Hearts

P 3397 God is our place of safety and shelter.

/ DVH

“Keep me safe, O mighty God. I run to You, my safe place. I said to Yahweh, “You are my Maker and my Master. Any good thing You find in me has come from You.” And He said to me, “My holy lovers in the land are My glorious ones, who fulfil all My desires.” … …The way You counsel me makes me praise You more, for Your whispers in the night give me wisdom, showing me what to do next. Because I set You, Yahweh, always close to me, my confidence will never be weakened, for I experience Your wraparound Presence every moment.” Psalms 16:1-3, 7-8 TPT.

Isn’t this fantastic? I must have read it about ten times. I think because of the pressures we all face daily, it can get very hard to hold onto how loving, generous, good and gracious the Lord is. These verses, by the way, come from David talking to God, after he became an adult. This is not that teenager on the side of the hill watching sheep — this is the man who faced many struggles. I often need to read and reread in the bible the history of other people and their interactions with God. There are people in there who have faced all kinds of terrible trials – yet they chose to have a heart of worship and praise.

Let’s look at the beginning of David’s relationship with the Lord: “And when He had removed him (Saul), he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also He gave their testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after Mine own heart, which shall fulfil all My will.” This is reported in Acts 13:21,22, by Paul.  The Psalm and this testimony are referring to a time in David’s life when he was already king. I don’t know if you ever have these thoughts but when I read those two passages, they blew my mind. Almighty God is telling us — this man, this king … this fallible human being who stole another man’s wife, got her pregnant, and then had her husband killed! … is a man after God’s own heart? It makes me ask: “what was it about David, that brought out that response from God Himself?”

I prayed about why the Lord said this to David, and then I went back to the bible for an answer because I didn’t have one! My revelation for today, was that our Heavenly Father’s heart must be very different from the kind of heart I often see displayed in our churches. We don’t seem to have the same way of looking at things – at all. Father God told David he would pay for his sin, and the baby died. He also had a terrible time with his other sons, who died too. But what I came to understand is that those things did not change David’s heart of praise and worship. I think  he had such confidence in His Heavenly Father’s Love, goodness and faithfulness as well as the Lord’s forgiving nature.

We know from the scriptures that David praised God purely because He is worthy, not because life always worked out well for him. He had the absolute assurance that when God forgives – no matter what it is, you will be forgiven. And that is that. Done and dusted. This king accepted the punishment that God thought was necessary, and at the same time, the Lord kept His good opinion of this man, as we read in Acts 13. His choice to believe in God’s goodness is such a witness. Sad to say, I’m not so sure Christians feel that way about someone who has sinned badly. We are more likely to judge the behaviour, and not the man’s heart. We need to pray over and over again for eyes to see what our Father sees.

The following verse tells us clearly that God chose David because of his heart:  “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” This statement occurs before David ever sinned, when he was still a young man. My conclusion is this, our hearts deeply matter to the Lord. Without His influence, we can mistakenly accentuate our sins and shortcomings, and ignore the fact that the Lord says clearly that He loved David’s heart. Let’s ask for protection over our hearts to keep them from being broken by satan’s lies. 

I think David is in the bible to teach us what a yielded heart looks like. Because of him, we can see that hearts make mistakes and have to undergo correction, but God’s opinion of this man did not change, because His behaviour was never going to be the criteria! A Saviour was coming … The One Who was sent here to take away the sins of the whole world — and that included David’s sins too. Sin is our enemy, but unconfessed, cultivated and a lack of repentance from sins can slowly drag us away from the only One Who is the Answer. So will fear of recrimination from God Himself.

My conclusion is this: Our heavenly Father uses flawed instruments to bring about His will and good pleasure, because His criteria is not what we often think it is. “Let Him who boasts, boast in the Lord!” His ways are very different from ours. We think pleasing God is simply about behaviour, but Father God is more concerned with the state of our hearts. I’ve added this today because it is such a good prayer:

“Lord, you’re so kind and tenderhearted and so patient with people who fail You! Your love is like a flooding river overflowing its banks with kindness. You don’t look at us only to find our faults, just so that You can hold a grudge against us.” Psalms 103:8-9 TPT. Thank you Lord and Amen! Bye. 👋. PS Good thing to remember, God doesn’t just extend mercy to us, He extends mercy to our enemies too.

P3386 Unusual style of fighting.        

/ DVH

When Jesus’ disciple Peter’s anger flared up at some soldiers who had come armed to the teeth to take the Lord away — the Lord Himself said: “put your sword back in its place … for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” Matthew 26:52. Hatred can so easily explode into actions, and then we hurt others, and ourselves, in the process. We hurt our own hearts when we hate. We can’t afford to live any other way except for living in love. In love with God, and the people who drive us crazy.

We are the people who fight on our knees! Unfortunately, many of us cannot be trusted with a gun, because most of the time, we don’t know what spirit we are in! Jesus had already fought and won the above battle, in the garden of Gethsemane, on His knees — while His disciples were sleeping. Peter’s sword was just going to hurt someone, and it did! Meanwhile, what is Peter – the fisherman – doing with a sword? … Moving on …

We are not fighting the same kind of war that many other people fight, although what we have to say, is equally as explosive. Our war is spiritual. Because “the weapons of our warfare are not CARNAL but they are mighty because they pull down strongholds.” 2 Corinthians 10:4. We can’t win if we continue to fight with the weapons from this world, because Jesus has already given us our appointed task. All we will do is kill off more people that our Lord loves. We are clearly told, by the Lord Jesus Himself, to “pray for our enemies” and “do good to those who despitefully use us.” 

Open hands in prayer, are far more effective than the clenched fist of war. If we are tempted to hate, then we must choose to bow our knee. And then we start praying for the people who are hurting, persecuting and despitefully using us. Pray for them like they are your own family!! Sometimes those people hurting you ARE your own family!

Pray for their salvation. Pray for redemption from sin. PRAY and then pray some more. We are not fighting that person in front of us, we are fighting the devil on his back. Those people who hate us believe in what they are doing because they’ve carefully been taught to hate. They don’t know what real love is. When an honest man meets Jesus, his first response is to bend his knee and say: ‘I didn’t know love like this existed.’ 

You and I have been appointed by Him to bring His love with us wherever we go. That happens when we choose to put down this world’s plans and ideas, and pick up the life Jesus has chosen for us. LOVE is the only antidote for hate, and love is the way to win. Even if we die … WE still WIN! Paul said that in Philippians 1:21. “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” That is our banner. 

Oh, let’s be real here for a minute. How can we possibly say that being dead is better than living, when we have a mortgage, kids, extended family and obligations to others? Because we have been practising dying to self for years. That’s how. Now we live our lives making daily hard choices to die to our own desires – and then, at the moment of deep impact, we will have enough freedom to choose to follow the Holy Spirit, wherever He goes.

Let’s use the right weapons to fight. The bible says: Love conquers everything. Meanwhile, we can’t fight a spiritual war with tolerance  … because tolerance wears thin – and eventually it wears off – we need God’s supernatural love. Press in, beloved of God, and don’t stop until you get it! The people we think are our problem, are the ones God calls us to.

When we put on the whole armour of God we are not doing it to go to WAR, we are doing it to protect the faith that is in us. These weapons , these protections – this armour – has been given to us to protect us. It will stop us from being taken out of the fight. Our Father needs every single one of His kids standing in their place doing what He put us here to do – loving Him first, then others. In His eyes ALL of mankind is irreplaceable. 

We see a multitude of people – but Father God sees Amar, George, Hina, Amanda, Lev,  Malosi, Mary, Rufus, Jai, Vasilisa, Jessica, Patrick, Joachim, Freya, Zyar, Ikem and Leah! Our Heavenly Father is such an incredibly good, good Father. He sees each one of us as if we were the only one. We’ve been told to “put on the whole armour of God.” It will protect us from the fiery darts of the enemy so we can stand in the middle of the war raging all around us. Just like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, stood in a fiery furnace and Jesus joined them there. He’ll join us in prayer for our enemy’s souls too.

Jesus came here to show people just like you and I, that there is another way to live this life, one day at a time, one step at a time. He did not pick a fight with anyone. These battles need to be stopped in our prayer closets. Then we can see our TRUE purpose, because we’ve chosen to put aside this world’s ideas of what a perfect life should look like.  

In the meantime, we can have utter confidence, because we know how this fight ends. We win! So we will continue to participate in unusual fighting with interesting weapons. Prayer, grace, kindness, forgiveness, love, joy, peace etc., these things are our weapons. We choose to turn the other cheek, and walk the extra mile, and we give some demanding guy our tunic when he asks for our coat! Bye, 👋. 

P 3310 The power of Pausing.

/ DVH

There is a word in the bible that means … “stop and think on this.” It appears often in the Psalms — SELAH. We translate that word into ‘pause.’ So we need to do more than agree with what it says, we need to stop and think about it. Selah means ‘I will stop and think about how these words I have just read can impact my life, my concerns, my hopes.’  Pausing and waiting for Him allows us to breathe, instead of anxiously holding our breath.

Pausing is like hitting the refresh button on a computer. It means we’ve been captured by something and we want to stop long enough to go back over it and see what is really being said. Pausing adds clarity.  We can find His Presence far more easily when we stop ‘think-worrying,’ and choose to pause. Then pray. I call it pausing, but Father God calls it by many names. In James 1:12 it says it like this: “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him.”  This is a person who stands still, when everything around him is whirling about. He is pausing to steady himself.  

Steadfastness is the ability to believe God is good even when every circumstance around you says differently. We deliberately choose to hold fast to Him. It means you stop trying to solve the unsolvable and simply look at the One Who is so much bigger than our problem or questions. It’s taking a big breath and taking the time to lay these things aside, then we choose to take hold of Him and His Word, and wait. We want to cultivate the ability to understand that despite how formidable something seems, God has it. Meanwhile we patiently wait to see what He will do next!

“I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope.”  Psalm 130:5. Waiting means I don’t react, so eventually I choose to act as He prescribes. I believe what He said in the bible and so I put my whole thought processes into meditating on that. And I stop ruminating on stuff.  My hope is always in Who He is, not just getting an answer. The secret to being blessed in waiting is not merely waiting til the trial is over — it’s waiting to hear what He says about it in the time you have chosen to pause. That is done deliberately. Pausing is letting go and letting Him do what He wants.

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Romans 12:12. These things are unattainable if we do not take the time to pause. Our un-renewed minds can easily run into panic without real, tangible, God-given reassurance. Our assurance is in the bible! Pausing helps us to learn His Ways. We learn first-hand how He handles things. How unhurried He is in a world that is often rushing here and there. Whatever is flattening our well-being slides away in the light of His Word. Standing still, waiting, pausing, remaining steadfast – all these things can help us to unravel the difficulties that land on us. Then we can see them without a whole lot of mind-busyness. Pausing releases and relieves stress. 

Moses literally paused.  He was going about his daily routine and then he saw the burning bush — and the bible says this: “And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.”  Exodus 3:3. He stopped what he was doing long enough to do more than give the bush a cursory glance. He actually physically engaged his body by using his feet to find out what was happening. He immediately encountered Almighty God when he took the time to pause and wonder.  

Pausing shows the Lord we value Him and His input. It engages His attention. It says: “I am not going to rush past this moment, I will give it to You. I am curious to hear what you want to say to me Lord.” It has a parallel truth present in the Song of Songs. The singer says to His beloved: “You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.” The shepherd has been captivated, He stands still long enough to notice not just her, but her presence. He refuses to move past his beloved’s loveliness quickly. Pausing is about deliberately paying attention to something that captures our hearts.

It may not be about something unusual, it might just be we have seen whatever it is many times before, but this time it grabbed us and other things faded into the background. Then all we can see is Him, His wishes, His Way. Time stops pushing at us because, it becomes irrelevant. Like Moses we turn aside to ‘see.’ Pausing is about those moments, when the busyness of this world fades into the background and we are lost in what we’ve seen, or read, or experienced. Pausing, waiting on Him, adds depth where we might simply live in the shallows.

Pausing is about ceasing from any activity temporarily, whilst listening to and waiting for the Lord. Personally, I think if we practice learning to pause over Godly things, we will learn to live in His rest far more easily. Pausing is like drinking in the Lord’s peace, on purpose. There is such value in simply stopping and choosing to look at Him, to see what He wants to say. I recommend it. Bye. 👋

P 3308 Living for Jesus, daily.

/ DVH

Colossians 3:12-17: “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

These few verses give a comprehensive overview of what our new life in Christ looks like, every single day. To be honest, we can’t say Almighty God hasn’t told us what He expects – He has told us right here! If you like memorising verses, I’d like to suggest that these five verses are worthy of any effort you might make. This new life must be embraced personally —using our individual faith. By engaging with the Holy Spirit. 

He will help us to follow the Lord’s instructions, and at the same time He will expose all the damaging, misleading, useless things we have embraced. None of us in the Body of Christ can do these things alone! Let’s thank the good Lord He has given us SomeOne Who is so personal – He lives inside us. Learning to listen and obey Him is essential. We need to learn how to host Him, in our lives. That means somebody will have to change. He’s holy, and we aren’t — so you do the math! I know I can easily be polluted and distracted by the things of this world and arrogantly dismiss the Holy Spirit’s promptings as “something I made up.” 

So my responsibility is to check the thing I think I have heard from Him, as I am reading the bible. I read carefully, and then I jump in and obey. Some things are obvious. We know what God thinks about generosity, or forgiveness, or helping others. We ask for Him for a scripture and then go and do those things. I have many times when I need to pray and ask Him to redeem any mess I made. Then I choose to embrace the bible’s idea of what faith is, and how it works. I’m personally grateful that Jonah ended up in the bible. He shows me my ideas and thoughts are much too small. He ended up whale mail. In the end he still did what the Lord told him to do – grumbling all the way. Haven’t we all been there?

In the course of writing this blog I have written many pages that I have subsequently deleted because the Holy Spirit didn’t like them. I wrote them in faith and He told me to throw it out. Plus I cannot remember how much re-writing I have had to do along the way! I’ve given groceries to ungrateful people who didn’t need them, spoken to people about Jesus who promptly showed me the door — but the amount of individuals impacted by God Himself far outweighed the risk of me looking like an idiot! I will be a fool for Christ, even though I probably won’t much like it! But I will do it, because for me, taking risks is part of the cost. If I already know that something will turn out alright at the beginning, then I am not exercising my faith.

The bible clearly tells us that we need to change. (Malachi 3:6) Almighty God won’t ever change because He is already perfectly holy and wise. Jesus said this to help us:“And everything I’ve taught you is so that the peace which is in Me will be in you and will give you great confidence as you rest in Me. For in this unbelieving world you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world!”” John 16:33 TPT. 

God’s peace inside us, is our pathway into confidence in Him and His Ways. If the Holy Spirit says ‘repent’ and we don’t – then our peace will slowly disappear. We will get caught up in the very thing we can’t seem to let go of.  The Holy Spirit Himself IS our peace, and because He is perfect love, He and fear can’t occupy the same space.  So fear has to go, as we make room for more of His perfect love to be shed abroad into our hearts. It isn’t about getting this stuff right, it is about being willing to enter His processes, and co-operating with Him. To do that we   believe what He has already said, in the book. We show Him we are willing to change by operating in things like repentance— not by what we say … but by what we do! “You must prove your repentance by a changed life.” Matthew 3:8.

All this teaching and preaching we have today, isn’t about gaining more knowledge —it is about the speaker prayerfully allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to the listeners. Boredom is irrelevant. Just because a speaker may be boring, that does not mean we cannot be changed. We need to listen to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to ME. Pressing in despite how we feel about things, shows God we are serious about change, we are willing to pay the cost. Not everything that is said from a book, pulpit, podcast etc. is a pearl from God for you. But we can enter God’s processes by voluntarily co-operating with what we hear and read, and then applying it into our lives, daily. If something seems hard to do, then it is probably right! 

BTW, I am as prone to panic as anybody else is, and if the ceiling falls in I can easily fall apart without His Grace helping me. The great part about that, is that over time, I have learnt to recognise His Grace in action. Walking with Jesus daily, is allowing Him to lead and guide me. This means I am prepared to step into the unknown when it is convenient, and when it is not. We can’t fail, He’s holding us tightly. Bye. 👋

P 3302 Sin.

/ DVH

Today is the day, we remember that our sin has been conquered and permanently defeated by the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us. Praise Him! I pray this Good Friday that we will be enabled by the precious Holy Spirit to understand, how wide, how high, how deep His love is for each one of us. However, we dare not take sin lightly. Any kind of sin when it is tolerated, produces fruit. Bad fruit. Sin separates us from God and others.

Let’s be clear, our devotion toward the Lord, must extend to being open and honest, acknowledging the true state of our own hearts. Poverty of Spirit brings its own blessing. (Matthew 5) Despite our best intentions, other people have been affected by our actions – or lack of them – and we can cause them to stumble. Sin affects everyone around it. The bible tells us this: “Or do you have no regard for the wealth of His kindness and tolerance and patience [in withholding His wrath]? Are you [actually] unaware or ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness leads you to repentance [that is, to change your inner self, your old way of thinking—seek His purpose for your life]?” Romans 2:4. We cannot afford to esteem what Jesus has done for us, lightly.

The purpose of repentance is change. Not evasion, or punishment, or explanations, excuses, or tears … or even self-flagellation! Repentance means acknowledging or confessing our sin, and active participation in reparation. Then we experience transformation facilitated by the Holy Spirit’s guidance. God is so kind! His Grace lifts us up, into a brand new life. Now, because of what Jesus did for us, we can look at who we really are, without any shame or fear. But the crux of the matter is this — our engagement and co-operation in these matters is essential. Prayer without repentance and appropriate actions, is just hot air. Let’s learn daily to rely on His redeeming Grace, and never abuse that grace or replace it with casual carelessness. Repentance is a serious business. 

Here is a truth about a scripture in Hebrews 4:12. Our intentions matter. But we cannot discern those intentions without the Holy Spirit’s help – He’s the One with the sword! This means our intention is not an escape clause either. Let’s choose to examine our hearts and deliberately repair things, so we can openly and honestly participate in our relationship with the Holy Spirit and others. God’s Word is our scalpel, and the Holy Spirit is the one and only extraordinarily proficient and accurate Surgeon. His Word cuts between our soulish, sinful and sometimes childish attitudes and responses, plus any desire for revenge or self-defence, to the heart of the matter. The bible indicates a clear path between our intention to harm, and our ever-present desire to avoid the truth about our motivations.

“For the word of God is living and active and full of power [making it operative, energising, and effective]. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as the division of the soul and spirit [the completeness of a person], and of both joints and marrow [the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and judging the very thoughts and intentions of the heart.”  Hebrews 4:12.

We need His wisdom to show us what our intentions really are! Is our attitude spite, or hurt? Regret or Godly sorrow? This work the Holy Spirit does is so fine, so careful, so intricate—He can lovingly expose the very things we do not want to face about ourselves. I believe we need the deepest parts of our nature exposed, because we often settle for less than God’s glorious ideal as our standard. His standard is His Son, Jesus. I’ve found it useful to prayerfully look at the things I have done, or the things I am still doing! … and then I ask the Holy Spirit for His help. He also helps me to repair things.

Let’s remember that the Lord does not divide our thoughts from our intentions, to make us feel guilty, or stumble, or fall away. His incredible kindness wants us to be free to become more acquainted with Who He is – because in that knowledge lies our total transformation. Sometimes, we may need to know why we did what we did, so that His Spirit can transform our hearts at the cellular level. That’s when we begin to want and long for what He wants. After that we can quite easily identify within ourselves, any malicious judgment and intent to harm, and separate it from just plain carelessness and a lack of awareness of others and their lives. 

King Herod finagled a way to kill the infant Jesus – He killed all the baby boys in Bethlehem! “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.” Matthew 2:16. This is an example of a wrong heart attitude. Another one appears in Acts, with Ananias and Sapphira, who were strategising about cheating the Lord, and their brothers and sisters. This matter was dealt with swiftly and thoroughly because it happened in front of the entire fledgling church. This couple’s plan abused God’s Grace! It was not about money – it was about the intention of their hearts. 

Sin occurs when we dismiss the intention of our heart to harm, callously calling it — “only natural under the circumstances.”  Let’s call sin, ‘sin’ and repent from it. Our focus in this matter is coveting a closer relationship with the Lord Himself. No amount of pretty words can cover up sin. It is poisonous to all of us. Bye. 👋

P 3275 On being an arrow …

/ DVH

“These heroes all died still clinging to their faith, not even receiving all that had been promised them. But they saw beyond the horizon the fulfilment of their promises and gladly embraced it from afar. They all lived their lives on earth as those who belonged to another realm. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” Hebrews 11:13.

The people who are spoken about here in Hebrews … are our illustrations. That is a long list – which could definitely surprise you, if you take the time to read the whole chapter! Those people lived this life, their only life– looking forward to forever … instead of living for here and now! They did not have fun, fun, happy, happy lives. Instead they chose to live using their faith in the God Who said He would save them. They took Him at His Word. Plus these people in Hebrews kept themselves open to correction and they just kept pressing on. Their faith in Him filled their vision. These people saw this life as something they would pass through to something better. 

They were often isolated from their family, or friends because of their beliefs – and they suffered all sorts of hardships along the way. They were misunderstood, some of them almost daily! All of them were Jewish, except for Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute — her obedience and faith saved her and her family. These men and women were identified as God’s own Chosen people. Simply because of their witness.

We should not be surprised when life gets difficult and we think we can’t cope. It can be deadly to our faith if we forget to keep our eyes on eternity. We can become so used to maintaining the here and now, that forever seems like a dream, and today’s worries entangle our feet and root us into the immediate! But that is not the way these folks lived. Eternity was realer to them than this daily grind.

Actually, forever is a part of what we believe. We will have the joy of being with the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit endlessly. None of this floating in and out business, like the good and bad times we stagger through  sometimes is in this life – in heaven we will be living totally aware of the Trinity, and the saints who have gone on before us. We will be changed. Oh I feel such gratitude for the fact that we will ALL be changed to be like Jesus I know I need changing. 

At the same time we have not been asked to simply put up with this life, while we wait for the end of it. Father God has asked us to spend the time we have, using our minds and hearts to become a highly interactive and well defined arrow. Day by day, the way we live, and the way we interact with others, needs to point to Jesus. Arrows point to other things! 

We are not undercover brothers and sisters, we are His family. Love is now our primary language. We are purpose-built to enjoy living for Jesus right here. Heaven is not just available for a select few …. anymore than hell was made for people!  It is God’s desire is for ALL to be saved. And we are His chosen arrows pointing the way to salvation. It’s impossible for me to ever choose one of my children, or grandchildren, that I don’t want to see, or be a part of their lives. And Almighty God’s a much better parent than I am!

Meanwhile, do remember to spare a thought for mothers. Children can be difficult, trust me!! Daily there are more and more criticisms of parenting that seem to pile up. And many adults don’t seem to remember that somebody fed us, sheltered us, rocked us to sleep, and made sure we didn’t fall off a cliff! There is so much criticism about, it is far too easy to focus on what parents did wrong. If you are still here then someone did something right! 

Arrows choose to point to the good in things around them, or in the best thoughts about bad situations.They don’t point out other people’s faults, or sins – these ‘arrow’ people know they are here to help others become more acquainted with the Love of God. They have made it their mission to be a source of that Love, while they are still in this world. When you fire an arrow the idea is to hit what you are aiming at! Those long-forgotten saints in Hebrews 10 made it their business to aim at following God and honouring Him with their substance and their lives. 

Those people did not miss the mark. Their faith was firmly fixed on God and what He said, not on this life going on around them and their part in it. Here’s something I have found useful. If I am focussed on what is going around me, then I am probably not giving my faith in His love and kindness toward me, the attention it deserves. The “arrow” of our lives gets turned away from our destiny a little bit at a time, as we allow the imposing confounding things of this world to turn our eyes away from Jesus. We simply can’t look at those two things at the same time, we will end up cross-eyed! 

Which is another word for not seeing anything clearly. When your vision becomes cloudy, stop and ask the Lord to show you what has inserted itself between you and Himself. Following, by its very nature, means we are looking at the Leader. And arrows have a purpose. They give us direction and show us where we move onto next. Bye👋

P 3272 Let’s learn to speak SPIRIT.

/ DVH

The body of Christ needs to know the Holy Spirit’s ways intimately, and live in and listen for His languages of love – kindness, encouragement, faithfulness etc.  When we read the Old Testament we can watch Him when He is speaking to people – we observe how He acts. The Spirit’s language stops conflicts, and we can learn His language by living like Jesus did. The Holy Spirit is not some spiritual club that only speaks in tongues! He knows more human and angelic languages than we have hairs on our heads and He speaks the language of our hearts.

The Body of Christ spends too much of our time knowing other members in the natural – we look for people like ourselves, people who think like we do! We need to know one another because of Him, not our carnal thoughts or competitiveness. He alone can and will unite us. Some people in the natural might drive you or I up a wall, but what will unite us comes through the Spirit’s desire and focus on Jesus.That makes us one, with Him and each other.  The Trinity, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit know all about being One – if we follow Their instructions, the Holy Spirit will teach us what is important and what is not! Unity is important.

When things get hard, there can be times when we try to believe what someone else told us, because of the weight of oppression coming at us. We get tired from fighting our way through the junk that flies at us. But when we start with, and hold onto what the bible says, as the Holy Spirit kisses it, then we will learn about Him as well as ourselves. Some attitudes we’ve held onto are not just annoying they are weights that are keeping us from running freely with the Lord! The Spirit Himself will keep what Jesus says uppermost in our thoughts and hearts and He will change our mind. That’s when the truth can set us free – free from the pettiness and hatred mankind embraces.

The routine that will quickly clear our hearts from non-Kingdom stuff goes like this: repent, confess, restore. If we truly knew the power of agreement we wouldn’t fight with anyone! None of us can afford to ignore the things that are important to Him. When we walk with the Spirit, we have the wisdom of heaven available whenever we need it. Each time we come up against something, there is an opportunity for us to become more adept at ‘rightly dividing the word of truth.’ This also happens when we decide to meditate on the bible, and pause and wait for what the Holy Spirit says we need to do about what we just read. 

And yes … I know most people don’t have all the time in the world. But if you go without breakfast when you need it, at around 10 o’clock in the morning your stomach will tell you what a bad idea that was! We need HIS food. Remember, our aim is to learn ‘to seek His kingdom FIRST.’ One word from His mouth changes everything. Jesus once said “peace” and a storm ceased. God said “let there be light” and the sun came into being. At the same time, you and I cannot live a spiritual life on yesterday’s stale bread, either. 

So as we read, we are looking for what He wants to tell us today – stale bread is only good for toast! God’s Word cuts through our own ideas, leading us into His plans. “So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11. One word from the Lord is worth more than the entire contents of every other book ever written. Make it your daily aim to read His book and watchfully look for what He wants to say to you.

We cannot afford to discard the things of the Spirit, just because they don’t fit in with our society, or our church’s way of doing things. Let’s choose to go after the truth – His truth. His truth does not leave other people out! We dare not pick and choose which truth we will follow, and which one we will put to one side because it seems to be too hard. Let’s choose to go after every single word that comes out of His mouth for us, for that day. Learning to be led by what the Holy Spirit says reprograms our brain. We will learn to measure our lives by what He has said, not by what we feel. That’s kingdom living.

At the same time, we must have each others’ backs! It is a huge mistake to tell some poor sod the enemy has just jumped all over, to FIGHT. That’s like what James said – you don’t tell the guy who is cold and hungry: ‘be fed and warm’ and then walk away. What we do for each other in those moments, is crucial. We say to the guy bleeding on the ground: ”It’s OK brother or sister, we’ve got this. The Holy Spirit has put a sword in my hand and we, He and I, will fight for you!!”  I personally yell: “I need a sword for my friend, Lord,” as I am running at the other guy who is harassing them. (God gave David a stone, as he was running toward Goliath.)

When life knocks me down, there are times that I can’t think or breathe. My mind goes blank so I text people and ask them to please pray. WHY? Because I need a Word from Him. Once I know what the Lord has said, I can stand up again. I literally, cannot manage this life without Him, and I know other people who live the same way. The Lord Himself is the only One Who can guide us through these terrible times and help us to love others and still walk with Him. Let’s learn to speak Spirit, and deliberately choose to learn His language – which is LOVE. Not the mushy kind that fades as life goes on – the kind that REMAINS. Bye 👋 

P 3265 Where are you looking?

/ DVH

2 Corinthians 4:5-12: “For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, Who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that His life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.”    

 At times maybe we think following Jesus shouldn’t cost us! These verses give us the alternatives. The bible is so clear — words like:  ‘hard pressed; perplexed; persecuted; struck down; death is at work in us, but life is at work in you’… should be a major clue. Those among us who think this new life of ours should always be fun, fun, fun, well, they need their heads read. Or they need the bible to transform their thinking! Perhaps some of us are resigned to living with continual disappointment, which is definitely not fun and very bad for our faith! Just to cheer you up even further …

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” That was Verses 16-18 same chapter. 

Why does Paul tell us he did not want us to lose heart? With that list of unhappy endings, that thought seems a bit redundant! He goes on to explain that our outer man maybe diminishing all the time, but our inner man, our spirit, is being renewed by His Presence within us. We can’t live, work, play, or even breathe without Jesus! Seriously. Some of the worst damage has been done to the basic tenements of Christianity, by trying to make it sound like a cross between winning the lottery and a fun fair. In this passage Paul is describing a people who live to see Jesus get all the glory, all the honour – all the time. That’s because their eyes are on Him and they look at everything around them through the light of eternity.

If we focus on our comfort in the here and now, we are going to be utterly disappointed a lot. God is maturing His saints! What part of ‘stoned’ – (ps the writer isn’t talking about taking drugs!) ‘…and sawn asunder, sliced with a sword, tempted, wandering about practically naked with nowhere to live, don’t we get? (Hebrews 11:37) God doesn’t promise us flowers, happy endings and blue birds. Jesus said clearly that this is a narrow difficult road.

 Our fear that reality may put other people off is well-founded. Comfort is king in all our western societies. We desperately need the Lord Jesus to renew us every single day, or any one of us can lose heart and give up. Let’s ask Him to help us to produce the fruit of self-control and perseverance, and water it with tears and fertilise it with surrender. 

Paul calls these ghastly things that bowl us over in this life, “light and momentary afflictions.” Boy that sure puts everything into perspective. What would happen if we saw our difficulties through fresh eyes?  Imagine living life in such a way that love oozes out of our pores, and we leave puddles of glory behind us. We can’t go to the shop and buy Glory! His glory flourishes as we make our hearts His home.

The more we choose to die to self, the more He can be seen within us, flashing out His glorious brightness and capturing other people’s hearts with just one glance. It is imperative here and now, to fix our eyes on Jesus and what He wants for us – including the people He has gathered around us. When we fix our eyes on this world, we can be so easily distracted by what is going on, instead of focussing on Him, this allows other important things to pale into insignificance. I am not there yet …obviously! … But that’s my aim. To daily take in His love for me, and give it away. 

There is no other answer for this world but Jesus. Hubby and I can’t even watch the news anymore it is so chock full of – this person did that evil thing and another one did worse! The bible says: ‘Without Christ we can do nothing.’This whole world is without Christ – that’s why it is in the state it is in. Why are we so astonished? I am learning to assess my focus, and keep my eyes on Him – no matter what else is going on. Where do I look for daily inspiration? Let’s “… all look … unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, …” Hebrews 12:2. Bye 👋

P 3257 It’s time to get the band back together.

/ DVH

Years and years ago, when I was a much younger Christian, I loved reading instructional Christian books, plus I listened to tapes, music, and videos, everything I could. I was trying to grow my faith. I desperately needed to belong, to feel like a part of the Body of Christ. You know, there’s a whole lotta of odd people out there who really really need Jesus – we all might want to think about that. Back to it … eventually, I realised I was reading the bible and understanding it through someone else’s filter!

The Holy Spirit truly is the very best Teacher, He explains things first-hand – personally! There’s nothing like getting your own revelation from His book. Back then, whenever I read 1 Corinthians 13, I read it through other people’s interpretations to help me understand it. My thoughts were ‘boy do I fail at that!’ No wonder I felt a failure, at that time I had no idea how complete the Lord’s redemption was on my behalf. Like Paul said in Galatians 3:3 MSG bible: 

“Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!”

I believed my sins were bigger than what Jesus did. So when I messed up … and I did, a lot … I was shattered. Yeah, I know, that makes no sense at all. The Lord has a whole new kingdom reality for all of us. Sadly, at that time, I just had too much luggage that I dragged along behind me! To top it all off I erroneously believed this kind of stuff was true Christianity, and I was just really really bad at it. 

You see, people in my family or the church still irritated me, and when they were unkind, I wanted to run away, or thump them. Eventually, I became ill. So getting healed became my new focus. I figured I had become sick because I was failing the Lord all the time. I just want to strongly insert the fact that Jesus is not like that! 

But at that time, I jumped into every single healing line I could find, simply because I badly wanted to be well! Instead I just got sicker, and that added a further burden. It seemed to me that I must be a terrible Christian because I was ill in a generation that thought if you were sick it was your own fault! For years I wandered around thinking God had given up on me. And getting divorced did not help that perception. 

I know there are verses that clearly talk about divorce, and yes, I accept them! God definitely says don’t do it! However, He’s also merciful – He explains WHY. Participating in a divorce makes our hearts hard. Even though I repented up one hill and down the other, I had hardened my heart against any sort of redemption by Him. Unbelief is still sin! Works will do that to you. They will cut you off from true redemption and also real gratitude. It’s hard to be grateful when living for Jesus is a whole lot of hard work, and you can’t do it.

I guess I saw Almighty God as SomeOne Who held a grudge, like most people I had met. And I thought I deserved to be rejected. In that process I lost the One Person Who dearly, eternally loved me. At that time, I had no comprehension of unconditional love. If you happen to feel like that, I would like to testify to you that the Lord Jesus is not keeping a score of our sins against us. He can’t, His blood wiped them out!! At the same time, I hadn’t properly personally digested 2 Corinthians 5:19: “…that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people’s sins against them [but canceling them]. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation [that is, restoration to favour with God].”

It’s pretty hard to go out and tell others about the reconciliation that exists in Christ, when we aren’t living in it! Eventually, through the patience of a dear old minster, I came to see that the Lord Jesus is the One Who knelt beside a woman who was taken in adultery. and He also dealt with the people who wanted to stone her. Once He sat by a well and talked with a woman who had had five husbands … He didn’t give either of these women permission to live like that! However, the Lord altered the course of  both of their lives just by being Himself! The love and power of God is like that – it sets people free. 

I believe the church world-wide needs to go after the Lord’s lost sheep. The bible clearly tells us the Shepherd always does! Those broken, beaten sheep who have wandered away – or maybe they were even shoved out because the church didn’t want to be contaminated by their sin. Let’s ask the Lord to help us to win back our brothers and sisters – mothers, fathers, friends, rabbits and relations. The Body cannot function without ALL its parts. We need to be like Paul and participate in their reconciliation and restoration. So let’s love them OUT of their isolation. Maybe they are ready to repent and come back! 2 Corinthians 2:5-11.

How about we stop shooting the wounded, or leaving our broken-hearted members behind? And ask the Lord if we can be used by Him to restore them instead. Let’s get the band back together. Who knows what God will  do when we embrace others who have gotten lost along the way? Bye. 👋