Jesus

P 2149 We just gotta learn how to love like this….

/ DVH

… SO … I suggest we make love our aim, and daily pray for the Lord to give us His strength to live that way, because His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses. Plus we can use all the help we can get! The other day I was watching a non-Christian fictional story about a surfing manufacturer’s beginnings. I shan’t bother you with the plot, except it was set somewhere that hubby and I have been to, and we’ve seen those particular waves. Sooo cool and incredibly beautiful – just like jade jelly. 😊 

Anyhoo, back to the film. There were these two brothers who loved each other deeply … it took half the film to establish that fact. And one of them is out surfing in a surfing competition and the other is watching in the crowd on the beach. Man that surf is so-oo bad … it is like … out there!!  And the surfing brother gets dumped by this massive wave, and he does not come up. He is drowning. 

Instantly his older brother starts running. He strips off his outer clothes and he leaps into the incredibly dangerous surf to go and rescue his brother. A crowd of people are watching the surfers and someone yells at him -“What do you think you are doing man? You’ll die too. That’s nuts!” The older brother hits the water and yells back: “THAT’S MY BROTHER OUT THERE!”  …  … I cried! That whole scene hit me right in the spirit;  because that’s what God Himself did for all of us. Ya might want to stop and thank Him for it.

Meanwhile, back to the surfing saga, the older brother saved his sibling, of course … because it was fictional! And I started to think that it was a shame that lately, the only illustration of the power, strength and steadfastness of Love, the way God sees it, had to be fictional. Why are Christians settling for jovial, pleasant and nice, when there is more? One of the most deadly things we can do to our faith is to be comfortable and safe, and yet we all strive for that end. 🤔  

Lately I’ve been watching the rocks cry out in some of the story lines that have come up in whatever I’m reading or watching. I’ve come to the conclusion that this world’s rocks are now shouting at the top of their lungs, because we are very bad at communicating what love and faith look like to the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet! We are often all talk and no action. And so the Lord has to use the-people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet to teach and inspire US. Have we forgotten the story of the Good Samaritan already?? You know, Jews looked down on Samaritans, I think that’s why the Lord Jesus picked them for an illustration! Sadly, when we make Christian movies, we don’t seem to be able to produce stuff with strong, pithy story lines, so we end up looking weak, soft, soppy and wobbly. 

More’s the pity. We have the greatest story of all, and it’s true. As we both know, Calvary’s story is not about Jesus looking like some kind of a softie! Christ was a strong powerful man that strode into that temple with only a whip in His hands and scared the greed and avarice right out of those money lenders and closed down their miserable businesses. It was a real man who faced that cross, and bore all that pain, and still loved the people who did it to Him! We simply must stop thinking of the Lord Jesus as a nice man with blonde hair and blue eyes in an oversized nightie. He held His own with fishermen. Meanwhile I don’t know too many people who could have kept up with His schedule for three and a half years!

Back to my point! That surfing movie I watched illustrates the kind of love the Lord Jesus is looking for from us. The kind of love that would run unreservedly into danger, without thought, because our brother or sister in Christ is in danger. We just gotta learn to love each other like that. That’s the place where your problem becomes my problem – where I care about your soul, and your life, more than my own safety and reputation. We won’t be able to keep people out of our churches when we love like that. 

John 15:12-13. “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 13:34&35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

Can you see that the way we love each another is the very best kind of advertising – ever! We cannot pretend this kind of love because it is HIS KIND OF LOVE. And we can’t skip over the process, either. Father God has been so generous to His family. Most of us have interesting  (??) immediate earthly family members we can practice on. Because if we can’t love our families of origin then the church family is in big trouble.

And yes, I know personally from my own experience, that most of us have origin family stories that would blow anyone’s mind. Moving on… we must always remember that He’s the God of the impossible. He simply loo-oo-oo-oo-oo-ves 💕 doing stuff we think He can’t do. 💕 Just to prove us wrong … teehee. 🤣 Let’s start each new day asking Him to be strong in us in the area of loving, because we are all weak there. 👋🏻

‘Lord, please give us all Your kind of love. A love that is willing to die for our brothers and sisters. We are not good at Your kind of love Lord and we need Your help, thank you. Amen.

P 2147 We trust in God Who raises the dead!

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

P 2146 Transformation comes through participation.

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

P 2142 Some verses from Romans 8.

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

P 2139 Our feelings can control our lives and oppose faith

/ DVH

Our feelings fight for control of our thinking and eventually our faith, because we have learnt, from this world’s society, to listen to what makes me feel good. Jesus Christ was born into the sort of captivity that some people in this world face today, His nation was under the control of the Roman Empire. However, Christ understood what real freedom is. It is about who we are INSIDE. He understood that even though we are all free to hate, that means we are also free to love. Jesus Christ understood the power of choice. I’m not sure humanity understands this concept much – our feelings have been kind of, over- indulged.

Our world is tied up with owning things, because we have a lot of freedom to choose. Over the years I’ve learnt that I don’t have to like people to pray for them. Which is why Jesus told us to pray for our enemies and do them good whenever we can. Our actions do not have to be guided by our feelings. However, our feelings certainly know how to put up a good fight at times – especially if someone else jumps up and down on them! But those feelings can be a problem, and giving in to them is a mistake – because feelings cloud faith.

I cannot tell you how many times I have had to take my own feelings by the scruff of the neck and tell them – “You are not the boss of me, JESUS IS.” That statement comes with a warning label … ⚠️ …because doing it hurts. It hurts because in my lifetime I have learnt to live by my feelings, so some things feel natural. Just because it feels natural that doesn’t make it good, right and profitable. Actually my feelings lie to me all the time. They tell me that it is not fair when I am sick, or I can’t do stuff I want to do, or eat what I like. Have you ever noticed that your feelings rarely give you a solution? I have! 😳

Moving on …There are times when I feel like I deserve all this fabulous stuff I don’t have. 😂 Yeah. Howzat working out for you baby?  I also feel like everybody should love me because I’m a nice person. But they don’t. My feelings are not accurate, and when I indulge them they take over, and they demand to be fed. Mainly because I have stepped out of the realm of reality. I actually can’t control anything but ME and feelings can shoot that in the foot too!  Hypothetically, I might get cross if someone else does not give me the approval I think I need. Or I can get angry because I know what I want, and you won’t give it to me (!!) 😱… Meanwhile, I can also feel that if you would just do what I want, then everybody would be happy. Well, I’d be happy anyway! And if you dare to make me unhappy, then I will make you PAY.  Like I said, my feelings are totally unrealistic and they lie to me.

Feelings can be cruel taskmasters. They demand this and that, and if people don’t get what they want when they want it, then their feelings will make you get your own straw (Exodus 5:6-20)  just to make sure you know who is IN CHARGE. That sounds a lot like Pharaoh to me!! I know many people who live by their feelings and being around them like is living on a roller coaster. U-P, down …looping the loop …and hanging upside down. 🤢 I get giddy trying to talk to them because I never know what is going to offend them next. It’s like you are walking along with someone chatting away, and suddenly you hit a very deep hole and you can’t figure out how you fell in! 

People who live by their feelings are utterly unpredictable. Many poor souls are so trapped by their feelings that they let their feelings influence their choices. How I feel is a part of who I am, but it is not all of who I am. I am  a person of faith. Faith and feelings rarely coincide. I’ve practiced ignoring my feelings when my feelings told me that I hate someone. I know I can’t do that anymore, because I belong to Jesus! Actually, I found out, as time went on, I  didn’t really hate them – I just didn’t understand them, or the way those people thought. Living by our feelings is a childish indulgence – living by faith means you take big steps into better behaviour. We are led by SomeOne wiser than we are..

There are people in this world who make every effort to try to control every single thing around them. They take over entire countries or people groups just so they can feel powerful or important. Napoleon felt important, and it didn’t work out well for him. Alternatively, it also seems that there are people have never ever heard the word NO! in their lives… and when they do finally hear it they want to take an ax or a knife or a gun and do something appalling with it. Like James says:  ‘…my brothers… this ought not to be so!’ Some actions or attitudes are diagnostic tools, and if we do them, we are exhibiting our lack of our awareness that there is a God and we are answerable to Him. Our feelings are not ever meant to be bigger than our faith.

We simply cannot afford to live our lives the way this world does – living that way will kill off faith. Let’s look at money for a moment. Hubby and I changed our banking system. We give our money to Jesus and use it the way He tells us to use it. When we do that, we are storing our financial security up in heaven where thieves and greedy people can’t get to it. This means we don’t have much down here, so we can’t buy lots of things we don’t need. YAY!  Unless the Lord Jesus, Who is now our banker, decides we need it.  We consult Him about every purchase and if He says NO then we don’t get it. 

Instead, we’ve learnt to thank God that we have somewhere to live, because so many people in this world don’t. Some people even live in fear for their lives daily. Everything in this world depends on how you and I look at things. We can see loss, and sadness, or see opportunities to change our POV and think like Jesus did.  Like I said, feelings oppose faith. 👋🏻 

P 2133 We do not have to look the same to serve Him.

/ DVH

I Corinthians 12:4-6 “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.” These verses help us to understand that God’s gifts in action do not have to look the same. Just because your church does not do stuff the same way mine does, it does not mean what happens is not the Holy Spirit and your group of believers is not being led by Him. This whole thing works by faith – your faith may manifest itself differently than mine.

At the same time, I think we need to teach new believers how to individually hear Him and then supervise them and prayerfully instruct them. This step needs to come before teaching people how to use their God-given gifts. Teaching people how to listen, is about activating that person’s faith so they can hear Him for themselves and follow Him consistently. It’s called making disciples, not just cultivating spiritual gifts. Each individual in the body of Christ needs to have Godly character, and that takes time, patience and someone willing to encourage the person as well as correct them.

The Lord Jesus Christ wants to activate His army. We can go to this bible school and that one  – a good thing to do BTW… but if you are learning and not doing, then whatever you are studying is not doing you a penny-worth of good. Christianity doesn’t need more information, we need to start acting on the info we’ve already been given! Use it or lose it! We have enough Christians right now, out there in this world, to change and challenge everything around us, by simply loving our neighbour as ourselves.

It is clear that the Lord does not want us to be ignorant about the Holy Spirit’s gifts. However, just because what we do to contribute does not look like what someone else does, it does not negate the gift He gave us. What matters is obeying what He tells us to do, not just the gift. The real thing to watch out for is “Who is being glorified?”For years I was so intimidated by what the Lord gave me to do, I almost wore an invisibility cloak! I felt judged when I did what He said because it did not look the way other people’s gifts did. I had no revelation about the bigness of our God. Practically everybody mentioned in the Old Testament, was not normal by human standards – yet God chose these people to manifest His loving care and correction to others.

When we serve and bless others with what God has given us, it opens the door to the supernatural, however the supernatural is not always startling. Read the Gospels again. Jesus did some stuff other people didn’t even notice! We don’t have to be famous to be effective. We were ALL given something supernatural to share with others, but not all of us will be seen. We must appreciate that the size of the spiritual contribution does not matter – because if you butter buns and do it because the Lord told you to do it, then somebody is bound to be touched by Him and blessed! 

It is so sad that the Body of Christ has a bunch of ambulance chasers who only know how to watch and they do not know how to participate. My advice in any kind of difficulty is this – YOU pray and do what He tells you to do.  If it happens to be your enemy lying on the ground – then all the better! The Lord Jesus spoke to the entire body when He said: “GO! Heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons …” That won’t happen if we all just stand around the sick person waiting for the pastor to be free.

Meanwhile, there is NO ongoing value in looking at what Brother Wilbur does and trying to pray like him because the way he prays seems successful. Instead, ask the Lord, each time – “How do YOU want ME to do this?” The Holy Spirit does not want clones – He wants the many-sided wisdom of God to be displayed in front of this world. We are each a tiny facet of that beautiful wisdom. Glory! What a privilege. 🙌 Jesus said: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 5:14–16.)  Meanwhile, no wonder this world seems to be circling the drain – most of us have gone and hidden our particular light under a basket!

Staying in relationship with people is also important – first with the Lord, and then with others. The bible does not say it is OK to be in fellowship with Him and ignore the rest of the world … or even worse … be mad at so many people you can’t count them. Jesus Christ so identified with mankind that if we are mad at them  – we are mad at Him! Our personal faith can make a huge difference in someone else’s life when we choose to love them, as we are led by the Holy Spirit. “Each believer is given continuous revelation by the Holy Spirit to benefit not just himself but all…”“…Remember, it is the same Holy Spirit Who distributes, activates and operates these different gifts as He chooses for each believer.” 1 Corinthians 12:7,11. TPT 

The most important thing we can ask ourselves about whatever our gifts are … is this love? It doesn’t matter if my gift does not work like yours, what matters is this: is it my aim to be led by Him and demonstrate the love of God without prejudice or partiality, wherever I go? Our faith needs to be activated and used for the benefit of others. We have no excuse. The bible clearly says we do not have to look the same to be a part of what HE is doing. 👋🏻 

P 2130 Follow me, I know the Way out!

/ DVH

“This guy’s walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can’t get out.”A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, ‘Hey you. Can you help me out?’ The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on.”Then a minister comes along and the guy shouts up, ‘Mate, I’m down in this hole can you help me out?’ The minister writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on. ”Then a friend walks by, ‘Hey, Joe, it’s me can you help me out?’ And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, ‘Are you stupid? Now we’re both down here.’ The friend says, ‘Yeah, but I’ve been down here before and I know the way out.'” 

I imagine that you can see that similarities between my anecdote from an episode of “West Wing” years and years ago, and the Good Samaritan. Luke (10:25-37.) “(Jesus) answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 

A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii[ and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

The similarities between my anecdote, from the series, West Wing, years ago, and the story told in the bible are obvious. Meanwhile the good Samaritan does more than jump in the hole – he utterly engages in the solution. But I wanted to repeat that other story here, because I believe it points to something worth remembering. Simply telling people that Jesus is the solution to their pain and suffering is inadequate. However, jumping into the ‘holes’ in their lives as He leads you, and letting Him use you to guide others out, is called engagement in the process. Anybody can talk – but caring enough to help is the real point and even a Hollywood scriptwriter recognises that! 

Meanwhile, it is also easy for US to fall into a hole and get stuck. Some times our best stories and testimonies are born out of the pain of abject failure. IE: We have failed Jesus or one of His/our precious brothers and sisters. At the time of our failure it seemed that things could never be redeemed, and we were, or maybe we think we still are, doomed to live with that failure. Jesus Christ was rejected for our sakes when He did nothing wrong. We do not have to face our personal failures alone – we are now part of a family – who can pray we will find our way out of the situation, with His help.

In some circumstances you may need to start by forgiving yourself, plus avoid blaming others, and take responsibility for whatever you did. Then ask for forgiveness from other people as well. Our God is much bigger than the sinful stupid things we may have done. Jesus Christ made Himself NO-ONE in order to save this world’s ‘so called’ someones. Some of our finest testimonies are born from facing worse case scenarios and being delivered by the Lord, Who is SomeOne greater, more forgiving, loving and powerful than we are. To do that we will need eyes to see Him at work, even if it seems like nothing is happening. Plus the faith to keep believing.

The best person to talk to someone who is stuck in a hole, is the person who has been in one themselves … sometimes of their own making … and God Himself got them out. We dare not ever forget that our story is always a Redemption story. When we get to heaven people will not be praising US for our clever solutions, they will praise Almighty God and the Lamb forever for what They did in our lives. We may like what we believe to sound and look like a success story, but the truth is – it is His success story – not ours. We miss the whole point if we only repeat the things that testify to how we responded well, or we used our faith etc. etc. That is when the Lord becomes an add-on, not the feature. Our stories and testimonies need to be about how HE, our God, turned things around. To cultivate this kind of attitude, we need to be able to see Him at work in any situation, no matter how dire it is. 

Our job is to tell others that we know the way out – we are here to be His hands and feet, so we can help others escape from the holes of this life. We are not the way out, but we know the One Who is.  Humility and service are the way forward – serving and helping others who are inside, and outside our churches. His love is never wasted, even if the person we give it to does not understand what they have been given. Finally we need to realise that … I am never ever going to be ‘all that’ … but I know SomeOne Who is ‘all that” and He loves me passionately. I have His favour. That means I can help, as well as pray for someone else.  👋🏻 

P 2129 Tick tock.

/ DVH

Ephesians 3:14-21 TPT “So I kneel humbly in awe before the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the perfect Father of every father and child in heaven and on the earth. And I pray that He would unveil within YOU the unlimited riches of His glory and favour until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with His divine might and explosive power.” 

I think these verses are a fantastic prayer to pray for yourself and all the people around you. This is how we need to live – when things are good, as well as bad. We all live on the other side of the cross. Even if we don’t know Him yet, we can ask the Lord Jesus to reveal Himself to us. He has already given this world everything – total forgiveness, plus He poured out eternal His love, and He gave us the power to learn about Him and walk with Him. Our God hasn’t left mankind alone. The Holy Spirit is God and He is here. He came and He never left! And our task is to cherish His Presence and follow Him – the same way Jesus’ disciples followed Him. Using our faith.

You know, the disciples didn’t go on holidays, or have a slouching-about-the-house-day, in those three and a half years of intense ministry? They simply walked and talked with Jesus, each other, and anyone else who needed something. It takes faith to do that when the immediate stuff of this world presses in on us. These men woke up with Him, they ate with Him, they walked dusty roads following Him. I don’t think we can begin to understand the blessing of living, walking and talking with Jesus Christ, every single day. Christianity does not work part-time. We need to constantly use our faith for something else other than excusing our bad behaviour.

Back to Ephesians: “Then, by CONSTANTLY using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of His love will become the very source and root of your life. THEN you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences—the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is His love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding—this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!”  WOW!

There is one thing we need to know above everything else – our Heavenly Father is looking for a resting place – a habitation – and He wants US to be that place. God is holy and we are not.  But Jesus Christ made this utterly impossible thing – walking and talking with God Himself –  possible for us, in our lives, before we were ever born. I cannot give anyone some formulaic system on how to walk with Jesus minute by minute. My only solution is to make Him the centre of everything you know, and then go out and live for others while we are doing that. This means simple things like – in a conversation with someone else – what they have to say is more important than what we have to say! We need to intentionally reverse the selfish polarity that is dominating this world – and that has to be done prayerfully, and on purpose, through our own choices.

Here is the last bit today: “Never doubt God’s mighty power TO WORK IN YOU and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for His miraculous power constantly energises you. Now we offer up to God all the glorious praise that rises from every church in every generation through Jesus Christ—and all that will yet be manifest through time and eternity. Amen!”  

We cannot know what we have been given, unless we make an effort for ourselves to find out and seek Him. Somebody else can’t give this to us – even the most anointed man or woman has to choose to pray when they have other matters pressing in on them. We need to ask for a revelation of the importance of our lives for His kingdom’s sake. Otherwise spiritual things just stay as words on a page, and eventually they become interesting information.  

But the reality is, we are all destined to be citizens of heaven, our names are written in His book, the book of life, forever. How sad it would be if we won some super prize in a lottery and we didn’t go to pick up the prize! JESUS IS OUR PRIZE – His nearness from day to day is our greatest blessing, whether we feel like it or not. And most days, at my house, I live with ‘OR NOT.’ We must pray for His power to overcome the seemingly unimportant every day things that hold us back from living our Christian lives in victory!

Everything depends on how you look at this life you have been given and what you cherish most. Whatever we make our priority, will fill our vision. I love that old hymn, “Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart…” If living this life from day to day, is all about finding the rent, going to work, or paying the mortgage, and raising our kids then that will be the main priority of our lives. Ask the Lord to help you to focus on Him above everything else. satan does not have to corrupt us in order to render us useless, and stop us daily living in God’s kingdom. he just needs to lull us off to sleep with our everyday humdrum lives, lurching from one financial or moral temptation to another.  

The Lord has some people in this world, who dearly love Him yet they live under a constant barrage of fear and danger, as well as a huge need for food and shelter. They don’t have a problem focussing on God! He fills their thoughts. Our biggest danger in the Western world is apathy and human busy-ness.  It takes focus to walk with Him and live our lives acknowledging His ways, because this life we live from day to day, crowds our thoughts of Christ and what He did for us … OUT. If not now, then when? Tick tock. ⏰ 👋🏻

P 2120 We need to protect our sense of expectation….

/ DVH

…so ask the Holy Spirit to help you keep it!  I’ve learnt, first-hand, that I can do nothing without Him.. (John15:5b) 

Isaiah 40:1-10 “Comfort, yes, comfort my people,” says your God. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and tell her that her sad days are gone. Her sins are pardoned, and I have punished her in full for all her sins.”

Listen! I hear the voice of someone shouting, “Make a road for the Lord through the wilderness; make Him a straight, smooth road through the desert. Fill the valleys; level the hills; straighten out the crooked paths, and smooth off the rough spots in the road. The glory of the Lord will be seen by all mankind together.” The Lord has spoken—it shall be.

The voice says, “Shout!” “What shall I shout?” I asked.“Shout that man is like the grass that dies away, and all His beauty fades like dying flowers. The grass withers, the flower fades beneath the breath of God. And so it is with fragile man. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God shall stand forever.”

O crier of good news, shout to Jerusalem from the mountaintops! Shout louder—don’t be afraid—tell the cities of Judah, “Your God is coming!” Yes, the Lord God is coming with mighty power; He will rule with awesome strength. See, His reward is with Him, to each as he has done.” 

Some of you lovely people out there in blog-land have been praying about difficult stuff in your lives for so long – the result is that now you try not to think about those things anymore. I hear ya! Me too! But  there are verses like this in Isaiah. The Lord said to tell you: HE’S COMING… Just like He said to His disciples at the tomb of Lazarus – ‘this DELAY is to glorify God.’  The question is not: “is He coming?’  It is … “will we wait for Him?”

Sometimes things have to get to the place that human beings call impossible. We are incredibly creative, inventive beings … after all, we are made in His image! We figure heaps of stuff out – check out the Tower of Babel sometime. The Lord does not postpone His arrival on the scene of our lives to frustrate us or lead us into despair – He is just doing something else, much bigger than we can imagine. 

Here’s another scripture that comforts me a lot. Let me set the scene … in Revelation 5 there is an incredibly important scroll mentioned – an angel asks: ‘who is worthy enough to open this scroll?’ And, get this – no-one was!They couldn’t find one worthy person, and there are angels, elders etc. etc. flat on their faces worshipping Almighty God. Here we are IN HEAVEN, and nobody can open that scroll because even in that incredible group nobody was found worthy. They start to weep, because everybody wants to know what is in the scroll. We are not told how long they waited because time is irrelevant in eternity. They are all just waiting… waiting … waiting…Does that sound familiar??

Here it is – Revelation 5:5 “Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” Yay! It’s our precious Jesus!!  👏 ONLY HE can!  Now, there are also angels at that scene with harps, and golden bowls full of the prayers of the saints. OUR PRAYERS ARE NOT LOST just because they have not been answered, yet. They simply have not reached the tipping point … but they will. When I pray and there is no visible answer – I just keep giving the person, subject, situation, back to the only One Who was found worthy – in Heaven – to open that scroll. Jesus Christ is a PERSON. A Man.  He is totally God and man in one glorious, holy, redemptive Person!

Actually, one of the last things He did before He died, was to make sure His Mum was taken care of – how utterly human is that? We can trust this Man, He understands human beings – He IS one. Like Isaiah says, in chapter 40, our sins are pardoned. The sad days are gone because God has already heard us. At the same time, while I’m waiting … personally, I go into the road-making business – I look for weeds, rocks and stones that might be in the way of making the path straight for Jesus and I ask the Holy Spirit to keep my expectations in Him high.

We are the pathway that Jesus walks on to reach those people we care about. The more we let Him change us – the clearer that road becomes. Don’t postpone change because it looks impossible – there is an Answer right now, in heaven. And we also have the Answer with US right here on earth. Jesus Christ, Son of Man and Son of God – His Spirit is with us. 👋🏻

P 2118 It is not us. IT IS HIM!

/ DVH

In the past we have ‘assessed’ our ability to ‘do spiritual stuff’ by results. Some people seemed better empowered to pray for the sick etc. than we were. This meant that the largest part of the Body of Christ became inactive. I believe that we ALL need to live our lives daily filled with the Holy Spirit and His power.1 Corinthians 2:5, Paul is speaking:  ”… I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling.  My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”

The power of God comes from Him, we totally rely upon Him and what Jesus did on the cross. So there is no point in looking in our pockets to see if we have it, because the bible clearly says it’s IN HIM!  I think the Body of Christ avoids some things because we think we have no power. But the power belongs to the Holy Spirit make Him your new BFF. Jesus breathed on His disciples and told them to receive the Holy Spirit, and then they went out and prayed for the sick and they got well. They told demons to get lost and they went! A-n-d they also raised the dead. By implication they could have quieted a raging sea. Jesus asked them: “Where is YOUR faith?”

We can rabbit on endlessly about whether we need to speak in tongues – or not; or wear a hat in church – or not;  or women should be silent – or not. Blah blah blah. But the real truth is that even if we try to begin to love one another WE FAIL. We have this sum backwards. We are ‘trying to be’ something, instead of learning how to live in His Presence. He PROMISED to be with us. I think we gave up because it is easier to claim scriptures than it is to live them out.  

Listen to this: “How God anointed and consecrated Jesus of Nazareth with the [Holy] Spirit and with strength and ability and power; how He went about doing good and, in particular, curing all who were harassed and oppressed by [the power of] the devil, FOR GOD WAS WITH HIM.” Acts 16:38. Where did Jesus get His power from? God. It wasn’t Christ’s power – it was the Spirit of God’s Power. Jesus just copied what He saw His Father doing…  Christ received the Spirit, and now we are learning to receive Him and make Him welcome. So we value His Presence more than our needs, opinions and lifestyles. 

That means our needs, opinions and lifestyles are gunna change because HE HAS DIFFERENT LIVING CONDITIONS THAN WE DO. To walk with Him we need to live mindful of what He likes. The challenge is to live our lives like Christ did – He lived in perfect love and loved and cared for OTHERS. Jesus became human and did all that for us. His power flowing through me will not make me arrogant, or controlling, it makes me humble. The more I see Him touch people when I inadequately pray, the more I give glory to God. 

Here’s a real life testimony for ya to show you it isn’t US, we simple need to learn to co-operate with the Holy Spirit and do what He is doing. Years ago, a couple next door to us had a baby boy. The little child started to fit with a high fever. The end result was he turned blue and stopped breathing.  The mother came running into our house screaming at me: “My baby is dead” and she handed him to me. He looked dead believe me. I didn’t pray.  I shook the baby hard and said: “Don’t you dare die on me!” The kid took a breath, opened his eyes and started screaming, probably because he didn’t know me from a bean pole. I handed him back to his mother screeching his dear little head off! Was he really dead? I dunno! He ain’t DEAD now! Here’s the kicker … his mother gave him to me because she thought I was a nurse. (Hubby is the nurse BTW.) 

Here is another one:  We travel on the road for Jesus as often as we can, and we give away bibles etc. etc. because you can start great conversations that way. Hubby went into a woodcraft shop in Tasmania once, and he came out a few minutes later VERY frustrated. The lady behind the counter was incredibly rude and angry with him and he wanted to leave that place … pronto. I’m the praying bunny in the car, and she wasn’t rude to me, so I asked him to go back and give her one of my bookmarks. Hubby did not want to go but he went back in anyway.  He was gone much longer this time and he came back out beaming!! The lady in the shop gave her life to the Lord on the spot – she burst into tears and he was able to share Jesus with her. Yay, Holy Spirit – the wind was blowing that day!

Live the way Jesus did – do whatever you see our Heavenly Father doing. It’s not you it’s Christ IN you!. Bye 👋🏻