Holy Spirit

P 2381 Out with the old and in with the new.

/ DVH

“Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at Him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new.The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and Him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other.”

“God put the world square with Himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what He is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses US to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ Himself now: Become friends with God; He’s already a friend with you.”

I think the above scripture from 2 Corinthians 5:17 in the Message bible version is a pip … it’s the bomb! Meanwhile, those Message translators managed to get a whole lot of words out of a single medium-sized sentence in the King James. I think this very large translation is one of the very best versions of the gospel there is, and it is worth knowing and remembering what it says. It’s a fantastic summary of what happens when someone is changed by meeting Christ.

This new life we have now is not one of ticks and crosses. ✔️Tick, this is good behaviour, ❌cross, this is bad behaviour. This new life is an attitude of the heart followed by obedient, appropriately God-ordained actions. That’s why we need to take the time to get to know the Holy Spirit. He is our God-appointed Leader and Guide, as well as our Helper. After all, Jesus deliberately went away so the Holy Spirit could come here, so that ought to tell us something!  The Holy Spirit can be everywhere, with everyone, all at once …

The place this fantastic system falls down is on our watch. At this moment in His-tory WE are the only messengers of this gospel. Isn’t it amazing that God should trust you and I to be the people to tell everyone around us what happened in our life when we met Him? We can drag miserable, grumpy Aunt Minnie, to a thousand church meetings, but unless the Holy Spirit kisses that time — she will judge Christianity by the way we treat her. And that, my friend is a very sobering thought. One we should not take lightly.

We can pray: “Dear Jesus please save grouchy Aunt Minnie, Amen.” And then go away and think that we’ve done all we can to expose her to the gospel – because we prayed, and she’s so difficult and dangerous – just saying ‘hello’ is like running with the bulls in Pamploma! Some people are so nasty it is definitely a risk to life and limb just to get into their cage with them! So we blindly go along trying hard to be nice to her whenever we can, but she’s truly such a grouch it is almost impossible. However, this means we are basically leaving the responsibility we have to be Jesus to her … behind – and we are denying the power of His Word. No faith in that! I also think it is good to focus on the fact that tolerating Aunt Minnie is not the same as loving her. Holding in 4,000+ biting words when she rails on you isn’t either. I’m just saying … !!!

Because we are now in the process of being transformed, that life-style choice means someone who used to see grumpy Aunt Minnie as a matter of familial responsibility, now sees her as God’s gift in their life to give them opportunities for their transformation. After all, we have been told that Jesus loved the cross, He regarded it as a joy, because He saw what the result of the cross would be for this world. We need to learn to love the Auntie Minnies etc. in our lives, because they are now our personal tutors into His kingdom. It is incredibly easily for people like this to diagnose, and disclose our ugly hidden side.

In that process I will discover that the difference between Auntie Min and me, is that she is honestly horrid … however I think, and probably hope that I am not! The reality is, I just know how to hide my horrid far better than she does. Auntie M is actually my new best friend, and she comes complete with active provocation and mega annoyance. I don’t have to like her behaviour, but I must learn from my response to her behaviour, or my new life in Him will cease to flourish.

The Holy Spirit will use Auntie Minnie to show me sides of myself I never knew were there. But that only happens if I stop excusing myself and accusing her! So, because the gospel is always the issue … here’s a knotty question —  if your life was a gospel tract on witnessing what would it say? “I got saved, and now I have a Saviour Who answers my prayers?” Hmmm. A truly transformed and changed life is a powerful thing. 

It is time for us to take off the self-protective glasses and learn who we really are, so we can love the people who have been even more badly hurt than we have … and at the same time we need to pay attention to our responses and reactions so we can cultivate our new nature by walking with Him. 👋🏻

“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20

P 2380 Gentleness has been greatly underrated.

/ DVH

Today, gentleness can be sometimes seen as weakness, or even a particularly feminine quality. But Jesus said: “What blessing comes to you when gentleness LIVES in you! For you will inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5 TPT. Jesus Christ was Father God’s perfect expression of gentleness and mercy toward mankind.

Let’s look at the One Who gave us the best illustration ever of being gentle, and showing mercy under pressure, from the cross. “Then he (the thief on the cross next to Christ) said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into your kingdom.”Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” Luke 23-42-44. And there it is… mercy and gentleness without rancour, or a lecture. It just automatically flowed toward the one who needed it, despite the Giver’s pain. 

Here’s something I’ve learnt that I will pass on for free. We need to LET gentleness LIVE in us. That means we need to be aware of what it is like, and then use every single opportunity to use this particular form of Grace to cultivate it. Let’s consult the dictionary about gentleness:  kindness, tenderness, mercy, understanding, compassion, kind-heartedness, tender-heartedness, love, mildness, humility, peacefulness, serenity, reverence, and meekness.

Yeah. I put this list in today because many of these words are no longer common. We are not often likely to use them in every day language …However, I believe many of the responses we meet from other people are based in fear. People who do not know that they are God’s original creations, hold onto the images of who they think they are, very tightly. They can use anger, pride and spite to shove others away. I’ve watched gentleness in action, and it does not threaten or create fear – it lovingly and carefully opens new doors for His love to go in and then it waits. Gentleness is aware of the other person’s need to be authentic and to feel safe and unthreatened. 

The bible talks quite a bit about sowing and reaping, and I believe we need to learn to sow mercy, and gentleness into other people’s lives because there is so little of it around. We are to live that way because that’s the way Jesus was. He gave us mercy when we didn’t deserve it in the first place. He didn’t appear, all guns blazing like Rambo! But He came here in the most vulnerable disarming form ever – as a new born infant. When the Lord Jesus spoke to people His loving kindness went right around their objections and piqued their interest. This is what I have found the Holy Spirit is like in His Character. He is not rough with people. He doesn’t threaten them, He walks with human beings, gently suggesting other ways to interact and approach things. He doesn’t push or pull.

I often laugh when I see people and their dog going for a walk, because, even though the owner will say they are walking their dog, to all intents and purposes, their dog is walking them!  However, on the market there is another form of leash, it is called a gentle leader. It wraps around the dog’s muzzle instead of its throat or chest, and the dog, no matter what size it is, finds it impossible to pull with its nose. So it trots alongside the owner peacefully. Without trying to be blasphemous, AT ALL (!!), the Holy Spirit leads us like that. He doesn’t push and He doesn’t drag, He waits for us to walk together, in agreement.  

The thing is, with the kingdom of God, whatever is given to us will flourish and grow inside us … if we cherish it. His kingdom is not like this world — giving love, mercy, gentleness away to the undeserving, or a perfect stranger, actually helps those things grow inside us. In this world if you give something away, you’ve lost it – but in the kingdom of God, generous humility helps gentleness and mercy to flourish in our hearts. 

When we sow gentleness into the lives of the people who cross our path – the love of God is released to create a harvest. We do not have to be a fierce people – our war is already won. So this is how we deal with others …”Brothers, if anyone is caught in any sin, you who are spiritual [that is, you who are responsive to the guidance of the Spirit] are to restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness [not with a sense of superiority or self-righteousness], keeping a watchful eye on yourself, so that you are not tempted as well.” Galatians 6:1. 

Save your warrior face for fighting our common enemy! Not the people you meet. They may never ever deserve it, but we are releasing His Grace into their lives and that means that a little seed of gentleness or mercy is planted into a life to flourish in His timing. So Instead of a harsh word, we have a gentle one to turn away someone else’s anger. That’s what sowing gentleness and mercy looks like. It means that thoughts of revenge or punishment disappear from our thinking.

The people who give His Grace, His peace, His gentleness, His mercy away, are not just being nice, or polite, instead they have an inner barn on the inside of them that is filled to bursting with these things. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Matthew 12:34. What’s IN there will come out under pressure. That pressure is simply life from day to day, but the other person’s need will create an opportunity.

Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit, it is neither soft or girlish – it opens doors that would remain tightly closed because it does not push … it respects the other person enough to lovingly watch and wait for an opportunity. 👋🏻

P 2379 You shall receive power …

/ DVH

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts1:8. The power Christ sent back to us, through the Precious Holy Spirit’s Presence, isn’t simply the power to raise the dead, heal the sick, preach the gospel, give words of knowledge, serve thousands lunch, or walk on water! That power is with us to help us read the bible, and live out our daily lives bringing glory to God. However, the Holy Spirit is also the power to overcome the daily stuff that often trips us up.

Please don’t quit relying on Him before you’ve won the prize – I am talking to myself as well as you, OK? Learn to press IN when difficulties overtake you – insist. Tell Him you don’t want to go a step further until you start, thinking, acting and looking like Jesus. Risk takers see miracles – in themselves, as well as others. Imagine what this world would look like if every single professing Christian in it at this moment, started acting like Jesus would? What if we all started loving people, and putting others first? What if we all lived our lives for His sake, and obeyed what He told us to do in the book?

Let me put that another way – if a squatter came to your house and sat down in it, and started to say things like: “This is my house now …you have to leave.” What would you do?  Would you sadly pack up your things and head for the front door and leave? NO-OO-OO-OO-OO!!! You’d tell the guy: “What?? Have you lost your mind? I have a piece of paper that legally says this is MY house.OUT!!  Get the heck out of here. Or I’ll call the police to turf you out.” 

WE HAVE A BOOK! That book is a heaven-sent legal document that tells us what God will and won’t do. It tells us what we can do on His behalf. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, we now have His power of attorney. We are legally able to act like He would if He was here … because He IS here – He lives inside US now. Please don’t let satan lie or trick you, by influencing your feelings out of what is legally yours!

Don’t lose your birthright over a bowl of stew like Esau did. That young man gave away his future, to bring relief into HOW HE FELT in the immediate moment. Sadly we can do this often, I know I do! I can easily let how I feel, rule what I do, how I pray, what I concentrate on. We can’t afford to do it. We are giving away our birthright so we can try to deal with the difficult or sad things in this life. Instead of leaning on Him, we lean on our own understanding. Or … we try soooooo hard to ‘look’ right, and feel like a fake.

The most difficult moment there ever was … was that moment Christ died. To the disciples, it looked like hope died. I can’t imagine what the world was like for those three days, but I bet nobody from that group was walking and leaping and praising God! Then, the change slowly unfolded. First the tomb was empty, then someone else said they saw Him, then two other someone’s said they saw Him … BUT in those terrible moments…the disciples valued what they saw and humanly understood – more than what Jesus had told them would happen. Those guys still went back to what they knew. That’s the biggest danger for us as Christians. The old life, the life we are familiar with … beckons.

Nobody was waiting for Jesus to walk through a wall! Let me tell you the Person of Christ got incredibly bigger the moment He walked through that wall!! This was SomeOne Who had defeated death and was even more alive than they were. We cannot afford to limit God. We have to let Him do things the way He wants to do them. Our obedience to what He has said, and what He is still saying today, is paramount. 

For example, He told us to love our enemies, to do good to those who deliberately hurt us. (Read the Beatitudes!) Our journey forward as a Body depends on our willingness to obey no matter what the cost is. Disobedience to His Word makes us deaf. We often can’t hear HIM, because we are listening to self, and then we start making pretty excuses so we don’t have to do what He said. We tell ourselves that that sort of devoted obedience belongs to missionaries and pastors and evangelists etc etc.. Go back to the book. Did it say it was only written for an elite few? We ALL need the mind of Christ – to get that we must stop simply reading, and start doing.

“Please Lord Jesus we want our hearts be on fire like Yours! Help us to use Your power in our lives to defeat our own personal enemies and failings.’ Amen. It’s OK to realise you are spiritually poor, because our God is so rich in the things we need – and that’s a good place to live! Depend on Him. Just remember we have the power of heaven behind us to be transformed choice by choice. 👋🏻 

“What happiness comes to you when you feel your spiritual poverty! For yours is the realm of heaven’s kingdom.” Matthew 5:3 TPT.

P 2378 Forget about winning lotto …!

/ DVH

… most Christians have incredible riches they have never even accessed. We have a Saviour. 🙌  He is the perfect substitute for our sins, He gave us His righteousness, so now we have His kind of access to our Heavenly Father’s attention. Now we give Him back our lives for His purposes. Our Heavenly Father has given us so many incredible things, including spiritual gifts to bless others. We have a book filled to the brim with stories about other people who dared to walk with God, despite their fears … so we can see for ourselves what God did in them and through them. Our God is not far away, but near to those who seek Him … and Jesus made seeking Him possible.

Our Saviour, died to give us healing, wisdom, strength, patience, kindness, goodness, etc. every single day. We are a blessed people! He provides for our needs, He comforts us with His comfort which knows no boundaries – including race, creed, and theology. He doesn’t judge us, but looks at us with understanding, kindness, mercy and grace through human eyes. Almost everything ever recorded about Christ is about Him gladly interacting with people! Because of Jesus – we are the people who are blessed to know what Father God, His Love and His kingdom are like. That’s what makes us rich. We don’t have to guess, or hope, or imagine – we have a BOOK full of His thoughts!

The next time someone says to you, what does Almighty God look like? You can tell them – HE LOOKS LIKE JESUS CHRIST.  Point the people who don’t-know-Him-yet to the gospels in the bible. Tell them to look at how Christ treats human beings – that’s what the Father is like. This is why hubby and I give away the four Gospels. The bible is a large daunting book to someone who doesn’t-know-Him-yet, and a lot of the language used is old-fashioned and unclear. Plus it’s a really BIG book! We want others to experience the Lord’s heart toward mankind. Then they can see Jesus in the gospels, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, teaching them God’s ways, talking to people, answering questions.

In those gospels we see Christ is single-minded – everything He says is to explain His Heavenly Father and how His Kingdom works – in terms that ordinary people can understand. He shows people how to relate to God. He talks to farmers, fishermen, religious people, homemakers, and children. He talked to everyone with the same purpose, He wanted to reveal and clarify His Father’s love. The Father’s love is the greatest treasure this world has ever seen – and Christ came here to illustrate it, in and through His flesh. People do not know about this treasure, they think the bible is all about rules that they can’t keep … BUT the bible is a fantastic spiritual gift for everyone.     

However before ordinary people can understand the death and resurrection of Christ, they need to know that ‘love looks like something’; so we believe in helping others, praying with them and for them, as well as telling them in person how much God loves them. We don’t care what they believe, our desire is for them to experience the love of God first-hand, through us!  Now, as Christians WE have also become His treasure. It is our job to feed the hungry, heal the sin-sick souls to follow Him. We encourage the down-hearted, show the lost the way home and tell people this life can have incredible meaning. 

Righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Spirit – all these things are intangible, but totally heaven-sent riches. We are blessed to be a blessing and that blessing is not about earthly gain – it is about giving away heart happiness and contentment in spite of difficult circumstances. As well as His love which is like a spring of never-ending water. Human beings must stop thinking that blessings from God are about God being in a heavenly service industry. Prayer is not a way to place your order! It is privileged communication with the God of the universe. He provides for us, just like He provided for Adam and Eve in the garden, but our relationship with Him is about FAR more than provision.

Lastly, everywhere Christians go, we get to wear HIS ROBE. That robe is about humility. We lay our lives down for others because He laid His life down for us. You don’t get any richer in this life than that, no matter what a lotto jackpot is worth. Some of the richest, most blessed people I know, hardly have two beans to rub together. And if you happen to be hungry they will throw the only beans they have into a pot to feed you! Now that’s really rich! Bye. 😊

P 2377 Whether we can pray in tongues, or not …

/ DVH

… that’s OK! The Holy Spirit is already praying for all of us and His intercession is the very best there is!! “And in a similar way, the Holy Spirit takes hold of us in our human frailty to empower us in our weakness. For example, at times we don’t even know how to pray, or know the best things to ask for. But the Holy Spirit rises up within us to super-intercede on our behalf, pleading to God with emotional sighs too deep for words.” Romans 8:26 TPT.

AND …!!!  The Bible also shows us that JESUS prays for us. Romans 8:34 says that Jesus “is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” In 1 John 2:1 we read that Jesus is our “Advocate with the Father,” and from Hebrews 7:25 we learn that Jesus “always lives to intercede” for us. We will never ever meet anyone kinder, more loving, more accepting and more gracious, than the Lord Jesus Christ, and our precious Holy Spirit. They both pray for us constantly because They want us to win – in this life!! In the above Scripture Romans 8:26 it says the Holy Spirit gives us power in our weaknesses. Don’t be ashamed to feel weak. Don’t hide it – hiding it means you will miss His power working on your behalf!

In our lives, some sorrow, some suffering, some disappointments are too deep and painful for words. I’ve been there. You simply don’t know how to pray, and you wish somebody would pray for you. You can phone a Christian friend, which is always a good thing to do, or even weep until you feel a tiny bit better – but this is where the bible stands alone. It reminds us we already have TWO SomeOnes!! And what’s more these two beautiful People know how to pray, and what to pray, and they don’t stop to go shopping or have a cup of tea either! You might just like to sit still and think on that one.🧐

SomeBody is always praying for you and I right now, even better than we could pray for ourselves. (That’s what “always lives to intercede” means.) SomeBody totally gets you, even if you can’t explain yourself properly. All the little tiny bits of our day to day lives that seem quite irrelevant to others, but they contribute to the whole miserable mess you feel you are in. You don’t have to feel alone – They are right here, with you, right now!  Jesus and the Holy Spirit are both holding you up, standing up for us all, pleading to the Father on our behalf. 🙌 We’ve got Friends in very high places!

The Lord Jesus loved mankind so much that when He left He sent the Holy Spirit back. We are not alone. Don’t let your feelings win – He is with you! The exceptionally marvellous bit, is that Jesus walked this earth so He knows the kind of stuff that comes at us. The Holy Spirit helped Him to overcome – so They both know how this thing we call ‘life’ works.

I love that word in Romans …. ‘super-intercede.’ Boy! That’s intercession on steroids! They come to help, to bring us power to overcome the very things that want to destroy us and our faith. The Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit are both reminding the Father and our enemies that we belong to Him now. We don’t belong to the kingdom of darkness anymore – we are people of the light! We have this fabulous legal representational team in the throne room – right now. 

They are our God-kissed authentic legal team and They are fighting for us all the time, because our enemy speaks human fluently. (Genesis 3:1-24;  Matthew 4:6) Jesus Himself said in John 14:30: “I will not speak with you much longer, for the ruler of the world (Satan) is coming. And he has no claim on Me [no power over Me nor anything that he can use against Me]; …” I mean, what a relief! Our legal team is totally incorruptible! Woo-hoo! And they are FOR us …!!!

The thing is, most people will stand up for you if you are proven to be right, but if you aren’t, then human beings have the habit of leaping off into judgment. Often they bail out on you. That’s when Jesus steps up into the throne room and lets the enemy have it with a great Bible-based legal argument, and at the same time, the Holy Spirit comes alongside US and prompts us that it is “time to repent and fix things here.” He says things like: “pray this, bind that, loose this other thing.” 

He shows us how to fight, because we can lose our way under pressure. And the one thing the enemy loves to put us under, is pressure. If you take the time to read the above verse in Matthew 4, you will see Christ was under enormous pressure – 40 days fasting from food and water, and satan pressed home his advantage – to no avail. We can easily lose our way if we mentally delegate things as being stuff only SomeOne like Jesus can do. He died, went to hell, bashed up the enemy and came back more alive than anyone was ever before. He did all that so we can win!

Ask yourself, why would the perfect, sinless Son of God need to go through all that? He had no personal need to do it. HE DID IT FOR US. We are not victims – we need to stop being blind to the power of God within us to overcome. The body of Christ has two incredible Intercessors praying for us, right at this moment. Take a minute. Thank them both for praying for you, gratitude is like the needle on a compass – it returns our hearts to ‘true north.’ 👋🏻

P 2376 Living a transparent life.

/ DVH

“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” James 5:16. “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7

Transparency in our lives frees us to walk with each other … not to mention the cleansing effect it has as we walk along! However, our current society loves to expose people simply for the shock value. But that is not the same as choosing to live a transparent life for Jesus’ sake. Exposure in today’s world often equals intrusion. 

Unfortunately it is very easy to hide the reality of who we actually are at our house, and present a better picture to others on the outside. But choosing to live honestly frees all of us to openly trust the Lord more, and to present our faith in its true light. We are the people who live in, and value, forgiveness. It is way too easy to hide who we are and simply claim we are being positive. Lots of nasty stuff hides in there! We need total honesty when we are coming before the One ‘to whom all hearts are open’  – and if I lie to you about who I really am, I will hurt the BODY – I will stunt its growth.

Transparency is a hallmark of belonging to Jesus, because we are the people who have nothing to HIDE, so we don’t live in fear of exposure. Instead we live in reality. We know we are sinners saved entirely by His Grace. It is dumb and a waste of our time here on earth to be saved by grace, and then go on to try do our best to LIVE hiding in external works and nice attitudes. Paul talks about that in Romans and Galatians. 

Our God will never take our choices away, He wants us to surrender them, willingly. You only have to read the Old Testament to see how patient He is with all sorts of people. He dealt with them as individuals. He let them grow INTO whatever He had for them to do. It is sad when pride, plus fear of judgment, along with a fatal saving-face attitude, can get in the way of owning our own frailties – we can’t reach our full spiritual potential that way! 

Sadly, some things we choose to hide because we are ashamed about them, and other things we hide because of the way we want to appear to others. We can unfortunately, easily acquaint hiding with privacy or safety, but trying to remain safe and secure without Him being in charge, hinders our growth. Growth comes from acknowledgment, not sweeping stuff under the carpet and hoping nobody else notices the lump! Jesus is gentle and lowly in His heart – that’s our reality. Isn’t that an amazing thing to be able to say about our Saviour? No wonder we love Him!

And He loves for us to be our true selves, freely and willingly, because there is a great deal of healing in being honest and open. I am not talking about being nasty or letting your nasty feelings attack others. The idea is to be CHANGED – not just released to be a pain! This kind of life means we will learn how to accept ourselves and others, and their flaws. However, self is definitely going to die in the process of changing the way we live, because all pretence has to go out of the window. Polite and nice simply get in the way of real Spirit-given love. We use so much energy trying to look right, that in the end, we have nothing left to give away.

Owning our own frailties is so important. To live like this we have to deal with fear, which can snarl at us from the corners of our minds and emotions and tell us that those ‘other people are not safe.’ Let’s be absolutely clear. Other people are definitely not safe! They need saving too!! That’s why we don’t put our trust in them, we put our trust in Jesus, to get us through anything and everything that comes at us. We are doomed to disappointment if we misplace our trust. We may need to give other people the benefit of the doubt as to their motives, but we trust HIM, not them. Others will fail us, accidentally, or on purpose. Human beings are frail, they have faults and foibles and they can easily stomp on us without even knowing it, or thinking about it.

That’s why we need to trust the One Who knows us better than we know ourselves. I’ve found that all kinds of nasty little things hide in corners when we are not honest with ourselves or one another. It is good to forgive and forget when people let us down, but the best way to deal with others is by living in His love with His help. That Love looks like 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. This is what the Lord Jesus already looks like, and that’s WHY we can trust HIM.

I found it is helpful when dealing with difficult people, to go straight to forgiveness and not pass “go!” until I’ve done it.  At the same time I continue to cultivate the company of the One Who will never ever fail me. The Holy Spirit. Transparency and honesty help us to relate to Him, and He helps us to become who we wish we were. 👋🏻

P 2374 Take these two verses together with prayer.

/ DVH

“Casting all your cares upon Him because He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7. “Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell Him every detail of your life, …” Philippians 4:6 TPT. This could be a good time to reflect on the fact that one of these verses was written by Peter, and the other one was written by Paul.  From what we know about these two mighty men of God they had plenty of opportunities to practise this stuff, even if they did live in totally different locations! You might want to think about why they wrote these things in the first place.

I try to see the cares of this life as being like playing basketball – not that I have ever played that game (!) 😂  I just throw everything over to Jesus as it comes up … that’s in the book … the casting thing… Two things happen then, the problems get resolved or He tells me what to do. BTW, the former is usually something I would not have ever thought of doing! And sometimes, I get to practise my hoop shot over and over again!  I’ve also found that prayerfully naming said cares can be useful, especially when things are a nameless knot of stuff in the middle of your stomach. I do whatever He tells me to do, immediately, and hand the rest off to Him, one by one.

Isn’t Jesus so lovely? He doesn’t want us to wander about weighed down by cares. Relieving us from the weight and pressure of them is one of the ways He shows us He is always there for us. I find that ‘cares’ are kind of like very sticky paper, before you know it you’ve flicked the dratted thing off one hand but it lands on the other one! You gotta work pretty hard to get rid of that kind of darn sticky stuff. It’s the same with our cares, it might take quite a few tries to actually leave what is bothering you with Him. Persevere. Bonus buy, perseverance is a fruit of the Spirit so if you do it enough, you are growing good fruit!!

And if you accidentally get to thinking after time has passed and nothing has happened yet, that NOW you just might find a solution – then immediately send whatever it is, wrapped in love and prayer, right back toward Him and refuse to take it back again. That’s because YOU need to remember you aren’t stupid, and it is obvious that you are going to need a supernatural solution! I usually find I chase ‘solutions’ at  2.00am when I can’t sleep. Eventually (!!) I repent for thinking I can somehow work out that thing I couldn’t actually work out when I was fully awake !!! … And then … I give it all back to Him again. It’s a process.

Paul also tells us not to be worried about anything. Great aim! But sometimes, when you have cultivated a lifetime of stewing on stuff, that can be a hard habit to break. That’s why you have to practice it.  In my family of origin we had a designated worrier — and, oh joy! — it was me! This was decided without any personal consultation with me, so that the other members of my family could be free to enjoy a life without any worry at all – having handed the bad bits off to me to resolve, apparently that was my job. As a result, if you hand me a problem I will turn my brain upside down trying to solve it for you. Obviously I actually can’t do that! And that’s where my spiritual game of basketball has been incredibly helpful. Then I repented of being a rescuer – that’s Jesus’ job.

Back to the book. I also love the Passion Translation of Philippians 4:6 TPT“Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell Him every detail of your life…”  See? I told you those two verses are similar. Here’s how I do my best to be saturated in prayer … I’m working on being friends with the Holy Spirit. I look for the good in things going on around me, and anything that reminds me of how wonderful He is. Even if all I can see is the sky, or a little bit of grass, or hear a bird sing or a child laugh. I wish I could tell you that I pray all day, but I don’t. However, I do my best to keep my mind and heart on Him, and I’ve learnt to cultivate thanking Him heaps as I go along. 

Plus, I refuse to let my inability to be good at something stop me from working on it!  Like the scripture up the top of my blog says: ‘Not that I am there already, but I keep aiming at it!’ BTW, I am also not all that sure about always making faith-filled prayer requests, sometimes I accidentally make complaining prayer requests instead. ☹️ The secret to getting rid of worry and anxiety is to give the situation to Jesus, do whatever He tells you to do about it, and then leave it with Him. He is way more concerned about our past, present and future than we are, and He can be trusted. I simply take these two verses together, and wash them down with prayer! Bye 👋🏻

P 2373 Pain is often inevitable.

/ DVH

Pain can happen when His will crosses ours – so we are going to need to learn how to dig through that pain to find a pool of blessing. “Even when their paths wind through the dark valley of tears, they dig deep to find a pleasant pool where others find only pain. He gives to them a brook of blessing filled from the rain of an outpouring.” Psalms 84:6 TPT. I have to tell you I need to take a permanent shower in this word for about a year! It shows what the Holy Spirit does with a precious totally-yielded soul. It also explains that God’s ways are not our ways. A pleasant pool actually puts me in mind of a trouble-free existence – obviously that is not what the Lord means here! He says we must dig to find the blessing in the middle of the hard bits.

I already know the location of one of these pools because I am totally blessed to know people who are like this psalmist. Even though I’m not always there yet, these people always treat me like royalty. That’s the hallmark of the children of the kingdom – they value other people above everything else … apart from the Lord Himself. When I meet people like this, I immediately feel like I can be bigger. They know how to dig one of those pools! Their kindness and love can open doors that have remained shut because of fear and pain.

Pain, BTW, is often inevitable, especially when His will crosses ours. Boy my voyage of inner self-discovery this year has been eye-opening. There was all this hideous stuff hiding around corners inside my heart and it didn’t show up until life squashed me! When everything goes well, I can be as ‘nice’ … as anyone else, but when the ceiling falls in – hmmmm…. that’s a whole other story. That’s when I’ve begun to realise that pain is an opportunity to dig for more – it kind of sounds like Ps 23:5.: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.“ 

Digging deep produces blessings – when we dig deep we will get a POOL of blessings, like this Psalmist said. Most of us just want to run away from pain and hardship – but this man has learnt a better way. Sadly when I get into digging it seems like the first thing I find is a stinky attitude in me!  Father God is so kind, He has explained to me that this is a symptom and I need to extend forgiveness to myself, others and the world around me. My next response is to tell the Holy Spirit if He doesn’t help me I’m sunk. I am permanently grateful we have a Helper – especially while I am looking for that pool… because HE knows where those pleasant pools are!

Ya gotta wonder if those pools in Psalm 84, actually come from the dark valley of tears this guy just crawled through … but NO! That pool comes from a brook of blessing that came from an outpouring. Wouldn’t it be great if we  could just skip the hard times and go straight to the brook and the outpouring? That’d be ACE! There are times I stumble over that prayer I prayed eons ago – to be like Jesus inside and out – you can’t complain when you asked for it can you? But there is a blessing in there – God is answering that prayer. Maybe that is why you gotta learn to dig beyond your current circumstances.

There are times that I learn great things, retrospectively. It would be so much better to know that piece of info before the bad stuff rushes over me like a rampant river and threatens to drown whatever faith I have. At the same time the bible mentions another pool provider — regular pruning. The Lord loves to prune the bits that aren’t fruitful …! 😱 Wark! I know the Lord loves to do it but pruning can be hard – it mostly happens when you think you are getting somewhere – at last! 

You are going along, a happy little branch on the vine and you discover this nice green little shoot popping out right near the end of your branch. Goodie! New life you think – aha!  And then the Shepherd/Gardener comes along and prunes the whole branch back to a nub!  The indignation is almost palpable. Why would the Gardener prune something that had so much potential? To get more, that’s why. Right there, when it seems your hopes have taken a nose-dive …is some of that blessed pool potential. God is so happy with our progress and He can see even more is possible. That’s an instance where He does not think like we do. 

Here’s a tip on digging a pool – get used to using your faith in His goodness, no matter how things look – because that is the thing that our enemy challenges all the time. Holding on to our faith is part of the excavation to find that pool of blessing in the middle of the hard bits. Sometimes it’s important to simply choose to embrace the mystery of Who He is, to keep your faith in Him strong. Pain is often an inevitable part of this life, we can do it alone, or with Him and learn the art of excavation – our choice. 👋🏻

Ps the Apostle Paul was a fantastic digger – he knew how to find the blessing in the middle of a trial – look out for it when you are reading the Epistles, EG. 2 Timothy 2:9 “…for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained.” 

P 2372 Confess your faults.

/ DVH

I’ve been reading in Leviticus … 27 chapters. Man that’s some hard core stuff to try to remember right in there. So, I’m reading and reading, and rolling my eyes, and I said to the Lord: “This stuff is he-avy.” To be utterly honest with you I was kind of reading and skimming, I was not actually reading word for word – some of that stuff is hard to read! The things human beings do to each other. 😱  Then the Lord said this to me: “Rote obedience, and enforced obedience will not change a heart – it simply changes the person’s actions. The heart needs to be changed.”

So I prayed for a bit, and then I remembered God’s criteria for holiness was totally met in the Person of Jesus Christ  a-n-d … He lived and breathed on the hard side of these commandments. Yay Jesus! The bible tells us He was tempted to sin just like we are … but He didn’t. Hallelujah! Because He didn’t, I have another way to choose to live… thank God He didn’t fail! That’s why He is the perfect Saviour. Listen to this and get happy!! “God has UNITED you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; HE made us pure and holy, and HE freed us from sin.” 1 Corinthians 1:30 NLT. We are joined to Christ, so now Almighty God sees us like He sees Jesus.

Repentance is brilliant, it’s goof-proof. But the whole thing entirely rests on one of my much advertised little words. “IF (if if, IF!!) we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” 1 John 1:9-10. We desperately need His word IN us.  Sin happens. People treat each other badly … it’s what we do about it that matters. Pretending we never sin is telling Jesus He’s a liar – why on earth would we want to do that? He’s not only faithful — He’s fair!

Everything Jesus did, was for our benefit. We don’t have to be afraid anymore – we’ve been set free from the system that forced others to remember and keep hundreds of rules and regs. “For He (the Father) has rescued us and has drawn us to Himself from the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, …”Colossians 1:13. In short – we don’t have to live hiding our sins, or putting up with them anymore, because we are in a new kingdom where light prevails… Jesus Christ prevailed. Feel free to do a little dance .. 🕺 Somebody paid. We just have to own up!

“You are clean because of the Words I have spoken to you.” John 15:3. Jesus said this to His disciples, this shows how powerful His word IS. It cleaned the disciples as they listened – the bible will clean us as we pay attention to it! Accepting and acting on what He says changes everything. Ephesians 5:26 “Christ did this so He could set the church apart for Himself. He made it clean by the washing of water with the Word.” That phrase the washing of the water of the word applies to us, the church. In other words we need to take an intentional bath and get clean all over by reading the bible and let it convince and convict us of sin, and the things we must walk away from.  

There are people in my life who would never ever confess their faults to anyone else – they hide them instead. That’s called PRIDE. Instead of excusing or covering up this bit of dirt and that bit of nasty goo on you, repent!  It is so simple, don’t deny your faults own them — we’ve all got them! Get rid of pride with confession and repentance. Confess them to one another. The very act of confession includes a huge bonus buy – you confess your sin and you get to humble yourself all at the same time! Win, win! We simply agree with God’s assessment of our actions, repent and repair.

I do that one a lot with my hubby and he smiles discreetly and nods – that’s because he knows exactly what I’m  talking about – he’s been living with it!!  But I don’t have to be ashamed of my sin, I simply need to repent – then actively go on to pray that the Holy Spirit will help me. The things that cause me to sin are rarely other people – it’s ME!! Blame is a total waste of time – my response to your stinky attitude is still my response. If I give into the temptation to speak my mind, I weaken my spiritual muscles when I do it.

I have a bad time with other drivers. I don’t drive, but people who drive like mindless numpties really get my goat. What I am thinking often comes out of my mouth. All those bad drivers aren’t to blame … it’s my impatience and anger. They are simply giving me an opportunity to diagnose what’s already in my heart. What comes out of our mouth tells us what’s inside our heart. That’s why the bible is essential. We need to be washed by it all the time. Take a bath, read the book! The answer is so simple – humble yourself, then confess your fault, pray to be healed – and practice listening to the Holy Spirit for answers. 👋🏻

P 2371 Transformation.

/ DVH

Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes.” Romans 12:2 TPT

Jesus Christ did not just provide our redemption on that cross – His death provided us with TOTAL lifestyle TRANSFORMATION. Now we have the POWER and ability to grab opportunities to figuratively and literally change our minds. To change our thinking, change our reactions, change and transform the way we were taught by family, life and the people we’ve associated with – into something life giving and redemptive. 

You and I don’t have to be the same old cranky easily provoked grump we always were. Now, we have the power and the Person inside us Who will help us to get that soft word that turns away anger! (Proverbs.) We can be transformed by believing what it says in the book – and acting on it, using our faith. If you wait to feel like it, you will never feel like it – trust me!  The power to change is in the Holy Spirit’s Presence in our lives. We have to put away the idea that this life is about the Holy Spirit AND …EG: the Holy Spirit and what I want. We can’t have both options. Dead people don’t have options or opinions.

I have learnt that if I find myself resistant to transformation, that is an indication of how rebellious I have allowed myself to become. I love this illustration of how inner transformation works: “There is a legend of a grandfather or elder using a metaphor of two wolves fighting within him to explain personal inner conflicts to his grandson. When the young person asks which wolf will win, the grandfather answers “whichever one you feed.” Whichever one you feed!? So, what are we feeding our thought life on?

People freak out and say that you should or shouldn’t watch this or that, or you shouldn’t go here or there if you are a ‘good’ Christian. But the truth is obedience is about Who you are actively following. The real question is this – what will help me to obey the Lord and what will lead me away or distract me from thinking about Him?! Christians love Jesus but they do not necessarily foster that love as the most important thing in their life. The everyday humdrum things-that-need-to-be-done stuff swamps them, and they forget about Him and start living this life like everyone else.

The secret to total transformation is in the book:“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23&24.  We are not working for a man anymore – we are working for Jesus in our school, home or job. That other person is HIM to you and I. That’s how deeply the Lord Jesus identified with mankind. So if you are yelling at someone else – you are yelling at HIM! “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me.’ There is no accidental or incidental happenings in His kingdom! Everyone we bump into is sent.

It doesn’t matter if you are doing the washing-up or teaching your kid how to tie their shoe laces. That other person is Jesus standing there. We have so much power in our choices. Unfortunately, in this generation, our wills have become weak because we give in to them all the time! Instead we need to stand on the Word and refuse to go the wrong way. Ask for His help to resist the temptation to act like you rule the world, and yield to the ONE WHO ACTUALLY RULES THE WORLD. This world will not explode if you acknowledge that you do not know how to do everything – remember His strength is made perfect in weak people!

We have His book. The bible tells us His thoughts about behaviour and life. We do not have to remain ignorant. We now have the power to overcome the things we have probably deliberately cultivated along the way in our lives. Before we met Him we did stuff to protect ourselves and make us feel good about who we are. Ask yourself, do I see myself as a victim or a servant? The answer will diagnose your position before the Lord. 

We have mistakenly tied Christ’s Presence in our lives, entirely to our behaviour, not to what He has already done. His Grace propels us into obedience, it empowers us to make right choices. Our behaviour actually changes because we want to live and remain in His Presence, rather than roll along day after day, doing what we want. We are His servants. We’ve been left here to serve Him and serve Him by serving others. And transformation comes from obedience to His word as He leads us – – and BTW if you read it then you are responsible for your response.. 👋🏻