God's power

P 2887 What ARE we thinking?

/ DVH

“Perfect, absolute peace surrounds those whose imaginations are consumed with You; they confidently trust in You.” Isaiah 26:3 TPT. What we think about matters. You might ask me can anyone change their own thinking? God says we can! What I mean is this, because our minds are often easily distracted, we need His help. Here’s another scripture to chew over from Proverbs 23:7 it says: “As a man thinks in his heart so is he…”Proverbs 14:12 says: “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.”

What we think about will eventually come out of our mouth. Let’s just stop and selah that thought for a hundred years or so! One day, the bible tells me, what I am thinking is going to be broadcast from the rooftops. Luke 12:3. Man have I thought some dumb stuff! Stuff that I sincerely want to take back. Today’s world wants us to be consumed by what we think we want, or what we think we need. There is a general assumption that people know what is best for themselves. My point is, what occupies our thoughts even when we are ‘resting?’ Even in His Rest, God is thinking about us! He’s always thinking about us. We are so blessed.

If God is a PS or an after thought in our lives then it will be much harder to occupy our thoughts with Him, we will be distracted and established on other things that can colour our point of view – the things of this world. Thinking about what the Lord has already told us in His book, needs to be cultivated. When someone we love gets sick – they are never far from our thoughts. At the same time, we are often bombarded by negative thoughts of death, devastation and destruction. That’s the other guy – he is very adept at throwing thoughts at us and then blaming us for having them!

Eve tangled with him and look what happened there – mankind lost their intimacy with God! Our thoughts need to be regularly transformed through dedicated application of His Word. We must change the ungodly patterns in our minds if we want to transform our hearts. When the Lord made Adam and Eve, He put them into the garden of Eden to enjoy it – then He came every evening to walk and talk with them. You know, in the absence of God, sin flourishes. The responsibility to cultivate and correct our thinking rests on us.

The sin Adam and Eve made was one we often make, we use our own understanding. Big mistake – HUGE! Let’s look at Genesis 2:6:“When the Woman SAW that the tree LOOKED LIKE good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.” Eve’s weakness was that she wanted to be “in the know,” then she influenced Adam to join her. 

Human beings are already way too power hungry and revenge-seeking for that kind of power! The enemy ambushed Eve with ambition. She wanted to be like God and know everything. That’s what the fruit of satan’s work does. It puffs up. Humility and obedience go sailing out of the window, and people throw away our position of protection that God gave us. Sometimes, we don’t even bother to find out why He said no! Instead we start assuming He is keeping something from us, like Eve did!  

Our loving Father had already had a plan for what Eve went after – He planned it HIS WAY. Christ death is the God-given link to God’s power in us and for us. When we start feeling cheated, or robbed, that means we’ve fallen into our own understanding and we are ignoring His. It isn’t that we not allowed to think our own thoughts — it is about staying safe under the shadow of His wings. It’s about having peace in our hearts and minds, instead of the chaos of manipulation, fear and domination that comes with our enemy’s whispering! Our thoughts are often influenced by our circumstances and the immediate. This is why we read His book. The bible is food, it helps us grow spiritually, and digesting it creates a spiritual outlook, not a fleshly one. It feeds our minds and hearts with what God thinks … and why.

We must learn to cultivate that fixed reference point, because our own understanding is far more interested in our gain than obedience. We need obedience with trust. There is such incredible substance in God’s goodness, faithfulness, and His Ways. There is enough glorious reality in Him to keep us all busy for zillions of years. Our God is not boring. He is complex. Instead of talking with Him and negotiating with Him – like Moses, or Abraham, or Elijah, or Malachi, or Peter did — many people want to be wise and run their own lives, without any oversight. That kind of independent spirit can lead us away from everything that lasts. Human beings were made to inhabit eternity. 

Father God was not withholding anything from Adam and Eve, He simply wanted to protect them from the responsibility that comes when humanity has the knowledge of good and evil. Our judgment is faulty! It is influenced by our own passions. Peace went right out of the window the moment we gained that knowledge, and chaos ensued. Knowing evil also means that evil can tempt us.  Peace is our portion, but we must learn to think like the Lord does to live in that peace. Bye. 👋

P 2129 Tick tock.

/ DVH

Ephesians 3:14-21 TPT “So I kneel humbly in awe before the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the perfect Father of every father and child in heaven and on the earth. And I pray that He would unveil within YOU the unlimited riches of His glory and favour until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with His divine might and explosive power.” 

I think these verses are a fantastic prayer to pray for yourself and all the people around you. This is how we need to live – when things are good, as well as bad. We all live on the other side of the cross. Even if we don’t know Him yet, we can ask the Lord Jesus to reveal Himself to us. He has already given this world everything – total forgiveness, plus He poured out eternal His love, and He gave us the power to learn about Him and walk with Him. Our God hasn’t left mankind alone. The Holy Spirit is God and He is here. He came and He never left! And our task is to cherish His Presence and follow Him – the same way Jesus’ disciples followed Him. Using our faith.

You know, the disciples didn’t go on holidays, or have a slouching-about-the-house-day, in those three and a half years of intense ministry? They simply walked and talked with Jesus, each other, and anyone else who needed something. It takes faith to do that when the immediate stuff of this world presses in on us. These men woke up with Him, they ate with Him, they walked dusty roads following Him. I don’t think we can begin to understand the blessing of living, walking and talking with Jesus Christ, every single day. Christianity does not work part-time. We need to constantly use our faith for something else other than excusing our bad behaviour.

Back to Ephesians: “Then, by CONSTANTLY using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of His love will become the very source and root of your life. THEN you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences—the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is His love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding—this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!”  WOW!

There is one thing we need to know above everything else – our Heavenly Father is looking for a resting place – a habitation – and He wants US to be that place. God is holy and we are not.  But Jesus Christ made this utterly impossible thing – walking and talking with God Himself –  possible for us, in our lives, before we were ever born. I cannot give anyone some formulaic system on how to walk with Jesus minute by minute. My only solution is to make Him the centre of everything you know, and then go out and live for others while we are doing that. This means simple things like – in a conversation with someone else – what they have to say is more important than what we have to say! We need to intentionally reverse the selfish polarity that is dominating this world – and that has to be done prayerfully, and on purpose, through our own choices.

Here is the last bit today: “Never doubt God’s mighty power TO WORK IN YOU and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for His miraculous power constantly energises you. Now we offer up to God all the glorious praise that rises from every church in every generation through Jesus Christ—and all that will yet be manifest through time and eternity. Amen!”  

We cannot know what we have been given, unless we make an effort for ourselves to find out and seek Him. Somebody else can’t give this to us – even the most anointed man or woman has to choose to pray when they have other matters pressing in on them. We need to ask for a revelation of the importance of our lives for His kingdom’s sake. Otherwise spiritual things just stay as words on a page, and eventually they become interesting information.  

But the reality is, we are all destined to be citizens of heaven, our names are written in His book, the book of life, forever. How sad it would be if we won some super prize in a lottery and we didn’t go to pick up the prize! JESUS IS OUR PRIZE – His nearness from day to day is our greatest blessing, whether we feel like it or not. And most days, at my house, I live with ‘OR NOT.’ We must pray for His power to overcome the seemingly unimportant every day things that hold us back from living our Christian lives in victory!

Everything depends on how you look at this life you have been given and what you cherish most. Whatever we make our priority, will fill our vision. I love that old hymn, “Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart…” If living this life from day to day, is all about finding the rent, going to work, or paying the mortgage, and raising our kids then that will be the main priority of our lives. Ask the Lord to help you to focus on Him above everything else. satan does not have to corrupt us in order to render us useless, and stop us daily living in God’s kingdom. he just needs to lull us off to sleep with our everyday humdrum lives, lurching from one financial or moral temptation to another.  

The Lord has some people in this world, who dearly love Him yet they live under a constant barrage of fear and danger, as well as a huge need for food and shelter. They don’t have a problem focussing on God! He fills their thoughts. Our biggest danger in the Western world is apathy and human busy-ness.  It takes focus to walk with Him and live our lives acknowledging His ways, because this life we live from day to day, crowds our thoughts of Christ and what He did for us … OUT. If not now, then when? Tick tock. ⏰ 👋🏻

P 2118 It is not us. IT IS HIM!

/ DVH

In the past we have ‘assessed’ our ability to ‘do spiritual stuff’ by results. Some people seemed better empowered to pray for the sick etc. than we were. This meant that the largest part of the Body of Christ became inactive. I believe that we ALL need to live our lives daily filled with the Holy Spirit and His power.1 Corinthians 2:5, Paul is speaking:  ”… I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling.  My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”

The power of God comes from Him, we totally rely upon Him and what Jesus did on the cross. So there is no point in looking in our pockets to see if we have it, because the bible clearly says it’s IN HIM!  I think the Body of Christ avoids some things because we think we have no power. But the power belongs to the Holy Spirit make Him your new BFF. Jesus breathed on His disciples and told them to receive the Holy Spirit, and then they went out and prayed for the sick and they got well. They told demons to get lost and they went! A-n-d they also raised the dead. By implication they could have quieted a raging sea. Jesus asked them: “Where is YOUR faith?”

We can rabbit on endlessly about whether we need to speak in tongues – or not; or wear a hat in church – or not;  or women should be silent – or not. Blah blah blah. But the real truth is that even if we try to begin to love one another WE FAIL. We have this sum backwards. We are ‘trying to be’ something, instead of learning how to live in His Presence. He PROMISED to be with us. I think we gave up because it is easier to claim scriptures than it is to live them out.  

Listen to this: “How God anointed and consecrated Jesus of Nazareth with the [Holy] Spirit and with strength and ability and power; how He went about doing good and, in particular, curing all who were harassed and oppressed by [the power of] the devil, FOR GOD WAS WITH HIM.” Acts 16:38. Where did Jesus get His power from? God. It wasn’t Christ’s power – it was the Spirit of God’s Power. Jesus just copied what He saw His Father doing…  Christ received the Spirit, and now we are learning to receive Him and make Him welcome. So we value His Presence more than our needs, opinions and lifestyles. 

That means our needs, opinions and lifestyles are gunna change because HE HAS DIFFERENT LIVING CONDITIONS THAN WE DO. To walk with Him we need to live mindful of what He likes. The challenge is to live our lives like Christ did – He lived in perfect love and loved and cared for OTHERS. Jesus became human and did all that for us. His power flowing through me will not make me arrogant, or controlling, it makes me humble. The more I see Him touch people when I inadequately pray, the more I give glory to God. 

Here’s a real life testimony for ya to show you it isn’t US, we simple need to learn to co-operate with the Holy Spirit and do what He is doing. Years ago, a couple next door to us had a baby boy. The little child started to fit with a high fever. The end result was he turned blue and stopped breathing.  The mother came running into our house screaming at me: “My baby is dead” and she handed him to me. He looked dead believe me. I didn’t pray.  I shook the baby hard and said: “Don’t you dare die on me!” The kid took a breath, opened his eyes and started screaming, probably because he didn’t know me from a bean pole. I handed him back to his mother screeching his dear little head off! Was he really dead? I dunno! He ain’t DEAD now! Here’s the kicker … his mother gave him to me because she thought I was a nurse. (Hubby is the nurse BTW.) 

Here is another one:  We travel on the road for Jesus as often as we can, and we give away bibles etc. etc. because you can start great conversations that way. Hubby went into a woodcraft shop in Tasmania once, and he came out a few minutes later VERY frustrated. The lady behind the counter was incredibly rude and angry with him and he wanted to leave that place … pronto. I’m the praying bunny in the car, and she wasn’t rude to me, so I asked him to go back and give her one of my bookmarks. Hubby did not want to go but he went back in anyway.  He was gone much longer this time and he came back out beaming!! The lady in the shop gave her life to the Lord on the spot – she burst into tears and he was able to share Jesus with her. Yay, Holy Spirit – the wind was blowing that day!

Live the way Jesus did – do whatever you see our Heavenly Father doing. It’s not you it’s Christ IN you!. Bye 👋🏻