Hearing

P 3473 Have extra-fit faith!

/ DVH

“We can get so busy looking at the waves that we forget to look at Jesus!” My daughter said that to me the other day, and I thought it was so accurate. Having faith that works matters. Otherwise, when the roof falls in … and nowadays the roof can quite literally fall in on anyone … that’s when we hit despair and start spiralling down. Our faith resources can be depleted by everyday difficulties, and we become disappointed and disillusioned because our faith is not in God … it is in what He is supposed to supply.

That’s when those waves start looming and we start sinking – because we are looking in the wrong place. Our faith is not in walking on water, or getting whatever we need — our faith needs to be in Jesus’ ability and His willingness to help us. We can nearly drown if we don’t prayerfully assess how fit our faith is for the mountain we are facing, or if we try to do whatever it is without our eyes on Him.

We can totally miss what Father God wants to give us, when we take our eyes off Him. When Jesus said “COME!” — it was the whackiest idea any of the disciples had seen thus far. But Peter was so enamoured by the miracle of Jesus on the water … that he wanted to do it. Jesus could have said: “Your faith isn’t up to this Peter” — because it clearly wasn’t — and Peter and 11 other men would have missed out on seeing what faith in action does. IT TAKES A RISK. God won’t stop you or I from trying, just remember to ask Him if you are up to the answer to that prayer you keep on praying. If the answer is ‘no’ or ‘not yet’ then ask Him to help get you fit for it.

A number of years ago the Holy Spirit told me to learn to lean on Jesus and not on my own understanding. I think Peter failed because he knew more about the ways of the wind and the waves, than he knew about the power of God! It is so easy to be distracted by the things we think we already know. We end up making those things our yardstick and fail to remember that God’s ways are higher, more sure, more reliable than ours.

At one time, Jesus made wine out of water … BUT WE make wine out of a whole lot of effort! We can get so distracted as we think about how a miracle will help us, that we fail to realise that faith grows as you exercise it. Our faith may only be little (a mustard seed) – but it must be IN HIM, and not just in the answer to our prayer. Peter wanted to do what Jesus was doing to prove that it was really the Lord. “Lord, if it’s You,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to You on the water.” His faith was not engaged in God’s matters, it was engaged in proving something.

Our faith is designed to grow as we stretch it daily. We can’t live an ordinary life doing what we want, and expect to grow miracle-working faith! Our enemy will fool us into thinking we are failing in our faith, because some things don’t turn out the way we prayed they would. But the truth is, are we learning to lean on Him, or are we still independently minded? Will we trust God more the next time, or less? Human beings like to categorise things – God has a WAY, not just a category. We need to know His Ways.

Peter had faith. He climbed out of that boat … against years of personal knowledge and experience. I think He simply needed the Holy Spirit’s input to put his faith into action and keep it there. This man didn’t just take His eyes off Jesus, he transferred his faith to what he could see and what he already knew. The task was bigger than his faith, and his personal knowledge about where he was standing, overcame him.

Getting extra fit faith is not the same as spending a fortune on gym membership and regularly going there to build up your strength. That’s all about what you can do. It’s the wrong direction for eyes of faith. Eyes of faith look at Jesus not our puny muscles. Let’s look carefully at what He said and did: “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God ..” Romans 10:17. Our faith grows as we get to know Him through His Word.

We must stop trying to manoeuvre God into doing this and that, and become intimately acquainted with what He wants and what He doesn’t. The faith to move a mountain starts and is strengthened by knowing the One Who made that mountain, not by looking at bulldozers and explosives or how high, wide or deep that mountain is!

We learn to exercise our faith by living daily for Jesus. When things are easy, and the water of our lives is still and steady … OR when this life is riotous and the water looks like a washing machine in full cycle. When hard things happen, let’s pray – give it to the Lord and wait for further instructions. If that takes time, then we relinquish it and walk away, and leave it with Him. Safe in the knowledge that we are merely spectators, not the main event. 

Having extra fit faith means everything we do revolves around that faith. We hold nothing back because Jesus held nothing back. If Jesus wouldn’t do it, then we won’t do it either. Faith is the substance of Jesus Himself, kissing our prayers, as we choose to learn to daily trust Him with our whole life. Bye. 👋

P3378 Wise like a serpent, gentle as a dove.

/ DVH

Jesus is gentle, humble and lowly in His heart and He wants to lead us into His rest. That’s the kind of rest where I do what He says, how He says to do it, and He does the rest! We don’t have to work at it, we just follow Him. That’s wisdom. Here is the Message version in Matthew:

V28-30:“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.” … 

Jesus was talking to the people, gently, tenderly — telling His audience that what He is saying is what the Father wants to say to them. There’s also a big clue and a great promise in Matthew 11:30b. Jesus is speaking: “But I’m not keeping it (God’s Ways) to Myself; I’m ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen.” Godly assurance is available, we just need to be willing to listen. That’s the key, and it’s even more wisdom! It’s an equal playing field.

Living like this is not a once-off thing. It happens over and over again. Walking in His Grace flows along, dipping up and down, but it is a continuous theme that we go back to. The continuous theme of our lives is now UNFORCED GRACE – we choose to be saturated in His LOVE for people. It has already been given to us, so now we receive it by faith, and we are commanded to give it away to people who don’t deserve it any more than we do! The fact that we know we cannot possibly live that way by ourselves, shows us how much we need the Holy Spirit! We are learning His wisdom.

Unforced Grace is a series of love choices – it’s not the ‘grit-your-teeth-and-put-up-with-it-kind. We simply use every opportunity to practise loving those who are unloving to us. If a harsh word comes up in our mouths, we take a breath, pray(!) and then respond with His Grace. He’s the same Spirit Who was in Christ Jesus – and if we want Him and His guidance, we can have Him. He’s gentle and He will lovingly teach us.

In Acts 2:1-4 the Holy Spirit’s Presence was a sovereign foretold act from heaven. It was announced a number of times. “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”

This happened TO those obedient, waiting people – they could not, and did not make it happen by themselves. Their part was to obey the last thing Jesus told them to do, which was … you guessed it … WAIT! We can’t make the Lord do anything. But we can position ourselves by our willing obedience, however the minute we make something a rule, the Holy Spirit will leave. He goes wherever He wants to go. We just get to watch — and what a privilege that is!

There are precious sincere souls who have frightened other people into believing that if they don’t pray in tongues they are not born again. That is error. It is not wisdom, and a lot of the time, it isn’t gentle either. If we are going to be pedantic about things, then everyone who has been filled with the Holy Spirit, should have what looked like a tongue of fire over their heads and come away from that experience fearlessly preaching the gospel in the streets!!

“I fell down,” is also not listed as a criteria for receiving the Holy Spirit and His guidance into our lives. That experience is amazing, but it is not mentioned as a criteria. And if the sound of a strong wind was needed, then many enthusiastic churches would probably hire a wind machine for special effects! Even staggering about after we are filled with the Spirit, is not proof we were filled. We receive and walk with Him BY FAITH! That means we believe He is with us – feelings, experiences or not. We obey because Jesus said so.

The Christian life is not a fruit market, we cannot pick and choose what we want to believe. That’s what the book is for – to teach us His ways — ALL His ways. Not just the exciting bits. We are filled with His Spirit because the bible says so.  “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counsellor, Strengthener, Standby), to be with you forever—“ John 14:16. Jesus asked His Father to send us the Holy Spirit and the Father sent Him… end of story. The Holy Spirit never went away – we simply stopped living a life that will make Him welcome by the way we choose to live.

We will always need the Holy Spirit, and being excluded because of tongues is a tragedy. Tongues are like the fire that appeared, or spontaneous preaching, or the power of God let loose. A SIGN and a WONDER. Let’s use our faith to ask for His help, and then believe He will help us. I’ve personally found that obedience sharpens my hearing. Now we live this life the way He chooses for US. The Holy Spirit is unseen and often underestimated, and He loves it when we recognise His gentle, wise kindness quietly operating in and through our lives. 

Taking up Jesus’ yoke simply means we choose to do things His Way. It doesn’t mean we can never have an idea of our own — it simply means we yield and submit everything to Him, plus those who have the responsibility of caring for our souls. This is protection, not restriction! There’s a lion out there that wants to eat us for lunch. However, we don’t have to be afraid, because the Holy Spirit knows God’s Ways and He will teach us to be be wise and gentle. ‘Wise and shrewd like a serpent, gentle and innocent as a dove.’ Bye. 🕊️

P 3273 Spiritual exercise.

/ DVH

Every time we turn the TV on there is some new exercise ad with an enthusiastic person telling us we will die from some dastardly disease if we don’t start to exercise. We need their machine, which often costs more than half a house …but it is guaranteed to give you a longer life. These people are usually in their early twenties and they don’t have a spare ounce of fat on them. It would be funny if it wasn’t so darn annoying! 

It’s like those dumb endless ads about how my skin can be peach-like and greatly improved, if I just use this monumentally expensive cream that costs a month’s wages. And the girl in the ad who is having her skin transformed (?) as we watch —  well she is about 12 years old and she wouldn’t know a wrinkle or a pimple if she fell over one. Like I said the other day: ‘Liar liar, pants on fire.’

I have had plenty of thoughts about the constant pressure in ads from people trying to sell us something. The powers that be must be pretty desperate to save on hospital costs, to threaten us with death that will come too soon!  Um… fellas? Hot News Flash! We are ALL going to DIE one way or another. Nobody gets out of this life alive. Those guys who get cryogenically frozen are in for a big surprise. Huge.

Back to today’s point:  just like we have been told that we should be doing this or that:  push ups, pull ups, running on the spot, lifting weights etc. Plus we should jog/not jog, we should count steps/not count steps, blah blah blah. Here is a new thought today. Spiritual exercise. Oh no! You cry – here’s another place for me to feel bad about!! 

Nope. Jesus paid for all the selfish stuff we do or don’t do, so feeling bad is a waste of time, because it is unnecessary. Repent, and repair, move on. We have chosen to live our lives looking to the cross. Feeling about to find things that we have done wrong, will actually make us more likely to enter into avoidance, rather than transformation. I think we might daily pause and look more carefully at what we are actually doing. 

Faith opportunities turn up at odd times, and it does not grow all by itself. The bible tells us: “So faith comes by hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the preaching [of the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah Himself).…” Romans 10:17. Everybody knows this verse! You can read lots of faith instructions in the bible. My point is, that faith comes, but it can GO pretty quickly unless we purpose to act upon what we heard! Hearing by itself, is not enough to bring down the things stored up for us in heavenly places. Remember the parable of the sower Jesus taught us? 

Some seed fell on hard ground, some were picked up by the birds of the air, and some grew in the weeds. We need to expect that birds (relentless illness, prayer unanswered, situations remaining the same) those things will  come and try to rob us of our living faith. Plus there will be weeds. I think weeds come from half-truths, things that occupy our time, but are non-productive. We need to deliberately plant His productive seed into our lives. If our hearts ever get hard from ignoring what the Lord has told us in His book, then truth will be a casualty, it will slide right off us instantly. Rationalisation takes over.

Here’s some great food for thought:  “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.” James 2:14-18. Are you exercising your faith?

Spiritual exercise is good for our spiritual health. So what is spiritual exercise? It always starts with prayer and then we do a whole lot more than just reading or hearing — faith deliberately looks for something to do then acts on what it has heard. We ask the Holy Spirit how we can put what we’ve read into action. This process is costly — it will cost us energy, time, dedication, plus we will have to fight our own fears along the way. 

It’s a bit like participating in a triathlon.That will cost you time, energy, even family time. Our friend is a triathlete. He is of another faith. One time he was injured and hubby prayed for him and the Lord healed him. Praying for healing for someone is exercising our faith! Praying by ourselves at home is great, but praying with a person we know, or don’t know, will take action, and courage. 

We need to live out our faith as well as talk about it. Faith that doesn’t act is not living faith — instead it’s a shadow of all it can be. We are mistaken if we claim to have faith, and yet we have nothing that illustrates it. Concrete illustrations, things like testimonies, will appear regularly in our lives when we choose to take a risk. Thankfully, the Word of God always accomplishes whatever He sent it to do. Lastly, don’t ever take your faith back, let’s leave things in His hands. 

Our spiritual exercise is not like push ups or sit ups. It is responsive, it keeps our faith alive and active in the middle of the stuff we face daily. God has given each one of us a measure of faith, so let’s give Him thanks! What a blessing we have inside these clay jars! 👋

P 3180 There is no other way.

/ DVH

Mark 10:48-52 talks about Bartimaeus, a blind beggar from Jericho, who insistently called out to Jesus and was healed, and then he followed Jesus down the road. This man didn’t give up on what he wanted, easily. We shouldn’t either! It appears to me that unlike Bartimaeus – we don’t know that we too are blind and deaf.

Many Christians have stopped seeing, spiritually speaking, and we aren’t always great at hearing the Lord for ourselves either! Hearing and seeing spiritually are a part of God’s kingdom. They are a part of our birthright, and a key into intimacy with the Holy Spirit. There are times when we’ve all walked into a  place of unforgiveness because we listened to the enemy’s ‘poor you’ sympathy line. We all have a sad story – this is a fallen world.

Let’s listen to Matthew 13:13-15. Jesus Himself is speaking to His disciples: “This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’

Spiritual eyes and ears are incredibly important to our walking with the Holy Spirit. Even as our everyday human sight and hearing are part of our interaction with the world around us – if we cannot see or hear with our normal eyes and ears, we will be shut out of God’s Ways. What is true in the natural, is also true spiritually. We will be shut off from seeing and hearing the glories and knowledge of His kingdom if we refuse to obey what He said.

Meanwhile the Lord Jesus is never silent, read the book – it’s chock full of what He said! Please stop worrying about discerning ‘voices’ and read the bible instead. A thorough knowledge of the Word of God is the best discerner on the planet! Jesus spent hours teaching His disciples. He was teaching them to see and hear what  was going on inside themselves, and all around them. Things aren’t always the way they look! 

At one stage of their walk with Jesus, two of the disciples – James and John in Luke 9:54 – want to burn down a tower in a Samaritan town that rejected the Lord. How could this awful attitude happen, when they were daily walking with Jesus? These two men had no spiritual sight. They obviously did not understand what Jesus was teaching them! Maybe they thought He was making suggestions, or perhaps what the Lord said was in opposition to what this world had taught them and they tried to marry the two things together. We cannot successfully live in two worlds. That’s like trying to stand still in the middle of a roaring flooded stream. The stream will carry you away. 

Now, let’s look at what blocks our spiritual sight and hearing. The bible says it is a calloused heart. That malady is fostered by sin, and it is definitely not helped when we stop sincerely forgiving others, from our hearts. If we harden our hearts against other people, and stop paying attention to the conviction of the Holy Spirit as He speaks to us,our problem is no longer that other person! We will end up grieving Him because He loves them too! 

The same thing goes for any other sin, we have a free will and our choices matter. We are only fooling ourselves if we excuse ourselves for one reason or another. The Holy Spirit wants us to walk with Him, and forgive others despite their sins against us. It is not about the other person — it is about what will happen to us in our relationship with Him. Meanwhile, He is not just our answer – He is their answer too! Grace flows out when we allow forgiveness in.

Jesus is always ‘other centred’- and therefore a calloused heart is a terrible state to cultivate. A calloused heart can be made unfeeling and numb by repeated actions. We will end up with an inner war, as the Spirit fights to free us as we fight to hold onto our anger and thoughts and feelings of revenge against the other person. Eventually such thoughts become habitual and we have a stronghold to deal with. We cannot fix the past by holding onto it—the way forward is to make the future different. The Holy Spirit is in our lives to help us with those things. 

The longer we allow ourselves to remain in that frozen hardened state, the more it becomes harder to escape. Hatred, revenge and murder begin to infiltrate our thoughts. “When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?  But He turned and rebuked them [and He said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”  Luke 9:54-56. The Holy Spirit will help us with what we need to do, but we need to obey Him and disobedience hardens our hearts. If you have been praying about your sight and hearing and you aren’t doing very well, then perhaps you need to start by searching your heart, with His help. It is astonishing what we hide – even from ourselves.

We can close our spiritual ears and eyes because of our own choices. To be in Christ Jesus – we need to be doing what He would do. And He forgave us all as He was hanging from that tree. There is no other way. Bye. 👋

P 3042 The real and the unreal.

/ DVH

As Christians we dare not live our lives in religion. We have been reborn to live permanently in the reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection – together with all He died to give us. This attitude needs to be present, daily. The Holy Spirit will correct us with His eye on us, then we pray and then we yield. Living with a metaphor – a concept, a mere picture of the truth – means that we will find our metaphorical faith is tested a whole lot, because it does not have its roots in the reality of what Jesus already did!

At the same time, we cannot afford to have untested faith. Otherwise, how will we know whether what we believe is real or a theory? When tests come, and they will!…The first thing to do is check with Him that He is giving us an opportunity to practise what we preach. Then we prayerfully accept the Holy Spirit’s guidance and help, and go forward into doing or saying whatever it is from His point of view. If I haven’t got a clue – I make use of His reference book – the bible.

Cultivating a quiet spirit within, is essential. It can be difficult, but it is not impossible. I know the world around us is like a brass band at full volume, but living in the awareness of the stillness of His Presence will help us triumph over everything else that comes our way. Jesus lived this way – He was peaceful inside despite the outside circumstances. The difference between the real and the unreal, is easily diagnosed by its fruit – agitation or acceptance.

Likewise, giving up on people just because they are not responding to us the way we want them to, is self-centred. You and I don’t have the only way – Jesus Himself is the Way! What we need in awkward moments, is a word of knowledge, or a word of wisdom, or a revelation from our King about how we interact with that person. Here’s a helpful hint:  spiritual things don’t always come with a huge angel and a trumpet! His Voice inside us is so discreet, so gentle, we can miss it.  But there is a way to check out your own hearing— love knows how to be quiet and let the other person speak. Many times we are actually dealing with our own fears and insecurities and projecting them onto someone else. 

God loves them.Ask yourself: ‘why would I annoy or hurt someone GOD loves and expect it will be alright?’  He loves the world, remember? Personally, I would not like to have to explain to the Lord, why I thought brow-beating somebody else was a good plan. Jesus didn’t do it, and neither should we. Our aim is to respond with Grace, Love, Kindness and Peace, and those precious things are enough to keep us busy! Positive things can create teachable moments.

In John 20:11-18, it says:“Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put Him.” At this,she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking He was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him. Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward Him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!”

Human beings can be so distracted and disturbed by our current circumstances, that we miss Him when He speaks to us  As you can see, from this scripture, Mary was absolutely overwhelmed by grief, and consequently she was unable to see the Lord when He was right in front of her! It is good to ask the Holy Spirit to keep us alert to whatever the Lord Jesus wants to say to us.  

The thing about Mary in this scripture, is that her faith was at an all-time low, and she didn’t expect to see Jesus again. He was dead and gone in her mind. And if He wasn’t in the tomb, then where could He possibly be? The unreality of the situation channelled her thoughts in a specific direction — to a human answer. Somebody must have done the unthinkable and stolen His body!

If I get bewildered or I am full of despair, then I stop and I refuse to move. After that I go back to the beginning and start to pray all over again. But if my thoughts are still as clear as mud, then I put everything down at His feet, and ask the Holy Spirit to take care of it – until I am led, by Him, back into clarity again. Hearing from God is our birthright, it is not a test. It takes faith, but every single one of us has been given the ability to hear our Shepherd. After all, we are His sheep, the people of His pasture!  

Let’s not underestimate the value of PAUSING. Pausing gives me a chance to catch up with what He is doing. It steadies my personal human reaction, and takes me into His space – where there is no panic, no timetables … only Him. Our faith has been carefully designed, by the Holy Spirit, to be active and real, every single day. If we find we are mistaken, then we need to prayerfully replace the unreal with the real. Bye. 🙏

P 2797 Faith comes by hearing …

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… and more hearing comes when you act on what you heard! However, without my obedience I will be like a computer on standby. Nothing happening here! Obviously I don’t need His guidance to – feed my face, sleep, or go to the toilet. Jesus clarified practical things like those – read His book. 

BTW there is no advertising in His book, it is all about instructions. Even the things that put the instructions into context, are still instructions! You and I can end up wasting the life He has given us, if all we do is follow Brother-or-Sister-I-know-everything-because-I’ve-been-up-the-mountain-of-God’s-doctrine! That’s a lazy way to follow Jesus. Let’s remember that Peter had stuff to learn that John didn’t … simply because they were different people. We are not perfected yet, but that doesn’t mean we give up!

Regard what other people feed you spiritually, as supplementary feeding. It can add helpful vitamins and minerals, but the meat, rice and veggies should be dug up or pulled off the tree by us! Harvest your own crop. The way to prevent what you hear every day from going mouldy or getting worms in it, is to ACT on what you read. Obedience counts. Faith comes by hearing, and this kind of hearing is not passive – it is not about comprehending the words — it is active – it puts those words into action.

Instead of telling yourself “I’m not mad at anybody.” Ask the Lord, “WHO am I mad at?” Take a pencil, the answer will astonish you! We have been pardoned from our sin, but we are not bullet proof from other people’s jabs. So if my faith is stuck in a slump, then I remind the Lord that His strength is made perfect in my weakness and I find something to OBEY.  Then I watch out for what happens as I use my faith to move on. That’s how faith gets stretched. I believe that He hears ME, because the book says He does.

The Lord doesn’t say all this fantastic stuff in the bible just because He can turn a lovely phrase – He stands behind His Word. That’s why Jesus is called the Living Word — He’s the Word … per-son-ified. We cannot afford to excuse ourselves from our learning curves. If you can’t do what the Word says, then ask the Holy Spirit to help you AND TAKE A STEP. Our God loves people who mean what they say — He means what He says and He acts on it!

When my faith starts getting wobbly, first of all I check out my heart, to see if I am no longer using my faith to live. Faith is meant to be active. It works, it reaches toward Him, all the time. It is not an emergency activity!  It’s a form of spiritual exercise. I have had many people tell me that God gave me a brain and I am supposed to use it — yes He did. But our brains are not meant to supersede His Word. Read the book. Faith, by its very essence means I won’t always understand with my mind – my mind needs the spanner of God’s Word to adjust my thinking. Many people will give us the pip, but faith-filled confession opens the door to humility and clarity.

When He tells me to repent, then I do it – asap. I simply can’t kid myself that I can still walk in faith and be disobedient, that’s rationalising His instructions away. Many times I have obeyed, and reluctantly gone to see my brother when I had a bone to pick with him – and when I got there I had the courage to ask for his forgiveness. I got the courage on the way! Our faith grows as we obey Him. If He says “give” or “give more”— then I had better do that. I can always ask Him to help me and show me how to obey Him.

I don’t know where everything is in the bible, but I do have a secret weapon… I know the One Who wrote the book! A phrase, or one word floats up into my thinking and then I use my faith to go and look it up. I pursue Him. At the same time owning my sin is not a scary thing, because SomeBody already paid that debt for me… so I don’t need to be ashamed. I just need to be honest with myself and others. Now I let Jesus defend me. He’s good at it.

If we truly want to move mountains then it would be good if we started by moving the mountain of unbelief in our hearts and attitudes, daily! Sounding nice and sweet in church is not the same thing as transformation. To do the first thing, I must be on my guard – when I do the second, my responses will have already changed.  We are designed to be walking, talking illustrations of God’s love in action. God’s love is REAL, it is not just a theory. He doesn’t hold a grudge!! At the same time I simply can’t afford to use my mind or feelings as the umpire. Instead I need His Peace! 

Faith comes by hearing – hearing comes by listening carefully – and listening carefully directly leads into obedience – which leads to mind renewal! Pretty soon you will start to know God’s opinions about a whole lot more things than you did when you started. Bye. 👋

P 2763 Mo-ove along the car …

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…nothing to see here, I’m coming through … and I’M BUSY!! 

Nehemiah 6:1-9 tells us a story: “When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that there were no more breaks in it—even though I hadn’t yet installed the gates—Sanballat and Geshem sent this message: “Come and meet with us at Kephirim in the valley of Ono.” I knew they were scheming to hurt me so I sent messengers back with this: “I’m doing a great work; I can’t come down. Why should the work come to a standstill just so I can come down to see you?” Four times they sent this message and four times I gave them my answer.

The fifth time—same messenger, same message—Sanballat sent an unsealed letter with this message: “The word is out among the nations—and Geshem says it’s true—that you and the Jews are planning to rebel. That’s why you are rebuilding the wall. The word is that you want to be king and that you have appointed prophets to announce in Jerusalem, ‘There’s a king in Judah!’ The king is going to be told all this—don’t you think we should sit down and have a talk? I sent him back this: “There’s nothing to what you’re saying. You’ve made it all up.” They were trying to intimidate us into quitting. They thought, “They’ll give up; they’ll never finish it.” I prayed, “Give me strength.”

I’m starting to love this guy Nehemiah! He not only knows how and where to start … he knows how to finish too! God has given this man great wisdom as he went about his work. We can always ask the Lord for wisdom at any moment. I’ve discovered that we often want it at the beginning of a project, but we also need it in the middle, while we are being harassed, plus at the end too! The Lord likes us to follow Him, as He leads us – using our faith. Nehemiah knew to stay the course.

So, back to this man of God:  next news you know, the Israelites’ enemies have sent someone with a flattering message, to supposedly support him… … As we begin to prevail in our obedience to the Lord, our enemy is not above sending someone else along to give us reasonable doubt about what we are doing. Four times these men tried to engage the man of God as he laboured over rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls. The last time Nehemiah’s enemies used the fear of death to startle him into stopping. But he sent them away with a short, sharp word.

When we choose to do what the Lord wants – as we seek Him, He will guide us and protect us from the enemy’s lies. Nehemiah saw right through Shemaiah. This man wanted him to hide from his enemies and that meant he would stop building the wall God told him to restore. So Nehemiah went right back to prayer. You know it sounds to me like that man was praying as he was mending the wall!

Let’s be clear …Nehemiah had confronted a King about the Israelites’ plight. His courage and sense of duty caused him to make that request when he needed too – even though he was a minor player in the court. He was respectful, and clear, and dedicated to the cause. What he did was nothing short of miraculous, however, whenever Almighty God smiles on something you are doing – no-one can stop you … BUT YOU – and He will go around you, if He has to – His will, His purpose!

Nehemiah refused to be distracted. He called Shemaiah and his cronies, liars. You know sometimes we need to identify the spiritual opposition and name it! We can waste our time trying to be polite to our enemies in a difficult situation, when the reality is we need to confront them and tell them to take a hike. When God tells us to do whatever it is, it must be done no matter what, and Nehemiah kept on acting in faith. “And I am sure that God who began the good work within you will keep right on helping you grow in His grace until His task within you is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ returns.”Philippians 1:6.

The thing I want to highlight today is that all these interruptions and distractions led this man of God into prayer – they didn’t make him give up or give in. Instead he went back to His source of inspiration. I can only speak for myself but I am sure in my life so far, there have been times when I have given in to fear, much too soon. Afterward, I dearly wished I had pressed on.  My fear of ‘missing God’ – which is an enemy accusation – made me vulnerable. At that time I didn’t have enough confidence to believe I could keep going, so that meant that I gave into the pressure around me. The nagging voice inside my head kept telling me over and over again – “you’ve got it wrong, see this and this has happened.’ I limited God’s ability to redeem my errors – sinful or not. 

Nehemiah is a fine example to all of us of perseverance and faithfulness. Once this man put his hand to the plow – he would not be swayed from his appointed task. Sometimes, at the first sign of trouble, we are so anxious to get the job done, we can bail out too early! We too can have Nehemiah’s confidence in our lives. Our confidence is not in our hearing, it is in our God getting us where we need to go despite our wrong turns, fear and inadequacy.  So, like Nehemiah, we tell our enemies to, ‘move along the car – nothing to see here, I’m busy, and I’m coming through!  We must put our confidence in God alone, not in our ability or lack thereof. Just keep swimming …!!

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28. The Lord God is so great, so mighty, that He can take our mistakes, and turn them into shining stars for His glory. Bye. 👋

P 2602 The learning curve increases!

/ DVH

One of the things I have been learning during this time on the road, is that things can get uncomfortable – even when you are doing what God has asked you to do! It’s a funny thing – it is easy to think that when the Lord asks you to do something it will all just flow along sweetly, kind of like a river. But the reality is that all rivers have snags and dry spots, they sometimes race along and other times they seem like they are hardly moving at all! 

We have a number of criteria for travel etc. that we need to meet, so that hubby is free to do what he does. He’s brilliant with people, and he doesn’t need to be concerned about my well-being while I am alone. This time I managed to do some dumb thing to one of my knees … old age and I are never gunna be friends! … so I have had to sit about a lot more than usual. The joy in this situation is that I have had the privilege of looking at some things that are very different than my own four walls at home. What a blessing it is to change my view! I’ll skip the not-so–nice parts OK?

So here’s my own personal lesson for today, it may or may not apply to you. I have found that allowing a grumpy, picky, intolerant attitude to remain in me, stops the flow of the Holy Spirit’s river in my own life. When we go on the road, there are just so many more things to get grumpy about. At home at my house, in my own comfort zone, I don’t get irritable much because … everything suits me. Believe me, it would be so easy, and soooooo nice to think that that content happy person is who I am now! It would be great to start kidding myself that I’ve been really changed… thank you Jesus! Whoop-de-doo! (Sigh!)

Hmmm. Here’s a verse I’m not thrilled about, but Jesus said it so I’d better listen.“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13-14. What these verses mean to me is that if I find myself getting all comfy, cosy, spiritually speaking … I’m on the wrong road! The right road will start to narrow as I grow up in Christ. And I’m pretty sure that if I feel I have loads of room and I can do whatever I like … that means I’ve wandered off that narrow way again! Not the most user-friendly verses are they? Meanwhile, I don’t think the Lord cares about that.

Here’s how this grand revelation came about for me.  Hubby and I decided to change direction on the home-ward bound journey. This is a stretch for both of us, my dear hubby likes things nailed down and settled, and I like physical comfort. The more I focussed on getting what I want, what I think I need, the deafer I got, spiritually speaking. I was like those guys standing by while Almighty God spoke to Jesus, some heard Him speak something, some heard rumblings, and others heard nothing. There’s a whole blog in there!!

Moving on …  tuning into what the Holy Spirit wants, takes time and honesty with yourself, even more than others!! We need to cultivate the desire to want what HE wants, more than staying comfortable. God wants us all out of our comfort zones, because doing what He wants is not supposed to be comfortable. It will test us. Unfortunately, trouble brings the junk to the surface. It is a mistake to think everybody we meet is just going to fall into the kingdom, some of those people have to be rounded up and turned toward home and they won’t be NICE about it!

My spiritual hearing is dependent upon my willingness to change …  to be changed by His love, as well as my circumstances. I don’t need to adapt – I need to be transformed by His Grace. There is no spirit of adaptation in spiritual fruit! But there is self-control, patience, goodness … I have said this before but it bears repeating, we need to learn to trust the Person Who died for our sake. So if we do get stuck, then we go back to Jesus, and watch and ask Him how to move forward. Jesus treated God’s will as His food!  John 4:34.

As a part of His ministry, the Lord Jesus slept by a road. He talked to people who didn’t want to hear Him. He walked so far He got tired and thirsty. His feet were dirty. Some days He had nothing to eat but raw wheat. And His companions on the journey were not always spiritually tuned in and at optimum performance levels. His accommodation and provisions were definitely way under par most days. If I think like that, then my learning curve begins to increase, and so, hopefully, does my hearing! 👋

P 2313 Obedience mixed with faith is the key.

/ DVH

“This is how we can be sure that we love the children of God: by having a passionate love for God and by obedience to His commands. True love for God means obeying His commands, and His commands don’t weigh us down as heavy burdens. You see, every child of God overcomes the world, for our faith is the victorious power that triumphs over the world. So who are the world conquerors, defeating its power? Those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” 1 John 5:2-5 TPT

Can you see the correlation between loving God and obeying Him? However, obeying God and loving Him will seem to be a burden, without the Presence of the Holy Spirit – teaching us, leading us, guiding us through things. If it is hard, then you are doing whatever it is in your own strength. It WILL hurt because these are the times we die! Jesus said “My yoke is easy my burden is light…”  Heaviness and hardness come from trying to obey the Lord or working things out, in our own strength. 

We are never alone, so there is no reason for us to despair. Despair and disappointment = slogging away by ourselves. Those things are a signpost that we have gone OUT of the Spirit and INTO the flesh again. Jesus sent back the Holy Spirit to help us. Ask Him to help you. Our job is to make Him welcome, and to defer to and depend on Him. That can be hard to do when we have spent our whole lives thus far trying to be independent, making our own decisions etc. It will take a whole lot of yielding to Him. That means using our faith.

I know there are people who feel they cannot hear Him. Hearing God needs faith, plus a strong knowledge of what He says in the book. However you don’t have to wait 50 years like I did! Find something Jesus says in the book that you don’t do and DO THAT! Get the wax of inactivity and lack of attention out of your ears – go and do what it says. Help the poor, forgive that person who bugs you so much that you can’t remember why you are mad at them in the first place.

The bible is a living book. Not only that, when you read it the Holy Spirit makes it personal – He uses those words to exhort, encourage and correct us.. Many times I hear people giving out rot-your-teeth-they-are-so-sweet-prophetic words like candy. Feel good words. The Holy Spirit CORRECTS US with His eye on us. He is not a flatterer. He speaks truth, and there are definitely times we won’t like it! I know I don’t!  He encourages us, but He does not indulge our slothfulness in the ways of Christ.

Sometimes we think we know everything – but we DO nothing! We all need to start treating what Jesus said as instructions. He is teaching us how to build our house on the ROCK. (And I don’t mean Dwayne Johnson!) Storms come, and our internal spiritual houses start sinking or floating away. When that happens, don’t just wait for the troubles to go away – ask the Holy Spirit :“what am I missing?” Go after the answer – otherwise the next flood could be the storm-of-the-century … and what a mess we will have.

Our God is not mean. A good parent prepares His child for for the difficulties of this life – what comes next. We must hold fast to God’s unchanging hand, despite the chaos around us. Our faith is for today. It’s for the boss with unrealistic expectations, so we can genuinely smile and ask Him: ‘how are you doing?’ It’s for the spouse who is scared to bits little Johnnie is going off the rails – but they don’t want to burden you with their fear, so they snap at you instead. Or your teenager who goes even more quiet than usual and you’ve tried every window door and chimney of their human house … but you can’t get in. HE CAN HELP YOU – ask Him. Just ask and keep on asking.

Don’t dismiss the Lord’s seemingly simplistic answers either, the Holy Spirit has keys to every single heart. His answers won’t be church-ified – they could be as simple as buying someone an icecream. Or skipping rope together in your backyard. Remember, the bible is a doing book, not a theological tome! We must all learn to mix our faith with obedience. 👋🏻

P 2274 How’s your hearing?

/ DVH

Have you ever had wax in your ears? Many people wage a war against ear wax. They are often forced to deny that they are going deaf.😂 The trouble with wax is it builds up slow-ly. However there are times at our house when I suggest that hubby should put his finger in his other ear so important information does not blow through. And this subject is kind of my point today. Making ‘allowances’ for any disobedience is like allowing wax to build up in our spiritual ears. It is far better to obey quickly – we can always ask Him to help us.

“Why do you call me Lord and you don’t do the things that I say.” Luke 6:46. I just love the way God hides important truths in plain sight. We can’t get anything plainer than Luke 6:46! In the parable of the sower, Jesus goes on to explain that some people don’t have spiritual ears yet. But when we give our lives to Christ we get a brand new heart, eyes to see the unseen, and a wonderful two-way radio thing going on with Holy Spirit. The Lord explains to the disciples that the reason He’s revealing the truth of the parable to them is because they now have spiritual ears. ”The sheep that are My own hear My voice and listen to Me; I know them, and they follow Me.”John 10:27 AMP’

A lot of people feel they can’t hear Him, but I want to say here and now IF Jesus Christ is the boss of your life, whether you are good at that or not, you DO have spiritual ears. If you have a problem then it could be you need to read scriptures about having ‘ears to hear’ so you can renew your mind. I talk to myself a lot inside my head. If I say to you, 2+2=…?  the place inside your head that immediately comes up with four, is where you will hear His voice.

In that place where you talk to yourself, not out loud, is where the Lord speaks to you. And here are some things I have learnt over the years about that. The Holy Spirit often sounds like that inner voice. Unfortunately, so does the other guy.  And that is where most of us fall off the twig because every thought that comes into our dear little heads is not necessarily ours. So the Lord and I have this fabulous system. 

When I think what I’ve heard was from Him, I go and check in the bible and make sure what I heard is in there. I often ask Him to remind me of more than one scripture that backs up what I thought heard. Hearing the Lord is an always an ongoing developing skill. Sometimes what we hear is very appealing to us – but it’s really only our own ambition or wish-thinking. Whatever! 

Sometimes the fruit of our thoughts makes it obvious who is really talking to us. But there are times when we like a thought so much, we attribute it to Him and paint it on a banner and wave that in the face of anybody who dares disagree with us. That action should immediately show us that what we thought we heard was not God … duh.🙄

Personally I hear the Lord the most clearly through His book. I’m reading away carefully and something that strikes a chord in me and I go: “Hello, what was that…” Then I do what Moses did, I pause and turn aside so I can further examine, pray over and understand whatever that captured my attention.

The amazing thing about God’s word is it’s different every time you read it. I’ve been reading it for a whole lot of years now and I always find something new I didn’t see before. I check my circumstances. If I felt God was sending me to mainland China I would want a lot more than what I thought I heard to make me go! And there would be a lot of prayer over it, and I’d get people I dearly trust to pray for me and give me their insight too. 

Often, because I believe in submission, I also trust what my husband says – I do not fight for my own way. That word fight is a big clue for me about my attitude. I am exercising my faith when I trust what my husband hears, and my God LOVES faith … and submission. Here’s something for free: I do not understand how people can say they are submitted to God and they won’t submit to anybody else – I call that rebellion.

Disobedience for our own comfort’s sake has way too high a cost. It costs the Israelites 40 years in the Promised land, and some of them died. It didn’t occur to them to stop asking the Lord for an instant  answer, and start wondering if they were being disobedient. Ask the Lord ‘what haven’t I done that I was supposed to do’ – if you suddenly lose your connection with Him. Don’t be amazed if He says you haven’t forgiven … someone or other. Disobedience makes us deaf.  Better do it. Bye 👋🏻.