Hear

P 2842 Are people drawn to the light in us?

/ DVH

Mark 4:21-25: “He said to them, Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”

I think the reason we sometimes hide from the light, skip church, don’t read the bible, and we don’t pray – is simple. We don’t want to be convicted or convinced of our stinky attitudes. Maybe whatever we are doing, we don’t want to be found out, so we pronounce church things as ‘boring’… when the reality is – what is said comes way too close for comfort. Where is His light in your life currently at? Is it tucked away, under the bed? Many people build walls to keep them safe, a coffin has walls – a coffin is made for dead things.

As you can see from the above verse, hiding His light within us is a waste of time and energy. One day, everything we’ve said and done quietly, perhaps even sneakily – concerning Mrs Kerfoops across the road – will be shouted from the housetops.BUT!… “IF we confess our sins, He will forgive our sins. We can trust God. He does what is right. He will make us clean from all the wrongs we have done.”I LOVE 💕💕 THOSE LITTLE WORDS… BUT IF …!! This is a good time to praise God for His ongoing, always active, ever-forgiving love in our lives. 

The awful stuff we hide from others, and – even worse – from ourselves! … needs confession and healing. Why not wipe the slate clean, make reparation wherever necessary and move on …??  The point Jesus is making in these verses is that the light of God’s Word is meant to shine in us, and through us, not be hidden away … so we can save face. We are not undercover brothers – WE ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. That’s why He said don’t put that light in a place where it can’t shine — the light of God is meant to be seen.

At the same time, the light and power of God within us, changes our perspective. It doesn’t just illuminate sin – it makes our surroundings clear and visible. There is way too much darkness all over this earth, because Christians look like everybody else. Being hidden doesn’t mean we are safe – it actually means the people around us can’t see our faith in action. Sadly, who we really are, is who we are when we are squeezed tightly by our circumstances. And no! I don’t much like that sentence either!! 

You and I live wherever we live, because we are to be His light. So the people who live around us can clearly see the dirt and squalor they are choosing to live in. We don’t have to be pompous and look down our noses at others either. The plain truth is this world is currently living in a majority rules situation — they don’t have any light, because we are hiding who we are! God’s Love is His Light! Everyone will know we are Christians by our love, and because LOVE is a verb not a noun, this is something that others can see and experience for themselves. We are Christians – We choose to live and die, loving others. 

You and I are the front-line of what Jesus wants to do on the earth today. Forget people focussing on the pastor, they are looking at us to see if what we say we believe, is real. And if that sentence doesn’t give you and I something to reflect on, we’d all better think again. We aren’t just here to stand up for what we are against – we are here to shine His light and love around, everywhere we go.  His love, needs to be in every dark corner of this world. Loving Jesus means we are for the people He came to save. People were drawn to Him – are they drawn to us? On that happy little note, bye for now! 👋

P 2823 What was it about Jesus’ voice?

/ DVH

Mark 1:16-20 “As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow Me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed Him. When He had gone a little farther, He saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed Him.”

We can see that these four men were busy, and they were doing something they did daily. James and John were fishermen who worked for their father, and Simon and Andrew were fishermen as well. But when Jesus spoke to these four men, something in His voice, in the way He spoke, cut through any obligation, work-ethic, and duty … and all four of them, stopped doing the thing they had been doing all their lives, put down all their tools, and immediately followed Him… It is not recorded that they were particularly spiritual men … so what happened?

I think they heard THE VOICE of GOD within Jesus’ voice. I know that sounds very odd, but you may have already noticed that you can be in a room filled with people where someone is preaching, and instantly … it feels like the speaker is only talking to YOU. That’s what His Voice sounds like. When what we hear stops being general and generic, and it becomes personal. You could have that experience reading a book, or listening to music. Things just hit you in the heart.

This immediate connection is often unsought, but it cuts through the white noise, and then you are convicted, or convinced or something has your immediate attention. Maybe you are reading the bible and suddenly one verse jumps up like it bit you, and you are almost pole-axed by it. You see something about the Lord you have never seen before … or you feel deeply about something that you weren’t even thinking about a second ago! One of the biggest blessings we can have in this life is to recognise His voice. His voice helps us find His opportunities, His Way of living and being, and doing things. And the best way to gain knowledge about what the Holy Spirit sounds like is to — read the book and be observant. Our God is personal, pertinent, and passionate.

While you are reading His book you will find the Lord uses one voice in the Psalms, and another in Ezekiel or Habakkuk. I am not talking about the voice of the person who wrote that book – I am talking about the Way these people recorded how God spoke to them. To some people He was quite formal, to others He was incredibly personal, even commenting on their behaviour or their thoughts. We need to chase after being able to see this bigger picture.

Habakkuk actually says an interesting thing in Chapter 2, verse 1 …“I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts;  I will look to see what He will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.”  Habakkuk was complaining to the Lord, about all the evil in this world. He believes God is good, so why does He tolerate all this badness? And then God reminds Him that there is a time for His purposes and  … He has a plan. And if you want to know more – read Habakkuk!

When Habakkuk says, “I will look to see what He will say to me…”  I find that thought interesting. This man knows that what God says can be visible. He’s not talking about seeing the answer … he is talking about seeing God speaking through tangible things. The Lord speaks to some people in pictures and He speaks to other people through their circumstances. When He talks to me, He uses words or phrases. Recently He has begun to speak to me through instant peace. One minute I am overwrought and the next, I’m doing fine.

Here’s a question from me to think on … ‘How do YOU hear Him?’ We need to be careful not to limit the way He speaks to us. In our quest for holiness perhaps we have put a lid on how we think He always does things. The Body of Christ desperately needs the skill of hearing and knowing His voice, under any kind of circumstances. I have noticed that we often tend to allow God to speak to us, or through us, like this, or that. But that means our method of spiritual operation has become a habitual thing. What if Almighty God wants to speak to us, or even through us, another way? Have we so corralled Him, and His role in our lives, that we have inadvertently put limits on the way He operates through us?

I have become astonished at how often I ‘hear’ God speak through some of the things I’ve seen on YouTube!  I’m not talking about watching sermons etc. I’m talking about some unchurched person explaining their own little segment, and I suddenly hear His voice inside their voice … and He teaches me something! At first it was disconcerting. But now I deliberately put my listening ears on. In the end, after praying over this odd thing, I realised  that when I was watching secular things, I had somehow turned my inner listening-to-the-Lord-ears OFF! Yeah. Ya might want to reflect on that one – I did.

We can’t live in two worlds, one with His Presence and one without. We live in His kingdom now. I want to be like the disciples and when Jesus says “follow Me” – I follow!  Whatever we hear in His voice will be LIFE-CHANGING. Bye. 👋

P 2704 A spiritual vitamin pill!

/ DVH

“God will continually revitalise you, implanting within you the passion to do what pleases Him.” Philippians 2:13 TPT

There are days when I wear this verse out!! (As if I could!) What I mean by that, is that the Lord presses the refresh button in my life, over and over again. And hallelujah, verses like this one never get worn out – thank you Jesus. Here are a couple more FYI.


“For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”Jeremiah 31:25. “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:28-30 MSG.

I like the whole ‘revitalise us’ theme. Some days when I get out of bed I sure need a kick start! Yesterday was one of them. Going on the road always requires lots of work from my dear hubby, on top of what he already does. He’s preparing things for weeks before the actual event. Sadly we can’t do the whole fast-food thing while we are away – that means he has to cook a whole lot of stuff before we leave and freeze it. Not to mention how much fun it is to pack the car! I don’t know how he does any of it. 

I had a chat with the Lord about my inability to contribute regarding our adventures and He very kindly reminded me that hubby couldn’t go if I didn’t go with him. It’s nice to feel useful, even when you are doing nothing! By the time I swan out to the car the day we leave, everything is done. My sole contribution is to not fall apart physically while we are travelling – and, of course, I have to trust the Lord for that!!  But praise Him I have been given the gift of encouragement, so I use that along the way.

The first verse above in Philippians is the reason we go. The Lord has given us a passion to do what He likes best –  He loves to talk to people! He just adores it. Because He loves them so much, we have caught His joy, so now we love it too. You just never know what He is going to do next – that’s the bit that always grabs me by the heart – the unpredictability of it all. Some days hubby barely says ‘hello’ to someone, and they go on to talk about their private lives and spiritual thoughts, almost immediately. Because the Holy Spirit is present with us, we eagerly anticipate and welcome Him wherever we go, because we love watching Him work. It’s just like a little kid, watching ‘my Daddy do stuff.’

Here are a couple of really good questions to contemplate: “But how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” Romans 10:14-15. 

Three guesses who Paul means by the title – “someone!” The day came for hubby and I when we both had to admit, someone means ME! I know that Christians get closer to the Lord through prayer, preaching, waiting on Him and fasting, or even by operating in spiritual gifts … BUT !!!… one of the best ways I know to grow, as well as use and stretch your faith, is to GO – for the gospel’s sake. 

I have this theory, most people like to stay within their comfort zones, because they don’t want to mess up, or bring the Lord into ill-repute. They often feel inadequate for the task. Plus people have busy lives! In fact if you look at me in particular, the one thing I don’t have, is a busy life. Being disabled means you have to plan your days very carefully and prayerfully, I only have so much energy to go around. Even on the road, I can only do what He tells me then I turn into a pumpkin and need sleep. But here is what I’ve learnt – if you give Him whatever you have, Jesus will take that offering and multiply it. 

Here’s my scripture about that scenario… hold on … it may surprise you. “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” John 6:9. Most of the time I have limited energy, so I just give what I have to Him. The Lord takes my little offering and multiplies it. Meanwhile, some people might have lots of energy and very little time, or even motivation – so today I want to encourage you to give your time and lack of motivation to Him and watch what He will do with it! Jesus has spiritual vitamin pills that make the physical ones look like rice cakes … all air and very little nourishment! Bye for now. 👋

P 2690 Insight.

/ DVH

The reason I talk so much about the bible being a bigger book than we understand, is because of this subject. Receiving insight personally from the Lord grows our faith. For some people, their only biblical understanding comes through their pastor, or more mature brothers and sisters at church, or a tele-pastor or a blogger etc. There is nothing wrong with doing that, but sadly, that food is second-hand. It is not fresh manna coming down out of heaven daily, feeding you what He wants you to know for that day. 

We need to take in the fact that this is Almighty God we are dealing with, and if we truly want to get to know Him and His ways, we will need to sit and read and spend time with Him. We want to show Him that we are committed to waiting for Him to speak to us. The joy of this kind of dedication is that we can always hear Him speak through His word. The more we act on what He tells us, the more we will hear Him when we need to. (Do you feel inclined to talk to people who don’t listen to you?) In our daily lives we are very used to instant everything, not seeking.

Yes, I know the whole ‘speaking to me’ is a big thing for some people. Like I’ve said before, I don’t hear an external  voice. He speaks to me in my thinking processes. But stuff floats across my brain that I know are not my thoughts. EG: somebody is quite deliberately and maliciously mean to me and the thought, “forgive them they don’t understand what they are doing”- floats through my mind. That thought is not just there to comfort me, or even correct my attitude or response … it is God giving me insight to the way HE thinks. Yay, I just learnt something about Him!  At the same time, maybe I suddenly remember that those words are the words that Christ Himself spoke from the cross. Now I have confirmation that my thought is biblical. We will miss what He is saying if we push the thought away and we don’t give it any attention.

What I want to make clear today is that this personal insight belongs to all of us. The secret is to go after it, and going after it means sitting still and prayerfully rereading at the page or even a line that we don’t understand. Now we INSIST and ask for the Holy Spirit to please enlighten the eyes of our hearts! Insight helps us understand His ways and see and hear Him better. When we decide to honour Him with our time, He will speak to us. We are showing Him our devotion to what He says. Remember to ask questions. 

How do I know that He will answer me? Hmmm. Hard question … NOT! There’s a line of people stretching round the block for miles in the Old Testament. They heard God’s voice and what He said changed everything. Meanwhile where do we think the New Testament came from? It didn’t float down from the clouds! God spoke to these men, taught them personally, and they wrote things down, as they progressively got to know Him and practiced what He said.

We can miss Him speaking because we are scared we will make some sort of weird mistake, and so we hide our own disobedience from ourselves. Unfortunately, dying to self makes a great theory – and most of the time we would rather preserve our public image, than die to self and do what He said. I am not talking about running about doing weird stuff and saying: “God told me to do to, act like I’ve lost my mind!” I am talking about getting to know the inner voice of the Holy Spirit by reading the bible and asking Him what this verse is supposed to mean to you. What He says to you is insight into Who He is — His Ways. Meanwhile it is good to remember nobody is stopping you from doing this – just you!

Our God is true to His Word, so if we are in doubt then we can ask the pastor, or an elder etc. and ask them to pray for us. However, the more we act on the ordinary things we’ve already read, the more our inner ears and eyes will be enlightened. So making things like giving to the poor, tithing, repenting, as well doing good to others normal, not elective things. These things are instructions. Go and seek out that person you are mad at, all this is obedience to His Word. Remember we are stewards. If He sees that we want to be good stewards using what we already know, HE WILL GIVE US MORE. As we press in, we are making Him our priority – in return He will show us what is on His heart.

“The Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise steward [of the estate], whom his master will put in charge over his household, to give his servants their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed (happy, prosperous, to be admired) is that servant whom his master finds so doing when he arrives.” Luke 12:42-43.

To get our own personal spiritual food we must be prepared to prioritise reading the book, and take the time to wait for the Holy Spirit’s insight. Then simply do whatever it says – unless you happen to be reading Numbers or Chronicles, then good luck with that! Joking BTW, but they can be a bit daunting! Ask your pastor instead!! 🤣 Bye 👋

P 2665 His Way.

/ DVH

There is a way to look at this life that will change our thoughts about how we live our lives, today. The Gospels describe this over and over again. They are not talking about a set of rules, they are talking about the way Godly people view their time on earth and what that looks like. These people don’t consider their time here, belongs to them. They consider whatever time they have, to be HIS. Even if we start to want to understand God’s Ways, that thought will begin the transformation process and change how we perceive this life. 

Listen to Isaiah 48:17: “Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go.” Human beings don’t walk His Way automatically, we need to learn to follow the Holy Spirit and He will teach us the way we should go. Otherwise we will continue to walk in the way which seems right to us! Proverbs 14:12 says:“There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” BTW that verse is repeated in Proverbs 16:25.

When Christ died, there was a possibility released – an exchange. Our sin for Christ’s holiness, purity and clarity of purpose. We cannot participate in that exchange and still live the same way we always have. We need to purpose in our hearts to progressively put aside OUR ways, and actively go after HIS. For example: Jesus Christ chose to die –  now we choose to die, to our old life, and ways, daily. Our aim becomes what Christ wants … what He would do. So we choose to become even more deeply acquainted with the way He does things through reading the bible, prayer, and our actions. As we seek after God’s Ways, we will stop trying to fit the Lord into and around our existing lives.

When we choose to live this life Christ’s way, dedicated to Him, everything around us changes – because WE change. Heaven accompanies His Ways, and so we begin to release the Kingdom of God right here into the earth. Instant miracles are just one of His ways. Those incredible events are not the only Way God does things. Some things happen in our lives over time, simply because we’ve chosen to die to ourselves. This means that we can see that His Way is a wider and far more encompassing stream to enter. It includes digesting His Word and making it part of us, plus taking the time to continually learn to love, and walk, and live like Christ did … He is our example of how we are to live now because we belong to Him..1 John 2:6: “ …the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” 

Jesus Christ called Himself the Way. Jesus Christ is God’s living WAY of saving mankind and changing our lives. Christ’s earthly life reveals what mankind can look like when they follow the Holy Spirit and live the way we’ve been designed to live. In John Chapter 14 we have a brief paragraph that shows that even His disciples were puzzled by what He said – they needed revelation. The Lord Jesus kept on talking about leaving, dying, and stuff they didn’t want to know! Thomas actually says that He has no idea about this Way Jesus talks about. Then Christ makes one of the greatest declarations in the New Testament. in Verse 6. “Jesus answered,“I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” 

Interestingly enough, the early church was also called the Way …that term appears at least six times in the book of Acts. It represented a totally different kind of life – a life surrendered to, and dedicated to God’s glory. These saints of old gave up their lives because the Holy Spirit had given them a revelation that there was a better way to live. To me those early stories illustrate the gap between Christians today, and all of those the Christians who lived and died for Jesus’ sake back then.

Sadly, now we seem to live our lives to suit ourselves, and we try to fit God and His ways in around the edges. But those early Christians chose to completely become acquainted with God’s Ways and they followed Him to their deaths. They left their old ways of thinking, doing, and being, and embraced whatever He told them to do. Because of that they spread the gospel to everyone, everywhere they went.

Isaiah 55:8-9 says:“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.” Our task every single day is to embrace the mystery of following Jesus and learning His ways. The bible also tells us in Isaiah 30:21: “He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left.” That’s our aim. Our new life is a new WAY to live. Bye.👋

P 2664 On seeking God’s will.

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

P 2659 A listening heart.

/ DVH

Faith is our optimum response to God speaking, whether through the bible, directly into our hearts, or even through our circumstances. The way we indicate to Him that we are listening, is that we stop, then pray over what we heard, (I usually ask for a scripture), and then we do something about it.

I’ve said here many times, I never read in the bible where it talks about repentance, or read something that needs repenting over, without submitting myself to Him and asking Him to show me where I’ve done that. Most of the time I repent anyway – I figure I’m so used to excusing myself, that I need the practice!

We are responsible to act on what we hear. A listening heart is alert, waiting for what comes next. Our response to His promptings, indicates our willingness to co-operate with the Spirit of the Living God. However, our love for Him and others must fuel our faith, not obligation or fear of any consequences. I’ve observed if I set my heart to obey He helps me all over the place! Living this way has taught me that faith is always NOW.

I know you guys are busy people who have busy days. Practically everyone has certain things every day that they need to complete in order to make a living. Simply ask Him into your day. But don’t just do that in the morning, ask and keep on asking! Show Him you are serious. He won’t forget – but you will! And you could come to the conclusion that if nothing happens that day that He did not need you to do anything. If enough days like that line up in a row, we can start to think that this way of life is not for us and go back to doing the same old, same old. 

His Ways are different than ours. For instance, He loves to surprise us. He sent His Only Begotten Son to a cowshed! Paul was off to kill more Christians and he was knocked off his horse when Jesus spoke to him. Peter, James and John were going fishing, and Jesus told them to leave what they were doing and come and follow Him. Matthew was a tax-collector, and he left everything behind him. Our God loves to surprise people. Ananias and Sapphira fell over dead when they lied to Him. SURPRISE!

To have a listening heart we will have to tune out, or turn off other things. The Lord speaks to me some days after I’ve just finished putting this blog online: “Are you going to read the bible?” He says. Now, in my teeny tiny mind, I’ve just written a whole lot of paragraphs dedicated to what He wanted me to say!!… So, I think … time for a rest now. If I am not careful I’ll forget what really refreshes me. HE refreshes me, the bible says so. It also says I am here to serve Him.  

The Holy Spirit reminded me of this parable: Luke 17:7–10 – “But who is there amongst you, having a servant ploughing or keeping sheep, that will say when he comes in from the field, ‘Come immediately and sit down at the table’? Wouldn’t he rather tell him, ‘Prepare my supper, clothe yourself properly, and serve me while I eat and drink. Afterward you shall eat and drink’?  Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded? I think not. Even so you also, when you have done all the things that are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy servants. We have done our duty.’ ” 

Now there’s a reality rush! It kind of stomps all over any theology that says… ‘the sky is the limit … blab it and grab it … God just wants us to have a happy life… just pray trouble away … and if you can’t then there is something wrong with you … that kind of stuff.’ Moo-ving on, v-e-r-y quickly … Meanwhile, I didn’t see that little gem in Luke for years, I don’t know how I missed it. Then one day … I got a reality rush. I was raised in an atmosphere that said God would do anything for me to show me He loved me. Guess what? He already did that 2,000+ years ago, on a cross on a hill. I owe Him everything – He owes me nothing. I owe Him obedience, plus the courtesy of paying attention when He speaks.

To have a listening heart we need to stay always ON. Even at 3.00am. We simply get up and get into the flow of the Holy Spirit. He is the reason we are still here on this earth. Not our kids, nor our spouses. Not even the daily grind. JESUS is the reason we are still here – we have work to do for His kingdom. Even if He has called us to pray – ask someone who intercedes – it’s work!  Otherwise we can end up kind of sandwiching Him in between breakfast and doing other things. That’s when we start to feel: “That’s done, I’ve done my duty.”

There is no off button for God’s kids. A listening heart is always on, waiting for what comes next. He tells His secrets to those who are prepared to live aware of Him. Ask Him to help you to cultivate a listening heart.  Bye. 👋

P 2654 Give yourself a break!

/ DVH

Actually, I don’t mean take a holiday – I mean cut yourself some slack. It is too easy to become formulaic in our faith. We think things like: ‘if I do and say this, then He will do and say that.’ It seems like we think the Lord is a vending machine. We stand in front of it, stamping our foot – getting crosser by the minute because we did everything we were supposed to do … and …nothing happened … things stayed the same.  Then we rummage about trying to figure out what we’ve done wrong because God is always active on our behalf and where’s our answer? I dunno … I learnt years ago I am as dumb as the dirt I came from! 

But I do know this … Almighty God is not afraid of inactivity. Between Malachi and Christ’s birth 400 years went by. Here’s something to reflect on — in that time there would have been Godly men and women who died waiting for an answer. Nobody likes that thought! Yet Christ went through everything He did into His terrible death, and His grave and nothing stopped any of it. That shows us that God has greater purposes. We often have to wait for the greater purpose to manifest. Other things simply must be endured, and we will need to learn to do that with faith, grace, and love … However, sadly, those graces will not take endurance off the menu! 

I also know that as individuals we can hold up our own personal change by being disobedient. Maybe we simply refuse to look at things that need transformation, or we feel that change in my life is impossible. Perhaps we even trot out well-worn excuses,…”My family is like this… it’s just who I am … other people are so picky … “  What we are really saying is: “I don’t believe I need to change God… I expect You to change Your mind … OR …You could change THEM!”  We sing songs and read in the book that nothing is impossible with God, but that goes right out of the window when it touches our inner rebellion. We are afraid of change.  BTW, about the excuse:  “My family is like this…” you joined a new family remember? There’s that excuse done and dusted!!

Years ago, I had the dearest friend who used to tell me when she was praying about something really important that she thought God had gone skiing or something because there was no response. What she said was a joke … but, at the same time, it wasn’t a joke … she was referring to the fact that His silence scared her. Rightly so, sometimes silence means NO. The Lord holds the future, and maybe that idea we have won’t hold water in the future He has planned for our lives. 

Jeremiah teaches us that HE “… know(s) the plans He has for us, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11.So what we think we need, or even want, may not be in the plans He has for us. At other times we simply need to live through our disappointment, and talk to Him about that. Either way, He’s always the Answer! The Lord simply isn’t sharing His thoughts with us at that time. That doesn’t  mean we have committed some dastardly sin – it could mean that we have an opportunity to keep banging on the door. Like the guy in the parable Jesus told. That guy needed bread for his visitors.

This is why I’ve learnt to leave things with Him. I ask Him for revelation, and then expect that when He is ready to share with me, something will pop up in my bible reading, or someone will say something, and my heart will recognise His voice, in their voice. And sometimes the circumstances have already changed, it just took me a while to notice it! I’m a bit slow that way …

My point today is, it is not good to beat yourself up and wonder what you did wrong after you have prayed about it and you still can’t hear Him, or you seem to have lost the path. If you know you did something stupid then fix it. Doing that side-steps a whole lot of angst. At the same time let Him be God and you be you. Mistakes are going to be made! He is perfectly capable of redirecting our paths. “…He will make straight our paths …”Sometimes our mistakes seem to be real clangers … I’ve made loads of them! 

Yet, because He is our wonderful Father, the glorious Creator, the One Who sets us free – He can take our surrendered spirit of disobedience or stupid, and make something beautiful out of it. He made the world out of nothing. Taking our sometimes wilfully shattered lives, and making something incredible out of them, is what He does. Give yourself a break – He won’t give up on you, so don’t give up on yourself.

I’ve found that self-flagellation accomplishes very little, surrender accomplishes far more. It softens our spirits and helps us to remain humble. I pray all the time:  ‘Lord, I want what You want.’ Amen. And then I forgetaboudit until He brings it up. Bye. 👋

P 2604 God’s word is a revelation waiting to happen.

/ DVH

Psalm 19:10-14:“God’s Word is better than a diamond, better than a diamond set between emeralds. You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring, better than red, ripe strawberries.There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger and directs us to hidden treasure. Otherwise how will we find our way? Or know when we play the fool? Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh! Keep me from stupid sins, from thinking I can take over Your work; Then I can start this day sun-washed, scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.These are the words in my mouth; these are what I chew on and pray.”

Have you ever watched someone panning for gemstones or gold? They swish water over the collected river gravel and then they swirl the contents around. The heavy stuff, the gold and the gemstones, fall to the bottom and the other useless gravel ends up on top. It is a process of elimination. I think that’s what the Lord does in our lives daily!

This trip has become one of those swirly, whirly times for me. Just when I think I might know something – round we go again and I’m wondering whether I’m sinking or not —- or whether this time I’m gunna end up at the top and be thrown out! I only know one thing, I want to be found to be gold, not gravel. So I keep on digging into His word, looking for things that speak to my heart, as I press on to face each day. Then I look for ways to apply what I read.

To live like that as a body, we will have to be prepared to be rumbled and tossed about – yet at the same time stay incredibly pliable, always prepared for change spiritually speaking. Our trust is definitely going to be stretched  as we get tossed about! We will need to see what the Holy Spirit sees when He is dealing with us. The glint of gold, the sparkle of a gemstone, hidden under the detritus of every day life. The only way that that can happen is to continually expose ourselves to His Word, taking everything we read seriously, and personally. 

Faith says God’s Word is good, it tastes like honey – even if it is sometimes hard to digest! “How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth! From Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.” Psalm 119:103-105. His word can give us understanding about ourselves, and others … it will expose and illuminate our personal circumstances. It takes us out of self-interest into His interests …plus it makes the impossible, possible. 

It can seem that miracles are spectacular things, like raising the dead, turning water into wine, healing the sick, preaching sermons that convict and convince. Maybe when we read the word ‘miracles’ we are blinded by our own ideas. But when Jesus miraculously fed thousands of people, I wonder if everyone knew where that food even came from! We can miss our own miracles, because they don’t come with trumpets and angel song. Instead we need eyes to see and ears to hear what He says and does daily, quietly, without any fanfare. Every single day I submit to His word, I have found He opens my eyes to new perspectives. He also keeps me aware of danger.  

The Holy Spirit, through the bible, challenges who I think I am. He checks me when I am about to lose my way. Before I became aware of the reality of Christ, I just blundered about saying what I thought … when I thought it. Because I was living that way, I was blissfully unaware of how what I said affected other people. Truth alone can be harsh and unyielding, but truth kissed with LOVE will set people free to see Him, and find themselves.

I like to use the above scripture as a prayer. Especially the ‘keep me from stupid sins’ part! This psalmist understands God’s dealings with mankind. He knows, that we are like the precious, but yet-to-be-revealed gemstones hidden in the accumulated gravel of our lives. We all need shaking up. We need to be sloshed about in the whirlwinds of this world, so we can be separated away from the false comfort we think we need. Unfortunately we won’t cry out for deliverance if we don’t think we need to be delivered. Instead, we could easily blame someone else for our own faults, and make them the fall guy! Here’s a hot tip: try asking Him; “what did I do?”

God’s Word is everything we need for personal revelation. There are things for each of our lives that are poised, waiting to happen, waiting to be discovered. I exhort all of us to search for the gemstones, and be careful what we throw away!  Think about the bible says, chew on it, sink your teeth into it until you get happy honey nourishment from it.  👋

P 2601 One way to find out where the holes are …

/ DVH

… is to go on the road for Jesus. We seem to have found every single pothole between here and Cobar, all the way to the Blue Mountains. The worst bit is you don’t see the potholes until you hit them! Yikes. All that rain they have had in NSW has made the countryside very green — but it ruined the tarmac! Nyngan and Cobar, however, were dry before the rain, and, they still are! 

We went through a plague of locusts to get to those two places. Locusts make this icky noise when they hit the car or windscreen. EW! The front of our car looks like somebody peppered it with dead bodies. Yeah, I know, charming right?? Lest you think today’s blog is going to be about damaged bitumen, and dead bugs, right about now I need to clarify what I am really on about … and it ain’t potholes! 

Coming out here to demonstrate the Lord Jesus’ love to others, means that you can often find out exactly where you are ‘not nice.’ As well as learning about how quickly you can judge other people … without knowing their back story. It is unfortunately much too easy to take people’s speech or actions as an example of who they really are!

Here’s a story about us. We arrived at our destination for the night, it was in the middle of nowhere, and hubby went to check in. The lady gave us a list of unheard of rules that must be obeyed to stay at this motel, which included paying bond money. While hubby was talking to her, the Lord said to me firmly: “This is the person you made that bookmark with the elephant on it, give it to her now!” So we did and she was thrilled —- but she would take nothing else. Nothing for her kids, no bibles for the motel. Just a flat refusal. She apologised but said ‘no.’

So we left it at that, smiled and took their large list of things we must not do, and trundled off to our room. Hubby tried several times during our stay, to talk to the man of the house but the guy seemed to be very unapproachable! So he prayed for him and God said: “Keep blessing him, keep being generous.” Meanwhile we delivered more blankets 120 kms down the road, and two days later when we were in the middle of packing up our stuff to leave, when the manager appeared at our door. 

Like I said before, we don’t actually know people’s stories, so when he came to speak to us, he was so happy and nice, I actually wondered who hubby was talking to? Without being asked, he started to explain why he had so many rules — in his mind they were reasonable. Meanwhile this family had been rejected by the whole town. Nobody there liked any of them, or understood the way the accommodation was run. Somebody in the town had been incredibly mean to them and put up rude comments on facebook, all out of context. This other person put up a photo of their family as well. The manager was desolate and bewildered about this betrayal. In our host’s mind he was simply being responsible and doing his job. 

He was hurt and the result had been a huge mistrust of other people. So hubby stood in the motel doorway and talked to him ever-so-gently about Jesus and how much the Lord loved him and his family. Then the Lord Himself turned up and touched all of them. Their kids got happy, and mum and dad were openly weeping … and we had church in the doorway of a motel! Hubby preached the gospel to them all, and showed them one of his pictures of Jesus helping the disciples when they were caught in a huge storm. They strongly identified with that story. When my dear hubby stopped speaking our host kept laughing and crying and asking him to please continue – “keep going, we can hear you,” he said. It was like he was a different man – it all reminded me of the story of Zacchaeus.

Hubby tried again to give the man the picture he had painted, to remind him that Jesus was always with them – but he said no, again. Then he explained that they were leaving in 20 days and everything was already packed up ready to go and …that’s why they didn’t want bibles or more stuff! So the Lord said: “Tell him to take a picture of the painting on his phone!” This dear man, was suddenly our new best friend! …he was utterly delighted with that answer. 

We had a lovely time, hugged all round and eventually we headed off to our next destination. At the same time I personally learnt another huge valuable lesson. Everyone has a story, and people have what they think are valid reasons for the way they behave. They don’t always see themselves the way they present outwardly to others. We can see the way they are behaving, and interpret those things through our own internal thought processes, but that might have nothing whatsoever to do with what is actually going on! 

Like I said, one way to find out where the holes are in our own behaviour … is to put our ideas under pressure. 👋