Holy Spirit

P 2309 Grab a cup of something you like and … enjoy what He is saying to you!

/ DVH

1 Thessalonians 1:3&4 “We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.”

I figure if my life is difficult day by day, then perhaps your life is too! And then I read the above verses in 1 Thessalonians and the matter was confirmed. I thank God for you and your life laid down for His sake. It is good to read what the Lord has recorded in His book, and kept through the ages for all of us… and now, we need to personalise it! I urge you to read these verses like the Holy Spirit is speaking to you… because… He is! He is using Paul’s words to help each one of us with the hard bits of this life. These verses are a prophetic word of loving encouragement.

I have also included today, something I read recently from The Passion Translation blog called: “I Hear His Whisper.” Hubby passed it on to me. As I read it, I cried and cried. Life can be so very tough, and loving encouragement from our brothers and sisters in Christ is essential, so words like these mean a great deal in difficult times. Meanwhile, personally, physical therapy for a shoulder broken in 3 places can seem endless, plus typing this blog with one hand using my index finger for the past 7 weeks, is painfully SLOW! 😂

This lovely piece below has been written as if the Lord Himself is speaking to us. It is called – 

‘There is Beauty in your Pain.’

“Your pain has become the birthing ground for the beautiful.  In your greatest devastation, your worship has become a fertile, healthy womb.  From the seasons of sorrow now come glorious gifts for you to share.  Nothing has been overlooked.  Now you will see what I will do through you, because of what you endured while you bowed before Me in surrender.  In your place of your pain, I have poured out My beauty.

Heartbreaking tears of surrender have made you beautiful – so very beautiful to Me.  This is the most perfect offering of your yielded heart.  I haven’t forgotten one single prayer.  I have seen every movement of your heart toward Me in your suffering.  For every tear, I give you a seed to sow in someone’s life.  I have taken your sorrow.  I have cleansed your tears with My love.  Now I pour these tears back to you as rain upon dry soil – golden rain of a new season where flowers bloom and the air is clean and fresh.  Breathe deeply, My love.  The season has changed. “

(“I Hear His Whisper” by Brian Simmons and Gretchen Rodriguez.)

You might want to just sit a while and let that sink in, it is worth meditating on. 😶 

Sometimes doing nothing and holding on tight to Who He is, is the best answer of all. In Genesis it tells us that the Lord Himself rested. I think there is a time when it is good for us to hold on to what we know, and just keep hanging on, and let His great Grace carry us. I can remember during my accident, sitting awkwardly at the bottom of our stairs … having just bumped my way all the way down to the bottom,… and marvelling that I had such great peace. If I didn’t move my shoulder about I could almost pretend I was OK…⚡️ … I did say … almost! 😂

So I exhort us all to take the time today to remind ourselves  that Almighty God knows what is going on … even when we don’t. Take the pressure off and just BE …   He knows what He is doing. 👋🏻 

P 2308 NOW faith is …

/ DVH

Using our faith should not be a hobby, or something we only use in emergencies, or a ‘get out of jail’ free card when things get ugly. Nor is it a legal way to boss God around to get what we want! If our faith is not used as a life-giving source, then when we really need it, we could find it has quietly slipped away … And then it can become hard to find it again, because circumstances have trodden it into the dirt. 

Trouble rarely announces itself.  It sneaks up on us from unexpected places and it can totally pole-axe our hope in Him. Suddenly we are plunged into a miasma of emotional, physical and mental turmoil. Then come the ‘why’s.’ Why me? Why them? Why this place? Why has God forgotten us? The short answer is … He hasn’t. However! HE is not bound up by our desire for happiness … but sadly … WE ARE! The Lord has His own purposes.

Imagining Almighty God thinks like we do, is the biggest spiritual sink-hole … like … ever. It is our responsibility to actively learn and take notice of how He thinks…  by reading and rereading, and praying over His book. And then we need to go away and apply what we’ve read. Otherwise we end up making a god in our own image … and that made-up guy bears no resemblance whatsoever to our Heavenly Father! 

The bible says: WE HAVE A PERMANENT FULL-TIME – DAY OR NIGHT HELPER. We need to cultivate our relationship with the Holy Spirit, in a dedicated deliberate fashion.

Under pressure, we haven’t got time to strap on our faith like a fancy six-shooter. Instead we need to stay prepared for the bad guy who is hanging around on the horizon. When our enemy eventually bursts through our door – guns blazing. Stuff happens! SUDDENLY. Those things are not just unexpected, they cast a dark shadow over our lives …the other guy is constantly jumping out of the shadows with a cannon full of lead … enough to sink our hope in God with both barrels.

HOWEVER … “… our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”’ Ephesians 6:12. The secret to ruining satan’s ploy is to use your best weapons – faith and humility. Always start with repentance. Fall on your face before the Lord and thank Him for saving you and delivering you and setting you free. Meanwhile, I don’t care who did or said what – be the first to repent. 

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.”1 Corinthians 10:4. Saying what the bible says is not enough. Stand on it while the STUFF is happening and refuse to yield. Start using your hope that Jesus is Who He says He is and He did what He did for you. Our faith in His truthfulness and goodness is a mighty weapon.

Everything that happens to us is about learning to use our faith. At the same time, we still have the unfortunate option to lean on our own understanding in this world. That’s a human knowledge issue. BUT we need to use spiritual weapons to fight spiritual battles. Most of the time ordinary people think they are irrelevant they think that they don’t count, their contribution is not needed. This world does not authenticate others unless they are powerful, rich, handsome or clever. Sadly this world knows nothing of God’s ways!

“But God has selected [for His purpose] the foolish things of the world to shame the wise [revealing their ignorance], and God has selected [for His purpose] the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong [revealing their frailty].“ 1 Corinthians 1:27. 

satan will use any ploy he can to keep us from standing UP in our God-given places. Hold onto tightly to what you know about the Lord. No matter what your circumstances look like. Remember that Jesus modelled what God thinks about you – it’s in the book. Go after understanding, insight and wisdom … and… continually learn to live out and use your faith. IT IS A SHIELD. Our faith is always needed – NOW! 👋🏻

P 2305 HE is our hope. Not our circumstances.

/ DVH

Exodus 33:12b,13a.”You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favour with me.’ If You are pleased with me, teach me Your ways so I may know You and continue to find favour with You.”

This is a fantastic prayer. We simply must put to one side any self-serving, ‘placing our order’ prayers like: “I’m praying for this,” or “You need to do this Lord,” or “could You please do this Lord?”  In favour of prayers like this one Moses prayed. Moses’ prayer puts Almighty God back in His rightful place – IN CHARGE. Remember …”Seek the kingdom first … then the stuff we need gets added.”

Human beings can struggle with biblical concepts. We love the idea, those concepts are exciting … it’s the practical everyday, minute by minute outworking of it that gets on top of us! Having our faith run our lives seems so extreme. Actually that very thought shows us how far we’ve drifted away from His plan. The kingdom life is a totally committed life. Think about your faith life like this … how would you cope if God changed your plans?

You see the reality of our new life is that “the Lord will have His way…” He wants to be with us and be a part of our lives. I cannot comprehend why people leave Him out. Why leave out the One Who made penguins, dragonflies, and platypuses?? People say things like, ‘why did God give me a brain if He didn’t want me to use it?’ He gave us a brain to use it in His service, and in our service for others. Not to swell up our own sense of self-importance.

We constantly need to refresh and remind ourselves as well as reinforce our personal desire to: “…proclaim the Name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God! “The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He.”  Deuteronomy 32:34. He is perfect and … we ain’t!! 

We cannot be trusted by ourselves to ‘do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.’ Sooner or later we will all start blaming and shouting at each other and that is followed by all sorts of division, plus a whole lot of … wandering vaguely off into la-la land. And I don’t mean Los Angeles! We need the Holy Spirit’s input in our everyday lives – HE IS OUR STABILISING FORCE.

Moses understood the fact that sooner or later, without the Holy Spirit’s guidance, people stumble off into a wilderness and then they will turn around and blame GOD – and their leaders – even though they consensually walked off! I know we’ve all been transformed, washed by Jesus’ blood, but …at the same time we still are, present tense, being transformed and daily being washed! 

Without the Holy Spirit’s input, human beings can easily get arrogant and lose the desire to change. People enjoy being comfortable and feeling safe. We only like the kind of ‘adventures’ we plan. Being a Christian takes enormous courage, personal motivation, loads of action, and the sort of flexibility that is always prepared and willing to make personal sacrifices and life-style changes. You know, very few people just walk away from Christ – they slide away – one seemingly innocent bad choice at a time.

The thief’s greatest ploy is to steal away our confidence in our Father’s trustworthiness, love for us, and His goodness. It is incredibly important that we stop majoring on the loss or gain of material things, and start to realise the incomparably true value of our faith. Our personal faith and our corporate faith mean so much to Christ – He gave His life to buy it back from the enemy. Jesus has given us an opportunity to develop HIS kind of faith – the stuff that brings heaven to earth. And MOSES knew all about that! That man had a wife, a job, a home, relatives that respected him, as well as kids – and God asked Moses to give all that normal stuff up and go and save a nation!

Our circumstances can change in a heartbeat when God is our hope. Following Jesus is not meant to be boring! He turned fishermen into Apostles. 👋🏻

P 2304 Encourage one another.

/ DVH

I’m a big fan of this principle. Encouragement – ‘the action of giving someone support, confidence, or hope.’ Did you get that? True encouragement brings HOPE!’ It also means, ‘uplifting, inspiration, rallying, motivation, invigoration, making bold, fortifying, morale-boosting.’ HIS book calls it ‘exhortation.’

“But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”Hebrews 3:13. Will you look at that? Encouragement can help somebody else to avoid hardening their heart, without encouragement people start to stumble and fall into sin! Now … here’s today’s icky sticky question … when was the last time you encouraged someone? And please don’t tell me ‘that’s not in my nature” because when we said ‘yes’ to Jesus we got a brand new nature. 

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:1. See? This facet of Christ’s behaviour was so normal, Paul expected it. Here’s what I’ve learnt about encouragement so far …PRAY. Ask the Holy Spirit: ‘what can I say to breathe Your life into this situation?’  And if you wouldn’t like whatever it is – then others probably won’t either. Encouragement builds UP it doesn’t tear down. 

Katie Scott said this: “… Encouragement is brick by brick, word by word, action by action building towards Jesus. Not only building up, but building into— encouragement builds each follower of Christ into a home, both a dwelling place for God Himself and a location for a fallen world to encounter a risen Jesus.”

Who is Kate Scott? I dunno. But I don’t have to know her personally to appreciate the truth God has given her! 

Joshua 1:9 says— “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” This is God Himself encouraging us – and it is a great example of positive reinforcement. We are not going to do better than that! But use your own words as well as using scripture verses.

Encouragement is our investment in someone else’s future. The Holy Spirit  gave me that line, while I was typing this blog. Isn’t it lovely?  Encouragement is like releasing GOD’S very essence into the air around people. Suddenly instead of criticism, negativity and failure, people start to believe that maybe God wants to help them… maybe He does love them. We all have this power …Christ died to give it to us. 

People often go on about ‘the power of life and death is in the tongue.’  I see that verse as an exhortation to speak life instead of becoming paranoid and analysing everything that someone else says. People don’t actually mean a lot of what they say nowadays. 

I wanted to give a made-up example of what I think ‘speaking life’ might sound like to someone else …‘This is a terrible thing that has happened to you and I will not only pray for you, but I will actively believe with you that you can get through this. I think your power of perseverance is much stronger than you can see right now. These circumstances are stretching you …but you can do it, I know you can do it, I know you can push through to a new place and regain your hope in His goodness.’ 

Encouragement is a language. Speaking life takes God’s discipline and self control in the face of all sorts of visible, and invisible, apparently insurmountable odds. I believe we all need encouragement from day to day, as well as when we are going through the hard things we all face. However, we give ourselves and others a huge blessing when we choose to see what is going on through His eyes. We need to see despair, discouragement and disappointment as tools and tricks foisted upon us by our enemy. And remember that these things attack all of us. 

An encourager helps puts the wind of God back into someone else’s flagging sails so they can continue on with their journey with Him. 👋🏻

P 2303 Prayer needs substance.

/ DVH

So put your feet to work underneath what you say you believe. Seriously. How many times have you said to someone: ‘Oh that’s terrible, I’ll pray for you.’ And maybe if you are someone who is on the ball, you walked away and prayed while you were walking away. Or maybe you prayed for them on the spot …brownie points to you! Perhaps you are one of those people who writes stuff down so they won’t forget and you put them on your prayer list. BP2U!

Hopefully you are not like me … if I don’t pray for you on the spot, while I think of it, then you’re a dead duck. I’m very sorry, but I have probably forgotten what you said as I’m walking away. This, by the way, is the reason why I pray for people on the spot – because my memory ain’t what it used to be. 

I’ve had many sweet people of God tell me I’m an intercessor – mainly because they did not have a clue with what to do with me. I didn’t FIT! You know, the whole world is in BIG trouble … try HUGE … if that’s what I’m supposed to be. I’m from the days when they always told non-clergy that was their gift, because they didn’t know what to do with lay people, and intercession seemed a safe not-in-charge-type-job! I mean prayer is a good thing right?

And BTW I don’t have to repent for telling the truth … although … I might have to review the ‘speaking the truth in love bit!’ But back then, most people were passengers on the good ship we’re-doing-church-now. However the church always wanted to have a fete to raise money and because I was a ‘crafty person’ they gave me craft stuff to do. Yet another huge mistake. I once cut the gloriously long fringe on a beautiful homespun shawl to 3 cms. The pastor’s wife didn’t kill me … but boy she thought about it!

I was moved right along from that disaster, to food stuffs. I mean anybody can make a sandwich right?? If you thought I sucked at craft, you should have seen me at sandwiches. Other ladies made lovely sandwiches – mine – fell apart instantly. I could do all that kind of stuff OK at my house. All my sandwich points stood upright like little soldiers. My cakes rose, and they were tasty. But mention the word fete and I fell apart, and so did everything I baked. Intimidation to the max.

So then people much smarter than me decided perhaps I was an evangelist in disguise. And they sent me off to learn how to do one of those fantastic you-learn-and-use-five- pages-of-memorised-stuff to help somebody get to know Jesus and sneak up on them. Sadly that didn’t workout well for me either. I was under firm instructions to never speak because that was the leader’s job… even thinking about me being silent on cue was scary.

The people we made appointments with, would turn to me — just as I was trying to blend in with their wallpaper and look invisible… and then they’d ask me … for no reason whatsoever … ‘what does that mean to you?’ And then I was stuck. I could either obey the leader and get a big tick, or I could disobey the rules, tell the truth, and somebody had a chance to meet Jesus. I disobeyed a lot in those days. Double sigh. At the same time I learnt you can’t be yourself at church!!

Hilariously, I have survived other people’s various attempts to remodel me into a more suitable shape and in that process I learnt how to die to myself. However, no matter what I did, I have always tried to put my feet into action by applying what my mouth said. Nowadays, if you need prayer, I won’t just pray for you – I will also ask the Holy Spirit – “What can I do about that Lord?” And then I will do it. 

My point today is this: I have made and will continue to make big mistakes, you will make mistakes too … it’s OK. Our God has got us. Nothing gets past His gaze.  Just don’t stop with prayer, ask the Lord: ‘How can I HELP?’ Look, can I be honest with you? It is not helpful to ask the person with the problem …!!! “What can I do to help?” They have a problem! Their problem solving skills are a bit busy! DUH! Asking that question simply makes you feel better, like you’ve done something … but all you’ve done is transfer the weight back onto them.

So go and sit with the sick, help look after their kids, go be with the family who just lost their Grandpa, and find a way to give the unemployed back their dignity. Choose to learn to become God’s hands and feet as He directs you. 👋🏻

P 2302 Jesus is wholehearted.

/ DVH

By that I mean that He is not half-hearted about anything, and He is especially passionate about us. So much so ‘that Jesus ever lives to intercede for us.’ The bible also says this about our Heavenly Father:  “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with Whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning.”James 1:17 He is Who He says He is – He can’t be any other way – HIS LOVING NATURE IS FIXED.

Our God does not have any secret unpleasant agendas. He is not hiding behind some curtain or or in some doorway waiting to jump out and say: ‘AHA! I’ve got you now. I caught you! I’ve got you dead to rights!’  Fat chance. That is just not Who He is. Even though the bible tells us ‘that Jesus Himself knew what was in the hearts of men’ – YET – He still chose to come and save us all anyway! 

So when Christ tells us to:“… love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”Luke 6:35 NIV.

— we can instantly see that He is not just whistling ‘Dixie.’ He means what He says, because He did it first … That means it can be done …! Jesus was a human being just like us – He simply lived His life connected to the Holy Spirit. He was surrounded by people who misunderstood Him and hated Him … unto death. And some of them were His friends!! He knows about cost personally, and in order for us to effectively follow Him, we will have to go down the same roads of total surrender and relinquishment He walked down.

It is imperative that we remember that Father God did not spare His only Son, Jesus Christ. So all the whinging, whining, squalling, complaining and bawling we can turn on, will not exempt us from trial and trouble. By all means ‘ask and keep on asking’ etc. but remember that our goals may seem godly to us, but they can also be self-serving… all at the same time! Pruning away stuff in our lives we don’t need is painful — however purifying our motivations can be revolutionary and revelatory. At the same time we need to cultivate a firm trust in Him and act according to His Word. We cannot afford to give in to inactivity and doubt.

Doubt, you will remember, leads to double-mindedness. Thoughts like: ’Is this God? IF He’s a good God, why would  He hurt me?’  Our feelings and logic cannot be trusted when it comes to knowing God. What does His BOOK say? We need more than a passing acquaintance with the bible. At any unclear moment I ask for WISDOM. “ If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, Who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” James 1:5. It’s hardly rocket science. 😶 Unfortunately we can’t expect to follow Him without bumping in to our own unredeemed selves, as well as other people’s agendas… therein lies most of our conflicts.

There have been times in my life when Father God has surprised me with ‘more than I had ever hoped or dreamed’ and other times when He does something so wonderfully and gloriously sneaky, I have no words left. I usually get the giggles instead. Because He has not just surprised me – He has delighted me as well. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself also in the LORD and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” 

Pastor Chuck Swindoll says this: ‘God is full of surprises. But it takes a sensitive spirit to see them, to be jolted by them. Too many Christians are lulled into languor. Some can warble all the Christian songs, recite all the right Bible verses, and quote this preacher and that teacher, but their Christian lives, down deep inside, are jaded. Are you in that condition? When that happens, you become calloused and insensitive, and you’re in for a life of boredom and mediocrity. How tragic for that to happen! The walk of faith is designed to be a walk of adventure, filled with periodic and delightful surprises.’

My sentiments exactly. Jesus is passionate – that’s what we are aiming at too.  Bye.👋🏻

P 2301 Christianity is not a theoretical construct.

/ DVH

We can all fall madly in love with a whole lot of Christian principles. We can ‘like’ and repeat them over and over again on Facebook, or whatever … but none of that is worth a hill of beans unless we make those principles our lifestyle. There are a whole lot of other faiths that have sound principles and doctrine too. Living our lives giving away His Love from day to day changes everything – it takes the supernatural to do that.

Christianity is failing this world – especially in the West – in one place. It is all talk and no action! There are a whole lot of people who can talk a great game – they can quote the bible chapter and verse, and they have memorised whole books. But they disappear into the ether when the going gets tough and people or life get difficult. The practical outworking of their faith depends on their own personal circumstances and resources and not on flowing with the Holy Spirit.

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, DEMONSTRATED Their love to us when we were yet sinners. This word means to – give a practical exhibition and explanation of …. AND – clearly show the existence or truth of (something) by giving proof or evidence.

“If anyone sees a fellow believer in need and has the means to help him, yet shows no pity and closes his heart against him, how is it even possible that God’s love lives in him? Beloved children, our love can’t be an abstract theory we only talk about, but a way of life demonstrated through our loving deeds. We know that the truth lives within us because we demonstrate love in action, which will reassure our hearts in His presence.” 1 John 3:17-19 TPT. Check out James 2:15-17.

So here’s a couple of my knotty questions for you today – ‘How many times in this past week have you demonstrated God’s love to someone else?’ Second question – ‘How many times did the Holy Spirit prompt you to do something and you turned Him down because you were too busy or didn’t have enough time?’ Here’s a big thought our God is the Author of time and He knows how to stretch it. Read the book. I’ve personally watched Him do that so many times…

We all long to see miracles, but in order to see a miracle, someone is going to have to take a risk. Taking risks and living in obedience are the most important part of how our faith works. If we knew what we were told to do was going to work, before we did it, then it wouldn’t be faith. We are going to have to become a bold, fearless people, which is why the Lord encourages us, through Joshua, to be strong and courageous. And through Isaiah He tells us, ‘When you walk through the fire, you won’t get burnt, when you walk through the river you won’t get drowned.’ Like I said, Christians are delegated risk takers.

So we give away money in the face of recession, we talk about Jesus even when we are embarrassed and afraid. Just FYI, I never once taught my children about the Lord that I didn’t feel greatly intimidated at the time. My kids looked at the floor, looked the ceiling, looked at their nails, and every single part of their body language said ‘please shut up now, mum.’ It  is not meant to be easy to witness or love or have faith, we are going against the very fibre and fabric of our society when we do it. That’s what makes it powerful. 

In order to demonstrate God’s love to other people, as well as strangers, we have to risk disinterest, rejection, anger and being told to mind our own business. Just because it’s not popular, that does not invalidate it. There are so many times in Christian history where Jesus’ love was demonstrated, His kingdom life was given away freely, and it blew people’s socks off. Not to mention it brought new life into abject darkness! We can operate in stealth mode as the Lord leads us, but we can’t ever be a light and not expose things that are hiding in the darkness. 

Plus we cannot say we love if there is no demonstration, otherwise we are presenting a theory and not a fact. Love looks like something – to the hungry it’s food, to the thirsty it’s water, to the rejected, it’s acceptance, to the outcast, it means finally finding a home. When we give away, and demonstrate God’s love we enter the Spirit’s River of Life. I urge us all, ‘don’t paddle around on the edge … JUMP IN.’ Jumping in shows commitment. 👋🏻 

P 2300 True freedom pays the price of ongoing forgiveness.

/ DVH

“Beloved ones, God has called us to live a life of freedom. But don’t view this wonderful freedom as an excuse to set up a base of operations in the natural realm. Constantly love each other and be committed to serve one another.” Galatians 5:13 TPT.

Some versions of the Bible have a huge contribution to make when it comes to reviewing our own attitudes and actions. It seems to me that the Passion Translation hones right in on behaviour and motivation. It quickly diagnoses the sort of self protective attitudes we can easily take on in order to avoid scrutiny and transparency, as well as avoiding facing our true selves.

At the same time, this version creates such a grateful spontaneous love for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for all we’ve been given. People who KNOW they are redeemed and understand what that means, are not afraid to face even their darkest thoughts, actions and attitudes. This knowledge makes them overflow with gratitude for our beloved Saviour, and marvel at the Father’s great plan in the face of our deliberate disobedience and sin.

Our actual desire to learn how to truly love one another as a reality is a great diagnostic tool. They won’t know we are Christians by our ‘nice’, or even ‘friendly’, or ‘welcoming’ attitudes, they will know we are Christians by the way we love one another. You can’t fake that kind of love. Especially when brother ‘Always-in-trouble’ phones you in the wee hours of the morning and burbles out that he is as drunk  as a skunk and probably shouldn’t drive home and : ‘Could you come and get me please?’ Or when brother ‘Gee-I’m-smug-and-I-know-everything’s’ belief system is challenged publicly and he decides it’s your fault and targets you to straighten out your theology.

This is when love gets tested. Even when dear Sister ‘I-always-have-to-bring-a-cake-but-I-can’t-cook-for-toffee’ demands a glowing review in front of everyone. You can’t fake that either! The wonderful thing about these difficult people is that they are actually our new best friends. Without these little darlings’ help, we would never know what kind of monster lies beneath the smooth surface of the ‘I-am-always-coping’ lake we all carefully polish. In other words, people who drive us crazy are exposing the very things we don’t want to see about ourselves.

We build such beautifully designed castles, constructing smooth shiny walls hundreds of feet in the air to prevent anybody from getting even a teensy tiny glimpse of the angry, bitter and just plain nasty little person hidden within. I’ve met many of these people in my travels. I’ve also met the ‘I-will-tell-you-to-your-face’ people, who live outside the enormous castle walls and pride themselves on being honest. They make your fists get itchy, and are equally as annoying – but both parties expose us for who we really are. I have been on either side of those walls and found out that we cannot hide from the gaze of God. 

Repentance is the only answer for this junk. I once knew a person of the ‘I-will-tell-you-to-your-face’ variety who bounced up to me and announced, “I have always hated you”, and then walked away relieved of her great burden, and I stood there having been sucker punched … She may have felt better, but I started making fists all over the place! All I can tell you is, my own creature from the black lagoon has tried very hard to hide her unpleasant little self at the bottom of my nice, shiny blue lake. It took a whole lot of reality living and soul searching to fix THAT one.

I’d ask why we hide from ourselves and others but it seems like the answer is pretty clear. We’ve forgotten the light of the Saviour’s love and we want their approval more than we want to be free. Forgiving them also means forgiving me for wanting to thump them. We dare not live our lives only visiting the cross when dire necessity requires it. I’ve worn a path there myself over the years, because it was the safest place to be totally honest with myself and the Lord, and learn how to receive and exercise forgiveness. I just sat there and learnt the little I know from the Expert. 

Freedom comes when we understand not only what was done for us, but who we are now because of Christ. For me the cross is not a place of sadness but a place of rejoicing. When I look at how much He forgave me, it gets a whole lot easier to forgive you. And that’s real freedom.👋🏻

P 2299 God’s authority is transferable.

/ DVH

This is not a popular subject in today’s independently-minded society. Instead of authority being transferred, and cultivated, it is grasped at and treated like a weapon for control. It is only when we yield control that we find out it does not matter … God’s will does … Most people aren’t having a problem with submission – their problem is Lordship.

Let’s look at the Roman Centurion incident “…just say the word, and my servant will be healed.  For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, He was amazed and said to those following Him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith…” Matthew 8:8-10.

The first thing I want to mention is that Jesus saw that the Centurion understood how faith works. Christ saw what this soldier said and did … as faith. Many people are so afraid of being controlled by others they have limited comprehension of the safety of submission. They have not been taught about its benefits – instead they have been made subject to a perversion of this truth. 

This illustration explains that first of all, authority is transferrable, and secondly, when you are submitted to God using your faith, you can’t be controlled by men. We can only be controlled by others, when we are not fully surrendered to Christ. NOBODY CAN CONTROL YOU IF YOU ARE DEAD – spoiler alert …you no longer CARE! Ya might want to stew on that one for a while! 🧐

This Roman soldier was a man under authority, and he understood authority and how it works. He willingly and respectfully surrendered his own authority in favour of Christ’s greater authority. He was actually spiritually aware. He could have ordered Christ to come with him, as a Roman soldier he had all the power in that world available to him, but he recognised there was a greater authority present. 

God’s authority is not something to be snatched at, or about bossing people around. It doesn’t work by yelling the loudest, or making a better point. When we put ourselves under authority we are choosing to be totally submitted to Christ. Submission is not something Christ talked about to keep unruly, power-hungry, dissatisfied followers under control. It is a chain of command. We gotta stop thinking we have to control other people’s behaviour with threats and doctrinal points and start dying to self, serving others and put the Holy Spirit in charge of what happens to US. 

So … wives do not submit to their husbands because they have to, they submit using their faith. And children obey their parents exercising their faith. It’s a choice freely made. Remember, Jesus Himself chose the cross – HE LET humanity torture and kill Him because He believed in His Father’s greater good.  He understood submission is powerful.

Almighty God has given us people who have delegated authority. His AUTHORITY.  The point to be concentrated on here is not who’s got the ‘power’, but ‘are we walking by faith?’ Submission is about faith not power. It’s about delegated authority — look at this interchange between Pilate and Christ. “Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me at all if it had not been given to you from above.. “ 

Power comes from total submission. That person in charge, the one who has delegated authority, does not have to know everything, and be able to dot all the ‘i’s’, cross all the ’T’s’, for us to submit to them. As a matter of fact, I have submitted to people in faith and I knew they had no clue about the things that were important to me, but I wasn’t submitting to them, I was submitting to the chain of command, which always goes back to Christ. 

I could quite honestly care less whether the person in charge understands what end game I might have in mind, because I gave all my end games to Jesus. I don’t have any kind of agenda either because I gave those to Christ too! My faith is in Christ’s ability to go round the numpty in the middle, and bring about what He wants. 

Authority is totally transferable when we don’t try to steal or snatch it, or usurp it, or batter it away from someone else who has already been given it by God. Food for thought. 👋🏻

P 2298 The little foxes.

/ DVH

Song of Solomon 2:15  “Catch the foxes for us, The little foxes that spoil and ruin the vineyards [of love], While our vineyards are in blossom.” There are times when our love for the Lord is bright and burning hot with passion – and there are other times when it seems this life is full of surprises — and — none of them are good!

In my mind, these are situations that Solomon describes here, and they can come upon us unexpectedly.  Just when you start to think that your spiritual life is turning a corner – wham! Especially when you seem to be getting the hang of walking with the LORD, and understanding His ways. Now here’s a good time to remember “…pride goes before a fall..” !!!  I’ve fallen on my head at this place, many MANY times and probably will again, unless the Holy Spirit helps me. AGAIN!!

When stuff piles on top of us, and life seems relentlessly overwhelming, and way past our ability to cope with it, this is like the best prayer ever. Song of Solomon 2:17a “… Return quickly, my Beloved,…” Jesus is described in Song of Songs as the Chief Shepherd, the Bridegroom, and a gazelle, a mighty deer Who can overcome any obstacle to get to His beloved. He has feet that can go anywhere, just like a stag can! Call out to HIM!  Then wait. Do nothing, just wait to be rescued. BUT at the same time – don’t keep rehearsing other people’s sins against you … take those thoughts captive.

These little foxes invade our vineyard when there is a potential harvest. There are blossoms on the vine… that means … fruit is coming! These circumstances, our difficulties, etc. are here to spoil and steal our fruit!  These things are attacking us so they ruin spiritual fruit before it can even form. The Holy Spirit’s potential to produce fruit in us, is under threat from things we have allowed, or indulged in, or tolerated in our past – or just plain enemy attack.. 

The beauty of this passage is that the bride knows Who to call out to, for help. She knows her Beloved is stronger, more mighty and wiser than the foxes that have come to steal their future potential harvest from them. Sometimes we can race about spraying this and protecting that, when what we really need to do is call out for help to the One who can defeat anything. The Bible says so. Jesus Christ beat death, little foxes are nothing to be concerned about.

But it will still be a battle, simply because we have invested in those things that these foxes stir up. Things like our own self-pity, anger, hatred, bitterness, resentment, and our own self-justification. And this battle can draw blood. It’s going to hurt, because we’ve invested in these things in our past. Start with repentance, and then fight to protect that hard- won fruit you have.

Yes our current circumstances maybe dire and difficult and cringeworthy but however they look – the reality is: “… greater is He that is IN ME than he that is in this world.” We don’t just get to say that or think it, we actually have to live it out minute by minute, battling with our own imaginations, feelings, thoughts …until every single thought obeys CHRIST.

These pesky foxes can be chased off. The Holy Spirit in you, with you, is the winner. However He won’t do it FOR YOU because we all need these skirmishes to develop battle readiness. We cannot allow our enemy to thwart God’s processes by giving in to stuff that we have authority over. Jesus gave us authority! Like I’ve said before: “…having done all, we stand!” And then we keep on standing because our Shepherd/Bridegroom/Mighty Stag is coming and there aint nothin’ gunna stop Him!

Lastly, Jesus said this to His disciples: “I will not talk with you much more, for the prince (evil genius, ruler) of the world is coming. And he has no claim on Me. [He has nothing in common with Me; there is nothing in Me that belongs to him, and he has no power over Me.]”  ←This is our task and aim — to take away the ground in our lives that we have given over to our enemy — whether accidentally or on purpose. Now we can fight satan for the lives of the people around us and WIN.  It is time to eliminate those foxes. HE WILL HELP US. 🙌