Kind

P 2620 Our choices to change matters …

/ DVH

… and we will always need the Holy Spirit’s help.“Now may the Lord Jesus Christ and our Father God, Who loved us and in His wonderful grace gave us eternal comfort and a beautiful hope that cannot fail, encourage your hearts and inspire you with strength to always do and speak what is good and beautiful in His eyes.” 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17.

Our personal choice to be obedient, in spite of our circumstances, is incredibly valuable. Those things matter more than we can ever imagine. Choosing to love like the Lord loves, as well as making reconciliatory choices, and remaining humble … those things are our way forward. We need to let the blood of Jesus cover your faults AND my faults, no matter how often either of us falls over!

Let’s be inspired by what Christ willingly chose to do for us, so that living this life, His Way every single day, becomes our first and primary choice. Without the Holy Spirit’s help, 24/7, we cannot live a supernatural life.  Human beings have been trying and failing to overcome their own faults for centuries. In the end, many simply decided to give in to temptation, do their best, and walk on regardless of the consequences. Christians have thrown themselves against the wall of their own personal penchant toward sinfulness – hoping somehow, some way to impress God enough, simply because ‘they tried.’ ˆHowzatworkin’forya??” Me neither.

However, in contrast, the Holy Spirit is always in the here and now. The glorious thing is, He is with you reading this blog, and He is with me while I am writing it! His longing for our total transformation is far greater than we can ever imagine, and He will use any and all circumstances, as we yield them to Him, to transform our lives. His end game is LOVE. The kind that is patient, kind, suffers long, hopes all things, believes all things …  

Those things are part of our destiny, not just for other special anointed people. We simply believe we can change and live our lives the way the bible says, with His help. Prayerfully. Then, from day to ordinary day, we will end up destroying the enemy’s works in our lives and in the lives of others. Growth equals faith in action. Faith that continually stretches and is stretched. Faith that makes room for more.

“He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.] Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”1 John 3:8. 

When we give our lives to Christ, He takes them! God’s seed is sown into our heart and lives. Now, we have the potential within us to grow into Christ’s likeness. It is up to us, how quickly, and how strongly that spiritual seed will flourish inside us. If we treat Christianity like a club, then His seed will mostly lie dormant. Instead we must water and fertilise His seed in us, with our faith and obedience. Taking deliberate faith steps, and putting what Christ wants, first. 

Personally, I think we all experience moments of what I call “growth spurts” and at other times there seems to be no activity whatsoever! That’s a good time to remember that in any plant, the root systems form underground, where we can’t see them. In these seemingly empty moments we need to just keep on obeying and practising the things we have already learnt. Things like reading the Word, praying over everything, and keeping all our relationships covered by love. Not just in word, or agreement, but in our daily actions – we choose to love. 

His kingdom comes out of us and is manifested, when we choose to make hard choices. Particularly in those moments when those things are the very last thing we want to do! That’s what dying to self is. It hurts. And most of the time, we want the other person to make that choice … not me!  Selfishness flourishes in the absence of our commitment to obey Christ. Many people think obedience is about doing something extreme, like standing on a street corner to preach the gospel. Actually, I think obedience is far more about saying no to me, and what I think I want and need, and yes to God! It is about choosing His Word, His way, over my feelings.

Very few people leave this world like my step-pop did. Painlessly! He was dancing away one minute and gone the next. In contrast, a person’s normal death process is usually a long messy thing that nobody wants to go through. Death to self is a series of deliberate, hard, unpleasant choices and then we hold fast to what is good, right and lovely. It is not something we would ordinarily want to volunteer for — which makes what Christ deliberately did for us even more remarkable!  We owe Him everything, including our choice to change. Bye 👋

P 2598 No fake smiles please!

/ DVH

My dear hubby loves the Emoji movie, especially that over-the-top female smiley face that blinds people with its toothy grin. He thinks she is hilarious. You know, that face is actually pasted on – it’s stuck. In other words that emoji has been carefully drawn to pretend to be something it isn’t.  So when bad things happen, that smiley emoji isn’t being REAL — which is just like a whole lot of Christians. Bad things happen and they paste on a smile but inside they feel God, and everyone else, has let them down. 

Most people in this world know FAKE attitudes a mile off. It is so much better to be your real self and repent for stinky attitudes, than it is to hide who you are. Now if you happen to be a grump … then the answer is to be transformed. 😂 The bible covers that! Please note: transformation is not instant. It’s repetitive… it’s re-pet-it- ive … it’s actually quite repetitive! So now we spend our days learning to lean. Getting stuff right is no longer our goal, leaning on Him is! 

If we are not careful we can make living for Jesus … into a future goal. We can live this life hoping that if we fake it we will eventually make it. Yielding, surrender, dying to self – these are all key words.  Otherwise transformation becomes something we work hard towards achieving, but we never seem to arrive!  The bible says we need to be living for Him every single day. 

Almighty God wants us to draw on His strength all the time, using our faith. Faith grows when you use it! So we exchange His beauty for our ashes. His joy for our mourning etc. We are human and we run out quite quickly — but Jesus is rich in these things ! He will give us what we need as we live a life of total dependence. The Lord is not fooled by our positive, Sunday morning smiley faces.

We could see miracles every single day if we stop trying to be what God already made us and learn to yield to and trust in Him! Listening to yourself being kind to someone, when you wanted to smite them mightily a minute ago is a miracle! Success is no longer our goal – because we know can’t do anything without Him and we don’t want to be without Him.“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6.

We need to be changed inside, and honesty matters.  We can’t! … But He already did it for us. Some of our nice attitudes are barely skin deep — so when they are provoked they end up coming out. The Lord is not looking for perfection … Jesus already nailed that, and then He generously gave it to us – for free. Ask yourself this: why would Almighty God – Who loves us – want us to live our lives pretending to be something we are not? But oh! How He LOVES a truly transformed heart and life. Then when someone else hurts us, we feel worse for them than we do for ourselves.

I know some transformed people. They know they can’t do anything without Him, but they yield in obedience to what the bible says daily, so they can change the way that they live. They are not perfected. Not at all! But they enjoy being close to Him, and they don’t want to give that up for living a shallow life that has no substance. Things stay shallow when we stop living by our faith.  We must learn that we are not called to exhaust our OWN patience/love/joy/peace,  first — only to find that we have run out! Here’s a hot tip, let go of your pride and GIVE UP RIGHT AWAY and fall into His everlasting arms. He will supply that need.

My point is, learn to pray “Help help” early! We cannot afford to wait until we are overwrought and exhausted because we’ve been wrangling a problem in the natural. I pray a surrender prayer all the time now. I remind the Lord that I won’t be able to  manage anything at all without Him. I do that at the beginning of the day and I repeat it when I find myself pasting on a fake smile. I could care less about looking incompetent, or inefficient. I cannot tell you how much I enjoy seeing Him active in my life. I feel Him help me to go further than I ever could in my own strength. I know I can’t meet Christ’s standard, what He did was perfect. So I start with surrender and I don’t move from there. 

We have all developed coping mechanisms over the course of our lives and when we get saved, we carry those coping mechanisms over into our faith. Then when we read in the bible and see what we are supposed to look like, who we are meant to be, we increase the pressure on ourselves to be like that. Unfortunately, when we fail in our own efforts – we feel we are letting Jesus down. And if we do happen to succeed, then WE GET PROUD.

All that leads to a level of inadvertent deception, and a lack of transparency that prevents intimacy. It stops Christians from becoming all we can be in Christ. It also leads to a form of religion with no power in it. We need to learn to live our lives dependent upon Him, using our God-given faith instead of striving to reach an unattainable goal. We cannot make ourselves perfect. He has already accepted us.  No more fakey fake smiles. Learn to lean on Him. 👋

P 2562 Living this life aware of the Dove.

/ DVH

“Loving Me empowers you to obey My commands. And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Saviour, the Holy Spirit of Truth, who will be to you a Friend just like Me—and He will never leave you. The world won’t receive Him because they can’t see Him or know Him. But you know Him intimately because He remains with you and will live inside you.” John 14:15-17 TPT.

What does LOVE mean to God? Here’s what Jesus, our resident Expert, explained about that in John 15:13: “No one has greater love [nor stronger commitment] than to lay down his own life for his friends.” I liked that verse so much here is another version! 😊…”For the greatest love of all is a love that sacrifices all. And this great love is demonstrated when a person sacrifices his life for his friends.” (TPT).

To our God, love involves sacrifice – and He set the example. If we want to learn His love language we are going to need to learn how to love the way He loves…. and He loved us, so He sacrificially gave us everything He treasures. And the Lord Jesus loved US so much that He sent us His dearest Friend and Guide ever – the Holy Spirit, His constant beloved Companion …to help us! Think about it. Jesus’ Best Friend can be our best Friend too! Not just SomeOne Who comes alongside … SomeOne Who lives INSIDE. Ya can’t get closer than that!! We have SomeOne Whose very Presence imparts God’s POV, living inside us. The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to us, so He can reveal Jesus through us!

Can I be honest with you? It seems to me that the Precious Holy Spirit deserves a glorious palace, or a spectacular house, yet my heart can seem more like a barely inhabitable tenement, some days! Mainly because I know He is incredibly pure and holy, and I comfort myself that He wants me to learn so we can be together. With His help, I am learning to make sure He feels welcome and my heart is continually being transformed into His home. One thing I have noticed about the Holy Spirit, He never elevates Himself. He ALWAYS points to Jesus, He is the Word of God, as well as to our Father’s great love for us. He’s so selfless.

How do you keep SomeOne this loving, powerful, pure and kind as a friend? TREASURE HIM above everything else. He is our most glorious treasure! He is the pearl God has hidden inside the ordinary field of our hearts … and we need to give up all we have in order to have the privilege of having this incredible treasure with us always. Because the Holy Spirit’s Presence is definitely more precious than all the things of this world! He is also worth our every effort to love the people who may actively hate and oppose us. We are to live this life, OUR NEW LIFE, aware of Him. All it takes is the power of choice, and making sure we know what He likes. That’s in the book!

Over the years I have learnt that He will never bully me, or disapprove of my careless, selfish actions – instead it is His very Presence within me that convicts and convinces me of my sin. And if I do something incredibly dumb … He just quietly leaves, and He waits for me to realise His absence. At the same time He will help me with whatever I did so that I can restore the relationship again. 

You know human beings can be pushy, but He is not. People can be mean, but He is not. He simply speaks His truth to me, and that truth exposes things I never knew were inside my heart! He speaks to me through the bible, as well as personally. We are blessed to know SomeOne Who utterly loves us and only wants the best for us – as well as the people that we care about. He will do this for everyone every single minute of every single day.

The bible says that we show no greater love than if we lay down our lives for our friends, and we have the most glorious example of what that looks like. Jesus Christ willingly made that choice for all of us! BUT, then the Lord exploded our finite ideas of what love looks like by saying this in Matthew 5:43-45:“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”   Meanwhile, we cannot possibly fulfil the harder criteria Jesus gave us, without the Holy Spirit’s help, guidance, and counsel!! Which is why, first of all, we are to lay down our lives for our Heavenly Friend, the Holy Spirit.

We need Him! We cannot live the Christian life without Him. He is not rules, He is not disapproval – He’s a Person Who dearly loves us, FOREVER. Let us continually purpose to become acquainted with what His Love, looks likes. Human beings when they are crossed, hold grudges, get bitter, and happily cultivate resentment. This means we desperately need our Helper to guide us through the minefield of our emotions, and errant thoughts. He will set us up back on our feet so we can continue with our spiritual journey. Praise God! There is a step that is above learning to be obedient – and we do need to be obedient! And that deeper step is about … falling in Love – people do anything for Love.

Loving Jesus will give us the power to obey Him. That’s why He sent us the Helper Who is an Expert in Love. Without the Grace and power of God we will fall into sin, and oh so many snares. Praise God for our Friend Who is closer than a brother – the Holy Spirit. Amen. 🙌 Learn to live this life aware of the Dove. 🕊️

“Those who cling to their lives will give up true life. But those who let go of their lives for My sake and surrender it all to Me will discover true life!” Matthew 10:39 TPT. 👋

P 2557 Our thought life matters.

/ DVH

“Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude.Tell Him every detail of your life, then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ. Keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honourable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising Him always.”Philippians 4:6-8 TPT.

These verses are, without a doubt, a collection of the most amazing spiritual advice that I’ve heard in years. I think if we all took the time to apply what these 2 verses in Philippians say, there would be a world-wide transformation in the Body of Christ! What Paul is saying here is we need to let our minds, hearts and spirits be fixed on the Lord – no matter what is clamouring all around us for our attention. 

What does that mean? Whenever we find ourselves think-worrying etc. we give whatever it is to the Lord and leave it with Him, and we thank Him for His help. That’s the secret of living within the shelter of the most High God. It isn’t that we always have to have exactly the right attitude, now, living this new life He gave us is about knowing where our help comes from and turning to Him. Our God must never be an add-on, His Ways are our NEW life now. 

The problem we face is that it is way too easy to have a divided heart.  A divided heart sadly has a part- time God! People living like this consider what the Lord wants only when they have time, or when they need Him. Knowing our God and obeying Him is not a hobby, to be picked up and put down. I’m sure we can all see the hole in that kind of thinking. Here’s a good thing to pray:“Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on Your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your Name. I will praise You, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify Your Name forever.” (Psalm 86:11)

A lack of Godly fear and reverence can also produce a divided heart. Especially if we do not put the Lord in His proper place in our lives and hearts. He is to be enthroned in our lives, through our demonstrated obedience to Him. Other people must see HIM through us! Christ Himself is the perfect example of this in action, as we watch Him relate to Almighty God personally. And if we take the time we can also study just how He related to others. Christ’s life is our example. 

Think about Lazarus, Martha and Mary – the Lord Jesus was close friends with them. BUT! God’s WILL took precedence even over that special friendship – Jesus chose to do what He did, God’s way. Their close friendship did not drag Him to the women’s side when their brother died. He waited for His Father’s timing. This shows us how obedience works. Otherwise we might easily forget ourselves and start telling the Lord what we think He should do! Remember, we serve Him, God does not serve us!  At the same time we need to be prayerfully careful that any disappointment in our lives, does not turn into disappointment with Him and His choices for us. Or we can end up presumptuous, like satan did. 

We have been reborn for a reason. Now we are living and learning to continually draw upon that new life within us. It is impossible to live this new life in our own strength. That’s why our focus is so important! We are progressively learning to lean on Him. As we live this way we will acquire soft hearts that are tender-hearted towards the Lord, as well as others. There is a reason we are told to fix our mind on what is good, right, pure and honourable. This world around us will drag us under and extinguish all our God-given hope!

Obedience to what He has already told us in His book, plus  our chosen, personal God-given obedience, as well as our abiding love for Him, are essential. These things will help us keep our focus on what’s good right and just. Our first response in any given situation needs to be:  ‘What does the Lord want here?’ Lately every time I ask Him that question, the Holy Spirit says to me …”trust Him.” At this moment in my life learning to trust is my learning curve! 

Our obedience is motivated by faith, and that obedience is one of the greatest tools to help us increase our confidence in His Ways. We will see Him personally, at work on our behalf. Nobody has to preach at us, now we have our own testimonies! If our thought life is weaving about between the things of this world and what He says – we will lose our clarity. I am reminded of a grand old hymn: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and Grace.”Almighty God is revealed to us and through us, when we allow Who He is, to take over our focus. Bye. 👋

P 2554 Stuff happens.

/ DVH

I don’t think we should go about anticipating, or expecting trouble. However, if and when difficulties come up, we need to understand that living for Jesus in a corrupt world can put a target on our backs. It may not be our fault the sky just fell in! Yet we will have to respond somehow! Obviously the enemy wants us to live selfish, rude and uncaring lives … but now our sole desire is to do the opposite … so we can sometimes end up in conflict. Things happen. satan targets us, and at the same time he will actively discourage us through others and complicated situations. he can even use something that someone else says to cause more trouble. Anger and worry choke out clarity. 

James tells us how to deal with trials etc. Start by being glad! (No I am not nuts!) James explains clearly that stuff happening means Almighty God is doing something. The Lord is growing something spiritually. He wants to add to our existing faith, steadfastness. Immovability. The bible says that like this ; “…having done ALL (we can)… (then) STAND.”  Do whatever you can do, and then turn it all over to God. Then wait. Here’s James 1:2-4: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Standing still allows steadfastness to develop.

Living this life taking faith-filled risks is a scary premise. It is so much easier to live in the safety of our own known responses. We are personally familiar with our own reactions – changing them means taking a risk. But true faith takes risks even though it doesn’t know the outcome. Following Jesus means we will take every one of those risks, prayerfully. Jesus Himself faced trials, and misunderstandings. He was blamed for things He didn’t do. But He held firm to His faith in His Father’s goodness and committed His way to God. He went through the difficulties knowing God’s purposes would be achieved, and He put those purposes above His own personal comfort.

When trouble strikes and doubt comes at me, first of all I like to go back and check with the King and make sure I am currently doing whatever He wants. I usually ask Him for scriptures, because I don’t trust my emotions or my mind to give me the answer I need to hear. At the same time I am really bad at making good decisions when I am under pressure to get things right. It is good to wait and give yourself some time to calm down, and at the same time, actively listen for what He wants to tell you.

Investing in God in these moments of conflict pays huge dividends! You learn how to stand! My sole aim is to deal with how I feel, before I deal with the problem. At that time can seem like I am in a period of stretching and testing. The temptation is to do something, like explode, worry, or become anxious! Waiting seems counter-productive. But panicky, worried people make emotional decisions that create even more problems. 

Paul offers us an excellent solution.“Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell Him every detail of your life, then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ. Keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honourable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising Him always.” Philippians 4:6-8 TPT. Paul is saying we need to go to prayer to get God’s PEACE in stressful pressurised moments. Peace helps us make clearer Godly choices.

Isaiah says this in Chapter 40, verses 28-31“The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall, 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.”

I have learnt to wait because otherwise the enemy plays with my emotions, and paints scenarios on the screen of my mind. At the same time satan will try to hand me reasons to get mad at other people. Waiting on God renews my strength to resist the devil. The biggest problem I’ve found in these difficulties is some of my reactions are almost automatic. Over the years I’ve cultivated defensiveness and fear to the point where it can overcome me. So I like to begin all processes with repentance. That means I’ve positioned myself to hear from the Lord, and removed any hindrances.

I love the line … “He gives strength to the weary.…” Trials and problems wear people out! If you get enough of them all at once you can feel like you are buried alive and you can’t manage anything that is going on. That is why Isaiah is so smart. He doesn’t try to think or psyche his way out – He goes to the One that he knows Who never gets tired and he WAITS. “In this world, you will have trials … don’t be afraid … everything that Jesus did for us overcame them all.” (My paraphrase.) Like I said, stuff happens! Bye 👋

P 2529 We must learn to live as Jesus lived.

/ DVH

“Christ suffered and died for sins once and for all—the innocent for the guilty —to bring you near to God by His body being put to death and by being raised to life by the Spirit.”1 Peter 3:18 TPT. “Be very careful then, how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every day because the days are evil.”Ephesians 5:15-16.

Jesus Christ lived for His Father’s glory and will. At the same time our precious Heavenly Father provided a way for each of us to live before we were even born. But all of mankind was found guilty of falling short of the standard Christ lived out and set before us. So Father God allowed Jesus to suffer and be brutally murdered for the things we’ve done, even though Christ was utterly innocent. As we live day by day we are covered by His precious blood, from the moment we said yes to having Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. However, I have a word of warning …when we use His grace to live for US …we are squandering our inheritance.

In the bible there is this great parable that almost everybody knows –  it’s about the Prodigal Son.  The thing is:  you and I – if we are not prayerfully careful – can also be that prodigal son! … “Whadda mean lady… I’m a Christian! I’ve been baptised, I go to church, I pray, I talk to God, God forgave me from all my sins.” …Yeah, yeah, hold your horses … I’m getting to it … I didn’t like that thought much either!  

Think on this: the prodigal son in this parable was already a legitimate SON and heir!  He was already eligible to inherit His Father’s riches. But he took everything His Father gave him, and he went off and squandered it all. He used his inheritance to LIVE AND DO whatever he wanted. That younger son went and lived just like the pagans around him. He threw away what was rightfully his, on stuff that was going to gratify him … here and now… 😳

I asked the Holy Spirit: “Lord what does that all that mean?” He said this: “When you use MY GRACE to excuse yourself, instead of repenting and repairing things in your life, you are squandering your inheritance. My Son gave His life to pay for your sins, it was not cheap! My Grace is available to anyone who asks for it, but I have not given it freely to you so you can do what you like, and say what you like, and then presumptuously expect the Precious blood of Jesus to cover it. That’s abuse of a very great privilege.”

Then He asked me this: “When was the prodigal restored?” I said: “The prodigal was restored when he repented. When this young man recognised, in a pig pen, that the son and heir does not belong in a pig pen! He remembered his father’s generous ways toward even the servants of his household. And then he used his faith to go home. He didn’t expect the kind of welcome he got, because unfortunately, he did not actually know his father’s ways very well at all.” 

You know, we could easily all be labelled prodigals, if we are using our privileges, our heavenly inheritance, to benefit US. As I have said before, our God is not a vending machine. We are in a relationship with Him, not just a supply and demand arrangement. Our heart’s position toward His Grace and loving provision matters. We dare not take advantage of His Grace by living this life we have been GIVEN, counting on the fact that He will forgive us — without cultivating reverential fear toward His ways. And the Holy Spirit has given us a book full of what His ways look like. 

The prodigal son in this parable had no reverence for his father’s position as the leader of the household. He just wanted what he wanted, and then went and did whatever suited him. His father exercised a tremendous amount of faith in his boy coming home again, as he waited for him every single day. Our heavenly Father’s Love waits patiently for us to realise the error of our ways and come home from the pig pens of this world. And we don’t have to go gambling, or into drug dens, or strip joints to sin against His Grace. We cannot afford to devalue something that was so incredibly costly. Let’s remember – GOD DEFINES SIN – we don’t!

We need to value and treasure what we have been given, every single day. Jesus died to bring us into relationship with Almighty God. He gave us His inheritance. We must not take it for granted that God will fix our messes as we merrily wander along creating chaos. Our mess is our responsibility! We are so blessed because He is faithful, He promises to help us. We need to learn, on purpose, to live this life as Christ lived His — for God’s glory and His will. Babies expect to be waited on and cleaned up, mature adults own their own faults and work toward reparation. Bye 👋

P 2526 Some thoughts on what maturity looks like.

/ DVH

To begin, I need to say that I do not think the things I have mentioned here indicate a place of arrival, rather they are personal sign posts. I wrangle every single day with all of these things… but I refuse to lower my aim just because these things are hard! Becoming like Jesus to other people means everything to me.Today, I have added in my own thoughts as well, but I think that this is one of those times that I need to let God’s word speak for itself. 

It is also good to look carefully at Jesus in the Gospels to see how God’s Grace operated. How HE took it in and breathed it out. Maturity sees Grace as the coin of the realm, they freely give Grace away and they also receive it in. Romans 8:29: “For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son, so that His Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” Mature Christians have walked way past being dead to sin, that’s a no-brainer! Instead they are so alive they challenge you by the way they live.

Galatians 2:20 TPT “My old identity has been co-crucified with Christ and no longer lives. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives His life through me—we live in union as one! My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God Who loves me so much that He gave Himself for me, dispensing His life into mine!”

I think we all have a need to mature in the Western World, because, sadly, immature people follow fads as well as people — not Christ Himself. Ephesians 4:14 ”…so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”  The Body of Christ will grow in spiritual maturity, by learning to persevere through the trials and challenges of our life. Mature people are humble because life itself and the Word of God has taught them, who they really are, without the Holy Spirit’s help. 

James 1:2-5 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”  Trials are an opportunity to stretch and grow our faith!

Mature believers seek to live a life that is Spirit-filled — that is, they learn to be aware of and listen to God’s Spirit, who lives within all Jesus’ followers. Romans 6:11-14 says: “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” 

These people Paul talks about understand that sin is a choice and the more anyone gives in to it, the harder it becomes to resist! So they “…present their bodies as a living sacrifice …” instead. They want what the Lord wants. They may not always know what that is … but they will take the time to wait on Him to find out! These people are a generous people. They not only share, but they make sure that their love is demonstrated not just talked about. Their only desire is to please the Lord above everything and everyone else. 

Mature people will quickly admit their faults and their lack, but they also know exactly where to go to repent and be filled again. Ephesians 4:32: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God has forgiven you.” Forgiveness is never an optional extra to these people, it is a way of life. This means they do not judge others either. They know how to repent and admit that they were wrong, because their aim is Christ’s likeness not vindication. So they always repent quickly, then usher in real restoration, and go back into relationship again. Psalm 15:4:“They keep their promises to their neighbours, even when it hurts.” 

Philippians 4:11&12. “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”  These saints have found their contentment in knowing God Himself, and the Lord and His Presence in their lives is all they want. They never have to pray – they simply want to talk to the Lord because they love to be with Him. Maturity will refuse to define what other people’s love should look like, it accepts what the other person gives them with His Grace.

Lastly, in order to grow spiritually and mature in our faith, we must draw near to God, because we cannot mature on our own. Without His personal input into our lives – our works and efforts are worthless.

Bless you and bye for today! 👋

P 2492 The power in our choices.

/ DVH

Someone recently challenged me about how anybody can continue to do kind, loving things for people who are deliberately not sweet to us. To start with, if we do not tackle this kind of situation with our faith, we will fail. This scenario needs the Lord’s supernatural power, not willpower. This person asked me if I was asking them to lie – because they did not feel kindly toward the people involved, and they would be lying if they took the path I indicated. At the same time they thought that perhaps they were giving the person/s involved permission to stay the same, and keep on being horrible to them. First of all, we need to remember our flesh will complain at us – it doesn’t want to die.

Mine complained at me, yesterday, at 4.00 am! I couldn’t sleep because I needed to get up and make some notes about my thoughts. Hubby chose to get up with me, and I felt very guilty for depriving him of sleep. But he said something really interesting regarding the very early hour. He reminded me of this story: Jesus came walking on the water to the disciples while they were rowing their arms off in the middle of a huge storm, in the fourth watch of the night. Apparently Jesus doesn’t think 4.00am is too early!

The Lord actively encouraged me then, through my husband, despite my tired body, and despite my feelings of guilt – hubby is as tired as I am most of the time! He could easily have been grumpy at me for waking him up way too early, but he chose to respond lovingly, to support me. Feelings can be grossly overrated and motivated by other circumstances, or previous attitudes that are yet to be redeemed. I think that God wanted to teach me something. When I talk about choosing to love others who are unkind to us, I am simply repeating what the bible says. Actually, I personally hardly ever want to … “do good to those who despitefully use me!’  I do those things and follow His word as a choice. We are challenged daily with choices.

Christianity is full of these seemingly ordinary choices, to say no to ourselves and yes to Him. I love walking around with Jesus helping me, so, for me, it is not a hard choice. Hubby chose to walk with the Lord at 4.00am and that led to him reassuring me from the bible. He was blessed and so was I. If we make the wrong choices, it definitely becomes much harder to step away from those choices and go back to following Him. In those moments we will have to fight our own feelings and thoughts.

We may have to choose to suffer by making those hard choices … SO GRACE CAN BE RELEASED. Grace is undeserved by its nature, so releasing it must be motivated by our Love for Jesus and His Ways. However,His Grace changes everything! It enables us to see things that were not seen before. When you or I get into a bad situation with someone else, somebody is going to have to release grace – which is undeserved favour – in order to de-escalate that situation. We cannot do this kind of thing without the Holy Spirit helping us, and giving us His Word and His Grace. The thing is we will often feel nothing – OR still be very angry at the other person. It’s a sacrifice – you will die to self when you do it.

When we choose to love the people who aren’t loving us, we are entering into the Kingdom of God, and living by His edicts – instead of by this world’s ideas. That choice ushers us into a different arena. Now the things of this earth fade into the background, because something far more wise and powerful has come on the scene. I have found when God explains Himself it blows my mind. For example, for years I have looked at those two men hanging beside Jesus, dying on their own crosses and thought – ‘ Well, at least one of them was saved.’ But then the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said: “TWO men were saved but only ONE responded to Christ.” 🤯 God thinks differently than we do!

I was also reminded by the Holy Spirit that Jesus did not want to go through with His sacrifice. (Dare I say He did not feel good about what was going to happen?) We have an example in the garden of Gethsemane where He makes it very clear He did not want to go ahead with His appointed assignment. But He carried it out, and He let other people do to Him what they did, because of the greater good. Love was going to win – it always wins! This was, quite simply, the only way to redeem us. The innocent had to suffer.

We are given opportunities every single day to suffer for LOVE’S SAKE. Life is about those daily choices! We can enter into transformation in those moments, as we choose to believe what the bible says, over how we feel or what we think. Here’s what I’ve  learnt — 4.00am feels way too early to be awake …but when God is in it, suddenly it is not too early. Continuing to love others when they are spiteful or mean to me, often feels wrong. But the reality is, it is a CUE to release the Grace God gave me when Christ died in my place. That choice changes our view of what is really going on. Bye.👋

P 2472 Something incredible happened … because of the wonderful goodness of God.

/ DVH

And because of one particular event, Father God has decreed that His goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives. These things are following us, because God loves all His kids – even the ones who don’t care to know Him! We don’t know the actual date of Jesus Christ’s birth. However, this world has many references to Christ’s Presence, in historical works, apart from the bible itself. He was in fact, a Jewish man, who lived a mostly hidden nondescript life … until He was 30. 

Please note:  Jesus did not have blue eyes and long brown/blonde hair. He was not Caucasian, and I’m pretty sure He did not walk around in some sort of light blue and white oversized nightie! He wore what the men of his time wore. After all, He was born Jewish, so Jesus Christ looked just like all the other Jewish men around Him. Oh, and there was no halo around His head either. We also know He had a beard because the report about His crucifixion says His tormentors pulled that out, bit by bit. His eyes were probably deep dark brown, and personally, I think they were incredibly kind. 

One day, after about 30 years, Jesus Christ’s life exploded into public view. I guess His Heavenly Father, God said: “It’s time.” And so Jesus went to be baptised by his cousin John, to fulfil what was asked of Him. Meanwhile, John the Baptist had a recognised ministry. His job was to tell people they were not right with God, and needed to be baptised and repent from living the way they were living. Which is actually a pretty relevant point to think on even today!!

So why does there seem to be all this fuss about an infant at Christmas? After all  — He’s not an infant anymore! He’s the King of all Kings and Lord of Lords and you would definitely know that in His Presence! Even evil people or self-important people crumble into a foetal position. He is no longer a baby in a barn. Jesus is not just the ‘reason for the season” … He is the reason this life is worth living, for those who follow Him. People all over this world acknowledge His birth for a number of reasons…  but why do we celebrate the birthday of an infant born in a country so far away from most of us? 

I think that Christmas, as we know it today, has been overtaken by commercialism, which is a natty reason to make more money.  Plus we now have Santa Claus… or whatever you happen to call him, wherever you live. A big, jolly, red distraction. I’m of the opinion that poor old Saint Nicholas is probably rolling over in his grave with what we have done with his loving gesture toward the children of the poor! He was following Christ in His own way, but we have managed to transform His selfless deeds into yet another shopping experience. Sigh.

Here are some reasons that I thought some people might have to continue to celebrate Christmas. Is it an opportunity for your family and mine to get together, and pretend they all like each other? … (but in reality we chew our nails down to the quick hoping no-one will say something abrasive or provocative!) Is it a time to decorate the house within an inch of it’s life? Maybe it is an opportunity in an incredibly busy year, to give a brief thought to what we hope we believe … and then go camping with other families in the bush or by the sea. In other words do we have Christmas for Jesus Christ or for us? It is, after all, HIS BIRTHDAY!!

The thing about Christmas, is that it has gone from celebrating Christ, to being a whole lot of things it wasn’t designed to be. That’s why I think this season hardly ever works out the way we all hope it will. Christmas today nearly sends nice people into bankruptcy, because they can’t afford to buy what their kids want, or what the little darlings think they deserve. And the overworked parents feel guilty if they can’t cough up. It’s become a time when we have to be nice to rellies that we hope will magically disappear from our sight … until next year. If that’s bit close to the bone, maybe you need to think about why you celebrate Christmas.

What does Christmas mean to you? Who do you think Christ is? Is He just a baby Who lived once long long long ago, and did extremely kind things for people and then He died? Do you actually celebrate Him? You take a holiday, and time off work, in His Name … but do you know the One Whose birthday you are celebrating?

I think if we limit ourselves to just looking at a manger with a newly born infant in it, then we have done what we always do. We’ve limited Almighty God again, because we don’t understand Him or His Ways – or don’t care to! Plus we are overlooking the goodness of God toward ALL men. That’s right, nobody has been left out. Everyone. And I don’t care what you’ve done…. neither does He. 

We owe a debt, Jesus Christ paid it for us. What are you planning to do with the gift of time, that He gave you? Spend it wisely, my friend. Merry Christmas. 🎁 👋🏻

P 2462 Get rid of the stuff that is holding you back.

/ DVH

1 Peter 2:1 “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” First of all, when I find a “therefore” I want to know what it is there, for! That means I went back and read 1 Peter 1. Therefore means in the light of what was said before it. When I did that I found a pearl… without even trying. 1 Peter 1:3-4 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.”  

You know, a lot of people regard the opening and closing remarks of books in the bible as irrelevant, or advertising, or quite simply, polite contextual greetings. They are not. God can use the writer’s opening and closing remarks. This is a letter, but it is not like our letters. Every word in God’s book is profitable. 

Briefly, lets’ go back to our ‘living hope’ … our hope is not in what we think we believe. And that’s because people can believe the dumbest things!! Our actual firm hope is in the fact that Jesus Christ died and was raised from the dead and He now sits at the Father’s right hand.  HE is our hope. Who He is and what He did. Everything else is spiritual fluff! (And no, I am not splitting hairs – hope belongs to something concrete, it is not a theoretical thing.) 

The reason our hope sometimes dies very quickly is that we are hoping in the wrong direction. EG  … our hope is in answers to prayer! Hope cannot diminish when it is in the right place. I urge us all to put our hope in reality, not in wish thinking, or prayers, no matter how nicely we phrase them. What Jesus Christ did for us is proof that He can be trusted. So we actually put our hope in His trustworthiness and not in some pretty or earnest prayer! Jesus Christ really is Almighty God. He really came here, and He really loved humanity, and He really actually died and was raised from the dead! Hope in that. Base your hope on WHO He is and what He did. That will change the way you pray and help you to trust Him. BTW, this is why we pray in Jesus’ Name. Because HE is our hope. 

Now let’s go back to 1 Peter 2:1 ’Rid yourself of all envy and malice …’Why does Peter say that? Because envy and malice block our eyes and ears to what God is actually saying and doing. We stop seeing and hearing spiritually, and make our choices from the wrong place … the flesh! We cry: “I desperately need You to fix this Lord,” but we don’t and sometimes won’t, fix our own attitudes. When we entertain malice, envy, hypocrisy, and deceit etc. we become defensive and offensive, instead of loving, patient and kind. 

What we soak our minds in actually affects our attitudes and behaviour, and I am not talking about TV shows! Mulling over someone else’s sin against you is not profitable. Nothing is gained that way except more angst. Instead we need to identify if we have envy etc.etc in the way we think, and repent, then refuse to think like that. Seriously… we are the boss of our own thoughts! Don’t entertain them. Some people ask that junk in, tell it to put its feet up on a comfy chair, go and get it a cuppa, and then they wonder why they can’t shift the thoughts! Our minds are constantly at war – it is not safe to entertain rubbish. Here’s a dumb thought – offence will fence you in.

If a thought comes into my head, that does not mean I need to give it a party! I can refuse the thought. And I can keep on refusing it until it leaves. Personally, I do my best to look carefully at my thought patterns because I want to watch over my own heart. I am not obsessive about it, but I listen to what I am thinking because:“as a man thinks …so is he …” (Proverbs 23:7) And some of my errant thoughts deserve jail, not entertaining!  However, Paul says in Philippians 4:8 to “let your mind dwell on these things. Whatever is right … whatever is profitable…”  Live there! Start looking for the good profitable parts, even in bad things. Bad things awaken urgency within us to get closer to God. And that’s a good thing to start with! Then start being grateful.

I hold my thoughts up against the Word of God and if my thoughts are wrong I chuck them out. Bad things start festering when we ignore the fact that we are mentally chewing on unhappy relationships and difficult people. It is our part in this eternal arrangement we are in, to get rid of the stuff that is holding us away from our true inheritance. 1 Peter 2:1 tells us that. And most of the bad stuff starts out as thoughts. Try monitoring your thoughts sometime, it will surprise you. 👋🏻