Heaven

P 2325 Mechanical things and I are not always friends …

/ DVH

… and I don’t just mean this computer I am typing on either! Now, if you give me a paint brush, I will paint you a picture … if you give me a pencil I will write you a story… But computers, or things with technological chips in them … like the kettle, or the car, or the cell phone, or the air-conditioning… those kind of things are the bane of my life. They promise so much, and drive you nuts instead. Tell me you haven’t yelled at some inanimate object that didn’t deliver as promised! 😡 

Life has given me lots of opportunities to discover what I can’t do. I was once given the opportunity to use an electric disabled scooter in a supermarket… that was an absolute disaster! I kept hitting all the fittings. Sigh… I even moved some of them sideways – by hitting them of course. A very nice employee came along after that and asked for the keys back. I didn’t blame him, I wouldn’t want anyone moving the shelves in my supermarket either. It appears I definitely can’t use one of those darn mechanical gismos. 

It actually took me six months of three times a week driving lessons, to get my driver’s licence. I could easily remember the rules but the whole steering/parking driving down the road steering thing escaped me. Sigh. I just ain’t mechanically minded and I’m not excited about the responsibility either. I once tried to ride a Vespa and I kept sticking my feet down to stop it. 😱 That was not a good plan. And never ever let me near your Venetian blinds… I know they aren’t mechanical – but try telling them that! I mean well, and I try hard, but the practical outworking sabotages me. I always pull the wrong string first, and it goes rapidly downhill from there. 

One of the fantastic things about getting to know the Lord Jesus is the distinct lack of any need to feel important – for His sake or my own. The realisation that the God of the Universe loves me … Meh! Everything else becomes superficial trimmings that can disappear in a heartbeat … and they often do! Even things with chips in … and I’m not talking about fish and chips either.

So what am I on about? I’ve learnt, from my own very obvious inadequacies,that we need each other. It is not good for man to be alone. You know, that verse is not just about finding a spouse. It is about us, the brethren, needing each other. ← There’s that pesky FULL STOP. I can’t sing by myself, however I can sing in a choir. I freeze up in a solo, in front of an audience. 🥶  So I suggest we keep me in the choir… and maybe YOU sing the solo instead. I know some people who look so ordinary… but when they sing … I feel like heaven stops to listen.

And, I know some preachers who usher in God’s Presence and challenge everything you think you know … in a good way. Afterward you feel like you lost ten pounds of excess weight. It just drops off and you feel lighter. I’ve met people who can say three words and shift your focus off your troubles and back onto the Lord – without preaching at you. There are others who make me smile and laugh  – there is just something about the way they view this life …

… We cannot do Christianity alone. It is NOT GOOD FOR US. We need to stop analysing other people’s theology and just start appreciating their strengths. Having opinions can be vastly overrated. I’ve learnt that the Lord loves it when we make a choice to see the good in each other. He kisses it. Our God loves unity. If we want Him to hang around with us, then we had better figure out how to accept the people who mess up like I do. Who can do somethings OK a-n-d others … not-so-much. Unity is not just enforced agreement, it is having the same heart toward each other. 

That does not come about easily.

God so loved the world … and HE thrives on our differences. Let’s move outside our comfort zones and make room for each other. You can fix my venetian blinds and I’ll draw you a picture.  😂 💻!

P 2292 Disposing of myths…

/ DVH

There was a theory in Christianity like 30-40 years ago that ‘what you say is what you get.’  I’ve found that human beings are fascinating … we are always looking for the easy way, or the soft touch or an escape clause etc. etc. But actually I think we have all gone a bit soft. Not in the head, mind you, but emotionally speaking. When things get tough … sadly, ’the tough don’t get going’ … They are far more likely to squawk and complain their heads off and drive their poor pastor nuts.

God is not obliged to answer our prayers, He always hears us – but we are now living under His Grace. We can ASK – but then we trust. Unfortunately, I think we’ve become way too used to outsourcing our problems instead of getting alone with God and working things out with Him.

I can remember, years ago, way back in the Ark – metaphorically speaking – after some huge difficulty or other, crying my eyes bloodshot. I was surrounded by piles of soggy tissues, and I explained to God that I just couldn’t take any more, and could He please feel sorry for me and come and help me out of the mess I had somehow manage to get into? You know, I really don’t have experiences, or hear an audible voice – I’m a plodder… one foot after the other kind of thing … This one time I actually heard HIM LAUGH!

Well that was a tad discouraging! So I said so. But that didn’t seem to make a lot of difference. His reply was even more discouraging… “You don’t know what YOU can do,” He said. You know, He was right!  I’ve learnt the Lord God maker of heaven and earth – always IS. Since then I have been through far worse things, still crying, complaining and filling up our oceans and landfill with even more tissues. But I survived. Despite my heart and mind telling me I couldn’t possibly live through this kind of pain … I DID!

“But the love of God will be perfected within the one who obeys God’s Word. We can be sure that we’ve truly come to live in intimacy with God, not just by saying, “I am intimate with God,” but by walking in the footsteps of Jesus.” 1 John 2:5-6 TPT. 

As you can see, it isn’t, what you say is what you get … it’s what you get – YOU GET! 🤔 And then comes the joy of learning to live with whatever the problem is, while you are trying to grow through it, and at the same time straining forward to follow Jesus. That’s the real rubber, hitting the real road – impacting lives. I wish I could tell you after all these years that I have learnt the magic formula to managing hard things but … NOPE!!  However, I have learnt to give UP much quicker … but then again, that could be old age. Are you cheered up yet? 😂

Here’s my genuine advice. Go into His book and look for a reality rush. Try reading Hebrews 11. Particularly V13. “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.” So are any of us better than Abraham or the guys in this list? No! Jesus Himself said:’In this life you will have trials … but cheer up, I have overcome the world.’ John 16:33.

Unrealistic expectations have killed off more faith than any of us will ever understand this side of heaven. Our faith must always be in God’s goodness, not in answers. Answers are simply the result of the outworking of His plans for all of us. We restrict the Lord when we try to explain or interpret His ways with our finite minds. We will always need the Holy Spirit to help us. ALWAYS! Otherwise we will start reducing Almighty God to SomeOne after our own image … and that is not good at all! 

What we say is definitely not always what we get – Father God always gives better than we ever imagined… in His timing. His timing is different from what we asked for or hoped, or thought, but it is always perfect. Let’s let God be God and we’ll just be us!  Deuteronomy 32:4 (KJV) “He is the Rock, His work is perfect: For all His ways are judgment: A God of truth and without iniquity, Just and right is He.” And that is definitely worth thinking about. 👋🏻

P 2260 Kingdom farming!

/ DVH

Matthew 13:31-32 “He (Jesus) told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”

The kingdom of God it is described by the Lord, as being like many things: a treasure, a pearl, many seeds, family treasure, leaven, sprouting seeds, a net, and for today’s blog – a mustard seed. The more we tend to His kingdom in our lives, the bigger it grows. The more we cultivate, acknowledge, and obediently interact with His kingdom in our lives, the more we will grow. This means that other people can come to our little ‘kingdom of God mustard tree’ and shelter in its safety.

We don’t make this tree grow by ourselves – the ground it is planted in does. A whole lot of people move around from one church to another in Christian circles, because they decide they don’t like the soil they were planted in! Imagine a tree that moves around?? In His kingdom we do not grow because of the soil – we grow as we accept that it is our destiny to grow, and dry ground or rocks provide us with the opportunity to adapt and grow stronger. 

Every time you and I do whatever the Lord says in the book, on purpose, His way … we are nourishing the kingdom of God within us. Just like we would fertilise and water a mustard seed plant. That seed inside us is nurtured by  obedience and by us choosing to abide where we were planted. Saying ‘no’ to yourself in difficult moments, and ‘yes’ to God’s way, can seem very insignificant, but when we live that way, we are providing the right atmosphere for the Kingdom of God to grow inside us. We are abiding!

Sadly, we can’t just speak about growth and claim it, and hope it will magically appear. Like I said a tree when it has been planted – does not pull up its roots if it doesn’t like the spot it is in and go walk-about. It yields to and adapts to its circumstances. This means WE will need to change. The major point of this parable is that this particular seed is destined for greater things. It is there to grow and provide safety for others. When we have deep roots, our ‘tree’ won’t just flop over when a storm hits. Storms, I have decided, are inevitable. We cannot prevent them. Despite all our efforts to the contrary, we can’t control much of anything. Sadly, in some circumstances, we can’t even control ourselves!

It is also important to take the time to meditate on the fact that His kingdom has no end. So every time we co-operate with His kingdom coming into our lives, we are touching the eternal… and the eternal is touching us. Like I said before, we are providing for others when we live this way. I’ve watched this happen through my husband’s attitude toward strangers. He believes in the kingdom of God within Him and He knows God wants to touch others! 

Recently our bank changed its system. Yay! We were told if we did thus and thus all would be well. Naturally, we promptly did thus and thus – BUT … all was not well! The bank had provided for this time of change by listing a number we could call. Hubby called the number. But as he was talking with the bank operator, he empathised with her about what a tough day she must be having, because she had to deal with so many calls. Hubby cared for her, instead of getting grumpy because this new system inconvenienced us. She opened up to him like a sunflower. The young lady came into his mustard tree’s shade and was able to rest. For a few minutes she was free from having to explain her work’s policy and she was able to be herself. They had a great chat and in the end, all was finally well!

Matthew 13:10-12 says this: “The disciples came to Him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance…”

The way to get an abundance of His love to give away, and provide shelter for others, is to cherish and nurture His kingdom within us. His kingdom must go deep inside us – this means it will challenge and expose flaws and hindrances to growth. But many many people will find rest, comfort, encouragement, healing and a greater knowledge of God Himself in our own personal mustard tree. This is why we need to be good Kingdom farmers – so people can personally, “…taste and see that the Lord is good!” 🌳 Bye 👋🏻

P 2256 Move!

/ DVH

Some people, in the past, have said that I’m a bit prophetic. Hmm I don’t know about that! However, yesterday, in my mind’s eye, I could see time like a large wall, stretching backward and forward. In this wall I saw a window. It was a large window but the scary thing is – it was slowly closing. I believe this window is called the window of opportunity. 

Meh! Ask the Lord about that for yourself.“And if anyone longs to be wise, ask God for wisdom and He will give it! He won’t see your lack of wisdom as an opportunity to scold you over your failures but He will overwhelm your failures with His generous grace.” James 1:5 TPT. He straightens out my theology all the time!

Back to my point: what with Tsunamis, 9/11, Covid, the war in Ukraine, earthquakes, monetary markets crashing, food and medical shortages, plus various other awful things happening;  these things have polarised the world and affected everyone on this planet. It seems to me that nobody feels really safe anymore, because we have quite regularly experienced worldwide destructive events in an unprecedented fashion. 

However, this also means that the church all over the world, has a huge opportunity, because the people-who-don’t-know-Jesus-yet are ready for something real. And we are incredibly blessed because we know that Answer, personally. And, right here, right now, it’s our time to shine with the light of heaven, Jesus Christ. It is remarkably easy to put your light under a basket when things are overwhelming. But our time to live His way – I believe, is here and now. We must stop sort of squashing Jesus in, around the edges of all the fun things we can do, and live up to our Master’s faith in us. He is our place of safety.

I know that I know, that this is the time to start taking our Christian lives VERY seriously. We must stop thinking that going to church Sunday by Sunday is all there is, and take the faith that Jesus died to give us, and use it. If we do not start to use it, I am deeply concerned that we will lose it. As I said before, these are unprecedented times with unexpected and terrible pressures. That’s when the pressure to survive becomes more important than anything else, and real active faith goes on the back burner. The thing is, we need our faith now more than ever, because the enemy is distracting us away from our true God-given purpose.

Let’s believe and act on what we talk about. Hubby and I have been out there, where people are, and we know they are ready for something real. Like James, said, we need to show forth our faith by our works. Obviously I mean the kind of works that originate in His heart and are led by the Holy Spirit. It’s time to prime the pump of obedience. Sadly, because we’ve had a lot of unknown factors recently  – we are all a bit wary of more bad things happening – so we’ve kind of bunkered down, waiting for the storms to pass. But they haven’t. Praise God, it has opened the hearts of the people outside our churches, instead!

So what happens when we decide to take a risk and to talk to family, friends, and strangers about Him? We could get to look like a goose … and in my case, that wouldn’t be the first time!  Many people have crashed and burned in their desire to bring glory to their Master, Jesus. When we do that we are in some really great company … like the people who have gone home before us! It’s also time to face those things in our lives that we would rather ignore and hope they will go away. Our faults, our flaws, our generational, soul-destroying stinky attitudes and actions!  The Lord Jesus is absolutely excellent at putting broken Humpty-Dumpties together again. So true active repentance is the order of the day as well.

Getting this stuff wrong, ironically … is good. It is like a cleansing fire, it burns away all the dross that this life has accumulated. Pride disappears, so does fear. Instead, living for Him and obeying Him humbles us and sends us to our knees. This is not the time to sit back and look at our hypothetical barns, (Luke 12:16-21). We can’t afford to relax, or maybe even plan to build a new one! Our time has come. And we need every single one of us active and ready to obey Him. We all have a part to play in His plan. There is simply nothing like seeing the light of illumination come on when you are talking to someone who does not know Him. 💖

The alternative is to try to wait the bad times out, promising ourselves when things get better – then we will try to follow Him. There is another kind of trap that says that we will obey when we are more informed. It doesn’t work that way. First we obey and then we learn of Him. Stepping out is putting on His yoke. This yoke is not about Him blessing me while I am going in my direction, but it means I am following the lead oxen – Christ – and going in His direction instead.  Submitting to change, no matter how settled we are, or how old or young we are, stretches us. It’s time to wake up and stretch. Move it or lose it. 👋🏻 

P 2243 On your mark…

/ DVH

Start TAKING FAITH STEPS. Seriously, if we keep sitting around in our ordinary little lives, no wonder we are disappointed. Perhaps we once went to a meeting and someone told us we could aim for the moon!  And then, in the everydayness of this life, the enemy took us out with discouragement, disappointment and despair – I call those things the three D’s. They will grab you around the throat and throw you on the floor, weeping because you think you’ve failed. We only fail, when we fail to try! Every single thing we do in faith, no matter how big or small, or hard it is, brings Glory to God! That’s what we are here for, to glorify Him in the face of opposition.

Faith is always needed. We exercise faith when we cross a road! The God kind of faith is about stepping out and doing that thing the Holy Spirit is quietly prompting us to do. Maybe we have bills to the sky and we are tempted to stop tithing or giving, “just until we get past this hard bit.”  Or… when we ask our neighbour if we can pray for them. That’s really using our faith. Faith is not a theory, it’s an action. All of the fruits of the Spirit are verbs, action words. If you can’t find His fruit in your life then you are probably not meeting opposition – with faith. It is good to remember, that when His fruit is eaten by someone else, it nourishes their spirit. 

I want you to think about NOT living by faith, for a moment. Do we really think satan is going to leave us alone if we do nothing? What would you do if you were the bad guy? Would you soothe the people with the power to change the world off to sleep and distract them until they run out of time? The bible is clear, our side wins in the end. It’s not the end yet guys. Don’t fall asleep bored, or join the rat race striving to get bigger better brighter things!  Get up and fight for the people God has all around you.   If we are always preparing, or recovering from our past, we will never get to GO! Go anyway!! Limping if you have to.

We’ve been brainwashed to think that winning means we come out on top all the time! That’s a fairy tale. When we decided to follow Christ we chose to follow SomeOne Who knows all about a higher purpose. Christ served God’s higher purpose, and when we live by faith we actually can’t lose. Our God always has a bigger plan! Read Hebrews 11 – many people actually died knowing they couldn’t lose. Initially it even looked like Jesus lost – however His death opened a door for us that cannot be shut ever again. We are not living this life we live for visible success.  We have eternal eyes.

We are no longer our own, we’ve been bought with a price … I l💖ve this scripture!! …”You were bought with a price [you were actually purchased with the precious blood of Jesus and made His own]. So then, honour and glorify God with your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:20. How do we glorify God with our BODIES? That doesn’t just mean we toddle off to church or bible study or sing loudly. We glorify Him by living this new life we have been given for His purposes, not our own. Jesus is our example of how our new life works. 

Father God planted His Holy seed, Jesus Christ the Righteous One, into this earth – and you and I, we are part of Christ’s harvest. But His harvest isn’t meant to stop with us … look outside your door … there are people everywhere with no hope. Today, right here, right now, we have the hope of the world living inside us! So what are we going to do about it? Faith is not pie in the sky when we die. Faith is our new way to live. Galatians 2:19-21 “For through the law I died to the law SO THAT I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

God asked us to live this life here in such a way that we bring a taste of His heaven to the people around us. We give them beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy for mourning – love for hate.That’s what the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control does. It brings a taste of heaven here. Our primary mistake is that we think it is meant to be easy. Dying to yourself while you are still alive isn’t easy. However, we are not alone as we step into this new faith dimension. The Holy Spirit will help us.

You know if you have ever joined a gym, or started an exercise routine, your muscles screech at you when you first start. When we start using our faith muscle it will be hard, because our faith has been frozen over by a lack of movement. But the more we use it … the more supple and stretchable it becomes. Faith is made to grow – and that kind of growth will demand our growth too. Ready? Set? Go!! 👋🏻

P 2197 Sometimes my biggest enemy is ME!

/ DVH

It’s really easy to blame satan for this and that thing that happened to us, he makes a great scapegoat when I’m too lazy to do stuff for myself or I want to make excuses. I’m not talking about feeling sorry for the devil – forget that! What a waste of time. So what do I mean by what I said? There is an old saying; ‘the devil made me do it’ – well that excuse is wearing a bit thin when it comes to Christianity. 

The reality is that human beings make poor choices – read the book. What the bible teaches us is the reality! You and I are who we are in our worst moments … so let’s thank God for Calvary. The devil can’t MAKE US DO anything anymore – now we have a choice. SomeOne died to give us the victorious power to make those choices. Because of Jesus Christ and what He did, we have another option, we can live in another kingdom now. So, LET’S LIVE THERE.

The problem seems to me to be that we wanna live in that kingdom AFTER we die – but for here and now, we just wanna paddle about in the mud and play in the stuff that the enemy has spread around here on earth. Pigs play in mud, not people – especially not our King’s Kids! And compromise is a deadly enemy of the truth. Compromise takes our eyes away from what we can do here and now – and renders us useless in this world spiritually speaking. satan is overjoyed to distract us from our real purpose until we are dead. And getting DEAD is something human beings have very little control over.

It is also incredibly useful to remember that participating in sin makes us deaf, and it takes our God-given sight away. So-o-o-o … when we can’t hear or see … then our personal obedience guidance system is broken, and we did it to ourselves. It means we need a spiritual check-up. My advice is to pick up the bible and start reading – God Himself will speak to us as we read – we need our faith-bank in Him built up to full. Personally I think if we do not esteem and decide to participate in what we have been given by Him, we will end up living in the shadows of this life. Always striving for something we can’t find, and never being satisfied and content with what we actually have. We’ll eventually become pale replicas of the person-we-could-have-been. Imagine how much bigger we can be, when we simply walk with Him, minute by minute, day by day. 

Let’s look at something that I think illustrates my point. There are over 2.13 million species on this planet. Now how do you think they got their names? They didn’t come with name tags! The bible says Adam did it … ‘so God created all the animals and the birds and He brought them to Adam to see what he will call them and “whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.”’(Gen. 2.19) I’ll bet that was a long, day, week, month, year! Maybe Adam actually had the use of 100% of his brain … instead of our mingy little 11%. We’ve been restored to a place higher than Adam’s place. We live in total fellowship with the God of the universe. He doesn’t have to visit us, anymore. We are now His temple!

However, that happened to Adam before he and Eve chose control and a snack, over God’s will. Humanity lost more than living in a fabulous garden! We lost the beginnings of a relationship that was normal, natural and part of Adam’s daily life. However, mankind’s total restoration from sin was incredibly expensive. Because of Christ and what He did for us, now, we have the privilege of spreading love, life and joy around everywhere we go instead of doing the everyday humdrum stuff that drives us all crazy. Hey! Your shadow just might heal the sick!! 

Human beings can contribute to this world in ways we have never even thought about. Forget going into space. We know the Maker of heaven and earth – the One Who made those stars.  And we’ve been chosen to carry His Presence into a world that has no purpose … except for a self-aggrandising one. We can introduce others to the meaning of life. What an honour. Count me in Lord!

My bones creak some days, and my ankles swell up from time to time, plus I lack energy, and I don’t always sleep well at night … BUT – I know that I carry Jesus’ Presence with me everywhere I go! So do you. It’s a choice. Unlike the old Testament, we don’t have to ‘blow smoke’ to hide ourselves so we can talk to God, and hopefully He will talk to us. Those days are gone! He wants to be in every part of our daily lives.

Sin is no longer a problem because now, we have an Advocate … a King’s Counsel, for the plaintiff, standing right beside the throne. Jesus Christ speaks PEOPLE. All He has to do is to point to His scars and we are completely restored. Ask yourself today, are you your own worst enemy? Nothing can keep us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus … nothing but our own choices. 👋🏻

P 2193 Stand with Him. The view is different where the Lord is.

/ DVH

In today’s politically adverse climates, we dare not think that God is on my side, or, maybe He is on that other person’s side. I just want to state here and now, that the Lord God, Maker of Heaven and Earth is on HIS OWN SIDE (Joshua 5:14) … And the best thing we can do when things get difficult, is to take the time to step away from what’s happening to us, or even what we think we need, and ask Him to help us to stand with Him … ON.HIS.SIDE! Almighty God’s view of this world is different from ours – there is another reality – His. This is a key to coping when things are tough.

Some of you reading this blog today are suffering. It can be extremely hard to maintain your faith when everything around you seems to be so anti-God, or even anti-you and your personal POV! But these turbulent times are precisely the moments that we need to remember that we believe in God because of WHO HE IS – not just for what He might or might not do for us. “But without faith it is impossible to [walk with God and] please Him, for whoever comes [near] to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He rewards those who [earnestly and diligently] seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6. 

Christians have sometimes interpreted this verse from Hebrews from our own needs. We think that the word ‘reward’ means that we will get what we want, and when that doesn’t happen then we get extremely disappointed instead! I don’t believe that this is the only way to interpret this verse.  I think our Father’s idea of a reward is His increased Presence in our lives. He wants us to ask Him, when things are tough, for His POV.

Sadly we have strayed so far away from looking at this life through His eyes … His plans for us – which are “to give us a hope and a future” – that we can’t quite remember what being in His Presence does for us! His Presence clarifies things. More of HIM and His kingdom in our lives, is the reward we need more than anything else. He doesn’t see this life the way we do. Human beings often want pain to go away, but maybe that pain is doing something somewhere that we simply can’t see.

Here is a verse that impacted me in Psalm 46. “Surrender your anxiety. Be still and realize that I am God.” TPT Psalm 46:9. Here is the Message version:“Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at Me, your High God, above politics, above everything.” 

That line ‘step out of the traffic’ is brilliant!  I love it. When we are stuck in traffic we can’t think about anything else except how to escape from the stress and noise!  The Holy Spirit is saying here that we need to step away from those things that are putting pressure on us. In the Passion translation it tells us to “be still.” Stand still, breathe, and wait for whatever He will say or do next. Don’t be tempted to rush on to solve the problem by yourself. God is in charge of our time here on earth, let Him order your life.

At first glance, it can seem that if the Lord would only make the problem go away, then that’s the best answer! However, when this life overwhelms us, finding the Lord in the middle of our problems reassures us that we can make it through. Simply because there can be no worry in His Presence!  We need to see our lives through His eyes, that’s the key to standing on His side. When we let go of our agendas and let the Holy Spirit open our eyes to what is really going on, that’s when we are standing with Him. The right key in the right place can reveal His will. 

In the bible, Elisha prayed for his servant when they were totally surrounded by their enemies in 2 Kings 6. He prayed for this man to see the kingdom reality around them, because the other man’s fear had blinded him. Then Elisha did an amazing thing – he also prayed for their enemies to be BLIND – so the only people who could see that huge angel army were Elisha and His servant! Ya might want to think on that for a month or two – I know I will! 🧐 We have the power to see what is going on from the Lord’s view – He doesn’t hide Himself from us.

There is another reality around us that is often hidden from our sight. But the more we live in His Presence, the more this world has no hold over us and our eyes become attuned to what is actually going on in the Kingdom of God – instead of simply staring helplessly at the works of satan.  When we live like this, we see this life through faith’s eyes. Our job is to pray His Kingdom down here into this earth. Not for revenge, or justification, but for His will to be done. Step out of the noisy traffic of this life and be still. There is another reality. Bless you. 🤗

P 2189 Fellowship.

/ DVH

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28

Hubby is Singaporean Chinese, a chosen-Aussie, but he doesn’t speak a whole lot of Chinese any more. Meanwhile, his mother speaks 5 Chinese languages as well as English – she was matron of a hospital! I adore her, she is the sweetest, dearest lady. There are plenty of highly-motivated people in my hubby’s family. His father was a nursing educator before he retired, as well as a lay preacher – his family is filled up with over-achievers. There were no Christians at all in my family, but several generations of Christians on my husband’s side. What a contrast! Meanwhile, because I am a multi-generational Aussie, I can have trouble with this world’s idea of English … forget Chinese!

Years ago now, my dear hubby’s beloved mama, his precious grandmother was still with us, here in this world. When she died, we both cried and cried for days. I still have tears in my eyes while I am typing this. What a truly wonderful little lady she was – from the minute she met me I was instantly family – and hubby was a favoured grandson. She didn’t speak a great deal of English and her main fellowship came from her church family. 

The Holy Spirit pointed out to us one day that whenever we saw her, she always had her dear little nose in her bible. He reminded us that we could talk to her … using the bible. So we did. Her bible was written in Chinese, and ours was in English. We just made sure we had the same version and … away we went! Oh, we had such a glorious time together. It was truly God-kissed.

We laughed, we cried – with joy – and we shared our love for Him together as well. Other people couldn’t work out how we were managing to talk to her because she only spoke Teo-Chew. But that didn’t matter one bit, the Holy Spirit’s system worked splendidly! And every time we went to where she lived, we’d go down to the room where she sat, and fellowship with her, we never wanted to leave her. It was just such a blessing and  something we looked forward to doing.

Because of Mama, I learnt to say ‘praise the Lord’ in Chinese, pretty quickly. And hallelujah is the same in any language. Mama prayed for us, and we prayed for her – and nobody understood a word anybody else said but it didn’t matter! There are no barriers in the Spirit. Hubby’s grandma went to a Chinese Church of Christ, and we went to a Pentecostal one and that did not matter either! Theology never came up – but Jesus came up a whole lot. You know this dear elderly lady merrily gave out words of knowledge to other people? Even though she didn’t actually have a label for it – she just told them whatever God told her to say! And those words were accurate, every time. 

At 85 she used to catch the bus to go across town to visit the ‘old’ people in her church. Some people are just pure gold! … And she was one of them. I learnt so much from our too-short time together. I plan on hugging her to bits when I get to heaven I can tell you. Because Mama taught me so much about the unity we can have in the Spirit – the unity that has nothing whatsoever to do with theology.

I was not exactly a prized granddaughter-in-law in this world’s eyes, but that did not matter at all to her. She loved me on sight and I loved her right back. You know, older people still have a lot to give if we don’t park them in the snoozing bay up the back of the church. 😂 The bible tells us not to despise wisdom, and growing old teaches you a lot – if you let it, and your brain doesn’t periodically go on strike!  Age teaches us all about what is important … and what is not. 

It seems today, that I am bragging on family, so I’m just going to continue. As you know, hubby just had a nasty operation on his right hand recently. His dominant hand. He is sitting two feet from me painting some things to give away on our next trip. My dear man likes to paint prophetic paintings for other-people-who-don’t-know-Jesus-yet. Right now he is painting with his LEFT non-dominant hand. And it looks no different to the lovely work he does with the right one. I told you we have really talented people in our family! See above.↑

My point today is obvious, there are no barriers that can keep the Holy Spirit out. Not language, race, creed, or attitude … if you see a barrier ask the Lord how to bring it down. He comes up with the most amazing things. We can spend so much time trying to figure stuff out, trying to be the people we think we are meant to be – and heaven’s vast resources are left dormant.  We need to learn to access those heavenly things … and throw our supposed skills out of the window, by cultivating Holy Spirit’s Presence. He will do amazing things in our ordinary everyday lives. Let Him. 👋🏻