Holy Spirit

P 2919 Go to the Source.

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“And if anyone longs to be wise, ask God for wisdom and He will give it! He won’t see your lack of wisdom as an opportunity to scold you over your failures but He will overwhelm your failures with His generous grace.” James 1:5 TPT. Around about this time in our mission (day 6 of 12 days), Hubby and I have learnt that we can end up on a huge down-a-later…  right before our Heavenly Father is about to do something that will blow our socks off … again!

To be honest with you, I’m not sure we would choose to go on these trips purely for the people the Lord sets us up to met – although they are often fantastic people. But I strongly suspect we both do this because we can’t wait to see what He IS going to do next. He is always surprising us – He literally never does what we might imagine at all – nothing looks like you think it will! 

I think the reason that many Christians don’t often see the Holy Spirit working around them is because they won’t want take any risks. People who lay down their lives to follow Jesus, end up taking risks. Like walking on water, or feeding thousands of people with some kid’s lunch. Or waiting for the Holy Spirit to come – when no-one has any idea what that looks like!  We need to stop thinking He’s only present when we see miracles –  because the Lord promised never to leave us or forsake us. He will go with us, wherever we go in His Name, and He always keeps His promises.

However in those times when it seems as if hubby and I have run out of enthusiasm for moving around from one place to another, and we are slowly getting toward empty — then He just simply takes over, particularly when we confess that we are hopeless without Him and we need His wisdom …like brother James suggested in his book. That’s when wisdom flows everywhere, and we just stand back and watch Him move. I  love those times, they are the best. 

One of those fantastic times happened at the beginning of our journey, when we first arrived in Victoria, utterly exhausted. Hubby gave away a half a dozen bookmarks, and a block of chocolate to the cleaners. Their leader was so overjoyed she raced off to our cabin and hugged me – she said this: “Nobody ever thinks about the cleaners!” Hey guess what lady?? Jesus always does!! 

Another one happened because the TV and DVD in our cabin didn’t work. So two guys came to fix it and then one of them suggested we all watch some porn to see if it was working now. I laughed and said: “Boy, are you going to feel bad when you find out what WE do!” Then we told him, and we all laughed together! You just never know who the Lord is going to bring along next, like two rough Aussie blokes and 2 weak wobbly little missionaries.

Only a few days ago, hubby took bibles and bookmarks into yet another caravan park office, and after a few minutes talking, he gave the lady behind the desk, a bookmark. She burst into tears and started sobbing: “You just don’t know what this means to me,” she said through her tears. You know, that book mark was not that good, trust me! It’s the Lord!! Jesus wants people to know He loves them, and He’s not dead – He’s alive!

So far, and we are on day 6, we have given away nearly all our bibles, 341 things in 6 days and 3 of those days were hard travel days. And we, Mr and Mrs We-haven’t-got-a-clue, are simply doing whatever He tells us to do. We were able to give that sobbing receptionist one of our books that talks about knowing Jesus, as well as a heap of bibles for that park. Then somebody else came in, which kind of terminated the conversation and changed the atmosphere. The window of opportunity may be very small, but Hubby is brilliant he jumps right through it!

Travelling around by car is difficult, the roads aren’t great to start with! And it means we don’t see a lot of people in a day, as we have to cover a lot of ground between towns … where there are only emus, kangaroos, and deer – would you believe?  Australia is a land with lots of space, so that means a lot of driving. We have driven about 1500 kms, to places that often don’t even have churches. Places where faith is not a part of any conversation, so if you bring up Jesus it usually takes people by surprise. 

The Lord wants to be so much a part of our lives that we talk about Him quite naturally. Like I said to the man when he wanted to play a porn DVD – that we didn’t have (!!!) – “Sorry mate, HE wouldn’t like it.” And I pointed to the ceiling. We need to defer to the Source, first, last and always. Bye 👋.

P 2916 Value His Presence.

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This is a very special privileged place. It cost our heavenly Father everything to give it to us. His Presence is our treasure. So it is important for us to value and prioritise our relationship with the Holy Spirit. The way we can daily live walking with Him. This comes from an intimate understanding of His Ways – what He likes, what He doesn’t. I think it is a mistake to write out, or adhere to rules etc. regarding this relationship. And the Spirit’s virtually unseen contribution into our lives is about keeping those relationships flourishing with the joy of knowing and serving Them.

Because of the Holy Spirit and His help and influence, we can cultivate the utter freedom to love and serve others no matter how difficult they are. Love conquers all, and it will pay any price to do it. However, sin and rules will quite simply block our spiritual ears and eyes and muddy our understanding of Him. That’s when our focus shifts from Them … to me.

We need the Spirit’s Presence and wisdom permeating our lives, constantly, because His influence will build our faith in our Father’s loving kindness and goodness. He equips us to do His work for God’s kingdom to flourish through us. The Holy Spirit will not take over, but He loves to strengthen us so we can choose the good and be delighted in, and for, Father God Himself.

To get this place of safety, we must continually renew our minds so that we know, that we know, that without Him we can do nothing. By ourselves we can’t ever meet God’s standard of selflessness, purity and holiness, that’s why Jesus came and died in our place. He gave us His right-standing with our Father. When we live like Jesus would, we are living under His cleansing blood. Just look at the Lord’s confidence in His place in His Father’s eyes, as He prays outside Lazarus’ tomb:  “So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that You have heard Me.  I knew that You always hear Me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that You sent Me.”John 11:41&42.

Now let’s be clear, without His Presence we can rocket from one giant mess to another … which is actually the kind of ‘nothing happening here’ stuff that lasts … and, over time it will get worse!! We can however, live our lives repenting from the things that distract us daily, plus the occasional things that are exposed which have held us captive so far. We can live this way because we have already been given His strength, so we can forgive any perpetrators, as well ourselves – and that stops that dumb unfruitful dance from continuing. 

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.” We can also confess our faults to one another, and dig into His Word until we hear His voice through what is written. This a reliable pathway back into living for His kingdom. Now our task is to believe and act upon what God said to us, personally. Our King is extremely humble. When we follow Him, that means we will also live humble lives, acknowledging we are not there yet.

Moving on … … for too long we have tried to serve God … AND… insert-something-in-here-that-you-are-unwilling-or-afraid-to-give-up! The solution for that is to tell the Lord the truth. Tell Him you don’t want to stop whatever it is that He has put His finger on, but you will – simply because it is important to HIM. That’s God’s love language – our response to His generosity and beauty – especially when we die to self for the sake of His kingdom coming. 

Then we ask for His help and exercise self-control. This fruit of the Spirit grows and flourishes in an environment of transparency, honesty and humility. Almighty God is a jealous God, He doesn’t like sharing US – we are His chosen family. That’s why He sent Jesus to save us. He will share His love, and He will shower us with mercy and grace … but He does not like a divided heart. Matthew 6:24; Psalms 86:11-17.

We need to remember that He wants us for Himself and there is no greater honour. “When you abide under the shadow of Shaddai, you are hidden in the strength of God Most High. He’s the hope that holds me and the stronghold to shelter me, the only God for me, and my great confidence.”Psalms 91:1-2 TPT.

The bible tells us not to forget all of God’s benefits in Psalm 103 – but we need to know that His benefits are bigger than just the stuff that suits me! His benefits are there for you too, through me! When we act under His instructions, like the Sons and Daughters of God, we destroy the works of the evil one.“But as for me, Your strength shall be my song of joy. At each and every sunrise, my lyrics of Your love will fill the air! For You have been my glory-fortress, a stronghold in my day of distress.” Psalms 59:16 TPT.

He wants to be our hiding place, our strong deliverer, our healer, our redeemer, our joy and our song – so we need to learn to not abuse what He has given us. We are the people who value even the Shadow of His Presence. Amen. 🙏

“My true life is the Anointed One, and dying means gaining more of Him.” Philippians 1:21 TPT.

P 2915 How amazing is this?

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“There’s a day coming when the mountain of God’s House Will be The Mountain—solid, towering over all mountains. All nations will river toward it, people from all over set out for it.They’ll say, “Come, let’s climb God’s Mountain, go to the House of the God of Jacob.He’ll show us the way He works so we can live the way we’re made.”Isaiah 2:2-5.

We made it safely to Hall’s Gap. It is our first stop — so today I thought I would talk about mountains, because I am surrounded by them. We are staying right at the base of an escarpment. There are lots of different birds, a mob of kangaroos etc. and the kind of quiet you will only experience when you are far far away from the city. We chose to come here because God told us to come. Then these poor souls had a very bad bushfire earlier this year. When a bushfire rages through your neighbourhood, love, hope and joy get burnt up too!

Isaiah’s verses impacted me today, because I am looking at a large rocky mountain, up close. Isn’t it great that one day we will see God’s mountain and climb it, hallelujah! Meanwhile my climbing days down here are over, I can barely climb into a people-mover without someone kind of shoving on my rear end. Stairs nearly do me in, and my rock-climbing days in this world are over.  But one day ….!!

An-y-wa-y … the bit of scripture that totally grabbed at me from these verses, was:‘He’ll show us the way He works so we can live the way we’re made.’Imagine that! Jesus came here specifically to do that for us … and so much MORE!! Sometimes we can forget we were created to live in God’s Presence, to go for walks with Him in the world He made for us. But we chose our own way, our own opinion, our own logic above His instructions. Jesus modelled what Christians can look like, then He sent US back the power to carry it out.

He came here with a huge download of the knowledge of His Father’s original plan. He came to pay the price for, as well as show us visibly, what redemption and restoration can do for human beings. Christ illustrated, gloriously, what living in the Father’s Presence, and walking with the Holy Spirit looks like! He revealed Father God and His Ways to all of us in such a simple, unobtrusive, selfless way. The Lord made the impossible, possible when He came here to show us how God’s Ways work. Now, we too can live our lives, right here, right now, like Jesus did. We too can respond to adverse circumstances the way He did, and love others wholeheartedly with no strings attached. Isn’t that a big thought?

The power to live this life, here and NOW, differently, was bought by Christ at Calvary and released through the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This world needed to be redeemed before the Holy Spirit could be everywhere. Before Christ’s birth, the Holy Spirit came to be with just with a person for special circumstances. But now, He is available to any one of us – all of us -to teach, help and guide us. Just like the disciples followed Jesus around, now we follow the Spirit of the Living God. This is not a special club, the bible says: “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.” Revelation 22:17.EVERYTHING ABOUT OUR HEAVENLY FATHER SAYS: “COME!”

The power of God was released, through a human being just like you and I, and then Jesus died and left here — but then He sent back a PERSON Who can be everywhere – to guide us.  If Jesus hadn’t done what He did so freely, we would still be striving to reach heaven through a religious man-made Tower of Babel. I think this shows all of humanity that we need to know the Holy Spirit and what He likes and loves, better than we know anyone else. The option remains with us to choose. First, we choose Christ to save us from our sins, and then we choose the Holy Spirit to help us become everything we were always designed to be. 

God loved His time with Adam and Eve in the garden. That deliberately chosen time is an illustration of His intention. It shows us that He wants to be with us, because He likes our company. We are the only creatures on this earth who can choose to love and enjoy Him. I believe the Lord loves the reciprocity of this arrangement. We do not have to pray and talk to Him – now we get to pray and talk to Him. We were made in His image, God does not want ‘yes’ men and woman, He wants us to learn about His Ways and fall in love with the One Who made us by our own freely made choices. How amazing is that? 

Almighty God sent Jesus here to free us from sin, and show us how to really live. Because we have the freedom to choose, that means our choices are incredibly powerful. It’s the minute by minute choices we make that decide who we are now, and who we will become  – the choice to live out His will, His Way is filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Bye for today, 👋.

P 2912 Great bible advice.

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“Surrender your anxiety. Be still and realize that I am God. I am God above all the nations, and I am exalted throughout the whole earth.”Psalms 46:10 TPT. Well this verse in the Passion version gives us a lot to think about! I love the order in it. First we voluntarily give up anxiety, and then after we’ve surrendered everything, we are to be still and remember Who He is, and all He has done. I’m a fan of clear instructions, they make this life easier. BTW it doesn’t say you will feel differently! The bible is full of those kinds of faith things – it endlessly blesses me.

Living this way actually provides us with opportunities to plant, water and fertilise the fruit of the Spirit. Self-control, for instance. We need that particular fruit badly today. In our homes, in our relationships, in our countries  – we ALL need this fruit. The fruit of self-control actually germinates through recognising opportunities, and following His instructions, pray, and then application. It’s what I call an obedience fruit. It is like love, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness, more fruit that begin to develop in the heat of obedience.

Self-control is actually more than just not saying or doing stuff, it is resting in what Jesus did so thoroughly we allow God to bring His peace in the place of worry and anxiety.  Hand everything over to Him, piece by untenable piece. And then, make a decision and take the time to be still, and simply think about what HE is like …what Jesus did for us. 

There are so many things the Holy Spirit does, and most of the time, we don’t even see Him working. When things go crazy inside our hearts and minds, and outside in the world around us, we need His perspective.

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”2 Corinthians 4:17-18.

When I am upset and anxious, I read a Psalm. I need to say at this juncture that I’ve found reading great chunks of the bible just causes further confusion and angst for me. However, music helps me too. But I try to spend time reflecting on Who He is and what He has done for all of us. I’ve learnt you can’t BAM the truth into place, but you can settle your heart, so you can YIELD and He can put His beauty in there. It is a battle, not a walk in the park! Battles like these don’t make us sinful – they show us our weaknesses and our need for His comfort.

Jesus is speaking in these verses in Luke to His disciples about the turbulent times ahead of them: “But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of My Name.  And so you will bear testimony to Me. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.” Luke 20:12-15.

Even in extreme circumstances, we are exhorted not to worry! Imagine that … easily said … not easily done! It is a fight against our own carefully cultivated instincts and it takes practice and trust. It can seem weird when you just let go. Strangely, worry can make us feel like we are doing something – if we can just find the right answer! That’s a lie. We can’t add one minute to our lives with worry and anxiety.  

Instead of having to give their testimonies in hard places – those men mentioned in Luke are going to be imprisoned. Kings and governors, are going to demand an explanation for what they believe and the One they serve. And the Lord virtually says to them: ‘Don’t worry about it! I’ll be there!! I promised to be with you so I will be there! I’ll tell you what to say and when to say it. What you say will be so amazing and full of wisdom your enemies won’t be able to say a thing.’ Imagine the fruit on that path. And we think our lives are hard. 

I’m comforted by the fact that Jesus once said this:  “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, unless you repent [that is, change your inner self—your old way of thinking, live changed lives] and become like children [trusting, humble, and forgiving], you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3. AMP.

Children trust and that is to be our response too. Let go, and look up at Jesus, and let Him take care of it. Do what you can see, plus the things He tells you to and then …let go.Unfortunately in these moments, the voice of personal experience is very loud and it can be a huge distraction. We need to become humble enough to lay our own personal experiences to one side, and believe the bible is truer than what we’ve known and experienced. 

We have to deliberately throw off our old ways of thinking and make a decision that Jesus is able to do what He said He will do, and He will do it for ME! Now the winds of chance, challenge and change cannot blow us around any more. Instead we are gently blown, by the Spirit of the Living God, onto His pathways. We learn His ways, and we start to experience Him for ourselves. 

The bible offers us all kinds of good advice, when it is treated with reverence, and applied into our lives. It shifts our focus off the things of this earth and pulls us into seeing what is happening in His kingdom. The things we cannot see. Bye. 👋

P 2911 LET.

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‘Let’ is actually a really big word despite it only having 3 letters! God clearly tells us: “I will LET you learn.” The dictionary says this about the word LET… not prevent or forbid; allow. As we deliberately pick up His yoke, He has promised to teach us everything we will need for our new life. But the Lord won’t push us, we still need to choose what He wants. So … let’s move on and look at a few of the many blessings of ‘letting’ …

“Let us gaze upon Jesus, as the Author and the completion of our faith,…” Hebrews 12:2;  Looking at our failure kills faith, but looking at what He did for us, opens us up to learn His Ways.“And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds…” Hebrews 10:24. WE set the pace, we choose our growing edges. God is always waiting and willing to teach us.“Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not …” Galatians 6:9. If we get tired we can ask for help, that’s how we will learn how patient He is, how ready to help us. 

“…let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus,…” Hebrews 12:1.We need to let Him guide us, and teach us what we need on our journey with Him, His book is a revelation of His will. Some things are weights, so we can get tired if we don’t  leave them behind. We need to choose to confess our sins, and receive His forgiveness, be-ca-use … “IF we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.

So much is available to His kids when we chose to deliberately learn His Ways and practice them! Jesus said: “…Walk with Me and work with Me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:29a&30. The Lord allows us to learn how Grace works, as we read and put into practice what He said in the book. This is how we learn to trust Him, because what He does can be seen unfolding around us.

His overflowing Grace is always there for us, and we have more than enough to give away. That’s because we have a more-than-enough God Who is rich in these qualities and HE LOVES TO SHARE!  A.S.K. and … keep on asking!  Jesus gave this world an inexhaustible supply of Grace. We are encouraged to learn how His Grace impacts our lives and the lives of those around us, with His help, by using our faith. We are now grace dispensers.

Grace is our all day, all night, in every circumstance – enabler of good! It’s the Holy Spirit’s forte. He is so-oo good at it! Sometimes I have been as dumb as the dirt I came from, but HE knows how to do anything and everything – well!  When His Grace is present it means my focus is on Him, not just any pain or circumstances. I deliberately choose to put my focus onto the Lord and His eternal provision, and at the same time, I understand that He is teaching me about Himself. Then: “having done ALL I stand!” … until I hear from Him again. The Holy Spirit helps me, and praise Him, He will help and allow His kids to learn LOVE in all its forms.

We can gladly embrace the Love God has for every single human being, because our focus is not on what they have done, or did or didn’t do — it is on Who He is and what He already did! As we let that kind of love in, using our faith — it opens us up to the infinite possibilities of His Kingdom. He helps us by pointing out where we are falling down … so we don’t have to fall down next time! He lets us learn His Ways with His loving Eye upon us. Our God is never an absent God – He can be silent – but He is never gone!

You and I are a part of Him now, because we are His Body. We know we will always be received and He loves to help us to be ministers of reconciliation.. We need to make Him welcome, as our personal tutor/teacher/helper/guide/interpreter. We just need to A.S.K. I am so grateful that He lets us learn. I’ve found that the action of letting Him, or allowing HIM to take charge, is a HUGE thing.

Despite this word’s actual size, it is incredibly important. It has opened the door to a whole other way to live – in another Kingdom – His! Bye. 👋

P 2908 Alfred.

/ DVH

Good morning everyone. It seems that part of our preparation for our bible trip next Monday is reorganising our house! I shan’t bore you with many details – one room has sprung a leak and another room is even lower than that one. So we are emptying both rooms and stuffing everything we have in them into the rest of our quite small home. Like many people where we live, we have not experienced a cyclone. Personally, I could have cheerfully skipped that event, but it seems the Lord has other plans in my transformation process.

Man, we are sentimental packrats at our house! We’ve been married for 38 years and I think we have kept every single thing we ever bought. We have thought about moving on various occasions but the trauma of all that packing etc. etc. …if you have ever moved you will know that a lot of stuff happens in those words etc.etc!!

Many times, all that work has dissuaded us from moving, and so we decided to stay put. I don’t think anyone likes to have to pack their life into boxes. But currently it seems the Lord wants us to revise our pack-ratty ways and we will have quite a bit of sorting out to do when we get back home. Yes, we are still going, the Lord willing, if the planes are allowed to fly out. I imagine it is not much fun in a plane in a cyclone! 

The rising panic of this whole event makes for a difficult atmosphere all over the place. A lot of people at the shops seem quite afraid because it has been 50 years since the last cyclone darkened our city’s doorstep. That fear is almost palpable everywhere you go. It highlights for me that most people have no clue about the Lord Jesus, or eternity, or ‘what happens to me?’ Those people live in our neighbourhoods. Meanwhile, we are having a crash course in letting go and letting God, and allowing Him to bring His kingdom into our lives despite the temptation to fling up our hands and give in to despair. 

Thank the Lord our son has come to help us practically because I think hubby has had to transform himself into three people when I wasn’t looking! One of them is looking after me, the other one is preparing for our bible trip and the most exhausted one is moving furniture! Life is never boring. But we keep on giving things back to the Lord, and dealing with them one at a time. Sadly my brain turns into confused mush if you push on it, and so I am not much help. But I can and will pray.

I said all that to finally introduce my subject for today’s blog – clearing and cleaning out our spiritual closets. I have learnt over the years that what is happening in the natural world around us can mirror what is happening inside us. Speaking for myself, there seems to be a whole lot of stuff I have stored, hiding unnoticed and undisturbed! Life is busy, and time passes more quickly than any of us think – it is good to have a stock-taking event now and then!

So here is my verse for today … I think it may end up my verse of the month! “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with Thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.” Psalm 51:10-19. 

This made a great deal of sense to me  – we cannot go out and talk to people about the Lord next week, with unnecessary burdens and dirty hands. These precious people mean so much to Him and we want the purity of His love to shine through us. So thank you, cyclone Alfred, for calling us to revise our absent- minded ways. Bye, 👋

P 2906 Humility is essential.

/ DVH

Luke 19:3-10:“He wanted to see Who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see Him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”So he came down at once and welcomed Him gladly. 

All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Zacchaeus gave up his former life at warp speed, no questions asked! Here’s a little thought about this man. He had invested his energy in being able to see Jesus properly when he ran and climbed that tree. I’ve heard people debate what the tree means … I could care less. What I see is a man who wanted to see Jesus. We pray for those kind of people when we go on the road, that we would find the ones searching for Him. Something was happening in that man’s heart that prompted him to get a better view. 

First he climbed the tree, then Zacchaeus came down when Jesus called him. Immediately afterward, his validity to have Jesus come to his house for dinner, was questioned. So he started cleaning up his sins on the spot. After all, his sins were calling Jesus’ wisdom into account. Then he went one step further than simply fixing his sins, he became outrageously generous.

After that this man repaid four times over what he had cheated out of others. You can see his faith progressing as Zacchaeus began to understand the honour he had been given. Jesus was honouring this man with His Presence, owning him, in front of everyone. And this guy shows what true repentance looks like! Repentance requires turning around not just sorrow – Judas was sorrowful.

OH! That we would understand the honour we have been given when Jesus chose to save us! It is not something to be pushed aside and treated lightly. It needs to be the focus of everything we do. Pharisees etc. expected to be treated well, have the best seats, and have their thoughts and lifestyles admired by everyone. But we must remember, we serve a God Who SEES. He sees through our uppity attitudes, into whatever is in our hearts and half the time even we don’t know what has crept into it!!

Some times we feel bad because what we did was bad – that’s called conviction. I’ve learnt to pray this prayer from Psalm 51:10-13 often, because I want the best attitude. I need to spring-clean myself from sin, selfishness, ambition, and the need for recognition. I don’t have to do anything else but confess my sin, repair things with other people, and then I rely upon His faithfulness!

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your Presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.“

The thing is, we cannot even have a clean heart without His help! This Psalmist’s reverence for God comes through his words, and so does his heart. He has a desperate need for God to help him achieve what his heart desires. And He values God’s Presence more than anything else, and wants to always remember, that he has been saved from who he was and God has restored him. There is no value we can put on being able to respond with such humility. And we see this in Zacchaeus and a woman who washed Jesus’ feet. She is perfect example of repentance and humility in action.

You know we can have this opinion and that thought, but the way God thinks about people often escapes us. Jesus was incredibly loving and supportive to this woman. She washed His feet with her tears and dried it with her hair and she did it to honour Him.  She broke the most valuable thing she owned and poured it over Him. Right in the middle of a dinner party where she stuck out like a sore thumb! She did not care, she was testifying to His Sovereignty, His God-honoured total right to be glorified. And she had gone there to be forgiven and worship Him – then she humbled herself because He was worth it. That’s called having an open heart!

Spiritual eyes and ears are incredibly valuable. Any one of us, at any time can be in His Presence, at home, in church, in the car — and yet we can’t hear His voice, because our hearts have hardened — maybe we think we’ve heard it all before — the thing is — we aren’t listening. Maybe we are too busy critiquing the message!! Big mistake. It’s one I have made more times than I care to remember. The Lord is looking for humble hearts, a people who will put His needs above everything else. These people won’t care if whatever they do is ever seen by anyone by Him. Here’s a big thought: … if HE is the only One Who can see it, then it is true worship.

Humility is essential, otherwise we wander along, never changing, and blaming others. Instead we lay ourselves at His feet and wait to hear what He will say. Bye. 👋

P 2903 Do I listen?

/ DVH

Listening is an important skill. How can anyone learn and change, if they think we already know? On the other hand, if we think we are right, perhaps we are listening … with an agenda?! I bumped into this particular attitude in myself today – it was not a happy thought! One of the very best gifts we can give someone else is to listen to them. Whether it is our children, our spouse, a friend, or a stranger who needs a listening ear. 

Because we are constantly bombarded by all kinds of media, I think we’ve lost the art of true listening – from the heart. The term social media, by the way, is a misnomer. There’s nothing social, or truly interactive about social media! Because of this phenomenon, people have become used to either oversharing, or colouring in what they say with pretty pencils to make themselves look better. 

I think that this extreme has resulted in losing the art of listening with love in our hearts, and concern on our faces. I have no excuse for my own personal behaviour – as you know, I don’t partake in any sort of social media. By the way, I just bumped into contempt and pride when I said that! 😱 We all know, I have no love for that stuff. Blimey, it’s raining bad attitudes at my house!!

There are times that someone could still be typing their response furiously while the person on the other end is trying to communicate with us, via this or that platform. Instead it becomes a game of one-up-man-ship. Who types the fastest? I also think sometimes our lack of intimacy with the Lord, can actually show up in our personal relationships. And…  our lack of intimacy with others can show up in our relationship with Him! Jesus is passionate about people, He is so passionate about people He died for all of us. The Lord is a great listener, if we will put away our agendas, and simply ‘…be still…!’

Sad to say, we can get so busy doing this and saying that, we can’t hear each other speak anymore! Important words get lost, or people get the brush-off because we think we know what the other person is going to say, or maybe … we don’t actually want to know what that other person is going to say because we are not interested. Either way we are the losers because the bible tells us that iron sharpens iron – and that sharpening won’t happen in a vacuum, we will have to choose to participate.

The bible is all about all kinds of relationships and it teaches  us how to live, side by side, with each other. Sadly, today all the godly motivated ideas about forgiveness have been thrown out —- and instead we get indignant stories about people being disobedient to society’s new laws, which are sometimes called political correctness. I’ve looked hard at that lot, and those things also totally annoy the living daylights out of me! They rub me up the wrong way so hard, I can lose my cool over it all. That’s when the Holy Spirit whispers to me that I have been called to love people, no matter what society tells me I should do. I am to obey the King – my allegiance to His message is my first priority.

You know, I found out that if you pay attention to the stuff you actually don’t like to admit about yourself, you can learn a lot of things you’ve never even thought about!  In this process I learnt that I don’t like being told what to do. I can be extremely compliant when things suit me, but when something is outrageously unjust – the red balloon goes up and so do my anger levels! So much for having a loving inclusive attitude. We can’t be transformed if we don’t admit to having a problem, and I was  totally unaware that this attitude had crept up on me. I was judging people without hearing His heart on the matter, first.

Jesus had injustices all around Him, yet still He only said what He heard the Father saying, and He only did what His Father told Him to do. (John 12:49-50.) That sounds like a great plan to me! Maybe my own personal problems have occurred because I’ve been busy justifying my snarky ways by pointing to the bible, and using it as a club instead of a book that was designed to heal. His book is designed to heal our relationship with the Lord first, and then it heals our relationship with others. We will miss His greatest blessings when we use His Word to justify stuff that is resistant to transformation.

Today, I just want to share that I fall on my head in matters of change, often. Many times I miss the mark and I don’t even know until hours, or even, days later. I’ve been too busy pompously riding about on my high horse to notice. Then I can easily spend a couple of days trying to avoid the only cure … ‘Draw near to God, humble yourself…’ James 4. Humbling yourself cures a whole lotta stuff – I recommend it. It helps me listen. Bye.👋

P 2902 Give yourself a break OK?

/ DVH

The Lord knows we all need a break sometimes, so God has been incredibly generous to mankind, He has given us gifts to help us. When you read His book you might easily notice that Almighty God often picks the oddest people to represent Him, I think it is because His goodness shines very brightly in needy people. 1 Peter 4:10-11 says:  “God has given each of you a gift from His great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God Himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to Him forever and ever! Amen.”

We can sometimes overestimate and esteem human beings, because they have been anointed by God to deliver His Grace to His people. Then we face disappointment and a further battle for our peace. However, it is God Himself Who deserves the glory and honour. Those people who represent Him are a gift from Him. With things like teaching, writing, sermons etc. we need to remember as we listen, that the person communicating is His Grace in action. If it touches our heart, that’s our Father, kissing us, hugging us — those things that bless us have been inspired by God for our benefit. 

I believe we desperately need to pray for our leaders – not occasionally, but all the time! Leadership is not only a gift of spiritual stamina, it is a gift of His Grace. These people are out in front of us, right in the firing line of our common enemy. They need our prayers. And we need to consistently elevate and thank the Lord because He gave us those who lead, they are His gifts to the church. Yes His gifts are precious, but that’s because they came from Him! So the glory belongs to Him. Everything He does is worthy of our praise – we simply need to wake up enough to notice what He is doing, all the time, every day.

If any one of us fail, or give up temporarily, or get discouraged or even lose heart — let’s remember that we have SomeOne praying for us, 24/7. Jesus and the Holy Spirit take our walk with our Heavenly Father, personally! Father God could care less if we are successful – He is looking for us to be His own submitted obedient kids, following His Son’s example. Jesus Christ was not successful by today’s standards – yet everything He achieved will one day be revealed in heaven. For now, WE HAVE HIS BOOK! 

I believe we are to be a people who press forward toward the goal, and live every single day, with the knowledge of an  astonishing revelation — we know that our God is always for us! Nothing else can prevail against us because He is on our side. He’s with us when we get it right, He’s with us when we get it wrong. Now here’s 2 Peter 1:3:“Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received! We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust.”

The ones Jesus loves (Zach Williams):

It may be that this life has become so difficult we have begun to give up on ourselves, because our situation seems so dire we cannot see any answer. In hard times it is so easy to forget Jesus is the answer… to anything. One of the most passionate, desperate prayers was prayed by a little lady who crawled through the dirt unseen to get to Him. Luke 8:43-48. God knows when we get stuck and He runs to the aid of one of His little ones. If He seems to be absent, don’t be afraid – He is confident you will get through this. Incredibly, even at the same time as our troubles, we actually need more than a resolution of our pain and hard situations, even though those things are merciless — we need to be reminded that Jesus is filled with mercy. Pressed down and running over. He won’t leave us or forsake us.

These are the times that I need to remind myself how very much God loves me. How much He understands my pain and loss and sorrow, personally. Jesus didn’t pick out an easy escape route when His life got hard for Him. He totally understands what severe testing is like! He came to this earth, by His own choice, to live this life the way we do. Praise God the Lord Jesus has personal experience, He understands where we are. He will hold us up, relieve our suffering and sorrow and set us free to live in His love despite our circumstances. He has promised to walk with us through our deepest valleys.

Last scripture here! Matthew 11:28-30.“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to ME. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Give yourself a break and remember that it is not the end of the world to be human. God honoured mankind by sending His only Son to become one of us. What a wonder that is! And oh how very much He loves us! May He shower you with His peace and love, and help you to see those things today, Amen. Bless you, bye. 👋.

P 2901 Walking in love means …

/ DVH

… that I will probably never get my own way! According to 1 Corinthians 13, this kind of heart attitude is now my NEW priority… Now I will need to rely upon God to help me be patient in the middle of unpleasant circumstances. The Lord has promised He will help us. There is no reason to be envious of your fruit, because I’m way too busy growing my own! At the same time I will cultivate a caring concern for your well-being, while I’m putting my own needs on His altar. Also I no longer want to keep records of all the dumb things you’ve done!

Pardon me a minute, now I need to dash off and look in His mirror, (His Word) and see if there is any chance my reflection there backs up what I just said! Meanwhile, fake fruit looks a lot like the real deal nowadays, until you take a bite out of it! Here’s an interesting side note: fake fruit is too shiny. Just like those fake plastic smiles we slap on when somebody has stepped on our heart for the 15th time and we lie and tell them, “Oh I’m OK, really!” It’s a wonder that my nose isn’t longer than Pinnochio’s. Why do we do that? Here’s my answer … a lack of humility. An aversion to correction and connection, plus I’m deathly afraid you will continue to tell me the truth about myself … and… I don’t want to hear that, thank you!

Here is my point for today, this life is constantly taking bites out of us – our response to those bites is a much better thermometer or diagnosis, than even any reflection could be. Instead, now we want to make His Word flesh in our lives – that happens when we do it to obey Him. Living like Jesus’ told us to, means we learn to be quiet when someone else is utterly wrong and we can prove it to them but instead we choose not to do that. We won’t even brag about the fact that we’ve resisted temptation, because we know, that the Holy Spirit helped us through it. 

Let’s be clear — it is not our behaviour that is at fault – it’s our belief system. We use our experiences to validate what we believe, instead of His Word. This side of the cross we need to believe in His love IN US more than we believe the lies that flourish around us. I can’t do anything without Him, because I know I will dive straight back into looking after ME. I can make pretty good excuses for doing that. Sadly, sometimes we keep right on using our own understanding, instead of acknowledging Him in all our ways.

We must continually revisit truths from the bible. looking for things for us to apply into our lives. Jesus did all this work for us, all by Himself, at Calvary …once and for all! If I give you a brand new house with everything you ever personally wanted or needed in it, and you still chose to continue to live in falling down rented digs – because you are too proud to say “thank you” — whose fault is that? The Lord has already deposited everything we will ever need to be transformed, in our forever account.We just need to learn to live in forever, instead of the immediate. Otherwise the immediate takes over.

Romans 4:20–25: “Yet he (Abraham) did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for US, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” 

Those words: ‘fully persuaded that God had power’ …matter. We’ve met SomeOne Who is not like anyone else we’ve ever met. He doesn’t just tear up any record of our sins, at the same time, He deposits His love, righteousness, goodness, compassion, mercy, loving-kindness etc. inside of us. We already have whatever we need for this way of life. Jesus did not just empty out the bad, He is in the process, with our co-operation, of loading in the good. Abraham believed God and He acted on His belief, and God said: Now that’s righteous.”

Now we choose to stop doing things the way this world does them, and we ask Him how He wants us to handle everything that comes our way. Loving others is our permanent focus. Instead of asking the Lord to make you patient, (generic wish thought) you and I ask Him – ‘Who am I being impatient with, Lord?’  (Specific attitude check.) And we don’t argue with whatever He suggests, even if it happens to be someone we can’t stand! We go to them and humble ourselves. If we wait for that other person to deserve it … it will never happen! 

LOVE ACTS. It is unafraid of the consequences. Walking in love means my whole life changes! Bless ya 👋