Giants

P 2660 Our everyday bread …

/ DVH

Romans 10: 8-11 MSG:”The word that saves is right here, as near as the tongue in your mouth, as close as the heart in your chest. It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what He did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting Him to do it for you. That’s salvation.”

We are all currently engaged in our God’s eternal processes. That means God is working in us, just like He did when He raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Salvation is not a one stop shop – it is a process … which started when He saved us and continues to this day! The Holy Spirit is working in each one of us, day by day, to deliver us from the things that made us dead in the first place! Now we have to the power to turn away! He transforms our minds so we don’t think dead thoughts. He gives life to our mortal bodies so we can worship and serve Him in Spirit and in truth.

He also releases us to do eternal things, so we can carry His kingdom all over this world. V14: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” Look at your feet. In God’s eyes they are beautiful – He gave those feet an assignment … to go everywhere and tell everyone we meet that He is not mad at people any more. SomeBody Else, a perfect human being who did not deserve punishment, stepped up to the plate and took our place of punishment. You and I should have been nailed to that cross – NOT HIM.

Now, because of the power that was released when He was raised from the dead – we can come out of the dead patterns and thoughts that have haunted us all our lives, and really live. Jesus Christ loved people. He saw restoration happening everywhere He went. People’s lives were restored, hearts blossomed. Their hearts were withering and dying under the very strict laws that were enforced upon them. However, those laws were designed to bring the Jews back to God. Sometimes we are more interested in Jesus Christ the Healer, than we are in Jesus Christ the Author of our ongoing salvation. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.

The Lord is also God’s living Word – He’s more than just a human illustration – He is God’s Word per-son-ified. That’s our destiny too. To be daily transformed so that our lives are saturated in the Word of God. We obey it, soak it in and give it out to anyone … the good, the bad, the ugly. And as we press in to learn this kind of obedience, we will kill off the very things we’ve adopted and adapted as protective garments. So now we stand before the Lord and others, just like Jesus was on the cross. Naked. We must be naked to be fully clothed! We are unashamed of this nakedness, because He died to clothe us in HIS righteousness, peace, grace, love, faithfulness …

To enter into this new life we must choose to come out of the grave of our old life, just like Lazarus came out of the grave he was in. Now we let God Himself, and others … strip off the grave clothes that are still binding us into death. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is now alive and working in all of us. That dead life we led before cannot be in charge now – we’ve MOVED. We don’t live there anymore. We moved out of that darkness and now we stand blameless in His marvellous light because of what He did. 

However, it is totally unrealistic to expect our new life to look just like that old one! It can’t, because light and dark cannot co-exist together. One excludes the other, so you can’t have both. This is where the outworking of our faith lies. Not in raising the dead, or healing the sick, or saying Godly stuff – it lies in choosing to live in the place we’ve been given. That’s why our minute by minute choices matter. 

Our old enemies have convinced us that we are still bound to that old life, because those old choices can still appeal to us. But, the Truth IS, those things no longer have any power or control  – they are shadows, not reality. We left that stuff behind us, and now … we are living to follow Jesus day by day. Daily reclaiming the land that was ours from the moment we were born again. We have our own promised land. Christ IN us – our hope of glory. This new land He died to give us flows with milk and honey because HE LIVES HERE.

Today, and tomorrow, and all our tomorrows! … We must realise that we need to choose to fight the giants that we have let occupy that old land – our old life. The things we have allowed that have no place in this new life. We don’t choose which things have to go, the Word of God every single day divides between our thoughts and emotions and releases His truth so we can see it. We simply practice obedience and submit to what He says, every single day. That’s why we read the bible – to get our every day bread and marching orders. 👋

P 2114 Learn to govern your own thoughts.

/ DVH

“So I say to my soul, “Don’t be discouraged. Don’t be disturbed. For I know my God will break through for me.” Then I’ll have plenty of reasons to praise Him all over again. Yes, He is my saving grace!” Psalms 42:11 TPT

So, talking to yourself out loud, in public places may not be a good thing – nice large men in white coats might come and get you. 🚑 Fortunately, nowadays, many people have phones in their ears so it may not be quite so obvious when we talk out loud into thin air on a busy street! 😆 However, this Psalmist is not talking about saying stuff out loud – he is talking about internally speaking to his soul. Which is his mind, will and emotions. I talk to my soul a lot – it needs it. However, I don’t talk to my soul out loud in public, be-cau-se those nice men in white coats kinda put me off that!

Most of the time I have to tell my mind to ‘shut up please,’ because it has a habit of reminding me of my own failures, fears and inadequacies, as well as lists of any dumb hurtful things other people have done to me! The bible, however, teaches me to rest, relax and sit down with happier thoughts about the God of all the Universe Who loves me dearly. So, I take this verse: “Whatsoever is good, whatsoever is right, whatsoever is profitable let your mind dwell on these things…” LITERALLY.

BTW, dwell on means live like that, think like this. I have to be honest with you, and say that a lot of the time, I find this scripture very challenging!  My mind wanders off along some well-worn tracks when it comes to some if the people I know, and … not all of those tracks are things that are good, right and excellent. 😶 However, what I have learnt by applying this scripture is this – every time we embrace what the bible says and intentionally apply it into our lives by doing it – what He says becomes stronger than the turmoil.

The Lord calls that in His book … “renewing our mind.” It works like this: I look at what I think, and then I intentionally go and look up what He thinks. It is wise to not get stuck on what I think – that sends me down the path of fear, anger, worry, disappointment and discouragement. I start reminding myself about what the Lord says instead. I see this process like a coin – I can stick with the side of that coin I know very well, or I can become acquainted with the other side and try to find the good in whatever uncomfortable, nasty situation I’ve ended up in! And then I go on from there and pray about something I can do, then I CHOOSE to obey what HE says, and ignore that old record playing in my head. This is a hard thing, but if you can conquer the battle of your thoughts – you can kill a giant! I wonder if that’s why David ran at Goliath shouting??!!

I have learnt, from experience, that our God is extremely generous. Whenever I make even a teen tiny effort to be obedient, I’ve found that He is already running toward me to help me. The thing is, that other guy will try to fool us with remarks that go like this: a/ you are thinking bad thoughts about someone who hurt you because they have been so mean and you are a truly awful person. How could God love me? And:  b/ it is my own fault that I got into this mess in the first place! 😱 Reasons pop up in my mind like daisies on a lawn. 

The Lord has provided us with a better way in His book. This Psalm teaches us that we can talk to our soul and learn to stop embracing the ugly thoughts. Here’s a helpful tip I’ve needed many MANY times! Not every thought in your dear little head is YOURS. The other guy chucks in his evil contribution and because he is so incredibly sneaky so we think it is us. So then we beat ourselves up for being a bad Christian or we agree with him that our life is terrible and it is never going to get better. Agreeing with the other guy is a really bad plan. It is like watching water go down the drain – you can’t get it back. Time is valuable, it is all we have. However, we always need to remember, Jesus can redeem anything.

If we choose to obey what the Lord says in the book and act on it – that produces His strength in our weakness. Meanwhile, the next time we choose to obey, it is easier. It’s like a muscle being strengthened. the more we use it the stronger it gets. So here’s another helpful hint: I’ve found that I cannot build a case against someone else and, at the same time, build one for what the Lord wants. I have to choose to govern my own thoughts, and select which kind of thinking I want to facilitate. That can involve a whole lot of deep breathing! Otherwise I know I will get anxious and start worrying about a whole lot of stuff that doesn’t really matter.

And here is a fantastic scripture to end with: “I hear the Lord saying, “I will stay close to you, instructing and guiding you along the pathway for your life. I will advise you along the way and lead you forth with My eyes as your guide. So don’t make it difficult; don’t be stubborn when I take you where you’ve not been before. Don’t make Me tug you and pull you along. Just come with Me!”” Psalms 32:8-9. There’s good advice for all of us!

I encourage everyone reading this blog today to start speaking to your soul about any immediate chaos or trouble that has being dogging your heels – because our thoughts and choices are powerful. They change us and they will, over time, change the environment around us. Bye. 👋🏻