Honour

P 3271 “Blessed are those who mourn … for they shall be comforted.”

/ DVH

Here’s another version —of Matthew 5:4. “Blessed and enviably happy [with a happiness produced by the experience of God’s favour and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted!” (AMP)

My initial thought was, how can it be blessed to mourn? After all you are suffering. Perhaps somebody died, or plans were made and lost, or maybe your world went upside down overnight? I read through about a half a dozen versions to try to understand what this verse is saying…and they all said the same thing! So I was as much in the dark as I had been before. When I get verses like this one, I pray over it until I get some clarity and then I follow through on what He says with prayer and action.  

I looked at the verse again, and my first observation is that this is a promise. The words “shall be comforted” stood out to me. I have got be honest with you, that has not always been my experience so far. I’m not saying it hasn’t ever  happened … but not always, and very rarely right away. This means my understanding of what the Lord is saying, is actually incorrect. I came to the conclusion that I am using my experience as a yardstick. Big mistake. 

I must start from the premise that God’s Word is true, and that means it’s my knowledge or experience, or lack of it, that is at fault. What I am saying is—I don’t authenticate His Word, it authenticates or convicts or transforms me. Because Romans 3:4 says: “Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “ So that You may be proved right when You speak and prevail when You judge.”  There’s that sorted.  

But I can get stuck, because my own experience with grief – so far, is that you go in – by force or by circumstances – and you come out the other side … eventually! You can also get to stay there way too long, which is on my list of things to avoid at all cost! Grief does not seem like much of a blessing, at the time …either before, during or after … this means the Lord has a different idea of blessing and comfort to mine. Blessed is used over 500 times in the bible, depending on the version you read, and comfort appears approx.150 times. God is saying something I am not getting, and I know it isn’t Him, so it must be me. “Help, Help!”

Here’s a little snippet. The basic concept for comfort in both the Old and New Testaments is encouragement:  whether it happens by words, or the presence of another to help in time of need. Synonymous words are console, help, give relief, cheer up, exhort, and fear not. The Lord is promising us His Presence is going to be our comfort – not necessarily an exit from what is happening. Psalm 91:15: “He (the believer) will call upon Me and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him.”

Our Heavenly Father, Almighty God, promises to be with us. This means, despite our feelings, He does not withdraw His love and support, He stands with US. Now there is another aha! moment. One of Jesus’ own Names is Emmanuel, which literally means …”God is with us.” Because our Heavenly Father, is utterly faithful, and He cannot ever be otherwise — we can rely upon Him when we are thrown into mourning, whether we feel like He is there or not. Here’s a quote I found that explains that better than I can.

“So when God is with us, it means HE’S LITERALLY WITH US. You just can’t see Him. It’s like the wind. It’s there, and it LITERALLY MOVES THINGS YOU CAN SEE, even though you can’t see the wind that moves them.” (Caleb Jones, Reddit.) I liked what this person said. God is not making me wait because He is too busy or can’t be bothered. In these circumstances, I need to remind myself that He is doing something else. Something I cannot see or comprehend – YET.  

This means I will have to use my faith at a moment when I want to feel sorry for myself, or I am too exhausted to be bothered. That’s OK, God is still there with me. And grief, IS by nature, exhausting! I need to give whatever has happened to Him, and leave it with Him. Ephesians 5:13 MSG bible says:  

“Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.”  

I literally cannot fix the existing problem with my blog, I have to leave it in the hands of the server – who is in Denmark BTW. And I need to give the people I write for, and pray for… this means you! … to Him. I must deliberately trust that He has your best interests in His heart, because the bible says He does. That’s what I am aiming at.  Bye. 👋

P 3262 What language does God speak?

/ DVH

This could blow your mind, it blew mine. Just out of the blue this morning the Lord said to me: ”What language do I speak?” WOW! … I mean I wasn’t even praying or anything! We know that the Lord speaks every language of man but does HE also have a language?… I decided to go with what Ezekiel wisely said instead:“Only YOU know Lord.” Then He reminded me that He can speak every language on the planet and all the languages of angels. Plus the unutterable sighs and groaning of the human heart. WOW … again! 🤯 In fact, we don’t even have to speak, because the Lord already knows. (Psalm 139:4)

Over the years, I’ve learnt that when the Holy Spirit asks me a question, it’s time to be quiet and listen, He’s about to teach me something I don’t know. So I put a sock in it and listened. This is what He told me:“I speak faith,  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control..” Colour me flabbergasted. It took me ages to even comprehend what that means – I think of those things as actions.

First of all, it rocked my world to find out that these things we call spiritual gifts or traits, are languages! Then I realised that many people call ‘love’ a language. I know that Jesus is our perfect example of these things we call fruit… but are these things also God’s language? Off we go! In Psalm 139:6 it says:“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”  I’m so-o going to need His help!

I kept on praying about it, and then I read this:“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, the Word was God.” John 1:1. Our Lord Jesus, is His Father’s language in human form. 🤯 Jesus Christ is God’s living LANGUAGE. The more I prayed over this, with the Holy Spirit helping me, the more I started to remember other scriptures. God also speaks faith! He spoke this world into being when there was nothing – that’s faith! The Holy Spirit went off and did what Almighty God said, and that too was faith!!  Faith is a language – our universe and beyond were founded on His Words, and then Holy Spirit turned the language into an action. 

Adam and Eve blew it when they disobeyed and ate the fruit. They stopped speaking the languages God had given them, when the devil slithered in and taught them to speak doubt! A questioning perversion of the language of faith. Faith has a way to speak, and it originates in God, and freely obeys Him. Here’s an interesting thought for free: Moses lifted up his staff over the Red sea and Psalm 114:3 says: “The sea SAW it, and fled…”  The SEA saw WHAT? The staff of authority in Moses’ hand! There are many bigger ways to see and understand the things of God than we can imagine – sadly we’ve restricted ourselves to just MAN’s knowledge.

My hubby had this thought: “Jesus spoke PEACE to the sea when it was turbulent.” That rough sea obeyed the Lord immediately He spoke faith to it. When the Lord said “Peace be still,” He was speaking one of His Father’s languages. He told the disciples once in John 12:49 “For I have never spoken on My own initiative or authority, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment regarding what to say and what to speak.”

Let’s look at another one of the things that we call fruit, but God uses them as one of His languages. I picked patience. When someone is speaking to a little child and the little one doesn’t understand them, we will often say that the person is speaking patiently to the child. Patience has a tone, It is another kind of language. That language can speak to human beings as well as animals etc. and get the same response. It relaxes and soothes. God’s languages are spoken for the other person’s well-being. 

The kingdom of God down here on this earth has a voice. These kingdom languages help us to serve, know and honour the Lord, as we learn to speak them. He uses us to speak His language to others. We dare not waste our time speaking ‘man’ – we need to learn to speak His language everywhere we go – by believing and listening to what He says and acting on it. That’s how His Word begins to transform our language – when His Word becomes our language! We will learn how He speaks, when we stop predicting what we want to hear from the Lord, and take the time to wait for Him to speak to us.  

Like I said at the top of the page, the Holy Spirit shared this with me, but let’s be totally clear, my brain is not smart enough to come up with these thoughts! We need the Holy Spirit to teach us our Father’s native tongue … so we can be pure in our speech. Purity of speech isn’t about throwing out swear words, or criticism, or hate – it’s about learning to speak LOVE. The bible says: “That which is not faith is sin.”  We often go for avoiding the negative – instead of participating in the positive. 

We could be outwardly speaking well of others — but in our hearts, which are open to Him at all times, what do we really think? What are we projecting toward other people – His languages of faith, hope and love? Or are we speaking from the hurt of the past …and head knowledge… which can be a dead language. What language does our Father speak? – I think it is love. And you can be sure He speaks your language too. Bye. 👋

P 3244 Father God is for us!

/ DVH

Isaiah 64:4,5a AMP. “For from days of old no one has heard, nor has ear perceived, Nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who works and acts in behalf of the one who [gladly] waits for Him. You meet him who rejoices in doing that which is morally right, Who remembers You in Your ways.”

Our Heavenly Father, clearly wants us to know His will – that’s why He gave us a book! In this book the Lord has put so many incredible testimonies of His activities – plus His interactions with very different people. We have a record of His people’s glorious victories, plus their ignominious defeats. Some people burst across the sky like a shooting star, others fizzled out like dying fireworks. At the same time we have a clear and comprehensive record of what Jesus is like, and what He valued most – His Father’s Presence and His Father’s will.

The part of this scripture I want to accentuate today is the bit that says: …”a God like You Who works for those who wait for Him.”  In every other world religion human beings have to do the work to achieve some sort of spirituality. But our God works for us, as we wait for Him… Let’s pause and reflect about that…the God of the Universe also waits for us to choose Him.. We can now see how important waiting is! Jesus has already done all the work for us – however, that does not mean we can coast along blowing smoke rings, drinking like a fish and doing whatever we like! Faith isn’t presumption, it is a deliberate interaction between a Holy God and His people. He has earned the right to tell us what to do – but He won’t make us. 

The bible tells us that the Jewish people waited several centuries for their Messiah — they were longing for Him to come, because He was the One prophesied Who would set all things right for them. But when Jesus came they didn’t recognise Him! His words and miracles caused a stir, but His only recognisable parade consisted of Him, sitting on a donkey. Perhaps the Israelites expected grandeur and excitement — but the Lord arrived without pomp or ceremony and He left the same way. That thought ought to teach us something about Almighty God. He is not averse to doing things in secret.… a-n-d … ya might want to think about that!

The church today desperately needs eyes to see Him, or we can totally miss whatever He is doing. Our fallibility to distraction is legendary! Only people with active faith, who are looking, waiting, and wanting Him, will notice whatever He does. Here’s a little bit of advice … be very wary of anyone who tells you they know what’s coming next. The bible tells us that no-one knows the time or the hour of things like the Second Coming. The first time around, Jesus came and went and many people did not even identify Him. Like I said, our God is great at keeping things secret! 

Back in His time, ordinary people saw those miracles, they probably even ate the multiplied bread and fish … but what happened did not touch their hearts. We have to leave our hearts open to hear from Him – continually hitting the refresh button, even when it comes to reading the bible. One of Jesus’ twelve disciples did not appear to understand His ministry and purpose, despite the fact that this man walked around with Him for over three years! Our biggest danger as Christians is that we read in the bible about what He wants us to do, but then we go out and continue to live our lives thinking we can postpone our response, without applying these truths to ourselves! That is not how you get to know Him.

Our God loves loyal people, and at the same time, He cherishes each personal relationship with every one of us. It isn’t about praying at Him – it is about enjoying the time we spend with Him. Awareness of His goodness needs to be present with us in the everyday hustle and bustle we face. As we honour His wishes, by living the Way He has asked us to live, we will keep His Presence before our eyes. Everyday life gets bigger when we choose to make Him a part of it! Even the fact that the Lord has given us a choice in these things, is such an incredible privilege. Think about it. He made us, He quite obviously could have used force, yet He didn’t. Instead, He woos us with His loving kindness. Our choices reflect how much we take Him seriously as our Lord and Saviour.

Other so-called gods threaten people or lull them into a false sense of security. They appeal to physicality, or mental gymnastics – concepts and words that seem to have truth in them, manageable stuff!  But God’s truth always leaves me astonished. His way of looking at other people goes right round my brain! Some of the things that are done in the name of other gods are meaningless, even brutal, or vicious, self-serving and demanding. Eventually those things impinge upon the person’s freedom, not to mention scaring people half to death with their reprisal threats!  Father God cherishes our freedom to choose – He respects our choices even when they are not good for us. 

Let’s live like this: “And so, dear brothers and sisters, you are now made holy, and each of you is invited to the feast of your heavenly calling. So fasten your thoughts fully onto Jesus, Whom we embrace as our Apostle and King-Priest.” Hebrews 3:1 TPT. Our God is not like any other – our Heavenly Father is for us. What other god would die in place of His followers so they can have the freedom to choose Him …or not? Bye. 👋

P 3190 Who colours your world?

/ DVH

“So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.”  Proverbs 4:23 TPT.  When I hear that scripture I think of a little man in a guard’s uniform marching up and down with a big gun on his shoulder. Behind him is a door, with a sign on it and it says:“No entry without permission – Joe Blog’s mind.”  Suffice to say, I have a very vivid imagination! 

The thing is, all of us need as much help with our minds as we can get. Our minds need to be renewed — on purpose, daily. This must happen simply because we are continually being bombarded with worldly propaganda minute by minute. Just recently, I was dragged into a conversation that centred on something I wouldn’t normally talk about. I actually internally, disagreed with the speaker. The trouble was this person was a guest in our home so I had to choose between being rude to a guest, and exercising good manners, or bailing out of the conversation. 

You guessed it – I went the easy way, and then I felt really bad about it. I repented of course, but I was disappointed in myself. However, it gave me a chance to reflect on something I might normally brush aside. How do you go about giving someone else a loving refusal to their ideas, when what they are saying goes against what you believe? I know that the Holy Spirit has a way through this kind of difficulty, if we simply choose to stay in His Presence. Sadly, I flunked that test, this time, I fell right in!

The scripture above from Proverbs actually gives us a great clue about this kind of scenario – it isn’t what comes out that is the problem – it’s what is already IN there! Somewhere, somehow, I have not been guarding what my heart loves, and so the wrong issues got in. In computer-land, if your programming is bad, then the results won’t be great either. So, what do I need to put IN to reprogram my inner opinions with His Word? His word, duh!

Now the issue is no longer about what anybody else said, but what I have been inwardly holding onto. Well, there’s a yucky thought — but it is worth exploring. I don’t want ‘all that I am’ to be affected by opinionated stuff that I may have thought was important in the past. I want everything I am to be affected by the Lord and what He wants in my life, right here, right now.. BTW, I do pray about my speech being “winsome” during the day, but sometimes my opinions have a mind of their own. They have a tendency to pop out unannounced!

My starting place for things like this is always repentance, there is nothing else like it for clearing the decks of detritus and junk we don’t need. Then with the Holy Spirit’s help, I am going to need to pay attention to what I am holding onto from the past, that is not scriptural. That’s when the fun starts! Because I will need to hold the line the Holy Spirit and I have just drawn, with His help and lean on Him. Holding the line, is not as easy as it sounds, things or thoughts attack us unexpectedly.

“God tells the truth, even if everyone else is a liar!” The Scriptures say this … “Your words will be proven true, and in court You will win Your case.” Romans 3:4. In my heart I know that when I go with God’s opinions, then He will stand with me and His Word will prevail. But first, I will actively need to embrace what He thinks and throw out my own opinion. Otherwise I can say goodbye to His spring of living water bubbling up inside me, as well as out of me, toward others.

When I choose to be judgmental in any situation — instead of excusing myself, and pushing those thoughts back under that ’things I hide from myself’ blanket in my mind… I will have to face the truth. Whether I meant to be critical or not, somebody else could misunderstand me and I can lead them astray. (Romans 14.) My sin is not what I said or didn’t say – my sin is this: I can lead someone else astray with my opinion. I must pray that ‘…God’s word in me becomes more powerful, and more to be desired than fine gold!’ (Psalm 19:10)

The Lord has showed me that leading people astray:  “…is not (MY) calling. (I) will lead by a completely different model. The greatest one among you will live as the one who is called to serve others, because the greatest honour and authority is reserved for the one with the heart of a servant. For even the Son of Man did not come expecting to be served but to serve and give His life in exchange for the salvation of many.”” Matthew 20:26-28 TPT. That’s my calling!!

It is clear that I am called to be a servant to others, the way Jesus was a servant to me. And only HE can help me fulfil that aim. So now, my question becomes this, how can I serve this person who has opinions that resemble actual things I too have thought or said in the past? Are they best served by my re-enforcing a worldly opinion? No. This is a place for my silence and loving acceptance toward somebody else who doesn’t know any better.

Whenever I find somewhere that I have not yet been transformed, I cannot afford to go into shame, but rather I need to pray and ask Him how to put what I know to be true, into practice — instead of just agreeing with it as a theory. We can allow the world around us to colour us, BUT!!… the reality is we have the power to bring His true colours into this world where others can see them. Bye. 👋

P 3176 Sounds like a laser to me!

/ DVH

“For we have the living Word of God, which is full of energy, like a two-mouthed sword. It will even penetrate to the very core of our being where soul and spirit, bone and marrow meet! It interprets and reveals the true thoughts and secret motives of our hearts.”  Hebrews 4:12 TPT.

Yeah, that last bit is a bit of a doozie! The writer is talking about those inside, hidden-in-our-heart bits we sort of kind of know about, but we do our best to hide them from ourselves, and others! You know what I mean, the things that we suddenly glimpse, and we try really hard to instantly forget them because they look like the Great Wall of China and it’s all too hard! We all know a Godly life is a priority. We must remember that stuff like this is a distraction. The thing is, those hidden things I’ve mentioned, flavour our lives and our points of view …to the extent that we end up seeing bad motivation where there is none. Then we end up trying to escape or debate over the issues of the very things that can transform us.

We know that God’s Word will go straight to the heart of any matter and, at the same time it lays our phoney, self-serving excuses bare. So there we are … uncovered and exposed, feeling lower than a snake’s belly in a wheel rut. Guess what? In those self-discovery moments we must remember that Jesus died for every stinky evasive attitude we have as well. We will lose our way when we stop listening to the cues that the Holy Spirit gives us. He wants to lead us back into true fellowship with Jesus and our Heavenly Father. That’s the only safe place for us. Our God is always for us.

When we choose to allow His Word to work on our hearts, it will do the kind of surgery that will affect our minds emotions and bodies. It can expose errors between what the Lord says, and what we think. It often shows us the way we think is shooting us in the foot spiritually, especially when we choose to take it seriously! His Word takes the doubt out of what we believe because it reveals to us the Way the Lord thinks, and what He wants from us. Plus it separates our way of thinking away from the world’s way of thinking. All that happens because this morning we decided to prioritise His Word – reading it until something strikes us in the heart. Then we choose to go out and act on what we read. 

The acting on it bit is incredibly important. James 1:19-27 exhorts us to not just hear what the Lord says but go out and do it. “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 

For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

Looking into God’s word and persisting with it, until we identify how to act on it, means we are moving away from being a hearer, into being a doer. We will begin to walk with the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God never theorises – He acts! It is in His nature to be active for us and others. The people who choose to follow Him, act like Him. They know they need His help, because they know themselves clearly enough to realise that they can be deceived so easily.

These people are not driven by emotion, instead they manifest what righteousness before the Lord, looks like. The Word working in them and on them changes the way they react! They truly love the Lord, because they have discovered His love is a love that is like no other. ‘Listening and doing’ people deliberately set aside anything that remotely looks like it might hold them captive. They know that Godly actions bless them and others, as they participate by working with Him. His kids understand Who the Lord is, who they are, and they are realistic about this life. They constantly remind themselves that Jesus died for their inadequacies.

These people James is talking about are never self-deceived because they don’t trust their own opinions – instead they use the bible as their permanent reference book. They are well-aware that life and death is expressed through what they say, so they pray and watch over the way they use their words. Their desire is to bless others and if what is said won’t bless anyone, then they refuse to say it. His kids love to honour the Lord in everything they do, simply because He has revealed His heart to them and they’ve fallen in love with Jesus and the Way He does things. They can never forget that the poor, hungry, homeless among us are our responsibility. 

The Holy Spirit’s leading and freely given understanding are just like a laser, cutting through our wishes and wants, to expose who we really are, but without any fear or shame. Bye. 👋

P 3138 Be real.

/ DVH

Let’s actively work at being real. We have all become so tied up in our own thoughts and superficial communications with each other, that we are barely skimming the surface of what God intended to exist within the Body of Christ. One of our greatest strengths is being over-looked — it’s becoming one with each other. Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 12:12-27.

“There is one body, but it has many parts. But all its many parts make up one body. It is the same with Christ. We were all baptised by one Holy Spirit. And so we are formed into one body. It didn’t matter whether we were Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free people. We were all given the same Spirit to drink. So the body is not made up of just one part. It has many parts.

Suppose the foot says, “I am not a hand. So I don’t belong to the body.” By saying this, it cannot stop being part of the body. And suppose the ear says, “I am not an eye. So I don’t belong to the body.” By saying this, it cannot stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear? If the whole body were an ear, how could it smell?  God has placed each part in the body just as hHe wanted it to be.  If all the parts were the same, how could there be a body?  As it is, there are many parts. But there is only one body.

The eye can’t say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” In fact, it is just the opposite. The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are the ones we can’t do without. The parts that we think are less important we treat with special honour. The private parts aren’t shown. But they are treated with special care. The parts that can be shown don’t need special care. But God has put together all the parts of the body. And He has given more honour to the parts that didn’t have any. In that way, the parts of the body will not take sides. All of them will take care of one another. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honoured, every part shares in its joy. You are the body of Christ. Each one of you is a part of it.”

This is a huge portion of scripture, but I believe it is often overlooked – except when we squabble with each other about which gift is important! Somehow we have convinced ourselves that having coffee and cake in the break at church means we are having real fellowship. I don’t think that for minute. Many churches seem to rely upon the individual to care for themselves, so what about the verses that talk about ‘one another?’ I believe that praying for something that someone mentioned in the coffee and cake time … can be incredibly important.  People need to know they are loved, and cherished by the Lord, and us, at all times!  And the Holy Spirit wants to use each one of us to communicate those things to each other. 

I go to a church that has members all around the city I live in. Most of those church members work, so they don’t have “spare time” during the week. So when can we minister to one another? My answer is simple – do it at church, do it on the phone, do it by TEXT!  Ask the person who is suffering: ‘Would you like me to pray with you about that?’ If they say ‘yes’ then do it. If their pain is enough to make them uncomfortable or cry in front of you, then my advice is pray for them! We are not the ANSWER to each other’s prayers — but we can hold up someone’s arms when the heaviness of their pain means they feel they can’t go on. We need to join our prayers with anyone who is suffering, instead of saying: “I’ll pray for you” – do it NOW, on the spot!” 

That person who is not coping, is an elbow, or a toe in the Body of Christ and I should no more ignore their pain, than I would ignore physical pain in my own body. I once broke a teeny tiny bone in my foot. On the grand scale of things it was nothing, but it hurt anyway! And it meant I couldn’t walk properly or do any of the normal things that happened in my day. Pain is a terrible thing when you feel all alone. But if you know someone else cares about you enough to hold you up before His throne of Grace – then you begin to feel a little better. Make it a habit, when you meet with other Christians to make sure you ask: “Does anyone need prayer?”

Many churches have people in them who are shy or inexperienced with extemporaneous prayer. Because they are not in leadership roles, they can feel their prayers are minor. The power of God operates when we take faith steps – He healed Naaman, the Syrian commander, because a little girl was brave and spoke up. Let’s actively encourage the Body to minister healing, help, kindness, wherever they can. We make time for the sermon, and the worship and the announcements – how about we make time to minister to each other? 

Church members need an opportunity to help, to take a risk, and pray for someone else. A bonus benefit is that they will gain more trust and faith, when they realise they too can hear God well enough to help somebody. That is irreplaceable gain. It means the stress to be everybody, to everyone, comes off the leaders. The barriers that hold us back from gaining further knowledge of each other, must come down. You may not think you pray all that well, but when God Himself answers your prayers for your brother or sister – you knock that lie into the bin where it belongs.

I once prayed out loud in a prayer meeting, and I hadn’t met Jesus yet! I sure fooled the other participants, they didn’t talk to me about the gospel for months, they thought I already knew the Lord. Just because I prayed aloud in a group!  I think it is time we were REAL with each other. BTW, there’s nothing realer than “confessing your faults to one another.” Bye. 👋 

P 3133 Confusion occurs.

/ DVH

When I was much younger in the Lord we used to sing a song that went like this: “I’ve found a new way of living, I’ve found a new life divine, I’ve got the fruit of the Spirit, I’m abiding, I’m abiding, abiding in the Vine.” The trouble was we had the theory… but we weren’t changed and we didn’t produce the fruit. In the end up we kind of doubted Almighty God because nothing happened no matter how sincerely we sang it! Singing the song happily over and over again made no difference. Sadly we didn’t even wonder if that song needed our careful, attentive follow-up. 

So on we sailed, bubbling along thinking that saying it was as good as doing it, and many wonderful people fell right off the Vine, malformed and undernourished, because singing a song probably won’t change anyone’s rotten attitude. Please don’t get me wrong, I think that song is a gorgeous statement about a wonderful reality – the trouble was my generation never did get to the reality! 

Meanwhile we were still privately and secretly, grumbling at, gossiping about – our spouses, kids, Christian friends, rabbits and relations and our neighbours! Everybody chose to forget that –“out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Which means if that stuff is coming out, then it is IN THERE. And yes, I don’t much like that idea either.

There is nothing wrong with singing songs like the one above – but it is our hearts that need transformation, not the worship lists! Worshipping and praising God in song is brilliant – do it! Sing to yourself in the shower or the car. The bible says this: “Don’t drink too much wine. That cheapens your life.Drink the Spirit of God, huge drafts of Him. Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 5:18.  

Start by drinking in the Spirit of God, as you step out to obey Him. How many countless times has God’s great MERCY stopped us from overstepping ourselves? Praise Him! But we still need to revise any methodology that supports fake attitudes and responses, and get busy dealing with our own internal issues.

“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. For all the law can be summarised in one grand statement: “Demonstrate love to your neighbour, even as you care for and love yourself.” But if you continue to criticise and come against each other over minor issues, you’re acting like wild beasts trying to destroy one another!” Galatians 5:13-15 TPT.

When awful thoughts fly through my mind, I need to grab God’s butterfly net (the Word) on purpose! And capture the junk, then transform it by doing whatever He tells me to do. The reality is, what He says is current, not something I just cherry-picked out of the book to suit my feelings. I remember the Lord speaking to me about my nasty attitude toward one of my parents, I called it defending myself, however, God called it disobedience!

He has clearly told us in His book, to honour our parents that it may be well with us. I’m pretty sure complaining about them to everyone within earshot doesn’t qualify! Instead of spending my time thinking how to avoid family members who drove me bonkers, I had to pray that He will show me how to obey Him and bless them… “bless those who persecute you and despitefully use you …”  We don’t have to deny the injury someone does to us, we simply need to choose a different response. That’s what love does.

That’s when He told me this person’s love language was time spent with them … and I needed to give them time… which was the very thing I didn’t want to do!  It took me ages to realise that doing it, didn’t mean I had to love it! God could care two cents about our feelings, they change on the wind. I cannot praise the Lord enough for taking the time to deal with me over issues like this one.

I had no guarantee any time I went to see this person that they wouldn’t stab my bleeding heart all over again whenever I saw them. But again, the Lord showed me something else that helped me. This person had no idea, not a thought in their elderly head that they were hurting me. They were simply manipulating situations to get what they wanted. It wasn’t personal!

We need these kinds of revelations for the people around us who drive us up a wall. Humanly speaking, we are not equipped to deal with massive abuse or rejection, and so we retreat or lash out. There’s another way. We need to remind ourselves that if what we read or sing does not lead us into action, we are wasting our time. Confusion occurs when we just sing or say things, we need to act on what He has told us in His book. Bye. 👋 

PS. Singing helps lifts our spirits so we can obey Him willingly.

P 3120 Know what you believe.

/ DVH

“Christ’s resurrection is (y)OUR resurrection too. This is why we are to yearn for all that is above, for that’s where Christ sits enthroned at the place of all power, honour, and authority!” Colossians 3:1 TPT. My first question—do you often during your day, reflect on what Jesus did for YOU? Are your thoughts on His kingdom, or yours? I thank Him when blessings come, and pray ‘help,’ when stuff is difficult. Whatever we mull over and meditate on influences our daily walk of faith. Don’t beat yourself up if you forget or overlook His new way to live. Just remember, that  faith, and our awareness of His love for us, will simply melt away IF we lose focus;  or we choose to live in the dark and pasty, unhealthy light of this world’s rejection, ideas, schemes and plans.

Meanwhile, even though we may not actually say – ”I choose this” – we can end up choosing to stew on bad stuff by default. A lack of a positive God-breathed choice will leave a vacuum that satan would be delighted to fill! That guy will get us going round and round and round:  worrying about this, thinking about how to fix that, and concentrating on the lacks we all have … Until we have wasted away our precious time. Time is a gift. And we don’t have to live that way anymore. Just as surely as Peter, (who was in prison at the time), looked up and saw his jail door open – and walked out a free man!  Our jail door is also OPEN. Look up!! Revise your circumstances. We need to walk out of sin’s prison using our faith. 

At the same time we can concentrate all our thoughts and efforts on dying to self, but in the end that will just make us SIN conscious. We want to be Him-conscious, so I pray He will reveal Himself to me during my day. We need to add to our life with Him, by seeing Him at work in our lives, not just concentrate on getting rid of our sin or adverse circumstances. Jesus Christ has already done that for us! Because God’s unrelenting, always available, never-ending kingdom power was released at Calvary – we can NOW live in this world absolutely devoted to Him.  He has a much better plan for your life and mine than either of us can imagine!

“For we know that our old self WAS crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—…” Romans 6:6. Sin, regret, anxiety does not have to be in charge of our lives anymore! Our minds, our emotions will help us when they are fixed on Him;  to do that is not difficult, we meditate on His never-ending love.  We can’t afford to give up our precious time stewing over former things, turn your worry into prayers of thanksgiving for Who He is and what He did for you.

Worry is a habit – habits can be changed. When we gave our lives to Jesus, we put Him in charge. And His response 2000+years ago, was to take our sin with Him to the cross and nail it there in HIS OWN BODY. The urge, desire, and the will to sin has been dealt with, we are now free to choose.“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live IN THE BODY, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20. 

That’s how we walk out our Promised land of becoming a new creation. I don’t ignore sin, or gloss it over, or pretend it didn’t happen, instead I acknowledge it on the spot, and repent and repair things. Why? There is incredible power in redemption! satan can’t make us do anything anymore because of what Jesus did for us. But unlike satan – the Lord will not coerce us or make us do anything. He loves our freely-made choices!!  We were not saved just so we can go to heaven and be with Him one day in the future… He saved us for here and now, today—from this world, the devil and ourselves —so we can live our earthly lives, like He would. 

It was a transaction. An exchange, His life, freely laid down, bought us a new way to live and the power to do it. It was the greatest LOVE GIFT EVER GIVEN. Our sin has been exchanged for His new life overflowing in us, we take on His obedience, His passionate desire to please His Father. It was not God’s plan just to kill off sin!… Instead, Christ defeated its power over mankind! Our Father’s plan was to give us back what Adam and Eve had in the garden … the greatest inheritance ever – Emmanuel, God-with-us. The freedom to choose what is good right and profitable, AND THE POWER TO DO IT.

Acts 1:8:“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”The Holy Spirit fell on mankind at Pentecost and HE DIDN’T LEAVE. He is still here, to help, counsel, transform, and motivate us into our new life in Christ. He didn’t give us  power just so we can raise the dead, heal the sick etc! Those blessings are a by-product of our redemption.We should all live like that. But that is not God’s primary AIM. 

The Holy Spirit came to help us, and live inside us, so we can live a victorious, overcoming life, in a world that is going to hell in a hand basket. The person I was 52 years ago, died the minute I asked Jesus to come into my life. That is also true for you. If you dearly love and want Him — He will be yours, forever. His love is so great He chose to die for the whole world, even those people who refuse to accept Him. Imagine that. We have been bought with an unbelievable price.

Daily, with His help, we identify and guerrilla fight all the stubborn stuff we’ve cultivated over the previous years before we met Him. Those things that keep pretending they have a hold over us. Now we can take God at His Word and believe Him. That’s how faith works. we refuse to listen to the so-called evidence that pops its ugly head up, and say to ourselves: “What does the Lord have to say about that? Is He REALLY like that?” satan can no longer use my history to define me – even if I did something extremely dumb yesterday! I have been redefined as alive in Christ. I urge you, take the time to know what you believe. Bye. 👋

P 3114 We are so precious to Him.

/ DVH

“But I promise you, no weapon meant to hurt you will succeed, and you will refute every accusing word spoken against you. This promise is the inheritance of Yahweh’s servants, and their vindication is from Me,” says Yahweh.” Isaiah 54:17.

You know, sometimes the Lord says extraordinary things in His book. In my thinking, this is one of them. Imagine this —Father God has chosen to make us co-heirs with Jesus! How someone like me ever be chosen for that honour? There you go …here I am back thinking things are earned or deserved …it is SO easy to do!

Today, let’s remind ourselves how much He loves each and every one of us. I’ve read about people who have made incredible contributions to the Father’s kingdom, things that are so much more than anything most people could dream of doing. However, that’s what God’s Grace truly is – it is the great equaliser. Everyone of us needs it, therefore, no-one can be greater than anyone else.  Jesus gave us all that – what a Saviour!

His completed work at Calvary has seated US with Himself in heavenly places. At the same time as being born into His family — this will blow your mind — we’ve also been adopted into the Father’s family. I am not just an acquaintance of God, or His friend, now I am officially HIS KID. What a blessing! So much more than I could ever deserve, You and I are now a part of His very own chosen family. Almighty God, in His infinite generosity, made us His children. After we come to terms with what that means to each of us, what will be our response? I just want to mention that the discouraging thought: “He can’t love me after what I’ve done,” goes right out of the window! Loving parents do not give up on their kids and neither does HE.  

During the course of our earthly lives, Almighty God planted His spiritual seed within us, and when it was time, He harvested it and we were born into His very own family. Now Grace, love, joy, peace, faith etc. are no longer optional extras! Those things are IN OUR GENES! These things are now ours by birthright. When a child is born into a family, part of its inheritance is from its genes – the good, the bad and the ugly. In contrast, adoption means you have no clue about your child’s forbearers. So adoption involves teaching, loving correction, and a watchful eye over the child because its roots are unknown. 

We have neighbours who adopted a disabled baby who had no palate, a cleft lip, plus severe hearing and learning difficulties. Her future in her own country was grim. Feeding her was a nightmare, her misshapen mouth and palate could not contain food. She screamed constantly in the strange environment. plus she had to endure countless operations, and so did her adoptive parents. They suffered with her. Now she is a teenager and she’s in a cricket team that is going to play in the state championship in her age group! Her speech and comprehension are fine, and she eats easily like everyone else! People chose her when she was not appealing – and loved her into life. That’s what the Lord does for us. Praise Him!

Adoption can take a different level of love and work because the child is not of your own flesh. Most of these kids have been rejected. But both a natural parent and an adoptive parent still pass on an inheritance. God Himself chose both methods for us. That’s how much He loves us and wants us. We have been born into the Father’s family, through the Holy Spirit’s work, and then He turned around and chose to adopt us as well! It is as if He wanted to make sure that we know, that we know, that we belong to Him, forever. We have been nurtured by, and now have the DNA of God Himself, within us.

BTW, that means if we come into disrepute – so does He. But when we live our lives day by day, loving Him and showing the love and acceptance He has given to us, to others – He is glorified. That’s our aim. Not a successful ministry or 1,000,000 likes on Facebook, or a very big church! We want other people to see Jesus in us and give Him glory for Who He is and what He has done for everyone. That is part of our inheritance as His twice-loved kids.

We all love the bit in the above verse that talks about no weapon that is formed against will prosper, BUT – do we know, personally, that this promise is also part of our inheritance? When somebody dislikes me enough to shoot at me – then the bible, the instructions given to me from my Parent — tells me to start blessing them. My Dad has given me His book so I know how to live as His child! So, I bless their house, I bless their car, I bless their family and their relationships, I bless them with provision and I BLESS THEM WITH A PURE KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS HIMSELF!!

Why? Because hopefully, my enemies will no longer be my enemies when they encounter Him! The reason they hate me is because they have no knowledge of God in them, when and IF they do, our relationship will change, we will become family. That’s the gospel, the message I have been given to carry. It affects everything around me, and it’s part of my Kingdom inheritance. 

We are so precious to the Lord – the greatest price ever paid, was paid by Him – because He is both our Father and He chose us. Bye ❤️

P 3089 Keep running.

/ DVH

“Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how He did it. Because He never lost sight of where He was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—He could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now He’s there, in the place of honour, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility He plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who by faith have testified to the truth of God’s absolute faithfulness], stripping off every unnecessary weight and the sin which so easily and cleverly entangles us, let us run with endurance and active persistence the race that is set before us,…” Hebrews 12:1 (GNB & AMP)

My first thought was this … these guys use more words than I do!!  Would you believe this is just one verse both times? There is something therapeutic in reading the bible in an unfamiliar version. I do it a lot, because words are incredibly limited, and we can become overly familiar with the version we read every day. However, every single fresh glance at a different version, clarifies and expounds our understanding.

We don’t want past knowledge to throw us off present revelation. Otherwise it is easier to start skipping bits instead of absorbing precious old truths in new ways. When you have been reading this book for many years like I have, the newer translations are like meeting an old friend with brand new up-to-date clothes on. I love it.

What’s not to love about this? “… It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, Who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how He did it. Because He never lost sight of where He was headed …”  Doesn’t that paint pictures in your mind?

In my mind’s eye, I can see the Lord Jesus – He ran this race before me. He’s warming up on the tinder track, stretching His muscles – now He is on the blocks, ready to run.There is no-one else on that track – He was a solitary runner. We all know the end of His race — He finished it and HE WON. Despite how it looked as He rounded that last curve, when the enemy was beating Him, taunting Him, and throwing all kinds of stuff at Him from the stands, He finished His race. 

The Holy Spirit is always there for us – He’s our Coach – the heartbeat of God inside us. He runs with us. He calls out encouragement, and warns us of any pitfalls ahead. He wants each one of us to finish our race. We don’t have to win – Jesus did that for us – we simply need to stay in the race and keep on running. Keep following in the Lord Jesus’ footsteps. I don’t run against you, you don’t run against me. We are in an individual race toward glory, and Jesus is our prize. 

Our task is to throw off anything that will slow us down. Things like other people’s opinions, our circumstances, our youth or our age, even our own self-efforts. All those things and more can distract us. They can stop us from being in peak spiritual condition, as well as break our stride and try to prevent us from keeping up with God’s pace for us as individuals. Some of us are racing this race holding onto a walker, some have no home. What does it matter? We all need to grasp and hold onto the stamina the Word of God gives us. Our race is not a sprint – it is a marathon.

We can’t afford to strive and strain, otherwise we will exhaust ourselves and throw this race off the rhythm we need to keep running. Step after step after step. Heart pounding, blood pumping, feet striking the ground bam, bam, bam! We cannot afford the luxury of wondering whether we are doing it right. Instead our eyes are on the prize. So we ignore anyone else but the Holy Spirit. He’s ALWAYS there. His loving voice is in our heart and ears – He helps us remember that verse we read yesterday: “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.” Big deep breath, quick prayer, and on we go. We cannot afford to let distractions, noise, or the difficulties and heartaches of this world keep us from running our race.

As we round yet another turn, suddenly all hell breaks loose, stuff is flying through the air at us. Our bodies are screaming for fresh water, as well as relief. Every muscle, every part of us aches with tiredness. Then we become aware of all kinds of voices and distractions around us, calling out. Not every voice we can hear is cheering for us, or on our side. We must remember that the finish line is not unattainable. Then suddenly we become aware of the sound of SomeOne Else’s footsteps running beside us, and we can see the Lord is there with us. He is our constant Companion in this race. He is praying for us – He lives to pray for us.

As we grow closer to the end, we can see so much compassion in His dear face. He is laughing, because He knows that we can do this. And He knows, personally, intimately, how hard this race is. “One more step dearest, you can take one more step. I have given you My power to keep running. Let go of the past, let go of your infirmities and weaknesses, and just keep taking one more step. I love you!”  Bye.👋