Holy Spirit

P 2157 Take the veil off – it’s time for show and tell.

/ DVH

2 Corinthians 3:7-18 “Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!

Therefore, since we have such a hope, WE ARE VERY BOLD. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only IN CHRIST is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, Who is the Spirit.”

There are times when I think the reason many Christians act like people who are hiding, a people with a veil on,  because so many great Christian people have crashed and burned in front of the world. There is enormous pressure on the guys in the spotlight. So let’s go back to what Jesus said: “YOU are the light of the world.” That puts all of us in that spotlight.  When we left evangelism to the guys who were publicly known, we put them under intense scrutiny. I don’t think anyone can take that kind of scrutiny. It’s time for us to take off the veil we’ve all hidden behind, and let God’s glory be seen, in us and through us.

We must not be ashamed of, or hide the gospel. That’s kind of doing what Moses had to do back in Exodus and it is no longer necessary – the glory of God was destined to shine through us. Yes I mean today!  Ya might want to pause and think on that for a lifetime or so. 🤔 Moses had to hide his face way back then, because his face was shining with the light of God’s glory and the Israelites might have worshipped him! Today, our job is to be used by the Holy Spirit to unveil that which has been veiled in the past. We don’t have to have a veil over what we believe. We are destined to bring His revelation of His LOVE into this world. Do you want a ministry? THAT’S a ministry! 

We’ve been given a love that suffers long, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things etc. etc. – now we get to give it all away. It is our time to be who we are IN Christ Jesus and to shine with His glory! To do that we need to become fully acquainted with how He works, Who He is – and start deliberately, daily following Him. We don’t need to be a paid-up member of that club to start now – its a choice… SomeBody Else paid our fees. The people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet may have a veil over their hearts, but knowing Jesus removes that veil for us – hiding our light under a basket isn’t in it!

Walking with the Spirit of God is not some sort of special ‘club’ that only a select few can belong to. The Spirit of the Living God rejoices over each and every single one of us. We can’t be born again without Him. He is the One Who guides, teaches, and transforms us into Jesus’ likeness, as we live each day to obey Him. Transformation is not a one time event, it is a daily walk made by our choices, with the help of the One Who went before us.  None of us will come out of that walk alive, instead we choose to die to ourselves. The Body of Christ needs to unveil the gospel, bit by bit, as it has been worked inside US. This means that the world can see it – live and in colour, through us! And if that scares you – then rejoice! Your heart is doing just fine – it is a good thing to have a holy fear of Holy Things. 

In the years gone by, we told everyone around us about our own particular brand of Christianity, and most people said: “Thanks, but no thanks!” The bible explained that would happen, some people are happy to have veiled hearts that don’t want to learn – that’s not our business. Our job is to proclaim, to shine – not to convert. Happily God has no problem speaking to humanity, and He knows how to reach us all. The point is – PEOPLE NEED TO SEE JESUS in and through us. God’s glory is His goodness – the people around us need to see the goodness, the loving kindness of our God, through us.  We become living bibles. Walking, talking, living, showing and reflecting His glory, His love, to others – as a way of life. Even our responses to life’s difficulties make a difference.

So start cheering immediately if you can’t do that, because neither can I! Only ONE PERSON COULD – but praise God – JESUS CHRIST WAS ENOUGH!  Listen to this: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Yay! 🥳🎉 We can’t do this by ourselves, we have a Helper. The Body of Christ must rise and shine – it’s time for show and tell. 👋🏻

P 2155 Some interesting stuff I’ve noticed.

/ DVH

The Holy Spirit loves to point out our errors in thinking. He does it to expose, reveal and explain our own hearts to us – because God’s book says that ‘our hearts are deceitfully wicked above all else.’ In other words we are probably so afraid of what we will hear that we don’t speak the truth to ourselves – even when no-one else is around! One of the problems I’ve noticed that I have, is that my still-being-renewed-mind sometimes lies to me. Seriously. It tells me stuff to keep ME feeling comfortable. It reassures me that everything I did was OK – and the bad thing that happened was all that other person’s fault not mine! 

My mind does not easily want to change. It wants to feel loved, petted, and reassured – it wants to live in a false sense of security. I have to exercise my will over it, even to entertain the possibility of looking at my own mistakes. Otherwise I will continue to read the bible putting mental ticks on what it says, and nothing will change in my heart or actions. I might even try hard to come up with the right behaviour, but without any acknowledgement of sin that is pointless.The blood of Jesus is the only remedy for sin! In the end the result is that I stay the same. My ego hides my faults from me. 

My mind also says that doing something dumb won’t matter, just this once. 😳 As a matter of fact, when it is left unchanged, my mind continues to excuse my own behaviour and points out and accuses yours instead. It keeps me so busy concentrating on what you said and how you hurt me, I CAN’T SEE MY OWN FAULTS.  So my un-renewed mind allows me to protect myself – at your cost. I need an outside guideline that is fixed, so when I am inwardly defending my own actions, I have something concrete in front of me to correct me. Tada! Enter the bible. 🥳 That book has the power in it to change ME – inside and out.

However, when I read His book like I already know and agree with what it says in there – I missed the point. The bible is a mirror for my mind, will and emotions and actions. Instead of looking at it and thinking: “Boy that’s interesting…” or …“Wow look at that!” I need to read it like it is a searchlight revealing who I am, PLUS who I AM NOT! I need to read it through the eyes of repentance, that’s when the power in His book becomes apparent. It is not a historical book – or even a reference book. It was given to us, to do what it says, and it diagnoses our need for transformation.He uses His book to correct us with His eye upon us. DAILY.

Every single one of us deserves hell without the blood of Jesus, so let’s settle the argument of what is right and what is wrong right here and now. The bible immediately shows me where my thinking and actions are awry – I simply need to sit down with the Author and put my fear of being wrong or exposed down – because this Author wants what is best for me! When I hear from the Lord from His book, I can take what He says in there, to the bank – it’s an anchor for my soul. 

I can believe what it says, above what I think or feel. The bible does not excuse my behaviour. It exposes it in reality. Then it makes it clear, that AS I obey Him – now I have the capacity to be bigger than I was before, because of what Christ already did for me. I am not supposed to ignore or hide my sin anymore, I just need to confess, acknowledge it and co-operate with Him, for change. I don’t have to be afraid to be honest about my faults, I don’t even have to be afraid if you see them. I simply repent and start using the faith He already gave me to ACT differently.

Meanwhile, I have never ever heard the Lord say to me: ‘Just let it rip, tear that person apart. They deserve it.’ 😶 When I hear stuff like that junk inside my head I know it’s not coming from Him. Duh!🙄 I’ve also learnt that I do not have to be afraid to confess my faults to you, or even someone who hates me … because they have faults too! Remember, confession is the beginning – change happens when you start to act in faith. Do what He says. 

We all have a responsibility to this world we are living in to put others before ourselves. An un-renewed mind will not like living that way, instead it wants to know … when is it my turn? We are currently living in an age of self-preservation, the truth is not popular. Dying to self, rather than hurting others, is not popular. I’ve learnt that following Jesus all the way to the cross has power in it. It is called the power to overcome. That kind of faith transforms a life. There is always a resurrection after we die to self – we rise again changed. 👋🏻

P 2150 Shame is no longer welcome in our lives.

/ DVH

Some of my very favourite people on this planet are perfectionists. Oh boy! That kind of trait will dig a hole and bury you in it!  Unfortunately, when you can’t meet your own inner standards, shame can be a constant companion. Shame damages the recipient and accomplishes nothing, spiritually speaking, because it has its roots in fear of failure. Actively absorbing perfect love will chuck all sorts of fear out of the window!

Shame also makes you disappointed and angry at others, because many other people give up their efforts to change, w-a-y too quickly, and people driven by shame often struggle with making comparisons. We are adults, and we are responsible for our own actions and choices, so we need to watch out for shame, resentment, anger, fear, pride etc. before they grow into trees with bitter roots. Meanwhile, any perfectionists I know are always pushing themselves to meet some sort of imaginary impossible target, and wondering why they feel exhausted every day of the week.

Sadly they don’t make any room for their own weaknesses and humanity, and they end up feeling disappointed with themselves, out of sorts, and wondering where their God-declared peace went! They can get cranky at this person or that system. They are the kind of people who would easily score 100% on a test and wonder why they didn’t get 110%! 😱 They are most probably fans of Superman because he can do anything! Yet the very thing that pushes them on, is also their kryptonite.  And that is  … shame. The shame that assails them with ‘not good enough.’

This trait is one of the larger blights on Christianity because in the past the church has used – and sometimes even still uses – shame, to change people’s behaviour. Transformation comes from renewing our minds, and staying in a close relationship to the Lord – not from hating yourself – that BTW is the other guy. 

Perfectionists like to accentuate perceived faults and ignore the normality of humanity’s weaknesses. These people may be tough on you – but, believe me, they are even tougher on themselves! You will never feel completely satisfied with anything when you walk with shame. It can feel like self defence when you attack others for no reason. I’ve read a little bit on this subject over the years, and I found that people who allow shame to push them around can have a form of inverted pride. That’s a big clue with dealing with this issue. You can repent of pride, inverted or not! Pride, BTW, refuses to accept reality, which is we are all sinners saved by His GRACE. The only Person who is totally right is Christ and He gave us His rightness. (Or righteousness) We live there by faith.

We can get rid of those things that mess with our mind like these things do – stuff that easily weighs us down – (please note the word easily). We do that at the foot of the cross. At the cross Jesus bore all our sins, burdens, shame, hypocrisy, spite, pride and anger … just to mention a few things! The point is to off-load them there and leave them there, then exercise your faith that what He said He did He did. And then, we REPENT – we cannot leave that bit out – so with His help and guidance, we choose to challenge and change our behaviour.

So today I have a couple of diagnostic questions. If you were to look at Jesus what would you see? Would you see SomeOne Who did everything perfectly and set a standard you cannot possibly attain … OR …

… would you see the CROSS first? Ya might want to selah on that for a couple of months or so. 🧐

The Lord’s death took care of our weaknesses and infirmities, and I believe that shame etc. is both a weakness, and an infirmity.  “Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].” Isaiah 53:4. So please don’t be ignorant when you look at the cross! Understanding what happened there will absolutely change your life. An exchange was made. Our sin for His right standing in the Father’s eyes – it would be a shame if we knew that but never lived it out. Please excuse my terrible pun!

Jesus took shame and everything else to the cross by hanging there naked, subject to everyone’s inappropriate, self-serving lies and abuse. People misunderstood His very motivation. They attributed evil things to His Godly, passionate, unselfish act. He finished the job that day, so we don’t have to carry shame for our past, or even what we did yesterday – or who we were before we met Him. Today is a brand new day and His mercies are new every single morning. We have no excuse however, for not seeking and pursuing change, because what Christ did made permanent, life-time changes freely available for all of us. We were reborn to be transformed into His likeness.

When Father God sees us now, He sees us IN Christ, covered with the Lord Jesus’ blood. Our part in this new life is to realise Jesus’ blood was costly to the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Sin, shame, weaknesses are not stagnant things, they grow like fungus and mould. So let the light and fresh wind of the Holy Spirit blow across your mind, will, and emotions, every single day!  On purpose. Let Him stop you in the middle of a sentence if that sentence is not helpful to your new life in Christ. We will stagnate spiritually if we do not pay attention to what is happening inside us. That’s where things like shame grab a foothold. 

You and I have no excuse for staying in the past, or letting it control us, and we have no excuse whatsoever for allowing the past to dominate the present. We have a Saviour Who conquered all the stuff that seeks to trip us up. We simply must watch where we put our feet and give our enemy nothing to stand on – like Jesus did!. 👋🏻

P 2147 We trust in God Who raises the dead!

/ DVH

2 Corinthians 1:8-11 “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death.”

As you will see below, I have split these four scriptures into three smaller sections to make my point.The first section, from verses 8 to 9a, is about what happened to Paul and Timothy. Things in Asia went pear-shaped in their travels while they were spreading the gospel. So much so, that they thought they would not get through the experience. Paul actually says that he thought it was time for them to die. It was not simply that they had missed their train or the washing machine repair man failed to turn up. No, Paul would never treat normal opposition so seriously. Plus despair is a pretty grim word!

Personally I think he means exactly what he says. The truth is something that is incredibly valuable to Paul,  he lives that way. He talks like this in these verses, because in his heart and mind, this whole scene was played out before the Lord Himself, not men. Meanwhile, I don’t think he is exaggerating to illustrate his point! A scholar could tell you about whatever it was that happened to both of these men, all I know is that whatever it was, it was so fierce it literally took these two committed brave men’s hope of continuing to serve Jesus in this life – AWAY.

I’m want to move on to verses 9b – 10a.“But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.  He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us again. On Him we have set our hope that He will continue to deliver us,…” 

The intensity of Paul’s passion to see the Lord get what He wants jumps off the page. I want to illustrate the fact that even in the midst of such extreme, severe trouble, Paul’s faith is still in GOD, not in the resolution of their circumstances. What I mean is that this man is not put off by suffering, or even fear for his life. The problem we have today, when we read the bible is that this kind of language is foreign to us. It was normal back then, but today we would call what Paul wrote: “the introduction.” Which means we can skim over these things not realising the intensity of the situation both of those men faced. In other words our attitude to what it says, and where it is, can remove any meaning unless we are looking for meaning!

What he is saying here is that even if God had to raise them both from the dead, he knew that Almighty God will deliver them. Can you see the power and strength of this man’s faith?  He is speaking about something that is happening to them as a place for learning. Paul understood that God was stretching them for a purpose, and that fact didn’t flatten his faith. But when we first read this scripture it fades into the incidental background, it seems to us, today, that the real teaching comes later.  Everything Paul writes has A POINT. We’ve become very used to preaching over the years and I don’t think that’s a good thing – it can mean we tune important stuff out.

However, Paul’s mind is so renewed that he can’t imagine, even for a second, that the Lord will let them down! When I saw this today, it totally blew me away. My faith wobbles badly when ordinary every day stuff doesn’t turn out the way I hope it will, and yet Paul and Timothy are in total fear of their lives but they figure if the opposition kills them then the Lord will resurrect them if that is His purpose! 

You see when we read stuff like this, it is easy to think: ‘oh that’s just an exaggeration he’s just laying it on a bit thick to make his point.’ Except that he isn’t. When this man speaks, or when he writes one of his many letters, he is doing that from the Presence of the Holy Spirit – God Himself. You don’t fiddle about with exaggeration there. Almighty God is not an add-on in this man’s life – living for Jesus IS his life! So much so, that Timothy is living that way as well. This young man has been so influenced by God Himself – he risks his own life alongside Paul.

When I look at this kind of faith and then I look at mine … there is a big gap. Sigh. However, one of the things I can remember from when I was a much younger Christian was people of all ages telling me: “You don’t have to be that serious about it all!” Apparently no-one ever told Paul that! This book has been written for our correction and reproof – which probably means we are going to bump our heads on what it says, often!  And we also may find a glass ceiling over us when we want to press in and know the Lord better. But that can provide us with fresh insight into ourselves and God’s Ways. It becomes a new beginning place, not a place to give up.  

Moving on … finally in verses 10b to 11 “as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favour granted us in answer to the prayers of many.” Suddenly when people tell us that they are praying for us, life can take on a whole new dimension. Prayer is powerful. I know we all know this, but most of our lives today are fraught with overwhelming difficulties – like Paul and Timothy were. You and I may or may not die because we love Jesus – but our faith can easily perish when it does not become passion and devotion – like Paul’s faith was.

We cannot afford to read the bible like a book of suggestions, or discard bits when they don’t seem relevant or  they seem to be setting the scene for what comes next. Everything written in this book has the power to change our lives and the way we relate to God. We do not want to water down the power of God to save us from ourselves. In today’s world, where anything goes, we need this kind of passionate commitment more than anything else. Bye. 👋🏻

P 2146 Transformation comes through participation.

/ DVH

“Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at My saying, ‘You must be born again.’ ( John 3:3-7)

Because of what Christ did for us we are now in the process of being re-made (present tense) in His image, when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. We can either fight the difficult circumstances in our lives, or look at hard things as potential for change – including our reactions! Every single time you and I co-operate with the Spirit of God and do what He says: transformation takes place.We receive the potential to follow the Holy Spirit at the moment we are born again – we cannot be born again without HIM, plus, we cannot SEE His kingdom. 

It is the same as when we value the bible and act on it just because it says so, again – transformation takes place. The bible is the greatest revelation of Who He is and What He did that we have. In the eternal NOW, where Father God is, we are already transformed by the blood of Jesus, but from day to day we are working out our salvation with fear and trembling, by living our lives the way Christ lived His … loving others. Including the people who drive you crazy!

Any conflict we experience takes place when we indulge ourselves in our feelings, our flesh. EG: We feel bad, we feel like others were deliberately mean. We feel rejected, so we get angry …our flesh has … feelings!  Our feelings can be affected by the weather or the kind of day we had or the grouchy person we bumped into. When we give in to our flesh, instead of trusting in what the Lord said in the bible – to us as well as about us, we have limited our spiritual growth potential.

The more you and I rely upon the Holy Spirit to help us grow and accept change, the more our POV will change. We come alive in the spirit. This is how we gain spiritual eyes to see His kingdom all around us, like Gehazi did in the Old Testament. (2 Kings 5:20-27) It is incredibly unfortunate that many human beings want to see the results before they have actively invested in the process. We die in that process.

The Lord did not save us for us to continue behaving the same old way we always have. Yes, we can always repent. But I’ve learnt personally, that if I find myself repenting more than I am changing, I need to know the reason why! Some good guidelines come from the way we treat other people. If we end up continually hurting the people we live with, or the people around us, then that’s a big sign that it is the time to listen and ask the Holy Spirit to help us to find out why, and deal with it. We will need to change our ways. 

However, that process does not mean we can blame the Holy Spirit for our lack of transformation, especially when we are choosing to maintain the very thing that is alienating others. Meanwhile I don’t care who did or said what – it is our responsibility to fix it! Sincere repentance and a will to change, plus paying attention to our faults more than theirs, helps our spiritual walk. Our faith gets stretched in this process.

Human beings tell themselves; “It is not my fault, I can’t change. My parent was like this and I am too.” We now have an attentive Heavenly Father, and He raised a fantastic obedient HUMAN Son! When we think we can’t we are half-way to defeat, and we are denying the power of God given to us when we were saved. In effect what we are saying to Jesus is this: “What You did on that cross was not strong enough to change ME.”

Um… good luck with that one! 🙄 You and I can change anything we want to – it is our motivation that is lacking, not His power in us to change us. Whatever the Holy Spirit says – such as repent, humble yourself, confess your fault to the other person ..THAT is our new current point of faith. That’s the place where we do whatever we don’t want to do, anyway. Purely, as Peter himself said: ‘at Your word Lord.’ And that seasoned fisherman threw in his empty net in the sea, where he was told by the Lord to do it.

It is way to easy to excuse our behaviour sometimes: “It was a bad day, bad things happened.” But when we live like that, then we are insulting the Helper. He is not an optional extra, He is the One Who knows us inside out, and He is utterly equipped to reveal to us where we are believing a LIE. Our task is to embrace the Person the Lord valued so much, that He sent Him back to help us live this life like Christ did! The Holy Spirit knows the way through stuff. The flesh has to die, and it doesn’t like it very much. 

Christians are not powerless. They are either being wilful, or they have been deceived. Either way – the problem is our end, not His! It is OK to try and fail, but it is not OK to half-heartedly try and then give-up when it gets hard. Let’s not live out our lives implying that the blood of Jesus is not enough to conquer our sinful attitudes. Maybe there is a demonic stronghold and we need help. So, go to your pastor, humble yourself and confess your fault and get their prayerful support and advice. It is not Godly to make everyone around you live in hell while you continue to indulge your flesh and feelings.

The largest problem in Christianity today is not on God’s end. It is OUR FAULT. We have tried to pray away, or even ignore the very things He gave us the power to change. It is as simple as ‘asking, and keeping ON asking.” After that we need to go and do something concrete about it.

The best thing to start with, I’ve found is to ask Him ‘to set a watch over my mouth.’ Seriously. People get in the worst difficulties with what they say. It is so much better to be silent when provoked. Sadly, I’ve learnt this truth from personal experience. Transformation comes from participation – not just knowledge. 👋🏻

P 2142 Some verses from Romans 8.

/ DVH

The way we live our lives now, is explained in Romans. Today I’ve highlighted some verses in Romans 8, starting with verses 3-4: “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” 

The reality is, that each one of us needs to progressively learn how to walk in a manner that does not dismiss, alienate, or send away the Holy Spirit. 🕊 HE. IS. OUR. FRIEND. OUR COMPANION. And like Jesus, He is gentle, unobtrusive, and lowly in His heart. It is a sad thing if we continue to live in the flesh, when we’ve been reborn into a new life in the Spirit. We cannot make excuses for not living in this new life, that Jesus died to give us. It was, after all, free! The bible is the Manufacturer’s instructions – we need to read it looking for things to do for others, things to teach us about His Ways.Things to direct our focus away from this world, into learning about His focus for mankind. Our main priority now, is to stay connected with the One Who is here to help us. Obedience will keep us connected.

Sin isn’t just about murder, or running away with your receptionist or swearing!! It is also about not forgiving someone from your heart. (Matthew 18:35) And guess what? The Holy Spirit knows our hearts … so we can’t hide our stinky attitudes under the heading of: ‘Things I have to do, but I haven’t got around to them yet!’ Plus, good luck hiding unforgiveness under the rug of: ‘I’ve been too busy.’ 😶 When we think like that it tells the Holy Spirit His Presence is not all that important to us. He. Will. Leave. And we are NOT GOOD without Him.

Our task is to find out what He likes to do, and start doing that. So with His ever-present help, we follow His leadership into Christ’s footsteps – because the Body of Christ is going somewhere. However, we cannot begin our journey of faith without continually taking faith steps. We will get to know the Holy Spirit when we cherish Him and obey what He tells us to do. If it is in the book and we are not doing it, then we need to change. Our God is for us and wants to be constantly with us, but He cannot walk with us, if we do not want to be with Him enough to lay aside all the things that weigh us down. These things are clearly explained in the bible – obedience is never an optional extra.

Our awareness of sin is lessened the further away we go from His Presence. But our awareness of other people’s sin heightens when we’ve wandered away from listening to Him. The secret is to let the Holy Spirit govern our lives and show Him – by doing whatever He asks us to do – that He is the greatest desire of our heart. Compromise is our enemy. On to Verse 5: “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” 

This new way to live is about focus, and the Holy Spirit will help us focus on Who He is, and what He is doing in our lives right now – as well as our part in what He is doing in this world. Read the Old Testament, and watch what happened when ordinary men and women obeyed Almighty God! This morning I was typing this, and He said: “Eat your breakfast, it is going cold.” So I ate my breakfast, and guess what? It was going cold. I have seen, with my own eyes, the amazing things that He will do with obedience. Start by repairing broken relationships, and begin to use the time you have been given well.  Human beings often do useless stuff that whittles away the God-given time we have. 

BTW, when the Holy Spirit talks about rest in the bible, He is talking about us resting in everything He has already done for us through Christ’s sacrifice. And there are things in this life that He will do through us – but if we don’t do them, then they won’t get done. We have the power to give away forgiveness to those who don’t know it is available.That’s a BIG responsibility. We are, after all, ‘co-labourers with Christ.’

Like verse 5 says, our flesh does not please God, so we dare not rationalise the things of God away. Verse 6: “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.” Let’s turn that coin over shall we? Who or what is in charge of us and our minds? That’s what governed means. It is when the Holy Spirit calls to us – so when we are reading the bible and one verse catches your attention – then stop. Treat it just like He is speaking directly to you. Give Him your attention. He loves it when we give Him time. Ask Questions. Look up other verses that relate to whatever it is. Prayerfully look for ways that verse applies to you.

Lastly, Verse 8: “Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.” Why not? Because He is a Spirit!  We are now born again spiritual beings who temporarily have bodies. We were always going to die before we met the Lord, but now we leave here and go to be with Him. Living this life with an awareness of the Holy Spirit makes sense. Obedience helps our spirit man to grow and mature. My flesh can easily be obsessed with what makes me temporarily happy! But because of Christ, my spirit man is now attached to the Holy Spirit. I need to continually make Him welcome, by obeying the last thing He asked me to do. 👋🏻 

P 2140 I will show you THE most excellent way….

/ DVH

I Corinthians 12:31”Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.” 1 Corinthians 13:1 “And yet I will show you the most excellent way.”

The most incredible thing about those two separate verses is that Paul previously described some of the most important gifts God ever gave the body of Christ, in them. I mean apostles, pastors, teachers, prophets etc. etc. These roles are a show case for the Love of God through His people! They are gifts from God Himself. And Paul says we should eagerly desire them. There is no shame if we want to bless God’s people with the gifts He gave us. Unfortunately sometimes we’ve elevated those gifts to rock star status, and we’ve forgotten Love is our catch-cry!

Absolutely everything hangs on the phrase ..  without love those gifts are rendered useless. And worse still … unfortunately the vehicles God designed to showcase His Love, have sometimes become instruments of control. That ought not to be so. Sometimes I think we are like children in a toy shop, we want the bright shiny brand new ‘IN’ thing, not the thing that will last, and truly bring heaven to earth. LOVE LASTS. Everything else will fade away. Only Love will remain when this world is rolled up like a scroll.

Love is described as the most excellent way, and it is not a feeling, because Paul goes on to tell us what it looks like when it is present and none of those things are feelings. Instead they are bodily actions and attitudes in our hearts. A number of years ago the Lord taught me to turn the coin over whenever I read the scriptures. That process looks like this to me – if it fails then it wasn’t love. We all might want to take a seat and think on that. 🤔 The thing I have learnt about HIS kind of love is that it knows the way through any and every problem – and everybody will get blessed … except for the devil. Sometimes when His love comes, because we don’t understand it, we don’t see it.

I just want to pause for a moment to be clear, sometimes things in our lives LOOK terrible, but afterward .. suddenly we get a glimpse of what was happening. God was working everything together for everyone’s good. The cross is an incredible example of that. Christ warned His disciples, over and over again that He was going to die, and they definitely didn’t like that teaching!  They were shattered, so much so that when they were told Jesus was alive after they had seen Him dead – they didn’t believe what they heard. Like I said, feelings aren’t the whole story. Sometimes feelings don’t even enter into our FAITH stories … 

Jesus taught many hard things, and even His own disciples didn’t understand what He said, and they didn’t like it either, until afterward… After He had left them … then they thought about everything He said. That’s because God’s Ways are not our ways. No wonder Jesus stood up at that great feast and said: “I AM THE WAY.” But since the dawn of time, human beings have kept right on looking for alternatives  … even when God Himself handed us HIS way to relate to Him, we ignored Him. It seems all we care about is our own pleasure. You know, Eve thought that fruit looked and smelled pretty good!

Over the years, we have mistakenly thought that whenever God is speaking to us – we are going to love it.  So we dismissed any of the things we didn’t like, as things that didn’t come from Him. He had to invade our space to change our minds. The bible clearly shows us the way God loves: “the Lord disciplines those Whom He loves..” (Proverbs 3:12; Hebrews 12:4-11) EVEN HIS SON! So God’s idea of love is absolutely different from ours. Especially in this permissive, anybody-can-do-whatever-makes-them-feel-good, age! However, right now we have an opportunity to learn His ways.  Maybe we need to revise how we see Him, as more light comes to us – instead of steadfastly maintaining our man-made traditions.

It is unfortunate that the church has decided that something that is GRACE, is only meant to be an outward appearance. The Lord could care less about appearances – He wants the things we do to come from faith expressed with love. And we can’t pretend His kind of love, no matter how hard we try. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to us to help us. Thank you Lord!  I practically wake up saying “Help Help!” I know I’m going to need His help at any given moment! The Lord Jesus is the embodiment of this passage, check it out for yourself. He had infinite patience with His disciples who didn’t listen to Him,  He was kind to everyone and met their needs. He never boasted about Who He is or where He came from, and He never even spoke badly about His enemies.

As a human being He felt the pain of betrayal and rejection, as well as the whip of jealousy and hatred, like we all do. At any given moment in all that suffering, Jesus could have left us to our own devices. Instead, He took ALL our records of wrong with Him, and nailed them to that cross through His own body – never to be seen again. Evil broke His dear pure heart, because Christ loved truth. He IS truth personified. And Love is an action – we can see it over and over again in the book. Talk is cheap and it fades. Love remains forever. 👋🏻

P 2138 God deliberately chose mankind – despite our obvious flaws.

/ DVH

“But now thus says the LORD, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine.” Isaiah 43:1–3. These verses remind us of God’s promised Presence always. (More on the one-of-a-kind-Ferrari later!)

“God’s people will face trials, but we have the promises of God’s presence and salvation. So I … want you to just let these words fall on your heart, to hear God saying to you, fear not, I have redeemed you. I have saved you from your sin. I have made you my son or daughter.” (David Platt)

When I read these words today, they were like cool water pouring over me after a long, dry, thirsty day/week/month/year/lifetime! I just love the way the Lord Jesus changed our lives for us, forever. To quote a colloquial saying: Jesus Christ was a total game changer! God’s plan in sending His only Son to die for our sins, meant everything changed – forever. These words in Isaiah were actually written for the Jewish nation, the Israelites. Yet despite who we are – most of us are Gentiles – Father God included us by saving everyone – and He always planned to do it. Read the book. 

In the bible we have the strong and enduring promise of a Saviour who died for all our sins! And we have it in writing! … 🤔 …That is one very handy book! Yet, the wonder of our God is this … He has never given up on His beloved Israel! She is His first love All throughout the Old Testament I marvel at His incredible loyalty and forbearance with these people who were, and still are … just like me …  wilful, afraid, rebellious and selfish! 

We have a saying in our family, that we got from reading C.S. Lewis’ book about Narnia, called ‘The Last Battle.’ It goes like this: “The dwarfs are for the dwarfs!” Quite simply it means most people are for themselves … a-n-d … bad luck about everybody else. 😶 No wonder we must read the bible all the time to change the way we think. 

The Lord Jesus arrived here on earth as a vulnerable Jewish infant, and He lived His life here, physically illustrating and teaching everyone He met about His Father’s will. Plus He did everything He did, His Father’s Way, which means any kind of selfish ambition went right out of the window!  And then Jesus went on to die in our place so He could completely save mankind, like … forever. THEN, after His death, He went back to heaven, and left us with our own free will – our own dumb choices! He did all that for us. You might want to Selah those thoughts for a few minutes – our choices are very important to God.

Now we must choose to live like Jesus did. Here’s the kicker … Jesus knew we couldn’t change our own minds and hearts by ourselves, so He sent back the precious Holy Spirit to help us. The Holy Spirit helped the Lord Jesus while He was here, and now He is here for us – to help us. But, absolutely everything depends on our choices. In other words, He didn’t only choose us – He gives us the freedom to choose Him … or not. That teaches me that Almighty God wants us to love Him without any fear at all, voluntarily. 

Generosity like this astonishes me.  Why? Well, I know where I’ve been and what I’ve done, and He has never ever closed the door on me. Other people have been so angry at me that they can hardly bear to speak to me anymore … but Jesus is always there for me. Waiting. Waiting for me to turn around and see that there is nothing to be afraid of because His face is full of love. Christ Jesus is God’s love personified. Read the book! And you can take all that to the bank – and put it in your heart … and please take it there often!! 😊

There is a scripture that says:“Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God! …” 1 John 3:1a. What John is saying here is this: ‘Look at the WAY God loves you. Can you believe the kind of love that Almighty God has for us ?? How astonishing that He loves us like this? He not only saves us, but He has made us His very own sons and daughters.’ That’s you and me. In a world when people disown each other all the time, because of this bad thing and that – God says: “These guys chose Me and they are MINE.” And it doesn’t matter what colour I am, or you are, or where we were born. What matters is our choices. He made us His choice and we choose Him back – DAILY. In this world’s eyes we are nobody, but to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords we mean everything. We need to reflect on this scripture in 1 John, because it is not even remotely about us being entitled, instead it is all about Father God’s generosity. 

If someone gave me a beat-up, rusty – but mostly still working – old car, I suppose I would appreciate it. But God Himself gave us ALL, the equivalent of a personally designed by Him, custom built Ferrari – free and clear of obligation. He has designed a new life for each one of us. (I told you I’d go back to that fantastic car!) God gave us so much, so over abundantly, so we could be and feel safe – here and now – before we ever get into eternity. That is generosity without equal and worthy of worship. Not because we have to, but because it blesses Him.

I often ask people – why on earth would you follow SomeOne else? Is there a catch to all this wonderfulness? Yes. His life for ours. He chose me and I choose Him. And with the Holy Spirit’s help – I live the WAY Jesus did. Dying to self daily, and I live loving others – whether they like or love me  – or not. 👋🏻

P 2136 We are not powerless!

/ DVH

“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”  John 14:12. If Jesus hadn’t left when He did, we’d still be stuck and powerless over our sins and enemies, personal and otherwise. But He left, it is in the book – so-oo-ooo – we are no longer powerless.

That means it is a mistake to think that our enemy has the upper-hand in any situation – personal or not! Jesus died for this world, and everybody who was ever born into it, our job is to tell them they can belong to Him too. HE WON. satan cannot ever win again, at all, unless he tricks us into believing that what he says is the truth. God gave us power, the same power Christ had! Power to live a godly life – power to do the things He sent us here to do.Meanwhile, satan’s idea of truth sounds a lot like our own feelings. God’s word IN US needs to be stronger than how we feel and that takes practice. 

When we gave our lives to Jesus, that means that God is in charge of us, and whatever happens to us. He does not cause trouble, but – He will work all the bad things together for our good according to HIS purposes. So when things do not look the way we would like them to look, then that’s the time to start speaking to our souls. The Psalms talk about speaking to our souls and telling them to pipe down and hope in God. That is great advice! This life that we are living now, we live by using our faith in what Christ did for us …because His death and resurrection gave us the power to see and live this life differently. 

We are here on this earth, right here, right now – to be salt and light. Salt and light add flavour and clarity. Those things give us, and the people around us, the opportunity to ‘taste and see that the Lord is good.’ This means that we are His people who speak His flavour and His clarity into situations around us. The Lord Himself did this: John 11:4: “When Jesus heard it, He said, “This sickness will not end in death but IS for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” That’s clarity! It wasn’t about the sick person it was about other people understanding WHO Christ is!

Here’s another example of Jesus speaking salt and light into a prejudged situation. John 9:2: “His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, I must do the work of Him who sent Me.” That’s clarity again. Because He said that now we can see that something else is going on that is not obvious to the people involved. Did you get the fact that the Lord Jesus Himself said: “It wasn’t anything to do with any of them – there was another reason?” There is often w-a-y more in what Christ says than we comprehend. We don’t ever want to be a people who look but do not see, so pray for the eyes of your heart to be enlightened. (Ephesians 1:18) He often has a purpose we cannot see.

The Lord Jesus spent a lot of His ministry and preaching time on clarifying things that already existed in people’s minds – and sometimes He was very SALTY! Some of the things the Jews had been taught were not all of God’s truth – even though they were taught by rote by the religious experts of their day. The thing that often shoots our spiritual comprehension in the foot, is that we read the words, but we miss what they contain. It is not enough to just read the bible like you might read a newspaper, nor is it enough to like the story. We have to ask Him, like the disciples did, “What does that parable mean, Lord?” Sometimes I ask myself: “What is He NOT saying?” OR “How does that apply to me?” 

Years ago, practically everybody I knew that was a Christian were busy sticking out fleeces, here, there and everywhere,  to discern the will of God for their lives. It was almost like a ‘fashion.’ We all ended up playing hokey pokey with a fleece like Gideon did. But the bible itself gives loads of scriptures that talk about how to know the will of God. In the end I came to the conclusion that most people didn’t really want to know His will, they just wanted to find something that would put a big ✔️ on what they themselves, actually wanted. If we want to walk into the will of God and display His mighty works, we cannot follow spiritual fashions – we must follow the book and the book says we have received power from the Holy Spirit. It’s that simple.

There has been a false doctrine that says that everything that happens to us must always be good, because we belong to Jesus now. What a load of twaddle! Sometimes I think we treat being born again, like an arrival place. But becoming a Christian means we’ve started a journey that ends when we leave here. Perfection happens in heaven when we see Him face to face. Down here there is no arrival. Christianity is not a competition to try to be the best Christian ever either  – SomeBody already did that better than we could. HE saved US!  But failure or messing up does not disqualify us from rising from the ashes by His Grace, and going on to do some of those greater things. The power lies in His grace and humility. He will help us, because He dearly loves us. 👋🏻

P 2135 Wake up! This is no time to sleep in the light.

/ DVH

As the Body of Christ in this world, we must stop trying to pray away the kind of stuff we need to fight our way through, and start using our faith to tell those mountains to MOVE. The power we use to get free, is the power we have at hand to prevail on the battlefield. That battlefield is right outside our doors, and sometimes sadly, even inside them. Only a bad, uncaring commander would send untrained, inexperienced soldiers out into the field, to fight a rampant, cunning, and deceitful enemy. The Lord Jesus is not that sort of commander! However, do not fall into the trap of dismissing satan lightly. We know our side HAS already won, but, sadly, the other guy’s biggest strategies have been entrenched inside our gates. The Body has gone to sleep, in the light.

The Captain of the hosts is Jesus Christ and He is the most brilliant leader ever, because He leads by example. He does not simply issue instructions and sit back and wait for us to follow them – He faced humanity’s battles daily, like we do. He showed us how to continually walk in love. Jesus Christ did not live a separate and aloof life, instead He lived with ordinary people every single day and He constantly demonstrated God’s power everywhere He went. Plus He personally illustrated and taught people Who Our Heavenly Father really is. The biggest battle we will ever face is to remove the enemy’s lies from within our own thinking.

The way the world is lately, it has become very easy to forget about love, and to spend our time concentrating on our own survival instead. But we have the Holy Spirit to help us and He is the most incredible strategist this world will ever know! We must understand God’s ways far better than the stuff going on around us so we can discern what is good right and just, and what is hot air and a waste of our time. We are stronger than we realise – because “greater is He within us .”… 

God does not set us up to be defeated by our difficulties. Instead those things that assault us have been allowed, to train us in righteousness. The bible needs to so penetrate our souls right down  “into the joints and marrow,” that our first response is to trust Him. That’s intimacy! We have SomeOne Who knows about the good the bad and the ugly around us – as well as within us – and yet He loves and will NOT leave us! He won’t indulge us, but He will lead, protect, guide and shelter us and ‘train our hands for war…”. This is our time to  learn how to march behind Jesus in our appointed place in His body.

God is looking for our obedience to His already revealed ways in His book. It’s not like we have to guess, anything we ever need to know is in the bible. Our biggest problem is we want to pre-design the answers to our prayers. If we read the bible carefully, we will soon see, particularly in the Old Testament, that God’s answers to prayer did not look the way His people thought they would. He can get us through the maze of our own thoughts, wishes, hopes and dreams into a much, much wider place than we have ever dreamt about. BUT … we simply must stop trying to program what we think His responses will look like. Our minds are limited, because we are finite, so when we submit, obey and follow the limitless One, our whole perspective changes. 

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20 NIV)

This Scripture holds a huge importance to us as His Body.  It is the basis for any evangelism and missions, plus it is a call to our own personal responsibility. It is a command to go forth to all nations and spread the gospel. How? Fearlessly – because we know He will be with us.  Our job is to…’triumph over our enemy by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.’ (Revelation 12:11). That’s what a witness does, they testify. Death is no longer our enemy. Like Esther said to Mordecai : “If I die, I die! … WIN WIN!” OK. we both know she didn’t say that, like that, but she lived thousands of years ago. Boy has our language changed since Esther.

Our Church cultures have become careless, now we think going to church Sunday by Sunday, or whatever day you go on, is doing our bit.  We want the benefits of knowing Him, but not the sacrifices.  Plus we have been deceived in our thinking that living for Christ only is for ‘special’ people … famous ones. The Western Body of Christ has been lulled into thinking it is OK for us to live in safety and comfort, because we are not meant to suffer for the Gospel’s sake – we’ll just pray for the ones who ARE suffering – that’s our job. Sadly, we pray and give and live removed lives. Discomfort is meant to tell us something – we must listen, pay attention, and wake up! Our enemy is upon us and we’ve been lulled asleep in the light. It’s time to take back what the enemy has stolen from us …PEOPLE! 👋🏻

“So then, surrender to God. Stand up to the devil and resist him and he will flee in agony.”James 4:7 TPT