His truth

P 3442 Keeping our love ON.

/ DVH

One way or another, I have spent a great deal of my time in hospitals. I am not saying that to gain sympathy, it is simply true. Meanwhile I don’t like them. I feel like someone is going to pop out of the ether, and decide I need this ghastly test, or that. Or maybe some super keen doctor will sentence me to four hours of waiting in a chair. While I try not to mind my life being whittled away by people in white coats. Yeah, I have a bad attitude. The Lord reminded me this morning that sick people go to hospitals, “the fields are white!” He said. “I need more energy Lord,” I said!

Remembering to keep our love ON can be difficult at times, especially when we’ve spent a lot of our lives living the other way. Here’s what Jesus said:  “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.’ Matthew 7:13-14. Yeah, I wish He hadn’t said that too … but He did. The narrow gate needs to be sought and found – it isn’t like the yellow brick road, wide and obvious!

The people who travel this narrow road study LOVE. How it works, what it looks like when we do it. The Lord has said some tough stuff in the scriptures, but when I look at the way I’ve chosen to live in the past, I am so grateful for His wisdom – I need to hear it! It wasn’t that I didn’t try to obey Him, but I know I gave complaining equal footing in my life. A grateful heart is a fantastic blessing, in the list of blessings God has given us. Let’s stop searching for the fake gold of this world, and start digging for the real treasure … Jesus Himself.

However, we will have to fight any Goliaths that have taken up residence in our lives. Those things that bellow and hurl threats of doom and despair at us, and others, through us. He yells that he will kill us, our friends, our families, plus everyone we love, to create fear. Love can’t flourish in an atmosphere of fear. We must trust the Lord to take care of us. David ran at Goliath, but he left his big brothers up on a hill hiding behind rocks! His brothers had a problem … but David didn’t! His faith in Almighty God saved an entire nation that day.

The thing I love about this young man is that he believed in the God Who was with him, when he faced Goliath. We are so much better off than David was, we have the same God IN us. That thing that we think we can’t possibly fight, we don’t ever have to fight it alone. He will be with us. He promised, so let’s choose to believe Him! David was no more alone on that battle field than WE are. Jesus told us that He has given us His power, and we need to believe Him and act on it. Then we can go to our enemy’s camp and take back what he has stolen from us. 

People spend time praying to become everything the Lord God means for them to be. I want to add that it is also good to pray that we would identify and throw off all those weights the enemy has been laying on us since birth … “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” Hebrews 12:1. WE do that, God doesn’t do it for us – He does it with us!

We may not feel like we can outrun the Goliaths of this world, but we can definitely learn to outwait them. BTW, “outwait” is a verb meaning to stay longer than someone else, or to wait until a bad event or time finishes.” Perseverance is a vastly underestimated Grace. It comes directly from the fruit of “patience, faithfulness, and self-control.” We have eternity on our side – satan does not, and he knows  it! If we do not faint in our journeys with Jesus — we will win. Don’t look at problems as forever things, once we give them into His hands who knows what He will do with them?

Doing the things we hate is another form of worship, as we do them “as unto the Lord.” Let’s face it, without the Holy Spirit’s help, none of these things are actually appealing. They are easy to read, but it is much harder to motivate yourself to do it. We want to raise the dead and heal the sick, and have a ministry, etc. But Jesus wants us to be bullet proof — He cares about our hearts first. And Paul gave us a list of things that we need to remember to wear. So as we put on the full armour of God, we put on those things are illustrations of the new way we’ve chosen to live now. This is how it works:

‘Always speaking HIS truth;  remembering we have Christ’s righteousness as a gift to clear our path;  at the same time we are always ready to share the gospel;  and our faith guides us and prompts us to act. Together with the knowledge that Jesus died to save us and now we have the Holy Spirit with us.’ Let’s embrace active cultivation, through our own personal choices, and make room for the growth of the fruit of the Spirit. As we “…put on love, which binds …(all the other graces) … together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:14. We can’t be patient, kind, self-controlled etc. without LOVE leading us. 

Doing things we dislike is a challenge, but there are so many riches that are already in place, waiting for us to draw upon them. So let’s focus on the Lord and His blessings, not our feelings.. Our faith when it is active, will give all these things, substance. They become evidence in our lives of His Presence.  The answer is simple — don’t take your love off … Jesus’ love is always on! Bye. 👋

P3404 What dominates you?

/ DVH

“May my only boast be found in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Him I have been crucified to this natural realm; and the natural realm is dead to me and no longer dominates my life.” Galatians 6:14 TPT. 

Scriptures like this one come up, and if we are being real with each other, our response can easily be: “I don’t know, I sort of hope so.” But this whole thought sounds lovely doesn’t it? Especially the thought that this world no longer has that kind of hold over us. First of all, I want to encourage anyone reading this to resist the temptation to feel guilty if your answer happens to be: “I don’t live that way.” Guilt, shame, blame, etc. will cloud, and eventually overwhelm, our sense of God’s love, peace and acceptance toward us.

Yes, maybe you lost your temper last week and shouted at someone. Or perhaps lately you have been plagued by fear, but that won’t change the reality that SomeOne already paid, in real time, for whatever we’ve done. The point isn’t that we did whatever it was, the point is what are we going to do about it NOW? Are we going to allow ourselves to go round and round about something that no longer exists, or are we going to go to Love Himself – repent, and start thanking and praising Him for dying in our place. Jesus is praying for us, right now. He is not up there with a pen and paper and list of dumb things we have done. You asked Him to wash you with His blood and He already did!

It says this in Romans 8:31-34. “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? No one—for God Himself has given us right standing with Himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and He is sitting in the place of honour at God’s right hand, pleading for us.” Hallelujah!

Instead of walloping yourself over the head with a handy umbrella, why not ask yourself why do I think I can’t live the same way Paul did? Nine times out of ten we feel bad because we are judging ourselves, and we are not happy about the answer. But in this statement Paul is pointing out that God is already for us. So let’s concentrate on the fact that Jesus voluntarily already reached that mark for us. How we feel about scriptures like these two, have absolutely no bearing on their reality and truth. The work is already done. Our thoughts and feelings must never rob us of His overriding truth. 

It’s like praying for more faith. There’s nothing wrong with that — but it helps if we are using the faith we already have, to praise and thank Him for what we’ve already been given.  We need to hone our focus, so we choose to  switch our thoughts off who we are … and intensely focus on Who He is and what He did. Is He trustworthy? Does He love us? Does He speak truth? I love that last one… Jesus is Truth. Game over… we win! This life is just a shadow, it’s a pale imitation of the reality ahead of us, those thoughts should dominate us.

Jesus leads us, He never shoves, bullies or coerces us. He doesn’t have to, He’s the real deal. His peace inside our hearts is our reassurance. God’s grace is bottomless. Here is something wonderful to chew on today, His mercy is brand new every single morning. Imagine that! There is no such thing as left-over, partly used up, mercy — God’s mercy is brand new and fresh every single day. Focus on that.. Don’t wait to be better, or do better, or be in a better place – do it now. Start thanking Him for it, and then give away the very things you have been given to everyone around you. Instead of keeping score, let things go. This is how we remain aware of what we’ve been given, we choose to live in utter gratitude and unrestricted generosity. 

The natural realm is temporary. People in war torn countries can tell us all about temporary things. One minute they have what they need, the next everything they had carefully collected and treasured is gone — including the people who dearly matter to them. Praise God…Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever! I love that it says yesterday, first. Let’s get rid of yesterday’s junk that can trip us up — and live in His light, His love, His truth, today. We need to leave the past behind us when we choose to forgive, repair, repent and then move on toward tomorrow.

Jump in the river of His love for you. Even when everything inside you screams at you to defend yourself and explain, or tell the other person your side of the story. The power to overcome those things that easily grind us down, is in the river of His loving forgiveness and acceptance. We need to leave our sins under the blood and jump on in. We cannot afford to let the devil and his lying ways dominate us. We will get discouraged if we do. Instead we submit to our Lord Jesus, because He loved us first. Let’s flow in love instead of being dominated by fear. Bye. 👋. 

P3392 Wisdom must be sought.

/ DVH

Sometimes we verbally understand, but we still can’t see what Jesus is showing us, because our minds are so filled up with the things of the ordinary life we are living. We listen carefully, but there are times when we can’t hear what the Lord is saying – because we already have a preconceived idea about the subject and the answer. Those things stop us from mixing what we read, or can see, in the bible, with faith. The following thoughts are suggestions by the way, and I hope they will prove to be helpful in the area of gaining wisdom – they help me. The bible clearly tells us in James 1:5-8: 

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, Who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.” Double-mindedness is sure to shoot any one of us in the foot. To have a single mind, we need to keep our focus on what Jesus wants. He is more important than our own personal, or even denominational principles.

Here are four keys I really like and use, that talk about walking in wisdom. The first is we need to live prepared to say: “I’m sorry.” There is nothing more powerful than a genuine apology prompted by repentance. Some of us say: “I’m sorry” like we are saying: “Would you please pass the salt?” Sadly, that can be merely lip service, not repentance. I believe “I’m sorry” is a heading, under which both people can come to understand one another better. This means we will gain back our brother and learn something … all-at-the-same-time!

My next step about finding and recognising wisdom is this: “I need help.” In the verse above from James, he advises us that we should ask the Lord to help us. Father God Himself is the source of all wisdom. He knows what we need to hear, and how we need to hear it. In my limited experience, many people often go from one person to another asking the same question. It seems to me they are looking for someone to agree with what they think or hope, rather than actually seeking God’s wisdom. God’s wisdom is an arrow that shoots straight at the heart – it does not miss its mark. Man’s wisdom can be corrupted by human agendas.

The Holy Spirit’s wisdom is sound and strong, it doesn’t have to look for a consensus, because His Word can stand up anywhere, despite any opposition. When we count how many people said this, and how many said that, and then pick a winner suiting ourselves, that’s foolishness. Our Heavenly Father’s wisdom is sovereign, and if we want a second opinion about what we think we’ve heard from the Lord, then we need to go and dig about in the bible, or find someone else, a more mature Christian, who knows stuff we don’t yet. Some people have walked with Jesus for a while, and they’ve picked up His wisdom along the way. 

That leads me to my next point, which is this: “I don’t know.” We haven’t “arrived’ anywhere – we are all still in His processes, so we are always going to need to hear His point of view. The bible is a huge book that has so much in it. Give yourself a break, not knowing everything is not a disaster, it’s human. Feel free to ask questions of the pastor, or more senior members of the Body of Christ. Do a word study for yourself.

Most of the wisdom I have personally gleaned, comes from doing things the wrong way first! Sigh. Not knowing in our hearts, or understanding something is not a sin. It doesn’t make us stupid, or, even worse … un-spiritual! We often accidentally misunderstand the Lord and each other. And the Lord is non-partisan – He gives wisdom to profit everyone, not just a select few. In today’s world, knowing things equals power. Our carefully cultivated, deep abiding respect for the Lord and His Ways, is the beginning of wisdom.

Here’s the last one: “I was wrong.” All of us could find ourselves stumbling over this one. It has become very easy to avoid responsibility for our own actions. People move from denying whatever happened, to publicly stringing others up naked, by their toenails … out of pure spite or revenge. We dare not use His truth to prove our own point, unless we are sure He asked us to do it. That’s not what truth is for!

I’ve noticed that other people are so desperate to vindicate themselves they resort to using the media to make a point. Saying things like: ‘It’s not my fault! It can’t be my fault, I will fall apart if it turns out to be my fault. NO! A thousand times NO … I simply must blame you, because I can’t face my own sinfulness and lack of love. ERGO: YOU made me do it. It’s YOUR fault.’

That sort of attitude cannot foster a cohesive and interactive congregation, where relationships can thrive. It can also be why churches have cliques, or why we shop around and try to find someone else who shares our pet answer to life – simply to use their opinions to reinforce ours. In other words, I’ve decided my safety will take precedence over yours, and now we are stuck in a situation that is going nowhere.

So! Let’s recap: we have four less-than-popular attitudes that could limit the possibility of us walking in wisdom as His child, unless we choose to take them in. “I’m sorry,” I need help,” “I don’t know,” “ I was wrong.” These things will all come naturally as we learn to embrace humility. We can easily limit ourselves by working hard to maintain a point of view that is not a reflection of His heart toward others. Lastly, God’s wisdom must be sought, treasured, and applied to ME, first. Bye 👋.

P 3272 Let’s learn to speak SPIRIT.

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

P 3142 It’s the Lord’s nature.

/ DVH

“The Lord is close to all whose hearts are crushed by pain, and He is always ready to restore the repentant one.” Psalms 34:18 TPT.  I love the word always in this Psalm. When human beings say always, we often mean – most of the time. But when God says always that’s exactly what He means! He is not into hyperbole or exaggeration. What He says, He means. Whatever He says, you can stand on. Doubt has nothing to give us, but angst. Holding fast is hard, but when we do it, we will reap a great reward.

Oh I pray that everyone grasps this truth and holds on to it tightly. It will comfort you in times when the roof has fallen in. The Holy Spirit will take His Words and unfold them before your eyes, and suddenly the thing you can’t understand, is clear. Let Him expound God’s word to you. There is nothing like God Himself, explaining what He means when you study His scriptures!

It is His truth. Almighty God put His full stop on His truth when He sent us the Living Word, Jesus, so we could see His Word in action. Ask yourself, how did Jesus treat sinners? — With grace, mercy and revelation that leads to repentance. How did He interact with the sick? With compassion, kindness, and healing. How did He minister to the spiritually hungry? With fresh bread directly from heaven. When God says He is close, He means He is close!  PAIN should not be our reference point – He is! 

Choose to believe Him, and remember to thank Him. You can thank Him for being with you, and not leaving, you even if the difficult circumstances haven’t instantly resolved. Focus on how close He says He is. When bad stuff happens, He won’t ever leave us. He takes His Word seriously and He keeps it. When we gave our lives to Jesus we stepped away from the feeling/thought-based world attitude, into His light and that light won’t lie to us. It can’t! Goodness, mercy, love, kindness, gentleness and truthfulness are part of God’s very nature. He does not lie. 

Years ago, I read books about countries on the other side of the world. I heard about them on the radio, and then I saw blurry pictures of them in black and white on the TV! And then one day I got on a plane and went and stood in those places. That one action took many countries out of the realm of my imagination, and brought them into reality for me. 

If you mention places like Germany, or Greece or France, I have memories of golden sun on my face – and some pretty yummy food too! If you say Singapore, I remember the brilliant architecture, sounds and smells. The thing that transports what we know into our personal experience — is FAITH! I ran about like a headless chicken and got a pass-port, and visas, packed my bags, then I got on a plane, and those countries came out of my imagination into reality.. I acted on what I saw! Faith acts on what it has read in the bible.

Our Spirit-prompted, Word-based belief in whatever He says, can take His Word and bring it to life. For those who are interested, I am not talking about believing for a Lear jet or a house with a bowling alley in the basement! I’m talking about God’s true riches. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness etc. But if we choose to treat His book like an information source, we will miss out on tasting the substance of His love, which transforms human beings. Ask for His help, and deliberately practice being loving – leave your feelings out of it.

Faith comes first. That’s when we decide to take a risk regarding Jesus’ truthfulness and Personhood and you and I will begin to have our own personal history with God Himself. The bible says faith comes by hearing and hearing comes from exposing ourselves to His Word— when we feel like it and when we don’t. And if you are sick, sad, or lonely then you probably won’t feel like it. I listen to the bible read if I can’t read it. We need to daily let His Word wash over us and cleanse us from the unbelief and heartache of this world.

Personally, I have yet to say: “oh goodie” when a testing time comes upon me. Nevertheless, I am learning that in those faith-testing times it means that God is taking me deeper still. The deeper the foundation, the greater the stability of the building. Our gracious Father is making sure we won’t ‘shake’ and ‘quake’ like we used to … because what we are standing on now, is firm and secure, and we know it.It’s like David said to Goliath: ‘First I killed a lion, then a bear, so YOU are going down!” Each faith-prompted action and subsequent experience led David into a deeper understanding of God Himself, and more confidence in Him.

Some things have now gone from my head to my heart. That’s because He has written it there! Our hearts are the safest place for that knowledge to be. When things are dark and horrible, that’s when we need to exercise our faith in His never-ending goodness the most. I tell the Lord: “You said You are here, so You are here! You are truthful, and I believe You. Thank You for being here close to me.” Amen.

When we stop trying to use the Lord for our own ends, and we decide that all we want is HIM – then we can tell Him we want to stay close to Him no matter what. That’s when we will see Him in ways we cannot imagine. Sometimes we need to do what David did and remind ourselves of the times when His goodness has upheld us and He helped us push through to victory. No matter how things look — and for many many people today, I know things look terrible, but I exhort you to hold fast.

God has not left you, and HE WILL NOT! Jesus our Shepherd will walk with you in that deep dark valley and use His staff to protect you from everything that wants to harm you. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. If help doesn’t come immediately He’s telling you He knows you can do it! Remember that His loving kindness is the Lord’s nature — and this too, shall pass… 😢 Bye.