Father

P 2284 The undiscovered Person.

/ DVH

Our greatest quest in this new life of learning love is to know the Author of Love intimately. Sometimes, we can focus too much on what we can gain from Him and not enough on Who He is. He is the elusive, but always present, playful Father that some of us always wish we had had IRL. 

We can read the bible with a serious tone of mind or we can read it looking for the God Who has a twinkle in His eye and loves to walk and talk with the man and the woman He made, in the cool of the evening. I think that if we think God is no fun, we are seriously mistaken. 

Right now I’m thinking about Jesus and all the times that His pure theology bumped into the disciples’ squirrelled up theology. He sends them out two by two tells, them to take nothing with them – imagine doing that that with a missionary (!) – tells them to heal the sick and raise the dead, and on the strength of His word, they did it. And oh happy day, it worked!

They came back with a great report  only to fall in the hole of exclusivity, comparison and revenge shortly thereafter. I believe these events were fuelled by His power, because these men were obedient to what Jesus told them to do. And I think obedience carries a lot of weight with God. BUT …the time was coming when these men were to be filled with the very power and life of the precious Holy Spirit, the One Who raises us all from the dead. And they had a heart transplant … on the spot! Hard heart out – soft heart in!

That doesn’t mean they still didn’t make mistakes, they were still human, but the Holy Spirit’s presence became so vital, so important to these men that they knew that without Him they were nothing, but with Him, anything was possible. 

I love the playfulness of God, in His encounters with mankind. In Acts, Eutychus is so bored by Paul’s sermon … pause and think on that … that he fell out of the window, bored into sleep, stone dead, and Paul had to go downstairs to raise him up again! Hopefully, the brief trip to heaven changed him so he wasn’t bored anymore! There would be a whole lot of dead bored people in our churches if we applied that particular scripture today. 😂

What about Peter, who was so passionately outspoken, he was beaten and thrown in jail. And this mighty man of God, full of paste and flour, could not believe that the angel standing in front of him was setting him free! He thought he was dreaming. And back where everyone was fervently praying for his release, when he banged on the door – those guys were so filled with faith they thought he was a ghost!

These people who followed the Lord and His instructions all of the days of their lives were so changed by their walk with the Person of the Holy Spirit, that they didn’t only meet the Him, they chose every opportunity to know His ways. I believe the Holy Spirit is hidden from us for a reason. His insight, wisdom and love offer us a doorway into a different way to see this life.

When Paul met Him, He knocked him to the ground, blind. Suddenly this man’s outward condition mirrored his inward one. Paul was full of religious zeal and fervour. Ripe and ready to kill more Christians, when an encounter with the Ever-Living One bashed the wind out of his sails. Suddenly, this man who knew the law so brilliantly, is following a Voice. That happy encounter instantly showed him the difference between theory and REALITY. He saw everything he had been zealously following, in a totally different light. 

That’s my prayer for anyone who reads this blog, that God would blow away all our neatly constructed boxes and introduce us to His wider, ever-expanding, always delightful kingdom, and blow our puny minds, so that we are forever changed. I think my voice on this blog is one of so many all over the world. There are thousands of men, women and children that the Lord has working for Him. They push on the edges of our boxes, and He stands playfully right there – at the very edge of where that box used to be, and says, “Come and follow Me, I will make you fishers of men.”

Abram followed God’s leading to a Promised Land. That journey totally changed his life, his family, his name, and his future – I pray that the Holy Spirit will so impact every single person who reads here that they will also begin a journey to discover Who He is and what He has in store for each one of us. This undiscovered Person IS OUR PROMISED LAND! 🤗 Amen.

P 2283 A Personal Opinion.

/ DVH

I want to begin by saying to those who are sick, brokenhearted, or injured – God has not left you, no matter how you feel. Even if your friends, or family have given you up – He will not EVER leave you. I have learnt in the hard places, like many men and women of God have learnt before me, this is the time to lay down upon the altar: “I will build an altar to You in this difficult and dark place. I surrender once again Lord, to Your will, Your way.” Amen.

This is a difficult subject for me, I have experienced healing from the Lord, supernaturally, many times in the past. But at this moment in time that is simply not my current experience. I wanted to talk today about some of the things we don’t want to talk about. Instead we can get caught up in a little man-made eddy of “I’m asking the Lord to heal me, or somebody I care about, and I must speak positively all the time or I will wreck it” – only to find that the answer is not what we hoped. 

We can easily go astray in our faith walk while we are in a dark valley. We know the Lord Jesus is with us – He promised to be there. But the reality of our experience denies the faith we are fighting to hang onto. So we read books about healing, because we desperately want to be healed, or to see it happen for someone else. We read the Bible reading the appropriate scriptures out loud over and over again. We run after His grace and go and get prayed for in every and any healing line. 

Meanwhile all of these things are good things to do – however, would the Lord require us to lie? I don’t think so. HE doesn’t lie, so why would He require us to lie on His behalf? Still, we can and must learn to persevere, Jesus Himself said so on several occasions. “… ask keep on asking so you can you find knock on the door will be open to you.” He taught us that perseverance in in prayer is a good thing. It was said of the Lord that He healed ALL who came to Him. Even when He fed people – no-one left hungry… Our God loves to provide and heal – it is His nature.

So what do we do when our experiences in these areas do not match up with what we are taught? Here is my two cents worth: whether it is my fault, and I don’t have enough faith, or it’s misunderstanding about what the Bible says, or simply haven’t been to the right person to get prayed FOR … —I refuse to measure Almighty God by my experience of Him or with Him. Instead I choose to find out Who He is from His book, independently from my own experiences.

He doesn’t ever answer to me, I answer to Him. You could easily say that I have weak faith in this area, but I say it takes more faith to believe in His goodness in adverse circumstances, than it does to believe in His generous and precious provisions in this life and receive them. Often we measure the King of all Kings with our grotty little man-made rulers and then we do one of two things –

We decide that it must be the unhealed person’s fault …OR …we sentence the sick person into a nether world of trying hard to get healed, and strangle them with the edict that they must not be negative and honest about their difficulties, thereby leaving them to struggle with their enormous burdens – alone. Neither of those responses even vaguely resemble what Jesus would do! He once prayed for a blind man twice… and offered no explanation for doing it that way either!

Jesus’ disciples also prayed for a little boy that had a demonic spirit that kept throwing him into the fire. The kid had convulsions, and the disciples couldn’t do anything about it. It is interesting to me to note that the Lord rebuked THEM. He didn’t growl at the father, or the kid, or even the people standing around watching. He rebuked his disciples instead for not having enough faith! 

I believe this is our problem in this day and age. We have tied the burden of being healed onto the sick person. As if they haven’t got enough to go on with! We haven’t thought about the fact that we have taught a whole generation that being sick is a sin. Plus we are saying that these sick people are responsible for their current circumstances. Implying that there must be something terrible hiding around corners in their lives somewhere, and they’d better toddle off and dig about until they find it! Instead of simply holding them up before the throne of Grace, and reminding them that they have greater faith than even they understand, because they love Him and serve Him, despite their negative circumstances.

Jesus told the disciples once when they asked Him: “Who sinned this guy, or his parents?” His response was – ‘Neither! This is for the glory of God.’ Funny how we tend to overlook that answer. We must learn to be honest with ourselves and others, and learn to say: “I DUNNO!” when we do not know. Then turn everyone’s attention to the goodness of God and all His Mighty works, and praise Him because He is worthy. Healing is absolutely His children’s bread but the children are led by a loving gracious Father. 👋🏻

P 2273 Look for fruit.

/ DVH

“But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions: joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness in action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit. Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless.” Galatians 5:22-23 TPT. 

One of the biggest problems with knowing about something, or someone, is familiarity. We often gloss or rush through familiar words without true comprehension. We simply don’t take it in. It is just too easy to mentally say ‘yeah yeah – I get that bit’  and miss the point! What is in Galatians above is HOW we identify the Holy Spirit. In other words, in order to know the Holy Spirit as a Person, we need to be able to identify what He does, and what His Presence produces, so that we are living aware of Him. 

The Holy Spirit is not just goosebumps, laughter or tears or any other feeling. Sometimes He is present with us but we feel nothing. His presence can produce feelings, but those feelings are not Who He is – because He is so much more than feelings! He made everything we see around us.  He needs to be our very very best friend. Having the Holy Spirit for ‘the Friend Who sticks closer than a brother’ is a fantastic aim. 

Jesus would not have sent Him back to all of us, if we did not desperately need Him. I believe Christ would never have gone away and left His disciples if He didn’t have absolute confidence in the Holy Spirit’s ability to grow them up and to lead them in the ways of righteousness. The Holy Spirit’s Presence immediately eclipsed their fears. It would be a tragedy to sing ‘Blessed Assurance’ and not have any assurance that He loves us and wants to be with us!

I think this is why His qualities are listed in the passage above. That description shows us the fruit of His presence in our lives. The reason I am writing about this today, is, we often do not recognise Him when He is present. Instead of looking for feelings, we need to start recognising His fruit. There are some people that I know and love, and whenever I’m around them I immediately see His fruit in their lives.

If we are to walk with Him day by day, minute by minute, it seems to me we totally need to know what He looks like, plus what He sounds like, when He is around. The Holy Spirit is the very epitome of modesty and gentleness, He is literally invisible. So finding Him can be difficult. His continual presence is our constant quest. We need to do whatever is necessary to protect our relationship with Him. If we need to repent, then we repent and stop doing whatever it is by making Godly choices.  

Whenever He’s around this world looks very different. The things we think we can’t do at all, suddenly seem utterly possible because His presence evokes confidence in God in us. If we reduce the Holy Spirit to feelings then we will miss Him, because He chooses to be about the Father’s business the same way Jesus was. Like the scripture in Galatians says, He is constantly producing fruit – in our lives and in the lives of others around us. Jesus told us we would know what kind of tree it is by its fruit.

It isn’t enough to sing worship songs Sunday by Sunday, and feel peaceful inside. That’s just the beginning, not the whole thing, what we need to be looking for is a change in ourselves and the people around us. We need to be able to identify in ourselves, those times when we feel upheld by His grace. Without His fruit, we will have limited evidence of His presence. His fruit is not about being nice or polite. HE changes and renews our hearts as we obey and embrace His words. Instead of losing our temper etc., we suddenly find, because we cherish having Him active in our lives, that we have extra grace to endure. This is how spiritual fruit grows, it grows through the process of obedience to His word and His particular instructions for us individually.

The Holy Spirit’s fruit cannot be imitated, it has to be carefully tended and nurtured within our own lives. We need to value Him above everything and everyone else. We must respect what God is doing in us, and take every opportunity to feed and protect His fruit by choosing to remaining obedient, and willingly. Fruit matures as we obey, then rest and wait. Our part is to stay attached to the (vine) tree. Staying attached to Him will mature His fruit. Bye. 👋🏻 

“And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Savior, the Holy Spirit of Truth, Who will be to you a friend just like me—and We will never leave you. The world won’t receive Him because they can’t see Him or know Him. But you know Him intimately because He remains with you and will live inside you. Jesus replied, “Loving Me empowers you to obey My word. And My Father will love you so deeply that We will come to you and make you our dwelling place.” John 14:16-17, 23 TPT

P 2269 We need to use our faith to access His Grace.

/ DVH

Think of Grace as a huge endless heavenly container that has all the provision you will ever need to access in this life for anything you need to do. It is limitless. It is time to rely upon His boundless Grace to change our ways of thinking being and doing instead of misusing it as an escape clause to remain the same not change. We can’t see it, BUT … it’s in the book! Having faith is about trusting God to be true to His Word.

At the immediate point of impact when somebody says or does something that hurts or irritates us … we need to take a breath and ask the Lord for help. It’s a choice. It’s a hard choice because we are used to making decisions without referring to anything else other than what we know. Or maybe in desperation, we try to make scriptures back up what we want. Faith is about Who HE is – can we trust Him to work everything together for good, even in our bad moments?

Think of it this way God knows the way through anything we come up against, no matter what difficulty we are in. This is why we need His help, to put this Grace that is so readily available in our time of need, into action. In Exodus the Israelites could not go into the promised land because  it was in signs and wonders and provision. We need to change our focus. Our faith needs to be in Him, in the One who did everything for us. 

We don’t have to feel ashamed of being inadequate in the face of trials and tribulations. Our GOD loves to help and protect us. The more we use our faith to access His grace the more our faith will grow. Faith is not just the thing we drag out when the sky has fallen on us, or something bad has happened. If we live that way then we could easily find that our faith muscle will atrophy, and we have no faith strength to make it through whatever it is that confronts us.

The Lord Himself told us to live by faith. Living by faith means it’s a day by day thing, sometimes minute by minute. The only way to strengthen this kind of Living interactive  faith is to continually use it. Unfortunately we are way too used to relying upon our own understanding and strength so we automatically do some things out of habit or personal ability. 

This means we are living our lives acknowledging the power of God but not using it. It is no wonder that faith fails to uphold us, when it is the emergency spare. To live by faith means we live by our confidence in the power of His Word, from His book. Because we have become so used to referring to what we know, and going on with that –  this will mean praying without ceasing, sometimes. 

Not the sort of prayers that we sometimes use and try to hope in …these honest sorts of prayers … like help Lord or I need You, Lord. Heart prayers, not just pretty prayers we hope the Lord will accept. He already permanently accepted us, forever. In our efforts to be reverent and to pray the sorts of prayers we think God wants to hear, we’ve lost the ability to communicate with Him in every day language that comes  truthfully from our hearts. He’s our reference point, which means He knows what we need before we do! Believing in His goodness, and acting upon that thought in mind, means we are moving in faith.

This does not mean that we run around like loose cannons blaming our mistakes on the Lord, and taking credit for the victories. It’s an attitude of heart that says ‘I can’t do anything without You’ Jesus. We do not lose our independence by force, rather we surrender in favour of His great great wisdom and insight. I often find myself praying what do I do here Lord? 

True freedom exists when you have the freedom to make a choice. Automatic responses are not choices either. They are a reflex action. Sometimes we do things ourselves because it seems quicker than leaning on Him. The more we practice leaning on Him – using our faith, the more it becomes the way we think. That’s called renewing our minds. Do you think Jesus was ever so distracted by His circumstances, or whatever was going on around Him that He forgot about His Father or the Holy Spirit? He started from what God said and went from there. He was still Himself, but He was Himself with the benefit of the Father’s wisdom and the Holy Spirit’s applications. 

Using our faith is an investment in our relationship with Him and whatever ministry He has for us. Faith needs to be like sneezing or sitting down … a part of life. Remember we must never be afraid of getting it wrong, Jesus redeemed everything but He cannot redeem our inertia! Grace is accessed by faith, no matter how wobbly that faith seems to be to us. Let’s live our lives believing the bible is true. He said He did it, so it’s done. Bye 👋🏻

P 2267 About worship.

/ DVH

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” This means what HE wants, trumps what I want, every single time. Romans 12:1. My body has been a real pest lately, it’s aching in all sorts of places, not to mention the place I know I hurt when I broke my upper arm. My thinking processes have also kind of wafted away into the ether, clouded by pain drugs. Just as an aside, taking drugs that fog your brain humbles you – trust me.

The above scripture from Romans talks about being ALIVE whilst you are being sacrificed. So far I am not liking my limited experience in this area very much! Worshipping God in this way is challenging, to say the least. And it seems to be catchy. Currently, my dear hubby hardly sits down, and as he is still recovering from surgery with his hand, we both bear a striking resemblance to a pair of muddle-headed wombats. Being a living sacrifice is not as romantic and golden, and gloriously other-worldly, as it’s cracked up to be. So what does all this have to do with worship? The point of being a living sacrifice is that you have lost control of not only what your destiny is, but what comes next.

And then I thought of something…if I’m dead, whilst I am still alive, then what happens to me NEXT is also not my responsibility, it’s His. So now I’m praying when some new unfounded joy turns up, that the Lord will please help me to discover some new revelation about Him. Meanwhile, if Jesus needs my bashed up body, then that’s OK too. At the moment I keep find new places I didn’t know hurt…bumping down the stairs frontwards will do that to ya. But now it isn’t hard at all to hand my body over to Jesus, cos I don’t feel all that precious about it any more …😂   …And I thought growing old was not fun.   

Back to my point … this particular process only hurts if you stop at partially dead, you have to go all the way to ALL dead. That’s when you don’t give a darn. Plus this kind of permanent worship is a series of decisions, sometimes made minute by minute. 

Nowhere in this blog today am I going to talk about lustily singing songs and waving of arms, dancing before the Lord – no smoke machines either! Instead, there’s a lot more, “Praise the Lord anyway … ow!” Worship is about giving Him the only thing I actually really have to give: ME. True worship means I show Him what He is worth to me. 

I have come to two conclusions: I can complain my head off and feel miserable and make everyone around me miserable, or I can present my body, such as it is, look at Him and say, “I have no idea how You are going to get me out of this, but You will, and I’ll get a testimony out of it while I’m at it.” People love testimonies, that’s because testimonies make this life sound easier. However smarter people than me have figured out that in order to have a testimony, first you have to have a test!

Worship is settling the matter of Who’s in charge here, and I found out that it’s NOT me! Don’t we all hate it when our tidy plans, neatly wrapped little lives start unravelling? But we can still worship by giving up our right to complain, whilst stuff like this is happening. Almighty God does not need us to tell Him how special He is, He’s got loads of beautiful beings around the throne doing it better than we ever could. But that tired, pained little voice crying out for the umpteenth time always turns His head. Read the book.

Somebody smarter than I once said, “Christians should be either coming out of trouble, crawling through trouble, or falling into it..”  At this stage if I could find ‘trouble’, I’d do the unthinkable – I’d throttle it! It’s funny how quickly we can go from “Praise you Jesus, welcome Holy Spirit, what a wonderful Father” to “Help! Still stuck Lord!” That’s because worship is about Him, not us. It always has been, it always will be. So if I want to truly worship it starts with “I surrender”, and “I give up,” and then rushes into the arms of a Saviour Who knows about pain and suffering, firsthand. Bye. 👋🏻

P 2264 Gratitude leads to surrender.

/ DVH

“Keep your eyes open, hold tight to your convictions, give it all you’ve got, be resolute, and love without stopping.” 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 (MSG) Loving other human beings the way that God loves us, not only seems impossible – I actually think it IS impossible. On the other hand, earthly Love promises the moon but rarely gives us anything as valuable in return. Earthly Love can often take everything from you. And sadly, sometimes, nothing comes back.

I think we’ve reduced loving God into a concept, rather than aiming at it becoming a reality. Some people might say, “I really love roses or I love chocolate, or I adore my car.”   Whilst all those kinds of things are legitimate, because we all have likes and preferences, sadly I think we have also reduced the word ‘love’ to just another adjective – like ‘blue sky’ or ‘pretty rainbow.’ However in reality, the kind of love God talks about in the bible, is not only interactive, it is see-able. After all His love came to earth to save us from ourselves.  

This kind of love often remains unseen, unheralded, and unappreciated, and because of it’s invisibility, many people try to escape from their own sacrificial response to God’s love –  because  they want to have their cake and eat it too. His Love does not have divided loyalties. My biggest concern is that Christians have adopted this word the way the world has adopted it, as an adjective, and it has become a description, using it as an adjective or noun. Those things are often tied to feelings. There is an unseen war in this world today over the word Love.  It has been watered down and used frivolously.  To understand love, and in particular God’s love, we must always look at Christ – He is our glorious illustration of inward affection being expressed outwardly and perfectly, by the way He lived and died. 

It seems to me that we are very happy to receive whatever Jesus died to give us – so we can go to heaven, but sadly, we are not nearly as happy to give up our idea of this life and all of its benefits, for His sake. We have forgotten Calvary was an exchange – His life for ours. There are no exceptions to this new way of life. We need to understand that we are not too young or too old or too infirm or preoccupied with making our own personal lives successful. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13 NIV. 

Jesus Christ was not a kissy huggy demonstrative person – yet He still absolutely demonstrated His love in a way we can see and copy. His love went beyond outward signs of affection into living His whole life for our benefit. We cannot, and dare not, ignore what He intentionally modelled it in front us. Despite popular opinions Christ did not die so we could have a better life here. He died to give us the power to live this life here and now for His sake. For the sake of His kingdom.

Jesus was not a part-time lover of God, He lived every second of every day He was given, for His Father’s sake.

It is true that He believes we are worth it, but we are taking advantage of His huge largesse when we do not live this life to the full.  What would it be like if our earthly friends only helped us when it suited them, or when it was convenient?  Does that seem like true friendship to you? Jesus told us in the above scripture that this is the pinnacle of love, to live a sacrificial life dedicated to Him, representing Him, with no thought of recompense.

I would go so far as to say if we think we are fulfilling this criteria by using our ministry gift, prayer, bible study, worship in a form of tokenism and hope He won’t notice the difference … this means, at the very least, we are terrible friends of His. Up until Jesus came, the lamb offering people brought for sacrifices for their sins had to be perfect.  Christ was our perfect sacrifice.  I don’t think He is looking for us to get it perfectly right, rather, I think He is looking for us to be so in-love with Him that the word, “No”, doesn’t even occur to us, our response to His love is our devotion.  I know I’m not there yet.  

All I want to do today is to challenge everyone about what needs to happen in our lives for US to love Him back the way He loved us.  It’s our heart attitude that matters. It doesn’t matter that we fail.  But just like a compass always points to true north, our hearts need to swing away from the distractions and troubles of this life back to the Saviour. And then gratitude will lead to surrender.

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.” 1 John 3:1 NIV. The way to behold Him is see Him for Who He really is – so we must go past His hands to His face which is filled with Love for us. He doesn’t want spoiled brats, He wants people who voluntarily choose to love Him right back. 👋🏻

P 2249 A gift must be received.

/ DVH

“Every good gift and every perfect (free, large, full) gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of all [that gives] light, in [the shining of] Whom there can be no variation [rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [as in an eclipse].” James 1:17. Sadly, Love is often simply a word to us, or a feeling, that can sometimes lead to actions. God’s love is ACTION – first. He came toward us before we knew He existed. In order to receive His love we must understand the gift. His love has been personified, and given to us in a form we can understand. Jesus Christ. A gift must be received.

God’s love is not just received through our senses, and our minds, because they are limited. When we receive His love that way – our senses or minds will begin to automatically define love for us. Our reception of His Love pivots on us understanding His love is an undeserved gift. Sadly, to some people any kind of love means you cannot say NO to them, and still tell them you love them. To others, love means strict rules to follow, and they cannot comprehend a love that needs no works. To others it means you live in some sort of euphoric state which can eventually fade. God’s love is not anything like that.

It is important to me today, that you understand my little scribblings here are totally inadequate for the subject I am tackling. I have never, and probably never will comprehend how incredible His love is. I am limited by my personal experiences and how much I can actually take in about this subject. However, I am doing my best here, to describe what I’ve seen through His book. 

So what is His love like and how do we receive it? I want to answer the second part of that question first, I believe when our heart says yes to Jesus: through prayer, through reading His book, or through something someone else says to us – we begin a process that never ever ends. It is similar to the conception of a child – there is a moment of conception. At that moment we say yes to the One Who chases each one of us through time … playfully, relentlessly, and with great passion and loving purpose.

Father God’s love is sacrificial as well as unmerited. It doesn’t wait for the ‘other person’ to love first. His love doesn’t depend on us or our behaviour. It is altruistic. God loves mankind both corporately and individually – the good, the bad, and the ugly. This is because His love depends on Himself, not who we are. He does not simply love responsively. He initiates love, even into a loveless vacuum. It is His very nature to love, so He doesn’t fall in love with people – because falling in love implies you can fall out! He is not irrational or whimsical about love. Our universe keeps expanding because His love keeps expanding!

Our God is where love comes from. He is the source of all that is loving, pure and holy. And so He defines love in ways we barely comprehend. To Him patience is not what we think it is  – it is an aspect of love. Whereas we think patience means sometimes we barely put up with one another – or we are stretched unfairly. But His kind of patience does not depend on the other’s actions, it does not fluctuate according to the other person’s attitude. His love is more like the sun, than the moon. Always there.

His love is expressed through kindness, it thinks the best, sees the best, and speaks the best to the other person and none of that is for personal gain. Nor is it deceitful. It is filled with hope instead. Yet our God is the ultimate realist – He sees us as we are and yet He still loves us. He came after us. And His love lacks any kind of jealousy which is possessive and controlling. Instead it throbs with a kind of jealousy that is beyond our tiny minds. Our God is so passionate about us – that even the idea that we would spend our life and energy on anything that cannot help us, and will not bring us closer to Him – those things stir Him with a passion to fight for us and win us back. He wants His beloved safe, with Him.

Think about the Eternal God in the garden – when He banned Adam and Eve, after they had sinned, and drove them away, He did so because they could easily have eaten from that second tree. That would have separated mankind from Him forever, because the fruit of eternal life was on that second tree. Eternal life filled with death was on that second tree because they had disobeyed.

But because His love is so patient, we have had thousands of years of history to see, over and over again, what WE are really like without Him. Any virtues we manage to produce are finite. His are totally endless. When a gift is given, a gift must be received. The key to understanding His love is to receive Christ into every single part of our lives, our thoughts and actions. This is why Jesus cannot be an add-on to whatever we want. When we do that we are treating the love the Father shows us with disrespect and contempt. That is the ultimate failure to appreciate and receive what we have been given. Bye 👋🏻

“But as many as received Him, He gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in His name. …”

P 2238 Grace is our teacher.

/ DVH

“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,” Titus 2:11-12 NIV.

Grace is more than an established spiritual fact. It is our teacher. To walk in His Grace we need to know what it looks like. The best way I can explain what I mean is to say this – that person who drives us utterly crazy is the very best person to reveal our heart to us. They do what we often cannot do, because we hide who we are even from ourselves. His Grace takes us deeper. God’s Grace is like a jet engine that kicks in and launches us into a whole new sphere of travel. Grace empowers us, it comes in and it goes out. We can’t produce it, and we need Him and His help to live in it. Because of Jesus, we don’t have to be all that – He’s all that. He did everything He did for us … and for that annoying person/s too!

Grace is an attribute of God that teaches us about His very nature, Who He is and How deeply He loves. It also teaches us forgiveness, because none of us can truly forgive without knowing His Grace. The way to get GRACE is a great big reality rush. First of all we have to recognise and settle in our hearts that we are not perfect and now matter how much we try we ain’t ever gunna get there by ourselves! It is way beyond our capabilities, but He gives us His Grace freely. Jesus died to take the shame of our very real daily guilt away. And His Grace dives headfirst right down into the centre of our very being and shouts in the darkest places – “God loves YOU just as you are, and He loves you way too much to leave you there!” His Grace powers the engine of unconditional love.

His Grace focusses on His love for us, not our faults. Even our best efforts at godliness, forgiveness and kindness fall short of the way Christ Himself was. I exhort us all to read the bible looking for the Lord’s attitudes towards the people mentioned in it. God was not stingy in His actions toward our sinful plight …His Grace doesn’t have a ceiling. Read Ephesians 3:14-21. Our heavenly Father was generous beyond our need or comprehension. Grace is so solid, so permanent, so all encompassing that we can actually live in it. It is not just a ps on the bottom of our prayers, with us hoping like mad that we can somehow impress God with our repentance. 

Grace is Father God’s state of mind toward mankind, it is an outward expression of His great Goodness. His Grace rushes toward us like the mighty river Niagara rushes over those incredible falls. Grace does not hesitate! It thunders, it leaps and cascades over us. His Grace will not let any barrier come between us and our Maker. It utterly covers and saturates us. Always. Forever… I exhort you to put your ‘buts’  and “”ifs” down, because thinking about your failures will not allow anyone to jump in and soak in all that He has given us. 

I’m going to quote somebody I listened to this morning because they said it so well: “It isn’t just death to self, that’s the beginning. It is living in the resurrected new life He died to give us.” (Shay Arthur.) That’s GRACE at work. What we lay down and die to must be transformed by His Grace into a new way to live. We can now live in place of permanent ongoing forgiveness because God’s Grace released through Christ’s willing sacrifice, is simply THAT BIG. 

The Holy Spirit inhabits all the words in the bible. People split hairs over this meaning and that deep thought, but the bible goes beyond our comprehension and enjoyment – it feeds our very spirits. Something happens when we read His book. Grace for understanding is released. That Grace speaks to a part of us that the Lord made alive, and it broadcasts life in us, and from us. When we read we are looking for Him. His ways, His attitudes, His actions. We will fall in love with what we find. The bible is a book about our gracious, loving, beyond-our-comprehension Father, God. Don’t read it to know stuff – read it to find Him. 

We human beings don’t have this kind of Grace in us. Realising that is the first step toward being taught by Grace itself. It is when we understand – without any threat or fear of punishment – that we don’t have this kind of passionate love and acceptance in ourselves … then joy rises up. Grace is our teacher and our lesson. And knowing we can’t forgive and let things go, puts us firmly into the school of Grace… Choosing to stay in that school will transform each one of us utterly. Have an ace day, you are so loved by Him. 💖 👋🏻

P 2225 Insight.

/ DVH

“Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” 2 Timothy 2:7. “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.” John 16:12-15.

“but just as it is written,“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.” For to US God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.” 1 Corinthians 2: 9-13.

Let’s start with the meaning of the word … insight ..“the capacity to gain an accurate and deep understanding of SomeOne, or something.” There are many scriptures on the subject of INSIGHT – feel free to look them up when you can, but every single one of them belongs to us, the believers. Almighty God wants to reveal Himself to us. The first thing I want to say about insight is this – the Holy Spirit is our guide and source – and in case you haven’t read Acts Chapter 2 – plus the rest of the New Testament … HE’S NOW HERE. HE NEVER LEFT. He’s with YOU.

Other people’s books and articles can help us with insight, but there is absolutely NOTHING like going to the source. And.WE.ALL.can. ← There’s that full stop again. It means thinkaboudit. I write this blog every day using that gift from God and it is a gift that belongs to every single Christian. ANYONE can do this. The Holy Spirit will always give His insight to anyone who wants it, He loves to give us little glimpses into the Ways of God and reveal the Father to us.  

I’m like every other writer – sometimes I stare at a blank page when writing this blog and my brain is going …ho-hum … nothing, nothing, blank, oh it’s sunny today! ☀️ More nothing. Now I’m hearing waves, and there ain’t nothin’ happening around here! 😶 If the Holy Spirit doesn’t speak to me I have nothing to say on this blog. I cannot write without Him. Writing this blog every day is a supernatural thing, and what He gives me here, is available to you too! I do not have the corner on INSIGHT.

You simply need to ask Him to help you, and then be prepared to INSIST.  Spiritual insight is one of the greatest ways to step into the arena of the supernatural I know.  You activate it by using your faith. It’s a great faith builder for other gifts! So don’t just read the words in the book, ask Him questions and wait for answers! Treat the bible like a puzzle you’ve never done before – no matter how many times you’ve read it HE can make it brand new. He’s there to help you put all the pieces in the right places for you, and your life.

The secret to this blog is not me. It’s the Holy Spirit. He ALWAYS wants to speak to YOU guys!! 🤗 The Holy Spirit is never silent. If we think He is silent, that means we’ve somehow tuned out. We tune out by ignoring Him, or treating other people, badly. REPENT, fix it – I don’t care who did or said what – fix it. Now you need to believe that He has restored you, no matter how you feel, and go back to reading the book! And don’t skip the little words either – but, and, the, if, to, for, let, if, then – are little words. Unlike every other book in this world, in God’s book the little words count.

Every single day He speaks to me – sometimes it is just one word. But one word from God has power in it. I’m sitting there praying, staring at the walls, then He whispers into my heart – ‘read blah blah blah in the bible.’ I’m like, yeah, yeah sure! So I go to biblegateway.com … type in the name of the book and read it. I sit there after I’ve read it … and some of the time … I’ve got bupkis. Nothing. Just more wa-a-aves of silence. Don’t stop there.

At this point He often says to me: “You missed it, read it again.” So I read it again until He stops me, OR something catches my attention. Sometimes it is just one word. It’s like pulling on a string, the more I throw that word about prayerfully the more insight I get. The secret is to keep after what you are asking for, He loves faith … so INSIST. Tell Him: “I just have to hear from You Holy Spirit, what do You have for me today, please?” Then, take the time to WAIT. Time spent waiting with Him is one of His love languages. 

The Holy Spirit doesn’t have a clock, so He is never in a hurry, but … He is never late either… He will take care of the time for you. Our job is to treasure what we hear. Don’t argue with Him. If He reminds me that I was snippy with my husband, then I get up and go to my hubby and ask for his forgiveness. Always let the Holy Spirit correct you – He is never mean about it. I value what He says, so I write things down! Sometimes, people have an agenda, or a timetable .. so it helps to deliberately put those things down too … BE-CAU-SE …

… The King of all Kings has stepped away from His throne and He is sitting in your car, lounge, office – wherever you are. WOW! He came for you. He wants to talk to YOU. You have all His attention. Nobody else can take this time away from you. He lo-o-ves to share His secrets with people who take the time to want to hear from Him. Godly insight is available daily, for every single Christian. It’s part of our inheritance. 👋🏻

P 2223 Speaking in Tongues.

/ DVH

I would like to say first of all, speaking in tongues is definitely a God-given gift – we should ask for it. It is a faith gift. Anything that requires us to use our faith is good. However, speaking in tongues is not proof you are a Christian! (Yes, I have heard that said – sigh.) As an aside, I want to say that it is not good to let our own personal experiences dictate to us or others. We live by His Word and His Word is in His book!  Jesus said in Mark 16:17: “And these signs will accompany those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues.” 

Because our new life is to elevate Jesus …  it is not only about fruit, or gifts or anything else! We have those things to elevate Him too! Gifts are given – by the Lord – fruit grows as we let Him change us. His gifts are given to us as the Holy Spirit desires, and they are not badges of honour to anybody – but HIM!  Speaking in tongues is a blessing from God, it helps us communicate with Him without our minds meddling with what we are praying. EG: We could easily pray “please God change that person” – when we actually need to pray: “please God change ME!” Speaking in tongues gets my own agendas out of the way. When we speak in tongues we are speaking to Him, spirit to Spirit.

Unknown tongues are a brilliant vehicle that helps us to pour our love upon the Lord’s feet. When we’ve run out of our inspiration in our own language – the Holy Spirit provides another one we don’t know! In 1 Corinthians 14 it says: “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, … For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit.” Because of this ‘mystery,’ tongues have become a bone of contention in Christianity. That is a shame, because they are a wonderful way to pray with no other agenda, but HIS. Plus tongues build up our own faith at the same time.

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Moving on to Acts 2:4-6 “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because EACH ONE heard their own language being spoken.“

In this incident, the Holy Spirit incredibly arranged for every person who was there that day to hear His message in their own language.

HOWEVER! The message given and received was what was important, not the medium He used! Otherwise we’d all be sitting about waiting for tongues of fire to land on us and a huge windstorm to blow our church roofs off!  Tongues are a sign – not the end product, the end product is knowing Him without our brain arguing with us. Plus speaking in tongues helps to activate our faith.  Almighty God came upon people that day in a way they could see and hear. What happened, was a result of His Presence. 

Jude talks about speaking in tongues as building ourselves up in our faith in chapter 1:20 ”But you, beloved, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit …”  (Romans 8:26&27 explains this.) Speaking in tongues helps facilitate the Holy Spirit’s wisdom, insight and thoughts into our lives, purely because tongues require us to use our faith. If we want to walk with the Holy Spirit it helps to be able to speak to Him without our minds and emotions in the way! Tongues are a direct communication between our spirit and His.

We don’t always know how to pray about things, so the Holy Spirit helps us. However, the point is – HE HELPS US – not how He does it! 🙌  He will help us pray in our own native tongue as well!  We’ve made this blessing into something far bigger than it should be. It’s all about HIM – His generosity, His loving provision for us. My spiritual language comes from inside my heart, He will not make anyone pray that way – we will have to ask for it – because it is a gift. Encountering Jesus personally is the end product, and tongues are a supernatural, faith-supported gift.

However – LOVE is always the theme of any of the Holy Spirit’s languages. Speaking, or even singing in tongues, supernaturally encourages our faith.Ephesians 5:19 says:“Speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, [offering praise by] singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; …”  It’s in the book. 👋🏻 

Matthew 7:9-11“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!”