His kingdom

P 3252 Letting Go – lets Him IN!

/ DVH

“As for us, we have all of these great witnesses who encircle us like clouds. So we must let go of every wound that has pierced us and the sin we so easily fall into. Then we will be able to run life’s marathon race with passion and determination, for the path has been already marked out before us.” Hebrews 12:1 TPT.

We have a path God has prepared for us to run on. We are not running along aimlessly, bumping into things, we have been chosen to run in the same race our Saviour ran in. Imagine that! A race that will glorify our Heavenly Father! We simply can’t afford to hold onto old wounds, or other people’s sins against us. Instead, let’s ask the Lord for healing, extend forgiveness, and then make a quality decision not to go over these things again … and move on. When you get angry with someone, put the energy produced into something else! I don’t recommend punching out their lights BTW.

Our enemy tries to trick us that if we let go of stuff, we will not get any resolution – those people who hurt us will get away with it. That’s a lie from the pit.  Jesus Himself brings resolution and redemption everywhere He goes! Let Him in, He is a Redeemer, Healer, Comforter, Trusted Advisor. This type of thinking simply brings death with it – it is sent to torment us. It is like running around with one foot nailed to the floor. We go nowhere. These things tie us into the here and now – and we forget our purpose! 

We can’t afford to live like that –  holding onto grudges, or perceived slights from others, or continually probing old wounds to see if they have healed or not. Those things prevent us from running the race God has set before us. Our enemy uses other people’s actions to throw dirt and dust into the air, clouding our God-given ability to see spiritually. These things tie us into somebody else’s agenda. Forgiveness is mandatory, not an optional extra, no matter who did what to whom. My advice is to keep on asking for Grace, Grace and more Grace, daily. 

“Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God has forgiven you because you belong to Christ.”  Ephesians 4:32. What does that mean? It means that every time somebody hurts us the first thing we need to remember is the fact that we’ve already been forgiven for our own sins. Letting go of grudges —  the past, other people’s unwillingness or inability to change — frees us for better God-inspired things! We simply can’t afford to give our eternal blessings away. It’s too dear!! What we lose is clarity of heart and mind.

The way to be fearless in the face of other people’s sins, is to ask for His help and then act in faith. “Do good to those who despitefully use you…” Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27&28. Praying for these people is essential. And our  obedience is the key that opens up the kingdom, it will usher in the change we want to see.. “If you are willing AND obedient …” it says this in Isaiah 1:19a. It is not enough to just be willing, willingness needs to be followed through with action – obedience. 

Let’s stop merely agreeing with what the bible says, and go out and live this way, every single day. We can’t “afford” to stay angry with other people. We don’t have to go and live at their house! Pray and do what God says to do. Forgiveness ushers in real peace. If we haven’t got some personal instructions from the Holy Spirit — a directive on how to manage things. Then we need to read the book, and find something in it to do, that we are not already doing, and do that. Those biblical things are the principles of His kingdom. We always have plenty of those.

It is incredibly important to let go of the weights that have been holding us down. We sing these things … we say them, we read them and we even memorise them — but we need to do more than that. It is time to remember that the life we had before we met Jesus is over. Our previous dreams are over. There are better things than that ahead! He gave His life to us, and now we choose to give our lives to Him. We can’t tell Him how to operate His kingdom – He is the King! The more we let go of our own agendas, timetables, lifestyles, the more His kingdom will manifest itself among us. 

Our God is incredibly gracious to us, He lets us learn. But for some of us, even learning has become a side eddy. A place we’ve been caught up in. It stops us from going out and doing what He asked us to do. The best kind of learning finishes with practical application. Personal life changing experiences. By all means study the bible, every single day, but study it to find things you can do. The things that stir your heart are likely to be the things that stir His. 

We can read stuff like, ‘forgive one another’ but then we forget to do our “safety checks.” That’s like a sound check for believers … Let’s not put a big tick on any scripture thinking that we already know this stuff, and He died for it, so we’ve already passed. He paid for us, so we have already passed. However, now we need to ask the Holy Spirit: ‘do I have any little foxes in my life spoiling the vine?’  That verse above in Hebrews 12:1 sees sin and wounds as weights. Are we trying to run a marathon with a whole lot of weights all over us? 

We have to let go of our wounds, even though they are deep, and they still hurt. We are not releasing things because these things don’t matter – those wounds, those sins, cost Jesus His life. They matter! Let the Lord take care of them. Forgiveness is not giving in – IT’S A BATTLE-PLAN! Think about it. Let’s release everything that distracts us and let Him help us win. Bye. 👋

P 3251 Learn to see like He does.

/ DVH

We can easily think ‘knowing’ others is about hanging around them, or watching their faces and actions. Often we take note of what they do or don’t do, or pay attention to the results of their decisions – or even what they say about themselves. In the natural, that could be true … but spiritually speaking it’s not. The reality is here and now we can no longer afford to only use our physical eyes to see others, anymore. We must learn from the Holy Spirit, how to see others the Way He sees them. And He longs to help us do it. How others appear on the surface is often learned or adaptive behaviour, it does not always bear a resemblance of their true, God-designed selves.

“Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at Him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and Him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with Himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what He is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ Himself now: Become friends with God; He’s already a friend with you.”  2 Corinthians 5:16. MSG. 

The church at large has spent so long focussing on sin … by avoiding it, plus making sure we are not polluted by it, that we forget that people are the primary reason we are still here!  This verse says we (mankind) have ALL misjudged Christ. His goodness is all over the bible, so I’m thinking that it is entirely possible, based on that One Witness (Jesus), that we all utterly misjudge other people and their motives! 

Let’s pray, and storm heaven about having spiritual sight, and ask Him to help us see others through His eyes of Love. Almighty God does not look at this world and its inhabitants the way we do. We often assess people based on fear, experience or what someone else says about them. Father God has a lot to say about people in general in His book – the mistake we often make is we hear His words with someone else in mind!  It is so easy use His book as an accusation to suit our own agendas. Let’s avoid that mistake by reading the Word like He is speaking to you, not the guy standing behind in church, or your family, or any other people you don’t like.

The Lord doesn’t assess this world into people who love Him and those who don’t! He sees us all as His kids, the ones He loves – the Holy Spirit Himself formed each one of us inside our mothers. He knows our names, our history, our passions, our needs – He even knows how much hair we have on our heads. Does this sound like SomeOne Who is watching us to see if we sin? Jesus paid for everybody’s sins – murderous attitudes, thievish lying ways etc., but He is not motivated, nor does He react to, what He sees – because Love looks at things differently! 

It looks for the good in others. Our God isn’t partisan. Right now, He doesn’t divide any of us into groups – the good guys and bad guys … that’s MEDIA, not God! One day Jesus will sort out the sheep from the goats, but that’s not our job! He may not favour what we think, just because our POV seems right to us and everybody we like to hang around with!! God is love and love looks like 1 Corinthians 13! And Love always wants to capture the heart of His kids! God’s love, despite modern society’s ridiculous ideas — is not permissive, or soppy, or prejudicially flavoured – or only in favour of our little group. His love is all over His book. The things we like, as well as the things we don’t.

Jesus loves because Love is Who He is – it is not a changeable attitude affected by whims. Read the book! In order to see others the Way the Lord sees them we will need to look at others as precious to Him, despite their dreadful actions and our personal prejudices. Every single human being on this planet is undone without His Presence. That thing you hate in others, or your supposed enemy, is just a lack of the Presence of God, first of all in you, and then in them.

We choose to forget that He died so we can all live differently. We’ve attached ourselves to all manner of creeds and attitudes, because we think we need power over others to straighten them out. And some people we just plain HATE, because they are breathing! At the same time, we like to hang around with people who believe in the same things we do.

Seeing through His eyes means that nobody is left out – every single human being was saved 2000+ years ago. Now we treat others like we would treat the Lord, when it suits us or even when it doesn’t. We live our lives in the reality of His kingdom, where we can do nothing without Him, His insight, His loving kindness, His love. So His people look for the good, and highlight that, because that’s the way we’ve chosen to see. Bye. 👋

P 3249 He says we can.

/ DVH

Hey, you can argue with the King all you want, but … He’s gunna win… in the end! Living in and for the kingdom of God is like an investment. What we decide to do today, influences tomorrow. Unfortunately, bad decisions can often lead to worse ones. We are constantly faced with choices — will we invest in His Ways, His kingdom, or in our own needs and wishes? One of those things provides instant gratification, and the other builds trust in God’s Word. Plus it proves its reliability peace and joy in our personal experiences. Daily we are faced with choices, some of them easy and others are puzzling, that’s why we need our Helper, the Holy Spirit. 

My point for today is this — nobody feels equipped to do and say what the Lord asks us to do and say all the time. And if someone tells you something different wait for it… just like Pinocchio their nose will grow!  So let’s add  to that the idea that we all have stuff at the back of our spiritual closets, that we hope nobody else knows about! We can easily pile all the good stuff up in front, and hope that it’s all that is seen. But the point is –the Holy Spirit knows and sees, and He can clearly see what will make us stumble. That’s why He allows difficulties into our lives — under pressure who we really are comes OUT and e-ve-ry-bod-y can see it. Here’s what I’ve learnt along the way… the stuff you hide, from others and yourself, ends up leaking out, anyway!!

So that’s why I like to keep things simple and deal with nasty things as they happen. BTW, SIN is not a personality trait!  I’ve mentioned before – that I can’t remember details easily anymore – like what I wrote yesterday!! Sorry ‘bout that!  Sadly if I panic about it, it gets a whole lot worse! Hasn’t the Lord got the most hilarious, funny and amazing sense of humour to pick an old lady to write a blog – and she can’t remember what she said ten minutes ago! That’s why I need my editor.

Here’s the thing that helps keep me humble. My short-term memory has been affected by minor explosions in my brain. All of this happened without my permission, more’s the pity! All the positive speak didn’t fix it, so I just roll with the punches. However…my spouse remembers the stuff I wrote, because’s he’s the editor. Well, I can sometimes end up cranky at him because I am sure that “I never said that!”  And he is sure I did, and off we go… … to places we’d both better avoid. Getting older is really good for humbling yourself because you need help with almost everything…which is why I recommend that we learn to humble ourselves before we get there. Too late for me – sadly, I’m learning on the job! 

Here’s a helpful hint when it comes to living with other people. I love this particular scripture in 1st Corinthians 6:7. It says this: “These court cases are a black eye on your community. Wouldn’t it be far better to just take it, to let yourselves be wronged and forget it? All you’re doing is providing fuel for more wrong, more injustice, bringing more hurt to the people of your own spiritual family.” What is Paul saying? I think you can end up in even more trouble and strife, when you try to defend yourself, and you set out to prove it. Legally or not! It is far better to take a big breath, and just let things go. Boy, do you find out how much PRIDE … yeah, that’s it, the ‘P” word… when you try to let things go that have really irritated and irked you! That’s when logic tries to take over … and logic makes a terrible commander-in-chief.

The reason Jesus is a great leader is that He beat our enemy once and for all, and then He died for us to set us free from compulsively serving satan. We don’t have to do, or react, or entertain those nasty things anymore. Investing in God’s kingdom is like putting things on lay-by, the gratification usually comes later.  We  continue to invest in Him by our actions. We remind ourselves that in His kingdom there are ongoing costs – things we will have to let go of – but we walk with the King. Nuthin’ beats that! Here’s the bad bit, investing in this world’s kingdom is like putting stuff on your maxed-out credit card when you just got fired! There’s no way you are going to pay that debt off in a hurry!

The kindness of God is that He will never make us choose His Ways, that choice is always ours. Here’s another verse I love, it is a hard one. 1st Corinthians 12:31b says: “And yet I will show you a still more excellent way [one of the choicest graces and the highest of them all: unselfish love].”  We can find many ways to serve God and others, but Paul tells us this is the BEST way. This isn’t hard to remember! Big plus for me – absentminded Annie! I simply ask myself: “Is this love?”  If I am in doubt about what love would do, I refer to His book, and I ask Him to help me find an appropriate scripture. 

Don’t despair if you lose your way, or maybe your will seems like it is acting independently! This can happen when we stop regularly meditating on His love for us. Remind yourself that nothing can separate from His Love and go back to what you were doing in the first place. Putting Him first. The joy of belonging to Jesus is that our debt has already been paid, and with Him we are safe and saved. We have His power in us to overcome our own selfish ways, and we can let other people’s selfishness go, plus we look in our own back yard to see if we are growing the right fruit! Love is always the right fruit. 

Our first and most important ministry is to love others the way He loved us. We may not feel like we can, but because HE says we can, we can. We simply need to choose to believe His Word, over whatever we think we know about ourselves. PS When I read stuff like the Beatitudes I ask the Lord to show me what He thinks, I don’t excuse myself. 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 3241 God’s Inexhaustible riches.

/ DVH

“To me, [though I am] the very least of all the saints (God’s people), this grace [which is undeserved] was graciously given, to proclaim to the Gentiles the good news of the incomprehensible riches of Christ [that spiritual wealth which no one can fully understand],…”  Ephesians 3:8. My topic today is spiritual wealth. Jesus died to make us so rich spiritually, and now we need to give those riches away.  

Meanwhile, watch out for lukewarmness – that misses the blessing of spiritual riches because it cannot see spiritually. This trait, mentioned in Revelation 3:8, has nothing to do with feelings, it has to do with inaction.Anyone who does what the Lord says ends up crazy about Him, because they see His Personhood. How rich He is in the things that last. We can’t afford to ignore what we’ve been given, at great personal cost to Himself. 

These things that flourish in His kingdom – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These spiritual traits are a part of His incredible wealth. But let’s not forget that we must not gloss over the cost of the cross, ever. The cross is the reason we can belong to Him.

BTW, being ‘lukewarm’ means I choose to look after ME. It thinks what Jesus said is nice, but unattainable, so it reverts to a default position of doing nothing. I want to ask you to think about this question for a few moments – is it in Jesus’ Character to ask us to do something we can’t do? Sometimes, He does ask us to do things we can’t do without His help… but as He has promised to always be with us, we can be totally assured that He will give us His input! 

Obedience isn’t an option – it’s a KEY. What is stopping us from being obedient? How did we get to be lukewarm? These kind of questions help us clarify our motivations. Deep down, when we truly love the Lord, we all know if we are fudging our answers. Are we hoping that if we say something enough that will make it true? The thing is — you might fool me —- but there’s no chance on God’s green earth that anyone is going to fool Him. Why not? 

Hang on to your hat Henry … JESUS IS TRUTH! He is not ‘a truth’- He is the One and only form of truth we can trust! In the book of John, we are told Jesus was here from the beginning, and He is called the Word of God. So here’s our first treasure – Christ Himself. The One Who lived and died for us is our Greatest Treasure. Jesus was equal with God but He did not use that equality to exult Himself, instead… He humbled Himself and became one of us. 

However, none of this could have happened without the Presence and power of the Holy Spirit. He, together with Christ, is our Primary Treasure. The Holy Spirit intimately knows the heart of the Father toward us. He longs to help us to daily bless our Father’s heart. In the past we have tried to use the Holy Spirit, but He is not a commodity – He is our treasure! 

The second treasure is: the bible.If you read it asking God to reveal Himself to you, you will find Him within its pages, unexpectedly. It has treasure troves in it stored up for us. Those things that we need to pay close attention to, and dig out. Any other book I have read, may have insight, but the bible contains and reveals God’s truth. We cannot say we love the bible without being obedient to what it says. Our calling is to be God’s obedient children. 

The bible is a word picture of the heart of God and His dealings with mankind. Our Father’s “unsearchable riches,” refer to His limitless, and inexhaustible spiritual blessings of grace, love, faith and hope. They include forgiveness, eternal life, our adoption as His children, and total salvation. He is daily offering us treasures too vast to fully measure or ever exhaust.. His love for us is so passionate it is inexhaustible! 

But as Revelation 3:8 says: the day will come for His judgment. Right now we are in the time of His Mercy. His mercy is another Inexhaustible treasure. It is essential that we understand this fact, His mercy is not just toward US! It is incredibly patient and long suffering toward everybody else on this earth. He is so rich in Mercy!

Next I want to talk about Grace, which is another incredible treasure of God. Grace is the vehicle we get into when we deal with other people and speak to the Lord Himself. Grace is the oil of God, given freely to us so we can distribute it toward other people. The body of Christ has been anointed with GRACE! It smooths the pathway that we travel on when we interact with people who have none. However, Grace is never permission to do whatever I want!

Lastly, we are told in 1 Corinthians 14 to chase love, to pursue it. WE are the object of HIS love and He constantly pursues us. God’s love is another  treasure we have been undeservedly given. Let’s give it away to those people around us who don’t deserve it either! When we choose to live in, and value these treasures … and there are lots more so check it out for yourself — then they become the tools we use. On ourselves, and everyone else. Our God is inexhaustibly rich in the things this world does not value. This means we can be rich in these things too. Bye. 👋 

P 3240 Come up higher.

/ DVH

Sometimes we can become so earthly-minded we are no longer of any heavenly use. It seems to me that the church has become distracted by the cares and worries of this world. At the same time, it kind of looks like we expect Almighty God to enter our world and meet our needs here and now — He already did that. The thing is, He has higher priorities and I don’t think that it is His priority to make sure His kids have a cushy life.

Let’s take what the bible says seriously, and start making investments and withdrawals, using that book as our guideline. Then we can begin to bring His kingdom down here where the truly needy live. Truly needy people are the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet! Personally, I think telling people Jesus died to make them rich and prosper, is an abomination! 

None of Jesus’ disciples settled down into living in a grand house, in the ‘burbs, with everything they needed on tap. Instead they hit the road, and trusted Jesus to meet their needs. BTW, I am not saying, sell your house, go and sit on the curb and wait for Jesus to come back, but I am saying  – He is our priority. His agenda is now our agenda. We have given our lives to Him, so we can’t afford to let this life dictate what happens to us, through us and around us. 

As kingdom people, our destiny is to bring light and hope into the darkness. We may have to punch a hole in the darkness sometimes. The author of the book of Daniel punched a hole, and it took a while for the answer to come. Yet this man kept waiting for the Lord to do what He loves to do for all of us. Redeem the situation. Jesus loves to redeem situations, as well as relationships. It’s faith that gives us the impetus we need to pray, and keep on praying as we wait for Him to answer.  

Sometimes a believer’s problems can be a wrong attitude. Especially when we want to use God to make this life, our own earthly life, better. This world is a sewer. You can’t see the kingdom of God in a sewer, unless God Himself called you in there! This means we can’t afford to steep ourselves in the gunk that goes on around us – we need to soak in the Word of God to stay clean! We are called to be IN this world and not OF it. That means this world is not alive in us.

We can use our spiritual energy up by trying to praying our way out of this and that. But the bible says we are already more than conquerors, because of what Jesus has done. Let’s focus on that instead, and deliberately make sure all our relationships are based on the kind of love Jesus gave us. And when things are difficult, and “stuff” happens – while we are in the middle of it – let’s look for someone we are there to help, to witness to, to care for.

We seem to have given up on fulfilling the Great Commission. Sadly, we’ve become so involved in human affairs, we’ve forgotten our mandate. My advice is this – tell the Lord your needs, and choose to walk with the Spirit of God. Our faith is not designed to be like a credit card that is whipped out for use when we need it. Our faith is like an atmosphere that surrounds us. We live there, in good or bad seasons, we choose to focus on our glorious God being in charge. We comfort ourselves that He is doing what He set out to do … we just can’t see it yet. So we pray for steadfastness in trials and the ability to rest while He’s doing whatever He is doing. It is going to be for our good, we just can’t see it yet.

The Body of Christ is here to be salt and light — to lift everyone around us up higher, by the way we regard others. It is not lying to speak to the good in someone else who has been anything but good to you! It takes faith. We have the power to speak things into being – ask the Lord to show you what He sees in those people. Let’s stop rehearsing other people’s sins, and start looking for why they are here, and speak into that… … encouraging them into those things. 

In the last century, my age group made a mistake, we started exalting ourselves. Telling ourselves that we were  this or that and quoting verses from the bible to prove it to ourselves and others. It was a lot of hot air. Forget being the head instead of the tail – Jesus is our Head! I do not care if I am a toenail in the Body of Christ, I’m just glad to be included! Jesus is the only One Who is all this, AND that. We are here to encourage and bless and uphold others. We don’t need to big note ourselves spiritually. 

What stands us out in this world needs to be His GRACE and LOVE operating in us and through us. Let’s  decide what kingdom we want to live in, here and now – HIS kingdom is the Higher Place, living like He lived. We dare not call ourselves successful unless we are living to help others, because loving one another has become our priority. Let’s put our prayer, faith and energy into that. Bye 👋.

P 3237 Always remember WHO He is.

/ DVH

“Look at the splendour of Your skies, Your creative genius glowing in the heavens. When I gaze at Your moon and Your stars, mounted like jewels in their settings, I know You are the fascinating artist who fashioned it all! But I have to ask this question: Why would You bother with puny, mortal man or care about human beings?”  Psalms 8:3-4 TPT. Because HE LOVES US! That’s why.

In John 13:23 we are told this: “One of His disciples, whom Jesus loved (esteemed), was leaning against Jesus’ chest.” I want to say this before I say anything else today … If safety is something that you treasure, then what John said shows us that being right here next to Him, is the safest place in all the world. The Lover of our souls, our Beloved, will keep us safe – in spite of whatever is going on around us. 

Resting in and on, the Lord Jesus, is our great privilege and quest. Forget ministries, or human importance, or platforms, or even other people’s admiration, this particular disciple picked the best place to be — listening to His heartbeat.  We will miss so much of Who He really is when we are too busy to listen to His heartbeat.

It is important that we understand that our God, our Heavenly Father, the Great and Wise Omnipotent, Omnipresent Everlasting God of all the ages – is to be listened to, and revered and obeyed, not just quickly passed over or ignored!  We must learn to put our easily influenced feelings aside, to stop and remember the God – Who made everything we can see – loves me! 

The fact that He loves all of us with a love that will never die, does not mean we can simply flick away our responsibility to pay attention to everything He has said. We can’t ever afford to cherry-pick our responses or use His beyond-our-ability-to-understand, Grace, against Him… by telling ourselves: ’God loves me, He understands, He won’t mind.’ That’s misusing the Grace He has given us. This ever-present, always living and loving Grace has been released into our, lives. Yours and mine, as a gift. It was incredibly costly.

I think that deceit has wrapped the Christian church in its blanket, and we are becoming hard of hearing and blind to what is actually going on around us. I urge us all to pray  —  and then go and do!  Don’t ever let the size of the task discount you from participating. The bigger the test, the greater the victory.  Instead be truthful and sincerely tell the Holy Spirit: “I can’t do this, please help me!”  Amen. 

We need to remember, that we are not dealing with a god made in our own image, we are dealing with the One Who placed the stars in the sky…with His fingers!!! And despite what we tell ourselves, or this world tells us, we are His people.  Whenever we are ill, or infirm in one way or another, we truly find out how frail we are, often helpless against the darkness that presses in against us without Him. The answer is simple —never do anything without Him!

Let’s stop our solitary focus on me, my situation, my health – or lack of it, my family, my poverty – and start gazing at Him. Gazing at Him is another form of worship. Worship is not just singing songs on Sunday—it is the way we live. When we know, from our own personal interaction and experience, that our God is bigger than anything we can think or imagine – we can more easily rest, be at peace, and let Him do the work. BTW, rest does not mean we sit on our hands and do nothing. It means that we know we can do a whole lotta somethings, because we are utterly relying upon Him! 

God can do anything, with anyone, no matter how inadequate they feel. The bible shows us that. It is filled with men and women who would never have made it without God helping them. Instead of wrongly using His Grace to excuse our non-participation in His kingdom, let’s choose to rely, rest and depend on that Grace to help us do the things we are here to do. Everything the Lord asks us to do, we simply cannot do without Him. 

You may not have my difficulties, Some days, I have to ask Him to help me get out of bed or go to the loo! But the reality is I have been blessed so many times because of the Way He loves and helps me. Over and over again the Lord Jesus surprises me with His goodness. Plus He never does the same thing twice. Bonus buy!

The daily opportunities to serve Him and others that the Lord puts before us, will always be bigger than we are. Stretching us is part of His plan. My advice is to start cheering right away!! Take it from me that this means we are going to see the goodness of God operating in a way we’ve never seen before. And that … is simply ev-ery-thing!!

Because our God is so big, and so mighty, plus His creativity is inexhaustible … routines or methods won’t pass this way of thinking on, it is a LIFESTYLE. We choose it, and then we hold fast to it, despite everything else that happens around us. Jesus gets all the glory because what happens is undeniably impossible. He is so much more glorious, caring, kind, creative and wonderful than we can ever imagine! Bye.👋 

“Yahweh, You are my soul’s celebration. How could I ever forget the miracles of kindness You’ve done for me?” Psalms 103:2 TPT. Amen. 🥰

P 3215 Eternity starts now.

/ 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.

What we think about affects how we handle our days, and so this transformation process is a progressive thing. The more we act on what we believe, the more our thoughts become tied into what the bible says. Eventually this process produces an automatic response in us, and in the end, transformation is seamless, and we don’t even notice it is happening – now we are too busy falling even more in love with Jesus. 

I hate to rain on anyone’s parade, but the biggest problem many people have is that when they read what the bible says, they agree with it, maybe even smile because it is so accurate …but THEN –– they don’t take the time to find out how to apply what they’ve read, into their everyday life. Application is the key that opens the door so we can participate in His kingdom. Let me put it this way, the language of the Lord’s kingdom is faith – we don’t need faith to do what we can already do! We need it so we can participate in the impossible!! And change can seem impossible.

OK, let’s look at some verses. The bible says: “Blessed are the poor in spirit …” Matthew 5:3. In order to ask for help you need to know that you need help! We must recognise that knowing we are poor in spirit is not a bad thing! Doing nothing about it, however, is not good. God says we are blessed when we live aware of this reality. Poverty of spirit looks like this: you can see what is required is beyond your own ability to change yourself. We need His help – this is a good time to remember that we already have it! Just don’t wait to feel like you have it. Step out in faith.

Now, I want to look at another scripture and it’s about holiness. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8. This means we make a quality decision to choose to become aware of where we have not lived in purity of heart, and talk to the Lord about it. Then we repent and repair things. At the same time, we need to be real and aware of the kind of pressures we live under in today’s society — ghastly thoughts tormenting us don’t make us a bad Christian, it’s what we DO about the torment that matters. 

Part of transformation is the realisation that just because something exists in my life now, that does not mean God is not dealing with it. It also does not mean He likes it or wants it!  Timing is a key factor in God’s Ways. Let’s remember that Jesus never let what was going on around Him sway Him from His God-appointed ministry. I picked purity today to look at, because in today’s atmosphere it is impossible to remain pure without His help! 

Jesus’ devotion to what His Father wanted was His priority – so we also need to continue to assess our priorities. Because we follow Him, purity needs to be our priority too. Jesus answered His enemy’s remarks with God’s Word, because He already knew what the bible said. The Lord has the right word to give us when we are attacked too. However, we can quote scripture up one side of the hill and down the other. Remember, we will always need His help! We need a specific word from Him, for us, at that moment … ‘an apple of gold in a setting of silver. ‘

When our aim is to hear from God about whatever He wants from us, sometimes we will have to wait. He is not at our beck and call, we are here for Him. Our Father knows what stretching does for our faith. He will never postpone His answer to hurt us, but He does want to see growth in our character and hearts. Often all we want is a short cut that shows us the way through these learning processes quickly. Most of us are ‘allergic” to difficulties – not hardened to them. (See Isaiah 42:10) 

Let’s look at another scripture that I think ties in well with the one above: Psalm 24:24:4-5: “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.”  So what do we ACT on? We need to watch what we say, and be careful to be truthful. 

Here’s another one: “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.”  Philippians 1:9. Loving others has to be a tangible, seeable, thing – not just a theory. And our knowledge of what is excellent also requires our participation but the bible has lots of suggestions! So we need to step away from things that will contaminate a pure life. 

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8. Discipline in our thinking helps, and that part is up to us. Our Wonderful Father does not just say, ‘don’t do this,’ —instead He says: “DO, DO THIS.” 

He is always preparing us, helping us to live in His Presence. He is not just interested in us living with Him in eternity, down the road when we are dead. ETERNITY STARTS NOW.  We will all be pure of heart in heaven because we will be changed to be like Him. It’s what we do TODAY that’s important.. Bye.👋

P 3213 Gird up yor girdle Gertie.

/ DVH

I try not to be negative on this page because, thanks to the Media – social or otherwise – there is enough negativity floating around. It is like some sort of malodorous stench that can saturate everything we see and hear. The thing I want to talk about today is that we seem to have forgotten that we were saved to serve others, no matter what creed, or religion they belong to.

Here’s a question – if someone else is from another faith, do we automatically limit our exposure to them, or discard their words as error – maybe because we are afraid? Isn’t that making our God too small? The Lord saved us and He can keep us. Are we comforting ourselves that we’ll be OK – after all we are in the ‘right group.’ Yet millions of people are tipping off the edge of this life going straight into hell. They are going there because they don’t know any better.

God is good to both believers and non-believers. He sends His rain on the just and the unjust, and we don’t get to decide who is who! Our job is very clear – we are to love the people around us with His love. We need to remember Jesus is always present to save, and those dear souls that seem to be the furthest way from Him, often turn around at the speed of light!

Hubby and I have had people in our lives that are absolutely not walking with Jesus, and they haven’t got a clue that He came to save them, but these people have blessed us. We have all kinds of friends who support us as we give away bibles, and help the poor, and they do not know the Lord – yet. I believe when this happens these people have been touched by God’s hand, so at the same time, they are not far from His kingdom. Many times someone like this has said or done something lovely, and I know it’s the Lord working in them, and through them.

I wouldn’t dream of following what my friends believe, because I know their beliefs are error, and some of them are from the pit. But how can they know any differently if I do not tell them? Ostracising people alienates them. We can call it respecting someone else’s space – but isn’t that just evasion? Doesn’t it justify our fear of being contaminated, and persuade us to ‘play it safe,’ and do whatever we do, within the boundaries of our own churches? 

This world has so many other faiths. Let’s choose to learn to love people who are of another faith, and not treat them any differently than we would treat our brother or sister at church. “… they will know we are Christians by our love…” That love needs to go outside of the church and reach out to everyone. The Lord Jesus is altogether lovely, and He can and will win anyone over.

At the same time, we are not only required to tell people the truth, we must demonstrate it to them. Sometimes over and over again. We cannot afford to throw people away because they don’t have the same beliefs we do – we are reinforcing false boundaries when we do that. It is time to stop dividing others into categories and deciding who is IN, and who is OUT. Speaking for myself, I have noticed that the Lord is not far away from anyone, so what is needed is prayer, not judgment! There are many people today – no matter what they seem to believe, who are not far away from His kingdom. If they have some other faith, it means they are spiritually minded. Maybe they just haven’t met the Truth yet.

There are two ways to approach life – the easy way and the hard way. Most people like the easy road, whether they are Christians or not! In Matthew 7:13-14 it says: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Only our Shepherd Jesus, is the true gate and at this moment in time, He is out there amongst ALL His sheep, calling to them to walk through that narrow gate, and follow Him. Peter once thought he knew who was what — and then Jesus straightened him out! Acts 10:9-16.

How anybody comes to know Jesus is His business, not mine. No matter what god they have worshipped in the past – we are all still HIS sheep and every single sheep counts. We are commanded to live a life of love, and speaking for myself, that’s plenty to go on with! Let’s jump in and watch His love win all kinds of people that we thought would never come – no matter what idol lives at their house. Many people follow idols because of family, or tradition, or nationality. However, the greater One lives in us. 

Here’s the way God approaches even the people who deliberately sin against Him. Isaiah 57:16-19. “For I will not fight against you forever, nor always show My wrath; if I did, all mankind would perish—the very souls that I have made. I was angry and smote these greedy men. But they went right on sinning, doing everything their evil hearts desired. I have seen what they do, but I will heal them anyway! I will lead them and comfort them, helping them to mourn and to confess their sins. Peace, peace to them, both near and far, for I will heal them all.”  Interesting verses eh? We must never forget our God is GOOD and MERCIFUL. 

Like I said, ‘gird up your girdle, Gertie,’ we are in for a bumpy ride. You and I could end up talking to strangers at the shops! Father God has hungry people everywhere, even in the enemy’s camp. Bye. 👋.

P 3207 He goes where you go.

/ DVH

Here are a few scriptures that Jesus Himself said regarding His role in this life. John 5:19: “For I have never spoken on My own initiative or authority, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment regarding what to say and what to speak.”  We have been given a new mandate. We are to do what He did. And in John 5:19: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” We walk with Him every day, just like He walked with the Holy Spirit. Where He goes, we go. Where we go, He goes.

In these verses the Lord Jesus is teaching His disciples Who they should always rely upon. Our personal intimate connection with our Heavenly Father is essential. Jesus died to give it to us, in other words, it was worth His life to give us this privilege. We all need to think about that carefully. Everything the Lord said and did was said and done for a reason, and we are part of that reason. He also did what He did to glorify His Father, but that is for another day.

Over the years Christians have sincerely tried to make Christianity a bit easier, more manageable, even simpler – because most people today are busy people. But that just eventually means our faith has to fit in around everything else we have to do. The result of that kind of thinking is that we end up grappling with things we should simply give to Him. We get bothered about all sorts of things that He will gladly bear for us. Busyness, worry, sadness etc. bothers our sleep. Those heavy things change our moods and twist our emotions. It is better to choose to die self… than try to fit our faith in God into our already busy lives. My advice is to put Him first.

I often remind myself, when I am caught between a rock and a hard place, that I can do something or other for just one day. Sometimes just for the next minute! Relating to the Lord needs to be our priority. I am not talking about fasting all day and all night for 40 days and 40 nights — and/or praying all day and all night for 40 days and 40 nights! I am talking about a minute by minute intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father, His precious Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. 

They have done absolutely everything to facilitate our ability to relate to Them. It’s finished. That work is done! Now it is over to us. We are not an afterthought to Them. So let’s not let the Trinity be an afterthought to us. At the same time, it is not wise to pick up guilt, shame etc. simply because we are busy. Treat them like a red hot poker  – put them down. We need the same approach to our Father that Jesus had. His purpose, no matter what He did, or what came at Him, was to serve His Father’s will. Our purpose changes our priorities.

Let’s go quickly to the Old Testament to look at Jonah. The scriptures are full of so many stories of individuals that God Himself interacted with to impact their lives. You might say Jonah is a ‘one off,’ but the truth is — he’s also a great example of God dealing with an individual. Boy did Jonah have adventures! He was thrown overboard in a ferocious storm, and then God sent an uber-whale to pick him up! Then God grew a vine to shelter him and to teach him about what was going on through a physical illustration. He speaks to each one of us in many different ways.

These stories about others, are in His book as an illustration. Some people lived successful Godly lives and some did not. Let’s look at Israel. In 1 Corinthians 10:6-11. “Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.”  Every decision to sin, takes the Lord out of our focus, and eventually, out of our thoughts.

The Lord utterly loves and values you – there is no-one else like you in this world. I don’t care if  ‘nobody knows your name,’ or if you’ve got 2 million followers on social media! You can give Him something nobody else can give Him… your love and affection, your way of looking at this life, your heart reaching out to Him every time you think of Him — even if it’s just for a brief moment  Just turn your head and smile, the Lord knows what you are doing … and He loves it.  

The greatest person in His kingdom is the least – so nobody is unimportant! Jesus did not look, or talk down to anybody. And whenever we look at Him, walking, talking, healing and interacting with people — we are seeing our Heavenly Father in action. The Lord Jesus came here so He could look each one of us in the eye, and we could see God’s love in His eyes. Now we show that love to others, because He lives inside US. 

Your thoughts;  your heart;  your life; your family — all these things matter to Him. Maybe in your life it seems like nobody ever really listens to your heart. Yet in the Lord’s eyes, you are valued and valid, simply because you are His. It is His love for each one of us that validates us. Not what we’ve done – or what we wish we hadn’t done. The fact that He, the God of all the Universe and beyond, Who made heaven and earth, loves us…That’s what validates us. Remember, He walks with us now, He goes where you go. Bye 👋.