Faithful

P 2185 Hard questions.

/ DVH

Jesus preached on the theme of the Master and His servants, so many times in the bible.  Here are a few FYI: Matthew 25:14-30, Luke, 19:11-27, Luke 16:1-13, Matthew 21:33-46, and Luke 12:43-47. It is easy to read these parables as separate individual stories, and challenges, but, today, I think the Lord wants us to look at them, AS A THEME. BTW – there is a pretty awful result if we are found to be unfaithful servants!

Here’s what I mean when I call these things a theme. Things like God’s love, eternity, redemption, they are all themes. A thread runs through the entire bible about those subjects. Themes are even stronger than the individual stories because of the repetition, so we need to take particular notice of them. It hit me the other day that when I am reading the parable of the unjust servant;  or about the shonky manager of a vineyard; or even those servants with numerous bags of gold – the thing these parables had in common was THE MASTER WAS ABSENT. 🧐 Yes, I know Jesus comes to your church. But here’s a question … do the people around your church know that?

Here is something else I have learnt over the years – if the Lord says something three times or MORE, then we need to pay attention. The theme in these parables is about still being faithful – when the Master is not visibly present but He has left clear instructions. I realised that there are times, in our churches and our own lives, when we cannot see the Lord at work. When the Word of the Lord is scarce in the land we can end up concentrating on maintaining our own lives. But let’s look at this another way –  what happens in our church groups when we’ve been left in charge?

Today, the Holy Spirit’s question to me was this: “Will you be faithful to what I’ve told you in My book when it seems like I am not there watching over your shoulder? That’s what these parables are about. They are about the servants remaining faithful to what the Master told them to do … the way they should live … even when they cannot easily access Him.”

Do you know I had never noticed how many times He talked about US being faithful? I have become so used to being spoon-fed by what the people-much-smarter-than-me said – that I just didn’t see it. That shocked me. Because faithfulness is part of His Character and He wants it to be a part of ours. So when He asks us to think about our faithfulness, He is actually asking us if His character is being formed in us. Now there’s another good place to pause and think!😳

Faithfulness can also be said like this – Full.Of.Faith. The Lord Jesus wants His servants to be so full of faith every day, that there is no room for doubt, unbelief, or disobedience. That sounds like a good aim to me!  Here’s another parable for thought: in the one about the Master going on a journey – those servants have been left in charge of the Master’s riches! We all need to think on that for about 20 years or so – I know I will!

There is an old saying: “When the cat’s away, the mice will play.” Perhaps we’ve accidentally been doing the same old same old at church rather than stewarding and multiplying what Jesus has given us? Maybe we think going to church is the same as being active at church? The result could be that we are allowing those pesky little foxes to spoil our vines. If our meetings do seem the same week by week, then maybe it is US who got stale? Routine is great for maintenance – but forward movement is better for advancement and momentum. Plus, we all need to obey the word collectively, not just individually. 

Being faithful means we are increasing our faith from where it is, up to, and including, FULL. It looks like this – have we got more faith today than we had yesterday? Last week? Last year?? Are our churches growing and producing strong trees like the mustard seed parable? And I don’t mean in numbers, I mean in dedication. AND lastly … “Are we catching any fish, boys?” Maybe someone needs to show me in the book where it says we have to be inactive. Instead of waiting for revival – perhaps we all need to be one. Otherwise we are like the guy who buried what he was given in the dirt because he was too scared.

We pray for revival, but maybe we need resuscitation? You know, we simply must stop expecting our poor pastors to pull the rabbit out of the hat week by week. The pastor is not a magician! If we all want to be found to be faithful, then we need to collectively, and prayerfully, do something about it  …ourselves. 👋🏻

P 2182 On the matter of active faith.

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

P 2165 What does the Lord think about it?

/ DVH

When we position ourselves on the Lord’s side, then whoever comes against us, is coming against God Himself. He will give us wisdom. Difficult situations aren’t about winning or losing – what matters most is Whose side we are on! In these times, that can be a bit tricky, because being self-centred and filled up with self-importance is almost a national pastime in the Western world! We assume that God will always be on our side and see only the things that benefit us. Not that we are obsessed with our own self-importance or anything! Hmmm. Almighty God doesn’t take sides, as I’ve said before – He is on His own side. When you are as wise as He is that makes all-kinds of sense!

Joshua 5:13&14. “Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in His hand. Joshua approached him and asked, “Are You for us or for our enemies?” “Neither,” he replied. “I have now come as Commander of the Lord’s army.” Then Joshua fell facedown in reverence and asked him, “What does my Lord have to say to His servant?” Sometimes we can get so focussed on completing the task we forget to ask Almighty God about it.

It seems to me that Joshua learnt an awful lot when he stayed behind in the tent of meeting after Moses left it! He was quite a young man, but he had a whole lot of supernatural wisdom. He learnt God’s ways are far better than ours. To be honest with you, I ask for that kind of wisdom all the time – I need it. I have no clue what is good for me, and often go for an immediate solution, over a long-term gain. Sadly, sometimes, self-preservation and immediate gratification can be much too high on all our lists of priorities. Almighty God sees everything.

Let’s look at Joshua for a minute – the Israelites were entering the Promised Land. Every man and boy in the Israelite camp was very sore, because they had just been circumcised, so they would have felt vulnerable. The Israelites really could have used a Mighty Warrior on their side! Even the food that had always fallen from the sky … had ceased. They were about to go and tackle Jericho, a walled city. And Joshua had the sense to fall on his face and ask for advice. Boy is that a great trait to have. Meanwhile that young man also had the sense and the courage to carry out what he was told to do, even though it seemed weird, but those men had 7 more days of healing before they got to the action. What God tells us to do doesn’t always make sense at the time … but afterwards …

Sometimes, knowing what we don’t know, is far more important than knowing what we do! Not enough people take the time to find out what the Lord thinks. He has said plainly, in the book, His plans are for our good. We just need to let Him decide what that , looks like! Human beings have these grandiose theories about what can, and should be done – but most of the time we have no idea at all what the Lord actually wants. I can tell you for sure – He doesn’t want us rampaging about killing, or hurting, or taking advantage of other people, in His Name. Loving others is His priority. Our God has everyone’s eternal well-being on His heart, that’s why Jesus came to save all of us. Sadly sometimes all we have on our own hearts is our convenience and safety.

Plus many people want Him to put a big tick on whatever we think. So we roll up with our prayer agendas and just ask Him to “sign on the dotted line, right there, thank you Jesus.” Without even consulting Him first. Or we pray, and ?hear? that of course God agrees with US … and we have right on our side… plus we have umpteen verses to prove it. Waggling scriptures in God’s Face, will not persuade or impress the Lord. HE WROTE THE BOOK – He already knows what it says. It is far better to humble ourselves, get on our faces, like Joshua did, and wait for Him to speak and then do what He says.  

In Genesis 15 Abram did all kinds of unusual stuff in order to enter into a covenant with God that still stands today. You and I are the result of that covenant! Billions of people have benefited from Abram believing God and following His instructions – and those instructions seemed really weird. Elijah took a side road-trip that lasted 40 days and 40 nights before he heard from the Lord. Because of it, the man learnt no matter what the Lord did through him – he was still human! We need to allow God to be God – He’s good at it – and stop trying to organise or persuade Him to see things from our POV. He won’t overrule our choices, but He has promised to look after us. That’s where trust begins. So we either believe He is Who He says He is, and He will do what He said He will do … or not. 

Establish in your heart that God is God, and you are simply you, and take the time to ask Him how to go forward. Then wait and listen. He is not impressed with our wealth, our many many MANY books, or even man’s logic. What impresses God’s heart is a faithful, faith-filled, humble, trustworthy, loving man or woman who delights to do His will, His way.  👋🏻

P 2158 Hope.

/ DVH

The Holy Spirit is our guarantee of things to come, as well as our treasure – right here, right now. We need to treat His favour as our greatest prize. The Holy Spirit’s continual Presence with us, is Father God’s gift to us. He is guiding us, teaching us, and assuring us, that we belong to the Lord Jesus, over and over again  That is a far greater treasure than all the wealth in this world. 

One day we will leave our mortal bodies behind and go to be with Jesus forever. So right now, even if our bodies, emotions, or minds betray us, we can rest in the fact that we are not alone, without hope or help. Our help is in the Name of the Lord Who made heaven and earth! Our hope is in Jesus our Saviour, our Redeemer, our Friend. Our hope is in the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us to help us manage this life, from one minute to the next. Our hope is that THEY ARE ALWAYS FAITHFUL… It’s in the book!

2 Corinthians 5:5:  “And this is no empty hope, for God Himself is the One who has prepared us for this wonderful destiny. And to confirm this promise, He has given us the Holy Spirit, like an engagement ring, as a guarantee.” Our hope is not empty, because it is not about feelings, it is about an utterly reliable Person! He is our constant companion. God gave us the Holy Spirit so we could have His hope in the midst of difficulties. Just call out for His help at any time.

The Holy Spirit is SomeOne we can rely on, because He put the sun, moon and stars in the sky. Plus He made you and I inside our mother’s wombs. While we are here on this earth, we are continually assured and surrounded by His Love and involvement – whether we feel like it or not! His Presence in our lives is our guarantee that God is in charge, He’s got you and me firmly in His hands. Like the infant in my picture today.

Things around us can change in a heartbeat but He will never change. There are moments when we desperately need to escape from difficult circumstances, because our flesh can grow tired. However, we can escape despair by remembering WHO GAVE US THOSE PROMISES.  Let’s look at this life through the eyes of faith – the Holy Spirit gave them to us. There is no room for fear in His kind of love, even though we have been attacked on every side, and we feel like all is lost, our feelings are not facts. But the bible is a book full of facts about our God.

The Love of God, and the Presence of His Holy Spirit is so all encompassing, He is all over us, IN us, and around us. So when we use our eyes of faith we can see Him at work. I put the picture above today to illustrate what enfolded means. It means wrapped around, surrounded so carefully you can barely see that little child’s feet – because the parent’s strong hands are enfolding them. The Holy Spirit wraps Himself around us like a cocoon wraps itself around a butterfly. We are safe inside His care. His Presence within us reassures us, over and over again, that we belong to Him now. Always. We are held so completely, so tightly by His Love, that love fills our vision. Remember, what you focus on grows bigger – focus on the One Who has come to be with us here and now and He will never leave us. 

Let His love enfold you, this very second. Then continually practice hiding in that love. Especially when the world misunderstands you, ignores you, or abuses you. We are NOW enfolded into Christ. When Father God looks at us He sees Jesus. V14: “For it is Christ’s love that fuels our passion and holds us tightly, because we are convinced that He has given His life for all of us…” V17-19 “… Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new person. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new. And God has made all things new, and reconciled us to Himself, and given us the ministry of reconciling others to God.”

This is our message of hope – God is not mad at people. The Holy Spirit has come here personally to help human beings every single day to discover more about the God of heaven and earth Who saved them. Our HOPE lies in Christ and everything He has already done for us. 👋🏻  

P 2144 The Faithful One.

/ DVH

“We all experience times of testing, which is normal for every human being. But God will be faithful to you. He will screen and filter the severity, nature, and timing of every test or trial you face so that you can bear it. And each test is an opportunity to trust Him more, for along with every trial God has provided for you a way of escape that will bring you out of it victoriously.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 TPT

Our God is so faithful, HE LOVES US … whatever happens to us is not proof of His love or even a sign that He is angry with us. He put all His anger on Christ. He loves mankind because He says so – in the book! Here is one of my favourite verses: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful [true to His word and His righteous character], for He cannot deny Himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13. 🥰 Unfortunately we can be faithless, often … and we are!  What makes you and I the same as everyone else in this world, is the blood we all have coursing through our veins. Colour, size, age, sex, race and religion none of that matters because we are all human. Human beings assess things by performance, but we dare not assess the Lord that way. We must learn to take Him at His word! 

The above verse tells us the Lord God Almighty IS always faithful – let us pray that we will begin to understand just how faithful He is! Just like our blood is a part of humanity we have in common, His faithfulness is a part of Who He is!  He is faithful through and through. Those qualities we sometimes think of as passing human characteristics, are permanently, FOREVER, HIS! Love, joy, peace, etc – these things are not whimsical, or seasonal, or subject to change with Him – our God is always the same. Hebrews 13:8: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” And Malachi 3:6: “For I am the Lord, I do not change; …” 

We need to do more than nod our heads or even say Amen to verses like that. They are not just there to cheer us up when we feel down. They are there to reveal His heart. We must start living our lives treating whatever He says, in the book, as the truth, because it is. HE CANNOT CHANGE. When we try to elevate humanity up to His level, we are running the very real risk of lowering His status down to human standards. Jesus is God, and He is like us – but Almighty God is like no-one else.

And I’m just going to let that statement sit there by itself because we must do more than simply agree with it. We need to start living our lives depending on how permanently dependable He is. Our lives have become more and more unstable because the things we’ve stood on – or gave our attention to – started to wobble. Misunderstanding the Lord God’s motivation means we are in danger of attributing Him with our human characteristics. Even though Christ came as one of us – He did something human beings cannot do – He was purity Personified. After that He chose to become sin. In these matters we cannot trust our own understanding. The mysteries of our God are beyond our understanding … and that’s a good thing!  

We need SomeOne wiser, kinder, more loving, and more committed to us, than we can ever be to each other – otherwise we are sunk. We will all be stuck in a rut of trying to be better people and failing. Whether I like you or not, or you like me or not, we need to start to know and see each other after the Spirit. “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.” 2 Corinthians 5:16. In other words I begin to see the Holy Spirit active in you, and you see Him active and working in and ON me. That will not happen when we spend our time trying to impress one another with our spirituality. Rather it happens as a byproduct of working together for a common cause as we submit to His ways. 

When we actively look for and take particular notice of the signs of His faithfulness in our lives, and store all those things in our hearts –  like a squirrel stores up nuts for the winter – we will begin to know one another after the Spirit! The power of God is not a reward for good behaviour, or super spirituality. As we let the Holy Spirit develop who we are, we will be transformed to look like Jesus. Jesus didn’t have to try to do this or that – HE JUST DID IT. It is time to deliberately transfer our trust, from what we think, see and know, into simply trusting in WHO He is. 

We must put aside the prayers of “please fix this and that thing, or everything that matters to me Lord” and start to pray: “Why am I here Lord, what is Your purpose for my life?” Whether you or I are the head pastor or the janitor – all those things are up to Him. The things that are weighing heavily on each of our hearts will be: “…ADDED UNTO US … as we seek His kingdom FIRST.” He cannot be anything else but faithful to us, and He is looking for us to be faithful to Him in the midst of a faithless generation. 👋🏻

P 2143 He is always faithful – a testimony.

/ DVH

“I am convinced that my God will fully satisfy every need you have, for I have seen the abundant riches of glory revealed to me through Jesus Christ!” Philippians 4:19 TPT

Hubby and I have travelled all over this country in the past seventeen and a half years, mainly because Australia is an unreached people group! People may know about religion, but they haven’t met His love yet. In all that time we have given away, thousands of bibles, testimonies, bookmarks, calendars, children’s bibles, and short books – as well as – postcards, pens, photo books, pass-it-on cards, kid’s DVDs. Plus thousands of New Testaments, pamphlets, supermarket vouchers, boxes of chocolates … that list of stuff goes on and on.  We’d use a chicken if He told us too! 🤣 My point today is about seeing for ourselves how God has supplied our needs – and I don’t mean a new iphone! 

These things we have given away opened up opportunities for prayer, conversations and testimonies with dear Aussies who had never ever heard the Gospel before. The miracle was that we have not had to pay for any of these things, although many items were handmade so they took time. Father God provided for these “seeds” through many, many, many generous Christians – some of whom we have never ever met. It is simply incredible to watch what the Lord will do to provide for the things we do in His Name. Hubby and I are pensioners and we scrape by financially a lot – we don’t have spare money – so this is not a hobby. My desire today, is to give testimony about the glorious provision we have experienced. We have personally seen God do amazing things when we obeyed Him. The way to see a miracle is to step out of the comfort of safety, into the potential of risk.

The Lord has woken up strangers in the middle of the night and told them to send us money – using our names!  Money sometimes comes to us for our trips in small amounts, sometimes in larger ones. This means that the people who received these bibles etc. do not have to pay a cent. But many recipients have asked us if we wanted payment for what we gave them. We operate on the principle of “freely you have received, freely give..” So we said: “No, we need no payment thank you. There are people who care about you and your life, that is why we are here.”  And that becomes part of our testimony when we are talking to people-who-do-not-know-Him yet.

We’ve had many Aussies break down and cry because someone cared enough to come where they live and spend time with them, in out of the way places where tourists never go. Tough working men in blue singlets, work shorts and Akubra hats have brushed away tears. We all know just Who can do stuff like that easily – Jesus can! 🤗 This has meant that people who have never ever read a bible in their lives before, were reading it out loud as we were leaving. We’ve gone out of our way to speak to just one person, because the Lord said: “Go to that place for this person for Me please.” Several times we’ve had to turn around and go back in the middle of a lo-ng journey because we misheard Him, and we missed someone! That shows us how much individual people matter to Him. Walking with Him in faith like this is another way to get to know Him intimately.

I am talking about these things because we all need to stop and remember how incredibly faithful our God is. Hubby and I have come to know that He will supply our needs, because we’ve watched Him do it, over and over again. In the most extraordinary ways. Does He use these times to stretch our faith? YES! There were times when we had no money and He said: “Off you go…” So with shaking knees, off we went! The finances that time actually came in after we were on the road. We are just ordinary people but we’ve tasted and seen how good He is! We are off again in April, God willing. So why am I telling you this? Because sometimes Christians often want to feel faith first, or have proof first. But the Lord Jesus wants us to swing our legs over the side of the boat and step onto the water … in sheer obedience to what He said. 

Jesus told Peter to: “Come,” and that’s what that seasoned knowledgable fisherman did. He did the impossible on the Word of the Lord, and went against his personal instincts and walked toward Jesus. We know that Jesus rebuked Peter because he sank, the man was scared that he might have drowned. But the point was – he was the only man in twelve men who dared to even try. This world needs seeds sown in faith if we want to see a harvest. We always have to be prepared to be tested, and sometimes we will even fail;  because we are imperfect people following the PERFECT ONE. The thing is, time after time, even when we’ve missed it – we have personally watched the Lord redeem situations that seemed to be totally unredeemable. He’s a Redeemer by NATURE.

Is it a difficult way to live? Yes. You only have to look at Jesus’ own life to see how much opposition there is to the gospel. Despite many rumours to the contrary, He did not promise us an easy ride while we are serving Him in this life.(Matthew 5:10-12;  2 Corinthians 12:10; Acts 5:41; Acts 8:1-4 to name a few scriptures.) Instead He promised to be with us in every trouble. We cannot know what it is like to have the Lord deliver us, if we do not experience troubles! Our faith needs to be stretched, and it will not be stretched when we keep doing what we’ve always done. That scenario just leads into complacency. 

It is a wonderful thing to minister to each other in our churches, to build up the Body of Christ, please do it. But also don’t ever forget the responsibility we all have to be His witnesses. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  Acts: 1:8. Ask the Holy Spirit to come with you to the supermarket, or your kid’s school, or your place of employment. He will inspire and empower all of us to step out in faith and sow seeds for a harvest. 👋🏻