God’s Will

P 2863 The fight!

/ DVH

This world is not our home. Seriously. And I’m not an alien and I don’t come from another planet, either! I have simply been reborn into another permanent, everlasting kingdom and … so have you! Otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this blog. The only way you or I can move away from living in that kingdom, is if we are ignorant of His Ways. OR if, and when, we choose to be disobedient to what He asks us to do. Just FYI His kingdom has no end.

Now let’s read 2 Peter 3:8-9 to find out a little bit about what God’s ways … what His idea of time is looks like. ‘But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.’

This thing we call “time,” that human beings measure with clocks and calendars, is not what this passage is talking about. Here are my thoughts about the way Almighty God regards what WE call time. We are living in the time of God’s PATIENCE not permissiveness. It all started that day in the synagogue when Jesus stood up and read Isaiah out loud. God’s kingdom is so much more real than anything this world has to offer – plus you can SEE IT in action!

Luke 4:16-21: “He (Jesus) went to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day He went into the synagogue, as was His custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”Then He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down.” He sat down because that was the end of His mission statement!

Let’s look at what Jesus Himself said, about His mission… why did He say God’s Spirit was upon Him? To establish His authority, and to witness to His Father’s participation in what He was about to do, because the Holy Spirit was going to do glorious things through Him! He had an anointing to do those things to demonstrate God’s will, word and favour visibly toward these people. And He explained to everyone present that favour had arrived when He arrived. His mission started when He chose to undergo baptism.

In the bible it often says: “in the fullness of TIME…”  God has timing. This is mentioned in Isaiah, Galatians and Ephesians. There is a point to His patience with every single person on this planet – He is waiting for everyone to hear, and respond, like it says in 2 Peter.  Sadly, lately we’ve been leaving the bit He told us to do, to the experts. Look around — we’ve dun run out of experts! God has been extremely patient with you and I, because He wants us to walk with Him, just like Jesus did, while we are still here. You and I have things only we can do!

Part of His plan is about us learning to overcome, sin, this world, and the devil in our own lives – with His help! Overcomers always have something to testify about. Our overcoming is daily, sometimes minute by minute – it is our new way of life. A battle we willingly enter into all the time that ends in transformation. Our testimonies are about telling others HOW THE HOLY SPIRIT HELPS US win the daily fight for this transformation, as well as talking about how “God did this or that for me.”

These changed things are the result of the active nitty gritty daily choices we deliberately make to obey His Word. The things we suddenly find we no longer want to do, because we’ve learnt they are not part of His Kingdom. Here’s one of my icky questions; if someone were to ask you to talk about the reality of God in your life, today, what would you say? We often think salvation is just about when we are DEAD – instead it is about what we do when we are still alive HERE.

Lastly, we need to pray for eyes to see what our Good God is DOING, all the time, in each of our lives! That’s when we will have something to talk about. I am of the opinion we sometimes barely notice what He has done, or is doing on our behalf.  So this is our daily FIGHT – to recognise what He is doing in the middle of the junk that flies at us day after day after day! Think of this life as an opportunity to grow and when it gets even more difficult – it’s weight training! Bye👋

P 2784 They are not just stories.

/ DVH

The whole time the Lord Jesus was preaching, He was demonstrating, teaching, and living out a kingdom life in front of everyone around Him. Praise God that people wrote this stuff down! These things are illustrations of how God’s kingdom works. He preached about what the people in God’s kingdom look like. And He talked about what the kingdom looks like —  check out what I mean for yourself. There’s plenty of stuff to do in there! All of the Gospels show us what a life laid down for others looks like. It is an error to think that only Jesus was meant to live that way. He’s the Person we imitate with the Holy Spirit’s divine help.

Our Lord went out and did God’s will, every single day He was on this earth. Doesn’t that blow your mind? Think on this: our glorious Savior was forgiving, saving and inspiring someone while He was dying. He didn’t stop even when He was taking His last breath! He was still leading the people around Him into a greater knowledge of God’s ways from the place of His enormous pain. WOW! And we think talking to Mrs Kerfoops next door is hard! Jesus was struggling to breathe, and He still witnessed to His Father’s great love and passion for people. And if you are short on words for witnessing, that’s OK – Jesus didn’t use many ‘cos it was too hard for Him to speak! 

In the New Testament, the Gospels are a visual illustration, an aid, they show us HOW God’s kingdom functions. They are not just ‘stories’ about the things Jesus did and said, they are Jesus’ demonstrating and explaining to us how God’s kingdom WORKS. He taught, then He did, and sometimes He did, then He taught!  And at other times both things happened simultaneously. To be quite honest with you, I could get stuck on the Gospels for the rest of my life. There is just so much richness in there. 

You and I are adults, we aren’t little kids going off to Kid’s Church hearing stories about Jonah and the whale, or Jesus expanding some little boy’s lunch anymore. Everything the Lord Jesus says and does in the Gospels is a life lesson.  It is not just some fairy tale like Jack and the bean stalk! These things are instructions. Through Jonah, God is saying to us, no matter what big thing swallows you up, even if it is your own fault – He still has a plan for your life. And the boy with the his little lunch teaches us that even the little we have, can grow in His hands and feed others, if we will just give it to Him. 

There’s a way to read the book and it is not the same way you read a novel. It is too easy to read God’s book as simply words on a page. This book is God’s carefully preserved and chosen Manufacturer’s Handbook and it has been written down and kept safe for us. The Jewish people are trustworthy, they memorised their own history by word of mouth passing these stories down from generation to generation. We have what we have today because of those stories passed down. Even the New Testament, although written down, was also passed down by word of mouth. That’s what preaching is! The miracle is that it doesn’t matter which version of the bible you read personally, because the Holy Spirit kisses those things that are important to US, with His wonderful Presence. 

Then revelation comes. After that comes repentance – I guarantee that bit! You can’t read the book without finding places where you’ve fallen short of the mark. Don’t be condemned. Getting it wrong is not the end of the world. It’s a place where we can learn to trust in His faithfulness. We must do more than just sing: “Great is thy faithfulness … 🎶” – we need to live believing it! This life is not about our performance, good or bad, it is about His faithfulness to honour His word! People all over this world are living and dying without any knowledge of the One Who loves us all.

Take your little lunch, your little life, and give it to Jesus. Then go and do what He says to you. Read this scripture with that in your mind:

“When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?”He asked this only to test him, for He already had in mind what He was going to do. Philip answered Him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” Another of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.” John 6:5-11.

This kid didn’t have anything worthwhile to feed so many people, yet he shows us that our spiritual poverty is not the end. In Christ’s hands that is always the beginning of something extraordinary. Anything that is given to Jesus will multiply. These are not just stories, they are a living history of how God can use ordinary lives and bring forth His kingdom. Bye. 👋

P 2739 Hot off the press …

/ DVH

Here’s a sizzle thought, hot off the press for today. Philippians 1:15-18: “It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defence of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.” 

There’s a whole lotta stuff going on in Paul’s heart that some leaders today wouldn’t recognise, even if they fell over it or into it! We’d probably split most churches right down the middle in his circumstances. But Paul sees God’s good in this situation. And God’s good is wa-ay more important than Paul’s own ego. Think about it, this man had loads of really good reasons to BOAST – yet he always put God’s will and purpose above anything else – and nobody made him do it – he lived there.

I have the strongest feeling that if some of the previous generations of the people of God had lived with a wonderful attitude like Paul, we might have less denominations! We get so used to defending our territory, our revelations, our thoughts, our sound doctrine! — that we forget it’s actually His territory, His revelations, His thoughts, His sound doctrine – not ours! I am as much against error as the next guy, but we are slicing and dicing up the Lord’s church, His body, in ways that are not life-giving and good. By doing that we are arbitrarily stopping the life in the arteries or veins from reaching the flesh in another part of the body. A severed artery or vein loses blood, and the whole Body needs His blood.

This means that the flesh is prevailing in some church assemblies – simply because vain ambition has not been voluntarily put to death. His life giving blood is not getting to the whole Body. Church is about God being glorified – that means focus on Him is everything. Yet very few people are prepared to suffer wrong – on purpose. We attack other parts of the body like they are the enemy, and forget that Almighty God won an awful lot of wars and nobody helped Him! Fancy that! … Almighty God does not need our help! Pause and think on that for a minute or nine. 

There is such a huge attack on leadership today — the enemy himself — not to give him any credit, flings loads of horrible stuff at leaders. Then other people catch the junk and fling it at those poor sods as well. Plus a lot of throwers shove a rock inside for good measure! People seem to think that discovering that error may have occurred, means we must split up a church. They see doing that as the only way to resolve differences. Then they get so excited because half the church got up and followed them – so THEY must be right… That’s called pride if anyone is interested. Human logic is not meant to thrive in these situations, read the book. 

Let’s get back to Paul and his wonderful, generous attitude. Like James also said, selfish ambition and jealousy has ruined lives. What do you know, maybe Paul read his letter? Or maybe they both just talked to the same Lord. God is not divided. So if it causes division then guess what…?? You do the sum. Almighty God is not excited about division – He loves multiplication. And splitting a church is not the way to multiply the kingdom.

Here’s another verse that I love to bits:“For who regards you as superior or what sets you apart as special? What do you have that you did not receive [from another]? And if in fact you received it [from God or someone else], why do you boast as if you had not received it [but had gained it by yourself]?”1 Corinthians 4:7. Humility is like a cloak, you must choose to wear it, and not take it off. We wear it because our King wore it first. Some Roman soldiers saw the value in Christ’s cloak and they refused to tear it into bits because they saw its value! It was seamless. Is anybody out there listening?? 

I want to finish with another verse that I think pulls our focus off what we think we need, over into what He wants to give us. From John 21:21-22 Amplified Bible (AMP) “So when Peter saw Him, he asked Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man [what is in his future]?” Jesus said to him, “If I want him to stay alive until I come [again], what is that to you? You follow Me!” Isn’t that fabulous? Jesus tells Peter to mind his own business because Peter is all twisted up. He thinks John might live forever … Jealousy bit him… The Lord loves to simplify the things. “Follow Me” – He says to Peter, again… When in doubt follow Him, and remember, He never wants to tear up the town.

Today God is looking for an OBEDIENT PEOPLE, but we can resist Him, because we think we don’t like that theology. And we fall down smashing our head against its own inflated opinion of itself. Then we boo-hoo at God because we discover we’ve been walking in the spirit of stupid, again … Or we blame someone else like Adam and Eve did. Truth resides with God not us. HE is our reference point. Todays’ blog is hot off the press. Get rid of malice, resentment, slander, and divisiveness and cling to the One Who knows everything. I know we can only see in part, through a blurry window but after all, He knows the end from the beginning. It’s OK! God’s still in charge.

Bye. 😊

P 2728 God’s surgery.

/ DVH

Unlike an ordinary doctor’s surgery – in the Lord’s surgery there is no pile of dusty, over-used magazines and books, reporting on useless supercilious things from ages ago. There is just one book and if it happens to be dusty… then we are all in big trouble. 

Christians can become quite used to thinking that our lives are separate – and that each life is only joined together on church occasions, like worship or a sermon! Maybe we’ve temporarily forgotten our destiny. The Lord describes us as a Body. That may seem just like a metaphor, but it is actually a reality! The Lord Jesus is not going to marry a metaphor! The Bride of Christ is described quite thoroughly across the scriptures. ps – it’s US! …you and me – we are His Bride. Pause and think on that one! 

When I was thinking and praying over today’s blog, a phrase from yesterday’s effort kept floating through my heart. ‘One of …our tasks is to personally prove that scripture is active and effective!’ So how do we do that? We let it surgically cut away and remove any stuff we are convicted and convinced isn’t a part of His plan for our lives. Heaps of that kind of surgical stuff is written down in His book. It’s not just the ‘don’t do this bits,’ BTW, it is also the ‘please do that’ ones! The Lord Jesus Himself, gives us lists of the ways we are to live. (Check out Matthew 5) 

So let’s look at some other scriptures. The first is from 2 Timothy 3:16. “All Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable for instruction, for conviction [of sin], for correction [of error and restoration to obedience], for training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately—behaving honourably with personal integrity and moral courage]; …”And Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

The thing I want to make absolutely clear is that the bible is formulated to do more than just inform us. The bible is a book of instructions. Each instruction has a purpose. EG: it says don’t carry cares, so we must not carry cares! It says give all those cares to Jesus – so we give our cares to Jesus and we don’t take them back!

This book is our boot camp. Boot camp, BTW, is the place we send soldiers to, to learn how to discipline themselves and protect themselves, as well as fight! The bible we read daily, is for that purpose. Soldiers also go to boot camp to learn how to look after their equipment and find their place in the army. It’s a very physical place, it’s not cerebral. It is not just a library, although the armed forces have libraries – it’s a place where knowledge is learnt, and applied.

Hold onto your hat – it just might blow off… We dare not pick and choose which bible verses we like, and eliminate the ones we don’t. We have just come through a time in the history of the church where we were cherry-picking verses to suit the current theology. Not a good plan. All of God’s word is good for building up, instructing, tearing down, cutting off and getting rid of stuff. If we cherry-pick things we are in great danger of mishandling our sword. You can cut yourself really badly if you mishandle a sword!

Ya might want to pause and think on that as well! My best advice is to tell the Lord you are not confident you can carry out what He says and then ask for the Holy Spirit’s help. He’s our Helper, and He wrote the book- so He knows how to get us where He wants us. The Word of God comes from the Breath of God ...and … so do WE! Read Genesis. The bible is a fitting vehicle to build up, give us courage, challenge, change and correct us. It displays God’s Love perfectly, in every single book and chapter. Rightly used, it will remove stuff from our lives that can make us fall away, stumble, or be led off into lah lah land. It is not just a book with pretty sayings, it is a living book that lays out the way we need to live. 

It is used to give us confidence, and to build up Jesus’ Bride so she is worthy of His Love. He voluntarily gave His life for us, so it seems fitting to me that we will also voluntarily give up this world’s idea of what our lives will look like, for HIM! Because the bible is about far more than just information, we cannot afford to treat it like we would the dusty magazines in a doctor’s office. We must pay attention and allow it to work on us by applying it into our lives. It is designed to refresh and renew our minds so we will think like Jesus does.

We need to let the sword of God strengthen our arm and cut away any excess stuff that will hinder us from walking with Him. The bible is not given to us for us to agree with it – it is given to us so we will DO WHAT IT SAYS. God’s book leads us into His kind of surgery, so my advice is to read it like He is talking to YOU, because HE IS! 👋

P 2664 On seeking God’s will.

/ DVH

Romans 12:1-2: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

So did ya get that? Changing our minds to think like the Lord does, by reading and obeying what He says — opens the door to discern what He wants. Meanwhile it is not just about thinking differently, it is about letting that different thinking affect our actions and reactions. Presenting our bodies to Him means WE are no longer in charge of what happens. We can always pray and ask Him for a different outcome, but the way to truly worship God is to give Him our bodies … and let HIM decide! Um, do you need a cuppa tea and a biscuit to cheer you up yet? There are a whole lotta people who won’t like that previous thought.

When we live this way, at the same time, the Lord will use our circumstances to reveal our own hearts to us. We test His will out, daily by the way we are choosing to live now. If what we are doing falls on it’s head — then it wasn’t God! BUT! … If bears good fruit it was! Meanwhile if we keep getting the same bad result over and over again, then there is no doubt about it … not. dead. yet! It’s no good blaming other people, or whatever – a transformed mind doesn’t look for things to its own advantage – it looks for God to get all the glory, and it continually chases love.

James, one of my favourite authors, helps us in Chapter 1:5-8: “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, Who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.  Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”  All we need to to do, is to ask for His wisdom and believe He wants to help us through whatever is going on.

There can be times when we will mess up our ability to receive from the Lord – through our own disobedience, cemented attitudes, or insistence that we are not at fault, somebody else is!  Remember, James is talking about receiving Almighty God’s wisdom. You and I can easily short circuit receiving the very thing God wants us to have by the way we respond to it. We are no longer like the rest of the world … independently minded. We are not meant to be a people whose made-up god puts a big tick on all our ideas. We serve the ever-living, always present Almighty God – He runs this show! 

Human beings love systems. BUT, when we look at the Ways of God, He’s not like that! In the bible we can clearly see that every single situation needs a fresh revelation. For example, King David did not fight every one of his battles the same way, because God sent him out with different instructions each time. This man knew how to seek God to find out what came next. He was not interested in strategies that he could repeat at will whenever he went into battle. Sometimes the Lord gave him a strategy before the battle, and sometimes God said: ‘Go! I will be with you!” In other words although a rock killed Goliath, the next time David needed a different plan, he sought the Lord to get it.

This is why I have spent so much time writing about how to receive, hear and obey the Lord. Because there is no system that we can use to make our lives more comfortable… and still serve Him! The mandate is upon us to get to know God and His ways for ourselves. Our pastors can preach until they turn blue. If we do not follow up what the man of God says with our own prayers, and then look for ways to be obedient – all we will get is double-mindedness. That looks like a bit this: “Oh, I think what pastor said here was good but I don’t agree with this and that … I think this instead …”  

Good on you! Yay for you! But you just lined yourself up to be double-minded. Ask the Lord what He wants you to know and do, personally, from what was said. Here’s a good clue —-if whatever was said annoyed you then it’s a certainty that there is something there you need to learn, about yourself, others, and the Lord Himself!  Our personal responses are our personal diagnostic tools.  Anything less than learning more about loving Him, or how to love others – plus how to die daily, is pure advertising. Those are the sort of trimmings that make our lives look good from the outside. 

There is one attitude that will help us along our way … and that is this … we daily lay down our own right to choose our destiny and, simply follow Jesus. That’s what the disciples did, when they sought His will.. When He left them, they sat about and waited like He told them to ,,, because there was no alternative plan B! Bye 👋

P 2592 Who is on the Lord’s side?

/ DVH

“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:14-15.

I know that this scripture is often presented as a once and forever decision, and I agree! I believe in choosing God, and His ways, as well as choosing the Lord Jesus Christ to be our Saviour, forever. But I also subscribe to the line in the above scripture that says “…choose THIS DAY Whom you will serve, …” I actually think our spiritual well-being and growth depends on our daily choices. 

Often our biggest opponent for this attitude is postponement, which is rapidly followed up by carefully-excused disobedience. And so, sadly, we give up doing what the Lord has asked us to do today, until tomorrow, because we think that we are too busy today. Have you ever reflected on the fact that God Himself made time? He has also stretched it a couple of times in the Old Testament… I rest my case!!

In my own experience I’ve learnt that I will probably have even less resolve or perceived time tomorrow, than I do today – so postponement is an extremely dumb idea! By the time tomorrow turns up, I will have thought up a number of reasons, or things or circumstances will get in my way … and eventually I’ll wander off, lost and listless – wondering where my peace went!  Being busy in this world is not necessarily a sign of spirituality — unless we are busy with His business we are not following Jesus – daily. 

Remember what the Lord Himself said to a young man He asked to follow Him? This young man told the Lord his father had just died: Luke 9:60 “Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” That sounds so harsh, but it is actually a great diagnostic tool if we look at it carefully. Our response to that kind of directive often reveals our hearts. It not-so-subtly shows us who is actually really in charge in our own lives!  I’m so glad I brought that up!!

We can temporarily forget that we always have choices! When we use our humanity as an escape, it becomes so much easier to allow circumstances or other people to seep away our courage and confidence in God’s ability to support us. That’s when we end up making other people’s needs and wants our priority – instead of what the Lord wants. The Lord knows what ails us, and He wants to help us with everything on our own personal plate. But first we need to acknowledge that many things do not get done because — WE don’t really want to do them! If we live with a false concept, it becomes so much easier to adopt human reasoning to excuse ourselves. The best plan after all that is to repent.

Let’s go back to that first scripture and what we might use to excuse ourselves —‘Well, that verse from Joshua says I should serve Him in sincerity and faithfulness, and I don’t feel faithful or sincere about that subject, so I can’t really do it, truthfully.’ Yeah! Nice try!! There’s a big miss! 🙄 How we feel has nothing whatsoever to do with what the bible says. Meanwhile for the bible to be our plumb line we need to compare everything else to IT! Otherwise we will end up with mankind’s wisdom, which seems to be based on whatever makes me feel good, and that bears no resemblance whatsoever to what’s in God’s book.

We dare not choose God’s side, and then walk away and get lost in man’s ideas. That’s what causes people to be double-minded. We need to know what the Holy Spirit thinks, so we can be obedient. That means read the bible, do what it says, and live like Christ did. Obedience firmly puts us on the Lord’s side. But when we disobey we leave the shelter of His secret place, and start bumbling around in the darkness that surrounds everyone else in this world.

Our daily moment by moment choices, are part of choosing to be on His side. That choice that we made years ago can be watered down and rationalised into a more comfy place so we can still call ourselves Christians. However our prayerful consistent daily choices can keep us sharpened to God’s will and His ways. I think that there are times that we can’t see the answers to our prayers simply because we have wandered off the WAY. That’s like leaving your glasses home when you can’t see without them.

His ways become clearer to us as we choose to live this life the Way it says in the book. The answer to the title of this blog today is, ME!! I am on Your side Lord. Amen. Bye 👋

P 2582 More on a heart like David.

/ DVH

The Lord said of His servant David, that “this is a man after My own heart”. (1 Samuel 13:14) It seems to me it is comparatively easy to pray:“Oh Lord please give me a heart like David had!”…in a moment of love and passion toward God Himself … with no understanding of what that means!  Will we blame God for not answering that prayer – when we ignore the opportunities He sends our way?

Think on this: if you and I really want a heart like David had, then God Himself will need to send us the kind of opportunities DAVID had! Hearts are formed, they do not fall on us. Here’s quick revision of David’s life — this young man was overlooked in his family. His earthly father forgot he had him and obviously thought the boy was not as promising as his six brothers were!  Did David moan about that? No! Instead he learnt about God in the middle of a pasture doing a job that was beneath his stature. This was where he learnt about soaking in God’s ways. That’s where he learnt to make the Lord his priority. He wrote beautiful Psalms… instead of complaining about his lowly position and the weather.

David chose God’s ways over his own human desires, many times. We all know about his failure and the subsequent consequences, but there were so many other times that David chose to honour the Lord despite his circumstances. His responses to his life were way above most men’s natural tendencies. He did not do that to curry favour with God, BTW, he did it because that was who he was! Soaking in God’s beauty had shaped his heart, and his responses came from that heart of love toward the Father. 

So if WE want a heart like David, then maybe we will have to fight our own Goliath and WIN. We all have Goliaths in our lives, and we often feel ill-equipped to fight them. But David took what he had – which was belief in Who Almighty God is – and defeated his enemy. There may also be a possibility that we will have to honour somebody in our lives just like King Saul, David’s persecutor of 20 years. Simply because that person is God’s choice to shape US… by handing out constant oppression! Maybe our tormentor has been tormenting us for years too!!

Let’s look at David’s response when his little baby boy died… “After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground. On the seventh day the child died …” 2 Samuel 12:15-18. 

After his baby’s death, David’s servants were reluctant to tell him the little one was gone, but he figured it out. Then he does an extraordinary thing — it seems almost totally incomprehensible. He gets up, washes himself, and asks for food. Why on earth would he do that? You know when I think about his response it blows me away. This man is so concerned about doing God’s will, God’s way, once the Lord’s plan is revealed – He leaves the whole thing alone and goes back into ordinary life, immediately. Boy is that living this life surrendered!  

Much later, David actively sets out to find someone left in Saul’s house … even after Saul and Jonathan had died. He wants to do his enemy’s family good. (Now there’s a grand illustration of doing good to your enemies!) Despite his warrior life, this man of God had such integrity before the Lord. It all sprang from his deep love for God, not obligation, or religious duty. Those Psalms he wrote came right out of his own experiences! Instead of cultivating despair, anger and jealousy – David cultivated a sweet heart.

It may be that we too have lost else someone so dear to us, like David did, when his older son Absalom died. But David was not able to mourn Absalom … imagine that! He’s a leader, his sheep come first! He puts his grief aside, in order to be a good leader and king to his subjects. Funny how God picks ordinary people like that quite often. Think about it.

These are just some ?highlights? After all David’s life was filled with war and betrayal! If we truly want a heart like he had, maybe we are going to need some panel-beating first! That, and a sweet, spontaneous heart-response under pressure. God Himself forges men and women in the furnaces of trouble, pestilence, war, sorrow and strife. We must simply choose to learn His ways, they won’t fall on us.

Here’s my last thought – right after the Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost, persecution for the gospel’s sake broke out. But Father God had a purpose, He wanted the disciples to disperse to spread the gospel further. So, instead of becoming a jolly, happy, worshipping group, who enjoyed their new life together teaching the same things over and over again … persecution and bad experiences are now their teacher.

 We will have troubles and strife in this life, and this means God is working on our hearts. To have a heart like David we will need to be changed. 👋 “Create in me a clean heart O, Lord, and renew a right spirit within me.” Amen!

P 2427 Forget needing a sandwich!

/ DVH

“Then the disciples began to insist that Jesus eat some of the food they brought back with them, saying, “Teacher, you must eat something.” But Jesus told them, “I have eaten a meal you don’t know about.” Puzzled by this, the disciples began to discuss it among themselves, “Did someone already bring Him food?” To clarify, Jesus spoke up and said, “My food is to do the will of Him Who sent Me and bring it to completion.”” John 4:31-34 TPT

Now there’s a tasty lunch: ‘My FOOD is to do the will of Him Who sent Me!’ Hubby sent me this scripture yesterday … after reading it himself. We sometimes do that. We like to swap any scriptures that grab us. This one, plus what hubby said he saw in it, blew my socks off! Meanwhile … I don’t actually wear 🧦 (… just saying is all.) 

Here’s what hubby said to me: “What if ‘doing what He says’ is the very thing that is meant to sustain our lives today? NOW?” As you can see, I thought what he said was incredibly important… Meanwhile … I’m still thinking on it … that’s a really big mind-blowing thought! Sometimes the Lord just has to shift our gears and turn us in another direction to reveal Himself further. Like C.S. Lewis said: “Higher up and further in!”  PS … isn’t it interesting that this revelation came after I talked about … ‘MORE Lord,’ yesterday? 😶

However, my immediate response was this: ‘I’m sure I couldn’t say that!’ It was the word ‘sustain’ that grabbed me by the throat. Then I came up with questions. What does sustain mean? What actually refreshes me so much it is like food to me? Is doing what God wants my primary mission? I love to obey Him when He prompts me to do something, and it blows my mind and heart to watch Him at work … but … sadly no – at this stage I don’t think I could say it is food and drink to me. Because food and drink, like Jesus said, sustain life.

Jesus Christ never had to ‘try to be spiritual.’ As it says, at that particular moment, He was simply hungry. You know, I don’t think the Lord ever shifted His focus from God’s will the whole time He was on earth! Jesus was never distracted by this life. And at that moment, when He was talking to that lady at the well, that fed Him in a way that blows my mind. He was so specific later on when He talked to His disciples. He called that simple interaction, food. He wasn’t even obsessed at all, as we often are, with getting another soul into the kingdom! Jesus didn’t do that. He didn’t have altar calls, or a show of hands. He let the truth loose to speak for itself. 

Imagine walking through this life, with all its twists and turns, so full of the life and love of God, when things bump into you – you spill that life and love everywhere. “Do me like that please Lord!” Amen!

Back to my point. What the Lord said to His disciples wasn’t a metaphor either! Jesus meant real food. He was energised and satisfied in His flesh by something He did in the Spirit. Doesn’t that just blow your mind? What a wonderful consequence to doing the will of God … We know that He walked minute by minute with the Holy Spirit, wherever He went. They flowed together to please the Father and impact mankind. 🤯 !

You know, when I look at some of the marvellous saints who have gone home before me, I stand rebuked by their strong faith and purpose. I can see there were many who have since died, who were definitely sustained in this life by what they did in faith. Their lives were lived in pure dedication to making His Name famous. People with hearts like the Moravians. Who left homes and families behind in this life to serve Christ in the darkest places on the earth. They had such devotion to Him. The very thought of those actions is astonishing to our hedonistic society – Jesus is more of a hobby, than a lifestyle. 

When I look at the Christian world around me I see many people who want to make a profit, as well as – making His Name famous and His will known. In my opinion, because we are the people who follow and want to serve Jesus Christ, we would be so much better off to be FED by what the Lord asks us to do – before we ever go on to those … “other things that He said would be added unto us!”

Instead we can easily end up living this life expecting Him to serve us, and as a consequence, sometimes we are disappointed when the outworking of our faith doesn’t meet our expectations. So here’s my conclusion, and it turned out to be an outrageous pun. At the very least – that verse is FOOD for thought! Bye. 👋🏻

P 2371 Transformation.

/ DVH

Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes.” Romans 12:2 TPT

Jesus Christ did not just provide our redemption on that cross – His death provided us with TOTAL lifestyle TRANSFORMATION. Now we have the POWER and ability to grab opportunities to figuratively and literally change our minds. To change our thinking, change our reactions, change and transform the way we were taught by family, life and the people we’ve associated with – into something life giving and redemptive. 

You and I don’t have to be the same old cranky easily provoked grump we always were. Now, we have the power and the Person inside us Who will help us to get that soft word that turns away anger! (Proverbs.) We can be transformed by believing what it says in the book – and acting on it, using our faith. If you wait to feel like it, you will never feel like it – trust me!  The power to change is in the Holy Spirit’s Presence in our lives. We have to put away the idea that this life is about the Holy Spirit AND …EG: the Holy Spirit and what I want. We can’t have both options. Dead people don’t have options or opinions.

I have learnt that if I find myself resistant to transformation, that is an indication of how rebellious I have allowed myself to become. I love this illustration of how inner transformation works: “There is a legend of a grandfather or elder using a metaphor of two wolves fighting within him to explain personal inner conflicts to his grandson. When the young person asks which wolf will win, the grandfather answers “whichever one you feed.” Whichever one you feed!? So, what are we feeding our thought life on?

People freak out and say that you should or shouldn’t watch this or that, or you shouldn’t go here or there if you are a ‘good’ Christian. But the truth is obedience is about Who you are actively following. The real question is this – what will help me to obey the Lord and what will lead me away or distract me from thinking about Him?! Christians love Jesus but they do not necessarily foster that love as the most important thing in their life. The everyday humdrum things-that-need-to-be-done stuff swamps them, and they forget about Him and start living this life like everyone else.

The secret to total transformation is in the book:“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23&24.  We are not working for a man anymore – we are working for Jesus in our school, home or job. That other person is HIM to you and I. That’s how deeply the Lord Jesus identified with mankind. So if you are yelling at someone else – you are yelling at HIM! “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me.’ There is no accidental or incidental happenings in His kingdom! Everyone we bump into is sent.

It doesn’t matter if you are doing the washing-up or teaching your kid how to tie their shoe laces. That other person is Jesus standing there. We have so much power in our choices. Unfortunately, in this generation, our wills have become weak because we give in to them all the time! Instead we need to stand on the Word and refuse to go the wrong way. Ask for His help to resist the temptation to act like you rule the world, and yield to the ONE WHO ACTUALLY RULES THE WORLD. This world will not explode if you acknowledge that you do not know how to do everything – remember His strength is made perfect in weak people!

We have His book. The bible tells us His thoughts about behaviour and life. We do not have to remain ignorant. We now have the power to overcome the things we have probably deliberately cultivated along the way in our lives. Before we met Him we did stuff to protect ourselves and make us feel good about who we are. Ask yourself, do I see myself as a victim or a servant? The answer will diagnose your position before the Lord. 

We have mistakenly tied Christ’s Presence in our lives, entirely to our behaviour, not to what He has already done. His Grace propels us into obedience, it empowers us to make right choices. Our behaviour actually changes because we want to live and remain in His Presence, rather than roll along day after day, doing what we want. We are His servants. We’ve been left here to serve Him and serve Him by serving others. And transformation comes from obedience to His word as He leads us – – and BTW if you read it then you are responsible for your response.. 👋🏻

P 2349 Faith is to be generational..

/ DVH

“If your faith remains strong, even while surrounded by life’s difficulties, you will continue to experience the untold blessings of God! True happiness comes as you pass the test with faith, and receive the victorious crown of life promised to every lover of God!”

James 1:12 TPT.

Today, sadly, our society has become people of the immediate. We are addicted to instant answers, instant gratification, instant provision and instant success. When things don’t happen immediately it seems as if we are in danger of losing our faith. The bible doesn’t talk about stuff like that …it talks about eternity, eternal consequences.

Our list of priorities are askew because God isn’t first or last or even in the middle of our list. HE OFTEN ISN’T ON THAT LIST AT ALL. The truth is we all get the same amount of time in a day – it’s the one thing we have in common. And no matter how young or old we are, we will all run out of time eventually! We’ve forgotten that TIME is a gift, to be cherished and used wisely.

But those pesky day to day things press in on us, so we can easily get caught up in the immediate. So this kid has to go to football practice, and that one is off to gymnastics, and the other one is off doing heaven knows what with their mates. We, however, are breaking our necks to the point of exhaustion, because we also have to make sure we work, so we can pay the mortgage or the rent, plus the fees for the football and gymnastics, as well as provide the little darlings with the right clothes to go schlepping about with their mates! 

I think that we have passively taught our kids how to keep themselves busy and distracted, so successfully, it has become hard to get their attention for something really important. Like God’s will, and what He wants.  Instead they have been hardwired into indifference about other people’s pain, by their exposure to various types of media. 

Some times I want to ask people – what the heck did you want to have children for? … The experience?? If you did that then boy did you get gypped!! As I see it, our children are the seeds we sow into a future we may not see. Let’s hope we produce a crop of decent human beings that care about more than the ozone layer! Part of raising kids is to teach them how to manage their own thoughts, attitudes and emotions, while they are wading through this life’s share of difficulties. Instead our generation has chosen to protect them from reality. We’ve taught them that owning your own home and having a great holiday is all there is.

Sadly, most young people today probably won’t see their parents go to homeless shelters, to distribute food and clothing. We’ve protected them from the sad and difficult realities of this life. They don’t see us fast and pray either, or press into God to see what He wants us to do. They may see us plant trees, so we can all continue to breathe, or take stuff to the recycling depot – but have we taught them how to cope with this life’s everyday hardships? Have they seen us turn to God first? Do they watch us pray over things?

You can teach your family about faith and how it works, or you can SHOW THEM how your faith works, in front of their own eyes, when you help and care for others who are struggling. Today, real active, fruitful faith seems to come into the same category as sex – we’ve abrogated our own responsibility and left the work to someone else or handed them a book! Why should children’s church have the sole responsibility to teach your kids to give? We’ve learnt to ‘outsource’ everything – including learning about God. Does your family see you with a bible or facsimile in your hand? When is the last time you prayed with, or for your kid when they hit some snag or other at school?

Future generations must learn that troubles and hardship are normal in this imperfect world of ours. This life is always going to be difficult – it is full of people who all want to do their own thing – but because we all inhabit the same planet,  we are all doing our own thing in a limited space. Kids need to learn about faith more than they need to know how to get tickets to some pop concert or have a well-known brand of sneakers! We must remember that our character reflects our faith levels.

Life is not only difficult, people can be downright impossible, but they can also be instrumental in challenging and growing our faith – and all our kids need faith that is real.. “Your faith will be like gold that has been tested in a fire. And these trials will prove that your faith is worth much more than gold that can be destroyed.” 1 Peter 1:7. What we believe must be shared with the generations that are coming after us – it looks to me like they are going to need it! 👋🏻