Glory

P 3077 God has a different value system

/ DVH

Life is a funny thing — day after day we can try so hard to appear to be so together – spiritually, physically, and emotionally. We can unwittingly perpetuate deception, when we tell ourselves that we must continue to try harder — because we don’t want to let the Lord, or my family, or the church, or my job, down. Maybe the real truth is that we don’t want to be vulnerable in front of other people, because we don’t actually trust them! Or perhaps we think we will be judged if our humanity shows. 

Have we accidentally believed the lie or the hype that says God’s people are meant to be already perfected, getting everything right all the time? After all we want to be a good witness for Jesus! However, He’s the burden bearer – He is NOT the one who overloads us!! Day by day we are on a road. We are sojourners… travellers, learning as we go – like Abraham did. That learning does not stop while we are here. Religion likes the appearance of doing good, but that stuff will create frustration with yourself and others. 

In contrast, the bible account of Abraham’s life reveals His humanity. This man followed the Lord step by step from an old life into a new one. That new life was God’s own design, not his!  Abraham’s mistakes became stepping off points into what God actually wanted in the first place. The man’s faith in God’s ability to bring him through the difficulties he faced, increased as he simply kept putting one foot in front of another and obeying what the Lord told him to do.

When, if EVER, did our salvation rest on us? Our God only made the world, without our prayers, and without us to advise Him! He is and He always will be, His own incredibly wise counsel! What on earth makes us think we can fix ourselves? We desperately try to find the right person to pray for us, or the right prayer to pray, or the right scripture to quote over and over again. The Lord knows we are dust! Thinking point:  dust is just everything around us, broken down, worn down by time, into teeny tiny particles. Only God Himself can take dust … or dry bones … and make it live again! 

I think our worst problem is that we have made Almighty God too small. We have our gimme doctrines of wanting this and wanting that, and expecting Him to cough stuff up, as we accidentally call presumption, FAITH. We are settling for the appearance of looking good, or being nice people, instead of pressing in for complete restoration healing and transformation. I can’t fix anyone … not even me!  We are all broken one way or another!

Our loving Father God is always seeking US. He has our good in His heart because HE IS GOOD. Jesus didn’t set up a tent, and say: “…if you want to be healed come to My tent meetings!” He went out amongst the people and ministered to them wherever He found them, and most of the time, they found Him! That’s what our God is like! Always seeking us, always wanting everything to work together for our good – that’s His purpose! Our holy, sometimes self-serving, clusters are keeping real seekers out. What we are basically saying is to be saved means you will look like US! Doesn’t that line scare you…just a little bit?

The bible reveals God’s thoughts: ”Jesus says, “If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit,… ”John 15:5. Our problem we need to learn how to remain in Him, especially when stuff happens! Grapes don’t go wandering about looking for better nutrition or a stronger place in the vine – grapes are stationary. They are totally dependant upon the POWER OF THE SAP TO KEEP THEM. That place is the place where we live.

Remaining in Him means I trust Him no matter how things look. It is hardly ever about whatever is actually going on, most of the time this life is about Who is in charge here? Even bad things come to an end, one way or another. The reality of Jesus in our lives, is in the presence of His peace. He stood up in a storm and told it to shut up and it did. Boy do I pick Him to be my best friend! I wanna be like Jonathan – he knew how to pick best friends! Meanwhile we must remember, we are all in transit. Think on this as an aim for your life: “But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 MSG

The sooner we realise that we are not capable of figuring things out so that they work perfectly, every single time — the sooner we can get about the business of simply following Him, step by step, like Abraham. Jesus Christ is God’s first-born of many sons and daughters, but even Jesus didn’t PRESUME on His unique position. His faith was in His Father’s ability to carry out whatever Almighty God wanted, whenever He wanted it.

If we want to live in peace with people around us, then we must learn to trust God no matter what else is going on. Jesus didn’t take sides in conflicts –  all He cared about was His Father receiving His due glory, and His will being done. The people who love their God and do great exploits look like this: “For God makes all the decisions here. God is our King. God runs this place and He’ll keep us safe.” Isaiah 33:22.

Trust the Lord. His ways are not our ways, and His value system is not like ours. And if you know you are broken, don’t be ashamed – we ALL are. Some of us just hide it better than others do. Bye. 👋

P 3065 Fruitless trees.

/ DVH

Our mango tree is a much discussed tree on this blog. Initially, it produced no fruit – but then the tree started to produce little nubs that had …potential!!…Then they fell off. Sigh. I’ve learnt a lot about personal fruit production in my own life by watching the progress of that darn tree. 

Here’s my thoughts. Some fruit trees can take a while to fruit. And some trees have no fruit because the tree is not mature enough to produce and sustain any! Fig trees, for instance, can take 2-3 years to get into fruit production. Let’s look at fruit production from a real fig tree: “…fig trees typically produce leaves before they produce fruit. They have a cycle where they first develop leaves in the spring, and then the fruit develops on the new growth or on the previous year’s growth depending on the fig variety and climate.”

The scripture below appears in Matthew and Mark. PS:always take note of something in the gospels that is written up twice. Here we go: Mark 11:12-14: “The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to find out if it had any fruit. When He reached it, He found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then He said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And His disciples heard Him say it.“

You know, this scripture bothered me! Why did Jesus curse that tree? That thing died because He cursed it. This whole incident kind of seemed a bit petty, and irrelevant. And yet it was included twice, so it obviously needs prayer and Holy Spirit-inspired insight!  After all there was no McDonald’s on every corner back then in Jerusalem, so that lack meant no breakfast!

Here’s what I came up with: ‘If Jesus cursed that fig tree because it had no fruit, then I’d better make growing fruit a priority!” That improved my prayer life! I realised that the fig tree in this incident is a lot like some of our churches. All show and no go! We can have lots of leaves — singing, dancing, arm waving, kneeling, sermons etc. – but when you lift the leaves – where is the fruit? Our God’s-kind of fruit is people getting saved, healed, delivered and transformed. Where has that fruit gone? 

I want to take a quick look a those little nubs that look like fruit is coming, or the tree that produces fruit that looks soo-oo good … yet at the first sign of a change in the weather… it all falls off. I think this happens quite a lot in our churches too. Pastors, ministers etc. see someone in their congregation who look like they have loads of potential. But this person’s immaturity makes them a target for the enemy to come in, steal, and destroy, or even just nibble away at those gifts. So, should we throw away all that potential because of an immature faith? Maybe the little potential tree needs to go back into the greenhouse for some specialist attention.

Now let’s go to the optimum fruit tree situation — that is, we get fruit in all its perfection and glory. And you and I get to stuff ourselves with the results. In my little allegory, this means we are in church whenever the doors open, and we only leave because it’s morning! With truly wonderful fruit, the colour, smell and taste are fabulous, intoxicating! You have so much to enjoy, you can happily share with others and give lots away! So we advertise revivals, healings etc. to attract people to the church. We recognise the fruit of His Presence with us – but we fail to prioritise growth! The Holy Spirit’s power is with us to transform lives, not just make us feel good!

So then the thief comes — in my mango tree’s case he comes in the form of fluffy grey possums and imported minas — comes pecking at the fruit destroying its eating value. The beautiful fruit has munch marks all over it. Nasty little holes made by nasty little beasties and beaks!! I think this can happen when God’s people begin to revert to type, and they start pecking at what God Himself is doing.‘ This fruit is too big, too small, the wrong sort of fruit, not ripe enough’ and criticism begins to flourish. All that stuff happened to Israel. Read the book!… 

Eventually the church becomes divided and opinionated. And instead of Almighty God getting all the glory for the wonderful things He is doing, now nasty, spiteful remarks start eating away at the roots of His church. The real point is that everyone is so busy enjoying what God is currently doing, they become lax and careless about what they are saying – instead of maintaining the fire on the altar. 

I’m no horticulturist but it seems to me that any kind of fruit on a tree depends on new growth. Fruit comes from new growth. So if our churches aren’t growing … and I don’t mean numerically! I mean that each one of the members are actively choosing, day by day, to grow up into Christ’s likeness, instead of coasting along…  Then maybe that’s a reason why our fruit production has disappeared. 

Having fruitless trees is not a good witness to the world around us. Our churches need to prioritise personal growth and not just fantastic experiences. We want our little potential-filled trees to survive and thrive.  Bye 👋

P 3044.

/ DVH

“Jesus said to all of His followers, “If you truly desire to be My disciple, you must disown your life completely, embrace My ‘cross’ as your own, and surrender to My ways. For if you choose self-sacrifice, giving up your lives for My glory, you will discover true life. But if you choose to keep your lives for yourselves, you will lose what you try to keep.” Luke 9:23-24 TPT. 

These verses mean our lives have been whittled down to one important choice – will we live this life we have been given for Jesus’ sake? Or will we continue to choose to try fit Him in around the edges? I’ve noticed that dividing our time between what we want and what He wants, never ever works. What I think and want takes over.

In my opinion this particular choice needs to be presented to anyone who wants to give their life to Jesus – right at the beginning. After all, the Lord’s exchange rate goes right through the roof – we get His loving goodness for our sin! And this type of total surrender should be mentioned before anything else – we need to make it clear that people are giving their lives away.

We are not selling cars, holidays or houses – we are by His Grace, consistently revealing the One we know, to the people-who-have-not-met-Him-yet. I don’t much like the idea of total commitment coming later, as an after thought. In my mind, this needs to be the only thought. This is the choice! I live for me OR, I choose to live for Him. When I mess that up, He’s there helping me back onto my feet again. He’s Almighty God, He gets to make the rules, that means – I follow Him. 

Jesus loves to do great exploits and He wants to do them through all of us. That means we will talk to other people about what we’ve personally known about Him. He isn’t just helping the people on Youtube or the enthusiastic souls who make podcasts or write books. He will help all of us. But our faith levels need to increase. 

The Lord wants to do whatever He wants to do in your life … with you;  through you;  in you – to help others. What He does for us, every single day is so incredible — the sun came up where I live this morning! How about you?! Every single Christian has testimonies about how God’s glory has transformed their lives. But we can become so enamoured with this worlds’ razzmatazz and hype, we miss what He is doing! There is no need at all, for us to ever shift from Him being our central point of focus, because that’s the place we stand on.

We choose to view everything else that happens to us through what He has done. Even our calendars are founded on two abbreviated terms that take Jesus birth as a pivotal date. B.C. means before Christ. AD means Anno Domino(latin) — it means in the year of our Lord… We count time by Jesus’ birth!  Apparently some people have come up with a PC version, but I gave that the flick. If I listen to them I am a descendant of a short-sighted amoeba! Yeah right. Rhubarb.

What Jesus is saying here in Luke 9, is that none of our lives will reach their fullest meaning and potential outside of a totally committed life. God is good, we will always have a choice. So we can self-govern if we want to — but then our responses can be limited by our personal experiences, our intelligence, and opportunities. Deception floats about this world like pollen on a windy day – unseen and dangerous. But when Jesus is our catalyst – the sky is the limit. Let’s remember that this world has no knowledge of what real love looks like and everyone’s lack hurts other people. Love is NOT a feeling, it’s a choice.

The key to the passage in Luke is the word truly. “…If you truly desire to be My disciple…”  That means commitment is going to be needed, whether we feel like it or not. That stance takes bravery! Christianity is not a try now and buy later scheme, it is an all or nothing one. As a matter of fact, I think trying now and buying later is downright dangerous. Many people have decided to try Christianity – and in their view, when God did not met with their untaught irreligious expectations, they dismissed Him with a wave of their hand. They explain that they’ve bin there and dun that and they’d like to keep their options open!

Of course you can ‘try’ Jesus, but please be aware that you just put a giant target from His enemy, on your back. Everything that can oppose you will! Jesus cannot be an optional extra – He has to become the point of our lives. When we give our entire life to Jesus, He takes it. In return, we begin our journey into eternal life, right here, right now. We do that against a backdrop of imperfection, in ourselves and others. That’s why the light in us shines brightly – the darker it gets in this world, the brighter we will shine.

Eternity is not ‘pie in the sky when we die.’ It is perfectly expressed, here and now, by a life lived in faith, following Jesus wherever He takes us. We bring His kingdom down here, by the way we walk, talk, think and act. We can’t psyche ourselves into that kind of stuff – we need His help. And He is always with us, in the Person of the Holy Spirit. All means all. Jesus Christ gave His all, so now we give Him ours. Christianity is not a part-time thing – it is a life-time commitment. Selah. Bye 👋

P 3038 Let’s stretch what we understand.

/ DVH

“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.]’ Matthew 6:9-13.

I decided to spend some time this morning, looking at something so familiar it becomes easy to just rattle it off without thinking about it. For the purists – yes, I know that that prayer does not necessarily stop there. In some versions it adds – “for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”  I really don’t care WHAT kind of other manuscript that phrase came from – any opportunity to Praise God for Who He is should be taken. It’s actually good for US! Just FYI – this prayer shows us the Lord Jesus’ focus – God first!

In Western countries, most of the time, only the poor amongst us have to pray for ‘their daily bread.’ However, in other places in this world that’s the only kind of prayer they pray. They need food, as well as some sort of roof over their head, plus clean water!  Oh, and the poor often pray with great passion for their sick and starving children. They may be forced to throw in a desperate prayer for others to stop dropping bombs on them! That stuff doesn’t apply to most of us. We just go to the supermarket and pick up a loaf of bread without thinking.

Ever since the Lord told me to watch out for the little words, I can’t seem to see anything else – those little words pop out at me like mushrooms in a field. The word for today is “AS!” That’s a little word, big on meaning. Here is  a question…do you think that the Lord has trouble getting His will done in heaven?? No?? Me neither. But it’s pretty obvious to everyone that God’s will is going down the plug-hole in this world. If His will was done, the afore-mentioned starving, homeless, bombed out, physically assaulted poor people would be fed and housed, and safe – automatically!

On we go: my next point is  … And forgive us our debts, AS we also have forgiven our debtors.” That kind of kicks the whole idea that God forgives everyone all the time, in the bucket doesn’t it? One little word, two little letters and it changes the whole ball-game. I checked that out in a whole lot of versions, and guess what … AS is actually the word used everywhere!  ‘As’ explains that the first thing can’t happen without the second.

Yeah, that’s a sobering thought that sent me straight to the knees of my heart to make sure I wasn’t holding anything against somebody else! Being loved is a given but – our forgiveness is conditional. It’s not an optional extra – even if somebody else did something so dastardly we feel can never ever forgive them. We quite simply …  must..

Sin has no power to hold us captive, now we live out our lives under Love’s jurisdiction. Sin can only have power over us when we LET or ALLOW it. It’s a choice. Christians simply must learn the difference between ‘how I feel’ and ‘what God said.” The only power in how I feel, is the power we choose to give it – and yes I am a dud at that too! 

However, we live in another kingdom now, that’s why we pray “Your kingdom come!” WE get to bring it with us! We can choose to stand around in satan’s backyard wondering why we are getting clobbered, OR we can take back the higher ground that already belongs to us. The power, the choice, is now in our hands.

Lastly: ‘deliver us from evil ’ means so very much more than the vague hope that God will stop me from doing bad things! As if the Lord would need to do that – He already thoroughly did it, 2000+ years ago! Now, we have our free-will and His power to help us overcome. We quite simply need to stop ourselves. Sin can no longer hold us captive. Sadly, we will never progress in the Christian life while we choose to give our enemy power over us that he no longer has.

“Deliver us from evil” can also mean: “please Jesus keep me away from those things that are sent into my life to destroy me. Please make me aware of them – keep me alert to the enemy’s tricks. Show me the holes in my life that give him permission to torment me.” Amen.

Let’s learn to stretch what we already think we understand. You and I have probably heard hundreds of expositions on what the Lord’s prayer means, but that does not mean we have exhausted what it can say to us. Press the refresh button in your daily reading – a new fresh revelation awaits us all. Bless you! 👋

P 3031 The Holy Spirit loves to remain.

/ DVH

Acts 3:11-12: “And as the lame man who had been healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch, which is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering. And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, “Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man walk?”

Peter himself says: ‘don’t look at me! I don’t have that power, and I’m not special.’ Listen to what he says to the beggar in verse 6: “Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” I think this illustrates clearly something that might lead us astray when it comes to healing and the power of God. Remember, these guys were fresh from the day of Pentecost, full of the Holy Spirit and His purposes. This is just a throw-away line toward the bystanders to sort out their wrong theology. However, Peter’s point is very clear – WE don’t heal people, GOD does.

My secondary point is that this healing is about the Holy Spirit’s character, not our ability to be holy! We will live our lives holy when we choose to remain in Him, and we let Him remain in us. It is about our heart attitude. Don’t go after holiness, you can end up in legalism that way. Seek His Presence whenever you spend time with Him, and then just follow His instructions from the book. EG: If you are angry – fix it. Attention to repentance is a necessary attribute.

At this time, Peter was absolutely overflowing with the Holy Spirit’s Presence, and ministered to the beggar’s need out of the overflow. THAT IS A GREAT PLACE TO TO AIM AT. Living in the overflow of His love. Peter doesn’t just give God glory — He SEES His glory everywhere! That’s what we need to see, God with us, everywhere. We can end up doing all sorts of things, claiming this, and praying that, because human beings need healing etc. — but the truth is that we only have what He gives us … and He gave us Himself!

What did Peter have if he didn’t have power or holiness? He had the ongoing greatly cherished Presence of the Holy Spirit within him. That’s why he could give away what He had! He imparted God’s presence to this beggar and the Presence of God made the man well. This is the reason, BTW, that I don’t much like the terminology “anointing” — the word “anointing” implies that the power of God is a thing, something incredible that some people have or do. Unfortunately we can use that as an excuse so we don’t have to be obedient. EG: “I don’t have the anointing, but that guy does.” Anybody can walk with the Holy Spirit if their aim is to make Him welcome in their lives.

The Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost and He has never left. Peter had a Person living within Him, teaching Him, guiding Him, the Holy Spirit not a thing or tool we can use! This man deeply loved and cared for the Holy Spirit so the Holy Spirit remained with Him. Peter probably gave up many things, simply because he loved the Holy Spirit’s Presence more. Walking with the Holy Spirit is a matter of Who we cherish, not some special thing that we can’t do that someone else can. 

Here’s a small illustration: When we go to a restaurant, someone comes to our table to ask us what we would like from the menu … we tell the waiter and he tells the cook. The cook makes the dish, but the waiter is just the delivery person. In God’s marvellous ways, we are the vehicle, the waiter God uses to bring whatever He wants to those who are needy. 

Why is that so important? Because if we feel we must somehow have the power, or be holy …  or supposedly have the anointing before we pray for others— we can easily feel too intimidated to even try! Instead we end up  wandering about looking for feelings and signs and wonders to prove to us that we can do the very thing Jesus Himself told us to do! The bible says we can do this. Sadly, sometimes if we still don’t see anything we can also think –‘I can’t pray for the sick.’ Yes you can, because the RESULTS aren’t up to you. Jesus said “YOU lay hands on them and THEY will recover.” 

Like most Christians, you talked to Jesus this morning, about your life and the universe etc. You know His voice – through the bible, or in the depths of your heart when He speaks to you. We simply take that attitude with us wherever we go. We choose to be protective regarding our Beloved Friend the Holy Spirit, this means that we don’t do this or that, because He doesn’t like it.

You and I don’t have to have some kind of wonderful power to pray for others … (yes I know Jesus said ‘you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you’) but that POWER is a PERSON. We intentionally live this life – the only one we have – walking with His Spirit, and we follow His instructions. If the person gets well, He did it and if they don’t, all that happened was we tried to obey. 

We minister out of our own ongoing personal relationship with Him and that is an ever-increasing  developing thing. It grows like all relationships grow, by nurturing it, protecting and cherishing it.. The Holy Spirit’s language is LOVE.  We will see He is with us when we speak LOVE … and love is patient, kind, full of faith and hope etc. plus it is sacrificial. Love doesn’t resent sacrifice, because we don’t do this stuff for people or performance – we do it purely because we love Him.

We may need to sacrifice many things, actions, speech, attitudes – in order to maintain our relationship with the Holy Spirit – because this world we live in promotes the things He hates. But He wants to remain with us, that’s why we cherish and chase LOVE. At the same time, we cannot afford to define love, HE DOES. He’s the only One Who can be trusted to do it accurately. Don’t live chasing the symbol of His Presence – chase HIM.  Bye for today, 🥰.

P 3026 Take a bible bath!

/ DVH

Here’s an example of a good long soak from Colossians: “Holy Spirit, please Help me to: 

‘…receive the perfect knowledge of God’s pleasure over my life, make me a reservoir of every kind of wisdom and spiritual understanding. I pray that I’d walk in the ways of true righteousness, pleasing my Father God in every good thing I do. Then I will become a fruit-bearing branch, yielding to His life in me, as I mature in the rich experience of knowing Almighty God in His fullness!

 …I pray that I’d be energised with all Your explosive power from the realm of Your magnificent glory, please fill me with great hope. My heart soars with joyful gratitude when I think of how God made me worthy to receive the glorious inheritance freely given to me by living in the light. God Himself has rescued me completely from the tyrannical rule of darkness and has translated me into the kingdom realm of His beloved Son. 

… How blessed I am when I demonstrate tender mercy! For tender mercy will be demonstrated to me. The Lord Jesus is the divine portrait, the true likeness of the invisible God, and the firstborn heir of all creation. In Him was created the universe of things, both in the heavenly realm and on the earth, all that is seen and all that is unseen. Every seat of power, realm of government, principality, and authority—it all exists through Him and for His purpose!”

That prayer was gleaned from Colossians 1:9-16 TPT and personalised by me. I have found this is a great way to pray for yourself — especially if you have no words of your own. Sometimes I end up praying things I would never ever think of praying – but they are in the book! For instance, for years now I’ve prayed that God would “enlighten the eyes of my heart” according to Ephesians 1:18. I’ve found the scripture comes alive and it is active. And it will also comfort and heal us, as we literally apply it like a healing balm over our hearts.

My spiritual eyes have been enlightened, made brighter, and  they see better, as I focus on what He has said about me. These are the things He has said about all of us — about His love, about our lives, and what’s happening in them. The saddest place we can live in is to know what His Word says – but never ever act like it is true. It is our faith that brings the Word Himself off the page, and now He stands with us, whispering to us what to do next. He speaks to me through the scriptures all the time, it has become my inner reference point.

In the passage above from Colossians, one verse stood out to me: ‘…God Himself has rescued me completely from the tyrannical rule of darkness and has translated me into the kingdom realm of His beloved Son.” One way or another we have all been subjected to tyranny! Some of us from birth, and/or our own sin! Instead of focussing on the human tyrant who perpetrated ugliness against us, now we have been given the power to focus upon the One Who set us free. He didn’t just take us out of tyranny – GOD PUT US FIRMLY INTO THE KINGDOM REALM OF HIS BELOVED SON. 

So when tyranny tries to knock on the door of your heart you can truthfully tell it: “Knock all you want – I don’t live there anymore! My home is with Jesus now, I don’t have to live under your rule.” Almighty God wants us to live under His rule, His wisdom, not the so-called wisdom of this world. The wisdom of God is unchanging, and never ending. Did you get that? His wisdom won’t ever change or end, and God is for us. He won’t take sides, because now we have stepped onto HIS SIDE! On His side we do things the way He tells us, always believing He has everyone’s good in His incredible loving heart. 

It still amazes me that I can suddenly think of a scripture I can barely remember reading. If you asked me where it was, I might say…”I think it’s in there … in the bible… somewhere???” However, my faulty memory does not change His word. “But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: …”Romans 10:8. That verse is also in Deuteronomy 30:14. It’s in the New Testament and the Old Testament… that’s a double whammy!!

His word is in us, whether we know it or not—whether we have memorised it or not. Simply reading it regularly, and thinking about it — is just like soaking in the precious oils that Esther spent six months drenching herself in before she went in to see Ahasuerus, the King. You could smell Esther before she ever walked into a room!

Now, you and I are the sweet fragrance of Christ being shed abroad wherever we go. That means that the people who pass us in the street, going about their business will turn their heads and say, “WHAT was THAT?!?” Hubby and I have seen this in real life. A grumpy, business-like frozen person turns into a puddle simply because Jesus entered the room – He came with us. Thank you Lord!!

If you want the Holy Spirit to go places with you, then GO WHERE HE WANTS TO GO! Consult Him. Ask Him questions.“Where do You want me to go? How do I do that? What do you want me to say? Help!?” We can joyfully spread His fragrance around when we soak-in, take-in, act-on and enjoy His Presence. Pray the scriptures over your life. You will come out much cleaner than you went in! Bye. 🛁

P 3023 The testing times.

/ DVH

John 19:11: ”When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free You or to crucify You?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over Me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

The fear of God is real! Here is an illustration of that reality from the Gospels. Pilate did what we all do from time to time — we question God, and then we chase about looking for a loop-hole because we don’t really want to know His answer.. We are not sure we will like it, and we definitely don’t like the cost! This man was looking for a way to let Jesus go free that wouldn’t throw blame on him … be-cau-se … his wife had told him to be careful….

Pilate’s wife told him to ‘have nothing to do with this good Man’. Pilate was not a complete numb-knuckle, he was  trying to negotiate a way to do both things at once. After all he was the procurator/prefect of Judea – this man had power! He really wanted to release Jesus, listen to his wife, plus try to please the Jews. Fat chance of that! Sadly the Jews had already made up their collective mind. But God had a bigger plan!

This portion of John shows us a wonderful truth about Father God’s dealings with His precious Son — and us. Jesus clearly tells us that nobody can have power over any one of us unless we give it away, or God allows it. Now before you get alienated by that statement, we need to look at Job. Job is greatly underestimated!

“And the LORD said to satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.”So satan went out from the presence of the LORD.” Job 1:7-12. Job loved God, but he feared for his family. and those fears put him squarely within satan’s reach. God did not hurt this man satan did. 

However, it is clear that Father God believed in this man’s ability to endure, or He would not have allowed him to be tested in the first place..so satan went all snarky about God’s blessings on this man’s life. Because our Father is a good, good God and Father, He knew that testing would bring out things in Job that were not there before. He and Job would grow closer – and one of the things that Job grew into was a greater intimacy with Him. Job himself says: “I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen You with my own eyes.” Chapter 42, verse 5.

Once we have given our lives and hearts to Jesus, Almighty God is constantly transforming our circumstances, our joys and sorrows, our likes and dislikes to shape us into the image of His Son. He’s God! He can do lots of things at once!! Remember, our destiny is to be Jesus’ bride … it’s far bigger than just going to heaven. The Lord Jesus deserves a bride worthy of His sacrifice for her. That is why our character – our heart toward Him – day by day by day, becomes more and more important. 

This is also why the bible says:  “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28. My translation of this verse is this:  nothing can happen to me in my situation – or to you in your situation – that is beyond our Father’s redemptive loving care and transformation. All He requires from His Son’s bride-to-be is that she would yield to His greater wisdom as it is revealed in the bible, plus we have the precious Holy Spirit’s guidance always with us.

“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.” 2 Peter 1:3. We can count on the fact that God knows the end from the beginning, and there is nothing that can prevent Him from taking all things—every single thing, and weaving and working them together for our good. This is the way the Apostles lived and worked and spread the Gospel. They believed In their Heavenly Father’s power to redeem bad situations into good. 

Doubt is our enemy. So is carelessness and a lack of love for others, and we dare not doubt His goodness and His faithfulness.  We are transformed from day to day by believing what He has said about WHO we are now, because of Christ’s sacrifice. Let’s not miss the mark and get picky and choosy about being obedient. Meanwhile, the Lord is all wisdom, so we would have to be mighty dumb, or pretty disobedient not to pay attention to the things that are written in His book. If He has allowed a testing time, then He knows you can get through this – the Holy Spirit will walk you through it – ask Him to help you..

We will get stuck if we believe the enemy’s lies that we can’t do, or endure whatever God told us to do. We quite simply cannot afford to believe our feelings over Christ’s life and His testimony. If we mess up and go the wrong way then we repent, turn around and go back and do whatever He asked you to do, the way the Holy Spirit said to do it. 

We are His, and He is ours, and nothing can separate us from His incredible love. Jesus Christ Himself died to release all of us from satan’s power and JESUS LOVES HIS BRIDE!  Keep believing God is good, and turn your eyes away from any and all of the circumstances that drag you under. Ask others to pray for you. When God stretches our faith, our faith will be even bigger on the other side of those testing times. Bye. 👋

P 3013 Our God is incredibly generous.

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When the Lord comforts us, He is also giving us something we can pass on to someone else who is in need. Almighty God is so incredibly, over-the-top generous, He doesn’t only give us what we need, He gives us more than enough, so we have plenty to give way!!

“All praises belong to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For He is the Father of tender mercy and the God of endless comfort. He always comes alongside us to comfort us in every suffering so that we can come alongside those who are in any painful trial. We can bring them this same comfort that God has poured out upon us.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 TPT. I’m a conduit, a channel. You are one too – all of God’s children are conduits of what He has given us.The secret to thriving in His Ways is not to own anything! I don’t just mean that literally, I mean whatever we have is always available to help someone else. Time, love, compassion, faith etc… as well as practical things.

We give away what we have already been given, because sharing is now part of our new nature. We don’t have to squirrel stuff away for another day, because we already know that:“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.“ 2 Peter 1:3. As the bible says what we have is: “…pressed down and running over…” This means we will always have more than enough! We simply have to be flexible and divide between our needs and wants. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1. God loves His kids. Each one of us is precious to Him – He covers, guides and protects us.

We get comfort from Him, through other people, and through His Word, plus other people’s prayers for us – and then we give it away. I have found that right along with comfort we also get “hope” when ours has started to wobble and get wonky under duress. The next time something dastardly happens to you, instead of hunting about trying to find Him, just remind yourself that He is right next to you. The bible says that like this: “He ALWAYS comes alongside us …” That means we can bank on it. Don’t feel around to see if it is true, remember Peter — he got out of the boat and stepped onto the water, and LET GO, and then he did the impossible. 

Believe God is with you because He is. If your difficult situation has not gone away, then He knows that together you and He can get through it. Ask Him to show you the way through. Some things are meant to be endured with patience because that’s how you get the fruit of long-suffering love. We cannot afford to consult our feelings when the ceiling of our life just fell in. Our feelings will react. It’s normal.  Read the book – Jesus had feelings! But … they were not in charge of His responses. 

The society we live in makes feelings way more important than they ought to be. In years gone by people elevated the brain. It seemed that knowing stuff was going to help us through any crisis. Information proved to be a dud, because our knowledge kept changing along the way! If we elevate our feelings over our faith we are missing out on His generous flow of wisdom and comfort that constantly comes our way. God wants us to win. Everything He has done is to help us win in this battle called ‘life.’

We are the people of His Spirit, so feelings and knowledge take a secondary place in our lives. They are still there – after all we are not stoics, beating our feelings into submission! We simply relinquish how we feel and whatever has happened, to the Holy Spirit. Jesus told us to pick up and wear the yoke He wore. His yoke was obedience to His Father in every circumstance. He saw the “Yes” of God and He saw the “No” and the result was the same – He continued to glorify God. We simply can’t afford to let our feelings stay in control of our lives or reactions. Cry if you have to, yell if you have to, but yell out to God for His help to walk through whatever has happened. 

We have been exhorted, with His help, to grow suitable, sustainable fruit… the fruit of the Spirit called “self-control.” That fruit grows in good times and in bad, as we ask for His help to watch over our inner lives.. As we yield our will to Him, and follow His instructions from the book, we prepare the ground for good fruit. Fruit takes time, so we need to be ready to persevere. That allows His fruit in us to ‘set.’ The very first year our mango tree appeared to have fruit, it got all these happy little nubs on it and we got so excited … fruit at last … then they all fell to the ground! The fruit had not set – it had not been successfully pollinated. God will pollinate our feeble attempts at faith, with more faith, because He is generous!

Our knowledge of Who He is, and the Way He does things, needs to be established in an ongoing fashion in our hearts, otherwise we will continue to flounder about like a fish out of water. We were born for this life. He chose us to be His, before the foundation of the world. Did you get that? He picked us to be His children before there were trees, stars, oceans, dry land, good food to eat! And Father God is incredibly generous, He will give us everything we need for a Godly life. So we can complete the works He sent us to do. If you don’t got what you think you need, then you don’t need it! Believe in your Father’s generosity – He believes in you. Bye. 👋

P 3012 Here’s a good aim.

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And a great scripture for today: “Don’t stop! Keep on singing! Make His Name famous! Tell everyone every day how wonderful He is. Give them the good news of our great Saviour. Take the message of His glory and miracles to every nation. Tell them about all the amazing things He has done.” Psalms 96:2-3 TPT. 

So here is our friend David again, prophetically declaring the praise and person of Christ and His divine message of salvation. That man blows my mind! I love the way David operates, he comes from a place of active devotion.  Wherever we go, hubby and I want to tell the people we meet that God Himself sent us, and then we tell them how much Jesus loves them!

However, in today’s crazy society talking about our precious Saviour can be difficult to do. Always remember when the truth turns up, and the truth is IN YOU so the darkness wants to flee! Praise is more than singing on Sunday – it is a way of life. That’s why we need to come from the place of living in His love – nobody ran away from Jesus – not even once! He didn’t have to chase anyone, they ran after Him!

Today more than ever, with the Holy Spirit’s help and prompting, it is up to us as believers to make His Name great. To me that means He is as much a part of my thoughts and conversations as my husband, kids, grandkids. friends and church family! The bible clearly says: “Taste and see that the Lord is good…” — I’ve always thought that means if someone takes a bite out of me, all they should get is a mouthful of Jesus! Not that I have achieved that goal yet … but I press ON! Why? Because we all have a high calling and that calling is more than just words, it is a way to live. We live to illustrate the life that is in us, daily.

We may look like everyone else, but now we are executors reading out Christ’s will. That’s why the bible is called the NEW and the OLD testament.  A testament is a will, a legal document. Now here’s a good time to give thanks that we were born on this side of Calvary!! Jesus’ Will includes healing, restoration to God, restoration of human relationships, grace, mercy, goodness, kindness …etc. That means we get to tell every human being we meet that God is not mad at them, Jesus Christ died in their place and God can’t wait to meet them, in person!! 

The thing we have found is that this life continually presses in on everyone – misdirecting and distracting us with sorrow, suffering, misunderstandings and adverse events and grumpy other people. We can waste our time waiting for someone else to apologise to us, or to understand us — but the reality is – if YOU AND I can simply introduce His Grace into any conflict. His grace will transform everyone and everything. Like the clouds in the sky which can seem to hide the ever-present, ongoing presence of the sun. It is part of our new life to show and tell others, that the Son of all righteousness died in their place too. He’s not gone from this world, now He is inside His kids.

I think the awful things we daily face can be covered by “Love suffers long …”  The reality is, I stop focussing on what you said, or I said, or whatever happened, or even defending myself. If you misunderstand me, and I deliberately focus on talking to the Holy Spirit and ask Him what to do next. He knows the way through everything. But that does not always mean He will vindicate me. It simply means He knows the way through whatever unhappy incident I have been trapped in. In any situation, the Lord Himself needs to win—NOT us!

We can fight so hard to be understood, instead of fighting the huge amount of temptations we are assaulted by that bring out human selfishness. So as we go, we live listening for our next instruction from Him. Here’s something that works for me – I stop assuming that other grumpy guy wants to destroy me and throw myself upon Jesus and His Grace. When I do that I am letting Him fight for me. Who wants to make a guess about that outcome? Everybody wins. Even if the other guy continues to be mean, they are fighting Jesus now, not me. I’m safe, hidden in Him, spectating!

I just keep handing everything back to the Lord, then having done all … I stand. I wait to see the goodness of God take over and when it does, I let Him keep building it through me and my words. Here is a tip that helps me to make His Name famous in my little corner of this world …start speaking kindly about, and toward, other people – no matter how they act toward you. Find something good about them and say that. Make it the way you think about them. Live your life so other people will end up praising Him!

In Psalm 96 David’s exuberance toward God Himself is almost explosive. This man had honed his focus so his whole POV came from a place of praising God and continually focussing on what the Lord had done and was going to do. Like us, David had not met Jesus in the flesh. He simply lived the life he had to make God famous. Praising God is how we live, not just what we sing on Sunday. Now there’s a good aim. Bye. 👋 

P 3009 Escorting God’s will to Earth.

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“Great God, I want to partner with You in bringing the will of heaven to earth, I stand with You, God, and I want what You want. As I discover Your heart through drawing near to You, I can’t help but be changed by the power of Your love.  As I catch glimpses of Your desires, I get to join in with You, calling down Your desires in my life and beyond.

Have Your way, Lord, in me.  Transform me from the inside out so that I can reflect the glory of Your mercy in my daily life.  As my faith grows with the boldness of my prayers, I know that I will see You answer in the provision of Your power. There is nothing that You cannot do! 

May I have kingdom perspective and never settle for the world’s accounts of reality. You are the Creator, and You can do all things. I want to see Your miracle power doing the impossible in the earth in response to the cry of Your children. Thank You for partnership.  What a privilege it is! … AMEN! From Prayers from the Throne Room, by Brian Simmons.

I wanted to include this excerpt from Brian Simmons in my blog today, because what he has said is so challenging …this is our aim. Our great quest. But we don’t have to wait for it to overtake us, or fall on us — instead we quite simply surrender into it, every single day, and let our everyday lives teach us how to live the way Jesus did. 

Personally, I have found plenty to go on with! There are heaps of applications in Matthew 5! I especially like living this life “poor in spirit” (v3) – Jesus calls being poor in spirit a blessing! Boy that’s upside down to the way the world around us thinks. But when we are poor in spirit and we cannot manufacture or push ourselves to do whatever He asks, we are rich. Why is that so? Because we have a Helper and He knows all the answers! He helped Jesus live the life God chose for His Son, and He knows exactly how to cultivate God’s Grace in our lives so we can live for Him too! 

That rude person in the shops who snarls at you is not there to annoy you – they are most probably in pain. Even a dog will snap at you if it is in pain. We need to leave behind the idea that everything in this life is about us, or meant to go our way, and GET REAL INSTEAD. Human beings can be so self-centred these days, it is terrifying to watch. The thought that everything and everyone is here to make my little life happy, is not Godly … or practical!! I have to remind myself often, that I gave my life away!

If we want to be the people who escort God’s will into this world, then something or someone will have to change and it won’t be HIM! Gird up your girdle Gertie, it’s gunna be a bumpy ride!! The bible says:“I am God I change NOT!” Malachi 3:6. Hmm. Not much room for an argument there eh?  Here’s another scripture to broaden our outlook — “Shall two walk together, except they have agreed?” Amos 3:3. Um, the point is, we need to agree with HIM, HE is not obligated to agree with US. To find out what we all agree about we will need to know the book! How do you think His law gets written on our hearts? When it costs us to obey it – that will carve it on the inside..

He loves to answer our prayers. That’s called Grace, and Mercy, and compassion. He loves each one of us so much, He longs to draw us closer to Himself … Matthew 23:37. But we are making the same mistake the Israelite people made, when we see Father God as merely a benefit to my life. Instead of understanding that the One Who made the stars and everything else, loves me so personally He wants to walk with me.

All the time, every single day. Most of us spend our lives looking for one other person who just might want to be that close to us… And our Magnificent God stands silently and patiently by, waiting, longing to comfort, teach and transform us all into a fit Bride for His Son… HIS precious one-of-a-kind SON! What an honour we have. 

If we want to escort His Presence into every single situation and place we go, we will need to learn to live our lives in agreement with the things He loves. I have to be honest, we do not have the capacity to make ourselves into that kind of person – most of us start out way too narcissistic for that! But He freely gives Grace to those who know they need it. He extends mercy toward us when we fall short of the example that Jesus set for us. And He is compassionate, because He already knows we are glorified dust.

Our God has to be true to His nature. The more I see Him at work in my life, the more I fall in love with Him, and the more I love Him, the clearer my heart mirror reveals His goodness to other people. I am a reflection to other people of the love of God, whether I know it or not. Whether I act like it or not. Looking deeply into His eyes of love – as well as looking through them – will capture anyone’s heart. I have seen total goodness, the purest love of all … in the way He loves people. 

Our aim is to reflect His goodness into this life —so others can see Him too. No biggie eh?!!  Because of what Jesus did, sin is conquered, and permanently out of the way. Now we focus on the real work, living this life so close to Him we can hear and identify His heartbeat.  Bye for today! 👋

Heavenly Father, “Manifest Your kingdom realm, and cause Your every purpose to be fulfilled on earth, just as it is in heaven.” Amen. Matthew 6:10 TPT.