His eyes

P 3331 In but not of …

/ DVH

“Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes.” Romans 12:2 TPT.  That’s pretty plain isn’t it? Not much to explain there. And here’s another one, where Jesus Himself is praying for us… “My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.” John 17:15-16. 

The thing is, without inward transformation, we are wasting our time and effort trying to capture the-people-who-don’t-know-Him’s attention with our own clever ideas and plans. We need to have the Lord’s guidance, His way to reach out to people. We serve the One Who took people out onto a hillside and they were so captured by what Jesus said, they didn’t even think about eating.

The point made in this scripture is that the Lord knows how to go straight to the heart of the matter, and we don’t. Let’s ask for His help! The bonus is we get to know God’s will for our lives. We no longer live by this world’s standards. The ‘latest thing’ is the ‘last thing’ on our minds! Unless the Holy Spirit kisses what we are doing and tears off the roof, our plans are limited, His are not.

Jesus isn’t praying for us to live detached from this world, like somehow what’s out there can stop what’s inside us from flourishing!  Our choices do that for us, they are what influence us. We don’t need to separate ourselves from the lives we are here to touch when we’ve decide to make Him our priority. Instead Jesus is praying that we will be protected from the devices of our enemy – who is all around us. Here’s my litmus test for in not of …  Ask yourself what occupies most of your thoughts? 

I have been to churches in many places, that are pale imitations of what this world can produce all by itself. In the end, the productions become more important than the God we worship or the people we are here to reach. Let’s realise that when it comes to production – this world is waa-aa-aa-ay better at it than we are! They’ve got great gizmos to help them make fake things look real.

I think that’s because whatever IS represented by this world is fake. In our churches we want to produce the real thing — but you can’t produce the real thing, from fake roots. Entertainment is by its very nature, anti-what-Jesus-stands-for. He wants to glorify His Father, by what He says and does. He can use entertainment, but He doesn’t need it. We can say we want to glorify God, but I’ve been involved in the production of a number of things in the past and this world does not easily let go of the idea that being bigger, better, brighter, more clever is the way to go! 

Human beings think that doing something well, is going to impress the world and help them to believe in what they are selling. They don’t need to be impressed with us, these people need the King, not our clever, glamorous well-produced rhetoric. Our message doesn’t need any help! It’s in the book and God Himself wrote it. Our God is the God of the Universe, He doesn’t want or need our advertising, He  wants to reach the people around us, with healing, deliverance, salvation and the Good News.

We have been asked to make disciples, followers of Jesus Christ – not groupies. Changing someone’s heart is His job. Ours is to co-operate with the Holy Spirit and make a permanent place for the Lord in our hearts and our churches – then we follow the Holy Spirit’s instructions regarding how we approach others. Our churches are where we meet to glorify Him and give Him the praise He so richly deserves. And all our gifts are to be surrendered and used to glorify Him — our fellowship is sweeter because of Him. 

Our meetings cannot be about “the atmosphere’ either – an atmosphere is easily created and easily broken. What we do is about Him, done for His sake, for His pleasure. We can’t substitute special effects for the anointing – it is far better to get on our faces and find out where we’ve missed Him, than to plough on competing with this world’s idea of a good time.  

To be in not of  means we are totally aware of our surroundings, and we can see and hear the people around us. Their needs, their hopes, their squashed broken lives. It is so easy to segregate ourselves away from the very people the Lord saved us to reach — simply because they do this and that, and that stuff might corrupt us. The hard times that have fallen upon everyone has disproved that theory. People are dying inside – they have no hope.  And guess what we have – HOPE! 

We have the incorruptible One living inside us!1 Peter 1:23 says: “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” 1 John 4:4: “Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” In but not of is about singular focus, not just distraction. I would rather spend 5 minutes with a Spirit-filled person than 5 seconds with someone else’s clever ideas. Bye for now, 👋

P 3125 The Lord has His own way of looking at things.

/ DVH

I know the bible says we must love the unlovely – but I confess, there was a time when I didn’t want to believe that. So I repented of unbelief and then the Holy Spirit very patiently took me through the bible and showed me His love in action in that book. This has totally changed the way I read the bible. It meant that I stopped reading stories about the men and women in them and their response — and started reading them from God’s point of view. Our God has endless patience with us!

I recommend that everyone have a go at this! Actively prayerfully, look for God Himself – His ways, His thoughts. Read the bible as if He is speaking to you, personally. Our God is incredibly active, and as we see Him in His book, His reality impacts our lives. Ask Him to reveal Who He is to you, and BTW, be aware that wonderfully interesting things can happen when you pray that prayer. Jesus came here, in Person to show us and teach us – what God is like. 

WE might treat sinners badly, but Jesus definitely didn’t. Instead, He bent down to where the sinner was, in the dirt! And He had compassion on everyone. The thing I immediately noticed was that Lord knew these people didn’t have a Shepherd to explain God’s Ways to them. Jesus Christ is our God-given Shepherd. The Bible clearly tells us God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts – but we must never forget we have a book full of what He thinks and what He does. Let’s stop looking at His book as stories about people, and what they think or say, and start looking at it as God revealing Himself to us. 

Otherwise His book becomes a series of instructions to be memorised and treasured purely for the WORDS. When I read God‘s book, I can choose to read it and read about other people who are like me and their struggles with God and man. But the person who really needs to know God is the one who chooses to follow Him. We will grow in our understanding and His grace for our part in His plans, when we choose to read the bible watching out for God Himself. Reading something, someone has written down, helps us to get to know the Author.

I believe it’s time for the bride of Christ to have deep meaningful times with the Holy Spirit, and let Him reveal God‘s heart to each one of us. Almighty God wants us is to triumph over our supposed enemies by doing things like – loving those who despitefully use us. When we do this, we release the Holy Spirit to have His Way. As we choose to make the bible about Him, it changes everything. Almighty God dearly longs to reveal His heart to all of us, and as He does that, we will see a part of His heart that has previously remained hidden. 

That thought is not meant to foster competition, or be a status symbol, by the way — many people have mistaken the Lord’s POWER for His HEART. However, He’s way too big for any one of us to understand. That’s why we will have eternity together, because we just plain don’t – and often can’t – get it. Instead we keep discovering new things and making them the next big thing … the NEW answer. Our God cannot be explained by a formula – He told us to seek Him. The Lord always plays the long game and human beings  are geared up for instant answers.

Until the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, His people remained ignorant. The precious Holy Spirit opened the disciples’ eyes, ears and their hearts to the reality of Christ’s life and death … who He is, what He has done for us. The very things that looked impossible for them before, now looked possible, because the Holy Spirit was there present with them, expanding their inner beings. He wrote what God said on on their hearts that day and nobody had to explain it. The Teacher, the Counsellor, the perfect Guidance of God Himself was there with them. He is with us, too. 

So that person you think you can’t stand for another minute;  or that person who used to beat you when you were a kid;  or that boss who is so unreasonable;  that spouse who can’t hear a word you say;  those people are all loveable IN Him! We simply need His heart, His eyes to see and hear them, not our own. Who loves them? GOD! Who knows them? He does! You will be amazed at how different people look, when you look at them through the eyes of the Holy Spirit. As we know Him we will understand how, and why He loves the way He does.

This happened to me with a near and dear relative. If I told you my story you might feel sympathy for me, and probably a bit angry with them. But God‘s point of view is bigger than yours and mine! The truth was I needed to look at this person through His eyes, and the minute I started to do that, I saw how broken they were. What I saw as rebellion and wickedness, was their response to the world they had come into, a world they didn’t understand. They were sheep who didn’t have a shepherd! 

Compassion rose up, and I began to truly love someone who was previously quite unlovable in my eyes. Meanwhile, I must warn you, the enemy did not let up on bashing away at my resolve – he doesn’t want anyone saved! That other person had been cemented into their attitudes, by time. So I had to choose to maintain my position in His plan for their lives, and make strong choices, with His help … to leave the past behind. I started to look forward to seeing them and being with them, because pleasing Him became my aim. Take the time to get to know how Almighty God thinks. Bye. 👋

P 2982 Dig and insist.

/ DVH

“Stop dwelling on the past. Don’t even remember these former things. I am doing something brand new, something unheard of. Even now it sprouts and grows and matures. Don’t you perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and open up flowing streams in the desert.”Isaiah 43:18-19 TPT.

Sometimes when we hear verses like those two above, we can hear it as a prophecy for the whole church. I’ve heard it quoted that way many times. But we also need to remember that God has always His eyes on each and every sparrow, so when we read verses like these we need to ask Him: “Lord, how does this apply to me, please?” We always need to personalise what is said … and then action it. 

Today, I want to concentrate on the fact that these two verses are for YOU, right here, right now. Our glorious Father, God, takes the messes we make in our lives and transforms them so wonderfully, that we don’t recognise them any more. He is so brilliant at it, I have had to pray: “And dear Lord please put a big sign over what You have done because I’m a bit thick and I will probably miss Your answer otherwise.” Sad but true. 

It is a fact of life that we can easily prejudge how our answers to prayer are supposed to look. I know I am stating the blooming obvious, but the Lord can do more than one thing at a time! Because Jesus paid our debt for us, it is His prerogative to answer however He likes. After all His answers are always for our good and far better than anything we can think up! They just don’t always look the way we think they should.

That’s why we need eyes to see Him at work. They really matter in instances like these – I ask for ‘His eyes’ all the time. The thing is, if what He does is ‘brand new,’ then our chances of knowing what it is in advance are most likely zero! However, the way we tell that it is His work is that it GROWS, and it produces life, and more life. Plus when that life flows out, away from us, it does other people good.

In this brief passage we also learn that dwelling on the things of the past is d.u.m.b. stupid. But we do it. It seems we have this inherent desire to find someone else to blame for our behaviour and reactions – read Genesis.  Adam and Eve passed blame about like we would pass the salt!  We blame our parents, our schools, our jobs, our friends, society etc. Nobody talks about personal choices any more. Death to self has always been difficult.  Even when it seems like there is no choice … taking a default position is still a choice. 

This is why we desperately need to renew our minds, so we can think and see things from His point of view. Otherwise we self-protect! Our own personal point of view can often be clouded by the past, and a hidden dominant sense of self. In another version, the above verse is written like this: “SEE,I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” This verse is the utter joy of our faith and life. The old is gone, the new is here. God says ‘SEE” … because most of the time we miss it!

If we want more insight into His Ways and thoughts, we need to make what He has already said, our priority. When we read His word in faith believing that He will speak to us, today— even if we are reading somewhere that seems more boring than somewhere else—He will speak to us. It is our expectancy/faith … that is the key to opening the door to fresh revelation.

And if I don’t get anything from what I am reading the first time, then I read it again. Then I read it out loud. Then I read it in another version. I have been known to read five or six versions to fully understand what He is saying to me. Insisting is the best kept secret. And sometimes we will have to break through a wall of unbelief we have constructed, to release our faith! 

Yeah, yeah I can hear someone up the back saying: “That’s alright with you lady, but I have to go to work most days and look after my family, etc. I don’t have all day!”  And that’s the problem, Jesus is not your first priority, dealing with any immediate needs is. That happens to me too! In other words the Lord is an add-on. Whatever bashes on your life and says: ‘Fix me now’ is a distraction. He must be our first thought even if someone is bleeding out! (Help!) We can’t afford to fit God in around our routine – we will deal with whatever happens far better after we look to Jesus—otherwise everything goes Kaput! 

If you follow the “I’m very busy” thread of logic back to its source, you will find that Jesus is not our first priority. This kind of attitude is not intentional, sadly what we have failed to realise is that Christianity is not a part-time commitment. Many people make excuses for their lack of engagement with the Lord. (Matthew 22:1-14.) Our failure is not the issue —our priorities are. We cannot afford have a part-time faith in a full-time hell-bent world! Try having a part-time faith the next time your ceiling falls in on you, it doesn’t work. “For me to LIVE is Christ …!!!” 

We need Him like we need air, and in order to get ‘our daily bread’ we need to dig and insist.The Lord spoke to me  today from that one word…“SEE!” Because I didn’t ‘see’ right away…but now I do.  Bye. 👋

P 2961 God is not angry with you.

/ DVH

Isaiah 12:1-6:“And you will say in that day, “I thank You, God. You were angry but Your anger wasn’t forever. You withdrew Your anger and moved in and comforted me. “Yes, indeed—God is my salvation. I trust, I won’t be afraid. God—yes God!—is my strength and song, best of all, my salvation! He’s done it all! Let the whole earth know what He’s done! Raise the roof! Sing your hearts out, O Zion! The Greatest lives among you: The Holy of Israel.” 

Instead of thinking we know what verses like these mean – perhaps we need to pray about them …as well as praying them over ourselves! You and I have greatly benefited from what Isaiah saw and understood. Did you get the prophet’s response? As he saw these things he’s comforted and strengthened – plus he found trust, and he let go of fear! Isaiah also saw that God Himself would move in to live inside us.Because of what the entire New Testament says, we know the truth of what this great prophet saw! Isaiah saw God withdraw His anger toward mankind and he saw all of us being sooo happy about it. If you’re happy and you know it tell your face!

I think that in the Presence of God’s greatness and goodness, Isaiah was given the capacity to comprehend that God was going to withdraw His anger from all of mankind, and he saw it as if it was happening at that moment. This man of God was in heaven at that time, in the eternal NOW – where there is no past, present or future. In subsequent chapters he also saw that God’s own Son would come here and pay the price for our sin, and that one incredible action means God withdrew His anger — because the Lord Jesus voluntarily took the punishment that belongs to every man, woman and child.

You and I are living our everyday humdrum lives inside these verses. We are living in the bit that says He comforts us so we can be joyful. My question today is this: have you comprehended what God did for you, is for today, it is for now? You could be living in a pig pen or a penthouse, a war zone or a peaceful place but because of Jesus, and everything He did, you now have God’s favour. We have a book that testifies to that. Salvation is not ‘pie in the sky when we die’ He wants us to be happy with what He did for us right now. Almighty God took all His anger out on Christ. Isn’t that astonishing!  Boy do those thoughts blow my tiny mind! 

I cannot comprehend how our Heavenly Father God could hurt SomeOne He loves  … but He did — and He did it for our sake. “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.”We know that these verses are prophetic, because in Isaiah the Lord is talking about “in that day.” I believe THAT day is THIS day to us … it has been THIS day for the last 2,000 years. I think this day lasts until the Lord Jesus comes back. We hurt His heart when we choose to sin and live outside of His enormous provision of Grace.

You know, I cannot imagine letting evil men do evil things to my son… e-v-e-r. Even if I knew there was an incredible greater good involved. But that’s what God’s love looks like. He counted the cost and decided we were worth it – how astonishing.  At Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came, He made those people who were waiting in that upper room — NEW. The One Who created the world …recreated them! Our job is to trust what He did then, is totally true today. Now day by day we can be recreated in Christ’s image, and glorify God. 

Isaiah was given an expanded view of the wisdom, long-suffering and deep deep love God Himself has for all of us. Even if we erroneously believe that the Lord is angry with us, here is something concrete. We learn it from this passage – God’s anger did not last – His goodness won. And all that happened before we were born! Not only that, He wants to comfort us when we are suffering, that is also why Christ came. We see this in the way Jesus treated people. Changed circumstances are not our strength and song … HE IS. God illustrated personally, and publicly, for all time, and for all mankind to see — that Love is prepared to wait for the best outcome, no matter what it costs and how hard it is to bear.

Sometimes we cannot embrace these concepts because the world has taught us that we need to feel good, in order for things to be good. We think trouble should be far far away from us. But God’s Ways are not our ways, they are higher than ours. There is a greater good! The only way we can see this life, things like terrible situations around us, is through His eyes. We don’t know LOVE well enough yet. After all He might joyfully pardon someone we might want to punish! WE desperately NEED HIS EYES to view the people and situations around us. 

Our personal opinions have been bent by circumstances and selfishness. People see love as getting what they want. What our God sees as Love is almost a foreign language to most of us. In spite of our inadequacies, our unbelief, our God is not angry with us, His anger was satisfied by what Christ did. We will find our strength in what He has already given you. Bye for today, 👋

P 2934 A true Shepherd.

/ DVH

We have been watching a vlog on YouTube about a senior couple from Azerbaijan, who live a very simple life. They harvest whatever is around them, and store things up for the severe winters that are bound to come. Today, they had a shepherd and his flock of sheep as part of the vlog, and he inspired me to think about Jesus. 

This wonderful old man just stood, or sometimes sat, watching over his sheep. That’s what he does. In the wind and the rain, in the snow, in sunshine, and the heat of the day, all day long – this old man watches over his flock, and protects them. He knows their worth. And if they wander off, then he herds them back, to where he wants them, and makes sure they are safe. That elderly Azerbaijanian, with a face carved by age, and experience, is a good shepherd.

That’s the picture Jesus chose to give us about Himself, to help us relate to Him. And this is what He does, minute by minute, for each one of us …He leads us – He never drives us along….“I am the good shepherd. The good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.“I am the good shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me— just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father—and I lay down My life for the sheep.”John 10:11-15.

Nothing escapes the Lord Jesus’ gaze, He does not fall asleep on the job, or take a walk … because He is bored out of His gourd with our boring little seemingly pointless lives … NO! His eyes are firmly fixed upon each one of us. He knows if even one of us goes missing. Someone bailed out of our family a couple of years ago, and we haven’t laid eyes on them since. I pray for their safe return all the time – I don’t pray because I have to pray, I pray because I can’t help but pray! The Holy Spirit reminds me that this person’s absence hurts Him far more than me!

Sometimes my dear hubby is up almost all night praying for someone or other.He keeps right on praying for the people we meet on the road. That’s what a true shepherd does – he is faithful to his flock. He doesn’t just teach the sheep, he doesn’t push and exhort them not to be so dumb, he doesn’t even necessarily prophesy over them etc. He watches over and protects his flock. You know, maybe parents are also a kind of shepherd.

Years ago, I used to take my three very small children to the shops in all kinds of weather. It was a big walk, about 2 kms up a very large hill and they all learnt to stretch their little legs as they did it. If they got really tired then they hopped into the pusher. When we got to the shops I had a particular habit. As I walked with them around me, I would count,1. 2. 3. And I looked for their little heads bobbing along in the store in front of me. It was like my head was on a swivel. 1,2,3, all present and accounted for! I always knew when a little head disappeared.

I guess I was remembering those times today, when I watched this old shepherd. He knew every one of his sheep and he would definitely know if one wandered off. He leant on his staff, and watched carefully over them to make sure they were safe. As you probably already know, sheep are remarkably stupid – they need watching! I’ve seen one leap into the air and then the next one jumped in the same spot and the next and the next etc. .But there was nothing there for them to jump over. No wonder we call them dumb!

Human beings also do the dumbest things. Sometimes we know we are going the wrong way and doing the wrong thing, and yet we do it anyway. That’s what a lack of ongoing transformation does. It ushers us into a stupid state where we erroneously think whatever we are choosing to do, won’t matter and God won’t mind. ‘After all our Heavenly Father loves us, and He knows we just can’t help it!’   We stupidly make room for sin, when we need to oppose it. What a load of rubbish that attitude is!

Time not spent in His Presence is time wasted. Our good Shepherd always wants to be with us – leading us to greener pastures, protecting us from harm, making us lie down in safe places. Jesus chose to make Himself our very own Shepherd when He died in our place, and then He deliberately sent back His Holy Spirit to be everywhere. He knows we need SomeOne to be with us and watch over us. The Holy Spirit imparts love and joy etc. freely, daily “…we are His people the sheep of His pasture.”

Jesus’ sacrifice needs to be in the forefront of our minds, that’s a cultivated skill. He has never, and will never EVER forget us, or pass us over…This world may not know us or care about us, but the Lord is always our ever-prayerful, deeply-involved Shepherd. Whether we are injured, beaten up or lost … even if it is our own fault …Jesus will always come after us. No thief, wolf or foe can steal us away from Him. He fought every demon in hell and defeated them so He could call us His very own. 

Jesus is our true Shepherd. He will not leave us or forsake us, or give any one of us up – not without a fight!  Bless you 👋