Fear

P3449 A life laid down.

/ DVH

“If we wait to feel like doing something for God, we will do nothing at all.” “Let your life be proof that Christ is real.” Mary SLESSOR. (1848-1915.) Born in Glasgow, and a missionary to Nigeria, she began her first mission at 27 years of age. She died of Malaria on the mission field. 

In Nigeria, back then, it was a common practice to kill twins, because they were regarded as a curse. Mary took those discarded twins and raised them as her own children, and eventually the native people realised their way of thinking was an error. She did not waiver in her devotion to what she knew the truth was. Mary put what she believed into practice. BTW, she was also the first female magistrate in the area, plus she advocated women’s rights, and she settled tribal disputes. But few people would know her name, today. 

I found Mary by reading the quote I’ve put at the top of this blog and I was so interested in her life, I did a bit of research. I wanted to use her as an example of what living for Jesus’ sake looks like. Here’s another quote about the cost of living this way from Wikipedia:.. “During this third mission to Calabar, Slessor received news that her mother and sister (her only living relatives) had died. She was overcome with loneliness, writing, “There is no one to write and tell my stories and nonsense to.” She had also found a sense of independence, writing, “Heaven is now nearer to me than Britain, and no one will worry about me if I go up country.” (No-one will miss me now.)

She seemed to me to be an excellent example of an ordinary Christian person who gave up her life to follow the Lord. She had had a pretty ghastly life before she became a missionary, yet she chose to obey Jesus’ call to be a witness. Obviously we won’t all end up on the mission field in a foreign land – but her singleness of purpose really challenged me. Mary became sick from Malaria early in her life in Nigeria, and had to go back to Scotland to recover, then she returned to the mission field again. This wrestling match happened many times in her forty years on the mission field. 

You know, I found what Mary did so powerful, especially in the light of this world’s penchant for self-indulgence. She is probably rarely mentioned except in Presbyterian literature. She didn’t go to Africa for fame – she went to be obedient. The little blurbs I read did not say she was a passionate person, actually she comes across as quite an ordinary, quiet heroine, who simply did what the Lord asked her to do. She bloomed where she was planted. … Boy did she!!

She wrote this in her diary: “I am trembling for the meetings,” she once wrote. “But surely God will help me. It is His own cause. I am suffering tortures of fear, and yet why is it that I cannot rest in Him? If He sends me work, surely He will help me deliver His message and do it for His glory. He never failed me before. If He be glorified that is all, whether I be considered able or not.” This piece was not written in Nigeria where she confronted drunken tribesmen with spears and shield, time and time again — this was written right before she went to speak at a meeting in her homeland, Scotland!

She said this about her calling: “God has been good to me, letting me serve Him in this humble way,” … ”I cannot thank Him enough for the honour He conferred upon me when He sent me to the Dark Continent.” By now I was crying as I am reading, because her devotion to Jesus and His sacrifice was so precious. She gave up everything to serve our King. Some of my info came from an article MARY AND THE BEAN STALK c.2005 by John W. Cowart. From the book,  People Whose Faith Got Them Into Trouble (IVP, 1990). I love that title!!  If you have time to read, she makes great reading. “One lone woman and Christ against an army” of angry natives, whose lives were changed by Jesus.

Mary helped me remember that obedience is better than sacrifice. So many great men and women have served Jesus in far off places, and history has forgotten all about them. But they gave all they had, so that others might live forever with Him. That kind of makes our reluctance to talk to strangers about Jesus seem pretty pitiful eh? Especially the sad things we hide behind – I’m too old, too young, too fat, too thin, too scared, too noisy, too quiet, too poor, too rich, too something-or-other … So I can’t do it!

I distinctly remember Moses saying something like this …  ”Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” Exodus 4:10. Thank God, after a bit of wrangling, Moses did it anyway! And Jonah saying: “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”  Jonah 4:2. Jonah knew that God is good, and it annoyed him because people he didn’t like were saved. Human beings are weird!

Who said witnessing is an optional extra? I think a life laid down is a beautiful thing. Bye. 👋. “But we are certainly not those who are held back by fear and perish; we are among those who have faith and experience true life!” Hebrews 10:39 TPT.

P3446 Let’s talk about Psalm 23.

/ DVH

“Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need! He lets me rest in the meadow grass and leads me beside the quiet streams. He gives me new strength. He helps me do what honours Him the most. Even when walking through the dark valley of death I will not be afraid, for You are close beside me, guarding, guiding all the way. You provide delicious food for me in the presence of my enemies. You have welcomed me as Your guest; blessings overflow! Your goodness and unfailing kindness shall be with me all of my life, and afterwards I will live with You forever in Your home.”

This Psalm was written by David, who was a shepherd – so he knew what he was talking about! I sometimes wonder how a plumber or a taxi driver would write it? Moo-ving on … I enjoy watching a Scottish shepherd and his dogs at work on Youtube. The thing that hits me every single time I watch it, is that those dogs never take their eyes off their Master, and he never takes his eyes off the sheep, or the dogs.

David knew all about sheep, that was his job. His part in his large family was pretty minor compared to his big deal brothers who were allowed to join the army and help their Dad run the family property. The blessing of doing unnoticed things well, is a huge asset. It helps form character in us, when we are prepared to leave acknowledgement from others, behind us. It teaches me regularly how needy I am regarding praise!

David did what he did well. He knew how to care for his sheep, protecting them from harm, and when they needed a rest, he took them to a green, well-watered safe place. Jesus makes sure we are rested and ready for hard parts of our journey. Some tasks may look very small and insignificant but they teach us to rest. The Lord knows what comes next, and He will provide us with a safe place, right near Him. Jesus Himself taught us about faithfulness – it matters! “He who is faithful in a very little thing is also faithful in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little thing is also dishonest in much.” Luke 16:10.

Psalm 23 tells us we can learn about fear, whether real or imagined, WHILE we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death! Our Heavenly Father often ‘trains our hands for war and our fingers to fight,’ in difficult, dark places, where we want to curl up into a ball and hope we die. Why would He do that? Theory in the Body of Christ doesn’t benefit anyone … but using our faith changes our view of things. The bigger the resistance, the stronger the muscles. Faith is a spiritual muscle – it needs to be resilient, because bad things happen unexpectedly.

We can theorise all we want, but the truth is – when the stuff is going down, and all hell breaks loose, that is THE very best time to practice what we believe. When we feel paralysed by our circumstances, then we can choose to lean on Him. HE becomes our  hope – not our changed circumstances. Our God is training warriors, not Tinkerbell! Later on, David himself became a mighty warrior, but when he was a youth caring for sheep, he had already learnt to fight with God on his side. That’s why he ran at Goliath.

The Holy Spirit, daily walks with us, guiding us, teaching us … He does not leave us. Instead He says: ‘put your foot here, put your hand there … stand on this scripture … do that other thing now.’ Our Shepherd doesn’t only lead us, the goodness of God in Jesus and His Word, glows right in front of us, lighting up the way ahead of us. Today’s Word, from the bible is our light for this day. “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” Psalm 119:105.

The Lord releases His word to show us HIS pathway through our trials. When this happens, He is not punishing us, nor has He forgotten us. He took our punishment, once and for all. We can’t ever be forgotten because He carved us on the palms of His hands! This Psalm also tells us that the Lord prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies.

So let’s look at 1 Corinthians 11:24,25 it says: “… and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way also He took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”” This is the Lord’s table! His broken body and His blood willingly poured out for our sake, made a way for us to survive everything that comes at us. In Jesus’ mind what we need is already done, and we have been given His mind. 1 Corinthians 2:16.

Christ’s death and resurrection on our behalf made a way for us to be certain that no matter how things look – God will not fail us. And then the Holy Spirit assures us that God’s goodness and mercy runs after us. He follows up our times of difficulties, to the point where we are so blessed we run out of words to thank Him! We won’t always feel it, instead we choose to believe what Jesus said, and live our lives depending on it. We are His people, and He knows when we need to lie down. Plus He knows the way through anything that comes against us to make us afraid and He will lead us through it.

Psalm 23 is an example of the Lord’s purposes in our lives, it is not just for funerals. It teaches us that He leads, guides, and travels with us every step of the way, every single day. He feeds us with Himself, and blesses us. His all-consuming desire is to walk with us, forever. Bye 👋.

P3444 Eyes to see and ears to hear.

/ DVH

“But we are certainly not those who are held back by fear and perish; we are among those who have faith and experience true life!” Hebrews 10:39 TPT. Most of the time what I write on this blog is about my own learning curves. This one in Hebrews has been a real challenge to me, because fear smacks me upside-the-head quite a lot. I have had to discipline myself with His help, to put aside what I feel, or even the very real negative experiences I have had, and press on regardless. Trust me … I can come up with a lot of good reasons why I don’t have to do such and such! 

Here are a few: I have whiny ones …“but I’m s-i-c-k!! They will be mean to me, they are always mean to me. I might even get more sick!” Rebellious ones … “why should I help those people? They never did anything for me but hurt me. Why should I be nice to them?” A-n-d … a … complete lack of faith … “I’ve prayed and prayed for them and they are still the same grumpy nasty people they always were! I can’t see any possibility at all that they will change.” However, the Lord says this in Galatians 6:9 (ESV) “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up.” 

OK that’s enough fault finding …  we both know I’ll get an inferiority complex! You get my drift. The author indicates in the verse in Hebrews, that we can be held back by fear and fear can easily take the form of excuses. Things that sound reasonable to other people, but what does Jesus think about them?

I am greatly comforted by the fact that God Himself sees us as ‘those who have faith … who experience true life.’ He’s like that, always positive. But what does it mean? I think it means this – what we know here and now, about this life, is extremely limited by our own way of looking at stuff. But people who use their faith, experience the depths this life in Christ can have. Here’s one of my merry metaphors!

Right here and now, without my glasses on I can see fairly well. Before I had cataract surgery my unaided vision was extremely limited. After that surgery my eyesight was vastly improved, and consequently I have better vision. But I still need glasses … just not the bottom-of-the-bottle-ones I needed before! … Before we chose to follow Jesus, we were all a bit like me before that cataract surgery. I saw men as trees walking – just like that guy Jesus prayed for twice! After the surgery, I can now see well enough to identify what is in front of me. But you probably wouldn’t want me to drive you anywhere, because I still have myopia. 🤣

My point is this …using our faith improves our spiritual eyesight. When we take that first giant leap of faith and ask Jesus to be Lord of our lives, it is as if a veil is lifted from our eyes, and the things we couldn’t see before are suddenly so much clearer. The bible makes sense. Faith makes sense. What Jesus did for me makes sense! And as I choose to walk with Him using my faith, day by day, my spiritual vision will become clearer and clearer. The key to seeing well, spiritually speaking, is to stay focussed on the bible, and go out and do what it says – using our faith to do it. The Holy Spirit gladly comes with us – whether we feel anything or not – and life becomes an adventure.

If we choose what to believe and what not to believe, we can end up with spiritual myopia. The bible is not a Pick and Pay … it is the Manufacturer’s handbook. Solomon agreed with me, he says this in Proverbs 14:12: “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” Our ideas can be so limited by our viewpoints we can end up dead! We need to be rewired, or in the case of my dumb illustration, we need those cataracts to be removed, otherwise things get cloudy and we can’t tell the truth from a tree stump. 

It is the same with our spiritual hearing. Someone I know had trouble with their day-by-day hearing, and it was becoming so evident it could no longer be ignored. I suggested a hearing test. They were not thrilled with that idea because the idea of hearing aids made them feel old. But then they went and had the test and lo and behold, they had wax in their ears impeding their hearing.

We too can get wax in our spiritual ears when we listen to stuff that is not “good right and profitable…” Paul tells us that. Have you ever deliberately blocked your ears when you didn’t want to hear some terrible sound or other? Ignoring what God says in the book, just because we don’t like it, blocks our ears. However, this is what faith can look like: right now, because of the way the economy is going, hubby and I can’t afford to buy a new car even if we need one. (We don’t.) But if the Lord told us to buy a new car we would take whatever money we have, and follow Jesus to the new car lot!  It is ‘impossible to please God’ if we don’t use our faith. 

Doing what we have always done, day after day, means we are not using our faith! Let’s be bold and courageous like our brother Joshua said in Joshua 1:9 – and start acting on the things we’ve been carefully avoiding. Don’t start with picking a marriage partner or buying a house! Let’s start with getting rid of every place in our lives where we are angry, or walking in unforgiveness, and begin to repair broken situations, and stop expecting other people to make the difference.

This is how we nurture eyes to see and ears to hear. If we ignore the things He has already told us in His book, how can we expect to hear Him in our everyday lives? Food for thought. Bye. 👋. PS. Simply praying about faith actions, and doing nothing, will give us nothing. This is not a time to wait on God, this is a time for action.

P 3442 Keeping our love ON.

/ DVH

One way or another, I have spent a great deal of my time in hospitals. I am not saying that to gain sympathy, it is simply true. Meanwhile I don’t like them. I feel like someone is going to pop out of the ether, and decide I need this ghastly test, or that. Or maybe some super keen doctor will sentence me to four hours of waiting in a chair. While I try not to mind my life being whittled away by people in white coats. Yeah, I have a bad attitude. The Lord reminded me this morning that sick people go to hospitals, “the fields are white!” He said. “I need more energy Lord,” I said!

Remembering to keep our love ON can be difficult at times, especially when we’ve spent a lot of our lives living the other way. Here’s what Jesus said:  “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.’ Matthew 7:13-14. Yeah, I wish He hadn’t said that too … but He did. The narrow gate needs to be sought and found – it isn’t like the yellow brick road, wide and obvious!

The people who travel this narrow road study LOVE. How it works, what it looks like when we do it. The Lord has said some tough stuff in the scriptures, but when I look at the way I’ve chosen to live in the past, I am so grateful for His wisdom – I need to hear it! It wasn’t that I didn’t try to obey Him, but I know I gave complaining equal footing in my life. A grateful heart is a fantastic blessing, in the list of blessings God has given us. Let’s stop searching for the fake gold of this world, and start digging for the real treasure … Jesus Himself.

However, we will have to fight any Goliaths that have taken up residence in our lives. Those things that bellow and hurl threats of doom and despair at us, and others, through us. He yells that he will kill us, our friends, our families, plus everyone we love, to create fear. Love can’t flourish in an atmosphere of fear. We must trust the Lord to take care of us. David ran at Goliath, but he left his big brothers up on a hill hiding behind rocks! His brothers had a problem … but David didn’t! His faith in Almighty God saved an entire nation that day.

The thing I love about this young man is that he believed in the God Who was with him, when he faced Goliath. We are so much better off than David was, we have the same God IN us. That thing that we think we can’t possibly fight, we don’t ever have to fight it alone. He will be with us. He promised, so let’s choose to believe Him! David was no more alone on that battle field than WE are. Jesus told us that He has given us His power, and we need to believe Him and act on it. Then we can go to our enemy’s camp and take back what he has stolen from us. 

People spend time praying to become everything the Lord God means for them to be. I want to add that it is also good to pray that we would identify and throw off all those weights the enemy has been laying on us since birth … “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” Hebrews 12:1. WE do that, God doesn’t do it for us – He does it with us!

We may not feel like we can outrun the Goliaths of this world, but we can definitely learn to outwait them. BTW, “outwait” is a verb meaning to stay longer than someone else, or to wait until a bad event or time finishes.” Perseverance is a vastly underestimated Grace. It comes directly from the fruit of “patience, faithfulness, and self-control.” We have eternity on our side – satan does not, and he knows  it! If we do not faint in our journeys with Jesus — we will win. Don’t look at problems as forever things, once we give them into His hands who knows what He will do with them?

Doing the things we hate is another form of worship, as we do them “as unto the Lord.” Let’s face it, without the Holy Spirit’s help, none of these things are actually appealing. They are easy to read, but it is much harder to motivate yourself to do it. We want to raise the dead and heal the sick, and have a ministry, etc. But Jesus wants us to be bullet proof — He cares about our hearts first. And Paul gave us a list of things that we need to remember to wear. So as we put on the full armour of God, we put on those things are illustrations of the new way we’ve chosen to live now. This is how it works:

‘Always speaking HIS truth;  remembering we have Christ’s righteousness as a gift to clear our path;  at the same time we are always ready to share the gospel;  and our faith guides us and prompts us to act. Together with the knowledge that Jesus died to save us and now we have the Holy Spirit with us.’ Let’s embrace active cultivation, through our own personal choices, and make room for the growth of the fruit of the Spirit. As we “…put on love, which binds …(all the other graces) … together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:14. We can’t be patient, kind, self-controlled etc. without LOVE leading us. 

Doing things we dislike is a challenge, but there are so many riches that are already in place, waiting for us to draw upon them. So let’s focus on the Lord and His blessings, not our feelings.. Our faith when it is active, will give all these things, substance. They become evidence in our lives of His Presence.  The answer is simple — don’t take your love off … Jesus’ love is always on! Bye. 👋

P 3438 Yoo-hoo! I’m home!

/ DVH

“Guard and keep [with the greatest care] the precious and excellently adapted [Truth] which has been entrusted [to you], by the [help of the] Holy Spirit Who makes His home in us.” 2 Timothy:1:14.

This our aim, making a home for the Holy Spirit inside us. Anyone of us can smile and look pleased outwardly, when inside we are unhappy. We all know what polite looks like! However, the Holy Spirit doesn’t do polite. When you read the Old Testament He is often quite blunt, even though He is always very kind. We can have a funny opinion of what we think He should say, or do, it’s almost like we’ve made Him into SomeOne He isn’t.

He likes humility more than appearances. It is a fantastic thing to be able to quote the word, and I have known people who could quote whole chapters. Plus a couple of really clever people I’ve known could quote a whole book – word for word! That was mind-blowing and impressive. But one quiet word from the Holy Spirit can transform my heart.

Personally, I always have to rely upon the Lord bringing what I need into my mind! He loves to help us through the problems of this life. He won’t always make them go away, Instead, He leads us through. Today, let’s remember we want our hearts to be HIS HOME  whatever that might look like. 

Maybe you have a room at your house, that you keep for visitors or long term guests? If it is like our spare room it rapidly fills up with stuff that doesn’t fit in other rooms! But when we have a visitor or a guest, we clean everything out, and get rid of the dust-bunnies, and make the room welcoming for that prospective guest. This is what we need to learn to do for the Holy Spirit. Make room for Him. We do that by focussing on Jesus and what He has already done for us. Our bit is to step into our faith and follow the Leader.

Making room for the Lord can seem to be costly — spiritually, mentally and emotionally. It hurts when we suddenly see the need to give up something that seemed OK – until the Holy Spirit put His finger on it! Learning to love Him and treasure what He does, makes that transformation easier. There are times when decisions must be made about what we say and what we don’t. I sometimes hear Him say: “Don’t say that, you will be misunderstood.”

This too, is part of clearing out our hearts to make room for Him. I think I have a big under construction sign over my heart permanently!  Life is full of surprises, not all of them are good ones. The people you love and value go away — pain and grief are things the Holy Spirit understands. He can be grieved so He knows what grief is like and Jesus is well acquainted with pain and suffering. They know the Way through the hard bits.

The fact is, we can quite easily turn to other people and rely on their faith, and not cultivate our own. The Person we need to learn to lean on is Jesus. He won’t go anywhere. Talking to other people may help in stressful times, but only the Lord knows what is happening in your heart.

Trusting Him grows our faith. Our God is so gracious to us, but accepting that He knows what is best for us, can cause us to get out of sorts. It’s that out of sorts feeling that can shift our focus off Him and onto what we think we need right now. In my experience that means my brain is working overtime and rebellion and frustration are knocking on my door. And then my faith is pushed into the back seat and my brain whizzes around and around, trying to solve things that are too hard for me.

We need His help to identify the times when we are acting out of fear instead of faith. The bible tells us that Jesus Himself is the Author and Finisher of our faith — He is utterly committed to helping our faith grow!  When the distance between the Holy Spirit and us becomes obvious, it can take a while for us to work out what is at the bottom of that pile of stuff we’ve become used to walking around! … Instead of straining to clean up the mess, I just turn my heart back to Him and then I follow His prompts.

He points out what is motivating me, blocking me from seeing Him clearly, and I follow His quiet advice. The Holy Spirit is our live-in helper, counsellor, teacher, guide, coach, advocate, our Father’s truth Speaker, and Witness to what is good right and profitable. That’s why we need to make room for Him. This isn’t about prayer or bible study, or other great things, we simply need His Presence in our lives.

He is the One Who will guard all the truths we long to keep in our hearts as He takes His stylus and writes each one on our hearts. Here’s one of my weird questions for you — when was the prodigal son rescued? When he realised his foolishness, or when he repented in front of his father? Selah!  

Hanging around with the Holy Spirit transforms us, day by day. Once we start to clear out those piles of irrelevant stuff we’ve kept, for one reason or another — we can see more clearly how to make room for Him. You know, once I decided to make my heart His home, things that had been hanging around for years, just disappeared. I simply did what He said and He did all the work. Then I heard His familiar cry: “You-hoo! I am home.” Bye. 👋.

P 3416 Do you — everyone else is taken.

/ DVH

The Lord has given us a brilliant tool – the bible – to help us to tighten up this screw of doctrine that may be loose, and that bolt of our creed that rusted out or needs replacing. That’s what the bible is for — transformation. It’s been given to us to encourage us day by day, and to correct our course when we wander off chasing random butterflies. The Lord “.. knows the plans He has for YOU, plans to give you a hope and a future …”

Jesus Christ, the Living Word, came to earth and died for each one of us. At the same time I know that Jesus is still continuing to speak, through ordinary vessels in His body. What HE says is important, not the vessel. We must stop putting pressure on our leaders by expecting perfection from them when we haven’t even achieved it for ourselves! Remember, what you and I know about Jesus, personally, is our testimony, and I don’t have your testimony! Neither of us need to be eloquent, we just need to be truthful. His Word is indestructible and more stable than the earth we stand on. My words won’t last one nano-second, but His Word stands forever. 

Personally, I believe that we will still be reading the bible in heaven. Why? Because it tells real stories of His love for us, and lovers love to hear things about each other. My faith is not in me, it is not in you — it is not in some famous brother or sister in the Lord who, praise God, reaches thousands of people. My faith is in the living written Word of God, the Living Word Himself, Jesus Christ! The Holy One. The Righteous One. Whatever He says is true.

The Lord Jesus saw the people around Him clearly, and He went right to the heart of the matter in their lives. He didn’t even have to try.  Love just flowed out of Christ like water. … Until one terrible wonderful day they pierced His side and then water flowed out onto, and into, this earth. God’s Word can teach us, you and I, how to see Him through our own renewed grateful, worshipful eyes. Here’s what Paul saw in Ephesians 3:9-11.

“Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose that He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Paul knew that Jesus had so much life in Him that one man was never going to be able to describe the Lord completely. So we have Luke, Mark, Matthew, John, Peter, James, John and Jude to help us. They are inspired by the Holy Spirit Who knows Jesus and our Heavenly Father personally. We can excuse our lack of sharing what we personally know about the Lord with others, by saying things like: “I’m not as eloquent as Paul ..” Who is??

The thing is, unless we choose to be someone who walks with Him, we will miss the blessing of holding the Holy Spirit’s hand and walking into brand new, and sometimes scary territory, but we will be taking that territory back for Christ. We are not just witnesses to what happened to Jesus, we are witnesses to what happened after He left this world! What He has done in your life and mine. 

We can’t beat any kind of fear by avoiding the things we are afraid of … we beat fear by facing it and doing whatever it is anyway.  And the glory of this whole administration of gifts is the Holy Spirit knows exactly how you should minister your gift. Someone else can point you in the right direction, but because the Lord knows you, inside and out, He knows how to walk you through truthfully witnessing and sharing His love with others.

God’s Word has millions of applications, and sadly, most of them are still hidden because the church just keeps right on copying the people we greatly admire. But everybody has something to contribute! Hubby recently kicked his toe on a skirting board at our house and he limped for ages. It hurt! He has nine other toes that didn’t hurt but when that one little toe met the skirting board it jumped up and down and made every other cell in his body aware that it was ‘not happy Jan!”

This is why I say: ‘don’t follow me, you’ll end up in a ditch.’ We can follow someone else the way they follow the Lord, but that is meant to lead to us into a bigger place, where we learn to be ourselves-in-Christ. This world doesn’t need clones, it needs real, truthful, testifying people. The Apostle Peter was very outspoken, yet you don’t hear a peep out of James, son of Alphaeus, who was also a faithful disciple – and one of the twelve. Yeah I didn’t know him either until I looked him up!

We have this incredible kaleidoscope of colour available to us and yet we keep painting Christ in monochromatic ways as we seek to influence this world around us. Let’s stop narrowing other people’s view of Him. Be the ‘you’ Christ meant you to be, sincerely walk with Him, and stay open to being transformed by being near Him. Do YOU! Someone else needs to hear you talk about HIM. Bye.👋.

P 3413 Let’s not paint on windows of our mind.

/ DVH

Fear, and sin love to paint their tormenting little scenarios in our minds. I like to be positive on this blog, but the bible clearly says we need to ‘know our adversary.’  And one of his best tricks is to make me think that my adversary is … ME, MYSELF AND I!! I am sure you know what I mean – we often forget what the Lord has already done to set us free.

When something bad happens, we can instantly find reasons to blame ourselves. But what really happens is the other guy stands by whispering into our minds, reminding us of our mistakes and faults. Our poor motivation starts with a thought. Then he tempts us with something we think is good that distracts us from the real battle. God doesn’t tempt us. James 1:13: “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God” [for temptation does not originate from God, but from our own flaws]; for God cannot be tempted by [what is] evil, and He Himself tempts no one.” Find the ‘fatal flaw’ and deal with it.

The enemy uses doubt like a spray can of paint while he is trying to twist or cover up the truth. Plus he tries to disrupt our thoughts with temptations, threats or intimidation. It happened to Jesus and it will happen to us, we are not exempt. But, because we chose Jesus we have a way to escape, thank you Lord! Knowing the Word of God is our way to fight! Let’s be alert and aware of the devil’s schemes, and remember how easily we can be outwitted. 2 Corinthians 2:11. “…in order that satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.”

Our enemy will always challenge God’s word. (Genesis 3.) he has no tender-heartedness, or pity in him, so he delights in preying on our ignorance or innocence. And another way he sucks us into his vortex of lies, is to challenge our identity in Christ. (Luke 4:1-13; Mark 1:34.) He tells us those promises in God’s Word are for someone much nicer and more spiritual than we are. Many saints suffer from his whispers that their salvation is not firm.

Our salvation, our turning to Jesus to save us, may not look like Brother-I-got-baptised-in-the-river-Jordan’s grand event. Instead, we simply went up the front and didn’t feel a thing … but we knew we had to make that choice and we did. Our enemy picks at the parts of our faith that are weakened by our own sin, doubt, and sometimes other people’s rejection of us etc. Daily, he prods at us to focus on those things. 

Let’s focus on Jesus, what He did FOR us, and what He is doing IN us, right now. He is our true north! My prayers may not be answered and sometimes yours aren’t either … but that’s not the point. The point is what is your focus today? If we are not clinging to Jesus like a limpet on a rock, we could be making ourselves a target. The devil creates emotional tornadoes everywhere, and we can be easily overwhelmed by those thoughts that hit us upside the head … unless we choose to make the main thing the main thing. JESUS IS ALWAYS THE MAIN THING. “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7. We cannot afford to face our adversary unprotected – we have armour! Let’s stand still ready to battle the accuser when he flings lies at us. We do things the way Jesus tells us to do them. He’s the One Who beat satan.

Under extreme circumstances, which we all face, it is good to SING! — “Be filled with the Spirit singing to yourselves, with Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melodies in your heart to the Lord.” Ephesians 5:18,19. Preferably not out loud in a public place, because people will look at you funny and perhaps send for the men in those white coats. I sing in my head, and I recommend that. I find my best fighting scriptures there too. It can be distracting if you happen to be talking to someone else, but it works – stay in listening-to-Jesus-mode, don’t switch off.

The bible tells us to “put on the whole armour of God,” because we need it. Ephesians 6:10-18. The first thing we do after making sure we have our armour on —is to make a stand. Plant your feet. You are a tree planted by God Himself by the riverside, don’t be moved. We have been saved by Grace, now we belong to Jesus. Ask for scriptures to fight the circumstances and feelings … we can’t afford to let ourselves entertain any kind of lie. Don’t worry if the person in front of you is piling up lies like some people pile up the trash – don’t you lie. Your truth is God’s truth, and that’s the bat we use to bash away the lies that come at us. We don’t care about what Sister-I-always-know-the-Answer says. What is Jesus saying, right here, right now – in His book?

Let’s press the refresh button, and remind ourselves that God loves me! Then quickly get rid of any sin that might trip us up, so we can stay in love with everyone around us. Peace is our portion. We live within His peace, and we spread that heart peace around us everywhere we go. As we acknowledge Jesus’ Lordship in our lives, we will get better and better at raising up the shield of faith.

Lastly, let the Holy Spirit frame your prayers. Yield to His will His way, daily. And please don’t let satan paint lies on the windows of your mind. They will block out the marvellous things the Lord has given us to see and do.  Bye.🔥.

P3404 What dominates you?

/ DVH

“May my only boast be found in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Him I have been crucified to this natural realm; and the natural realm is dead to me and no longer dominates my life.” Galatians 6:14 TPT. 

Scriptures like this one come up, and if we are being real with each other, our response can easily be: “I don’t know, I sort of hope so.” But this whole thought sounds lovely doesn’t it? Especially the thought that this world no longer has that kind of hold over us. First of all, I want to encourage anyone reading this to resist the temptation to feel guilty if your answer happens to be: “I don’t live that way.” Guilt, shame, blame, etc. will cloud, and eventually overwhelm, our sense of God’s love, peace and acceptance toward us.

Yes, maybe you lost your temper last week and shouted at someone. Or perhaps lately you have been plagued by fear, but that won’t change the reality that SomeOne already paid, in real time, for whatever we’ve done. The point isn’t that we did whatever it was, the point is what are we going to do about it NOW? Are we going to allow ourselves to go round and round about something that no longer exists, or are we going to go to Love Himself – repent, and start thanking and praising Him for dying in our place. Jesus is praying for us, right now. He is not up there with a pen and paper and list of dumb things we have done. You asked Him to wash you with His blood and He already did!

It says this in Romans 8:31-34. “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? No one—for God Himself has given us right standing with Himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and He is sitting in the place of honour at God’s right hand, pleading for us.” Hallelujah!

Instead of walloping yourself over the head with a handy umbrella, why not ask yourself why do I think I can’t live the same way Paul did? Nine times out of ten we feel bad because we are judging ourselves, and we are not happy about the answer. But in this statement Paul is pointing out that God is already for us. So let’s concentrate on the fact that Jesus voluntarily already reached that mark for us. How we feel about scriptures like these two, have absolutely no bearing on their reality and truth. The work is already done. Our thoughts and feelings must never rob us of His overriding truth. 

It’s like praying for more faith. There’s nothing wrong with that — but it helps if we are using the faith we already have, to praise and thank Him for what we’ve already been given.  We need to hone our focus, so we choose to  switch our thoughts off who we are … and intensely focus on Who He is and what He did. Is He trustworthy? Does He love us? Does He speak truth? I love that last one… Jesus is Truth. Game over… we win! This life is just a shadow, it’s a pale imitation of the reality ahead of us, those thoughts should dominate us.

Jesus leads us, He never shoves, bullies or coerces us. He doesn’t have to, He’s the real deal. His peace inside our hearts is our reassurance. God’s grace is bottomless. Here is something wonderful to chew on today, His mercy is brand new every single morning. Imagine that! There is no such thing as left-over, partly used up, mercy — God’s mercy is brand new and fresh every single day. Focus on that.. Don’t wait to be better, or do better, or be in a better place – do it now. Start thanking Him for it, and then give away the very things you have been given to everyone around you. Instead of keeping score, let things go. This is how we remain aware of what we’ve been given, we choose to live in utter gratitude and unrestricted generosity. 

The natural realm is temporary. People in war torn countries can tell us all about temporary things. One minute they have what they need, the next everything they had carefully collected and treasured is gone — including the people who dearly matter to them. Praise God…Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever! I love that it says yesterday, first. Let’s get rid of yesterday’s junk that can trip us up — and live in His light, His love, His truth, today. We need to leave the past behind us when we choose to forgive, repair, repent and then move on toward tomorrow.

Jump in the river of His love for you. Even when everything inside you screams at you to defend yourself and explain, or tell the other person your side of the story. The power to overcome those things that easily grind us down, is in the river of His loving forgiveness and acceptance. We need to leave our sins under the blood and jump on in. We cannot afford to let the devil and his lying ways dominate us. We will get discouraged if we do. Instead we submit to our Lord Jesus, because He loved us first. Let’s flow in love instead of being dominated by fear. Bye. 👋. 

P3385 Don’t let fear knock you out of the ring.

/ DVH

“So we can confidently say,“The Lord is my Helper, I will not fear, what can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:6. That’s one of those rhetorical questions nobody likes. That’s probably because most of us could give quite a list of stuff man can do to us. But I wonder if we know, just as thoroughly, how much God has done for us, right here, right now? Time for revision. 

This verse tells us, He didn’t just save us, He also enables us. “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8. Notice the predominant word “all.” Now let’s look at 1 John 4:18 it says: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear involves punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love.” 

Begin by revising how much God’s perfect love has given you, personally. Yes, He saved you, and yes, He has helped you – thank you Lord! But there’s more … read the bible. Go through your journals. A journal can help you revise what He has already done for you spiritually, physically, and mentally. After all that revision – go and find someone who needs His love and love on them. The action of loving others uses faith, which releases more faith. Faith fights fear, so use yours. Go and spread the love He has already given you around. Start SINGING!! “Sing for joy to God our strength …“

Moving on to Psalm 55:22 MSG bible: “Pile your troubles on God’s shoulders, He’ll carry your load, He’ll help you out. He’ll never let good people topple into ruin. But you, God, will throw the others into a muddy bog, Cut the lifespan of assassins and traitors in half.” And we think video games are blood thirsty! The point is, God’s always with us even though we may not feel it. The bible says it, we believe it, and that settles it.

Actually, it is far more accurate to say: We’re with Him!  Don’t look at the size of the things coming against you, look at the  power of our God to get you through. Read and reread the book! Sometimes we are viewing this life through the wrong lenses. Let’s not borrow someone else’s glasses, let’s ask the Lord for HIS. His eyes see the things we don’t. (Ephesians 1:18)

2 Timothy 1:7 “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” What a way to identify the Holy Spirit!! Anything short of this verse means we are messing about in the wrong spirit. Never forget we are all in a battle, we live in enemy territory, and we don’t belong here.

Now let’s recap what our truth is: God is with us, and He will help us. We do not need to be afraid of someone else’s face. When I was little, and I did something my parent didn’t like, I would see ‘the unhappy face!’ However, our Father’s face always says: “I love you so much, and I am here for you. Let’s do this thing together.” He’s not just sending you out – He’s going with you!  The same God Who helped Abraham and the Lord Jesus is going with us.

We were not designed to carry burdens in this new life Jesus gave us. Part of that new life is freedom. Freedom means I can refuse to accept the weight of whatever is going on. I still get to fix whatever He tells me to do, but I am obedient, under His instructions, and the weight of what the Lord says I need to do, will not drown me.  I can stand still and see God Himself work on my behalf – I just have to learn to leave my clock behind. Our God doesn’t do timetables, and He does not fit in with ours. Instead, He does PERFECT TIMING. There’s a difference. 

If Father God did not give me a spirit of fear then what the heck am I doing with it? Why am I entertaining these thoughts? Jesus was teaching His disciples God’s Ways, in Luke 11:10, 11.“If your little boy asks for a serving of fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? If your little girl asks for an egg, do you trick her with a spider? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing—you’re at least decent to your own children. And don’t you think the Father who conceived you in love will give the Holy Spirit when you ask Him?” 

Jesus is using these illustrations to demonstrate the fact that God is wa-a-y more loving than we are. Because our Father is like that, we can, and should, always expect loving help from Him, not trickery. Good outcomes. Trickery comes from the other guy. We will have to fight our feelings; they can come at you roaring, or even in insidious whispers, telling you God has left you and He doesn’t care.  Fear is a shadow on the wall of the reality of Christ IN us.

Let’s fight for what matters – it’s OUR peace, and Jesus paid dearly for us to have it. It’s called ‘renewing your mind.’ We have the Word of God to remind ourselves our side already won! We may live in a war zone – but Jesus already won this war. Don’t let the enemy knock you out of the ring. Bye 👋.                                                                             ”Dear Lord, I thank you that I can come to You always for any reason. I’m grateful that when I pray to You, You answer me. Help me to come to You at the beginning of my fears and anxieties instead of waiting until I can’t stand them anymore. The quicker I come to You the better. You want to free me from ALL my fears. Help me look to You for help all the time so that I can be radiant with Your joy. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.”

P3382 Ours is an Eternal Love story. 

/ DVH

Romans 8:15: “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’”                          Psalm 103:13:“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.”                                                                                                                                    1 John 3:1:“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are.”

Our God’s love is eternal, and redemption was always part of His plan. This means His love for us will never change. Most people often have no concept of what real love, the kind of love the Father has for us, looks like. Our ideas of love can easily be limited by our earthly experiences of it. 1 John 3:1 throws some light on that. It says ‘behold what manner of love the Father gives’ … behold means look at that love thoroughly and carefully. When we look carefully at God’s love, we can begin to understand His manner/His kind of love. God’s kind of love holds something special for us all inside it. It is a Love that never goes away, despite the unworthiness of the recipient.

Almighty God’s kind of love has no ending or beginning, it is complete in itself, and it is utterly altruistic. “Altruistic means someone is acting out of pure, unselfish concern for the well-being of others. It describes behaviour driven by empathy and a desire to help, without expecting any reward, recognition, or personal gain.” That’s what our Heavenly Father’s Love is like. The bad things that happen to us aren’t sent by Him, they come from our enemy. This is why we cannot afford to live our lives in the soulish, emotional and reactive realm. This world doesn’t produce that kind of love – it is heavenly, straight from the throne.

However, every single time we go into FEAR we will go back into slavery. This what Romans 8:15 is telling us. If we have fear, we are misunderstanding His love. Eventually, under duress, we can begin to be captivated by, and start serving the feelings of fear, instead of serving Him. Fear paralyses us. Fear likes to be protected and kept hidden. It demands to be fed lies and half-truths to keep all of us captive in it. Praise God, that our experiential knowledge of the love of God, personally, and through His word, chucks fear out of the window!

The fear of God which is mentioned in Psalm 103:13 is not the same as this world’s fear, which only bears the fruit of destruction. The fear of the Lord opens the door to further wisdom. Fearing God is not about being afraid, it is about being respectful and compliant in the things He has told us to do, because we acknowledge His Wisdom, His Ways and authority over our lives.  

God has provided for us to live in, and from, wisdom. The Lord’s wisdom is available to us at any time. Because of His incredible loving generosity, He will give us His wisdom whenever we ask for it. The Bible talks about wisdom like this: “For the reverence and fear of God are basic to all wisdom…” This is why our living, breathing, thriving relationship with the Lord matters … as we walk with Him we become aware of Who He is, and how much we need Him. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, Who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” James 1:5.

When I read scriptures like the ones above, I am reminded of how generous the Lord is toward us – how remarkably rich He is in love. Being rich in love is almost incomprehensible to us – we are used to all kinds of poverty in this life, including spiritually – even though it has never been God’s will for us to be poor. Understanding the Lord’s love means we will develop a quiet confidence in HIM, not our circumstances.

He is reliable, faithful, good – so if I don’t see what I am asking Him for – I remember that James told me that I can ask amiss. Then I ask the Lord where I’ve missed it.  Romans 3:4 “God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar;…” Making His Word our plumb line changes our perspectives, because we begin to understand real truth from His perspective.

Before we were even brought into this world, Father God’s Love was complete in itself. The Trinity worked in perfect harmony, They had such a precious bond of love and unity we can’t even begin imagine it. They did not need mankind … the love They have for each Other is already perfect and complete. Instead, They chose to create us from that love. The bible says: “Let us make man in Our image.” Genesis 1:26. We’ve been created to look like Them – we were born out of Their love.

The Father has given us the freedom to choose to love and obey Him … or not. Sadly, those “no”  choices have released death, destruction and decay, loose in a world that had never even seen an electron or proton out of place. You and I are designed to be like God, like His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in this life to others. We have the opportunity to know His kind of love, and give it away to others while we are still in this life. Our disobedience, ignorance, and disrespect can short-circuit this process.

The Holy Spirit chooses to reside within us, when we give our lives to Jesus. Now we have the capacity to share the same kind of complete and powerful love that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit share. Let’s thank God for His salvation plan incredibly implemented by Jesus Christ His beloved Son. Because of Jesus we are now part of His wonderful Eternal love story. Bye. 👋