Gifts

P 3221 Let’s have some Clarity.

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I Corinthians 12:4-13 MSG. “God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God Himself is behind it all. EACH PERSON IS GIVEN SOMETHING TO DO THAT SHOWS WHO GOD IS: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful: wise counsel; clear understanding; simple trust; healing the sick; miraculous acts; proclamation; distinguishing between spirits tongues; interpretation of tongues.

All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of His one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which HE has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptised.) Each of us is now a part of His resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—His Spirit—where we all come to drink.”

I love this version of 1 Corinthians. I personally think it is worth reading it several times. Clarity is a wonderful thing! We should never ever doubt that our Heavenly Father has a purpose for each and every one of our lives, He says so, right here. Believe Him! That’s what faith does. He tells us here that every single gift is needed. Unfortunately this is also where our enemy loves to lie to us. he whispers to our hearts that our presence, our gift is useless and it won’t be missed. Perhaps he tells you it won’t matter if you aren’t here. he’s a liar BTW. But we both already know that!

I wonder if the problem is this, we aren’t valuing those people who are unseen, and that is the very reason why some of us seem to be floundering about not doing very well? Many valuable unseen and seemingly unimportant parts are missing. Perhaps all the visible parts are starting to get worn out, and misfiring? Simply because some of us are not in our God-given place doing what He sent us here to do. He planned our lives even before we arrived here, and each one of us has something to do that no-one else can. Even though our presence can seem insignificant in the light of this world’s aims and judgments … there are no insignificant people.

Our neighbour died last week. He wasn’t old, but he wasn’t all that young either. However we knew him and we cared for him. I cried and cried. And initially I didn’t have a clue why I cried so much! Then I realised that this world seems a little poorer now he isn’t in it. I will miss him walking by our house on his way to his. He didn’t seem to contribute much outwardly, yet:   “…the death of one man diminishes us all.” Just because our world has stopped valuing ordinary individuals in favour of bright shiny talented people, that doesn’t mean it is true! Because God Himself sent you and I here, we are here for a reason. 

Let’s just spend a few minutes thinking about YOU, and your body and how it works for you even when you are not aware of it. Your health relies upon things inside you that you will, hopefully, never see! All of those things – some of them are big, but most are small – ticking away doing their various God-appointed jobs. If one of them misfires or ceases to perform, the rest of your body will tell you about it pretty quickly. Here’s today’s thought: maybe the Body of Christ needs YOU to do what God put you here to do so we can fully function. 

Thirty-six years ago when I had a liver transplant I began to realise just how important my liver is! It’s a funny-looking filter that nobody talks about. Health professionals worry and puzzle over hearts, and lungs, and limbs, too much fat here, not enough there — but actually our body ceases to function normally when our liver is diseased or injured. They don’t know why mine needed to be replaced. It just kind of lost heart and gave up. Let me tell you when it did begin to lose function I felt it. I was quite young but I just got slower and slower and sicker and sicker. Actually, I think the Holy Spirit used our body in this scripture as an illustration, because it is personal, and some bodies can be problematic.

One of the biggest mistakes we can make is to believe the enemy’s lies. Importance does not have to come with bells and whistles, trumpets and a parade. Maybe seeing you just going about doing what you do, helps someone else keep on walking from one day to the next. Perhaps your kindness reminds them this world isn’t all that bad. Sometimes what makes someone important is that we suddenly find we don’t like living without them. 

If you don’t know why you are here, then ask the Lord to show you. Just by simply living, we are changing the world around us. Especially when we offer to help someone, and we notice that they are alive and struggling like we do. Clarity is a very valuable asset, it helps us to see and appreciate each other. Bye. 👋 

P 3220 Let’s watch what we do with our keys.

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“Now may the Lord Jesus Christ and our Father God, Who loved us and in His wonderful grace gave us eternal comfort and a beautiful hope that cannot fail, encourage your hearts and inspire you with strength to always do and speak what is good and beautiful in His eyes.” 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17.

Watching what we say is an incredibly important key to walking with the Holy Spirit and living in the kingdom of God. I’m not talking about being fake, or using flattery, or saying stuff that is not true – that stuff feels hollow. I’m talking about coming into agreement with the Lord and how He sees things. Now there’s a good thing to do just because He said to do it. However He didn’t say we would always enjoy it. I find the fun comes after the faith step!  

Doing what it says, even if we do it badly. and not always with the best of attitudes, certainly alleviates this problem. Jesus is not legalistic and He knows we are trying to obey our Heavenly Father. We are so blessed, we can ask the Holy Spirit to help us. Watching our words is a ‘key’ part of walking with the Holy Spirit. I’ve said dumb stuff and afterwards I sat about thinking – “Did I really just say that?” Instead of joining into a conversation that downgrades, or bad mouths someone else, it’s best to say nothing, inwardly pray and head for the exit! 

The thing that grabs us and traps us into opening our mouths, is that what is said is often true in some way or another. None of us are perfect, so somebody can often find something or other to criticise someone else about. Our negative comments will not help! At the same we don’t have any idea how this gossiped-about person arrived wherever it is they landed. 

We have been given, at great Personal cost by the GIVER, the power of agreement. Jesus gave that to us. So when we agree that so and so is a pain in the neck — we are thoughtlessly adding our powerful agreement to a bad thing. And then we wander about wondering why that person never changes! It’s because we aren’t helping with our opinions. So here’s something to chew over: “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” John 20:23. That’s an enormous responsibility!

We can be so consumed by the momentary gratification of flapping our gums, we forget we are doing untold damage to someone else. The enemy lies to us that we will feel better if we talk about this slight or that incident. Sadly, we can easily forget about what that person may have done for us in the past — what was good, what was right what was profitable. We must get rid of the idea that our opinions are more important than someone else’s reputation and spiritual welfare.

What we say needs to build other people up — and in the heat of awkward moments, we desperately need to say things that are true, right and profitable, or … … say nothing. However, when we actively dislike someone, or we are mad at them – those precious positive things can be hard to locate. I ask Him to please help me and spend time with Him working on forgiveness, because that’s the only way through it..

This world we currently live in has a me-centred focus, so we can easily have a consumer mentality … which means that other people are like chess pieces, we move them around a board in our minds to help us to win.  I can’t find that in His book! Winning that way means everybody loses. We immediately begin to negate our gifts in the body, and eliminate or minimise someone else’s ...all at the same time. 

Guilt, blame, and shame render everyone powerless!  If we want to see change, then we need to approach difficult situations or people, His Way. At the same time I think we need to pray far more for our leaders, they meet most of our bad attitudes head on. In moments of temptation I am learning to lean hard on forgiveness and to rebuke spite in me. In the past if someone had a problem with gossiping etc. they were either ostracised, or everyone simply joined in. Neither of those things will help us follow Him. 

When I say something stupid, it can be so much easier to try to justify what I just said, than it is to own my mistake and apologise. But that is the only true way to deal with the problem. James 3:10 says:“Out of the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. 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].” 

This is the major reason why we should avoid gossip, or even continually chewing over someone else’s faults! We may dislike that person who is being slowly dissected in front of us, but that is not the real point. We need to remain silent because we love and respect the Lord more than our own opinion. When we disrespect others, we are disrespecting Him. I don’t want to make a law out of this, however, I am simply stating a truth.  When our God says don’t do it – don’t do it!

Jesus has given us the joy of speaking life to other people and that privilege is powerful. “I will give you the keys of heaven’s kingdom realm to forbid on earth that which is forbidden in heaven, and to release on earth that which is released in heaven.”” Matthew 16:19. We can easily lose or misplace our God-given keys, and this is why we need to watch what we do with them! Bye. ✋

P 3211 Procrastination.

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“Procrastination is the thief of time.” I was taught that saying in my teens, years ago. Here’s the meaning: procrastination is the act of unnecessarily delaying tasks, even when you know it will lead to negative consequences, by choosing less important activities instead. It’s a common behaviour, not just laziness, often stemming from poor emotion regulation, perfectionism, fear of failure, or executive function challenges. While occasional procrastination is normal, chronic procrastination can cause significant stress, guilt, anxiety, and harm productivity and well-being. 

If you are a Christian, this particular attitude can cause doubt, fear, unbelief, and eventually inactivity to grab us. These traits often show up in our thought patterns: “Did God say that?’ “He wouldn’t really want me to do that would He?’ ‘I need to wait to be ready to do what He said.’ ‘He knows I can’t do that!’ ‘There are other people who can do things like that better than me.” ‘I don’t have an anointing to do that!’

That last thought is just plain dumb. We have the Lord’s instructions written down in the bible, signed in Jesus’ blood. It almost goes without saying that none of us are ever ready! I urge everyone to stop looking at famous Christians and let go of the kind of thinking that says, they are our example. Maybe you and I don’t have their anointing but we can still be obedient to our own personal heavenly calling. Besides —Jesus is OUR example, and motivation – not other people.  

Sometimes all I can do in a ‘talking to people’ situation, is to get my feet moving. When that happens it is not because I am disabled, it’s because I’m scared! Scared of someone else’s response, scared of somebody being mean to me, scared of the consequences in my life and in theirs. Maybe I will mess witnessing etc. up! This is a good time to remind ourselves of the things the Lord has done in the past. God fought without-number Midianites with Gideon and 300 men, and He also got Jonah to Nineveh via a whale taxi. Of course He can help us! Here’s something from His book to sort out our excuses. PS … when the Lord says ‘ME” He means YOU too!

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on ME, because the Lord has anointed ME, to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent ME to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendour.” Isaiah 61:1-3.

If we both sit about waiting to feel super spiritual, or hoping to have some wild experience with Him, to signify we have been sent by Him – we will miss the boat. Famous Christians are the exceptions, not the norm. Procrastination can easily steal the time that God has generously given to us, and we will end up at the end of our lives in the land of regret.  

The bible says this in 1 Corinthians 3:15 In the Message bible: “Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely.”  Um… found out? We won’t get BY?! Torn out and started over?!! Barely survive?? None of that sounds good! 

There is a kind of evasive thinking that can dominate our hearts and minds, spiralling us into fear, as well as hiding from our calling. We can never afford to forget that we are now dead! We died with Him. We’ve been saved for His purposes now – plus we’ve been given gifts to use for His glory, and to benefit other people. None of that has anything to do with our comfort, lives, families, or our careers. When we live our lives for His glory our focus actually changes.

Someone once told me that their boss was so demanding they couldn’t find a minute to talk to anyone about anything, so Jesus was relegated to the back seat…. plus it didn’t seem fair to do the Lord’s work on the boss’s payroll! That kind of sounds OK eh? Except the bible tells us we can ask for anything and it will be given to us, and if we have a need He will supply it. Ask the Lord to make a way, where there seems to be no way! He’s really really good at it. 

I’ve had to face facts, one of them being there is nothing extraordinary about me. I’m everybody and nobody rolled into one older lady! But it’s a New Year and Father God has left us on this earth for a purpose. We need to find out why, and start doing it. Postponing God’s will, together with doing things His way, means we are postponing the very thing that will set us free from fear, anxiety and the spirit of stupid that seems to be extremely prevalent everywhere.

We are called to pray so we can find out what we are here to do. We do not pray to get Father God’s rubber stamp on what we think we should be doing! If HE is not in charge, then whatever we do, it will fall on its head! And produce no fruit! Procrastination is the thief of time, I urge you to watch out for it. Otherwise it will steal your birthright away. Bye. 👋

P 3200 Know what you are fighting for.

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Today I want to talk about three truths that I think are very important. Things that are worth fighting for. The Body of Christ is a wonderful, growing, messy, precious organism. It isn’t perfect because we – you and I – aren’t perfect, yet! The Lord Jesus simply adores His church, His bride. Unfortunately the body of Christ can sometimes draw lines about who is in and who is out. It is a line that Jesus Himself would never draw! If someone is trusting Him to save them, then they belong to Him, whether they share our overall theology or not. The main problem with division is a distinct lack of humility on everyone’s part! I strongly believe we need to make what Jesus treasured, our treasure. 

The Bible clearly tells us to recognise that: “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” Proverbs 4:7. In my limited experience, I have found that the Lord’s wisdom knows precisely what to do with any knowledge I may have picked up in my journey with Him. Jesus Christ Himself, is perfect wisdom, and He takes His wisdom from the bible and brings it down to a personal, practical level of: “what am I going to do about this?” As I see it, the only thing standing in the way of that happening, is our own theology, or penchant for evasion.

Let’s move on to another truth that fits well with wisdom. Reconciliation. Let’s remember that we have ALL been given a spirit of reconciliation. This is not just about helping others who aren’t Christians to see Jesus for themselves. (Who He is, and what He has done for this world.) Reconciliation is designed to work from day-to-day in our everyday relationships and lives.  “All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave US the ministry of reconciliation:…” 2 Corinthians 5:18.

We can reconcile with anybody as long as we follow the Holy Spirit’s leading. That’s because His mandate is now our mandate. It seems to me that many Christians can be reluctant to operate in the ministry of reconciliation. Yet it is part of what we’ve been given, and what’s more, it has a totally complete all-encompassing, world-changing, general application.

Meanwhile, Christians will happily line up for all the other gifts mentioned in several places in the Epistles, but not the ministry of reconciliation! When we received Christ we received the ministry of reconciliation. We will need His help, and wisdom, but it’s a huge part of what we do now. As you can see for yourself, when you read the bible, it is actually everybody’s ministry of reconciliation. We received it from Him, and now we give it away, to the-people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet. But let us not forget it is for each other as well! And yes, that includes the person who has been rubbing you up the wrong way since you joined that church. 

Our churches are not meant to be divided and carved up all over the place – when we divide churches we are dividing His body. If we refuse to give away what we have been given from the Lord, in the form of loving reconciliation, we are not living like His disciples. Jesus told us over and over to do it, and so did Paul, and yet we still stumble about in the dark, because of perceived differences. Some people keep wandering off out of our churches like clock-work. They think they know more than the people they are leaving behind. What a farce! Breaking up a church shows no wisdom, no reconciliation and no love. We simply must remember what we are fighting for.

And this is my last point. In Roman times, when there was a war, the guy who carried the banner representing his company, carried a great responsibility. If the banner dropped or was lost to the enemy, the whole battle was lost. But when the one carrying the banner went down, another soldier would pick it up. Any soldier who saw that banner was in trouble would battle his way through the existing fighting, to get to the banner and defend it.The banner said who they were and what they represented.

The Bible itself talks about banners. In one instance, it says ‘His banner over me is love.’ LOVE is meant to represent our company of brothers and sisters. We must choose to treat LOVE as our banner, because we cannot afford to lose that banner to our enemy! When we’ve lost love we’ve lost everything. That is not to say that we cannot fight to get it back, but it will be a very large battle, requiring discipline. The best way to live in this world is to do whatever we can to protect our banner of His Love for others.That’s going to mean a whole lot of sacrifice, humility, reconciliation, wisdom and probably even pain. Some people aren’t going to like us. Let’s simply remember what we are fighting for, and in adverse circumstances run to our BANNER.

Please, please … read the Old Testament with New Testament eyes whenever you read it!  The Old shows us what God is like and what we are like when we ignore HIM! We need to seek HIS wisdom like it is gold, and choose to reconcile with everyone we can, and chase after 1 Corinthians 13’s kind of love. Why? Because of Colossians 3:14, otherwise we are wearing the wrong clothes! The clothes this world wants us to wear! 

“So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offence. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.” Amen. Bye. 👋

P 3197 Christmas is almost upon us.

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You can tell that when you step inside a shopping mall. People are buzzing about like bees in a hive, frantically buying gifts for family and friends. It definitely seems official — consumerism is addictive, just like smoking, drinking and gambling. Sadly, you don’t have to have actual money to participate in this particular not-so-merry-dance. Many people put themselves into a lot of debt to create some sort of happiness, even for a day. When life is hard even a little snatch of laughter is valuable. How about we find a way to put a smile on the face of our neighbour!

Here’s something I stumbled across while following Jesus, Psalm 127:1. It challenged me regarding gift giving..“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain…”  Man there have been a number of times when I wished that verse was not in there!  I need the Lord to help me with giving gifts. I love giving gifts to people – particularly if they like them. There is something about that surprised happy face when they open their present that just blesses me. I pay very little attention to what I am given – but boy do I love giving!  And little kids are my super-duper favourite people to give to — they rip into the paper, and tear apart the boxes to get at that prize. It’s a joy to watch them. Meanwhile who can afford to buy a teenager a gift today? You almost have to re-mortgage your house!

Wouldn’t it be great if we thought about unwrapping what Jesus has said to us in His book, with that sort of expectation and happiness? Imagine facing the bible like an unknown beautiful gift, all wrapped up and sparkly … instead of a chore that must be performed – otherwise our day might fall apart. What if we couldn’t wait to get at the treasure inside? And, what if seeing one another had precisely the same effect? We might even buy a whole field just to own a precious pearl like that. … now there’s a think spot!

Back to the verse. This verse kind of means I’ve laboured in vain a lot in my lifetime. I’ve gone for the hope of happiness for me, instead of leaning on the discernment of Jesus. When it comes to giving gifts I’m hopeless. I go nuts. Somewhere in my head, I think my wiring is upside down! I am not saying that Jesus doesn’t like presents and gift giving, after all He loved all of us by giving the greatest gift of all – His life. But what I am saying is that it is possible to use gift giving to try to bridge gaps between you and people-you-don’t-get-along-with, and that can often lead to great disappointment. We can sometimes try to use gift-giving to curry favour with particularly fussy friends and relatives – instead of seeking restoration.

Maybe you have recently spent days trying to find the right gift for Great Uncle Bulgaria, and then he just kind of sniffed at your present and said a dull lifeless: “Thanks” as he plopped it on the floor. Your heart sinks into your shoes and you can almost see the sign that says: ‘That one is going in the recycling bin!”  The things we drag along behind us like the tail on a comet. Those things we think we have no say over, and feel we cannot change – except because of what the Lord Jesus did – we can!  Maybe I just need to obtain more trusty book gift-vouchers instead of driving myself balmy trying to find something just right.

There is a plus side to all this to-ing and fro-ing regarding buying gifts at this time of the year.… people smile at you and say: “Merry Christmas.” Meanwhile, it’s just like Jesus to have HIS birthday benefit everyone else, in more ways than one! We’ve found you can end up chatting to people in the lifts, instead of staring at the floor hoping the lift will get to your floor quickly, because you are feeling trapped with strangers. I have this thing with strangers, the nature of who they are to me, means I’m never going to see them again! You can say anything!  Sometimes they even talk back – WOW! 

We love Christmas at our house. My dear hubby is a huge fan, and when you put that together with someone who loves giving gifts, well … Christmas is a busy time for us. We start shopping and planning decorations in August! My fella loves his outdoor lights and he plans them for months. Lights are a lovely way to speak to your neighbours without saying a word. Our manger scene and ‘Happy Birthday Jesus’ lights have been going for 12 years. We also have joy, hope, and peace signs that hubby made. 

Yesterday, my husband and one of our granddaughters went off to take some gifts from our church to the local women’s shelter. Those poor ladies leave behind everything as they literally run for their lives. I’ve left everything behind once, so I understand their pain a little bit. However, in that position, you can’t afford to look back, or like Lot’s wife you will turn into a pillar of salt. Anyway … we have a big pile of assorted gifts to put under their tree. Knowing people care won’t fix everything but it sure helps when you are all alone and scared about what comes next. They were immensely grateful. My hubby likes to talk to the ladies in the office – nobody talks to them.

As I said, Christmas is upon us and many families will gather together and celebrate. Yet, whether they actually know what they are celebrating is a whole other ball-game! I pray we all get a chance to tell even one other person that Jesus is not a baby anymore – He’s all grown up and fighting for us! Blessings as you prepare to remember the miracle God gave us all, when He became one of us.Bye. 🥳

P 3130 The beginning of Wisdom.

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“If you consider yourself to be wise and one who understands the ways of God, advertise it with a beautiful, fruitful life guided by wisdom’s gentleness. Never brag or boast about what you’ve done and you’ll prove that you’re truly wise.” James 3:13 TPT. “To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,…”1 Corinthians 12:8. “Those who are wise will shine radiantly as the sky at midday. And those who turn many to the way of righteousness will shine brightly as stars for all eternity.” Daniel 12:3 TPT.“The beginning of wisdom is: Get [skilful and godly] wisdom [it is preeminent]! And with all your acquiring, get understanding [actively seek spiritual discernment, mature comprehension, and logical interpretation].” Proverbs 4:7.”The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Proverbs 9:10.

Proverbs shows us the importance of having the Lord’s wisdom, and when it says “fear’ it means reverence and awe. A deep respect for Our Holy righteous Father, puts us on the road to understanding His ways. Proverbs also states to get His wisdom you need to make it your first priority and realise you need it. Human resources and information feature a lot in this world we live in, accumulated knowledge is the big deal thing today. And of course, now we have the internet and Google! Not to mention Wikipedia. Ho hum.  

But the bible tells us that even though Godly wisdom is the thing to have, without understanding and mature comprehension we won’t know what to do with it. Boy, I could have saved myself a heap of angst if I had taken that concept seriously! I kept trying to teach my kids wisdom when they didn’t understand a thing I was saying, and most of the time they didn’t care to either. Wisdom has to be sought, and earthly knowledge is not the same as God’s wisdom.

God’s wisdom is prompted by the Holy Spirit. Kids learn to parrot off all kinds of stuff at school, but they have no idea what to do with it. They need spiritual application to make use of their knowledge. That’s why they need parents to help them to put theory into transformative actions. Knowledge without application looks great on a resume, but it won’t help you balance your budget!

Wisdom identifies what to do and a word of knowledge shows us how to do it. They are both God-given GIFTS—Proverbs makes this clear, so that means we can, and should ask for these gifts. “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.” Matthew 13:43. “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear.” Proverbs 25:11-13. Wisdom corrects our course and reveals the Holy Spirit within us to others.

Wisdom will give us ears to hear what Jesus is saying, when others can’t even hear Him. It is like a spiritual hearing aid – it takes the unclear and makes it clear. In Matthew, did you get the subtle reference to choice? If you have spiritual hearing …then make sure you use it! These spiritual gifts diagnose an anticipated outcome and wisdom knows the right way to go about it. Remember, Almighty God knows the beginning right through to the end. Knowledge identifies and wisdom applies.

We ALL need His wisdom. This world is too dark and too tricky to live our lives without it. Wisdom can see the lie hidden between two truths. At the same time, knowledge and insight will often know where God’s truth applies. When I need it, the Holy Spirit gives me part of a verse, but it is up to me to look it up and follow that thread. ‘Knowledge is about knowing facts, whereas wisdom is about having the insight and discernment to apply that knowledge correctly, often revealing what action to take or how to respond.’  Google.

I have found that wisdom means you know something that you cannot possibly know with your intellect. It is not cleverness that figures things out—this God-given gift is something that drops into our heart or mind, often unbidden. Before it happens you may not even be concentrating on the problem. Suddenly the answer is in front of you, and then His wisdom says: ‘Do it like this.” It helps us avoid error. 

Many times we were about to go somewhere and the Lord said to us: “Wait!” When it came to the time when we would have been elsewhere, much too far away to help — a text came through and we were asked to help someone, because an emergency situation had come up. The word of Wisdom was ‘wait.’ I have also found wisdom can help me discern when things are a bit ‘off.’ I’m pretty naive in my personality and so the Holy Spirit often kindly protects me with His Wisdom.

Recently somebody called us and used the conversation to  clone our voice. They asked for this and that, but my spirit rose up and said – quite violently – “Hang up and phone the bank.”  The person on my end of the phone was not thrilled, but they trust the Lord, so they politely hung up. And lo and behold, somebody had tried to access our funds. Because the Holy Spirit helped us, we were recompensed immediately. We changed our passwords on the same day! I found reading the bible asking the Holy Spirit to help me, led me to these three gifts. I began to know His voice. I went out and obeyed what He taught me at that time.

Don’t rush – wait for your Teacher. Learn to listen and you’ll grow patience along the way, and then do your best to obey – because Christians need HIS WISDOM. ‘Ask and keep on asking, go after it, you will find it!’ Bye. 👋

P 3094 Let’s smell good!

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“God always makes His grace visible in Christ, Who includes us as partners of His endless triumph. Through our yielded lives He spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere we go.” 2 Corinthians 2:14 TPT. I mean … WOW!! How about that! Jesus made US, you and I, a part of His endless triumph! Then Paul goes on to say: ‘We will smell like Him to other people, just because we live for Him, know Him, and talk with Him.’ Devotion to Jesus has many forms. Mary released the smell of her devotion to the Lord, it was sweet nard in an alabaster box, she poured it all over His feet. The disciples left everything and followed Him everywhere. 

Here are some other versions of the same verse. “But thanks be to God, Who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of Him.” NIV. “In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, He brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life.” MSG V14-16.

Our Lord Jesus has been captivated by us, by our total surrender to His will, even when sometimes that was done through copious tears and clenched teeth! Yielding our will to His can be hard but our perfume of yieldedness contains myrrh – it is a bittersweet smell – and He knows and loves it.

Because of everything our Lord did for us, now we in turn, reveal and release Jesus’ sweet fragrance to Father God Himself – it benefits everyone around us wherever we go. We don’t set out to do it, it simply happens because of our proximity to Him. His life flows from Him into us, and from us to others. Now that is a really good reason to deal with enmity. All those things that drive schisms between the members of His body. If we are careless or rebellious we will begin to lose our sweet Saviour smell! 

His fragrance thrives on, and exponentially expands with true UNITY. And our unity bursts with His life! It is His beautiful oil of true harmony flowing between us. Oneness is essential to being able to move into all the things the Lord has for us. “How can two walk together unless they be in agreement?” Amos 3:3. Oneness is the vehicle that allows Jesus’ fragrance to be released. The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are one, and Jesus made it clear, that our priority is to protect and keep unity alive between us.

If we wanted to make any perfume, we’d need a distilled fragrance taken from flowers, carefully mixed and layered together to make a pleasing smell. Then those flowers are crushed, and that fragrance is introduced to an emollient. This is either an alcohol base, or an oil one. The Holy Spirit is the Glorious OIL that carries the fragrance of Jesus out into the community. He wants to be the only perfume that we release, so we can enrich the lives of those who are around us. Not to mention anyone else who crosses our path. We have all probably experienced the sensation of walking down the street and following someone who is wearing perfume.

You know, each of one of us could wear exactly the same perfume but it will have a slightly different result. It all depends on who is wearing it, because our individual body chemistry affects perfume. In the same way – you and I will spread abroad the sweet smell of our depth of interaction with the Holy Spirit. Each one of us will be a bit different to someone else, but the underlying glorious smell is always Jesus!  He makes us smell so good to others because we have chosen to make Him our treasure. 

BTW, please let us remember that the Holy Spirit knows how to handle His own oil – He does not need us to pray it up or down! That’s treating Him like a commodity, rather than a Person. He is also our Treasure. It is His joy to see us delighting in our Heavenly Father’s loving approval. We, however, need to be vigilant and aware of our own shortcomings, because sin interrupts the flow of whatever He is doing. However, it is truly a tragedy when we make God’s gracious gifts into rules. Of course we need to be pure vessels of beaten gold to contain the glory that belongs to the Lord! BUT! Rules stop the flow of His oil, because rules lead to striving. So when things get tough, just remember, we are His chosen vessels, and yieldedness comes at a cost.

Some of us have been stinky selfish nitwits for a very long time! That’s ME not YOU, of course. Selfishness stinks and it ain’t pretty. It doesn’t matter how we feel, or even if we want to yield or not, we need to yield to His will His way, simply for obedience’ sake. Feelings can be overrated and we end up chasing them, instead of running after Him. The purity of doing whatever we do, with all our hearts – as though we were doing it for Him – cannot be underestimated. Obedience ushers in fresh revelation. Jesus did not want to go to the cross, but He obeyed His Father because He utterly trusted Him. I have found my attitude changes after I obey. 

In order to be His sweet fragrance in the world around us, we will need to meditate on everything He did for us. We are free because He paid the cost to give us freedom. Now we need to daily cling tightly to Who He is, and what we know about Him. The Holy Spirit wants to help us with that, so we can smell good! Bye. 👋

P 3086 Followers.

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“IF you want to be My disciple, follow Me and you will go where I am going. And if you truly follow Me as My disciple, the Father will shower His favour upon your life.”John 12:26 TPT. As the nice man said: we are followers of Christ, so where HE GOES — WE GO.  As we follow Him we get to be a part of whatever He does. The Lord loves to go into dark places, and talk to scary people. Light works best in the darkness. He likes to go to places that most Christians would probably like to stay out of – where the people who know they are sinners hang out.

Simon Peter once asked the Lord this question: “Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” And Peter did. After a few disasters, hiccups and missteps, the powerful Presence of the Holy Spirit fell on Peter and He preached one of the greatest sermons Jerusalem had ever heard. 3,000 people got saved, when this ordinary fisherman preached. He followed the Holy Spirit out of his hiding place and into the heart of the city.

Jesus took care of all our sins, but that doesn’t give us a free pass to do whatever we like with our lives. It was an exchange – His life for ours. Just in case we haven’t done the Math yet —that means our lives don’t belong to us anymore. We are so blessed, the Holy Spirit has given us the ability to follow Him, just like Peter and all the other disciples did!  Asking the Lord what we are here to do, is one of the most important questions we can ever ask. But Jesus didn’t concern Himself with their gifts or ministries, following Him was the first step into their new life.

Many sincere Christians pray: “Lord please show me what You want me to do for Your kingdom.” And when no answer comes, they figure that He doesn’t want them to go anywhere or do anything and they put down their personal calling, and sometimes … they settle for religion. Our personal calling is this: “FOLLOW ME!” Gifts and ministries follow that.

Here’s a huge revelation for today – obeying and following Jesus will lead each one of us into our calling… because part of that calling is to be transformed. Sadly many of us still aren’t ready for ‘the calling bit’ —we are too steeped in this world’s ways. Forget about the past, or the fact that you prayed and prayed for Aunt Minnie and she died anyway! I’m so sorry you suffered the loss of someone dear to you. But many sincere people have sadly gone under simply because they tried to lead – not follow Him. 

Be like Jesus, just LOVE PEOPLE and see where that leads you. Loving people opens so many doors! Christians are out there searching, wandering about, looking for miracles … if you wanna see a miracle … take a risk and be obedient! ”God  will not let you fall. Your guardian will not fall asleep.” Our guardian doesn’t sleep, because the Holy Spirit is always on.

The Word of God is a sword! Swords belong to warriors – not couch potatoes. It works the other way around – we take a risk, and speak or share, and God will back us up, and if He doesn’t, we get humbled! Bonus buy! You know, it is very windy at my house today, tomorrow it may not be windy at all – the WIND goes wherever He wants to – He’s always blowing somewhere. Find the wind and follow Him. Go into your prayer closet and stay there until you find Him.

Jesus did not die to make our lives easier…. read the book. Then ask the Holy Spirit questions while you are reading and do something about what it says.  Ask the Holy Spirit to show you where you are out of step with Him, and what He wants you to do about it.  It continues to totally astonish me when I realise what I have been tolerating in my life, because one day follows another and I am walking around half asleep, or telling myself it is normal to be mad at someone else. Try asking Him ‘Am I mad at anyone? “ Take a pen, you could be there a while!

Peter and Andrew moved away from what they knew how to do – which was toiling on the family fishing boat – and they immediately followed Him. Then Jesus set about showing them that what they had always done before with fish, they could now do with men and women. Here is the best question ever to ask the Holy Spirit … “Lord, where are YOU going?”  It is an oxymoron to call ourselves ‘followers of Jesus’ when we are not going anywhere. Jesus did what His Father told Him to do every single day. He got exhausted following the Father’s will. He had nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat. Yet He treasured His relationship with His Heavenly Father above everything else, and obedience to the Father’s Will was His sole purpose. 

The Holy Spirit stayed WITH Him, IN Him, and UPON Him, because the Lord Jesus understood the word devotion, He knew that ministry means movement, engagement, interaction with others. Be a follower of Christ – He’s always doing something! Bye 👋

“As for us, we have all of these great witnesses who encircle us like clouds. So we must let go of every wound that has pierced us and the sin we so easily fall into. Then we will be able to run life’s marathon race with passion and determination, for the path has been already marked out before us.” Hebrews 12:1 TPT.

P 3069 Our true purpose.

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The more we live our lives focussed on our God-given purpose, the stronger that purpose becomes. Jesus Christ’s purpose is now our purpose. We inherited His calling. So now we are here to destroy the works of the evil one, and present God’s goodness to a world that already has a very bad definition of goodness!! However, if what we believe is an extra, or an add-on, then we will have very little grace to give away to others. Meanwhile whether the other people deserve what I am giving them or not, is Jesus’ territory not mine!

In really difficult circumstances, each one of us can experience a bankruptcy of faith, and end up doing the opposite of what we know to be true. Simply because the external and internal pressure can appear to get bigger than our knowledge of His Grace toward us. So we need to access His Love and Grace daily, because the bank of suck-it-up-buttercup, will fail! Sadly, when I try to deal with stuff in my own strength, that is often when I end up giving someone else an unwanted piece of my mind. Nastiness is such a waste of time, however, knowing our true purpose helps us to hone our spiritual attributes and instincts.

The Lord Jesus wants us to go to Him when we need His Grace, His Love, His Faith, because He has more than we will ever need! At the same time He also longs to lavish His love on us daily. Plus He wants us to grow up into His likeness – that’s our true purpose.

His help also includes whatever we need when we are dealing with other people. Other people can stretch our faith mercilessly, and when our faith is being stretched, it becomes harder to access His Grace and Love. That’s the growing edge. It helps me to remember that no matter what else is going on, Jesus’ love was always “on” so His Grace is essential in everything we do.

Grace helps me realise God doesn’t take sides – He is for all of us. I have no idea how He does that! Instead I go with the thought that He’s God, and so He can do the impossible! Sadly I often need a whole lot of roadwork to get there. However, He is so gracious, He will answer my prayer for help – even if it is half-hearted!

I don’t know what circumstances will present themselves today, unexpectedly… or when I will need His Grace to disarm fear, rejection, resentment etc. in myself. or from someone else. Grace is a great equaliser. However I don’t distribute His Grace like a powerful person would bestow a favour – instead, grace becomes a part of who I am, and giving it away is normal. I have learnt from experience, that if I tell Him I need it, He will always give it to me. I just need to  to ask Him! If I can control ME, by staying in the Grace of God, then I don’t need to control YOU!

My Faith in Who He is, and what He did for us all, is  an important foundation to anything that happens. My faith won’t be built up if I am not using it – because it needs to be stretched, and exercised – bit by bit. Meanwhile, five cents worth of faith probably won’t be all that useful when the sky is falling! I like to start my days by acknowledging that I need Him. He says He will supply everything I need, so that means I go right past my own efforts to look good, or feel justified, and focus on HIS CHARACTER instead.

That’s the only sure thing in the middle of chaos. Who He is. My own needs or irritations can easily cloud any issues, but fortunately, His Character is unchanging! If I choose to only use my faith like I am just renting it, or borrowing it – I will quite quickly find out I’ve sprung a leak! I must take ownership of my own faith! Faith is not faith when it is not owned, or used – instead it is more like wishful thinking. Faith needs to be visible and demonstrated. That demonstration pulls faith from the realm of the unknown, into this known world.

Our loving actions toward others can display our faith better than our words ever could. This also means I will choose to not put my focus on spiritual gifts, but rather I choose to focus on building Grace, Love, and Faith into my life as He leads me. Those other things will get ‘added unto me’ when I choose to concentrate on living a life of love, not self-centred defensiveness and anger. 

The need to change often appears in the form of a difficult problem, a destructive person, an impossible situation, or when things suddenly seem to be going upside down. Finding the Lord’s eternal attributes in those moments means I must deliberately decide to yield to Him. What I mean by that is this — I give up! I stop trying to find a solution, or an exit, or an excuse for my cranky attitude, and instead I wait for Him to lead me through the drama in front of me. Instant solutions are over-rated, sometimes all we learn from them is self-justification and presumption.   

Love is the kingdom we deliberately choose to live in. Grace is Jesus’ coin of that realm, and using our Faith to get those things, is the way to access whatever we need to fulfil His purpose in our lives. Bye. 👋

“Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We are going public with this, as public as a city on a hill…” Matthew 5:14-16.

P 3035 What eternal love looks like.

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“The mature children of God are those who are moved by the impulses of the Holy Spirit. And you did not receive the “spirit of religious duty,” leading you back into the fear of never being good enough. But you have received the “Spirit of full acceptance,” enfolding you into the family of God. And you will never feel orphaned, for as He rises up within us, our spirits join Him in saying the words of tender affection, “Beloved Father!” For the Holy Spirit makes God’s Fatherhood real to us as He whispers into our innermost being, “You are God’s beloved child!” And since we are His true children, we qualify to share all His treasures, for indeed, we are heirs of God Himself. And since we are joined to Christ, we also inherit all that He is and all that He has. We will experience being co-glorified with Him provided that we accept His sufferings as our own.” Romans 8:14-17 TPT.

These verses in Romans clearly show us the depth of God’s passion for humanity … we are His. Jesus died to remove every single barrier between us and Father God. It’s like Song of Solomon 2:16 says:“My beloved is mine and I am His…”  That fact is irrefutable and repeated over and over again, throughout the bible. When we give our hearts, minds and lives to Jesus, He accepts what we give Him – what a privilege that is! We can only do this because He made us worthy. Don’t be like Esau and let someone, or anything else steal your birthright.

We belong to our Heavenly Father – because of Christ’s death and the choices He made – not by our own feelings or circumstances. Often our circumstances are far from ideal! What Jesus did for us, the price Father God paid, is where our faith needs to be anchored – not in what goes on around us. He paid a high price to call you His! This earthly life, good or bad, does not change what He said — “You belong to Me and you are Mine.”

We were made ‘good enough’ because of what God Himself did, Jesus paid a debt we could never pay. “But when this priest (Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time He waits for His enemies to be made His footstool. For by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy, the bible says.” Hebrews 10:12-14. I like that last sentence, verse 14, very much. I am “…being made holy…” That means I ain’t there yet, and …neither are you. However, our imperfections are not the feature film here … His great love is! It would be such a shame to miss out on the main feature because we are distracted by the local news’ highlights!

Jesus did more than simply save us from our sins — it was an exchange. He gave us His holiness – His righteousness, His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. We simply need to take Him at His Word and act on that Word, daily. We’ve been reborn into His family. The fatherless now have a Father. The orphan has been adopted. In the meantime, we need to be about our Father’s business, too. 

There is a short-cut that will help us find out why we are here, and what we have been chosen to contribute for the Father’s kingdom. People want to find out what their “gifts” are – and the best way to do that is to choose to walk the Way of LOVE.  We deliberately choose to be guided by how Jesus defined love. His  Love lasts. It quite simply can’t run out, because now we have entered into the eternal! It doesn’t care if nobody sees it in action, it hopes for the best in every situation – no matter how negative the situation is. The good news is His Love can’t fail. Our gifts will be manifested when we walk in love.

Sometimes I get stuck in my thoughts about the Body of Christ. I look at Jesus’ Bride and I get puzzled about the way we are going. We do not look like a Bride Who is getting ready for a wedding. Instead we seem to be focussing on the here and now, and not on eternity – eternity is the marriage! We are now eternal beings. Let’s look forward to seeing our Bridegroom — even in the middle of all this stuff down here – the stuff is temporary, heaven is not!

When human beings love someone, our thoughts about them are all positive. However, our flesh cannot define God’s Love nor can we define our worth by our standards. The God of all the universe, Who loves His Son … and loves us –– let Jesus be mistreated, badly spoken about and slaughtered! That’s what eternal love looks like! Now we need to live in that greater reality. Right here, right now. These present light infirmities are nothing in the light of what He died to give us. It seems to me that sometimes we really don’t understand the magnitude of what we’ve been given.

We should never even entertain the thought of not-being-good-enough, even for a second … look at the price He paid to buy us all back! Jesus took our never-will-be-good-enough to the cross with Him …“…having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved…” Ephesians 1:5-7. We are dearly loved, and made good enough by SomeOne Else’s voluntary sacrifice – now we live this life receiving, rejoicing, and giving thanks for God’s lavish love. Bye 👋.