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P 3297 How to humble yourself.

/ DVH

In years gone by — even before I was born(!!), there were carefully embroidered scriptural sayings on the walls of most homes. The amazing thing was, that previous generation valued and embroidered challenging scriptures to remind themselves of what the Lord has said. They put these sayings up for everyone to see. Things have changed somewhat eh? 

I think we can also get a pretty good idea about what the Lord thinks about people’s lives, when we read the Old Testament, and see how He responded to the Israelite’s disinterest, disobedience and disloyalty. However in the NEW, He says stuff like this through1 Peter 5:6. “So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time He will lift you up in honour.”  Today I want to talk about this particular verse and how it might apply in our daily lives. I propose to give a hypothetical scenario that will hopefully clarify what I’m getting at. So off we go …

“… A Christian is at work dashing about, their feet barely touching the floor, when the boss calls them into his office. They kind of hope that he is finally recognising how much effort they make every day — but unfortunately, … not! Their boss appears to be nit-picking about something that went wrong that doesn’t matter all that much, and what’s worse, they didn’t do it! Now this situation will not get this person fired, they will just get one of their boss’s interminable lectures on ‘blah blah blah blah’. So they stand there trying to keep an interested look on their face, because their boss is a bit of a control freak. 

But THEY know, that they know, that they didn’t make the mistake – yet the boss is going on and on about this error like the building is on fire because of it. What to do? Do they throw the person who actually did do it, under the bus? After all, the Christian happens to know that the person who did it seems to be a lazy sod, who does as little work as possible. Lately they are often at home throwing a fake sickie. It would serve them right to get a good ticking off, it might just motivate them into action! Meanwhile the boss keeps droning on and on, and  they are waiting for a pause, so they can clarify whose fault it really is, and then the Lord says: “Don’t do it.”And they totally know it is the Holy Spirit talking to them! 

On drones the boss, but suddenly he stops and looks right at them and says: “Is there anything you would like to contribute?” After they have bitten their tongue nearly in half — they mumble out an apology as sincerely as they can, and tell the boss they will make every effort not to make the same mistake twice, and stumble back to their desk. Then they look over at their often-absent, always lazy, work-mate and he’s looking at the races on his computer! It seems some people never learn. So — do they pass on the lecture with gusto, or just keep schtum? 

This is the way temptation works. This guy is being tempted to vindicate himself, and give the other person a serve. However, in those moments you have a perfect place to humble yourself, and ask the Lord Himself to vindicate you! Then perhaps you might start silently praying for this guy to pick up his game. This is where we ask ourselves: “what would love do?” And maybe Proverbs 10:12 drops into our mind: “Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers and overwhelms all transgressions [forgiving and overlooking another’s faults.” 

Now our mythical example has a choice. He can dob this guy in and save his ego, or perhaps pay out on the man privately, because it is actually his workmate’s fault. But this means they are adding to the pile of junk that seems to be squashing the life out of the other man. But after all that, what has this man’s situation got to do with them? This guy is not exactly their favourite person anyway.

So the Christian man wanders outside for lunch, and they want to pray.  But … here comes the offender and he wants to sit next to them! Suddenly this man is babbling on about how hard life is and how he has been thinking of ending it all, because his wife left him, and he misses his wife and kids. Instant relief falls on the Christian, because they didn’t say anything to the boss about him. Then the Lord says: “Help him.” The Holy Spirit gives this guy a road map to healing for the man who has caused him so much trouble.

Here’s what I have learnt. Closed spiritual doors swing open, when we choose to take His Way through our difficulties. If we put down our pride— and look at someone else and their situation — we will start walking in Jesus’ shoes. People said things about Him that were so far from the truth that they were obviously lies!  But He chose to love and help others, despite the agenda-ridden underlying rotten attitudes that came at Him. Jesus had no pride, because He always knew where His help came from. “Our help is from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:2 and Psalm 124:8.

Humbling yourself is not fun. It hurts us to the degree that we realise our own pride is still alive and kicking! In Christianity there is always a greater good, and the greater good is the Lord’s domain. He can steer us through anything. Humbling ourselves and letting go of our right to be defensive, is in our Father’s Kingdom territory. We let Him defend us. Bye. 👋.

P 3296 Choose to Love.

/ DVH

“Those who are loved by God, let His love continually pour from you to one another, because God is love. Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of Him. The one who doesn’t love has yet to know God, for God is love. The light of God’s love shined within us when He sent His matchless Son into the world so that we might live through Him. This is love: He loved us long before we loved Him. It was His love, not ours. He proved it by sending His Son to be the pleasing sacrificial offering to take away our sins. Delightfully loved ones, if He loved us with such tremendous love, then “loving one another” should be our way of life! No one has ever gazed upon the fullness of God’s splendour. But if we love one another, God makes His permanent home in us, and we make our permanent home in Him, and His love is brought to its full expression in us.”1 John 4:7-12 TPT.

Father God’s Love is not a theory or a lovely idea, it is the reason you and I are still here. Love can be voluntarily learned under the Holy Spirit’s tutelage – and we are here to learn to love those who treat us terribly, ignore us, hate us, or speak against us. Why? This very process is what forms Christ within us. As we co-operate with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God – we will learn to recognise what His love looks like. This means we are getting to know Him and His Ways. His love is not like this world’s love. God’s love is not indulgence, it is our pathway into holiness. 

So when we respond badly to our circumstances, we need to repent and repair things. However, every time we choose to follow the Holy Spirit, and we use our faith to respond differently — the Spirit of the Living God transforms us from the inside OUT. Suddenly we find we are walking with the Lord and it is easy. It is important to recognise that we are wasting our time fighting for our rights – dead people don’t have rights! The bible tells us to “RECKON ourselves DEAD to sin and ALIVE to righteousness.” Romans 6:11. 

This means that the way we regard the situations life flings at us, is what really matters. We can do what we’ve always done,  smile politely and say ‘that’s OK’ … but we know it isn’t!  We can avoid the person hurting us. Or we can sit about feeling sorry for ourselves and throw a pity party with our friends … OR … we can take His word and do what Jesus would do. 

The Lord Jesus saw satan for what he is – he’s a deceiver. A big bag of whispers, wheedles, half-truths and lies. he will tell us we can’t possibly do what God wants because that means we will be giving in. Then that other person will win. But we have the power within us to yield to love, not because of our own self-effort, but because of what Christ died to give us. This life is not about who wins and who loses – it is about learning to love like Jesus does. 

Let’s spend a moment thinking about all the people you have trouble loving — and see those people as neon highlighters. They highlight what is really inside us. Actually, that’s often why we get mad at them! We can all appear sweet and caring … until somebody pokes the bear!  BTW, we need to encourage each other into doing good works, not into losing our tempers. Love is not mushy, self-serving, or simply getting along with someone who is difficult. Love is an ACTION word. It’s a verb not a noun.  A noun is the name of something, a verb is something we do. We may not FEEL any love, but we choose to DO what love would do. 

Love is our first responder attitude to someone else’s hatred, fear, or rebellion. We start with love, we continue in love (Hebrews 13:1);  and we finish with love. (Proverbs 17:17). Love is not meant to be the default setting on our personal radar, it is a way to live. We need to go to love asap, and stay with it. Why?? Because LOVE always wins, it cannot fail! (1 Corinthians 13:8). Just don’t touch that dial in the middle of whatever is going on! Keep trusting Jesus. The Holy Spirit can walk us through any place of temptation, we don’t have to be afraid of it. (Psalm 23).

We didn’t just receive God’s acceptance and forgiveness, for all our sins, we also received an inheritance. Read the gospels and pay particular attention to the bits Jesus says. Conquering seemingly impossible things, is what our inheritance looks like! It’s what His kingdom looks like. If we could be like Jesus in our own strength, then He would not have had to die for us. When Jesus died, He didn’t leave us money, because we don’t need money – God Himself promises to supply our needs! 

So tell Him what you need, and if you need to love someone, ask for it! Then step out and act in faith like Peter did when he walked on the water.  We inherited the Lord Jesus’ propensity and desire to love the unlovely! Love can and will conquer all – just don’t let go of it and drift off into thoughts of spite, bitterness or revenge.

The Holy Spirit has a way through every difficult situation we find ourselves in. Our biggest trap is we have already learnt this world’s responses. Some of our responses are even automatic, because we’ve honed defensive weapons to protect ourselves—and when we feel threatened, we go straight to them. We’ve been deceived by our enemy into thinking we must work at it and solve things. But God promises to help and protect us. So in order to experience His help, we will need to lay our defensive devices down, and remind ourselves that here and now – “…our God is our protection and with Him we are safe, He protects me like a shield.” (Psalm 18:2.) 

We can learn, with His help, how to ‘identify the things that so easily trip us up‘ (Hebrews 12:1) and instead pay attention, and throw our lives into living like Christ did. The reality is, when we resort to sin, we aren’t trusting Him to look after us, and that’s when we need more of His love. Study His love. See for yourself what God’s love looks like, then choose to love with His love instead. Our choices rule our lives. Bye for now. 👋

P 3274 We already picked a side.

/ DVH

A while ago, you and I decided to be on the Lord’s side and the following scriptures are about what that looks like. Our lives are not meant to be the same now. Our God is the God of the angel armies —— it says so in the bible. So, let’s look at what being on God’s side looks like! Get ready to chew on a heap of scripture:

Elisha and his servant in 2 Kings 13:18…  “Go, find out where he  (Elisha) is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked. Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Strike this army with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.”

If you ever went to Sunday School as a child, you would know this story. I taught SS for many years, the kids loved this one. I picked it today because it clearly shows what faith does. First of all — faith can see what is unseen by human eyes.That’s no small thing. Elisha’s servant was full of fear, but Elisha’s faith in God meant he was not ruled by fear, or even what he could see in the natural world around him. He saw the kingdom reality. We all need spiritual eyes. Ask for them. Spiritual sight will help us defeat our enemies instead of flailing about getting nowhere. 

Now, let’s look at David’s life, when he kills Goliath in 1 Samuel 17:37… “The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine…” on to 1 Samuel 17: 45-47… “David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” 

This is what great faith looks like. It draws on its previous experiences with God’s goodness and grace and aims that knowledge at the mountain in faith’s way. We can read these accounts of God in action and His men and their obedience…  and enjoy them and rejoice …OR, we can go much further, we can use them to edify and build up our faith in the God Who did them! I think we aim too low,  because we do not want to face disappointment if things don’t work out the way we hope they will. We need to read these stories to build our faith up. Holding fast to things like:  if the Lord did that then what will He do now?

We are not here merely to preach the gospel, we are here to dem-on-strate the gospel. And if we are bad at doing that then we need to get on our faces and ask the Lord where we are missing His will. The bible says: “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In My Name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”  Mark 16:17. 

Jesus Himself said this in John 14:12: “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in Me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” Please note, just because some stories are in the Old Testament that does not mean we should assume those miracles were only for then – our God, the God of the angel armies, is with us! 

Jesus Himself testified to His Father’s army of angels when He said in Matthew 26:53:  “Do you think I cannot call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”  That’s approximately 72,000 angels! Jesus also referred to His Heavenly Father as the “Lord of hosts!” And look at this scripture in James 5:4 …  “Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.” We have God’s ear, we need to pray for those who cannot pray for themselves.

Our God will fight for us even before we ask Him to do it. When what is coming against me is too much for me to cope with, I ask the Lord to fight for me. Sadly we can sometimes lack experience of God’s goodness because we have not purified our motives. Here’s James 4: 2&3. “You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” 

James shows us what can be wrong with our motivation. Here’s a useful prayer: “Jesus, is this what YOU want or is it just something I think I need?” Amen. This scripture is a diagnostic tool. It explains where we can lose the blessing of progressively learning how good our God is! We shouldn’t give up or cede the ground to our enemy, our quest is to take back the ground from him. he has no right to stand anywhere in our lives. We need to pray, and check that our motives are pure. 

When we gave our lives to Christ – He took them. We’ve already picked a side! A position that we now stand in. The Lord God Almighty expects us to act like His kids and come confidently to the throne of Grace, to receive help in our time of need. That help is not just some sweet words we read in His book – that help is Divine Intervention into our circumstances. I pray for help all the time, because I need help … all the time! Bye. 👋

P 3271 “Blessed are those who mourn … for they shall be comforted.”

/ DVH

Here’s another version —of Matthew 5:4. “Blessed and enviably happy [with a happiness produced by the experience of God’s favour and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted!” (AMP)

My initial thought was, how can it be blessed to mourn? After all you are suffering. Perhaps somebody died, or plans were made and lost, or maybe your world went upside down overnight? I read through about a half a dozen versions to try to understand what this verse is saying…and they all said the same thing! So I was as much in the dark as I had been before. When I get verses like this one, I pray over it until I get some clarity and then I follow through on what He says with prayer and action.  

I looked at the verse again, and my first observation is that this is a promise. The words “shall be comforted” stood out to me. I have got be honest with you, that has not always been my experience so far. I’m not saying it hasn’t ever  happened … but not always, and very rarely right away. This means my understanding of what the Lord is saying, is actually incorrect. I came to the conclusion that I am using my experience as a yardstick. Big mistake. 

I must start from the premise that God’s Word is true, and that means it’s my knowledge or experience, or lack of it, that is at fault. What I am saying is—I don’t authenticate His Word, it authenticates or convicts or transforms me. Because Romans 3:4 says: “Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “ So that You may be proved right when You speak and prevail when You judge.”  There’s that sorted.  

But I can get stuck, because my own experience with grief – so far, is that you go in – by force or by circumstances – and you come out the other side … eventually! You can also get to stay there way too long, which is on my list of things to avoid at all cost! Grief does not seem like much of a blessing, at the time …either before, during or after … this means the Lord has a different idea of blessing and comfort to mine. Blessed is used over 500 times in the bible, depending on the version you read, and comfort appears approx.150 times. God is saying something I am not getting, and I know it isn’t Him, so it must be me. “Help, Help!”

Here’s a little snippet. The basic concept for comfort in both the Old and New Testaments is encouragement:  whether it happens by words, or the presence of another to help in time of need. Synonymous words are console, help, give relief, cheer up, exhort, and fear not. The Lord is promising us His Presence is going to be our comfort – not necessarily an exit from what is happening. Psalm 91:15: “He (the believer) will call upon Me and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him.”

Our Heavenly Father, Almighty God, promises to be with us. This means, despite our feelings, He does not withdraw His love and support, He stands with US. Now there is another aha! moment. One of Jesus’ own Names is Emmanuel, which literally means …”God is with us.” Because our Heavenly Father, is utterly faithful, and He cannot ever be otherwise — we can rely upon Him when we are thrown into mourning, whether we feel like He is there or not. Here’s a quote I found that explains that better than I can.

“So when God is with us, it means HE’S LITERALLY WITH US. You just can’t see Him. It’s like the wind. It’s there, and it LITERALLY MOVES THINGS YOU CAN SEE, even though you can’t see the wind that moves them.” (Caleb Jones, Reddit.) I liked what this person said. God is not making me wait because He is too busy or can’t be bothered. In these circumstances, I need to remind myself that He is doing something else. Something I cannot see or comprehend – YET.  

This means I will have to use my faith at a moment when I want to feel sorry for myself, or I am too exhausted to be bothered. That’s OK, God is still there with me. And grief, IS by nature, exhausting! I need to give whatever has happened to Him, and leave it with Him. Ephesians 5:13 MSG bible says:  

“Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.”  

I literally cannot fix the existing problem with my blog, I have to leave it in the hands of the server – who is in Denmark BTW. And I need to give the people I write for, and pray for… this means you! … to Him. I must deliberately trust that He has your best interests in His heart, because the bible says He does. That’s what I am aiming at.  Bye. 👋

P 3270 The impossible is easy for the Lord …

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

P 3258 Unless the Lord …?

/ DVH

Here is a quick quiz to help you to identify the gifts the Lord has given YOU. Ask yourself, how do I? “… show that… (I am)… … a letter from Christ, … … written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”  2 Corinthians 3:3. 

Part 1: What stirs your heart and sets it on fire? Is it, talking about Jesus to others, or helping them spiritually by praying for them, or do you like to do practical things? Do you find yourself secretly praying for strangers? Is it really important to you that people understand the bible, as well as read it?  Do you look at others and suddenly understand what is holding them back? Are you in love with Godly wisdom? Ready? … Here’s more!

When something bad happens does your faith rise up and say – “God can fix that!”  Are you the kind of person who looks at difficulty and you can see a way through? Do you love to help others to regain their hope in Him? Do you love to write music, or sing along praising God for no other reason than He is worthy — whether anybody else is there or not? Do you suddenly find creative answers to sticky problems? Does purity mean everything to you? Do you like to help others grow?  Here’s some more…

Can you stick with difficult situations and remain determined to see God at work? Have you got a deep unfathomable, reverential respect for the Lord and His ways? Do you see gifts in other people’s lives and they don’t know about them? Have you got a burning desire to raise up many churches for God’s glory? Do you see and want to help sick or broken people, and no matter where you are, you want to pray for them? Does the devil and his rubbish make you mad and you want to go after him because you know Jesus died to see people set free? Can you see through satan’s lies,to the truth? Nearly there…

Have you found that extraordinary things happen all around you? Do you speak out words you don’t understand, but somehow the Holy Spirit helps you to understand them? Here are some scriptures that are worthy of your prayerful attention.1 Corinthians 12; Romans12; Ephesians 4. This little quiz was FYI. If you look at your answers they may help you find a gift in these scriptures. Personally I’m not fussed about labels, because I think they can limit what we think God can do.The Holy Spirit has very kindly given us His three expositions about gifts, and they are worthy of our attention.

A spiritual gift is God’s power at work through us to build up, change, transform, and help others. It may be one person or it could be ten thousand. These gifts are given to use for other people, they are not of this world! We don’t earn these things, nor do we deserve them—they have been chosen for us by the Holy Spirit specifically. He gives His gifts to as He wants, to use in situations of His choosing.

Part 2, How to know what gift you don’t have! Years ago, there were all kinds of meetings we needed to attend at our church. You were supposed to bring food, often delegated by someone else. I can bake a cake … any idiot can! I used to make all sorts of cakes for my kid’s lunches etc. But as soon as someone asked me to bring a cake to a meeting, it would collapse, burn, or get stuck in the pan.

When I made it at home for us, it was fine. But when I made it for a meeting … it transformed into an ugly mess the minute I walked through the church door. So they asked me to make sandwiches instead. That was worse! You know those little pointy bits are meant to stand up like soldiers in a neat row? Mine instantly fell apart – and turned into two soggy separate bits that laid flat and looked appalling. The thing was, nobody ate them, they’d always end up in the bin. 

Over the years, I became aware that I definitely do not have the gift of hospitality – it is torture for me to have to entertain! However, I know people who have this gift and they are delighted to have strangers turn up at their door so they can pull together a meal for them … out of two bits of old bread and some stale sausage!!Everybody has a fabulous time, including the hosts. When guests leave our house, I need a cuppa tea, an aspirin and a good lie down – my fear of doing it wrong exhausts me!  

I’m also not good at arranging flowers. I just shove ‘em into a vase and hope for the best! Yet the church I went to years ago, kept putting me on the flower roster. In the end I plucked up the courage to tell them they didn’t deserve what I would come up with!! Another time we had a fete. My job was to put fringes on these fabulous shawls the minister’s wife made. I cut the first piece and then I used the first piece to cut the second and so on, all around the shawl. The fringe kind of looked like it was swimming up hill, getting smaller as it went. His wife looked at me, shook her head — then she went and did it herself. Hers was perfect. Of course!

My last point is this – don’t be pushed into doing something that isn’t on the Holy Spirit’s agenda for you. This is why we need to know Him and His ways! Otherwise you will waste your time, energy and probably stretch relationships – all at the same time. But whatever the Lord asks you to do, you can do it, even if you do feel scared.“Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. ” Psalm 127:1. PS: I’m a lousy bricklayer too! Bye. 👋

P 3242 Let’s go swimming.

/ DVH

Have you ever watched people as they enter the water to swim? Some jump in …Cowabunga! Some throw themselves in from a standing position. There are others who use a rope or a diving board – but either way, it all ends up in a big splash. Yet others e-a-s-e themselves in, bit by bit, they usually end up in the water up to their waist, but … just don’t splash them…  they are not ready for all-over water yet! Then they slowly descend, inch by inch, into water like a sinking city being overtaken by the ocean.  

I’m a descender…and I don’t go any deeper than my knees nowadays, because this old body can’t fight with moving water anymore. And don’t you dare splash me – because we will cease to be friends if you splash me! My dear hubby dives in, head first, then he comes up grinning like there is a magical secret on the bottom that I am missing out on. ‘But I don’t care. This is as far as I go!’ 

So what’s with the water allegory? Today I want to talk  about the River of God. This river is our spiritual life blood, it is our multi-directional ride further and further into His kingdom. Some people choose to jump into that river, or … maybe Jesus gives them a bit of a nudge … either way they are ruined for life! They took a risk, and  went out the front, and now they keep splashing and moving along in their little plastic brightly coloured lifebuoys. They are the noisy fun-makers. Others of us quietly ease ourselves into it, we don’t want to get out of our depth too quickly. Some of us opt to jump — but the splash never-sort-of-kind-of happens. I call that faith-stretching.

Father God doesn’t give tuppence about how we choose to get into the River, He just wants us all in it! We are safer in the Living Water of the Holy Spirit, than we are on dry land. On dry land we will become exhausted more easily, and we can forget that we belong in the river of life. We can also forget to drink! In the river of God the waves may splash you in the face and you end up with water on the inside as well as the outside… However, the Holy Spirit can’t carry us through life’s rapids if we choose to stay out of the river … and let’s not even mention negotiating waterfalls! 

The saddest thing of all, is that fear can stop us from moving forward. I’ve been scared of any body of water except the stuff that comes out of the tap! I nearly physically drowned once as a very young child, and it put me off the deeper channels where carefreeness adds to the person’s enjoyment. I’d love to ride down the river on a rubber ring, but that bad experience has diminished and drowned my desire to try. 

Maybe a lot of people are little like me when it comes to the River of God. Once, long ago, they bravely plucked up their courage and stuck their toe in, or maybe they even went in up to their knees — but then a speed boat rushed by knocking them off their feet and sending them under. Under is not good. Ask a surfer. Under means you may not know where UP is. This person’s trust has been damaged. 

Our God is so faithful. He will repair our trust in Him, even though we may secretly blame Him for whatever happened to us, He patiently waits for us to realise we were born for the River. ‘HELP!’ Is such a useful word. It applies to drowning, as well as the fear of losing control. I probably overuse that word a lot!  But I know that the Lord wants to help each one of us with those things that have frightened us, so that we can learn to trust Him. 

When I feel like I am drowning, even a little bit! – I call out to Him. Just like Peter in the next scripture. Then peace slowly descends upon my soul, and I can move on. Most of what I’ve managed to learn about the Lord, came this way – through His quiet, gentle and thorough patience with me. I’ve learnt if I let Him help me calm the storm inside, I can more easily walk through the storm raging on the outside. Jesus called to Peter to come and walk on the water with Him, but the Lord was already there, ON the water – He won’t make us do this alone! Matthew 4:25-32.

“Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw Him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s You,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to You on the water.”“Come,” He said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” He said, “why did you doubt?” And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.”

Jesus can stand with us in any circumstance – I don’t care how stormy or windy it looks – He’s there! He is saying: “Come to ME.” We know that Peter faltered, but our Lord is so faithful – He did not let Him drown. God will not take His Word back. When He says “Come,” we are not walking toward our doom, we are walking toward Life Himself. Walking toward Him helps us trust Him. The secret is to get off the banks of the river and start to get into the water! Trust will grow as we keep our eyes on Him.

That other guy may send speed boats, or crocodiles or alligators by to scare us, but they can’t stop us. The next step is to begin to enter the water — Jesus is right there with you … you will hear Him calling you. “COME!!”Now throw your legs out of the boat and trust Him – you are about to have an adventure. Let’s go swimming.   Bye  🏊🏼‍♀️!

P 3232 We are never alone.

/ DVH

Despite how we might feel – we are NEVER alone. When we give our lives to the Lord, He comes to live IN us and WITH us, in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Right after Jesus told the disciples that He had to leave them – He explained the Holy Spirit will be with them instead. Let’s start chewing on these verses, because Jesus said them, and this stuff is the very substance of comfort when our world blows up! God is always with us.

Both Philip and Thomas ask the Lord questions that show they have no clue what is going on. But the Lord Jesus is extraordinarily patient with them, and He further explains Himself in John 14:15-17. “If you love Me, keep My commands. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to HELP you and BE WITH you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you.”  He didn’t say they would ‘feel’ the Holy Spirit, instead Jesus said He would be with them. This is a faith matter.

During this conversation Philip and Thomas have taken what the Lord is saying to them literally. Our own thoughts, unless we ask the Holy Spirit to help us, will just confuse us, and we need His input. Jesus is explaining to His disciples that He has to leave, but the Holy Spirit is coming to help all of them after He is gone. The Lord is introducing them to the One called Comforter. He is already resident in Jesus, and BECAUSE we know Jesus – we know Him!

These two disciples have their humanity showing, they want to know what comes next and they think they need proof. Our inadequacies don’t bother the Lord, at all. What we see here shows us that even our earthly way of thinking can draw Him into revealing deeper truths. These two conversations teach me about the Way God responds to our honest, if not sometimes misguided, questions. He responds with enduring, endless patience and kindness, and imparts to us the potential to see deeper. I urge you to be like Joshua! Don’t run out of His Presence when God gives you an answer, stay a while, and wait for what He will say NEXT. Meanwhile, if we feel condemned in any way, that’s not the Lord we are talking to! 

Jesus does not do what you or I might do, and call these men idiots because they weren’t paying attention to this or that sermon. He is incredibly generous with both of them. They are His beloved disciples and friends, and He knows that the thought of Him leaving is scary. I am greatly comforted by the fact that this shows me that no question is too dumb! These men teach us it is better to ask a dumb question than it is to remain silent.

Jesus tells His disciples they are to wait for the Holy Spirit to come, because He is going to return to heaven. Do you see that? The Greater revelation is coming, they just have to wait for HIM. The Father will personally send the Holy Spirit back to them to be their comforter, teacher, guide, counsellor, the One Who would be there beside them and IN them. All of these verses show us the Lord is focussed on US…His disciples. Jesus isn’t expounding theology, He is revealing truth – even though these men don’t get it yet. 

Meanwhile, disobedience, not stupidity, or silly questions, can get in the way of us hearing and obeying Him. Humility is needed, otherwise we will have blocked our own ears. However, just because we don’t understand what He says to us, that does not mean we’ve done something wrong. The Holy Spirit loves to help us understand – His aim is communication, not information! His ability to be everywhere with everyone, all at the same time is to our advantage. We simply need to remember that we can’t put a timer on God’s answers. He will answer us, in the fullness of HIS time. 

Because of these verses we can see that the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are ALL engaged on our behalf to help us and comfort us whenever we feel lost and alone. Even if we have sinned, or done, or said something dumb, They are there for us, to walk us to a new place where we can understand. Just don’t give up when you don’t get it. Wait! Press in, keep asking the Holy Spirit for His help.

Jesus teaches us that we can recognise the Holy Spirit because the Spirit of God will make Himself real to us.He will say the things we daily read in His book..“ALL Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable for instruction, for conviction [of sin], for correction [of error and restoration to obedience], for training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately—behaving honourably with personal integrity and moral courage];…” 2 Timothy 3:16.

If we need His comfort, we can read from anywhere in the bible and the Holy Spirit will reveal God’s comfort to us. It doesn’t matter where we read, just press in and wait. We will discover His comfort. It’s all over His book, but we won’t see it if all we want is answers. God is not Google – Google is just a servant of our times! The Holy Spirit is God sent to us to help us understand. What is under the microscope is that God Himself has given us His Word. WE can be faithless, but He is always faithful, God speaks faith – we will always be learning.  Please remember, we are never alone – He’s always there. Bye. 👋

P 3221 Let’s have some Clarity.

/ DVH

I Corinthians 12:4-13 MSG. “God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God Himself is behind it all. EACH PERSON IS GIVEN SOMETHING TO DO THAT SHOWS WHO GOD IS: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful: wise counsel; clear understanding; simple trust; healing the sick; miraculous acts; proclamation; distinguishing between spirits tongues; interpretation of tongues.

All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of His one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which HE has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptised.) Each of us is now a part of His resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—His Spirit—where we all come to drink.”

I love this version of 1 Corinthians. I personally think it is worth reading it several times. Clarity is a wonderful thing! We should never ever doubt that our Heavenly Father has a purpose for each and every one of our lives, He says so, right here. Believe Him! That’s what faith does. He tells us here that every single gift is needed. Unfortunately this is also where our enemy loves to lie to us. he whispers to our hearts that our presence, our gift is useless and it won’t be missed. Perhaps he tells you it won’t matter if you aren’t here. he’s a liar BTW. But we both already know that!

I wonder if the problem is this, we aren’t valuing those people who are unseen, and that is the very reason why some of us seem to be floundering about not doing very well? Many valuable unseen and seemingly unimportant parts are missing. Perhaps all the visible parts are starting to get worn out, and misfiring? Simply because some of us are not in our God-given place doing what He sent us here to do. He planned our lives even before we arrived here, and each one of us has something to do that no-one else can. Even though our presence can seem insignificant in the light of this world’s aims and judgments … there are no insignificant people.

Our neighbour died last week. He wasn’t old, but he wasn’t all that young either. However we knew him and we cared for him. I cried and cried. And initially I didn’t have a clue why I cried so much! Then I realised that this world seems a little poorer now he isn’t in it. I will miss him walking by our house on his way to his. He didn’t seem to contribute much outwardly, yet:   “…the death of one man diminishes us all.” Just because our world has stopped valuing ordinary individuals in favour of bright shiny talented people, that doesn’t mean it is true! Because God Himself sent you and I here, we are here for a reason. 

Let’s just spend a few minutes thinking about YOU, and your body and how it works for you even when you are not aware of it. Your health relies upon things inside you that you will, hopefully, never see! All of those things – some of them are big, but most are small – ticking away doing their various God-appointed jobs. If one of them misfires or ceases to perform, the rest of your body will tell you about it pretty quickly. Here’s today’s thought: maybe the Body of Christ needs YOU to do what God put you here to do so we can fully function. 

Thirty-six years ago when I had a liver transplant I began to realise just how important my liver is! It’s a funny-looking filter that nobody talks about. Health professionals worry and puzzle over hearts, and lungs, and limbs, too much fat here, not enough there — but actually our body ceases to function normally when our liver is diseased or injured. They don’t know why mine needed to be replaced. It just kind of lost heart and gave up. Let me tell you when it did begin to lose function I felt it. I was quite young but I just got slower and slower and sicker and sicker. Actually, I think the Holy Spirit used our body in this scripture as an illustration, because it is personal, and some bodies can be problematic.

One of the biggest mistakes we can make is to believe the enemy’s lies. Importance does not have to come with bells and whistles, trumpets and a parade. Maybe seeing you just going about doing what you do, helps someone else keep on walking from one day to the next. Perhaps your kindness reminds them this world isn’t all that bad. Sometimes what makes someone important is that we suddenly find we don’t like living without them. 

If you don’t know why you are here, then ask the Lord to show you. Just by simply living, we are changing the world around us. Especially when we offer to help someone, and we notice that they are alive and struggling like we do. Clarity is a very valuable asset, it helps us to see and appreciate each other. Bye. 👋