Healed

P 3490 A little unknown girl.

/ DVH

2 Kings 5:2-14:“Bands of Syrians had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a little girl who had been given to Naaman’s wife as a maid. One day the little girl said to her mistress, “I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy!  Naaman told the king what the little girl had said.“Go and visit the prophet,” the king told him. “I will send a letter of introduction for you to carry to the king of Israel.” So Naaman started out, taking gifts of $20,000 in silver, $60,000 in gold, and ten suits of clothing. 

The letter to the king of Israel said: “The man bringing this letter is my servant Naaman; I want you to heal him of his leprosy.”When the king of Israel read it, he tore his clothes and said, “This man sends me a leper to heal! Am I God, that I can kill and give life? He is only trying to get an excuse to invade us again.”But when Elisha the prophet heard about the king of Israel’s plight, he sent this message to him: “Why are you so upset? Send Naaman to me, and he will learn that there is a true prophet of God here in Israel.” So Naaman arrived with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s home. Elisha sent a messenger out to tell him to go and wash in the Jordan River seven times and he would be healed of every trace of his leprosy! 

But Naaman was angry and stalked away. “Look,” he said, “I thought at least he would come out and talk to me! I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call upon the name of the Lord his God and heal me! Aren’t the Abana River and Pharpar River of Damascus better than all the rivers of Israel put together? If it’s rivers I need, I’ll wash at home and get rid of my leprosy.” So he went away in a rage. But his officers tried to reason with him and said, “If the prophet had told you to do some great thing, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply to go and wash and be cured!” So Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, as the prophet had told him to. And his flesh became as healthy as a little child’s, and he was healed! “

Here are some great instructions from the past! I hope you took the time to read it, because I think that Naaman is an example of what we can often look like in our Christian walk, and the little slave girl is an example of what we can be. I don’t read the bible as irrelevant stories, I read it looking for me. I could be Naaman on one day, and the prophet on another, and that little girl on yet another! 

Because this child speaks up, Naaman is healed and saved. Even though she actually does nothing — she is still a witness motivated by LOVE. She doesn’t feel she should pray for the leprous man, she doesn’t have any deep thoughts to share – she simply points and says: “What you need is over there.”

I love it. I mean … how hard is that? How hard is it to say: “I know SomeOne Who can help you with that?”  Even though she is a captive, she is very loving and caring toward her master. You might want to think about that the next time your boss asks you to work late, and you want to go home early.

Back to Naaman, who automatically assumes this will be a financial arrangement – he’s rich, and he usually solves his problems by throwing money at it. But God gives this man what he wants for free – it simply costs him the price of humility and obedience. Yet he nearly misses it completely … because of his mindset.  He’s an important man, and he has the ear of the king. There are times when it can be very hard to admit we are wrong. Pride gets in the way. We can rob ourselves if we lack humility.

I’m going to skip right over the King of Israel, who tended to think globally, and focus on his own safety — and go right on to Elisha. Elisha doesn’t even speak to him, he hands this important man a simple answer through his own servant. ‘Go take seven dips in this river.’ Sometimes the simple answer IS the answer. But to get there, we will have to throw away the awkward, useless bundles of our own plus and minus thoughts, and pick up the solitary thread Jesus Himself gives us, and follow it. Naaman was fortunate, his men were watching out for Him… but he still had to overcome his own ideas and listen. Being bull-headed about stuff is only good if you are a bull!

The one thing we need to watch out for is being so separate and independent we don’t know where anyone else is. Unity can usher in healing, and other members of the Body of Christ can totally transform what we think we know. Naaman’s men helped him when his common sense wouldn’t … that’s why he was healed. We cannot be the whole ball-game alone, even if life has so separated us from others for good reasons, we still must pray for each other. Naaman’s healing was right there … and he nearly missed it. Thank God for the brave souls among us who speak up!

You and I have the benefit of hind-sight when we read this story. We know all the players in it, and what happens and how it turns out, but at that time, the people involved were doing what you and I do every single day. They were making decisions according to their individual needs and situations. The great thing about serving King Jesus is that He knows what comes next – because He knows the way through anything.

I have cultivated a hands off policy over the years. I don’t give up when I’ve finally run out of ideas, now I give up at the beginning! Stuff happens, and I hand it over. That bit is often accompanied by copious weeping, maybe some grief or anger, but eventually, I stand back and wait. There are times I have to wait, and wait and WAIT, because I want HIS ANSWER, not mine. My answer is often selfish and demands instant results. Today I will pray that I will be just like that little nameless girl who knew where to point – she pointed the way to a miracle. Bye 👋

P3461 For those who are suffering.

/ DVH

I don’t choose what I am going to write about each day, but I pray about this blog and ask for the Lord to help me to follow His instructions, carefully and prayerfully. Plus I am exceedingly grateful for my beloved praying editor, my husband!  I said that because I want the precious souls among us who suffer daily, to know first and foremost that the Lord definitely had you on His mind this morning.

First of all, I want to clarify what I see as suffering. It includes, imprisonment, hunger, thirst, lacking shelter, and then there is pain — mental, physical and emotional pain, oppression, the pain of never being completely understood. Plus mental illnesses, devastating loneliness, life-altering dependency, all kinds of physical illness, including terminal illness – although I think living in this world is a terminal illness, one way or another! Together with loss and grief. This is not a comprehensive list, so I am hoping you will get the gist of my thought.

My thought is this — Father God hides His most precious treasures in the most unexpected places. We know that He has hidden so much in His Word, and people have spent their lifetime meditating on and studying the bible so they can pass what they have learnt on to others. BUT let’s never forget that PEOPLE are His very favourite treasures and they too can remain hidden. To the world, you may not necessarily be all that important, but to God you are worth everything dear to Him. 

Today, I want to talk about those precious members of the Body of Christ who are suffering from any, and hopefully not all, of the above maladies. I know a little tiny bit about some of these things. I think one of the hardest situations a person who is suffering has to face is the entirely well-meaning, enthusiastic, Jesus-loving Christian, who has no clue about the depth of human misery… so they rave on merrily sharing their positive healing thoughts about this subject. 

Actually, I wish people with those particular attributes would just give me money, because by now I would be so-o-o rich! Instead, the Lord has chosen to bless me with many opportunities to forgive those who have trespassed against me. Many of these dear, somewhat misguided souls have no clue what ongoing suffering does to faith. Especially in today’s current attitudes and atmosphere of ‘everybody should be healed.’ 

So although I am only one person, I want to start out by saluting your courage. It takes so much courage to stand firm in your faith, when something or other is kicking the daylights out of you and it rarely lets you go. On the other hand, there is the kind of situation where the hard bits stop … but you are not sure if they are completely gone or not … so you can’t relax into the Lord’s arms easily. Mainly because you have become hyper-vigilant. This means you often second-guess yourself because you truly don’t know what might happen next! It is hard to know what to do with your faith when you aren’t sure if it is actually in working order.

I try to take the time to comfort myself with thoughts like these:  if I cut my hand it would take a while for the cut to heal, so I will have to be patient during the process. I might need to take extra care of that hand while it is healing. But when it is your heart that is broken, taking care of it means you need to pray over everything you might like to do, instead of just blazing away into the next thing.

When a heart has been damaged by fear, or misguided Christian help, plus medical people who are, after all, still human — the person doesn’t always make good decisions. So ask others for their prayerful support because you really are vulnerable and under pressure. Bad things have happened to you. By the way, that does not mean you are bad, or you have some deep dark secret that needs to be forgiven or fixed. Life happens to all of us and survivors should be saluted, not chastised! You are also allowed to grieve because you have lost your well being.

So what happens if it seems your circumstances won’t, can’t, or don’t change because they depend on someone else changing first? That stuff is also very hard to live through.  At those times I start praying: “Thank you Lord for remembering I am just glorified dust! I need more grace to persevere and remain joyful, and if You don’t give it to me, then I won’t have it!” Amen. I also pray for Him to help me develop through the pain, because I have learnt that pain colours the way I see and hear things, and I can get really offended by stupid stuff when I am not able to listen properly. 

Actually I can get offended by stupid insignificant stuff all by myself!! Forget about pain actively colouring everything in around me! Ho-hum. Here are a couple of verses that may be helpful: Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Whether we can feel Him or not … the Lord is here with us. God is lovingly drawn to those who are suffering, Jesus demonstrated that. Luke 6:19:  “…and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from Him and healing them all.” Yes. It is His will to heal however, the sick and broken need the Body’s help! 

Isaiah 43:2: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;  and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” Lastly, cut yourself some slack – He’s God and you’re not! By His grace you will come through this. Amen. 🙏

P 3437 He wrote it down. 

/ DVH

As I mentioned yesterday, I believe God calls us, and then we respond. Even when it seems like it is the other way around, we will eventually discover that the Lord has been working behind the scenes in our lives and we have not noticed Him working. The bible tells us His Word not only feeds us, it washes us clean, but we have to let it do what it has been sent to do.

I think the way to get to know our heavenly Father, His Son and Holy Spirit is to watch the way They work in other people’s lives, to see Their compassion and kindness toward ordinary people. It is not enough to read the bible stories, we must let those stories read us, and that means we will probably be convicted along the way. Here are someone’s thoughts as they talked to Him and read His book.

“I wrote it down  I stretched out the heavens, I numbered the sand I gave you the breath that you hold in your hand.  The world cries for answers, but you look away.  Yet My Word has spoken of this very day.  

I wrote it down.  Every line, every page for the humble and the wise, for the young and the aged.  The truth is alive. It will help you to stand. I left you My Word. It’s all in your hands. The nations are trembling, the earth shakes in pain. But still you chase idols and call on My name.  I warned you of kingdoms that rise and then fall. I gave you the prophets to speak. Through it all, 

I wrote it down.  Every line, every page. For the humble and the wise, for the young and the aged. The truth is alive. It will help you to stand. I left you My Word. It’s all in your hands.  You say I don’t see it. You say I can’t know. But My Spirit will teach you if you let it show. Heaven and earth will both pass away, but My Word remains unshaken today. 

I wrote it down, for the darkness, the fight, so you’d walk in the day, not stumble at night. The truth is before you. Don’t let it be banned. I left you My Word. It’s all in your hands… … I gave you the scriptures don’t say I was silent. (The artists are “In God’s World.” It’s a collective. This song is on YouTube if you wish to listen to it..)

This is one of my favourite songs to listen to at the moment. I love the haunting beauty of the words, melody and music, and the fact that what it says is relevant today. Especially the exhortation that the bible is not just any old book that can be read and forgotten. Almighty God wrote His love down on every single page, through ordinary people who didn’t live fancy-schmancy fabulous lives. They simply worshipped and followed our spectacular God. The thing is, I can hear the intense cry of the Lord’s heart in this song.

Our Shepherd wants to lead us… however, it is easy to think that everything He does is going to be spectacular. That does not resemble the Person we see in the Gospels! He didn’t chase opportunities, like we would. He simply moved about with His disciples and helped the people who asked Him, taught the ones that were interested, and healed everyone who came to Him. The bible clearly says in Isaiah  53:2: “He (Jesus) grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.” 

This means that the Lord Jesus’ beauty came from within! The Holy Spirit was beautiful IN Him and through Him, expressing the love and life of our Heavenly Father. (PS we can choose to look like that, when we daily choose to follow Him.) Jesus looked just like any other Middle Eastern man, so if you weren’t searching for God Himself, you’d pass Him on the street! This obsession with outward beauty is a reflection of the age we are living in, where we think things have to be gorgeous and stunning, to be significant. 

There is nothing more gut-wrenchingly, devastatingly beautiful than that cross! This one event is so beautiful it reaches through time and space to touch us here and now.

Father God tells us that He did not leave us alone. He is with us … every time we read His book … we have the Holy Spirit with us – and His book! The key ingredient is to believe He is talking to YOU when you read. God is far more incredibly wise and creative than we can understand, He can take the pages of an old book and make it food for anyone.

People can get so extraordinarily tied up within the thoughts  that this word means this, and that word means that – which is useful and helpful —- but it is not what the bible’s for! The bible is spiritual MANNA. You EAT it. You treat it like a steak or a piece of broccoli … you simply cut off a chunk and chew on it.

And because digestion begins in the mouth, then you talk about it, question it, research it … that’s what chewing looks like! You ask the CHEF, the Holy Spirit, to explain to you why He chose to make the broccoli into a cream sauce on the top of the steak. Then you wait and listen. Let’s remember to ask QUESTIONS and press in for ANSWERS. “How do I do that?” is a great question. 

Our Father’s reply to us is always about His love for us. Even correction is LOVE. If you truly want to know your Heavenly Father, and His Son, read the book. The Holy Spirit waits for us to open His Word. It is amazing. This book appears to be a pure bright white light – but inside it, there is a rainbow – a depth and diversity of colour, transformation and thoughts. Bye. 👋

P 3428 A soldier does what he is trained to do.

/ DVH

“Since Christ, though innocent, suffered in His flesh for you, now you also must be a prepared soldier, having the same mind-set, for whoever has died in his body is done with sin. So live the rest of your earthly life no longer concerned with human desires but consumed with what brings pleasure to God.” 1 Peter 4:1-2 TPT. These kinds of choices are part of our suffering for His sake. We deliberately choose to give up what we want to do, and we yield to what He sent us here to do. It’s a total change of focus. But we can’t live like this by ourselves – we are wrestling against principalities and powers, we need our Commander-in-chief leading us, giving us His Grace every step of the way.

This verse is a magnificent thought, but a terrifying one as well. It is like a spotlight showing up the places where what we think – is different from what we do. In other words, it is easy to say we do this stuff, but can we actually live it? My only answer is “yes” we can — simply because Jesus did it first … but … we cannot do it alone! We’ve been empowered, by Christ’s death into living this life a new way. After the Lord Jesus died, even the disciples wrangled with their feelings of loss, and yet they went back to what they knew … fishing! Human beings without the influence and leading of the Holy Spirit can be loveable, but dumb as a rock when it comes to spiritual things. Those things won’t fall on us, we must go after them. His grace will help us. 

When I was a young Christian, I noticed that there was a level of commitment in a few people that I didn’t seem to have. It was as if there were some sort of line in my mind that I would walk up to, then I’d look over into the other side of it and it all looked too hard for me. So then, I’d walk back to where I came from. That line was called — a total commitment to Christ. I wanted His life in me, but I wanted my own ideas for my life too. I wanted to  ‘make my own choices’ – to be a Christian when it suited me, and walk away when it didn’t. My perception of His benefits  was all about me, instead of Him. Maybe that’s why Psalm 103:2 tells us not to forget His benefits!

I had plenty of friends, rabbits and relations who were quite happy to explain to me that my ideas about Christianity were nice .. but surely I didn’t have to take the whole thing quite so seriously!  And that was the beginning of an odd period in my life where I did the hokey pokey. I put one foot over the line, then took it back, then the other foot  … if you have ever done the hokey pokey … you get it. In the end I became double-minded. I got to the stage where I finally agreed with others. that I should coast along, do nice things when I felt like it – yet I could still be angry with the people who were mean to me, because I couldn’t help it. After all they’d been truly awful and they should know better! I succumbed to ‘poor little old me!’ Self-pity will wreck our faith in a heart beat.

At the same time I was told I had a “virus,” year after year and a lot of people prayed for it to be healed. But it wasn’t healed … because it wasn’t actually a virus! It turned out I needed a liver transplant. Meanwhile, I was in every healing line I could get into, and yet I still got sicker. Then something else unthinkable happened, I was divorced. I knew what the bible said, and I knew what Jesus said … and yet it happened anyway. The ambition to die for Jesus’ sake, fell in the dirt, I couldn’t do it. If I stayed inside that marriage, I would die.

I totally knew I had broken ‘the rules.’ I loved Jesus, but trying harder became impossible, I was too ill. I knew nothing about walking by faith, not by sight. Even though I had carefully memorised the verse! I didn’t actually understand what the New Covenant meant, except in vague terms that definitely didn’t apply to me anymore – because now I thought I was doomed to hell. Folks, religion kills. It murders your faith and it will take your life. Put it down. I exhort everyone reading this to ask the Lord to teach you to walk by faith, otherwise our common enemy will use your circumstances against you.

Even after the transplant, they couldn’t tell me why my liver was so damaged. It just was! Eventually I learnt that a simple very common blood test would have diagnosed what was wrong with me. I didn’t drink alcohol etc. so the medical profession didn’t think to give me the blood test. However, God in His great mercy, didn’t let go of me, just because I let go of Him. He’s like that! This advice in 1 Peter 4 is so incredibly important. Living our lives for Jesus is not an alternate way … it is the only way. God has given us a totally new way to live, step by step, little by little … He calls us to fall in love with His goodness and follow Him. He paid dearly to give us His grace to do it.

I think sometimes, we’ve had our eyes fixed on the wrong application of His principles. In the following verse from Hebrews the Lord is telling us about HIMSELF – not how to get what we want from Him!  “But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” (11:6) We’ve used our faith for years hoping to make our lives more comfortable, telling ourselves God wants us to be healthy and happy. But it actually says … He rewards those who chase after Him and the result is … WE WILL PLEASE HIM … He doesn’t have to please us … He’s GOD!

Take my advice and decide to live your life as good soldier of Christ – don’t wander in and out like I did. Leave behind the ‘stuff’ you’ve picked up along the way. Make that choice. Bitterness, anxiety, and disappointment doesn’t belong in our brand new heart. Neither does lying, hating others, abusing or hurting people. Whatever your excuse is for staying the same – it’s a lie.

A good soldier does exactly what he is told to do, no more, no less. We have been given a wonderful Companion in our daily journeys, He knows how to strategically get us through our battles – don’t leave home without Him.  We need the Word of God, plus GRACE. Bye. 👋

P 3281 Doors an windows.

/ DVH

Whenever we can see our loving Heavenly Father at work, it could be a door, OR a window! What do I mean by that? A door opens life up to new possibilities for His plans in your own life – you can walk through it into a new place. A window shows you possibilities, but they are outside your reach. You can see stuff, but only from a distance. One creates action, the other can create despair and frustration… unless you prayerfully use what you see out of the window, to send you to the open door! An open door is not enough – you need the leading of the Holy Spirit and inner peace.

Christians talk about this stuff a lot. They often say that God has opened ‘a door’ for them to do such and such. Here’s what happened to Paul a couple of times … 2 Corinthians 2:12-14: “Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia.” Yet in 1 Corinthians 16:8&9. “But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost. For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.” 

Don’t you just love it? Paul goes to Troas and finds ‘an open door’ but he had no peace.  Plus Titus, his companion in the Lord, wasn’t there. This next scripture from Acts, shows us what happened after that. You and I can see an open door, many times in our Christian lives but, the question to ask is this: is it OUR door, or is it simply a window showing us possibilities. The verse in first Corinthians explains something powerful, something we need to know. A door was open at Ephesus at another time too, and Paul went through it, yet he lingered there, despite the fact that there were many adversaries!

What does that teach us? Here’s my potted version … adverse situations and people don’t mean the door you want to go through is shut! You might want to think on that. Many a fine missionary has run into all kinds of adversity and adversaries, but that did not daunt them. They stayed true to their heavenly calling. The leading of the Holy Spirit is extremely important whenever we want to obey the Lord by “going out into all the world to preach the gospel.” And no peace is a sign that you are there all by yourself. Peace is our umpire! We will end up side-lined in the sin bin if we ignore the umpire! 

Over to Acts 16:6-12 it says: “And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them …” 

Do you see that? It was the right calling —- wrong place —- God redirected Paul through a vision. It seems to me that he saw something through a window, and then the Lord helped him find the right door! Father God is so merciful, He gave Paul that vision to help him go in the right direction. If you go somewhere for Jesus because you believe He called you to go — then first of all, like Paul, take a partner who has the same heart as you! Remember, in 2nd Corinthians Paul didn’t find Titus so he moved on, plus He had no peace. That’s because God wanted him elsewhere and Troas was not the place. 

If we read about this situation in Acts, we can see that the Holy Spirit Himself forbad them to speak in Asia. We simply must learn to follow the Holy Spirit, He will guide us. People have lost their faith doing something God Himself never called them to do. They went simply because there was an open door. Not every open door belongs to us. Prayerfully make sure it is your door! 

Because we are His — Almighty God controls our opportunities. Jesus Himself said this in the book of Revelation 3:7,8: “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the Holy One, the True One, Who has the key of David, Who opens and no one will shut, Who shuts and no one opens.” ‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept My word and have not denied My name.”

Ps did you notice that this church had little power? Having little power does not mean your church is a failure or you have missed it! Keep preaching the gospel and don’t lose your hopes or dreams of seeing the dead raised and the sick healed, keep them. Keep them alive by keeping in the Word. Pray for everyone who needs it… then leave the results to Him. All of those things are promised to people who believe and act on what He says, using His Name. My advice is to keep moving and acting on the Word of God, and always make Jesus the centre of what you do. Even if you went the wrong way – He has another plan for you.

God promises us that if He shuts a door no one can open it, and when He opens one then watch out!  Just because you can see something, that does not mean it is your responsibility – even Paul had to learn to listen carefully to the Holy Spirit and obey Him. The bible tells us that we are to be as wise as serpents and gentle as doves, so please don’t let someone else’s rapidly growing church bring you down from where God put you. Praise God for their increase instead! Numbers don’t matter to the Lord, Jesus started out with only 12 men.

Like I said at the beginning of this blog, prayerfully check to see if what is in front of you is a door or a window. Make sure you wait on the Holy Spirit so you can spot the difference. You can have full confidence based on the book of Revelation that if it is a door God has opened in front of you, no man can shut it. Amen! Bye. 👋

P 3270 The impossible is easy for the Lord …

/ DVH

but it is also very challenging to our faith. In the gospel  of Mark 2:1-12, some men tore off a house-roof so they could lower down a paralytic friend in front of Jesus…. Did you get that? They tore up some poor guy’s roof! This hospitable family man offers his home for a meeting and that’s the thanks he gets?! I suppose the man could have used the resulting hole for a skylight…? !

The details we are given in the Word make this story extraordinary. Mainly because I don’t imagine digging a hole in any kind of roof would be easy. But these men were so devoted to their friend, in their desire to get him to Jesus, that they would have done anything. Meanwhile nobody seemed to care too much about what the occupant of the house thought when they burrowed into his nice little house like gophers either. Why not?! Somebody got healed and they all saw it.

 Are we willing to risk possibly offending people in order to bring someone into the Lord’s Presence? (Remember wherever we go, He goes.) The fear of retaliation or offence is very real in our society. Nowadays if somebody tore off a church roof to get a sick person to Jesus, they’d probably sue them for a replacement roof!  Plus they’d grizzle at them — ‘don’t you know how to use a door?!?’ But these friends were undaunted by societal rules, and motivated by love for their sick friend, instead. I’d like to be a friend like that, and boy would I like to have a friend like that myself!

Jesus didn’t really seem to care who He offended. The Lord did not ever set out to be offensive but if that happened, well, it happened. He didn’t even pause to explain Himself, or His motivation etc … He just moved on. His priority was  His Father’s will. How can we possibly imagine how incredibly difficult it must have been for Him to carry out the Father’s will, even when it included His own suffering and death?  

Not to mention the fact that when it came to the time of His death, Jesus did everything He did, without the comforting Presence of the precious Holy Spirit. He was SomeOne the Lord had always known intimately. It must have been so painful for the Father, and the Spirit stand back and not rescue Jesus from such villainous wickedness. But there was a higher purpose. Meanwhile it is not hard to imagine satan firing mental missiles at Jesus while he was tormenting the Lord inwardly and outwardly on the cross.   

Today I want to remember how very much the Holy Spirit loves to help, comfort, and guide. And yet at that point in history, He had to step away. The Father’s Will could only be accomplished if the Holy Spirit didn’t step in. The Lord Jesus did all that He did for us, so we can be sons and daughters of God!  Otherwise the doors of heaven would have stayed shut to the likes of you and I! Jesus chose to do this so we would never have to be separated from the Holy Spirit’s loving kindness, and wisdom ever again. It stands to reason that His devotion to mankind is so huge – HE WON’T EVER LEAVE US. The Spirit of God loves us the way He loves Christ. Imagine that. He freely shares with us  His life-giving ways. If it is not love, then it is not Him. 

The Spirit of the Living God creatively uses the power of love and grace in ways we cannot imagine, over and over again. To one person He says, “consider Jesus” … to someone else He says: “you have been forgiven” and to another He says: “the Father loves you with an everlasting love.” No matter what the Holy Spirit says: there is always  unimaginable, overwhelming love in it. He chooses to meet some people in their dreams, others while they are reading the bible, or through someone else’s books. He met with me in front of a clothes line! His originality is mind boggling.  

Someone else might say what I just said, in a totally different way, and that is just another example of His incredible creativity. He is also out-of-this-world wise. There are so many ways to describe Who He is and what He does – silently -we can easily lose count! That’s why I love Jesus, we can see in Him the things our natural mind couldn’t possibly make up! And the Lord Jesus totally relied on the Holy Spirit’s help – so should WE.

This is Paul speaking to the Ephesians, about the diversity of the things He has for us. 3:8-12: “To me, the least of all the saints, was given this grace: to proclaim the good news of the fathomless riches of Christ to the Gentiles, and to enlighten everyone as to what is the administration of the mystery hidden from the ages by God, Who created all things, in order that the many-sided wisdom of God might be made known now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places through the church, according to the purpose of the ages which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through faith in Him.”

Please do not allow anyone else to minimise the beauty of the One that Jesus Himself chose to entrust with our care. We all matter so much to God, even when our faith is severely stretched, let’s not limit Him. Let’s learn to walk with Him instead. Watch out for evidence of His work in your life as well as around you. Seeing Him at work helps our faith.  He will show us how to repair the things that this life has broken in us, or in our relationships with others. He will tear up and get rid of anything that is holding us back from reaching Jesus, just like those friends tore away the roof in order to get to the Lord that day. Despite challenging our faith, the impossible is so easy to our God.  Bye. 👋

P 3065 Fruitless trees.

/ DVH

Our mango tree is a much discussed tree on this blog. Initially, it produced no fruit – but then the tree started to produce little nubs that had …potential!!…Then they fell off. Sigh. I’ve learnt a lot about personal fruit production in my own life by watching the progress of that darn tree. 

Here’s my thoughts. Some fruit trees can take a while to fruit. And some trees have no fruit because the tree is not mature enough to produce and sustain any! Fig trees, for instance, can take 2-3 years to get into fruit production. Let’s look at fruit production from a real fig tree: “…fig trees typically produce leaves before they produce fruit. They have a cycle where they first develop leaves in the spring, and then the fruit develops on the new growth or on the previous year’s growth depending on the fig variety and climate.”

The scripture below appears in Matthew and Mark. PS:always take note of something in the gospels that is written up twice. Here we go: Mark 11:12-14: “The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to find out if it had any fruit. When He reached it, He found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then He said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And His disciples heard Him say it.“

You know, this scripture bothered me! Why did Jesus curse that tree? That thing died because He cursed it. This whole incident kind of seemed a bit petty, and irrelevant. And yet it was included twice, so it obviously needs prayer and Holy Spirit-inspired insight!  After all there was no McDonald’s on every corner back then in Jerusalem, so that lack meant no breakfast!

Here’s what I came up with: ‘If Jesus cursed that fig tree because it had no fruit, then I’d better make growing fruit a priority!” That improved my prayer life! I realised that the fig tree in this incident is a lot like some of our churches. All show and no go! We can have lots of leaves — singing, dancing, arm waving, kneeling, sermons etc. – but when you lift the leaves – where is the fruit? Our God’s-kind of fruit is people getting saved, healed, delivered and transformed. Where has that fruit gone? 

I want to take a quick look a those little nubs that look like fruit is coming, or the tree that produces fruit that looks soo-oo good … yet at the first sign of a change in the weather… it all falls off. I think this happens quite a lot in our churches too. Pastors, ministers etc. see someone in their congregation who look like they have loads of potential. But this person’s immaturity makes them a target for the enemy to come in, steal, and destroy, or even just nibble away at those gifts. So, should we throw away all that potential because of an immature faith? Maybe the little potential tree needs to go back into the greenhouse for some specialist attention.

Now let’s go to the optimum fruit tree situation — that is, we get fruit in all its perfection and glory. And you and I get to stuff ourselves with the results. In my little allegory, this means we are in church whenever the doors open, and we only leave because it’s morning! With truly wonderful fruit, the colour, smell and taste are fabulous, intoxicating! You have so much to enjoy, you can happily share with others and give lots away! So we advertise revivals, healings etc. to attract people to the church. We recognise the fruit of His Presence with us – but we fail to prioritise growth! The Holy Spirit’s power is with us to transform lives, not just make us feel good!

So then the thief comes — in my mango tree’s case he comes in the form of fluffy grey possums and imported minas — comes pecking at the fruit destroying its eating value. The beautiful fruit has munch marks all over it. Nasty little holes made by nasty little beasties and beaks!! I think this can happen when God’s people begin to revert to type, and they start pecking at what God Himself is doing.‘ This fruit is too big, too small, the wrong sort of fruit, not ripe enough’ and criticism begins to flourish. All that stuff happened to Israel. Read the book!… 

Eventually the church becomes divided and opinionated. And instead of Almighty God getting all the glory for the wonderful things He is doing, now nasty, spiteful remarks start eating away at the roots of His church. The real point is that everyone is so busy enjoying what God is currently doing, they become lax and careless about what they are saying – instead of maintaining the fire on the altar. 

I’m no horticulturist but it seems to me that any kind of fruit on a tree depends on new growth. Fruit comes from new growth. So if our churches aren’t growing … and I don’t mean numerically! I mean that each one of the members are actively choosing, day by day, to grow up into Christ’s likeness, instead of coasting along…  Then maybe that’s a reason why our fruit production has disappeared. 

Having fruitless trees is not a good witness to the world around us. Our churches need to prioritise personal growth and not just fantastic experiences. We want our little potential-filled trees to survive and thrive.  Bye 👋

P 2957 Be fruitful not just productive.

/ DVH

After all, Jesus Christ Himself answered to SomeOne else – His Father! John 9:1-4: “While He was passing by, He noticed a man [who had been] blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi (Teacher), who   sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed and illustrated in him. We must work the works of Him Who sent Me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.”

Sin is common to man, the bible tells us that, but isn’t it astonishing how quickly human beings go into blame, even right in front of Jesus? They say things like: ‘Whose fault is this, Jesus – him or his parents?’ Religion always wants a reason to blame, and sometimes it wants to excuse itself. ‘It’s not my fault my parents beat me, neglected me, spoiled me as a child I can’t help it.’ Right. So it seems to me that you are having trouble putting childish things away?? Read I Corinthians 13:11. How about you study the power of CHOICE?

I love 💕the way that Jesus sorts these things out… because this stuff really IS a waste of time! His disciples noticed that blind man and they wanted a religious reason for his ailment, but …  but… Jesus just healed him!  I mean I’m on the Lord’s team about that … just do something about whatever is wrong!  Love on the guy, restore his life, and throw blame out of the window. Don’t analyse it. Deal with it. Pray over it. After all we’ve been given His authority!

Not only that, then the Lord says something here we don’t even dare to discuss ……this incredible Being, Almighty God, Who ‘wraps Himself in unapproachable light and has no darkness in Him at all’ ALLOWED that blind man to be born blind so He could illustrate His glory! Ya might want to think about that for 3 months or so, ‘cos it kind of stomps all over all kinds of theology … like right … there. Our God is not the ‘when you wish upon a star, pretty blue fairy.’  When He came down upon the mountain in front of the Israelites they shoved Moses up the front and said “We are too scared of Him, YOU GO!” Let’s always remember that He’s the Mighty God Who rules heaven and earth, and — you’d better believe it buddy!

When Jesus took off His earthly human form, and He was revealed as God’s Son before 3 of His disciples – nobody had anything to say except Peter  — and that poor guy made an ass of himself… again. I always feel sorry for Peter, he says dumb stuff right out loud. Those things we might kind of whisper in corners to each other but we wouldn’t dare say any of it out loud at church. People might stop thinking we are holy if we did that. 

John 9:39: “Then Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment [to separate those who believe in Me from those who reject Me—to declare judgment on those who choose to be separated from God], so that the sightless would see, and those who see would become blind.”That sounds pretty clear and ‘user friendly’ to me. When the Lord was confronted with a blind man — He healed him. He didn’t form a committee to discuss what they should do next  didn’t care about the guy’s theology – or anyone else’s theology for that matter! He was simply fulfilling His God-given mandate. Is this a good time to mention that we have that mandate too?? Too soon??? Not ready??? Hmmm… I seem to recall the Lord said: “Live ready.” Matthew 24:42-51.

Moving on … Jesus knew that there was going to be a time when He couldn’t work anymore, so He did not waste a minute of the time He had at His disposal. That needs to be our blueprint for this life too. It is also worth noting that praying for the sick is a work that God has told all of us to do. Whether we feel spiritual or not, it’s our job now. I’ve prayed for the sick and they got worse and died, and I’ve prayed for the sick and they got better. And I can’t tell you why either one turned out either way! I simply know He said pray for the sick, so I did.

Whatever Jesus did, praying for the sick, deliverance, personal instruction – He totally did everything He did for the glory of God. He never justified big meetings by saying He had a ministry or some special gift … and yet He had ALL the gifts … better than we ever could. Instead He preached whatever He heard His Father saying to those who came. Whether it was two people or five thousand. He left everything to God and did what His Father told Him, and whatever He saw His Father doing. John 5:19. 

That verse in John 5 has always fascinated me. Jesus was not proud, He was humble, submitted to His Father.  The words “I do nothing by Myself” are pure gold to me. The Lord Jesus had no other agenda. I pray God will remove every one of my agendas and give me HIS! Amen. Now there’s a heart worth asking for! I wanna be with the people who only do what He’s doing and only say what He’s saying. The church has done enough advertising, talking and big mouthing, we need to learn to listen to the Holy Spirit and do what He says. It seems to me that sometimes we talk to cover up our lack. Did I say that out loud? Yikes… yes I did!! 

My current theory, (yeah, I freely admit it is a theory,) is that we need the Word of God to work on us, within us. Transformation will follow as we admit our lack and go after the Answer. Then we will freely flow in love, compassion and kindness. Jesus Himself never lacked those qualities, and we need to go after them, not just the gifts. We are meant to be fruit bearing vines, not libraries, or fun fairs. We desperately need the love and devotion that never fails. Sadly, in my personal experience, my human love can fail all over the place! I am especially convicted when I read I Corinthians 13:7. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 

We will gain compassion and kindness by simply walking with the Lord, and seeing others through His eyes. Plus steadfastly walking through difficulties, sorrow and suffering, without losing any of our LOVE for Him, and others. I pray for everyone reading this blog today that they too would aim at Love over everything else because Love is the best glue known to mankind. As we too work the works of Him Who sent US, we must remember that unless we have Love, HIS love, we can end up clanging away like a fire bell.

We need to get our minds renewed to think like His, and “get our head in the game!” Fruitfulness is life-changing, not just productive. Bye 👋

P 2947 Who are you really … ??

/ DVH

Matthew 21:33-46: “Now listen to another story. A certain landowner planted a vineyard, built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a lookout tower. Then he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country.  At the time of the grape harvest, he sent his servants to collect his share of the crop. But the farmers grabbed his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. So the landowner sent a larger group of his servants to collect for him, but the results were the same.

“Finally, the owner sent his son, thinking, ‘Surely they will respect my son.’“But when the tenant farmers saw his son coming, they said to one another, ‘Here comes the heir to this estate. Come on, let’s kill him and get the estate for ourselves!’ So they grabbed him, dragged him out of the vineyard, and murdered him. “When the owner of the vineyard returns,” Jesus asked, “what do you think he will do to those farmers?” The religious leaders replied, “He will put the wicked men to a horrible death and lease the vineyard to others who will give him his share of the crop after each harvest.”

This parable reminds me that without active, visible, accountability and supervision what are WE, you and I, actually like? As in, who are we when we are at our house? The nice people at church can’t see us there! Don’t be two different people:“Admit your faults to one another so that you may be healed…” This is a good time to ask your family if you are the same person wherever you are. If not – why not?? The bible says:“I can do all things through Christ Who gives me strength …”

This is one of the parables I like to call, ‘the very-scary-better-think-carefully-about-them” parables. Not a cheery story. Not a happy ending either! However, I love that Jesus is a realist. He understood mankind, including the best and the worst of us and He knew what we could do to each other. Some of our biggest spiritual problems can come from thinking:“Oh, I would NEVER do that!” Can anybody smell the Pharisee in the room? Like somehow we have become exempt from our own humanity. That’s called P.R.I.D.E. OK, so now there’s another 27 people who have gone right off me! Ho-hum.

None of us know what we are capable of, until we are pushed hard enough by circumstances, or maybe we see an opportunity for gain. I’ve met a lot of the “Oh, I would never do that,” type of Christians in my life. Good luck with that one! If that really IS you, then you need to thank the Lord for delivering you from temptation! Nobody knows our hearts but the Lord, and boy does HE know what’s nattily hidden away in there. Stuff that can be disguised quickly with a change of our facial expression. I’m not keen on dishonesty. I think deceit is a deadly poison, it eventually floods the body and becomes a way of life. Self-deception is the biggest thief of all!

The only thing that can actively transform every single one of us is the blood of Jesus, and the truth is, if you don’t think you need it – then you won’t see the need to apply it into your life! Really, REALLY dumb move, Basil! You can lie to me, your mother, your family, the pastor, your friends, but … when life squeezes you hard enough you never know what is going to come out. The biggest danger we face is what I call the ‘who will know?’- opportunities.

So let’s get real, and hang onto your bonnet sister, it’s about to blow off —  there can be no redemption without acknowledgment of sin. Now breathe… and listen to what the book says … you could always read it out loud: 1 John 1:9 says:“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Hmm … maybe you need to read that again, it’s possible you missed a word in your clever speed reading. IF… if… if… if!!!! 

If’n ya don’t own your sins, you won’t see any need to confess them… and if we make excuses for our behaviour … we won’t own that either! I have heard about every excuse under the sun, from people who want to hide their real attitudes and self-centred ways from everyone. What a waste of a life! It is a waste of time letting fear and deceit run the show … we know that Jesus died to pay for all of it – but the prerequisite to qualification involves confessing our faults. We all have them. Presumption shot Peter in the foot, he was caught by a chook!

SomeBody already knows each one of us, who we really are!! He’s the Person we should all have holy fear about!We have made a god in our own image, and He’s very permissive and understanding … He understands I can’t help it, I had a hard childhood! Forget the gossip club at church, GOD knows! And our excuses just won’t hold water in front of His precious Holiness.

Forgiveness comes from His compassion, faithfulness, and that is only IN CHRIST. Our sin is no longer the problem, when we’ve given our lives to Him. However, when we try to hide from Him, and hide the things we still do from other people, then we are denying the power of the cross to cancel that sin. That’s the problem. 

Out of sight out of mind, doesn’t work in the kingdom of God. Honesty does. Confession does. Purity of heart does. The sacrifice Jesus willingly made for us does not give us permission to ignore the prompting of the Spirit of God. Just because we can’t see Him, that doesn’t mean He isn’t here, with us, right now. His Presence is all over His book … so quit skipping the bits you don’t like! The question for today is: who are we when no-one will know? Bye. 👋

P 2937 Two ways to read stuff.

/ DVH

“So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute Him. In His defence Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill Him; not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.”John 5:15-18.

The Pharisees could not see beyond their prejudices because they thought Jesus was making Himself equal with God. That’s the trouble with human opinions and prejudices – they colour in whatever you see to prove your own point. Sadly, these brilliant scholars and teachers missed something in their singular focus! They missed a huge revelation, because they wanted to disprove its source.The sabbath was made for man, for our benefit —man was not made for the sabbath. REST is our portion, every single moment, hour, day, of the week. Not just on Sunday! We are to live in His rest right now, by doing what God wants us to do. (Matthew 11:28) 

Almighty God often hides Himself and His truth inside things that could offend us, or stuff we may dismiss or resist. We are to do whatever we do from rest, not from striving to get it right, or trying to be good enough. And that’s not some-day pie-in-the-sky stuff. It’s REAL, it’s for today, it’s for YOU. God absolutely, totally took care of our sin when Christ came and died on our behalf. Now we simply enter into the place that Christ won for us – using our faith and then we rest in what He did. 

Jesus was pointing to a new reality – one that ushered in a different way to live … Now we are destined to live this life totally dependant upon Him, and follow His plan for our life. That’s what freedom looks like, it looks like the right to say YES or NO to God Himself. At the same time, what He said pointed to His authority to say it! But these legalists didn’t like that at all, they stumbled over His claims that God was His Father. He’s OUR Father, too!

Right before the above incident happened, Jesus healed a man who had been lying by the pool at Bethesda. The people in authority took exception to this healing because He did it on the Sabbath. That’s why He explained Himself in the above scripture. He basically said: “I’m working because God Himself is working.” Jesus spent His life helping people, ushering in healing and deliverance, and everything He taught us was to show us what the Father is actually like. He went over and over it. He did what He did because He saw His Father doing it. 

We need to go far deeper than simply reading and rereading the stories — we need to be more like Ruth, who went into the fields to gain food so she and Naomi could eat. Even the leftovers in God’s kingdom can feed people and change a life. (Matthew 15:27) There is always more. The more we look, the more we will see. If we only look for instruction, that is all we will see. But if we look for HIM, His nature, His Ways, we will find HIM and, He is our forever treasure. 

The Pharisees were already happy with what they believed, and they weren’t willing to have their lives turned upside down. But Jesus persevered with them, over and over again. He said stuff like this: “You’ve got this bit right, but you need to look hard right there!” Jesus didn’t just come to die for us and show us a new way to live, He came to reveal His Father! We get so tied up with finding the benefits we miss the Main Event!  He said this in John 5:30.“By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and My judgment is just, for I seek not to please Myself but Him who sent Me.” 

The Lord had no agenda – at all. It’s hard for us to imagine what that is like, because most people today are all agendas! But watching Jesus do what His Father wanted Him to do, gives us big clues. “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.” Proverbs 25:2. God likes to hide things, and they are not always in plain sight. It is worth soaking in, meditating on what is said in the bible, plus asking the Holy Spirit to give us eyes to see what is really going on. And don’t forget to ask how it applies to me! 

Father God is there as plain as day for those who take the time to seek Him out. However, we must stop seeking Him to prove our point and let Him make His own! Things that don’t make sense to us now, will suddenly begin to make sense, when we stay open to His point of view. The bible was not just written to benefit us –it was supernaturally written and preserved to reveal HIM.  We must pour over the scriptures like it is a puzzle we want to solve, because our clues to our Beloved are IN them – the Living Word is in there!  

Why would He use a whale to post a man somewhere he needed to be? Why would He use 300 men to vanquish more warriors than someone could count? Why would He walk an entire escaping nation across the bottom of an ocean? Why would He explain Himself to someone who was so devastated by loss that he couldn’t hide under his own platitudes any more? Why would He speak through a donkey? Why would He send His ONLY Son as an infant? That list goes on … there are two ways to read the bible. Stop simply reading, and ask the Holy Spirit questions.

He’s looking for the people who choose to lap water – the ones who are ready to run with Him.  Bye 👋