God

P 3270 The impossible is easy for the Lord …

/ DVH

but it is also very challenging to our faith. In the gospel  of Mark 2:1-12, some men tore off a house-roof so they could lower down a paralytic friend in front of Jesus…. Did you get that? They tore up some poor guy’s roof! This hospitable family man offers his home for a meeting and that’s the thanks he gets?! I suppose the man could have used the resulting hole for a skylight…? !

The details we are given in the Word make this story extraordinary. Mainly because I don’t imagine digging a hole in any kind of roof would be easy. But these men were so devoted to their friend, in their desire to get him to Jesus, that they would have done anything. Meanwhile nobody seemed to care too much about what the occupant of the house thought when they burrowed into his nice little house like gophers either. Why not?! Somebody got healed and they all saw it.

 Are we willing to risk possibly offending people in order to bring someone into the Lord’s Presence? (Remember wherever we go, He goes.) The fear of retaliation or offence is very real in our society. Nowadays if somebody tore off a church roof to get a sick person to Jesus, they’d probably sue them for a replacement roof!  Plus they’d grizzle at them — ‘don’t you know how to use a door?!?’ But these friends were undaunted by societal rules, and motivated by love for their sick friend, instead. I’d like to be a friend like that, and boy would I like to have a friend like that myself!

Jesus didn’t really seem to care who He offended. The Lord did not ever set out to be offensive but if that happened, well, it happened. He didn’t even pause to explain Himself, or His motivation etc … He just moved on. His priority was  His Father’s will. How can we possibly imagine how incredibly difficult it must have been for Him to carry out the Father’s will, even when it included His own suffering and death?  

Not to mention the fact that when it came to the time of His death, Jesus did everything He did, without the comforting Presence of the precious Holy Spirit. He was SomeOne the Lord had always known intimately. It must have been so painful for the Father, and the Spirit stand back and not rescue Jesus from such villainous wickedness. But there was a higher purpose. Meanwhile it is not hard to imagine satan firing mental missiles at Jesus while he was tormenting the Lord inwardly and outwardly on the cross.   

Today I want to remember how very much the Holy Spirit loves to help, comfort, and guide. And yet at that point in history, He had to step away. The Father’s Will could only be accomplished if the Holy Spirit didn’t step in. The Lord Jesus did all that He did for us, so we can be sons and daughters of God!  Otherwise the doors of heaven would have stayed shut to the likes of you and I! Jesus chose to do this so we would never have to be separated from the Holy Spirit’s loving kindness, and wisdom ever again. It stands to reason that His devotion to mankind is so huge – HE WON’T EVER LEAVE US. The Spirit of God loves us the way He loves Christ. Imagine that. He freely shares with us  His life-giving ways. If it is not love, then it is not Him. 

The Spirit of the Living God creatively uses the power of love and grace in ways we cannot imagine, over and over again. To one person He says, “consider Jesus” … to someone else He says: “you have been forgiven” and to another He says: “the Father loves you with an everlasting love.” No matter what the Holy Spirit says: there is always  unimaginable, overwhelming love in it. He chooses to meet some people in their dreams, others while they are reading the bible, or through someone else’s books. He met with me in front of a clothes line! His originality is mind boggling.  

Someone else might say what I just said, in a totally different way, and that is just another example of His incredible creativity. He is also out-of-this-world wise. There are so many ways to describe Who He is and what He does – silently -we can easily lose count! That’s why I love Jesus, we can see in Him the things our natural mind couldn’t possibly make up! And the Lord Jesus totally relied on the Holy Spirit’s help – so should WE.

This is Paul speaking to the Ephesians, about the diversity of the things He has for us. 3:8-12: “To me, the least of all the saints, was given this grace: to proclaim the good news of the fathomless riches of Christ to the Gentiles, and to enlighten everyone as to what is the administration of the mystery hidden from the ages by God, Who created all things, in order that the many-sided wisdom of God might be made known now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places through the church, according to the purpose of the ages which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through faith in Him.”

Please do not allow anyone else to minimise the beauty of the One that Jesus Himself chose to entrust with our care. We all matter so much to God, even when our faith is severely stretched, let’s not limit Him. Let’s learn to walk with Him instead. Watch out for evidence of His work in your life as well as around you. Seeing Him at work helps our faith.  He will show us how to repair the things that this life has broken in us, or in our relationships with others. He will tear up and get rid of anything that is holding us back from reaching Jesus, just like those friends tore away the roof in order to get to the Lord that day. Despite challenging our faith, the impossible is so easy to our God.  Bye. 👋

P 3269 The Spirit of Truth.

/ DVH

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“And I will send you the Divine Encourager from the very Presence of my Father. He will come to you, the Spirit of Truth, emanating from the Father, and He will speak to you about Me. And you will tell everyone the truth about Me, for you have walked with Me from the start.” John 15:26-27 TPT. When I read this scripture today, the first thing that jumped out at me is the fact that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of TRUTH. It seems to me that our society is in love with ‘grey’ areas, and we don’t live our lives openly and honestly anymore. It means we can easily miss what the Lord wants to say to us, or to lovingly say to others. Purity is about our proximity to the Holy Spirit. We want to create an atmosphere He loves by following His instructions in the Word.

Most people work hard, struggle financially, and engage with the media to relax and escape from the pressures of life. That’s actually called evasion. Postponing problems won’t fix them or get us into a fit state to face them either. We have been saturated in what the media says and thinks. It is full of lies, and I am not just talking about the politicians! Every time we watch a fictional movie we are actively embracing being lied to. It is not nothing, it frames our subconscious thinking! Actors are actually extremely good liars! Even things like reality shows are staged strategically to appeal to our baser selves. We have been reduced to spectators, instead of being participators in this life. It seems we are embracing the spirit of this world, not the Spirit of truth, but we want the Lord of All to fit in around all of it!

I’m not against TV – I watch it! However, true reality is not happy ever after – it’s the dirty dishes, going to work, no parking, a screaming baby, the cat throwing up on the carpet, or an unexpected bill. The bible says things like this:

• But seek FIRST His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. – Matthew 6:33

• Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. – Philippians 4:6

• Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. -Romans 12:12

• But those who wait on the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint. – Isaiah 40:31

• Whoever DWELLS in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. – Psalm 91:1

What we choose to focus our lives on matters. We can live in fiction, or distraction or in His shelter. Doing both is called double-mindedness. We are blocking our ears to the very Person Who knows what comes next. So let’s just ask the Lord: ‘should I watch this?’  …’What do You think about this show Lord?’ If He doesn’t like it then don’t watch it. Can you honestly see Jesus kicking back in a comfy chair with chips on His lap, and His feet up, watching ‘Bambi’, because He walked a long way and prayed for so many people, and now He needs to chill out? So why didn’t the Lord do pointless things to relax?  

He was busy seeking first the kingdom of God. Jesus knew He was here on assignment. SO ARE WE. Prayer, waiting on Him, and reading the bible, etc. takes time and the benefits of making these things a priority often comes later. It is the Holy Spirit’s great joy to help us find our way through the maze of stuff that goes on daily. Seriously there is no such thing as minutiae to the Holy Spirit. He is our Helper. We need to prayerfully cultivate our relationship with Him, by not grieving Him or ignoring Him, when He speaks to us, then turn His instructions into actions.

If we are still giving into grey areas, perhaps we have not taken the opportunities He has given us to hone our listening skills. If we choose to ignore Him, He will go away! Sadly, this world is going to hell – on our watch! If we feel we need to escape from the life we are living, then we need to fast and pray and ask the Lord why? What is making me so dissatisfied with my life? Just be aware that the Lord won’t blame other people for our decisions and actions — He will simply reveal ME to me. I vote we all stop allowing distraction to ‘dull’ our spiritual senses.

We cannot afford to want to live this life both ways. We have already given up our right to live this life however we want. Ananias and Sapphira decided to cheat on their income tax, so they fudged the books. And yes, I know that’s not what the story is about, I am exaggerating to illustrate – not lying! 🤣… Those guys dropped dead immediately.  A bit severe wouldn’t you say? NO! The Holy Spirit was such a treasure to the Apostles and disciples, that they would not tolerate the lie. Pause and think on that. The Spirit of truth is our Treasure, now too.

Valuing the Lord and His Presence is our assignment. We can’t afford to partake of this current society that paints black white, then calls it OK-grey! We need to know, hear and obey the Spirit of truth. He is our most valuable asset. Jesus thought so much of the Holy Spirit’s ministry, He wouldn’t go anywhere without Him …  … and then He sent Him back to help us. Bye. 👋

P 3268 Yesterday I learnt a lot.

/ DVH

I was in and out of tech land for the whole day yesterday, and I rapidly came to the conclusion that what was happening inside me, was even more important as anything else going on around me. I was not a happy camper! I can see the irony in the fact that the last picture I struggled so hard to post said:… ‘Sorry!’  … 🤣

My take-away-lesson from the Lord was, no matter how much control we think we have, the reality is, we have none … “unless the Lord builds the house, we labour in vain.” Psalm 127:1. My technical problems yesterday  showed me that I must learn to let things go. Now there is something I’ve written about here for a long time now! But it was extremely difficult to do. You have my sincere apology for oversimplifying stuff that is hard. Please forgive me. 

Meanwhile, I learnt that PRIDE can hide itself in the sneakiest places!  I just found some … I found it in the last place I thought it would be – writing this blog! Because I haven’t missed a day in over 8 years and I didn’t want to break my own record, I had built some sort of significance for myself through doing it. So I had a melt-down. The tech guys were doing their best to fix the problem, and at the same time, I also had to interact with AI.  I have to say, I don’t like AI very much! It can’t be reasoned with, my brain and its logic don’t mind-meld! What a frustrating thing that was! 

The realisation finally dawned on me that the Lord needs to be my only significance – not what I do, or don’t accomplish in a day. I have found He is always so kind and patient with me, He waited for me to wake up to myself and repent, and it took a while too! You know, many daily things can be taken for granted and when they misfire, it seems like you were standing on something that looked secure – and then suddenly it slides out from under you – because you aren’t standing on the Lord’s Grace anymore! 

With that in mind, I figured pride and learning curves are good things to talk about today. When stuff becomes clear, and you realise that you have fallen into pride, it is far too easy to try to drag yourself back up again … without learning anything. I think we can do that on the premise that everything worked OK before the drama, so why not now? But that thought means we will miss out on what the Lord wants to reveal to us and teach us, and I personally don’t recommend it!

That’s when I finally realised that I need to stay more open to change. Often the Lord has to literally peel back layer after layer that we have cleverly wrapped around our hearts to feel safe, wanted, stable and useful. BUT …“GOD  (Himself) is my refuge and my strength, my ever present help in times of need.” Psalm 46:1. The reality is I will always need His help! My self-effort, no matter how good the cause seems to be, doesn’t cut it. The Lord has always helped me write this blog, so I need to trust Him to look after it … whether I can post it or not! Meanwhile, I don’t want to miss the lesson of yielding to the circumstances, and putting Him in charge.

In my recently revised opinion… like yesterday… how’s that for current? Ev-er-y-th-ing is an opportunity for growth. And if it is frustrating, then it is going to end up being a really great opportunity to see what’s actually going on inside. Because of my own situation, suddenly I could see how easily someone can get caught up in book sales, favourable opinions and conferences, as well as numbers. That stuff is a lot more easy to buy into when you have invested your heart and your time. The point is not – are we being successful? It’s actually – are we pleasing Him? And that is not always the same thing!! “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:9.(Hebrews 11:6)

At the same time, I had stopped using my faith, and instead I was doing it so I wouldn’t let other people down. And I took up the heavy burden to make the blog work. Plus it had become so important for me to keep building the numbers than I ever realised. The reality is, I am not solely responsible for the outcome – a tech team in Denmark is also silently contributing by keeping the site running smoothly. When that didn’t happen the way I thought it should, I got so angry and what came out was: ‘I will lose my readers.’  Not my finest moment. Sigh.

I have now come to the decision that we can hide ourselves from ourselves in order to make us feel better about ourselves. And yes, I know I have overused the word ourselves! Teehee. I also know that one of the things that has stabbed Christians in the foot in the past, is that many people with influence aren’t always honest. And after a while, the normal pile of junk that leaders feel they must maintain, piles up to the roof and it becomes insurmountable …no wonder so many leaders in the body of Christ do dumb things!  When we begin to evaluate what the Lord is doing through us — we’ve missed the entire point! 

Nobody means to be dishonest, because we all love Jesus. However, we can get caught up trying to protect our reputation under the guise of protecting His reputation … like He needs our help! I learnt a lot yesterday! Please pray for me that I can successfully avoid pride and stop fussing over numbers!  Bye. 👋

P 3267 Practise apologising.

/ DVH

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 Repentance involves us discussing something we’ve done with the Lord, and fixing it with Him. Those things are often carried out in secret. Just you and Jesus, talking together in your quiet time. Great! Do it!! But that is not all there is. Let’s be careful and prayerful over the people around us that we may have hurt too.

 It really doesn’t matter whether we think what we did required an apology … or not! Here’s a verse to soak in: “Abstain from ALL appearance of evil.” 1 Thessalonians 5:22. Many people think if they did not mean any harm, then —there can’t be any harm. No harm, no foul. The thing is we can make our brother or sister stumble, and boy does that matter!! If what we did appears to be evil to someone else then we need to pay attention. In some versions it says, “avoid any appearance of evil.”

Jesus Christ identified Himself with each one of us, so when we do good stuff, we bless Him. And when we hurt someone else, or omit to do good, and we are bringing His Name into disrepute. And NO!… the answer is not to find a hide-out and become a secret Christian – the answer is to fix what we messed up! The way out is to apologise, because Jesus identified Himself with that person. If we want to be closer than a brother to the Lord then we will need to stay that way, by caring about the people He cares for —- He loves the whole world!

“Please forgive me because I hurt you…” is an essential part of loving care for others. Our opinion about what should or should not hurt someone else doesn’t matter two beans! This attitude is a wonderful witness to anyone, even the people who-don’t-know-Him-yet. The only thing that it will cost us is pride, and that is a small price to pay for restoration. This is a good time to remind ourselves that we now live for Him – so what we are doing is for His sake, even if it costs us our supposed dignity. It is also a good time to remember that Jesus was humiliated beyond belief for our sakes.   

I don’t know if this has happened to you, but there are times when somebody may have jumped all over you, and never taken the time to apologise and ask for your forgiveness. I’ve found that in my own strength I can only swallow so much angst, and mean rubbish, before I start passing the pain I feel on to a totally innocent bystander. That’s why staying close to Jesus, and asking for His help, all the time, is essential!   

The things of this world are not getting any better. Actually, I’ve never met so many pouty, unrepentant people in my life! You could drown under the vast wave of ‘poor me’ and ‘look what they did to me.’ That’s the way the world acts and they don’t know any better. Christians need to know better. There will always be people who are big babies that constantly need petting and patting and lots of reassurance – because “we hurt their feelings.”  We need to see these people as a gift. They may probably seem like a gift you want to take back to the store!! But the truth is they are our own personal humility metre! They show us how humble we really are.  

BTW, it is not good to re-gift this kind of unhappy behaviour onto someone else. In other words, one person may be extremely irritating and they keep giving you opportunities to be angry. You’ve tried hard to explain but they have their  fingers in their ears and they are not listening … the talk-to-the-hand response! And we can spend hours explaining to someone else how irritating they are — and in the end — that person doesn’t much like the offender either. And wham, bam, now that irritating person has even more reasons to be a pain, because a whole bunch of people that we’ve influenced, don’t like them! Bad plan.

We are here to influence others for good. If we are going to be salt and light then we need to be careful with the amount of salt we are slinging about, because too much salt can spoil any stew … and we can spoil someone else’s good opinion of another person. Too much light means you see those little spots everywhere, instead of being able to see clearly. So let’s learn to put aside our own feelings in these situations, ask the Lord for help, and stop whining.  

This is another place to die to self. We aren’t forgiving people so we can be thought of as being nice, and we don’t ask other people to forgive us for the same reason. We do it because Jesus said so. When we don’t take the time to humbly repent, or ask Him for the Grace to go and apologise to someone else who is upset with us, we are putting our own faith in danger of bitterness and resentment.  

Finally, there are times when we are in the wrong and we  can’t figure out how to fix it. Start by remembering sin no longer has a sting to it. Their sin, ours, mine, the grocer … it doesn’t matter – Jesus paid for it. Our bit is to be honest about what has happened. We are all in the same boat, so let’s not wreck that boat to make a point. Taking the time to apologise to someone means we are taking the time to value that other person. The Lord loves it. Bye. 👋  

P 3266 It’s the way we live!

/ DVH

‘So then faith that doesn’t involve action is phoney. But someone might object and say, “One person has faith and another person has works.” Go ahead then and prove to me that you have faith without works and I will show you faith by my works as proof that I believe… …Wasn’t our ancestor Abraham found righteous before God because of His works when He offered His son Isaac on the altar? Can’t you see how His action cooperated with His faith and by His action faith found its full expression?” James 2:17-18, 21-22.

If people cannot see our faith in action then perhaps we need to revise the way we live. We are His witnesses. When witnesses don’t speak up, the truth is left to lie dormant and undiscovered. We have not been designed to live undercover! What we know about Jesus is meant to be ‘published abroad,’ by what we say and do. Our willingness to witness for good, is a sign of our spiritual health. Faith is more than buttering buns for morning tea – it’s the way we live.

I really hesitated about writing about this true story from my own life. But after prayer, the Lord gave me clearance to do it. Years ago, our family lived in a tiny cottage that had a rental property next to us. They often had pretty wild parties, which wasn’t much fun because our houses were a couple of metres apart. One night some noise or other woke me up and I could clearly hear someone crying, pleading with some male voices. I could hear a female sobbing: ’Stop, stop! Please let me go!’ 

My poor hubby was regularly on night shift back then so it was hard to wake Him. The terrible sound of fear, pain and anguish and sobbing continued next door. Eventually hubby woke up, but the terrible sobbing etc was gone, and so we phoned the police to report it and get help. The woman, by this time was a long distance away,  walking away from the house and a man came out and yelled at her: “I can do whatever I want to you, whenever I want.” 

The police eventually turned up, much later, but by then next door was quiet – they knocked on the door and spoke to someone, but there wasn’t much else they could do. They took note of what we said and left. So we continued to pray for the people involved and left it alone. 

It was more than a year before we heard any more about it. A female police officer knocked on our door following the incident up, and she was canvassing the area asking people in the neighbourhood if they knew anything about it. She nearly fell over when I answered: “yes I had,” and we let her in. We told her we had rung the police and then we gave her the same details we had given before. 

Then she asked me if I was prepared to testify in court, to what I had heard. I said: “yes,” so did hubby, and again she seemed very surprised. Nobody else had come forward, apparently people are not willing to get involved in such things. She took our details and told us she would be in touch when the matter went before the court. My extended family didn’t want me to testify, because their fear for our safety took over… the man next door might try to get revenge etc… whatever! 

Eventually we fronted up to court, which involved its own difficulties, and I stood up in the dock and I told the court what I had heard, and hubby gave testimony about what he heard the man yell out in the street. I guess what we said must have helped, because this man was sentenced to a whole lot of years in prison for rape. After that we heard no more.

A couple of months later, I was outside in the garden hanging out the washing, when the side gate flew open and this little bit of a girl raced in, carrying the biggest bunch of flowers I’ve ever seen. She was weeping copiously, and she shoved the flowers at me, with tears pouring down her little face, and said: “thank-you thank-you, thank-you,” she hugged me really tightly, and then ran out of the gate again. It was all over in seconds. My best guess was that she was the victim from what had happened next door. 

We didn’t get a chance to talk about Jesus  … we just did what He told us to do. My point is this: we weren’t witnessing, we were simply living for Him. When I saw that young woman that day, she looked like a 12 year old she was so tiny. I was so incredibly glad we had followed the whole thing through to help give her some sort of closure. Personally I could care less if someone sees what we do or not. 

Many brave souls have gone on before us unseen and unacknowledged and they’ve done far greater things for others, and for the Lord, than I can possibly imagine! This way of life we have all entered into needs to become a lifestyle. You don’t have to debate this and that, plus the dangers of whatever … you just do what is good, right and profitable! Jesus knows when we lay down our lives for someone else.

Faith without works is dead and so are works without faith. Those two things go together. There are things for each one of us to do that won’t happen if we don’t do them. Our actions, whether they are seen or not, are the expression of our faith. It is the tangible expression of what lies within. If there is no expression then faith goes unnoticed. Faith is the way we choose to live.  Bye. 👋

P 3265 Where are you looking?

/ DVH

2 Corinthians 4:5-12: “For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, Who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that His life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.”    

 At times maybe we think following Jesus shouldn’t cost us! These verses give us the alternatives. The bible is so clear — words like:  ‘hard pressed; perplexed; persecuted; struck down; death is at work in us, but life is at work in you’… should be a major clue. Those among us who think this new life of ours should always be fun, fun, fun, well, they need their heads read. Or they need the bible to transform their thinking! Perhaps some of us are resigned to living with continual disappointment, which is definitely not fun and very bad for our faith! Just to cheer you up even further …

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” That was Verses 16-18 same chapter. 

Why does Paul tell us he did not want us to lose heart? With that list of unhappy endings, that thought seems a bit redundant! He goes on to explain that our outer man maybe diminishing all the time, but our inner man, our spirit, is being renewed by His Presence within us. We can’t live, work, play, or even breathe without Jesus! Seriously. Some of the worst damage has been done to the basic tenements of Christianity, by trying to make it sound like a cross between winning the lottery and a fun fair. In this passage Paul is describing a people who live to see Jesus get all the glory, all the honour – all the time. That’s because their eyes are on Him and they look at everything around them through the light of eternity.

If we focus on our comfort in the here and now, we are going to be utterly disappointed a lot. God is maturing His saints! What part of ‘stoned’ – (ps the writer isn’t talking about taking drugs!) ‘…and sawn asunder, sliced with a sword, tempted, wandering about practically naked with nowhere to live, don’t we get? (Hebrews 11:37) God doesn’t promise us flowers, happy endings and blue birds. Jesus said clearly that this is a narrow difficult road.

 Our fear that reality may put other people off is well-founded. Comfort is king in all our western societies. We desperately need the Lord Jesus to renew us every single day, or any one of us can lose heart and give up. Let’s ask Him to help us to produce the fruit of self-control and perseverance, and water it with tears and fertilise it with surrender. 

Paul calls these ghastly things that bowl us over in this life, “light and momentary afflictions.” Boy that sure puts everything into perspective. What would happen if we saw our difficulties through fresh eyes?  Imagine living life in such a way that love oozes out of our pores, and we leave puddles of glory behind us. We can’t go to the shop and buy Glory! His glory flourishes as we make our hearts His home.

The more we choose to die to self, the more He can be seen within us, flashing out His glorious brightness and capturing other people’s hearts with just one glance. It is imperative here and now, to fix our eyes on Jesus and what He wants for us – including the people He has gathered around us. When we fix our eyes on this world, we can be so easily distracted by what is going on, instead of focussing on Him, this allows other important things to pale into insignificance. I am not there yet …obviously! … But that’s my aim. To daily take in His love for me, and give it away. 

There is no other answer for this world but Jesus. Hubby and I can’t even watch the news anymore it is so chock full of – this person did that evil thing and another one did worse! The bible says: ‘Without Christ we can do nothing.’This whole world is without Christ – that’s why it is in the state it is in. Why are we so astonished? I am learning to assess my focus, and keep my eyes on Him – no matter what else is going on. Where do I look for daily inspiration? Let’s “… all look … unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, …” Hebrews 12:2. Bye 👋

P 3264 Running over.

/ DVH

“Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything —every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do.”       2 Corinthians 9:8 TPT.

Grace is a precious gift from our Heavenly Father given to us, to reconcile mankind to Himself. This Grace was given to us, for us, and for others. It was unbelievably expensive. Jesus came to earth and died to provide us all with an unlimited supply, forever. It is good to remember that Grace goes hand in hand with MERCY. It doesn’t matter who we are, or where we come from, or what someone else has done, or left undone, God’s Grace is freely available to every man, woman, or child ever born, it begins to transform lives around us as it flows through us.

God’s Grace is like a river in full flood, it refreshes every dry thing around it for miles! Here are some ways God’s Grace will transform us in our day to day lives. Saving Grace… the Grace that washes us clean from all our sins;  operational Grace  … the Grace we need to accomplish something He has asked us to do;  forbearing Grace … that’s the kind we need when someone else is driving us up a wall;  enabling Grace, the kind we need when we are overwhelmed by our circumstances;  plus extraordinary Grace… the Grace we have been given to  believe what Jesus said, when everything coming at us tells us it can’t happen. This Grace leads us into more faith. BTW, this is not by any means, a comprehensive list of the attributes of Grace!

Grace is the vehicle we deliberately climb inside when we accept the fact that Jesus died for my sin. My point today is — don’t ever step out of the vehicle!  Stay inside Grace!  I am going to need Grace all the time, for me and for you. Almighty God Himself, in the Person of Christ, has freely supplied it. I can’t trust myself because my old nature will rear its ugly head when I least expect it, and I will hurt someone. Praise God! He is not stingy. He showed us that when He gave this world His only Son to heal, deliver, transform and save us all. 

Jesus didn’t just sort of, kind of, only just scrape through overcoming the evil that we have participated in. No! He triumphantly overpaid. Our God has so much Grace, the bible describes Him as being rich in it! It is important that we realise that we cannot afford to entertain any idea that who we are, or what we’ve done, could ever even make a dent on the incredible deluge He poured out on all of us. Our reconciliation with our Father and each other is a direct result of Jesus’ actions.

Ephesians 2:4-10. “But God’s mercy is so abundant, and His love for us is so great,  that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience He brought us to life with Christ. It is by God’s grace that you have been saved.  In our union with Christ Jesus He raised us up with Him to rule with Him in the heavenly world. He did this to demonstrate for all time to come the extraordinary greatness of His grace in the love He showed us in Christ Jesus.  For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift, so that no one can boast about it. God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus He has created us for a life of good deeds, which He has already prepared for us to do.”

We can easily lose sight of the power of Grace when we aimlessly wander over into our own strength. Speaking for myself it can be much too easy to think: ”Oh, now I know what the Lord wants,” and toddle off and do it by myself. However, I discovered that the bible says: ‘His strength is made perfect in weak people,’ so my own strength is no longer an asset. Especially if I want to enjoy the fullness of His Grace! Grace is as tangible in this world, as heaven is. Let’s cherish what we’ve been given as the best thing we have, use it, and be thankful for it. 

There are times that when we want or need His overflowing Grace, but we discover we must wait for it. Waiting on the Lord renews our strength, stretches our faith, and thankfully it reminds us we can’t do anything without Him!  This position is not about just sitting around staring at the ceiling waiting for something to happen. Waiting for Grace is an active thing, that involves the faith we already have in Who He is. We deliberately invest and fix our heart into and on Jesus’ character. 

I’ve found that knowing what I can’t do is an enormous blessing. Asking for His help with anything and everything is not a sign of weakness – it is a sign of respect for what He has said and done, as well as what we have already seen Him do. When we ask for more of His Grace we are honouring Him, because we are asking for more of Jesus’ love, life, kindness, patience etc. to manifest itself in our lives toward others. This means we see Him as the Answer — to everything.

Our earthly limitations are just opportunities for God to make Himself real to us in a way we haven’t seen before. We have no comprehension about what the Lord can do with an ordinary life — one that is totally surrendered to Him and His Ways. I have experienced this in a small way, personally. When I refuse to listen to my hurt feelings, and indignation about how someone else treated me, and instead I choose to ask for and extend Grace to them, with the Lord’s direction and help — that’s when everything changes – especially my stinky attitudes. 

Grace is powerful. It is a mistake to reduce the meaning of it to something that HAS saved us. It did. Grace is a powerful weapon to overcome our inner and outer enemies when we rely upon it the WAY Jesus did. When we choose to embrace what the Lord means by Grace, it is life-changing. Grace is like a river in full-flood when the banks of that river start running over, affecting everything else around it. Bless you. Bye 👋

P 3263 God’s Will is challenging.

/ DVH

Jeremiah 1:7-10 “God told me, “Don’t say, ‘I’m only a boy.’ I’ll tell you where to go and you’ll go there. I’ll tell you what to say and you’ll say it. Don’t be afraid of a soul. I’ll be right there, looking after you.” God’s Decree. God reached out, touched my mouth, and said, “Look! I’ve just put My words in your mouth—hand-delivered! See what I’ve done? I’ve given you a job to do among nations and governments—a red-letter day! Your job is to pull up and tear down, take apart and demolish, And then start over, building and planting.”

Did you notice that right after the Lord tells Jeremiah, He will be with Him, the Lord tells the man what He wants him to do? Guidance from the Lord is our birthright, but it won’t always be a picnic in the park. It is almost certain to be guaranteed to look bigger than we are!  In Psalms 37:23&24 it says. “The steps of good men are directed by the Lord. He delights in each step they take. If they fall, it isn’t fatal, for the Lord holds them with His hand.” Don’t you just love that? We can’t even fall over when we are His, because He promised to lift us up with His own hands!

Let’s look at a New Testament truth, one of the last things Jesus said to His disciples: “He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Mark 16:15&16.This task was far bigger than they were! Until the Holy Spirit came, they men hid away from this world, because they had lost their Teacher. But if the Lord always asked us to do things we can do, where would faith come in? We wouldn’t need it. Sometimes the first thing the Holy Spirit teaches us is that we can’t do anything without Him! No matter how clever we are – we don’t always know how to get out of our own way. 

Our daily struggle isn’t about whether we should rob a bank or shoot someone, it is about an individual’s right to have a ‘say’ over their own lives. But the mutinous thoughts tip our hearts away from God. For example, most people I speak to, haven’t got a clue how their behaviour affects other people — they are too self-involved. That’s not smart, BTW, it’s DUMB. Sadly, because of this, there are times it appears as if these people don’t care. We need to remember that other people don’t have our comprehension or our yardsticks. They have their own. If we remain humble maybe we can learn from them. Submitting to God has such a positive side to it. 

Jesus has faith for us to be bigger than our unknown limitations. He said in Matthew 5:14: “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.” A Christian’s life is built on a hill! Our lives have been built by God on Calvary’s HILL!  We cannot be hidden unless we choose to be hidden. The first active step into God’s guidance in our lives is this: “…choose this day Who you will serve.” There is no point in going anywhere or doing anything, until we’ve made that choice. Otherwise we can be taken out by the enemy because we are still standing on his ground. We must choose — are we all in — or not? That’s what dying to self looks like.

The bible encourages us to follow Jesus step-by-step into a daily process, a series of moment by moment choices. Our part is to continually choose life. His life in us. So we pick up all those other things, ambitions, dreams, hopes etc. and go to the cross and leave everything there. What stays uppermost in our minds, heart, and spirit is this; now I live for Jesus’ sake, and for Him to live in me, I have to be dead! See Galatians 2:20:

“What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with Him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.”

My point today is this, because of what Jesus did for us, we are ALL sent ones. Whether we have an official title or not. Jeremiah, God’s handpicked prophet, struggled with it, and it has often made me think. We can try so hard to get out of what the Lord wanted us to do, and not like where He wants to send us. We ask ourselves, is that fair? No! Not by this world’s standards! But God doesn’t operate by this world’s standards – He has His own. And they are good, righteous, and give glory to the only One Who can bear it. We are called to be a light, and He trusts us to get on with it. He has so much faith in His kids!

These holy things that form His Character in us will not to be obtained by searching or pleading.  Because Jesus took care of everything. Father God isn’t begging people to follow His Ways — He’s a good, good Father, Who knows the Way we should go. And that’s where our trust needs to rest. Let’s choose to remember that, when we live a life dead to self, we are entering into living by His Grace. We will never be alone in our quest to follow Jesus, because we have the Holy Spirit, our Helper Who also has our good in His heart. Plus we have His book to refer to. Every time we say ‘yes’ to His way instead of our own, we are letting the Spirit of God loose in other people’s lives.

God’s will is meant to challenge us. It’s supposed too! It’s the reason we take our little lives, and invest them in His Kingdom, so we can beam His light into the darkness. Bye. 

P 3262 What language does God speak?

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

P 3261 What are we walking toward?

/ DVH

If you and I want to see other people, (Christian or not), the way Jesus sees them, then we will need heavenly eyes that can see beauty in the midst of a pile of ashes. And even if we are in mourning, we are still able to find His JOY. We will sincerely praise Him, even when we feel lower than a snake’s belly and people are after us! What we need is the kind of Love that does not falter ... please don’t settle for less!  And the way to get these heavenly things, the things that money cannot buy, is to be obedient to the things Jesus taught us to do.

“This love means living in obedience to whatever God commands us. For to walk in love toward one another is the unifying commandment we’ve heard from the beginning.” 2 John 1:6 TPT. The reason we are so separated as a Body is thatwe are not walking in Love toward each other! Do you have anyone in your life that you want to run away from them? Me too. Some people scare me. But John tells us that God’s Love causes us to walk toward one another. That isn’t a suggestion, it’s an instruction – we need to use our faith. 

Sadly, we think if we can’t do that, then that’s OK, God will understand it’s a bit too hard, especially when we promise to try harder next time. John, BTW, doesn’t say TRY, he just says do it. Because doing it is what obedience looks like and Jesus has provided us with the power to participate. Many earthly relationships are shattered because we believe a lie. The lie is that other person is too hard for God to change. Here’s a thought, maybe we need to change, and when they meet with a transformed ‘me’ then perhaps the other people will change their responses! There is nothing like mixing things up a bit!!

Jeremiah says in 32:17:’Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! There is nothing too difficult or too wonderful for You—“  When we read the above scripture we can see that our reality is not what Jeremiah said! Our belief system is faulty. We cheerfully sing … ‘Nothing is too difficult for thee’ … and then go out and act like what we just sang isn’t true. Um,,, that’s called hypocrisy.  FYI, saying one thing and doing another is called … hypocrisy. We are much better off to be honest with the Lord and talk about it with Him with an open bible in front of us. Just be honest and tell Him ‘I don’t want to.” Then repent for disobedience. The Holy Spirit wants to show us the way forward, and if we wait for Him – He will help us.

Any negative responses in us can be triggered by fear, or anger, or thinking we are not strong enough, as well as …just plain old rebellion! This can include: “Why should they get away with hurting me?” Because our sin hurt Him! He paid, in full so now we CAN be obedient if we use our faith instead of our faulty imagination. The reality is: “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13. That means I can love you even though outwardly you are pricklier than the ‘jumping chola cactus’ pictured above. That’s a cactus that apparently grabs you if you even remotely brush by it. Looks nasty doesn’t it?? OW!! I know quite a few chola cacti people – boy, are they a challenge! 

The point is this: If Almighty God Who made the heavens and the earth says I can do it, then I can do it. Not because I am clever, and not even because I can be obedient … although that helps! But because He said so!  We can’t afford to pick and choose what we decide we will believe. We need to go back to: ‘HE SAID SO,”Let’s repent and go at it again… and again… and again. Always remembering that God looks at our hearts and He helps us when we act in faith. The Lord knows when we don’t want to do stuff, but He is happy when we value what He values. 

Jesus didn’t shirk away from doing the hard things, just  because human beings can be hard to love. He continued to lovingly walk toward those who were going to destroy His life. Because we want to be like Him, we need to participate in the things He did. The difference for us is this— SomeBody else went down those roads to give us His power to overcome those very things that seem to be impossible. Now, we have His strength available to us to help us to do the very things we don’t want to do. Jesus didn’t run away from the cross – however, He was honest about how He felt about it. 

Hey! Personally I get up tight when I have to go to the dentist, eye doctor or the hospital etc. I ask people to pray for me or I can’t  go in the right spirit. I want to approach the staff wherever I go with love, not fear. Hope not despair. I can’t afford to let some nasty imagined outcome, spoil my day. We need our peace it keeps us going.This is what happens when we learn to value what the Lord valued – we keep our peace!

Walking toward each other is always going to be hard. Human beings have a way of pecking at each other’s faults like grumpy chickens. And the further we are away from some people, the better everyone looks!  Walking toward each other seems dangerous, but it means we are prepared to take a risk. Let’s start walking with Grace Himself guiding us, and trust the Holy Spirit to get us through what happens next. The love bit comes later. Bye. 👋