Holy Spirit

P 2646 “Hope thou IN CHRIST!”

/ DVH

Hope is a sign our faith is healthy. If we are feeling hope-less then our situation has overcome our awareness of how Mighty God is! That’s bad. It’s bad, like not breathing is bad!! It means there is something we need to fix, first with the Lord, and then with others. Other people can be stumbling blocks – especially the ones who see no need to change, or they think they can’t, because they were just born this way! Christ knows how to walk with difficult, dumb people – He did it for three and a half years!

Here’s a revelation – everything God made is good, so if it is NOT good – then it’s NOT God. To clear that up we need to start with ME not the other guy. But sometimes the difference between not good and good is simply time! Just saying is all …

… The truth is clear, we can hang on to resentment, bitterness, anger, lying, hatred as much as we want to, but those things’ll drown ya! You end up snarling and snapping at others. It’s dumb to be lying in the muck and mire when SomeBody paid for you to live an overcoming life!

You know, I think that Covid did more than make a whole lotta people very very sick. It stole some people’s hope! We gotta watch out for that. Hope is our anchor. Hope holds us steady when the waves of this life get too big for us to cope. Actually, when a boat slips it’s moorings or loses its anchor, it floats away! Hebrews 6:19 says: “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, …””  Hope anchors us into God!! Remember, we hope in what Christ is doing, not in our circumstances changing.

Jesus Christ is our hope anchor. What He did for us, and what His death gave us, anchors us into Almighty God’s kingdom. Jesus took us into the Holy place by what He did. Now we have Him as our priest praying on our behalf, before the throne, and that never ends. The Lord God Himself provided the ultimate Answer – Christ! And He is ever-mindful of our humanity. We are so blessed to have a Saviour Who is God and also a human being – He understands how tough this life is.

Sadly we sometimes forget what we’ve been given and we wander off into the wilderness, wondering where God went. Bleating: “Why is He not looking after me – He promised He would look after me?!”  In those moments we have become imitators of the Israelites in the wilderness… remember, the Good Shepherd always goes after a lost sheep! The Lord always looks after His own, He just has a different timetable than ours. That difference is meant to help us with patience and perseverance, not introduce doubt.

“There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!” Romans 8:8 MSG.

When we lose sight of our anchor, our hope – Jesus Christ the HOPE of all mankind – we are forgetting who we are now. We do not have to grab, grasp, scheme, scream and connive to make life work. Now we trust God and let go of our own ideas, and pay close attention to His Word. His word is our strong fortress, our hiding place, our comfort, and our defensive position. Otherwise, we are running the risk of forgetting Who we belong to! Our strong hope is in what Christ has already done.

“But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God My Saviour; MY GOD WILL HEAR ME.”Micah 7:7. We remain confident that if the answer we were hoping for does not happen, then we remind ourselves that our God has heard us and HE HAS A PLAN. That’s our anchor. Hopelessness takes over when we concentrate more on the problem, than on our ever-present, always loving, constantly praying for us, Saviour. Our problem being solved is a temporary relief –instead we need to refocus on Christ Himself,  He is the Answer. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.”BUT!!! …“We can do all things through Christ because He strengthens us.”

As we learn to cultivate patience, and wait on the Lord, we will renew our strength. We are given the energy to rise above our problems and keep running the race. We are enabled to keep on walking without fainting. Holding onto hope stretches our faith so the next time we use it, we become aware that our faith has grown. We must keep a watch over our hope, it is the warning light on the overcoming dashboard of our lives. We do not have to live downcast lives …”SOUL, HOPE THOU IN CHRIST!”👋

P 2645 Faith is our way of life.

/ DVH

In many churches today we have grown to think of evangelism as outreach.  That brave, but weird guy who stands on the corner preaching is kind of embarrassing – so we secretly hurry by him. We don’t like to confront people, instead we invite a ‘special’ person with an evangelistic gift come to our church. Now our job is to ask everybody we can think of to those services so the man with that precious gift can present the Lord to others. Hey! That’s great – do it!…  BUT!! … … you just knew there was a ‘but’ coming eh?… What about the guy who sits in the next cubicle at work, or the person you see daily on the bus, or the parent you meet every day by the school’s gate??? 

When we think about reaching out to others perhaps we feel that we have no spare time to prepare ourselves? What with the kids, our spouse, our church, our job, our extended family, our friends, the gym, and our pets! Here’s something I have learnt. Don’t pray for anything unless you are prepared to be a part of the answer! God loves participation, He loves to do things with us. Everybody gets to join in. WE are His part of that answer to our prayers for the guy at work, or the person on the bus, or little Jimmy’s mum at the gate. 

We’ve forgotten that Jesus goes with US, everywhere we go …even to the school gate. Christ won’t ever leave us or forsake us — the bible says so! He is already standing right by the throne, praying for the person in the next cubical to ours, and the cubical next to that one etc.etc. He also knows the NAME of every single individual on that bus, or train. He knows Jimmy’s mum, and everything that happens at her house. He is limitless.He just needs an interested, available conduit to both pray AND speak.

“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect …” 1 Peter 3:15. Our job is to be ready to speak at any given moment. Hubby and I have found a fascinating thing, when we speak to one person, other people often ‘hover’ about eavesdropping around the edges! Jesus Christ is a great fan of ‘as you are going’ … He lived that way. Witnessing is a state of mind, a way of life, not a spiel we have memorised.

It kind of works like this: …you are praying for Jimmy’s mum and you meet her at the gate. She starts to tell you how Jimmy’s been a right pest lately and she is nearly insane trying to deal with his rudeness, and constant obsession with the internet, plus his grumpy moods, etc. etc. She says: ‘How do you get your Johnny to co-operate?’ You shrug your shoulders, roll your eyes, and say: “I have to pray about that all the time. Jesus helps me.” “If you confess Me before men then I will confess you before My Father.”You don’t have to go to that gate all primed up to speak to Jimmy’s mum – you just truthfully answer her questions.

After that I would leave that remark lying out there. Just tell Jimmy’s mum in your own words that you can’t manage Johnny or your life without God! And then leave it alone. It would be good to volunteer to pray for her and Jimmy if she wants you to. BTW the previous remarks are my suggestions to illustrate simplicity  – they are not a script anyone is meant to follow. The REAL secret is, don’t leave the Lord out of anything!  Tell Him you are on deck for what He wants at any given moment. We need to use our faith to be available to love on people, help them and tell them about the SOURCE of our help! 

Our faith is not meant to be a privacy issue … that’s this world’s idea of faith. Active faith is about the way we live. We simply need to be upfront and honest about what we believe. As we go along, other things will be added unto us, which means some stuff happens automatically when our faith is alive, active and central to everything else. That’s what seeking His kingdom first means. A part-time faith leaves room for confusion – you never know whether you should speak or not. That’s why it is good to always be ready to give an account of the faith that is within you.

For years Christians have been taught, and encouraged to think, that they have to be a perfect witness to the society around them. They have to look right, sound right and behave well everywhere under all circumstances. Good luck with doing that, without the Holy Spirit helping us! Sadly when we pretend with others, it actually becomes more difficult to be real with the Lord. Hiding becomes a habit. We stop talking to Him about our failures.

Meanwhile it is highly likely that other people can see through our pretence anyway!. And if they live next door to us, they probably hear us shouting at each other or the kids – on a very rare occasion, of course! 😂 Our whole life’s focus is Christ, what He did for everyone, and that cannot be a part-time pursuit. Faith is not just about salvation, it is the way we live now. “The just shall live by faith.”  Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38.  Bye 👋

P 2642 Aim at the Long Game.

/ DVH

Lately, I have noticed that the Holy Spirit says to me: ‘do this.’ So I do it. Or He says: ‘don’t do that,’ so, hopefully, I don’t do it! However, after following His instructions, there have been times when I’ve seen nothing whatsoever after my obedience. No visible results. I can often walk around wondering what all that was about? Did it have a heavenly purpose? Did I make it up? It’s good to remember that faith is about not necessarily knowing the outcome until later … sometimes … much later. At those times I believe we are cultivating obedience. Abraham believed and obeyed the Lord and he acted on what he was told, and the Lord counted it as righteousness. Remember to ask the Lord’s input about anything, by reading the scriptures and waiting on Him.

Our Heavenly Father is not tied to our ideas and methodology.  He interacts with us way beyond those things – most of the time, He is doing something else. And at least some of the time we probably have no clue what that is. Sadly our current society likes instant results and immediate gratification – we like to know about everything! So — I put in my five dollars and out pops a candy bar. Or if I don’t like what is on TV, then I change the channel. However, our God has everyone’s good in His heart, as well as a distinct purpose for us to be alive at this time in history. I believe our greatest task in this world is to learn to love the unlovely.

Whenever we deliberately choose transformation, we enter into our own personal inheritance. The Lord has gifts for us that are appropriate to our ministry. They are personal, but they are given to us to do other people good. My deliberate obedience to His ways, means that Almighty God can take my no or yes and change or turn my life away from some things – toward others. It means I’ve chosen to die to self. Because of that surrender, and purposeful obedience, my bad habits, or inadequacies, drop off somewhere along the way. 

I have learnt, from personal experience, to cheerfully say no to my way of thinking and yes to His. There are times I understand … but there are also times that I don’t understand immediately. Loving grumpy selfish people who are mean to me makes no sense! That is why it seems to me that God’s system (?) is far more about following Jesus and looking for higher aims and accomplishments than this world can offer. We need to have eternal AIMS. That thought relies upon hearing, listening, and seeing the Lord, plus … obeying His word. Following Him is part of the transformation process.

The Old Testament gives us a number of examples of people who didn’t do that. Here’s one. Moses and the Israelites wandered about for 40 years accomplishing nothing – but a circuitous journey. They were not transformed into TRUSTING GOD despite their experiences. Their rebellion cost them more than a long walk – it cost them character growth. That was the very thing they were going to need when they got into the Promised land. They were slaves, they had a submissive mindset. Fighting their own petulant ways to obey God would have given them the power to fight their enemies. Although we never know what is coming next, God is incredibly good to us, following Him, step by step, provides the transformation, character and strength we are going to need, for what comes next.

However, our current society encourages us to hold onto our personal sense of self. We say: “God loves us the way we are.” Yes He does. But there is far more to this life than that. We cannot afford to entertain a false finishing line. Our personal happiness and contentment outside of God Himself —is a false finishing line! The Apostle Paul tells us his aim was to ‘finish HIS RACE well’ … walking with Jesus all the way, doing what the Lord wanted. He further indicates that he knows that living like that will take effort, and ‘he does not want to waste his energy boxing like a man punching into the air.’ Whatever Paul does, or decides not to do, to him, everything has a purpose. It’s to help him know the Lord and walk in His ways.

I said all that to ask a question – how are you and I going with aiming at transformation? Are we still inclined to be self-centred, or smart mouthed, or argumentative, or fudging on our income tax and tithes, walking our own way and getting petulant if God does not do things to suit us etc.? Have we yielded to the Lord so that humility and repentance are a way of life? We ALL need to know how to repent! We need to know the difference between saying sorry and deliberately turning away from that sin. That means we are actively entering into the process of transformation.  

Human beings can have many aims: to buy a house, or a car, or raise a family, or a great job, or have a ministry. The very best aim we can have is to let the Holy Spirit transform us so we look, act, speak and LOVE others like the Lord Jesus does. Lives around us will change if we choose to be a person that will accept His premises. Let’s not stop at instant noodles and an instant life! Let’s learn to aim at the long game = ongoing transformation. Bye. 👋

“Everyone who hears My teaching and applies it to his life can be compared to a wise man who built his house on an unshakable foundation.” Matthew 7:24 TPT.

P 2640 When you get stuck, ask for help!

/ DVH

The bible tells us over and over again that fearing the Lord is to be expected and embraced. Think about that for a minute – teeny, tiny man in comparison to incredible, wondrous, holy, pure and righteous God! He’s so astonishing, the Universe He made a long time ago – is still expanding!  In Proverbs 9:10 it says this: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One increases understanding.”We need both!

So now let’s take a peek at Romans 3:10-17 – this passage levels the playing field for everyone: “As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”That is the Apostle Paul talking, he lived in awe of Almighty God and His ways.

There is a school of thought that wants to render the Old Testament less relevant than the New. Actually, there is no truth in that idea. In the OT we see how men and women obeyed God and things changed, supernaturally.  They are a visual aid for us today. Personally, I think if it is in the book, then it is there to help and instruct us. Instead of diminishing the OT’s value, we need to ask questions, wait for answers, and maybe put some things in our pending file. He’s God – He has a timetable, the Old Testament shows us that!

The marvellous thing about Romans 3 is it is telling us that all of us stand upon a level playing ground. NONE of us get it right. We can see that the people in the Old Testament managed to muck things up! That thought alone throws competition out of the window. This life is not about striving to get things right, we are simply following Jesus! We live like He did, and we have written instructions about how He did it! As we follow Him, we will find we come into harmony with one another. He’s in you and He’s in me – and He won’t fight with Himself! If we fight – one of us is not listening properly – they are probably acting out of their heads. The first one to sincerely say sorry wins! That’s a joke BTW.

Paul, the writer of Romans, was a brilliant student of Gamaliel but back then as a student, he was full of information. Information puffs up – it makes you self-righteous. But knowledge of Christ and His ways will humble us. So much so, we end up loving our enemies!  So when Jesus stopped Paul in his tracks, this man was humble enough to realise he knew nothing and he said so. Paul was not interested in factions or parties – He simply followed Christ and was obedient. Later on in the book to Corinth, he dismissed the idea that people should follow him, or some other teacher. He made it clear we need to follow Christ … only. 

Our bible cannot be carefully digested unless we ask the Holy Spirit to explain it to us and show us how we are meant to ‘eat it.’ This book is for eating … as we do what it says, we become like it, through our obedience. It is not for information, so we end up thinking we know everything!! The same verse that turns out to be veggies on your daily plate, could be meat and potatoes for a month for me! That’s the beauty of this book – the Author sits with us to explain it personally!  This life of faith we lead operates by … wait-for-it  …  …faith!

There are times that the Lord’s timing won’t always suit us – we’ve lost our humility. The truth is, if we constantly push back against His instructions and our circumstances – and refuse to wait for His timing, then the other guy will be absolutely delighted to turn up and deliver his pack of lies and misdirect us. The bible is to be believed, its instructions are there for us to follow. It is not there to be critiqued by the likes of us, even if we did come from a High School up a hill, and we have more degrees than a thermometer! Sometimes the smarter we think we are, the dumber we actually are. Paul was a clever person, but he humbled himself and learnt from God.

The saints in the Old Testament have taught me so much about faith. They’ve encouraged me when I’ve wanted to quit. They’ve shown me that my mistakes are not terminal because, unlike them — I know I have a Saviour! Praise God!! Those men and women of old who served God, are fantastic illustrations of what our wonderful Father can do with someone who simply follows instructions. Almighty God gave them instructions and they went away and did stuff!! Many people go searching for this easy method, and that clever way to get God to do whatever they want …when the easiest way of all is to be obedient.

I have found that the Old Testament adds enormous depth to everything the New has in it. Let’s always remember – Jesus never read the New Testament – HE WAS WAY TOO BUSY DOING IT, while somebody else wrote it down! Romans 3 teaches us that nobody can ‘lord’ it over someone else. We stand on a flat plain, together. Now we choose to follow Jesus Christ – He IS the book come alive. Digestion is so much more important than knowledge! In our lifetime we can become His book to others by doing what it says. And when we get stuck – we ask for His help. Bye.👋

P 2636 A greater attitude.

/ DVH

A son or a daughter has responsibility within their family for the contribution to and oversight of their household, particularly in the parent’s absence. However, a servant will simply do whatever they are told to do and they are paid for it. Very few servants end up as an heir to their master’s property! To qualify they would need to be adopted so they become sons and daughters.  

The Lord Jesus, through the Apostle Paul, talks about that in the passage down below from Romans. (There are others, but I only have a small space!) Adoption is part of God’s parenting us – we voluntarily choose to move on from serving Him for our benefit, into serving Him for LOVE’S sake, like Jesus did. We follow His Son into sonship. That will cost us, all our time, effort, money, comfort, and reputation.

First of all, let’s be clear, being born again as God’s own child, means the Lord God has planted His eternal seed within us. We belong to Him NOW by birth! However, that seed of new life needs to be nurtured and cared for, in order to grow – with prayer, reading the bible, and healthy fellowship. Viable growth, with clear signs of impending fruit, is a sure sign of eternal life within. 

That person exhibits qualities that can only come from the Holy Spirit’s nurture, input and love, together with their willing acceptance, submission and participation. So this is not just about whether you or I belong to God or not – it is about us having His kingdom within us, plus the freedom and authority to share it with others for their benefit. Moving from servanthood into son-by-adoption involves our CHOICES. As God’s children we choose to follow Jesus down our own road of surrender – which can include difficulties and pain, simply because we love Him and we are grateful for all He has done for us. Jesus is not just a bless me person – He’s a follow Me Leader!

“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.” Romans 8:14-17.

A servant or slave does their master’s bidding, whether they like him or not, and they usually get paid for doing it. There are benefits. But a true son respects his father and does whatever his father wants, to honour him … he may or may not get paid … but the son/daughter carries out their father’s wishes for the entire family’s benefit. The job gets done either way, but sonship has a different mindset motivating it.  Let’s move on…

“Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”John 1:12-13. And:“I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:18. 

To see what being a son or daughter looks like, we must look at Christ. What did Jesus Himself do as God’s Son? He did and said everything He saw the Father doing! It is not shameful or weak, to live a dependent life, Jesus did it … He totally relied upon His Father and the Holy Spirit. He served His Father willingly, no matter what the circumstances were like. Not one argument, not one whoops, not one regret!! He did it as if His Father was present.

That is not the way a servant does things, a servant does things even in our absence. However a son willingly chooses to learn to think like his father, so he can perfectly represent the father’s wishes, whether his parent is absent or not. To the son his father’s wishes are always foremost in his mind. Christ served all of us showing us what heavenly love looks like, and He did it to benefit others. His sacrifice released the things that belong in His Father’s house into this world. In other words, Jesus used HIS inheritance to benefit us.

And because He chose to do that, He raised humanity to His level in the Father’s house. However, we are not given these benefits just to benefit us, we are given them to benefit OTHERS. Just like Jesus did. Authority is not about WHO is in charge, it is about who perfectly represents our heavenly Father —and our Father is not a tyrant! When God loves He gives. A servant takes, he takes what he thinks he’s earned — but a SON BECOMES A GIVER. Living to love and give is the greater attitude. 🙌

P 2635 Obedience is everything.

/ DVH

“Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.” 2 Kings 22:13b.

I’ve been reading through the bible, from the beginning again, and so far I am up to the book of 2 Kings. I gotta tell ya, some of these stories are kind of tedious to read. Stuff like:  this king didn’t do what God said — he didn’t get rid of most of the idols and accoutrements;  and that other one didn’t get rid of any at all — and another king with an unpronounceable name got rid of the weird sounding idols, but he left a few stragglers behind. These guys all flunked their obedience tests big time! The bible says that they left some of the idols in the ‘high places’— so maybe their kingly horses didn’t like mountain climbing. Perhaps they thought obedience was optional back then.

It all kind of reminds me of an illustration I heard once… What if I were to give you a nice clean glass of water and I put one teeny tiny drop of poison in it? Would you still drink It? Me neither!! But the one thing that these two books of Kings have taught me is that we all can tolerate a level of indifference to the things of God and what He wants, especially while we are doing other things we like better! Meanwhile, although nobody says it out loud, sadly, we are counting on the blood of Jesus to make the difference! It’s not deliberate disobedience, it’s careless disobedience.

I mean, I’m convicted just writing this blog this morning! Near enough definitely ain’t good enough. Whenever we read the bible, we need to pray over it and ask Him how to do whatever it says. The long winding road through those two books of Kings has taught me that, and Chronicles still lies ahead! There are lessons upon lessons in the bible.

Along the way, I picked up the clear idea that blaming the guys who went before us;  like our parents, our grandparents, our great grandparents etc. etc. does not work! My disobedience is MY disobedience. We can’t wiggle out of obeying by trying to sneak back through a generational door!! This subject is too important. It is even disobedience if we know to do good – and don’t do it. One king ripped his clothes and threw dirt on his head when he discovered what the book of God said when he read it. People were so careless with it, it was found dumped like an old rag in a cupboard … I wonder where I left my bible again???

The bible says: “obedience is better than sacrifice”(1 Samuel 15:22) But what I have found is that obedience requires sacrifice. Those two things go together. One thing leads us to the other. At the same time, obedience is the best way I know to make friends with the Holy Spirit. That’s because I can’t do things without Him. If I try to, then half the time ‘I don’t want to’ catches me by the throat and I end up quitting before I start. I need help, all the time – and He is my all-the-time loving Helper, praise God. Through practising obedience I am learning to know and rely upon Him. 

I also try to do my best to pay very little attention to my own understanding, because my understanding is always looking for a back door to wiggle out of doing anything difficult!  Obedience is often about doing hard things BTW, but after a while, living to obey Him becomes a way of life. There are times when I think to myself, what does Jesus have to say about that? Trust me … He has a whole lot to say about many things!! 

The Lord is not really keen on people pretending to do the right thing, while they are slicing and dicing others up in their minds either. He calls that hypocrisy. But He loves the guy whose heart is set to please Him. The good thing about obeying is once you’ve done whatever He asked you to do, you can just walk away and leave the results to Him. I like that bit!! Obedience is just like honesty – don’t leave home without it. People may get a bit startled when you start to live this way, but the results are straight out of heaven. 

EG: in the past, I had to tell somebody in faith … somebody who actually drove me clear up a wall (!) — “I love you” for a very long time … before it made a difference. But over time, my decision to obey sunk into the mud of my well-established-disobedience and transformed me. That other person hasn’t changed much at all, but my own attitude has changed HEAPS. Now I can say “I love you” with agreement and conviction, because I really do love them. 

All the glory goes to Him!! He helped me stick at it. The Holy Spirit’s Ways are so much better than our own ideas of avoidance and pretend. I remind myself that He took chaos and darkness and made this world. Trust me — there is nothing He can’t transform into something beautiful. Obedience IS everything. 👋

P 2633 We all need comfort and love …

/ DVH

“All praises belong to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For He is the Father of tender mercy and the God of endless comfort. He always comes alongside us to comfort us in every suffering so that we can come alongside those who are in any painful trial. We can bring them this same comfort that God has poured out upon us.”2 Corinthians 1:3-4 TPT.

So many of us are struggling in one way or another in these difficult days, so today – let’s pray together: “Precious Holy Spirit, please be with the lonely, suffering, the broken and those who are in pain. Jesus please make Yourself real to them in a brand new way. I pray that whenever they open the bible, the scriptures they read will fly straight into their hearts and bring them such overwhelming comfort. I ask You to help them to draw even closer to You, in their sorrow and suffering, so that they constantly feel protected and loved. Please bring their brothers and sisters around them to offer Your comfort and help, in Your precious Name, Amen.

When stuff happens to me and it starts to sink my little ship, I go straight into the Psalms and dig in!  But today I found these two verses in Corinthians and realised I was limiting myself, by staying in the Psalms. So I looked up comfort and love instead. What a wealth of stuff there is in our bibles! Now here are a couple of references that really helped me. Psalm 23:4;  Psalm 27:1;  Psalm 145:18-19; Isaiah 41:10;  Matthew 10:29-31; Matthew 11:28;  2 Corinthians 4:16-18 and Colossians 1:11. As you can easily see, a couple turned into a lot! 

My advice is to read these verses over and over until they slip down from your head into your heart. Your heart will remember far more easily than your head, and they will surround and comfort you in the dead of the night when no-one else is awake. There is no sad like the sad at 3.00 am and you can’t sleep. Life seems incredibly dismal when you have pain in your body or soul. However, we gotta give the Holy Spirit stuff to work with, so that when we are overwhelmed: ‘He can lead us to the Rock that is higher than we are!’Psalm 61.

There is a hidden blessing in suffering — it builds something inside us. And it makes us more open to care for someone else who is not doing well either. Over the years I have learnt to recognise pain by looking in someone else’s eyes. I don’t think it is a spiritual gift … well maybe it’s discernment… whatever! Lately, everywhere I look I see pain. I can’t even watch the news. How newsreaders can read about such terrible daily suffering and still smile beats me.

The wonderful thing about our Heavenly Father, His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is — They are non-partisan and not prejudiced against anyone. Holy pure Love flourishes between Them like an ever-flowing fountain, and we are incredibly blessed to be splashed and washed over and over again, in the fountain-overflow of Their love. When your body is tired and aching, a shower or a bath is great – when your spirit and emotions are overwhelmed we need to be soaked in, and splashed with His love for us.

Think about this – our God actually loves those who hate Him. Just think about that as an example of His unending Grace! Think about the people you know who have deliberately walked away and could care less about coming back to Him. Yet He still goes after them. I pray for those people that God will give them a revelation of how marvellous His love is. Until time is no more, our wonderful God will chase after ALL His kids. Each one of us matters to Him, and, speaking personally … some of us are kind of a bit strange – and that’s an understatement! 

Our Heavenly Father pays attention to every bird that falls to the ground. That made me wonder just  how many birds die every single day all around the world? So I looked it up…tens of millions of birds die every single day and He sees each one fall. Now here’s the glorious, hang-onto-this-info-with-both-hands bit — we know that HE CARES SO MUCH MORE FOR YOU and I, as imperfect as we both know we are.

The point is we need to let Him comfort us, instead of trying to buck up and stagger on, pretending everything is alright. My advice is to just sit in a puddle of your own tears on the floor and tell Him everything is NOT alright, and it won’t be alright until He helps you. And then wait for His peace to fill and still your heart. We need His comfort and love to surround us, all day every day.

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” … “Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 4:7 (I found another one!!) Bye.👋

P 2631 Beware of roadblocks.

/ DVH

There is a possibility in our lives that we can have hidden, (even from ourselves), agendas – things that will inadvertently get in the way of true growth. Sometimes we can get caught up in our minds or emotions with ideas, people or things that we fiercely defend, but we are totally unaware that is what we are doing. Over a longer period of time, we can also learn to carefully avoid some situations because we are subconsciously aware that we don’t cope with them. Likewise, we can steer away from, or even get angry about, some things, purely because there is concealed pain behind them.

Ask yourself this question – apart from Jesus Himself – Who is THE most important person in your life – is there anyone or anything that you strongly feel that you cannot live without? Maybe a person who you value so much, that even the smallest thought of loss can send you into fear or anxiety? If you are a parent, maybe it’s a child …whether it is an adult child or not …  or perhaps a spouse;  or a close friend. Even the thought of any loss connected with these things can send you into an overwhelming downward spiral. If even the very thought of letting go of something or someone sends us into a panic – that is a clear indication something has grabbed hold of us!

You know, the thing we are most afraid of, can sometimes be the greatest spiritual strength in our lives, when we overcome that fear with His help. Always remembering that His help leads us TO DO SOMETHING. Perhaps there is a job we don’t want to lose, or we’ve fixated on finding somewhere safe to live – but this thing, whatever it is, influences every other decision we make. And it may not even consciously register in our minds. In this scenario that person or thing, no matter how normal or insignificant they seem to be, can become a roadblock to spiritual growth. 

When things get tough, and hardship strikes — this predisposition to protect ourselves and hide from suffering, will get in the way of any of the Holy Spirit’s solutions. Simply put, we won’t ask Him to help us with someone or something we don’t want to lose … just in case He takes that thing or person away! Plus we can easily go on from there to make decisions based on fear and pain instead of what the Lord wants. 

It is incredibly easy to think we know what is best for us – but that decision can be formed within the framework of hidden fear NOT FAITH. The assumption that our feelings, or even familiar thought patterns are a good guide, is a lie! The Word of God is our primary, solitary guide. I have seen godly parents put up with abuse, because they feel they cannot live without their fully grown child and the sneaky wrong spirit in that adult child ends up ruling the roost.

Or maybe the parent is afraid of what will become of their progeny and sadly, co-dependency has taken hold. We can sometimes desperately pray and hope: “that Jesus won’t mind, because He understands I can’t help it, I need it to be like this.” Read the gospels … the Lord told one man to leave his recently deceased father behind!

I have also seen sweet Godly Christians hurt others because they refuse to let go of something that should have been left behind them years ago. That has been caused by fear which has been carried forward from childhood pain. It can colour our adult thinking. The thing to do in such situations is to get to the root of the tree by asking WHY?

Why do I feel so strongly that I cannot let go of my child, or spouse etc. and give them to Jesus unreservedly, without any agenda in my heart? What pattern of ungodly thinking is preventing my growth? What fear is ruling my life? How did it start, and what am I still doing now, today, to keep that fear alive? We need to prayerfully identify and deal with these issues under the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and guidance.

Our God is not mean. He is a loving caring Father, who is deeply involved, and intimately engaged in our everyday lives. BTW, this issue is not about disobedience, it is a deep lack of trust. We are not trusting the Lord to take care of those things that are extremely important to us. Sadly we could even be letting fear rule. But our precious loving Father knows us, and He knows the way we need to go to get through things like this. We must follow Him, step by step into relinquishment. It is not good to hold on to other people so tightly that you lose your own God-given freedom!

Matthew 16:19:“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” The Lord Jesus Christ gave His power to the disciples when they were too dumb to know what they were given. That’s how generous to mankind He has been! We can personally prevent any change in difficult situations or even dangerous ones by misusing the power we already have — instead of yielding people or material things to Him and progressively learning to live a life of faith. We need to let go of those things that weigh us down. At the same time by holding on too tightly to someone/something else we have the power to prevent growth and change in that other person or situation.

It is part of our job description to voluntarily choose to live this new life Jesus died to give us, embracing the power to overcome, instead of hiding away from it because it might pinch something from us! Plus always watching and aware of any roadblocks or ‘keep-out signs’ we have inadvertently put up or embraced… because we know those things will steal His new life away from us. Bye. 👋

P 2627 He is always with us.

/ DVH

“When you pass through the deep, stormy sea, you can count on Me to be there with you. When you pass through raging rivers, you will not drown. When you walk through persecution like fiery flames, you will not be burned; the flames will not harm you,…” Isaiah 43:2.

The bible says – Lord will be ‘with’ us. It does not, however, say that He will always keep us away from dangerous, difficult stuff. I think the reason the Lord does not say: ‘I will make it so you never suffer’ – is because “I will be WITH you…” is SO much better! The very best thing we can do when we are in dire straights, is to look for Him. Why? Because He said He would be there, that’s why! The body of Christ has become spiritually unfit – we stopped doing our spiritual exercises and started demanding God do this and that. That’s what sent the Israelites down the plug-hole!

We can see in the bible, that the fire of persecution could not touch Christ. He stood silently and faced accusation even on the way to the cross. satan couldn’t drown the Lord Jesus either. Even before He was resurrected, He walked on water. He knew Who was in charge of what He did and where He went  He was with those disciples on the water talking to them when they thought they might drown. He stood on the water outside the boat!

Almighty God respects our free will, instead of turning it over to our enemy – we need to remind ourselves Who we belong to. The best thing we can do when things go upside down and inside out, is to ask Jesus to be with us. In His Presence nothing on this earth can bother us – we simply must learn to live in His Presence. Jesus DID it! Kingdom things like grace, mercy, love, and peace etc. are bigger than trouble, they instantly exclude it. Stuff won’t go away – we will WALK RIGHT THROUGH IT.

God’s peace does not sort of kind of shoo trouble out of the door, anymore than turning on the light pushes away the darkness! When His peace is present HE is present. (God’s peace is a Person, BTW – the precious Holy Spirit.) If you and I switch a light on, the darkness instantly disappears. There is no contest between light and dark. One thing simply excludes the other. That statement is our point of faith. Despite how we feel – truth is always truth. Our faith is an ever increasing revelation of Who we know God to be.

The real secret to overcoming in difficult circumstances is to make Him welcome. Tell Him: “Holy Spirit You are welcome in this place” – then point to your heart. It is one thing to do that in church and completely another to do it when stuff starts happening. It’s a faith statement. We aren’t talking about a theory – one that works sometimes and doesn’t others. Jesus didn’t try to walk on water. He simply did it, as casually as you or I would walk up the street. The wind and waves didn’t bother Him one bit. Why not? Because ...“He was going to the other side.” That’s what He said and that’s what He did.

Even on this earth Jesus lived in another kingdom! That kingdom has a different POV than this world does. God’s Kingdom has His POV.“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of lights [the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens], IN Whom there is no variation [no rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [for He is perfect and never changes].” James 1:17. Knowing God can’t deceive you despite the circumstances, is the place to stand. There is no “maybe” or “I hope so” in God’s kingdom. Everything is YES and AMEN. 

The Lord Jesus quite simply didn’t live in a place that included other possibilities. He took the time to know His Father and relate to Him. Just like you and I take a breath without even thinking about it, the Lord Jesus lived to do God’s will. As imperfect human beings we like to entertain other possibilities — mainly to explain why we are shrieking our heads off in a sinking boat, as it goes up and down in rough seas!

In heaven there is no place for doubt. Faith and Love rule. Our job is to bring those things down here – no matter what is going on around us. That cannot work if we don’t practise the skill of trusting God in all things – big and small. We need to immediately get rid of those thoughts that say: “God won’t help me”… “This thing doesn’t matter it is too small to bother Him about” … “I can’t.” I can’t but HE CAN. Dependance upon Him means we lean back into Him and trust He is Who He says He is.

A lack of peace begins in our soul. In our emotions, our thoughts. Fear grabs at us and we start to sink in our emotions and thoughts first. The reason we have to wrangle this or that all the time, is that we are living in the wrong kingdom –OR maybe we are trying to live in both! That means we end up doing the hokey pokey with our faith! When we live by His kingdom’s rules then His life flows. Remember, nobody can kill us without His permission. And Almighty God will not give permission until it is the right time. Why? “Because there is a TIME to be born and a time to die ..” (Ecclesiastes 3) 

Sometimes I want to say to people, take your earthly glasses off and put on the kingdom ones and just leave them there, and please, don’t forget to read the book!! His book reminds us of Who He is, and how much He loves us. He is always with us. We are not of this world … we are His Kingdom people. We talk about it, carry it, live in it, breath it, and do it – and if necessary – we die for it. Bye.👋

P 2623 The Kingdom of God.

/ DVH

““Heaven’s kingdom realm can be illustrated like this: “A person discovered that there was hidden treasure in a field. Upon finding it, he hid it again. Because of uncovering such treasure, he was overjoyed and sold all that he possessed to buy the entire field just so he could have the treasure.” Matthew 13:44 TPT.

You know when I read that scripture I really puzzled over someone finding a treasure and then hiding it again! Why would you do that? I understand the guy hid the treasure again because it wasn’t his, but it IS kind of an odd thing to do! It’s kind of a bit sus! There are times when what Jesus says seems mighty strange to my sensibilities. So I looked that scripture up in a half a dozen versions, and the one from the Good News bible helped me. Spoiler alert …. that’s called digging.

In the GNB it says that the guy accidentally found the treasure, buried it again and then he went off to buy the field so he could have the treasure for himself. My first thought was: ‘What a selfish git! That treasure should belong to the owner of the field! Why didn’t this guy go and tell the man what was in his field?’ It is not HIS treasure!’ The one thing I’ve gleaned over the years from reading the Bible is that Almighty God doesn’t think like We DO! It’s a good plan to remember that.It also seems He is not interested in moralising when He is making a point. I must pick UP that habit!!

Meanwhile, I can also see that the point is that the treasure hunter sold everything to get this field, and by default, own the treasure, that thought is kind of obvious. Then the Lord asked me this question: “What would you give for the kingdom of God?” The thing is, whenever the Holy Spirit asks me a question, I’ve found I can end up with twice as many questions as I do answers! I strongly suspect that is His point – to make me think about it. 

In the meantime I kept digging and looked up how many times the Lord mentioned the kingdom of God and … ‘lo and behold …’  it was 126 times! It is in the rest of the New Testament 34 times. If you include the phrase ‘the kingdom of heaven …’ that number gets bigger. Even with my lightning fast mind 🤣 I figured that this would be a subject worthy of my attention. I need to know what His kingdom looks like so that I can go buy that field and dig that treasure up! This parable is not about morals or sharing, it is about valuing something that is worth everything I have and all my efforts too.

Now you are talking!! I know Jesus is worth everything … even in the icky nasty bits of this life. I also know God’s kingdom is incredibly valuable or He wouldn’t have talked about it so much. I think He told us what it is like … so we  can recognise it when we see it.  And that is HUGE. It means we are meant to recognise it when we see it. That’s why the treasure hunter bought the field! In Luke 17:20,21 Jesus also told His disciples this: “Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” 

It’s in our midst?!? Like …where? When? …  … Maybe when we consider God’s kingdom is so valuable that we will sell everything we have to gain it! Sometimes I think we cannot see His kingdom because we don’t understand it enough to truly value it. Or maybe we think it might be fun or interesting to visit His kingdom, but we perhaps we are worried the admission fee is too high … or that field might cost too much? . … Well that’s just wrong! And boy have I got news for all of us! … SomeBody already paid.

Almighty God personally paid for us to inherit everything He has. His kingdom is ‘among us’ and  “worth everything we have” and it is already ours. We just need to get rid of the stuff in our lives that is hiding His treasure inside us. We need to look at the dirt and junk that is covering up the reality of His Presence and dig it away so His kingdom within us is exposed. Yeah, there’s a cost, but the greatest treasure this world has ever known, or will ever know is inside you … and me! Just think about that for a minute or nine. 

The next time you read the words, the kingdom of God is blah blah blah … don’t read those words like you already know them, read them digging to find the treasure of where it is hidden, and what you have to do to get it.

Bless you! 👋