Isaiah

P 2261 Agreement is not participation.

/ DVH

“So this is why we abandon everything morally impure and all forms of wicked conduct. Instead, with a sensitive spirit we absorb God’s Word, which has been implanted within our nature, for the Word of Life has power to continually deliver us. Don’t just listen to the Word of Truth and not respond to it, for that is the essence of self-deception. So always let His Word become like poetry written and fulfilled by your life!” James 1:21-22 TPT.

Yes, James did just say we can totally deceive ourselves! Not responding to what we read, or even not co-operating with the Holy Spirit in our lives, is self-deception. Lots of people agree that Jesus was a man Who came to earth, lived and died here. Most of them do not do anything further about it! Agreement is not enough! God is looking for changed hearts – not just mental assent. Our hearts will not be changed without us giving Him permission PLUS acting on what He tells us. Those two things go hand in hand. We need to swallow our pride … and be careful we don’t choke … and start again, this time with humility.

Here’s a litmus test for you. Would your spouse, family, or friends, say you have visibly changed in your attitudes and actions since you started following Jesus? I’m not just talking about church attendance either. I mean other people can see that God is knocking off the rough nasty bits and polishing your life like a gemologist polishes a fine stone. The point of salvation is a changed life. Not just somebody who knows how to look good, or sound good or parrot off the right words. Instead, like Paul of Tarsus, we aren’t the same old frightful person we were before we met Him!

We can all play nice when we are in company- smile, nod, and suck up our feelings when they are hurt, because we don’t want to embarrass ourselves. But who are we when the front door closes and somebody at our house annoys us? Yeah! I know. Trust me to ask that one! 😳 Transformation is a sign God is at work within. You don’t lick apples – you bite into them … what will someone else taste when they accidentally, or not – bite into you? We can all end up deceiving ourselves into thinking “I’m doing OK, I did such and such the other day, that makes me a good Christian.”

Skipping over God-given opportunities is a very risky business. I tell myself, “one more time!”  Almighty God does not like it when we abuse His Grace. It is better to admit, to the Lord, yourself and especially to others – that you have failed. Asking the person who is annoyed at you or the one who has hurt you, to pray for you is humbling – but powerful. Like I said, agreement is not participation. Participation comes when we bite the bullet and say ‘no’ to what we think and submit ourselves to one another. And yeah, it sucks! Dying to self does. 

In the Western world we are so indulged by comfort and ease we actually think we still have options. Ask the African lady who has been raped multiple times how hard it is for her to forgive those that trespassed against her. Or the Ukrainian man who has lost his entire family to a missile. Our choices in the West are not hard – they are simply cutting across our self-indulged ways. I know that we can suffer hardships too, but these things, when we face up to them, make us stronger in the Lord and the power of His might… if we let them and act on them. We need to stop protecting the old-self …sometimes even with scriptures and supposedly Godly attitudes. We must stop believing what we say qualifies us. What Christ DID qualifies us. And He died to change us.

Saying I am a horse does not make me a horse. Even if I go and live in a stable and eat hay and neigh all day. I could even learn to run faster … well, maybe not that …!!  😂 Saying I’m right, or I’m a Christian, or refusing to acknowledge that I need to be corrected, does not make my opinion of myself true. We have whole churches full of people who love to sing songs and prophesy and wave their arms about. They smile at everyone and the minute they get into their car to go home they are shouting at each other.  

Plus they cheat on their income tax. Hilariously I can almost hear someone grumbling at me: “now, that’s enough, my income tax is my business lady!” A humble heart takes correction with Grace, even if it is wrong. If you don’t believe me, then believe this: “I gave My back to the smiter and My cheeks to those who plucked out the hair. I hid not My face from shame and spitting,..” (Isaiah 50:6 KJV)… or this … “When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten; but He trusted to Him who judges justly.” (1 Peter 2:23 RSV) We are not aiming at a better, nicer ME – our aim is to be LIKE HIM. Agreement that what God says is true, is not participation. 👋🏻

P 2241 Now where did I leave my peace again?

/ DVH

Losing our peace is a bad thing. To be honest with you, in the Western world, I am not sure we value inner peace from the Lord enough! Losing it is like opening the door to the bad guys and saying: “Come on in, and bother me with heaps of stuff that is not always true, because I want to live in anxiety, bitterness, turbulence and agitation!” Meanwhile if you turn that coin over you will suddenly discover if you actually have any of those greeblies I mentioned above – guess what? YOU LOST YOUR PEACE. Time to go and find it again!

Let’s start with what the bible says. Peace comes from and through Jesus Christ – however it is not a cessation of hostilities or trouble. Peace comes from the inside of our heart – out. Because we now have peace with Him – nothing else can disturb us. John 16:33 “I have said these things to you, that IN ME you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”Yeah, not so much with me liking the tribulation part of that verse(!) 😳 – But we can definitely have peace in the middle of any kind of terrible situation that can plague us in this world – because His peace is spiritual peace. Spiritual peace can be lost – by embracing the problem, and not the Saviour. (Help help!)

Jesus explains to us that the peace He brings doesn’t look like this world’s idea of peace. Anyone who has lived in a country where there is war, the threat of war, or even internal ructions of any sort, knows that this world’s kind of PEACE is not permanent. It often depends on the actions of others. But in John 14:27 it says: “Peace I leave with you; MY peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. LET not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”We can refuse to be drawn into all the guff going on around us – because we know the end of the story! This kind of peace needs to be embraced, appreciated and allowed to flourish. Treat peace as a priority, because a lack of peace is a slippery slide that often leads into doubt and unbelief.

Isaiah 26:3 says “You will keep us in perfect peace, when our mind is fixed on You: because we trust in You.” The biggest snare that leads to losing our peace is that our mind is not fixed. Renewing our minds daily help fix that problem! 😂 We are probably not trusting in Jesus, ALONE.  If we lose sight of our Saviour, and focus on our troubles instead – peace starts to become a vague idea, instead of the place we live in, internally. We might even blame other people for stealing it from us.

In those moments we need to drag our minds away from blame or trying to fix things ourselves. Or even going from one person to another, trying to find a solution. Peace came from Jesus and He can restore it for us. It gets reestablished inside us, first. Then the peace that is established inside us, affects everything outside us. So we do whatever we can, and then turn everything over to the Lord. Christians need to value their relationships with others above everything else but the Lord Jesus Himself, because anger etc. will rob us of our peace. 

In order to wrangle our emotions in desperate or difficult situations we will need His strength. ‘His strength is made perfect in weak people.So – admit your weakness! Pray – “I can’t, but You can.” In 1 Peter 3:11 it says: “They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it.” Peace does not fall on us – we will have to treat it like a lost treasure and go after it. When we lose our peace, the first place to go is the cross – then PRAISE GOD! We go to the tomb!!

We need to value His peace. It’s a gift as well as a fruit. Romans 12:18 says: “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” Sometimes it is just not possible to facilitate real reconciliation with someone else. Our job is to manage our end, not try to micromanage everyone else. This means all we can do is to restore our end of the relationship, and make sure we have arrived back at LOVE. Love is not about feelings, it is about being prepared to die for the other person!

Lastly, other people cannot steal our peace – but really motivated ones can give us loads of opportunities…!! 😂 God bless them! However, the reality is – we actually have to give up or relinquish our peace in order to lose it. It’s a choice. My advice is that we need to go back through the day in prayer, and revise what happened where, and with whom. Then repent for not valuing something so precious. Admit you lost it.

To sum up: if you are mad… you’ve lost your peace. If you are scared … you’ve lost your peace. If you’ve mislaid your hope that God is with you, helping you … you’ve lost your peace. That which is lost can be found again. 👋🏻

P 2229 ‘Help help’ is a great prayer!

/ DVH

I read this today in Psalm 91:1”Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” Today I just want to mention God’s provision of rest for His kids is the only way human beings can manage this life and all its pressures. The Lord is wonderful, when we live this life for Him – He blesses everything.

We are not alone. We need to learn to progressively and intentionally “rest in the shadow of the Almighty…whose power no-one can withstand!” Our enemy has no power over us in that place of peace-rest. The Lord Jesus Himself said the same thing in Matthew 11: “Then Jesus said, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you. Let Me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”  Jesus Christ understands humanity – He understands how hard this life is. We can LEARN THIS, He will teach us.

The best place of shelter, EVER, is IN God Himself. We hide in what Christ already did for our sake. We can try to hide away from trouble by staying busy, or actively choosing to forget stuff, but hiding in God is the only place we will find the kind of real safety, and solutions that last. Everything else is temporary. So, how do we do that? Learn to run to Jesus immediately when things go upside down – and tell Him He is your refuge. 

I do that out loud! Even before I lift the phone to get others to pray – I start running toward Him inside – yelling help help all the way. I understand that we’ve all developed independent … not-so-great habits … of relying upon ourselves – but I have found personally, that when I try to figure things out … the line of admitting defeat moves away from me, and so does inner peace and sleep. And my brain starts to feel like messy mush. 😂 I get exhausted. That’s why I’ve learnt it’s easier to give up and ask for help immediately. When I see God acting on my behalf, that miraculously reminds me that GOD LOVES HIS KIDS. Real peace and safety in this life is an illusion. Our Father wants to help us. 

The older hubby and I get, the less enchanted we are with our own brain power and memory bank.  We seem to have developed a super-power of forgetting most things ten seconds later! This Psalmist knew how to stay safe until disaster had passed by Him. Because of what Christ did, WE can live in that place permanently. Jesus gave us that when He died for us, that’s why He mentioned it. Praise God we all live on the other side of the cross!  We have a safe place to run where we will always be welcome, and that is God’s ever-active MERCY toward us.

We all get beaten down by this life and some of the people in it. That’s the time to pick up those burdens and give it ALL to Jesus. Then we do whatever He says, in the book – and then…we  leave everything with Him. Tell yourself ‘God is looking after that!’  If we accidentally revert to worrying and problem solving, then repent, and give it back to Him again. Learn to live relying upon the finished work of Christ’s death on the cross. The more you live like this, the more it becomes the way you think. The technical term is called renewing your mind. Even if you accidentally go back into worry etc.- then give it back to Him, just one more time. Human beings are much too frail to walk around with heavy burdens on their backs.

Listen to this: “Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down.” Isaiah said that 700 years before Christ was born. One day he was praying and he ended up in the throne room and God’s incredible holiness gave this prophet a revelation about who he really was. Isaiah saw his sin. Thank God, he also prophetically saw Jesus coming into this world 700 years later! Isaiah saw God’s provision for his sins and everything else, long before Jesus was ever born. Seeing that changed that man’s POV forever.

This is what Jesus Christ came to earth to do for humanity, to show us another way to live. The bible gives us so many witnesses. Today I have put one from a Psalmist, plus Isaiah, plus Jesus Christ Himself. They all tell us we can come to God, and offload our burdens, troubles and sorrows, because SomeOne has spiritually taken them for us – JESUS Christ took all those things to the cross, 2000+ years ago. Those weighty things in our lives are as gone as our sins!  Let’s ask for His help to continually lay our burdens down, and live in His rest, instead of this world’s turmoil. 👋🏻