John 11

P 3217 This book is alive!

/ DVH

“God has transmitted His very substance into every Scripture, for it is God-breathed. It will empower you by its instruction and correction, giving you the strength to take the right direction and lead you deeper into the path of godliness. Then you will be God’s servant, fully mature and perfectly prepared to fulfil any assignment God gives you.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit  and life.” John 6:63. ‘For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12.

Today’s blog is about the sort of expectation we can fall into, because we mistakenly believe God has to fit in with our agendas. Over the years my hubby has found that he can often interpret the meaning in other people’s dreams etc., it goes with his name. He explained to me yesterday, that people can sometimes have an attitude that the Lord is obligated to answer them. 

So here’s a slightly exaggerated illustration: “God has talked to me about this problem 10 times, in my dreams. And a stranger gave me some confirming verses. What do you think I should do?” Hubby cracked me up with this answer: “Ten times?!!! Go right now, this very minute, and do what He said! What do you want, an angel with a trumpet?!”  How many signposts do we need??

How many times does the Lord have to speak to us before we obey Him? I know that there is a kind of paralysing fear about stepping out into faith – it’s normal. We are scared of being wrong, and so the enemy attacks us. We think things like: ’But what if I do what the Lord says, and nothing happens, or, even worse … something BAD happens.’ That’s easily fixed! You say: ‘I’m so sorry Lord. Please forgive me for messing up. Would You help me with it? I got it wrong. Please will You redeem it?’ 

Then you repent to anyone else involved, and repair any relationships wherever it is necessary. Humility never killed anyone – it’s good for us! When you are done repenting to Him and others, and repairing relationships, then you give Him whatever it is, and leave the rest to Him. Go home, lie down, have a big cry and then blow your nose… then get up and get on with your life. 

People say: “If only I could just get a word from the Lord for my situation …” Let’s think about this, the New International Version contains approximately 728,000 words, the Amplified has 820,980 words. Choose any bible you like and go for it. Our God is so incredible His life inhabits every single word. It is not like reading Charles Dickens! Father God doesn’t do background, or character depictions, or scene descriptions – every single solitary word in His book has power in it.

And those words don’t have to be big incomprehensible words either. The Holy Spirit has taught me so much through just one little word “let.” Three letters that changed my life. “Let this mind be in you …” “Let us make every attempt to enter that rest …” “Let us love one another…” “Let us throw off everything that hinders us …” ‘Let us not become weary in doing good …”  You get it… … Trust me ‘let’ is a very BIG little word.

I’ve learnt many times that the Lord wasn’t doing some things, because I wasn’t giving Him permission to do it in whatever way suited Him! He had something for me to learn, and sometimes He had an even greater blessing if I just followed Him in faith. Here’s another made-up illustration: Let’s say I wanted a new car, but I found out through prayer and reading the word, that He wanted me to give my old car away first. So my prayer asking for help with a new car could remain unanswered, because I have an agenda. I am not yielding to Him, and praying for His Will His Way. 

We can’t be in charge of what we think we need, like we can give a chemist a prescription. But, spiritually speaking, we must choose to put God in charge of our needs – that way He gets all the glory! We live on His timetable, not our own. If you didn’t decide to die to self when you were baptised, or nobody told you that was what baptism is all about — then make a quality decision to do it now!  And ask for His help to live this way. You know, some of the Apostles made a living to support themselves, but they did not have two careers – they simply served God first, whatever they did. Putting the Lord first is a sensible response to His generosity toward us. And if things remain unclear, then ask for wisdom, and keep right on reading the bible. 

Please, don’t get stuck on ‘what hasn’t happened,’  move on to ‘what do you want me to do now, Lord?’ Some things happen as we are going along in the way the Lord leads us. “He(Abraham’s servant) said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not denied His lovingkindness and His truth to my master. As for me, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brothers.” Genesis 24:27. This servant had no idea how to go about what His master Abraham told him to do. But God met him as he stepped out and tried to do what he was told. He was simply obedient.

“In the beginning the Living Expression was already there. And the Living Expression was with God, yet fully God. They were together—face-to-face, in the very beginning.” John 1:1. Jesus is God’s living expression of His Word, that’s how powerful God’s Word is. His book is alive. Bye. 👋

I have discovered this sweet little series by REAVO. This one seemed appropriate for today. (Two minutes 39 seconds)

P 2589 Don’t get caught up in the machinery …

/ DVH

… because the Lord is still talking to people! Just talk to Him. We have 4,998,214 books that have been written, by lovely people who want to help us learn how to pray … so it is extremely easy to get caught up in methods, not conversation, and hope that will do. Methods require remembering, but conversation allows you and I to be spontaneously ourselves, as well as honest with Him. It opens the door to further revelation about Who He is, as well as … who I am not!

Look, if you belong to a prayer group and you feel better praying ‘proper’ prayers there, then do it. But in your alone time with the Lord, just talk to Him. Jesus Himself talked to His Father like this … look at how personal He is!“Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that You sent Me.” John 11:41b-42. That’s what personal looks like. It shows the breadth of Their relationship. 

Our God is not a slot machine where you put in your $5 — (well, the price of everything has gone up nowadays) — and … out comes the answer. He is a Person. With feelings and passion. He loves, He hates, He is disappointed, He watches over us, etc. Does any of that sound impersonal to you?  We dare not reduce Almighty God to our way of thinking, or even some sort of a system. He wants us to love Him from a sincere heart, not just placating Him with trite sayings. What I mean is this, there are plenty of systems in place that indicate we HOW we should pray … if you want this, then you need to pray that. Jesus Himself gave us clues on how to pray, but don’t be so rigid about prayer that it becomes utterly formal and has no life in it. He’s our Father. Be real with Him.

If it appeals to you, you could take some time to study the kind of prayers Moses, Gideon, Jonah, Job, Ezekiel, Jeremiah etc. prayed. Pick a bible person for yourself and look at how they talked to God in the book. Jonah got cranky at Him and said so – but God did not smite that man mightily! Instead He conversed with Jonah, and reasoned with him. When you are reading the bible, take the time to look at the WAY these men of God related to Him. I want you to see, for yourself, that Almighty God wants you to be you, with Him.

Why? Why should I be myself? Here’s my little theory … there has never been, nor will there ever be someone else like you. Who you are, is a unique expression of our God’s creativity. He enjoys you, your company — the way any parent enjoys a beloved child’s presence. Following someone else’s prayer methods may feel safer, but in the long run, it is limiting … mainly because you are not them! Our God is bigger than our fears. Mightier than our mistakes, and more loving than we can ever imagine! Don’t worry about stumbling over words, or getting it wrong. The reality is prayer is about your heart talking to His heart. 

Our human relationships are often limited by a lack of communication. We don’t want to tell people that they are hurting us, because we want to be seen to be ‘nice,’ and ‘a good Christian.’  But when we act like that, eventually one of three things will happen — we will distance ourselves from the person who is hurting us and that means a severed relationship… Or we will tell the person exactly how we feel in no uncertain terms, because we’ve allowed a head of steam and anger to build up inside! That’s when we introduce the possibility of a worse, severed, irreparable relationship. OR we decide to talk honestly and openly about what is wrong and introduce the possibility of real restoration. 

Almighty God deliberately became a man, Jesus Christ – and that gives Him incredible insight into how people feel and act. Anybody who has read the Old Testament can tell you that real people wrangle with God. They don’t put on religious faces, or trot out religious rituals to take care of their relationship with Him. These people understand that they are dealing with Almighty God and being human is not a sin. Getting angry is not a sin. Being grief stricken and or even disappointed is not a sin – but we can’t fix something we won’t acknowledge.  He wants to become THE SAFE PLACE we take our burdens to. 

Please don’t let the machinery of prayer take the place of real relationship. Many times, I ask Him questions … then I open my bible and the answer to those questions is staring at me right where I am about to read!  Don’t pray AT Him, TALK to Him. Bye. 👋