Governed

P 3147 Walking with the Holy Spirit.

/ DVH

Romans 8:5-9b “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you..”V5(NIV) “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.”

The battle over whether we daily live and walk with the Holy Spirit is first fought in our minds. Quite simply, the secret to walking with Him means we can’t even think about continuing to walk accomodating our flesh. When you and I gave our life to Jesus – He took it. It’s a done deal. Now, by our choices, we daily step out of this world’s way of thinking, into His Way of thinking.

The Holy Spirit loves to glorify the Father and the Son. That’s more than church or preaching or singing! It’s the way we live now. Walking in the flesh sadly comes naturally to us, after all, we’ve been doing that all our lives! But walking with the Holy Spirit requires hard choices. Cheer up! He knows you better than you know yourself. He knows what you can and can’t do – He will “let you learn at your own rate.”

There are some people who think that they have to be super-spiritual to walk with Him, or have some kind of supernatural encounter, or they need some special spiritual gifting! None of that is true. When we welcome Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit – we can’t be born into God’s Kingdom without HIM. Now we need to value Him, more than we value what we or others want, or think or feel. If we go about our days only doing the things we feel, or want, or we think we need —we are ignoring His input. He has a WAY for us to do those things that will give Him a channel to impact the people around us. The more we ignore Him, the less we will hear His voice saying:“…this is the way, walk in it whenever you turn to the right or to the left.” Isaiah 30:21b.

The Holy Spirit wants us to personally know Him, His voice. He came to be with us, to stay. This is how I think that works – when we choose to live this life mindful of Jesus and His Word and we take His word seriously, and obey what He tells us – we are walking with the Holy Spirit. The word mindful means your mind is full of Him and His Ways. Our ability to perform does not come into this – His ability to keep us, as we lean on Him, does. It is another way to look at our lives – which are now HIS. This is how we die to self.

It’s all about priorities. When we look at Jesus, our Heavenly Father, and the Precious Holy Spirit as add-ons to everything else in our lives, that is all They will ever be. But when we take our commitment to Christ seriously, and live each day with our spiritual antenna up, watching and waiting for anything that He might ask us to do — we will see His kingdom come …all around us, as well as in us. Honestly speaking, we cannot afford to hang onto our nasty attitudes, bad temper, lack of generosity toward others, cold-heartedness etc. and expect to walk with HIM! He loves people more than we can possibly imagine. Jesus has invested Himself in mankind!

Sadly, we’ve accidentally made a club mentality out of something that was intended for everyone. The Holy Spirit’s Way is living like Jesus did. He lived for the Father’s will. He “only did the things He saw His Father doing… He only said the things He heard the Father saying …”Now we too need to allow the Holy Spirit to flow through us, by yielding to God’s Ways.“How can two walk together unless they are in agreement?”That’s when we become a channel for His love to flow through.

Let’s think of other people, no matter what they believe, as people Jesus loves. He loves them so much He died for them. Now He has appointed and anointed us to be His witnesses and representatives, alert to what He wants, as well as the needs of others. We can’t afford to only love the people we like.

The bible is our guide and governor, under the Holy Spirit’s tutelage. This book daily shows us what God wants from us. We are alive in this world to demonstrate His word, His kingdom, and we’ve been given the honour of revealing His love to others. Let’s choose to see things through His eyes. Ephesians 4:17-18:“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.”

Every single time we say no to something the Holy Spirit brings up with us, we are hardening our heart against HIm. The Holy Spirit is gentle, mild, and unobtrusive, so He will quietly step down, and we will not even know that He is gone. I don’t care if you are the best preacher in the country – how’s your heart doing? The state of our hearts is our business, and we need soft hearts. We have been destined to live this life alive to the Spirit, walking with Him and yielding to His wishes, just like Jesus did. Bye. 👋

P 2755 This is our life now.

/ DVH

Love God first. Love other people well, preach the gospel, and DO the great commission – don’t just agree with it. (Leviticus 19:18;  Luke 10:27;  Matthew 22:36–40;  Mark 12:28–31.) There is no compromise – this is what Christianity looks like.  We live our lives taking what the bible says seriously, and act on it – our job is to tell and demonstrate to others that there is another way to live. This means we refuse to excuse ourselves – we repent and repair instead! Even when we don’t think what the bible says applies to me, then we pray over it anyway. Our God-given reality is clear – SomeBody ALREADY paid for our right to live in His kingdom. He transferred us out of this kingdom into His. We are now citizens of heaven, right here, right now — whether we live like it or not. Our task is to bring heaven down here, by the way we live our lives. 

Of course all that seems impossible, because we know that we cannot change ourselves. We’ve personally learnt  that what we think looks good, ends up with us eating the wrong fruit! Adam and Eve checked that one out. Jesus’ death has already delivered us from rebellion into obedience — so now we have been given the right to choose to produce His fruit! Things like reading the bible, doing what it says, using our faith, not relying upon our feelings – those things help us eat from the right tree and they grow great fruit. That’s the tree of Eternal life. We were given eternal life when we said yes to Jesus saving us. Now our obedience pulls that life, His kingdom, into this world’s reality using our faith. It’s gloriously simple.

I’m just going to let what I just said lie there, to stare at us both for a minute or two. 👀 Why? Because we both know it but we don’t get it!  If we did this world would be very different by now. You and I have been translated out of this world with its value systems, proclivities, ugliness  and actions, because those things don’t belong in God’s kingdom.  Now we are citizens of another kingdom! Our hearts are His holy place now, when we chose His way, He goes everywhere with us. Almighty God’s kingdom has sacrifice at its heart. Christ came here to help us when we least deserved it, and He demonstrated for us, how that kingdom works.

If we were to go and permanently live in another country, we can choose to become citizens of that country. That country’s rules and regulations now govern us and we are no longer governed or influenced by where we previously lived. God’s kingdom is like that. It is not a part-time, depending-on-how-I-feel-on-the-day way to live! Instead it is our new way to live, right here, right now. Christ’s death moved us into His kingdom!  Now we are called to demonstrate that kingdom by the way we live, here and now. To love Him first, then others. Obedience is not optional – it matters.

We have been strategically placed into the middle of grumpy, dissatisfied, selfish, ungracious people who get right up in our faces and tick us off. However, our responses to their provocation will govern where we live. In His kingdom we have been given the ability to see these people through His eyes. Obedience opens our eyes to a whole new way to live and see others – I don’t care who you think somebody is – once you see them through His eyes it will change how you relate to them, forever.  We are now citizens of heaven who live as ambassadors for our homeland. Pray your house will be a little bit of heaven to everyone who comes into it.

God’s kingdom can always be found wherever people need it. You and I are the seed He sowed into our surroundings, and our job is to grow and manifest His kingdom there!  My advice is to repent if you haven’t been living this way, and fix the stuff you can – then pray over everything and give it to Him. Pray that the Lord, Himself will redeem everything in your life. Because God’s kingdom is not common where we live, we will act and react differently than everyone else does, as we prepare ourselves to demonstrate His love to others. 

Here’s today’s question: which kingdom are you and I cultivating every single day? His or ours? To love God with all of our hearts we need to start cultivating our awareness of His kingdom within us. WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE, HOW IT SOUNDS, WHAT IT DOES. That’s why we read the book, to identify and spread His kingdom. ‘The kingdom of God is already within you …’ Jesus said that in Luke 7:21. I don’t have to strive to blow my nose, once I know how to do it I just do it! Christians have believed a lie – we are not powerless. Day by day we are taking back the ground the enemy has sown into our lives, and the lives of others around us, as we choose to live like Christ would.

Another question … If His kingdom is IN me then why do I keep doing the stuff I regret or hate? Because we are used to making our own choices. Plus, God’s kingdom is not accessed by knowledge, it is accessed by faith. Faith causes us to act – to love the unlovely, to care for the poor, to yield to Him. Say to yourself when you feel lost or overwhelmed, ‘Christ only did what He saw His Father doing. What are You doing now Father God?’ Then do what you see the Father doing. Trust me, I’ve been living like this for a while and I end up doing a whole lot less yelling and correcting;  now I spend most of my time simply loving others. Loving others despite how they are acting changes things – me, them, and the circumstances. God’s power is released when we act in faith.

Our old life of sin can spin us off into tangents, chasing things that don’t matter. Father God got rid of sin so He could be with us, day by day. When we use our faith to do what Jesus would do, His Presence in us opens doors we can’t even see. I have found if I don’t know what to do, I ask for a scripture. I do this all the time. To my amazement I start accessing a storehouse of scripture I have stored up inside, without even trying! Stuff that I don’t even know that I remember, comes out.

Romans 8:14 TPT“The mature children of God are moved by the impulses of the Spirit. “ The Holy Spirit is the wind in our sails – He is everywhere, for everyone, all at the same time. Oh, how I love watching Him and what He does with my feeble efforts. He does everything so beautifully, fitting together the broken pieces of my life in ways I cannot possibly imagine. I’ve seen Him do it. Here are my last few thoughts, love the Lord first, then other people, and tell others how His Presence in you has changed your life. Always remember, you’ve moved – you are a citizen of heaven now – this is your life now! It is your destiny to bring heaven down here to earth.  Bye… 🙌

P 2622 Though none go with me …

/ DVH

Here’s a fun(?) fact no-one will like. Even in good relationships or bad ones – eventually, we all die alone. That’s a spiritual truth, as well as a natural one. When someone else we dearly love is not interested in walking in the Way with us, it is very disappointing. We can start to feel like changing stuff is too difficult, because of those other people who are deeply involved in our lives. For example, living this new life of ours exhibiting a spirit of generosity, could threaten someone else’s security levels.

First of all, I want to say that God’s expectations of each one of us is always good. He has the last word, we don’t. We must remember at all times, that HE DELIGHTS IN DOING THE IMPOSSIBLE. He can change anyone’s focus in a split second. Hallelujah!! But what He seems to prefer is that we work together with the Holy Spirit in order to change. (Read the book!) We choose to change the way we live today, because we want to please the Lord Jesus, not necessarily anybody else. We want to live differently because of our own convictions, for His sake, not theirs.

This new way to live becomes firmly established outside of our own normal ‘personal comfort zone.’ That comfort zone is the place where we live every day, and react almost without thinking … because we are not used to being governed by holiness. In every day life we can have good or bad attitudes, so we either expect praise, or we expect to be excused, using our ‘humanity’ as an excuse. But in reality, that’s the way to become lukewarm, and spiritually ineffective. 

It is easy in this life with its many pressures to formulate an image of who we think we are, and think walking with the Holy Spirit is ‘not really for me.’  But as I tackle being changed by Grace, there needs to be a conscious turning away from my old way to live, together with active repentance. I will need to seek the Holy Spirit’s prompting to help me remember that now my priority is walking with Him … not just getting along with you. After all I can easily get along with you if I know you well, and I choose not to bother you! We can all grow very used to letting sleeping dogs lie.

For some people walking that extra mile with a headstrong loved one, can turn out to be a difficult thing, fraught with angst and missteps at ever single turn. However, this is a lifelong way to live and die daily, and we can’t do it hoping the people we care about will get His point quickly. The reality is in order to achieve our new aim of living for Jesus, no matter what happens, one of the biggest costs will definitely be our comfort. Read the book. Comfort was always the first thing to go!!

Sadly, some people we care about may never get the point of transformation because they aren’t even looking at these areas. Why not? I dunno. Not a clue. They just don’t seem to think they are doing anything wrong. Walking in the Spirit seems to be for other, more spiritual people, not them! I have noticed that by the time people reach some age, or milestone, or other life circumstance, they start to think that they cannot change – this is now who they really are. Their perceived personhood has become established. That’s not what the bible says, BTW! Moses started his new life at eighty!

In some other instances, I know that people pray sincerely and constantly about change, but then they just leave it at prayer — and when nothing happens, they assume that God does not have a problem with them about such things and so they just settle back into … being comfortable. We simply must move past agreeing with God’s Word into actively living it out! This is where choosing to deliberately live a life of love facilitates transformation. 

Actually I’d say changing our way of life, from trying harder, to following the Holy Spirit while living a life dedicated to loving others — no matter how they behave — go hand in hand! One thing does not work without the other. When His love starts to flow out through us it is attractive to other people. One of the best things we can do when we decide to live a love-filled transformed life is to ask for His help and fix every single bad relationship we can, and then leave our past behind. If stuff comes up, then we repent, repair and … move on. “If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”Romans 12:18.

Even if I were on a desert island, all by myself, my walk with Jesus would still be my own responsibility. I don’t have to be tripped up by what you do or don’t do, or what you say or don’t say. My aim is to please Him, and decide to live a life worthy of my own calling. That’s what following Him looks like. Bye. 👋