Holy Spirit

P3457 Peace is our guide.

/ DVH

“Let your heart be always guided by the peace of the Anointed One, Who called you to peace as part of His one body. And always be thankful.” Colossians 3:15 TPT. Peace is not a feeling, or even an absence of conflict – peace is a Person. Jesus. He wants to help, comfort, guide us and lead us on. The Lord Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit for that specific purpose. We can have peace with God forever, because of what Jesus Christ did for us. He resolved the conflict between mankind and our Heavenly Father. He will help us with the one we daily confront – those difficulties we have with each other! Peace lights the way ahead.

Because we are His children, God Himself always has a Way that we should go so we can live with His peace on the inside of us at all times, even when the world around us is in rising panic. Peace is our portion, if we don’t have it, then we are told to seek it out – go after it. Peace helps us decide between what is Godly and right, and what is not. We need an umpire when life gets messy, and only the Lord knows our hearts – we don’t.

The Holy Spirit lovingly guides us into a new relationship with God Himself, one of trust. We can’t afford to simply know about Him — we need to know Him, His ways. The Holy Spirit manifests Himself in different ways, so we need to stay alert in our spirits, so we can recognise Him. The bible shows us what the things of God look like. Some things are a warning, others are there to show us how God Himself deals with individuals, as well as nations. Plus we learn Who He is, from this book – when we look a little deeper. Otherwise human beings can get easily tangled up in the things that don’t matter.

This world is filled up with lots of opportunities to be distracted. Noise, trouble, and hardship, even entertainment. If we focus on what is going on around us – we will lose our peace, little by little. Our finite minds try to resolve the conflicts that exist today by leaving Him out. Let’s remember that we don’t know what that other person is thinking. They don’t approach this life like we do. At times stuff just happens to us, and we are drawn into a whirlwind. That’s when we need to grab our anchor – Jesus – and throw what He did for us, down into the depths of our troubles and hold fast to it.

We can pray for peace, or we can simply embrace and surrender to Jesus – because He is the Prince of Peace. Jesus Christ bought us peace with God, because of what He did for us, now peace is our home country. WE ARE CITIZENS OF HEAVEN – no longer of this world. Peace won’t just ‘happen,’ we must value it enough to prioritise it, and repair the things that are broken. Then repent if you have tried to be the whole ballgame by yourself. His Peace is His gift to us. We deliberately choose to walk in harmony with Him and others because we want to understand the WAY He thinks and acts, because we want to know Him even more than we want to be understood. Jesus is not like us. Read the Gospels — He does not think the way we do. To start with, we often reject the people He reached out to!

This is what Paul meant when he said we need to be “in Christ.” When we choose to live ‘in Christ’ that means we do the things He would do, and His opinions become more important than our own. Then we stay hidden in what the Lord would do, that means we can’t afford to rush about excusing ourselves when we’ve done something He wouldn’t! Things like gathering people around us to feel sorry for us when things get hard. The plain fact is we can’t be seen by others, and hidden in Christ, all at the same time. Instead HE is seen and WE are hidden inside His Grace. We can ask people to pray for us, but then we will have to let go of self-pity and our need for sympathy, and hold on tightly to His Grace and faithfulness.

“For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3. This is how we become one of those ‘spectators – ourselves hidden in the secret place of Almighty God.’ (Psalm 91) A spectator is an observer. They simply watch what is going on around them and pray for the other people who are stuck in conflict. Jesus is our own personal hiding place – not our own resources, which may be many … or even our head knowledge of the bible. Head knowledge has to become heart knowledge if we are to be hidden in Christ. 

Paul also said “In Christ I live and move and have my being.” Acts17: 28. Paul let his own reputation crumble in favour of living for Jesus and what the Lord told him to do. Who or what motivates you? The Lord, other people, or circumstances? There are times when fear, or our feelings can get in our way and we end up trying to BE what we already are! Instead, let’s use our faith, stand still and watch Him at work, then do whatever He asks us to do, and then we will slowly start to see the way Jesus does things. That’s how we get to know Him better.

We have peace because we are His – not because we deserve it. His peace is the inner assurance that God is all over whatever is going on, and He will see us through it. That does not mean we will get our own way, instead peace will lead us into participating in HIS WAYS. His peace will guide us through to the place where we are resting in what Jesus already did. This peace is not just a feeling, it is an inner assurance that God is in charge and He is always present with us. Bye. 👋

P3456 Fix your eyes on Jesus, not on the results.

/ DVH

“Jesus replied, This is the work (service) that God asks of you: that you believe in the One Whom He has sent [that you cleave to, trust, rely on, and have faith in His Messenger]…” John 6:29. Father God sent His Son here to us to save us. We believe that. The bible was not given to us to be nice stories and sentiments — it has been given to us to be a life-line, so we can negotiate the good times, bad times, pitfalls and difficulties of this life, still holding onto the GRACE God has given us. That Grace was released by His Son, Jesus Christ, and what He did.  

So when we start foundering on the sea of our sometimes difficult lives, that’s when we actively choose to hang on to our belief in the One Who God has given us. We need Him to save us from the things that could drown us and ruin our faith. The Lord Jesus doesn’t care how many times we need saving from our own misbeliefs, He will just keep doing what He does best, loving us, leading us and saving us.

Our part is to believe that He wants to help us be all we can be … that’s the key. Please don’t let the enemy throw up any disappointing times on the screen of your mind, when things appear to get worse. Instead, believe and focus on the ever-present Presence of God Himself, right here, right now. Standing there with you. That’s WHY Jesus came to be with us, and it is why He gave us the Holy Spirit – the same Spirit Who was IN Him.

Ask Him to help you get through whatever is going on.  It is human to ask for our difficulties to go away — do it! In the bible there were people Jesus fed, just because they needed food. But at the same time we need to plant our feet and make a quality choice that Jesus Himself will see us through whatever is going on, and we will come out the other side with our faith still intact, plus a testimony to the goodness of God. 

Many Christians set false finishing lines. Their aim is about their comfort here and now. We need to learn to remain steadfast, in the good times and bad, just like Jesus did. His eyes were fixed on the prize, His faith in God was steadfast. Jesus did not come just to do miracles. He came to manifest and glorify our Father in Heaven and fulfil His Father’s Word… and He came to save us. Let’s keep our faith steady in the knowledge that we are to stay fixed in what Jesus has already done. This life is not about whether we win or lose, it is about the One we choose to believe in, no matter what happens.

Almighty God Himself has asked us to believe in Jesus, and He told us that this is the way we serve Him. I would like to read the above verse in another version: “Then they ( asked Him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.” (V28 & 29) Believing in Jesus means we live our lives faithfully guided by what He said and did. The disciples wanted a method, but God gave them a PERSON to follow. We can still make that mistake today, we seek methods because methods are easier to follow. There is no method, we simply follow the Spirit of God, like Jesus did.

Following Jesus means we will give up anything in order to keep up with whatever He wants to do next. In order for the Head to help the Body, the head and the body have to be co-ordinated in their purpose. The Lord Jesus gave us signs – the purpose of a sign is it is like an arrow … it points somewhere. Now we are to live our lives pointing at God’s Love with the Holy Spirit’s help.

The verses right before V28,29 show us why Jesus said what He said: “Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for Me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”

At that moment in time the disciples were taken up by the miraculous free food, but Jesus didn’t focus on that, He used it as an example of our real target … eternity. “On earth, as it is in heaven.” Many people have used that scripture to say that nobody is sick in heaven, so that should be true down here. But the truest thing in Heaven, is that our God is forever glorious and He is still sitting upon His throne!! It is not about whether we have enough buns for our dinner! Our focus needs to rest on Oneness with Him, not just the stuff this life is made of.

Jesus is the best bread, He is everlasting! “Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35. Let’s stop labouring for the wrong food!  What happens here and now will pass away … our food needs to be like His, doing the will of the Father. Our eyes need to be fixed on Him, He started our faith and He will finish it. When we ‘seek His kingdom first, all those other things we need will be added unto us.’ Bye, blessings! 👋.

P3454 Remembering Helps!

/ DVH

“…and when He (Jesus) had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is My Body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way also He took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”” 1 Corinthians 11:24-25 ESV. 

People participate in this scripture in a number of ways – all of them are wonderful and worth doing. From blessing our food and drink daily, to taking communion together, and reminding ourselves that Jesus’ broken body and shed blood makes a way for us to be able to run to the Lord any time we need to, or want to do it! He is here to help us.

Remembering the Holy Spirit is a great daily aim. The thing that stood out to me, in 1 Corinthians were the words … “remember Me.” These verses are a prompt to help us to value our memories of good, moment by moment, during each and every day. I liked that thought. So much crowds in on us during our daily lives, lots of things that demand our attention, it means that Jesus sometimes becomes an after-thought — if He is even a thought at all … and I’m not condemning anyone! Let’s pull our focus off the situations around us, and back onto the One Who is here to help us – the One Jesus relied upon.

Many years go, I had 3 children under 5. Trust me, you are lucky to be able to think at all when you have babies or toddlers. It was over 50 years ago, and yet I still remember the endless  wailing and feeling powerless to help the child! Not to mention the futility of trying to quiet an infant when you have no clue what caused the problem in the first place. New mothers, take this from me, please — these days will pass away and you will look back at them with bitter sweet sadness… especially the part where they hadn’t learned to say “NO!” yet. Whenever you can, enjoy the little ones.

Parenting is not about perfection, it simply requires plenty of  participation. We can’t prevent the lumps and bumps of this life happening to our kids – it’s all prep for adulthood – yours and theirs! One day soon all the intense work that goes into raising an infant will go away, and you are left with raising a brand new human being, with its own will and preferences. Parenting is not as much fun as the magazines pretend it is, and, trust me, we all fail at it – despite our dedicated efforts. Remembering Him helps us keep our cool when we can’t cope with our inadequacies.

I am learning that reflecting on the things that the Lord helps us with — successful times from the past — can often help us get through the things happening right now. David did it in 1 Samuel 17:34-36  “But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.” Please let us remember, David is talking about two really really bad things … a lion and a bear. This is not a kitten or a cuddly toy!

And he took the past, his own personal experiences with God, and used it to do two things. It gave him courage and confidence for now. And then he used it as a weapon so he could carry out the next thing. Remembering is a very valuable tool, when Jesus Himself asks us to do it. When we are hurting, sometimes we need to be our own cheer squad. Some people enjoy writing a journal, my hubby does it periodically, and it blesses him to go back over the things that the Lord has said, and done, in the past.

Jesus asked us to remember Him when we take communion, when we eat, when we sleep, when we wake up — even as we are going about our normal lives. His Presence goes before us, and comes behind us as we walk this walk of faith. “Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; He will neither fail you nor abandon you.” Deuteronomy 31:8. 

Nothing happens to us that the Lord Himself doesn’t know about. “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember Your miracles of long ago.  I will consider all Your works and meditate on all Your mighty deeds.” Psalm 77:11,12. It is so beneficial to our faith to remember the things He has done, especially when we feel oppressed,  ill, or even a bit depressed. You know, it is of no use to pretend that Christians don’t struggle with mental disease … that’s what it is …. mental DIS-ease. Something inside our thinking is not helping us, and we are no longer at ease. 

One of the best ways I know to help that, is to phone a friend, or if you pray in tongues do that. And if you are locked in then please don’t beat yourself up. Life may seem to be suffocating you and you do not need “ought to” and “must” sitting on your heart and mind as well. God loves us as we are. If we could perfect ourselves we would not need a Saviour! Maybe we have allowed some squirrelled up ideas about appearances and expectations to put even more pressure on our faith. These things deny our humanity. (2 Corinthians 1:8; Matthew 26:36-46.) 

I urge everyone to cultivate the remembrance of good in your life. Was someone kind? Thank them, and tuck that kindness in your heart, you might need it someday. Remembering helps us to keep on pressing on. Bye. 👋.

P3453 Impossible … right??

/ DVH

“For the perfect Light of Truth was coming into the world and shine upon everyone. He entered into the world He created, yet the world was unaware. He came to the people He created — to those who should have received Him, but they did not recognize Him. But those who embraced Him and took hold of His Name He gave authority to become the children of God!” John 1:9-12. 

I’m pretty sure most people think that they would recognise Jesus if He turned up at their church, but the fact is – He came to His very OWN people, and THEY did not recognise Him. My question is this: why not? Here’s a theory …  they weren’t expecting Him to look like that! He came as an infant. Boy, that sure fooled them. The Israelites expected a King. Battle ready, with soldiers and appropriate equipment … but Jesus went right around what man expected and came as a helpless infant. 

The next surprise was this… He didn’t come to kill off our earthly enemies, He came save them too! He came to represent us, by buying us back from the things that will drag us away from our Heavenly Father. Our Lord wants to woo us with His eternal love. Father God understands that is not good for man to be alone, so He is gathering together a Bride that will one day be worthy of His Son. The Holy Spirit’s doing this, one person at a time.

Jesus’ Bride’s beauty comes from her love for the Saviour. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to go through our lives and wash and iron away every single spot and wrinkle in them with the blood of Jesus, and the iron of adversity. It’s time to take what the Lord said seriously. There is no ‘magic solution’ to this world’s problems, there is only our hearty “yes” to what He asks of us. What if the stuff that is going on today is not about the Lord’s immediate return, but instead it is about this world groaning, waiting for the Sons of God to be made manifest?!

Jesus’ life story is the glorious fulfilment of God’s redemptive story, and He has gazumped satan at every turn. The devil did not suspect one thing, as God’s plan unfolded. Right now, in these times, we spend way much too much time looking at the obstacles and not enough time gazing on our Precious Bridegroom’s loving provision for us. God’s plans are always perfect. Just as Abraham sent His servant out to find and BUY Isaac a wife, the Lord has now sent His Precious Spirit to find the Bride He prepared before time began, for His Precious, dearly- loved Son. Jesus bought us with His own blood. And that includes you, and me. Impossible, right??

His kindness and love, are so far beyond what we can imagine, hope or dream. It seems millions of human beings have totally missed out what He did. And now it is up to us, to spread around what we’ve learned about God’s incredible love. The Holy Spirit does not want to leave one soul behind, so don’t be fooled and leave your part to others – this plan includes YOU! Faith fades away unless it is used.

When you live for a while, you start to realise how many times you’ve heard the same whispers in your head, about how hopeless you are, and why “talking to others” doesn’t mean you are to do it. The enemy rabbits on about how God won’t help you, because you aren’t worth it, and … that other guy’s repetitive junk gives the game away.  But our God does not do that. He has not ever played games with us. His plan is now clear and we are part of it.

Fan the love in your heart into a flame and actively remember everything Jesus has already done for us. Focus on that. The devil hates people using their faith. Just like He hates us giving thanks – he disappears pretty quickly when we do. Recognising Jesus in our times of difficulty makes us stronger, it irons out our inability to be self-controlled and patient. Just like the blood of Jesus washes away sin when it is allowed to penetrate even deeper than our minds, and manifest itself in our actions.

The Holy Spirit is hovering over us, waiting for our ‘yes’ so He can continually bathe us in the light of Christ’s never-ending love for His Bride. Sometimes the Lord’s greatest miracles happen in the middle of a raging storm. But at that moment, the Body of Christ often turns into Peter who said: “… Is that You Lord?”  It seems an impossible dream that God Himself should deeply care for each one of us, and need us to participate in His plan, even though we are broken. 🙌.

“But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in Him. 

For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity He put us in right standing with Himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where He always wanted us to be. And He did it by means of Jesus Christ.

God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in Him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with Himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins He had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it’s now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in His rightness.” Romans 3.

It’s impossible! But true… Bye. 👋.

P3451 Are you running on empty?

/ DVH

“For it is Christ’s love that fuels our passion and holds us tightly, because we are convinced that He has given His life for ALL of us. This means ALL died with Him, so that those who live should no longer live self-absorbed lives but lives that are poured out for Him—the One who died for us and now lives again. So, from now on, we refuse to evaluate people merely by their outward appearances. For that’s how we once viewed the Anointed One, but no longer do we see Him with limited human insight.” 2 Corinthians 5:14-16 TPT.

Our human insight will always be limited. Let’s always remember that the Lord is so much wiser than we are, that’s why we know we can trust Him. “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” And in 1 Corinthians 13:12: “In the same way, we can see and understand only a little about God now, as if we were peering at His reflection in a poor mirror; but someday we are going to see Him in His completeness, face-to-face. Now all that I know is hazy and blurred, but then I will see everything clearly, just as clearly as God sees into my heart right now.”

We live in a place where we think we understand, and then … we don’t. Where stuff happens and it makes no sense. Where God is suddenly hidden from us – but in the next moment, we can be given a flash of insight and we think we know everything … but we don’t. Why not? We can’t. Our teeny tiny human minds, and self-preservation get in the way. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,”declares the Lord.“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9.

We simply cannot always understand the way the Lord thinks! That’s why we have His book! There are times where it seems like He is fighting us at every turn … but then we discover that this ‘fight’ was part of our growth process! At the end of the verse in 1 Corinthians 13:12 it says: “But then I will see everything clearly …just as clearly as God sees into my heart right now.” Did you get that? Here it is in another form from Hebrews 4:13. “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before His eyes, and He is the One to whom we are accountable.”  He is telling us to reassure us, that HE ALWAYS SEES US … always.

At the top of the page I asked, ‘are you running on empty?’ This can happen when we get ahead of His plans. Or maybe we decide we don’t like His plans, and we like our plans a whole lot better, so we go off-roading. We can end up looking a lot like a modern car’s GPS system. Here’s an illustration: our car’s GPS system needs frequent updating. The-powers-that-be are continually making new roads, and they are eventually registered on the original computer guidance maps. But if we use one of these new roads we can appear to be flying over blank terrain. The road is not registered, so the guidance system goes whacko, and then it gives up! 

Hold on… I’m getting to my point and it has nothing to do with car navigation, and everything to do with our own life navigation. The thing that will short-circuit His processes in our lives, is our lack of trust in the fact that the road of our life may not be known to US, but IT IS known to HIM! Unless we are continually fuelled by our love for Jesus, and filled up daily on His Word, we can easily run out of love-to-give-away, and then the road ahead starts to become unclear!

Let yourself off the hook, none of us are ever going to fully understand His ways, by ourselves. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him?” But WE have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:16. There’s the answer! You and I have the same help Jesus had, the Holy Spirit and the bible and collectively – WE, together, the church, Christ’s body, has the Lord’s mind. Which is why our enemy continually tries to break churches up! People get cranky and they leave instead of working things out. That action has fragmented our collective knowledge of His goodness. And this is why we need to meet together, because – all by ourselves, we can be misled.

We need to relax into what He tells us in His written Word,  trust in His wisdom in our midst – and stop dividing other Christians into categories! Otherwise we will very quickly run out of fuel. We can be refuelled by His love for us, through others. This is why going to church is important, other people can input their insight into our lives. They can pray for us, and give us a word from Him.

We cannot afford to stop reading the Word of God to get to know Him and His ways. The bible is our heaven-sent manna to feed us spiritually every single day. It too, helps fuel our passion for Him. At the same time, the Holy Spirit gives us His GPS guidance to help us through the day ahead, even when the road in front of us is unclear, He knows the Way. Let’s remember that although the Lord can  give us, personally, insight, we still need each other. For encouraging prophetic words, kindness in an unkind world, and unconditional love when this world beats us up.

We can’t afford to run on empty. Our passion needs to be continually ignited by the bible, the Holy Spirit and each other.  Bye. 👋. 

P3447 A firm foundation.

/ DVH

Here’s Philippians 4:19 (AMPC) “And my God will liberally supply (fill to the full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Well, that nails that on the head …if we need it He will give it to us. This is Paul talking, and he too had needs. But nothing must come between us, and glorifying our Lord. Sadly, the world around us, currently runs on greed. Greed is not only about having excess — it’s about wanting what we don’t have. It’s like a huge head devouring people, money and time.

I think our churches have been building on the wrong foundation —- a foundation of gain, and an easy life. We’ve been building on what Jesus can do for us …instead of what HE HAS ALREADY DONE! Let’s just pause, breathe, and think on that for a bit. The Lord Jesus is not a ‘gimme’ vending machine. He told us we would have suffering in this world – yet we want to pray our way out of the very things that will mature us. It’s not about my comfort – it’s about God’s glory!

We are often fooled into praying for this bad thing to stop, and that good thing to happen. And the truth is … that’s all about our own comfort. We pray for what we think we need, to make our lives better. It’s the wrong foundation — this can create people, who want, want, want, and they aren’t often satisfied with what they have already been given. The King of glory died in our place. That’s our only focus and only foundation. We are here to serve Him now. 

Sadly if what we’ve prayed for happens, then becomes far too easy to just move on to the next apparent need. Material needs are a distraction. The appetite they create cannot be filled, and we can waste the life of God in us, plus the time He has allocated to us, by running after those things. Let’s listen to James 4:2-3: “You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” 

Why are we building church buildings to the glory of God, when the glory of His Presence is what we actually need  … not more buildings? Our focus seems to be skewed. It needs to be on the-people-who-don’t-know-Him yet, not building maintenance. Jesus Christ did not care about material things, He was grateful for food to eat, and a place to sleep. That’s the King of ALL Glory in a wooden food trough in a tin shed, and He also slept rough on the side of the road. Nobody cooked Him a twelve course dinner.

We are here to build His kingdom, not ours. Most people in our churches do not understand what the Lord Jesus did to provide for their daily spiritual bread or where their focus needs to be. He died and gave us His rights, so now we can use His rights, His way – for others. He saved us, and our primary task is to learn to love the unlovely, not gather things.

At the same time, we can be easily deluded. Sometimes we sing “Jesus took my burdens all away,” and many people walk out the doors of our churches just as burdened as they were when they came in! Sin is a burden. We CAN carry it on our backs, but it BELONGS at the foot of the cross. Put your sin, the government’s sin, your family’s sin, anybody else’s sin down, and walk away. Let Jesus meet all your needs.

When people are evil to you, then pray for them and start rejoicing that He set you free from whatever they did. I don’t much care for psycho babble, or blaming this person, or that parent — if HE says we’re free, then we are free. Feelings don’t come into it. We are not using our faith to believe Him. Our aim is about ‘feeling good’ – instead of worshipping Him for what He has done.

Our greatest treasure is Jesus! Plus the freedom to live the new life He died to give us. We’ve been taken out of darkness into His light. That means we don’t have to pray for light, because we already have it  — Who He is, and the bible are now our light. Jesus taught us to pray like this: “Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name, Thy kingdom come,Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”  What comes first in that prayer? Our needs, or His will, His way? 

Our focus has become so worldly, we call what we have been given blessings, but perhaps they have also become an ANCHOR, tying us into this world’s systems. Those systems/cisterns? can’t hold the water of the Holy Spirit. (Jeremiah 2:13.) Paul says: “”For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21. Now that’s a useful cistern! Jesus didn’t die to give us a trip to the Bahamas, He died to set us free from the kind of greed that puts God Himself on the back burner.

Our foundations need to be firm, otherwise our faith in Christ will remain shaky and unstable. What Jesus did for us is the only Rock we build on, everything else is just His loving kindness blessing His kids. Bye 👋.

P3446 Let’s talk about Psalm 23.

/ DVH

“Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need! He lets me rest in the meadow grass and leads me beside the quiet streams. He gives me new strength. He helps me do what honours Him the most. Even when walking through the dark valley of death I will not be afraid, for You are close beside me, guarding, guiding all the way. You provide delicious food for me in the presence of my enemies. You have welcomed me as Your guest; blessings overflow! Your goodness and unfailing kindness shall be with me all of my life, and afterwards I will live with You forever in Your home.”

This Psalm was written by David, who was a shepherd – so he knew what he was talking about! I sometimes wonder how a plumber or a taxi driver would write it? Moo-ving on … I enjoy watching a Scottish shepherd and his dogs at work on Youtube. The thing that hits me every single time I watch it, is that those dogs never take their eyes off their Master, and he never takes his eyes off the sheep, or the dogs.

David knew all about sheep, that was his job. His part in his large family was pretty minor compared to his big deal brothers who were allowed to join the army and help their Dad run the family property. The blessing of doing unnoticed things well, is a huge asset. It helps form character in us, when we are prepared to leave acknowledgement from others, behind us. It teaches me regularly how needy I am regarding praise!

David did what he did well. He knew how to care for his sheep, protecting them from harm, and when they needed a rest, he took them to a green, well-watered safe place. Jesus makes sure we are rested and ready for hard parts of our journey. Some tasks may look very small and insignificant but they teach us to rest. The Lord knows what comes next, and He will provide us with a safe place, right near Him. Jesus Himself taught us about faithfulness – it matters! “He who is faithful in a very little thing is also faithful in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little thing is also dishonest in much.” Luke 16:10.

Psalm 23 tells us we can learn about fear, whether real or imagined, WHILE we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death! Our Heavenly Father often ‘trains our hands for war and our fingers to fight,’ in difficult, dark places, where we want to curl up into a ball and hope we die. Why would He do that? Theory in the Body of Christ doesn’t benefit anyone … but using our faith changes our view of things. The bigger the resistance, the stronger the muscles. Faith is a spiritual muscle – it needs to be resilient, because bad things happen unexpectedly.

We can theorise all we want, but the truth is – when the stuff is going down, and all hell breaks loose, that is THE very best time to practice what we believe. When we feel paralysed by our circumstances, then we can choose to lean on Him. HE becomes our  hope – not our changed circumstances. Our God is training warriors, not Tinkerbell! Later on, David himself became a mighty warrior, but when he was a youth caring for sheep, he had already learnt to fight with God on his side. That’s why he ran at Goliath.

The Holy Spirit, daily walks with us, guiding us, teaching us … He does not leave us. Instead He says: ‘put your foot here, put your hand there … stand on this scripture … do that other thing now.’ Our Shepherd doesn’t only lead us, the goodness of God in Jesus and His Word, glows right in front of us, lighting up the way ahead of us. Today’s Word, from the bible is our light for this day. “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” Psalm 119:105.

The Lord releases His word to show us HIS pathway through our trials. When this happens, He is not punishing us, nor has He forgotten us. He took our punishment, once and for all. We can’t ever be forgotten because He carved us on the palms of His hands! This Psalm also tells us that the Lord prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies.

So let’s look at 1 Corinthians 11:24,25 it says: “… and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way also He took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”” This is the Lord’s table! His broken body and His blood willingly poured out for our sake, made a way for us to survive everything that comes at us. In Jesus’ mind what we need is already done, and we have been given His mind. 1 Corinthians 2:16.

Christ’s death and resurrection on our behalf made a way for us to be certain that no matter how things look – God will not fail us. And then the Holy Spirit assures us that God’s goodness and mercy runs after us. He follows up our times of difficulties, to the point where we are so blessed we run out of words to thank Him! We won’t always feel it, instead we choose to believe what Jesus said, and live our lives depending on it. We are His people, and He knows when we need to lie down. Plus He knows the way through anything that comes against us to make us afraid and He will lead us through it.

Psalm 23 is an example of the Lord’s purposes in our lives, it is not just for funerals. It teaches us that He leads, guides, and travels with us every step of the way, every single day. He feeds us with Himself, and blesses us. His all-consuming desire is to walk with us, forever. Bye 👋.

P3445 Hold fast, dear saint of God.

/ DVH

“I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God’s power made available to you through faith. Then your lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through you! This is the mighty power that was released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted Him to the place of highest honour and supreme authority in the heavenly realm!” Ephesians 1:19-20 Amen.

Paul was given the ability by God, to understand what we have been given when Jesus died for all of us. In this verse he talks about this power being available to each one of us, as well as being released through us. But we have been given even greater opportunities than Paul had. Christians are so blessed, we have the revelations Father God gave to Luke, Matthew, Mark, John, James, Peter and Jude. Thank you Lord!

Paul was given incredible revelations about what Christ’s life, death and resurrection did. He teaches us that one act brought about the possibility of transformation for every human being. He shows us what living this life “In Christ Jesus” means. No exceptions. The problem is we can see these things as theology, (information), but they are not, they are a powerful way to live. We’ve grown used to thinking of God’s power as the power to do miracles, but the greatest use of God’s power is allowing it to transform each one of us, day by day. We are no longer held captive by a yoke of slavery — we’ve been set free to live the way our Saviour lived. Please notice the present tense!

Like Paul says, we can choose to live for Jesus and as we do so, we glorify HIM. That does not mean we are part of some clever marketing campaign, as we try hard to appeal to other people. Instead it means we are to be a showcase of Who He is, and what He has done … for everyone else to see. BTW, the gifts of the Spirit are a separate thing to being transformed. Now it is our choice to reflect Him into this world around us. We don’t set the standard, Jesus Himself does that! Human standards without the Holy Spirit’s input, create chaos.

The Lord Jesus’ action on mankind’s behalf, took every single human being out of the realm of sin and death, and broke it’s power over us. Then He firmly established mankind as the Father’s favoured children. Yes … even the people we don’t like!  Now sin is not compulsory – it is an optional extra – we are not powerless against it anymore! The Lord Jesus and what He did, transformed everything, and we have the Holy Spirit as  our Helper. It doesn’t matter what you think, or what I think – it only matters what He thinks and it is in the book!

We’ve been translated “out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His marvellous light.” And the view is mind-boggling … which is why our minds and hearts need to catch up with what Jesus Christ has already done for us. That’s why we read the bible, we are playing catch-up! What you and I knew before we met Him has been wiped away with His own blood, so now it is natural for us to have His point of view. His point of view is LOVE.

Our relationship has been destined by God Himself to be totally intimate and functional, so we can go back to the place before mankind sinned. Where Father God and human beings were friends who deeply loved each other. He is willing to share His thoughts with us, just like He did when He walked and talked with Adam and Eve. 

I choose to read the bible to find out exactly how His point of view works itself out in my life… by taking what the Lord has said and then I ask Him to show me how, when and where I need to apply it. Then I act on it. I am not a powerless person, a victim of my former circumstances any longer. What Jesus did for me restored me, and my whole life. With my permission, He takes every one of those hard, difficult, and sometimes terrible things in my life — the good, the bad … plus those ones I sadly think of as — “boy I wish I hadn’t done that!” …and He redeems it in ways I cannot possibly imagine. Those ways are so perfect, as I recognise them, they take my breath away. 

Giving my life to Him is not a sacrifice, it is a joy. I can have God’s opinion for free, at any time. If it happens that the Lord is silent, then I don’t have to panic because His Word clearly tells me He will NOT leave me, nor forsake me. The Lord cannot be unfaithful to His Word and that is what I now stand upon. That and the blood that Jesus willingly shed on my behalf that washed me clean. Everything my Heavenly Father does is good. If it looks bad then that means I can’t see the end yet – it isn’t over, I am just observing His processes.

I refuse to reduce my Saviour to mere actions, or answers to prayer. Instead I rely upon what God Himself says in His book, and what Jesus has taught me. God does not have to prove Himself to me, He already did. Once and for all. This life has seasons, seasons of the soul. Some of our seasons are rich and bright like summer, or spring, and others seem destined for death like winter and autumn. But the life of God for us and in us, remains steadfast. Jesus taught us that.

Let’s hold fast to Him. In season and out. “Even when we are too weak to have any faith left, He remains faithful to us and will help us, for He cannot disown us who are part of Himself, and He will always carry out His promises to us.” 2 Timothy 2:13. Bye. 👋

P3444 Eyes to see and ears to hear.

/ DVH

“But we are certainly not those who are held back by fear and perish; we are among those who have faith and experience true life!” Hebrews 10:39 TPT. Most of the time what I write on this blog is about my own learning curves. This one in Hebrews has been a real challenge to me, because fear smacks me upside-the-head quite a lot. I have had to discipline myself with His help, to put aside what I feel, or even the very real negative experiences I have had, and press on regardless. Trust me … I can come up with a lot of good reasons why I don’t have to do such and such! 

Here are a few: I have whiny ones …“but I’m s-i-c-k!! They will be mean to me, they are always mean to me. I might even get more sick!” Rebellious ones … “why should I help those people? They never did anything for me but hurt me. Why should I be nice to them?” A-n-d … a … complete lack of faith … “I’ve prayed and prayed for them and they are still the same grumpy nasty people they always were! I can’t see any possibility at all that they will change.” However, the Lord says this in Galatians 6:9 (ESV) “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up.” 

OK that’s enough fault finding …  we both know I’ll get an inferiority complex! You get my drift. The author indicates in the verse in Hebrews, that we can be held back by fear and fear can easily take the form of excuses. Things that sound reasonable to other people, but what does Jesus think about them?

I am greatly comforted by the fact that God Himself sees us as ‘those who have faith … who experience true life.’ He’s like that, always positive. But what does it mean? I think it means this – what we know here and now, about this life, is extremely limited by our own way of looking at stuff. But people who use their faith, experience the depths this life in Christ can have. Here’s one of my merry metaphors!

Right here and now, without my glasses on I can see fairly well. Before I had cataract surgery my unaided vision was extremely limited. After that surgery my eyesight was vastly improved, and consequently I have better vision. But I still need glasses … just not the bottom-of-the-bottle-ones I needed before! … Before we chose to follow Jesus, we were all a bit like me before that cataract surgery. I saw men as trees walking – just like that guy Jesus prayed for twice! After the surgery, I can now see well enough to identify what is in front of me. But you probably wouldn’t want me to drive you anywhere, because I still have myopia. 🤣

My point is this …using our faith improves our spiritual eyesight. When we take that first giant leap of faith and ask Jesus to be Lord of our lives, it is as if a veil is lifted from our eyes, and the things we couldn’t see before are suddenly so much clearer. The bible makes sense. Faith makes sense. What Jesus did for me makes sense! And as I choose to walk with Him using my faith, day by day, my spiritual vision will become clearer and clearer. The key to seeing well, spiritually speaking, is to stay focussed on the bible, and go out and do what it says – using our faith to do it. The Holy Spirit gladly comes with us – whether we feel anything or not – and life becomes an adventure.

If we choose what to believe and what not to believe, we can end up with spiritual myopia. The bible is not a Pick and Pay … it is the Manufacturer’s handbook. Solomon agreed with me, he says this in Proverbs 14:12: “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” Our ideas can be so limited by our viewpoints we can end up dead! We need to be rewired, or in the case of my dumb illustration, we need those cataracts to be removed, otherwise things get cloudy and we can’t tell the truth from a tree stump. 

It is the same with our spiritual hearing. Someone I know had trouble with their day-by-day hearing, and it was becoming so evident it could no longer be ignored. I suggested a hearing test. They were not thrilled with that idea because the idea of hearing aids made them feel old. But then they went and had the test and lo and behold, they had wax in their ears impeding their hearing.

We too can get wax in our spiritual ears when we listen to stuff that is not “good right and profitable…” Paul tells us that. Have you ever deliberately blocked your ears when you didn’t want to hear some terrible sound or other? Ignoring what God says in the book, just because we don’t like it, blocks our ears. However, this is what faith can look like: right now, because of the way the economy is going, hubby and I can’t afford to buy a new car even if we need one. (We don’t.) But if the Lord told us to buy a new car we would take whatever money we have, and follow Jesus to the new car lot!  It is ‘impossible to please God’ if we don’t use our faith. 

Doing what we have always done, day after day, means we are not using our faith! Let’s be bold and courageous like our brother Joshua said in Joshua 1:9 – and start acting on the things we’ve been carefully avoiding. Don’t start with picking a marriage partner or buying a house! Let’s start with getting rid of every place in our lives where we are angry, or walking in unforgiveness, and begin to repair broken situations, and stop expecting other people to make the difference.

This is how we nurture eyes to see and ears to hear. If we ignore the things He has already told us in His book, how can we expect to hear Him in our everyday lives? Food for thought. Bye. 👋. PS. Simply praying about faith actions, and doing nothing, will give us nothing. This is not a time to wait on God, this is a time for action.

P 3442 Keeping our love ON.

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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