His Ways

P 2985 Learning to soar.

/ DVH

Anything that talks about soaring above the difficult things in this life will grab my attention. So today I want to read Paul’s idea of soaring above the cares of this world —- from Galatians 5:16-18 TPT. “Let me emphasise this: As you yield to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self-life. When your self-life craves the things that offend the Holy Spirit you hinder Him from living free within you! And the Holy Spirit’s intense cravings hinder your self-life from dominating you! So then, the two incompatible and conflicting forces within you are your self-life of the flesh and the new creation life of the Spirit. But when you yield to the life of the Spirit, you will no longer be living under the law, but soaring above it!”

Eagles soar. Have you ever noticed that chickens are always looking down, kicking up dust, looking for worms, scratching and pecking …  But eagles!! They fly higher and higher above this world’s activities, enjoying the warmer air that helps them fly. They see this world from a different vantage point.

I think this is part of Paul’s point today. We can face this life one of two ways. After the dust of trouble and strife has settled, we can choose to mount up on eagle’s wings. Thank you Isaiah 40! Or we can go on scratching about in this world’s ideas and clever trends, and miss seeing the vastness and incredible plans of God Himself. But we will need to choose to rise up and see what’s going on from His point of view. 

Sometimes, I end up being a chicken! Life can seem like one ghastly event is followed rapidly by another and then another — and I end up thinking “If I could only just get a moment to catch my breath!’  But the waves of life’s difficulties keep coming … and coming … and coming! Suddenly you have the horrid thought that you may be stuck in an endless sea of trouble, and it seems like you’ve been there for months! In the end I asked the Lord “Jesus, what is going on?”

Yeah! Have you ever had one of those moments when you wish you hadn’t even thought to ask a question…because you were pretty sure the answer was not going to be all that great?? I hear ya! This is what the Lord said to me, and I have to be honest – because I promised I would be honest on this blog …I was not over-the-moon thrilled with His answer. He talked to me about pruning. You know that stuff you have to do when you have a garden and the rose bush is heading for another state and your trees are hanging over into your neighbour’s yard? “I’m pruning you,” He said.

That’s when I realised I’d asked a question that I didn’t really want an answer to because I had already decided what kind of answer I would like! Which is an incredibly dumb idea. What I really wanted to say was: “Lemme outta here, I’m drowning. I need a happier times fix!” Eventually I sat and read the book. So far I’ve read John 15 about six times because it talks about pruning. Spiritual pruning didn’t sound all that much fun. The first thing I noticed is that if a branch in my life is fruitless … then a-pruning He will go! That pretty much emphasised the fact that being fruitful is extremely important to the Lord, even though I believe being fruitless can happen to all of us..

The secret to being fruitful is to stay in Him and His ways. This is what came up for me, as I was meditating on it. Remaining in Him, means I live this life aware of what I have been given by Him, but it is not just a happy thought I visit every now and then. Everything I am now, comes from that place of grateful recollection of Him saving me, plus everything He died to give me. I need to live my life, my very ordinary life, aware of the incredible exchange Jesus Himself provided for me. His eternal life for my death to self. His righteousness for my sinfulness. His perfect love for my own natural human affection …His peace for my irritability etc.

At the same time, I will have to actively cultivate and deliberately let what He says in His book remain in me – in my life and my thoughts. So now His Word becomes my reference point for everyone I relate to, everything that happens to me, and everything I do. It becomes my new conscious-thought pattern. Which sounds remarkably like “renew your mind” to me! The Lord cannot be an add-on —. He, and His life in me, are to be my focus. Living like this will lift me up above life’s difficulties and give me an eagle’s view instead!

We all want to be productive for His kingdom. We may be daily growing in knowledge, but if we are not bearing fruit, then we will eventually need to be pruned. Not because He is mad at us, but because pruning produces … fruit! Maybe we have all lived in the natural for so long, we’ve turned into chickens and the things of His kingdom seem hard to scratch out and find. We will have everything we need for whatever comes our way, if we let Him teach us how to soar, and cutting off the old dead wood is a good start. 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 2897 Peace is our portion.

/ DVH

“And everything I’ve taught you is so that the peace which is in Me will be in you and will give you great confidence as you rest in Me. For in this unbelieving world you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world!””John 16:33 TPT.

We cannot survive 21st Century living without His peace.  Injustice pops up everywhere like wild mushrooms, all across the world. Peace is an inside job. Everything around us will try to steal it away. This week we have had a procession of endless, skilled tradesmen parading, banging, clumping, etc. right through our house. We discovered mould in one of our least used rooms. It’s a long story and not worth repeating here. One of my mum’s brand new hearing aids has grown legs and walked away, plus our daughter and grandson are moving in about a month. And our next trip is in 16 days. Not to mention all kinds of malfunctioning arms, legs, heads, backs, knees …a-n-d … we are both preaching this Sunday! 🤣

None of us can afford to rely upon good, positive circumstances to help us feel peaceful. We already have peace within us because the King of peace resides within us. That peace will thrive in an atmosphere of faith as we believe and act on what the Lord has said. It gives us confidence so we can face whatever comes at us from the world around us. Christianity is an ongoing relationship with the Man of peace, Jesus Christ. We learn to live in His peace as we watch and study Him, because He didn’t just teach us what to do, He showed us how to do it, by the way He lived! “Keep turning your back on every sin, and make “peace” your life motto.Practice being at peace with everyone.” Psalms 34:14 TPT.

We need to remind ourselves that we are foreigners, ambassadors of Christ, living in a foreign land where peace is now either enforced or ignored, or labelled impossible. Unfortunately, peace cannot be legislated, otherwise our freedom to choose His way, goes right out of the window. To me that means peace is always OUR choice to pick up or put down. It means we learn to bend with the winds of change and opposition, not just strive to be in control and stay rigid. Peace comes with a great cost to the people who are living any conflict. 

Sadly when there is no positive choice made, there can be no true peace, because the ‘machinery’ of our lives returns to a habitual default setting of agitation and worry. Yet Jesus Himself chose to live at peace in a society that hated everything He stood for, He had no home, His relatives opposed Him, His church leaders wanted to kill Him, He was surrounded by needy people … yet He had true peace, all the time, because He chose to walk with the Holy Spirit and obey His Father. 

The people who lived around Him were superficially content to live within their religious rules, and often those rules actually opposed or destroyed peace for many of them. Rules carry within them the possibility of failure – true peace doesn’t see failure as the end of the story. The Lord was not affected by people’s approval or disapproval, He carried out the things He did by choosing to reflect His Father’s will. He wasn’t looking to win a popularity contest then, and He still isn’t. 

He teaches us in this verse that rest, which is a part of peace, is also our portion. It is OURS. We learn to rest when we choose to put aside our own opinions, and feelings, and aim at His Ways, with His help. As we do that we are mirroring Jesus’ own relationship and trust in His Father. Father God made the supreme effort for us, to come here and reveal His will in Person. God Himself stopped being remote, and hard to access, instead He walked the roads of Israel and its surrounds. Jesus was assimilated into this world so well, that some people identified Him by where He lived as a child. He was known —as Joseph the carpenter’s son from Nazareth. 

If you and I have no peace, then we have somehow left Him out, or left Him far behind us. His peace within us is present to saturate the atmosphere around us. But if we lose our peace, then we need to return humbly to the Source of all peace, Christ, and ask Him to help us live in harmony with Him, and His ways again. When trouble and difficulties bash on our doors or seep into our lives, those things are not a statement about our personal efforts or lack of them. Instead they are simply the result of living in a fractured, unredeemed society. It means we have forgotten who we are and WHO He is! The answer is not to condemn society, instead we are to flavour it … with His qualities.

Peace is a Person. We walk in peace, when we choose to walk with Him. If we revert to our old ways of thinking, then we simply repent and start walking with Him again. Walking with peace means we do not have to carry our own burdens, we turn them over to Jesus and ask Him to deal with them, us and the situation. Peace is our God-given birthright, freely received – part of our inheritance.  Jesus said:“Peace I leave with you, MY peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27.

Jesus gave it to us, so now we have it, just like salvation whether we feel like it or not. Bye. 👋

P 2894 Whose pleasure? …

/ DVH

 …His or ours??…

Around 4,500 years or so, ago, Noah sent out a dove to fly over the face of our flooded planet to find a resting place. The third time, he launched the dove, it did not come back …

“Then he (Noah) sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.” Genesis 5:8-12.

Thousands of years later, in another time and pretty much another place … a dove landed on Jesus Christ’s head … and that dove remained with Him. (Matthew 3:16&17) Let’s be clear, when the heaven’s opened that day, and God Himself authenticated Jesus, I think it is pretty safe to assume that Noah’s original dove was long gone by then. That previous bird was deader than dead! But I wanted to bring this subject up today because hubby was talking to me about that thought a few days ago. I think the symbolism in it can speak to us.

First of all, blind Freddie can see that Noah’s dove was looking for a resting place! The earth was covered in water and the bird was looking for a safe place to roost. I believe this is one of the many incredible word-pictures of the Holy Spirit’s work. Thousands of years later, the Holy Spirit wanted to find a place to rest and Jesus Christ provided Him with that place.

Please note that the Holy Spirit did not land on John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin! Yet that man was filled with the Holy Spirit from before He was born. He lived a very peculiar life devoted to God – but the Holy Spirit was looking for somewhere He could stay and make His home. Ask yourself – why? Why would He want somewhere permanent? What is this telling us about the Holy Spirit’s Ways? 

I personally think we can over-emphasis the experience of being filled by Him, over and above the sheer joy of simply obediently walking with HIm. We get stuck in our own pleasure, rather than emphasising His pleasure. Again, something we need to think about! We desperately need the Holy Spirit to abide in us, the same way He abided with Christ. So the next question is this: What must I do, personally, for that to happen in my life? How can I make Him welcome?

Here’s the good news!  Jesus has already done all the work for us. He removed the sin that kept us in captivity and stopped us from living pure lives before the Lord. Now, the only thing that can stop us from walking with the Holy Spirit for His pleasure, is strangely – OUR pleasure. Our society at large, l-o-v-e-s double standards. Ya might want to think on that one!! 🤔 Here’s an old saying: a ship in the water is great, but water in a ship is not so great! I think, the problem is there is too much water in our ships! We need to value what He values … and one of the things I think He values is people.

When the Holy Spirit filled that building at Pentecost people didn’t rush about talking about how they felt – instead they couldn’t stop preaching, talking about and worshipping Jesus! Their personal encounters with Him led them deeper and deeper into obedience and sacrifice for His Kingdom’s sake. They met a Person and they followed Him! Our primary focus in this life matters. We cannot serve Him, and have the Holy Spirit rest upon us like He did on Jesus, when we continually choose to be double-minded. We must learn to live a compatible life. “For how can two walk together unless they be in agreement?”Psalm 119.1-2.

Obedience to His Word, despite our own personal fears, or preferences – or even inconvenience – positions us to continually walk with Him, relying on His provision. Almighty God loves obedience – it is one of the ways we show Him our love for Him. Our deliberate and heartfelt obedience positions us to hear and follow Him. It is like opening our spiritual ears. If we cannot hear Him clearly then we need to start obeying what the bible says. Pick the verse that says “Love your enemies…” find an enemy – and DO IT! This is what valuing His company looks like. Throw away your need to stew in wonderful feelings, and doggedly, continually, choose His Ways.

Let’s put aside our pleasure and choose His pleasure instead. We want to be the place where the Holy Spirit is welcome, a place where He wants to land and remain. Because when He rests upon us, we will rest in Him. Bye 🕊️

P 2887 What ARE we thinking?

/ DVH

“Perfect, absolute peace surrounds those whose imaginations are consumed with You; they confidently trust in You.” Isaiah 26:3 TPT. What we think about matters. You might ask me can anyone change their own thinking? God says we can! What I mean is this, because our minds are often easily distracted, we need His help. Here’s another scripture to chew over from Proverbs 23:7 it says: “As a man thinks in his heart so is he…”Proverbs 14:12 says: “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.”

What we think about will eventually come out of our mouth. Let’s just stop and selah that thought for a hundred years or so! One day, the bible tells me, what I am thinking is going to be broadcast from the rooftops. Luke 12:3. Man have I thought some dumb stuff! Stuff that I sincerely want to take back. Today’s world wants us to be consumed by what we think we want, or what we think we need. There is a general assumption that people know what is best for themselves. My point is, what occupies our thoughts even when we are ‘resting?’ Even in His Rest, God is thinking about us! He’s always thinking about us. We are so blessed.

If God is a PS or an after thought in our lives then it will be much harder to occupy our thoughts with Him, we will be distracted and established on other things that can colour our point of view – the things of this world. Thinking about what the Lord has already told us in His book, needs to be cultivated. When someone we love gets sick – they are never far from our thoughts. At the same time, we are often bombarded by negative thoughts of death, devastation and destruction. That’s the other guy – he is very adept at throwing thoughts at us and then blaming us for having them!

Eve tangled with him and look what happened there – mankind lost their intimacy with God! Our thoughts need to be regularly transformed through dedicated application of His Word. We must change the ungodly patterns in our minds if we want to transform our hearts. When the Lord made Adam and Eve, He put them into the garden of Eden to enjoy it – then He came every evening to walk and talk with them. You know, in the absence of God, sin flourishes. The responsibility to cultivate and correct our thinking rests on us.

The sin Adam and Eve made was one we often make, we use our own understanding. Big mistake – HUGE! Let’s look at Genesis 2:6:“When the Woman SAW that the tree LOOKED LIKE good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.” Eve’s weakness was that she wanted to be “in the know,” then she influenced Adam to join her. 

Human beings are already way too power hungry and revenge-seeking for that kind of power! The enemy ambushed Eve with ambition. She wanted to be like God and know everything. That’s what the fruit of satan’s work does. It puffs up. Humility and obedience go sailing out of the window, and people throw away our position of protection that God gave us. Sometimes, we don’t even bother to find out why He said no! Instead we start assuming He is keeping something from us, like Eve did!  

Our loving Father had already had a plan for what Eve went after – He planned it HIS WAY. Christ death is the God-given link to God’s power in us and for us. When we start feeling cheated, or robbed, that means we’ve fallen into our own understanding and we are ignoring His. It isn’t that we not allowed to think our own thoughts — it is about staying safe under the shadow of His wings. It’s about having peace in our hearts and minds, instead of the chaos of manipulation, fear and domination that comes with our enemy’s whispering! Our thoughts are often influenced by our circumstances and the immediate. This is why we read His book. The bible is food, it helps us grow spiritually, and digesting it creates a spiritual outlook, not a fleshly one. It feeds our minds and hearts with what God thinks … and why.

We must learn to cultivate that fixed reference point, because our own understanding is far more interested in our gain than obedience. We need obedience with trust. There is such incredible substance in God’s goodness, faithfulness, and His Ways. There is enough glorious reality in Him to keep us all busy for zillions of years. Our God is not boring. He is complex. Instead of talking with Him and negotiating with Him – like Moses, or Abraham, or Elijah, or Malachi, or Peter did — many people want to be wise and run their own lives, without any oversight. That kind of independent spirit can lead us away from everything that lasts. Human beings were made to inhabit eternity. 

Father God was not withholding anything from Adam and Eve, He simply wanted to protect them from the responsibility that comes when humanity has the knowledge of good and evil. Our judgment is faulty! It is influenced by our own passions. Peace went right out of the window the moment we gained that knowledge, and chaos ensued. Knowing evil also means that evil can tempt us.  Peace is our portion, but we must learn to think like the Lord does to live in that peace. Bye. 👋

P 2869 Dealing with ourselves.

/ DVH

Luke 6:41,42: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”Now that’s what I call ‘plain speaking!’

Here’s a good suggestion that may be helpful. The next time you can see a glaring fault in someone else’s attitudes and actions, ask the Lord to show you WHY you can see it. That kind of ‘sight’ is not discernment it is judgment.  It is a mistake to see verses like these as something that may be true … but “I don’t think I do that.” In your dreams!

This verse clearly says if you can see it in someone else then you’ve got it yourself. It’s the old ‘familiarity breeding contempt’ idea. That means we actually recognise that fault because we are personally well-acquainted with it! An attitude like that is contagious – it’s like paspalum in your lawn – it takes over everything! Even your thinking and responses. 

You know it doesn’t say that you can’t gently help someone else along if they are caught in an eddy of indecision, or they’ve stepped off His pathway one way or another. But sometimes we can be so busy minding someone else’s business we fail to see the blooming great train of our own dumb actions thundering toward us! I’ve found asking ‘why can I see that?’ … is incredibly useful. I learn about me, and the Lord loves me through the bits I may have carefully cultivated for my own protection. 

We need to learn that our mistakes are not fatal, otherwise that negative connotation will distract us away from our main purpose, and occupy all our thoughts. Those things will pull us away from the very real kingdom assignments God sends our way. Humbly and quickly, repent and repair any damage you may have done to someone else, and see those mistakes as opportunities to understand and know more about the Lord and His ways. And don’t forget to check out your own dirty linen at the same time.

Remember, if we can see it – we have done it too!! BUT, focussing on any sin defeats our primary purpose – we are here to walk with the Holy Spirit the Way Jesus walked with Him. Because of what Jesus did for us, we can own what we’ve done, deal with our sin and get it out of our way so it doesn’t trip us up!

This scripture from Luke 6 is piercing. Judgment is such a sticky substance. Falling or walking in to it is like stepping into a pot of treacle – getting out becomes extremely difficult.  At the same time our enemy stands at our elbow handing us reasons why we have a right to be there. You know, sometimes I think that the other guy doesn’t have to do a great deal, he just stirs up the stuff in us that has been cultivated over the years, and then he walks off. he knows full well how easily we can be seduced “by the dark side …” 

The wonderful thing about the Holy Spirit is that satan’s ways are immaterial to Him. The Holy Spirit is incredibly busy revealing Father God’s word, and His ways, so most of the time … I hear Him say stuff like: “Watch out, those thoughts will trip you up!” He really IS the very best kind of Friend we will ever have. He watches our backs for us.

It’s great when we tell our friends at church about the wonderful things God has done for us —but I have personally noticed that we rarely hear testimonies about how the Lord helped us to overcome this or that, when we felt trapped by the enemy. Those things are our very real testimonies that have God’s power upon them to set other people free. Living this life differently to everyone else around us, is an incredible thing. And the Holy Spirit loves to be around humble, open, honest people … His very Presence opens up doors when we talk to others. 

Jesus is not telling us to ignore wrong attitudes in those around to us, instead He is warning us that there is a trap in dabbling in judgment. We will personally miss an opportunity to change – we do not have to get caught up in stuff that pulls us away from Him! But, when we deal with ourselves, we are in a better, kinder, position to help someone else. Bye 👋

P 2837 What we do with what God tells us daily, matters.

/ DVH

I know that many people, past and present, have had a great deal to say about this parable, I personally love the clarification the Lord Himself gave, which comes directly after it in Matthew 13:1-9:

“He (Jesus) taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

Almighty God gives us seed to sow from His Word – hopefully… daily!! His book is a fantastic source of life-giving seeds. We need to take those seeds He has personally given to us, and share them with others. That seed that His Spirit kisses, especially for us, has His life in it. Its power lies in the fact that God revealed His truth to us.

It may have been something someone said when they were preaching, and it struck us in the heart like an arrow finds the target. Or it may have been something that stood out as we were reading the bible. It could even be when we were talking to the Lord and suddenly a scripture fell down from our thinking and meditating —- where we had hidden it while we were renewing our minds – and it sank down deep inside us, into our heart where growth can begin. Wherever or however it happened, that fresh seed is now ripe for planting. It can produce a crop.

The seeds of His Word that we sow into our lives – as we daily read the bible and act on it — can behave exactly like this parable describes. Sadly some seed doesn’t even make it past 2 seconds of thought, because it has fallen upon a well worn pathway of previous knowledge, and so it is whisked away by the birds of the air … those thoughts and words that are constantly flying past us, because of everything we are exposed to in a single day. It is so easy to think: “I know that already.” Now we have a seed immediately stolen by pride.

Also in our daily bible readings, if we take the time to treasure His voice, we can sometimes discover “rocky places” in our hearts. They are not like the well-worn pathways that we barely notice, these are hard places that we try to skim over and ignore with thoughts like this: ‘The truth is, I don’t think I have to change, I think the other person should.’ The scorching heat of that bad attitude kills off the power of His precious seed, and it is killed off by negligence. Always remember that true forgiveness doesn’t keep accounts, be-ca-use … hallelujah!!… fortunately for us, Jesus doesn’t keep them either.

“The thorny ground” seeds are the places in our hearts we haven’t bothered to weed and keep watch over our wrong thinking. ‘Weeds of unbelief, or discontent or disappointment’ have flourished there. What we haven’t realised is that, spiritually speaking, any one rotten attitude can take over our thinking. So the possibility of a harvest from any seeds that are sown into the weed-filled patch, is negated. These spiritual seeds won’t receive their share of nourishment from any water and good soil, because the weeds of our wrong thinking are crowding them out, and soon the whole plant of His word, becomes sterile and unproductive.

Now let’s look at “good soil,” the stuff we are to cultivate and watch over in our hearts. Good soil not only gladly receives the seed of God’s Word;  as we act on it, that seed begins to flourish, and grow into a healthy plant. The increase in our seed production, is always up to the Lord, our part is to cultivate the soil of our hearts with humility and love. And take the time to prayerfully water and feed these His seeds with tears of repentance, and acts of sacrifice as the healthy plants begin to grow. Now we have seeds that will bear fruit and can be harvested.

As you can see, there are four different results from exactly the same seed. The seed does not change, but how it is received does. Even if we sometimes feel unsure about what we think the Lord is saying – it is our responsibility to watch over His seed and act on it accordingly. What we do with what God tells us daily, matters. How we receive it matters. Preparing our hearts to be open to change and transformation matters. A huge harvest can come from our dedication and our willingness to yield to His Ways, even to the death. Bye.  👋“They triumphed over him (satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” Revelation 12:11.

P 2792 Speak life.

/ DVH

Tell everyone you know, saved, or not: “God has a purpose for your life;” or, “The God of the Universe and beyond loved you w-a-y before you were born.” My helpful hint for today is to practice speaking His destiny into the people around you – everywhere you go. Stop and make the effort to tell somebody they are doing a good job. Even when they mess stuff up, pick the time when they do stuff right and point out what they did that was a blessing to you. 

We have the power of life and death in our tongues. Here’s Proverbs 18:21 GNB: “What you say can preserve life or destroy it; so you must accept the consequences of your words.”God gave us this power, so it is essential that we use it for good. Half the planet is racing about joining this social media outlet or that, because they are looking for their destiny, their place in this world.. God has a plan for every single one of them! Human beings need acceptance and approval, even if they are doing ordinary jobs. We must look for the good in this life, and lift someone else’s spirit by telling them what we have seen. And yes, I mean your spouse and kids! Keep your marriage friendly, tell your spouse what they did right! 

Sometimes people express their uniqueness badly. They take most if not all of their clothes off, behave appallingly, or have lingering doubts about their sex or personhood… or worse, they don’t like who they are. So they can end up doing awful stuff simply because they feel life is in opposition to them. They live their lives based on: “every man for himself!’ This is why we can’t possibly start to relate to people by choosing to focus on their SIN. We need to start with WHO they are in HIS eyes. God loves them. Living this way may take lots of practice, because it’s a new way to think! His way. Meanwhile, ask and keep on asking for His GRACE – you will need it!

Like I said yesterday, opportunities to dislike situations or people, will fall on us everywhere we go. It doesn’t take talent to be a critic but it definitely takes talent to recognise someone else’s good points! Gracious, generous actions are getting so rare nowadays they make the news!  We need to be dedicated to His Ways and walking in His love, to even begin to see what’s good in other people.The people around us may seem ordinary, but they are extraordinary to Him. He has a plan for their lives, He wants to bring out the best in every single person we meet.

Remember, Jesus called local fishermen to be His disciples. He wasn’t looking for clever people, religious people, or popular people. What about Zacchaeus? Like he was Mr Popularity – the tax guy! Even one of the women who followed Him had a dubious past. And let’s not forget Jesus chose Judas! Father God sent His Son to ordinary human beings just like us. Sadly this world is choosing every day to qualify or eliminate people because they don’t have His knowledge and expertise. Let’s remember, He made them, He knows why they are here and who they can be. 

But the one thing that makes every single person ever born, extraordinary, is the ONE WHO CHOSE TO LOVE US! We are made precious because the most Precious Man of all Eternity loves people! Read the book. Here’s Paul. He wrote this to the Galatian church: “I’m obviously not trying to flatter you or water down my message to be popular with men, but my supreme passion is to please God. For if all I attempt to do is please people, I would fail to be a true servant of Christ.” Galatians 1:10 TPT. 

As you can see, flattery or pleasing people is a waste of time, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be used by God to truthfully speak life into someone who has no idea of who they really are in His sight. Everywhere we go. This encapsulates what I want to say today – Christ is IN US. So, we can be the thermometer or barometer and fit in — OR, we can be the thermostat instead and lift the mood and atmosphere around us, and introduce a touch of His life to others.

God is good to all of us whether we deserve it or not. ‘The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike…’ Here is a great reason why we are to live like this. It’s  from Matthew 5:43-48 in the Amplified bible: “…so that you may [show yourselves to] be the children of your Father Who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on those who are evil and on those who are good, and makes the rain fall on the righteous [those who are morally upright] and the unrighteous [the unrepentant, those who oppose Him].” Our motivation as His Kids can easily be revealed to the-people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet, and living like that is tied to the way we treat the people around us.

Speaking life to everyone around us ushers in His kingdom. I learnt that when I expect bad things, that means I can only see bad things, and those bad things definitely outweigh everything else! I had selective sight, because I chose to put blinkers on. But when I began to expect to see good stuff, I saw it, even if it was only faintly there. It changed everything. Now my view has changed permanently. There’s an old saying:”If you are looking for trouble, you are going to find it.”  We can have our Father’s Eyes — my advice is to stop looking for the bad, and speak life instead. Bye 👋

P 2713 Learn to BOW low.

/ DVH

“IF you bow low in God’s awesome presence, He will eventually exalt you as you leave the timing in His hands.” 1 Peter 5:6 TPT. Now here’s the rub, we cannot ‘bow low’ and have a secret expectation that at the end of our so-called humility we will be exalted. I think we’ve been reading many, if not ALL scripture promises, with the expectation of ‘what’s in it for ME’ — and we can become disappointed when we think that God has not honoured His promises. Bowing low is not necessarily a physical position – it is the position of an undivided heart.

Those verses we grab for our own benefit are revealing something to us about Him – and we are missing it. Yeah. And aren’t you glad I pointed that out?! For instance, the verse: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you”tells us something about the Lord and what He is looking for from us – our participation. If we want to be close to the Lord we will have to go after Him first. I call this type of verse the “if” verses. If I do this then He will do that. And just who is in charge of that scenario?

In the past, many well-meaning people wanted to be seen and heard, perhaps because in their mind, it meant that others would hear or see what the Lord wanted to teach others.. They believed that meant that they would have a bigger stage to stand upon to speak His truth. Wrong! “For honour does not come from the east or the west or from the desert. But God is the One Who decides. He puts down one and brings respect to another.” Psalm 75:6,7. Recognition for us is God’s choice, not ours. We dare not manipulate others or even take advantage of situations, no matter how great the cause seems to be. Manipulation is not His Way.

Almighty God is interested in a great deal more than just our promotion and fame! Our new way of life is a spiritual way of life, it is not showy or competitive. Popularity or influence are not worth a hill of beans to the Lord. The Holy Spirit is the only influencer with a pure motivation, and we must learn to follow His Ways. It’s always our hearts that matter .. not popularity or influence. We can have thousands of followers on Instagram, or Facebook, and still have an impure ambitious, or even perhaps a needy heart. Philippians 4:19.

If I put one drop of poison into a glass of fresh, pure, spring water – would you still drink it? A pure heart wants what He wants and they are prepared to die to see that He gets it! That’s called devotion. But general applause, or even the size of any one congregation does not matter to the Lord. Jesus had hundreds of people who volunteered to be His disciples – yet Almighty God told Him to choose twelve. And one of them was not going to make the cut! 

Jesus trusted His Father and the Holy Spirit’s choices, that the men He chose would be the ones who spread the Word about God’s incredible love far and wide. And they did. Judas was the only one of those men with a divided heart. We are not told why he was like that, we are simply told that he handled the money somewhat carelessly. This is what I mean when I talk about having a divided heart – one of our regular prayers should be about not having one!

We cannot afford to let even little sin reign, even if it seems to be in a good cause … because sin will eventually drag us under and flavour everything around it. However, we always have a Way Out of sin. “You are my dear children, and I write these things to you so that you won’t sin. But if anyone does sin, we continually have a forgiving Redeemer who is face-to-face with the Father: Jesus Christ, the Righteous One”. I John 2:1. Silently waiting for our spiritual abilities to be “discovered” is still an agenda! Our only aim needs to be to that others see Him.

‘Bowing low’ is our way of life. It means whether others think we are right or wrong – we bow down to the Lord’s wishes and let Him exonerate us when He thinks the time is right. People with a heart like this don’t care if our only service is putting out the chairs at church! We do what we do with all our hearts as though we were putting out chairs for Jesus Himself!

I have known totally devoted, utterly beautiful chair-putter-outer-ers! 😂 They did not see this task as a tiny task, and it was not menial to them. Instead they prayed over each chair that each person who sat on it would be blessed, healed, delivered and discover more about Christ. They treated that  task like the pastor treated His sermon – as devotion to Almighty God!“Whatsoever you do, do it with all your heart as though you were doing it for the Lord.” This BTW, is now one of my new all time favourite verses!

Let’s remember that pride took lucifer out of a realm of honour, and put him into the unenviable place of being a permanent enemy. And the best thing we can do when we discover any sort of pride is to humble ourselves before God, and others, as well as confess our faults. The true diagnosis of a proud heart is that they have secret agendas.  They have a desperate need to always be right, and other people’s needs are secondary to their own.

Bowing low is not just an outward action, it is an inner stance of our hearts. Bless you as you serve our King! 👑

P 2659 A listening heart.

/ DVH

Faith is our optimum response to God speaking, whether through the bible, directly into our hearts, or even through our circumstances. The way we indicate to Him that we are listening, is that we stop, then pray over what we heard, (I usually ask for a scripture), and then we do something about it.

I’ve said here many times, I never read in the bible where it talks about repentance, or read something that needs repenting over, without submitting myself to Him and asking Him to show me where I’ve done that. Most of the time I repent anyway – I figure I’m so used to excusing myself, that I need the practice!

We are responsible to act on what we hear. A listening heart is alert, waiting for what comes next. Our response to His promptings, indicates our willingness to co-operate with the Spirit of the Living God. However, our love for Him and others must fuel our faith, not obligation or fear of any consequences. I’ve observed if I set my heart to obey He helps me all over the place! Living this way has taught me that faith is always NOW.

I know you guys are busy people who have busy days. Practically everyone has certain things every day that they need to complete in order to make a living. Simply ask Him into your day. But don’t just do that in the morning, ask and keep on asking! Show Him you are serious. He won’t forget – but you will! And you could come to the conclusion that if nothing happens that day that He did not need you to do anything. If enough days like that line up in a row, we can start to think that this way of life is not for us and go back to doing the same old, same old. 

His Ways are different than ours. For instance, He loves to surprise us. He sent His Only Begotten Son to a cowshed! Paul was off to kill more Christians and he was knocked off his horse when Jesus spoke to him. Peter, James and John were going fishing, and Jesus told them to leave what they were doing and come and follow Him. Matthew was a tax-collector, and he left everything behind him. Our God loves to surprise people. Ananias and Sapphira fell over dead when they lied to Him. SURPRISE!

To have a listening heart we will have to tune out, or turn off other things. The Lord speaks to me some days after I’ve just finished putting this blog online: “Are you going to read the bible?” He says. Now, in my teeny tiny mind, I’ve just written a whole lot of paragraphs dedicated to what He wanted me to say!!… So, I think … time for a rest now. If I am not careful I’ll forget what really refreshes me. HE refreshes me, the bible says so. It also says I am here to serve Him.  

The Holy Spirit reminded me of this parable: Luke 17:7–10 – “But who is there amongst you, having a servant ploughing or keeping sheep, that will say when he comes in from the field, ‘Come immediately and sit down at the table’? Wouldn’t he rather tell him, ‘Prepare my supper, clothe yourself properly, and serve me while I eat and drink. Afterward you shall eat and drink’?  Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded? I think not. Even so you also, when you have done all the things that are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy servants. We have done our duty.’ ” 

Now there’s a reality rush! It kind of stomps all over any theology that says… ‘the sky is the limit … blab it and grab it … God just wants us to have a happy life… just pray trouble away … and if you can’t then there is something wrong with you … that kind of stuff.’ Moo-ving on, v-e-r-y quickly … Meanwhile, I didn’t see that little gem in Luke for years, I don’t know how I missed it. Then one day … I got a reality rush. I was raised in an atmosphere that said God would do anything for me to show me He loved me. Guess what? He already did that 2,000+ years ago, on a cross on a hill. I owe Him everything – He owes me nothing. I owe Him obedience, plus the courtesy of paying attention when He speaks.

To have a listening heart we need to stay always ON. Even at 3.00am. We simply get up and get into the flow of the Holy Spirit. He is the reason we are still here on this earth. Not our kids, nor our spouses. Not even the daily grind. JESUS is the reason we are still here – we have work to do for His kingdom. Even if He has called us to pray – ask someone who intercedes – it’s work!  Otherwise we can end up kind of sandwiching Him in between breakfast and doing other things. That’s when we start to feel: “That’s done, I’ve done my duty.”

There is no off button for God’s kids. A listening heart is always on, waiting for what comes next. He tells His secrets to those who are prepared to live aware of Him. Ask Him to help you to cultivate a listening heart.  Bye. 👋