Goodness

P 2457 There is no system.

/ DVH

“But give reverent honour in your hearts to the Anointed One and treat Him as the holy Master of your lives. And if anyone asks about the hope living within you, always be ready to explain your faith.” 1 Peter 3:15 TPT

The truth is, it is your faith, and no-one else can explain it. One of the marvellous things about living for Jesus is that your own personal story has worth. It doesn’t matter if your life was changed when were sitting about at your house, glancing through the bible and some verse or other struck you as truth … or you were pole-axed by God in the middle of a service. Whatever you have to say about how you came to know Christ is what someone else needs to hear.

That is the marvellous thing about following Jesus, your story, is your shared story … with Him! And no-one else can negate it. After all our God is so incredibly complexly big that He can hand-pick the people who need to hear that story from you – at any time He wants it to happen. Meanwhile, we cannot afford to make the Gospel anything else but personal. It’s very personal. It changed our lives.

In our churches there have been many systems, that may have started with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but they’ve wandered off into the land of ‘this is what we think and what suits us.’ Maybe the Lord isn’t kissing that sort of outreach the way He kissed it in the beginning. That, BTW, does not mean the systems are bad, they are just not what He is saying and doing today. This can also mean that our testimonies etc. are forced, or memorised, instead of being natural and relaxed. 

Talking about Jesus to a stranger, or even a family member, should not be a tremendous strain, or even a bit terrifying. They.Will.Notice.That! … And then there is a distinct possibility whatever you say can be dismissed as doctrine or brain-washing, instead of the new life you have inside your heart.

In Jeremiah chapter 2, verse 13 there is this scripture: “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” I think that this scripture holds just as true today, as it did back in the time of Jeremiah. We have made systems (cisterns) to hold the water of the Holy Spirit and because the systems are not good containers … they are after all, man-made …they’ve become broken and less effective. When we talk to others it needs to be natural, not choreographed.

The bible says: “…open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” Psalm 81:10. My point is this, as we relax and simply share what He has done in our lives — we will get to know the Holy Spirit so much better, and we will become familiar with His ways. Especially as we lean our faith on Him to help us talk to others. The best prayer ever if we are stuck, is: “Help!” Then you simply start to tell that other person what you’ve seen and known of Jesus personally in your own life. Whether you talk about healing, or how much the bible has meant to you, or how your life has been changed.

Just be yourself. Lean on the fact that He loves you with an immeasurable, unchanging eternal love and simply talk about Him. Whatever you say is up to you, it can be long or short. It doesn’t matter. However, if the person’s eyes glaze over then it’s time to bail out… quickly! 😂 Like I said, be yourself. Talk about Jesus like He lives at your house and you know Him – because He does live at your house and you do know Him! Nobody can argue with the man with a personal experience. They might think you are nuts, but worse things have happened. Move on …

We honour Jesus when we talk about Him and what He is doing, or has done, in our lives. Even using His lovely Name with reverence is exalting Him. Some people ignorantly use His Name as a swear word, imagine how blessed He is to hear His Name on our lips praising His goodness! 

Be like the blind man in John 9:25“He answered and said, Whether He be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” That’s a testimony! We‘overcome the enemy by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.” This man had a simple testimony and he gave it when he was asked a question.

We all have a testimony, and our testimonies cannot be refuted. The thing is, these testimonies have power in them. The Grace of God has kissed our lives, and when we talk about it to someone else, that Grace is released all over again to touch them. They may punch us on the nose, or walk away muttering, OR throw up their hands and say: “I want that!” Meh! The results are always up to Him. There is no system. Bye. 👋🏻

P 2456 Whose kingdom are we building, ours or His?

/ DVH

I asked myself the above question this morning, as I set out to write this blog. Despite the fact that we all like the easy way, the really great transforming things in the Christian life will not fall on any of us. Transformation takes choices, and there are no short cuts to a well-formed character. We need the Holy Spirit to kiss us — plus loving, listening, obedient hearts to His will. That will also take God-purposed choices. Many Christians want to know what their ministry is – but they have not learnt to love others. Ministry not motivated by His love, becomes a chore.

Our desire is to love and trust Jesus, but without God-motivated actions, we will wander along, mostly building our own little kingdoms. There is no other way, we need to choose to die to self bit by bit, day by day.  That means choosing to say nothing in the face of criticism, or being kind to someone who could care less about us. Instead we ask the Holy Spirit to help us. Because He will. The good news is … that’s how we get to know Him! 

Jesus Christ steered His way through this life accomplishing so much more than we can ever understand or imagine – and He did it all so now, today, we can be free to follow Him. He was incredibly passionate about His Father’s kingdom coming! He spent alone time with Father God, then He chose to be where hungry, sick, demanding people were, so He could pray for them as well as preach. He chose to obey.The only thing that can stop you and I right now is our will to change. We can’t turn back from it, we must press on.

Learning to yield to Him and His ways is part of ushering in His kingdom. But at the same time, we cannot be constantly distracted by the earthly things around us that don’t matter. People matter. When we let money or stuff become more important than the Lord, we’ve gone the wrong way. Making promises at the altar will not get us out of our self-absorbed ways, but paying attention to the Holy Spirit’s leading, will. Jesus is eternal, so is His kingdom.

Upholding our own little kingdoms, at the expense of other people all around us who are suffering, is not following Jesus. Loving Him means reaching out to others, simply because God has been good to us, and we want them to know His active goodness through us. At some stage in all our lives we met Him, face-to-face, figuratively or literally.  So now we know that we know, that the people around us need Jesus too. They need that much love and acceptance. The Lord dripped every single drop of His love and acceptance all the way down that cross, onto the ground beneath it – for every human being – even the evil ones.

In today’s world, it can seem like we have forgotten how to share and be there for each other. Human beings were not designed to live alone. Remember Genesis 2? The Lord God Himself said, right after He created man – “It is not good for man to be alone.” God called a whole lot of things good: but ALONE-NESS was not one of them! Reach out to those who will have no Christmas unless we include them. Spread forgiveness around because we have so much of it to give.  

There are times, in this modern world, when we can be so busy minding our own business we lose sight of the person who is in deep pain and sorrow standing right next to us. Their pain is our pain. Have we forgotten that we are quite literally, engaged to be married to the Healer of all Healers. We cannot afford to ever lack His OIL in our lamps! Political correctness has taken over from the kind of love that Jesus gave away for free. He made room for everybody.

We need to throw away our theology and just love people.

At the same time, because we are part of the Body of Christ, every single member is important. We cannot afford to lose anyone. So please take time to send that text, and make that phone call. We must persevere with people, even the difficult ones – and yes, I have some of those!  One day when we look back on this life we were given, the things that will matter are the relationships we had – the love we freely shared. 

Many people have been incredibly traumatised by this world, so they might take a bit of effort on our part. But loving others is the reason God saved us. Learning to love and include others takes effort, patience, forgiveness and time. Ask yourself, what have you invested your time in this year – your kingdom, or His? 👋🏻

“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” John 15:12.

P 2448 I’m a fan of James.

/ DVH

“Every gift God freely gives us is good and perfect, streaming down from the Father of lights, who shines from the heavens with no hidden shadow or darkness and is never subject to change.” James 1:17 TPT. ” Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of lights [the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens], in whom there is no variation [no rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [for He is perfect and never changes].” James 1:17 AMP

I really like James. His subject is always related to Who God is, and what He expects from us. When you write a blog like the one I write every day, you should really only have one point each time. I sneak a couple of others in every now and then – but James jumps about like a grasshopper in a grass fire! This means that sometimes even the smallest part of each paragraph or chapter has an individual point worth meditating on. You simply can’t rush reading James! The deeper you dig, the more you will find.

He’s full of prayer points. He makes reading, simply for the sake of general reading, harder. James is a book to be studied, not just casually read. I find I have to stop and think and pray a lot! We need to savour what he says as we go along, then decide to take the time to chew on each of his points, because James has not made it easy for us. Instead we simply have to stop and pray and ask for help. Today I want to look at the above scripture. I put it in two different versions to help give it breadth. I often read the same thing in other versions when I read from the book of James!

As he carefully tells us, our God has given wonderful gifts to mankind — salvation is definitely the greatest one. However, wisdom is also a great gift. Further on in this book James tells us to ask for wisdom, and use our faith to receive it. Wisdom will not simply fall on us, we have to go after it. Every single thing Father God gives us is great. – no matter how it looks at the time. And these gifts are not meant just for you and I, they are meant to be shared with everyone else around us.  Someone once told me that the best gift from God, is the one you need at that moment! That sounds good to me.

At the same time the verse above contains revelation about Father God’s character. Who He is, how He relates to us. Our precious Father is not deceitful, or whimsical. He doesn’t change His mind according to His moods … because He doesn’t have them! Our Heavenly Father is not subject to moods like human beings are … His love is always ON! He doesn’t like us one minute, and not the next, simply because we did some awful or dumb thing or other. Jesus Christ took care of that.

When you read the Old Testament, God’s incredible patience, and endurance with man’s poisonous self-serving manoeuvring, plus controlling manipulative ways, becomes apparent. Mankind constantly questions the Lord’s purity of purpose all over the place in the Old Testament. That is still a huge danger for us today. We can end up negating our own faith by questioning His goodness and His loyalty to us. In this scripture, James highlights Father God’s goodness. It needs to be firmly established within our hearts, without question. However, we must continue to look for signs of His loving goodness, when we read – otherwise His goodness becomes an add-on to our own needs.

The Holy Spirit will help each one of us uncover how loving and kind He is. Just simply ask for eyes to see Him as you read it. Otherwise we can end up looking for something to benefit ME, help ME in my hour of trial, and miss the very best part. HIM. God is always the best portion. The more revelation we have about His Love and Character the more our faith will grow. I have personally discovered that the more I intentionally look for the best in other people, even when it seems elusive, I will see something good I haven’t seen before. Living like this changes my attitude towards others.

This scripture in James tells us that Almighty God never changes. That word never is powerful. Never means … not ever! So when our circumstances are not favourable or even incredibly difficult, GOD HAS NOT CHANGED TOWARD US.  Our circumstances must never dictate our faith. We need to practice relying upon His goodness and faithfulness to get us through life’s hard bits, and continually look for evidence of His involvement in our lives, despite our personal situations. Acknowledging that I don’t know everything, diminishes pride and it humbles me … all at the same time.

All of this may seem obvious, but under extreme pressure we can easily question “why?”  ‘Why has this thing happened, why are things so difficult?’In those times I believe that it is almost impossible for us as human beings, to understand the kind of love, wisdom, forbearance, faithfulness, and gentleness Father God gives us AS A GIFT. I love that James reminds us that if it is good, then it is God, and even when it looks bad, it can still be Him …working in ways we do not understand. We can count on that fact because God’s loving consistency is without question.  Bye. 👋🏻

P 2440 How do we smell to others?

/ DVH

“Be imitators of God in everything you do, for then you will represent your Father as His beloved sons and daughters. And continue to walk surrendered to the extravagant love of Christ, for He surrendered His life as a sacrifice for us. His great love for us was pleasing to God, like an aroma of adoration—a sweet healing fragrance.” Ephesians 5:1-2 TPT

Jesus Christ is the perfect role model – He is what active Love smells like! We can have this strange man-made idea of what love should smell, or even look like …depending on our personal needs, or favourite perfume, flower or plant. Christ’s love smells like obedient sacrificial death. It was His unconditional devotion to His Father’s will on our behalf, that was a beautiful fragrance to Father God. Jesus Christ conquered death, by what He voluntarily did, and that heavenly aroma is pleasing to God. Not the smell of death, BTW .. but the smell of sacrifice.

The Lord accomplished everything He did for us by that total obedience, plus He treasured every word that came out of His Father’s mouth. He acted on every single one of those words — even when it killed Him. Christ’s faith in our heavenly Father’s goodness, and His ability to bring life out of death was not only complete, it went into places we cannot begin to imagine. Right into the depths of man’s depravity, despair, indifference and disobedience. Jesus conquered it all – with a vibrant living faith founded on God’s truth. The smell in heaven must have been incredible on Resurrection Sunday!

And Jesus Christ passed that incredibly perfumed blazing torch onto US. “For WE are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 2:15-17. We smell like LIFE to those who are perishing in their sins!

We are definitely not perfume salesmen. Instead, I think that we are His perfume bottles. Some of us are short ordinary looking bottles and some of us are amazing feats of glass. That bit does not matter – it is what is inside those bottles that matters! It is the sweet fragrance of Christ that matters. The more we use our faith to obey His word, the more His perfume inside us is released, and then it becomes an appealing and sweet fragrance to God, and also toward others. 

Our living sacrifice of Love for Him, is precious incense toward Him. If you want to really worship God – present your body as a living sacrifice and follow that through! He trusts us to carry His sweet fragrance out into the world, where that glorious fragrance changes us and impacts others. Christ’s death was terrible to see, but it brought forth a fragrance that is still present all over this world today, in the hearts and lives of His laid-down lovers.

On another note, I want to take a brief moment to look at Esther. FYI, this young woman was already beautiful — that’s why she was chosen! For six months this lovely young woman was treated with oil and myrrh and for a further six months with perfumes and cosmetics. That was some beauty spa she went to!! After all that she was deemed ready to go to meet the king. (Esther 2:12) 

First of all, we can start cheering that we can go to our King Jesus with or without beauty(?) treatments, because His love toward all mankind is unconditional! We can come into His Presence whenever we like. After meeting Him, we can get spiritual beauty treatments from the Holy Spirit. They are optional, but effective.  Unlike Esther who had to get slathered and gussied up to even get into the room with King Xerxes!

At that time SomeOne just like the Holy Spirit came into her life, in the form of a eunuch named Hegai. That person knew exactly what Xerxes liked!Here are a couple of  brief sentences that I think have great significance in this true story. Esther 2:8&9: “Esther also was taken to the king’s palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem. She pleased him and won his favour. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food.”

I believe that Hegai is a quiet reflection of the nature of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Likewise the Holy Spirit knows exactly what our King likes. He knows what attitudes and actions etc. will please the Lord Jesus, and He is so happy to share those things with us. Everything is free, all we need to do is to obey whatever He says! Like Esther, all we must do is be prepared to take His advice. Spending time soaking in the precious things the Holy Spirit has provided for us, will bring the smell of heaven into our lives and distribute it out into the world around us. 🥰 👋🏻

P 2439 We are His children of the light!

/ DVH

“Once your life was full of sin’s darkness, but now you have the very light of our Lord shining through you because of your union with Him. Your mission is to live as children flooded with His revelation-light! And the supernatural fruits of His light will be seen in you—goodness, righteousness, and truth. Then you will learn to choose what is beautiful to our Lord.” Ephesians 5:8-10 TPT.

When I read this today, my first thought was this – we are His happy shiny people!  Everywhere we go we take His light with us … forget about long-life batteries … we have a source of light within us, that will last into infinity… and beyond!! Imagine that. This world has no comprehension of the treasure we have inside us. And ps … that’s very likely our own fault!  Moving on … because I don’t want to be a down-a-later… all the time!

What does it mean to be children of the light? Hmmm… I think it means, no matter what the problem is, no matter how hard things seem, we will always have an answer … because we know the Answer personally! He lives inside of us. Now some other people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet may not like His answer, but that ain’t our problem. We don’t even need to get together a bunch of people for us to shine, one of us and Jesus is a majority!  I’m pretty cheery about that thought too.

We have been re-designed to be optimistic people. No matter how big that problem is – our God is bigger. No glass half-empty here, we are totally overwhelmed and overjoyed to have His life-giving water inside us… Let.It.Out!  Because of this our catch cry toward others is: “How can we help you?” Jesus set that precedent in Mark 10:51-52: “What do you want Me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.” There ya go — another way to evangelise!

You know, without Him we can do nothing. How-ev-er!! That means WITH HIM 💥 watch out!! The Body of Christ has left this stuff to the experts for way too long. It’s time to get in the game folks. Here’s a red hot tip … you too, can be an expert on all things godly. Think on this – if I asked you about your fav movie, you could probably give me a pretty good summation of the plot and what you liked about it. Our interest in the bible is our thermometer, we just need to take our temperature – regularly.

Like Peter said in 1 Peter 3:15: “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”Studying the bible IS preparation, then doing what it says aids digestion. Your digestion of His book clears the grit and grime off the outside of your INNER light bulb. And just like moths and mosquitoes like the light – lost people who are sick of walking about in the dark bumping into awful stuff, love His light too!  His light through us is all the light this world needs.

Our God is so wonderful. He doesn’t expect us to memorise great chunks of His book– His word just needs to be a flowing river … because He is GOD … He can save people in seconds. Don’t believe me? Think about Jesus talking to the thief next to Him on the cross. That was not a comfortable conversation! Do you know how you get ready to witness etc? VOLUNTEER. “Lord I will talk to anyone You send my way today, but I am going to need Your help, as always.” Amen.

You and I, we have His marvellous light inside us. It could be as simple as saying to someone who asks you a question like: “How do you manage those difficult circumstances you are in?” I don’t even say I’m a Christian. I just say: “Without Jesus I can’t.” It’s always up to Him. The beginning, the middle and the end, I just grab hold of His thread of Love and then I follow the Leader. He knows where He is going. The Holy Spirit rides on our obedience … and it doesn’t even matter if you are scared to bits either, because the Holy Spirit LOVES this gig. You be you and let Him be Him. 

Finally, think on this – any light-bulb needs a power source. We have the power source that created this world, light bulbs and all! … inside us. It doesn’t matter how we happen to feel, faith doesn’t require feelings, it requires actions. It’s a ‘doing’ word! You and I can never ever be who we used to be, despite those awful pictures the other guy keeps throwing up in our minds… we’ve moved! Permanently. Out of the darkness into the light. 👋🏻

P 2438 Please don’t give in to despair …

/ DVH

… just like the tide, money is designed by God, to flow in… and out. Many people in these difficult days are struggling with providing their family with ordinary things …they are trying to make sure that they have food, shelter, and they can pay their bills. Money has become a huge scary monster, gobbling everything in its path. But our God is God, IN season and OUT. We are in a difficult ‘out’ season right now, and so this means we are all in a testing time. Father God is watching over us to see how we prioritise our funds.

Today I want to talk about how easy it is to pull back away from giving when times are tough.  However, all kinds of giving is actually our mandate. Our God gave – so we, His followers give! Because we are continually and evidentially being transformed by Christ, we are free of material obsessions, so now we can freely give away all kinds of things, including money! Freedom doesn’t come from feeling free … freedom comes from acting in faith. The feelings come later!

Every single day we have a limitless supply of incredible things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control because there is no law against those things. What does that mean? It means giving goods, money, love, mercy and grace are never out of season. We are always available to do good to others. Personally, I think that our own hearts are revealed to us by the way we give. 

Of course, every parent wants to provide for their own family – that’s normal. But we can sometimes forget about the poorer families in our society who struggle, through no fault of their own, to provide for themselves. The bible exhorts us to look after “widows and orphans.” So much so, James calls these actions pure religion. James 1:27.“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”  

So while we are carefully watching out for inappropriate intake from all kinds of sources;  at the same time, we need to make sure we help those people who cannot help themselves. God calls that pure religion – religion that is untarnished by this world’s agendas. I can tell you from personal experience, we cannot out-give God.

At the same time we are also encouraged in the bible to make sure our pastors and their families are cared for. The bible tells us that we should make sure those people who work hard in leading us and feeding us, are highly respected and well-paid. 1 Timothy 5:17-18: “The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honour, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.” 

Whatever you decide to do about your own financial matters is none of my business, but I would exhort everyone to take what the Lord says about finances, seriously. I am writing this today out of my own experiences in this area. Our Heavenly Father cares deeply about our leaders, as well as the helpless and the tormented. Remember Jesus Himself  said in Luke 6:38: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Sometimes our inability to get free in some areas can be directly related to our ongoing generosity and attitude of gratitude. We can put a ceiling over our own heads by the way we bless, regard and treat others. Hubby and I have found that the more we give, love, kindness, money, things …the more we will live pressed down and running over!  We see our lives together as a channel, and just like the tide, stuff comes in, and it goes out again. We have also purposed that if we don’t got it then we don’t need it because:“my God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory..” Philippians 4:19. 

We live with our eyes on the benefits of His tide flowing over us, and we are totally aware that it sometimes goes out … but we know it will come in again.  I love giving of all kinds. Including loving people, giving gifts, money, help, you name it, this giving thing is my all time favourite thing to do! As Malachi 3:10-12 says, this man challenges that giving is a place we can prove God for ourselves. He tells us that we will see the results with our own eyes. 

The marvellous side-effect of all this giving, from my own POV, is that the more I do it, the more cheerful I get about doing it…“and the Lord loves a cheerful giver.”  Win, win!  Father God loves it when we share with each other. People can call that charity, but in my mind and heart it is simply sharing, caring for others. Please don’t despair about your own current financial situation – just keep looking for ways to give, no matter what is going on. The Holy Spirit will show you how. 👋🏻

P 2434 Different food for thought!

/ DVH

“A parable is a tale about a simple, common subject to illustrate a more profound, valuable moral lesson. The source definition of the word “parable” means a placement side by side for the purpose of comparison.” (Dictionary)

Jesus’ teaching is fascinating. He told everyday stories to those listening, to help them understand God’s Ways. And at the same time, every single thing He said was profound. He gave us fantastic life-lessons. Up until this morning, I had never really thought about the kind of teaching He did, when He taught people, using parables. There are over 30 parables in the Gospels …some of them are repeated.

Today, the Lord Jesus spoke into me and said this: “How many of My parables are about the miraculous? In which one do I teach people how to heal the sick and raise the dead?” You know, when I looked, I discovered that Jesus’ parables are about ordinary things and ordinary people and their behaviour toward God and others. They are simply ‘life lessons.’ They are not about ‘how to excel in the miraculous’ – but instead they are about ‘how to live this life we have in a Godly fashion.’ How to love each other, and how to love, revere and respect God first. However, if we don’t live IN the kingdom, how can we expect to bring it with us?? Maybe that’s why Paul told us to seek it first!

We have become greatly enamoured with the miraculous – or the lack of it, in the church today. I think we are in danger of exalting those things above His Kingdom coming in our everyday lives. Yet we will always need a heart that says – God can do anything … nothing is too difficult for Him!  But I think we have put more of the accent on revving up our ability to believe, instead of putting it in HIM – Who He is. Miracles will follow US as we love others the way He loves us …we don’t have to chase them.  Miracles and the ever-present power of God are an expected part of walking with Him in our daily lives. 

In the Epistles, a large amount of emphasis is also put upon growing and transforming our character, plus, how to walk with the Holy Spirit. The Apostles simply repeated what they have seen, heard and learnt as they performed great signs and wonders. They didn’t elevate people who walked in their God-given gifts, or even ask them to come and minister in the miraculous for the purpose of gaining attention to spread the gospel! Instead the main thrust of their individual messages are to encourage and emphasise loving God, loving others well, plus growth, connection and correction.

Jesus Himself took ordinary things that His listeners could easily understand to illustrate Kingdom purposes. As we read the gospels we can see that anyone can walk in demonstrating the power of God, even sometimes those devoid of character. Judas did! But the parables and epistles indicate that our character needs our personal application. The Holy Spirit wants our motivation to be pure Love – and we all need help with that! Jesus made the miraculous an ordinary part of being His disciple.  He sent His disciples out and they simply used His name.

However, Christ Himself gave us the most brilliant synopsis of God’s requirements when He was talking to a lawyer in Matthew 22:35-40 “One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” I am gobsmacked every single time I read that. It so perfectly illustrates what life with the Holy Spirit looks like.

So here is my thought for today’s blog  – I am personally aware that we all need the miraculous! … But instead of chasing after the miraculous etc. to validate any ministry, I believe the Holy Spirit wants us to foster a relationship with Him – first. Then we simply do whatever He says, and we will see miracles as we go along. Sometimes there will be a miracle, and sometimes someone else gets a revelation of the goodness of God .. a glimpse into His bigger world. Our job is to love God and love others, and out of that wonderful things will happen.

Please do not misunderstand me, I totally believe in all the active gifts of God. And I believe we need to pray believing that they are present at any time! We need them. I am simply saying that these things should not be the preoccupation of the Church. We are to be pre-occupied with Him! These other things will get added unto us as we seek Him first! Like one of the parables says: “We are the light of the world” – let’s just BE THAT and see what happens! Bye.👋🏻

P 2423 The outworking of faith is seeable.

/ DVH

Faith has evidence of its existence. Without any evidential faith we cannot please Almighty God! This means that there are appropriate actions that match the stuff coming out of our mouths. Christianity is not just a theory, or a set of really tough rules – it is a living, breathing, ongoing, active, growing, moving, productive thing. As we live our lives our faith stretches us. Daily.

Telling others we have faith, without being able to provide evidence in our own lives, is like telling people you are an astronaut because you’ve carefully studied the subject and you’ve been to NASA, plus you’ve studied it and know everything about it! 

Knowing and doing are two entirely different things. We can talk about, or discuss our faith until our faces are blue, but the truth is … real faith often makes no sense at all until it is acted on, and then the understanding comes afterward. Ask Gideon, or Mary, or Abraham, or Hosea! Our Heavenly Father does not operate like we do, instead we can be quite poor reflections of Who He is. We often misunderstand His directives as a substitute for a strong spiritual life. Rules are not faith – it took the Israelites only 40 days to break the ten commandments!  Agreement is not faith. The devil agrees there is a God!  

“And without faith living within us it would be impossible to please God. For we come to God in faith knowing that He is real and that He rewards the faith of those who passionately seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 TPT. Faith has to be alive. It is not about last week, last month, last year – or even about when I gave my life to Christ, way back when. Or whether I go to church every week. Faith is about God and me – to-geth-er! DOING STUFF outside of church.  

Here are some uncomfortable questions regarding that point. If I was suddenly struck dumb how would someone who was watching me know that I have faith? What evidence would they have? Many people go to church but they don’t have active faith. Maybe they have HOPE – and sadly, sometimes, they have fear and/or religion. Ask yourself: “What does my faith DO that can be seen by others?”“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the EVIDENCE of things not yet seen.” Hebrews 11:1. 

Faith steps out – that’s why it is called evidence. First of all notice the ‘NOW’ in the scripture pictured above. Faith is always now … not yesterday. This does not mean we must spend our lives standing on a street corner witnessing. But it does mean that our faith is always active in our lives changing us. If people cannot see an ongoing change in our behaviour toward others, or our personhood being transformed, we need to ask ourselves, do we have faith that is alive? One of the best ways to activate inactive faith is to talk about Jesus to someone-who-doesn’t-know-Him-yet.

Changing the habits and selfishness of a lifetime takes faith. This means we will end up wrangling with ourselves every single day because we are longing to be transformed. Even though we also use our faith in His ability to transform us to maintain what we believe – Christianity is actually not performance based. What would be the point? SomeBody Else did everything necessary to include us!! More questions: Is Jesus the first Person we go to when we can’t manage? Do we actively rely upon Him, and do things His way? Our faith is activated every time we ask Him to help us obey and then act.

Faith has substance. It is not the result of airy-fairy wishy-washy theories. The actions of faith result in transformation, for you, and me, as well as for the people around us. Maybe that grumpy family member keeps behaving badly because we keep having the same response! Faith will produce something seeable. James 2:26 tells us that “faith without works is dead.” Faith does stuff. It may also talk … but it definitely does stuff!! It feeds the hungry, preaches the gospel, witnesses to others, helps the homeless, and ministers to the broken. Faith lives this life dead to self and lives for Jesus’ sake now.

However, faith is not just about the things we don’t, or won’t do. If someone refuses to cheat on their spouse, or asks for help for a foul temper, or stops spending money like it grows on a tree, that takes faith. But faith doesn’t just abstain from evil — it is a productive thing. It is not about the absence of bad things – faith introduces the provable presence of the goodness of the living God.

When I went looking for a picture for today’s blog, I easily found the verse I wanted. This verse had all these pretty pictures with flowers and scenery. I rejected them! I chose the picture above, because the man in that picture is putting his faith into action. He knows all about gravity – but his desire to move on motivates him into action. Faith is prepared to take risks, because it has seen personal evidence that God is in charge and it stakes its life on that. 🤗

“But the love of God will be perfected within the one who obeys God’s Word. We can be sure that we’ve truly come to live in intimacy with God, not just by saying, “I am intimate with God,” but by walking in the footsteps of Jesus.”

1 John 2:5-6 TPT

P 2415 Applying the Holy Spirit’s lessons …

/ DVH

His lessons in our lives, lead to a stronger faith and spiritual growth. Strong faith means we take the Word of God seriously, DAILY, and act on it. Faith is like a muscle, it grows when we use it. We need to use our faith to lovingly care about others. The best place to start exercising our faith muscle is to use it to change the things in our lives that we totally know should not be there.

Here are some thoughts for you to chew on because you belong to Jesus and we all need to use our faith. Bad tempers are an option … not an inheritance. I don’t care how many people in your family have had a bad temper – we are in the family of God now, He is our history, our present and our future. Let’s leave that junk behind us. It’s the same as doubt. We must actively cultivate doubt, in order to keep it. Who on earth wants doubt?  Doubt is unbelief in the written word of God and in His Character! Look, we will all need help with our faith in our day to day lives, so we need to ask for it and then use it when opportunities come up. Christians are not meant to be storm-tossed all the time. Swinging back and forth like a pendulum in a clock. “Our faith is in His goodness in the land of the living” – that means now, today!

Some people struggle with an issue of control. That often grows from a deep-seated fear of letting someone else be in charge. Deal with the fear. Ask the Lord who you should forgive, because control can be handed down from one generation to the next. Then repent of doubt, anger and fear and from trying to control everything. The bible tells us “to submit to one another” – that means active participation, not just agreeing with the idea in principle. Control will not leave us unless we deliberately oppose it with humility and grace. Yes, other people will, and do let us down – that’s why you are scared in the first place. Put your faith in the Lord. He can take a stone and fell a giant!

We need inner transformation flowing onto outer transformation, that is the very best place to grow faith. To start with, the Holy Spirit is utterly, unquestionably reliable. He will start working on anything we give Him, immediately. BUT! Simply praying, and doing nothing, is fruitless – we still have to ACT. That’s what faith is all about – action. Doing something! If your problem is temper, try shutting your mouth next time you want to let fly. Refuse to participate in satan’s nasty little games. Remember we are no longer weak and helpless – Christ is now in us, He is our hope of glory! The fruit of self-control grows together with using our faith. 

Make the Holy Spirit welcome in your life. Cultivate His Presence and His holiness will also transform you. Eventually His Presence becomes more valuable that any stupid thing we think we have to have, or do, or SAY. The Holy Spirit is kind and gentle … He won’t hang around with an explosive temper, or carefully cultivated control, or doubt – He will leave. Confess your faults to someone else and ask the Lord to help you. Now use your faith to respond differently. My experience is this, if you move an inch toward Him – He will run miles for you.

Faith does not fall on us. To grow faith we need to start stepping out and using it daily. Doing that changes the way we live. The bonus in that decision is that we will stop driving our spouse, parents, teachers, and kids balmy! Plus we make ourselves available for greater things. Very few of us will walk on water without practising the skill of listening to Him and obeying, first! These things have to stop being a theory, or something that somebody else does because they are nicer than you are. The disciples after Pentecost focussed on the Lord and other people – they were single-minded.

The bible says: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”  This is purely my response to that verse, but I think of it like this: What will people get if they take a bite out of me? Would they get an explosion? Or a polite, barely-held-together-through-the-teeth response, OR …would they get what God Himself wants them to have … a Holy Spirit inspired portion of the Grace He has already given me.

There is no right time to change. In my experience change starts to occur right at the time you want to thump somebody. That’s when the Holy Spirit nudges you in the ribs and says: “NOW!” Then we have to clap our hand over our mouth and resist the temptation to do or say whatever it is. Now take a breath, and thank Him for helping you. Ventilating our emotions all over someone else is destructive – releasing the Holy Spirit in those moments will bless both parties. 

We need to devote ourselves to applying His lessons into our lives – the result will be stronger faith. 🕊

P 2408 Knowing Him is our greatest quest.

/ DVH

Our own private opinion of God’s goodness can make or break our faith. I think that we need to pay more attention to the word forever, in the bible. We can get so caught up in our now, that forever can be overlooked. Almighty God always holds forever in His heart. I said that to accent my next point… He doesn’t see things the way we do, which means whatever He does, He does it with forever in mind.

Our opinion of His goodness matters. When Moses asked to see His face, God answered that prayer by letting His goodness pass by. THE FACE OF GOD IS GOODNESS – no matter how things around us look. His goodness is His incredible passionate generosity toward us.

I love these statements Father God makes, look at what He is saying about Himself – take it in …”I know the plans I have for you plans to give you a hope and a future”…(Jeremiah 29:19) … “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” (Exodus 34:6-7a) “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good.”(Numbers 23:19)

Here is a great study to do— look up what Almighty God says about Himself — I highly recommend it. We must stop concentrating on the verses that promise this and that, and begin to understand … as best our peanut little brains can(! )… what the God we love and serve is like. What His priorities are! We will have a lot less disappointment and despair in our lives if we set our hearts to understand what He is doing long-term, rather than critique what He has done, from our POV. Let’s decide that He knows better than we do what we need. He doesn’t need our help to work it out! That’s called faith.

Naturally, Jesus Christ is the most wonderful example of God’s goodness in action in mankind’s lives. We must regularly watch Him in God’s book, interact with people just like US, and we will see His tenderness, compassion and concern. Christ has made it so much easier to understand the nature of God – plus His expectations toward, and for humanity. But we desperately need to stretch ourselves beyond the limitations of me and mine and start applying ourselves toward understanding His incredible forever qualities for us and this world around us.

I find that I need the Holy Spirit’s clear as glass view, the view the Lord God Himself has from heaven. To that end, I’ve learnt to apply myself, concentrate and carefully watch what Jesus says and does, in all circumstances and situations. His response is, and always was, God’s will first. You simply do not see Christ acting for His own benefit. He was always kingdom minded. His own needs were incidental. Jesus listened for the Holy Spirit’s input, His guidance and wisdom and then acted on it. He is our example.

I personally don’t want anymore airy-fairy stuff. The stuff we’ve focussed on for ages, like the grab at this promise and wave that ‘why not me’ banner. Our God is not within us to fulfil our childish fantasies – He offers so much more. Knowing Him well eclipses anything this world can offer. We need to begin by loving what He loves. People. There is nothing like loving difficult people to bring out the ‘God-factor’ instantly — or the lack of it! 

Every single person on this planet has a divine spark, and each one has something of the nature of God to reveal to us – if we look for it. Some people bury that spark under a load of religious or scientific or fantasy-type rubble – but the spark is there.  We’ve personally seen how gentle He is with the ‘bruised reeds’ of this world. There is no greater honour when He asks us to GO in His Name. Um …just FYI… His Name is on the line when He sends each of US! That shows me how much the Lord believes in His kids.  

Hubby and I have watched Him touch people out here on the road over and over again on this trip. People who don’t even think about Him, respond instantly… when they hear His deep loving voice calling to them. I pray for myself all the time out here: “Lord please let the people You want us to talk to, hear Your voice more than my voice.”

Our God’s incredible goodness has restored and retrieved each human being from darkness, danger and devastation. He is quite simply trustworthy and good. However, at this time in man’s history, He is far more than we are letting Him be. We must not reduce Almighty God down to Jehovah Jireh … when there are so many other facets to Who He is. We need to personally look beyond our pain, to Jesus our Elder Brother and our example – He started our faith and He will finish it! Knowing Almighty God is our greatest quest. 👋🏻