Isaiah 26:3

P 3131 Don’t give away your peace …

/ DVH

… to anyone! Cherish it. “And everything I’ve taught you is so that the peace which is in Me will be in you and will give you great confidence as you rest in Me. For in this unbelieving world you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world!”John 16:33. Peace is a Person, Jesus! He’s the Prince of peace – Who brings with Him a stable unfettered state of mind, so we can serve God and focus on what matters to Him.

What drags us away from the kind of peace that Jesus is talking about here – is the ordinary stuff that is unrelenting, and it flies at us daily. “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not LET your hearts be troubled or afraid,“John 14:27. We now have the power to not LET things get to us. Most of us deal with stuff every day. Kids don’t pick up their toys, or they disobey, or they talk back. Bosses have agendas, and many times they can have unrealistic expectations. Spouses don’t always understand what we are trying to tell them. 

We need to recognise that when human beings are living under pressure they say and do stupid, careless things!I Ask the Holy Spirit to – ‘Please help me to learn to live in peace – under fire!’ Jesus will teach us, as we read His Word, day by day, so we can have the inner resources to combat the thief. We all know where our help comes from! Our reality does not exist outside the Lord Himself. His Words in our heart comforts and upholds us, particularly as we choose to cherish and act on them. God has us in His care, and He knows what He is doing.

Those God-words from Him to you, daily, are powerful, they will pull down strongholds in our lives, when we let them. Don’t let your perception of yourself, or even your family history,  limit you. Now we are in a new family, a new kingdom. We can do things we’ve never done before because of HIS GRACE in us. Throw away family traits – unless they are Godly. Peace is an inside job. Let’s stop excusing our own shortcomings and face them squarely, instead. A lack of peace inside, is an indication that we need to pause and ask the Lord to show us what has caused our peace to leave … and then fix it.

Sometimes we lie to ourselves by soft-soaping the scriptures – like the one that says Jesus understands us in our weaknesses – Hebrews 4:15. Of course He does! That is why He is the perfect High Priest! But we can’t rely on excuses and continue to tolerate the very things that take our awareness of His Presence away from us. Which means we must face the truth and the consequences that our attitudes have had in our lives and the lives of others. Then repent, repair and move on because these things steal our peace away.

Let Jesus protect you. Be wise when you relate to difficult people, but always be prepared to be open and honest about yourself and your failings. Say: “I’m so sorry but I don’t cope with things like that. I need the Lord to help me, please pray for me.” Hiddenness can lead to a loss of peace because the Holy Spirit loves truth and unity, and when we hide ourselves to save face, or protect ourselves- He quietly leaves. No peace there then!

My next point is – over-thinking things, which can lead to anxiety and stress. So many times I have tossed and turned instead of happily sleeping, while I’m trying to figure out a good way to approach a difficult person. Or trying to think up ways to manage a hard day that is rushing at me. My advice is to give these things to Him, then leave them alone. At first it feels neglectful, because we are so used to worrying out answers to problems!

However, now we are engaged in peace maintenance, so we let the Prince of Peace take care of everything that clutters up our minds. “You will keep in perfect and constant peace the one whose mind is steadfast [that is, committed and focused on You—in both ]inclination and character], Because he trusts and takes refuge in You [with hope and confident expectation].” Isaiah 26:3.

Busyness is a thief – yet sometimes we can’t help but be busy. Jesus Himself was often busy! Crowds came and came, demanding this and that. Unfortunately the cares and worries of this world demand everybody’s attention. Mark 4:19 says:“… but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.” Peace can be choked out by worry. I’ve found it extremely helpful to let go of these things by naming them, one by one.

We can think of prayer as taking many hours, and we know we have no time. But the truth is He already knows what is bugging you and HE wants to help you. Sooooo many times I have discovered He has a better way to carry out what must be done than I have. Remember, in the bible, we have two instances of Jesus Himself helping fishermen to FISH! We have given Him our lives, so we need to let Him organise them. That does not mean we do nothing, but it does mean we will enjoy His company through the day. 

Prayer is an attitude of surrendering our hearts to Him, deferring to His wisdom. It isn’t always WORDS. Think of the Lord Jesus as SomeOne Who is glad to be an intimate part of your life, SomeOne Who wants you to do much more than slog through your busy days. He wants to be with you. Imagine that – the Perfect One longs for your company.  His Presence within us is our peace.  Let that peace be your umpire. Bye. 👋

P 2977 Every promise in the book IS mine!

/ DVH

Here’s a great clue, if we sit about waiting for this promise or that to fall on us, maybe it won’t … or …maybe it will, but it probably won’t always happen the way we think it will!  The promise was never meant to be our focus – HE IS. Every interaction with Almighty God needs to strengthen and stretch our knowledge of Him.

Our God doesn’t like systems. Tell me one time He did the same thing twice! He does, however, repeat what He has said. Someone checked it out and the phrase “fear not” is in the book 365 times! How cool is that? One for every day. Everybody loves God’s promises! Me too. But I’ve also noticed that some of His promises are conditional. Isaiah 26:3:“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in You.” Obviously cultivating a trusting, steadfast mind will reap a more a fruitful situation…  As you can see, it is good to do more than just read the words!

Over to Nahum 1:7: “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him.”  He’s always the place to go when things go upside down, that’s when we deliberately choose to trust in Him, and hold on! Psalm 84:11: “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favour and honour; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless.”

OK. First things first. Because of what Christ has already done for us, we are now regarded by our God as blameless. So this promise is for us. If you lack something you’ve asked for —instead of thinking about God as withholding things from you — or questioning whether you are blameless or not — turn it around. If I haven’t received the thing I prayed for then it is probably not good for me. Let it go!! We are not the best judge of what is good for us – He is.

Isaiah 40:31 “But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”The first place to check when you feel like fainting is where or what have you put your hope IN. Sometimes we accidentally hope in people, or circumstances and those things definitely can’t deliver what God just said.

Some of His promises are applicable because we are engaged with His Kingdom – but all of His promises are activated by faith. Our faith in His goodness is the first place our enemy attacks. Faith gives the Lord’s promises substance …even if we can’t see it yet. However, if the Lord were to put out a guarantee brochure … it would say that He reserves the right to stretch our faith whenever He can see it is the right time to do it.

Accepting His will, His Way, makes complete sense to me. It means I am engaged in building His Kingdom. Trying to build the kingdoms of this world appalls me. Those kingdoms are all about money or power. It’s not that I don’t care about these things, it is more about the fact that money etc. is always coming and going – there is nothing permanent about these things. God’s Kingdom is permanent – eternal … like … forever. Now there’s a plus! So whatever we do in faith for His kingdom, as He leads us, lasts forever.

The bible tells us in Isaiah 43:2: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” When things get outrageously difficult – HE WILL BE THERE, even if it feels terrible – HE WILL BE THERE.  That’s the promise. Our focus needs to come away from the water, river, fire and flames, and instead we choose to focus on HIM. If we keep on checking to see how that threat is going… we are moving away from our faith in Him, and our fear of being burned or drowned can overtake us instead.

Focus is everything. He wants to be the centre of our focus, our reason to live. Why? Because it is the safest place for us to live. Jesus showed us that. The Jews tried to kill Him before the time for His crucifixion came around and they couldn’t do it. They talked about it … which gave that spirit of murder, power. But they could not kill Him … until it was the fullness of God’s timing … Almighty God has a time for every purpose under heaven, but it won’t always make sense to us. That’s why we need faith.

It is also why we must read His book diligently for ourselves.  Nobody else’s words should take priority over what He says. Chase Him! People have no idea how much fun our God is. Often we simply try to use Him for our own deficits, ambitions and comfort … instead of simply enjoying Him.  Believing in His goodness and mercy IS worship when you are in pain or trouble. God’s love is pure, holy and not self-centred. Everything that happens to us is under His loving gaze. If He allows it, then He will see us through it.

Sometimes the hardest thing to learn is to be real with Him. Remember, Father God listens to our hearts, not just our words. By all means ‘ask and keep on asking…’ And remember HELP is a prayer!! Every promise in His book is mine … because they are HIS promises … and He keeps His promises. He’s the best Father ever. Bye. 👋

P 2904 New way of life.

/ DVH

“Keep turning your back on every sin, and make “peace” your life motto. Practice being at peace with everyone.”Psalms 34:14 TPT. This psalmist says that we need to practice maintaining peace, because that will be always needed, so in every interaction with the Lord, or someone else, we will need to use our faith. I ask for His help a lot! You can tell I am very literal about what the bible says – I use it diagnostically. I find that this helps me focus on Him and not get overwhelmed by the ‘stuff’ that keeps coming at me.

Isaiah 26:3 says: “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in YOU.” This new life we have been given, is about continually, steadily, believing we are who the Lord says we are. We need to fix our minds and hearts on His goodness. The fruit of the Spirit will come alive in us when we believe the work has already been done, and act accordingly, using our faith. “We cast our cares on the Lord, and He will sustain us, He will never let the righteous be shaken.” Psalm 55:22.

I think we often look at many verses in an unhelpful way – we look at them as a rule to be kept, and when we fail, we blame ourselves. That’s a vicious circle produced by our enemy to keep our hearts and minds off how good God is! The bible has within its pages a description, as well as God’s MODEL, (Jesus!), of our vibrant ongoing faith. I don’t have to listen to what I feel, I am guided by what He said.

In the above verses the writers are teaching us about who we are now – they are telling us how to bring God’s peace into our daily lives. We do that by refusing to invest our time, energy, angst –  in anything that is not God’s will, and focussing on what He says about everything. Peace thrives when we live according to His purposes, remembering that God saved us to faithfully serve Him.

This is not wish thinking, or even … ‘I-will-obey-God-about-that-someday’ thinking! Instead, this is now what we need to invest our God-given time in. We choose to step into our new life in Him by standing on what He has done for us. He saved us, delivered us, empowered us to overcome this world, sin and the devil, and our emotions are secondary. Jesus did more than die for us, so we can go to heaven one day, He died, to get heaven into us, here and now. He died to give us the power to have a different relationship with Father God — as His precious child. Now we live a life that begins to resemble the way Jesus lived. 

Peace is a Person. So we need to learn to protect our peace, and keep our eyes on the bigger prize which is walking with Christ, because He’s the Prince of Peace! We daily read the bible to become familiar with what He thought was important. You know whatever we focus on will become bigger – so it is best to aim at focussing on Him, and then after that, other people. Our prize, right here and right now, is that we will get to know Him better. Particularly as we practice keeping our eyes on Him, and His Ways. 

Following ‘do this, don’t do that rules’ can lead to failure, disappointment with ourselves and others, and discouragement. However, when we trust that God knows what we need and when we need it, we are investing in our faith life. Following Jesus by being obedient, taking that step by step, leads to His new life flourishing in us. As we live like this, what He wants becomes more important than any superficial gratification here and now. 

Instead of getting mad and distracted with ourselves or others because we’ve missed the mark, now our focus is is to be about – who or what He says we are. What He has already said about us in the bible, already has the power of transformation in it, as we use our faith and act on it. So we leave behind what we were before. Mark 9:23 says:“IF you can?” said Jesus.Everything is possible for the one who believes.”How can we believe Him for miracles if we cannot believe He can transform us, minute by minute?

Turn your faith eyes toward following Him, looking at what He would do. I’ve noticed that there are times when we try to use prayer as a way out of the very thing God wants us to learn from! Here’s a good question: “What’s Your will in this Father God?” The power to overcome is in doggedly, unemotionally, choosing to follow Him, by obeying Him, loving Him, enjoying Him, and preferring Him. At all times we must keep our eyes on the prize — His Presence is our Prize.

In a nutshell, when we read the bible, we obey what it says, believing that the power to obey comes from the fact that Jesus Himself said it – not from how we feel about it! From now on we ignore those parts of us that are clamouring for pity or relief because it all seems too hard. Of course it is hard, we are dying to our own will, by choosing to believe and honour the exchange we made when we said yes to Him! 

Faith has a ‘way’ to approach this life. Jesus began our faith, and He has already finished the job – 2,000+ years ago! In this life, we simply use our faith to access what has already been done for us. Sin has no longer power over us, because we died when He died. We simply choose to be obedient to what He has already told us in the book. The more we do that, the easier it becomes to hear His voice. My advice? Tackle the hard stuff first!  Let’s live in freedom in spite of the devil’s harassment and enjoy this new way of faith. Bye. 👋

P 2887 What ARE we thinking?

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“Perfect, absolute peace surrounds those whose imaginations are consumed with You; they confidently trust in You.” Isaiah 26:3 TPT. What we think about matters. You might ask me can anyone change their own thinking? God says we can! What I mean is this, because our minds are often easily distracted, we need His help. Here’s another scripture to chew over from Proverbs 23:7 it says: “As a man thinks in his heart so is he…”Proverbs 14:12 says: “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.”

What we think about will eventually come out of our mouth. Let’s just stop and selah that thought for a hundred years or so! One day, the bible tells me, what I am thinking is going to be broadcast from the rooftops. Luke 12:3. Man have I thought some dumb stuff! Stuff that I sincerely want to take back. Today’s world wants us to be consumed by what we think we want, or what we think we need. There is a general assumption that people know what is best for themselves. My point is, what occupies our thoughts even when we are ‘resting?’ Even in His Rest, God is thinking about us! He’s always thinking about us. We are so blessed.

If God is a PS or an after thought in our lives then it will be much harder to occupy our thoughts with Him, we will be distracted and established on other things that can colour our point of view – the things of this world. Thinking about what the Lord has already told us in His book, needs to be cultivated. When someone we love gets sick – they are never far from our thoughts. At the same time, we are often bombarded by negative thoughts of death, devastation and destruction. That’s the other guy – he is very adept at throwing thoughts at us and then blaming us for having them!

Eve tangled with him and look what happened there – mankind lost their intimacy with God! Our thoughts need to be regularly transformed through dedicated application of His Word. We must change the ungodly patterns in our minds if we want to transform our hearts. When the Lord made Adam and Eve, He put them into the garden of Eden to enjoy it – then He came every evening to walk and talk with them. You know, in the absence of God, sin flourishes. The responsibility to cultivate and correct our thinking rests on us.

The sin Adam and Eve made was one we often make, we use our own understanding. Big mistake – HUGE! Let’s look at Genesis 2:6:“When the Woman SAW that the tree LOOKED LIKE good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.” Eve’s weakness was that she wanted to be “in the know,” then she influenced Adam to join her. 

Human beings are already way too power hungry and revenge-seeking for that kind of power! The enemy ambushed Eve with ambition. She wanted to be like God and know everything. That’s what the fruit of satan’s work does. It puffs up. Humility and obedience go sailing out of the window, and people throw away our position of protection that God gave us. Sometimes, we don’t even bother to find out why He said no! Instead we start assuming He is keeping something from us, like Eve did!  

Our loving Father had already had a plan for what Eve went after – He planned it HIS WAY. Christ death is the God-given link to God’s power in us and for us. When we start feeling cheated, or robbed, that means we’ve fallen into our own understanding and we are ignoring His. It isn’t that we not allowed to think our own thoughts — it is about staying safe under the shadow of His wings. It’s about having peace in our hearts and minds, instead of the chaos of manipulation, fear and domination that comes with our enemy’s whispering! Our thoughts are often influenced by our circumstances and the immediate. This is why we read His book. The bible is food, it helps us grow spiritually, and digesting it creates a spiritual outlook, not a fleshly one. It feeds our minds and hearts with what God thinks … and why.

We must learn to cultivate that fixed reference point, because our own understanding is far more interested in our gain than obedience. We need obedience with trust. There is such incredible substance in God’s goodness, faithfulness, and His Ways. There is enough glorious reality in Him to keep us all busy for zillions of years. Our God is not boring. He is complex. Instead of talking with Him and negotiating with Him – like Moses, or Abraham, or Elijah, or Malachi, or Peter did — many people want to be wise and run their own lives, without any oversight. That kind of independent spirit can lead us away from everything that lasts. Human beings were made to inhabit eternity. 

Father God was not withholding anything from Adam and Eve, He simply wanted to protect them from the responsibility that comes when humanity has the knowledge of good and evil. Our judgment is faulty! It is influenced by our own passions. Peace went right out of the window the moment we gained that knowledge, and chaos ensued. Knowing evil also means that evil can tempt us.  Peace is our portion, but we must learn to think like the Lord does to live in that peace. Bye. 👋

P 2629 Going from reading into transformation.

/ DVH

“He has rescued us completely from the tyrannical rule of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom realm of His beloved Son. For in the Son all our sins are canceled and we have the release of redemption through His very blood.” Colossians 1:13-14 TPT.

Lemme ask a curly question … if we need rescuing, and SomeBody has already done it …then what keeps going wrong?? This is the bit most of us get stuck on – mainly because we often don’t feel any different. Especially if we have been provoked by other people or circumstances. The change we need to make, is about the way we treat the Lord and other people, despite our circumstances— even when under pressure. I’m not talking about hiding the fact that painful, hard things things exist, I’m talking about finding out what the Lord says about any particular situation, and walking through them His Way.

Our finite brains are not the most reliable guides, especially if there is a barrel load of feelings tied to some thoughts! In the academic world E = mc². That’s called knowledge. Hilariously I had to ask hubby if I remembered that formula correctly because I learnt it like, 60 years ago! I also have learnt, from experience, that my knowledge has become faulty over time. So, what if I embark upon a new way to live and I exchange my old thoughts and reactions, FOR WHAT GOD HAS SAID? That’s when I enter what Christ has already given me – His kingdom. We must move on from the concepts into the reality of living HIS way.

If I replace what I’ve learnt, or what I think I know with scripture, plus relevant matching actions, then over time that means I will automatically start to reference things that float through my head, by what HE SAID in the book. I believe that’s what this scripture means:  “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2. By doing we end up testing out God’s will for ourselves. 

Here’s another verse:  “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5. WE do it. He will help us but we do it! We refuse to entertain anything that contradicts what He has already told us in Person, through His word. Here’s yet another from Isaiah 26:3:“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” This is the kind of “work” we are engaged in now. We become vigilant to any thoughts that are contrary to the revealed will of God in the book. We live now to please Him. Here’s my last verse that explains this ongoing battle: Romans 7:23:“But I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.”

My body and its functions have a memory. For instance, when I think about some food, I can remember its taste. In some circumstances, I might remember fear, danger or disappointment. Those things can rule, cloud, and limit my faith if I am not prepared to put aside what I think I already know, in favour of what God has already said. The important bit is to wait upon God and find OUT what He says! We don’t just need to hear a Voice, we need to have what we hear validated by what we are reading, or have read in the bible previously. 

satan taunts us. he tells us we can’t be different because – we are still feeling, reacting, and responding the same way we always did. Feelings aren’t FAITH. We need to learn to defer to God’s opinion, not our own, and that will take time, patience and persistence. When we don’t act on what we believe, we are undermining the very thing God gave us for transformation – living faith. True faith has evidence – it has actions that match up with our belief system.  We are going to have to actively restore the balance we will need in this new life of faith … by knowing what God says even more than the data we’ve been collecting and collating all our lives. Then we go on to choose to ACT the way the bible says.

Jesus did everything that needed to be done to set us free at Calvary. Now we faithfully and progressively change our minds to think the way He thought. This means we don’t have to be ruled by our appetites and fears etc. anymore – we’ve moved away from our old location of fear etc. into a new place. We’ve been born into a new kingdom and it has a new way to live. Like that scripture above in Colossians says, we no longer have to live the way we used to. 

SomeBody paid our debt — and now we must clear out the closets of our old way of thinking and replace those things with Godly thinking. SomeBody – the Lord Jesus Christ! – freely gave us the power to go from reading the bible into doing what it says = transformation. Now we need to go out and act on what we read. Dying to self means we refuse to be led about by our appetites and needs, instead we live to serve and obey what our King says. Bye. 👋