn about our multifaceted blessings. And He wants us to learn to wait for Him. We are not waiting for the solution, we are waiting to hear from Him. Jesus knew how to wait!

There’s nothing like trouble to send desperate people to their knees. Or sobbing on the bed in despair when we can’t find the way out – and we want it to stop, NOW. In those times, ask yourself, can I go one more step? I don’t project the misery I feel into the future, because the thought of endless suffering is devastating. The more we press into what we already know about Him personally — the more about Him and ourselves, we can learn in difficult times. Our God does not cause suffering! He’s a faithful, good, good Father Who wants us to grow up into the fullness of Christ Himself. He is leading us, step by step, into a new, bigger place – just as surely as He led Abraham and Moses into the Promised land.

Whatever we are experiencing can give us a fresh revelation of what Christ voluntarily did. He too, suffered despair, loneliness, loss of love, loss of understanding, depression, anguish, grief and sorrow. He was all alone in Gethsemane, as well as on that cross. And He suffered in ways we cannot imagine. We have a Saviour Who was“… was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him.” Isaiah 53:3.

Jesus suffered everything He suffered, for us – He can show us the way through it. This is what Paul is talking about. He had grown strong enough in His faith to receive correction, and adjustment to his own faith, as well as renewing his thinking. He thought he needed to get out of the thing that was tormenting him, but God graciously granted Paul the understanding that this too was yet another place he could learn to lean on what Jesus did!

Obedience is everything …but we’ve made UNDERSTANDING into everything instead. 

Paul saw purpose. He realised all that knowledge God had downloaded into him, could cause him to be arrogant – and arrogance short circuits Grace! So he chose to endure the harassment of pain and suffering because God showed him there was a benefit – immediately – as well as on the other side! You and I have limitations. We can only stretch so far, some can stretch further than others, but we all have limits. When we reach the end of ourselves – God is still there! His power to overcome is still there! Take a deep breath, tell Him you love Him and you know He won’t let you down. Faith acts, it speaks!

It is a good thing to know that you can’t do … whatever it is … because GOD IS RIGHT THERE WITH YOU IN THAT WEAKNESS. Instead of trying to wiggle out of it, ask Him to help you stay the course, and learn how to trust Him more. Most of the time, I have discovered this sort of ‘adjustment’ is hardly ever about some other person’s actions against me. It’s about me. Maybe I have been blindsided by a wrong belief, or I have not comprehended the fullness of what Jesus died to give me. Let’s remember we all need endurance, we are in a race! By all means tell the enemy to GO! But remember, to ask the Lord: “What’s this about Lord?”

If I can’t endure what is happening to me, that means I am not complete in my faith in that area. Think about Jesus being there, right now, holding your hand. He is praying for you, so is the Holy Spirit. He wants to remind you to learn to rely upon His strength, instead of your own. Maybe you can’t do this – but He can! Don’t look for a plan all laid out and downloaded from heaven – instead take one small faith step at a time.

We won’t perceive His blessings when we are constantly asking God to bail us out of whatever it is we are stuck in. Trust me, I’ve tried that. It will take as long as it takes, and then finish so suddenly you will have your mouth drop open like a goldfish! But don’t just lay down like Father God is an ogre and you have no power to escape from His dealings. Talk to Him about what He wants you to learn about yourself, the situation, His Grace, and loving others more freely. God understands how vulnerable FLESH is – He put it on and came here! 

Bye.👋

P 3060 Times of refreshing …

/ DVH

“For I will refresh the weary soul and satisfy all those who have given up on life.” Jeremiah 31:25 TPT. The thing with verses like these is that it is easy to look at it, and then look at your own personal experience and think … maybe I keep missing out on that.

Here’s what changed the way I read things like this — I stopped seeing my own experiences as the plumb-line and I chose to take His Word literally instead. Now I look up to heaven and say: “Dear Lord, Thank You for refreshing me. Thank You that You are so faithful, You always keep Your promises.”Amen.

Life today is hard. It is so easy to want to give up on it. The people all around us choose to surrender to the rapidly increasingly, flooding disaster of foul media water, which sweeps away everything else in its path. So we have people who doubt their sex, or people that think that killing a bad person is justified, or that  lying is OK so long as it doesn’t hurt anybody. Apparently stealing is not stealing when it is only on paper and nobody knows. And sleeping around is just normal.  

This filthy stuff can daily wash over us and constantly demand our opinions, our participation and our judgment. Big mistake – huge! We must choose to yield to His greater wisdom. There are times when those awful things push themselves right into our own homes. Right here, right now, there is only one body of water that is safe to jump into and that’s the river of life. It’s in the book! We cannot afford to agree with the people who are being swept along by a torrent of filth, and go on to join them by jumping into the miasma. His life in us has something life-giving to say in every single circumstance. Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding:  in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Amen.

Here is another verse of scripture that helps me with life. It goes like this: “We do not have the audacity to put ourselves in the same class or compare ourselves with some who [supply testimonials to] commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they lack wisdom and behave like fools.” 2 Corinthians 10:12. Jesus is always our yardstick.

I have learnt that who YOU are, and what you do, cannot be my standard. I cannot afford to take my standard from the rest of mankind, because the bible tells me that all have sinned, they have fallen short of God’s glorious ideal, and Jesus is God’s glorious ideal. He met every single standard and requirement that was necessary, when He overpaid our debt. The best measuring stick is Christ, in every single situation. We no longer have to see each other through that yoke of slavery, when I see you, in Christ, I am blessed.

When I am reminded of verses like this one in Jeremiah 31:25, I stop using my feelings, or peering at the circumstances, or even the manifold activities around me, to try to satisfy my own need for validation. I don’t have to blame YOU, Jesus validated me with His love. I would not go to the barbers to buy JAM, I need to go to the distributor of jam, the supermarket.

When someone is annoyed with me, my bible says:“My God shall supply my needs according to His riches in glory.”So I go to God to supply patience, long-suffering, joy etc. I have access to this blessing because of what Jesus has already done on my behalf! He has plenty of the stuff we need, and He loves us. We can just ask Him for it!

Our God is out-of-this-world rich in all those things we desperately need daily. He can’t run out – heaven rests on Who He is …

Plus, I have been promised my needs in writing. Who needs a Lear Jet or a mountain of gold, when you can have Grace whenever you need it? And boy do we need it when somebody gets all-up-in-your-face and you know that it’s their problem not yours. God promises us times of refreshing whenever we need it, and personally, I need His refreshing daily. Sucking it up buttercup does not work well when you are mad. You are likely to get indigestion instead of refreshed. 

There is nothing more life-changing than asking Him for patience, or long-suffering, or joy, or hope, when you need it. You will find you can go further than you ever thought you could, when your motivation changes from: “Please make me happy and comfortable” to “I want what you want Lord.” ←That BTW is a great prayer – but do gird up your girdle Gertie, because this ride can get bumpy before it becomes FUN. When we think of this life as the only life we have, we can make very poor decisions. Yet the glory of God, and all of heaven awaits us. 

Stephen, was a church deacon in the book of Acts. He was given such a clear look at Jesus standing beside our Heavenly Father in heaven, that I doubt he felt the rocks whacking into the side of his dear head, breaking his poor body. He was refreshed when He was dying!! When you are struggling, when you are fed up, when you feel like giving up – ask for times of refreshing from the Lord. Bye. 👋

P 3022 God’s faithful family.

/ DVH

God’s faithful servants are always up for change, because they choose to trust Him. They relish the opportunity to see the our world afresh through God-given revelations, and renewed spiritual eyes. These people don’t back away from a fight, instead they know WHO WON and that is enough for them. They know how to stand still until the Lord is the victor.

All these faithful people care about, is glorifying Him, not just escaping from hardship or difficulties, because the Lord promises to be with us in trouble. They don’t go looking for hard things, but they won’t back off if that stuff bangs on their door. These people pray for transformation, as well as patience —believing God will answer them. Their prayers are full of praise. They don’t expect their life to be a perfect because they know it has a purpose, and those two things are not always compatible. 

After praying prayers of commitment or holding fast to a promise  —they know there will be a test. They are alert to anything that could blindside them because they know that they are not perfected, but their trust is in Him. They respond to every situation with gratitude. Even the Lord’s discipline in their lives shows these people He loves them: “…because the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as His son.” Hebrews 12:6. 

The Lord needs His family to cultivate a very strong intimate connection to the Vine Himself, because we can’t do anything without Him. His faithful people realise His power is made perfect in weak people. So weakness does not surprise or intimidate us – instead we rely upon Him to get us through whatever happens.

God’s people know the battle they are fighting to win is in their OWN heart and mind —it has nothing to do with the other person in front of them. That is the true stance of an overcomer. Of course there will be times when other people will jump on any, or every nerve, especially when life is already difficult… that’s because  satan has no mercy…  Mercy is a love gift from our Father!

The reality is, those people who annoy us, are not attacking us. They are attracted to, and need the light that is IN each one of us. Even though it seems personal, it isn’t. Difficult people are tools in the hands of an angry enemy who knows he cannot win because he has already lost! satan will keep right on throwing hate at us, trying to cement rage, hatred, despair, disappointment, frustration etc. in all of us. We need to live this life AWAKE, rejoicing in the light of everything that Jesus has done for us. Sleepy, half-hearted people can make bad choices. 

God’s people don’t forgive their enemies because it is a nice idea —- we forgive them because we have been given the power to retain their sins. All that means is that everyone can get stuck if we choose to hold on to whatever someone did to us. Prayer for an enemy is powerful prayer. Forget praying for the sun to stand still! We pray for the guy who lords it over us and treats us badly. We pray blessings over the people in our lives who despitefully use us. This kind of prayer opens our eyes to new, deeper realities.

The bible says:“Owe no man anything but love.” Romans 13:8. God’s faithful family choose to live a life of LOVE despite the cost – because they know Love can never fail. Bye 🥰

P 3010 Who benefits? Us or His kingdom?

/ DVH

“We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One.” 2 Corinthians 10:5 TPT. 

If we take what Paul has said to the Corinthian church seriously, we can see that the Christian life is not meant to be a walk in the park, whistling as we go! There’s a lot of demolition and active transformation that needs to happen in an ongoing, everyday fashion. I believe the New Testament shows us how we can change, what we need to change, and why we should change! The ‘when’ is easy — NOW! If you ignore some behaviour and hope it will go away, you are deceiving yourself. Whatever we hold onto holds us back!

Paul faced a lot of criticism along the way, even from the people he ministered to. Some times people who are very sure of what God has said to them, can appear to be arrogant. It is easy to mistake arrogance and enthusiasm for the anointing of God. Arrogance is when I talk to straighten you out because I already know. It puts me up and brings you down. Encouraging you as we journey together, means I stretch out my hand to you, whenever I might be a help. However, the speaker must always remember: 

“A word fitly spoken and in due season is like apples of gold in settings of silver. [Prov. 15:23; Isa. 50:4.] Like an earring or nose ring of gold or an ornament of fine gold is a wise reprover to an ear that listens and obeys. Like the cold of snow [brought from the mountains] in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to those who send him; for he refreshes the life of his masters.” 

Our God-given place is to continue to live in, and acknowledge our ever-present need for more of His Grace. And we cannot carry that out well if we choose to hide from the very people God sent to help us! Even if they are painful! Honesty with ourselves and others is paramount. I am not talking about being negative, I mean that we are all on the same journey, and none of us have arrived, so pretending we are doing well when we know we are not, is called deception. 

Most people are afraid of correction. They are afraid to admit they can’t perform well, and then they can quickly get caught up in self-effort. It’s a never-ending pattern — trying hard to meet the mark, and failing. The reason I gave that particular method up is because I was a total wash-out at changing myself, I had too many flaws and not enough hours in the day! I have learnt to suspect that my feelings are not a good guideline to where I want to go. However, whatever the Lord says will stand forever — what I feel can be changed by double chocolate ice cream and a piece of cake! 

If someone comes from the place of “I know and you don’t” then they are not yet in a place of humility. That’s a flaw just like any other, often born out of insecurity. As Jesus’ beloved fiancee we need to live in the place of humble surrender, permanently, simply to facilitate the right attitude when we speak to others. I am not just talking about lip-service … we can all say we surrender. But the reality occurs where the rubber of my life hits the road of obstacles and hardship. Or when this life squeezes us so tightly it actually exposes the truth. Life has a very bad habit of doing that! We are afraid to be real because we have not comprehended exactly what Jesus Christ did for us.

More mature people can share with others those things they have learnt along the way, but we had better make sure we are putting what we say into practice ourselves. Even if it looks to us like we will become vulnerable, because we often get it wrong! Like my favourite verse says: ‘Not that I always achieve that aim, but I sure am pressing on!’’…  “ ‘I can’t help it’ doesn’t cover anything … only the blood of Jesus does that!’

“If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just [true to His own nature and promises], and will forgive our sins and cleanse us continually from all unrighteousness [our wrongdoing, everything not in conformity with His will and purpose].”  Our new life doesn’t rely upon us, it relies upon Jesus and what He did. Our aim is to support one another, as we walk forward …together. There are no losers or winners in the Christian life – only participants. 

Sadly, there are many people who think they can still have this AND that error, or bad habit in their lives, and it doesn’t make any difference to their level of commitment. People can be deceived into thinking they can make excuses for ungodly attitudes, and still follow Jesus. As soon as self-deception enters the ring, human beings will be KO-ed out, because we have become double-minded. The point is we cannot abuse the blood of Jesus, which is an incredibly precious thing, to excuse our unwillingness to learn and be transformed. And that’s a life-time goal not a one time event! 

Whatever we say at the altar, needs to be followed up with prayer and deliberate choices. This life we have chosen is not easy. It has many things in it that we think we value – things, or even people we think we cannot live without. Those things need to be given to the Lord along the way, in order to keep walking after Him. These things don’t always have to be bad either, but we don’t want ‘that will do,’ we want everything laid down for His sake. The secret, as I see it, to knowing the difference between what is Godly or not is this – who benefits – US or His kingdom? Bye. 👋

P 2947 Who are you really … ??

/ DVH

Matthew 21:33-46: “Now listen to another story. A certain landowner planted a vineyard, built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a lookout tower. Then he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country.  At the time of the grape harvest, he sent his servants to collect his share of the crop. But the farmers grabbed his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. So the landowner sent a larger group of his servants to collect for him, but the results were the same.

“Finally, the owner sent his son, thinking, ‘Surely they will respect my son.’“But when the tenant farmers saw his son coming, they said to one another, ‘Here comes the heir to this estate. Come on, let’s kill him and get the estate for ourselves!’ So they grabbed him, dragged him out of the vineyard, and murdered him. “When the owner of the vineyard returns,” Jesus asked, “what do you think he will do to those farmers?” The religious leaders replied, “He will put the wicked men to a horrible death and lease the vineyard to others who will give him his share of the crop after each harvest.”

This parable reminds me that without active, visible, accountability and supervision what are WE, you and I, actually like? As in, who are we when we are at our house? The nice people at church can’t see us there! Don’t be two different people:“Admit your faults to one another so that you may be healed…” This is a good time to ask your family if you are the same person wherever you are. If not – why not?? The bible says:“I can do all things through Christ Who gives me strength …”

This is one of the parables I like to call, ‘the very-scary-better-think-carefully-about-them” parables. Not a cheery story. Not a happy ending either! However, I love that Jesus is a realist. He understood mankind, including the best and the worst of us and He knew what we could do to each other. Some of our biggest spiritual problems can come from thinking:“Oh, I would NEVER do that!” Can anybody smell the Pharisee in the room? Like somehow we have become exempt from our own humanity. That’s called P.R.I.D.E. OK, so now there’s another 27 people who have gone right off me! Ho-hum.

None of us know what we are capable of, until we are pushed hard enough by circumstances, or maybe we see an opportunity for gain. I’ve met a lot of the “Oh, I would never do that,” type of Christians in my life. Good luck with that one! If that really IS you, then you need to thank the Lord for delivering you from temptation! Nobody knows our hearts but the Lord, and boy does HE know what’s nattily hidden away in there. Stuff that can be disguised quickly with a change of our facial expression. I’m not keen on dishonesty. I think deceit is a deadly poison, it eventually floods the body and becomes a way of life. Self-deception is the biggest thief of all!

The only thing that can actively transform every single one of us is the blood of Jesus, and the truth is, if you don’t think you need it – then you won’t see the need to apply it into your life! Really, REALLY dumb move, Basil! You can lie to me, your mother, your family, the pastor, your friends, but … when life squeezes you hard enough you never know what is going to come out. The biggest danger we face is what I call the ‘who will know?’- opportunities.

So let’s get real, and hang onto your bonnet sister, it’s about to blow off —  there can be no redemption without acknowledgment of sin. Now breathe… and listen to what the book says … you could always read it out loud: 1 John 1:9 says:“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Hmm … maybe you need to read that again, it’s possible you missed a word in your clever speed reading. IF… if… if… if!!!! 

If’n ya don’t own your sins, you won’t see any need to confess them… and if we make excuses for our behaviour … we won’t own that either! I have heard about every excuse under the sun, from people who want to hide their real attitudes and self-centred ways from everyone. What a waste of a life! It is a waste of time letting fear and deceit run the show … we know that Jesus died to pay for all of it – but the prerequisite to qualification involves confessing our faults. We all have them. Presumption shot Peter in the foot, he was caught by a chook!

SomeBody already knows each one of us, who we really are!! He’s the Person we should all have holy fear about!We have made a god in our own image, and He’s very permissive and understanding … He understands I can’t help it, I had a hard childhood! Forget the gossip club at church, GOD knows! And our excuses just won’t hold water in front of His precious Holiness.

Forgiveness comes from His compassion, faithfulness, and that is only IN CHRIST. Our sin is no longer the problem, when we’ve given our lives to Him. However, when we try to hide from Him, and hide the things we still do from other people, then we are denying the power of the cross to cancel that sin. That’s the problem. 

Out of sight out of mind, doesn’t work in the kingdom of God. Honesty does. Confession does. Purity of heart does. The sacrifice Jesus willingly made for us does not give us permission to ignore the prompting of the Spirit of God. Just because we can’t see Him, that doesn’t mean He isn’t here, with us, right now. His Presence is all over His book … so quit skipping the bits you don’t like! The question for today is: who are we when no-one will know? Bye. 👋

P 2939 What His kingdom looks like.

/ DVH

Good morning! Imagine my surprise today, when I discovered that there are 92 references to the Kingdom of God found in the Gospels! That’s a lot. Hubby and I had a long conversation about this today. We came to the conclusion that the Kingdom of God is more than just an actual place — it is a way to live. And by living in it ourselves, we are constantly exhibiting His kingdom to others.

I decided I want to write about one of those 92 references, every now and then. It seems to me that in order to live in a particular place you need to know what it looks like, and how to get there! Here’s my first verse: Matthew 4:17 … “From that time on Jesus began to preach,“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”Actually the kingdom of heaven was standing right there when the Lord said what He said! That made me wonder how many times in my life the kingdom of God has been right in front of me and I didn’t see it. Not a happy thought. 

When I read this verse today, it reminded me that in God’s kingdom, repentance is part of His processes, and it is the first sign His kingdom is at hand. Human beings sometimes want to skip this bit, and go straight to the benefits! But when we acknowledge our sin, we have immediately put Almighty God in His rightful place and put on heavenly glasses to boot! My best advice is don’t play on the freeway with stuff that will kill you dead!

This is not a place we should avoid, or skip over. Nor should we be ashamed, because the aim of repentance in God’s eyes, is restoration – not condemnation. It seems to me that whenever His kingdom comes near to us, conviction should not be far away. In the presence of His holiness we need to come with a humble attitude. So how do you do that and keep it real? I think we focus on Who He is, and not on ourselves. Self focus, or even introspection is deadly to this process. Our spiritual wheels start spinning in the mud of self-absorption.

However, Father God’s desire is to see each one of us reach our full potential in Christ. The happiest place mankind ever occupied was in that garden walking with Almighty God in the cool of the evening. Sadly pride, false humility and blame can get in the way of that aim. Honesty is the only key. If we are honest about who we really are – we will immediately step into repentance. In the Presence of Holiness nothing else is possible!

Repentance is a place that opens the door into the Kingdom of God for us. It is where we acknowledge our weaknesses and sins, and we receive His forgiveness and strength in return. By the way, I don’t believe it is just an outward action – I think it is also a heart transaction. Jesus told us that we can’t repent unless His kingdom comes near, so we start by praying for the kingdom to be close to us. Then we are enabled by His Spirit to be honest and transparent. “Thy kingdom come …”We need to make room in our lives for His kingdom, by repenting and throwing out the things that don’t honour Him.

Somebody way smarter and more spiritual than I am, once said: “Thy kingdom come, means MY kingdom go!” I think that is a key to true repentance. It makes reparation for what was done against someone else, without any caveats on it! It sees sin for what it is … captivity.Plus part of repentance is vulnerability before the Lord. I’ve found that the more I don’t want to do it, the more I need to do it! I need His power helping me to overcome my previous ways of thinking and living.

We have a wonderful Helper, and we can always take advantage of His wisdom and insight, because He knows what will please our Heavenly Father. Because of what Christ did for every single man, woman and child, none of us have to be ashamed or afraid to repent. But we need sincerity, not just some sort of cursory acknowledgment. 

The thing is, when repentance, which is a GIFT —is given to us, we need to respond because it means His kingdom is right there with us. Sadly, in those moments, we are often far happier to be singing worship songs, or laughing, crying, dancing and falling on the floor … indulging our feelings … than we are to fall on our faces and acknowledge our deliberate sins against Him and others!  After all repentance is not just godly sorrow. It is changing your mind, walking away from the very thing that has held you captive.

Repentance IS costly. It is like the perfume the woman poured over Jesus head when she washed His feet. You are literally pouring out your heart before the Lord. He loves that smell! God is so faithful – He will fill us yet again with His love and passion. However, just like this incredible lady, it will probably cost us our dignified appearance. I guarantee you won’t have a hanky or a tissue on you, when you respond to His kingdom coming near! 

However all of it will be wasted, … unless we are prepared to make reparation and change the behaviour that caused us to to need to repent in the first place. If we want His kingdom to come near and stay with us… then we need to follow up the water-works, with actions. Deliberate, life-changing, humbling actions. That’s what His kingdom looks like. Bye.👋