Good

P 3127 God good – devil bad.

/ DVH

Today I want to briefly go back to Daniel 10:12-14.This fight was so furious, Michael, another archangel, came to help Gabriel. The two of them, if you read on, have to fight their way back through that same demonic stronghold. They fight against a principality and power over this world: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12. We are not fighting theories, we fight actual satanic beings sent to destroy us and our relationship and trust in God Himself. Our fight is real!

I want to go down on record saying I have limited knowledge  about this stuff, my focus is always on Jesus and what He did for us — our inheritance from Him. However, the consequence of “not knowing,” means the other guy can sometimes rob me blind, while I am unaware, as well as unnecessarily torment me. I need His discernment firmly in place – it is part of His protection for us all. Our Heavenly Father wants us to win our battles not just drag ourselves along bleeding, and crawling through broken glass getting beat up along the way. Deliverance has had a bad rep! Yet all of us have to fight our enemies just to crawl out of bed some days. 

The Holy Spirit is our biggest Supporter and Personal Trainer and He is here to help us with satan. I included the above scripture to highlight that many times we must break through the things that have been sent to hold us in bondage. Those things that will postpone, and interfere with whatever it is that God has planned. When you love Jesus and choose to serve Him you become a target. So if we wake up – or can’t sleep(!) with a list of someone else’s sins against us rumbling about in our brain, I’m pretty sure resentment, anger and revenge, are on the premises targeting us. It’s time to ask for His help and get forgiveness rolling! BTW, implication is not guilt, our enemy likes to join dots where there is no connection.

Now let’s look at Jesus because: “He is the Author and finisher of our faith”… that makes Him our finest example of what to do. Jesus defeated satan with God’s Word. Knowing the bible is one of our greatest weapons. If an archangel has trouble defeating our enemy and needs help — then I vote we know God’s Word well enough to use it to fight! It needs to be in our minds and hearts and mouths. And, BTW, I mean fight, not just kind of wave it about randomly stabbing anywhere. Let’s learn to pick the Word up like a real sword and stab all those untruths and lies that satan floods into our minds, daily. Instead of looking for proof that a person is targeting you – ask for help so you can see any error and to find your way through it;  ask the Holy Spirit for bible verses to use as a sword to set you free and send that other guy packing!

When Jesus was tempted he was hungry, so the enemy tempted the Lord with free bread. I find that wanting/needing/coveting stuff can easily lead me into a trap. Hungering after things like a better house/car/life/friends/spouse etc. makes you into a target. You can be rolling along, sincerely wanting to do good and hear from God, then bam! The enemy throws lack at you! Fight that supposed lack with a verse of scripture. One of my favourites is this: ‘If I really need it He will give it to me.’  If the answer doesn’t come right away, then the journey Jesus and I are on is going to profit me, and the waiting will be worth it. We often gain patience and perseverance on these journeys! 

Maybe the enemy tries to sidetrack us with status and pious-sounding results. ‘Just imagine what will happen if you do so and so, everybody will see Jesus better.’ satan points out some quick advantage in an activity, and skips right over obedience, consultation or reverence for what God says. It’s time to remember that the bible says: ‘humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, in due time He will exalt you.’ That means we take the lowest seat, or we choose to do something unseen, and nobody notices it. We gain humility and self-control when we do what God says. satan won’t tell you that!

Fame and gain was thrown at Jesus. The possibility of getting what He was sent here for by another method — a shortcut, if you will. Notoriety or importance when it is not God-ordained, can puff us up. I think the real key to this temptation is this, we must understand that we don’t know what is hidden away in our hearts. We think we do, but we don’t! The bible says: ‘there’s a way that seems to be right to us but at the end of that way is death.’ God’s way is for us to do whatever He says, and make sure people end up praising Him not us! However, satan can tempt us to believe he has a way to get to where God wants us to be, that is easier. My fav rebuke is ‘God’s in charge here!’ Obviously I have real scriptures for all these rebukes – you should find your own.

Lastly, our enemy throws fear on the wall of our minds. And then he points out what we will lose if we are obedient. I hate that! My strategy is this, God is calling us all higher – so that means some things will get left behind because we can’t carry them any further.  All of us can get afraid of what we might have to leave behind. We can easily forget that – God good, devil bad. Remember, if we accept the devil’s evil devices – at the bottom of his rotten ideas, is a plan for us to end up serving him. Bye 👋

P 3125 The Lord has His own way of looking at things.

/ DVH

I know the bible says we must love the unlovely – but I confess, there was a time when I didn’t want to believe that. So I repented of unbelief and then the Holy Spirit very patiently took me through the bible and showed me His love in action in that book. This has totally changed the way I read the bible. It meant that I stopped reading stories about the men and women in them and their response — and started reading them from God’s point of view. Our God has endless patience with us!

I recommend that everyone have a go at this! Actively prayerfully, look for God Himself – His ways, His thoughts. Read the bible as if He is speaking to you, personally. Our God is incredibly active, and as we see Him in His book, His reality impacts our lives. Ask Him to reveal Who He is to you, and BTW, be aware that wonderfully interesting things can happen when you pray that prayer. Jesus came here, in Person to show us and teach us – what God is like. 

WE might treat sinners badly, but Jesus definitely didn’t. Instead, He bent down to where the sinner was, in the dirt! And He had compassion on everyone. The thing I immediately noticed was that Lord knew these people didn’t have a Shepherd to explain God’s Ways to them. Jesus Christ is our God-given Shepherd. The Bible clearly tells us God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts – but we must never forget we have a book full of what He thinks and what He does. Let’s stop looking at His book as stories about people, and what they think or say, and start looking at it as God revealing Himself to us. 

Otherwise His book becomes a series of instructions to be memorised and treasured purely for the WORDS. When I read God‘s book, I can choose to read it and read about other people who are like me and their struggles with God and man. But the person who really needs to know God is the one who chooses to follow Him. We will grow in our understanding and His grace for our part in His plans, when we choose to read the bible watching out for God Himself. Reading something, someone has written down, helps us to get to know the Author.

I believe it’s time for the bride of Christ to have deep meaningful times with the Holy Spirit, and let Him reveal God‘s heart to each one of us. Almighty God wants us is to triumph over our supposed enemies by doing things like – loving those who despitefully use us. When we do this, we release the Holy Spirit to have His Way. As we choose to make the bible about Him, it changes everything. Almighty God dearly longs to reveal His heart to all of us, and as He does that, we will see a part of His heart that has previously remained hidden. 

That thought is not meant to foster competition, or be a status symbol, by the way — many people have mistaken the Lord’s POWER for His HEART. However, He’s way too big for any one of us to understand. That’s why we will have eternity together, because we just plain don’t – and often can’t – get it. Instead we keep discovering new things and making them the next big thing … the NEW answer. Our God cannot be explained by a formula – He told us to seek Him. The Lord always plays the long game and human beings  are geared up for instant answers.

Until the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, His people remained ignorant. The precious Holy Spirit opened the disciples’ eyes, ears and their hearts to the reality of Christ’s life and death … who He is, what He has done for us. The very things that looked impossible for them before, now looked possible, because the Holy Spirit was there present with them, expanding their inner beings. He wrote what God said on on their hearts that day and nobody had to explain it. The Teacher, the Counsellor, the perfect Guidance of God Himself was there with them. He is with us, too. 

So that person you think you can’t stand for another minute;  or that person who used to beat you when you were a kid;  or that boss who is so unreasonable;  that spouse who can’t hear a word you say;  those people are all loveable IN Him! We simply need His heart, His eyes to see and hear them, not our own. Who loves them? GOD! Who knows them? He does! You will be amazed at how different people look, when you look at them through the eyes of the Holy Spirit. As we know Him we will understand how, and why He loves the way He does.

This happened to me with a near and dear relative. If I told you my story you might feel sympathy for me, and probably a bit angry with them. But God‘s point of view is bigger than yours and mine! The truth was I needed to look at this person through His eyes, and the minute I started to do that, I saw how broken they were. What I saw as rebellion and wickedness, was their response to the world they had come into, a world they didn’t understand. They were sheep who didn’t have a shepherd! 

Compassion rose up, and I began to truly love someone who was previously quite unlovable in my eyes. Meanwhile, I must warn you, the enemy did not let up on bashing away at my resolve – he doesn’t want anyone saved! That other person had been cemented into their attitudes, by time. So I had to choose to maintain my position in His plan for their lives, and make strong choices, with His help … to leave the past behind. I started to look forward to seeing them and being with them, because pleasing Him became my aim. Take the time to get to know how Almighty God thinks. Bye. 👋

P 3118 We need passionate obedience.

/ DVH

“Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, when you don’t do the things I say?” WEB.“Why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and do not [practice] what I tell you?” AMP. ““So why do you call Me ‘Lord’ when you won’t obey Me?“ TLB. This last one is a doozie! “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.” Luke 6:46-49.

Over 50+ years ago, the Lord really challenged me with this scripture. He didn’t mince His words, He told me that there was no point in talking to me if I was just going to block my ears to the things I didn’t like or the things I thought I couldn’t do. He reminded me that He is looking for clean hands and a pure heart, and if I was ever  going to be able to do that in my own strength – it would have happened by now! My flesh can get very noisy and complain a lot. Since that time I have learnt that ‘His Way or the Highway’ is not a threat — it is a promise. The Lord promises us to help us to obey Him, it’s in the book. Obedience is the product of faith.

There is so much about our God that we still do not know because we like to pick and choose what we want to do and what we don’t. And then we call that freedom. Phooey. God is not a Pick and Pay! Although we will pay, spiritually, if we don’t pick His way! Sadly, we can be very easily led away by the enemy’s tricks. Let’s choose to clear away some of the painful debris that clutters up our thought life and the corners of our hearts. and become single minded. By that I mean let’s start with the things that Jesus Himself said. And in the OT it says a number of times:“I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You.”  Psalm 119:11.

We also need to decide to do what It says – on purpose. That means we are making an informed, I’ve-counted-the-cost-and-I-am-doing-it-anyway …decisions. Some people say obeying God unlocks blessings in your life – it probably does – but that thought sure is a rotten reason and a big fat insult to everything Jesus did for us, voluntarily! I think we need to choose to obey because HE told us to.

The point is His kids choose to actively learn how to yield. You and I have been given the power to release people from satan’s grip so they can hear and see the Lord for themselvesI We can’t afford to forget the fact that it doesn’t say … “feel like it first!” Unless I am in a coma! … I can choose to forgive anyone!  It is an act of my will. Then I ask the Holy Spirit to remind me about what I’ve chosen to do, because people can continue to be irritating and annoying, so I need Him to remind me that I already forgave them! That eliminates those nasty rumblings inside me when I need to deal with somebody I’ve been angry at before.

Meanwhile, because I’ve lived a while, I’ve observed that most people have no idea about whatever they say or do toward others  —  they are so chock full of themselves and how they feel. You would be astonished at how little others think about anyone else! You are often just an innocent bystander who happened to cross paths, with someone who is utterly clueless about how other people feel. They don’t actually have room, or time to ruminate on their behaviour, maybe they are too busy scarring other people for life!! Yay Jesus, because of You everybody can be healed!!

My next advice is move on from offence, or other people’s sins, quickly. There is nothing to see there, so stop trying to alter someone else’s behaviour and concentrate on your own responses instead. We can change ourselves because we’ve been given the power to change! Change is always dependent on Him, plus our positive response and choices. Those things are made and sustained with the Holy Spirit’s help, which is great because this is His favourite kind of prayer. Reconciliation. 

Deliberate disobedience often needs a revelation of Who Jesus is, and what He did for us. That can straighten out our thinking. And finally we need to remember Who He is NOW, at the right hand of His Father! That thought alone should empower us. When we choose to not hold on to someone else’s sin, or even revisit it, or talk about it, or think about it – we are practising the skill of obedience under adverse conditions, it makes us ‘…strong in the Lord in the power of HIS MIGHT…’

Despite our common war wounds, the Holy Spirit can and will help us with whatever comes out of our mouths. Letting go of someone else’s sin is letting go of judgment. It is incredibly important to treat offence like a poisonous snake. Fix it immediately, and carefully. It will help us grow our faith as well as spiritually prosper in the things of God that are good, just, right. Jesus talks about obedience with passion in John 14:21, 23..“Those who truly love Me are those who obey My  commands. Whoever passionately loves Me will be passionately loved by my Father. And I will passionately love him in return and will reveal Myself to him.” Jesus replied, “Loving Me empowers you to obey My word. And My Father will love you so deeply that We will come to you and make you Our dwelling place.”

Bye. 👋

P 3108 HE is our strength.

/ DVH

“The extraordinary level of the revelations I’ve received is no reason for anyone to exalt me. For this is why a thorn in my flesh was given to me, the Adversary’s messenger sent to harass me, keeping me from becoming arrogant. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to relieve me of this. But He answered me, “My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power finds its full expression through your weakness.” So I will celebrate my weaknesses, for when I’m weak I sense more deeply the mighty power of Christ living in me. So I’m not defeated by my weakness, but delighted! For when I feel my weakness and endure mistreatment—when I’m surrounded with troubles on every side and face persecution because of my love for Christ—I am made yet stronger. For my weakness becomes a portal to God’s power.”

Sooner or later everyone’s faith comes under pressure. But the knowledge is not revealed to us to torment us, as Paul explains here in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. Paul is telling us pain has a purpose! God reveals things to us even through pain, so we can work with Him on the gaps in our knowledge of Him and errors in our faith –  together. He will not leave us even when the ceiling falls in. The Lord allows things to help us to learn about our multifaceted blessings. And He wants us to learn to wait for Him. We are not waiting for the solution, we are waiting to hear from Him. Jesus knew how to wait!

There’s nothing like trouble to send desperate people to their knees. Or sobbing on the bed in despair when we can’t find the way out – and we want it to stop, NOW. In those times, ask yourself, can I go one more step? I don’t project the misery I feel into the future, because the thought of endless suffering is devastating. The more we press into what we already know about Him personally — the more about Him and ourselves, we can learn in difficult times. Our God does not cause suffering! He’s a faithful, good, good Father Who wants us to grow up into the fullness of Christ Himself. He is leading us, step by step, into a new, bigger place – just as surely as He led Abraham and Moses into the Promised land.

Whatever we are experiencing can give us a fresh revelation of what Christ voluntarily did. He too, suffered despair, loneliness, loss of love, loss of understanding, depression, anguish, grief and sorrow. He was all alone in Gethsemane, as well as on that cross. And He suffered in ways we cannot imagine. We have a Saviour Who was“… was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him.” Isaiah 53:3.

Jesus suffered everything He suffered, for us – He can show us the way through it. This is what Paul is talking about. He had grown strong enough in His faith to receive correction, and adjustment to his own faith, as well as renewing his thinking. He thought he needed to get out of the thing that was tormenting him, but God graciously granted Paul the understanding that this too was yet another place he could learn to lean on what Jesus did!

Obedience is everything …but we’ve made UNDERSTANDING into everything instead. 

Paul saw purpose. He realised all that knowledge God had downloaded into him, could cause him to be arrogant – and arrogance short circuits Grace! So he chose to endure the harassment of pain and suffering because God showed him there was a benefit – immediately – as well as on the other side! You and I have limitations. We can only stretch so far, some can stretch further than others, but we all have limits. When we reach the end of ourselves – God is still there! His power to overcome is still there! Take a deep breath, tell Him you love Him and you know He won’t let you down. Faith acts, it speaks!

It is a good thing to know that you can’t do … whatever it is … because GOD IS RIGHT THERE WITH YOU IN THAT WEAKNESS. Instead of trying to wiggle out of it, ask Him to help you stay the course, and learn how to trust Him more. Most of the time, I have discovered this sort of ‘adjustment’ is hardly ever about some other person’s actions against me. It’s about me. Maybe I have been blindsided by a wrong belief, or I have not comprehended the fullness of what Jesus died to give me. Let’s remember we all need endurance, we are in a race! By all means tell the enemy to GO! But remember, to ask the Lord: “What’s this about Lord?”

If I can’t endure what is happening to me, that means I am not complete in my faith in that area. Think about Jesus being there, right now, holding your hand. He is praying for you, so is the Holy Spirit. He wants to remind you to learn to rely upon His strength, instead of your own. Maybe you can’t do this – but He can! Don’t look for a plan all laid out and downloaded from heaven – instead take one small faith step at a time.

We won’t perceive His blessings when we are constantly asking God to bail us out of whatever it is we are stuck in. Trust me, I’ve tried that. It will take as long as it takes, and then finish so suddenly you will have your mouth drop open like a goldfish! But don’t just lay down like Father God is an ogre and you have no power to escape from His dealings. Talk to Him about what He wants you to learn about yourself, the situation, His Grace, and loving others more freely. God understands how vulnerable FLESH is – He put it on and came here! 

Bye.👋

P 3105 Take regular BATHS in the Holy Spirit.

/ DVH

Isaiah 42:1TPT. “Take a good look at My Servant. I’m backing Him to the hilt. He’s the One I chose, and I couldn’t be more pleased with Him. I’ve bathed Him with my Spirit, my life. He’ll set everything right among the nations. He won’t call attention to what He does with loud speeches or gaudy parades. He won’t brush aside the bruised and the hurt and He won’t disregard the small and insignificant, but He’ll steadily and firmly set things right. He won’t tire out and quit. He won’t be stopped until He’s finished His work—to set things right on earth. Far-flung ocean islands wait expectantly for His teaching.”

As you can see, Jesus is our highly recommended example of submission. Plus He is our perfect illustration of how to have a permanent, total loving connection, at all times with our Heavenly Father. He was not interested in publicity, or fame, He is always drawn to those people our society deems unlovely, broken, nasty, and unredeemable. Let us realise that legislating tolerance is not the same as loving acceptance. Father God’s will for our lives is loving acceptance. The Lord Jesus gave His all to obey His Father’s wishes so we could be accepted. 

Meanwhile, doesn’t the whole being bathed in the Spirit thing sound lovely??!! You and the Holy Spirit splashing away, having fun together! Hmmm. Way back in the ark we took baths to get rid of dirt. Are you still there? God’s grace, together with the Holy Spirit, will help us to deal with the stuff we’ve been ignoring, or overlooking because that pile of junk seems too hard and too big to tackle. But first we need to realise we need a bath! To get rid of dirt, grime, hypocrisy, jealousy, rage, and revenge, etc. – we need to regularly take a bath in the Living Water of HIS WORD. 

Our God is so good to us. He will always use His Word to encourage us when we are down, to free us when we are trapped, and to wash us when we are dirty. The following verse in Ephesians 5:26 talks about what the Word of God does in us and for us. “Husbands, you must love your wives so deeply, purely, and sacrificially that we can understand it only when we compare it to the love the Anointed One has for His bride, the church. We know He gave Himself up completely to make her His own, washing her clean of all her impurity with water and the powerful presence of His Word.”

There’s a bonus buy in this verse for husbands who are prepared to listen to it — if you follow the Lord’s advice in this verse you will have a happy wife. The advice is this: be like Jesus to your wife. That could keep some people busy until the next millennia!  And, ya might want to read that last sentence again and remind yourself that we will always need His help! Go to the gospels and see how the Lord Himself treated women. It is a sad fact that in the past men were only too happy to lead, but they kind of skipped the whole deeply, purely and sacrificially bit – not to mention love their wives the way Jesus loved the church!

A-n-y-w-ay! … Back to my real point today – deliberately deciding to take a daily bath in His Word. We can read verses like this, nod our heads and  agree with what it says, and still privately think …‘this stuff was written long, long ago, how can it be relevant today?’ The truth is it won’t be relevant unless you choose to make it relevant. Our personal decisions govern what we participate in. If we sow into the flesh—what we feel, or what we think might happen—we won’t even begin to see a harvest in the Spirit. The way to see what the Lord will do with obedience … is to decide to be obedient and get on with it.

Many of this world’s ideas are the exact opposite of our stated desire to be transformed and changed into the Lord’s likeness. You simply can’t walk with the Holy Spirit and disagree with the Way He does things! Father God is so good, He will not cross our wishes. However, what He has done is to provide us with opportunities to change our minds and turn around and go back into submission. Submission means our human mission becomes subordinate to His Heavenly mission. It means that He knows better than we do what we actually want and need – mankind is ruled by its appetites. God has a better plan, because of the Grace Jesus released at Calvary, the Holy Spirit can and will guide and lead us into His Ways.

Like I’ve said many times before – Jesus overpaid our debt. Now we have a bank of Grace that we can draw on, anytime, anywhere … under any circumstances… it is there to help us change! “…ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened to you …”  The problem is people have bashed on the door of this verse for years now to get stuff that they think they want or need. Things like expensive cars, houses, boats, trips overseas etc.etc.

This verse about asking was used to illustrate to us that we can have the Holy Spirit’s help anywhere, any time. Jesus is talking about receiving, welcoming and being helped by the Holy Spirit, not about me being given a new Porsche! When we allow God’s Word to wash us clean, our motivations become clean too. Let me put it this way – every interaction with His Presence changes us. If we mean it when we say,‘create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit in me,’  then we must choose to engage with His ways. Taking regular baths in the Holy Spirit means bearing in mind that we are looking to be clean — not just tick a box! That will change our hearts and transform our minds. Bless you. 👋

P 3101 Life happens!

/ DVH

Just recently we had someone try to pinch all our financial details. So, we grudgingly packed a cut lunch and then hubby picked up the phone and settled in for the long haul, which means we had to connect to someone in the bank so we can inform them what happened. THAT is a whole day job! We entered the long and dreary world of guess the right extension bingo! Actually we went round and round for a bit, but eventually we found someone who didn’t just want to transfer us somewhere else. I think some people want you to hang up because you are too hard for them, but they are too nice to tell you that. 

An-y-wa-y … finally we gave a real live person our sad little story and the nice person on the other end was prepared to take responsibility to help us fix the ending. It appears someone cloned hubby’s voice. As this never-ending saga gobbled up most of that day, I started to think of clever ideas to stop your voice getting cloned to prevent the whole thing from reoccurring. At the same time we also prayed for the people who thought stealing is a legitimate job! I wonder if they do tax returns? So today I came up with daffy ideas to cheer both of us up.

I wondered if buying a voice-changing device would be a good idea? Good old Amazon has loads of those. You can sound like Darth Vader, or Daffy Duck, or a lady might sound like a man … stuff like that. It could be a bit expensive, we are pensioners after all! But then came bright idea number 2. Buy a helium balloon and breathe in some gas. Um … I’m not quite sure of the long term results of breathing in helium, I’ve been assured it isn’t deadly, but that did seem a bit extreme. I mean, how many people have helium balloons on tap, waiting for a thief to phone up so they can use them? 

So now we’ve hit upon a capital idea. Hubby says his first name and then he waits – the rest is up to the other guy on the other end of the phone. Some people do think they can out-wait you …but they could be wrong! … And so far they have been. Thank God some semblance of order has been restored to our financial situation. We could of course, take our savings and stuff them under the mattress — but then we just might run into another kind of crook, who breaks into your house and wants to make your stuff – THEIR STUFF. 

In the past – long before Jesus and I discussed Who really owns everything we have, when I went on holidays, I hid all my dearly loved items in peculiar places. Not in the freezer! …cos I have it on good authority that thieves look in there! But in totally idiotic hidey holes around the house. There was only one teeny tiny problem with that. By the time I got home again, I had forgotten wherever my precious treasures were hidden and it took me AGES to locate them again. So the Lord kindly reminded me I was hiding my treasures in the wrong place. “Store them up in heaven,” the Holy Spirit said. ‘That’s a great idea.” says I, “where do I find a l-o-n-g ladder?”   

It seems to me that Father God has a great sense of humour and He always has a much better slant on any situation we find ourselves in. I think that’s why Paul said … “all things work together for good.”  He did add,“according to His (the Lord’s) purposes “.. but most people skip that bit because they aren’t quite sure what it means. They just like the beginning of the verse — the ending not-so-much. I decided to think on the phrase according to His purposes more thoroughly. 

This is what I came up with – God’s purpose and our purpose may not always be the same. He wants to save thieves, and we want them to GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL and not pass Go! Like I said, we did pray for them  because they may not have anyone else to do it! Then we asked for the Lord to invade their lives, the way He has invaded ours. After all Jesus had a thief for a disciple, so He knows about stuff like that. Then we blessed them because the bible says to bless people when they persecute you, and despitefully use you. And at the same time we also prayed for our money to come back to us, and, praise God, it did! But that didn’t seem to be the entire point of that phrase… then I found this version of Romans 8:26-28.

“Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.” MSG.

I think this means a couple of things:  we don’t have to pray right, to get the Lord’s attention. We already have it because we belong to Him. After all, Judas didn’t have to jump up and down for Jesus to speak to him, yet the Lord knew he was a wrong-un. The Holy Spirit is always with us, helping us, whether we know what to pray or not! Isn’t He wonderful? He also keeps us present before God.

The Lord’s purpose for this world is clearly stated in John 3:17: “For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him.” His purpose is to save people, even thieves!  And because He is God and He is always good – HE gets to define good!  Bye.👋

P 3091 Define the word ‘gift!’

/ DVH

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, Who does not change like shifting shadows.”James 1:17.“Ask, and the gift is yours. Seek, and you’ll discover. Knock, and the door will be opened for you.”Matthew 7:7 TPT.

If I were to ask you to define what you think a good gift looks like, what would you say? A happy life, travel, health, a nice house, great kids, plenty of money …a happy wife? Here’s a side note … the bible talks about finding a wife. “He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favour from the LORD.” God has a whole other take on what He thinks good gifts look like! That cranky wife is His gift to you  – you prayed for transformation!

It seems to me that we have translated the above scriptures in James and Matthew to mean that ‘I’ get to define what a good gift looks like! Good luck with that one. Why? Because only God is good … so He is the only One we can trust to define what good looks like! You might like to put your false teeth back in and chew on that one. God’s idea of good, and ours aren’t always the same. The bible tells us in Isaiah 53:10 that: ‘…it pleased the Lord to bruise Jesus’ – His Son.

Father God looks through the difficulties and pain to the overall end result. Jesus’ death meant salvation for all of us! He will use every bit of our journey through hard things – to grow, and diagnose and transform us. I believe human beings cannot discern good, because our minds are saturated with bitterness, resentment, troubles, worries and strife … as well as the so-called pleasures of this world! Somehow all that stuff skews our thinking, and we end up focusing only on the things that we think are advantageous to US, and not on the overall benefit to everyone. 

While our minds are in defensive or offended mode – we cannot easily see whatever is going on in that other person. We’ve been emotionally and mentally distracted, and we will be clouded by our own self-interest. Maybe a nasty attitude in another person is a demonic influence. Maybe it’s a habit, or maybe they are in nine kinds of pain!! But because we are prepared for pickiness, or fight, or flight, that means we are not in a prayerful position to receive heaven’s download about the situation.

The Holy Spirit always has a contribution to make … a gift.  A word of knowledge, some insight, a word of wisdom for every scenario. If we concentrate on how we feel – our anger, loss or pain, we probably won’t see or hear His answer, or we will reject it! And that means the broader deeper blessing is missed. We sometimes trot off feeling relieved when we manage to avoid a grumpy person. But, in truth, we have only postponed change – for me, for them, for the situation. Part of being transformed means we will need to yield to His wishes, His way, even though at the time it feels like the last thing we want to do.

He says this in His word: “No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; He’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; He’ll always be there to help you come through it.” I Corinthians 10:13. Did you see the gift in that sentence?  Yeah yeah, I know you think you’ve had times when you’ve been pushed too far, but the punch line is this — Almighty God thinks you can do it! He believes in you! Here’s another gift to think on:“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” Psalm 27:14. You know, the bible says that waiting on God renews our strength. (Isaiah 40:31) 

When we start out prayerfully trying to resist any kind of temptation, we may feel weak and not capable of what we know we need to do. But waiting for Him, pulls our focus out of the normal mixmaster mindset that rattles our brain. Waiting allows us to breathe – to find our peace. This is also a gift! Suddenly all the mind-cloudiness etc. lifts and we can begin to see spiritually. When we stop rattling our brains about “this or that or some other solution” and just sit in silence, and wait for Him! The same way we might wait for a friend in a coffee shop. We will quickly find that silence is another gift.

“My soul, wait in silence for God alone, For my hope is from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, My refuge; I will not be shaken. My salvation and my glory rest on God;  The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.” Psalm 62:5-7.

This answer is a gift to us. In reality the Lord is saying to us:“this is the way walk ye in it!”He is showing us another way to get through difficulties – and that’s another gift! God daily gives us good gifts and if all we choose to see is this whizz-bang spiritual gift, or that special ability, we will miss seeing Him in our day to day ordinary life.

We need His definition of the word GIFT not ours. Prayerfully ask Him to help you to see and recognise Him, as He is active in your life. He showers us with blessings every single day! If you want to settle for a car park when you need one, then … have at it! But there is more! If what you receive is just perfect, then it is Him. Bye. 👋

P 3088 On being human.

/ DVH

Never forget you are a human being – Almighty God doesn’t!! “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in Your unfailing love;  my heart rejoices in Your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for He has been good to me.” Psalm 13.

We can all have days, or weeks, or sometimes even months like these! Times when it seems like we are all alone, and we appear to have been forgotten by God. Faith is our in-built God-detector. As we use that faith despite the mess we are in, we will begin to see signs of His loving kindness all over our lives. It wouldn’t be called FAITH if we could be certain about it all the time. There are times when even though we know He is not absent, our feelings become bigger than what we know to be true.

I know what it is like to wrestle with my thoughts and struggle to break through to a more peaceful, victorious place. When we feel like God has deserted us, it is way too easy to turn our focus back onto whatever is going on inside us. Sadly, that way we can eventually sink into despair. You can hear those thoughts from Asaph in the above Psalm. This life can be hard and cruel, many things happen to us that are outside our control. 

Even though our primary desire is to be a joyful, song singing, obedient and prayerful, worshipping person of God, we will always need to learn more about how to use our faith to get through stuff. Those times can be both enriching and hard – all at once. They seem to pull us toward despair, especially if we think that we are supposed   to have everything together, and remain cheerful all the time! That’s a lie that will lead you and I into striving, because we can never reach that goal without Him. No matter how we feel, our God will never desert us.

Day after day when I read what these men wrote, I am greatly comforted by the truth that is exposed by what is in the Psalms. They took the time to write down their blessed happy feelings – as well as their  “I’m not coping, let’s brain the bad guys” ones. There are times when my own thoughts betray me, and I can’t figure out why! Let’s not to mention other people, whose feelings, and interpretation of what is going on in life often leave me spinning. The blessing in reading the Psalms is that I will come away from them feeling more normal, if not a bit reassured that my humanity has value to God Himself! He left this stuff in His book!

How can I ever manage to learn anything, almost in spite of myself? Glad you asked that. The Holy Spirit, the-greatest-of-all-time-Leader and Editor, left these grumpy, sad Psalms IN. That whole vibe of – “couldn’t we just kill those people and tell God they died?” – is not what you expect from the bible! It’s astonishing. Many other books in the Word are about mankind’s interactions with God. But here is a whole collection about the human heart, and feelings – warts and all! When the Holy Spirit did that, He left room for us to be real and learn.

At the same time, we can all be kept so busy with this life, that we forget our sin is paid for, so we don’t have to let it master us any more. The problem is that we have well-established old pathways, and they fool us into thinking they still have power over us. However there is no greater force in this world than love: “it hopes all things, believes all things, bears all things.”And our God loves us LIKE THAT. Meanwhile, we don’t only need help, although we do! … We need personal SUPERVISION. And the Holy Spirit is brilliant at it,  His vigilance is without peer, His promptings gentle but firm.

Human beings can become insecure, especially if our proposed ways of thinking and being are unrealistic to the very real level of our faith. Some stuff we want to walk in may be currently a great theory, but we can’t quite put it into practice — especially if we don’t get answers immediately! BTW, don’t take your faith back, hang on to Him and don’t let go  Our help is in the Name of the Lord – God will sort stuff for you. Father God allows us to be stretched to help us grow and rely more completely upon Him. God Himself is our safe place.

Our part is to daily absorb His Ways, and, with the Holy Spirit’s help, then we consistently apply the things He shows us. In the end we need to remember, we are day by day, rewiring our brains! “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12. This is no small task, thank God the Word of God is powerful!  

It is important to know the path to take in times of ease, or when difficulties arise, and the Psalms show us other people struggled too. God’s path means that over time, we will learn to use our faith as a full time way to live – because it is not just meant to be emergency relief in times of strife. Feeling helpless in the face of trouble and difficulties happens to all of us. These Psalmists help us remember that it is not a sin to be human. Our God is always with us no matter how much we’ve wandered off!  Bless you 👋

P 3048 Immaturity is not a bad word.

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“Now, those who are mature in their faith can easily be recognized, for they don’t live to please themselves but have learned to patiently embrace others in their immaturity. Our goal must be to empower others to do what is right and good for them, and to bring them into spiritual maturity. For even Christ did not please Himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.””“Whatever was written beforehand is meant to instruct us in how to live. The Scriptures impart to us encouragement and inspiration so that we can live in hope and endure all things. May the God Who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 15:1-6TPT.

Encouragement is not just saying: “gee you are a great guy” no matter whatever a brother or sister-in-Christ is doing. It may make you popular but that’s called lying!. We must not deny the truth to save someone else’s feelings. We are not here to build up anyone’s ego, etc., rather we hold up the truth so we can all see our mistakes and adjust our course. Love demands that we persists for as long as the Lord says. 

Biblical encouragement consists of verbal, physical and emotional help others to walk away from whatever is holding them captive — without becoming their entire support system. We want Jesus holding them up – not you or I. We fall down too, remember? Keep pointing them toward Him, and stay humble! Love does not look down upon others.

Sometimes people have daft beliefs and they can’t see that there was anything wrong with what they just did. Simple stuff that slips by someone, but we can’t afford to put our stamp of approval on it. Situations like this one: “It’s OK, God understands that you’ve decided to keep the $10 extra change you were overpaid in that shop. We need to go back and return it.”

Meanwhile, if you are like me, then you might say something like: “What on earth are you thinking? That’s called stealing!” OK, I’m blunt, but nevertheless hinting around is not encouragement. But lovingly holding up what God says, IS. We dare not continue to try to weasel out of our personal responsibility to take ownership for our own actions. After all, Saul stood by and approved of people killing Stephen, and God held him accountable.

Biblical encouragement always has a point! It is a sign of love, and it can also be a correction for someone else’s course of action when they are going the wrong way. The truth is that there will be times we need to say the same thing 487 times before the other person gets a revelation. Initially, they may not even hear us clearly! However, if my family member-in-Christ needs spiritual hearing aids, that does not mean I am licensed to shout at them. But it could mean we will do a little bible study together, asap!  

Human beings can be proud because they don’t like to be wrong – and this sometimes means that people may not take course-correction well. This is a good place to pray without ceasing! There will be many times when you get to the maximum input with someone, and the Lord Himself will say to us: “stand back, this is not your assignment any longer – I will deal with this.” However, if what we do isn’t coming from love, then we need to go after love for ourselves and self-correct! Impatience isn’t love. Sigh. It has taken me a while to figure that one out! 

Sadly there are also times when we can lose our own hope, because we have misunderstood the meaning of the word encouragement and the other person failed to listen. We are not meant to be a generic cheer squad turning a blind eye, no matter what is going on. Encouragement means we will give someone else courage to keep going – His way. It also means ‘I will stand with you while you learn.’ 

Personally, when I can see someone is headed down the wrong path because of their own deliberate choices – I go away and pray for them. Next time it will probably be me down that hole. “Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,…” Hebrews 12:12a. Maturity and encouragement mean that we stand in the gap until that person can stand with Him, by themselves. Love always looks for the good in others.

There have been many times I’ve suffered because I took someone else’s rejection and response to what I said, personally. There are things most of us don’t want to hear – and it is not personal at all, because the truth cuts right across our wrong theology. If someone else gets snippy at you because you held up His mirror, the Word of God – then that is their problem. It really isn’t personal. Even if it seems pretty personal when they tell you off!

Despite the fact that this whole area seems fraught with danger, true encouragement is actually His love-in-action, whether we like it or not. Immaturity is not a bad word, it is a place we all occupy from time to time as we follow Him. He is the Perfect One, we are His disciples, and some of us are on a giant learning curve. Let’s encourage one another with love and support in our hearts no matter what we need to say. Bye. 👋. 

For those of you who have been praying for me and the family about my mother’s illness, thank you. 🕊️I am so grateful. Your prayers were so powerful, they were tangible. My mother was finally released from this life last night, to go to be with the Lord. May God bless you for your loving intercession. 😢

P 3036 Upside down thinking.

/ DVH

Christians can have some upside-down thinking when it comes to the Lord. We inadvertently blame God for the bad things that happen to us. Or at other times we take the higher path and accept that we are being disciplined —without understanding what it really means. Our God will never leave us. Because He is holy, He wants us to share in His holiness. He tells us in Hebrews to look at Jesus, Who never doubted His Father for a second.

Hebrews 12:3-10: “Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart…… In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son?  My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as His son.”

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in His holiness.”

We know that God loves us, because He disciplines us, and His discipline will always be for our good. He is encouraging us into His Way of Holiness. In other words – if we want to be holy like HE is, this is how you get it! We need to trust Him and learn to endure in the hard bits. That is not the same as gritting your teeth and waiting for the hard time to be over. Trusting Him and learning endurance happens, when we hold fast to His goodness, and His astonishing ability to work even terrible things together for our good. He is not mad with us, just because our little bit of this world has gone upside down. The reality is, we are birthing something of His kingdom into our lives that we cannot get any other way. When we respond in faith to difficulties and trials. Christians often gravitate far more toward things that inspire us, instead of things that challenge us.

We listen and observe through ears that filter things by whether it affects my life or not! Those things are anchored into the world of ME! My comfort, life, and my salvation. It all gets filtered through my perception of how spiritual things are meant to work. If I happen to like a certain biblical teacher, then that teacher also provides me with a part of that filter. When writers and speakers say things we like, we assimilate them into our theology. I absorb their revelations often without praying about it or searching out the matter for myself! It’s kind of a short-cut approach to growth. But we must also learn from the Holy Spirit, who speaks “ME” intimately.

Almighty God has an Eternal Language called Love. When He disciplines us, the bible says: He disciplines us because He loves us! That can seem like upside-down thinking!  In our way of thinking, when people love us, it means they are for us, and they wouldn’t dream of hurting us. It seems that our ideas of discipline today mean punishment, and they must not to be tolerated. That’s not true in the bible. Sometimes we don’t get the depth behind the Lord’s words. “God disciplines those HE LOVES.” In other words — His discipline in our lives, is one of the ways we know we are loved by Him! 

Now if you are like me that thought automatically leads to: “I wish you wouldn’t discipline me quite so much, thank you, Lord!”…B-u-t … I probably wouldn’t say that out loud. That’s because I am misreading the word discipline. The Lord wants to correct us with His eye on us. Our wonderful Father God is not just randomly walloping us when things get difficult or we do something we know we shouldn’t – He is showing us He loves us. We simply don’t understand His language. We need to move into maturity. Our Father’s aim is holiness, not just our comfort. His Love values intimacy with us above our idea of a happy life.

Father God has promised He will never leave us, even when things are terrible. He loves us so much He is leading us on into deeper things – so the next time something bad happens, we will have something concrete to stand on —  assurance of HIS LOVE!  God does not send the trouble but He will use it for our good. Jesus took all of our punishment on Himself, but we still need transformation. Embracing His holiness in our lives will totally change our perspective. Jesus was absolutely holy – but He didn’t float about with shiny gear on and a halo!  He showed us His holiness by only doing good from a pure heart – then He took the punishment that belongs to us. Yielding to God’s ways under fire, means we will not be burned, we will be spectators.

We must make it our aim to accept, and be blessed by God’s discipline, He is saying to each one of us:“You are Mine. I love you. Come up higher.” By all means, ask for trouble to be taken away! But if it remains, then God is doing something else. He is saying to you — “come closer, let’s talk.” That is not upside-down thinking, it’s thinking that has turned the right way up. Bye 👋