God’s kingdom

P 3494 Start from the right place — His Grace.

/ DVH

“Even if the mountains were to crumble and the hills disappear, My heart of steadfast, faithful love will never leave you, and My covenant of peace with you will never be shaken,” says YAHWEH, Whose love and compassion will never give up on you.” Isaiah 54:10 TPT. God’s love is not limited … but our time here is.

“Do not yield to fear, for I am always near. Never turn your gaze from Me, for I am your faithful God. I will infuse you with My strength and help you in every situation. I will hold you firmly with My victorious right hand.’” Isaiah 41:10 TPT. He will help us to flow in His Grace.

“Don’t be obsessed with money but live content with what you have, for you always have God’s Presence. For hasn’t He promised you, “I will never leave you, never! And I will not loosen my grip on your life!” So we can say with great confidence: “I know the Lord is for me and I will never be afraid of what people may do to me!”” Hebrews 13:5-6 TPT.

Aren’t these scriptures great? If we choose to read the Word of God like a love letter, which has been made complete with loving personal instructions, we can be utterly blessed by it. Loving eyes see far more than scared, nervous ones … … or even constantly distracted ones! Distraction is a big deal today. It is no longer strange to see people flick flick flicking their phones trying to find something that interests them. If we take that attitude over into reading the bible, we will get bored quickly. Even the language used in it will defeat us.  

Let’s choose to start from His Grace, and never lose the kind of gratitude that acknowledges we are nothing without Him, because He is everything to us. Religion can often be part-time — but GRACE cannot. Grace is a living thing that accomplishes far more than we can ever imagine. Let’s choose to see His Grace like the tide, flowing in and out. It flows in to us, and with our permission, back out toward others. That tide is lovingly relentless in it’s quest to saturate human beings with the kind of loving Grace that bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 

There are times when I can get pretty snarkey if someone pinches a parking spot, or pushes ahead in a queue! That kind of response started in the garden and flowed out onto Cain and Able. It’s sin. The truth is, my negative response to someone else’s thoughtlessness is sin. It shows that I still don’t understand that God’s Grace goes where it wants to go — it is not hindered, or restricted by my prejudices. No matter how many verses of scripture we can find to prove our point! Walking in Grace is facilitated by walking in His love, and we can have it all! 

Let’s daily, minute by minute, buy up the days, because our time on earth is finite and precious. And let’s choose to be obedient, pushing aside our reluctance to engage with strangers, or even family members. Grace flows beautifully when we make God choices. We can stop up that God-given flow with revenge, indifference, anger and unbelief … not to mention guilt. Entering into it is so simple – we simply stop thinking about our lives as our own, and start living them for Him. That is not just for the few keen ‘spiritual’ people who seem to find it easier than we do.. It’s for all of us. 

Father God will never give up on us, but we can short-circuit our progress in our life of faith by believing our sin is greater than His sacrifice. Or we can tell ourselves that we simply must say thus and thus, otherwise that other person will never get the point. That kind of vigilante attitude is not the way the Lord wants us to operate. That person who irritates us, is the vehicle we step into and discover how far short we are from Jesus, God’s glorious ideal. That person is our friend because they show us what is truly inside us. Let their attitudes be their problem. We just need to keep following Jesus, listening to Him, obeying Him.

He sent out His disciples to heal the sick and raise the dead and preach the good news that God’s kingdom had arrived. It was good news — not a list of everyone else’s sins. I suggest we use the energy that is needed to maintain anger and disappointment to propel us forward into giving away God’s Grace. It’s our job. We take that Grace in and then we pass on all the forgiveness, acceptance and love we’ve received from Him, to others. Please be encouraged, this is a learned skill!

We don’t have to love someone’s behaviour to love them. God loves us, and our behaviour stinks sometimes! Jesus saw beyond the sin to the trapped person who needed an opportunity to get free from it. Sin is a prison. It won’t let you think about anything else, whether it is your sin or their sin, it just rumbles about inside like concrete in a concrete truck. However, the Holy Spirit can soften our hard hearts when we ask for His help. That other person’s heart isn’t our business.

Other people’s sins can trap us into a cycle that seems never-ending. That’s why Grace is needed. Grace, by it’s nature is not earned or deserved. But it blossoms and creates new life when it is given to someone who doesn’t deserve it, as we use our faith. However, if WE keep reacting the same way, we are continually going to get the same annoying response! Grace changes ME first, and it opens the door to God’s Way of thinking. Grace keeps silent when it has a LOT to say.

I urge you, don’t keep what you have been freely given bottled up inside, give it away. Let’s start from the right place, releasing His Grace to those who don’t deserve it anymore than we did. Bye. 👋

P 3479 Fix your eyes.

/ DVH

““Stop dwelling on the past. Don’t even remember these former things. I am doing something brand new, something unheard of. Even now it sprouts and grows and matures. Don’t you perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and open up flowing streams in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18-19. This is one of those keys we need to pay attention to, because the past should not affect our future. When Jesus made a way when there seemed to be no way, He died to give us His power to overcome those things that can trip us up or weigh us down.

I have been caught up in eddies from the past — those  things that go round and round and get nowhere. We can’t afford to define ourselves by stuff like that. It will grab hold of here and now, and destructively head toward the future! We need to remember that God does new things all the time. Just because something was fruitful last time, that doesn’t mean it will always be that way. Relationships are moving things, to last they need to grow, change, continue to become new and fresh.

The Lord wants a relationship, not a system. He gave us a system. That system, the Ten Commandments, only failed because we weren’t up to our end. Thank GOD our God is a God of generosity, grace and mercy! There is nothing wrong with the Ten Commandments, they are all about Loving God and loving others! That’s why Jesus said what He said in Matthew 22:38&39. “Jesus replies, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” Jesus adds, “And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself.” It’s a synopsis, not just a new commandment!

Transformation flourishes when we read what He says and live it out, day by day. God made it easy to obey Him, because He took punishment and fear out of the way. Now we do not need to wade through desperate times alone, the Lord has already provided the most wonderful Person we will ever need — the Holy Spirit. He is our Helper. Living this life, with His help ushers in the kingdom of God, right here where we are. And remember Jesus died to change our past – even if it was only yesterday, ten years ago, or ten seconds ago! 

The past will hold us down if we keep clinging to its ways. We must lay aside those things that go after our peace and freedom so we can love others from a pure heart — and keep walking on. Some of us might end up limping. That’s not a bad thing! Jacob encountered God’s Kingdom and he limped after it happened. That limp reminded him of his encounter with heaven. It’s our chosen participation in the kingdom of God among us that will transform this world around us. Thousands of wonderful people have made all sorts of incredible efforts, and sacrificed everything, to change whatever is going on where they live – they left the past behind, and followed Jesus.

However, if the Spirit of God Himself is not doing it, whatever we do cannot last or produce fruit. Only God Himself does the things that last. In the Western World we like to think that God is on our side. But the reality is … the Lord wants to know …. ‘Who is on the Lord’s side?’  ‘Unless the Lord builds the house we are labouring in vain.’ (Psalm 127) Father God cares about what is in our hearts. He wants our hearts perfect toward Him and each other. (2 Chronicles 16:9; John 13:35.) That means we keep short accounts with Him and other people.

We simply can’t afford to let our past, affect our future, no matter how awful that past may be. My advice about former sorrows, is this — prop open the door to the past, clean out everything in that cupboard of guilt, pain, shame, revenge and hate, and deal with it bit by bit, including exercising reconciliation, forgiveness and repentance, then close the door! Write: do not enter! … on it. And give the key to the Holy Spirit. Walk away. Go out from that place and live your new life in Jesus. Do not be tormented by the things you can’t fix, give them to God and leave them there.

I urge all of us to start seeing faith as a commodity stored in heaven and when we prayerfully use it to live, we are bringing that faith into this life. There is a portion we have each been given, and as we give it to Him and start using it, I believe our faith grows, incrementally. “… faith comes from listening to this Good News ….” Faith comes from reading the book and doing what it says, because doing what it says takes FAITH. 

So today, I want to urge you to put the past behind you. Getting rid of any past sins we have done, as well as the ones against us … lines us up with heaven. We are so blessed, the Kingdom of God is a storehouse of every Grace we will ever need on this earth. We simply access it, using our faith, and we must discontinue using it to greedily grab the things we know that can’t last.

Let’s study the bible to find out what He says about this day – today. As we comfort ourselves with the fact that we can rely upon the Lord to hand us the right tool at the right time. The sad thing is, the past is our enemy’s favourite tool of distraction – he drags our eyes off the Lord and distracts them with the things that have hurt us. Instead, let’s fix our eyes on Jesus and ask ourselves, what is the Lord doing today? Bye. 👋.

P3477 Moving house.

/ DVH

“We cross the threshold of true knowledge when we live in obedient devotion to God. Stubborn know-it-alls will never stop to do this, for they scorn true wisdom and knowledge.” Proverbs 1:7 TPT. The bible says all kinds of incredible things that we can barely take in, let alone remember day by day. That’s cause for a pause, right there! Many people like to focus on the negative – sadly the daily news proves that point. Even the words used by the people writing these articles are evocative and negative, all at the same time. However, God’s kingdom is always GOOD NEWS.

The thing is, we were born again to WALK with God – not just sit down comfortably inside the door! The bible was not written as a list of the things we are no longer allowed to do or participate in – it is about how dear we are to Him, and how important it is to Him that we choose to live like His kids. Father God does not have subtexts like we do – His aim is LOVE. When He asks us to obey Him, it is so that we can live in that love and freely give it away. That place is the safest place on this earth. 

Stuff will still happen, but we need to remember, a yielded soul is a catalyst. That soul changes everything around it.  When I choose to cling to what God Himself says, I am not denying reality — I am yielding to SomeOne, greater than I am. He is a far far greater reality. Almighty God made this world, so He knows our place in it. Let’s trust what He says over what I think, or you think, or even what Brother-I-know-everything thinks. We need to forgive him … and move on.

In years gone by, we used to sing a song called “Come and go with me to my Father’s house.” I loved the idea of living in my Father’s house … but sadly, after I went home, it seemed to me that I was leaving behind the loving fellowship, and prayers, plus power of the Word preached. It seemed like I was leaving that behind until next week. Then one day, it dawned on me that I could go to my Father’s house and STAY. What’s more I could choose to live FROM that Kingdom, not the one all around  me. Jesus came here to usher in the Father’s kingdom. Now I follow Him along the narrow way, and I live by faith, in His kingdom, here and now.  

When God told us to seek His kingdom first, it’s because the things we do are meant to come from our place in His kingdom. We live there now – we never have to leave. What’s more, we take His kingdom with US wherever we go! It all depends on the way we look at what was said, and our personal decisions to obey Him. And the Holy Spirit helps us with that too! I think we’ve been looking at many scriptures from a negative reinforcement point of view – instead of seeing these things as a glorious statement of our new position. 

120 people were transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit when the Holy Spirit came upon them, then they went on to live IN and FROM, God’s Kingdom. Their lives were now framed by it, and it occupied their thoughts, their actions. Everything they did was with God’s kingdom in mind. “Silver and gold have I none but such as I HAVE give I Thee.” (Acts 3:6) Peter was already living in that kingdom – so he could give the things of God’s kingdom away! All disciples now had it, and they took His kingdom wherever they went. Jesus Himself said: ‘…the Kingdom of God is among you.’ His kingdom is motivated and supervised by the Holy Spirit. 

What I want to say today is that we need to move away from the kind of thinking that God’s Kingdom is unavailable to us, unless we meet certain requirements. Jesus did that for us. So now we use our faith to live in the reality that God’s Kingdom is already here. It’s already IN you, and me. When we were born again, we left the kingdoms of this world behind, now we are in His kingdom seeking more and more of it. We’ve been taken out of the kingdom of darkness and transferred  into the Kingdom of His marvellous light. 

However a negative bias on any number of verses can change the way we apply them. What I’m talking about means we choose to walk away from vague possibilities into reality – we need to do whatever we can to use our faith. This is why using our power in His kingdom to try to get what WE want is a travesty! Aim at living in His kingdom where love prevails.

Most of us already have so much information about His kingdom, but just like the sensational headlines in the news, we are limited by another agenda. That agenda says, “I can’t change.” The question I want to ask today is: ‘Then why do we have the Epistles in our bible, if we can’t be changed, here and now. Why did Jesus preach change if it was unavailable until we die?’ Like Paul I want to say, “Not that I have l already attained this, but I press on toward the mark..” (Philippians 3:12) Our aims matter. When we surrender them to despair, or destruction we will be the losers.

Some things may seem to be difficult to us, but they are definitely not unattainable. “…Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26) Let’s learn to live from God’s kingdom. What does He say? What does He want from you and I right here, right now? We need to choose to move house and live our lives, from His kingdom, and see for ourselves what that looks like in real life. It’s all in the book. Bye. 👋

P3456 Fix your eyes on Jesus, not on the results.

/ DVH

“Jesus replied, This is the work (service) that God asks of you: that you believe in the One Whom He has sent [that you cleave to, trust, rely on, and have faith in His Messenger]…” John 6:29. Father God sent His Son here to us to save us. We believe that. The bible was not given to us to be nice stories and sentiments — it has been given to us to be a life-line, so we can negotiate the good times, bad times, pitfalls and difficulties of this life, still holding onto the GRACE God has given us. That Grace was released by His Son, Jesus Christ, and what He did.  

So when we start foundering on the sea of our sometimes difficult lives, that’s when we actively choose to hang on to our belief in the One Who God has given us. We need Him to save us from the things that could drown us and ruin our faith. The Lord Jesus doesn’t care how many times we need saving from our own misbeliefs, He will just keep doing what He does best, loving us, leading us and saving us.

Our part is to believe that He wants to help us be all we can be … that’s the key. Please don’t let the enemy throw up any disappointing times on the screen of your mind, when things appear to get worse. Instead, believe and focus on the ever-present Presence of God Himself, right here, right now. Standing there with you. That’s WHY Jesus came to be with us, and it is why He gave us the Holy Spirit – the same Spirit Who was IN Him.

Ask Him to help you get through whatever is going on.  It is human to ask for our difficulties to go away — do it! In the bible there were people Jesus fed, just because they needed food. But at the same time we need to plant our feet and make a quality choice that Jesus Himself will see us through whatever is going on, and we will come out the other side with our faith still intact, plus a testimony to the goodness of God. 

Many Christians set false finishing lines. Their aim is about their comfort here and now. We need to learn to remain steadfast, in the good times and bad, just like Jesus did. His eyes were fixed on the prize, His faith in God was steadfast. Jesus did not come just to do miracles. He came to manifest and glorify our Father in Heaven and fulfil His Father’s Word… and He came to save us. Let’s keep our faith steady in the knowledge that we are to stay fixed in what Jesus has already done. This life is not about whether we win or lose, it is about the One we choose to believe in, no matter what happens.

Almighty God Himself has asked us to believe in Jesus, and He told us that this is the way we serve Him. I would like to read the above verse in another version: “Then they ( asked Him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.” (V28 & 29) Believing in Jesus means we live our lives faithfully guided by what He said and did. The disciples wanted a method, but God gave them a PERSON to follow. We can still make that mistake today, we seek methods because methods are easier to follow. There is no method, we simply follow the Spirit of God, like Jesus did.

Following Jesus means we will give up anything in order to keep up with whatever He wants to do next. In order for the Head to help the Body, the head and the body have to be co-ordinated in their purpose. The Lord Jesus gave us signs – the purpose of a sign is it is like an arrow … it points somewhere. Now we are to live our lives pointing at God’s Love with the Holy Spirit’s help.

The verses right before V28,29 show us why Jesus said what He said: “Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for Me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”

At that moment in time the disciples were taken up by the miraculous free food, but Jesus didn’t focus on that, He used it as an example of our real target … eternity. “On earth, as it is in heaven.” Many people have used that scripture to say that nobody is sick in heaven, so that should be true down here. But the truest thing in Heaven, is that our God is forever glorious and He is still sitting upon His throne!! It is not about whether we have enough buns for our dinner! Our focus needs to rest on Oneness with Him, not just the stuff this life is made of.

Jesus is the best bread, He is everlasting! “Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35. Let’s stop labouring for the wrong food!  What happens here and now will pass away … our food needs to be like His, doing the will of the Father. Our eyes need to be fixed on Him, He started our faith and He will finish it. When we ‘seek His kingdom first, all those other things we need will be added unto us.’ Bye, blessings! 👋.

P3381 The Needy ones!   

/ DVH

“Jesus told them, “Go back and tell John what’s going on: The blind see, The lame walk, Lepers are cleansed, The deaf hear, The dead are raised, The wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side. “Is this what you were expecting? Then count yourselves most blessed!” Matthew 11:4-6. In the Good News version the last verse reads like this: ‘How happy are those who have no doubts about Me!”

I found this verse yesterday, when I was reading in Matthew. Jesus is reassuring John, who is nearly at the end of his ministry, that GOD HIMSELF IS NOW IN THE HOUSE!! Wow! You gotta love the sweetness of that. John can now go on into glory because his job is done. SomeOne else has come to totally fulfil and complete the foundation of repentance and transformation John laid. This man John had lived a solitary, straightened life and at the end of it, he pointed out and spoke about Jesus. Our Saviour has appeared, and He is preaching healing, deliverance, freedom and salvation for all. Even the most miserable among us. 

Jesus shows great compassion when He talks about the healing and restoration work that has already begun. Then He adds this wonderful sentence: “The wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side.”  That means so much to me. I love that the sick are healed, that is fantastic. Me too, please! But I’ve felt wretched, cast away, talked about behind my back, passed over, despised and ignored … even by members of my own family. It took me years to realise that I didn’t have to live with shame anymore. This verse reminds me that God is on the side of those people that the rest of the world would like to pretend don’t exist. 

I imagine that there are a lot of people reading this that have experienced incredibly difficult things, and for many of you it has been far worse than I can bear thinking about. But right now, let’s stop to look at John, who had been so brave, so heroic, so dedicated to God’s purpose that it affected the way he lived his life. Now, at the end of his time, he needed reassurance. It illustrates this man’s humanity, and God’s Grace toward him.

It is an interesting fact that no matter how spiritual someone looks, life can savagely kick them, and they don’t always deserve what they get. Some people have been severely persecuted for speaking truth, just like John! Some have called out sin where and when they saw it. What a blessing this little conversation is for all of us! Our Loving Heavenly Father overlooks no-one, even at the end of our earthly lives.

Meanwhile, for your information: wretched means … deeply afflicted, dejected, or distressed in body or mind: extremely or deplorably bad or distressing; in exile, a despised person. That sounds a bit like John’s life. Today, that’s what I briefly want to talk about. There are precious people all around us that this world wants to throw away. Plus the ones who have fallen so far down a hole they can no longer look up and see the light — they are too bowed down, and full of rejection and despair. Jesus dearly loves them, and God is on their side.

We are blessed to live on this side of Calvary and know that our sins were all thrashed into and onto Jesus’ body, soul and spirit, as He died a despised sinner’s death for us. He was our totally pure and innocent Saviour, Who practiced love wherever He went. Jesus didn’t deserve that punishment that was meted out on Him. But let’s never forget that Calvary was also a heavenly transaction. Everything Jesus did had an effect upon this world, and the next.

He didn’t just come to die for our sins … … thank God that He did that! He came to show us, in Person, what God’s Kingdom is supposed to look like. What it looks like right now where He is. We are His people. The people who re-present Him. A representative generally refers to something, or someone that acts on behalf of others, or serves as a typical example of a larger group. We are His people and we know our Saviour – we are here to do great exploits for His sake. That means we will see miracles, but it can also mean loving those who don’t, won’t, or can’t love us back!

You and I have been appointed by Jesus to be His hands and feet, and we have the honour of bringing our Father’s incredible love to one person at a time, as He leads us. We carry that love with us to the desperate, the lonely, the forsaken, the wretched ones of this world. Personally, I think we could find these people in the most peculiar places! In palaces, governments, offices, digging ditches, in prison, begging for food and water, stealing from others … many are in our schools. The people who have no hope. Some are quite obviously wretched, others have their pain and suffering well-hidden by bright fake smiles. Many people hide because otherwise their shame, or even their heartache can be seen.

Yet, like John, they are not only loved by our God, they are to be commended for surviving things we can’t even bear to think about. This world thinks it is terrible to be called wretched — but today I realised it is a beautiful thing. God dearly loves the wretched, the sick, the sinners, the lost, the unlovely, the silently suffering ones, THE NEEDY ONES … and He is on everyone’s side. Man is that a great sentence! Bye. 👋

P3375 Indiscriminate seed sowing!  

/ DVH

When hubby and I are on the road, we release the Lord’s seeds, everywhere! Things like bibles, books, prophetic paintings, prophetic words, Gospels and kids DVDs, bookmarks – with bible verses on the back, blankets, baby wraps, toiletries with a pass-it-on card inside … (We make our own). Compasses (we all get lost!), keychains, even a pair binoculars! We also pray for people.

The best thing is that we give away the good news, in person, one on one. The Lord knows what, where and how to get these things to give away. Meanwhile Father God is into bargains! He always knows the best place to buy stuff. He blows my mind – often! … Speaking of blowing, think of living like this as blowing on a dandelion clock – the seeds go everywhere.

Here’s why we choose to do it: “A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. And others fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when He had said these things, He cried, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Luke 8:5-8.

This sower sowed his seed anywhere, without any thought of the topography, the situation or location. If that seed ended up feeding the birds, so be it! If it ended up growing in a ditch, or on a rock, or amongst thorns … that man did not care. HIS AIM WAS TO GET THE SEED OUT THERE! That’s what we do, when we go on bible trips. I’ve never once seen anyone put whatever we give them into a bin, and very, very few have refused to take the bible. Funnily enough, whenever they’ve said no to the bible, they will often still take a bookmark. I think the Holy Spirit definitely has a cool stealth mode. There is a scripture on the back of all those bookmarks! 

We totally believe our Heavenly Father loves every single human being with the same undeserved generosity. He gives His love away for free, and He expects us to do the same. Look at the world we live in. It has been gloriously decorated with His love and creativity, and it is here for all of us to enjoy. Our world has all sorts of people in it. Some of them notice His handiwork, some don’t – but He is undaunted! He has left all this beauty out everywhere around us, as a sign that SomeOne bigger than we are, loves us. “If I go up to the heavens YOU are there, … If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, You are there.” Psalm 139. 

Anyone who has snorkelled, or swum in the ocean, or watched a National Geographic documentary, or seen any of the wonders of the deep, has been awestruck by what they’ve found, hidden in that water. Some people study the stars, others have become aware of the complexity of the world around us and study that. These things are God Himself waving at the world. He’s everywhere. In the gentle movement of a butterfly or the swaying of tall grasses. He even notices and counts all those little birds when they drop out of the sky. He can see YOU, because He sees everything!

The Lord once told hubby and I that whenever we meet someone, if they have a friend with them, then we are to give them both something. We are not to leave anyone out – that’s what God is like! Nobody gets left out. We give away stuff so that when we leave, that person has a love gift, a seed, from Jesus Christ Himself in their hands. That gift  is living proof that He knows them individually and cares about their lives. Jesus is still doing what He has always done, loving the person in front of Him.

Meanwhile, you would be amazed at how many people no longer read the bible. We’ve had people ask us: “What’s a bible?”  Boy do we love those questions!! Anybody can do what we do. It’s scary, but so worthwhile. Instead of leaving this stuff to the evangelist, go out and witness! Focus on the fact that our precious Lord Jesus wants to touch somebody and He wants to use you to do it. He’s like that. He loves interacting with people. Jesus often went off alone to pray and talk with His Father, but most of the time He lovingly shared Himself with everyone around Him.

Because we chuck seeds out everywhere, we often do not know anything about where they land and what happens next. It’s like we’ve chucked them in the air and left the landing bit with the Lord. We are just ordinary people. Some days things go well for us, and on others they don’t! My point today is don’t be stingy with the seed of His Word, spread it about. Love everyone around you. Please don’t pick and choose who to love, love everyone. It’s easier on your memory, trust me. 

It is a huge blessing to us to indiscriminately love others. It means we have made a choice to treat the person in front of us like they are the only person in the world, and we do and say whatever the Lord says to do and say. Leave behind any fake smiles, go outside, look around you, or read something in God’s Word that makes you happy and share that! That’s what we do. We spread around seeds from God’s kingdom, indiscriminately. After a while, it becomes who you are. Bye. 💕

P 3363 Forget material blessings.

/ DVH

Colossians 2:2,3,6,7,9. AMP. “[For my concern is] that their hearts may be] braced (comforted, cheered, and encouraged) as they are knit together in love, that they may come to have all the abounding wealth and blessings of assured conviction of understanding, and that they may become progressively more intimately acquainted with and may know more definitely and accurately and thoroughly that mystic secret of God, [which is] Christ (the Anointed One). In Him all the treasures of [divine] wisdom comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God) and [all the riches of spiritual] knowledge and enlightenment are stored up and lie hidden. …   … As you have therefore received Christ, [even] Jesus the Lord, [so] walk (regulate your lives and conduct yourselves) in union with and conformity to Him…. … Have the roots [of your being] firmly and deeply planted [in Him, fixed and founded in Him], being continually built up in Him, becoming increasingly more confirmed and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and abounding and overflowing in it with thanksgiving…  …  For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form [giving complete expression of the divine nature].”

Paul is carefully explaining that there are much better things to aim at than a ‘happy life with everything I want in it.’ That’s what this world is busy doing right now, scrabbling around trying to save money for the future, or simply make what they have go around. I’ve discovered that sometimes when we pray, we won’t always see the answer right away. Jesus is ‘drawing us after Himself so we can run together.’ He loves us! We are His joy... who you are gives our Heavenly Father great joy. He doesn’t see a failure, He just sees His family.

When our lives are rooted and grounded in what Jesus did, then material things become irrelevant. Personally, I’m grateful to have somewhere to live, a bed to sleep in, a chair to sit on, and a car to take bibles to far away places — but I wouldn’t give you tuppence for the extras that seem to occupy most of this world’s time. Those things get old or disappear or become obsolete. My greatest joy is to see God’s children prosper in their relationship with Him. And I love seeing my immediate family put the Lord first despite the difficulties they face. Who could possibly be richer than that?

Paul calls this kind of life, full of wealth and blessings. It can be our daily choice. We’ve been taught previously that once you choose to follow Jesus we will have a better life down here. Rhubarb. This isn’t heaven, we are living in enemy territory! The blessings Paul talks about are hidden inside his relationship with Christ. I’m not there yet, but I’m not giving up either! We need to choose to walk with Him, and let Him help us live our lives according to His Ways. God’s blessings are definite realities, but they will seem inconsequential to the people around us … until they need them.

Paul makes it clear that once we are saved, we need to pay even more attention to Jesus than we have ever done before. Why? God’s deep mysteries are hidden in Christ. Hidden means we gotta go look for them, it doesn’t mean they will automatically fall upon us. Investing in Christ is investing in eternity, and that’s way better than superannuation! Our inheritance comes from Him. We need to stop waiting for the pastor to give us a word and go and look for one in the bible for ourselves, plus find one for someone else! The Lord Jesus cares for each one of us, and He will provide whatever we need. But what if He doesn’t? Well, we really don’t need it then! God’s kingdom is about faith, not the stuff this world admires.

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.”  We can get daily caught up in wanting things, blessings — the so-called ‘good bits,’ but we can’t afford to skip over the prerequisite conditions. First we must seek His kingdom! Everything we will ever need is hidden in Christ – spiritual knowledge, life, healing, our daily bread, and we become His companions. Jesus is visible to us in the book and He walked the earth like we do! He didn’t have to pray down healing — He was healing. He didn’t have to pray down deliverance—demons couldn’t wait to get away from Him. If we aim at walking with Him day by day, then when we need it, wisdom will come. Why? Because we are walking with the Wisdom of God personified, that’s why.

We can’t afford to allow ourselves to be shallow-rooted plants, who are affected by our outward circumstances. Abiding means He is now our reference point, our life, our hope, our future, our everything. If He isn’t Who He says He is then we are sunk! That’s the kind of abiding that doesn’t have emergency contingencies. Of course we will make mistakes, but we have chosen to be honest about them. We own them, we repent and repair and move on again. The lumps and bumps are normal! This life is a journey, if you aren’t DEAD, you haven’t arrived at the destination yet. 

Our faith is designed to grow – it’s like a tree – it is meant to get bigger. Jesus’ kind of faith is more than the emergency exit button, that we try to press when thing get hard. While we are learning to walk with the Lord, our faith will expand. But it isn’t knowledge that expands it, it is living it out day by day, and making choices to trust Him. If we forget and wander off … well, you get the idea. Don’t let fruitlessness, or seeming  lack of wisdom scare you off. We can learn to depend upon Him, not our circumstances. Jesus is FOR each one of us and because He is FOR us who can be against us? He told us things would get difficult sometimes, it’s normal.

Our reactions can be changed by His Grace and His point of view. Forget material, physical blessings, our real riches are in Christ, go after them. He will blow your mind and enrich your life in ways you never even thought about. BTW, seeking doesn’t mean a mild curiosity – it took those three kings years to reach that stable! Bye. 👋

P 3355 What love can’t do.

/ DVH

Love can’t be an obligation, because when it is, it loses its power! Love won’t make us do anything – we must choose to apply ourselves and obey. I hear such lovely people – sincere saints – they are so sweet … yet they keep praying AMISS! They think they are being honest, but God’s kingdom coin of the realm, is LOVE. The only truth is HIS truth. 

People pray: “Dear Lord, please help me to obey You and love this or that person” Amen. Great prayer, sweet prayer… useless prayer! If I have just offended you, then please forgive me! But this kind of prayer is evasion. We wipe our hands and say: ‘Well, I’ve prayed, and now it is up to Him.’ Then we keep on doing the same old same old, grizzling behind people’s backs, listing their faults, keeping hatred alive. And we wonder why nothing changes. 

The kingdom of God does not work like that. Read the book. We are the people that His Son made free, and when we voluntarily give up that freedom to bless someone else, despite their behaviour toward us, we are acting like His kids. His kingdom will flourish within us. ‘I want to’ is not the same as ‘doing.’ It’s wish praying. Real prayer has legs, feet, arms, hands and heart. In order to SEE a difference, we must BEHAVE differently. 

We can’t know what loving our enemies looks like unless we choose to love those who despitefully use us. Loving our enemies is not about being fake … it is about stepping out in faith and living like Jesus said, despite our feelings. While we are concentrating on what others are doing our own hearts are at risk. Personally, I have found the way I treat other people changes the way they respond. But I must start from poverty of heart, and then do whatever He tells me to do. Love can’t and won’t make us. Almighty God will sometimes offend our minds to reach our hearts. 

Let’s look at Jonah, God told this prophet “Go to Ninevah.” Now Jonah had a fatal flaw, he hated Ninevites so he said “No!” And off he goes, on his …‘I’m running away from God tour’ – and he ends up on a ship that’s going to sink in a huge gale. He’s asleep at the bottom of the ship. There’s probably not much conviction there yet … eh? This is where Jonah begins to turn around, and God starts to teach him something …  Jonah’s NO! has consequences on other people’s lives! He is God’s man, the pivoting point. The crew of the ship will drown right along with him because of his disobedience.

When Jonah realises he is the cause of the situation, he selflessly volunteers to be thrown overboard. This has a huge  impact on the crew – they all get saved. Two things worth noting here:  we can mess things up so badly it looks like we have ruined other people’s lives. But our Saviour is a Redeemer and He works everything together for good. When we act according to His purposes, He releases His kingdom. He cares about everyone’s lives, even the people we don’t like, who have hurt us badly. God doesn’t take sides – He only has one side …HIS! His side is pure, right, just, and wise.

Now let’s look at Jesus Who tells His disciples to “Go and heal the sick, set the captives free, cleanse the lepers and raise the dead.’ These guys don’t know up from down, and the Lord just told them to do something they know they can’t do. They’ve seen Him do it, but that’s different. We can’t love other people without Him helping us any more than we can raise the dead. It’s ALL faith! The Kingdom comes wherever the King is welcome. What did the disciples have to do? They had to do more than pray – they had to GO and DO what Jesus said. He gave them a job, and they had to go and do it. Our ‘job’ is to love others, including our enemies.

Everything rests on how much we trust Jesus’ WORD. We show Him we trust Him when we live this life the way He told us to. And when God says to forgive people, it’s not a suggestion, He’s teaching all of us HOW to enter into His Kingdom and LIVE THERE. We can’t just pick and choose what we want to do. In His Kingdom, people don’t hold grudges. Unforgiveness, disobedience and rebellion cannot inherit the kingdom of God. 

Repent, ask Him to show you what you need to DO, and obey, and then leave it with Him. It’s a choice. It is not about giving other people permission to sin, and it is about not letting their sin cause a response in us. If someone in your family of origin, or friends  used to beat the living daylights out of you, or abused you physically, or derided you with words – you probably won’t much feel much like loving them. We can’t afford to act on our feelings. Almighty God is always doing more than one thing at a time. While He is transforming us through our obedient actions, He is also reaching into someone else’s life because our obedient actions release HIS GRACE.

Acting on what the King says ushers in His kingdom. Love can’t make us choose to change. We need to yield to the Lord and act. Let’s choose His Way, and cherish it – it won’t just fall on us. We simply can’t wait for the Lord to do what He has already told US to do. Our faith has to have biblical action. We get a pure heart when we choose to have our old ways renewed, but He won’t make us- it’s our choice. Bye. 👋

P 3339 Let the children come …

/ DVH

“When Jesus saw what was happening, He became indignant with His disciples and said to them, “Let all the little children come to Me and never hinder them! Don’t you know that God’s kingdom exists for such as these?” Mark 10:14 TPT. I’ve taught this text in Sunday School. The Lord’s exhortation is so precious, He was never too busy for little ones. We had a couple of lovely times with tiny children when we were away, and I thought I would share them here, today. Bearing in mind, that when marriages don’t work out, the kids will suffer as well. As a child I had no father, I know how much Daddys are needed.

Our first encounter was with a young mother and her little girl, who is about 2 years of age. We think they had been homeless, but then the mother found a job for a short while, running the motel. Unfortunately when we met them, that job was about to run out. Hubby always takes a bag of goodies for people, so he took one and a lovely book for a little one. This series talks about Who God is, how He made the world and how He loves children. It’s just right for little ones. 

So hubby gave the little girl one of those books, and the child was so delighted she ran to our door. Her mummy said she could give me a hug and, I have to say, it was the loveliest hug I have had in years. She danced off holding the colourful book beaming all over the place. I cried. Little ones today often want this expensive thing or that, and this dear little girl was so thrilled with an ordinary colourful book! I’m praying for her and her mummy that God will land them in a safe place. People don’t always tell us their stories, and we are just happy to help however we can.

The second incident involved a miracle. OK, many people might not call it that, but they are allowed to be wrong! The place we stayed in was attached to the owner’s garage, and there was a little boy, about 3 years old … and his little brother, who wasn’t walking yet. The boys were outside with their dad raking up the dead leaves. You get a lot of dead leaves in autumn! The child informed us he was going to be a gardener when he grew up! I must say, he did a fair job of sweeping and raking up leaves for a little guy.

The Lord reminded me of this series of children’s books we had brought with us, so hubby dug about in the car and came up triumphantly holding the right bag. I sat down with the Lord asking Him which ones He wanted us to give the two children. My intention was to find two books, one for him and one for his little brother, but I especially wanted pictures with gardens in them, for the 3 year old. I found a couple, there was one I thought would be suitable for a infant, and then I just picked up an odd extra one just to be sure. Hubby went off to give the gifts we always bring with us to bless our hosts. 

He came back beaming. Get this — it turned out the eldest boy had been collecting this whole series, and he lacked two books. Those two books we gave him were the only ones the parents couldn’t find for him anywhere! Of all the books we carry, the Lord had highlighted the two this little boy wanted. The ‘extra’ one I tucked in, ‘just in case’ it was not  needed, the child already had that one.. He was so delighted, apparently Daddy was told to read them both at bedtime. I just marvelled at the Lord’s heart toward little children. We had over thirty copies of these books from the series, yet God Himself picked the only two this child wanted, just to bless him. 

That is so like Jesus! He does not need a brass band, He loves to do things quietly, and secretly to bless us. The boy’s parents didn’t appear to have a living faith, they had collected the books because the little boy liked them so much, but they were very interested in what we were doing.

Last one – not quite the same as the other two, but it shows the Lord’s provision for a grown man who has a daughter he doesn’t see much. This one is fun, but it is bittersweet when you think about the pain of the child and the father. Previously, in the car, I had told hubby that he was going to meet a man in this place – most refuges only have women in charge for obvious reasons – and that he should give this man a compass. I was so sure about what the Lord had said! So hubby rolls up with our packets of blankets and …. a man greeted him at the door. It turns out they did have a man there … just one!

Compasses make a great illustrative gift for people who feel lost. Hubby brought this man outside to meet me, because he was thrilled that the Lord was right. I, on the other hand was pretty tired by now so I just blurted out: “God says you need a compass!” The young man stepped back when I said it, and his eyes filled with tears. Then he nodded. “I do!” He said. The Lord really impacted him. Eventually he said that he would take it with him when he picked his daughter up after school, so they could enjoy it together.   

Jesus told us to let the children come to Him, however, it was a great surprise to me to realise that we can help children come to Him simply by giving them something as simple as a book designed to speak to them. Bye 👋.