Gentleness

P3458 Limitless.

/ 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.

Ages ago, I watched a TV show called “Limitless,” it was about an ordinary guy who took some new drug or other, and suddenly he was using all of his brain instead of 10% of it. My thought was: ‘I hope this never happens! Sadly most of us are already driven around day after day, by performance!” However, that show proved to me that people long to be bigger and more useful than they are, but self-effort provides us with a relentless boss. Performance is a sterile tree, it produces nothing sweet, tasty or lasting, except a whole lot of angst, and indignation. It is so easy to think to ourselves: ‘I’ve worked hard on that, where’s the fruit from it?”

The Holy Spirit on the other hand, is a brilliant gardener, He cuts off unproductive attitudes and actions. Plus He helps us when we allow Him to lead, and He produces all that spiritual stuff listed above, in us. Sometimes I think we miss the meaning of what the Lord is saying because the language is so foreign to us in today’s world. I think we can easily get stuck on ‘near enough is good enough’ – and that won’t last! 

The Holy Spirit produces this fruit within us. Who does it? HE does. The things most of us produce in a lifetime, aren’t worth all the effort to keep it, realistically speaking. Where I live, even our house isn’t much of an inheritance after the government sends it’s locusts in. As you get older you start to think about leaving behind a lasting inheritance, not money, or things, but a spiritual inheritance. 

That’s what that long list of people who were in Jesus’ lineage in Matthew and Luke is all about. I call them the “begat” people. They had kids who had kids, who had kids etc… you get it. There were generations of them and their forbears were important to them. Genealogy was a big deal, stuff was passed on down through the family, because recording stuff the way we do was not available, and not as useful as Great Grandma Mary’s antique dining room table!

This is where bearing fruit comes in – a solid strong tree will produce good fruit. Actually, if there is no fruit, the tree it is called a barren tree. Jesus talks about that in Luke 13:6-9. “And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

A tree’s purpose is to bear fruit. Plain and simple. However I love the way the gardener pleads on behalf of a mere tree to give it another chance. This man will have invested time and energy in that fig tree, with fertilising, watering it, and giving it a whole lot of care when it was just a sapling. This parable reminds me of the tender care the Holy Spirit gives each one of us. Nurturing, correcting, leading us, pruning us and guiding us – all that with the promise of His good fruit appearing and coming into fruition in our lives.  

My point is this:  do we have any fruit on the ‘tree’ of our lives? Have we matured enough in the things of the kingdom of heaven to grow any fruit? Fruit benefits other people not the tree. So if we have fruit, is that fruit better tasting, longer lasting and more evident than it has been in previous years?That’s a good question to ask the Lord – “are YOU happy with the production of the fruit of Your Spirit in my life?” We can’t afford to forget that the gardener has been giving our tree His own attention, watching over it. He knows us well enough to ask for a further chance and a bit of time and help so we can grow up into what we were planted for. 

Let’s not be fooled, we will do many things for Jesus’ sake in our spiritual lifetime, but the fruit of the Spirit is proof of His work in us. Our work for the Lord’s kingdom won’t produce anything edible if all we do is work for Him in this natural world. We need His spiritual fruit in our lives. It’s the fruit that other people need to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” All the talk in the world cannot produce God’s fruit. All talk does is put more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere! We need to submit to His ways so the Lord Himself can produce the kind of fruit in our lives that people only dream about. 

Let’s remember that “…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 …” is what that fruit looks like. That kind of fruit is limitless, a healthy fruit-laden tree is a wonderful legacy for anyone. Bye. 👋

P 3443 We influence them, this world does not influence us.

/ DVH

It can be so easy to pick up the habits, fears and general atmosphere around us, and be pressured into conforming with it, even verbally. We need to be aware that we are thermostats, not thermometers. What’s the difference between a thermostat and a thermometer? A thermometer measures temperature, while a thermostat controls it.

We have been given the Lord’s authority to set the atmosphere of any room we enter, simply because we bring the King of all glory with us!  We are not here to just measure or create atmospheres – we are here to usher in Jesus – He does that stuff all by Himself! He makes His Presence known without embarrassing people, or pontificating over them.

When we read the Gospels we see Jesus lovingly expose other people’s hearts! Maybe that is why He once said angrily to His disciples: “you don’t know what spirit you are in!” What they’d said lacked love. The only people who were offended with Jesus were the religious. Those people who like the rules, and love to wave them about like a banner. However, many people were drawn to Jesus, when they were rejected by religion. He has chosen us to be a demonstration of His kingdom, right here, right now.

There are people who find that they cannot be themselves around Christians who use religious language, simply because it hinders the flow of the Spirit of God through them. But other dear souls are so sweet about what they say, it is not at all offensive. Like I’ve said before, it’s the heart that matters. So many souls are bruised these days, it’s not our job to poke at their bruises. The heart that wants to ‘straighten someone else out’ is probably not listening well. Sadly, most of the time, religious talk makes me want to leave the room!

Jesus didn’t do it, and neither should we.

On another note, I can’t watch the news anymore because first of all, it’s all bad! … And secondly, it doesn’t seem like the news to me. It is more like a chat room with many many opinions. Criticism and condemnation and the worst kind of humour flourishes.The Lord tells us that ‘we are to be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves.’ I strongly suspect this verse means that wisdom makes its own room, and gentleness will disarm angry people. It makes me so sad when the media has so much influence, but it uses it carelessly to destroy other people’s lives – for profit. 

It is almost like the news,  publishing organisations, social media etc. itself has become a courtroom deciding who is guilty and who is not. Life is complicated and people do awful, hateful things – however how can my opinion do anything but become further gossip at a time when that person needs forgiveness and wisdom? People in terrible trouble need prayer not hatred. Yet the media fosters hatred by the way they slant things.

My thought today is this – it is great to share Psalms, Hymns, spiritual songs, uplifting sermons, exhortations and, or life lessons on social media etc. But if we choose to stand by, saying nothing … while that very same avenue projects the whirlwind of public opinion while it is shredding people’s lives. Then aren’t we behaving exactly like Paul did when he agreed with killing off Christians?  Jesus had to blind Paul to help him see! 

That story in Acts 9 is about Paul, and it teaches us a story about this servant of God and how he temporarily lost his sight. Plus it reveals Ananias’ bravery. It also shows us that human beings often follow leaders without questioning them. People stood with Paul, and as he consented to other people’s deaths, so did THEY. They were persuaded that murder was the only answer to stopping the preaching of the Gospel. Some of them even carried out the murders, in God’s Name. 

We can’t afford to participate in popularity polls in the church, mainly because we can be very poor at using the gift of discernment when it comes to leadership. We often pick the popular guy, not the man of His Presence and the Lord’s principles. We are more likely to go to the church run by a man or woman who tickles our ears, than listen to someone who says the things we don’t want to hear … yet we need to hear them. 

Suspicion and discernment are two different things. One closes down honest interchanges of ideas, and the other sees the person behind all the talk, and identifies the spirit leading them around by the nose. Jesus is the judge and He has already paid for everyone’s sins. And Proverbs 18:13 says: “He who answers a matter before he hears the facts—it is folly and shame to him.” James 1:19: “My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.” 

Our influence on this world must not be underestimated, the Greater One lives in us. Perhaps we all need to repent for allowing the world to enter our ship and colour our opinions about who is in and who is out. A Christian’s quest for holiness must not be the vehicle we use to crush any human being who has no faith, or less faith than we have. Bye. 👋

P 3435 All is not lost.

/ DVH

“With tender humility and quiet patience, always demonstrate gentleness and generous love toward one another, especially toward those who may try your patience.” Ephesians 4:2 TPT.  Years ago, it was my children that tried my patience, nowadays … I think I try theirs! Time is a funny thing, it has a way of turning stuff around. With His help, we are all going to need humility, as well as quiet patience, gentleness and generous love, because the situations we end up in, may not necessarily be sweet or easy! 

This morning as I concentrated on the context of this verse, I decided to go and look at the scriptures around it, to get some clarity. The first thing I noticed was so interesting I am writing this blog about it! Ephesians 4:1 … “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” There have been times when I’ve read the beginning and the ending of Paul’s letters like it is advertising. You know what I mean, ‘Dear So and so, I hope you are well …. blah blah blah … the important part of the letter — and then send my love to Auntie Jane and Uncle Fred.’ Stuff we could call, politeness, or niceties.’ … Not this time.

This time, I looked hard at what Paul had actually said and it jumped out at me: “As a prisoner … FOR THE LORD!” Big clue there. Paul’s in jail that’s why he is writing a letter, because he can’t be there in Ephesus in person. Yet he sees himself as the Lord’s prisoner, not a Roman prisoner. He’s living under house-arrest in Rome but in his mind he is still God’s servant in that prison. Just bear with me I am getting to my point. 

There are people reading this today, who have been prisoners. Locked in by so many different, sometimes difficult, circumstances. Things like ill-health, unemployment, a crummy job, being married to a difficult person, having trouble with money, or kids. So many things can lock us IN. But Paul casually points out that he knows that the Lord is in charge. We need to see what happens to us, from God’s point of view. The Lord always has a purpose – He’s doing something else.

He has allowed our circumstances to prevail for a reason. Now we are ‘in Christ,’ we need to put aside the idea of going the wrong way. Or getting into trouble way over our heads, and feeling like we can’t make it etc. God Himself put each one of us where we are right now. And He has a purpose in it! Even if we sinned and walked away from Him to get there. He is bigger than we think! The Apostle Paul is in jail, because he insisted that he be judged, as a Roman citizen, by Caesar. Was that a good plan or a bad plan? It seemed like a very bad plan – because if you carefully read his writings, he is always planning to get out!  He simply had no idea what was coming next. US!

So he appealed to Rome, and ended up side-lined under house arrest because he was falsely accused of riots etc. in Judea. In the natural, Paul should be out there preaching the gospel, giving birth to churches, because that’s what his office in the Spirit does. An apostle gives birth to church-es …plural. But he’s not. And because of this seemingly unprofitable time, when he is stuck waiting for his turn to talk to Caesar – he wrote the Epistles! He had to, he couldn’t go to some of those places in person – he was in jail!

Here’s my thought for today: you may be somewhere that does not make sense to you … but God has got you! You haven’t fallen off His radar!! He’s not surprised by this postponement, or side-lining of your gift or ministry, it is part of a plan to extend the boundaries of your tent. Paul ‘fathered’ so many innumerable churches because he was stuck in that situation, unable to go out and go where he wanted to go. We know Paul has encouraged generations of people to press on. He thought he was just writing to the people of Ephesus and Philippi. If that can happen to Paul it can happen to us. Maybe your ‘stuck’ problem isn’t about YOU!

Don’t let the enemy lie, and cheat you out of the joy and expectation of what Almighty God is going to do next in your life. We don’t know that stuff, but that does not mean we have to throw our hands in the air and live in misery. Our job is to be faithful wherever we are. We can certainly ask the Lord about it, but even if He answers us in ways we don’t understand, we can still trust Him to work it out. Paul did! That’s called st-re-tch-ing our faith.

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unfathomable (inscrutable, unsearchable) are His judgments (His decisions)! And how untraceable (mysterious, undiscoverable) are His ways (His methods, His paths)!” Romans 11:33.  I’ll say! He blew my mind over six words at the beginning of Ephesians!  I never saw it before. It was like the Lord took His little highlighter and swiped it over those words. 

God has us in His heart and hands. Read Psalm 139:8 . We gave Him our lives and He took them. It will take loads of quiet patience, humility, and reliance upon His generous love filling us, to cope with just waiting. Waiting seems like we are doing nothing useful. Waiting can lead to doubting ourselves, others and Him. But Isaiah tells us in Chapter 40:31 that it also ‘… renews our strength! We will mount up with wings like eagles.’ Have you ever watched an eagle fly? It is effortless. Give everything to Him, put down your effort, and wait – all is not lost! You are going to come out of this stronger. Bye. 👋

P 3410 God is Limitless.

/ 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 TPT.

This kind of limitless love is not only ours to receive, but it is also ours to give away. We already have His overflowing love to give to everyone we meet … within us. When we have Jesus Christ in our lives, we have limitless love available to us. It’s our purpose. Just like birds sing, because it is what they do … we give away love. It’s natural. And it means we choose to stretch our faith by using it, instead of just talking about it. The thing to remember is that when we give away all of those things mentioned in Galatians 5, it is HIS love in different forms.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t seem have endless patience! However, I don’t have to have endless patience, I’ve learnt to ask Him for it, and then step out in faith and exercise it. This is a demonstration of His love through me, for someone else – and I give it away by not letting what I’m really thinking fly out of my mouth to punch someone else in the face! While I am doing this, two things are happening, I am learning self-control, and I am also learning what God’s kind of patience looks like. Meanwhile, I’ve also learnt that not everyone we meet needs our opinion.

LOVE, God’s kind of love – hopes all things, bears all things and it never gives up. Even though WE aren’t automatically like that, we can learn His kind of love by responding to His word using the faith, He has given us. The bible teaches us, in2 Peter 1:3: ”His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him Who called us by His own glory and goodness.” WE ALREADY HAVE IT!

So whenever we meet true joy, we are meeting His love. When we meet endless patience, we’ve met His love in action. even when we experience never faltering faith, this means we’ve encountered and been operating from the presence of His Love. We need to stop expecting other people to bring these things to us on a platter and start living a sacrificial life, because that’s what Jesus told us to do.

Love has so many expressions. That is what Galatians tells us. In our society, love has been downgraded into feelings, but God’s Love is a powerful limitless force – it constantly displays itself through actions. The Love that God Himself has for mankind displayed itself in Jesus Christ, and that is clearly explained for us in Galatians 5, and 1 Corinthians 13. Through these words, Almighty God’s passion for mankind’s destiny is revealed. It was fulfilled by Christ, and then released – and now it is a part of our history! 

Everything around us is a part of His story! Jesus Christ is Father God’s Way of endlessly saying “I love you and I forgive you.”  He says this to each of us personally, and those words are also an everlasting promise to all of mankind. Jesus is God’s Love perfectly personified. So what does that mean to me? I left my old self behind when I said ’yes’ to Jesus, now – day-by-day I choose to live that out. Read the book and see the Lord Jesus’ responses to other human beings. Do the same. He didn’t lecture people, He taught them when He had the opportunity and it was necessary, but most of the time He simply demonstrated what God’s love looks like in action.

Whenever we read about what Jesus did, do we nod our heads in agreement, smile, and go about our day without any thought of participation? This revelation of GOD’S LOVE CAN BE SEEN AND EXPERIENCED, daily. We are His demonstrators. As we read His Word, worship Him, talk and pray with others, or walk around enjoying everything He made, we are experiencing His love for us. Let’s pray for eyes to see Him at work in our lives and hearts. 

His kind of love was created to be given away, not kept in a box hidden from other people. God’s love is like the bread and fish that Jesus gave to the disciples, to give to the people who were hungry. Because we’ve been fed by His love, now we give it away. The disciples saw the miracle of multiplication He performed. That’s all WE do. We give away what He has given us, and He multiplies it.

And we give it away in the same form we receive it – by using our faith. Most days I don’t ‘feel’ anything when I sit down and start to write this blog. I start typing as He opens up His thoughts to me in ways that I can understand them. If you like titles, then let’s say that the Lord gives me insight. He takes the scriptures in the bible and turns it upside down and explains to me: ‘This works like that.’ That is how I write this blog. I am not wise, sometimes the phrases in the bible sound to me like someone tipped over a scrabble bag. But, as I pray, the Holy Spirit enlightens me. The second before that insight I’m as dumb as dirt. But there’s one thing I do know, He tells me stuff for ME first, then I am allowed to share it with you. And the Lord chides me if I am not doing what I write here. 

At the same time, I’ve learnt to press in, and ask questions. I marvel that SomeOne so wonderful, bothers to share with someone like me. That’s why I like to encourage others to press in and then act upon what the Lord says. I’m not special, but I know that He wants to relate to each one of us in personal, practical ways. His ways are limitless and they are there for the taking for everyone who wants more. Bye for today, 👋.

P3403  Let’s keep jumping in the river. 

/ DVH

Many people have been hypothesising about the type of fruit on the tree of life. The bible says that fruit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. I read 1 Corinthians 13, and it says “…the fruit of the Spirit is …” Huge hint there!! Right. Now that is clear, let’s choose to follow the Holy Spirit, deny ourselves, and take up the cross of whatever this life throws at us – and joyfully serve Him and His purposes, right in the middle of our strife and trouble. Keep your eyes on Jesus.

We often want to gather the strength to do what is good and right and profitable, before we jump into the stream of the Holy Spirit’s Love. Here’s my advice – JUMP IN FIRST. All that other stuff gets added unto you while you are in there! We can get so busy on the side of that river of life and love – trying to fix ourselves, our attitudes, our actions that sometimes we get stuck trying to figure out how to fix someone else. All that means is we never get around to actually jumping in! If our enemy cannot corrupt us, he will try to distract us with the things we can’t change. We need to utterly trust the Holy Spirit to finish what He started in us. He’s the One with the Plan.

Let’s use the fruit of self-control as an example. Our aim is for any self control in our lives to become a natural response. It’s good to know what you are aiming at! Clenched teeth, and yelling and shouting, kind of defeats our purpose. As we jump into His love, we need to repent and repair, then throw off blame, straining and striving – self control will flow out of us because self control is IN that river.

Like Jesus said, staying attached to the Vine produces fruit. We can’t produce fruit without the Vine, so let’s just grab hold of Him, jump into the river of His love and learn to float. If Jesus says “pruning” then we say “OK!” If He says “time for rest” then we say “OK.” Our task is to stay attached. Obedience to His Will – plus focussing on His Love which never ends – will keep us attached to Him and floating. Keep continually thanking the Lord for loving you, and teaching and helping you with this life.

We will begin to take on the Father’s characteristics toward us, as we deliberately choose to learn to obey Him – whether it is convenient or not. No matter what kind of fruit we are producing, that fruit develops and grows because of our obedient responses to God’s Word for us, today. Don’t excuse yourself from obedience, instead, be honest, tell Him ‘I can’t cope, it’s all too much’ – He’s kind and compassionate, He will help us. He knows we are all just glorified dirt.

Christianity is the way we’ve chosen to live now. Let’s learn to lean into His Ways and yield to Him, no matter how inconvenient it is, or how hard it seems to be. Obedience to His instructions facilitates His life in us. Read the Beatitudes, start there! Now there’s a lifetime adventure. Valuing the Father’s Ways above our own, also gives us glimpses into Who He is. 

Jesus was obedient to the Father’s Way even though it killed Him. He’s our Leader, our personal human illustration! The Lord Jesus had so much faith and trust in God’s goodness, He allowed Himself to fall into the hands of men who could not be trusted, because God told Him that was the way to complete His mission. 

Many other blessings will flow into our lives as we yield to the Lord, and let go of those things that are holding us back. Then those blessings start overflowing onto others. The point of Christianity is not sameness — it is about transformation. All kinds of individuals have been personally challenged, and then changed, by walking day by day with Him, daily jumping in the river of His never-ending love, while still doing the seemingly ordinary everyday things we usually do.

We will see the fruit of the Holy Spirit blossom and bear fruit, first-hand in our own lives, as we participate in doing things His Way. Jump into His eternal, unshakeable love and stay there. Hold tight to your birthright! We were born to live in the river of His love, and be washed, minute by minute in our fresh clean new life. We must learn to use our faith, because this is how we bear God’s fruit. Obedience to Jesus’ instructions, clearly written in the bible – will produce Almighty God’s life in us, as well as total transformation in our lives. 

Living for Jesus means we will release the Holy Spirit with every single step we take. We can’t know what He will do in that other person’s life, but we know it will be good. If eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil produced death —- then eating from the tree of His life in us produces His living eternal fruit. That life is not a feeling … it is the flow-on result of loving, walking and living with Jesus. All of the fruits of the Spirit are born out of His love.

We had trouble with our mango tree last season, the mango buds came in abundance, but the fruit didn’t ‘set’ and it fell off before it reached maturity. This tree that had dozens of mangos in previous years, but last year it had barely more  than a half a dozen fully formed fruit. Under pressure the tree dropped it’s fruit.  That was a big lesson for me. It can happen to all of us – we can let go of how much He loves us when we are swamped by this life all with it’s trials and sorrows.

Our God is so good- even these bad things have a purpose. Pressure and discomfort are potentially developing faith-filled resistance in us. These are the things we are going to need on the next stage of our journey as we walk with Him. They help set His spiritual fruit and keep it attached to the tree. Attachment to the tree is just total dependence on Him – we all know we can do “nothing without Him..” It also says in John 5:19: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”

Jesus chose to limit Himself, by simply obeying His Father. The fruit from the Tree of Life in our lives, will produce God’s life in us, for others. People will come and pick that fruit and take a bite out of it. The real question is — what will our lives taste like?  Heaven? Or unripe, unformed,  unpalatable fruit. Let’s just keep our focus on jumping in that river. Bye. 👋

P 3384 Not done yet.  

/ DVH

Apparently, I am not done with yesterday’s theme. Here are some verses to chew on, and Jesus Himself is speaking – actually, He’s praying, for us!  “I have given them Your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” John 17:14-20.

Did you notice that our Saviour did not pray for us to be taken out of the world, but rather that we would be protected from the evil one while we are in it. A lot of lovely Christians kind of clump together, forming a sub-group in society. I’m not sure that’s a faith step – actually I think it’s more like opting out! It means we hardly ever interact with the people-who-don’t-know-the-Lord-yet. Jesus loves us so much, He prayed this prayer for His family, (us!), long before we ever arrived here. That prayer is still out there, protecting us. Instead of clumping, maybe we could listen to Him and learn to use our faith daily.

When we were born again, we entered a new kingdom – HIS!  We left behind all the temptations and irritations of this world around us and started out on a journey to learn how to live in His kingdom. This is why we are IN this world but not OF this world. We no longer need what the world has to offer, it has no appeal to us, because we have something far better! That’s why we don’t have to hide together all the time – what the world has we don’t want! We quit hiding when the Holy Spirit came! We live here, but we don’t belong here. Our ‘true home’ is with the Lord, wherever He is and whatever He is doing. 

Just like Ruth with Naomi – wherever Jesus IS, that’s now our home. When our Lord came here, He lived the way He did sacrificially, for our sanctification, but He did not live like a monk. He had no fear regarding this world and what it could do to Him – He believed that the “… steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord…” This world could not even kill Him, He prayed about it with our Father and then He went out and laid His life down. The Lord is with you while you are reading this, and He’s with me while I’m typing it!

The Spirit of God is with us, to be IN us. He gives us the power, minute by minute, to live this life, from day to day, differently. We can’t, and should not do a thing without Him. The Holy Spirit speaks faith, fluently. Now we are learning from Him how to speak faith too. We learn His kind of faith from being obedient. Heavenly languages are things like faith, hope, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Why? There is no law against those things in heaven or on earth. Father God speaks them, that’s why we can hear Him – if we can’t hear Him, then we aren’t speaking His languages. Let’s go out and BE what we say we believe.

Our new life is not just about going to heaven when we die, our lives now are about bringing heaven down here, to one person at a time, challenging their perspectives. Just the same way His Presence in our lives is changing ours! Despite our often outward appearances – Christianity is not a secret society – nor is it a bunch of do-gooders who love to ruin other people’s fun. 

I’m just going to leave that remark there, laying around staring at all of us. 👀 … We are a people on a mission. It’s not just the pastor who participates, it’s all of US. So, let’s make a plan to obey what the Lord has already told us to do in His book. We need to follow our Leader and do what He would do. In the bible I cannot find once where Jesus shot, stabbed, maimed, punched or blew up someone else in the Name of God. I don’t care what David did to His enemies, I’m following Jesus. He forgave His.

In the following scripture we have a fabulous example of someone who had no idea where he was going, and no clue how to find what he went to find. It seemed an impossible task — but He obeyed His master (Abraham) and went! “And said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, Who has not left my master bereft and destitute of His loving-kindness and steadfastness. As for me, going on the way [of obedience and faith] the Lord led me to the house of my master’s kinsmen.” Genesis 24:27. 

The God of Abraham is still guiding people to this day. He didn’t quit talking to us after He sent His only Son to spell stuff out — instead, He turned up the volume, exponentially. He gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us, a book full of instructions, plus the things Jesus taught. Take a risk: find someone to help. Give to someone in need. Tell someone Jesus loves them. Do something different. because we aren’t done yet. Bye 🙏.

P 3371 Cultivate Fruit. 

/ DVH

I love summer time when all kinds of fruit are in the shops and it seems like we are overloaded with choices. Any kind of fruit looks great to me. You know in the bible I can’t find one instance of anyone talking about dieting! Fasting – yes! Dieting – no! Father God has provided us with a tremendous variety of foods. He is the source of it all, including the fruity yumminess, because He caused every pleasant and fruit-producing tree to grow in the Garden of Eden. It was a fruit-bearing tree that seduced Adam and Eve! 

And today, I have a little theory I want to write about that. Here we go… inside any fruit there are seeds – most fruits have at least one seed. According to my little bit of research, most of the fruit we have today that are seedless, have been specially cultivated by horticulturalists to remove those seeds for our convenience sake. If you’ve eaten an orange with a great many seeds in it, you will understand why! 

If we look at the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, I think we will find that when Adam and Eve ate whatever kind of fruit it was, its seed was in there too. It also became part of them, not just the fruit. Inside any seed is the potential for many other trees to grow. When Almighty God banished this couple from His garden, they lost all access to the tree of life, because they’d disobeyed when they ingested the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, together with it’s seeds.

Now this couple had the potential to decide what was good and what was evil … because the seeds of knowledge, and the quest for power were growing inside them. They decided disobeying God was evil, that’s why they hid. They already had the potential to be like Him … without His WISDOM, MERCY and GRACE and DISCERNMENT etc.

Their disobedience robbed them of their holiness, and the access to Holy fellowship that God Himself gave them. That fruit of disobedience, that they chose to eat, was passed on to their offspring. Then God planted Himself into the earth in the form of His seed in a virgin’s womb. Jesus was planted and He lived here, He died and was buried here. A seed has to die to bear fruit.

Cain became jealous and killed his brother Abel. The seed of ‘whatever I don’t regard as evil’ is not evil, has become my new idea of truth. This was fostered the minute Cain entertained the thought: “Why didn’t God like my sacrifice?” Independent thinking is a very popular theme nowadays. It seems to me that truth is no longer fixed, because we have thrown away our access to the Tree of Life, the bible.  People are planted in the wilderness, instead of being planted by streams of living water. The bible points us firmly to our need of a totally New kind of Life – in Jesus! 

Humanity has been sowing trees ever since. Conversely if I think it’s good then it’s good!  EG. You can’t tell me what to do, because seeds of disobedience and rebellion have already been sown and cultivated in my life from birth! We can’t blame Adam and Eve, because we are personally responsible for what we choose to cultivate in our lives. Every interaction, every chosen course, every single choice … feeds and waters His seed in us … or the wrong seeds.

Jesus Christ hung on a fruitless ‘tree’ and HE became the Seed that died to foster our new life in Him. When we ask Him to live within us, we received the potential to cultivate the Tree of Life in us. I think that’s the abundant life Jesus spoke about. Not spectacular houses, piles of money or fancy cars. We can spread heavenly seeds wherever we go.. When we were born again, Jesus Christ gave us His life and put His seed, inside us, WE DON’T HAVE TO SIN ANYMORE. We have a choice. 1 John 3:9 – “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.” 

And Colossians 3:12-14 tells us what that seed looks like: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

This new life we have today is about cultivating His seed, His new life within us — together with all its graces. Jesus died for us, to produce IN us, a new way to live. That way to live isn’t just about us having comfortable lives, it is about our enemy meeting an army of people sold out to spreading God’s love, everywhere. They are being trained in righteousness by the Spirit of the Living God. God’s love is not a theory, it is His grace, let loose so mankind can lay claim to their birthright – the tree of life and the different kinds of fruit that freely grow on that tree.

We’ve been misled by religion. You and I can’t cultivate His seed in someone else – it is their choice. But they still need to know they have a choice. We are His witnesses to everything He did, and is still doing in our lives every single day. His seeds of obedience, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, love, and joy and peace are now in us. We simply co-operate with the Holy Spirit and follow His lead, using the opportunities life brings across our path. 

The seed of eternal life has been sown into us when we said YES to Him. So we choose LIFE, the way our Saviour lived it. Now is the time to cultivate His fruit… and that’s my little theory. Bye. 👋

P 3314 Galatians 5:16-26.

/ DVH

“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.      The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.        But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”

Let’s reflect on this scripture for a little bit — the Holy Spirit is always moving. This means we will need to keep in step with Him. He is always doing something, going somewhere, reaching out, calling out and blessing someone. He can’t help it, it’s His nature. He is so saturated and filled to overflowing with the Love of God for each and every human being on the planet – that He simply oozes love, compassion, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness etc.… everywhere He goes. 

The Holy Spirit is a beautiful Companion. He is compassionate, impartial, non-biased, and non-discriminatory toward each one of us – individually. He knows how to teach us to avoid sin, by staying close to Jesus. The Lord Jesus beautifully illustrated incredible qualities in the Gospels. His teaching was very clear, the people who choose to follow Him, walk, sit, stand, laugh, eat, pray with the same heart He had. A lover’s heart. SomeOne Who can tell us how to walk through the mire of this life without getting soiled.

Like the scripture above says: bad things aren’t hard to see, most of the time they stand out like a sore thumb! And before you and I start excusing ourselves by saying ‘I wouldn’t do that,’ My advice is to ask His opinion and then take a closer look in the mirror of the Word. Some of that icky stuff presents with other symptoms. Like sneaking looks at some chick or guy in the train …and wondering stuff we shouldn’t be wondering. Of course nobody who says they are a ‘Christian’ ever does that stuff – do they? These thoughts fly through everyone’s heads, you just don’t have to throw them a party! 

Hubby told me that he had to look at the ground for years, because so many women today were so poorly dressed. His problem with skimpy outer wear, that was more like underwear, got easier after he began to see everyone through the Lord’s eyes instead of his own. That’s the secret to staying in the river. Walking with the Holy Spirit changes the way we see other people, things, and situations. Allow Him to correct your path with His eye upon you. Simply give Him permission to interrupt you. He never, ever, takes His eyes off us – that’s because YOU and I are ‘the apple of His eye.’

We treat the Lord’s book like a precious Friend Who sits with us, showing us daily who He is, and how to walk with Him. We need this ongoing course correction and the Holy Spirit provides it. God’s book is a book of wonder — things you thought you knew one day, suddenly open up like a beautiful flower and we find ourselves glimpsing Who He is in a new way, through the same words we read yesterday! His book is like a kaleidoscope, the slightest movement changes the view. 

‘Walking with the Holy Spirit’ means we are choosing to walk with Him aware of His Presence, all the time. Whether things are busy or not. If He calls, then we stop and listen, because we know His voice in our lives is a great privilege. If we can’t find Him, then we go and look for Him in the book. Because, just like the Shulammite in Song of Songs — lovers of God feel His absence very keenly. Walking with the Holy Spirit means walking through this life seeing everything that happens through His eyes, doing things the way He wants them done. And we have purposed in our hearts to learn to love other people like He does. 

Being with Him is the pleasure of pleasing SomeOne so dear to our hearts …we live for His joy-filled responses! They are even greater than we can imagine. Falling in love with SomeOne does that to you.  It has nothing to do with us being perfect people — instead we know and love SomeOne Whose POV is so precious, we don’t want to go anywhere, or do anything without HIM. We like listening to His voice.  

The result of the Lord’s sacrificial death is that we now own His legacy. All the Godly qualities He gave to His vast family. Now our inheritance is the ability to live in this world like He did, walking in fellowship with the Holy Spirit.  And Galatians 5:16-26 sums it up!  Bye 👋.

P 3290 Choose your weapons.

/ DVH

2 Corinthians 10:3-5  “For though we live in the world, WE DO NOT WAGE WAR AS THE WORLD DOES. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  This scripture always evokes the same thought in me, ‘so why on earth are WE acting like everyone else does?’ Like brother James says: “this ought not to be so…”

We quite simply can’t use this world’s weapons in our daily ongoing battles that we fight. Let’s always remember we aren’t fighting people – we are fighting those things, spiritual forces, that people have embraced to protect themselves and often they are deceived. BTW, this immediately makes me wonder why we think talking aboutstuff will fix it!  2 Corinthians tells us His Word is meant to demolish arguments and pretensions. We definitely need to know what that looks like. To me: it looks like knowing God is always good. Plus we live this life knowing our side WON … but sometimes, we have momentary afflictions. However, our Saviour and our Comforter will never leave us. 

We need DIVINE weapons. The armour of God, the fruit of the Spirit, plus His Wisdom and spiritual gifts to combat whatever comes at us. Let’s look at that statement for a minute  …  because our weapons are divine, then they are weapons from the Lord. So our next question is – what do they look like? Do some research in Ephesians 4&6, or 1 Corinthians 12&13, or Romans 12. But let’s start with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control those are Jesus’ kind of weapons. I recommend using them liberally under the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Start by showing the Lord you love Him … by LOVING AND OBEYING HIS WORD.

Here’s something that could raise your hair and your eyebrows! Almighty God used the weapon of His own Son’s obedient death, to defeat sin and death. We don’t use normal weapons, we don’t have to … HE WON! Hmmm. Those particular weapons don’t look like the stuff you buy in your local gun-shop. You will probably hardly ever see a bible lying side by side with a gun. Why not? Be-ca-use … Jesus said: “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].” John 10:10. We simply can’t get to abundant life using carnal weapons! Those things diminish and destroy it. Carnal weapons are motivated by “look after me and mine.” Abundant life is motivated by “what did Jesus say?” 

Prayer is another one of God’s most potent weapons. It takes you and I out of the equation, and puts the Holy Spirit in charge. Ain’t nobody out there that wants to mess with Him! He made the world and everything in it!  Do that stuff at your own peril. The Spirit of God will love us and help us, until we feel so-oo-oo full, we will wonder why any of us went the wrong way in the first place! This is why Jesus said: “Love your enemies!”  He inhabits that kind of outwardly looking passion. Jesus has passionate eyes of fire in the book of Revelation.

Love will set captives free, and do even more things that we haven’t personally discovered, yet.  When it is carefully uncovered and digested, loving people is a revelation of Universal proportions and a weapon of mass destruction! It destroys the work of the evil one. If we try to use our own love, we will probably run out fairly quickly and come up short. But God’s love is endless. It is shameless in its passion. It smashes any stronghold of unbelief, fear, mortification, spite, anger etc. and restores and heals everything it touches. This is why love is the best weapon ever – it simply can’t be defeated. You can stuff love into a tomb, and 3 days later it will come bursting out, destroying every one of your theories and theologies!                                                                     

We need to cultivate love in even the smallest things, because it doesn’t come naturally to us. We are far more used to self-preservation. We often end up using our tongues like swords and knives and cut people up into little bits because they have somehow threatened us “…These things, my brothers, should not be this way [for we have a moral obligation to speak in a manner that reflects our fear of God and profound respect for His precepts]. James 3:10 sure has a handle on humanity and the way it thinks and acts!

Let’s choose our weapons carefully – we can’t possibly live this new life well, unless the Holy Spirit helps us. He is pure love in action. And He can love both sides!  We need His weapons that cut people free, not maim them.  I think we should always start by applying love first. When love is uppermost, there is no room for hatred.   Learning to love others transforms our minds. Bye 👋

P 3262 What language does God speak?

/ DVH

This could blow your mind, it blew mine. Just out of the blue this morning the Lord said to me: ”What language do I speak?” WOW! … I mean I wasn’t even praying or anything! We know that the Lord speaks every language of man but does HE also have a language?… I decided to go with what Ezekiel wisely said instead:“Only YOU know Lord.” Then He reminded me that He can speak every language on the planet and all the languages of angels. Plus the unutterable sighs and groaning of the human heart. WOW … again! 🤯 In fact, we don’t even have to speak, because the Lord already knows. (Psalm 139:4)

Over the years, I’ve learnt that when the Holy Spirit asks me a question, it’s time to be quiet and listen, He’s about to teach me something I don’t know. So I put a sock in it and listened. This is what He told me:“I speak faith,  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control..” Colour me flabbergasted. It took me ages to even comprehend what that means – I think of those things as actions.

First of all, it rocked my world to find out that these things we call spiritual gifts or traits, are languages! Then I realised that many people call ‘love’ a language. I know that Jesus is our perfect example of these things we call fruit… but are these things also God’s language? Off we go! In Psalm 139:6 it says:“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”  I’m so-o going to need His help!

I kept on praying about it, and then I read this:“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, the Word was God.” John 1:1. Our Lord Jesus, is His Father’s language in human form. 🤯 Jesus Christ is God’s living LANGUAGE. The more I prayed over this, with the Holy Spirit helping me, the more I started to remember other scriptures. God also speaks faith! He spoke this world into being when there was nothing – that’s faith! The Holy Spirit went off and did what Almighty God said, and that too was faith!!  Faith is a language – our universe and beyond were founded on His Words, and then Holy Spirit turned the language into an action. 

Adam and Eve blew it when they disobeyed and ate the fruit. They stopped speaking the languages God had given them, when the devil slithered in and taught them to speak doubt! A questioning perversion of the language of faith. Faith has a way to speak, and it originates in God, and freely obeys Him. Here’s an interesting thought for free: Moses lifted up his staff over the Red sea and Psalm 114:3 says: “The sea SAW it, and fled…”  The SEA saw WHAT? The staff of authority in Moses’ hand! There are many bigger ways to see and understand the things of God than we can imagine – sadly we’ve restricted ourselves to just MAN’s knowledge.

My hubby had this thought: “Jesus spoke PEACE to the sea when it was turbulent.” That rough sea obeyed the Lord immediately He spoke faith to it. When the Lord said “Peace be still,” He was speaking one of His Father’s languages. He told the disciples once in John 12:49 “For I have never spoken on My own initiative or authority, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment regarding what to say and what to speak.”

Let’s look at another one of the things that we call fruit, but God uses them as one of His languages. I picked patience. When someone is speaking to a little child and the little one doesn’t understand them, we will often say that the person is speaking patiently to the child. Patience has a tone, It is another kind of language. That language can speak to human beings as well as animals etc. and get the same response. It relaxes and soothes. God’s languages are spoken for the other person’s well-being. 

The kingdom of God down here on this earth has a voice. These kingdom languages help us to serve, know and honour the Lord, as we learn to speak them. He uses us to speak His language to others. We dare not waste our time speaking ‘man’ – we need to learn to speak His language everywhere we go – by believing and listening to what He says and acting on it. That’s how His Word begins to transform our language – when His Word becomes our language! We will learn how He speaks, when we stop predicting what we want to hear from the Lord, and take the time to wait for Him to speak to us.  

Like I said at the top of the page, the Holy Spirit shared this with me, but let’s be totally clear, my brain is not smart enough to come up with these thoughts! We need the Holy Spirit to teach us our Father’s native tongue … so we can be pure in our speech. Purity of speech isn’t about throwing out swear words, or criticism, or hate – it’s about learning to speak LOVE. The bible says: “That which is not faith is sin.”  We often go for avoiding the negative – instead of participating in the positive. 

We could be outwardly speaking well of others — but in our hearts, which are open to Him at all times, what do we really think? What are we projecting toward other people – His languages of faith, hope and love? Or are we speaking from the hurt of the past …and head knowledge… which can be a dead language. What language does our Father speak? – I think it is love. And you can be sure He speaks your language too. Bye. 👋