God’s plan

P 3491 God has a bigger plan for your life. 

/ DVH

Over the centuries, the church has progressively lost God’s plan. Today we are far too busy counting who belongs to our little group and who doesn’t. Jesus’ last resting place on earth was a tomb, and normal living people don’t live in tombs, if they can avoid it! A tomb is a jail unless you break out of it. The Body of Christ has been held captive for far too long in a tomb. We’ve been fragmented and separated from one another by rules and laws and opinions. Even today, we are still straining out gnats and letting through camels… and our inaction is one of those blooming camels! Tombs are only good for dead things! 

Father God loves to bless His kids, however blessing us is not all He wants from us. When we make our Heavenly Father into SomeOne Who is merely here to help us, we are reducing the power of Calvary. Our Father’s plan is so much bigger than a cross or a tomb. God made room for all of His glory to descend upon all human flesh. (Acts 1:8.) We’ve proven, over the past 2000+ years we cannot transform ourselves into vessels fit for the Master’s use. We need to be familiar with, and walking in His Grace and His Way of love, in order to walk with the Holy Spirit. This kind of walking changes us. You can’t walk with Jesus and be selfish. The two things are incompatible.

You may have noted that I hardly ever talk about when I think Jesus is coming back, I have other things to do. I don’t talk about it, because I want to be too busy doing what He sent me here to do, until that comes! If we think that He is coming soon, then we could easily slip into simply waiting for Him to come, and bunkering ourselves down, inside what we already believe. Instead of pressing on, under His guidance. There is more of Him for us to know this side of heaven. There’s far deeper reconciliation between people as well as denominations. Not just words, but true heart reconciliation, and we get to bring it with us – everywhere we go.

Just because we know the Lord will come back, that does not mean now we can lay back and wait, simply because we are all safe, bound for glory — singing happy songs, week by week, in our churches. There is such an urgency in the Spirit for us to move, individually, and corporately. That will be hard. It seems we’ve all been too busy building a life outside of Christ. “When Christ, Who is our life, appears …” Colossians 3:4. Thoughts like these should be uppermost in our minds. “Or do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?” 2 Corinthians 13:5.

There has never been this many bible-believing Christians in the whole of history. There are a billion of us, and approximately 8.32 billion human beings altogether. That means you and I have approximately 8 and a third people each! Sadly nearly all of us are leaving the work He gave us to do, to someone else – like a pastor, prophet, someone with a healing gift or teacher. Maybe we avoid witnessing because it makes us feel uncomfortable – it was more than uncomfortable on that cross.

We must learn to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading. This means our flesh has to die, in order for the Holy Spirit to flourish in us. Prayer is great – do it! But let your prayers lead your feet into action. Live for Jesus, let everything else that wants to capture your attention, fade away. 

The Lord wants us to be pressing in and pressing on, not just floating about – waiting to be rescued from this problem and that situation. The disciples died thinking Jesus was going to come back any minute for them. He did come for them – however, they still died waiting, first! We can spend a lifetime trying to figure out when He is coming back, when Jesus clearly said “No man knows the hour etc!”  Let’s buy back the days while we can!

This world is SICK, and sometimes Christians are contributing to it. We can’t get along with our neighbours, and we barely manage emergency compassion, let alone living a life of love. Father God has done everything He can to reconcile mankind back to Himself, as well as reconcile us back to each other. He is totally committed. Are we? Jesus Himself, handed this ministry over to us, and gave us  the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is not here so we can speak in tongues, or feel good … He’s our Empowerer! Doing things His way will change our lives.

Today, in our world, there are Christians who have lost everything they have, family, friends, a way of life, a place in society … all this and more, simply because they’ve chosen to follow Jesus. Now they live their lives standing on what Jesus said. They don’t have our Western choices, they live their new life wholeheartedly, because they value what they’ve been given. These people know what cost is. Often we think cost is about somebody being rude to us, and we refrain from  punching them in the face.

Our spiritual enemies look harmless. However, they want to woo, win and deceive us by encouraging us to do whatever we want whenever we want it. Encouraging us to pitch a tantrum if we can’t! We cannot afford to leave His work to someone else. You and I know people no-one else knows. Father God has a bigger plan for your life. You may speak to thousands, or only speak to one – but He has a plan for you. Let’s stop hypothesising about when He is coming back, and begin to live this life as laid-down lovers of Jesus.

We are wasting the time God has given us, right here and now. Christianity is not an add on, a PS to our real life. Unless Jesus Himself is our real life we are in big trouble, spiritually. I plan to follow Jesus … so wherever He goes, I go. Bye. 👋.

P 3418 Father God has a plan.    

/ DVH

“For if you choose self-sacrifice, giving up your lives for My glory, you will discover true life. But if you choose to keep your lives for yourselves, you will lose what you try to keep.” Luke 9:24 TPT.  This verse is a revealed part of Almighty God’s plan for our lives. Iron sharpens iron, one scripture throws light upon another. We must eat it all, not just the bits we like, or think we need.

The life of God within us is designed to grow, flourish and prosper. “Beloved, I pray that in every way you may succeed and prosper and be in good health [physically], just as [I know] your soul prospers [spiritually].” 3 John 1:2. But if we happen to be ill or infirm, that is not necessarily an indication that something is wrong with our souls. We need to look at this verse very carefully. This is something John prays for the people he is writing to —he is praying a blessing over them and us.

I’ve watched dear Christian friends nearly turn themselves inside out trying to find out the reason they are sick. Let’s be quite clear – nobody likes being sick! But sadly sometimes our focus can shift over onto the illness and being healed, and it moves away from the Lord Himself. It is as if we feel God is withholding health from us and we don’t know why. I don’t know why either, but I do know God will not withhold any good thing from us! His plans are beyond our imaginings. My own personal experience cannot ever negate what He says — so I must be thinking amiss. 

The thing is, we need His definition of good not ours. Let’s remember it pleased our Heavenly Father to crucify His dear Son on our behalf. That was God’s plan! Imagine doing that with your child for billions of totally ungrateful people who don’t love You or appreciate You, and now they use His Name as a swear word! If our focus goes off following Jesus and being grateful for all He has done for us and given to us … we may easily start rabbiting around in the corners of our minds looking for reasons why we are not well. We can lose our peace! Father God does not mean for us to live in confusion and conflict – He has provided a way through. A different way to think.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” Psalm 127:1a. Unless the Lord tells you how to chase that bunny rabbit of healing, you are missing out on the best part. The best part is always getting closer to Jesus! The bible says He is close to the broken-hearted. That’s God’s plan. Please don’t let what you don’t have, steal what He has already given you. Instead, start thanking Him for what you can see you have.

Part of His plan includes my obedience, if He says ‘come,’ I come — if He says ‘go’ I go. When we came to know Jesus, He saved us. Yet it is far too easy to forget that we gave our lives … this life, right here and now … AWAY. My only real sane choice is to obey, which means my feelings of inadequacy and helplessness aren’t the only reality. The way I regard what Jesus does in my life, is my gift to Him. I choose to yield to His plan, believe in His goodness. That doesn’t rely upon circumstances, it relies upon Who He is.

I know, that you know, that there is no sickness in heaven. Our problem is, we tell ourselves that being well will make it easier for us to serve Him, so we need to get well so we can serve Him better. That’s a terrific argument. But there are times when we need to focus on loving and serving Him, no matter what else is going on. You or I might meet someone in the next hospital bed who needs to hear from Jesus, and that person won’t go anywhere near a church. Paul was yielded to the Lord, yet he still went into jail – unfairly! But then he ministered to the guards and wrote those letters that still bless us today.

Let’s look at the people Jesus openly admired, because they show us His Ways aren’t like ours. The Lord honoured a tiny little old lady who gave two pennies. (Mark 12, Luke 21) There was a non-believer who knew more about submission and faith than most Christians do, and Jesus praised that man for it. (Matthew 8:9) And a fallen woman who washed His dirty feet with her tears. (Luke 7) Plus a tree-climbing tax collector who was so changed he gave away more than the law demanded as recompense for his thievery. (Luke 19). Not to mention a leprous man from another country who knew how to say thank you. (Luke17).  The Lord doesn’t think like we do.

Those people in the above scriptures didn’t know much about anything but pain, poverty, isolation, suffering and rejection, but they knew they needed Jesus’ help and they submitted themselves to Him. “My (Our) help comes from the Lord Who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:2) Choosing Him above the things in this life that will make our lives easier, is always the right choice. The Lord didn’t promise us, sunshine, lollipops and rainbows – He promised He would be with us in trouble.

Because we love the Lord we can have an abundance of His Love, wisdom, peace and joy in our lives in spite of our circumstances. Believe me, TRUE PEACE is better than a Maserati! He’s always doing something, we just don’t always know what it is. Meanwhile I often think we undervalue the importance of having enough. Father God always has a plan, that plan is to bring out the best in us and the people who live around us. It’s a good plan! Bye 👋 .

P 3347 What can I do?

/ DVH

What can I do? We can all see our role in God’s plan as essential. Because the Lord loves people, our main focus has to be outward, toward people. Praying and giving are both great – do it! But remember, now you and I are His temple, we take Him with us everywhere we go. So interacting with others is our goal, we dare not live solitary, individually based lives any longer. Christians need to live their lives looking outward. 

My daughter-in-love teaches Religious Instructions in a local school. Her little group of multi-denominational RI teachers have had to lobby to stay in the school they minister in. They fight yearly, for the right to teach these kids. Not with bats, rocks or guns, but with loving insistence, and perseverance. Children are the church’s future, they are arrows we fire into a tomorrow we may never see. There are at least two generations in our country that know nothing,  or very little about Jesus.

It is extremely important to use the bible wisely – not like a literary weapon to wallop people. The book is a healing balm, an overflowing ointment that excels at providing human beings with our Father’s love. It helps us gain wisdom, and learn how to love others. It is filled with His life, and more life! It isn’t a bat or a club. Battering people with God’s word makes them angry, and afraid of it. And if they know about the Lord, they blame Him for all the bad things that happen. 

The people in this world don’t know God is good. I don’t know about you but I still find myself on every single page. It is a powerfully underestimated living book. The Holy Spirit speaks through it. It is a book about the goodness of Lord and His Ways and it is our joy to make His Word available to other people, as well as demonstrate what is in it.

So, let’s recap a bit, we could teach RI, or Children’s church, or produce plays, lead singing groups, etc. but whatever it is, please don’t limit yourself to doing these things only inside your own church. We need to be visible, yet we are starting to look like an independent nation in the middle of our societies — instead of the sweet flavour of God. Churches can seem so intimidating to people who have never been inside one – the people inside know the rules – but strangers can be frightened by what we may do next!  

It is good to remember, that the Body of Christ has all the spiritual H20 — and everyone outside Her is slowly dying of thirst! Let’s deliberately make plans to get the Water of Life, and His Word, outside our churches and into our local communities. We cannot influence others unless we are face to face with them, loving on them. What we do is a response to His love toward us – He came here ‘while we were yet sinners.’ So because we know His love and we love Him, our Christian faith should never slide onto the back burner of our minds. After all, we’ve never left His mind! When our faith slips into the background, it can quietly leave, and we won’t even notice. That’s a tragedy. 

When we went away this last time, the people we met thanked us so much for coming and bringing aid, they were very grateful. But we also had a number of people who are working for the government with very little support because the needs have increased exponentially — they thanked us over and over again with tears, simply because we came. “I was in prison and you visited me.” Matthew 25:36.They were blessed because they felt we were showing solidarity with them in their bottomless coal-faced interaction with individual heartache and pain.

Prayer should be the beginning of anything we do but let’s remember that Jesus prayed on His own time. He publicly and privately ministered wherever He could. This world has become so incredibly busy, it seems we are all afraid of losing what we have. So we work harder and harder in order to maintain a lifestyle where God is a PS, and not our main purpose. Our trust in His provision for His children only seems to show up when we lack stuff.

I have always thought that buying a bunch of single gospel  booklets – see above – to give away when we can. Most of the people we talk to on the road, haven’t ever read the bible. We have even had some of them ask us: “What’s a bible?” Being generous to strangers gives them an opportunity to learn about His love for them. We give away individual gospels and they cost around $A2.50 each. The real point is to give others something to hold onto to remind the person God loves them. What can we do? Live the life Jesus died to give us. Bye 👋. 

“But how can people call for help if they don’t know who to trust? And how can they know Who to trust if they haven’t heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? That’s why Scripture exclaims, A sight to take your breath away! Grand processions of people telling all the good things of God! But not everybody is ready for this, ready to see and hear and act. Isaiah asked what we all ask at one time or another: “Does anyone care, God? Is anyone listening and believing a word of it?” The point is: Before you trust, you have to listen. But unless Christ’s Word is preached, there’s nothing to listen to.” Romans 10:14.

P 3322  What’s so important about obedience? 

/ DVH

“For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command: Obey Me, and I will be your God and you will be My people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you.” Jeremiah 7:21-23.

“Why are you so polite with Me, always saying ‘Yes, sir,’ and ‘That’s right, sir,’ but never doing a thing I tell you? These words I speak to you are not mere additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundation words, words to build a life on.” (Jesus is speaking.) Luke 6:46.

Without obedience, our foundation in the Lord can be a bit wonky. He will never let go of us, but if we ignore Him and don’t obey Him, we are letting go of our relationship with Jesus. It really does matter if the Lord tells you to go and fix things with this or that person. Obedience is not just witnessing about Him, it is the every day practical submission we carry out as we deliberately obey His Words. The Lord Jesus loves us so much — He doesn’t want us to carry those things around inside us. That’s a burden that needs to be thrown down at the foot of the cross. He carried it for us, so we don’t have to.

When it comes to forgiveness there are no exceptions.  God tells us these things for our own good, not because He is a control freak. Why would we choose to walk around in satan’s backyard when God has already picked out His pathway for us to walk on? Unforgiveness nails one foot to the floor, and then we go round and round talking about it – trying to figure out what to do next about that person. Ruminating over imaginary conversations that never work out IRL. Instead, go and ask for the Lord and your abuser’s forgiveness for ‘not loving your enemy and not doing them good.’ It’s probably best not to use those exact words BTW. Remember – healing often needs time – and forgiveness sets me free. 

God’s plan for us is a plan for our good, it includes righteousness, peace, love and JOY, as we walk with the Holy Spirit. He has plans to give us a hope and a future. We can short-circuit His processes when we choose not to obey Him, and our foundations will rock and creak. That’s because they are not fixed on what Christ already did. Jesus did what He did so we can have the freedom and grace to forgive others and live free from all kinds of angst and fear.

Forgiveness is not about giving permission for someone to keep tormenting you. Instead it teaches us to speak one of Almighty God’s languages. Some things work so much better when they are a fixed part of our lives, and obedience and forgiveness are two of them. Jesus forgave us. He didn’t just forgive the men who killed Him – those words from the cross have echoed down the centuries and provided access for us here and now. Forgiveness is a lifestyle choice not an optional extra. 

When we live in unforgiveness, we are rebelling against the very thing that the Lord came here to do for US. Living like that will expose us to self-deception. His blood is our permanent refuge, so put the past under His blood. I don’t care what the person who is still hurting you did. You need to be free of it.  Freedom doesn’t always come when the other person acknowledges their sin – it comes when we choose to put our focus on Him. If you don’t put those carelessly repeated actions down and walk away it will strangle your own faith.

You don’t have to like people to forgive them. And the bible doesn’t say “feel like it” – it just says do it! Remember love is a choice not a feeling. We put our hearts into compromising positions when we harbour unforgiveness. Please remember there are often a lot of things we don’t know about that other person that could be causing them to behave the way they do. Plus I have noticed that when two people collide, one of the best ways of finding resolution is for one of them to change the way they respond to any oppositional stimulus. Be that person – the peace-maker.

I have forgiven a number of people a great deal of manipulation, hurt and vicious behaviour, some of which was deliberately malicious and some of it was unwitting. Some have even insisted that I vindicate their behaviour … but I declined, because their behaviour is not my responsibility. I refuse to take somebody else’s response into account, or let it influence my own actions, as I continue to move forward toward Him. 

If I need protection from an aggressor then the Lord will tell me to avoid them. He has told me to “leave now,” when I was in danger of being hurt again. At the same time, I’ve learnt some things can’t be easily resolved. They need REST, not instant RESOLUTION. Forgive, and then let Jesus do what only He can do. At the same time resist the temptation to hold a grudge. If it comes up again then I forgive again, and give it to back to Him again. We forgive others because God says so. We do it because He told us to do it. It becomes so much easier to do the things He asks of us, when we choose to obey Him. That’s why forgiveness is foundational in its importance. Bye👋

P 3153 Hope is a process.

/ DVH

Romans 5:3-5: “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, HOPE. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, Who has been given to us.” Learning to walk in HIS hope is a process which is girded and birthed by character, perseverance, and suffering. I want to break it down further today so we can all begin to understand a little bit about the process. 

First of all, here comes everyone’s fav subject …Suffering: ‘the state of undergoing pain, distress, or hardship‘. This stuff happens to everyone. For most of us the trial begins when we are still tiny, while we are being born. Giving birth is no fun for the mother, but it certainly isn’t too much fun for the infant either! Just imagine, if you will, what it would be like if your nice comfy house starts to shrink, and the goal of that shrinkage is to squ-ee-ze you out! Just like toothpaste out of a toothpaste tube. Eventually, you arrive at the exit only to find you barely fit through it, head first. No fun there!

Actually, suffering is not a fun word – at all. It brings up images we want to quickly forget. People daily suffer in many ways – mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. But right now, I want to be clear …this is also the God-kissed place where our journey into hope begins! Jesus started there! If you are suffering at this very moment, I want you to know that I am deeply sorry terrible things are happening to you. But please, do your best to remember you are on a personal journey into HOPE. Suffering is part of a process, it is not the end result of your journey. 

It is important that we understand that we are going to need character development to get through this process, otherwise we will soon get to disappointment and despair! Just like our mythical infant, that exit seems to get smaller. Good time to stop and remind ourselves that the Lord knows what we can, or can’t do. It’s a trust issue. It has taken me a while to learn that you can suffer and still live a joyful life!

This next step is part of moving on through this process — it’s a time of squeezing called perseverance. We get perseverance when we believe God is good, no matter what is going on around us and IN us and we choose to keep right on going with Him. Whether things change immediately or not. Perseverance means:  persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.

Let’s look at prayer as an example …“Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” Luke 18:1. Why must we persist? Because God is not a vending machine, that’s why. Our interaction with Him IS part of this process. We need His help, to cope with birthing His hope into our lives. That whole process changes us. It means we choose to stop to pray, and we will learn humility as we do it. Bonus buy. Perhaps you are starting to catch on to the fact that this particular assembly line includes some pretty harsh realities. YES. But having Jesus’ hope IN us will not disappoint us!

The word character means — the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. After we’ve decided to follow Jesus, we will learn to pray that our character will become like His character.  Perseverance produces character, which is the ability to “hold please,” in the middle of chaos. Cultivating hope in God’s goodness leads us into taking bigger faith steps.

This life is not meant be easy, and by now we have caught on that we are going somewhere, and that somewhere is going to be so much better than the place we started — or even the place we are squished into right now. We will begin to understand that HOPE is worth having! The light at the end of the tunnel is no longer an oncoming train, instead it is the end of a production line that brings us closer to Jesus and our God-chosen purpose in this life. 

“During the days of Jesus’ earthly life, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him…” Hebrews 5:7-9. Did you get that? I bet you missed it! Jesus was heard by His heavenly Father – but the answer was NO! This is an important factor in our journey toward hope, when we learn that we don’t know the BEST answer, we only want the immediate one. 

God has a different end-game from what is! His end-game benefits everyone, not just ME. Christ’s life and death shows us God’s ways clearly, and we need to remember that the cross seemed to make no earthly sense, it only made sense on the other side of it. To the disciples the cross was the end of the world but in God’s way, it was the beginning of a glorious new way to live.  Our plans are not even remotely like His plans, because our ways of thinking, doing and being, are not yet His ways. However, the point is — this journey into hope helps us to cultivate His ways. In God’s plan —suffering leads us into HOPE. In our world, suffering leads to despair. 

We cannot arrive at hope when we only have an earthly investment – gaining hope is a transformational process. Today, we are being birthed, by the Holy Spirit, into a whole other reality … Heaven’s reality. It can be painful sometimes, but this pain has a purpose–our transformation! Because we know JESUS we can always get to HOPE, and it will not disappoint us — because JESUS IS our hope! Bye. 👋

P 3126 Get rid of unrealistic expectations.

/ DVH

I lived the major part of my Christian life full of unrealistic expectations. This went on for a very long time. I thought I needed a  transforming touch from the Holy Spirit, but no matter where I went, nothing changed permanently. I always enjoyed the experience, but nothing changed for me until I took His Word seriously. It has taken me years to learn that a default approach to my relationship with the Lord was not part of God’s plan. 

I discovered that most Christians were like me – not like my favourite teachers, preachers and authors! The majority of the brethren were struggling too. That didn’t mean we were getting it wrong – it meant that our Precious Father wanted to be closer to US, personally. Getting a touch was wonderful, but in any relationship – the best solution to distance – is time and deliberate devotion. Finally, I realised that my future lay in whatever He wanted to personally say to me, day by day. 

Almighty God wants us to seek Him – that’s all over the book! And this will involve each one of us making an effort to prioritise Him, and contributing more than just a cursory nod to Who He is. When you have a busy life, it is so much easier to let someone else who has made all that effort, speak to you. However, it is so wonderful when we realise God really does know MY name, and He wants to personally interact with me, and speak to me, every day through His Word.

Inspiring podcasts are great, watch them. Christian books can encourage us, read them. However, we already have the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’s guidance and Their promise to help us personally. Not to mention the bible itself! To be honest, I think that many authors only seem to write about the good bits in their lives. They write about successes and their own personal victories. The hard bits often only come up when they can show us how it brought them to victory! YOU are not a failure in God’s eyes – and His eyes are the only ones that count.

Let’s participate in, and praise Him for our very own personal victories. Those victories will be hard-fought but worth every second of our time! Someone else’s successes are no help at all when stuff is flying at us, and we feel like we are drowning. We need to see God at work in our own lives like David did. “But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.”1 Samuel 17: 34-36. David made a scary decision based on his own previous experiences – he had a personal victory to draw upon.

Our daily focus belongs to the Lord Himself. Who He is. What He has done. What He is still doing. What He will do. Other people’s testimonies can help to lift us up when we feel flatter than a cane toad hit by a lorry — but we too can get squashed in many ways, especially when other people appear to cope with their spiritual lives better than we do! Don’t lose heart, your faith is SO precious to Him. The Holy Spirit Himself has already provided us, in the bible, with all kinds of people whose stories and insights, have survived mankind’s whimsy and fashion’s dictates.  

Let’s look at Daniel 11:32. It is an interesting discourse about what happens to God’s people who like their ears tickled by foreign Kings with an agenda.“With smooth words [of flattery and praise] he will turn to godlessness those who [are willing to] disregard the [Mosaic] covenant, but the people who [are spiritually mature and] know their God will display strength and take action [to resist].” 

The way for us to be able to resist our enemy is to KNOW OUR GOD, for ourselves – like Daniel and David did. We must become single-minded. An archangel came to Daniel after an elongated period of prayer, in chapter 10, verse12. “Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.”This shows us that GOD HEARS OUR PRAYERS … but … we are all in a war! An archangel had come to encourage Daniel, and prophesy about the future. He tells Daniel that God has got the situation, the trouble will come to an end.

This mighty angel concludes by saying this 12:3-5: “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.”  My last point today is this: troubles, trials and difficulties are part of following Jesus. (John 16:33) But we dare not allow other people to steal away our own personal hiding place. JESUS is that hiding place! We need to know and trust Him, so we can run to Him, in any disaster, pain or suffering that seems to want to drown us. 

These two men of God didn’t just have to deal with their situations, they had to learn to deal with themselves, then their responses led them into a deeper relationship with God Himself. To live like that we will have to prioritise what God says. The Lord does not always want to take us out of trouble, instead He wants us to learn how to go through it and come out the other side, unscathed! Bye. 👋

P 2989 Use your inheritance wisely.

/ DVH

We all understand the concept of our salvation — Jesus came and chose to die, and as a man He became our sin substitute at Calvary. It was an exchange, our sin for His purity. Because of the incredible Grace Jesus released, we now have full access to our Father, God. We have been freed from the clutches, the seduction, and the appeal of sin. We are so free now we can choose not to sin! While the Lord Jesus was on earth, He did not sin, in thought, attitude, or actions—and He is our example of how to walk with the Holy Spirit — Who knows the Way through anything!

This morning as I was thinking about the magnitude of what happened for our sake – I saw a different kind of parallel between the story of the Prodigal Son and what Jesus did for us. And, most of all, I saw the Body of Christ’s voluntary response to that gift. I understood how easily that incredible generosity and love can be abused.

In the story of the Prodigal Son, the younger brother goes to his father and demands his inheritance. Then he goes off and does whatever he likes with what he was given. Enter my point for today …this young man does not value what he was given to him, even though it was not his right to have it.  His father was still alive!! Instead he took his inheritance, and thoughtlessly squandered it. Using it to fashion his life the way he wanted it to be without a thought of the cost to his father!

I think this is a problem when we become Christians. Because we live in such a materialistic, hedonistic world, we start to devalue what we have been given. Just because it was free that does not mean it was cheap! It’s a perception problem. Our inheritance belonged to Jesus — He gave it to us, through what He did for us. Sadly, we often use our inheritance to live like everyone else around us, and thereby misuse it. What we’ve been given was incredibly costly. At the same time, we know this inheritance  belongs to everyone, so we need to pass on what we now know to the people we meet. They are the legal recipients of this treasure too! God reconciled them to Himself in Christ.

We can carelessly live ignoring that the point of Christ’s death was total transformation, not just freedom. I am not denying we want to avoid sin … me too! But we can end up misusing what we have been given, simply by living like everyone else around us. That is not what Calvary’s exchange was for! It wasn’t only given to take sin away, and reconcile us back to our Father — it was to transform us into someone who is just like Jesus. We are to live for Him now. We’ve been saved to live to love others, so now we tell them the good news that God’s Will included them!

Let’s stretch the Prodigal Son parable a little further, and take a look at the Older Brother. The supposed good guy. The one who always did whatever he was supposed to do. He was not subject to the same temptations as his brother. His temptation was way more subtle. He too, had access to a gladly given inheritance, but instead of enjoying what he had, he was living his life trying to earn his way. He was not living his life gratefully. He too, was a son and heir, all His father had belonged to him.

My point is that neither one of these young men had  comprehended what they were given. The inheritance they were supposed to gain after their father’s death, was free and clear. It was already theirs by right of birth. But the older brother thought that because he was the good son, he had earned special privileges.

The younger son finally caught a glimpse of what he had done, as he lived alongside the sinful members of this world, doing whatever he pleased. He saw he had laid aside the privilege of His rightful place. When we ignore God’s plan for our lives we are like the Prodigal. Like greedy children we take what we want – the freedom to choose – and ignore the privilege and responsibility of what we have been given.

We will never understand what we have been given if we think we’ve earned it because living like a Christian is so much hard work. Both of these young men’s attitudes are wrong, and neither one should govern our lives now. What we have been given is a gift. It was not given based on attitudes or actions, it was given because the Giver is mind-bogglingly generous! Our inheritance demands a respectful response, because SomeBody else paid for it! 

Almighty God has given us Christ’s position of purity, innocence and cleanliness before Him, in exchange for our previous sinful way of living. It is free, and undeserved.  If Jesus had not come and died in our place there would not be an inheritance for anyone. But God did not punish His only beloved Son so we could be free to go and skip through the daisies doing whatever we like, because now we have a get-out-of-jail free card!  

Everything we have depends on our Father’s generosity. We need to use our inheritance wisely – by gratefully living like Jesus would in this world. We must become His Sons and Daughters who value what we’ve been given, and tell everyone else what He has done for them. Bye 👋

P 2983 We have a Friend.

/ DVH

“And in a similar way, the Holy Spirit takes hold of us in our human frailty to empower us in our weakness. For example, at times we don’t even know how to pray, or know the best things to ask for. But the Holy Spirit rises up within us to super-intercede on our behalf, pleading to God with emotional sighs too deep for words. God, the searcher of the heart, knows fully our longings, yet He also understands the desires of the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit passionately pleads before God for us, His holy ones, in perfect harmony with God’s plan and our destiny. So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together for good, for we are His lovers who have been called to fulfil His designed purpose.”Romans 8:26-28 TPT. Prayer is our investment in someone else’s life.

I do love the way Paul says “at times we don’t know how to pray…” He only wrote half of the books in the New Testament!! I feel so much better!  I don’t know how to pray most of the time. I have to ask the Holy Spirit ‘please show me how to pray about this situation.’ And sometimes I ask Him ‘how do I join in with You in Your prayer?’ about this situation? I’ve gotten very picky in my old age, I don’t just want any old answer, I want His answer! I’ve tasted and seen for myself that the Lord is good, and I want to live in much deeper water than that. One word from Jesus and I come alive. There is always more… go after more.

For years I stuffed myself full of other people’s insights, simply because I liked what they said better than I liked what I managed to find for myself. I read this latest and greatest book, and that other fantastic book with the secret of getting your prayers answered. And my poor brain simply could not hold all that extra information and the keys they kept giving me. Just do this … and all will be well … . That stuff kept falling out. That’s when I started to grow tired of pre-digested food. I think the Holy Spirit must have been praying for me about this – I certainly can’t see how I could have been led into learning from Him for myself, otherwise! I was very stuck. And I was sick of being stuck!  

Hands up all those people who think that the Holy Spirit knows how to pray perfectly? Me too! So, what is better than chasing the One Who knows how to pray perfectly? Why follow another person who can get lost just like I can? To start with, I saved a heap of money on books!  It was a no-brainer for me. You know how the bible says in Psalm 103:2: “…forget not all His benefits…” ….Well, this is one of them. The Holy Spirit prays for us all the time, all day, every day, day in – day out. He’s in the eternal NOW and He doesn’t stop. That thought alone just makes me want to cry. Imagine that. Imagine His devotion to our spiritual well-being!

Even the best parent isn’t that good! Not only does the Holy Spirit pray, but when we feel weak, unloved, and unlovely;  He knows how to lift us up in that weakness, back up into the sacred space where we find God’s strength again. He reminds us how much Almighty God loves us. This is a fact — right here, right now. In all our failings and rotten attitudes, we have perfect love pouring down upon us, day after day after day. Not just when we pray. All day, all night, and when we finally open our little eyeballs in the morning again.

He isn’t just praying for us to be delivered from evil either … the Holy Spirit knows how to pray for everything and anything we need. Courage. A new pair of shoes. Someone who is flesh and blood to love us for who we are. In every need we have, He prays for us to be aware of, and strengthened, and helped by God Himself. He even sends out His angels to minister to us. Many times those angels are other people. Listening people. Are you the kind of person who listens carefully to Him, so you can bless others with a word, or an action, or kindness? That’s what He is like. Oh, I am such a fan of the Holy Spirit, the One Who loves to remain unseen.

All sorts of people tell me they are following Jesus, sometimes they are great speakers, or they can prophesy … but until I see a heart that is generous, unobtrusive, and wants to bless others—to physically bless them…I remain unimpressed. I want fruit. You want and need fruit too. Words are not fruit. Actions are. And the Person Who prompts all those actions is the Holy Spirit. Whispering… “why don’t you just go and do this or that …” He hardly ever shouts. That’s why we need learn to listen to Him. 

The Holy Spirit is the only Person I know, Who can take terrible situations, and awful people, plus a rotten personal  attitude and weave it into something so beautiful it will glorify God Himself! I have no idea how He does it – but I love watching Him work. One of the reasons you and I don’t always see the fruit of our prayers is that we cannot see God’s bigger picture. I’ve learnt to look for the good in any situation.  Where God is, there is good! Drag your eyes away from the obvious failures and disasters all around us, and ask the Holy Spirit to show you the good in it. 

I am learning to live with the expectation that there will be good, I will find His good no matter how it looks. God calls that faith … I call it knowing Him, just a little. We have the dearest Friend ever, He knows how to look through any storm and see Jesus walking towards us on the water. Hold on dear friends, the Perfect One is right there … can you see Him? Bye 🕊️.

P 2802 Don’t live like an orphan.

/ DVH

You know, orphans have to find their own way, they have to do everything for themselves. They do not belong to anyone. They have no family, no family to support them and back them up. You and I, we are no longer orphans!… Not only were we re-born into God’s family … then … God Himself adopted us. We must learn to make Him welcome in our hearts!“But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the right [the authority, the privilege] to become children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name—…” John 1:12. 

First of all, being adopted by God is a wonderful privilege, it is not a right – and secondly, that privilege becomes ours AS we choose to receive Him. BTW, that word ‘become’ stands out like a sore thumb to me. Christians have not arrived anywhere … yet. While we are still here on this earth, we are becoming …! We are learning His ways, that’s why we read the book. We have entered a life-long process of transformation. We daily walk with the Holy Spirit because we want to look like our Older Brother Jesus. At the same time it is no small thing to be eligible to use His Name – that’s part of our adoptive inheritance. His Name has authority here on earth, as well as in heaven.

Ephesians 1:5 says:“He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will.” Our adoption was always God’s plan. He let humanity have its head … and look where that landed us! Then He personally provided a perfect way back to Him. Almighty God has a plan for each of our lives. He’s a good good Father. He demonstrated how much He loves humanity when He sent His only One-of-a-kind Son here to live, and die, among us. Father God’s plans are always so much better than ours, but human beings have a cultivated, internal independence that often refuses to yield.

God will not take us over – He simply wants help each one of us reach our full potential – just like any good father would. A son or a daughter is an heir – whether they were adopted, or born into a family. The mistake we have made in modern Christianity is to think that being born again, plus being adopted, means that we can have whatever we want. He wants voluntarily yielded vessels for His kingdom. You know, our precious Father is not a despot running a conglomerate, handing out favours to a special few.  He is our ever-loving ever-living Heavenly Father. The One Who made heaven and earth, Who is worthy of praise and glory and honour – every single earth-bound day of our little lives. He gave everything for all.

In the absence of our Father’s Presence on this earth … as His kids, His heirs – we have been delegated to act like He would.  A true son or daughter represents His Father. So we are here to serve, like Jesus served. Even if we LEAD other people, we are still serving. Jesus wasn’t showing off His power when He healed people, delivered them, or raised the dead. Even when He multiplied food, He did that because… “…the people were hungry and they would not have made it home without food!”Jesus is an illustration of how much the Father loves us and cares about our lives.

The Lord disapproved of religious people because they misled others — often for their own benefit. You and I are here on this earth, right here, right now, to pour out His Love on others. Because we are no longer orphans we have a confidence that can willingly share. This is the love that we received when He adopted us. We need to tell others that they can be adopted too. Our whole aim is to love and serve people the way He loved and served us. There are no bright stars in His kingdom – most of us are NOT automatically relegated to be minions! The only star in His kingdom is Christ!

This means the way we treat each other matters: “But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is taking his time in coming,’ and begins to beat the servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk,..” AMPC. We dare not mistreat any of the people Christ died to save! Before Christ came and negated the power of sin, we were powerless to change our self-centred behaviour. Now, because of everything He did and said, we have been given the power to live this life differently. That’s what faith does, it chooses to respect its freedom by laying down its life for others.

There are human beings all over this earth who do not know that they have been set free from sin and death, and they are living their lives as orphans – struggling and straining to make the best of their time here. Cheating, stealing, hurting others to gain things.  (BTW, FYI, death is a door … not an ending! Jesus showed us that.) Most orphans have to learn to fend for themselves. But in a family, one member looks after another. Jesus loves us because we are His family. How many Christians have been fooled into living like they have no inheritance? HE is our inheritance. All that He did and is.

Don’t live your life like an orphan, there is more to this life than having enough money, power, position etc. We have been given His power to usher in change, simply by choosing to love other people into His kingdom. SELAH. 🤔

P 2764 Don’t be afraid to fail.

/ DVH

“A person may have many ideas concerning God’s plan for his life, but only the designs of God’s purpose will succeed in the end.”Proverbs 19:21 TPT. In other words, we don’t have to plan our lives – we can simply let the Lord do it for us! Our society is really big on personal success stories – but when we live a life of faith, it can be easy to become afraid that we might have missed God. So we wander off, despondent, out into the wilderness. Feeling ashamed of our fear. Maybe, we even feel protective over the Lord and His good Name, because if we make a big mistake we could bring dishonour to Him, and His Ways.  

First of all, God is not scared of the wilderness – Jesus went there on purpose! Secondly, He can protect His Own Name. Our job is to use His Name with reverence. The Lord has sent many a great person into a wilderness to test them. My advice? Stop! Climb under the shadow that is cast by the Cross and …breathe. Quiet your soul.  Make yourself a cup of something you like, and just sit. The busyness of your mind won’t help you. The third thing is this, remind yourself that He can look after His own Name, and remember to repent for being faithless. Then ask the Holy Spirit to stretch your faith in Who He is, and how big He is,  and go and do whatever He told you to do. Feelings are the antithesis of faith.

Now if what we want to do is sheer, wilful disobedience – then we need to humble ourselves immediately, repent and remember to resist the devil. Our Heavenly Father is the Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things ON the earth and in the sky – He can get us out of any dumb place we walk into. Keep your focus on Him and use your energy to block your ears to satan’s lies. Then start bringing into your mind the many people in the bible who got it wrong — just don’t use that info to continue on into further disobedience! Loads of people missed God’s will and it is recorded in His book. The Lord rescued them simply because He is a good God and He loves His kids. We need to believe in His goodness! 

Meanwhile anybody who doesn’t want God anymore, will not give a flying fig whether He wants them, or not. Simply bear in mind that we are exhorted not to test Him. That’s called honouring and reverencing Who He is! Remain humble, and let Him work those disobedient things you chose to do, together for your good. And do what you can to make things right with the people you’ve hurt. Get down on your carpet, and stay there until you completely comprehend the mistake you’ve made. Some times disobedience comes from FEAR, we feel we must control things. Repentance is always good, but we need to be delivered from fear.

Here are some names of other wayward people, to help you with your search … try Gideon, David, Samson, Jonah, and Peter. Human beings make mistakes, we are famous for them! Sometimes they are huge, life changing ones. God is ALWAYS bigger than OUR mistakes. Listen:“For I am the Lord, I change not; …” Malachi 3:6a. His attitude of redemption will not change until Jesus finally rolls up the world. Our loving obedience is the sweetest gift we can bring to the Lord, but let’s remember that we are not perfect, we can be sincerely wrong – often! 

And … sometimes … even wilfully wrong! I’ve gone on both of those roads, and the Lord is so faithful, He still stayed with me, He does not give up on His kids. Otherwise, why do we pray so hard for our loved ones who have wandered off? We inherently already know that He is good! Remember the story of the lost lamb? The Shepherd valued that lamb so highly he left his other valuable sheep and went looking for the little lost one. He’s a good shepherd!

The Apostle Paul was a murderer – God used that man’s crimes against His kids, the Jewish nation, to show Paul how big GRACE is, and how comprehensive Christ’s death was! God’s Goodness can do amazing things. We underestimate its value at our own peril. It is nothing to do with us or whether we are appealing or not – it’s HIS Grace. It’s the goodness of God that put an angel with a flaming sword, at the entrance to the Garden of Eden. I believe that angel was put there so Adam and Eve could not get back in again, and eat from the tree of eternal life. Mankind would have been eternally lost if we had eaten from that tree.  

Sometimes our confidence can be in our own ability to perform whatever God has asked us to do. Forget that idea. Remember, our God knows what is coming next! Jesus reminded His terrified disciples in the boat in the middle of a storm, that He had already told them they were going over to the other side. And … they did go to the other side – eventually! He didn’t tell them there would be a storm in the middle, because His purpose was to go to the other side. Besides, a bunch of them were fishermen they knew how dodgy that lake was. That’s the time faith grows.

We must put our confidence in GOD ALONE. Anything else we can come up with, is just wood, hay and stubble. One day that stuff will be gone. Our ability to perform – or not! Simply doesn’t come into it. God has used a donkey on other occasions. It is not good to be so proud of who you are, and what you can do spiritually, that you stop seeking His wisdom, His Ways. Let’s continually live to seek to know Him better. We cannot even afford to rest on our spiritual gifts …  instead we rest on WHO He is.

We are in the process of learning to live this life, the only one we have, to learn His ways and follow our leader, Jesus. The Holy Spirit is using everything to get us ready for heaven. so don’t be afraid of failing… some of the very best humans fail … failing can make you a kinder, nicer, more compassionate, tolerant human being. Bye. 👋

“Before you do anything, put your trust totally in God and not in yourself. Then every plan you make will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3 TPT